What is Heaven Like
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A Place of No Mores
A Place of No Mores
An 85-year-old couple were married almost 60 years before they both died. They had been in good health the last 10 years, mainly due to the wife’s interest in health food and exercise.
When they reached the pearly gates, St Peter took them to their mansion, which was decked out with a beautiful kitchen and master bedroom and spa. As they looked in awe, the old man asked St Peter how much all of this was going to cost.
“It’s free,” St Peter replied. “This is Heaven.”
Next they went out back to survey the championship golf course that the home backed on to. They would have golfing privileges every day, and each week the course changed to a new one representing the greatest golf courses on Earth.
The old man asked, “What are the green fees?”
St Peter replied, “This is Heaven, you play for free.”
Next they went to the club house and saw the lavish buffet lunch with the cuisines of the world laid out.
“How much to eat?” asked the old man.
“Don’t you understand yet? This is Heaven, it is free!” St Peter replied with some exasperation.
“Well, where are the low cholesterol tables?” the old man asked timidly.
St Peter lectured, “That’s the best part, you can eat as much as you like of whatever you like and you never get fat and you never get sick! This is Heaven.”
With that, the old man went into a fit of rage, throwing down his hat and stomping on it and shrieking wildly. His wife and St Peter both tried to calm him down, asking him what was wrong.
The old man looked at his wife and said, “This is all your fault. If it weren’t for your blasted bran muffins, I could have been here 10 years ago!”
No More Separation (Rev. 21:3-4, 6)
No More Separation (Rev. 21:3-4, 6)
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will 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.”
Notice the first part of this verse. The truth of this scripture is that this is a fulfilment of the promised New Covenant that Ezekiel prophesied in Ezekiel 37.
I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore.
My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
This is a promise that God made to Israel to be their God, but it is fulfilled in His church as God gathers all of his people, both Jew and Gentile into his heavenly city.
There God will make his dwelling place with man.
This is a clear reversal of the curse of the original sin of our federal head, Adam through which all of his descendants have inherited his guilt and sin nature.
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
Notice, in Genesis we who were created to be in close communion with God lost ourselves in the fall and that relationship with God and each other was damaged.
And the curse is found at the end of the chapter.
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”
therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
Because of sin we were separated from God, but in heaven God once again makes his dwelling place with us!
But that’s not the only separation we find destroyed in heaven.
Staying in Genesis let’s look at Genesis 5
Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
Look at verse 4 with me again in Revelation
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 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.
Not only will our separation with God be at an end, but so will our separation with each other. There will be no more death in heaven. We will never have to say goodbye to friends, family members or children. We will never have to wrestle with cancer, or diabetes, or heart disease.
We will live forever.
Notice in v. 22 of Genesis God’s reasoning for taking us from the garden
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”
Now look at Revelation 22 with me.
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.
Praise God, we will eat from the tree of life forevermore!
No More Sorrow (Rev. 21:4)
No More Sorrow (Rev. 21:4)
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.”
The Second no more is that there will be no more sorrow. Revelation 7:17
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Notice that there will be no more sorrow in heaven. Our lives are filled with Sorrow and Pain. There are great oppressions that we face daily. We face the oppression of pain, the oppression of death, the oppression of sorrow. Because death and suffering are no more, then naturally sorrow is no more.
There will be no somber hospital visits, nor funerals in heaven. We will no longer be separated from each other.
As G. K. Beale notes:
The Book of Revelation In the New Creation the Faithful Will Experience the Salvation Blessing of Intimate Communion with God, but the Unfaithful Will Be Excluded from This Blessing (21:1–8)
Rather, the evil nuance of the sea metaphorically represents the entire range of afflictions that formerly threatened God’s people in the old world. Uppermost in John’s mind would have been tribulations resulting from oppression by the ungodly world. There will be no trial over which to weep in the final order of things.
In heaven, all oppression against God’s people will cease, and thus our need to mourn will cease.
Yes, in heaven, God will wipe every tear from our eyes, but it’s not just because we are no longer fearful of separation from our loved ones, but also because we no longer have any fear from separation from God!
And this is the greater promise!
The promise that God will wipe away every tear fulfulled in the promises that “There will be no more death...or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever” (Revelation 21:4, NLT). There is also “no more sea” (verse 1, NKJV) and “no more curse” (Revelation 22:3, NKJV). In the place of these things, the new earth will have the New Jerusalem, the presence and glory of God, and the everlasting joy of the saints. As God wipes away all tears, all that occasioned the tears is also wiped away.
Thomas Moore rightly said, “Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can’t heal.”
This is why Jesus notes:
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 will be my son.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17).
James Montgomery Boice
No More Simplicity (Rev. 21:5, 1 Cor. 13:12)
No More Simplicity (Rev. 21:5, 1 Cor. 13:12)
What do I mean by simplicity? Well, I simply mean we will have no more ignorance, no more lack of knowledge.
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.”
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Jesus’ promise is that he will make all things new, and it’s clear that we will grow in our knowledge in heaven. The verse says we know in part, but then we will know in full. The words for know in this verse are ginosko and epiginosko. Ginosko means to know, epiginosko means to grow in knowledge or to learn. In heaven we will learn. I believe that this is how we can understand the verse before about him wiping every tear from our eyes.
I’ve heard it said there will be no tears in heaven, but I don’t think that’s entirely true. For tears to be wiped away they must first exist. But in heaven all those things for which we mourn will be clearly seen.
This goes for friends and loved ones. The question was asked of me “Will we know each other in heaven?”
The answer is a resounding “Yes!”
Not only that we will remember everyone we’ve ever known in heaven, both those who have come to heaven and those who have not.
I know why so many balk from this truth, they don’t understand how they will not mourn a spouse or child who does not go to heaven, but this belief we will not remember comes from our speculation and has no grounding in scripture.
Scripture clearly teaches that we will recognize not only each other, but other we don’t even know!
The Disciples clearly recognized Moses and Elijah on the mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17:3-4.
So how can the truth of no sorrow in heaven be true? The key is understanding the truth that 1 John 3:2
1 John 3:2 (ESV)
we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
Like Jesus, we will know, but our knowledge and we will mourn, but we will mourn as Jesus does.
As Charles Spurgeon Notes:
“If you could stand in the sun and see the orbits in which the planets revolve round that central luminary, it would become clear enough; but for many an age astronomers were unable to discover anything of order, and spoke of the planets as progressive, retrograde, and standing still. Let us get to God, the center, and we shall see how providence in order revolves round his sapphire throne. We, ourselves, too, when we get to heaven, shall be better qualified to see than we are now.”
Thus, we will remember them, and we will be fully conscious that they are not there with us, but we will see them as God sees them.
No More Sacrifice (Rev. 21:7, Rev. 21:22-23)
No More Sacrifice (Rev. 21:7, Rev. 21:22-23)
The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
Finally we find this truth, and this is the biggest and best of all the truths: In heaven, there will be no more need for sacrifice. In heaven, there will be no more need for repentance. In heaven there will be no more need for supplication. In heaven we will experience God as we were always meant to: face to face, and as we always will.
We are sort of ending where we started, but I think this is key to understanding heaven: Heaven will be us enjoying the presence of God, and the fellowship of the saints eternally, and unendingly for all eternity. Heaven is joy unending.
By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,
and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
In heaven there will be no more night, there will be no more fear of war, or lack, or sorrow, or want.
But there is this one truth
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.
it’s only for those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, written before the foundation of the World. (Rev. 13:8)
Our joy is to come from the assurance that we have redemption in Christ. The greatest joy that a person can have is to know that his name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that he is saved and will live forever with Christ.
R. C. Sproul
Let me ask you a question: Has your name be written in the Lamb’s book of Life today?