SPEAKER_00: It's my privilege to introduce a today's preacher.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: It's my privilege to introduce a today's preacher.
SPEAKER_00: Nathan Buzenz is the current dean and executive vice president of the Master Seminary.
SPEAKER_00: In addition to leading the seminary, he's also a pastor at Grace Community Church in Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_00: Nathan is married to Beth, and they have been friends with Deeder forever, going back to their college days.
SPEAKER_00: But I met Nathan when I first moved to Los Angeles for seminary.
SPEAKER_00: Since then we've worked on numerous book projects together, and Nathan is actually the one who got me into writing.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he started one of the world's first Christian blogs, which is no more, tragically.
SPEAKER_00: Having left blogging behind, Nathan has become a best-selling author and church history scholar.
SPEAKER_00: He's known as someone who makes church history engaging and approachable.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you homeschool, you'll probably recognize his voice, as I'm pretty sure his video curriculum is what most homeschool families in our church use.
SPEAKER_00: Nathan is an example of generational faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: His dad led the Master Seminary for 32 years before handing it off to Nathan.
SPEAKER_00: And since then, Nathan has not been merely a caretaker, but is overseeing tremendous growth in the school.
SPEAKER_00: Nathan and I have been friends for over 25 years, and I'm so thankful for him.
SPEAKER_00: Despite being a leading scholar on church history, this morning Nathan isn't preaching on the past, but on the future.
SPEAKER_00: Please welcome to our pulpit, Pastor Nathan Busnitz.
SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_01: It is indeed a delight to be here with you.
SPEAKER_01: And I do bring greetings from California, from Grace Community Church.
SPEAKER_01: We out there are so glad to know that there are fellow Christians here near the Capitol, and you can be glad to know that there are believers out on the left coast.
SPEAKER_01: So it's a joy to fellowship with you in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I am grateful to Jesse for this opportunity and to your elders here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: It's a joy to be here with you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to begin this morning by really posing two questions.
SPEAKER_01: And these questions, in some way, are inspired by questions that I remember being asked all the way back when I was a senior in high school.
SPEAKER_01: That's now 30 years ago this year, which means I'm getting old.
SPEAKER_01: I tell my wife, we're not getting old, our kids are just getting old, but here we are.
SPEAKER_01: And you may remember from your time in high school, those of you who are older than that, that when it came to the senior year, there were often questionnaires that were asked about what you saw yourself doing in the future.
SPEAKER_01: What do you see yourself doing five years from now, ten years from now, twenty years from now?
SPEAKER_01: And I think high school reunions perhaps were designed so that people could laugh at what they thought they were going to be doing when they were seniors in high school.
SPEAKER_01: And life has a way of taking us in directions that we maybe didn't anticipate.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to take that idea and I want to apply it to the future, not the future of your life in this world.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about preparing for retirement or anything like that, but I want to take that idea and apply it into the long-term future.
SPEAKER_01: So we might phrase the first question.
SPEAKER_01: Or just to make the point, a million years from today, what will you be doing?
SPEAKER_01: Now, perhaps at first glance, your response would be to say, well, Nathan, I will be dead.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, it is true that this earthly tent in which we make our sojourn, this earthly tent, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, will have been torn down.
SPEAKER_01: But if you understand what the Bible teaches about the future, you recognize that you will not be dead.
SPEAKER_01: You will in fact be very much alive.
SPEAKER_01: You will be in a resurrected body.
SPEAKER_01: So what will you be doing a million years from today?
SPEAKER_01: And then the second question is this how does thinking about that first question change your perspective on the way you live your life right now?
SPEAKER_01: How does it change your perspective on your priorities, your pursuits, your pastimes, the things that seem so urgent in the moment, and yet in light of eternity begin to seem very, very small.
SPEAKER_01: It was C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis who said that the Christians who do the most for this present world are precisely those who think the most about the next.
SPEAKER_01: It is only since Christians have stopped thinking of the world to come, Lewis said, that they have become so ineffective in this one.
SPEAKER_01: The Christians who do the most for this present world are precisely those who think the most of the next.
SPEAKER_01: You see, an eternal perspective, a heavenly perspective, helps us recognize spiritual realities and helps us prioritize those things that actually have lasting value.
SPEAKER_01: It was C.T.
SPEAKER_01: Studd who wrote the famous poem, Only One Life Twill Soon Be Passed.
SPEAKER_01: Only what's done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why is it that Christians, and I'm including myself, of course, in this, why is it that we so often fail to think about and preoccupy ourselves with thoughts about our eternal home?
SPEAKER_01: You see, the Lord has revealed to us the truth about the future.
SPEAKER_01: We might call that our hope.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord has revealed to us this hope about the future, not only so that we will have hope for the future, but also so that we'll be motivated in holiness in the present.
SPEAKER_01: Certainly the Bible doesn't reveal to us truth about the future just so that we can fill out fancy eschatology charts or try and win online debates.
SPEAKER_01: That's not why.
SPEAKER_01: It's so that we have a hope for the future and that we're motivated in holiness in the present.
SPEAKER_01: I think if we ask the question, why don't we think more about heaven, it's often because we suffer from spiritual myopia.
SPEAKER_01: We tend to focus just on what's right in front of us.
SPEAKER_01: It's the tyranny of the urgent.
SPEAKER_01: We become distracted with the passing things of this world.
SPEAKER_01: It is the Apostle John who reminded us that this world is passing away along with its lusts.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it is sin itself that has entangled us, as the author of Hebrews describes in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, that as we run the race of this life, we must be careful to avoid the sin that so easily entangles us, because when we get entangled in sin, it takes our eyes off of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But I think there's another reason why Christians today tend to be unexcited, maybe is the word, unenthusiastic when it comes to thinking about heaven, thinking about our future home.
SPEAKER_01: And it's because their understanding of heaven leaves a lot to be desired.
SPEAKER_01: We tend to allow Hollywood and Hallmark to have too much influence on our thinking about what heaven is like.
SPEAKER_01: The typical man on the street perspective of heaven is that heaven consists of disembodied spirits floating around in some sort of celestial, solemn, quiet, clinical, stark white environment.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a great hospital or a great library in the sky.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it's the more comical, we're all sitting on cotton ball puff clouds, wearing white choir robes, strumming harps for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: And I would agree with you that if that's your understanding of heaven, who wants to go there?
SPEAKER_01: That sounds boring.
SPEAKER_01: But the scriptures describe heaven in a way that is anything but boring.
SPEAKER_01: It's not colorless, in fact, it is full of vibrant color.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not quiet, in fact, it is full of voluminous and vigorous worship.
SPEAKER_01: The worship that we enjoyed in song this morning was wonderful, but that's just a foretaste and a glimpse of the exponentially greater worship that we will enjoy when we stand around the throne and sing praises to the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, if you were to look at Revelation 4 and 5, you would find a description of the intermediate heaven.
SPEAKER_01: The heaven that exists now when believers who die, their body goes into the grave, but their spirit goes into the presence of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: As 2 Corinthians 5 8 says, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And when you read Revelation 4 and 5, what you find is a description of a place that is filled with vibrancy and vitality.
SPEAKER_01: It is colorful, it is exciting, it is loud.
SPEAKER_01: And right this moment, here on March 1st, 2026, the redeemed of all of the ages are surrounding the throne of the Lamb, and they are singing praise to him because of the work of redemption that he accomplished.
SPEAKER_01: And one day our great hope is that we will join them.
SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, we know from 1 Thessalonians 4 that when our Lord comes for the church, that we will receive our resurrection bodies, that he will return, and that he will establish his kingdom as Revelation 20.
SPEAKER_01: His return is Revelation 19, and his kingdom on earth established, Revelation 20, 1 through 7.
SPEAKER_01: And then we know that ultimately there will be an eternal heaven, a new heavens and a new earth, and there we will dwell with him forever.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bibles, you can take them and turn to Revelation chapter 21.
SPEAKER_01: That will be our text for this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation chapter 21, verses 1 through 8.
SPEAKER_01: And my goal this morning is to talk about heaven, to describe for us, based on what the Apostle John reveals from the Lord Jesus Christ, to consider together the glory of our eternal home.
SPEAKER_01: Now the title of my message this morning maybe is a bit curious, because the title of my message is What Heaven is Missing.
SPEAKER_01: What Heaven is missing.
SPEAKER_01: And the way I the reason I say it's a little bit curious is because my goal this morning is actually to describe what heaven is like.
SPEAKER_01: So why would I pick a title that emphasizes what will not be there?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the reason is because the Apostle John does that very thing in his description of the new heavens and the new earth, what we might call the eternal heaven, our eternal home.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle John spends as much time in Revelation 21:1 through Revelation 22, verse 5, telling us what will be absent from the world to come as what will be there.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, if you were to go through this passage, you would find a list, you could create a list of as many as 17 things that are part of our present reality in this life that will be absent from the world to come.
SPEAKER_01: In order to emphasize how much better the new earth will be than this present world, the Apostle John has to spend as much time talking about what will not be there as what will be.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're taking notes this morning, don't worry, we're not going to have 17 points in our outline.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to look just at five of these aspects, aspects that are part of our reality in this world that will be absent from the world to come.
SPEAKER_01: We understand, I think, this way of comparison and contrast.
SPEAKER_01: When I was in college, I purchased a used car.
SPEAKER_01: It was a good car, and it had about 60,000 miles on it, as I remember.
SPEAKER_01: It was a four-door sedan, and it was a great car for college and for seminary.
SPEAKER_01: Regrettably, though, I did not take good care of that car.
SPEAKER_01: I owned it for 10 years, and by the time I was at the end of that 10 years, the car was in really bad shape.
SPEAKER_01: The air conditioner no longer worked, which is a problem in the California summers.
SPEAKER_01: The struts were totally shot, which means, like shock absorbers, when I would go over bumps, I would definitely feel all of that.
SPEAKER_01: The seats were ripped, the paint was peeled, the back bumper had a big dent in it.
SPEAKER_01: There was actually one of the side mirrors had fallen off.
SPEAKER_01: I had reattached it with duct tape.
SPEAKER_01: The power steering no longer worked, the cassette player didn't work.
SPEAKER_01: Remember cassette players?
SPEAKER_01: So the car was a mess.
SPEAKER_01: And it was so bad that at one point my mom, who is honestly one of the sweetest ladies in the world, actually told me, please don't park on the street because you're bringing down the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: Well, in California, maybe you have these same things here in Virginia, but we have smog tests and all sorts of emissions regulations.
SPEAKER_01: And it got to the point where my car could no longer pass a smog test.
SPEAKER_01: It was actually categorized by the state of California as, and this is a real category, a gross polluter.
SPEAKER_01: And so the state of California paid me$1,000 to take it to a junkyard and say goodbye.
SPEAKER_01: And then I went out and I bought a new car.
SPEAKER_01: Now my new car was also a small, compact, four-door sedan.
SPEAKER_01: It was actually made by the same manufacturer.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, if you had asked me in the days and weeks after getting my new car to describe my new car, I probably would have told you as much about what was there as what was not.
SPEAKER_01: I no longer emerge from my car sweating buckets.
SPEAKER_01: I no longer catch air when I go over a bump in the freeway.
SPEAKER_01: I'm no longer embarrassed when I pull onto the church campus and see other people that I know.
SPEAKER_01: Those were things that characterized my old car.
SPEAKER_01: But those things have passed away.
SPEAKER_01: Those things are not true of my new car.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's obviously a trivial illustration, but I think it highlights what the Apostle John is doing when he talks about the new earth.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to describe for us what the new earth is like.
SPEAKER_01: But part of his goal in emphasizing how wonderful and glorious our eternal home will be, he has to remind us that the hardships and afflictions and difficulties of this life, things that characterize our present experience, will actually be absent from the new world.
SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about these five aspects of our present reality that will be absent from the world to come.
SPEAKER_01: Five things that heaven is missing.
SPEAKER_01: Now we'll look at these five things as we go through these verses here in Revelation chapter 21, verses 1 through 8.
SPEAKER_01: The first of these aspects that will be absent from the new world is there in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll give it a slightly different label in a moment, but you can see right now there in verse 1, at the end of verse 1, that there will be no sea.
SPEAKER_01: So the Apostle John in Revelation 21:1 says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea will be no more.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is very curious.
SPEAKER_01: In John's list of descriptions about the new earth, the first thing that he noticed, that he notes is absent from the world to come is that there is no longer any ocean.
SPEAKER_01: There's no sea.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Why is the sea missing from the new earth?
SPEAKER_01: Well, commentators have given a number of different explanations.
SPEAKER_01: And I think for the Apostle John, he's a former fisherman.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's why he notices first that there's no sea, because he had spent a lot of time on the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's because you've seen pictures of Earth from space.
SPEAKER_01: The most notable feature of our planet is all of the blue.
SPEAKER_01: 70 to 75% of our surface area is covered in water.
SPEAKER_01: So this would be a very noticeable thing.
SPEAKER_01: There's no ocean.
SPEAKER_01: But why is there no ocean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, some commentators suggest that maybe it is to indicate the fact that the very essence of the life cycle on the new earth will not depend on the oceans.
SPEAKER_01: We depend on the hydrological cycle for life.
SPEAKER_01: But life in the new earth, as you can see in Revelation 22, 1 through 3, life in the new earth flows from the throne room of God, from the throne of life, the river of life, surrounded by the tree of life.
SPEAKER_01: Other commentators have pointed out the fact that throughout Scripture, you often have the sea as a symbol of wickedness, of unrest and disorder.
SPEAKER_01: And yet in the new earth, there will be no such wickedness or unrest or disorder.
SPEAKER_01: And while both of those potential answers do have some merit, I think there's perhaps a deeper, a deeper reason why there's no sea on the new earth.
SPEAKER_01: The ocean as we know it today, covering 70 to 75% of our surface area, the ocean as we know it today is the product of the flood.
SPEAKER_01: It is true that God created the sea during creation week.
SPEAKER_01: You can read about that in Genesis 1.11.
SPEAKER_01: He separated the waters so that there was dry land, and the waters he called the seas.
SPEAKER_01: And the sea, of course, was part of creation, and creation was very good.
SPEAKER_01: But because of man's wickedness, Genesis 6 through 8, God then judged the world through the flood.
SPEAKER_01: And water that was collected in the firmament of the heavens came crashing down, and water that was in the depths of the storehouses of the earth came bursting forth.
SPEAKER_01: And the result was that all of mankind and all of the animals on the land were killed, except for those in the ark.
SPEAKER_01: The flood was the greatest natural disaster that has ever taken place in Earth's history.
SPEAKER_01: It is the greatest natural disaster that will ever take place until our Lord judges this earth with fire.
SPEAKER_01: I do think it's ironic that people choose the flood as a theme for baby decorations or for even greeting cards.
SPEAKER_01: We wouldn't do this with any other natural disaster.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I see you went with the Vesuvius theme.
SPEAKER_01: The flood is the greatest natural disaster our planet has ever experienced.
SPEAKER_01: And the ocean as it exists today is a perpetual reminder that there was a time when God killed every human being except for Noah and his family, and every land creature except for those who were in pairs on the ark, because of their wickedness, and because God is holy and righteous.
SPEAKER_01: God is the judge, and he judged this world with water.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe Revelation 21, 1 is showing us that on the new earth there will be no sign of God's judgment.
SPEAKER_01: No sign of God's judgment, because the flood has been undone.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a second aspect of our present reality that will be absent from the new heavens and the new earth.
SPEAKER_01: It's in verses two and three.
SPEAKER_01: And if verse one we might label as no sign of God's judgment, then in verses two and three we might label the second aspect as no separation between God and man.
SPEAKER_01: No separation between God and man.
SPEAKER_01: And you can see there, Revelation 21, verse 2, then I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
SPEAKER_01: And I heard a voice from the throne saying, The dwelling place of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and he himself will be with them as their God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is what makes heaven heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Heaven is not heaven because the angels are there, it's not heaven because it's a beautiful place, it's not heaven even because the redeemed are there, the saints of the ages, it's not heaven because loved ones who we have lost in this life are there.
SPEAKER_01: Those are all wonderful blessings, and we'll enjoy all of those things.
SPEAKER_01: But what makes heaven heaven is that we have fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_01: The separation that took place at the fall has now been reconciled and restored.
SPEAKER_01: We might think of the themes of redemption history using three trees.
SPEAKER_01: There was in Genesis 3 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_01: That's the tree of man's failure.
SPEAKER_01: And then in Revelation 21 and 22, we have, especially in Revelation 22, 1 through 5, the return of the tree of life.
SPEAKER_01: That is the tree of man's access to God.
SPEAKER_01: And what is it that makes those who fell at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
SPEAKER_01: What is it that makes it possible for them to regain access to the tree of life?
SPEAKER_01: It is that third tree in the middle, the tree of Calvary, where the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for the sins of all who believe in him, so that through his work on the tree, we might regain access to that which was taken away.
SPEAKER_01: And so the separation that was created between God and man at the fall, that separation is restored for eternity, and it is made possible through the work of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: His work of redemption makes that reconciliation and that reunion possible.
SPEAKER_01: So that in verse 2, we can read about the redeemed of all of the ages, the residence of the new Jerusalem, the capital city of the new earth.
SPEAKER_01: And while I appreciate the respect and the grandeur of our nation's capital city, especially here at a church that is within the shadow of our nation's capital, it pales in comparison to what the new Jerusalem, the capital city of heaven, will be like.
SPEAKER_01: And that's intentional because the Holy of Holies in both the tabernacle and the temple was also a cube in shape.
SPEAKER_01: And what the New Jerusalem, by taking on those same dimensions, is reflecting and representing is access to God, because what did the Holy of Holies represent?
SPEAKER_01: The presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And in the new heavens and the new earth, redeemed men and women will have access directly into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And then verse three, what joy is there in that verse that God will make his dwelling place among us?
SPEAKER_01: And it's repeated in the verse: He will be with us, he will dwell with us, we will be his people, he will be our God.
SPEAKER_01: What a joy.
SPEAKER_01: To consider the fact that what we now see as in a mirror dimly, we will one day see face to face that we will see our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: That we, when we see him, we will be made like him, for we will see him as he is.
SPEAKER_01: So we have these first two aspects of this present world that are absent from the world to come.
SPEAKER_01: There is no sign of God's judgment, verse one, which means the flood has been undone, and there is no separation between God and man, verses two and three, which means that the fall has been undone.
SPEAKER_01: That brings us to verses four and five.
SPEAKER_01: A third aspect that is absent from the world to come.
SPEAKER_01: There is no sorrow or suffering.
SPEAKER_01: You can see that in verses four and five.
SPEAKER_01: And he will wipe away, verse four, every tear from their eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And death shall be no more.
SPEAKER_01: Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more.
SPEAKER_01: The former things have passed away, and he who sat on the throne, verse five, said, Behold, I am making all things new.
SPEAKER_01: And then, maybe to simply punctuate the point, because this all sounds too good to be true, the end of verse five, you can see there that John was told to write these things down, for these words are trustworthy and true.
SPEAKER_01: What a joy it is to consider the fact that the pain and hardship and affliction that we encounter in this life, this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4.
SPEAKER_01: That when we one day enter into glory, that all of the heartache, all of the pain, all of the loss that we experience in this life will be gone.
SPEAKER_01: When you get to heaven, you will never need a band-aid, you will never take a Tylenol, you'll never make a doctor's appointment.
SPEAKER_01: You'll never go to a funeral.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how 2025 has been for you here at Emmanuel, but for us at Grace Community, it's been a bit of a challenging year.
SPEAKER_01: We were grateful to move into 2026.
SPEAKER_01: And what made it challenging was that we had a successive number of funerals, a concentrated wave of dear saints who were called home to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And obviously, we understand, 1 Thessalonians 4, that we do not grieve as the rest who have no hope, and that there are no goodbyes in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There are only see you laders.
SPEAKER_01: But as you know, our pastor John was called home to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: We also had one of our founding members, a man named Bert Michelson, who passed away.
SPEAKER_01: One of our longtime elders, a man named Bob Houghton, went to glory.
SPEAKER_01: One of our dear sisters, who had been part of the church for many years, died of cancer, Francine Davis.
SPEAKER_01: We were affected, of course, by the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the sudden unexpected death of Vody Baucom.
SPEAKER_01: And then you might know one of our musicians, a man named Jubilant Sykes, was killed in December.
SPEAKER_01: And it was just a successive wave of people that we loved being called home to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And again, our hope didn't waver in any of that, and yet we felt the pain of this successive, successive series of losses.
SPEAKER_01: Not permanent, but we feel the pain of that loss in this life.
SPEAKER_01: What a joy it is to know that one day our Lord Himself, God the Son, that He will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
SPEAKER_01: That death will be no more.
SPEAKER_01: As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, the last enemy to be destroyed will be death.
SPEAKER_01: And that there will be no more mourning or crying or pain.
SPEAKER_01: Those things have passed away.
SPEAKER_01: He is making all things new.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that brings us then to a fourth aspect of this present world that will be absent from the world to come.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 1, we saw that the flood is undone.
SPEAKER_01: In verses two and three, that the fall is undone.
SPEAKER_01: In verses four and five, that the curse was undone.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in chapter 22, verses three and four, John will explicitly say that there is no longer any curse.
SPEAKER_01: A fourth aspect, I've labeled it this way: there will be no longer any struggle, any spiritual struggle, any struggle in your spiritual walk.
SPEAKER_01: So there's no sign of God's judgment, no separation between God and man, no sorrow or sickness, and no spiritual struggle.
SPEAKER_01: This is in verses six and seven.
SPEAKER_01: How often in this life do we feel spiritually dry?
SPEAKER_01: And often that's the result of our own sin.
SPEAKER_01: It could be that there's hardships and trials in our experience that cause us to cry out with David, Lord, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: Or how often do we struggle with doubt?
SPEAKER_01: As we battle against the flesh, fighting against our own inner, fighting against our own flesh, the old man, fighting against spiritual apathy, fighting against doubt.
SPEAKER_01: But look at what we see about our heavenly home in verses six and seven.
SPEAKER_01: He said to me, to John, he said, It is done.
SPEAKER_01: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, to the one who is thirsty.
SPEAKER_01: I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment, and the one who overcomes will have this heritage that I will be his God, and he will be my son.
SPEAKER_01: I love how verse six emphasizes the spiritual fullness, the satisfaction and joy, the overwhelming delight that we will have for all of eternity through our fellowship with the triune God.
SPEAKER_01: And I love how verse seven emphasizes the promise of our adoption as children of God.
SPEAKER_01: Adoption by the Spirit, Romans 8, through the Son, such that Romans 8, 17, Paul can declare, we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We've not just been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.
SPEAKER_01: We've not only been called to be his servants and his slaves.
SPEAKER_01: We've not only been called to be citizens of his kingdom, we've not only been called friends, but he has gone so far as to adopt us into his family so that we are called sons and daughters of the king.
SPEAKER_01: Going back to verse six, just for a moment, all throughout Scripture we have used as a metaphor the idea of thirst.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 42, as the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul thirsts for you, O God.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 55, 1, let those who thirst come to the waters and drink.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 4, Jesus with the woman at the well, I can give you water that if you drink it you will never thirst again.
SPEAKER_01: John 7, 37 and 38.
SPEAKER_01: The living water.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus uses that as a metaphor for spiritual life, for eternal life, for being indwelt and filled with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And even in Revelation 22, verse 17, in the very next chapter, we find again an invitation to all who read this book.
SPEAKER_01: If you thirst spiritually, come to Christ and drink, because only He can satisfy.
SPEAKER_01: But what a comfort and a promise this is, brothers and sisters, for us in our struggle with the flesh when we feel spiritually dry or when we doubt if we are truly in God's family, to know that one day all spiritual thirst will be quenched and all spiritual doubt will be removed.
SPEAKER_01: And this comes as a promise of the one who is both the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega.
SPEAKER_01: Who else can satisfy your soul?
SPEAKER_01: No one else.
SPEAKER_01: And he offers through the gospel not only forgiveness, but he offers to make you part of his family.
SPEAKER_01: So what is heaven missing?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's missing a sign of God's judgment, verse one, it's missing separation between God and man, verses two and three.
SPEAKER_01: It's missing sorrow and suffering, and it's missing spiritual struggle.
SPEAKER_01: We see in verses six and seven that even the flesh is undone.
SPEAKER_01: Our wicked flesh is gone.
SPEAKER_01: And that brings us to a fifth and final aspect of this present reality that is missing from the new world.
SPEAKER_01: And that is what I've labeled no stain of sin.
SPEAKER_01: There is no stain of sin in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And you can see that in verse eight.
SPEAKER_01: But as for the cowardly and the detestable, the faithless, as for murderers and the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their place is not in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Their place is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the Bible teaches that every person will live forever.
SPEAKER_01: And every person will receive a resurrection body, according to John 5.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says that there is a resurrection to life, but there is also a resurrection to death.
SPEAKER_01: And those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, since he is the only way to be made right with God, those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, as a result of sin, the consequence of sin is death.
SPEAKER_01: The wages of sin is death, as Paul says in Romans 6.23, death in this life, physical death, death in terms of separation from God, and death eternally.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle John here is describing eternal death.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this verse serves as a warning.
SPEAKER_01: It's a warning for anyone who does not know Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And if there are any here this morning who have not embraced the Lord Jesus Christ in saving faith, this verse serves as a warning.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to Christ or you will perish.
SPEAKER_01: We've talked this morning about things that are missing from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you're not one of those things.
SPEAKER_01: But this verse, verse 8 of Revelation 21, also serves for us as a reminder.
SPEAKER_01: A reminder for those who do know the Lord Jesus Christ in saving faith.
SPEAKER_01: A reminder that this verse depicts what we deserve.
SPEAKER_01: Because we can see ourselves pre-Christ in this description.
SPEAKER_01: We were guilty of these kinds of sins.
SPEAKER_01: What we deserve is this.
SPEAKER_01: So how is it, since verse 8 says there will be no sinners in heaven, how is it that there can be people who were at one time sinners in heaven?
SPEAKER_01: And the answer is because of what Christ accomplished on the cross, because he paid the penalty for the sins of all who believe in him, we can be pardoned and justified and forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: And he rose again from the grave, demonstrating his power over death and hell and Satan, so that we know that we also have resurrection life and the hope of eternal life, fellowship with him.
SPEAKER_01: Because eternal life is not so much about quantity, it's more about quality.
SPEAKER_01: What hope we have in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he got sick and thought he was going to die.
SPEAKER_01: And what do you do if you're a Puritan and you get sick and you think you're going to die?
SPEAKER_01: You write a book.
SPEAKER_01: And he wrote a book about heaven, and that book was called The Saints' Everlasting Rest.
SPEAKER_01: It's a wonderful read.
SPEAKER_01: You can find it online for free.
SPEAKER_01: But in that book, he describes the infinite distance between what we deserve and what we will receive.
SPEAKER_01: He says, on the floors of hell, write the word deserved.
SPEAKER_01: But on the gates of heaven, write the words the free gift.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't have to turn there, but the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 to 11, has a very similar list to this.
SPEAKER_01: He tells the Corinthians that those who are characterized by these things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: And in verse 11 he says, And such were some of you.
SPEAKER_01: The reality is, such were some of all of us.
SPEAKER_01: But he goes on to say, But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, you were cleansed in the name of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You see, those who are in heaven, the redeemed who are there, they will recognize for all of eternity that they don't deserve to be there.
SPEAKER_01: And that will fuel their praise and their joy and their worship as they cry out for all of eternity, worthy is not us, but the Lamb who was slain for us.
SPEAKER_01: So we see these five aspects then of elements, characteristics, marks of our present world that will be absent from the world to come.
SPEAKER_01: There is no sign of God's judgment, verse one, because the flood has been undone.
SPEAKER_01: There is no separation between God and man, verses two and three, because the fall has been undone.
SPEAKER_01: There is no sorrow or sickness in verses four and five, because the curse has been undone.
SPEAKER_01: There is no spiritual struggle, verses six and seven, because the flesh has been undone.
SPEAKER_01: And there is no stain of sin because, verse eight, wickedness itself has been undone.
SPEAKER_01: Those things characterize this present life.
SPEAKER_01: It's what makes this life hard, and it's why we groan for the life to come.
SPEAKER_01: But those things will not be.
SPEAKER_01: And so we return to our questions this morning.
SPEAKER_01: The questions we began with.
SPEAKER_01: What will you be doing a million years from now?
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 21 and 22 answer that question for us.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in Revelation 22, 4 and 5, it talks about how we will have his name on our foreheads, meaning that we will be uniquely his and that we will serve him and worship him forever and ever as his bond slaves.
SPEAKER_01: Then the second question: in light of that truth, how should that reality change the way you think about what's happening in this life right now?
SPEAKER_01: So that you begin to prioritize the things that really matter, that you walk by faith and not by sight, that you stop investing in those things that only have temporal value, and that you turn away from the passing pleasures of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Again, to quote C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis, those who do the most in this present world are precisely those who think the most of the next.
SPEAKER_01: Or to end with C.
SPEAKER_01: T.
SPEAKER_01: stud, only one life twill soon be past.
SPEAKER_01: Only what's done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thank you for the truth of your word, which points us to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: We know that you give us this truth about our future hope so that we will walk in holiness, seeking by your grace to be faithful, to walk in a manner worthy of our calling.
SPEAKER_01: Not because it earns us anything, but rather because we've been saved by grace through faith, and now with hearts that have been reborn, we can respond in love to you and for you.
SPEAKER_01: And what joy there is in knowing that for all of eternity we will walk in love.
SPEAKER_01: It is only because you first loved us that we can love you at all, and we will experience that love for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: What a praise.
SPEAKER_01: We do look forward to the day when we will see our Savior face to face, and we pray these things in his name this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, ibc.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, D.C., please go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.