Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Your view of heaven is probably too small.
[00:00:07] All of our views of heaven are probably too small.
[00:00:12] And it could be why some of us are conflicted about going there, because we have such a small view of heaven. Now, you don't think you have a small view of heaven, but most of us have heard about heaven throughout our lives in a very small way.
[00:00:32] To make heaven more accessible and appealing, we often imagine ourselves driving around in Maseratis. I don't even know what a Maserati is. I just know that it's a cool car or whatever kind of car that you would like to drive on streets of gold, to mansions in the sky, where in your spare time you walk through lush gardens or fish with grandpa for zillions and zillions of years.
[00:01:08] And those are the best versions that we might think of.
[00:01:12] But that's actually a very small view of heaven.
[00:01:17] It's actually like going to the beach for a vacation and walking up on your condo or hotel and seeing the pool.
[00:01:30] And man, this pool has a slide on it.
[00:01:34] This is amazing. This is the most glorious body of water that I've ever seen. I can't wait to spend a week here.
[00:01:46] When, if you zoomed out, on the other side of the condo is the Ocean.
[00:01:56] That is 139 million square miles.
[00:02:03] And no one has ever or will ever explore the depths of the ocean.
[00:02:09] That's what most of our views of heaven is like.
[00:02:13] This is this glorious thing that I've always wanted or always wanted to experience.
[00:02:18] And we don't understand beyond that how glorious and vast heaven actually will be.
[00:02:29] John's vision of the new creation or the new Age, which is what we often refer to as Heaven, is not small.
[00:02:39] And what he does in chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation, he is not trying to minimize our view of heaven. That often happens as we read these two chapters, because we get locked in on architecture, we get locked in on these things, and we begin to think that's all that heaven is, are these things.
[00:03:05] And it minimizes sometimes our view of heaven. But that's not his goal. And I think that's because we don't understand the language he's using and what he's trying to do in describing what heaven will be like.
[00:03:19] His description here is simply to give us a starting point that the description of heaven in Revelation 21 and 22, it's just the parameters.
[00:03:30] It's just the lens in which we look through.
[00:03:34] Beyond this, heaven is glorious and immense and expansive, and we could never wrap our minds and hearts around it now, we could never have words to describe it. He is meaning to expand our view of heaven.
[00:03:53] And we said earlier, it's actually a new creation, a new age.
[00:04:00] So we are allowed to look around at the world in which we live in the way we're created, the things that we love about the world that are good and right and dream and imagine what heaven will be like with the Bible as our guide, as our guard rails.
[00:04:24] But this new age, which we will live in, a new creation, is more glorious than anything we could ever imagine.
[00:04:33] And John is at pains to get these churches to understand that. Why?
[00:04:39] Remember, Revelation is a letter. It is a pastoral letter written to seven churches who are suffering persecution under the Roman government.
[00:04:52] And so John is begging them to see what's really going on. Remember, he's taken up into heaven and he sees a vision of reality. And what is that reality? Jesus is ruling right now as you live in the world, and it feels like it's spinning out of control. No, the Lamb that was slain is ruling and he is reigning right now. And that lamb, that king, will come to earth as a lion and he will judge his enemies.
[00:05:23] He will establish a rule on the earth and he will eventually redeem the earth.
[00:05:30] And in the last two weeks, we've talked about what it will be like for us to live in this redeemed new earth. We will occupy the earth with God through the Lamb.
[00:05:44] In these two chapters, you've got to wrap your mind around this, he is stacking descriptions one on top of the other.
[00:05:54] What will it be like for us to be united to God forever? It will be like a bride meeting her groom who has fulfilled all of his promises to her and is going to take care of her forever. That's what heaven will be like. It will be like a city, a city that is given to this glorious king that he will rule over forever. And in this city, his glory will be reflected forever and ever. That's what it will be like. That's what heaven will be like for us. Heaven will be like this cosmic, worldwide temple where God's presence will dwell forever. And we will live there and reflect the glory of his presence and live in his light with the nations of forever. That's what heaven will be like. And today he stacks another description, another imagery on top of all these others. And so we have a bride, we have a city, we have a temple. And here, today, he's going to fill this temple with a restored garden.
[00:07:01] Eden will be restored.
[00:07:04] And what does that mean? Well, first of all, it means we will be restored to God. Notice verse one.
[00:07:10] Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life. This is continued vision of heaven by this angel that was a part of the seven plagues. And so we have Babylon.
[00:07:22] Now we have the New Jerusalem. This angel is showing the contrast here, but in the New Jerusalem. Notice the river of the water of life.
[00:07:34] It. It means water that is life. We know that water is essential for life. This water is our life, or what the Bible describes as living water.
[00:07:49] And this takes us back to the garden, where there are rivers that supplied life even to the nations there. But notice this water is bright as crystal. It's pure.
[00:08:02] And so in this city, there's no need for brita filters or treatment plants. The water is pure.
[00:08:10] Why is it pure? Notice it flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. This is where all life in the new age, in the new creation, flows from. From the throne of God. Solomon's temple had a large basin and it was called the Bronze Sea.
[00:08:30] But we heard two weeks ago, in this city there will be no sea because there will be no place for the priest or the people to need to be purified to enter the presence of God.
[00:08:45] They will be made pure by this river.
[00:08:50] They will be made like crystal. They will be made clear from this river that flows from the throne of God. It will be God himself that made and keeps his people pure forever. And notice it flows through the middle of the street of this city. Now, I think what's going on here is this river symbolizes the Holy Spirit in the new age, in the new creation. And what he is describing here again, what will it be like for us to be in heaven? Well, we will have life directly from God, pure life.
[00:09:27] We will have eternal life because God is eternal. That's what he's describing here. Often when you hear the phrase eternal life, what you think about is time.
[00:09:38] What you think about is I will live for eternity, on and on and on. Eternal life actually is referring to the life that comes from God to us.
[00:09:50] And because God is eternal, it's eternal life. And because we get life from God, we will live forever.
[00:09:59] And the Bible describes this eternal life as knowing God.
[00:10:03] In John chapter 17, verse 3, we read, this is eternal life that you know, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent.
[00:10:20] So eternal life is to know God, the only true God, through Jesus Christ, who was sent to reveal God to us. So eternal life, it's not just a time.
[00:10:33] It is knowing God, who is eternal through Jesus Christ.
[00:10:38] And it's not just information.
[00:10:40] We often think of that knowing God, that's Bible facts, that's theology.
[00:10:45] That's a list of things about his character. We got to know those things about God. But the knowledge referred to here is experiential.
[00:10:55] We know him personally. It is intimate knowledge with God. And the most intimate knowledge of the Gospel is that in Christ we know God as Father.
[00:11:06] That's why Paul talks about the Spirit of adoption that comes to live within us, that in the Son we are sons. In Romans chapter 5, this spirit is described as being poured out into our hearts and testifying to us that we are children of God. That's what eternal life is. Knowing God as your Father in an intimate way throughout eternity. He is a good father who will take care of you, who forever. And In John chapter 7, Jesus says that anyone who believes in him, out of his heart will flow what rivers of living water.
[00:11:51] When you believe the Gospel, the Spirit of God comes to live within you.
[00:11:57] And you receive this life from God that makes you pure and makes you new.
[00:12:03] And in the new age that work will be completed and you will know God in the Spirit forever and ever as his child. That's what eternal life is.
[00:12:18] But the problem right now is that this life by the Spirit that comes and lives within us comes and lives in a sinful, wicked person.
[00:12:30] And it's as if this pure mountain spring has to flow through the septic tank of your heart.
[00:12:39] A septic tank that hasn't been pumped in years.
[00:12:43] And eight people live in the house.
[00:12:45] I know what that's like.
[00:12:49] But this pure water has to flow through that heart.
[00:12:54] And you right now live in a landfill of a world that is cursed and trashed with sin.
[00:13:02] And so this is the work of the Spirit in us right now. It is making us new.
[00:13:07] But I have a mind and a heart and a body that has been trained to sin. But the Spirit is making me new from the inside out.
[00:13:17] And the same thing will happen in the world, this world that is cursed with sin. The Spirit will make it new, it will redeem it, and you will be purified living in a redeemed world. And that means that there will be no distractions in knowing God.
[00:13:34] There will be no sin in your heart to cause disfellowship or sever the fellowship that you have with God.
[00:13:43] Nothing will hinder you from knowing and experiencing God forever. No distractions.
[00:13:51] You're not going to get in heaven and something else is going to seem more important than God.
[00:13:57] You're not going to get in heaven and something's going to feel more glorious than pursuing God.
[00:14:04] None of that directly connected to God by the Spirit, forever kept pure. And you will see his character and you will respond with joy and trust and worship. And there will be times where you learn things about God and you will learn laugh, just like you do in any other relationship when you're learning things about one another and you have eternity to know God in this way. And you'll never walk away from God saying, oh, that was an awkward conversation.
[00:14:41] Oh, he's kind of irritating.
[00:14:44] Oh, I don't like what he said to me. That hurt.
[00:14:50] No, you will know God's love, you will know God's delight.
[00:14:57] You will know God's pleasure forever in this relationship with him. And you will dive deeper and deeper into knowing and being known by God forever. That's what eternal life is. So we're restored to God. We're also restored to one another.
[00:15:15] Notice on either side of the river, the Tree of Life.
[00:15:18] Now, so, odd grammar here, we might say, but I think what he's referring to here is the tree of life that is just growing and multiplying in growth all over the city. And it's supplied by the river that is flowing down the middle of the city. It's producing growth everywhere. We, we again have a vision of the garden.
[00:15:44] When Adam sinned in the garden, he was banished from the garden. And the text tells us he was banished so he could not eat from the tree of life. Him and Eve could not partake of the tree of Life. Why? They were sinful. And God, out of grace, did not want humanity to live in sin forever separated from him. And so by grace, he cast them out of the garden so that they would die.
[00:16:11] But here in the new age, in the new creation, we are invited back into the presence of God, made pure. And we will live forever.
[00:16:22] We will not be banished ever again. Made pure in Christ. But notice what this river does, what this tree does. Notice with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month.
[00:16:36] Now, there's no tree that does this. And that's kind of the point.
[00:16:40] It's just some of you scientists are going, well, there's a tree. No, there's no tree that I know that does it. So there's not for the purpose of this summer sermon, but his point here, remember, the word 12 is completeness. So this tree is always producing life.
[00:17:02] And again we see the picture of a. We've seen bride city temple, and now it is being this vision of a lush garden, a Paradise is being communicated here.
[00:17:18] Revelation 2. 7, the paradise of God.
[00:17:22] But I think what he's describing here is kind of the vine branch imagery that Jesus talked about, that when we are abiding in him and we are connected to him, when the Spirit lives within us, we produce fruit.
[00:17:36] Galatians, chapter 5 and verse 22 through 23 talks about the fruit of the Spirit. It's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.
[00:17:48] And what this means is in heaven, as we live in the presence of God, by the Spirit we will be made pure. We will also produce fruit of the Spirit. We will be all of those things.
[00:18:04] We will be made like Christ, who is all of those things.
[00:18:09] And notice what this leads to. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Remember what Adam did when he sinned? He hid himself, Eve. They hid themselves in leaves to cover their shame. Why? Well, something was wrong. Something's wrong with our relationship with God. We've sinned against God. We're guilty. So they were shameful for their sin. So they hid from one another. They weren't just hiding from God, they were hiding from one another.
[00:18:39] But here there is a restoration of the nations.
[00:18:44] You see, we hide from God.
[00:18:47] We hide from one another in shame, but we also, in our sin, fight with God. And what does that lead to? Fighting with one another. And we see that in the story of Genesis, sin enters the world. Cain kills his brother. We eventually get to Babel, where the nations are raging against one another. But the image described here with life in God, is that the work the Spirit, remember, the Spirit is doing all this. The Spirit began at Pentecost. What did he. What was the Spirit doing at Pentecost? Gathering up the nations. The many words were gathering around one word. And so what's being described here is ultimately, in the new age, in the new creation, the nations, brothers and sisters will be restored to one another. There will be no shame. There will be no sin that separates us. There will be no war. There will be no fighting that separates us in heaven, because the Spirit's work in this way will be complete. We will be gathered to God in this city.
[00:19:52] And the Spirit's work will be.
[00:19:55] Will have healed us our division, our conflict forever. So this is what this means. Knowing God fully, we will know one another fully. Restored to God, we will be restored to one another. There will be nothing to hide and no reason to fight with one another another.
[00:20:13] No marriage dysfunction, no family conflict, no need for peace treaties, no land disputes, no court cases, no Conversations fearing to be misunderstood.
[00:20:33] No war, no corrupt ideology, no racism, no nationalism, no church splits. In heaven. We will be restored to God. So we will be fully restored to one another. That's the healing that is being described here.
[00:20:49] That. That is because the fruit of the spirit. We love one another in heaven, so we're restored to God. We're restored to one another, then we're restored to God's rule. Notice verse three.
[00:21:02] No longer will there be anything accursed. Now, that word accursed is very important. It means to be devoted to death.
[00:21:09] You could actually say it means to be cut off from life in God. And it actually goes back to the idea of holiness.
[00:21:18] To be holy means to be set apart to God under His authority for his purposes. To be holy, you are set apart to God and you are under his authority to be used for his purposes.
[00:21:36] And that's what the world was to be. That's what God put Adam in the world. To do is to keep the world holy. Adam was like a priest in the garden who was to obey God. What was he to do? He was to be set apart under the rule of God. He was to obey his word. And God said, if you disobey my word, you will die. Meaning you will be cut off from me. You will be made unholy.
[00:22:04] Adam sinned.
[00:22:06] He allowed the unholy snake into the garden.
[00:22:10] Adam and his wife rebelled.
[00:22:13] And Adam's purpose. We even read when God put him in the garden to work and keep.
[00:22:19] You can translate those words. To worship and obey Adam's work. To be a priest in the garden. He failed.
[00:22:27] An unholiness entered the world. What does that mean? The world in some sense is unhinged from God's authority, from the purpose in which he created. The world is unholy.
[00:22:40] But notice what will happen here.
[00:22:42] The throne of God and the Lamb. And we see Lamb as this eternal name that is titled, that is given to Jesus because we're only in heaven because of the Lamb.
[00:22:54] But the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it. And so in the new creation, the new creation will be made holy. Why?
[00:23:01] Because God's authority and his rule and his reign will occupy the whole creation.
[00:23:09] And we will live under his authority. And notice his servants will worship him. What is that? That's a description of the priest who went in and worked in the presence of God. And so with the throne of God on earth, we will always be in the presence of God. And we will live and we will worship and we will serve as priests in A new creation and new garden. A completed, restored temple of God on earth where God is at the center. This means that everything will be under his authority.
[00:23:40] No natural disasters, animal attacks, no perversion of his designs, no rogue desires. Even in our own heart. We will be holy. What does that mean?
[00:23:49] We will be set apart to God under His authority, under his rule, forever and ever. We will be holy forever.
[00:23:59] And what that means is, in heaven, there's no secular.
[00:24:03] We often think about our lives in this secular, sacred dichotomy.
[00:24:09] Meaning, I go to work and that's religious and that's. Or I go to work and that's secular. I go to church and that's religious and that's sacred.
[00:24:20] And we divide our lives up that way.
[00:24:23] Sunday, with my church family, that's sacred. But then I got to go to work on Monday morning. That's secular.
[00:24:31] In heaven, everything's holy.
[00:24:35] Everything's in the presence of God. That means that you will work and serve and worship in the presence of God.
[00:24:43] You will recreate in the presence of God.
[00:24:46] We don't know how to recreate to the glory of God because we think it's all about us. No, we will be in heaven and the things that we enjoy, hiking and some of y' all like camping. For some reason, we will do those things. And our hearts won't be like mine when I'm camping. This is miserable. I will love camping in heaven because it'll be a sacred experience.
[00:25:12] And my heart will be made new to say, look at the glory of God all around.
[00:25:17] And you will do that in your work.
[00:25:19] You will see the glory of God as a redeemed image bearer. And you will worship God in your conversations.
[00:25:27] You will recognize in your conversation, this is in the presence of God. And so I have to talk to you as an image bearer who God created. And you will treat one another that way because it's all in the presence of God. We will be made holy and live in the presence of God and worship him forever. Notice, restored to his rule. Will be restored to our rule. Notice they will see his face in the garden. When God created Adam, he breathed in his face, in his nostrils. Because the point is, we are to know God face to face. And we ultimately know God face to face in Jesus.
[00:26:08] Remember, Moses says, God, I want to see your face. He says, you can't and live.
[00:26:13] But then we see in Jesus who comes and the glory of God is taken on flesh. We see the face of God in Jesus.
[00:26:22] We will see the face of God in Jesus forever.
[00:26:27] And notice his name will be on their foreheads.
[00:26:31] The priest Aaron, they would write the name of God on their foreheads which indicated they belonged to God in His presence. They were set apart to his presence to live and serve in the tabernacle, in the temple, in the presence of God. They belong to God.
[00:26:50] So we will see him and we will belong to him as holy forever. And notice verse five, and the night will be no more. It just simply means there will be no darkness.
[00:27:01] They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord will be their light. What he's talking about here is there's no need for a mediating light.
[00:27:11] And there's a reference here to the lamps that the priest used as they worked in the temple. There will be no need for lamps that are set up because the glory of God we will see and he will light up the place. There's also a reference here to the sun.
[00:27:29] The sun was created to govern the day and what happened during the day work.
[00:27:37] And so God gives us light to work.
[00:27:41] God gave the priest these lamps to work in his presence. And here all of that imagery comes together as we will live in this new creation that will be this new temple. And we won't need lamps.
[00:27:55] We won't need anything to light up so we can work. We will work in his presence. He will be our light. And notice it gets to the point here. And they will reign forever and ever.
[00:28:08] You see, in the Old Testament, kings were anointed for a time.
[00:28:13] The Spirit rested on them so they could rule and reign, but they died.
[00:28:18] Then there's the eternal Son, Jesus, anointed by the Spirit. And when we believe in him, we are given this Spirit of the kingdom, and we will be anointed as kings and queens forever who rule in his presence.
[00:28:33] Now, all of this is connected with creation here because we think about rain and we think about government, we think about civilization, and there will be that going on.
[00:28:44] But he's pointing us back to the reason we were created.
[00:28:49] Remember, God created us in his image.
[00:28:52] Why did he create us in his image? To reflect him in the world. How do we reflect him in the world? We take dominion over creation.
[00:29:02] We subdue the world around us for our purposes, and we reflect God in that way. In heaven, we will do that same thing. We will take dominion in heaven and all over the place. We will reflect the rule and dominion of God. Whatever environment, whatever area we are given, we will take dominion over it perfectly because we can see by the light of God to do our work and we will live in his presence as priests who have dominion. A kingdom of priests forever. Image bearers who are redeemed in a redeemed earth.
[00:29:38] That means we will harness energy.
[00:29:42] We will take wind and dirt and water, and we will do things with it that we never imagined to display the glory of God.
[00:29:52] We will engineer things with order and precision to reflect the wisdom of God.
[00:29:58] Some of us are thinking, you know, I really like my job.
[00:30:04] I like the things that I do.
[00:30:07] There's just a lot of things I don't like about it.
[00:30:10] I don't like the people I have to deal with.
[00:30:13] Well, you will be restored, and you will not have to deal with difficult people, whatever you're doing in heaven.
[00:30:22] Maybe you say, I don't like the sinful stress that comes along with working in a world where there are thorns and thistles. Those won't be there. You will love whatever you're doing.
[00:30:34] Maybe you don't like your job, you'll be given another job. I don't know.
[00:30:38] But we will compose sounds and colors. We will create beauty in his name.
[00:30:45] We will inherit the earth and display the glory of God.
[00:30:49] And as God is our light, we will see things in the world that we can't see right now.
[00:30:56] We will see things that we've never thought of seeing before. And we will learn and we will explore forever and ever and ever.
[00:31:05] We will be redeemed image bearers in a redeemed creation. And we will reign forever.
[00:31:12] You see, our view of heaven may be too small. And that's tragic, because if your view of heaven is too small, your view of joy in this life is probably too small, too.
[00:31:25] Because what happens when we have a small view of heaven is we begin to think that I have to hold on to everything in this life because it's the best it gets.
[00:31:35] And I have to live my best life now.
[00:31:38] And I have to fulfill the bucket list, and I have to do everything now.
[00:31:44] When we have a small view of heaven, that's how we live.
[00:31:47] And that subtracts joy from our life, because the Bible calls us to a joy that is sacrificial, that's inconvenient. It's the joy that John is calling these churches here to. To witness the name of Christ. Even if you suffer, even if you lose everything here, notice what eternity is.
[00:32:06] And so you can willingly let go and suffer here for the sake of the gospel. But even more tragic in that is when our view of heaven is small, our view of joy is small, and our view of Jesus can be small.
[00:32:22] Because if our view of heaven is small, often Jesus just becomes a good luck charm for me to get what I want forever in some euphoric fantasy land. And that's what Jesus is for. That's a small view of Jesus.
[00:32:40] He's just some sort of rabbit's foot to get you what you want.
[00:32:46] No, he's king of glory who stepped from the city the throne.
[00:32:54] And he was forsaken by the Father.
[00:32:59] He hung on the tree of death so you could partake the tree of life.
[00:33:05] He was cut off.
[00:33:08] He was treated as unholy and he was killed as a rebel outside of the city under the wrath of God for your sin.
[00:33:20] That's no small view of Jesus.
[00:33:23] And why did he do it?
[00:33:26] So you could just get what you want for eternity?
[00:33:29] No, he did it so you could have God forever.
[00:33:37] And it's mind blowing what that would be like.
[00:33:40] It's indescribable.
[00:33:44] And maybe that's the problem.
[00:33:47] We have a me sized view of heaven when God offers us himself a God sized view of eternity.
