The No More Place
Revelation 21:1-27
21 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
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 in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.
19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;
20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.
21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Introduction:
*Getting To Heaven*
The pastor was talking to a group of young children about believing in Jesus and going to heaven.
At the end of his talk, he asked, "Where do you want to go?"
"Heaven!" they all piped up.
"And what do you have to be to get there?"
"Dead!” one boy yelled.
SOURCE: Pastor Tim, http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh
“Everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die to get there”
One of the things you learn as you read scripture is that every word and phrase are important and that they all have meaning if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. Recently while reading Revelation 21 the Spirit of God brought something to my attention that I would like to share with you. We are all interested in heaven and what it is going to be like, right? Well thankfully there is much we can learn about this place from the Bible. This is no “pie in the sky” type myth for those who have place their faith in Jesus Christ for heaven is a real place. Turn in your Bible to John 14 for a minute:
14 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Notice that the word place appears twice in this passage and it is the Lord Himself speaking.
“Christ and the disciples had eaten their last supper together and with Judas “convicted and discarded,” Jesus had “set himself to comfort the rest, who were full of sorrow upon what he had said of leaving them.”
This chapter is “designed to keep trouble from their hearts” and to explain that they will one day enjoy “everlasting rest” in Heaven through Christ. This is where Christ prepares the disciples to receive their “comforter,” exhorting them to practice “fellowship and communion.”
www.crosswalk.com
The Bible doesn't say where heaven is located, but it confirms it's a place. The English word “place” come from two Greek words, “topos” and “graphia” which means writing and so place is translated the “description of a place.” It is always used in scripture to refer to a real place. Heaven is not a myth or a tradition or a fairytale; Jesus was telling His disciples about a place that He himself was going to. He would lead the way to this place and they could follow.
Our text speaks of a “new heaven and new earth.” And then it tells us some of the differences that we will experience…
I. The physical differences
a. No more sea
About 71 percent of the Earth's surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5 percent of all Earth's water. Water also exists in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture and in aquifers, and even in you and your dog.
www.usgs.gov
b. No more sun
c. No more moon
II. The personal differences –
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
a. No more tears
b. No more death
c. No more sorrow
d. No more crying
e. No more pain
III. The spiritual
a. No more temple – no need for a physical place of worship because all heaven will be a place of worship.
22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
b. No more sinners – the unregenerate
8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
c. No more defilement – absolute purity
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Conclusion: The question becomes if there will so many things missing from human experience what will be in heaven?
a. “…but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.”
b. “…And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it:”
More important than knowing where heaven is, is knowing the God of heaven, for the same reason that it’s better to know your neighbor than the details of his house. On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples, “You know the way to the place where I am going” (John 14:4). Thomas immediately raised an objection: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (verse 5). And Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (verse 6). We may not know the exact location of heaven, but we know the Way, for He is Jesus.
www.gotquestions.org
SHOCK IN HEAVEN
I was shocked, confused, bewildered as I entered Heaven’s door,
Not by the beauty of it all, by the lights or its décor.
But it was the folks in heaven who made me sputter and gasp;
the thieves, the liars, the sinners, the alcoholics, the trash.
There stood the kid from 7th grade, who swiped my lunch money twice. Next to him was my old neighbor, who never said anything nice.
Herb, who I always thought was rotting away in hell,
was sitting pretty on cloud nine, looking incredibly well.
I nudged Jesus, "What the deal? I would love to hear your take.
How’d all these sinners get up here? God must’ve made a mistake.
And why’s everyone so quiet, so somber? Give me a clue."
"Hush, child," said He. "They’re all in shock. No one thought they’d see you."
START WITH HEAVEN
Randy Alcorn states the following: “Often our thinking is backwards. Why do we imagine that God patterns Heaven’s holy city after an earthly city, as if Heaven knows nothing of community and culture and has to get its ideas from us? Isn’t it more likely that earthly realities, including cities, are derived from heavenly counterparts? We tend to start with Earth and reason up toward Heaven, when instead we should start with Heaven and reason down toward Earth. It isn’t merely an accommodation to our earthly familial structure, for instance, that God calls himself a father and us children. On the contrary, he created father-child relationships to display his relationship with us, just as he created human marriage to reveal the love relationship between Christ and his bride” (Ephesians 5:32) (Heaven, page 54).
THE HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN
In 1871 Fr. J. Boudreau wrote a short story entitled "The Happiness of Heaven." It's a story about a kindhearted king who is hunting in the forest when he discovers a blind, poor orphan boy living there. The king takes the blind orphan to his palace and adopts him as his own son. The king gives to his blind son the finest education and training money can buy. The blind son loves his father dearly and is grateful for everything he has done for him.
When the son turns twenty, a surgeon performs an experimental surgery on his eyes, and for the first time in his life he is able to see. This royal prince, who was once a starving orphan, realizes how he has been blessed with fine food, fragrant gardens, and lovely music. But when he gains his sight, he doesn't care to look at the wealth of his kingdom or the wonders of the palace. Instead he only wants to gaze upon the face of his father--the king who saved him, adopted him, and loved him.
We'll do the same thing in heaven. We were all poor, blind, wretched orphans, and the King of Kings has adopted us into his family. When we arrive in heaven and our faith finally turns to sight, we aren't going to be looking for a pearly gate, or streets of gold, we'll only have eyes to look upon the One who has redeemed us! My favorite promise is found in Revelation 22:3-4, "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads." The greatest thing about heaven is that we shall see the Lord!
(From a sermon by Fred Markes, Heaven, 8/30/2011)
