Future-Town - Part 2 - Part A

You know, some people are a little bit put off that heaven will include a city.

They think that, well, this is heaven. It should have, like, lots of beach and lots of open spaces, and I think that's going to be there on the new earth, but they somehow don't like the idea that it's going to be this big city. All I can say to that is God would disagree, because it's going to be there. And the obvious point, perhaps, is that heaven is going to be a very social place. It's going to be a restored, renewed community where we interact with God and we interact with each other. Popular Science magazine did an interesting article on what the cities of the future would be like, covering everything from transportation to power to living to business.

However, their predictions aren't the first that have ever been made about where we'll live one day. In fact, just about 2,000 years ago, the Bible made its own predictions about the futuristic city those of us who follow Christ will one day live in. Well, today here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, Skip Heitzig continues to examine what the Bible reveals about this remarkable city of the future.

But first, this update from the Connect with Skip Resource Center. The Holy Spirit is mysterious. In the Bible, Jesus even said, He moves like the wind. Even so, Christians are instructed to know and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His help, counsel, and comfort, as Skip Heitzig reminds us. You can't neglect the Holy Spirit since the Scripture is full of the Holy Spirit, from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation. Not only is the Bible full of the Holy Spirit, you can be too. The Holy Spirit is a divine person who helps us. How many of you think you need all the help you can get to live your Christian life?

Yeah, I'm with you. We need help. Discover who the Holy Spirit is with Pastor Skip's DVD study, Expound Holy Spirit. And for a limited time, you can also get a copy of Lenya Heitzig's booklet called, Empower, Discover Your Spiritual Gifts. Both resources are our thanks for your gift of $25 or more to help expand this Bible teaching outreach.

To give online securely, visit connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. If you'll open your Bibles once again to Revelation chapter 21, Skip Heitzig begins our study today with a story that reveals that heaven is much sweeter than just a few cookies. We may have heard about the elderly gentleman who was on his deathbed. He only had days to live and everybody knew it, including himself.

One afternoon, the old guy smelled a familiar aroma. It was his favorite chocolate chip cookies. Well, this sort of gave him a new lease on the last few days of his life. He managed to push himself out of bed, get up, lean himself against the wall, work his way to the edge of the room, find the railing, went down the stairs.

It took him a long time, but he made it. And he slumped himself toward the threshold of the kitchen and looked in the kitchen and there, spread out on newspaper, were hundreds of chocolate chip cookies. And he thought, am I in heaven?

Or is this the last act of kindness from a devoted wife who wants her husband to leave this earth, experiencing one last pleasure? All those thoughts tumbled through his mind. His last bit of energy, he lunged toward the counter, crumpled over on his knees. His parched lips parted. He could already taste it in his mouth and that withered hand reaching forward to grab one cookie and it was smacked by a spatula. And his wife said, stay out of those, they're for the funeral. Poor old guy.

Just wants one final pleasure and his wife's already burying him. Well, we have spent, including today, 16 weeks looking at what happens to a Christian when that Christian dies and is in the presence of the Lord and awaits the resurrected body and what the resurrected body will be like and what heaven will be like and all of the different phases of eternity, including the millennial kingdom and what we'll be doing in it. And all that we have discovered, we've got to admit it's a whole lot better than a few cookies, what God has planned for us.

Well, last time, last couple of times and today, we're looking at that last piece, the final installment, which we call the eternal state. It includes new heaven, new earth, and a new city. You know, some people are a little bit put off that heaven will include a city. They think that, well, this is heaven.

It should have like lots of beach and lots of open spaces and I think that's going to be there on the new earth, but they somehow don't like the idea that it's going to be this big city. All I can say to that is God would disagree because it's going to be there. And the obvious point perhaps is that heaven is going to be a very social place. It's going to be a restored, renewed community where we interact with God and we interact with each other on a whole new, intimate level.

Now, I just want to cover this thought again before we dive into it. Some actually believe that what we read in Revelation 21 and 22 is not physical at all. It's not a real city.

It's simply an allegorical presentation in the Bible of the people of God. Well, all I can say to that is it's called a city over and over and over again. Not only that, it's given actual dimension, right?

It's given color, materials, texture, and it's laid out. It's measured 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles. And we saw last time that means just the base level is 2,250,000 square miles. That's just the first level.

You've got to go up 1,500 miles. It's a huge city, and it's able to house every redeemed person who has ever lived. Now, John gets a personal tour of this city. You know, in the Bible there was only two people in the New Testament that saw a vision of heaven. One was Paul, the other was John. Now, Paul didn't help us very much because he says, yeah, I was taken to the third heaven and it's just so cool I can't even tell you about it.

So that doesn't help us. John, however, was told to write these things down. And we're given this description. Last time we looked at the description of the outside of the city. And now we look at the inside of the city. Today we view it from the inside, not the outside.

This is the walkthrough today. Where we see it as we go in and we notice what's not there and what is there and who's there and who's not there and what they're doing there. This is the inside of the city as spoken by John. Let's look at it in verse 22 of Revelation 21 and we'll follow down several verses. But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it and the Lamb is its light. 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. Its gate shall not be shut at all by day, there shall be no night there.

And they shall bring the glory and the 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. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

In the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face. And his name shall be on their foreheads, and there shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever." So what we have here is the internal view of the eternal city.

And because John approaches it a bit different than the outside view, we're going to notice in closing, and I say in closing because this is really the last study in this series, we'll do a summary explanation next week, but this is really the last, this is the end of it. So I want to give you this morning five conditions that will sum up life in the eternal city, the New Jerusalem. Heaven, the eternal state. The first condition I want you to notice is what I call proximity. Now in verse 22, John, the first thing he notices is there's no temple in New Jerusalem.

And later on in chapter 22, it says they're going to see his face. There's a close intimacy and proximity that means we don't need a temple in heaven. Now understand that to ancient peoples, it was unthinkable to have a great city without temples. Every great city had several temples, and even the city of Jerusalem had at its centerpiece the great temple where God was worshiped and animals were sacrificed.

But the idea here is that you don't need one. The Lord God is the temple, and the Lamb, they're the temple. So in heaven, you and I will have direct access to God. No need of a holy place. You don't need a church, a cathedral, a chapel, a synagogue, a house of worship.

You don't need special days of worship, and there won't be separate groups gathering in heaven grumbling, let's make another heaven. We don't really like this place. Like there happens to be on earth. I heard about a guy who was stranded on a desert island.

You may have heard this. He was there all alone, and finally after years he was rescued, and the captain of the ship that rescued him noticed that there were three huts on the island. The captain said, now wait a minute, I thought you were stranded here all alone.

The guy said, well, I was. The first hut, that's my house. That's where I lived. And the second hut was my church where I went every week.

And the captain said, well, what's the third hut? The guy said, that's the church I used to go to. None of that in heaven. God's presence will literally fill every spot, every place in the new heaven, the new earth, and the new city. Now you know, it's always been God's desire to be close to His people, to be in close proximity to His people. Before the fall of man, God was seen walking with Adam in the cool of the day in the garden. But sin marred that.

Sin ruined that. And there was a separation between God and man, and so the Lord provided a tabernacle where he could be worshiped, and then later on a temple where he could be worshiped. But there was still distance between God and man in those places.

You couldn't just barge in. You had to go to a priest who represented God to you. You couldn't walk into the Holy of Holies.

There were courts that separated you from God's presence. There was a sacrifice you would have to bring to be worthy. But the Lord Jesus has always anticipated this very time. You remember one of His great promises is, in my Father's house there are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you, I'm going to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

It's always been His desire. And Jesus prayed in John 17 these words, Father, I want these whom you have given Me to be with Me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave Me because you loved Me even before the world began. Listen, in heaven you'll never feel far from God ever again.

If you feel that way today, if you feel lonely, you'll never feel that way ever again. You'll be totally satisfied all the time. You'll be in His presence.

You'll see His face. Have you ever been at a camp or a retreat or even a worship service where it's just so powerful? It's almost like you can touch and feel the presence of God.

And it's so utterly cool, you feel like, I don't ever want to leave. That's how heaven's going to be like all the time. That's why there's no need of a temple, because of proximity. A second condition that will be in this eternal city is what I call majesty or glory, God's glory. Look at verse 23 of chapter 21. And the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory or majesty of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it.

Its gates shall not be shut at all by day. And notice this parenthetical statement, there shall be no night there. Now we're getting a little bit of insight into what the conditions will be like in this new setup, right? New universe, new heaven, new earth, new city.

Very different dynamic than what we presently know now. You see, on our earth now, we depend on cycles of the sun and the moon and alternate conditions of light and darkness. For instance, the moon provides tides for the ocean.

It controls the flow of tides in the sea. But that isn't an issue here because there's no what? There's no sea. Verse 1 of chapter 21, there was no ocean. And so there's no need for the moon, there's no need for the sun. There's never going to be a night there.

Never going to be night. Now, just to remind you what John saw so far, is this city itself is so well lit that when he first saw it, it was like this gigantic cube, 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles, descending from heaven toward earth and light was cascading out of it, pouring forth from it. Huge light show, dazzling. And the way I described it last time, it's like a giant holy of holies coming down toward the earth. I said that because the only place we find a cube where God dwelled was in the Old Testament, the holy of holies. It was 15 feet wide, 15 feet deep, and 15 feet tall. A perfect cube. And that's in the tabernacle where the ark was kept. And so this new city of Jerusalem is sort of like the holy of holies on steroids. 1,500 miles cubed coming from heaven toward the earth. And notice in our verse that the source of this light is the Father and the Son.

They're together glorified. A very different kind of light. Visible light today as we know it. Visible light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

This is the stuff I used to have to study. And the retina of your eye responds to the measurement on the electromagnetic spectrum of somewhere between 390 and 740 nanometers in wavelength. That's what it responds to. But light as we know it usually has a source of combustion or fuel that burns and needs to be replenished. Whether it's sunlight or whether it's a light bulb. But notice here that God Almighty and the Lamb are the source of light. This is from the majesty and the glory of God.

It never runs out. God isn't going to say after 20,000 years, I'm sort of tired of shining now. It says there's going to be no night there.

Ponder that for a moment. No night. Experts tell us that human emotions can become very vulnerable late afternoon and early evening.

Not with everyone, but with quite a few people. It's called sundowner syndrome. And it is more acute in the elderly. In fact, in pre-Alzheimer conditions, they say that certain people can become very agitated and confused in late afternoon and early evening when the sun is setting. Darkness does something to us.

I have a friend who lost a son recently and when I was with him, he said, you know what? I dread nighttime. I hate it when it's dark because your thoughts are focused. You're not distracted by visible things in this world that is shown by light.

There's going to be no night there. Because the glory of God permeates that place. God's majesty. Do you remember when Jesus in John 17 prayed that prayer and part of it is where he said, Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was. Remember that part of the prayer? Glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world was. This is the answer to that prayer. Well, despite just how bizarre some of what the Bible reveals about the New Jerusalem may sound, doesn't it sound like the kind of place you'd like to live?

You can, you know. All you need is a relationship with Christ and a mansion will be built and waiting for you when Jesus comes to take us home. Would you like to reserve your place in that remarkable city? Then give us a call and let us share with you how you can secure that reservation by giving your life to Christ.

We'd be happy to explain what that means and show you just how you can do that when you call 1-800-922-1888. That's about all the time we have for today. But before we go, here's Skip and Lenya with a few more thoughts. Skip, today we've continued to talk about our home in heaven and it just makes us anticipate it more and more. And in heaven we find out that our most occupation will be fully engrossed in worshiping God.

That that's what we'll be doing with a lot of our time. Perhaps for some of our listeners, they're not sure that heaven lies in their future. They may not be a part of this great plan. How could they become certain of eternity? Well, let me answer that by saying that there are certain things that we as believers, if somebody's listening is not sure, there are certain things that we as believers know. So if you don't know that you will occupy heaven, you need to know. That's what Paul said with great certainty, for we know that when our earthly house, this tent, is dissolved, we have a heavenly home, not built with hands, eternal in the heavens.

So if you don't know, you need to know. Well, and if heaven is a real place, hell is a real place too. And Jesus spoke more of hell than any other... Than anybody else.

Yes, in the Bible. So you want to know not only that heaven is real and you're going there, but also you are escaping the other destination, which is hell. So to do that, just so we wouldn't get lost on our way to heaven, God the Father sent a local resident of heaven to this earth to show us the way. In fact, not just to show us the way, but to be the way. That local resident, Jesus, who came to this earth said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So just so we wouldn't get lost and miss it and think there's so many different ways, he came and did what no one else could do because he is who he is. He paid the price for our sins so that that is taken off the board, that's out of the negotiations. We escape those eternal consequences. And now we have promise to those who trust in Christ and eternal home. So it comes down to receiving the gift, that's what it is, a gift of eternal life.

And if you're listening to this and you're not sure, you can be sure right where you're at. If you're driving, please don't close your eyes, but if you're out there and you can close your eyes, fine, that'll help you not get distracted, but you can pray right now. You can ask Jesus to come into your life. So if you mean business with God, why don't you say these words to him? Lord, I know that I'm a sinner. I'm sorry for my sin. I believe that Jesus died on a cross for my sin, that he shed his blood for me, and that he rose again from the dead. I'm willing to turn from it.

I do turn from it. I repent of my sin. I turn to you as my Savior and as my Lord. I want to follow you today and every day. In Jesus' name, amen.

If you said that, if you meant that, you're a child of God, and we'd like to not only congratulate you, but welcome you into God's family. You can contact us here. We'd love to send you some literature and help get you plugged into a local church wherever you live.

But that's the most important step. Well, thanks, Skip. And yeah, the website has everything you need. That's at connectwithskip.com. And to get a copy of today's teaching, just give us a call at 1-800-922-1888.

Individual CDs are only $6 plus shipping, or if you want to order the entire series from the edge of eternity, it's only $39 plus shipping. Find out more. Order today at connectwithskip.com. You know, we've covered a lot of ground already, but we still have more to explore in Future Town. So come back next time here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.