The Worship In God’s Kingdom Series

Purpose: To describe some of the glories that awaits believers.

Aim: I want the listener to so focus on spiritual rewards that worldly pleasures will lose their appeal.

INTRODUCTION: Last time we learned that the eternal heaven will actually be here on earth when God takes the New Jerusalem and lowers it to the newly refurbished earth. There will be rivers, trees, cities, buildings, gates, streets, mountains, and houses (Revelation 21-22). Heaven is just as real as earth is today--only much, much better.

Now that we know a little bit of what heaven will look like, what will we do there? What is it going to be like to live in heaven? Are we going to be sitting on a cloud strumming a harp? [ Picture of harp and cloud]Is heaven going to be one very long church service? In our text today John is going to describe a little bit of what heaven will be like for us.

The main activity in heaven will be worship, but worshipping God is not new. Our goal for getting together this morning is to worship our God. How will the worship in heaven be different from what we are doing here this morning? The good news is that we CAN know some of what heaven will be like: "but just as it is written, [in Isaiah]"THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM." For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God" (1 Corinthians 2:9--10).

Today we will learn that there are similarities between our worship here and our worship in the New Jerusalem, but there are also massive differences. Paul, who had his own glimpse of heaven said, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18).

REVIEW:

1:1-20 I. John’s Vision of the Past "the things which you have seen"

2:1-5:14 II. Christ’s Vision of the Present "the things which are"

Ch.6-22 III. John’s Vision of the Future "things which will take places"

6-7; 12-14 A. Satan’s war against God’s creation- the first six seals

8-11; 13:11-18; 15-18 B. Savior’s war against Satan: The wrath of God- the seventh seal

Ch.19-20 C. The worship of God

Ch.21-22 D. The wonder of eternal bliss

Vs.1-8 1. God makes all things new

Vs.1 a. A new creation "a new heaven and a new earth"

Vs.2 b. A new city "new Jerusalem"

Vs.3 c. A new closeness with God "God Himself will be among them"

Vs.4 d. A new freedom from God "no longer be any death"

Vs.5-6 e. A new contentment from God "I will give to the one who thirsts"

Vs.7-8 f. A new contrast between the godly and ungodly "I will be his God"

Vs.9-11 2. God unveils a new paradise: the New Jerusalem

Vs.9-10 a. It is God made "from God"

Vs.11 b. It is glorious "glory of God...brilliance"

Vs.12-21 3. God describes this new paradise

Vs.12a a. It is a safe place: the walls "great high wall"

Vs.12b-13 b. It is a public place: the gates "twelve gates"

Vs.14 c. It is a place of truth: the foundations "twelve apostles"

Vs.15-17 d. It is a real place: the measurements "gold measuring rod"

Vs.18-21 e. It is a pure place: the stones "pure gold"

LESSON:

Vs. 22-27 4. God describes a new worship

Vs.22 a. The intimacy of worship "no Temple"

"As the angel measures the heavenly city, we realize we have met this shape before. It’s a cube! ...The tent of meeting (the tabernacle) in the wilderness was shaped like a cube, and so was the Most Holy Place in the temple. [It was 15 feet high, wide and deep--the New Jerusalem may be 1,500 miles high, wide, and deep] It is the perfect shape for the house of God. But now the presence of God embraces everything, and the place of his dwelling is vastly increased." [1]

The Temple was the place where God’s presence was revealed to man, but there were a lot of restrictions. The presence of God filled the Temple only at certain times, and only the High Priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies where God’s presence dwelt.

Here God is worshipped as the "Lord God the Almighty." This is the same worship that was given back in "And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME." " (Revelation 4:8).