A River Runs Through It: Part 2
A Two-Part Sermon on heaven
By Dave Redick
Hwy 20 Church of Christ, Sweet Home, OR

"And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb..." - Revelation 22:1

Introduction

Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony of water bugs. They were a happy colony, living far away from the sun. For many months they were very busy, scurrying over the soft mud on the bottom of the pond. They did notice that every once in a while one of their colony seemed to lose interest in going about with his friends. Clinging to the stem of a pond lily, he gradually moved out of sight and was seen no more. "Look!" said one of the water bugs to another. "One of our colony is climbing up the lily stalk. Where do you suppose he is going?" Up, up, up he went slowly. Even as they watched him, the water bug disappeared from sight. His friends waited and waited but he didn't return.
"That's funny!" said one water bug to another.
"Wasn't he happy here?" asked a second water bug.
"Where do you suppose he went?" wondered a third.
No one had a answer. They were greatly puzzled.
Finally one of the water bugs, a leader in the colony, gathered his friends together. "I have an idea. The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell us where he went and why."
"We promise," they said solemnly.
One spring day, not long after, the very water bug who had suggested the plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, up, up he went. Before he knew what was happening, he had broken through the surface of the water, and fallen onto the broad, green lily pad above. When he awoke, he looked about with surprise. He couldn't believe what he saw. A startling change had come to his old body. His movement revealed four silver wings and a long tail. Even as he struggled, he felt an impulse to move his wings. The warmth of the sun dried the moisture from the new body. He moved his wings again and suddenly found himself up above the water. He had become a dragonfly. Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through the air. He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere. By and by, he lighted happily on a lily pad to rest. Then it was that he chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond. Why, he was right above his old friends, the water bugs! There they were, scurrying about, just as he had been doing some time before. Then he remembered the promise: "The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk will come back and tell where he went and why." Without thinking, he darted down. Suddenly he hit the surface of the water. "I can't return!" he said in dismay. "At least I tried, but I can't keep my promise. Even if I could go back, not one of the water bugs would know me in my new body. I guess I'll just have to wait until they become dragonflies, too. Then they'll understand what happened to me, and where I went." And the dragonfly winged off happily into his wonderful new world of sun and air.¹

In our last lesson we took a look at some of what the Bible tells us about heaven. We looked at some of the reasons that it is good to contemplate heaven on occasion and then we took a look at the first of at least five gifts all saved people will receive once we get there: a brand new body. We saw that to be absent from the physical body is to be present with the Lord - for awhile. Then there is to be a resurrection of the physical body from the grave and it is to be altered - changed - for heaven. Our spirits will be reunited with this new body and it will be perfect, just the way God intended for it to be. Old age, illness, deformities, senility, and all the other "bad" things that happen to the body here on earth will be history -things of the former order - things that have passed away.

In this lesson I would like to consider four more new gifts we will experience when we get to heaven.

Besides receiving a new body for heaven, we will also receive,

Gift Number Two: A New Place to Live

While it may be true that a glorified body could live quite well in this world (at least Jesus did in His post resurrection body), there is a problem. You see, this world isn't going to be here anymore. Peter has told us that this "present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgement..." (2 Peter 3:7). He said that this place is going to be destroyed by a fire so hot that "the elements will melt with intense heat!" (2 Peter 3:12). We're going to need a new home!

And what a home it is to be!

Jesus spoke to His disciples (and indirectly, to us) about His Father's house having "many dwelling places" (John 14:2). (The "many mansions" of the KJV may not be entirely accurate here, since the word "mansion" 470 years ago, when the KJV was translated, meant something quite different than it does in our modern English). Apparently what Jesus was communicating was the idea that there would be plenty of room for all the redeemed. (Emphasis on the "many.")

John gives us this description of the new home:

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband" (Revelation 21:1-2).

This city comes directly out of heaven. It originates there. Listen to some of its features.

The dimensions are given as a cube: 1500 miles square. The apostle John writes in Revelation 21:16 -

"And the city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width... its length and width and height are equal."

If we take that 1500 mile figure literally (though it may not be), heaven could be composed of 396,000 stories (at 20 feet per story) each having an area as big as half the United States! That makes New York and L.A. dinky by comparison! Divide that up into separate living quarters, and you have plenty of room for all who have been redeemed by God since the beginning of time. Old Testament saints will be there, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses. New Testament Apostles and prophets and all true Christians. Heaven will be home for all of them. Unfortunately, though, the majority of the world's population won't be there. Heaven is a special place for special people. Only the redeemed will be present.

But don't fear that you'll be lost in a crowded, noisy, polluted city. Remember that our new bodies won't be subject to the same limitations as they are now. Travel won't likely be a problem. And I would guess that, since God lives there in the city, too, he has a pretty effective public works department.

In John Bunyan's PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, as Christian and Hopeful finally saw the Holy City, it was so brilliant that they couldn't look on it directly but had to use a special instrument made for that purpose. Bunyan wrote fiction, of course, not Scripture. But the Apostle John, who DID write Scripture, wrote this about the city where God lives:

"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper." (Revelation 21:10-11)

It is a city of tremendous beauty! But there is more...

First, there is a wall with twelve foundation stones that encompass the city. On the stones are the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Rev. 21:14).

Each foundation stone is adorned with every kind of precious stone - some of which I cannot pronounce. The jewels are roughly parallel to the twelve stones in the breastplate of the high priest (Exo. 28:17- 20).

The height of the wall is given as seventy-two yards, roughly the height of three fourths of a football field stood on end. Now that isn't very high compared to the massive size of the city, but it is high enough to represent to those of us listening to John's description that it is accessible only through the proper entrances.

Secondly, there are twelve gates to the city, each consisting of a single massive pearl (Revelation 21:12, 21). That is a reminder that entrance to the city is restricted. Only those who belong to God are admitted. John says in Revelation 21:27 -

"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."

There is no crime in the city. All such things are excluded. John writes,

"Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying." (Rev. 22:15).

The twelve gates are divided into four groups, thus three gates face each of the four directions. John says,

"There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west."

That, perhaps, is a reminder that the gospel is for all men, from any tribe, race, color, or nationality. The streets of the city, long made famous in our church hymnals, are "pure gold, like transparent glass" (Rev. 21:21). It will mean the end of potholed asphalt and cracked concrete streets!

Perhaps Bunyan wasn't all wrong in his metaphor of the two travelers needing a special instrument to look at the city. It just may be that we will need our new transformed bodies and minds before we will be able to fully appreciate all that heaven is.

When Jesus told his disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them (and us), I don't believe He was implying, as some have suggested, that He needed plenty of time to do the building. God is able to create things by the speaking of His word. Perhaps the time lapse between the days of Jesus and the end of time can be more attributed to the need to fill the census roles with all of the citizens that will ultimately live there. That filling of the role book (called the "Lamb's Book Of Life") continues today. But it won't last forever. The population of that place will one of these days be limited, and once it is, not another single person will enter into it.

Such is the Biblical description of our new home.

What will we do there for eternity? That question leads us to the next gift we will experience in heaven:

Gift Number Three: New Work To Do

How many occupations are there in the United States? It has been estimated there are over 40,000. Yet, how many people do you know who are truly satisfied with their work? Then there are personnel problems, lack of adequate pay, long hours and monotonous tasks, just to name a few of the occupational drawbacks many experience. Very few people really like what they do.

But those problems will all be behind us in heaven. Each job description will involve two responsibilities. First, there will be the worship of God; second, there will be the serving of God in whatever capacity He assigns to us. Let's look at each one.

A. Worship

Heaven is where God lives. Of course it is true that His presence is not limited to heaven alone. Solomon once wrote:

"Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain Thee, how much less this house which I have built!" (I Kings 8:27)

Yet, to us, at least, in heaven, God will be present in a special way. John saw Him seated upon a throne with twenty-four elders seated around Him. John wrote,

"And from the throne proceed flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder." (Rev. 4:5)

What is going on around the throne? Worship! Four "living creatures" described in detail by John are constantly worshiping and saying,

"Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come." (Rev. 4:8)

The twenty four elders cast their crowns down before the throne, then fall down before Him saying,

"Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed."

There we'll be free from the quarrels and misunderstandings and doctrinal divisions that plague our worship here. Without the opposition of the devil, we'll all worship without deviations and mixed motives. There won't be any hypocritical worship, because there won't be any hypocrites!

After the judgement, John tells us, the saints will all join in together in a thunderous outpouring of praise to God.

"And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.'" (Rev. 19:6)

We would do well, as we prepare for our eternity, to give much attention to learning how to worship and praise God, because that is what we are going to be doing in heaven.

B. Service

Though worship will occupy much of our time in heaven, we will also be involved in service.

Revelation 22:3-4 says,

"...and His bond servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads."

Revelation 7:9&15 says,

"After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands..."

"...and they serve Him day and night in His Temple, and He who sits on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them."

Just what this service that we do involves, I do not know. There are several hints in the NT. In Luke 12:43-44, Jesus said of those He find's faithful when He comes,

"Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, that he will put him in charge of all his possessions."

The two men in the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:21&24) were told that, because of their faithfulness, they would be put in charge of "many things." They were also told to enter into the "joy" of the Master. Apparently the service, whatever it is, will not be grievous, like work can be here sometimes. Rather, it will be joy! Happiness and fulfillment in our occupation! If you feel you've missed it here, get to heaven, and you won't miss it there!

Be certain that heaven won't be a place of inactivity or boredom. It is not, as one Sunday school student once thought, an eternally long worship service where we will begin in the hymn book singing on page one and continue until we've sung all the way through. There will be productive work for us to do. We will increase in our knowledge of Him. God has not revealed it all, but from what He has revealed, I'm confident that it is probably better than any of us can imagine.

Another gift we will have in heaven will be

Gift Number Four: A New, Larger Family

One of the questions many of us have about heaven is whether family relationships will be the same there as they are here. Will "Daddy sing base, Momma sing tenor?" Will Daddy still be Daddy and Momma still be Momma?

Jesus once told a group of Saducees that there would be no marriage or giving in marriage in heaven, so we know that things won't be the same as they are here. Yet, I know of no reason to believe that we won't remember those relationships and enjoy that remembrance. Paul taught in I Thessalonians that the final generation of Christians, alive when Jesus returns, will be caught up to meet their departed loved ones to meet the Lord, and thus, would always be together with them with the Lord.

But will the special family relationships still exist? Perhaps the intimacy that you now enjoy or have enjoyed with your family will be expanded to include all the other saints who are present. In a sense, that has happened in the church with some of us. I have heard it more than once said by Christians that they are as close with their brothers and sisters in Christ as they are with the members of their own families. Probably one of the big reasons we don't get close to everyone in the church is that we're too busy, we just don't have the time to get to everyone. But in heaven time isn't going to be a limit. We'll be close, one big happy family!

Jesus saw it that way. One day some of His friends sent word that His mother and brothers were looking for Him. He responded this way:

"Who are My mother and My brothers?" And looking at the people around Him, He said, "Behold, My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother." (Mark 3:33-35).

Finally, for the saved, heaven will contain

Gift Number Five: A Blessed Absence of Certain Things.

Heaven won't have everything. Somebody once said, "Hey, this place has everything!" Heaven won't have everything.

Heaven won't have a sea. The sea often is what stands between nations and peoples -often hostile nations and peoples. Those kinds of things will have vanished in heaven.

Heaven won't have any death. The hearse will have made it's last trip. You won't see long lines of cars following a coach their lights on. No funeral services,, no tombstones, no funeral plan salesmen, no tearful goodbyes. No death.

Heaven will have no sorrow. This world certainly has plenty of it. A car accident kills a young father; a child is raped by a madman; an earthquake overseas kills 20,000. It is impossible to imagine the weight of emotional pain that is experienced on this earth even in a single day. In heaven that will not even be an unpleasant memory.

In heaven there will be no more crying. Imagine the buckets of tears that are shed everyday by the 5 billion people that inhabit this planet. But the Bible teaches that there are no tears in heaven. That isn't because God removes our tear ducts - it's because there's nothing to cry about!

That prospect has troubled some. The question is sometimes asked, how we can be happy in heaven knowing that one or more of our loved ones is in hell. That question has so vexed the minds of theologians that some have suggested that God will blank out that part of our memory. The idea is that the child will not know that his parents are lost in hell. The mother will not remember that she had a son who never came to Christ.

That could certainly be the way God does it, but it has never seemed to me that it is God's style to solve problems by expanding people's ignorance. Rather, perhaps we shall be comforted, not by knowing less, but by knowing more. It is possible that God will wipe away our tears by explaining to us His ultimate purposes from His viewpoint. Certainly if God can be content knowing that unbelievers are in hell, so can we if we understand what God understands.

In heaven there will also be no more pain, no abominations, no hunger, no thirst. All of the things that cast a pall over our existence here will be absent from there.

Conclusion

Paul, who very well may have been given a glimpse of heaven, just as John was (See II Cor. 12), when he contemplated what he had seen, wrote these words:

"I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake." (Philippians 1:23-24.

Are you planning to go? Do you want to get there?

You've got to have a passport signed by Jesus Christ. No other one will do. If you are not a Christian, then, no matter what you may believe about life after death, be assured that you will never see heaven. Jesus Christ, the Son of God put it very clearly in John 14:6 -

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life no man comes to the Father, but through me."

"Just think," says the song writer, "of stepping on shore and finding it heaven, of clasping a hand and finding it God's; if breathing new air and finding it celestial air; of waking up in glory and finding it home."

That is the realization that awaits all of those who know God.

1. Doris Stickney, as quoted by James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited -Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988 -pp. 145-146. [Back]

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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