"Then 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. 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. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them."
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for Your Word today, for the great hope of heaven, the great hope which enables us to endure all the challenges we face here in light of what You have promised is to come. Lord, we pray if there be anyone who receives this message that is not on the way to heaven, we ask that You would soften the hardened places of their hearts, that You would accomplish a mighty work today in their lives, save them from what is to come by Your grace. Change the course of their path from destruction to glory. Today would be the day of salvation. Lord, we pray for all of us who know You, that You would cause us to rejoice in an even deeper way, and that our lives would exhibit that overwhelming joy. As a result, may we become salt and light in ways we've never thought possible. May it all be for Your glory and Christ's sake.
We ask and pray this in Jesus' name
Amen
Today's Message: A Place Called Heaven
As Christians, we have become like infants who will reach out and grab at anything that tinkles
and chimes; that's the nature of who we are as people, therefore, it's easy
for us to lose sight of the truth. We become distracted by the world and the enemy that rules over it. Failing to focus on what God is doing in this season. We have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness, rescued from this world of ignorance, sin and death. Therefore, let us be alert and sober, we're witnessing a moral decline and spiritual free-fall in our nation. We are constantly being deceived from the classroom to the newsroom, we are governed by God-hating megalomaniacs and pathological liars. Therefore, it is my God-given calling and responsibility, to stand before you and make sure that you know the One Who is truth. Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Throughout history of man, heaven has been a preoccupation with both God’s people and the secular world. The are many songs, television shows, movies, and broadway plays about heaven. Because whether he realizes it or not, deep in the hearts of men, there is longing to be in the presence of God and a great anticipation for heaven. There is nothing in this world that can satisfy that desire.
However, the evidence is overwhelming, not so with our current culture. We are living in a society of instant gratification, material comfort,
and endless self-indulgences. It is even more disturbing to me, that even the church has become worldly. I believe nothing
demonstrates that anymore explicitly than the lack of
godliness and a disinterest in heaven. Most pastors don’t talk about heaven, choirs don’t sing about heaven, many church goers don't even ask about heaven, it's safe to say the church is really not that interested. We seem to have sacrificed the eternal blessing of glory on the altar for the temporal gratification of the perishing world. We're more excited about the release of a new movie than the return of our Lord.
Church, we've lost our way and we've lost the heavenly perspective. We are consumed by possessions; cars, houses, vacations, leisure and comfort. Health, wealth and prosperity. All this has lead us to a false
sense of self sufficiency. No longer desire to serve and live in obedience to the One who created us, we only want Him to bless us, to give us our wants and desires. We allowed the enemy to distract us.
I am compelled to say, that as God's people, we should have a preoccupation with serving Christ, a longing for heaven is because God is there. If our Savior is in heaven, then shouldn't heaven be the place we long to be. God’s
grace does not alter a sinners standing before a Holy God while leaving
his moral character untouched. True grace is not the liberty to do as
we please, but rather cultivates a desire to deny ungodliness and worldly
desires. I believe how we view heaven, has a powerful effect on the way we live our lives. When we have an authentic perspective of heaven, suddenly we will find that the things of this world don't really matter much.
John begins with "then I saw," this is a technical term which has become very familiar to us in our study of the book of Revelation. It has been used since chapter 19, verse 11. I believe it is used to take us step by step through the chronology of the coming of Christ. So, it's a very important phrase. Here, it is used to introduce the new heaven and the new earth.
The word "new" that speaks of the new heaven and the
new earth, in the original language, the word is "kainos," not the word "neos," meaning new as opposed to old.
This will be new in essence, a new character, not new in the sense of renovation, but
rather new in terms of it's very nature.
Beloved, God is going to create
something new, never before created. He's going to create something that is
unprecedented, completely different from
anything that we can comprehend or imagine; something unique; something
unparalleled. He's speaking here of an entirely new dimension of life
that He will created.
Just as a reminder, this chapter opens in the chronology of end times, all the sinners of all
the ages, demons and men, Satan, the false prophet, and the
Antichrist, are now in the eternal lake of fire. Forever gone from the presence of God. The universe, as we know it, all of the matter has been reduced to energy. This is it folks. This is the eternal state, which will last throughout eternity.
This is drawn from Isaiah 65, when God said to Isaiah "I create new heavens and a new earth; and so new that the former things
shall not be remembered or come to mind. Be glad and rejoice forever in
what I create."
He goes on to say "for the first heaven and the first earth passed away." I want to take this opportunity to say, what I have often stressed, the earth we live on is temporary, it's disposable. We’re called to be stewards, caretakers of earth, not to preserve it. We're not the Master. We've been misguided, led by our pride, we've sought to dominate, and possess the earth. We've attempted to usurp the authority of God and take control of something that doesn't belong to us. It's on loan to us.
We must understand God's plan did not intend for it to remain. Perhaps originally the plan was to be the permanent home for humanity, I believe that sin in the Garden of Eden corrupted the world and changed all of that. Then, at the end of the verse, he says "and there is no longer any sea." Today, we live in a water based world, three fourths on the earth is bodies of water. It's a necessary component for our existence. In fact, our bodies are made up of approximately 70% water, and to my knowledge, the earth is the only known planet to have consistent, stable bodies of liquid water on its surface. So for those of us who enjoy being at the beach, we may find this a bit disappointing, however, when we arrive in heaven, I'm fairly certain, we'll be so overjoyed, so awe struck, we'll not even give that a thought.
Hebrews 1 says "And You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the works of Your hands; They will perish, but You remain; And they all will become old like a garment, And like a mantle You will roll them up; Like a garment they will also be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end."
In verse 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." Here, we are introduced to the new capital city of heaven which is the New Jerusalem.By the way, this isn't all there is to heaven, this is the capital city. In fact, later in the chapter, we’re going to find out just exactly how large the New Jerusalem is. For now, I'll just say that God created a whole new created realm that is vast, which is infinite.
I have heard a number of commentators who've said "This isn't a literal city," well, if it isn't then explain why God in His Word has taken such great detail to describe it? It would be senseless. Listen again to exactly what John saw "And I saw the holy city, called new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God." That sounds pretty literal to me! As a footnote, in the Old Testament even as the historic Jerusalem it is called the holy city in Daniel 9, Isaiah 52 and there are several references in the New Testament as well. God set it apart for divine purposes, but as we know, not everyone was holy and it will eventually become the seat of the Antichrist.
By the way, in the millennial kingdom, Jerusalem, will be holy as well, that's where Christ will sit on the throne of David in
the city of Jerusalem, and rule with a rod of iron. In the new Jerusalem, everyone there will be holy. Remember in chapter 20 "Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection." Abraham looked for that city and one day went there. The city that has a foundation whose builder and maker is God. So, verse 2 is a reference to the heavenly Jerusalem.
Hebrews 12 also reference this "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels." The heavenly Jerusalem exists even now in some form, and when believers die, that's where they go to the place the Lord has for them. In John 14, Jesus said "
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." If it's not a literal place, where did He go? You see, it exists now.
John goes on to say "made ready as a bride adorned for her husband." John borrows this magnificent, beautiful imagery of a wedding. I won't belabor all the details of a Jewish wedding, I've done that several times in previous messages. You can go back and read through those if you would like. Adorned metaphorically means "to embellish with honor." By His transforming grace, we've been glorified. It's gets better folks.
Listen to verse 3, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them." Here's another familiar phrase from John "And I heard a loud voice from the throne," that phrase has appeared more than twenty times. This loud voice, likely an angelic being, announces "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men." This is the Father’s house. This is where Jesus went away to prepare a place for us. This is utterly amazing! This is the fulfillment of Leviticus 26:11-12, "I will make My dwelling among you. I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people."
This is the amazing reality of Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
Notice that John sees there’s no temple. The Immanuel God is really with us. This is so astonishing it's beyond comprehension! This is God in all His fullness! This is because the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. The tabernacle of God is among us. So, if these things aren't literal, I have no clue what he's talking about and surely no one else does either. This is no allegory, this is the real deal!
And this is an absolutely amazing thought! We finally see the reality of divine fellowship.
In Closing..
If this isn't a powerful antidote to the many temptations and difficulties that we experience in this world today, I don't know what is. And, this is our destination. This is the promise of heaven we've been waiting for. What a glorious hope that we have in Christ!
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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