October 3 2001
Central Christian Church
St. Petersburg, Fl
Heaven- The Holy City
Revelation 21: 1-7
Song: Joe Bedy Ed Rogers’ duet
We know very little about heaven, but I once heard a theologian describe it as "an unknown region with a well-know inhabitant," and there is not a better way to think of it than that.
Richard Baxter expresses the thought in these lines:
My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim,
But it’s enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with him.
To those who have learned to love and trust Jesus, the prospect of meeting him face to face and being with him forever is the hope that keeps us going, no matter what life may throw at us.
In one of his books, A.M. Hunter, the New Testament scholar, relates the story of a dying man who asked his Christian doctor to tell him something about the place to which he was going. As the doctor fumbled for a reply, he heard a scratching at the door, and he had his answer. "Do you hear that?" he asked his patient. "It’s my dog. I left him downstairs, but he has grown impatient, and has come up and hears my voice. He has no notion what is inside this door, but he knows that I am here. Isn’t it the same with you? You don’t know what lies beyond the Door, but you know that your Master is there."
A.M. Hunter, Christian Theology in Plain Language, p. 208.
So my subject tonight is "heaven."
But at the same time, I know that I’m going to fall short because words are just not adequate to describe what God has prepared. In fact, the apostle Paul expressed this same idea when he wrote, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
OPEN YOUR BIBLES
Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. One thing is for sure this place earth is going to be destroyed as is the heaven that surrounds it.
Seas were a dangerous place In John’s day. In heaven there will be no danger.
We’ll never have to worry about locking our doors, or about children being abused, or about crime in our neighborhood. It will be a community beyond our wildest dreams & imaginations - a place of peace that passes all understanding. The lion and the lamb will lay down together and the Cobra will be no threat to your children.
Rev 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them,
Rev 21:4 and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."
We’ll receive comfort there, too. John says that God will wipe away all our tears. All the tears & sorrow & pain we’ve experienced as we traveled this dusty road of life will finally be gone. The hurts will be mended. The broken hearts will be whole. And God will be with us & be our Comforter.
Rev 21:5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said^, "Write, for these words are faithful and true."
Rev 21:6 And He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
First of all, we must understand "It is done", we’ll never have to be concerned about our salvation again. Nobody, nothing, can take that away from us. We’re secure in the Lord, & He gives us freely from the water of life. We’ll drink from it, & it doesn’t cost us anything.
We’re not used to that. We’re used to working & paying our bills & making it on our own, & feeling like we’ve earned it & we deserve it. We are used to fighting the battle between this Spirit led life and this old nature always trying to tear us down and pull us back from holiness.
But there we won’t earn it, & we won’t deserve it. But it will be ours as a gift. No more sanctification, Christ will have completed the hagiasmos- no longer are we a work in progress, no longer are we in preparation for perfection, in heaven we have arrived and we are there in perfection, just like Christ. Wow- does that blow you away?
Rev 21:7 "He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.
Secondly, there is strength there. Listen to what He says in vs. 7,
"He who overcomes will inherit all this..." We’ll be overcomers because we’ll have overcome the problems, the temptations, the sins, & the difficulties that we have faced in this world.
How will we have overcome those things? We’ll have overcome them because of the strength given to us by a faithful, holy God. And throughout eternity we’ll be overcomers in His sight.
Those who remain "in Christ" have overcome the world, don’t backslide now, stand firm do not fall, the hour is late the day is near -stand, stand, stand.
Finally, there’s the promise of sonship. And that’s really special. He says, "I will be his God & he will be my son." Only God can accomplish that. Each one of us will have an individual personal relationship with God.
I’ll be His son, & He’ll be my Father. You’ll be His daughter, & He’ll be your Father. He’ll take us in His arms & love us for all eternity. That’s what heaven is going to be like.
As you get older and are growing in Christ do you find that you appreciate God and people and good and lovely and noble things more intensely. So it is pure delight to think that this enjoyment will continue and increase in some form and we live and live happily, and by God’s endless mercy will live happily ever after.
We cannot visualize heaven’s life and the wise man will not try to do so. Instead he will dwell on the doctrine of heaven, where the redeemed will find all their heart’s desire: joy with their Lord, joy with his people, and joy in the ending of all frustration and distress and in the supply of all wants. What was said to the child -- "If you want sweets and hamsters in heaven, they’ll be there" -- Melissa asked me once when our dog Sam died, she said "joebedy" will Sam be in heaven? Now, understand my answer was spawned from a man who lacked compassion and mercy. I said no honey Sam didn’t have a soul, My understanding has changed since then, tonight I tell you Sam will be there, Because God loves Melissa and Melissa loved her dog. Now my dog Eutycus will be there for sure because he has heard the gospel message and been baptized. In heaven no felt needs or longings go unsatisfied. What our wants will actually be, however, we hardly know, except the first and foremost: we shall want to be "always...with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:17).
What shall we do in heaven? Not lounge around but worship, work, think, and communicate, enjoying activity, beauty, people, and God. First and foremost, however, we shall see and love Jesus, our Savior, Master, and Friend.
What will we look like?
Jesus had a resurrected body, that the disciples could touch, but that could also walk through walls didn’t he?
WE GET A NEW BODY
1 Cor 15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
1 Cor 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
1 Cor 15:53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
"DEAR FRIENDS, NOW WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD, AND WHAT WE WILL BE HAS NOT YET BE MADE KNOWN. BUT WE KNOW THAT WHEN HE APPEARS WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM, FOR WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS..." 1 JOHN 3:3
"WHILE WE LIVE IN THIS EARTHLY TENT, WE GROAN WITH A FEELING OF OPPRESSION; IT IS NOT THAT WE WANT TO GET RID OF OUR EARTHLY BODY, BUT THAT WE WANT TO HAVE THE HEAVENLY ONE PUT ON OVER US, SO THAT WHAT IS MORTAL WILL BE TRANSFORMED BY LIFE..." 2 COR 5:4
In heaven we get a new body... And if we are honest we have to admit that living in this body is not so great. If you do not believe me, ask Stan! Our earthly body gets tired, feels pain, it gets sick, and with age; moves slower, sags, our eyes dim, our ears dull, and things falls out (hair & teeth)...
And most People are not really happy with their body any way , billions are spent every year to cover up, make up, lift up and change the flaws in our bodies.
Well, in heaven we won’t need to do that anymore because -- we get a new body, a better one, an eternal one; one that doesn’t get tired, feel pain, get sick, sag or fall out...
Getting a new body is one reason that heaven is going to be a blast!
WE’LL GET TO LIVE IN A CUSTOM BUILT HOUSE
What will we see when we get there?
1. Thousands of Angels-Gathered together in JOY with all the Saints
2. No Jealousy-NO competition
3. No Division- No temptation
4. We will be perfectly holy-sinless
5. We will embrace Jesus and we will look at the face of God the father and survive it. Finally we will see God!
6. We will feel the gaze of the Father’s eyes on us full of love- forever
What will we do when we get there?
Bill Hybles says that among his earliest memories of church was being in a children’s choir. They dressed up in robes, & stood on risers, & practiced a lot. And he says that as a child he hated almost every minute of it. He hated putting that robe on, & he hated having to stand still for so long.
"To make matters even worse, the Choir director told me, `If you don’t like singing in the choir, you’re not going to enjoy heaven.’ So as a child, I thought of heaven as putting on a choir robe & standing on a riser & singing for all eternity. So I wasn’t really all that excited about going to heaven."
We will definitely Praise God and sing and party? But we will not continuously be just standing around and singing. Can you imagine if heaven was just start at page one of the hymnal and for eternity let’s just sing each hymn, each verse, line by line, note by note and when we finish let’s start at page one again. I don’t think so!
But for sure we will Praise and Worship God in heaven. And best of all we will worship with those who have gone on before us. Listen, if you have an earthly family who has received Christ you are blessed, because you will be able to spend eternity with people you loved and loved you.
But even if your biological family has not received Christ, your family in heaven will be just as wonderful and you will know no sorrow.
How many times have we heard Stan talk about his mother, believe me he is blessed because they will be singing, praising God, worshipping, eating and working together. AMEN?
- Revelation 19:1-8; Isaiah 6:3.
We’re not talking about unending tedious church services. I want you to imagine the most glorious moment of the most glorious worship service you’ve ever been in. Feel the intensity of that moment. Now, multiply it by 10 times and expand it from just one moment to an entire time of worship. Are you interested now?
But I must tell you, it will be loud!
Rev 19:6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
WE’LL GET TO EAT GREAT FOOD
Who here likes to eat?
A lot of people do, just check out the lines at Sam Selter’s on a Friday or Saturday. People love to eat and they will wait hours to eat good food.
Now, I’ve been to some great buffet’s...
I have had some good all you can eat crab.
Well in heaven we get to eat and I know it’s even going to be better than the best seafood buffet I have ever had.
How do I know we’ll get to eat, the bible says so:
"I SAY TO YOU THAT MANY WILL COME FROM THE EAST AND THE WEST, AND WILL TAKE THEIR PLACES AT THE FEAST WITH ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN...." MT 8:11
I don’t know about you but I’m looking forward to taking part in the buffet of all buffets.
And we’ll get to sit at the table with Abraham, Isaac and other saints... Can you just imagine saying to Abraham, "Hey Abraham could you pass me some more of that lobster and O’ yeah I’ll take a little more of that filet mignon.
We will live in a new house a mansion:
The Holy City is 1400 miles square and 1400 miles high, your home will be brand new.
When Steve Spurrier got to heaven he saw his mansion all decorated in blue and orange and it was enormous and a lavish place. He spent the day just enjoying his new accommodations, but on the 2nd day he went for a walk. He saw a mansion 1000 times bigger and nicer than his, decorated in garnet and gold. He asked Saint Peter as they walked along -How come Bobby Bowden got a mansion 1000 times bigger than mine- Saint Peter said "oh that is not Bobby’s house that is God’s house."
If getting a new body; living in a perfect home, and if eating great food appeals to you; then you’ll find heaven to be a blast!
Another thing we will do in heaven is work.
- Luke 19:17; Matthew 25:14-30; Revelation 22:3; Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:28-30.
Mat 25:21 "His master said to him, ’Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.’
So I believe the work we get to do will be a big part of the treasure we will receive for what we have done while in these bodies on earth serving Christ.
Again, we’re not talking about something tedious. In this life, many people see their work as a necessary evil.
Rather, to get an understanding, think of the thing you most enjoy doing in this life. It might even fall under the heading of something you’d call play, because nobody pays you to do it now ( For example, Stan likes to keep track of everybody else’s score on the golf course, so God will put Stan to work there. I like the woods, so maybe God will put me in game management. Now, imagine getting to do something as fulfilling and perfect for who you are as your regular work.
This obviously is a far cry from the tedium of sitting around bored out of your mind for eternity.
Another thing we will do in heaven is party.
I know my description has been inadequate, because we just cannot conceive how wonderful it will be compared to this life.
I would like to close with this story:
Tell the story of Robin Sigers wife Diane-who was dying as a young woman of cancer and the night she died as she held each child in her lap and told them how she could not be here for them any longer, that where she was going she needed them to make sure they would BE there.
"DEAR FRIENDS, NOW WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD, AND WHAT WE WILL BE HAS NOT YET BEEN MADE KNOWN. BUT WE KNOW THAT WHEN HE APPEARS WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM FOR WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS..."
1 JOHN 3:2
"AND IF I GO AND PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU, I WILL COME BACK AND TAKE YOU TO BE WITH ME THAT YOU ALSO MAY BE WHERE I AM..."
JOHN 14:3
No Sin, no unholy thing can enter God’s holy city, so …
I tell you this don’t miss heaven for a short season of sin and pleasure in this world. Make plans today to be there!
Works cited
Butcher, Jim. Will Heaven Be Boring?
Malone, Steve. Top Ten Reasons Why Heaven is Going to Be a Blast.
Newland, Melvin. Heavenly Relationships
Young, William. The Beauty of Heaven
