This morning I want to talk about a time when faith gives way to sight & where hope gives way to bliss. I want to show you the Bible’s view of life’s sequel for those who know Christ. I wanted to do a little follow-up to Easter & the resurrection with this short series. The Bible tells us to: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). You cannot be disappointed by what God has in store for His people. Or, the engine of your imagination cannot compete with what heaven actually is. You can never think it will be better than it actually is. Are you ready to enjoy just that? Then you are ready to enjoy the celestial city of God.
1. All Things New
“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new’” (Revelation 21:5).
Jesus told us He was building this city before He ascended: “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2)? At a time when our nation’s capital faces persistent gridlock & persistent problems of societal justice, many are completely disillusioned and even worse, at the point of cynical despair. I want to show you a well-functioning eternal city for the next few minutes. You have a million things to do & dozen worries as you sit here this morning, but lay all that aside for the next few minutes. For the next few minutes, I want to invite you into the city planning office of heaven.
1.1 The Celestial City
In front of us is a breathtaking view of the Celestial City, the New Jerusalem. John sees the city descending in front of him in verse two & again in verse ten.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” 9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. 22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:1–27).
Unlike every effort to create heaven on earth (e.g. Tower of Babel), this city is God’s gift to His people for its descends from God above. Again, just before Jesus left the earth during what we call the Ascension, Jesus said these words: “In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2)? God has rolled up His sleeves as He’s been doing some urban planning. The good news is all the inspections and permits are complete! His city is compliant on all the zoning and ordinance codes. He’s accounted for urban sprawl and He’s even reduced His carbon footprint. Some of the jewels listed in Revelation 21:19-21 are among the hardest substances known to man. I found it interesting that Martin Luther asked his friend, Spalatin, to secure the precious stones mentioned in Revelation 21 in order to ensure they were translating the Greek of the Bible accurately. All these stones tell us is that He is making sure His city is solid. John says the Spirit showed him the beauty of the Eternal City: “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal” (Revelation 21:10-11).
“For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).
1.2 New Heavens & New Earth
John sees “new heaven and a new earth.” The reason is “the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.” When the Bible says heaven and earth is new here, it’s not so much saying new as if were just manufactured. Instead, heaven and earth are new because of they have been radically upgraded. Yes, heaven is a sweeping upgrade of the heaven and earth as we now know them. Peter tells us that the old earth will be destroyed by fire (2 Peter 3:10-13). Why do earth and heaven need to be replaced? Nothing has escaped sin’s long arm of ruin: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:20–23).
Sin has even impacted the trees, the grass, the plants, and even the animals of this world. Even Jesus taught earth itself will one day pass (Matthew 5:18). Both heaven & earth have dissolved; God has made a new heaven and a new earth that has replaced it. So if you are in Christ… … your ultimate destination is not the heavens above but you’ll be right back here on earth. … only it’s a renewed earth, fully free of all sin. Think of it … everything new!
One of the best ways to consider heaven is to look around you at what you see on earth. We are living off the remnants of a perfect world that God will remake again just as He originally intended. Allow the possibilities of this to overwhelm you for the moment. Imagine this world with not one thing wrong or sinful.
A Thought Experiment
Find yourself a high, elevated place in the celestial city and let the eye of your imagination run back and forth over the city for the next minute. There’ll be no pawnshops, body odor, trash cans, surgeons, wheelchairs, or even hospitals for that matter. You’ll find no politics, bullies, therapy, atheists, misery, broken relationships, jealousy, or discord. Heaven and earth will then no longer be separated as they are now, but they will be one. Whatever sin has touched and polluted, God will redeem, restore, and renew. I wonder what the upgraded Caribbean islands will be like?
Someone ask, “Will Dogs be in Heaven?” Prior to the Fall and the Curse, animals were placed on the earth. This was part of God’s good creative design. Now, if God placed these on the earth before sin’s emergence and the Curse, why would He not want to show off His glory in one of the most remarkable acts of creation again?
Again, the new heaven and the new earth will be the most beautiful flowers only they will not wilt. It will be the greenest grass only it will not die. The new heavens and the new earth is the bluest sky you can imagine without pollution. And new heavens and the new earth is a happy dog with a wagging tail in place of the snarling beast.
“But what about cats? Will Cats be in Heaven, pastor?” you might ask. Hell was last week’s message.
Why won’t we walk with a friend for an hour or more throughout the new heaven and earth? Yes, for all these good gifts and more, we’ll praise God throughout eternity.
1.3 A New You
Since He is making gates new, streets new, wall news, He’ll also make a new you. Everything about you will be upgraded and remade – including you! You’ll have the endurance of an Olympic decathlon athlete. When you come to faith in Christ, God already begins to remake you – to make you new (2 Corinthians 5:17). But don’t just marvel at how your future resurrected body is pain-free and perfect… …marvel at how you will also be made spiritually and morally new. “… what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him…” (1 John 3:2b).
You will be spiritually and morally flawless. As he will remove all evil from the celestial city, He will also remove all evil from you. You will have a pure heart to go with your perfected body.
By The Way…
Someone asked just last week, “But what about the angel Lucifer? He was in heaven and he fell? If he fell from perfect heaven, could I also fall? What if I entertain a sinful thought sometime in the first 1,000 years of heaven? Will I fall out of heaven?”
There are three big categories every believer moves through in her life:
1. Salvation where you become a new creature in Jesus Christ.
2. Sanctification is the experience that begins at salvation where you make moral and spiritual progress by the grace of God.
3. Glorification – This is God’s final work in your life where sometime in your future He completes all of His work of every part of you – emotionally, and spiritually, physically.
You Are Made Completely New and you will be incapable of sinning in Heaven. And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). Take note that the One who says this is none other than the One sitting on the throne. Your every thought you have will be holy. Every impulse you will have will be of the Spirit. Will I fall out of heaven? Who are you to question the word of God who controls heaven & earth? Does God tell lies? “But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27). Every sinful inclination will be barred from heaven because death is banished from heaven. For death to be banished from heaven, the root of death has to also be banished, and the root of death is sin. There you are in the holy city where nothing is false, nothing is detestable, and nothing is unclean. You are in the middle of a fortress of safety and security not only from outside forces but the forces from within (Romans 7:23-24). You couldn’t think sin or do sin any more than Satan could walk inside the walls of the new city.
Again, you Are Made Morally & Spiritually New Right now, God is at work in your life to make you more like Jesus – more like Him spiritually and morally. And one day He will complete this work by perfect your body in every way – physically, morally, spiritually, and emotionally- sanctification. “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). Look again and you’ll see a chain where one link leads to the next link and so on. In fact, the verse is given to you to comfort you. See these as a golden chain where the links cannot be broken. From eternity past when He knew you, He loved you, and He choose you to eternity future when He glorifies you.
Just as He did with the resurrected body of Jesus, so God will do with the entire universe: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24). “so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:22–24)
Heaven is heaven because you and I will be free from all evil – both from outside and inside! This is the ultimate mic drop!
1.3.3 The Angels Fell Before Heaven Was Remade
Remember, He is going to remake even the heavens above. There’s no chance for you to fall in the future! So let’s connect the dots for a moment. Just as our bodies die and will be replaced with a better, resurrected body, so the earth and heaven is replaced with a new and better heaven and earth. Heaven is but a temporary resting spot for God’s presence and God’s people until He remakes earth.
God says, “I make everything new!”
1. All Things New
2. The Presence of God
Verse three is the focal point of everything heaven is designed to be: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).
Five times the very thing is repeated in this 1 verse. Five times we are told what the central room in heaven is – God is with us. Heaven’s greatest joy is reunion with God. Boredom is part of the curse and the most curious being in the universe will be in front of us. God is the perpetual novelty.
Quickly, here are three items I call your attention to.
2.1 No Tears
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). Because of God’s rich nearness, heaven is defined what isn’t there. Tears represent sorrow and tragedy and evil. There shall be no more tears because there is no more death. John saw both death and hell thrown into the lake of fire with Hell (Revelation 20:14).
2.2 No Temple
“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22). The reason there is no temple is because the whole city is a temple. In fact, the dimensions of the city given earlier in Revelation 21 show us the city is a cube. In the architecture of the Old Testament Temple, God gave specific directions for the most holy place built on earth. This place was the known as the Holy of Holies and it was where the Ark of Covenant was placed. The place was so sacred that only the high priest could enter into its space one time a year on the Day of Atonement. The Holy of Holies was also a cube. Now, the entire city has been made into the Holy of Holies. When you put together these measurements, you realize this is one giant, massive holy of holies. Once a year, the high priest could go into the holy of holies, into the presence of God, and so here is heaven, and we’re going to be living in the holy of holies! Wow! Double Wow!
Heaven and earth are now one. Paradise is finally restored. The entire city is a Sanctuary.
2.3 God’s Glory
In fact, the presence of “the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” provide light for the entire city. “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23). The sun and moon are no longer necessary. And the reason they’re no longer needed is at the end of verse 23: “for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23b). The sun and moon could not add to heaven’s illumination. If the sun were present, it would be like holding a candle at noon on a sunny day. Heaven’s citizens will be graced with the radiant glory of God Himself.
2.4 The Beatific Vision
For generations of Christians, heaven has been understood as the beatific vision. Beatific is “happifying,” or to make happy. Seeing God is the tip of the spear of happiness. Since the curse was placed and we were banished from the Garden, the one thing we’ve longed for is the very presence of God: “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8).
This is what we’ve longed for since. We’ve needed His presence and His healing. We’ve sought for it and prayed for it. And yet, we’ve only enjoyed glimpses of it. Yet, in the Celestial City, we’ll see finally Him: “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4). God Himself is in the City. Every square inch of the city is hallowed. This is the beatific vision is here - the Vision of God.
Note the intimacy in these words. Like a mother bringing her baby into her arms, God Himself says, “Finally, there will be barriers between my children and me.” Remember, Moses could not look at the face of God and live. But now, His people will bask in the presence of God Himself.
“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). John is saying that this experience of seeing God face to face is so powerful that the moment we see him we will be transformed into his likeness, and all of the love and glory and beauty will become ours. “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).
You will be satisfied. You will be home at last. Your wandering is over. Your restlessness is over.
“For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalm 84:10).
Nothing will be like the presence of God in the Eternal City. Nothing.
Prayer
Father, we long to walk with you as Adam and Eve did in the cool of the day. We long for heaven. Our longing isn’t for the streets, the ornate gates, or even to see the people – instead, we long to see you.
