Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Truth About Heaven | New Testament | Revelation 21

Episode Date: November 20, 2023

Do you know what heaven is actually like? What's the purpose of heaven? Why do you want to go to heaven? In today's episode, Keith uses Revelation 21 to talk all things heaven and what happens when Jesus comes back. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Prepare your heart to celebrate Jesus. Sign up to have the 'I Am Your God' Advent Devotional delivered directly to your inbox starting Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Revelation 21

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Where is heaven? What is heaven like? Those are some of the questions that kids ask adults, but most Christian adults don't know the answer. Oftentimes, adults have the same questions kids do. Well, Revelation 21 and 22 give us a picture of heaven.

They don't answer nearly all our questions, but they do tell us what God thinks we need. need to know about heaven. Your view of heaven is very important because it will shape how you live on earth. Let me share with you a quote by a guy named Charles Windall. He's been a pastor and president of a seminary. He's very well respected in the Christian world, and I think rightly so. But I think he gets heaven wrong. So let's start with his quote.

He said, do you realize that there are only two eternal things on earth today? Only two. People and God's word. everything else will ultimately be burned up. Everything else kind of sets your priorities straight, doesn't it? Okay, again, that was a quote from Charles Swindall. And what he's saying is that the only things on earth that will last into heaven are people and God's word.

And he says everything else will be burned up. In other words, the world and everything else except people in God's word will be destroyed. And so then he says that once we know that, only people in God's word last, those are the only two things that are eternal, then that sets our priorities straight. In other words, we should prioritize those two things and forget about everything else because everything else will be destroyed or burned up. And the only thing that really matters are people and God's word. And remember, what we think about heaven will shape our priorities. In other words, if God really is going to destroy our world, then why work for a better world? Why invest in education? Why work for a more just world?

This kind of thinking is the reason why in college I gave up on school. I stopped going to class and would just do the very minimal amount of work that are required to get by and graduate. And the reason I did that is because I believed what Charles Windall said. I thought the only things that mattered were people and God's word. So I justified giving up on school because I was going to be leading Bible studies or talking to people about Jesus. When you believe that the only things that really last, the only things that are eternal, the only things that matter are people in God's word and everything else will be burned up, then what happens is you develop a sacred, secular split.

The sacred things are the things that God really cares about, and the secular things are everything else. And so that means that God doesn't really care about your job, and he doesn't care about the environment, and he doesn't care about politics, and he doesn't care about art and music and sports and all the other things that make up our everyday life. When we believe in a sacred, secular split, we often think of missionaries as the most important people and maybe pastors are also really important, but ordinary people with ordinary jobs are kind of like being on the JV team.

You still get into heaven, but God isn't pleased by how you spent your life. Another outcome of the sacred secular split is that you turned the secular part of your life, which remember includes your job because that's part of what's going to be burned up and you see it as just an opportunity to make money to satisfy your family's needs as opposed to something that can really be done to the glory of God. But the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible doesn't teach that everything in this world is going to be destroyed and so that the only thing that really matters are people and God's word.

Instead of teaching that everything is going to be burned up, the Bible teaches that God is actually going to restore. everything to the way it should have always been. Listen to Acts 321. This is from a sermon by Peter. He says this, heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. So what Peter is saying is that heaven receives Jesus until the time that he returns and restores everything. And this is a promise that he has made a long time ago. What the Bible actually teaches then is that God is going to restore or renew this world, that heaven is coming to earth. Before we get into Revelation 21, I just want you to think about

an extreme home makeover. There was a big TV show about it, and even if like me, you've never seen it, you get the idea of it. We have a house that is kind of falling apart. It's a bit of a dump. It doesn't look that great. It's out of style and outdated. And the family that lives there is kind of embarrassed by it. And in comes the home makeover team. And in a few days, they transform that house. Now it is on solid footing. It is beautiful. It's attractive. Maybe they knock out some walls. They make that house far better. And the family is super excited to receive their new house. Now, it's not really new. It's just a renewed house, a transformed house. That is a picture of what God is going to do to our world. Our world is falling apart. Our world is living in

under the curse of sin, but God is going to come, defeat sin, and give us a transformed world that we can live in. Listen to Revelation 21. He's going to give us a transformed earth. That is what heaven is going to be. That's why it's called the new heaven and new earth. All right, so let's pick it up. Revelation chapter 21 verse 1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself

will be with them and be their God. Now where does God dwell with his people? Well, I'm sure you heard that heaven is pictured as coming down from God to earth. God dwells with his people on a renewed earth. It makes me ask the question, why do you want to go to heaven? If you were to ask people that today, I'm sure some would say, well, I want to go to heaven to see my grandma. I want to go to heaven to see someone that I really miss. Or some people might say they want to go to heaven because disease will no longer ravage

their body and they will have a new body. As a young kid, I grew up as a big St. Louis Cardinal fan, and one of the famous announcers for the Cardinals was a man named Jack Buck. Now, I didn't know him, obviously. I just listened to him on the radio or on the television called the Cardinal baseball games. But the word on the street was that Jack Buck became a Christian later in his life. Well, when Jack Buck died, they had a big service for him at Bush Stadium, where the Cardinals played baseball. And one of the famous old players for the Cardinals, a man named Lou Brock gave a talk.

And one of the things he told the audience was that they should become Christians so that one day they can go to heaven and wait for it, see Jack Buck. Now, I really like Lou Brock and who knows what I would have said if I were in a similar position as him. So this isn't really a criticism of him.

But I can say that the reason that you should want to go to heaven is not to see Jack Buck. and it's not even to see grandma. Instead, the reason we should want to go to heaven is because that's where God dwells. Revelation 21 says, God's dwelling is now among the people and he will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. That is the goal of heaven that we can be reconciled to God. Verse 4 says, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. The Bible tells us that not only will be reconciled with God, not only will be satisfied in our relationship with Him, but also there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. All the things that make this life miserable, all the things that come as a result of the curse of sin will be eliminated and eradicated. There will no longer be sin in this world. So we're not just reconciled to God, but we're reconciled to each other and we're reconciled to the world we live in. This is paradise. This is what we were created for. Verse five, he who is seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Then he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.

If you remember all the way back in Genesis chapter one, God created the world, and after he created it, he called it good. But then in Genesis 3, sin corrupted the world. Well, in Revelation 21 and 22, God restores the world. Sin and Satan don't win. God does. God doesn't start over. Instead, he transforms. Think about it this way. In 2 Corinthians 517, it says that when a person becomes a Christian, they become a new creation. Now, that doesn't mean that God starts over with that person, like he doesn't destroy them and make a new person. Instead, what it means is that God renews and rescues and transforms that person. That's why they are called a new creation. Or think about a caterpillar and a butterfly. A caterpillar goes into the cocoon and comes out a butterfly. It's the same animal, but in a new form.

There's continuity and discontinuity between the caterpillar and the butterfly. It's the same animal, but now in a new form. That might serve as a good picture for us of thinking how God is going to renew this world. There will be continuity and discontinuity. It's the same creation, but now sin has been defeated. That's why there's no more death, tears, sadness, sickness. Now God dwells with his people perfectly on earth. Later down in, back to Revelation 21, in verses 13 and 14, we are told that on the foundation and gates of the city, the New Jerusalem,

were written the names of the 12 apostles and the 12 tribes of Israel. This is showing that all the people of God throughout history, regardless of where they live or what they look like, they will all be there with God dwelling with him in the new heaven and the new earth. Verse 27 says, everyone whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be there. But there's also something sobering in Revelation 21. It doesn't just tell us who will be with God in heaven, but it also tells us who won't be there. Here's verse 8. The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars, they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. Now, this list is not comprehensive.

What it's saying is that those who embraced their sin and didn't embrace Jesus will forever face God's judgment. The end of Revelation makes it clear. that one day King Jesus will reign. So how do Christians live between now and then? How does our picture of heaven change the way we live our life? Or as Charles Swindal said, shape our priorities? Well, since God is redeeming and renewing the entire creation, our calling is about more than saving souls.

Now, it's not less than that. We want to share the good news of Christ with everybody, but that's not our only priority. Listen to how the prophet Jeremiah instructs the Old Testament believers to live while they are in Babylon. He says, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. Well, right now, we do not live in the new heaven and new earth. We are exiles.

How should we live? Well, we should seek the peace and prosperity of the place we live. We should pray for our city, our state, our country, and the world. And that's what Christians have done for centuries. Christians have worked for the good of the world. That's why Christians are the ones who founded and promoted schools and orphanages and hospitals. That's why Christians have been involved in science. Or were some of the first and most vocal abolitionists against slavery?

Because they knew that God wasn't just about saving someone. soul. God cares deeply about politics or the oppression of people or economic injustice or racial oppression. God cares about unfair business practices and court systems that favor the rich. He calls us to speak up for the week and to be the voice of the voiceless. God cares about our environment. And he encourages us to work in all those areas in a way that brings glory to him because God is renewing the earth, we can participate in its renewal even now. Because God is going to renew the entire earth. He gives us the opportunity to work for its renewal now.