Visions that give hope.  The book of Revelation tells us we have a glorious, happy future with Christ, in the new heavens and earth, in resurrected bodies, with no tears or evil! But some may wonder: Is this that helpful for me now? Well, yes! 

The message of the Bible is that the glory of heaven will so compensate for our losses here, that we can rejoice now, in the future glory God has for us.  Jesus said, count yourself blessed, or happy BECAUSE the meek will inherit the earth.  

In Rev. 5:10 the 24 elders are singing to Christ in heaven, “By your blood you purchased men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.  You have made them kings and priests to our God; And they – will – reign - upon - the earth.”  Who will be ruling the new earth?  Those purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ!  Who is that? That is us!  How does that affect us now?  We are blessed or happy!  Or at least we are supposed to think we are!

Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.   When will we see God? When will we be completely satisfied?  When is our great reward?  IN HEAVEN!  But when are we supposed to rejoice and leap for joy? NOW!  We are blessed or happy NOW based on our future privileges! Oh and there is one more! 

Jesus said, blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh!  When will we laugh? In heaven!  Luther said, “If the earth is fit for laughter, then surely heaven is filled with it. Heaven is the birthplace of laughter”.  So we get through our tears now, and consider ourselves blessed because someday we are going to laugh… a lot!  What you believe about heaven will determine much of your present joy!

As we come to Rev. 22, we have already seen that God will create a new heaven and a new earth. We have seen a New City coming down from heaven, in stunning beauty. God comes to live with us, on the new earth, in his New City!  Last week we looked at 8 blessings of the New Jerusalem.

This morning: look at 10 more glorious experiences. 

First: We will experience the fullness of the life of God in the New City. Verse 1 The angel showed John “the river of the water of life”. John said, “it was flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb!” The river flows from God’s presence! The water gives life!  This reminds us of the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2:10 says “A river flowed out of Eden”  and “it divided and became four rivers” and it “flowed around the whole land”.  I think likewise this river from God’s throne will flow out and become many rivers and fill the City and the New Earth with the life of God.

Psalm 46 speaks prophetically of this river in the New Jerusalem. “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.”   And Psalm 36 “You give them drink from Your river of delights. For with You is the fountain of life”.  In the New City we will have full and continual access to the life of God everywhere, to drink in and to enjoy.

Sin brings death. God brings life.  He brings life abundant and to the fullest!  The highest human experience on this earth, is to be filled with God’s Spirit!  That filling can overwhelm and satisfy and cause us to speak and sing with great joy.  But we LONG for a more continuous experience all the fullness of God – don’t we?  In the New City we will have that!  

Next: We will enjoy the incredible beauty of this great tree-line boulevard with the river of life flowing through it!  This is something John sees. It is visually stunning! Verse 2 The river runs down the middle of the main street of the City and on either side of the river was the tree of life.”  

Ezekiel describes this in chapter 47:1 “I saw water flowing from under the threshold of the temple.  Verse 7 And I saw a great number of trees along both banks of the river.  And “wherever the river flows, everything will flourish”. 

John said the water is “bright as crystal”!  It’s clear, clean and brilliant. And it flows right from the throne of God! Have you ever seen a great dam like Hoover Dam and seen the river that flows out from the bottom of the dam?  Can you imagine this massive glorious awesome throne of God and a beautiful river flowing out from under it! Down the main street of the New Jerusalem!  What a sight!  

Next: Our bodies will not only be healthy, but imperishable, indestructible, immortal in heaven.  “On either side of the river, the tree of life .” 

The tree of life was a real tree in the Garden of Eden.  Now here it is in the New City. It had the power of God in it’s fruit to enable a human body to live forever without deteriorating!  After Adam sinned, God said “He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.”  God would not permit that, lest Adam live forever as a sinful fallen human being.   

But now,  this immense privilege is given for those who belong to Christ. Revelation 2:7 Jesus said “To the one who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life”. 

I think we will drink of the river of life and eat of the tree of life in heaven much as we now regularly celebrate the Lord’s supper.  The Lord gave us tangible things, bread and wine to remind us that we are partakers of his very body and blood.  I  think we will eat and drink tangible things in heaven that help us more fully experience and enjoy the eternal life God has given us. 

Another reason to believe we will actually drink of the water of the river of life and eat of the tree of life in the New City is simply that there are countless verses saying we will eat and drink in the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus told his disciples, “I bestow on you a kingdom, just as my Father has bestowed one on Me, SO THAT you may eat and drink and My table in MY kingdom!” Luke 22:30 Feasting or eating and drinking are continually set before us as part of life in the kingdom.

Verse 2 goes on “the tree of life bears twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month”.  It produces abundant fruit and a great variety of fruit, probably all looking and tasting different.  And the fact that it yields fruit each month is just one indication that heaven will not be some kind of boring unchanging monotony. 

Randy Alcorn points out that this is one of many indications that heaven will have days and months and passage of time.  IE we will not just “be there” in a happy timeless state of mind, where we have no idea if we just got there or have been there for thousands of years. 

This idea is usually based on the KJV of Revelation 10:6 which says, “and time shall be no longer”.  But all translations and even the NKJV correct this to say “there shall be delay no longer”.  So Amazing Grace is accurate: “When we’ve been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first began.” 

John said, “The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”  The promise to live forever must include a time element!

Next: Society will be healed of all conflict and strife. John said “The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations”.  In the new earth nations will not be in conflict, there will be no war. Isaiah 2:4 “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor train anymore for war.”  

There will be no abuse of power, no aggression of one group of people against another!  Everything on the new Earth will be well ran for the blessing and benefit and joy of all.  Speaking of Christ, Isaiah said “the government will rest on His shoulders” Is. 9:6  Under Jesus Christ all nations, all people will live together in peace.  

Next blessing: Verse 3 “No longer will there be anything accursed”.  The brokenness and misery that came on the earth and on our human lives due to Adam’s sin is massive!  We live with the effects of that curse on our world.  We see it in all the conflict in marriages, in the bitterness and hatred in human relationships, in the conflict among nations.  We see it in human bodies and minds.  Pain, disease, weakness, aging, dying. We see the curse in the disappointments and frustrations of life.  In the New City that will be gone forever!

My uncle Merwin taught me what a fallen world was when I was a little boy.  I was out at the farm with him in my grandma’s kitchen.  And someone dropped a quarter on the floor.  And it rolled under the refrigerator.  Uncle Merwin told me it rolled under the refrigerator because we live in a fallen world. In heaven quarters won’t roll under refrigerators!  That is really profound!  Nothing big or small will go wrong in heaven! 

The last verse of Joy to The World says, “No more let sin and sorrows grow, or thorns infest the ground.  He comes to make his blessings flow as far as the curse is found.” 

Next blessing: Unending enjoyment and worship of God.  Verse 3 goes on, “but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.”  God is worthy of our worship for all eternity!  Rev. 5:12 “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength, and honor and glory and blessing.” And John said, “And I heard every creature in heaven and earth...saying, “to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever”.  Rev. 5:13

We will be overcome with awe and appreciation and an overwhelming desire to fall on our faces and worship Him! RC Sproul said, Jacob’s response to being in the house of God was, “How awesome is this place!” (Many) people do not normally feel that way in church. There is no sense of awe, no sense of being in the presence of One who makes us tremble.” Then he said this:  People in awe never complain that church is boring.” (Think about that!)  No one will be bored in heaven ever, because we will be in such awe of God!

Our worship will also include works of service! The word used for worship here means minister or serve.  NASB, NIV, KJV all say “and his servants will serve him”.  It’s the same word Paul used in Rom. 1:9 when he said, “God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel.”  

When tend to think of worship ONLY as singing or bowing down before God.  We will do that.  But we will have responsibilities, missions, assignments from God. Just as Adam and Eve were to tend the Garden of Eden, name the animals, care for and rule over the earth, we will have work to do in the New Earth.  And we will do it all as an act of worship to God. 

Next: We will know God intimately and personally. Verse 4 says “We will see his face”.  In the Bible the face is the essence of a person.  Our faces have the unique capacity to express all that is going on inside of us.  You can talk on the phone, text, email but still the most intimate and personal communication is face to face. That’s why Paul told the Thessalonian Christians, “Our desire to see you face to face was intense.” 1 Thess. 2:17 

Our faces are us. To have God’s face shine upon us is to have God shine upon us. To say that we see God’s face means we are close to him. It means ultimate fellowship! It means really knowing and enjoying God, right up close.

A desire to see God is the longing of every true child of God! When we see his face, then we will say, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11

Next blessing: We will be marked as God’s treasured possession forever. Verse 4 goes on, “and his name will be on their foreheads”.  What do you put your name on? You put your name on things that matter to you, things that you value and want to keep.  God values his people!  You matter to God.  He will put his name right on your forehead!  What an honor! 

Malachi 3:17 “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession…You will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” You are God’s treasured possession!  And he will distinguish you as one of his righteous ones for all the ages to come by putting his name on your forehead. What privilege!  What status!

Next: Verse 5 “And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light.”

There won’t be any night because the light of God’s glory never goes out.  Wherever you go in the New City or on the New Earth God’s glory will shine upon you. Is 60:1,2  Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.  The LORD will rise upon you, and His glory will appear over you.”  It seems that our resurrection bodies will glow with his glory!  

Finally: We will rule or reign over areas of responsibility on the New Earth.  Verse 5 “We will reign forever and ever.”  Again we are reminded that positions of authority and honor are in our future.  Daniel 7:27 says, “And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.’  

Matthew 19:28 ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’”  That was said to the disciples.  Jesus said the same thing to the church!  Revelation 3:21 “The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.”  Revelation 2:26 “To the one who overcomes, I will give authority over the nations.” 

Paul said in 1Corinthians 6:2 “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?  Do you not know that we will judge angels.”  The word judge here means to govern or make decisions about matters.  Paul’s point was if the saints will have such positions of authority in the world to come, they are capable to settle everyday matters now. 

2 Timothy 2:11 says if we persevere in faith will live AND reign with Christ forever. Ligonier ministries put out a wonderful commentary on this verse.“We may not often think of ourselves as kings and queens who will rule over creation, but this consequence of our redemption flows directly from who the Lord made us to be and what salvation accomplishes in repairing His broken images. God made us to have dominion over creation, to rule it for His glory.” “The truth that we are kings and queens in Christ is not some idea conjured up to boost our self-esteem but a present reality that we will enjoy in its fullness at the resurrection of the dead.”  Wow!

John said, “What kind of love is this that we should be called the children of God.  We could also add what kind of grace is this!  That we should reign with Christ.  

The joy and the beauty and the privileges of the New Heaven and New Earth will stun us and amaze us through all eternity!  

This is why we count ourselves blessed now.  And why we rejoice and leap for joy, because so great is our reward in heaven.