Sunday, June 4, 2017

Revelation 21:1-6 Heaven Series #5. What Will It Be Like to Be With God?

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared.  And the sea was also gone.  And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people!  He will live with them, and they will be his people.  God himself will be with them.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.  All these things are gone forever.”  And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!”  And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”  And he also said, “It is finished!  I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End.  To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 
Revelation 21:1-6(NLT)
It is common to talk about the things that we will see and enjoy in heaven – gold streets, gates of pearl, a river of life, and so-on.  I would like for us to concentrate on some of the things we will NOT see in heaven…some noticeably-absent human conditions around God’s throne in heaven:
DISTRACTION
Quite a few Bible passages[1] give us the plain picture that heaven is a place of worship.  It is something that we are going to do eternally.  On earth our worship is often distracted by things and people around us who don’t care to worship.
Frankly, the fact that heaven will be filled with worship is going to upset some folks who don’t think too much of worship here on earth!
We should do our best to avoid the distractions of this life as we prepare to do worship in heaven.
DEPRESSION
Heaven is not going to be a place filled with gloom.
You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence
    and the pleasures of living with you forever.  Psalm 16:11(NLT)
I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!  John 15:11(NLT)
Our heavenly home is going to be a place filled with life – alive with beauty and splendor provided by God.  Even the walls of heaven, constructed of precious stones, gates of pearl, with gold-gilded streets and gloried light sparkling everywhere will make it an impossible place to be gloomy.
An earthly comparison – when we moved to New Orleans to attend seminary we lived in a mobile home.  It was a good one, but it wasn’t Heaven.  What made me think of Heaven while we were there, far from home, was Norwood and Barbara Hingle.  They were a Methodist couple that adopted this lonely bunch of Brownworth Baptists from Florida.  We were strangers and the Hingle family loved us, fed us, and played with our children.  It was the feeling of being accepted that took away our depression. 
And so it will be in Heaven to a far greater degree; we are people of joy.
You won’t see Distraction, Depression or…
DARKNESS
Heaven is a place of light.  A number of passages in Revelation describe the throne as a place from which the light brightly shines.
Elizabeth and I like our surroundings to be cheerfully bright.  We have it that way at our house in Thomasville.  But not every abode is cheerful.  When I came back from Vietnam in 1968 we were stationed in Ft. Knox, near Louisville.  As a married man I was entitled to live off-base.   As a low-ranking enlisted man I couldn’t afford much. 
We checked out one apartment that two elderly sisters wanted to rent.  It was really one room in an old rickety house.  You shared the only bath with the sisters.  Lighting was a light bulb that hung by a single wire from the middle of the ceiling.  It was held together by masking tape!  The floor sloped towards the river.  As we looked at that lonely room I saw a mosquito fly by – he looked like a B-29 looking for a bombing target!  The sisters kept their ad in the papers for the whole time we were stationed there!  It may still be running! 
That place was not Kansas, Dorothy…neither was it a good advertisement for Heaven.  The fact is that God prefers light. 
Everything that describes anything apart or different from God is couched in terms of darkness.  The place outside of heaven is described as the outer darkness.  The abyss is a place of darkness.  Darkness is the place of stumbling and falling. 
Practice being people of light!
No Distraction, Depression, Darkness, or…
DECEPTION
Heaven is a place of truth.
Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  Revelation 21:27(NLT)
Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.  Revelation 22:15 (NLT)
Lying is nearly a universally-accepted practice today; unfortunately this is true even in Christian circles.  A little boy in Sunday School was asked to define lying for the class.  He said:  a lie is an abomination before the Lord…and a very present help in time of trouble.
Deception is going to be noticeably-absent in heaven.  For now, it is a strange thing that the One who called himself the Way, the TRUTH and the Life, has plenty of followers who think telling the truth, or standing for truth, no matter how costly, is optional!
Deception is going to be missing in heaven…we ought to practice the way of truth here!
Finally, besides the absence of Distraction, Depression, Darkness and Deception, you won’t see any…
DEATH
Above all things Heaven is a place of life, because it is the place of God.  According to Paul’s protégé, Timothy, Jesus Christ abolished death (2 Timothy 1:10).  The Bible is all about life from Genesis to Revelation:
Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.  Revelation 22:1-2 (NLT)
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:  “Death is swallowed up in victory.      1 Corinthians 15:54 (NLT)
You won’t see death in the eternity of God’s new heaven and earth. 
Perhaps my favorite piece of poetry is from the 16th century by John Donne.  I paraphrased much of it in last week’s message on resurrection.  Here is a larger chunk of that work in the language of 16th century people.  The poet personifies death; he speaks to it as if it had a face – calls it by name:
Death be not proud, tho’ some have called thee
                 Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; 
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
           Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.     
For one short sleepe past, and we wake eternally;
  And Death, thou shalt be no more, Death, thou shalt die.[2]

What can we say about the end of death?  Consider the Alpha and Omega.  You have probably heard a preacher say those are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.  Jesus said that’s his identity.  He is the beginning and the ending, first and last.  He also said he gives from the fountain eternal life. 
For the believer in Jesus Christ, the beginning of life with him is the same as the ending…and the middle.  It is life, life, life – all the way!  
For the unbeliever, the one who has never trusted in Christ, the stairway stops at the foot of the cross.  In order to enter into God’s forgiveness, you must come via that cross, because it is only the blood of Christ that cleanses us from sin.
Today’s word:  make sure you kneel at the foot of the cross.
Notes                               


[1] Revelation 4:9-11, 7:11,12, 19:6
[2] Excerpt from Sonnet 10, Holy Sonnets



[i] Title image: Russell Brownworth, Thunder Struck Ridge, Blue Ridge Parkway, 2006

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