Heaven: What comes to mind when you hear that word? Pretty much everyone has some idea about what Heaven is, what it looks like, who will be there, where it is, what we will do there, and often you will find almost as many ideas about Heaven as people you ask. For some, Heaven is a fluffy place in the clouds where everyone floats along with angles. For some, it is a paradise of doing whatever you like for eternity. For some, everyone will be in Heaven. For some, it is a perfect version of Earth. For some it is streets of gold. For some, it is eternal singing. There are tons of ideas about Heaven, but what does the Bible say? What does God say? He would, after all, know best, right?
Revelation 21:1-5, 21-27
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea no longer existed. 2 I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:
Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity,
and He will live with them.
They will be His people,
and God Himself will be with them
and be their God.
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Death will no longer exist;
grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer,
because the previous things have passed away.
and He will live with them.
They will be His people,
and God Himself will be with them
and be their God.
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Death will no longer exist;
grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer,
because the previous things have passed away.
5 Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”
21 The 12 gates are 12 pearls; each individual gate was made of a single pearl. The broad street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
22 I did not see a sanctuary in it, because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its sanctuary. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s glory illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Each day its gates will never close because it will never be night there. 26 They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. 27 Nothing profane will ever enter it: no one who does what is vile or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life.
1 Then he showed me the river of living water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the broad street of the city. The tree of life was on both sides of the river, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, 3 and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His slaves will serve Him. 4 They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 Night will no longer exist, and people will not need lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever.
So, that's a lot of info there, but let me point out a few things that I find pretty cool.
So, that's a lot of info there, but let me point out a few things that I find pretty cool.
- The Bible states here that once in Heaven, there will be no more crying, no more grief, no more pain. Every tear will be wiped from our eyes. Now this doesn't just mean that people will no longer cry, or that all emotions will be stripped. What it means is that there will no longer be those things that make you cry, grieve, have pain. There will be no more physical pain as a result of sickness, or accidents. There will no longer be the emotional pain that is so rampant in the world. When we cry because we are lonely, we feel unloved or unappreciated, we see the pain of others, we are made fun of, we are yelled at, someone dies, etc... we know that none of those things will be present. God has said that they will no longer exist. DEATH will NO longer exist! Basically, all that is bad and messed up with this world will cease to exist. The "previous things have passed away" when we get to Heaven as God makes all things new!
- God's will dwell with us! This is remarkable and amazing! In the beginning, this was God's design and plan. He intended to dwell with us, to walk among us, and then we screwed it up. We separated ourselves from God, and we see from that moment on God orchestrating a plan to bring us back to Him. We see the creation of the Tabernacle/Temple as a means by which God could dwell with His people, among His people, and yet there was still separation. The idea that He was so close, and yet so far. There were curtains and rooms and laws that separated God from us. Then Christ came, and He ripped that curtain down the middle. He separated that barrier that existed. Christ, who was God, physically lived with us, walked with us, spoke to us, and yet there was still a separation. Christ was both fully God and fully human, and yet the total completeness of the glory of God the Father, Son, and Spirit was still not fully present, dwelling with men. We still see that we cannot fully look on the face of God in all His glory. While we now have more direct access to God, and Christ's sacrifice created a bridge to span the gap of separation if we accept it, we are still separated from God because of our sin. Once we get to Heaven, however, that is different. God Himself will be with us, dwelling with us, living with us, and even more WE WILL SEE HIS FACE. How incredible and awesome will that be! There will no longer be a curtain, a veil, any separation. We will no longer see darkly, but we will be with God 100% and see His face 100%!
- To continue on this whole seeing God's face theme: one of the reasons we cannot see His face now is because we cannot look on the full glory of God and live. Yet, in Heaven, His glory will illuminate everything. We see that there will be no need for external light, and night will be a thing of the past. Where as now, we cannot look on the full glory of God and live, then, everything we do, every step we take all the time, will be fully illuminated by this glory, this perfection.
- We see the Tree of Life again. Remember the Tree of Life, that tree in the Garden of Eden that would grant eternal life, the one Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat from after sinning and disobeying God, the one that cherubim and flaming swords guard. Well, in Heaven, we see that tree again, and we get a much better description of the tree. We see that the tree is huge, spanning across a river (A River that flows with living water), that it has 12 different types of fruit, that it bears fruit every month, and that its leaves heal nations and reverse the curse. Now this is pretty incredible! The curse of sin, the curse that was inflicted on humanity when we first chose to disobey, will be obliterated. There are lots of thoughts surrounding the curse that was ingested when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil, but one thing we know that is involved with it is death. Because of the curse, death was brought into the world and into our lives. In Heaven, there will be no more curse, and subsequently, no more death (or disease or pain or grief or crying, etc...) I for one cannot wait to see that Tree, to smell, and taste, its fruit, to be free from the curse.
- Finally, just some cosmetic stuff. Heaven will have gates made from single pearls, the streets will be pure, transparent gold. That's gotta be pretty incredible to see. There will be no single source of light, but an all encompassing illumination from God's glory, and walls and streets made out of highly reflective material, which means, no shadows at all, perfect light. There will be no night or darkness (either in the physical or metaphorical sense). There will be a river flowing down the middle of the street, and the river contains living water, salvation, Christ Himself. I could do a whole study on Living Water in the Bible, but for now it suffices to say that that is going to be beautiful, and then we see the Tree of Life over that river, over the street. I get the idea that this is a huge tree, seen everywhere.
Now, this is only one passage that talks about Heaven, but it gives a pretty good look at what it is like. Not exactly fluffy clouds and floating angels, but so SO much more incredible!
So Heaven is pretty incredible, but what does this mean for us here and now, how does the fact that heaven exists, and what it is affect how we live our lives here and now, before Heaven? That's what we'll be looking at next week.
God Bless!
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