Revelation - August 24, 08

Date: Sunday, August 24, 2008

Speaker: Michael Fedunec Title: Last Word on Heaven and Hell

Series: Revelation

Text: Revelation 21:1-21:8

INTRODUCTION

An elderly couple passed away and found themselves at the pearly gates. Peter was there to welcome them. First he showed them their mansion. The man overwhelmed by the sheer luxury of it all asked, "How much does this place cost per night?" Peter replied, "Sir, this is Heaven, it doesn’t cost anything." Then Peter took them to the dining room where table upon table was piled high with the most delicious foods you could imagine. Again overwhelmed by the glory of it all the man asked, "How much for the meals?" Peter said, "You forget, this is Heaven, it’s free." Peter then took them out back where they saw a fantastically beautiful golf course. As the man stood there open-mouthed Peter said, "Now before you ask, there are no greens fees, this is Heaven, everything is free." The man looked at his wife and said, "You and your confounded bran muffins, I could have been here 10 years ago!"

This morning we are moving along in our look into the book of Revelation.

Over the past several weeks we have been taking a devotional approach to Revelation – meaning that we were going to take a look a the timeless truths contained within and not get caught up on the details.

The verses that we are looking at today are heaven and hell!

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadiama in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits?b thick,c by man’s measurement, which the angel was using. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.?d 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

6 The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”

There is a real heaven.

Scripture is clear to us that there is a real heaven.
Every description of it draws a picture of perfection, be it numbers, or be it dimensions, whatever the descriptions are in the book of Revelation, we find perfection.
This earth is not our rest.
Try to fill the vessel in any way you want with the things of earth and you will still not find the fullness of heaven.
The apostle Paul said that if this life is all that there is, then we as Christians should be pitied above all people.
Great prophets proclaimed their frailties of this world.
Elijah requested that he might die, so did Jonah and so did Jeremiah saying, cursed be the day that I was born.
Though there is joy in following and serving the Lord here on this earth, the curse is still here.
People who have had all sorts of wealth, Solomon, saying, it is all vanity.
Heaven is not something that we can build here on earth.
Heaven is the work of God.
How many of you all want to go to heaven?
I recall the story of a preacher asking that question to his congregation one Sunday morning, and everyone but one older lady in the back raised their hands. After the service he asked the woman why she didn’t raise her hand. “Don’t you want to go to heaven,” he inquired? She said, “just how soon were you aiming to make this trip?”
The unknown is scary to us.
In Scripture we have some glimpses of heaven, but ultimately the same Scripture says that “ear has not heard, nor eye seen what God has in store for us.”
It is good beyond what we can even begin to imagine.

REV 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. (NIV)

Some believe in heaven as an earthly paradise, and in some ways it is, but the old earth is gone.

It is a brand new creation.

Throughout scripture heaven is the metaphor that tells us that there is far more here than meets the eye.

Heaven is not an ending, as we might expect, but a fresh beginning.

The sin-ruined creation of Genesis is restored in the sacrifice-renewed creation of Revelation

Heaven is not the promise of anything other than what we have already received by faith; it does though promise more.

It is the completion of that which God started in Christ – The Kingdom of God which is both physical and spiritual

Beyond and through what we see there is that which we cannot see, and which is, wondrously, not “out there” but right here before us and among us: God – his rule, his love, his judgment, his salvation, his mercy, his grace, his healing, his wisdom.

In the midst of this new creation John says:

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. In the chapter that follows you see all of the perfect numbers. Revelation 21:2

What does the Bible compare to a bride?

Yes, the church, all who are saved are compared to a bride.

This new creation - heaven is populated by all believers.
These verses go on to talk about the absence of the curse, “no more tears.”
But before that is mentioned, something greater is mentioned.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. Revelation 21:3

You will find scattered throughout the bible a statement from God basically saying, “I will be their God and they will be my people and I will dwell with them.”
This is the plan of salvation.
Salvation is God’s presence and reign in the life of the believer.
In Genesis humankind was separated from God, and the whole of the Bible depicts a story of redemption which is fulfilled through Jesus.
And, salvation is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer.
Salvation begins here.
But the ultimate fruition of salvation is God dwelling with us fully in a brand new place.
So, as I said earlier, the most important thing about heaven is who we are with.
Who wants to spend eternity with a God whom they wanted nothing to do with here on this earth?
Does your heart thirst for the Living God?

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4

I have heard people argue over whether our new body would be a physical body with spiritual attributes or a spiritual body with physical attributes.
You cannot die there, no more crying or pain. We are new creatures.

REV 21:5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

REV 21:6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

Absolute authority, nothing before him, nothing after him, always has been, always will be God Almighty!
And, if your heart thirsts for him, then you can drink from the fount of salvation here and now, and in heaven through eternity.
Salvation is offered to us free of cost. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Someone asked Melvin Trotter, who was a hopeless alcoholic before his conversion, "How do you know you are a Christian?" Trotter replied, "I was there when it happened!"
In his book "Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life", the author Charles Swindoll tells a story about the 19th Century agnostic Thomas Huxley (some of you might know that it was Huxley who promoted Darwinism and Humanism in his attacks on Christianity). Huxley was in Dublin and was rushing to catch a train. He climbed aboard one of Dublin’s famous horse drawn taxis and said to the driver -"Hurry, I’m almost late ... drive fast". Off they went at a furious pace and Huxley sat back in his seat and closed his eyes. After a while Huxley opened his eyes and glanced out the window to notice that they were going in the wrong direction. Realizing that he hadn’t told the driver where to take him he called out ‘do you know where you’re going?’ The driver replied "No, your honour, but I am driving very fast’.

SOURCE: "Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life" by Charles Swindoll
[SermonCentral: Contributed by: Philip Cairns]

7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Yet, there is another side to this coin also.

8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

The same Bible that tells of heaven also tells of a lake of sulfur- a metaphor for hell
Hell is a very serious topic which many of us would rather avoid
“There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than (hell), if it lay in my power…I would pay any price to be able to say truthfully: `All will be saved.’” C.S. Lewis

Wouldn’t we all?
Let me take just a moment to look at this for a moment and answer a few questions concerning Hell.

1. Does Hell Have A Purpose?

As much as we resist the idea, isn’t the absence of Hell even worse?
Remove it from the Bible and, at the same time, remove any notion of a just God and a trustworthy Scripture.
Let me explain.
If there is no Hell, God is not just.
If there is no punishment of sin, heaven is apathetic toward

those who cowardly deny Christ and serve other gods
those who commit murder, rape, incest, adultery;
those who deal in sorcery and witch craft
those who tell lies for their own personal gain

If there is no Hell, God is blind to toward the victims and has turned his back on those who pray for relief.
If there is no wrath toward evil, the God is not love, for love hates that which is evil.
To say there is no hell is also to say that God is a liar and his scripture untrue
The Bible repeatedly affirms the dualistic outcome of history.

Some will be saved. Some will be lost

“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” Daniel 12:2

“To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; wickedness, there will be wrath and fury” Romans 2:7-8

Jesus strongly taught about hell
13% of the teachings of Christ are about judgment and hell
More than half of his parables relate to God’s eternal judgment of sinners
No one in the bible spoke more about hell than Jesus
Jesus said, “Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved., but anyone who does not believe will be punished” Mark 16:16

The presence of Hell serves a powerful purpose.
If functions likes my dads storage shed
That is where my dad disciplined me.
When my mom got angry we got a spanking
When my dad got angry we got “a whoopin”
All my dad had to say was; “go to the storage shed” and my bottom started to tingle.
I do not mention this to discuss corporal punishment but rather to illustrate the impact that storage shed had on my behavior
You see, my dad loved me. I knew he loved me and most of the time his love was enough.
There were many bad things I didn’t do because I knew he loved me
But there were a few times when love was not enough.
The temptation was so strong, or the rebellion so fierce, that the thought of his love didn’t slow me down.
But the thought of his anger did.
When love didn’t compel me, fear corrected me.
The thought of the storage shed – and the weeping and gnashing of teeth therein – was just enough to straighten me out.
Folks our heavenly Father loves us, he really does
Most of the time, that love will be enough to make us follow him
But there will be times when it won’t
The lure of lust will be so mighty, the magnet of greed so strong, the promise of power so seductive, that people will reject the love of God.
In those moments, the Holy Spirit may mention “the storage shed”.
He may remind us that

“Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” Galatians 6:7

And the reminder that there is a place of punishment may be just what we need to correct our behavior.

2. WHAT WILL HELL BE LIKE?

Of all the horrors of hell, the worst must be the knowledge that the suffering will never cease.

“These will go way into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life Matthew 25:46

Equally disturbing is found in Rev. 14:11

“The smoke from their burning pain will rise forever and ever. There will be no rest, day or night, for those who worship the beast and his idol or who get the mark of his name.” Revelation 14:11

3. HOW COULD A LOVING GOD SEND PEOPLE TO HELL?

This question reveals a misconception
God does not send people to hell, he simply honors their choice.
Hell is the ultimate expression of God’s high regard for the dignity of humankind.
He never forced us to choose him, even when that means we would choose hell.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, `Thy will be done’ and those whom God says, in the end, `Thy will be done’. All that are in hell choose it.”

Let’s take a look a verse 8 again.

“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." Revelation 21:8

Friends, these things are lifestyles apart from repentance. Without forgiveness, we would all be in this lake.
The lifestyles listed here are those who saw no need for the forgiveness and salvation offered by Jesus.
They are people headed in the wrong direction.

A man was watching the news one night when it was reported that a car was going the wrong direction on the freeway. The man knew his wife was on that freeway and became very concerned so called her on her cell phone. She answered and he said, "Dear, there’s one car going in the wrong direction on the freeway." She exclaimed, "One car! There’s hundreds of them!"
[SermonCentral: Contributed by: Mark Sutherlin]

CONCLUSION

Yes, hell misery is deep, but not as deep as God’s love
So how do we apply today’s message?
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior this message today should cause you to rejoice
You have been rescued
A glance into heaven and hell should lead you, as a believer, to rejoice
To understand Heaven and Hell is to pray more earnestly and to serve more diligently.
Ours is a high stakes mission
For those who have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, for those who are unprepared?
Heed the warnings and get ready – this life won’t last forever

“Death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart” Ecclesiastes 7:2

a That is, about 1,400 miles (about 2,200 kilometers)

b That is, about 200 feet (about 65 meters)

c Or high

d The precise identification of some of these precious stones is uncertain.

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Re 21:1-22:6

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