Living In The New Jerusalem – Part 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Imagine the most wonderful place in all the universe, then triple its wonder.

It would still pale compared to what's ahead. One day a city will descend to the regions of earth, a new Jerusalem, resplendent with the glory of God. Today take with us a first look at our heavenly metropolis, the gigantic eternal home for the redeemed.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, I'm sure the good rooms will go to the great saints of the ages. I'll just be glad to have a studio apartment on the 735th floor. Well Dave, I'll probably be living next to you. I love your description by the way.

Certainly it is beyond our imagination. I want to emphasize that in this series of messages we deal with all aspects of death, including a coming message on the doctrine one minute after you die. Would you connect with us? Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. You know, getting back to what Dave said, if you are on the 700th floor, if you want to move to the downstairs lounge, you can do it in one second. We will have glorified bodies.

We have so much to look forward to. Listen carefully. Let's suppose that you're in a hospital room. You've said your goodbyes.

Your friends are walking in and out of the room on tiptoe because everybody knows what you intuitively know, though it's been hard for you to talk about it. Soon you're going to be in eternity. Your bags are packed.

You're ready to go. You had the presence of mind to give some guidance regarding your funeral. Even though within us we all believe that somehow we are immortal and we won't be the ones to die, it is now inevitable. And soon you slip away into eternity and your friends go to a funeral home and they're selecting a casket. And by then, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you will have already met him face to face. You'll be in his presence. You'll recognize some of the people with whom you lived here on earth, some of the relatives, and you will now be in eternity. Now mind you, the judgment seat of Jesus Christ is still in your future because that happens when he returns to earth.

But for now you're getting used to your surroundings. Well, as you might know, this is the fifth in a series of messages entitled One Minute After You Die. One Minute After You Die. We've emphasized the continuity in some of the previous messages, the continuity between this life and the next, the fact that death is not the end of the road.

It is just a bend in the road. And you're the same person over there as you are here with the same understanding, the same mind and aptitudes, though transformed, no doubt, but eternity has no break in consciousness. You go from this life into the next.

Immediately you are in that realm beyond. Well, today we want to talk about some of the differences, specifically the New Jerusalem. We're going to be speaking about some new experiences that we are going to have when we stop to think about heaven and eternity. So if you have your Bibles, I want you to turn today to the book of Revelation chapter 21 and 22.

That will be the area in which we will be studying. And my message today in many respects will be quite simple. What I shall be doing is simply reading the scripture for you, reminding you of what it says and trusting the Holy Spirit of God to reveal to you and me its meaning, because it is surely, it is surely beyond us. We can look at the words, but only the Holy Spirit can help us to grasp it, to get the concept. So be sure to concentrate and to think about what God has revealed. What are four new experiences that we will have when we think about heaven?

Four new ones. Well, first of all, a new home, a new home, and that is the New Jerusalem, which has been recreated, by the way, when you get to Revelation 21 and 22, you are really in eternity proper now. This is heaven as it will be forever. And first of all, speaking of this city, notice the size.

We're going to begin in 21 verses 15 and 16, and then we'll be looking at some of the verses that surround this passage. And the one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and its wall, and the city is laid out as a square. Its length is as great as the width, and he measured the city with the rod 1,500 miles. Its length and width and height are equal. It could either be a pyramid or it could be a cube. If it's a cube, it would have 396,000 stories. If every story was 20 feet high, and most of you, I think, would be able to fit into a condo of that size. But just think of this. 596,000 stories, each of which has an area the size of about one-half the United States, 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles.

That's a lot of condos, a lot of condos. Abraham will be there. Isaac will be there.

The Bible talks about sitting down with Abraham in the kingdom. The Old Testament saints will be there. The New Testament apostles will be there. Peter, James, and John, and the other ones, except Judas, he won't be there, but the others are going to be there in heaven. You have the saints of all the ages. In this age, they're going to be there. The Donatists bless them.

Most of them are going to be there. They are the little group that was exterminated through persecution when official Christendom wiped them out with a sword because they believed that one should be baptized upon profession of faith rather than infant baptism because they actually believed that the church was to be distinct from the world. A radical idea. Terrible people. They must have been reading their Bibles.

Where'd they pick that up? But they'll be there. The Reformers will be there. And you and I will be there if we have trusted Christ as our Savior.

A whole company. Jesus said in my Father's house, there are many dwelling places, many dwelling places. Isaiah, it'd be my luck though to be stuck on the thousandth floor and all the activity is always on the downstairs lounge.

Well, I have some good news for you. No elevator is necessary because in heaven, the thought will be the movement. If you want to go from floor 1000 to the downstairs lounge, just think the thought and you will be there effortlessly. Never get tired. Never have to sleep.

No night there because you have a new indestructible body that will help you through the process and give you the strength to live forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and never, never become weary. What a place to be. That's the dimensions of the city. What about the building materials, the building materials? Notice the text talks about two different kinds of building materials. Well, actually many building materials, but let's look first of all at the high wall with its gates. I'll pick it up in verse 10. The passage is so beautiful that we should not break it up. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone as a stone of crystal clear Jasper and it had a high and great wall with 12 gates and at the gates were 12 angels and the names were written on them that is on the gates, which are those of the 12 sons of Israel, three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, three gates on the west. And it says also in verse 21, the 12 gates were 12 pearls. Each one of the gates was a single pearl and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. Did you hear the story of the man who wanted to take some gold to heaven?

It's an apocryphal story. And he arrived there with a pail of gold and St. Peter said to him, why in the world did you bring pavement with you to heaven? In other words, in heaven, you're going to be walking on that stuff. Why bring pavement to heaven?

Transparent, pure gold like glass. But here are the gates. You say, well, why does the city need gates?

Well, first of all, so that the redeemed can go in and out. It says in verse 24, the nation shall walk by its light and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it and in the daytime, and I love this parenthesis, for there shall be no night there. In other words, it'll be eternal day. Its gate shall never be closed. You don't need a pass to get out. You won't have to punch a card to come in. If you're redeemed, you can go in and out freely.

I think you'll want to spend most of your time inside, but you may be given an assignment that takes you outside and there'll be no hassle getting back in, even if you show up late. Now another thing that the gates do is they keep the wrong people out. Now notice I'm not making this up. Some of you don't bring your Bibles to church and you should because you should always check up on me whether or not this stuff is stuff that I dream about. Notice it says in verse 26, and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Notice it says, verse 15 of chapter 22, outside are the dogs, that is the male prostitutes as it is defined in the Old Testament, the sorcerers, the immoral persons, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

Ouch. Have you ever looked at the book The Day America Told the Truth? Isn't it true that about 90% of the people say that they lie quite regularly?

Now the question is could you believe the opinion poll? That's the problem I have, but nevertheless it says God says all those who love and practice lying, they're outside, and the gates of the city are there to keep them out, not that they'll be banging on the doors. This is symbolism. There'll be someplace else that I'll be talking about in the next message, but I want you to see here that this is a city where the redeemed walk in and out and have freedom because this is their city now that they have inherited all things.

And in case you think that I was making that up, notice what it says in chapter 21 where it speaks about the fact in verse 7, he who overcomes shall inherit these things and I will be his God and he will be my son. Imagine it. What a place to be. What a place to be. Now, you know, Peter talks about the fact that we have a place reserved in heaven for us, reserved in heaven. Have you ever been to a place and you've reserved it ahead of time?

I remember being in a restaurant with some seemingly important people. You always have to put that in quotes because the question is important to whom, but we had a reservation, long line of people stretching out onto the street. We walked by them all because we had a reservation. We had a reservation. We had a room.

We didn't have to wait in line. Heaven no waiting in line. You got a place reserved. That means that there's a condo on which your name already appears.

There is a crown that only you can wear. No one can snatch it from you unless of course you give it up through unfaithfulness here on earth. It is there in heaven reserved for you. That's heaven. The Old Testament begins in the garden. It begins in the garden, but it ends in a city. God loves cities. He loved Jerusalem so much that he says, I'm going to make a new Jerusalem. I'm going to recreate a Jerusalem and that will be the forever city, the city of Jerusalem. A new home and what a place it's going to be. You know, sometimes, and you've probably heard me say people think that when Jesus said, I've got to go and prepare a place for you, that he's been working on it. He's been, they said, well, he was a carpenter on earth, you know, in Nazareth and now he's in heaven and he's building these condos and he's working overtime to make sure that they're ready for us. No, no, no. All created in a moment of time.

Let them be and boom, they are, they are. New home. You like it, by the way, you're a little quiet.

You like it? Number two, a new occupation, new occupation, about 40,000 jobs in the United States. That's how many different things people do to earn a living. Most people don't like their job. Not enough pay. They don't like where they work.

It's either too hot or too cold. They don't like the people with whom they work. They don't like the policy of the management.

They get up in the morning and all that they do is think about how they can make it through because they know that they have to earn a living and so they just go and they participate in this grind. Well, my friends, heaven is going to be different than that. You know, of course, that the saints aren't perfect. No church is perfect. Some people say Moody Church is very friendly.

I hope they're right. Other people say I came and nobody talked to me. All of the failings of the saints, the arguments over doctrine, the arguments over other kinds of issues, the church splits, the bitterness that sometimes is retained in the human heart. Some of you might even fit into that and you are not committed to Christ today because there's a stumbling block you've never been able to get over and I say it to you very lovingly, just get over it real fast because eternity is on its way. What are we going to finally do in heaven? Well, finally we're going to be unified. We're all going to believe the same thing and we are going to worship God. Now, you have your Bible open, turn to Revelation 19. This gives you a picture of what the bride is doing and how she's worshiping the Lord and though the passage is somewhat long, it really deserves to be read.

It is so glorious and so beautiful. After these things I heard as it were a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven. That's you. Put your name there. I saw your name there. I saw you there. I saw you guys there. It says great multitude. The pastoral staff made it.

They made it. You know, there are some people who say, you know, we want to belong to a small church. Just give us a little church. Well, that's okay, but I want you to know that you're headed for a big one.

Can't help it. You're headed for a big one. A great multitude.

There are going to be those who are going to say, oh, you know, we want a small little place. Well, Jesus said, sorry, sorry. You're in the great multitude. Shouting hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belongs to our God because of his judgments. They are true and righteous for he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality and he has avenged the blood of his bondservants on her. And a second time they said, hallelujah, her smoke rises up forever and ever. And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fall down and worship God who sits on the throne saying, amen, hallelujah. And a voice came from the throne saying, give praise to our God and all his bondservants and you who fear him, the small and the great.

I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying, hallelujah for the Lord God almighty reigns. Well, I'm glad we can agree on something. And in heaven we will.

We'll agree on a lot more than this. We will understand salvation is of the Lord. Those of you who struggled with what the apostle Paul wrote and we all do, we'll all rejoice and say that he was right. We'll say that Jesus was right. And like we sometimes sing when we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. We are going to worship God together and we're going to serve him. It says in chapter 22 verse three, there shall no longer be any curse and the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it. His bondservant shall serve him. They shall see his face. His name will be on their foreheads. No night, no need of the lighter of the lamp or of the sun because the Lord God, imagine this. We read it too quickly don't we? The Lord God shall illumine them and they shall reign forever and ever. Wow.

Wow. It's not going to be that interminable church service like the Sunday school boy thought. We begin at hymn number one and then we sing all the way through the hymnal and then we begin again at number one and we sing all the way through the hymnal. Some of you find a one hour church service too long. You're not ready for heaven. You're not ready for heaven. Really? Seriously? You're not ready.

Good thing he hasn't taken you yet. In his presence forever and ever and ever, singing his praises, serving. I received a letter this week that says, how do you know that we'll continue some of the projects we have here on earth? We're going to be the same people over there.

Same people. All right, a new home, a new occupation. Finally, you're going to get the job you've always wanted. A new family, a new family. Now this is not found in Revelation, but I want to read something to you that will just, I hope, be used of the Lord to illuminate your mind because some of you haven't had a good family on earth. You know, you come from a family that rejected you and you didn't have a father and you grew up in a place where dad wasn't around and if mother was around, she wasn't that great a help. And when you see these nuclear families get together every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, the same relatives come to the same place to talk about the same things, you say to yourself, you know, why am I not included? Or you might resent the fact that you did not have a family like that. And so you say, well, how are we going to fit in? Well, the answer is this. Think this through. Just like you have an intimate family on earth, expand that intimacy to include those folks that you loved so very, very much, those relatives that you could hardly wait to see at family picnics.

Expand that group to also include all the other saints with the same kind of intimacy and joy in fellowship. Yes, my friend, it's hard to imagine, but it is true. Heaven is going to be so much better than its descriptions, at least so much better than the descriptions of scripture that we can scarcely grasp. You know, of course, in the book I've written entitled One Minute After You Die, I've also emphasized the negative.

As a matter of fact, in a previous message, it was entitled The Descent Into Gloom. And I even preach about that as well. For a gift of any amount, we're making this book available for you, both as an encouragement if you're a believer, but also as a warning if you're an unbeliever. I could tell you many stories of people who read this book and became Christians, and then there are those who didn't want to see it because they did not want to think about their death. Well, I know that that's not you, but at the same time, let us remember that death can be terrifying or it can be an entrance into heavenly glory. That's why I've written a book entitled One Minute After You Die for a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you.

Because this is so critical, I hope that you have time to get a pen or a pencil so that you can write down the info I'm going to give you. Here's what you can do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com. Of course, RTWOffer is all one word. RTWOffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. People die in various ways, various diseases.

Some of course are incinerated because they are put into the fire, that is to say that their bodies die that way. But no matter how our ending comes, eternity awaits. So my friend, I pray that your faith and trust will be in Jesus. And to encourage you to do just that, go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Thank you so much in advance for helping us. It's because, as I frequently mention, people just like you who are a part of this ministry. Title of the book, One Minute After You Die. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago to help you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Next time, more about the enormous family that will share the equally enormous New Jerusalem for all the ages to come. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.