Revelation chapter 21 this morning we're going to continue our series on the reality of eternity and
last week we spoke of the certainty of eternity it's coming whether you're ready for it or not
I encourage you to be ready this week I want to talk about heaven particularly the unfathomable
nature of heaven now the word unfathomable means incapable of being explored or understood
impossible to measure the extent of so I'll tell you that I'm going to do my best today to describe
to you some aspects of what heaven will be like but I promise you from the beginning it will not be
sufficient the reality is the words of English cannot put or any other language cannot really
explain to us the vast expanse of the glories of heaven but we get a glimpse of it in Revelation
21 of all places in scripture it's most clearly in Revelation 21 I want to begin to unpack that
this morning it's in Revelation 21 beginning in verse 1 it says this
then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away
and the sea was no more and I saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold
the dwelling place of God is with man he will dwell with them they'll be his people and God himself
will be with them as their God he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more
neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away
and he who was seated on the throne said behold I am making all things new also he said write this down
for these words are trustworthy and true and he said to me it is done I am the alpha and the omega the beginning
and the end to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment the one who
conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he'll be my son but as for the cowardly the
faithless the detestable as for murderers the sexually immoral sorcerers idolaters and all liars
their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur which is the second death then came
one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me saying
come and I'll show you the bride the wife of the lamb and he carried me away in spirit to a great high
mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God having the glory of God
its radiance like a most rare jewel like a like a jasper clear as crystal it had a great high wall
with 12 gates and at the gates 12 angels and on the gates the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of
Israel were inscribed on the east three gates on the north three gates on the south three gates
and on the west three gates and the wall of the city had 12 foundations and on them were the 12 names
of the 12 apostles of the lamb and the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold measuring the
city and its gates and walls the city lies four square its length the same as its width and he measured
the city with his rod 12,000 stratia its length and its width and its height are equal he also measured
its wall 144 cubits by human measurement which is also an angel's measurement the walls was built of
jasper while the city was pure gold like clear glass the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned
with every kind of jewel the first was jasper the second sapphire the third agate the fourth emerald the
fifth onyx the sixth carnelian the seventh crystallite the eighth barrel the ninth topaz the tenth
christophase the eleventh jason the twelfth amethyst and the 12 gates were 12 pearls each of the gates made
of a single pearl and the streets of the city was pure gold like transparent glass and i saw no temple
in the city for its temple is the lord god the almighty and the lamb and the city had no need of sun or moon
to shine on it for the glory of god gives its light and its lamp is the lamb by its light will the nations
walk and the kings of the earth be will bring their glory into it and its gates will never be shut by day
there'll be no night there that will bring into the glory and the honor of the nations but nothing unclean will
ever enter it nor anyone who does what is detestable or false but only those who are written in the lamb's
book of life i want to share with you three things that you can look forward to but i realize that i don't
have time to share you three things so i'm going to show you two of them this morning two things that
heaven has this morning first one is this unforeseen beauty in that city the unforeseen beauty of that
city beginning in verse 11 we get the most clear picture in this life that we can have of heaven
it says the glory of god will shine in that place brighter than the sun shines here shall be the glory
of god there now what exactly does that mean well we'll have to get there to find out but i can give
you some examples that point to it in exodus chapter 34 verse 29 do you remember when moses went up to
mount sinai and he went up to mount sinai and received the 10 commandments from the lord
i want you to listen to what this this was like for moses as he was in the presence of god
it said when moses came down from mount sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand and
he came down from the mountain moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been
talking with god aaron and all the people of israel saw moses and behold the skin of his face shone
and they were afraid to come near him but moses called to them and aaron and all the leaders of the
congregation returned to him and moses talked with them afterward all the people of israel came near
and he commanded them all that the lord had spoken with him in mount sinai and when moses had finished
speaking with them he put a veil over his face whenever moses went in before the lord to speak with him
he would remove the veil until he came out and when he came out and told the people of israel what he
was commanded the people of israel would see the face of moses that the skin of moses face was shining
and moses would put the veil over his face until he went in to speak with him tell you what was
happening moses was coming down covering his face because it glowed with the glory of god
he had been in the presence unadulterated presence of god and from that he shone literally the glory of
god let me give you another example it's in matthew chapter 17 it's at the transfiguration of jesus
we pick up a few different signs of heaven here i want to touch on one it says after six days jesus took
with him peter and james and john his brother led him up a high mountain by themselves and he was
transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light
and behold there appeared to them moses and elijah talking with them and peter said to jesus
lord it is good that we are here if you wish i will make three tents here one for you and one for
moses and one for elijah he was still speaking when behold a bright cloud overshadowed them
and a voice from the cloud said this is my son with whom i am well pleased listen to him when the
disciples heard this they fell on their faces and were terrified but jesus came and touched them and
said rise and have no fear and when they lifted up their eyes they saw no one but jesus only and as
they were coming down the mountain jesus commanded them tell no one the vision until the son of man is
raised from the dead
i'll tell you what happened on the mount mount of transfiguration they were exposed to the glory
of god the glory of god is the shine of heaven his glory illuminates heaven
in revelation 21 verse 12 it tells us that there's a high wall around heaven that is a powerful symbol
because walls were built around cities for security it was not to keep people in it was to keep harm
out and the point of that is heaven is an eternally secure place that there is no fear in heaven
there are no locks in heaven there's gates but they're always open there is no apprehension in heaven
it describes the walls of heaven as made from most precious stones all which are colorful with
brilliant hues and when you see how this book is translated from the original language to english you
realize that we don't have words for some of these we find something similar the word may mean blue and
so they find a jewel that's blue and place that word in there it is really truly beyond our comprehension
and the point is when it stacks the walls with 12 different jewels of amazement it is magnificent
beauty beyond the imagination of the human eye the book of revelation is a fascinating book it is also the
most abused and misused book in all the bible it is fascinating and it is controversial and there are
several characteristics that mark the book let me give you two of them that are relevant relevant for what
we're doing today one of them is symbolism there's a ton of symbolism in revelation symbolic images that
you can pick up on what they mean by looking at the context of the rest of scripture the second thing that
you'll find that characterizes revelation is numerology and a lot of people take the numerology of
revelation and run with it and go crazy with it and come up with formulas and all that stuff that are not
in the bible they make it up just to be honest with you sells good books though there are four numbers
however that are repeatedly used in scripture if you'll look at the multiples of of what we're looking at
today you'll see these numbers used again and again four of them one of them is the number three
now all of these numbers mean complete they mean perfect so you help me this morning why would the number
three be considered a perfect number
it's because of the trinity because the three in one one in three god that we serve the trinity points
to perfection points to completion the next number is the number seven now why would seven be a symbol
of perfection do you know it's creation the world was created in seven days
if you take the day of rest off you have the number six
if you triple that number put it together three times you get six six six so if six is an evil number
because you lay off the day of rest then three times more would be the number six six six for instance
another perfect number that is mentioned is the is the number 10 why would 10 be significant
because of the 10 commandments they represent the whole of the law they're not the whole of the law
they represent the whole of the law so when you have the 10 commandments you cover the law of swords
the last number and you see that quite a bit here is the number 12 and the reason why the number 12
is a symbolic number that's used again and again is because all of god's people in the old testament
were made up in the 12 tribes so when you include the 12 gates you include all of god's people it's a
powerful symbol now today those who are in christ are god's people so what this speaks of when it speaks
of the tribes it speaks of the old israel god's chosen people but when you look at the foundation of
those walls you'll see there's 12 foundations and what is upon those foundations but it's about the
apostles names and so you also see the newest trail which are those who are in christ you see since the
cross since the cross and the carrying out of the great commission all through christ are god's chosen
children we all come through christ those before christ came in the hope of christ those since christ
came because of what christ did we all come through christ now if you stumble on that i want you to
notice that the foundation has the names of the apostles on it which means that the message in which
the apostles preached is the foundation of what heaven stands on what is that that's the gospel that's the hope
that we have heaven is made up of god's people and its foundation is the message of the apostles
which is the gospel in those walls are gates how many 12 gates verse 21 says in the 12 gates were 12
pearls each of the gates made of a single pearl now i may make more of this than i ought to but i always had
trouble as a kid when i heard people talk about people going through the pearly gates because when
i heard people talk about the pearly gates what it sounded like to me was some saturday morning get
together where you get a bunch of fake pearls and glue them together to come up with some ornate gate
of sorts that you come through and that is not at all what it's speaking of i want you to notice that it
makes the point to say that verse 21 says and the 12 gates were 12 pearls listen each of the gates made of a single pearl
that is significant especially if you understand how a pearl is made a pearl is formed when a small grain
of sand becomes embedded into an oyster and it begins to irritate that oyster and to soften that
irritation the oyster coats that grain of sand with a smooth layer of mother of pearl is what it's called
as long as it is an irritant it continues to coat it making it larger and larger and for those who are
cracking open oysters looking for pearls they want a lot of irritation before they ever get to it because
they want that pearl to be good size what kind of irritant would have been necessary
to make pearls the size of forming gates now let me just give you an understanding here
when we speak of the gates of these walls scripture says they are 144 cubits thick
a cubic cubit is from the average man from his elbow to the tip of his third finger
on my arm it's 18 inches and so it's safe to say that 144 cubits would at least be 200 feet
the gates of the walls of heaven is described in scripture as 200 feet thick
it must have been some type of irritation to make a pearl that big i mean it had to be tremendous
suffering
so what in the world does that mean well i believe the answer is found inside the question
how can we get through the gate of heaven because of christ because of his sacrifice because his
sacrifice coated over the irritant of our sin and these pearl gates represent the beauty of our entrance
into heaven because of the suffering of christ that went before us not only does it talk about the gates but it says that the streets
and the city are pure gold like transparent glass
you ever seen gold that looked like transparent glass
ladies if some fellow's trying to give you gold that looks like transparent glass i wouldn't take it
okay
but literally what this means is it is gold without impurity
literally what this means is it describes the process of how gold is heated up and when gold is heated up
impurities rise to the top and then that is removed off of that gold
and therefore the better the gold you have the more impurities are removed
never are all the impurities removed
hopefully most have been removed
however the point of it is there is no impurity in heaven
therefore the appearance of the gold in heaven is like glass
because all the impurities have been removed
there is no impurity in heaven
which means that this gold construction is transparent which is fitting
because nothing is hidden in heaven
and the pure gold is a treasure beyond any that this world
can bring
it also speaks of the size of heaven
the size of heaven is identified as four square
and when it's identified as four square
if you take the measurements
and of 12,000 stratia
and you change that to our measurements today
it means that heaven is 1400 miles on each side
it also means that heaven is 1400 miles high
1400 miles that is from Canada to Mexico
that is from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains
if you take that height
because it's a cube
if you take that height into consideration
it would accommodate 20 billion people
each having a 75 acre cube
or room
or mansion
and the point of that is
thank God
there's room
in heaven
John 14 1 through 3 says this
let not your hearts be troubled
you believe in God
believe also in me
and my father's house are many rooms
if it were not so
would I have told you
that I go to prepare a place for you
and if I go and prepare a place for you
I will come again
and will take you to myself
that where I am
you may be also
some of you do not like that translation
and the reason why you don't like that translation
is because they have ripped the mansion out
and put a room in
I often use this passage
at funerals
and I always
read the New King James Version
because
I ain't about to tell people at a funeral
that they're going to a room
they've been waiting on a mansion
all this time
let me tell you why that's different
it's because over the last
400 years and more
we've been able to
come to a better understanding
of the New Testament language
Kornei Greek is a dead language
nobody speaks it
and so
what we get from it now
is from archival information
and the more documents
that are dug up
and the older the documents are
that are dug up
and the more you see the language used
and how it is used
the better understanding that you have
and the reality is
the word there in the Greek
that was translated mansion years ago
is really normally used
more like a manse
which would be a house
or a dwelling place
or even a room of sorts
the point is
there is room for all
it goes on to tell us
that there's no sun
there's no star
there's no night
God the Father
and His Son Christ are there
they are all the light
we need
and I take you back
to Matthew 17
I take you back
to the passage in Exodus
that speaks of the shine
that came from those
who had just been
in the presence of God
not God Himself
the gates are always open
ready to receive more
can you imagine
the beauty of heaven
no
no you can't
it is beyond
anything we can comprehend
we have no idea
not only
is there unimaginable beauty
of heaven
but I want you to also see
this morning
the unimaginable
reunion with the saints
the unimaginable
reunion with the saints
Hebrews 12 23 tells us
that when we turn to God
we have come
to the assembly
of the firstborn
who are enrolled
in heaven
and to God
the judge of all
and to the spirits
of the righteous
made perfect
I want you to hear me
this morning
listen
if you're a child of God
scripture says
your name is written
in the Lamb's book of life
that is the way
scripture puts
the registration
of heaven
when you give your heart
and life to the Lord
Jesus Christ
you're registered
and you will not
arrive late
you'll be right on time
God will send for you
on time
and when he does
you will be with
fellow saints of God
that are already there
people ask me
will we know each other
of course we'll know each other
we'll know each other
more than we do now
now how do I know that
well if you look back
at Matthew 17
verse 3
that we looked at earlier
it says in verse 3
that
and behold
there appeared to them
Moses and Elijah
talking
with them
with Moses and Elijah
talking with Christ
at the Mount of Transfiguration
Peter, James and John
were looking on
and they recognized
Moses
and Elijah
now I want you to think
about that for a moment
folks
Peter, James and John
did not have
one of those
green covered Bibles
that we had as a kid
where you open it up
when you get to the
Moses passage
and it shows
the Charlton Heston
standing in front
of the burning bush
they didn't have that
they didn't have portraits
of Moses
they didn't have portraits
of Elijah
they don't know
what them men
looked like
they know Elijah
wore funky clothes
but they don't know that
but instantly
they recognized them
no pictures
they didn't know
what they looked like
they had
an intuitive
knowledge
listen
when I get to glory
I'm going to be thin
and buff
and good looking
and you're still going to know
who I am
it's going to be amazing
how?
because of intuitive
knowledge
if Peter, James and John
recognized those
they had never seen
don't you dare doubt
that you'll not be able
to recognize those
that you have seen
how?
I don't know
but I'll know then
because 1 Corinthians 13
verse 12
says this
now we see
but a poor reflection
as in a mirror
then we shall see
face to face
now I know in part
then I shall know fully
even as I am fully known
oh my friend
it will all become clear
instantly
when we get there
until then
we just see through
a glass dimly
George W. Truitt
pastored the First Baptist Church
of Dallas
for half of the 20th century
the first half of the 20th century
somebody in the church
had a baby
and George W. Truitt
went to the hospital
to see that baby
to visit that family
and the father came out
with the baby
and when the father
came out with the baby
Truitt began to cry
the father asked him why
and Truitt said
I was just thinking
about your beautiful family
and I realized
that all of you
will not be in heaven
I realized
that all the rest
of your family
will be
but you won't be
how sad
I love to think about
the glories of heaven
the beauty of the city
and the opportunity
that we have
to be
in the greatest reunion
that we could ever imagine
thank God
that for the Christian
heaven will be a reunion
like you've never seen
let me just be blunt today
what about you
are you ready
have you nailed
your salvation down
God gave us
his words
so that we would know
John writes
in both
big John
the gospel of John
and the little John
in first John
he says
I've written these things
that you may
know that you have
eternal life
folks I want you
certain
this morning
has there ever been
a time in your life
when you've asked
the Lord Jesus
to come into your life
and to forgive you
of your sins
and to cleanse you
and to change you
if that's never
happened to you
I promise you
today's the day
of salvation
if you feel any
yearning at all
to come to him
it's not from you
it's because of him
his Holy Spirit
has initiated that
and you have a responsibility
to respond to that
in obedience
I'd love to guide you
in that process
and we're going to stand
in just a moment
and we're going to sing
and when we do
I encourage you to come
say pastor I'd love
to give my heart
and life to the Lord
Jesus Christ
or maybe you have done that
you've never let anybody
else know that publicly
I mean maybe a few
in the family know
or something like that
but you've never publicly
acknowledged that
Jesus by his commission
and by his example
tell us
that we are to acknowledge
that through baptism
hey
and I got good news
for you
if you've never
acknowledged that
through baptism
we have an opportunity
in Lake Chiliwater
this afternoon
you have a wonderful
opportunity
and it's not too late
I promise you
if you've never
acknowledged your salvation
publicly through baptism
you come
whether today works out
or not
you come
and make that right
publicly
before us
and before the Lord
maybe you're here
and God's drawing you
to be a part of this
fellowship
I'm telling you
the sweetest times
that Pickens First Baptist
Church will ever have
will only simply be
a foretaste
of what we have
to look forward to
I highly anticipate
this afternoon
I think we're going to
have a wonderful
glorious time
together
we're going to celebrate
the birth of Christ
moving and working
in the lives of folks
the birth of a Christian
excuse me
working and moving
in their lives
and we're going to
celebrate with them
I mean if one of our
college football teams
won a national championship
we'd drive wherever
we had to go
fight as much traffic
as we had to fight
stand in whatever
kind of weather
we had to stand
to cheer them on
and it'd only be
a temporary title
it'd be put in some
case and people
could go by
and look at it later
those players
would graduate
grow old and fat
like the rest of us
but when somebody
gives their heart
and life
to the Lord
Jesus Christ
they're forever changed
for all of eternity
we ought to cheer
like it matters
when they acknowledge
that publicly
we ought to be
in their crowd
thank God
there's a great cloud
of witnesses
I'll talk about
one morning
that's also cheering
us on
but we have a responsibility
to cheer one another on
what an opportunity
we have
and then to eat together
what a great opportunity
for that
but I'm telling you
the sweetest reunions
we ever have
in this church
is just a foretaste
of what it's going to be like
when we see them
face to face
God's drawing you
to our congregation
you come
we'd love to guide you
in that process
God's blessing us
in mighty ways
God's doing a move
I have no way
to describe it
except that God's
chosen to put his hand
upon us
and work in us
in mighty ways
I thank God
lives are being changed
if you feel led
to be a part of that
you come
maybe you're here
this morning
and there's barriers
in your life
that you need to lay down
before the Lord
you know you're a Christian
but there's things
in your life
you're ashamed of
things that you need
to confess
and you need to walk
away from
in the power
of the Holy Spirit
of God
he gives us
the strength
to do that
he also gives us
folks to encourage
us along the way
I'll be happy
to walk with you
through your journey
and encourage you
along the way
you just obey God
as he speaks
to your heart and life
Lord Jesus
I love you
and I thank you
for the opportunity
you give us today
to celebrate you
to live for you
to dedicate our lives
to you dear God
to publicly confess you
to join in
with your believers
Father
God help us
to simply be obedient
right now
of exactly what
you'd have us to do
nothing more
or nothing less
bless our efforts
oh God I pray
in Jesus precious name
Amen