1. "Our disposition to the God of the Bible affects how we read the Bible."

2. "In heaven it's the reverse of what it is on earth. For there, by length of time, things become more and more youthful. That is, with more vitality, more vigorous, more active, more tender, and beautiful. Friend, can you imagine life but with a vitality that never ends? It only increases."

3. "Even as God is our Creator, so He is also our Sustainer. The mere fact that He has made us glorified doesn't mean we no longer need Him. We are even in our glorified state dependent creatures."

4. "Full and final healing is coming. Complete care and health restoration will not come about by any of the worldly institutions that we labor for in this life today, but finally only by God's provision through Christ."

5. "Eden's bane is banished. Death is finally dead. Calvary's blessing has finally and fully overcome it."

6. "Our experience of this mediated presence of God will be replaced by the immediate, unmediated presence of God."

7. "A heaven with no Christ is no heaven."

8. "The most important part of our identity is not about us uniquely. It's not done by us. We're not self-making. The name we will most prominently display is not our own, but it's His in whose image we're made."

9. "For God to de-resurrect you, to bring His rich mercy to an end, Jesus Christ Himself would have to be sucked down out of heaven and put back in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. You're that safe."

10. "We Christians know how the story ends and we live each day in light of this end. That's why the Lord gave John this vision."

Observation Questions

1. According to Revelation 22:1, what is the source of the river of the water of life, and how is the river described?

2. In Revelation 22:2, what details are given about the tree of life—where is it located, how often does it bear fruit, and what are its leaves for?

3. What does Revelation 22:3 say will "no longer" be present in the city, and what will be "in it" instead?

4. According to Revelation 22:3-4, what two things will God's servants do, and what two things will characterize them (related to God's face and name)?

5. In Revelation 22:5, what will "be no more," and what reason does the text give for why lamp or sun will not be needed?

6. How does Revelation 22:5 describe the duration and nature of what God's people will do in this future state?

Interpretation Questions

1. How does the imagery of the river flowing "from the throne of God and of the Lamb" through the middle of the city communicate both our dependence on God and the accessibility of His provision for eternal life?

2. The sermon emphasizes that the tree of life, once forbidden after the Fall in Genesis 3, is now freely accessible with abundant fruit. What does this restoration reveal about the completeness of Christ's redemptive work and the reversal of the curse?

3. Revelation 22:4 says God's servants "will see his face." Why is this described as the climax of the Bible, and how does it represent the ultimate reversal of what happened when humanity was banished from God's presence in Eden?

4. The passage mentions both "the throne of God and of the Lamb" together, yet refers to "him" in the singular. What does this teach us about the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ, and how does the Holy Spirit fit into this eternal picture according to the sermon?

5. How does the promise that believers "will reign forever and ever" (v. 5) connect to humanity's original purpose in Genesis 1:26-28, and what does this suggest about the nature of our eternal service to God?

Application Questions

1. The sermon notes that even in our glorified state we will remain dependent on God (the water flows from His throne). In what specific areas of your life this week do you tend to act self-sufficiently rather than consciously depending on God, and how might this vision of eternal dependence reshape your daily prayers?

2. Thomas Nagel admitted he didn't want God to exist because of what it would mean for his life. What desires, fears, or preferences in your own heart sometimes make you resistant to fully submitting to God's authority, and how does the glorious vision of Revelation 22 challenge those feelings?

3. The sermon emphasizes that our most important identity will be that God's name is on our foreheads—we belong to Him. How does this truth challenge the way you currently define yourself by your job, achievements, experiences, or struggles? What would change if you lived this week with "belonging to God" as your primary identity?

4. Knowing that complete healing from all sin, sickness, and sorrow is coming, how should this hope affect the way you respond to a current trial, disappointment, or area of persistent struggle in your life right now?

5. The sermon asks whether we are living "as one of this world or one passing through to a better one." What is one specific habit, priority, or use of your time that you sense needs to change so that your daily life better reflects your orientation toward the heavenly city?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Genesis 2:8-17 — This passage describes the original Garden of Eden with its river and tree of life, providing the background for understanding how Revelation 22 presents the restoration and surpassing of what was lost in the Fall.

2. Genesis 3:22-24 — Here God banishes Adam and Eve from the garden and blocks access to the tree of life, showing the severity of the curse that Revelation 22:3 declares will be completely reversed.

3. Ezekiel 47:1-12 — This prophetic vision of water flowing from the temple and trees for healing is directly fulfilled in Revelation 22, demonstrating how Old Testament promises find their culmination in the new creation.

4. John 4:7-14 — Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman about living water that wells up to eternal life explains how the eternal life pictured in Revelation 22 begins now through faith in Christ.

5. 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 — Paul's description of seeing "face to face" rather than "in a mirror dimly" illuminates what it means that God's servants will see His face in Revelation 22:4, showing the transition from our present partial knowledge to complete fellowship with God.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Our Disposition Toward God Affects How We Read Scripture

II. Context of Revelation: John's Visions on Patmos

III. The Life to Come Is Everlasting (Revelation 22:1)

IV. The Life to Come Is Glorious (Revelation 22:1)

V. The Life to Come Is Still Dependent on God (Revelation 22:1-2)

VI. The Life to Come Is Abundant and Satisfying (Revelation 22:2)

VII. The Life to Come Overcomes the Blight of Sin and Sickness (Revelation 22:2)

VIII. The Life to Come Is Uncursed (Revelation 22:3)

IX. The Life to Come Is Lived in God's Presence (Revelation 22:3)

X. The Life to Come Is a Life of Worship (Revelation 22:3)

XI. The Life to Come Is Marked by God's Pleasure with Us (Revelation 22:4)

XII. The Life to Come Fully Identifies Us with God (Revelation 22:4)

XIII. The Life to Come Is God-Filled (Revelation 22:5)

XIV. The Life to Come Is Ruling with the Creator (Revelation 22:5)

XV. Living Today in Light of Eternity

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Matthew Arnold was an inspector of English schools. He was also a poet and social critic. Though read by many in Victorian England, he was out of step with the widespread piety that marked the day. He was unabashedly critical of Christianity and its claims. He published books to that end.

When he died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1888, His friend and fellow author, Robert Louis Stevenson, remarked, Poor Matt. He's gone to heaven, no doubt, but he won't like God.

Our disposition to the God of the Bible affects how we read the Bible.

Thomas Nagel in his 1997 book, the Last Word, wrote about his fear of religion.

Here Nagel, the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, wrote about the fear of religion. And in doing so he wrote, I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself. I want atheism to be true. And I'm made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and naturally hope that I'm right in my belief.

It's that I hope there is no God. I don't want there to be a God. I don't want the universe to be like that.

Well, if you've come to this Baptist church this morning and already sat through almost an hour of our singing and praying, and you share the theological skepticism of Matthew Arnold or Thomas Nagel, congratulations for making it this far. I should just warn you that the part of the Bible that we're going to examine today is fundamental to the God-centered view of life and the universe that we Christians have.

We're looking at the last book in our printed Bibles. It was written later than most, if not all of the rest of the New Testament, probably around 90 A.D. or so. Its author, John, had decades earlier been the youngest of Jesus' closest disciples, so much so that he was even called the beloved disciple. And he went out preaching after Jesus' death and resurrection, like fellow disciple Matthew, he wrote a gospel. Like fellow disciple Peter, he wrote letters to churches.

And unlike those others, John, as an old man, wrote an account of visions that God gave him. The circumstances were interesting. John had pastored the church in the city of Ephesus for many years. And as Roman persecution increased, he was arrested and exiled miles away to the small Greek island of Patmos. There the risen Christ appeared to him and gave him visions of the real meaning of history, of what was to come.

These were given to John to share with the churches. Why? To steal them for the persecution that they would face. For those of you who have been following the series, I hope you've enjoyed studying through these visions. Very much against what is sometimes the ominous reputation of the book of Revelation.

In the popular mind, this book is a book that's exploding with confidence and joy. That's why Christian preachers love to preach this book. That's why I particularly love to preach this book. It presents a profoundly anti-tragic view of the world. And nowhere more so than in the very end of the vision of the book.

So though we have two more studies in the quarter, sort of last bits of chapter 22, the grand vision or visions of Revelation end with the five verses we have this morning. Revelation chapter 22, verses one to five, you'll find these literally at the end of your Bibles. You just open your Bible, whether you brought your own or you're using one in the pew, you'll find it right there at the end. Revelation 22, verses one to five.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Friends, it's one thing to read these sentences. I want to lead us to meditate on them so that they move from our heads down into our hearts. We'll do this by walking through the passage, literally phrase by phrase. So while you're always helped here by leaving your Bible open, you'll be even more than normally helped by leaving your Bible open and looking down at the passage as I walk through these phrases here in these last five verses of this vision, the first five verses of chapter 22, where we see the Lord doing what he said he would in chapter 21 when he said, behold, I'm making all things new. So here we wanna see what we learn about our life to come if we're Christians.

And I'll do this by making twelve overlapping observations about these phrases that we see. Number one, the life to come is everlasting. Look at verse 1.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life. Friends, this river should bring to mind that river that was in the garden of Eden that flowed out of Eden back in Genesis, chapter 2. This is, as it were, that river restored in glorified, renewed. One after another in these last chapters and verses of Revelation, we find the restoration of the things that were there in the initial creation, only they're here in a surpassing fashion. A whole different sermon could be preached.

We'd just be finding those details at the beginning of Genesis and tracing them to see how they are culminated in chapters 20 and 21 and 22 of Revelation. But here we see this river never stops flowing.

Because this life never ends. Creation begun, then fallen, is now renewed and perfected. Promises made in the Old Testament are fulfilled in the New. And here in this first phrase we see this source and guarantee of this water that gives life and just doesn't stop. We'd seen mention of the living water earlier in Revelation 7, For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd.

He will guide them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every from their eyes. You don't read Revelation by saying, oh, well, there are the springs, here's the river. These are poetic images that are making the same point. Or in chapter 21, just before where we are here, in verse 6, if you just look at the chapter before, chapter 21, verse 6, the one on the throne said, To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. So this is the water that we Christians have, so to speak, begun to drink already by believing in Jesus.

Remember the Lord Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in John 4, Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

As one pastor who was reflecting on this unending nature of eternal life said, In heaven it's the reverse of what it is on earth.

For there, by length of time, things become more and more youthful. That is, with more vitality, more vigorous, more active, more tender, and beautiful. Friend, can you imagine life but with a vitality that never ends?

It only increases. That's the vision that we begin to have presented here in Revelation 22. The life to come is everlasting. But also, number two, the life to come is glorious. Again here, just going on in verse 1, it says that this central river is, what, bright?

As bright as crystal. One way godly pastors provoke envy in each other is by sending pictures over text of places where they are being called to minister.

A friend of mine who pastors in Miami, already a ground of some concern there, sent pictures from a wedding he had to fly to Italy to do at Lake Como this weekend. Well he serves the Lord and we're thankful for that. But as I saw those pictures, I was studying this passage and I thought that kind of beauty is just the slightest hint of what's pictured here as bright as crystal. That's what's being communicated by John's description. I think to sighted creatures like us, there is pleasure and joy that we take in perceptions especially that come to us so immediately through our eyes.

God knows how He has made us and the power of our eyes in perceiving the reality of something, seeing is believing. We have a confidence, a certainty in what we see. Earlier visions in the Bible of the throne room of God, like in Ezekiel or even in Revelation 4 and 5, they are dazzling. In fact, back in Revelation 4:6, John even mentioned crystal as the best description of the sea of glass around the throne of God. There's no better way to describe it, because it is glorious.

The life to come is glorious. Number three, the life to come is still dependent on God. Notice this life-giving water we read of at the end of verse 1, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. It's an interesting image. It reminds you, if you're familiar with it, of the vision at the end of Ezekiel.

But in Ezekiel 47, we see everything will live where the river goes. It's fulfilled here. We think of Jesus' words in John 7. Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

This water depicts our dependence. Even as God is our Creator, So he is also our Sustainer. The mere fact that he has made us glorified doesn't mean we no longer need him. We are even in our glorified state dependent creatures. Even as God is our Creator, so we read in Colossians 1, especially when Paul writes of Christ in him all things hold together.

Though not mentioned much in these verses, he will be a little bit later in the chapter, God's Holy Spirit is at the very core of how this new and eternal life is communicated to Christians. Begun here in this life by the Holy Spirit's work, and it's sustained eternally through the Spirit of God in us. Friends, this afternoon, read Ezekiel chapter 47. Just make a little note, Ezekiel 47. Just read that chapter.

And I think you'll see what we see there prophesied about the water flowing from the temple here in John's vision. Now the whole city has kind of become the temple, and the water is flowing out from the throne of God, showing specifically the dependence we have on God by the water water flowing from the throne of God, and the provision for the life-giving waters, thus presumably they feed the trees. This provision is not hidden or uncertain. I thought, why does it specifically mention it's through the middle of the street of the city? Well, I think he's showing us that it is prominent, it is not hidden, it is central.

It's not in some narrow winding side streets that only a few might find, but it's in the broad main boulevard that goes through the center of the city. It's put in the middle for all to avail themselves of it, because all in this world are dependent on this water flowing from the throne of God. The life to come is still dependent on God. Number four, the life to come is abundant and satisfying. We see this in the next verse.

If you go on and you look at verse 22, I mean, verse 2 of chapter 22, the next phrase, Also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding fruit each month. So the tree of life singular seems to be represented by multiple trees, all just referred to in the singular as the tree of life. Lord willing, Christian Lawrence will this evening help us to see in Genesis chapter 3 how God prevented our fallen first parents from eating the tree of life, which would at that point forever separate them from God in their fallenness. So what at first might have looked like punishment to them was in fact God rescuing them. Think about that more tonight, Lord willing.

But now in the life to come, we may freely eat of this tree. We may satisfy ourselves no matter what month it is. That's why I think he mentions the 12 different months. In this vision, we will be ready to take its rich fruit. We will know the blessing the blessedness of the one who is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers. That's how Psalm 1 describes the blessed person. Jesus had promised in his first of his seven letters to John's own church, the church at Ephesus, to the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Did you know that another name for a Christian is a conqueror? In Christ we are overcomers, conquerors.

The fullness of the provision is stressed by its yielding twelve kinds of fruit, yielding fruit each month. This life will be the kind of life God always meant those creatures made in His own image to live. Thus we are no longer excluded from the tree of life, but it's made plentiful and conveniently available. There is provision for people of every nation and every age. The promise made in Ezekiel 47, verse 12, will be kept.

You should read the whole chapter as I say, but let me just read verse 12 to you briefly, 4712.

And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruits fail, but they will bear fresh fresh fruit every month because the waters for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be food and their leaves for healing. You see how much of that is fulfilled here. All kinds of needs will be provided for.

Those unmet longings will be met. There will be no time in which hunger will intrude or any kind of lack prevail. All that we need we have fully accessible and provided. This life will be abundant and satisfying. Number five, the life to come is one in which the blight of sin and sickness is overcome.

That's what we see in the last sentence there in verse 2. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Now, why is he mentioning healing? We know from earlier statements in chapter 21, there's no sickness In the city, we sang it earlier in Glory Land, the summary of Bible truth knows that there is no, chapter 21 verse 4, tears, death, mourning, crying, even pain are gone. So what is this healing?

Friends, this is the healing of the people that God has done in His provision of life upon Calvary's tree. These are leaves poetically communicating the blessedness, the happiness and wholeness, the comprehensiveness of the health of God's people provided by Christ. Friends, how can you have that new life on that day?

By having the life that God's Spirit gives today, the new life through faith in Christ. Friend, you were made to know God. You were made to live into this future. And to have this kind of full and satisfying life begin even here in this fallen world with all of its trials and tribulations. You were made to know this God.

Your sins separate you from God. That's what makes you just like everybody else here at church today. But God in his amazing love in Christ has sent his only son to live a life of perfect obedience, perfect trust in God. And God accepted his sacrifice. In the place of all of us who would turn and trust in him.

God raised him from the dead showing that he accepted that sacrifice and he calls all of us now to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ and so we can know that new and full life. Friends, this life that we're reading about starts now. It's not the fullness that we'll know then, but we have the quality of it beginning even now.

That's why Jesus talks in John's gospel about us today, believers experiencing eternal life. It's not just after you die, but we begin the experience of that now, that life that's full and abundant and satisfying, where that blight of sin and sickness is overcome. Brothers and sisters, how amazing is it to think that you and I can be before the presence of this holy God as Paul writes about in Colossians 1:22, Holy and blameless and above reproach before Him. Maybe you could appear holy and blameless and above reproach before somebody who doesn't know you very well. But to appear holy and blameless and above reproach before the one true holy God?

How could that be?

Because He sees and knows what's wrong with his own and He has healed us. This is what we have presented to us here through John in this last vision. For in the fullness of God's provision here shows us that no person is without hope. There is nothing in this fallen world that's beyond the scope of the redemption of Christ, whether we're talking about substance abuse or addiction, hatred or envy, self-loathing or self-righteousness, physical illness or mental troubles, full and final healing is coming. Now does knowing that change your perspective on your current suffering.

Complete care and health restoration will not come about by any of the worldly institutions that we labor for in this life today, but finally only by God's provision through Christ. Here we have the vision of the day when pain and sorrow shall depart. The life to come is one in which the blight of sin and sickness is overcome. Number six, so the life to come is uncursed. The life to come is uncursed.

It's the life of God's blessing. That's what we read in verse 3. Look at verse 3. No longer will there be anything accursed. So the curse of Eden in Genesis chapter 3 is reversed.

Our first parents' sinful breaking of God's law in the garden brought us the curse. Now Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. Not only have our existing sins and struggles been dealt with, but there will no longer be any basis for new ones, any more to crop up.

The place of our unholiness, the garden has been renewed into the place of God's holiness. Even the shape of what we were noting last time is like the Holy of Holies. The vast scale of it shows the comprehensiveness of it. Eden's bane is banished. Death is finally dead.

Calvary's blessing has finally and fully overcome it. The life to come is uncurseD.

We can barely imagine. What such a life would be like. Or to put it positively, number seven, the life to come is a life lived in the blessing of God's presence. Look at that first phrase there in the second bit of chapter 22, verse 3. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it.

That's why the curse has ended. It's not just coterminous, happened at the same time, contemporary. That's the cause. Because God himself is there. Banishment from God's presence, as we mentioned a moment ago, was the sharpest pain of the ancient curse.

Now the being in the presence of God is the highest point of our forever blessedness in this life everlasting. We will always be with him in whom our soul delights most fully. My dear brothers and sisters, our great privileged Christians in this life is to be born again and indwelt by God's own Holy Spirit. We have this mediated presence now. But then this statement that the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city reminds us that this whole garden has become like the holy of holies.

The garden has become this city filled with God's people, suffused with God's presence. The mission of Emmanuel, God with us, has come to fulfillment. The veil torn from top to bottom. That Christ's crucifixion has resulted in the final reconciliation between God and His elect. Our experience of this mediated presence of God will be replaced by the immediate, unmediated presence of God.

How does Paul express it? Remember at the end of the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13? For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Or do you remember how the book of Ezekiel ends? I know if you're honest in your life, when you come to your Bible reading plan to the book of Ezekiel, you often skip it.

Or at least the last nine chapters where you have the vision of the huge temple and you have all the measurements given, and you figure nobody but God knows and God will understand.

But friends, I just want to put that in context a little bit. The people who are hearing that vision given had come from Jerusalem, they had been captured. And many of them assumed that in losing their land, they had lost the Lord. So the vision that this temple would actually be theirs again, as they remembered what the physical temple looked like back in their homeland, that they were now exiles from. What on earth was being communicated to them when they were getting this vision from God?

That the temple would be again. And you see the name of the city there at the end of the book, the last phrase in Ezekiel, the name of the city is the Lord is there. The Lord was communicating to His exiled people, They hadn't lost Him, or rather, He hadn't lost them. Friends, that's what we see here being fulfilled, that hope that's in the book of Ezekiel is fulfilled here in Revelation. The life to come is a life lived in the blessing of God's presence.

Number eight, the life to come will be a life of worshiping the one whom we were made to worship. Look at that final phrase in chapter 22 and his, chapter 22 verse 3, and his servants will worship him.

Now that word worship can be translated as serve or service. And here at this church we're actually unusually careful to avoid the use of the word worship. It's part of our war on nominal Christianity. So you'll notice I take your bulletin. Where's your bulletin?

Here's my bulletin. You open the first page. What does it say at the very top?

Not order of worship, which would be very common to have in church bulletins, it says order of service. It's been saying that deliberately for at least 31 years now. Friends, I'm concerned that the word worship in English these days, people associate just with singing. And they think if they like singing, if they tear up when they sing an old hymn, then that must means they're worshiping God. And I think many times sadly people are just experiencing nostalgia.

I think it's usually closer to the point of the word if we translate latreia, latreia, latreuo as service. And that's the way it is here, I think, understanding that we are made to serve Him and His servants will do that. Some have asked who His and Him is referring to here. His and Him, His servants will worship Him because they noticed before that, you see, it's, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it. Well, it's not referring to God without the Lamb, but it's not referring to the Lamb without God.

They together are united. Both persons can be referred to in the singular. We see this earlier in Revelation 11:15, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He that's referring to them both together shall reign forever and ever. Where's the Holy Spirit in all this? He's always there, proceeding from the Father and the Son, working upon and even within the saints perfected, drawing us to Himself, confirming our desires, continuing to sustain us and enable us in the pleasure of serving God freely and forever.

Friends, what did God say to His people in Deuteronomy 10? What does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good. Friends, here is the fulfillment of that great promise of God in Jeremiah 3, At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil hearts. Here in this city, in this day, in this time, we shall perfectly and completely present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship. We will be those who perfectly and completely worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

Friend, what a day is coming. This is not a suggestion of what we should do. This is information to us of what will happen. A day is coming in which holiness, even our own perfect holiness, will not be like it is now, like the line of the horizon. Always receding before us as we proceed toward it, but it will be something that we obtain.

Our lives will be happily consumed in worshiping and serving this God. This is more than simply our shared presence. It's our face-to-face fellowship and awareness of our being pleased to be in His presence and His being pleased to be with us. More on that in just a moment. But beloved, how many things hinder us from the worship and service that this God deserves?

Now so many things. Illness prevents our joining in the congregation. Ignorance hides our duty. Sinful desires steal our time or energy. Our hearts are divided.

Our attention, even in the best of days here below, is limited but there, friends, there we will know full freedom to love God and neighbor as we should. What our dearest pastors and parents, elders and friends help us to know in this congregation and others like it around the city and around the world will be perfected as we read in 1 John 3, We know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. The life to come will be a life of worshiping the one whom we were made to worship. Number nine, the life to come is marked by the pleasure of God with us and our experience of His pleasure. That's what's communicated, I think, there by that phrase at the beginning of verse 4, They will see His face.

I think it's our face-to-face fellowship that brings about this awareness of being not only being in His presence but being pleased with His presence, being pleased and His being pleased with us. John Piper has taught us to say, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Here we see a time presented when we will be invigorated and enriched by God's being pleased with us and our knowledge and experience of His pleasure. Friends, that's... we see all of that, I think, here in this phrase at the beginning of verse 4, They will see His face.

I think this is the climax of the Bible, the complete reversal of the curse. In the ancient world one of the harshest punishments was to be banished from the presence, the face of the ruler. So in Esther's story, in Esther 7, when the king comes in and he finds Haman in a compromised position with Esther, they immediately cover Haman's face. Or when Absalom, in the story of King David, when Absalom has murdered his brother, Absalom comes back to the court, but he cannot come to where David is. He cannot be in his presence.

See his face. So the greatest consequence of the curse was to hide us from God, but here now that which has been desired and longed for and hoped for has come. You understand why the Lord gave us the second commandment, to not make images of God? Because in these days, in this period of time when we are absent from God, he didn't want us coming up with little substitutes, try to make it feel like, oh, through this picture, this icon, this statue, oh, now we're not really that far from God. I had this in my mental mind.

Friends, that's why as a church we're so careful. You'll not notice any statues or images here. We're careful even in the kids' books we use to try to not do that because of the Second Commandment. We have this hope this promise of the day coming when we will see his face. This is the blessing of eternity, to see God like this.

Again, Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 13, For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. We sang this earlier in Gloryland. The song's climax in the last stanza is there in the presence of Christ. Friends, a heaven with no Christ is no heaven. That most pleasing of all sights, that which was removed from our first parents and all their descendants, us in the fall, is now restored.

So forgiveness and imputed innocence supplies the look, and love and reconciliation turns it into an unending beholding of being in the presence of God.

Kids, I hope this makes sense to you. If you're wondering about this, we have some fourth graders maybe today in here for the first time, it's Promotion Sunday. Welcome into the service. Talk to your parents about what it means to see God. Ask them what that means.

This is the picture we see of why we're alive. Kids, every day you live is a day you live towards this future, towards seeing God, being in His presence. This is when Jesus prayed in John 17, Father, I desire that they also whom youm have given Me may be with Me where I am to see My glory that yout have given Me because youe loved Me before the foundation of the world. That prayer will be answered on this day. Friend, think of how much happiness you can know simply in your relationships with your family members, your friends.

In this world, how much more do you think you will know happiness with the one who is infinitely greater than you or me, all other creatures that he's made, more excellent than anyone, to have that relationship perfectly restored? If you want to think more about this, meditate more on this, One of the best sermons I've ever read is Jonathan Edwards' sermon, Heaven is a World of Love. Heaven is a World of Love by Jonathan Edwards. The life to come is marked by God's pleasure with us and our experience of His pleasure. Number 10, the life to come will be one in which we are fully identified with God.

That is, our identity as His will be made fully visible. Look there and verse 4, look at that second half, and his name will be on their foreheads. Now of course today we think of identity as a very individual matter. We think of it very much coming from inside ourselves. We think that's the important part of our identity.

But it isn't interesting here. The identity here that's presented as most important is this identity that somebody else gives us.

And that we share with so many others. Today, our age or our gender, our status or our experience, our language, or our job may seem to be the most important thing about us. But in the days that are coming, God will make it clear that we are most fully and forever His. The most important part of our identity is not about us uniquely. It's not done by us.

We're not self-making. We've seen this idea earlier in the book of Revelation, chapter 7, the servants of God are sealed on their foreheads. Or even earlier in the history of God's people, the very famous Aaronic blessing, the blessing of Aaron, number 7, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put My name upon the people of Israel. And I will bless them.

The name we will most prominently display is not our own, but it's His in whose image we're made. It's His who has redeemed us, and there will be no ground for His being ashamed of us. But rather our being named as His, incredible as it may seem to us in our sinful state, our having His name will only add to His glory because of what He's done in creating and now restoring us. Each individual redeemed and glorified will be a further monument and testimony to his greatness and goodness. So our identity will be clear and plain and beyond dispute to ourselves and to all others.

Inner conflicts, outer contradictions are done, each one of us presenting a unique testimony to God's faithfulness. The life to come will be one in which we are fully identified with God. Number 11, the life to come will be a God-filled life. This is symbolized for us in the statement there in verse 5, that the night will be no more, they will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light. So friends, John is being shown that danger is no more, threats are removed.

Life no longer will end in death. The night of darkness and fear is forever ended. The most beautiful awakeness and alertness that you have ever experienced on a beautiful morning is only a hinting foretaste of that which is to come on that unending day when darkness cannot appear before the unmediated presence of God. The freshness, the clarity of the light. How true it is that what no eye has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.

Didn't Jesus say that He went to prepare a place for us? And look how long He's been preparing it. Must be some place. There's neither night nor sun because they will need no light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light. This final statement is much like that, which again is there in Aaron's blessing.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Our most basic and personal needs to help us see will be fulfilled by God himself in his fully glorious nature dispelling darkness with his marvelous splendor. His glory will permeate all that we see and experience. So the prophecy in Isaiah 60 will be fulfilled. The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you.

For the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more. The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. Friend, the new day is coming when the whole earth will be filled with those who love the light and live by the truth of God. The new heavens and the new earth is filled with this pervasive light, and that's because God's splendor fills this new creation.

Paul reminded John's church at Ephesus in Ephesians 5:8, For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Friends, the day is coming when the Lord will literally be our light. This life to come will be a God-filled life. And finally, number 12, the life to come will be a life of ruling over creation, with the Creator, a life of ruling over creation with the Creator.

Look at the last phrase of our passage. There at the end of verse 5, and they will reign forever and ever. Part of our service of the Lord is our ruling with Him. As Paul wrote to Timothy, if we endure, we will also reign with Him. The Lord's Prayer will be answered.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be youe name. Your kingdom come, that is yous rule come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Deliver us from evil. The promise of Daniel 7:18 will be kept.

The saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.

Friend, in this world we have only dim and unsatisfying experiences with authority. Whether under authority, people have not used it well toward us sometimes, or even when we ourselves have authority, we don't accomplish all that we hope we could. There's a frustration in this world. But then, then there will be the authority of God and that we will join Him in His sovereign work. God has promised us this better future beautifully laid out in Isaiah 32 in a prophecy there, in Isaiah 32 where we read, Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.

Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. All these are great images for authority well used. Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed. The ears of those who hear will give attention. The heart of the hasty will understand and know.

The tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly. It's like the original edition of Glory Land. That's Isaiah 32:1-4. That's what's coming when God's authority is perfectly exercised. Throughout the entirety of creation.

Friends, note the forever and ever at the very end of verse 5. This ruling will never end, it will never stop, it will never be complete. As one Christian friend put it, for God to de-resurrect you, to bring his rich mercy to an end, Jesus Christ himself would have to be sucked down out of heaven and put back in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. You're that safe. Friends, that's the certainty of this vision of the future that we're given.

This ruling is not the kind of attempting to usurp God's place like satanic sin leads us to do, but it's participating in God's own reign by his promises and provision. Jesus had promised back in Revelation 3, To 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. This is exactly what Jesus had promised in Matthew 19 would happen in what Jesus called the new world. Truly I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones. What does it mean to rule here?

That was the main question I had when I started undertaking the study for this passage, for this sermon. What does that mean? Because all the bad's gone, so what are we ruling? I'm not entirely sure. I mean, I think we've got the grass, you know, if I'm going back to the dominion we were exercising in Genesis 1, whatever other creation is around, we're with God in ruling that.

But it's also, I think, the fulfillment of that original task mankind was given. Remember that Genesis chapter 1 tells us about, verse 26, Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' what is happening here at the very end of this vision, then, is the end is recapitulating and surpassing the beginning. And as we come to the end of this great vision of the future, we read of this reigning continuing on as far as we've had revealed to us forever and ever. I think reigning is just the highest state of existence we can think of in this life.

It seems like that which is advantageous. Friends, such a position is so glorious as to be almost inconceivable. And that's why this is where the angel stops. This is as far as the angel goes in bringing John to gaze into the future.

The life to come will be a life of ruling over the creation with the Creator. Well, we should conclude, though this passage does form the foundation of an unending amount of encouraging meditation you can do. As I pray through the directory, I am regularly reminded that every one of our members of this flock that I have special charge over will soon be in heaven or hell. You appear like this in this mixed and temporary position for the shortest of times, whether it's one day or 30 years. Soon your face will be gone and you'll be where you'll be eternally.

Friends, these are serious matters. Augustine, the great African pastor, saw the spiritual reality that we're living into very clearly. He said, Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, the love of self, in a word, glories in itself. The latter, the love of God in the Lord.

For the one seeks glory from men, but the greatest glory of the other is God. The one lifts up its head in its own glory, the other says to its God, Thou art my glory and the lifter up of my head. In the one, the princes and the nations it subdues are ruled by love of ruling. In the other, the princes and the subjects serve one another in love. The one delights in its own strength, represented in the persons of its rulers.

The other says to its God, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. Brothers and sisters, this heaven-sent vision that we see in the book of Revelation is the reason for the hope that we have. We Christians know how the story ends and we live each day in light of this end. That's why the Lord gave John this vision. I've used the image before of, you know, knowing how the story ends is like us being able to focus in with a TV camera and then know where it ends around the throne and then pull the camera out so far until we finally get our own day and our own circumstances and realize that whatever they are, it ends here.

That's why in his providence he's giving this vision to us today. I remember in seminary writing a paper on John Bunyan's great book Pilgrim's Progress. And I wrote a paper specifically on heaven in Pilgrim's Progress, which if you read Pilgrim's Progress you'll realize it's a funny thing to do because heaven doesn't really appear in Pilgrim's Progress. Well, I mean, I mean, it's at the very end of the two books that it's written in, but it's just a sliver. If you're looking for Randy Alcorn-like details about heaven, there are none.

Bunyan doesn't speculate. But it is interesting, heaven dominates Pilgrim's Progress. Almost every character is named by whether or not they're headed to or away from heaven. They're on the right way if it's the way to heaven, the celestial city. If they're wandering off, they're on the wrong way.

Their entire life is characterized by how they are oriented to the heavenly city, the celestial city. Friend, I think Bunyan captured that well.

I wonder if you are speaking and acting like one who is only of this world, or like one who has seen and believed this vision, like one who is passing through this world on the way to one that is better and lasting.

Let's pray together.

Lord God, we thank youk for the wonderful hope that yout give us in Christ. We thank youk for the way youy have put so much comfort into these several verses. We thank youk for the many promises that yout have made, and we thank youk for how many of them we've already seen and experienced. As being kept in the coming of the Messiah, His rich provision for us, even in this life of atonement, forgiveness, the sins penalty paid, sins power even now being broken as we have victory over sin.

Lord, we look forward to that day when we will be delivered even from the very presence of sin into the presence of God, when we see you once again face to face. Keep us, we pray, until that day. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.