All right, well, let's get ready to get rolling here. I'm excited about this study. So we're thinking about heaven together and we're thinking about specifically what the Bible actually teaches about eternal life. One of the things I've discovered in thinking about heaven in the course of my own ministry and theological reflection is that there are a lot of people who think about heaven in terms that aren't especially biblical. They're not unbiblical. but they're just not especially biblical. And so one of the things that we need to do as individual Christians and as a church is we need to be the kind of people that are constantly taking things back to the scriptures and asking, are the things that I'm affirming, the things that I'm assuming, are they actually things that we find in the scriptures? And we don't need to be afraid of that. God is not going to mislead us, okay? So we can come to the Scriptures with open minds and with open hearts. We can lean into the good truth that we've received from the generations that have gone before us that have tried to interpret Scripture faithfully. But we always need to ask ourselves, what does the Bible actually say about faith? this issue, whatever it is, this issue is heaven. The reason we're going to heaven now is not only that I've been thinking about this going back actually to the very beginning of full-time ministry. I heard a preacher say that one of the great failures that he sees in evangelical church life is a failure to preach about heaven. And so I thought, well, I need to think more and talk more about heaven. I think there's also a personal piece there too in that I think the older that I get, even though I'm still not that old, I find myself thinking more about heaven and eternity than I did when I was 25 or 21 or 16. I think about it a little bit more now. But the other thing here I've heard a lot of questions from our church. People seem to want to know what to think about heaven, what it's going to be like, who they're going to see there, what's going to happen, not just in the immediacy of after their death, but what does eternity look like? And so I think it's a good thing for us to think about together. And so we're going to think about heaven for a few weeks. I don't have a long agenda for this because I'm relying on you to let me know some of the questions that are on your minds and hearts, and I want to be sensitive to those as well. So we'll just kind of see how things take shape. This may be a three-week series. It may be a six-week series. and maybe longer. We're going to take our time and think about this together because as we're going to see tonight, thinking about heaven is something that actually covers the whole story of scripture. All right, so we're thinking about heaven together. So let's pray and then we'll jump in with some introductory discussion. Father, thank you for the time that we have together tonight. Thank you for your word. Thank you that we can trust it to reveal everything that we need for life and for godliness. Thank you that we can come to your word and in submitting ourselves to it, that we can know the truth. Lord, I pray that you would sanctify us in the truth, because your word is truth. Lord, I pray that you would help us to be a heavenly-minded people. Not because we're trying to escape from the world that you've made. But because we understand that if we are heavenly minded, we will actually exercise a transformative influence in the world in which we live today. As we seek to bring people to Jesus, and as we seek to fulfill, according to your purpose, what Jesus himself taught us to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. So Lord, I just pray that you would give us open eyes and open hearts, guide us into the truth, and bless our time together in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so I want tonight to be really discussion-focused, okay? Some of these things, I know I run ahead and I start saying stuff and we don't have a lot of time for discussion. So I've left a lot of room in our lesson tonight just for us to talk together. We're going to do a little bit of searching too, collaborative reading as we go through some passages. So I'm excited about that. But as we get started tonight, I'm going to throw this out openly. You've got where you can write it down, but I want to kind of let you ask this verbally if you're ready to, so that others maybe have something get prompted in their minds. What are some of your questions about heaven and eternal life? Okay. Good question. Yeah, that's a great question. I've heard a lot of people ask, will my loved ones recognize me in heaven? Yeah, so I think that's an even more fundamental question, not just what do we look like, will the other people around, hey, I'd be happy to be the best version of whatever I am, but will at least recognize me in heaven, right? That's a good question. Does anybody need some of these, by the way? Anybody? Y'all got them? Okay. I didn't know if everybody got one. I've got more if we need them. All right, any other questions come to mind? Putting you all on the spot. Yeah, that's a great question. That's a great question. So two really good questions. I'll repeat them in case you didn't hear them. What does the Bible teach about heaven on earth, which is a huge deal in the New Testament especially. So I mentioned in my prayer what Jesus says about your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But if you look at the writings of the Apostle Paul, one of the things that he is really concerned to show us is that heavenly realities are breaking into this world right now by the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. So that's a huge topic, and I do want to hit that. And then, remind me of yours again. Yes, so we have this language in the Gospels, especially the Gospel of Matthew, kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God, heaven and kingdom, what are those? Are those the same thing? So again, really great question. So are heaven and kingdom the same? And I think one of the things to say, and I'll think more on that, but one of the things to say in answer to a question like that is we always, when we use different terms, they can be close to synonymous, but where they're different can actually help us to understand some things too. So those words can mean 80% of the same thing, but where they don't overlap, we can learn a lot about some of God's purpose too. Does that make sense? So that can be helpful. All right. Other questions? Yes, sir. Yes. Yeah. We're going to talk about that a little bit tonight. Go ahead. Yeah. We have this picture of in the beginning God creates the heavens and the earth. That's the first couple chapters of the Bible. We go to the very end of the Bible, the last couple chapters, the first heaven, the first earth pass away. There's a new heavens and a new earth. What is that? What is the relationship between those things? There's actually a lot of debate in Bible interpretation about what the language of all of it being burned up that you see in one of Peter's letters. I'm not going to say which one because I'm not totally sure. There's a lot of debate about whether that's an accurate translation of the idea. So, is there some continuity from the old creation to the new? Or is it a total start over, right? So, these are really good questions. So, what are the new heavens and the new earth? It's great. Yeah. So, we have a mention in the Apostle Paul of this idea of him going up into the third heaven. And that whole passage is really hard to understand because Paul keeps saying it's not him, but a lot of scholars think that he's afraid to admit it's him. But there's this picture of a believer being called up into the third heaven. What is that? It's a great question. So much of me wants to start answering questions, and I haven't studied them, so I don't need to start talking about the answers. But I'm like, ooh, that's a good question. Let's think about that. This is a struggle for me. I answer questions before I think enough about them. So this is good. This is sanctifying for me. Other questions? Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, so that's a great question. So there are people that affirm what we call soul sleep, which is this idea that basically, without any reference to time, you close your eyes in death and you feel like you wake up and you're in the new heavens and the new earth, you're seeing all this wonderful stuff, but you've actually been kind of dormant, humanly speaking, this whole time. That's called soul sleep. I'm not convinced by that view, but I'll move on. But the other view and the traditional view is that when you die, you go to be with the Lord for a period of time until God eventually brings the new heavens and the new earth. And so that raises an additional question, a bigger picture question about what we call the intermediate state. And I'm going to spend the whole week, at least one week, on the intermediate state. Because what we often call heaven in our common speech is talking about the intermediate state and so we need to understand what that is and how that works and why one way it's much better than where we are now but in another way it's not the best of what God has for us. Good question. Y'all are so well read on heaven. These are great questions. Yeah, do y'all know that song, Build Me a Cabin in the Corner of Glory Land? Yeah, okay, so Elise and I like to go to Branson. She grew up going to Branson. If you've ever been to Branson, I trust you've been to Silver Dollar City. And at Silver Dollar City, there's a bluegrass band that plays in front of a cabin called the Homestead Pickers. and Elise and her family have seen them so often over the years that they are on practically first-name bases with a lot of her family and so we we listen to a lot of their music and they sing a lot of bluegrass and gospel songs like Build Me a Cabin in the Corner of Glory Land or the Far Side Banks of Jordan if you've heard that one and lots of that kind of stuff but anyway Yeah. So what will life look like in the new heavens and new earth? Will it be like this, but as best as it can possibly be and better? Or will it be something totally different beyond our wildest imagination? You know, like, will we have a house? You know, maybe we're all going to come. Mantee would probably be overpopulated if all the people who ever lived in Mantee came back to live in Mantee and the new earth Mantee. but will we, will we move, you know, like I don't ultimately know the answer to that question but it's something I think about a lot, right? Will we in a glorified body, in a glorified new heavens and new earth, will we live a life that looks like what we have now with some tweaks? So yeah. Okay. Hey, that raises a really important question, which is how much of the language in Revelation is symbolic? And by symbolic, we should not be afraid of the fact that the book of Revelation uses symbolism. And so when it says that there's no more sea, all of you beach lovers are like, Lord, don't make me go. right? Because you love the beach, so is God saying there's not going to be a beach anymore? We ultimately don't know, and we're going to find out when we get there, but it's a good question, right? Man, it would hurt to fall on streets of gold compared to, you know, good old-fashioned dirt. So it's a good question. It's a good question. Mr. Scott, you got one. Yeah. when we know the saints and prophets have gone before us?" It's a good question. You know, when we tell heaven jokes, we talk about talking to Peter and stuff like that. We all assume we will, but it's a good question, when we know all these people. You know, sometimes in my thinking about heaven, I kind of rebuke myself because I think, Well, I shouldn't be so concerned about meeting all these great heroes from Christian history. I should be concerned about seeing Jesus. But we're going to have a long time, like eternity. So I'm going to lean on the side of, we'll have a chance. We'll have a chance to meet a lot of people, but we'll talk more about that. It's a good question. Other things? Will we know who's not there? So will we notice the absence of certain people? That is a really important question. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. There you go. There you go. We got to have the streets of gold so all the men and women of history will stop dipping snuff when they get there. That's funny. Yeah. Not just, will there be animals, but will they be our animals? You see the difference in that question? Will there be animals and then our animals? I have found that there is no question about heaven that has inspired greater controversy in my conversations with people than whether or not your dog is in heaven. And I, you know, there's this wonderful thing, as controversial as eschatology can be, there's this wonderful thing where we talk about the end times where we can just say, I don't think so, but I don't know. And then you kind of leave the conversation. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, I'll talk more about that. Yeah, I'll talk more about that later. I think there will be animals in the new heavens and the new earth. I don't think they'll be ours. Sorry. But hey, I'm not God. God can do what he pleases. Yeah, so will we all be vegetarians? There are a lot of questions about that both at the beginning of the Bible story and at the end. Scientific people will tell you that so much of the world as we know it depends on dying creatures replenishing part of the nutrients in the earth so that we can continue this process of life. And so one of the questions that people ask is, well, how did it work if there was no death in the Garden of Eden? It's a good question. Question then comes from the new heavens and the new earth. What are we going to do? We're going to eat meat? The lion's going to lie down with the lamb, but do I have to lie down with the lamb or can I eat him? Right? You know, like, what? Some of y'all are like, I don't like to eat lamb anyway, so I'm good. Okay. my grandmother didn't eat poultry for her entire life after they killed her pet chicken uh... and so we would show up it was so funny that she would cook it so we'd show up for thanksgiving at her house and she would make a turkey but she would not eat it she made her dressing with pork uh... so anyway uh... so yeah will we eat meat? it's a good question any other questions? yes sir? uh... yeah uh... Okay, this is another one. It goes by different names. It'll make Elise cry every time she's pregnant. It's called Antioch Church House or Uncle Jesse. Have you ever heard this song? It's about a guy that wants to sing in the choir at church and they won't let him in. And then he dies and he sings from heaven to the people in the church. Yeah, Alaysia will cry. I mean, every time she's been pregnant, something has made this song come on. When she was pregnant with Hannah, we were driving to see her parents in South Carolina, and she was in the passenger seat just boo-hooing about this song. So, will there be singing in heaven? Yeah, and it'll be a lot better than here, but we can think about that. What do we do? What are we doing in heaven? That's, I mean, that's a huge piece of, we've talked about that a little bit already, but, you know, what are we going to be up to? Are we going to be angels on clouds? Hey, that's another question. Do we become angels when we die? Some people talk about that. Some of y'all are like, no. Yes, you're right. But what is happening in all that? Another question I've been asked, let me mention this one now because it's maybe something you've thought about. Do people in heaven now know what we're doing on earth? Does that make sense? You know, like if you've lost a loved one, do they have an idea of what's happening in the world now? And that goes into a lot of questions that I ultimately don't know the answer to, but I think we can pick up on some clues from scripture that help us to think about that. I heard another question, is there another one? Yes. Yeah, okay, so yeah, what age will we be? Will everybody be 25? There was a commercial when Elisa and I lived in Louisville, for a local business called 25 Again, because they had determined that the ideal age for most people was 25. So their goal was to make you feel 25 again. Lisa and I have always joked, I was not particularly healthy at 25, so I can be better at 40 than I was at 25. I'm not doing so well with that goal, but I've got a few more years. But anyway, what age will we be? Any other questions? Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Hmm, that's a good question. You've all heard stories like that before, as people are dying, kind of what they see. A lady that was especially godly in my home church had multiple of these kinds of visions as she died. She had a visit from the devil, from a demon, and she asked her son to read John 3, 16 to that devil over and over again so he would know who she was. She also saw angels, and her son said, what do they look like, Mama? And he said, I can't tell you, they're too beautiful. And she had lots of those kinds of experiences. Are those, the question we have to ask is, are those legitimate? And then what happens as you do die? Is there sort of a crossing over moment that we can see biblically? I want to say too that there is a certain point where with these kinds of experiences we have to say on the one hand the scripture doesn't speak to that, so it's possible, but also we don't want to build our faith theologically on other people's experiences, or even our own, not because they're illegitimate, but because we need to build our faith on the Scriptures. So I always want to be careful with a lot of this. We can do a little bit of reasonable biblical speculation, but we always want to make sure we come back to, this is what the Scriptures clearly say, and these are some of the spots where, I don't know. I don't know, right? Good question. Any others? Okay. You've got a piece of paper that you can rip off and you can bring me more questions. Please feel free, as you're thinking about things, grab me. Hey, it'd be better if you grab me at church. I may or may not remember what you said. So it may be better if you write it down or send me a text or give me a phone call or whatever, put something in my hand, but I would love to hear your questions. Because I do, I want to make sure that this study is as helpful as it can be. Some of my studies I have an agenda, okay? I'm trying to push something out and kind of get your feedback and see if we can work through these things together. This one, my ultimate goal is just to be helpful to our church. Because this is something that I've heard a lot of our church talk about, and it's something that I want to think about some more too. Alright, so let's think about some different things. I haven't moved our slides forward. This was the question we just talked about. So, next thing. This is more of an objective question. What are some of the other terms we might use for heaven? Paradise. Yep. That's the one I'm looking for, but we'll keep others coming. Glory land. Yeah. Y'all know the Ralph Stanley song? If you've got friends in glory land. I can't sing it like him, but I found sheet music for that and our choir has it. Or do we still have it? It's somewhere. It's a good one. Beulah Land, yeah. That's right. Any of y'all read the Pilgrim's Progress before? So in the Pilgrim's Progress, they call heaven the Celestial City, but I think the area right before they crossed over the River of Death to go into the Celestial City is called Beulah Land. It's been a while since I've read it, but we've read a kid's version a lot, and I think that's what it's called. So yeah, Beulah Land. Any others? Home, yeah? That's right. We've talked about the new heavens and the new earth and one of my goals is to help us to see the connection between heaven, as we use the word heaven, and the new heavens and the new earth. We can talk about the throne room of God, right? You see that picture a lot in the scriptures, heaven as being God's throne room, his dwelling place. So that's one of the biblical images that we can associate with heaven. Maybe we don't call it that when we speak, but that's something that we see in the scriptures. One of the themes I want to bring out in our time is this picture of the temple. and the idea from the beginning of the scriptures that God is building a temple in which he dwells with his people and receives their worship. And one of the things that the scriptures makes clear is that the earthly temple and tabernacle is a symbol, a representation of God's heavenly temple where he dwells in the midst of his angels and myriads upon myriads of worshipers. So there's this temple imagery in connection with heaven, Something else crossed my mind and I can't remember it now. Did we say the New Jerusalem? New Jerusalem? So that's connected with new heavens and new earth. Paul in Galatians 4, 21-31 is describing the relationship between the old and new covenants and he says that the Jerusalem above, the New Jerusalem, is our mother. I'm not trying to explain what that means right now, but this picture of the New Jerusalem is one that shows up in the scriptures. There are a lot of different terms we can use for heaven. I'm not about to drop some weird liberal stuff on you. I'm just going to share it with you. In the biblical languages, the word for heaven is just the word for sky. And so we have to figure out in individual passages whether what's being described is heaven is in the dwelling place of God or what's going on up there. And that's a valid question. Y'all know the song Delta Dawn? Okay, so Delta Dawn is from my hometown, and I learned how to play the piano from her daughter. And so Delta Dawn was going to be taken to his mansion in the skies. Well, we have that association of heaven with the skies. That's something that we naturally say. Our children will ask, is heaven up there? Is God way up there? And that's just really not the time to start talking about dimensional spaces and spiritual realities and things like that. But it's a question we ask, right? If we were to get into a spaceship that was sufficiently fueled and stocked to take us to the end of the universe, will we suddenly stumble into God's throne room? You know, it's a question worth asking in terms of the biblical cosmology. Biblical cosmology is just the way the universe is put together in scripture. So yeah, there's a lot of terms we use for heaven. I was specifically looking for the word paradise, and we're going to come back to that in a few moments. Where in the scriptures might we turn to learn about heaven? Yeah, alright. Genesis. Always good to start at the beginning, right? Yeah, that's good. So we want to start with the beginning, when everything gets made, and we want to process things in connection with that, so that's right, Genesis. Where else might we turn to look in the Scriptures for information about heaven? First Corinthians, yeah. Isaiah, that's right. Revelation, yeah. Ezekiel, yeah. Yeah, so 1 and 2 Thessalonians both speak about the future. Yep, absolutely. Daniel, that's right. Yep, Daniel's big. The Gospels, Jesus talking about the kingdom of heaven, but also some of our most important discussions of what we call the intermediate state come from Jesus himself. Jesus on the cross says, today you will be with me in paradise. What does that mean? You have Jesus describe the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. What is that in the Psalms? And this is getting into a whole other area. You have this discussion of a place called Sheol, which sometimes in older translations just gets rendered as hell, but the idea is this realm of where the dead people go. What is that place? What is Sheol in the mind of the biblical authors? So, I mean, it's all over the place. This idea of heaven shows up all over the place. When I was in high school, I spent a summer studying in college-level classes at a state university in Tennessee. And we discussed in a religious studies class all the major religions, but we especially focused on Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. And our professor arranged for a Jew, a Jewish, he's known a rabbi, he's really recognized in that particular Jewish community. And it's not like an Orthodox Jewish community, it's one of the more progressive Jewish communities. But they arranged for him to come and speak. And one of the questions I asked was like, hey, what do y'all think about after death? And he was like, I don't know, I don't know if there is one. And he just moved on. And I remember thinking, man, you don't read your Old Testament very well, do you? You know, like it's all over the place in the Old and the New Testament, this reality of heaven. So what I want to do tonight, in the time that we have, is I want to go to the beginning and the end. So we're going to look at heaven in Genesis 1 and 2, a little bit of 3 just to make sure we get a piece there, and then in Revelation 21 and 22. So let's start in Genesis 1 through 3, and this is where I want you to kind of We'll take our time here, but I want you to kind of help me reason my way through some of the things we notice. We'll save ourselves a little bit of time. We'll focus our attention on Genesis 2, because as we're going to see in just a second, I want to think especially about a particular feature here. So, a question to kind of get us in here. Where did God place the first man and woman? Garden of Eden, right? So God creates the heavens and the earth and he decides to create a garden where he's going to place the man that he creates from the dust of the ground and into whose nostrils he breathes the breath of life and he's going to give the man his vocation, his role, his calling in this particular setting. So that's where God places the first man and woman. Now, as we think about the garden that we find in Eden, what is it that characterizes it? What do you see? What are the features of the garden in Eden? Right. Yeah, so there's these trees in the garden, right? There's a lot of trees in the garden, aren't there? God says, you can eat from any tree in the garden that I've planted. All of its fruit is for you, except for the one tree, right? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then there's another tree in the garden that gets brought up again in Genesis 3 where God has ultimately kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden and he puts these angels there to guard the way so they can't re-enter, right? So there's this angel with this flaming sword that goes in every direction. Why does God put the angel there? Does anybody remember? so that they don't have access to the tree of life. This is not really a focus, but I just wanna know what you think. Why would God not want Adam and Eve to have access to the tree of life? Right, okay. So there's a potential that they could kind of on their own fix things, but I think it goes deeper than that. Adam and Eve existed in a broken relationship with God and with hearts that were overwhelmed by sin. If they had gone back in and taken from the tree of life and eaten forever, they would have lived forever in their sin and rebellion against God. And so God cut them off from the tree so that they wouldn't live under the dominion of sin forever. So God actually was being gracious in exiling them from the garden because he was showing them their sin and he was showing them that the only way that they can get back what they lost is through him. So what are some of the other features of the Garden of Eden? Beauty, yeah. So there's abundant provision. We'll track through some of these things together. Notice verse 9 of Genesis 2. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The ones that we just mentioned, the tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So there's this beautiful abundant provision that's visible there. What are some other things? There's a river, right? There's a river that flows. And this river seems to be pretty productive. Notice the description. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bedelium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. Some of the greatest civilizations in the history of the ancient world grew up around the Tigris and the Euphrates. These were life-giving waters that actually originated with this river in the garden in Eden. So there's this river, it produces wealth and prosperity and life. What are some other things that you notice about the garden in Eden? That's right. So there was a job, there was a calling, which plays into something significant. I keep saying that God planted a garden in Eden because that's the way that the text describes it. It seems like Eden is actually kind of a bigger region and then God plants a garden in it where Adam and Eve live and work. But I think the biblical picture is that they're supposed to be expanding this garden to fill the earth. So they're helping it to grow and to flourish. Adam and Eve were gardeners, and God's intention was that they would work this garden, that they would fill the earth, and they would subdue it as a reflection of God's own character and as God fulfilled His purpose in the world. Yeah, so they're caretakers of the animals, right? That's important. They are. So regardless of how we answer the question about eternity and animals, in the beginning, part of God's intention was that we as human beings would demonstrate God's goodness to the fullness of the created order. So we would be caretakers of plants and animals and everything, including one another. Yeah, absolutely. What are some other features in the Garden of Eden? I've got three more that I wanna make sure we hit. Well, I can just drive us through them if I need to. Okay, communication, between whom? Yeah, yeah. So, right, so Adam's in the garden and God brings all the animals before him and he names them and he doesn't find a suitable helper for him. There's not an animal that corresponds to Adam. And so what does God do? Puts him to sleep, takes out his rib, makes a woman, Adam wakes up, and at last, at last my love! This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, right? So he's excited, right? Because God has given him a helper suitable to him. Right? And this is this beautiful picture of God creating human relationship and companionship, foundationally in marriage, and then flowing from that marriage through childbearing and the expansion of families that would fill the earth. That was God's intended creation purpose. And it's beautiful. So there's the offering of human companionship. Absolutely. Before kind of tracking back a little bit, notice this can sound weird because this is a command and it ultimately gets broken so we have bad associations with it and we should. But this is something that's true in the garden, right? Verse 16, and the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. This is going to become important in Revelation. One of the features of the garden is that sin and death are possible. Sin and death are possible. and we just need to make sure we have that in mind. Adam and Eve were created, and they were created good, innocent, and in terms of sin, they were morally perfect. They had never sinned, but they were not confirmed in their perfection. They could still sin and fall, and because of that sin, death could enter the world. So, as good as the garden was, there was a possibility of something going very, very wrong. The biggest thing, though, I want to draw your attention to actually comes in chapter 3. Chapter 3, verse 8. This is after Adam and Eve have already sinned, but it's significant and it helps us to see what life in the garden looked like for them. Verse 8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." Setting aside the context here, what this shows us is that the key feature of the garden was that they got to be in the presence of God. That was the best thing, that they got to be in the presence of God himself. And if we think, and we will, we'll think more about this, if we think about the temple imagery in the Bible, one of the things about the garden in Eden is that it is a temple to God. That's how it's designed. And the key feature of the temple is what? It's the presence of God. And so they have this wonderful access to God and his presence. Okay, so last question for this section. Where did God intend humanity to live? So I got four things I want you to see quickly for those of you who want some notes to take away and think on. Number one, God intended humanity to live on his earth. God intended humanity to live on his earth. We were created to live in God's good world. That's going to be important when we come to Revelation. So if you're afraid that we were created to float in the sky on clouds and play harps, you were not. You were created to live here. And it's good. If you love the world, even in its flaws, that's exactly what God intended for you to do. God created humanity to live on his earth. Secondly, God intended humanity to live under His blessing. God intended humanity to live under His blessing. God was constantly blessing all these different things that He had made, including humanity. And we read about all that God did. It's verse 28 of chapter 1, and God blessed them, the man and the woman. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food. And we could continue. But God blessed them. Number three, God intended humanity to live with his provision. So we just saw that, right? God gives them everything they need. All that they need, all that they want, God intends to provide for them. So God intended humanity to live with his provision. And the last thing here, God intended humanity to live in his presence. We were created for God, and we were created to enjoy fellowship with God forever. Alright, so these are some big picture ideas. Let's push ahead to Revelation 21 and 22. So turn there with me. Revelation 21 and 22. We're going to do something very similar. For time purposes, I want to leave us some space to cover this, but I may throw out a few more here because my list has 19 things here that I want to mention. I don't have to mention all of them, but these are some things that I pick up on, okay? Revelation 21 through 22, starting all the way back in verse 1, okay? We're going to focus our attention here. Where will redeemed humanity spend eternity? with God. Where? What place? Heaven, yeah. So we talk about it as heaven, but it's different than what we think of as heaven right now, isn't it? Because it's a new heavens and a new earth. And the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem comes down to be on the earth. There's this almost It's like what Jesus prayed for finally has its full expression. Let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God descends from heaven and it is established fully in a new heavens and new earth. So when we ask where will redeemed humanity spend eternity, it's heaven and it's also earth. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? It's something that brings together all of that picture of what God is doing. What are some of the features of this new heaven, of this new earth? What are some of the features of what we call the New Jerusalem? We'll start in verse 1. What are some of the things you see there? Okay, so the sea was no more. We talked about this earlier, right? The sea is no more. No beaches? Okay, for the ancient peoples that were hearing this, especially the Israelites, they did not like the sea because the sea was dangerous. Think about the descriptions of God's throne room. What you often see in front of him is a sea of glass, perfectly still. What is that designed to communicate to people that were thinking about God and His presence and power? His peace, his sovereign authority, his ability to take what seems to us utterly chaotic and uncontrollable and to bring rest. So the picture here is one of utter peacefulness. There may or may not be a sea. I don't know. I've not been. But the picture here is one of perfect peace. As we continue, what are some more things you see? Okay, so that God's dwelling place is with man. So verse two, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I want to note here that we have this picture of Abraham in Hebrews looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. What city was that? I think it's this one, right? It's the New Jerusalem. He's looking for God's city. One of the problems with some of the Old Testament peoples before the flood is that they wanted to do what God always intended to do on their own. But true believers realize that we have a lasting home, a lasting city, the one that God is building. And He's going to bring it down from heaven, as we've talked about, and He's going to set it up on the earth. So we have this city, this new Jerusalem that was designed and built by God Himself. We also have in verse 3 this restored access to the presence of God. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. This is a bunch of Old Testament language. I won't touch it here, but it's significant. Other things you see. That's right. So all the bad stuff is gone. Right? I mean, to some degree. There's questions about what it means for God to wipe away every tear from our eye. Does that mean that we will cry, but that he will wipe them away? That he'll give us comfort in the grief of what's happened? Does that mean that there won't, you know, then we have this mention of nor crying, so maybe it's both. I don't know. We'll talk about it. What else do you see? Yeah, it's all new. Making everything new, to me, raises a question. We talked about this a little bit earlier. Is God renewing everything or is it utterly new? Something we'll need to think about together. Look with me in 21.6. What do we have in this verse? He said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. We have water again, don't we? We're going to see that in chapter 22 as well. So we have a river again. So we have a river here. I'm just going to run us through some because I want to get us to some concluding thoughts. We had this idea that the new Jerusalem is open to all who desire to enter. Verses 6 and 7. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. God is saying, come, you're invited to come in. At the same time, verse 8, the New Jerusalem excludes all of God's enemies. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. So it includes all who want to come, but it excludes all of God's enemies and the enemies of God's people. It includes all of God's faithful people throughout history. Verse 12. It had a great high wall with 12 gates and at the gates 12 angels. And on the gates the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. So we have God's old covenant people represented in this great new heavens and new earth. But notice verse 14. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." So there's a unity to God's people across time. All through faith in Jesus Christ, whether they're looking forward to Him in promise or looking back on Him in fulfillment, all of us are going to be there in this city through God's work in Christ. The New Jerusalem practically fills the earth, verses 15 through 17. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies four square, its length the same as its width. It's a big old square. And he measured the city with his rod 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. So it's a cube. And it's 12,000 stadia. 12,000 stadia is about 1,380 miles. It's about the distance from here to Boston, Massachusetts. It's that big and it's a cube. The idea here, and I think this is a little bit of symbolism, but the idea here is that this city fills the earth. It's massive. Remember the garden is supposed to extend and fill the earth? This massive city just represents God has taken ownership of everything. It's all under his sovereign dominion for the good of his people and the glory of his name. So there's this massive city that seems to, especially in the minds of the original readers who didn't have our same vision of the shape and scope of the world, it just fills up everything. Verse 22 of chapter 21, there's no temple. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. There's no temple constructed because people have immediate access to the presence of God himself. Verse 23, there's no sun or moon, and the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. Verses 24 through 26, it draws in the glory and honor of the nations. People come bringing their treasures. Verse 25, there's no threat. Its gates will never be shut by day and there will be no night there. There's no night, that's another one, which is associated with danger. Verse 27, it includes only those who belong to the Lamb, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. 22.2. I want you to notice this. We read about the river, but also note, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. The tree of life is back. The New Jerusalem features constant worship. Verse 3. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. Verse four, they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. So we'll be able to see the face of Jesus. And then the last thing, verse five, the night will be no more. They will need no light or lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever. and ever. It's an eternal city. So this raises some questions that I want to think about briefly to close us out. We have this beautiful picture of this great city, and I think we can do this in four minutes. Just hang with me through these, okay? Heaven in the beginning and end. Here's these questions. How is the New Jerusalem different than the garden in Eden? All right? I'm just going to tell these to you. If you've got questions, we can flesh them out more, and we will, all right? This is just kind of a preview. Number one, in the New Jerusalem, sin is no longer possible. Remember what was in the garden in Eden? There are two trees. How many trees are in the new city? One. What's missing? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The possibility of sin has been taken away. sin is no longer possible. And the enemies of God have been cast into the lake of burning sulfur. It's a place of perfect righteousness and beauty. Number two, in the New Jerusalem the boundaries are no longer limited. So the garden in Eden It had its space. It was confined and it was expected to grow. The New Jerusalem is massive. Again, I don't think we're supposed to look at it and say, okay, it's this giant cube and it could kind of cover the United States, but everything else is fair game. The idea is it just fills up everything. It's huge. And so there's this unlimited picture of God's kingdom reign through Jesus Christ and his people. Number three, and this is a long blank, I'm sorry. We just talked about this. In the New Jerusalem, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is no longer present. So it's just not there anymore. There's no tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then, sorry to push this on, but number four, in the New Jerusalem, the inhabitants are no longer threatened. So you're safe. I mean, imagine that, to be perfectly safe. We can talk about feeling safe in the presence of God, but we know how dangerous the world is. We know it is. But the New Jerusalem is perfectly safe. Next, how are the Garden in Eden and the New Jerusalem similar? Again, four things quickly. Both include the Tree of Life. Both include the Tree of Life. We have access to the Tree of Life again. Both include a life-giving river. Both include this life-giving river. I'm gonna run through this. If you wanna see what these are to fill in your blanks, just hit me up at the end, okay? Number three, both include God's holy people, right? This picture of community, it's now perfected. Both include God's holy people. Number four, both offer access to God's presence. We talked about that in the Garden of Eden. Now we see it in the New Jerusalem. We get to be God's people in his presence forever. Now, here's a final concluding question. I know I've frustrated the blank writers, so I promise I'm not going to leave you hanging. We can fill them in. You can take the sheet home with you. I don't care. I can have completed notes for you next time. This is the big question. What ultimately makes heaven paradise? That's right. being with God, being with Christ. That's what it's all about. You see, one of my great fears for myself and for Christians, the people that I get to pastor or anybody, is that they would be perfectly content to have heaven for all of its benefits if Jesus weren't there. I mean, who wouldn't want to live in a perfect place with none of the bad stuff and all of the good stuff? And we can get so obsessed sometimes with some of what isn't going to be there. or we can get so obsessed with what is and how awesome it is that we can miss it. The real goodness of heaven is we get to be with Jesus forever. And here's the last thing I want to say before we pray and we dismiss. The good news that we have today is that because of the Holy Spirit at work in us, as I've said before in the service and as I've said here, we get to experience a taste of this right now. Because who takes up residence with us by His Spirit as the church? Jesus. What is He building us into? A temple for the presence of the living God. Full of gifts and affection and fruits that make us a picture of heavenly life in this present world. Maybe, maybe one of the things that we have missed that has made the church ineffective in our day is the fact that people ought to come in here and say, this is what heaven is like. Now, they're not perfect, they can grow, but this is what we've always been looking for. So I hope that as we think about heaven, it won't just transform our perspective on the future, but that it'll transform our perspective on right now. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time we've had tonight. Lord, there's so much we could say and so many questions we could ask, so many good questions we have asked. Lord, I pray that you would open our minds and our hearts to your word and that you would give us grace to understand heavenly reality, not just as a future thing. but it's something that by your spirit, through the work of your son, is breaking into our experience right now in the church. And as we seek to expand your kingdom purpose to the ends of the earth, I pray that you would make us, by your grace, a foretaste of heavenly reality. Lord, I pray that you would cause your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And Lord, I pray that this would all be to the glory of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.