THE HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN

 

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.  (Revelation 21:1a)

What is your address?  On the mail I receive, it says, “5 Owlwood Drive, Candler, N.C.”  Even though I reside there, it is not my home.  That’s a temporary address.  My real home is on Hallelujah Boulevard, New Jerusalem, Heaven.  The old Gospel song puts it:

This world is not my home
I'm just a-passing through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue.

The angels beckon me
From heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore.  (Jim Reeves)

The reality is that we will all spend eternity somewhere.  John has just warned of the horror of hell in Revelation 20, and now in chapter 21, he shares the happiness of heaven.

It is a place that is prepared (v.1-2).  Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you…” (John 14:2b).  John uses that word here to describe the Holy City as a bride prepared for her husband.  The old creation was marred by sin—Satan has soiled the heavens that are and man has spoiled the earth that is.  God promises to make all things new!  As a bride dressed in white, the New Jerusalem will be spotless.  Unstained by even one sin, Satan and all who followed him—fallen angels and fallen men—will have been consigned to the lake of fire.  Here comes the Bride!  I long to hear that Wedding March begin to play!

It is a place that is presented (v.3-8).   John twice says, “I heard,” and twice we are told, “Behold!”  This is a grand presentation!  This old sinful world is full of groans, but the new stainless world will be full of glory!  In the course of my ministry, I have stood too many times in a hospital room or hospice unit and heard someone struggling to live, their body wracked with pain, each breath a labor and lament.  I have often gathered with grieving families in funeral parlors and graveyards and heard their sobs of sorrow.  On the authority of the Word of God, there is coming a day when that will be, “no more...no more…” as “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes….”  Hell will be the only place in the universe where there will be weeping.  Heaven will bring boundless laughter!

It is a place that is paradise (v.9-23).  It is not just the absence of sin’s pain, but also the presence of salvation’s pleasure that marks eternity for the saints.  Our eternal home is a place of breathtaking beauty and incomparable wonder.  John does the best he can to describe what he saw, using the highest vocabulary he had, but I tell you heaven is all that—and so much more!  The best thing is that Jesus will be there.  The glory of God will fill the place and we will bask in the light of the Risen Lamb.  We will see Him crowned with glory who once was crowned with thorns.  The hands once pinned to a cross will reach out and embrace us with perfect love!  O glorious day!

It is a place populated (v.24-27).  The best of places is populated by the best of people.  It is a gated community.  Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life are permitted entrance.  Is your name written there?  Make sure today!