Six Things That Will Surprise You About Heaven - Part B

The whole of the world is divided into one of two categories. Occupants of heaven, non-occupants.

You say, what's the requirement to be an occupant? Verse 7, he who overcomes. What does that mean? To overcome, it simply means that you place your faith in Christ alone.

So how do you know that? Because the same guy who wrote this, John, wrote 1 John 5 where he said, everyone who is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

And you might go, aha, well I have faith. I believe in something. Read on, it goes on to say, who is he that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

That narrows it down. Then who is he who overcomes? He who overcomes is one who believes in Jesus Christ alone. The evangelist Billy Graham once said, I will not go to heaven because I am a preacher.

I am going to heaven entirely on the merit of the work of Christ. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares more remarkable truth about your eternal home. Before we begin, here's a resource that helps you overcome life obstacles to pursue the life and opportunities God has for you. I've enjoyed watching the growth and the ministry of my friend Levi Lusko. This month's Connect with Skip resource, Take Back Your Life, the new book by Levi Lusko.

Here's Levi to tell you about it. It's all around this idea of taking back your life. It's a 40-day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right. And it's going to be really powerful and special, I think, for people to have this. Not only is it in hardcover, which just makes me happy because I've never had a book released in hardcover, but it has a ribbon so you'll be able to keep track of your progress through these 40 days. It would be an incredible gift to someone who is looking to grow in their faith or for any of us who want to maybe kind of do an oil change for your heart, a checkup on your wellness, on where you're at.

It'll deal with internal difficulties and help you deal better with external circumstances that are challenging as we explore how we can get to the very best version of ourselves that we are meant to be. Get the book. Take Back Your Life with a donation of $35 to Connect with Skip. Call 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com. This hardcover book by Levi Lusko will help you take back your life. It's a 40-day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right.

1-800-922-1888. Okay, let's dive into today's teaching. We'll be in Revelation chapter 21 as Skip Heitzig begins the study. Verse 1, new heaven, new earth, the first heaven and the first earth had passed away also. There was no more sea.

Now I got a friendly little note after last week's service. You remember last week we were talking about the millennial earth and I said I get dibs on Maui, right? So Snow Cane says, sorry to say, Skip, that you can wish for Maui. I thought she was going to say, but I got dibs on it. But she said, sorry to say, you can wish for Maui, but the new earth will have no islands because there will be no sea, Revelation 21.

Well, in all kindness, she made a mistake. Last week I wasn't talking about the new earth, I was talking about the millennial earth. And in the millennial earth, there will be a sea and there will be Maui and I still get dibs on Maui.

So we're not talking about the millennial earth today, we were last week. Now we're talking about, that's all gone, now we're talking about a whole new earth and a whole new heaven. And the new one, it says, there will be no sea.

Boy, I have read this for years and I've always read it as like, gosh, Lord, this is harsh. This is so disappointing and if I was going to make a new earth, I'd say something like, and there will be no more cities. There will be no more deserts or rocks, but lots and lots of ocean and beach.

That's what I'd say. God says there will be no sea. It's interesting, by the way, the Bible seems to be silent on the features of the eternal state, what it's really going to be like, except in negatives. For instance, in verse 23, in the city of Jerusalem, New Jerusalem, there's no sun, there's no moon, and by implication, no stars. In verse 1, we just read there's no sea.

I'll be honest with you, I have rationalized this statement for a long time. Well, maybe it's talking about nations that aren't in covenant relationship with God. That's what sea must mean. Because, Isaiah 17 declares, the uproar of many peoples who roar like the roaring of the seas, the rumbling of the nations rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters. When I read that, I went, yeah, okay, that's what it means. Or Revelation 13, the antichrist comes out of the sea. Or Revelation 17, it says, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. However, I don't believe that's what it means here.

Because that metaphor was there and it's clearly explained what it is. Here it simply says, everything's new. There's a new heaven, a new earth, New Jerusalem, and there's no sea.

What does that mean? I think it simply means that the earth is going to be different. The earth, the new earth will not be a water-based environment like it is now. Two-thirds of this earth is water. Two-thirds of this earth is covered by water. The soil of the earth itself has a water content. Your blood in your body is 90% water. Your flesh is 65% water. And I think this is simply saying that the new world is not going to operate on the same principle of water. You're going to have glorified bodies, resurrected bodies, they won't demand the consumption of water. So there's no sea is a way of saying it's a whole different environment.

Different atmosphere, different materials, different constitution, it's all new and different. You could say, I'm still bummed. You mean to tell me there's no water at all? No, it didn't say that. In fact, in Revelation 22 verse 1, I saw a pure river of the water of life.

But I'll tell you something else, this is what it also means. Because oceans are barriers that separate one people from another. Those barriers are removed. There are no barriers at all in the new earth. A fourth thing that may surprise you is that it has a capital city. In verse 2, we're introduced to the new Jerusalem. Verse 3, 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. Look down at verse 10, and 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 in the new earth, though there's really no information as to what landmarks are there, what size it will be, what are the colors of the new earth, except when it comes to this city. Beginning in verse 9 to the rest of the chapter and part of the next chapter is a description of what this new city will be like. Because this new city is the capital city of heaven. This is the headquarters, this is where God dwells with his people in his glory. And you've got to admit, this city is different from any other city you've ever seen or heard of. First of all, it descends from heaven toward the earth.

And we don't know if it lands on the earth or it sort of seems like it's hovering, maybe even rotating around the earth. We've heard of New York and New Jersey and New Brunswick and New Mexico. This is New Jerusalem and it's the capital city. And it's an odd shape.

I'm going to sort of give myself away. I'll see more next week, but get this, the shape of the city is 1,500 miles cubed. See, you've never seen a city like that. It's 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles tall. Just slightly smaller than our moon coming down from the heaven and hovering around the earth.

And we'll have access to it and we'll look more at it next time. Notice that it's called a holy city. A couple of times it's mentioned, this is the holy city. Can you imagine a whole city that's holy? Albuquerque isn't a holy city.

Santa Fe, though the name implies that it is, it's not. I'm not talking about a few homes or a few churches. Every occupant of the New Jerusalem will be holy. See, it's hard to get our minds around that. It's funny, people will say, I can't wait to go with you to Israel and visit the holy land and see Jerusalem. You know, the holy city. And I always think you're going to have to wait a long time because it ain't holy right now. It will be.

And during this time, it certainly will be. A fifth thing that may surprise you about heaven is that it's going to feel so totally unfamiliar. In fact, so different is the new heaven, the new earth, the new Jerusalem from any earthly experience that verse 4 to 6 is described in the negative.

It's so unlike anything, it has to be described by what's not there. Verse 4, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. And he who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, right.

For these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, it is done. So this is it. When this is done, it's done.

There's no more stages. This now is the eternal state. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. That's, you know, we can't know what we can't know. So the only way we can know or get some kind of understanding about what we don't know is to compare what we don't know with what we do know and say it's not like this. Right.

So let's just go through that little list quickly. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and keep going down in that verse. There will be no crying, no tears in heaven, no Kleenex boxes in heaven. Our life presently is stained with tears.

There's days of our lives. I have some that stand out as days of tears. The first one was traumatic. I was in kindergarten.

My first day. I'll never forget it because I was the world's biggest crybaby. Honestly, my mom brought me off at school. I wailed.

And it didn't stop. Time the milk wagon came around, I still cried. Not over spilled milk, just I cried. Nap time, I cried. Lunch time, I cried. I didn't stop crying until my mommy picked me back up. It was traumatic, okay. I still have scars.

Big crybaby. That was just the beginning though. There would be many more days of crying when my father called me and said my brother had been killed. The day my mother called me and said my father had died. And the day I was with my mother when she died hearing that friends have died.

And there will be many more. But here it's gone. No crying. No tears. No tears of loneliness. No tears of misfortune. No tears of poverty. No tears of sympathy. No tears of persecution. No tears of regret. It's all gone. It also says there will be no more death.

Hard to imagine. No more death. You'll never have to go to another funeral. Never visit a cemetery. Never see another tombstone. 52 million people every year die on earth.

That's 147,276 every day die. Our world constantly sees the flow of death. There will be no death. There will be death in the millennial earth. There will be no death in the new earth, new heaven, New Jerusalem. I mean, you'll never age. Come on.

You'll never age. That's pretty cool. Listen, there's five, five companies. There may be more by now.

Last time I checked. Five companies that specialize in cryonic technology. They will freeze you in liquid nitrogen at minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit. For a mere $100,000, you can get your body frozen. If you can't afford that, $35,000, they'll freeze your head. Hoping that when they find out the cure for whatever disease killed you, they will then thaw you out and you can live and live and live.

Save the money. This is free. There is no death. And if there's no death, then there's no conditions that bring on death.

Right? You'll never need a doctor. There will be no diseases, no surgery, no hospitals, no dentists.

Because there's no decay, no corruption, no cavities. We read in the same verse, there will be no sorrow. That's so hard to relate to. Do any of you ever get moody?

You're just a little sort of sideways to be around. You just have one of those days. You ever feel like there's just a cloud that hangs over your day? You go, day? How about week?

How about month? Some of you experience legitimate depression. Even Christians do. And so that's why we love, we gravitate toward the book of Psalms. We go, man, I relate to this. Like Psalm 6 where the psalmist said, I am weary with my groaning. My eye wastes away because of grief.

We read that and we go, man, I can relate to that. There's coming a day when you can't relate to that at all. Because there will be no more sorrow. I think that the little statement, have a good day will be the stupidest thing you could ever say in heaven.

You never need to say it because you'll never have a bad one. In fact, there won't be anything but day. There will be no night, the Bible says. Notice it says there will be no pain. Can you imagine life without aspirin, without Advil, without Tylenol?

You know that over-the-counter analgesic sales in America top $3 billion a year. There's a lot of pain here. There will be no more pain, no more death. You will have a perfect body. You might say, I already have a perfect body.

Check it out. Yeah, just wait a few years. Let entropy run its course. You can chisel out a fine physique, but it will not last.

It was never meant to last. Now, one final thing that might surprise you about heaven. And here we'll close. Not everyone will be there. Not everyone is going to be in. It's a city of believers. And not everybody who has ever lived will be there.

That's a myth. So let's read what it says. Verse 7, he who overcomes shall inherit all things. And I will be his God, and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the 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.

What could be clearer than that? Then go down to verse 24. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it, and the gates shall not be shut at all by day.

Notice, there shall be no night there. They shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 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 everyone will be there. Notice here that there's two classes of people described. Occupants of heaven, non-occupants of heaven. The whole of the world is divided into one of two categories. Occupants of heaven, non-occupants.

You say, what's the requirement to be an occupant? Verse 7, he who overcomes. What does that mean? To overcome, it simply means that you place your faith in Christ alone. You say, how do you know that? Because the same guy who wrote this, John, wrote 1 John 5, where he said, everyone who is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. And you might go, aha, well, I have faith. I believe in something.

We'll read on. It goes on to say, who is he that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

That narrows it down. Then who is he who overcomes? He who overcomes is one who believes in Jesus Christ alone. So, most people, I think today, think that you will automatically go to heaven, either, A, if you die, that's one myth. How do you get to heaven? All you got to do is die.

You can forget God, live any way you want to, but believe me, when you die, we'll suddenly talk about God, suddenly talk about heaven, find a preacher who will push you into heaven. That's a myth. Or the other myth is all you got to do is be very sincere because all sincere people who believe in anything they want to go to heaven.

That's what some people think. So there will be a surprise. The jihadist Muslim believes that if they go on a suicide mission, they kill innocent people in the name of Allah and they get killed in the process, they immediately go to heaven. Talk about a shock. Talk about a surprise to find that is exactly wrong and the opposite.

Very sincere, sincerely wrong. Part of that whole belief system is not only do you get instant heaven, but you get 72 wives. Now, talk about punishment.

Think of the punishment to be those wives for those women and probably for both, right? Somebody said there's going to be three surprises in heaven. Number one, those that you don't expect to be there who are there. Number two, those that you expect to be there who aren't there. And number three, wonder of wonders that you're there and only by God's grace. So I can think that the worst possible place to be right now is growing old and being an unbeliever.

I want you to think about this. Here's the worst possible scenario. You're growing older and older and older and you're not a Christian. There's only one way for you to look, friend, and that's back.

You have nothing to look forward to. All you do is look back. You might say, yeah, you know, that was a great vacation a few years ago, wasn't it? That's all you got. Well, wasn't it great raising those kids? Wasn't that a great pet we had?

That's it. But if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, good or bad in your past, the best is yet to come. In fact, the new heaven and the new earth will be so totally cool and so totally different that it says in Isaiah 65, Behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. Not everyone's going to go there. Are you? Are you going to go? Are you sure you're going to go? You know, this whole theme keeps coming up again. Throughout the Bible, lines are drawn.

You're an occupant or you're not. You're saved or you're not. And if you're saved, you go to heaven. And if you're not saved, you don't go to heaven. Or the time Jesus said, Unless a man is born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven. Or the time Jesus said, Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many enter therein and narrow is the way that leads to life and few enter therein. So according to Jesus, not do all people get saved, not do most people get saved. But according to Jesus, very few enter therein. Are you among the few that will enter therein? That's your choice. That's your choice. I don't know if you've ever come to a place where you said, Lord, I'm a sinner. I cannot earn my way to heaven, but I know that Jesus paid the price for me and I totally rest on him.

If you haven't done that, then do it today. Because you would not want the worst of all surprises. And that is, in eternity, you find out you're never going there. That's Skip Hyten with the conclusion of a message from the series, From the Edge of Eternity. Now, here's Skip to tell you about how you can keep encouraging messages like this coming your way as you help connect others to God's Word. You know, heaven is going to be more mind-blowing than we could ever imagine.

And what a privilege to tell people how they can spend eternity there. Well, when you give a gift today, you keep encouraging messages like this one on the air and you spread the truth of God's Word to a growing global audience. Here's how you can give right now, and thank you for making an eternal difference. You can give online at connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. Tomorrow, Skip Hyten gives you an exciting glimpse of the future city you'll live in after Christ returns. Aren't you glad that our salvation and therefore heaven is by God's grace, not by having to answer a question or spell a word or do a work, but we are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, the land without spot or blemish. Getting into heaven and getting others into heaven ought to be our primary goal in life. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His Word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.