Introduction

I want to begin this morning by asking you a question, the answer to which will determine whether or not you will spend your eternity in heaven (that is, in the new world) or spend your eternity suffering under God's wrath in hell. So I want to ask a question that relates to your eternal destiny. And it's a question I've lifted from John Piper's book God Is the Gospel - it's a question that I think may be the most penetrating, searching, convicting question I've ever been asked, out - loud or in written form. Listen:

If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?¹

Could you be satisfied with heaven and all that we've seen it to be in this series on heaven and hell, and Christ not be there, would you still want to go there? That's a penetrating question. Very convicting. And then later in the book, Piper makes that point, not with a rhetorical question, but he is just very straightforward, he says: "[P]eople who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there."²

That's true. That's true! And the reason it's true is that of everything we could say about heaven, even everything we've already said about heaven, of everything we could say, the most central component of the reality of life in the new world is that we're going to enjoy being in the very presence of God himself, unhindered by sin, by our self-righteousness, by our suffering, and unhindered by powers of supernatural evil that are always at work against us. That's the central reality of heaven.

But don't take that to mean that heaven in the new world will only be about being in the Lord's presence. I have said throughout this series that the biblical picture of heaven is a terrestrial heaven. It's where this world, this very world that we are living in, will be transformed and regenerated and renewed and restored and glorified. This means that we're going to enjoy everything good about this creation, only better. So music, art, worship, food, work, friendships - all of it is going to continue in heaven, in the new world.

But in the same way the Bible is clear about all the blessings of life in the new world, it's equally clear on the truth that every heavenly pleasure that you can imagine "will derive from and be secondary to [the Lord's] presence."³ So all of the wonderful things about life you enjoy derive from and are secondary to being in the Lord's presence. The greatest gift God could possibly give to you is himself. That's the greatest gift he could give you. That is the only thing that will really satisfy the deepest longings of your heart. And heaven (life in the new world) is far and away the place where we get to enjoy what is most enjoyable for all eternity, namely, God himself.

The New World and the Presence of God

Turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation 21:1 - 22:5. We're going to start reading, beginning in verse 1 of chapter 21, through chapter 22, verse 5. As we read, I'm going to pause to point out every time the text emphasizes that our experience of the new world is an experience of being in the presence of God. So I'm going to stop every time to emphasize that. Let me just warn you ahead of time: we're going to stop a lot.

Now as we read this, you've got to keep in mind that the book of Revelation most closely resembles a kind of ancient literature called "Apocalyptic," which is a genre, a type of literature, that is highly symbolic. Revelation 21 - 22 gives us a visionary depiction of what heaven will be like, not a photograph of what the new earth will actually be. It's a depiction, sort of a painting, an image of what it'll be like, but not a photograph of what it'll actually be.

So let's read, and I'll pause every time the passage makes reference to God's presence as the central feature of heaven:

Verse 1 - 2:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

Okay, stop. Verse 2 we have three elements that suggest the presence of God:

1. Notice, it talks about "the holy city" - it's holy because it is reflecting the very character of the God of that city;
2. The city is pictured "coming down out of heaven from God" - showing the divine origin and character of that city; and...
3. The city is "made ready as a bride adorned for her husband," which captures the idea of being intimate with God, between God and his people. It's a picture of intimacy, like marriage.

Read on, verse 3:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them..."

Now verse 3 uses four phrases that highlight being in God's presence:

1. "The tabernacle of God is among men," which alludes to the tabernacle in the Old Testament. You know what that was? That was the tent that God designed and the people constructed where God could be with his people to bless them. So it's a symbol of the presence of God.
2. "And he will dwell among them" - which is almost verbatim what Exodus 25:8 says about the tabernacle, which is: "Let them construct a sanctuary for me that I may dwell among them." Again, so we have this language of the presence of God.
3. "And they shall be his people" - all throughout the Old Testament, God promises that he will be intimate with his people and now he's saying in the new world that promise will be fulfilled.
4. "And God himself will be among them" - wasn't that what we already read? It's redundant and it's emphatic because it's God himself who will be among us. There'll be no proxy in the form of a priesthood, acting as go - betweens for us and God, but God himself will be among us.

Verse 4:

And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.

Now if that's not a word of intimacy with God, what is?

Just the other night, a friend was sharing with me how she was dumped by her boyfriend on the very day she thought he was coming over to ask her to the prom. So he was coming over and she was getting all geared up cause she thought, "okay, this is the day I'm going to get asked to the prom" and he actually came to dump her. So he dumped her and - they went on a walk, he dumped her - and as she came home in shock and in tears, her father, even as her mother was saying that it was all for the best, the guy was a piece of work anyway, you know, that kind of thing, the father was sitting on his recliner and he said to her, "Come over here and sit with me." And he held her in his arms and he comforted her in her teenage pain. Isn't that so sweet? So intimate?

Now imagine the loss and pain and suffering that you have experienced in this life, the fully adult pain of this life - a dissolved marriage, the suicide of a child, the suffering and death of a loved one after a prolonged illness - now imagine the Lord finally and fully, taking you up on his lap, and tenderly, sweetly, lovingly wiping away every tear from your eyes. That's the kind of intimacy that we'll enjoy with God in the new world.

Now then, let me pause and point out that in only four verses of this passage that stretches from 21:1 - 22:5 - in just four verses, we have already seen eight references to experiencing the presence of God in the new world.

And we're just getting warmed up! It might be fair to say that if this passage is communicating anything, it's communicating that heaven is about being with God and with the Lamb, that is to say, Jesus. Being with the Lord.

Verse 7, v 9, v 11, v 12, v 14, v 15, v 16, v 17, v 18, v 19, v 20, v 21, v 22, v 23, Ch 22, v 3, v 4, and v 5. Over and over and over and over again, these verses conspire together to teach us that heaven (the new world) is getting to be with God! It's over and over and over again making that point. We get to be with Jesus in the immediate presence of the Father. Look at Revelation 22:3 - 4.

There will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond - servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.

That's the climax. That is the climax.

I love how the contemporary theologian Wayne Grudem puts it:

[M]ore important than all the...beauty of the heavenly city, more important than the fellowship we will enjoy eternally with all God's people from all nations and all periods in history, more important than our freedom from pain and sorrow and physical suffering, more important than reigning over God's kingdom—more important by far than any of these will be the fact that we will be in the presence of God and enjoying unhindered fellowship with him.⁴

That's what it's all about. That is what it is all about. What's so Great about Being with J esus? Now with that said, I'm persuaded that there are many of us who are still wondering this: "What is so great about that?" What's so great about being with Jesus? I mean, I was asking myself this question all week while I was prepping for the sermon - because I think that if you've been around the church long enough, you learn the ropes. You say what's acceptable, you say what's orthodox, without even reflecting on what you're saying or why it matters. "Oh, we get to be with Jesus." Are you really thinking in your heart, "that would be awesome!"? And here's why! Here's why it matters.

The Bible seems to suggest that being in God's presence - that is to say, seeing God, seeing Jesus - is the greatest thing that could ever happen to you. In fact, it's so great that the Apostle Paul says that being with Christ is better than anything you could experience in your life right now. In Philippians 1:23, he says that to depart and be with Christ, to depart this life and be with Christ, is "very much better" than all the wonderful things this life has to offer. Talk about emphatic. "Better" would have made the point all by itself - better to "depart and be with Christ," "much better" makes the point stronger, but "very much better." That's saying something!

And what makes that statement so surprising is that the place that you depart to when you die isn't the place that we've been reading about here in the book of Revelation. You experience what's called "the intermediate state" - a state of existence in which your soul is separated from your physical body and you enter what we could call the temporary heaven, where God and the resurrected Christ make their home.

But that's not the hope of the Christian life - the hope of the Christian life is not getting to go to heaven when we die. The hope of the Christian life is resurrection - going to heaven at the end of this chapter of human history - running into Revelation 21, so to speak. The hope of the Christian life is not life after death. The hope of the Christian life is life after life after death. That's the hope.

So for Paul - this is what's amazing - even this stop - gap measure, called the "intermediate state," between this life and the eternal state (the new world), is a thousand times better than life now precisely because you get to be with Jesus. To depart and be with Christ is very much better. So I ask again: why is that so great? What's so great about being with Christ that we could say being with Christ is even better than your life right now?

There is so much about this life that is totally awesome! Totally awesome! Right? You think about the gifts that God has given us, the untold pleasures of life in this world, and it's mind - boggling and breathtaking. This summer, I walked past an idling Lamborghini. That sound! The smell of bacon. The feel of a newborn's foot. The taste of the Nancy Silverton's Butterscotch budino from the 112 Eatery (it has like, sea - salt on it too - it's ridiculous).

And you don't need my list - you've got your own list. Right? You've got your own list. The point is that the idea of leaving this all behind in favor of being in Jesus' presence seems rather anticlimactic - until - you make the connection between these wonderful gifts and the greatness of the giver. If you can make the connection - see, we have broken the connection. They have always been, in God's mind, riveted together, and the rivet pulls apart. But if we can rivet it again, then we'll get it.

I want to illustrate it with a doubly stolen illustration. I'm stealing it from Randy Alcorn who stole it from Father J Boudreau's 1871 book called, The Happiness of Heaven. So it's doubly stolen. I'm stealing it from a guy who stole it from somebody else. But it's that good. In the book, in this book The Happiness of Heaven, the author talks about...

...a kindhearted king who finds a blind, destitute orphan boy while hunting in a forest. The king takes the boy to his palace, adopts him as his son, and provides for his care. He sees that the boy receives the finest education. The boy is extremely grateful, and he loves the king, The new father, with all his heart. When the boy turns twenty, a surgeon performs an operation on his eyes, and for the first time he is able to see. This boy, once a starving orphan, has for some years been a royal prince, at home in the king's palace. But something wonderful has happened, something far greater than the magnificent food, gardens, libraries, music, and wonders of the palace. The boy is finally able to see the father he loves.⁵

Can you imagine how the boy felt finally to see this father who loved him so much? Who rescued him from destitution and disability? Who lavished on him this amazing status and all these wonderful gifts? What do you think he would do? You think he would first run to the balcony to catch the view, or would he first run to his father, who lavished all of this on him?

See, that's what makes being with the Lord so great! It's what makes even the intermediate state better than your life right now! Because it's not the gifts you get, but the giver who gave them.

And you want to say, "That's you! You! That's you!" He blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and he will bless you with every good thing that a renewed heaven and earth can offer. From time to time, I have felt guilty about the amount of gifts my children get on Christmas morning. I see the pile, I see how lavished they are. What we could give our kids, in terms of a pile, doesn't even come close to what the Lord is giving us! Not even remotely! You couldn't even see the top of the pile of the stack of gifts that the Father has given you, not least himself! And so the new world is going to be like Christmas morning, forever. You getting gifts from your Lord who loves you, while you, gift after gift, run to him to hug and kiss and thank him for what those gifts tell you about the greatness of the giver. It'll be a never - ending movement from gifts to giver, and giver to gifts, in uninterrupted bliss. That's what we'll have to look forward to. That is our great hope! Being in the presence of this great God and the Lord Jesus Christ, forever! That's heaven.

Earthly - mindedness Is No Earthly Good

Yet there have been some people who have suggested that the Christian belief in heaven makes Christians useless for doing good in the world. If everything's going to be burned up one day, destroyed and replaced with the new heavens and the new earth, what's the point of living for the good of other people, or even trying to make a difference? Christians have been accused of a why - polish - the - brass - on - a - sinking - ship mentality. Things are going to be destroyed anyway!

Now there are many reasons I could give you for why we've been accused of this, for being so heavenly - minded that we're of no earthly good. You ever hear that? A lot of reasons for that accusation - not least that many of as, as Christians, have actually lived from the sinking ship mentality. It's partly our fault! We have misunderstood what the Bible means when it says what it does here in Revelation 21:1:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.

We have read that and say, "See! This heaven and this earth pass away, they die. They're destroyed and they're replaced with a brand new heaven and a brand new earth." Now what many well - intentioned Christians have failed to realize is that Revelation is a metaphor not a technical description of the new world. It's not a textbook on the new world. And you know what reading a textbook is like, right? It's a picture!

If you want something more prosaic than poetic on the new world, don't start with Revelation. Revelation is just filling in the gaps for you. Start with a passage like 2 Peter 3:3 - 14. Turn there with me.

Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like on day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

Now you read this and you think, "See, this is proof. It's all going to just melt and be decimated." Lets look a little more carefully. First, look at ver ses 5 - 7. And as I read them again, you might want to underline the words destroyed and destruction.

For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

It's verses 6 and 7: destroyed and destruction. Now notice that in verse 6, Peter says the world was destroyed in a flood, which is a reference to the flood in Genesis 6 - 9. You know, the story of Noah's ark.

Let me ask you, if you know the story, how was the world destroyed in the time of Noah? Was it obliterated from the universe? Was it smashed into smithereens so that God could start all over again? Is that what happened? No, that's not what happened. It was destroyed in the sense that it was purged of what was evil, it was thoroughly judged, but not decimated or obliterated.

So when we read in verse 7, right in the next verse, that "the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men," how should we take that? Should we take it in the Noah's ark sense of the term, or in the sense of being wiped off the face of the galaxy? Think the Flood, and keep thinking the Flood (I don't mean from Halo, I mean from Genesis) - keep thinking the Genesis Flood when you get to chapter 3, ver se 10:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed

Same word as earlier - same exact term -

with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

So, the passing away of the heavens and the elements being destroyed is not talking about fire that consumes everything in its path until there's nothing left, but a fire that purifies and refines and purges of impurity until all that's left is what is good and noble and beautiful and pure and righteous. God's fiery judgment will be more like a blacksmith's fire than an incinerator's.⁶

That's the new heaven and the new earth we're looking for. It's new because it's been purged of all its stains. It's been wiped clean of all its impurities. It's been cleansed of all its filthiness. All things will be made new.

And that truth, that this earth is going to withstand the Day of Judgment, that God is not going to abandon a project of restoration in favor of a project of replacement - that truth has massive implications for how you live your life in the here and now. Massive implications.

Above all things, it means that what you do matters. You are not polishing the brass on a sinking ship. If what you do pleases the Lord, no matter what occupation it is - from shopkeeper to CEO, from homemaker to Federal Judge - what you do lasts. It matters.

That's why when people say that being heavenly - minded makes Christians no earthly good, it couldn't be further from the truth. It's being earthly - minded that makes us no earthly good.

Think about it.

If this life is all that there is, if there is only the now and there is no next, what's the point of doing anything at all to make a difference? What's the point? If this life is all that there is, there isn't even any such thing as making a difference because whatever difference you make will eventually perish along with everything else.

Ten thousand, thousand years from now, will what you've done be remembered? No. Not when our sun burns out and even the fading memory of your existence is lost in the cold vacuum of space. No. Right? If you are a materialist, that is, if nature is all that there is, then there is no such thing as making a difference. It's a figment of your imagination, if you even have an imagination, since after all, you're nothing more than a collection of colliding atoms without meaning, purpose, direction, or hope. Even your thoughts, that you think are rational and meaningful, are irrational and meaningless if this life is all there is.

In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis reminds us that in point of fact, historically speaking, it has been the Christians who were most preoccupied with heaven who made the most difference in this world. Christians become ineffective in making a difference when they forget about heaven, not when they remember it. Forget about heaven, and life has no meaning. Remember heaven and this life is bursting with meaning and importance.

The Gravity of Heaven

[It's] important because heaven reminds you that your life and how you live it has eternal consequences. For those who have thrown themselves completely on the grace of God in Christ, there is the gift of heaven. For those who have not, there is the curse of hell. That there is a heaven that not everyone will receive ought to cause us to take stock of ourselves and to evaluate where we stand with God.

The late D. James Kennedy used the reality of heaven as a way of reminding people of the significance of their lives. He used to ask this: "If you were to die tonight, and found yourself standing before God, and He were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?' how would you answer God?"

And that's my question for you this morning as we come to the end of our series on heaven and hell. If you were to die tonight, and found yourself standing before God, and he were to ask you, "Why should I let you into my heaven?' how would you answer him?"

Let me tell you how most people would answer: "I believed in God. I admit I made some mistakes. I tried to better myself. I tried to be a good person, to help other people, to be honest, to love my family and to love my friends well. I didn't sweat the small stuff. I didn't really hold grudges. I did the best I could."

Can I say, with all due respect? Wrong answer. Wrong answer. It's the wrong answer. And that wrong answer is the difference between life and death for you, between heaven and hell for you.

Listen: you have a problem you can't solve. That's where it starts. The Bible calls that problem sin. It's a problem you can't solve. And yet you refuse to believe that. You admit, "I'm not perfect." You admit that. But imperfection is something you can work on. Sin is the one problem you can never solve on your own. But since we don't own up to that, we think that all we need is an adjustment, some minor tweaks, we need a boost, we need a plan to improve our weaknesses. And we reduce the Christian faith to a recipe for self - help with a dash of Jesus.

That is not the Christian faith. That is emphatically not the Christian faith. Christianity is rescue. Jesus is the rescuer. And you are in deep water with no hope of being saved apart from Jesus entering your world and solving for you the one problem he came to solve, the problem of your sin. All your efforts, all your achievements, all your attempts at making yourself presentable to God: futile. They are futile. They will never get you into heaven.

And so the question is: If you were to die tonight, and found yourself standing before God, and He were to ask you, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" how would you answer him? What's the answer?

Here's the answer: there is no reason at all why you should let me into your heaven. The only reasons I can marshal would garner me a more severe judgment in hell. But I know a man - the man who is also God - Jesus Christ. And you have every reason to let him into heaven because it's his true home, it's where he came from, and the life that he lived and the death that he died was his offering of perfect obedience to you. You raised him from the dead to prove that and now I am trusting in his life. I am relying on his death in my place. He is my only hope of rescue and I have thrown myself on him for his mercy.

That's the answer to the question. That's the only answer! There is no other answer! Christianity is rescue. And Christ is the only rescuer.

And listen: when your rescue is based on someone else's merit, not your own, and when that merit measures up to everything God requires, you can be 100% sure that you will go to heaven - when you die and when Jesus returns. 100% sure! People have said, "You're 100% sure? Well that's awfully arrogant." It would be if I were basing it on me! But I'm not basing it on me. I'm certain that I'm going to heaven because I'm certain that Christ is in heaven. That's how it works.

Would you like to be 100% certain that if you were to die tonight or if Jesus came back this afternoon that you go to heaven? 100% certain? Listen: you can be.

Admit you've got a problem you can't solve. Turn from your sin. Trust in the savior. Follow Jesus. And you will have treasure in heaven. You'll have treasure in heaven. Amen.

¹ John Piper, God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself (Crossway, 2005), 15.

²Ibid., 47, emphasis added.

³Randy Alcorn, Heaven (Tyndale, 2004), 171, emphasis added.

⁴Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Zondervan, 1994), 1163.

⁵Alcorn, Heaven, 180.

⁶Nathan L K Bierma, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth: Connecting This Life to the Next (P & R, 2005), 45.