Sizing Up Eternity
Revelation 21 and 22 - 8.10.08
Dennis Mullen 

                  Most Americans believe in heaven.  You can see this belief expounded in movies, TV. shows, tabloid covers, and in the eulogies given at celebrity funerals.  According to popular notions, heaven is populated by all those on earth who made some kind of lasting impact or who had some basic human decency.  Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, Tim Russert, Heath Ledger, Jerry Falwell and Dale Earnhardt have all taken residence in heaven, according to common thinking.  Now they all reside among the clouds, beyond the pearly gates (manned by St. Peter).  And as far as their activity is concerned, they're all doing pretty much the same things that they did down here.  Elvis is singing (perhaps with Bing Crosby and Jim Morrison), Tim Russert is interviewing JFK and Ronald Reagan, Jerry Falwell is part of the REALLY Moral Majority, and Dale Earnhardt is driving his old number 3 car (though, since this is heaven, he’s had to switch to Ford).

            I hope you realize, though, that there is a profound difference between the popular mythology about heaven, and the Biblical description - both in terms of heaven's nature, and in what it takes to get there. 

            We need to be clear in our minds about the reward that awaits the people of God.  In 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Paul says that eternity is what pulls him through the bad and good of this life:  “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

            One of the most complete descriptions of eternity in the Bible is found in the Bible's last two chapters.  Most of Revelation deals with God’s judgment at the end of the world, but as Revelation 21 begins, we get to look with the apostle John beyond judgment to the world that is to be ours forever.  We get to look at our eternal home.  And here’s what we find…

1.  Our eternal home will be brand NEW.

            Revelation 21:1-5 says “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’

“He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’”

            It seems like most people would like to own a brand new home at least once in their lives.  Maybe it's the satisfaction of designing it yourself and seeing it built; maybe it's the feeling that you're establishing a small piece of history; maybe it's just knowing that no one else's dogs have ever lived on your carpet!  But people like new homes.

            Many Christians don't realize that our eternal home that awaits us at the end of time will be a completely new home.  People usually think of earth as being temporary and heaven as being eternal.  But Scripture clearly teaches that both the present earth and the present heaven will be destroyed, and will be replaced with something new.  Isaiah 51:6 talks about the heavens vanishing like smoke, and earth wearing out like a garment.  Psalm 102:26 says, "In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.  They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment.  Like clothing you will change them" (NIV).  In Isaiah 65:17, God declares:  "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth."  Jesus promised his disciples in John 14, "I go to prepare a place for you..." indicating that it wasn't yet ready.  2 Peter 3:7 says that the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, and v. 10 tells us that, at the last day, the "heavens will disappear with a roar."  Then, v. 13 says that "we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness."  And that's what we see happening in Revelation 21.  The Bible says that the present heaven, the home of God, is a created thing, like earth and like the universe surrounding us.  And along with the rest of creation, it will be destroyed and replaced with a perfect heaven.

            But wait a minute.  I thought heaven was already perfect.  Why would God destroy it and recreate it?  And more importantly:  "What about our loved ones who have died in the Lord?  Haven't they gone on to their rest and their reward?"

            Our loved ones have indeed gone on to their rest and reward.  The Bible doesn't give us many glimpses into the present heaven, but when it does, it shows us a place of joy.  In Luke 16, when the righteous man named Lazarus dies, he goes immediately to "Abraham's side," a name for the present heaven.  Jesus tells the repentant thief on the cross:  "Today, you will be with me in paradise" (another name for the present heaven).  Paul tells the Corinthians that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  Those who die in the Lord go immediately to his home and receive their comfort in him.

            And yet, Scripture tells us that their reward is not yet complete, and cannot be so until the end of the age.  In Revelation 6, for example, John sees in a vision the souls of saints who have been tortured and killed for their faith on earth.  These martyrs are now in heaven, with their Lord.  And yet, something is lacking:  “They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed” (Revelation 6:10,11).

            This tells me that God absolutely must bring this present age to a close in order to complete things for those in heaven.  Don't let anyone fool you by telling you that God can simply let things continue down here - that he can let earth continue to go its own way while he tends to heaven.  He must bring history to an end one day, and create a new heaven and a new earth, in order to give his people their promised rest.  That day could be soon.

            Perhaps you always pictured your loved ones showing you around heaven when you get there.  My dad died last year.  By now, he's surely got a good working knowledge of heaven - he can show me around, right?  That may happen, if I die before the Lord returns.  But Scripture teaches that, at the end of the age, we will all have a new home on a new earth that we can explore together with those who have gone before.  We can share the joy of discovering it anew with them, because earth and heaven will be new.

            I've been to Colonial Williamsburg, and someday, I'd like to show Cindy around there.  And she lived in New Zealand when she was growing up, and I know she'd like to show me around there.  But it's a special kind of joy when we go someplace together for the first time, and neither of us has ever seen it, and we can share the joy of discovering it together.  That's what eternity will be like, because our home will be new for all of us.

2.  Our eternal home will be PURE

            To say that it will be pure is simply to say that heaven will not be infected with the disease of sin.  God created this world pure, but sin entered it when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.  Sin brought with it sorrow and separation and sickness and death.

            Because our home will be pure, there will be no place for suffering.

            Because of sin in this world, a four-year-old girl gets leukemia.

            Because of sin, marriages disintegrate.

            Because of sin, an eight-year-old boy is killed in a random shooting.

            Because of sin, people live for years with painful injuries or chronic illnesses.

            Because of sin, we are all destined to be orphans in this life.

            Heaven wouldn't be heaven if those things were to continue.  So God will re-create heaven and earth, and they will be pure.  No sin.  No pain.  No sorrow.  No tears.  No death. 

            And because the new heaven and earth will be pure, there will be no place for those who persist in sin.  Revelation 21:6-8 says:  “He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.  He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.  But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.’”  Verse 27 adds:  “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.”

            Now those verses may seem a little cruel to you.  But will you please remember two things?  First, God wills for no one to miss out on heaven, though some will.  And second, remember that God has provided purification for everyone who will receive it through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.  Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:9 that the Lord is taking his time in bringing about Judgment Day because he doesn't want anyone to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance.  God proved his love for all sinners at Calvary, and he proves it again and again by allowing us time to repent and turn to the Lord.  As long as this life persists, even the most vile sinner can decide to turn his back on his sin, and submit to the leadership of Christ. 

            But finally, the time for repentance will draw to a close.  God will call his own people home.  And heaven would not be heaven if folks are there who choose to rebel against God and who would entice others to follow them.  Those who have insisted on living in rebellion to him will reap the consequences of their choice - eternal separation from God. 

3.  Our eternal home will be REAL

            The popular conception of heaven is a place made of clouds - not very substantial.  The New Age idea of the afterlife is that we will blend together into some kind of great force of pure energy - again, not very substantial.  But the Biblical picture is that heaven will be a real place - very substantial, very tangible.  This is shown by the detailed description in vs. 9-21, and by the angel measuring out the heavenly city.  Though we may not take this section literally (John may simply be using earthly worlds to describe something beautiful beyond words), listen to how real heaven will be:     

“One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’  And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.  It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.  It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.  There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west.  The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (vs. 9-14)

            “The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls.  The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long.  He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using.  The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone…The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass” (vs. 15-21).

            You've probably heard about the streets of gold in heaven, and the pearly gates.  I think most people picture the pearly gates as gates encrusted with pearls.  But it says here that each gate will be one giant pearl (which means, if you like oysters…)

            I find it interesting that heaven is pictured as a city.  I grew up in the country, and I always figured that Hank Jr. had it right when he said:  "You can send me to hell, or New York City - it would be about the same to me."  I went to NYC on a week-long missions trip while I was in college.  I took some pictures from atop the World Trade Center - nothing but tall buildings all the way to the horizon.  When I showed them to my friend John Rogers, who grew up in the same place that I did, he said:  "Man, that makes me sick!"  I said:  "What does?"  He said:  "All those buildings.  That would be a terrible place to live!"  Yet heaven is pictured as a holy city, the new Jerusalem.  That tells me that it will be a place where there are lots of people living together - but without the crime, or the irritations, or dangers we usually associate with a city, because this city will not be inhabited by slaves of sin, but servants of righteousness.

            The popular idea is that earth is real, and heaven is wispy and ghost-like and less real.  But the Bible teaches that, if anything, the opposite is true.  Hebrews 8 tells us that the OT priests served at a tabernacle that was only a copy and a shadow of the real one, found in heaven.  Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12 - "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."  C.S. Lewis called our earthly existence "the shadow lands," and illustrated heaven by saying that if we went there now, the blades of grass would probably pierce our feet, because we're not "real" enough for heaven.  Heaven will be real.

            The biggest problem I have with the modern myth of heaven – the one with Dale Earnhardt and John Denver shuttling people around – is that we know it isn’t real, and that makes anything anyone believes about heaven seem like a fairy tale too.  That’s how I feel too when I go to a funeral for someone who didn’t really believe anything and nobody in the family really believes anything either.  Usually they don’t come right out and say:  “Dad’s dead and gone, and we’ll never see him again, so enjoy the memories!”  It’s more likely to be:  “Dad’s probably buying Hank Williams a beer right about now”, or “He’s probably trying to flirt with Natalie Wood” or “He’s telling Bear Bryant what a bum he is!”  But it’s all a fairy tale and everyone knows it so no one really believes it.  And by association, everything the Bible teaches about heaven starts to sound like a fairly tale too, and heaven becomes less real, even to believers.

            The fairy tale heaven won’t motivate you to live a holy life or to persevere when times get tough.  No one says, “Oh, if they throw me in jail for believing in Christ, I can get through each day knowing that when I get to heaven I’ll be able to joke around with Don Knotts and Johnny Carson!” 

            Or:  “Boy, it’s tough to live a life of purity and love my enemies and help the poor, but it’ll all be worth it on that day when I get to meet Minnie Pearl and Grandpa Jones at the great Hee Haw in the sky!”

            Myths don’t motivate.  Reality does.  The writer of Hebrews says:  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful (10:23).  If we believe in Christ, we can trust what he said, and he promised us eternal life in his kingdom.  When Paul sat in his jail cell pondering his impending death, he didn’t give up because he knew that to die was tio depart and be with Christ, that in killing him, his opponents would just give him the ultimate victory. 

            That’s reality.  It’s real.  It exists.  That is an article of our faith, and we shouldn’t lose sight of it by allowing the popular fairy tales to cloud it over. 

One last thing…

4.  Our eternal home will be A PLACE OF HEALING (22:1-2).

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”

            If there's one thing we need heaven to be, it's a place of healing.  People have physical wounds and emotional wounds that just won't be cleared up this side of heaven.  But Revelation says that in heaven the tree of life, that first showed up in Eden, at the very beginning of the Bible, will turn up again in heaven, and it will be a tree of healing.

            Wayne Watson has an old song I really like about heaven called "Home Free," in which he refers to heaven as "the ultimate healing."  Billy Graham says that, just before his grandmother died, she said:  "I see Jesus.  His hand is outstretched to me.  And there's Ben, with two eyes and two legs."  Ben was her late husband, who had been wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, and then lived for years with just one eye and one leg.  But not in heaven.  In heaven, we'll get a new, glorified body.  This body is imperfect from the start, and as the years pass it becomes less and less useful, and causes more and more pain.  But in heaven, we can look forward to a new body without sickness or disease or pain, because heaven will be a place of healing.

            And not just physical healing.  At the start of the sermon we read these words:  He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’

            To live is to lose people we love, to experience disappointment, hurt, frustration, injustice.  But this life isn’t everything.  There is more.  There is a place of healing, ultimate healing.  Christians, this is your birthright.  Don’t surrender it for the temporary pleasures of the world.

Now, a question:  Will you be going there?  You see, it says in 21:27 that heaven will be occupied only by those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

            Is yours?

            If not, I've got great news.  God wants your name written there.  It doesn't matter what your past is like.  He has paid the price in Jesus for your name to be written in the book.  All you have to do is accept it.  Repent of your sins; be baptized into Christ.  Accept him as your Lord.

 Morrison Hill Christian Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN  37763   (865) 376-5205