No More Tears

One of the most amazing things about this description of the nature of heaven is the emphasis again and again in this text of what is not in heaven. There is no death. There are no tears. There's no sickness. There's no pain.

There's no sin. Scripture is quick to tell us what won't be in heaven, basically the description of the end of human suffering. This is the Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and today we conclude a four-day study of hell and heaven.

Even though we have spent two days on each topic, there are more messages in each series, so for the final day you can request lifetime digital access to both along with two books from Dr. Sproul when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org or by calling us at 800 435 4343 before midnight tonight. In Revelation chapters 21 and 22, here's Dr. Sproul. As we come to the end of our brief study of what heaven is like, there's a point I'd like to raise today that's a little bit unusual. So often the expectation among Christians is that heaven ultimately will be a place that is somewhat ethereal and spiritual in some faraway land east of the sun and west of the moon. And the expectation is that the world in which we live will be completely destroyed and annihilated, and we will live in some vaporized place in the heavens or in the sky. But the New Testament does not teach the final ultimate destruction of this world, but rather the view of the New Testament is of the renovation of this fallen planet.

Paul tells us in Romans, for example, that the whole creation groans together in travail, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. That is that what is expected is that in the consummation of the kingdom of God, in the final eschatological triumph of Christ, this world may go through a radical purging, but it will not be destroyed, but rather renewed. And the expectation of the New Testament ultimately is that heaven will be here after the earth has been transformed. And the imagery that speaks of this in beautiful terms is found in the book of Revelation, in the last two chapters of that book, where we read of John's vision of the new heaven and of the new earth and of the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem that descends from heaven to the earth.

Let's look at that. We don't have time to go over this entire unveiling of what heaven is like, but we will look at some of the highlights. And let me just say that in all of Scripture, the place that gives us the most vivid and graphic description of what heaven is like is this unveiling that we find in the book of the Revelation. Now, of course, the manner in which it is communicated is through the use of what is called apocalyptic literature, and apocalyptic literature is known for its heavy use of rich images and symbols. And so it sounds strange to us when we hear some of these descriptions of the streets of gold and the gates of pearls and so on that are associated with this vision of heaven.

But these images and symbols all point beyond themselves to profoundly important realities. Let's look then at chapter 21 of Revelation. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea. It's a fascinating thing to me.

We've looked at this in another occasion, in another context much earlier, but let me go over this again. I find it striking that the first statement that describes this new heaven and new earth is a statement that is negative. It speaks of the absence of something, and in this case it is the absence of the ocean. There is no sea. And that might come as a tremendous disappointment to those of you who have sand in your shoes and who are in love with the beaches of our land and who love to go to the seashore on your vacation.

It would seem that a new heaven and a new earth without the sea would be a paradise without the necessary ingredients. But for the Jewish person who is hearing this description, it is loaded with symbolic importance, because in Hebrew poetry, the sea is the symbol of destruction. Because in the history of the Jewish people, the sea was not her friend.

Israel never developed a commercial sea trade. Rather, the sea was the place from which marauders came. Their arch enemies and perennial enemies, the Philistines, controlled the sea coast. The sea coast was rocky and treacherous and dangerous, and the terrible storms that swept in across the Mediterranean, and they would stir up the lakes and bring the hot winds of the Seracos, all of those came off the sea, and so the sea was the image of destruction. In Psalm 46, the sea roars and is troubled, and the sea is beating against the mountains, and they are destroyed and cast into the midst of the waters. The positive image in Hebrew poetry is the river or the well, the spring, the River Jordan, for example, that cuts like a ribbon right down the middle of this arid desert land and is the source of life and nourishment. And we will see in the New Jerusalem, there is this stream or this river of life that flows right down the center of the city, and so we see the absence of the sea, but the presence of the river.

It's the absence of destruction, the absence of danger, and the presence of life that is being symbolized here. Then he says, I, John, saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. Now again, the imagery here is borrowed from the Old Testament, where in the Old Testament, the sign, the external visible sign of God's promised presence with his people was the tabernacle. The tabernacle was pitched in the direct center of the configuration of the twelve tribes of Israel. The twelve tribes were situated almost like a clock, and in the very core or hub of that clock was the tabernacle, indicating that God was in the midst of his people.

The tabernacle was called the tent of meeting, because it was here that the people would assemble to meet with their God. In the New Testament, when Christ comes in the incarnation, as John tells us in the prologue to his gospel, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and all of that. A little later on in the prologue, John says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.

Well, the words that are translated, and dwelt among us, are a loose translation of the actual language that is used there in the text. The text is literally saying, And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, or pitched his tent in our midst, referring back to the symbolic presence of God in the tabernacle of the Old Testament. Now, so what is this vision telling us? It's saying that John sees that this new Jerusalem comes out of heaven looking like a bride adorned for her husband, and the loud voice from heaven itself makes the announcement, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself shall be with his people. And so what we're talking about here is the coming of the immediate presence of God in the midst of his people, and there's nothing more glorious to look forward to in heaven than to be bathed in the radiance of the unveiled presence of God. Then we read this, And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying.

There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. I like to tell the story of when I was a little boy, and sometimes would get into scrapes. There was a boy in our town who was something of a bully. He just grew so much faster than everyone else, and he sort of towered over the rest of us, and he could be somewhat mean. And I remember one day I was playing with the kids, and this bigger guy was a year older than I was.

He started calling me bad names and making fun of me, and he hurt my feelings, and I started to cry and went home. And I can remember this day. It was in the summertime, and the back door was open, and just the screen door was there, and I opened up the screen door, and my mother was standing in the kitchen, and she was cooking, and she had an apron on. And as I was crying, she dropped her spoon or whatever she had, and she rushed over, and she grabbed me and hugged me and pulled her to her apron strings, as it were, and said, What's the matter? And all these sobs, I could hardly get it out, you know, that this fellow was treating me in a bad way. And she was very tender and calmed me down, and she took the edge of her apron, and she dried away my tears.

And I remember that because I've seen it repeated many, many, many times in the drama of life. I was visiting a friend in the hospital in Boston many years ago who was dying, and he was in the final hours of his life. And I can remember being by his hospital bed and feeling utterly helpless because I couldn't do anything to help him except to take little pieces of ice and put them to his lips, which were parched.

And as I was doing this on one occasion, he looked at me. He was too weak to even speak, and a single tear formed in his eye. And I took the little cloth that was on the bed stand and picked it up and wiped away that tear.

How do you describe something like that? What is communicated from one human being to another when that kind of service is rendered of the drying away of a tear? Well, certainly as a child, when my mother physically dried my tears, I found great consolation and great comfort in that. My weeping stopped, and I was restored to a sense of equilibrium.

But guess what? I cried again and again and again. And what John is telling us here is that when God personally comes to His people and dries their tears, it's the end of all crying, at least crying from pain or from sorrow or from grief or from unhappiness. And that there is a permanence in heaven of cessation of these things, because the text tells us that there will be no more death. There will be no more pain. There will be no more sorrow. See, all of the things that provoke us to weep will no longer be present.

In fact, one of the most amazing things about this description of the nature of heaven is the emphasis again and again in this text of what is not in heaven. There is no sea. There is no death. There are no tears. There's no sickness. There's no pain.

There's no sin. Now, that doesn't give us an exhaustive list of the things as there are others that we will see in a few minutes, but it's interesting to notice that the first thing that is announced basically is the end of suffering. Verse 6 says, and he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, and I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. And then in verse 9, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came and talked with me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. 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, having the glory of God.

Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. She had a great and high wall with twelve gates and twelve angels at the gates and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the names of the twelve apostles.

Now the description goes on to point out several things. The first of all is that the new Jerusalem is a city that comes from heaven, and it's a perfect cube. Its dimensions form a perfect cube.

What does that call to mind? It reflects or recapitulates the dimensions of the earthly holy of holies, the earthly temple section, which was also a perfect cube. And it speaks of the foundations and the walls and the number twelve figures prominently in here. The city is inhabited by 144,000, which is simply taking the number twelve and multiplying it by twelve, which gives you what?

A hundred and forty-four, and then you take it to the superlative degree, which in this case would be into the thousands, and so 144,000 refers to the perfect number of fullness. And the multiples of twelve refer both to the twelve tribes of Israel who are commemorated in the city and the twelve disciples of Christ, who are also part of the foundation of the new Jerusalem. Remember, this is a city whose builder and maker is God, and the city of God rests on the foundation of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles, with Christ being the chief cornerstone. Then all of these gorgeous jewels adorn the city, and we read that the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each individual gate was one pearl.

Imagine that. You've heard the reference to the pearly gates. Well, here are the pearly gates. Each gate is a single pearl, translucent, magnificent, where one can see through the door into the interior chambers, and where the beauty of the light that floods the city is reflected in these pearls, as well as from the refraction from the facets of the jewels that adorn the city. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. We think of gold not as being transparent.

In order for gold to be transparent, it has to be rolled out at such a thin thickness that it becomes so thin but so beautiful that it is, as it were, translucent as well, or transparent. I wouldn't put it past God to have created a place that literally looks like this. I wouldn't be the least surprised to go to heaven and find myself walking down a street that is paved not with cement or with stone or with asphalt but with gold in all of its beauty.

But then we go on, and we read about some more things that are not there. But I saw no temple in it. If there's one place we would expect a temple, it would be in heaven. I mean, it's one thing to say there's not going to be death or weeping or sorrow or sickness or the sea, but it says here there's no temple in heaven.

But the reason is obvious, isn't it? There's no need of a temple because the temple symbolizes the presence of God with His people. Now, when God is there in reality, visible to His people, there is no need for the earthly representation. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb is its temple. And the city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

That's another fantastic image. No sun. Well, if there is a sun in heaven, you wouldn't be able to see it anyway. It would be eclipsed not by a shadow, but it would be blotted out by the super intensity of the radiance and refulgent glory of God Himself, which is so much more dazzling and so much more bright than any creaturely thing like the sun.

And so we're told no sun, no moon because they're unnecessary. The illumination of this city comes from the glory of God and of Christ. And then we read in chapter 22, And he showed me a pure river of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

And 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 his Lamb shall be in it, and there shall be no night there, and they shall see his face. Again, there's no need of lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord gives them light.

What else is absent from the New Jerusalem? The curse of God, the wrath of God, the judgment of God. And rather than darkness, which indicates the curse where which God hides himself and covers his face from people in his wrath, here the ultimate joy of heaven will be in our experience of the beatific vision, the vision of the face of God, uncovered, unhidden, unveiled, as we who are there will look directly into the unveiled face of God, for we shall see him as he is.

I'd like to ask you to do something by way of an assignment today. I'd like to ask you today at some point to take some time, sit down, and read chapters 21 and 22 of the book of Revelation in its entirety. And think of it, if you will, as a letter from heaven addressed to you to describe what this place is like that Christ promised to go and prepare a room for you, if indeed you are in him. We need to keep this vision of heaven in front of us at all times, when death will be completely swallowed up by the victory of the Lamb and of his kingdom. We need to keep that image before our eyes so that every tear that we shed in this veil of tears is not wasted.

That's good advice from R.C. Sproul. I'll be reading Revelation 21 and 22 today, and I hope you will as well. Concluding our four-day study of eternity and the reality of both heaven and hell, that was R.C.

Sproul on this Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind. You heard messages from two series this week, one on hell and one on heaven. Both are five messages long, and you can request lifetime digital access to both when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800 435 4343. Along with both series and the study guide to help you go deeper in your understanding of heaven, we'll send you two books, What Comes After This Life and Saved From What, which reminds us that as believers, we are saved from God, by God, for God. So use the link in the podcast show notes or visit renewingyourmind.org to give your donation before this offer ends at midnight tonight.

Our global digital offer also ends at midnight, so give online at renewingyourmind.org slash global, and you'll gain digital access to both series, the study guide, and ebook editions of both books. Thank you for keeping Renewing Your Mind on radio stations and on devices around the world, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Tomorrow, you'll hear from one of next year's national conference speakers, H.B.

Charles Jr. Here's a preview. If you watch some award show, a person will stand on stage with a list of people to thank after they have received a reward. Paul says here, if you receive an answered prayer, there is no list of names, only one name. The glory is not to go to them, it is to go to Him. That's tomorrow, here on Renewing Your Mind. .