Part 4 - Revelation 21:18-22:5. The Word on Heaven

Transcription

1 Part 4 - Revelation 21:18-22:5 The Word on Heaven >>> Please and turn with me to Revelation 21, and this morning, we are going to wrap up our series that we've been calling "The Word on Heaven." And remember I told you that the Bible has a lot to say about heaven, some 550 verses, but most of it is very general in nature. Very few specifics are given. And this is one of those passages that does give us some specifics, specifics about the New Jerusalem, the capital city of heaven. And remember last Sunday we saw even its dimensions. 1,500 miles long by 1,500 miles wide by 1,500 miles high and that is almost our ability with our finite minds to really grasp. That's a city that goes from New York City to Denver, from the Canadian border down to Florida and stands taller than seven times higher than the International Space Station orbits. It is really tough. I mean, it blows our mind to think about a city like this. One person in my life group this weekend said it gives me a headache and it really kind of does because it's so beyond our ability to grasp and I think that's why God doesn't give us a lot of detail because we could not grasp it. But we do see some detail in this passage and we want to wrap it up today by just kind of looking at some final characteristics of this city. I want to begin, though, by reading the entire passage we're going to look at today starting in Revelation 21. We're going to begin this morning in verse 18 and I'm going to read all the way through chapter 22 and verse 5. A little bit lengthy. I want to read the whole thing, though, because I made the mistake -- I should have made this a five-part series and we are going to try to cram two weeks into one today and so we're not going to get to all of it so I want to read all of it to begin with so I'm going to ask you in honor of the Word of God here in the Gospel Center, down in the Chapel, our classic service, as well, if you're able would you stand with me in honor of the Word of God as I read Revelation 21, it will be a lengthy passage, beginning in verse 18 and going all the way through chapter 22 and verse 5. And here's what the Bible says. It zeros in on the wall around the city and it says, the material of the wall was Jasper and the city was pure gold like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was Jasper. The second sapphire. The third chalcedony. The fourth emerald. The fifth sardonyx. The sixth sardius. The seventh chrysolite. The eighth beryl. The ninth topaz. The tenth chrysoprase. The 11th jacinth. The 12th amethyst. And I'm pretty certain I butchered several of those names. Verse 21, and the 12 gates were 12 pearls, each one of the gates was a single pearl. That is astounding. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. And I saw no temple in it for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it for the glory of God has illumined it and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime, for there will be no night there, its gates will never be closed. And they will bring the glory and honor of the nations in to it. And

2 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. And then chapter 22 beginning in verse 1. Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street on either side of the river was the tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 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 and there will no longer be any night and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun because the Lord God will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever. And may God bless the reading of His Word. Thank you. You may be seated. Well, I just want to go through kind of a laundry list of final characteristics of the city. The first thing we notice is the city itself. And according to the text we just read, the city itself is pure gold like clear glass. Now, folks, listen. This is a gold that is purer, more pure than any gold we have ever seen on this earth. Remember that according to what we saw earlier in our study everything in the New Jerusalem is made new and the word new means of better quality. So this is a gold of better quality than anything we have ever seen on this earth. Transparent, see-through golden city. And remember that in the middle of the city is God Himself where the glory of the Lord penetrating light blazes through this crystal clear city. Now, the next thing that he talks about is the wall. And when he talks about the wall, he gives a list of 12 different stones that make up the 12 different foundations of the wall. Again, every one of them would be made new, of better quality, than anything we have today. Now, if you're like me when I read that list it's like reading a foreign language, isn't it? You know? I don't understand much of that at all. So, what we did this week is we've invited a jeweler to come join us and help us out. So, Rick, if you would come on up. This is Rick Bagnasco. Rick is a jeweler from the Alpena area who's graciously come in this morning to spend some time with us to kind of help us through these verses right here. Rick, welcome. It's great to have you with us. >> Thank you, Pastor Scott. >> How long have you lived in Alpena? >> Lived in Alpena about 21, 22 years. Something like this. >> And your wife is with us today? >> She is. My wife Debbie came along. We were once upon a Gaylordites. I mean, we came from this region. Used to worship here at E-Free, as a matter of fact. And have been transplanted some years back. >> Very good. How long have you been a jeweler?

3 >> Took a job as a part time co-op student in high school as a jeweler so revealing that it's been 40 years. >> Oh really? >> Yeah, yeah. Long time. >> Oh boy. You know, this is all being recorded and videotaped and also going to be on TV at some point. >> I don't recall any disclaimers, though, as far as what it reveals. >> I love it. That's great. Well, that's wonderful. It is great to have you with us. >> Thank you. >> Now, I want to ask you as a jeweler, when you look at that list, that's got to be a little more making sense to you than it does me. So when you look at that list of all these stones that make up the foundation wall, how does it strike you as a jeweler? >> I think one of the things that strikes me the most is the variety that God is providing here. Again, presuming that our definitions and understandings of these stones today are what they'll be in the New Jerusalem -- >> Right. >> -- God represents an entire rainbow of gems here and minerals. The thing that a jeweler truly looks for in a gem of quality is that it will act with the natural light and disperse it and shine it about in a way that enhances and attracts. Certainly, much of what's represented here God is going to do that, not through a sun as we have just recently read. >> Right. >> But through His own glory. >> That's exactly right. >> He's going to provide a light that's just going to provide a beauty, a rainbow and a spectrum of glory that's just going to be unbelievable. >> Amazing. Now, when you look at those, is there anything interesting about any of those stones in particular that might be good to bring out? >> Well, there's -- I mean, several of them are not really stones that today are utilized in a lot of highend jewelry in the U.S. I imagine regionally they might be more Middle Eastern in some of them. The ones that we're probably most familiar with would be sapphire, topaz, emerald. Beryl is actually emerald. It's the material that emerald comes from. Being that it's represented twice here, Aquamarine

4 is also beryl and so it's likely referring to the pale blue, watery blue color of aquamarine. Emerald, of course, being the more familiar brilliant green that we're used to seeing. The only thing is when I think of many of these gems, I mean, from watching your stream lesson last weekend on what you had to say about the New Jerusalem, and considering today what jewelers see, I mean, even the finest, high quality material that we deal with today is going to be something that was found in the dirt once upon a time. >> Isn't that amazing to think about? >> God is going to breathe into existence just as He did creation, the new emerald. Now, you know, yeah, you can brag about I have this Colombian emerald or whatever but, you know, someday we'll say I have a God-breathed emerald so there's no comparing, no -- I mean, get your hands around it and your mind around it is a little -- >> That's a great concept. If you look today at the most perfect stone of any of those, it would be like dirt compared to the quality of that stone in the New Jerusalem. That's amazing. Now, think about this. We know that the surface level of the city, 1,500 by 1,500 would be about 2,250,000 square miles. And there's this wall that goes all the way around it. Now, what we don't know is are these foundation stones just one stone or are they all the way around? We don't know that. >> Yeah. >> But when you think about that, what -- when you think about these stones and them being of a new quality, what does that say to you about the beauty and value of this amazing wall? >> Yeah. Beauty certainly, again, breath taking. Value. How do you place a value on something? I mean, a value of an eternal home where we're going to be forever with the Lord, you know, that's the value we place on it. I mean, today, you think of impressive gemstones that you've made about, whether it's the hope diamond or some of the other premier gems that have been found. I mean, you know, they're amazing because they're 100 carats, 200 carats. >> Right. >> Which we're talking roughly the size of a golf ball. But here we're talking foundation stones and when I think of foundation stones, I think of the farmhouse, the fieldstones that they used in the foundations and the fireplaces and you think of something the size of my fist to the size of a football to larger. I mean, we are talking 500 carats to 7,000, 8,000, 10,000 karats. I mean, and not of a quality that you're going to say, oh yeah, it's a big chunk of -- no. We're talking breathtaking beauty. >> Yeah. Unbelievable. Now, there's one more thing I want to get your take on because the next thing we talk about is the gates. We know that there are 12 gates around the city and 3 on each side an just like the Old Testament tribes camped around the tabernacle in the Old Testament. But in the next verse it tells us that the gates of the city each one is made up of a gigantic pearl. I mean, it's not that the gates are made of pearls. Each gate, one gigantic pearl. Now, we don't know how big the gates are but I'm thinking even if it were a 12-gate pearl, that's 1 gigantic pearl, what does that say to you as a jeweler?

5 >> Well, first of all, I mean, many of you might understand already but a pearl is something that's mentioned often in the Bible, first of all. And has kind of a special meaning to me because of the allegory, the metaphor that it represents but just let me describe how it's made. An oyster finds an impurity within its tender flesh, grain of sand, whatever, and rather than expose its tender flesh to this abrasion and harm, it begins to secrete a material called nacre. And that's that white, iridescent kind of shininess that that comes around it. Well, over the course of years, it eventually creates a pearl. And this has been kind of refined to a point where it's actually farmed and that over in a lot of Asian countries. But when you think of a believer and you think of the representation of that harm in a believer's life, I think of sin. You think of the mercy and the grace and the blood of Christ that is perpetually covering and adding layer upon layer of forgiveness to our layer upon layer of potential scarring of our souls. It just presents a gorgeous representation to me. But when you talk about, you know, it physically we are no longer talking about imaginary. We are talking about what we are going to come into here. 8 to 12- foot tall pearl, I mean, you know, pearls generally are round and so that's the circumference. Can you imagine the oyster that made that thing? I mean, we are talking science fiction quality oyster, like Saturday creature feature kind of thing. I remember from my wife's youth, there was a place up in Mackinaw City called Seashell City. I don't know if it's still there. But it had this giant clam that sat out front and my wife speaks often of the terrifying photo that was taken of her as a child as her parents placed her into the mouth of this, you know, this large clam to have her picture taken. I mean, that's nothing. I mean, we are talking, you know, the oyster that swallowed New York City here to get something that size out of it. So it's going to be absolutely fabulous. And then just the pearl. I mean, the iridescence that you get off the sheen of a pearl is just beautiful. >> I love that. I love the fact that, you know, ladies, you might wear pearls and they're really good for you but they came through the suffering of an oyster. And I believe that every time we walk through those gates we'll be reminded that the only reason we get to go in there is because of the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Rick, thanks for being with us. >> It's been a pleasure. >> Would you give Rick a round of applause? [ Applause ] Thanks for helping us out. That's wonderful. Wonderful. Well, let's just quickly move through a few other characteristics. We talked about the wall, the gates. How about the street? And, of course, the Bible says that the street of the city was pure gold, again, like transparent glass. So pure you could see right through it. We have not seen anything like that. And by the way, many theologians say the word street is singular so there's -- so all these streets in heaven but only one is pure gold. Well, I have this hunch that there is only one street in heaven.

6 Now, remember, you got to think about this beyond your human limitations. In heaven, remember, it's 1,500 miles high, right? I don't think we're talking streets that just run horizontal. This is probably a street more like a roller coaster. All through the city. All made of transparent see-through pure gold. Amazing. What else do we learn in the passage we read? Well, we learn about the temple. The Bible says that I saw no temple in it. Now, when you and I read that to us we kind of go, okay. But you got to think about being John writing this in a time period when the temple stood in Jerusalem and remember that the temple was -- excuse me -- the very pride and joy of the Jewish people. And in the temple was the Holy of Holies that was the symbolic presence, location of the presence of God. In fact, to this day Jewish people every day will go to the Western Wall which is the closest that they can get to to where the Holy of Holies stood because it was so important to them that there was the Holy of Holies in the temple that was the presence of God in Israel. But, folks, listen. John says you know what I noticed in heaven? The first thing when I looked around, there's no temple there. Why? Because the glory of God and the presence of God is all right there all the time. So there is no temple in the city. What else do we learn? We learn that there's no light in the city. The Bible teaches us in the verses we read that there's no sun. There's no moon. There's no stars. There's no need for lamps. Now, why is that the case? We've talked about it the last couple of weeks. The Bible says it's the very glory of God that illuminates the entire city. Now, last week I gave you a simple definition -- probably too simple -- a simple definition of the glory of God and I'm going to give it again because I asked my life group this week what it was and none of them remembered so let me give it to you again. In simple terms, what is the glory of God? The glory of God is the sum total of all of His attributes. It's the sum total of who He is. And in the Bible, it is seen as a brilliant light, penetrating light. And in heaven, the sum total of who God is in His full presence will manifest a light that would illumine the entire city, the new heavens, the new earth. Amazing to think about. How about this? The next thing we see would be the inhabitants of the city. And it says the nations will walk by the light of the glory of God and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Now, don't get confused by the word nations. When you look at that word, by the way we think of nations, we go, oh, so, there's still going to be the United States. There's still going to be China. There's still going to be Russia. There's still going to be Canada. That's not what the word means. The word nations means peoples. In fact, the most common way it's translated in the Bible is gentiles. In other words, it's simply saying and all the people. That's simply what it's saying. It is not saying there's a breakdown of ethnic proportions and everybody that's this way lives here and everybody that's this way lives here. Kind of like it is today. It's just saying, all the peoples of the earth. Now, we do know this. We'll see it more in a second. And we learned this earlier in the series, that the only inhabitants are those who are believers. We saw that back in chapter 21 verse 7. Who inherits the city? Overcomers. What is an overcomer? 1 John 5:5, he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. So it's only believers who will be in the city and all the peoples. By the way, the word gentiles there again shows us it's not just a Jewish thing. It's anyone who's put their faith in the death and resurrection of

7 Jesus Christ. And it says all the peoples, all the kings will come into the city and it says they'll bring their glory into the city. Now, what does that mean? The idea is this. They're going to bring their glory in and leave it there. In other words, when we get to this new heaven, this new earth, we enter the New Jerusalem, anything that we thought we brought glory to us we're going to bring in to the city an all glory in this city will be laid at the feet of Jesus Christ. You see, in the New Jerusalem, we will finally get it, folks. We will finally understand that the only one worthy of glory, the only one worthy of honor is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And all the nations, all the kings will bring their glory in to the city and recognize that it all rests on the person of Jesus Christ. The inhabitants. Notice something else. Notice what it says about night. It says, there will be no night in the city. It says it's always daytime. And as a result, the gates are never closed. Now, this is amazing to think about because obviously there's no night. The glory of God is always -- I mean, there's never a time God turns His glory off, right? It's always daylight in the city. There is no night. The gates are never closed. That means it's uninterrupted joy. It's uninterrupted satisfaction. Do you realize in heaven you will not need to take a power nap? You will not need to -- there will never be even a twinge of, oh, I got to rest a second. There'll never be that. Hey, can we sit down for just a minute? There'll never be that. You will have a perfect body. You will have perfect lungs. You will have perfect energy. You'll have perfect everything. It is totally, completely uninterrupted joy and satisfaction. There is no night there. The gates are always open. It never closes down. You don't take a siesta in heaven. Notice something else. Notice the perfection of the city. The perfection. Look what it says. It says in verse 27, nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into the city. We learn later in chapter 2 there's no more curse in the city. Sin is gone. The curse of sin is gone. The consequences of sin is gone. So no one who practices abomination and no one who lies will be in the city. Now, I want to ask you a question and here's the question. This is forced fun. You have to participate. And here's the question. How many of you here in the Gospel Center as well as down in the Chapel in the classic service, how many of you have ever told a lie? Would you raise your hand? Raise it high. In the classic service, does my mom and dad have their hand up? Just checking. All right. Put your hands down. Let me ask you a second question. How many of you have in your life told two lies? Raise your hand. All right. Put your hands down. Let me ask you one more question. Last question. How many of you in your entire life have told a minimum of three lies? Raise your hand. Now, if your hand's not up, you're a liar. Okay? Put your hands down. You know what that means? That means everyone in this room is a liar. And nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come in to the city. Now, I just proved to you that everyone of us are liars. Do you know what that tells me? Folks, that tells me this. That there's not one person in this room, there's not one person in the Chapel, there's not one person listening via radio or the internet or TV, there's not one person at all hearing my voice that deserves the New Jerusalem. You don't deserve to

8 go there. I don't deserve to go there. In fact, this verse also tells me this. That there is no way on my own that I can ever get there. You know why? Because like you I'm a liar. I'm a sinner. And sin cannot enter the New Jerusalem. However, don't miss the last part of the verse. But -- aren't you glad the but's there? Wow. I mean, you take away that word but we're all in trouble, aren't we? Whoo. Because up until the word it, we're all doomed. But only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life will enter the city. Now, folks, I want to say something and I want to say this clearly and I want to say this dogmatically as I can possibly say it. And I want to keep saying it until the day I die. And it's important. I think especially of this week. This has been a week when religion has been in the news an awful lot, wouldn't you say? I mean, we have had the pope visiting in America. We have had presidential candidates debating if Muslims should be President. I mean, religion has been in the news a lot. And I need you to understand this. I'm going to say it clearly. I'm going to say it dogmatically. Listen. Religion will never get you to heaven. Religion will never get you to heaven. Because no amount of religious activity that you're involved in will change the fact that you are a liar, that you are a sinner. And no amount of religion can change that. You see, religion is man trying to work their way to God, trying to be good enough to get to God. Religion will never get you to heaven. It doesn't matter what religion it is. It will never get you to heaven. Heaven isn't about a religion. Heaven is about having a personal relationship with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father unless they come through Me. 1 John 5 says, he that has the can have son, Jesus Christ, has eternal life. But he that does not have the Son of God does not have eternal life. How do I get my name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? According to the Bible it's by placing my faith and trust solely and fully in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of my sin. You see, my getting to the New Jerusalem has nothing to do with what I do. I can't do enough. My getting into the New Jerusalem is not based on what I do. It is based on what Jesus Christ already did for me when He paid the penalty for my sin, for my lies when He died on the cross in my place. And when I put my faith fully in His death and His resurrection trusting Him and no one else, for my eternal salvation, my name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life and that's why I have the hope and the assurance that when my life ends I will spend eternity with God in heaven. It's not about religion. It's not about your works. It's all about Jesus Christ. He that has the Son has eternal life. Look at something else. Notice now and we're going to have to hit this real quick because we're about out of time but notice in chapter 2 -- it's 22, the next thing we see is the river of life. And the Bible says that the angel showed John a river of the water of life clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Now, I believe that's a very literal river that comes right from the throne of God. But also in the Bible, that's also used -- water is also used symbolically to speak of eternal life, to speak of the peace that comes with the presence of God. In fact, in Psalm 46:4, David spoke about that symbolism when he said there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the dwelling places of the Most High. He was speaking of Jerusalem at that

9 time, the city of Jerusalem in his day. And what made the city glad was that river of the presence of God. Well, in heaven, there will be a river of life that flows from the very throne of God. Now, notice a few things about this river. Notice first of all that it's clear as crystal. It is the clearest water you've ever seen in your life. You have not seen water this clear. Remember, everything in heaven was made new. It was made of better quality. And its source is the very throne of God. What is it that provides for us in heaven eternal life and eternal satisfaction? It is the very throne of God. Listen, my friend. All the wonderful things in heaven we're talking about, street of gold, all those jeweled walls, yeah, they'll be beautiful, but the thing that will be the source of our satisfaction and the source of our eternal life is not the walls. It is not the street. It is not the pearl gates. The source of our satisfaction, the source of our eternal life will be the very presence of God. And so, the river flows from the very throne of God. And notice one other thing. Notice that with the river of life there's also a tree of life. Now, when you read the text, it kind of -- you try to picture this in your mind it doesn't make sense but remember in heaven we're not bound by earthly limitations but there's a tree of life -- on either side of the river was a tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Now, there's a lot of debate over is this tree literal or is it symbolic. And I think the answer really is both because in the Bible the tree of life is both literal and symbolic. The first time we see the tree of life physically is where? In the Garden of Eden. You see, New Jerusalem is going to be like paradise regained, paradise restored. But in the book of Genesis, you see the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:9 says this. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that's pleasing to the sight and good for food. One of those trees is the tree of life that stood in the midst of the garden. Now, by the way, we also know in the Garden of Eden there was another tree, right? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Remember, that's the one that Adam and Eve ate from and plunged all of us into sin. By the way, that tree is not mentioned in the New Jerusalem, is it? Why? Because there is no possibility of evil in the New Jerusalem. The tree of life is mentioned in both. It's a physical tree. But throughout scripture the tree of life is also used symbolically simply to illustrate blessing and life at its fullest. Let me give you several verses from the book of Proverbs that show this. In Proverbs 3:18, it says wisdom is a tree of life. It brings blessing. It helps us to live life at its fullest. In Proverbs 11:30, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. It brings blessing. It helps us to live life to the fullest. In Proverbs 13:12, hope deferred makes the heart sick but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. It brings blessing. It helps us to live life to the fullest. In Proverbs 15:4, a soothing tongue is a tree of life. It brings blessing. It helps us to live life at its fullest. So what is the whole idea of the tree of life? It's a literal tree but it also shows us that in heaven we will live life to its fullest. Unlike anything we have ever experienced. Now, by the way, I also find it interesting that it says on this tree in heaven it bears 12 different kinds of fruit, 1 fruit each month. So every month there's a different fruit on the tree. So one month you pick, I don't know, an apple. The next month you pick an orange. The next month you pick a pear, whatever. That's kind of bizarre to think about but here's what I like about it. You know what it tells me? The

10 same thing that Rick brought up about all the different colored of jewels in the wall, it tells me there's variety. Awesome variety. Folks, I need you to understand something. I need you to understand that there will never be a moment in heaven that you experience boredom. There will never be a time you're going, really nothing to do. There'll never be a time like that. We spend all of our time when we talk about heaven going, well, I hope this is there. I hope we get to do that. I hope we get to do this. Well, if we can't do that, how am I going to be happy? We spend all of our time talking that way and I just need you to know something. Ladies and gentlemen, there will be nothing missing from heaven that you're going to miss when you get to heaven. Do you understand that? There will be nothing missing from heaven that you're going to miss. It is going to be incredible variety and even if it's missing you're not going to miss it because you're going to experience incredible things beyond anything your mind could imagine. It also says this. It says that the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Now some go, well, why do you need something for healing in heaven if there's no sickness? Well, understand that the word translated healing there is where we get our English word therapeutic. It's not a word describing something you take to make you better because you're sick. It's simply a word that talks about life to its fullest. It's health giving. You will experience what you've never experienced before. You will experience life to its fullest. You have never had a moment in your life when you were 100% perfect physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually all at the same time. You have never experienced that on earth. But in heaven, that will be the case all the time. The very tree of life produces this life giving therapy and we will enjoy life to its fullest. Well, let me wrap it up with this. Notice the rest of the story. Verses 3 and 4 simply say this. We don't have time to dig into it. You can in your life group this is week. It says there will no longer be any curse. It says the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it. We'll come back to in a second. And I love this. Hey, what will we do in heaven? It says and His bond-servants will serve Him. I don't know how we'll serve Him but everything we do will be in service to our King. And it says they'll see His face. And, folks that's going to be a lot better than a street of gold or a pearly gate. And His name will be on their foreheads. We will belong to Him in the most intimate of ways. But would you notice again it says there in that city there will be the throne of God and of the Lamb? So I want to end our series by showing you that throne. So I'd like you to stand with me, would you, here, also in the Chapel. Would you stand with me? Here's what I want to end. It's not going to be up on the screens because I want you just to listen but I want to read for you Revelation 4. It's John's vision of the throne of God. It's what we're going to see in the New Jerusalem. And here's what it says. John says, after these things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I had heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me said, come up here, I'll show you what must take place after these things. And immediately I was in the Spirit and behold a throne was standing in heaven. And one was sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a Jasper stone. And a sardius in appearance and there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance.

11 And around the throne were 24 thrones and upon the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting and I believe the 24 elders represent the church. That's us. Look what it says. It says, they were sitting clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their head. And out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peels of thunder! You say, isn't that going to be loud? Don't worry. You'll have perfect ears. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was something like a sea of glass like crystal and in the center and around the throne four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind, the first creature was like a lion. The second creature like a calf. The third creature had a face like that of a man. The fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures each one of them having six wings are full of eyes around and within and day and night, they do not cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty who was and is and who is to come. And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders, the church, will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever and ever and we will cast our crowns before His throne saying worthy are You our Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power for You created all things and because of Your will they existed and were created, even so come, Lord Jesus. Would you bow with me for prayer? Father, it's amazing to think that someday what we have tried to describe in human words will become reality. Someday we're going to see that city. And some day we're going to see those jeweled walls. And some day we're going to go up and touch a pearly gate and someday we're going to walk through that gate and see a street of gold. And some day we're going to pick a fruit from the tree of life and we're going to sit by a river of life. And some day we will see the very throne of God. We will join the angelic beings in declaring Your worth, in declaring Your glory. We will cast our crowns at Your feet. Oh, Father, the best is certainly yet to come. And, God, the only reason that's going to become reality is because in Your grace you gave us what we didn't deserve. Your forgiveness. Your salvation. Your gift of eternal life. And we will understand more than ever before that our presence in that city will have nothing to do with anything we've done. It'll be solely based on what Jesus did for us. Now, that, Father, is amazing grace. And for that grace and for that hope we give You honor, glory, praise and thanksgiving. And we pray all of this in the name of Your Son, our Savior, our King, Jesus Christ. And all God's people said, amen. Let's worship the Lord together.