[MUSIC PLAYING] There is no God. I mean, look at what's
going on in the world. I am my own God. God, Allah, Buddha, whatever. He's just waiting
to destroy us all. There's like hundreds of gods. And it's just like that
bumper sticker says. I am my own God. Dog is my copilot. There is no God. There is one true God. He's all knowing, all
powerful, and he loves you. [APPLAUSE] Welcome to Calvary. Hey, before we get started,
we'll be in Revelation 21, second to the last chapter
in the book that we read, the Bible, every week. Before we do that, I just
want to offer with you a prayer for our country. You know that the
election is over, that there's a new
administration in the White House. And it doesn't matter
who won the election. As believers, of course,
everything matters. But when it comes
down to it, we are to pray for leadership no
matter who's in the White House. I had the privilege of being
in a little group of advisors, faith advisors, and people who
would pray for the president and speak to him
about faith issues. I counted that a privilege. I would do it for any
president that asked. And if I ever get
invited back to do that-- I don't think I will. But if I did, I would do it. And I'd happily do it. And the Bible says that
we are to pray for all of those who are in authority. So doesn't mean we cannot get
involved in issues and make our dissent known on issues. But we do need to pray. And so let's do that together. Father, we want to pray for
the United States of America, in particular, Lord, our
President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. We lift them up
before your throne, pray that you would
give them your wisdom, pray that you would give
them clarity of thought as they are making decisions
that impact the world. Lord, we pray that
you would also allow in their presence men
and women of faith and truth to be able to speak your
truth into their lives to help shape and form policy. Father, we left them before you. And right here we
also pray that you would remind us to do
this frequently for them because we are told to
do that by your word. So thank you, Lord, that
we live in this country. Thank you, Lord, that no matter
who sits in the White House, you're always sitting
on the throne. And so we give you glory
and praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Revelation Chapter 21. So a cat dies and
goes to heaven. Now right off the bat, I have
theological problems with that. But I digress. So the cat dies, goes to heaven. There's Peter at the gate
because Peter's always, in these dumb jokes,
at the gate of heaven. And Peter sees the
cat and asks the cat, "Is there anything
I can do for you? I want to make your life
really good up here." And the cat says,
"Well, you know, Peter, on Earth I as a cat had
things pretty rough. I lived with a poor family. We didn't have anything soft. I was always sleeping
on hard surfaces. And so, boy, it'd be
nice to remedy that." So Peter said, "Say no more. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it." And poof! A really nice, fluffy
pillow appeared. And the cat had this
wonderful bed in heaven. A few days later, a bunch of
mice died and went to heaven. Now we're really off base
theologically, right? I don't expect to
see rats in heaven. Anyway, these mice are there. Peter is there, gives
them the same offer. And "What can I do for you?" And the mice say,
"You know, Peter, we had a tough time on Earth. We were always being chased
by something or someone. Dogs chased us. Cats chased us. Women with brooms chased us. So it'd really be cool
if we could each have a pair of roller
skates in heaven, just to get around really fast. We just think that'd
be really awesome. Could you pull that off?" Peter says, "No problem." And these cute
little roller skates appeared on all their feet. And they wheeled off. About a week later,
Peter decided he would go check on how things
are in that part of heaven. And he goes and sees the
cat sleeping on the pillow, has to nudge the cat to wake up. Cat wakes up. Big old yawn. Oh, you know, just ah. And so Peter says,
"Are you happy?" The cat says, "Peter,
I couldn't be happier. This is really an awesome bed. And by the way, those meals
on wheels that you keep sending by, they are the best." Do you know that some people
are going to be surprised when they get to heaven? Somebody once said
there are going to be at least three
surprises in heaven. First of all, who's
there that you thought would never make it. Second, who's not there that
you were sure would make it. And then, number three,
the fact that you yourself are there by God's grace. That's the wonder of it all. We have heard of
heaven, all of us, since we were kids,
especially if you were raised in a believing home. You heard your parents
talk about heaven. You heard when somebody
they knew died, they would say that
person went to heaven. And you were always wondering,
what is heaven like? What does it look like? What can we expect if we're
going to spend forever there? And I've discovered, in
listening to people describing their view of
heaven, that it has become a confusing, nondescript
place, a sort of a make it anything you want
kind of a place filled with all of your
favorite activities and all of your favorite
pets because it wouldn't be heaven without them. It's sort of like Build-a-bear. You know, you go to the mall
and you have a Build-a-bear. And the kid can make the
bear any way he wants it. Heaven to sort of become that. You make it what you want. So we want to look at
what the Bible says we can expect when we go to heaven. Now, just some preliminary data. Our word "heaven"
in English comes from an old Anglo-Saxon
word "heavon." Heavon. Of course, we don't
talk like that anymore. You don't say, "When I
die, I'm going to heavon." But that is the original term. Heaven comes from heavon. And that means to be
lifted up or uplifted, which isn't far from
the biblical rendition. The Hebrew word for
heaven is "shamayim," and it means the heights
or the lifted up place. Heaven is the lifted up place. The Greek word, likewise,
is the word "ouranos," which means lofty or lifted. By the way, "ouranos"
the Greek word is what inspired the name
of the seventh planet in our solar system
from the sun, Uranus. So it means to be lofty, or
lifted up, or the height. And that is because in the Bible
it is often spoken of as up, right? Jesus lifted his eyes
up to heaven and prayed. John 17. Revelation Chapter 4, I heard
a voice from heaven saying, "Come up here." Heaven is a word that appears
532 times in the Bible. That's just in my version. That's the New
King James version. If you were to search it, 532
times the word heaven appears. Another 171 times it's put
in the plural form, heavens. So about 700 times, the Bible
mentions heaven or heavens. So it's a big
subject in the Bible. It's a big subject because
it's our final destination. Paul even said our
citizenship is in heaven. And not far after that, in
the same book of Philippians, he said, "For me to live is
Christ and to die is gain." The only reason it would
be gain is because heaven was waiting for him. But what is heaven
like, exactly? This is where it
gets a little murky. And this is where even the
best of us and the most imaginative of us-- even reading the biblical text,
it's just tough to imagine. CS Lewis put it this way-- "Our ability to imagine
what eternity will be like is like two infants
in a womb talking about what they'll
be doing once they're born and are 25 years old!" They have no point of reference. So heaven is going to be, as
we read from the biblical text, a totally different
kind of existence than we have on Earth. I'm taking you to
Revelation Chapter 21. This is our series on
2020, Seeing Truth Clearly. And we're not going through
the Book of Revelation. We have done that, and I've
gone into much greater depth on all of these subjects. But in this series, we're
going to look at heaven from this chapter. I've taken you to Revelation
21 because this takes us to the very end of all things. And things get destroyed. And things get made
and created again-- a new heaven and a new
earth, as we're going to see. But besides all the confusion
that people have about heaven, it seems to me that
our enemy, the devil, would like us to be
confused about heaven. Randy Alcorn, who, by the way,
wrote one of the best books ever on the subject of
heaven, said, "Satan labors to give people an
inaccurate view of heaven. Our enemy slanders
three things-- God's person, God's
people, and God's place. And some of his favorite
lies concern heaven." Makes sense to me. He got kicked out of heaven. He's not too stoked
about the idea that you're going there
by grace through faith. So confusion abounds. So let's go through this text. And I'm just going to
draw out some themes. The name of this is What Most
People Don't Know About Heaven. And the first thing most
people don't know about heaven is that heaven comes in phases. There are different modes of
existence, distinct phases, of your heavenly experience. That surprises a lot of people. So if you were to die
and go to heaven today, that's one phase of it. But in the future, there's
going to be a different phase and a different phase. And I want to show you that. But it shouldn't be too
great a surprise to us. After all, on this earth, we
have different distinct phases of our experience. Right? We have the gestation phase,
nine months in the womb. Then the live birth. It's another phase. Then you're a baby. Then you're a toddler. Then you're an adolescent. Then you're an adult. And
then you're a geriatric. And I can say I have
experienced all of those phases. Ephesians Chapter 2, verse 7. Paul the apostle said
that in the ages to come-- notice it's in the
plural, not singular. Not in the age to come. "In the ages to come, He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace toward us." So the moment a believer
dies, his spirit, his soul, goes to be with the
Lord immediately. His body remains, obviously. That's why there are caskets. And so their body remains. Their body is buried in
the ground, typically, their soul, their spirit,
enters God's presence. "Absent from the body," Paul
wrote, "present with the Lord." That's an immediate occurrence. You are with the Lord. You are with him in spirit. God is spirit. You, the real you, the
spirit, is with him. It is a place of joy. It is a place of bliss. It is a place of comfort. It's interesting, however. There's not a whole lot of
information about that phase. Wilbur Smith said, "However
abundant the scriptural data on resurrection and
life in heaven is, the state of the soul between
death and resurrection is rarely referred to." Now let me just throw
this out at you. Some people refer to this
as the intermediate heaven. I don't know if I like
that term all that much. But you go to heaven. You're with the Lord. Perhaps it's the throne
room that you see, like in Revelation Chapter 4 and 5. But the big thing you need
to know is that when you die, immediately you go to heaven. There is no purgatory. You don't get stuff burned
off so that you can later be admitted into heaven. That is not a
scriptural concept. And there's no such
thing as soul sleep where you just sort
of go unconscious, you're just hanging out, and
you have no recollection of any of that, and then one day you
wake up on resurrection day. The Bible doesn't
teach either of those. So absent from the body,
present with the Lord. I want to depart and be with
Christ, which is far better. For me, to live is Christ. To die is gain. He wouldn't say that if he was
thinking of purgatory or soul sleep. So that's phase one. You die. Your spirit goes to
be with the Lord. Phase two is the
rapture of the church. And that's because at the
rapture of the church, you get a resurrected body. That's when you get
your resurrected body, at the rapture of the church. The dead in Christ
will rise first. So on rapture day,
that's resurrection day. 1 Corinthians 15. You get your new body,
resurrected body. Then, as we saw
last time, you will stand before the
bema seat of Christ, the judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians Chapter 5. And that's not a
judgment for your sin. That's past. That's the cross. You get rewarded. God hands out rewards to you. This is the cool
thing about heaven. Not only do you get heaven. Once you get to heaven,
you get rewarded by God for things you did in his name. Wayne Grudem wrote in his
book Systematic Theology, "Heaven is the place
where God most fully makes known his presence to bless." I love the idea that God's
heart toward us is to bless you. So when you get to heaven, if
that's not a blessing enough, he says, "Ah, but wait. I've got some gifts I
want to give out to you." So you die. Your spirit goes to
be with the Lord. At the rapture, you
get a resurrected body. Then there is the
bema seat of Christ. Then there is the marriage
supper of the Lamb. We looked at that last time. Some think it lasts seven years. Some think it lasts for
a whole 1,000 years. I can't tell you,
but I'll find out. And then after the marriage
supper of the Lamb, Jesus comes back and
sets up a kingdom, a millennial kingdom called the
Kingdom Age or the 1,000 year reign of Christ. Chapter 20 delineates
1,000 years, 1,000 years. Several times it mentions
that, Revelation Chapter 20. The Kingdom Age-- get this-- is heaven on earth. So you die. You go to heaven, right? You wait for a resurrected body. Then at some point, you
come back to this earth. But this earth gets a
makeover, a total makeover. And the prophets describe a
renewed earth, a Kingdom Age. And it describes it by saying
there will be a tamed animal world. This is mostly out of the
prophet Isaiah, but others as well. A lush biosphere, which means if
you're looking for Rio Rancho, you're going to have to look for
a place that's filled with palm trees, and ferns, and water. There'll be a lush biosphere. There will be
longevity on the earth. There will be world peace. That'll be a new one. And there will be
perpetual health. Then there is yet
another phase of heaven. And that is what we
call the eternal state. And the eternal state
is a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem. Verse 1 of Revelation 21. "Now I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth
had passed away. Also, there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the
holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband." So after all those
events that I just talked about, after the
1,000 year reign of Christ, the kingdom age on Earth,
the earth, this earth, will have served its purpose. And when that time comes,
it will be destroyed. It will be obliterated. It will be, if you will,
uncreated, reduced simply to energy, which brings up
a very interesting point. Did you know the earth
is a disposable planet? It is. So if you're trying
to save the earth, good luck because
it cannot be saved. You can be a good steward
of it, and you should be. We should always
be a good steward of what God puts in our grasp. But God himself is going
to destroy this earth. Why would he do that? Sin has polluted it. That's why. And by the way, that's
why there's not just a new earth but a
new heaven in earth because heaven has
been polluted as well. There was a fall that took
place by a guy named Lucifer. And God will create a new
heaven and a new earth. So remember when Jesus
said "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my
words will never pass away?" You know, we usually
focus on the second part of that, not the first part. But the first part says heaven
and earth will pass away. In other words, Jesus announced
the world is going to end. And Peter tells us
how it's going to end. 2 Peter Chapter 3, verse 10. "The day of the Lord
will come as a thief in the night in which the
heavens will pass away with a great noise
and the elements will melt with fervent heat." So it is going to be destroyed. All the planets, the sun, our
solar system, the universe is going to be uncreated. You know, until this past
century, until about a little over 100 years ago, the
prevailing cosmology among scientists-- cosmology is the study of
the origin and maintenance of the universe. The prevailing cosmology was
known as the steady state theory that everything
is in a steady state. There's really no beginning. There's really no end. It's just sort of continuing. But then science caught up. And they studied
things like the sun. They discovered that
the sun's radiation is produced by the loss
of part of its mass. So 4,200,000 tons of mass per
second are lost by the sun. It burns that off every second. It's where we get our heat. What that means is the
sun is running down. If the sun is running down,
it means it had a beginning. If the sun is running down,
and the sun had a beginning, it means the sun has an end. And it will be destroyed
along with this earth. So this universe is
designed to be temporary. So he said, "I saw a
new heaven, a new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away." So verse 1, new
heaven, new earth. Verse 2, New Jerusalem. Go down to verse 5. "Then He who sat on
the throne said--" This is sort of a
summary statement. "Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me,
write, for these words are true and faithful." That sort of sums up
the universe, right? I make everything new. Isaiah the prophet
also predicted this. This is important
because don't think that the idea of a new
heaven and new earth just sprung up in the
Book of Revelation. Isaiah the prophet
writes in Isaiah 66, "I will make new
heavens and a new earth which will last forever." Never be destroyed. 2 Peter Chapter 3,
which I just quoted. After he talks about the earth
being destroyed and melting with fervent heat, he says,
"We, according to his promise, look for new heavens
and a new earth." Now, a couple words
about the word "new." When he uses the word new earth,
new heaven, New Jerusalem, he does not use a typical Greek
word, which would be "naos." "Naos" means new
chronologically. He uses the Greek
word "kainos," which means a quality of freshness. It's new in quality. It's different in kind. It's a completely different kind
of newness, brand spanking new. New materials, new atmosphere. I'll show you that
in just a second. At least I believe that. So what's coming up
is the obliteration of the earth and the heavens. So if you're going to be up
in heaven, that's going to go. The earth is going to go. And God is going to make a brand
new heaven and a new earth. So you have heaven. Call it the intermediate heaven. Then you have heaven on
earth for 1,000 years. Then you have the
earth destroyed. And God makes a new
heaven and a new earth. So you see the phases of heaven. We love new things. I love new things. I love when I get a new phone. I love it. Say, what? Let me see how cool it is,
and the features it has, and the camera that's on it. Right? We like new stuff. When you go get your car
washed and they offer you, do you want lemon? No. You want lavender? No. You want spice? No, I want new car. Oh, I'm sorry. We're out of that today. Aw. Because everybody wants
the smell of a new car. One of the dumbest things
you could ever say in heaven is, "Is that a new suit of
clothes you're wearing?" because I make all things new. Everything will
always ever be new. So heaven will come in phases. The second thing most people
don't know about heaven is it will feel unfamiliar. There are certain
things that are not there that are here in
our earthly experience that, because of that,
will feel unfamiliar. And one of them is
found in verse 1. I just sort of passed
over this because I don't like this verse. And it says, "I saw a
new heaven a new earth. The first heaven and
earth passed away. Also, there was no more sea." I have wrestled with
this verse for years. This, to me, is so harsh,
almost to the extent where I go, do I have to go there? I mean, this is heaven? A brand new world with no ocean? I mean, if I'm writing
the script on heaven, it's not going to read this way. If I'm writing the script on
heaven, it's going to say this. There were no more cities,
but there was lots of beach and a whole bunch of ocean,
and palm trees galore. But it says there's no more sea. Now I got to tell you. I have wrestled with this so
much that, over the years, I even early on rationalized the
interpretive process of this. I thought perhaps sea is
a metaphor for nations that are not in
covenant with God, that are described in the
Bible like a troubled sea. So for example, Isaiah 17,
the uproar of many peoples. They roar like the
roaring of the seas. Isaiah 57, the wicked are like
the troubled sea when it cannot rest. Revelation 13, the. Antichrist comes out of the sea. See, I've really
researched this. Revelation 17 even
says the waters which you saw where the harlot sits
are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. So I thought there's hope. Maybe it's just a metaphor
for lots of angry people won't be there. But now, I've resigned myself
to a more literal approach. I just think what John is
saying, in a few words-- it's so short, it's profound-- is that the earth is going
to be a different earth. It's not going to be
anything like this earth. It's not going to be a
water-based environment. It's going to have a
different climate altogether. The world that we live
in now is 3/4 water. 3/4 of the Earth's
surface is ocean. Besides that, there's
other water sources in the earth itself. We have our own hydrological
cycle on this planet. We depend on that. You're mostly water. 90% of your blood is water. 65% of your flesh is water. If you don't drink enough water,
you dehydrate and you die. To offer this short
little pithy statement "And there was no sea"
indicates the new earth will be a completely
different environment, not like carbon-based
life on this earth is required to have
the water that it has. It operates on a different
principle on the new earth. We're in glorified bodies. We won't require
the same things. Now if that still bums you
out and you're wondering, you mean there's
no water at all? I didn't say that. By the time you get to
Revelation Chapter 22, John said, "And I saw a pure
river of the water of life." Something else about
oceans, oceans are barriers. They separate people. And in the old days before jet
aircraft, that was a big deal. You were thousands
of miles and you were trepidous journeys apart
by boat from other people. There will be no separation
like that in the new earth. Something else is unfamiliar. Because all of that to
us sounds sort of weird, but this gets really good. And I want you to
know, as we go on, that John had to write about
heaven in the negative, not the positive, the negative. He wants you to know
what else isn't there. So verse 2, "I, John, saw
the holy city New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from
God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice
from heaven saying behold." Or check it out. "The tabernacle of
God is with men. And he will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people. And God himself will be
with them and be their God. And God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death." Imagine that, no
death nor sorrow. We can't even imagine that. "Nor crying. There shall be no more
pain, for the former things have passed away." What John is saying is
let me tell you what heaven is going to be like. It's not going to be like here. It's going to be unlike
the experiences we have on the earth. So work your way through
that little list. God will wipe away every tear. No tears in heaven,
no Kleenex in heaven. I think back in my life. There is a lot of days that
I cried in my life, some that are very memorable days for me. It might surprise you
that the first day of school, public
school kindergarten, I cried like a baby. And I was the boy who, when the
teacher said, "What's wrong?" cried. And I said, "I miss my mommy." Yeah, I had to live
with that forever. The boy who began school by
saying "I miss my mommy." That was me. Days filled with tears. Yeah, I know. Very sad. There were other days
filled with tears. The day my brother died
and days afterwards. The day my father died,
the day my mother died, the day my other brother died. We all have stories like that. We all have tears. Life is filled with tears,
tears of misfortune, tears of loneliness, tears of
poverty, tears of sympathy, tears of regret. No tears in heaven. That'll be absent. Notice it says no more death. You know that 57 million
people every year die? COVID or no COVID,
that's the going rate. 57 million people die a year. That's about 150,000
people every single day. Death has scarred human
existence from the beginning when God said to Adam and
Eve, "In the day that you eat thereof, you will surely die." Ever since that disobedience,
we have experienced that. But not in heaven. You'll never have to go
to a cemetery in heaven. There are no
cemeteries in heaven. There are no tombstones. There are no caskets. There are no funeral homes. There's no funerals in heaven. And you will never age in
the new heaven and new earth. You'll never age. Because if there's
no death, and there's no conditions that bring
death, so there's no disease. Right? There's no surgery. There's no hospitals. Then it says "nor sorrow." Are you ever sorrowful? Are you ever moody? You ever just get in a mood? It's like somebody asks
you, "What's wrong?" Oh, nothing. You just got a mood. You just got it going on all
day, got an attitude going on. And I've noticed a
lot of people have a lot of those this last year. Everybody does. Everybody does at some point. This is why we love the
Book of Psalms so much. We read it, and we go,
"I relate to that." Psalm 6 is one. The psalmist said, "I'm
weary with my groaning. My eye wastes away
because of grief." We relate to that. But there's coming
a day when you won't be able to relate to that. It'll be so foreign. There's no sadness. There's no depression. Here's another stupid
thing to say in heaven. Hope you never say it. You can never say in
heaven, "Have a good day." That's like the dumbest thing
you could ever say in heaven. Have a good day. Every day is a good day. It's always good. There's no sorrow. And it says "nor pain." That's a big one. There's a lot of aspirin sold. I read the other day
that just a little over 20% of all Americans
suffer chronic pain. That's a fourth
of all people that live in our country, a fourth. Over one fourth suffer
from chronic pain. So much so that
by the year 2023, the painkiller market will
reach a $5.9 billion industry. No pain. In heaven, you'll
have a perfect body. Some of you who work out and
are young, you might say, "I already have a perfect body." Just wait. Just wait a few years. Just keep looking in
that mirror honestly, and things will
catch up with you. It's called entropy. It's called gravity. Those things are real. But in heaven,
they'll be absent. So heaven comes in phases. And it will feel
unfamiliar in terms of what we are used to here. A third thing that most
people don't know about heaven is that it will
have a capital city. And it's called New Jerusalem. In verse 2, he sees it. "I saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem--" get this-- "coming down out
of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice
from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men. And He will dwell with them,
and they will be his people. And God himself will be
with them and be their God." Go down to verse 10. "He carried me
away in the Spirit to a great and high
mountain and showed me the great city,
the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of
heaven from God." So John sees it coming
down toward the new earth. "Having the glory
of God, her light was like a most precious
stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." John gets this crazy vision of
this luminescent city coming down out of heaven
toward the earth. And we discovered from this
chapter and the next chapter that this is HQ in heaven. This is headquarters. This is the capital city
of heaven, New Jerusalem. There are really no landmarks
given about the new earth except for one,
that there's no sea. But no other
characteristics are given. But a lot of detail is
given about this new capital city, New Jerusalem. And I want you to
see how big it is. Verse 15, "And he who talked
with me had a gold reed." That's a measuring stick. "To measure the city,
its gates, and its wall. The city is laid
out as a square. Its length is as
great as its breadth. And he measured the city with
the reed, 12,000 furlongs." So 12,000 furlongs is between-- depending on how you
reckon ancient measuring-- between 1,380 miles
to 1,500 miles. So let's just call
it 1,500 miles. Its length, it's breadth,
and its height are equal. So we're dealing
with a cube that is 1,500 miles in all directions. 1,500 miles, that's like the
distance from Maine to Florida. That's like the distance from
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Dallas, Texas. That's like the distance
from Albuquerque, New Mexico to
Spokane, Washington. And it's shaped like a cube. Now this is kind of weird. Why a cube? Because I think of planets. I think around right sphere
I think of a new earth, I'm thinking of a sphere. But you got this square
city coming down. This cube city coming down. Why a cube? I can't be definitive,
but I just have an idea. And my idea is-- do
you remember right here it says, behold the
tabernacle of God is with men. The tabernacle of God. In the Old Testament, there's
a thing called the tabernacle. Tabernacle is where
God met with people. And there was an outer court. That's where
sacrifices were made. There was an inner court. That's where priests
only hung out. And in the inner,
inner court, it was called the holy of holies. Nobody went in there
except the high priest once a year because that's
where God dwelt with his people, in the holy of holies. What's interesting about
the holy of holies, it is a perfect
cube, 15 feet wide, 15 feet deep, and 15 feet high. That was the Tabernacle. So it says the tabernacle
of God is with men. If you have an Old
Testament reckoning, you kind of go, I can see that. So it seems like you have a
city that is shaped like a cube. And I would infer from that
that the streets are not just horizontal
but also vertical and that you'll have the
ability to travel quickly in all directions like Jesus,
who, in his resurrected body, could be here one moment
and there the next moment. And when he wanted to visit
the disciples in the upper room didn't have to
knock on the door. He just went through the
wall, just showed up, just went, poof, there he is. Right? That's quite a capability. Wouldn't you love to do that? I think you'll be
able to do that. Now in going through
this, inevitably somebody is going to at least
think it if not say it. And it goes like this, are
you sure this is literal? I don't think this is
intended to be literal. This really doesn't mean
an actual city coming out of heaven to the earth. Well, I guess I'll respond
to that by saying if it's not literal, then I have no
idea what he's talking about and neither do any of you,
because at the point where you say it's not
literal, you have to say I'm going to just
start making things up of what I think they could mean. And then I would
wonder, why would God spend the whole
Book of Revelation just to tell us what's
not going to happen? Right? I know Revelation
is given in symbols. But the symbols point to
realities, literal events. In Revelation
Chapter 1, God says here's the revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to
show to his servant John, which he
signified by an angel. The word "signified"
means given in signs. So we have symbols. We have signs. But they point to a reality. And if you start saying,
well, this isn't literal or the millennium isn't literal. It's not really 1,000 years. Then pray tell, what is it? Because if 1,000 doesn't mean
1,000, then what does 1,000 mean? Because you have
a lot of numbers in the Book of Revelation
that are very, very detailed. You have, for example,
seven churches. Maybe it doesn't
mean seven churches. You have 12 tribes. Maybe it doesn't mean 12 tribes. You have 12 apostles. Well, maybe it doesn't
mean 12 apostles. Right? You see the problem
you have with that. You have one third of
mankind being destroyed. You have two witnesses. You have the discussion
of 42 months. Then it even says 1,260 days. Why the detail? And now you have
12,000 furlongs. So if you start saying, well,
I interpret the Bible literally except for prophecy, I'm going
to say to you, on what basis? And what authority do you
have to dissect the scripture and say, well, I
believe this literally but I don't believe
that's literal? Because then you're
going to start getting into other
areas like salvation. Maybe you don't really
have to believe in Jesus. I know it says that, but maybe
it doesn't really mean that. So you go down a bad
interpretive street. However, if you look
at it at face value, then you have a real kingdom
in Israel, in Jerusalem, with a real Messiah
on the throne of David for 1,000 years,
followed by a destruction, followed by a creation of a
new heaven, a new earth, a New Jerusalem, and a 1,400,
1,500 mile cube city. I can't wait to check it out. [APPLAUSE] So that's what most people
don't know about heaven. Let me give you a fourth. And this is the saddest one. Not everyone will be there. Not everyone goes to heaven. The prevailing ideology
among most people on earth is that all you have to do to
go to heaven if there is one is get born on earth. You're born, you die,
you go to heaven. That's what people do. And according to jokes, that's
what cat and mice do as well. But not everybody goes there. It's only a city of believers. Verse 7, "He who overcomes
shall inherit all things. And I will be his God,
and he will be my son. but the cowardly, unbelieving,
abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers,
idolaters, and all liars shall have their part
in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death." That's pretty clear, right? Go down to verse 24. "And the nations of
those who are saved shall walk in its light. And the kings of the earth
will bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not
be shut at all by day. There will be no night there. And they shall bring the
glory and honor of the nations into it. But there shall
by no means enter it anything that defiles or
causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life." Not everybody goes to heaven. Not everybody will be in heaven. It says in verse 7,
"he who overcomes." What does that mean? It's simply a statement
of believing in Jesus. That's all it is. It's another way of saying
somebody who believes in Jesus and believes all the
way through, endures all the way through in that faith. 1 John Chapter 5. "Everyone who is born of
God overcomes the world. This is the victory that
has overcome the world, even our faith." So you believe, you
overcome the world. Listen, if you are
not a Christian, you need to know the
worst is yet to come. If you are a Christian,
you need to know the best is yet to come. It can only be said
to the believer. The best is yet to come. If you're an unbeliever,
I can't imagine anything worse than growing
old as an unbelieving person. Because you get old. You go through all
the typical stuff we all go through as we age-- the aches, the pains, the
heartaches, the hardships. And the only thing you have
are memories of your past because your future
is not bright. But as a believer, as
bad as it has ever been, it's only going to get awesome. No pain, no sorrow, no tears. [APPLAUSE] Something else, you
notice that Jerusalem is called the holy city. People all the time
say, "I want to go on one of your Holy Land tours. I want to see the holy
city of Jerusalem." Technically, you have to
wait till the New Jerusalem because I would tell you even
in the holy city of Jerusalem today, there are
places you don't want to walk at night because
they feel very unholy. People will say, "Well, I don't
know about a whole new earth. I'm going to miss my old earth. I'm going to miss my old home. I'm going to miss the ocean. I'm going to miss
the West side." [LAUGHTER] Really? [LAUGHTER] Isaiah 65 answers that. "Behold, I create a new
heavens and new earth." Here it is. "And the former shall
not be remembered nor even come to mind." You will not miss it. You won't even think about it. You would say, "Oh,
but I miss my cat. I miss my little
garden out back." You won't miss it. I make all things new. CS Lewis said, "If I find
in myself a desire which no experience in this
world can satisfy, the most probable
explanation is that I was made for another world." This is the world
you were made for. That is the world
you are going to. That's a motivation for me. Paul said set your
things on things above. Set your mind on
things above, not on the things of this earth. Whoever has this hope purifies
himself as he is pure. You know it's coming up for you. I know it's a glimpse. I know we see through
a glass darkly. But I think we have
enough information to at least go, wow. Right? Father, I pray this
would motivate us. I pray, Father, for those
that don't know you, that they would. It's so easy. You've done all the work. You've made the sacrifice. So all we have to do
is simply turn around. We have to repent, go in
a different direction, and invite the
Savior into our life. I pray that those who
have not done that, would. Because of all the things that
grab our attention in this life that we deem as
important, none is as important as this,
this eternal issue. And I pray for those who have
not made the decision yet, they would say yes to Jesus. And if you're here this morning
and you want to do that, then talk to him right now. Right where you are, say to
him and mean this, say, Lord, I admit it. I'm a sinner. I admit it. I've sinned. Forgive me. I believe in Jesus. I believe he died for me. I believe he bled for me. I believe he rose
again from the dead. I believe that. And I turn from my past. I turn from the direction
I've been going. I turn to Jesus as
Savior and as Lord. Fill me with your
Spirit, your Holy Spirit. Help me. Empower me to live a
life that pleases you. Today and every day, I pray. We hope you enjoyed this special
service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how
this message impacted you. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
