The Heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22)

Kootenai Church

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Hebrews 12. We're going to read our verses here in just a moment, but let's bow and a word of prayer before we begin.

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Our Father, it is our great desire that we would hear from You in the pages of Your Word today. We thank

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You that You have revealed to us everything that is necessary for life and godliness and You have revealed to us even more than is necessary for life and godliness.

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You have revealed to us details about our future and our destiny that are here for us to unlock and to love and appreciate and to look forward to, and we pray today that You would open our eyes and our hearts and our minds to these truths, that You would comfort our hearts, correct us where we are misunderstanding and ignorant concerning our future destiny.

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We pray that You would be glorified today through the preaching of Your Word and our meditation on this truth, in Christ's name, amen.

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You've probably all seen the man on the street interviews where somebody comes up to somebody on the street and asks them a series of questions and they get these questions wrong, and we're not talking about gotcha questions like, you know, how much does the number nine weigh or anything like that, but questions that are fundamental and basic questions that any of us who are over 40 probably knew the answer to before we ever got into seventh grade.

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Questions like, what year or what day did America declare its independence?

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From what country did America declare its independence? What century was the

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Civil War fought? Who was the first president of the United States? Questions like that, and then you have seen people who stumble over the answers to that who are unfamiliar with any of that history or that past, and it is a kind of ignorance that is tragic, and the ignorance in our nation has tragic consequences because there are a number of ramifications that come out of such an ignorance of our past.

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We live in a society where that ignorance is epidemic, is pandemic almost, it's an epidemic in our nation.

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We live in a country of people who are so easily deceived because they do not know the history of our country, and therefore they have no ability to understand what has brought them this great amount of freedom and luxury and opulence and security that they enjoy to this day.

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They don't know what has secured that, they don't know anything about the sacrifices that have been made, the people who have made it possible, the economic system that has created it, and so they're able to sit on their cell phones and tweet out these ignorant things on social media about how horrible the world in which we live is, and in fact we have made tremendous amount of progress and we live in one of the best periods of time in human history.

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But we live among a people who are, it's almost a national experiment in national ignorance, and I'm afraid that it's, at this point, irreversible and irreparable.

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We're now three generations into this experiment and I don't think that that bodes well for the future of our country.

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I don't think that it can be reversed and I don't think that it can be stopped, at least not at a national level.

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But there is something that is even more tragic than an American citizen who does not know their history, and that is a citizen of heaven who does not know their destiny.

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That's even more tragic. There are churches who are filled with Christians who expect to go to heaven, they have loved ones who have gone to heaven, they have some concept that heaven is going to be grand and glorious and enjoyable in some way, but they don't have any kind of an idea of what heaven actually is or what it is that they have to look forward to.

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Every believer in Christ is convinced that there is a heaven and they are convinced that they are going there by virtue of their faith and their trust in Jesus Christ and their repentance because of what

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Christ has done, that this ticket, this entrance into heaven has been purchased for them by the blood of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, but they're really not sure what it is that they are to expect. And so some people think that heaven is standing around for all eternity, gazing into a bright light, that you are so transfixed by this bright light, it's a beautiful vision, it's brightness and then once in a while you'll look away and you still have the glory of that brightness in your eye, like you look at the sun and then everywhere you look you can see a remnant of the sun, but then you go right back to gazing at that bright light and that's it, that's all of eternity, gazing into a bright light that emanates from the throne of God.

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For some people that's their concept of heaven. Some people's concept of heaven is that they are standing around in the clouds, dressed in white robes, running into people, most of whom they don't know, don't have a clue who they are, but every once in a while they'll stumble across somebody that they're familiar with whose paths they crossed on earth and so they get to shake hands, reminisce a little bit, chit -chat and then kind of move on to somebody else, go look for somebody else in this massive crowd floating around in the clouds.

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And then there's this old wives' tale about heaven that says we're going to spend eternity floating around, flying around heaven with our newly minted wings, playing harps in the clouds, singing to one another and that once in a while we'll be commissioned to come back to earth and touch somebody so that they can say they've been touched by an angel and that they can become an angel someday and then come back to earth and touch somebody else and so it's sort of a pay -it -forward thing.

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A lot of people think that's what heaven is about. Now I think I could speak for you when I would say that none of that sounds even remotely appealing to me, not even remotely appealing.

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So if that's your vision of heaven and you've said up until now, I'm not sure what heaven is, but at least it's not the alternative, which is hell.

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At least I get to avoid the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, the fire that never ends, the worms that consume and never consume me, the constant dying but never experiencing death, it's not a cessation of existence, it's pouring out of the wrath of God for me upon me for my sin, it goes on and on forever.

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I don't know what heaven is, but if it's not that I can be content with it because I'd rather be bored than be miserable, right?

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I mean, boredom is a kind of misery, but at least it's not a painful misery. So I'll take heaven as long as I don't have to go to hell and so it's no surprising that when an idea about heaven like that gets into the bloodstream of Christian culture and into the thinking of Christian churches and into the minds of Christian people, that there is no interest whatsoever, not only in going to heaven, but even in researching heaven and finding out what it is, what heaven is like, what it is about.

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Listen, our ignorance concerning our destiny is completely inexcusable. It is more inexcusable than our ignorance regarding our past because the past is behind us.

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If you were going to a distant land, you were going to spend a week there and you've never been to that distant land. You would spend weeks, months, maybe years saving up, looking forward to it, researching it, figuring out who's going to be there, what are we going to do, what events are going on when

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I'm going to be there, how am I going to get there? Once I get there, who am I going to meet? What am I going to see? What am I going to eat? What's the culture like?

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What's the food like? What's the people like? What are the activities like? You spend weeks researching that, preparing yourself, getting ready, getting it into your head, thinking through every last step of it, and yet you're going someplace for eternity.

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How much time have you spent really thinking and researching and studying what that's going to be? You see, our ignorance of heaven is completely inexcusable.

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So I am going to hope today, we'll see how well I do this, to remedy some of that ignorance, if you have that, regarding heaven.

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So if you're here and you've already studied this and you know what it is that you can expect because you've read some good theological books on it, and you know what it is that you're supposed to anticipate, then

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I'm hoping that today for you, this will be just sort of an overview of sorts that will help sort of whet your appetite again and sort of inflame your heart in thankfulness and affection to Christ for what

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He has done to make this possible. But if you're ignorant about heaven today, then I'm hoping that I will remedy some of that today and at least whet your appetite to do some further research and study on this subject.

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So you'll know what this place is that you're going to spend eternity in, right? Hebrews 12, verse 2, so great is our eternal home that this destiny called heaven is actually stands at the top of this list of blessings in verses 22 through 24 that have been secured for us by the blood of Christ through the new covenant.

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There are seven of them there. Verse 22 mentions heaven, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living

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God to heavenly Jerusalem. And then there are six other blessings that are listed there. The heavenly

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Jerusalem is the first one, myriad of angels in the general assembly, that's number two. Then the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,

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God, the judge of all, spirits of the righteous made perfect, Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel.

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Heaven stands at the top of that list because everything else on that list is either in heaven or will be in heaven.

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And everything else on that list is going to be delighted in and enjoyed in heaven and is either now or will be for all of eternity.

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So really the city that is described in verse 22, everything else in the list belongs to that city. So that city sort of stands at the top, it's sort of the umbrella statement.

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We have not come to Sinai, that's verse 18 and 19 and 20 and 21, instead we have come to Zion, the city of the living

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God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Those are three designations for our heavenly destiny.

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The city of the living God, Mount Zion, and the heavenly Jerusalem, three descriptions of our eternal destiny, and each one of them is loaded with significance and meaning, and each one of them tells us many different things about our eternal home.

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So here's what we're going to do today. We're not going to go through all seven of these like you might have expected, but we are going to get through all three of those,

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I promise. We won't stretch those three out beyond today, but I want to focus on heaven. I want to focus on our heavenly home, the new

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Jerusalem, this place where we will spend forever and ever and ever and ever together if you are in Jesus Christ.

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That's our goal today. Let's look at these three designations. First to Mount Zion. First to Mount Zion. Verse 22, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living

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God and the heavenly Jerusalem. The first description is Mount Zion. Mount Zion is contrasted, you remember, with Mount Sinai.

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Mount Sinai was the mountain in verse 18 where God's judgment and His law was given and God's judgment was felt.

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At Sinai, there was this separation between men and God, you remember that? And the condemnation and nobody could approach unto

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Mount Sinai. It was not a welcoming environment, it was the place where the law came down and where men were condemned, and that was the symbol of Sinai.

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Zion is completely opposite. Zion is where God dwells with His people. Sinai is where God appeared to His people.

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God appeared at Sinai, but He dwells at Zion. God came to His people at Sinai, but He dwells with His people at Zion.

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So Zion is a much more welcoming environment, Sinai was frightening and trembling, and it's fortunate for us that Sinai is not the symbol for God's eternal dwelling and for us in heaven.

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Why? Because then we'd forever have this image in our minds of separation from God and terror and condemnation and judgment and wrath.

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We'd have that in our minds, but instead, Zion is where God dwells with His people, where God is worshiped, where He is adored, where we commune, it's where we approach

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God through the blood of the sacrifice, that's Zion. So in order for us to understand what Zion is, we have to have a little bit of information regarding how it is used in Scripture, and this will be probably the shortest and the briefest section of what

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I'm doing here today. Zion is actually a hill in Jerusalem, it's an actual hill. It's not just a symbolic reference to some spiritual idea that is in the land of Israel, it's an actual physical hill in Jerusalem, one of the mountains upon which the city of Jerusalem is built.

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In fact, if you were with us in Israel back in February, you stood on Mount Zion. When we went through the remnants of the palace of David, south of the city of the

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Temple Mount there in Jerusalem, we're walking through that palace, you were walking on Mount Zion, and then when you stood outside of the wall of David's palace and we had that devotional there, you were sitting on Mount Zion.

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It's an actual physical mountain there. It goes back, it is mentioned 150 times in the

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Old Testament, 38 times in the book of Psalms which describe the glory of God that dwells there, it's

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His dwelling place, it describes the worship that happens there, and then it is mentioned 47 times in the prophets which really describe in most references there the future of Zion, a future reality, a future blessing, a future glory of that location.

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The first time we read the word Zion is in 2 Samuel 5, verse 7, which describes

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David's capture of the city in 1000 BC. Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.

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It was a Canaanite city known as the city of Jebus at the time. David captured it with his mighty men, turned it into the capital city for his kingdom, and it was from that point forward known as Jerusalem or as the city of David.

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It's appropriate then that as the city, as the capital city for the nation of Israel, the seat of David's throne, that that would become the place where God would appear to David and give him that promise that we read in Psalm 132 that describes

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God seating one of David's descendants upon his throne, promising David to do that, and saying, I will not turn back from this, this is still a plan,

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I'm going to sit somebody upon your throne and I'm going to give to that person your kingdom. So that is going to happen in the very city of Jerusalem that we see today.

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The Temple Mount later became known as Zion. Now the Temple Mount is a little bit north of Mount Zion and it was actually

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Mount Moriah. So originally Mount Zion was the city of David, it was just a hilltop city enclosed by a wall that David conquered.

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Then David, after David, Solomon moved the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle up onto the Temple Mount, which was

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Mount Moriah, which was to the north of Mount Zion. Now when I say moved it up and away from, don't think in terms of hundreds of miles, think in terms of hundreds of yards.

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And when I say mountains, don't think of the mountains like we have around here, not those kind of mountains. And it's not like Switzer and Baldy, we're not talking about that kind of distance, we're talking about something you could throw a rock a couple of times and you've basically gone the distance, they're very close to one another.

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So after the Ark was moved up onto Mount Moriah, then the city of David and the worship complex, which were right next to each other, that whole thing became known as Zion.

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So Zion then was a reference to where the Ark sat, where God met with his people, where the priest offered the sacrifices, where the priest interceded for the people of God, that became

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Mount Zion. After that, Mount Zion then expanded its meaning even more, the idea was expanded even more to refer to the entire city of Jerusalem and that entire city complex.

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So the city of David, Mount Zion, Mount Moriah, that was all referred to as Zion. And anybody who, by the way, was a citizen of those cities was referred to as a citizen of Zion.

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It is called the city of God, Psalm 46, verse 4, there's a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the

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Most High. Psalm 48, verse 2, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king.

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You notice there's not just a mountain there, it's a hill there upon which David's palace sat, but it is now an entire city, the entire city of Jerusalem is referred to as Zion.

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It's also the seat of God's anointed king, Psalm 2, verse 6, but as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion. That is

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God's declaration that He will install His Messiah upon Mount Zion. What Zion is He talking about?

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The actual Zion that's in the city of Jerusalem, that is the city of Jerusalem. It became the place of God's dwelling,

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Zion did, became a way of referring to the place of God's dwelling, Psalm 9, verse 1, sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion.

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Psalm 132, verses 13 and 14, we read this earlier, for the Lord has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His habitation.

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This is my resting place forever, here I will dwell for I have desired it, became a place of pilgrimage, it became associated with deliverance and salvation,

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Psalm 20, verse 2, may He send you help from the sanctuary and support you from Zion, it was the place of worship where the people of God approached

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God through the blood of the sacrifice, where the priests interceded for the people for whom they had made the sacrifice.

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Eventually, as you can see the trajectory here, all of Israel came to be referred to as Zion because God had chosen that whole land and had given it to His people.

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So it was not just the mountain, it was not just the temple complex, it was not just the city, eventually all of Israel was referred to as Zion, that was the place where God dwelt, it was

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His land, He chose it, He set His throne there in Jerusalem. So that was the capital city but Zion became the entire nation of Israel and this has eschatological significance because there is a glorious future for the city of Zion and for the land of Israel, Micah 4, verses 6 -8 says that someday, one day in the future,

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God Himself will reign in Zion, Micah 4, in that day, declares the

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Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather the outcasts, even those whom I have afflicted, I will make the lame a remnant and the outcasts a strong nation and the

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Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion, that has never happened to today, it will.

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So, which Zion? The one Micah was talking about, the one I've been describing, in the land of Israel, the

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Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion, from now on and forever, but as for you, tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come, even the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Zion, that is

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God's promise. Isaiah 35, this is a familiar passage to most of us, no lion will be there nor will any vicious beast go up to it, these will not be found there but the redeemed will walk there and the ransom to the

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Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion with everlasting joy upon their heads, they will find gladness and joy and sorrow and fleeing will flee away.

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During the 1 ,000 year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, over the entire world, you and I will get a glimpse of the ultimate

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Zion, the Zion that is to come. So there is a heavenly Zion, there is a heavenly city, but in order for us to understand what that heavenly kingdom looks like, we have to see how it is that God has played out

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His plan here on earth with His king, His reign, His seat, His promises, His land, His nation and His city.

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And once we get a glimpse of what that looks like, then we can say, okay, heaven is going to be that but on steroids, much better, much greater.

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So there is a future for Zion and there's tremendous overlap, by the way, between earthly Jerusalem and heavenly Jerusalem, between the earthly Zion and heavenly

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Zion, between that earthly kingdom, that earthly rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ described in Revelation 20 and the heavenly reality, which will be the continuation of that for all of eternity in the new heavens and the new earth.

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So it's described as Mount Zion. Second, it's described as a city, city of the living God. By the way, to give you another contrast between Sinai and Zion, if you went to Sinai and looked up, you would look at the top of the mountain, you'd say, you could never build a city up there.

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Why? Because it's just this massive rock outcropping that is not even in the least bit attractive, it's not beautiful.

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You wouldn't describe that as beautiful. You would describe it as rather ugly and unimpressive. Nobody would think to build a city up there because you can have water, no vegetation, nothing like that.

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You don't have anything delightful or appealing at all. But Zion, that's the land that flows with milk and honey.

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It's right next to the Jordan River. It's in a stone's throw, I mean, not literally, but it's close to the

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Jordan River. It's right there nearby. It's a plush land, a glorious land.

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Now, Mount Zion, you could build a city on top of that mountain, but not Sinai. Sinai was foreboding and unwelcoming.

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Zion is welcoming and inviting, glorious, beautiful, luxuriant.

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It's described as a city. In fact, what's interesting is that heaven in Scripture is described as both a city and a country, both a city and a country.

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You say, why is that? I think you'll see in just a moment why that is. But heaven is described as both a city and a country.

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Remember Hebrews 11, verse 14, "'For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.

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And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they wouldn't have had opportunity to return.

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But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. We're looking forward to a heavenly country.

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Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.'" City and country used in the same passage to describe our ultimate heavenly hope.

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Hebrews 13, verse 14, "'For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking a city which is to come.'"

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In Revelation 21, verse 2, "'And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.'"

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So it's described as a country, but it is described as a city multiple times here in the book of Hebrews.

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In fact, Revelation chapter 21 and 22 refer to heaven as a city 15 different times.

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Now there are some, and let me pause for just a moment, there are some who at this point would say, okay, the idea of city is just a symbol, that's all it is.

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It's just a symbol. And I say to you, what is it a symbol of? Well, it's a symbol of someplace where people gather.

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Well, Scripture could have had a way of describing a place where people gather, describes gatherings of other people.

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If it's not a city, what is it? Well, it's a symbol of something. What is it a symbol of? We don't really know, but we just know that city is symbolic of heaven and that heaven is much like a city.

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It's actually, heaven is, we're waiting for something like a city. Heaven is like a city, but it's not a city, it's just like a city.

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Guess what? You know what else is like a city? Stay with me now. A city. Very city -like.

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Lots of city features. In fact, if God, if heaven is not like a city and it does not have a city, then

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God was deceiving us in calling it a city so many times. It's described as a city.

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Hebrews chapter 11 calls it a city. Hebrews chapter 12 calls it a city. Hebrews chapter 13 calls it a city. Revelation 21 and 22 calls it a city.

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It's described as a city and at no point in any of those that say we are looking for something that is like a city in some indescript way.

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We're actually looking for a city. A city that is Mount Zion, a city that is a heavenly Jerusalem.

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That's what we're looking for. Now if you take everything in Scripture that describes our eternal home, listen carefully, if you take everything in Scripture that describes our eternal home in plain language like city, nation, country, rule, kingdom, etc.

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and you take that as a symbol of something else and you say, well, it's a symbol of something else. We're not sure what it's a symbol of.

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We just know that it's symbolic. We're not sure exactly what the correspondence is between the symbol and the fulfillment but we just know that that's a symbol.

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It's not to be taken literally. If that's your approach to Scripture, then your ignorance regarding heaven is self -inflicted.

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It's a self -inflicted wound. God wants us to understand what this place is like and He has laid it out for us in clear detail.

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What happens in city? We're familiar with what goes on in cities, aren't we? We know what happens in cities. People come and people go for various purposes, to conduct business, to make purchases, to be entertained, to visit people, to do administrative tasks, sometime on vacation, to see sights and to see sounds.

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There is a government in a city with a ruler and a king and an administration building.

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There are palaces in cities, buildings and streets and residences and places to eat, places to relax, places to work, sites to see, curiosities to entertain us, bustling activities, cultural events, celebrations, gatherings, music, art, history, education, worship, entertainment, commerce, trade, industry, and athletics.

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It's just a short list of the things that go on inside of cities. Now if those things are not intentional, then

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God has deceived us in calling heaven a city. In fact, Randy Alcorn in his book, Heaven, says if the capital city of the new earth doesn't have these defining characteristics of the city, it would seem misleading for Scripture to repeatedly call it a city.

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Now if you haven't gotten this message before till now, you need to read Randy Alcorn's book called

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Heaven. It's thick, but it's an easy read. There's no pictures in it, but it's an easy read.

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And if you say, Jim, I'm not a big reader, I don't like reading, correct that and then go buy Heaven and read that book.

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And if you read one book in this coming year, read the book Heaven. It's not a fluffy thing about some guy's idea of what heaven might be like.

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It's a theological treatment of what Scripture says regarding our eternal dwelling. He'll answer most if not all of the questions that you could raise about this place we're going to spend eternity.

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Now maybe you're like me and you say, I don't like big cities. That's why

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I live here. I don't like the city. I live out off -grid. I got solar panels. I crank my water with a crank.

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I come into town once a week to buy groceries, come to church, and then I'm out there. I don't like cities. I don't like being near cities.

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I feel your pain. I have an aversion to Coeur d 'Alene and Spokane.

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I would rather live in Clark Fork than Spokane. As hard as that is for me to say and for you to hear, that's the honest truth.

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I would rather live in Clark Fork than Spokane. If we could get a Duluth Trading Company store in Sandpoint and a

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Chick -fil -A, I would never go to Spokane except to fly out of that city. So whatever we say about Clark Fork, and nearly everything that I've said about it is true, and I say nearly everything simply because there might be something that I've said that's not technically accurate about Clark Fork.

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But I've lived here for 50 years. Most of what I've said about Clark Fork is pretty spot on. With all that I say about Clark Fork, we can say this.

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It's not Spokane that's got that going for it. So you don't like cities? I feel your pain. Maybe you say,

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I don't like being around lots of people because cities are filled with people. So if I could go to a big city with nobody else around, I could handle that.

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Maybe that's your thing. You know why you don't like being around people? It's either because of something sinful in you or something sinful in them.

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But you remove that, you're going to like being around people. When everybody that you're around is conformed to the image of Christ, you're not going to have any problem being in large crowds in heaven because everybody's going to be like Him.

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And we're all going to want to be with Jesus. But imagine a city that has none of the things you hate and all of the things you love.

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Imagine a city with no prostitution, drugs, homelessness, crime, police stations, firehouses, emergency services, law enforcement, sirens, garbage, traffic fatalities, traffic jams, traffic, nothing dirty, nothing unkempt, nothing broken down, nothing in disrepair, nothing old and worn out, no poverty, no graffiti, no unpleasant sights, smells, or sounds, nothing foul, nothing sinful, nothing vile.

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You say, Jim, that doesn't describe any city. It describes one city, the heavenly

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Jerusalem. It describes that city, nothing you hate about cities and everything you love about cities, everything you would want in a city and nothing that you don't want in a city.

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That's your heavenly home. It is called Mount Zion. It is called the city of the living

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God. And third, it is called a heavenly Jerusalem. Look again at verse 22, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living

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God and the heavenly Jerusalem. 2

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Peter 3 says that this creation is going to be entirely consumed by fire and judged.

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It will be destroyed by fire. Just as your body will be destroyed by worms when it is laid in the ground, so this creation will be destroyed by fire.

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The redemption of God's people and the redemption of God's creation, they are on parallel tracks. So just as your body will be destroyed and just as this creation will be destroyed, so it is that your body will be raised to newness of life.

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You will be raised in power, in glory, and in majesty. And so this creation will be resurrected in a literal physical form that will be fit for people who will live forever to dwell on that creation forever.

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That's Romans 8. The creation longs for the redemption of God's people.

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Even now, it moans and it groans and we see the curse upon creation. The creation itself is longing for the day when the

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Redeemer comes back and consumes it by fire and resurrects it into a brand new heavens and a new earth.

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2 Peter 3 says that's what we're waiting for. We're waiting for a new heavens and a new earth, a new heavens and a new earth in which only righteousness dwells where nothing impure ever enters into it and nothing can ever despoil it or defile it or make it vile.

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That's what we're longing for, a physical resurrection. Revelation 21, verses 1 through 4, then

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I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Keep that in mind. The author doesn't say, I saw something like a new heaven and something like a new earth.

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He says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. So whatever you think this heaven is in all of its beauty, looking out at the stars at night and the beautiful creation around you, the author says,

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I saw that thing but made new, resurrected, a new heavens and a new earth.

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Now let me ask you, is this earth a physical presence, a physical reality? It is. Guess what we're waiting for?

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A new one. Brand new physical earth. That is what God has promised to us. Revelation 21, verse 2,

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And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

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And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them.

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And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death. There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain.

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The first things have passed away, and everything is then made new. Now Revelation 21 and 22 describes this new city.

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I'll go through a list of the things that you will find there, that we will find there. This city is 1 ,400 miles wide, 1 ,400 miles deep, and 1 ,400 miles high.

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That's not to suggest that it is some Borg -like cube that just exists that's planted down on the planet, but it is to say that the skyline, at least the peaks of this city and the mountaintops of this city, will go up 1 ,400 miles because its dimensions are 1 ,400 by 1 ,400 by 1 ,400 miles.

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That would cover two -thirds of the continental United States. The city wall around the

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New Jerusalem is 200 feet thick, and there are 12 enormous gates with streets that lead in and out of that city.

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It's been suggested, and I'm open to this idea, but this is my sanctified speculation, that those 12 gates go out into 12 other regions of heaven with topography and areas and cities and nations out in each of these 12 areas that are all entirely unique, that it would take us, it's so enormous, that it would take us literally an eternity to explore that and to appreciate it.

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I've never even been to all the places in the state of Idaho. I've never even seen all the beauty that is here, and I've lived a hundred years.

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If I lived a hundred, I haven't lived a hundred years, if I lived a hundred more years than I have lived already,

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I would still never be able to see all the beauty of just this one state. But imagine a creation that is so, a recreation that is so enormous that you could have a city that's two -thirds the size of the continental

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United States and that tall, and that would just be one city out of many cities in that new creation.

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You would spend eternity exploring in that, delighting in it, seeing everything that there is to see, mining every treasure and jewel that is there waiting for you.

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Now, some people say, surely then, Jim, these things are symbolic, 1 ,400 miles by 1 ,400 miles by 1 ,400 miles, that surely has to be a symbolism for something.

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Okay, well, what is it symbolic of? Big? Is it symbolic of big?

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There was a word for big that they could have used in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit could have said, look, heaven is big, but it gives us the dimensions of this city.

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And Scripture in that passage says that these measurements are how men might measure this in order to reinforce the point that what the author is describing is a real physical thing.

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Now, that's not to say that the new Jerusalem and the new city does not have symbolism about it. I think the gates that never close are symbolic of something.

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I think that they are symbolic of the fact that we are welcome to come 24 -7, anytime, day or night, in and out of that city as we might wish and please.

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The gates are never shut because there's no threat outside. And so those big walls are symbolic of something that God Himself protects

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His people. So when you come into that, you are reminded by these towering walls of the sovereign power and protection of God who protects

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His own and hedges them in and cares for them inside of that city. So these things are both literal and symbolic, just like your wedding ring.

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Your wedding ring is something that is literal, physical, it's on your finger, and it reminds you of certain things and it is symbolic of something.

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This is God's MO. This is His modus operandi. This is what He does. He takes physical things that have symbolic meaning as well, but it doesn't mean that they're not physical things.

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The Old Testament is filled with those things. The temple, the tabernacle, the priests, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the offerings, the gifts and the giving and the intercession and the incense and everything that went on under that Old Testament cultic religion, all of that was symbolic of something else, but it was real physical things that also had symbolic meaning.

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So the New Jerusalem is not just a symbol of something else that is somewhat unrelated, mostly unrelated to it, it is an actual physical city with dimensions that we can measure and with gates and with roads and streets in a brand new creation that is beyond our ability to even imagine or fathom.

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But we're given these pictures so that you and I might, in our mind's eye, by faith, at least touch those things that we can apprehend and comprehend.

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Real physical things with, yes, symbolic meaning, symbolic significance. This New Jerusalem will be the capital city of heaven.

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There will be gates there with walls and foundations and stones. And listen, I think that the architecture of even one of those gates, you could spend years just standing and marveling over it.

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Have you ever sat and just watched a sunset and just been struck in awe or almost brought to the point of tears at what you see and the beauty of that?

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Imagine God, the master architect and builder who creates a gate for His New Jerusalem.

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The jewels, the gold, the crystal, the splendor, the architectural wonder of even a single gate will mesmerize us.

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Just walking into that thing, you're not even going to want to pass through that all the way. You just want to stop and stare up and look at this.

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There will be streets there, streets of gold upon which we will walk and we will visit and we will shake hands and we will embrace and we will reminisce.

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There is a river there. Revelation 22, 1 through 2 says, he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the

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Lamb in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

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So there is a street down the center of the city, this New Jerusalem. In the middle of that street runs a river that comes from the throne of God that is crystal clear.

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Now, how big is this street? If you've got a city that's 1 ,400 miles, you've got a pretty big street, can't you?

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And there is a river that runs down the middle of this street and on each side of this street grows the tree of life.

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The tree of life grows on two sides of that street, of that river. So does that mean there's two trees?

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How can one tree grow on two sides? Have you ever had a tree that was so big that you could drive or walk through the middle of it?

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So enormous? Do you think that in a city that's 1 ,400 miles by 1 ,400 miles by 1 ,400 miles that we're going to have trees the size of the ones you plant in your yard?

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This tree of life is going to bear fruit, it says, in every month, 12 months, 12 different kinds of fruit.

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By the way, don't think for a moment that the new creation is going to be in any way inferior to this creation.

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If there is a tree of life there, which was in the garden and now Revelation 2 says it is in the paradise of God, but when the new

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Jerusalem comes back to the new creation, that tree of life is coming with that new Jerusalem. It's going to be planted here on the new creation and we're going to eat from the fruit of that tree of life every month, a different fruit for 12 consecutive months.

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It's going to rotate. We're going to enjoy that tree. Now, if that tree is there, do you think there might be other foliage that's in the new creation as well?

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Don't you think that the statement that there is a new heavens and a new earth, the idea of a new earth which should call to our minds all of the things about this earth that we like and to enjoy, do you think for a moment that God has spent all of His creative energy and all of His wisdom and all of His might making this creation, which

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He knew ahead of time would be despoiled by sin and that we would only get to enjoy for 50 or 80 or 100 years at the most, and that what

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He has planned for us for all of eternity is less than this? You and I are going to stand on the new heavens and the new earth, and we're going to look at the wonder of that, and we're going to say, man, we thought we had it good on the old earth, and that was under the curse.

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Look at us now in this new creation. This is beyond anything. Every sunset that we saw and every sunrise on the old earth was just a shadow, just an inkling, just a small picture.

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It was a two -dimensional painting by a third grader compared to what we get to see here on this new creation.

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Everything better, everything about that is better because it won't be despoiled by sin. It's going to be bigger.

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It's going to be more glorious. It's going to be more tangible, and here's my prediction, it will be more real to you than this life is to you right now.

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You will step into that creation and say, now this is reality. Everything that I enjoyed on the old earth was merely a shadow.

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I lived in the shadow lands of this reality. This is real truth. This is real reality.

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This is more tangible and real to me than anything I experienced on earth for a hundred years. Now, some people say that there is in heaven no time.

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Have you heard this nonsense? That's fake news. How do I know it's fake news? Because we have a tree that produces new fruit every what, month for what, 12 months.

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When we count out 12 months, what do we get? Come on, homeschoolers help me out, we get a year.

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We get a whole year. So we're going to be able to mark months in the new Jerusalem. We're going to be able to stand at the base of the tree of life and say,

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I love this fruit that comes during this month. But next month, I like next month's fruit even better because that fruit that comes next month tastes like bacon.

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So I take that fruit and I gather it up and I bring it home and I put it in the freezer and I store it and I eat that fruit all year long.

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And I still come back to the new Jerusalem and get those other fruits for 12 months. So we're going to recognize that there are months in the new

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Jerusalem and we're going to recognize that there are years. And listen, Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 says that God is going to pour out upon us the riches of His grace to demonstrate

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His kindness toward us for all of the ages to come, ages to come. We know what an age is, right?

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We mark ages. We have dark ages, we have ancient ages, we have the modern age, postmodern age, pre -modern age.

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We talk about ages. Ages are what? They're collections of years, which are collections of months, and months are collections of days.

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So yes, there will be time in heaven. Don't let anybody lie to you and say there's going to be no time in heaven. There's just going to be one solid eternal now where we all just sit and just, just now.

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It's always now. We never mark anything. Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.

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Anytime there is two things that go on in sequence, you have time that has passed. You have to by necessity.

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So if two things happen in heaven, then you have the passing of time. That's all you need to have passing of time in heaven is two things to happen.

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Now listen, you and I are not going to be ravaged by time, we're going to experience time differently, we're going to think about time differently, we're never going to feel like we're running out of time, we're never going to feel like there's not enough time, we're never going to feel like time passes too quickly, we're never going to feel like time passes too slowly.

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But there will be time because we will mark the months and we will go to the new

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Jerusalem and we will eat that good fruit that's new every single month. And each one, each time we eat that fruit, a year later we will have marked a full year in eternity.

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But here's the benefit, those years never run out, never have to worry about dying or growing old or being ravaged by time at all, so we will experience it.

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There will be a throne there and a throne room and a scepter and a seat and a king. And listen, what must his palace be like?

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What must the palace be like in a city that big? You can imagine going back in time and seeing some of the palaces like Solomon's palace or David's palace or the kings of the east and some of their magnificent palaces.

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Sometimes you see remnants of those palaces, at least the size and the grandeur of them in some of those cities that have those ancient ruins even today.

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But what must the palace be like of the master builder, the one who even now is preparing this new

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Jerusalem for us to enjoy? What must his palace be like in a city that is that enormous? My guess is that it's going to be up on one of those hilltops and up at the top of one of those massive buildings that will be stretching all the way up 1 ,400 miles into the sky.

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And it will be such a source of joy and delight for us that we will walk in and we will marvel just at the foyer and think we've seen the best that there is to see just when we walk into the foyer.

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And then we haven't even gotten into the stateroom or the courtroom or the administrative offices or even to the palace and to the throne itself.

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And here's the beauty of it. You and I will be able to walk into that palace, that foyer and into that throne room unhindered, completely welcome, always open.

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The gates of the city are always open. Come. We can come in and we can gaze upon Christ for as long as we want and talk with him for as long as we want and fellowship with him for as long as we want.

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And then we can turn around and we can leave and go eat some fruit off the Tree of Life on the way out of the city, back out in to explore more of this great creation that God has given to us.

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That's what he has in store for us. This cosmos will be resurrected. You will be resurrected in eternal glorified bodies.

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And if you and I think that this creation is great, you haven't seen anything yet. This is not

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God's best work. It's not even close to God's best work. He has planned a physical creation for us to enjoy for all of eternity.

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It's called Mount Zion, the place where He dwells, where we approach Him freely through the blood of the sacrifice, which is described in verse 24, the sprinkled blood of the new covenant that speaks better than the blood of Abel.

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We approach Him on the basis of that sacrifice, that blood. We get to worship Him there, fellowship with Him there. We are protected there.

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We are welcomed there. We come there freely. Everything we get, we enjoy there from His good hand for all of eternity.

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We get to come. We get to go. We get to enjoy a brand new creation with never the thought that we are running out of time, with never the thought that I don't have time to learn this skill, or never a thought that I'm going to be unsatisfied because I desired to do something.

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I had it on my bucket list. I never got it finished before I passed away. None of those thoughts will ever enter into our minds, ever, for all of eternity.

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When you and I live in light of this glorious truth, it does a number of things for us. I'm going to give them to you quickly because I have run out of time.

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First, grasping this reality will free you from loving this world. It will free you from loving this world.

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You will think to yourself, this is not my home. It's not even close. The best is yet to come.

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My citizenship is in heaven. So yeah, I lament the ignorance of most voters in this country and what happens.

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I lament the disappointments that I have around here and the sin that plagues me in this world and the fact that my house falls apart and my roof leaks and my trees die and my plants die.

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I lament all of that, but this is not God's best work. And living in light of this truth will free you from your bondage to this world.

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It will free you from the thought that I've got to suck everything out of this life or I'm going to miss out on some grand thing here that I will never, ever be able to experience in the life to come.

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In the life to come, you will have all this kind of stuff available and all the time you want to experience it with whomever you want to experience it with.

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Second, grasping this will motivate you to serve and live and sacrifice here, storing up for yourself treasures in heaven, fighting sin, resisting temptation, mortifying the flesh because I don't want to sacrifice a single blessing in that world that is to come.

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I want to be able to experience and enjoy the joy of that and the delight of that to its fullest measure.

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Third, grasping this will fix your heart on the world that is to come. Every delight in this world is a glimpse of the next.

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Our worship, our fellowship, our visiting, as sweet as it is, it's just a shadow of what is to come. Our eating and feasting and drinking and laughing or reminiscing and remembering, joking and rejoicing, playing tricks on one another, enjoying one another's fellowship, talking about the good old days, those are just glimpses of what is to come.

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Every work of art, everything beautiful, every musical masterpiece, every good book, every sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, every enjoyment, every excitement, marvel, pleasure and fulfillment that you enjoy here is merely a taste, a glimpse, a reminder of the goodness that is to come.

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In fact, every good thing you enjoy here reminds you that you get that in the next life, times a million, infinitely so, and every bad thing you experience here reminds you that you'll never experience it there.

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So it's a win -win. If good things happen to you, say, hey, that's just a reminder that I got more good things like that coming, and every bad thing that happens reminds you that, hey,

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I got no more of those bad things to happen once I finally get to that place. It's a win -win. Grasping this also brings comfort to you regarding those who have gone before.

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Most of us have loved, have lost people that we have loved who have died in Christ. Just this last week, a longtime member of our church passed away, a man that I want to be like when

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I grow up, and he went to his eternal reward. He is in heaven. That's glorious for him.

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Now, we may sit back here and say, why did the Lord take him? Why did the Lord do that to him?

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Why couldn't we have more time with him? But listen, if you could step into that world and see what he sees and know what he knows and feel what he feels, you would say to yourself, why didn't the

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Lord take him earlier? And why doesn't He take me earlier? It will free you from your fear of death and make you look forward to your own death because you realize you have nothing to fear, nothing to lose, everything to gain if you are in Christ Jesus.

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If you are not, you have everything to lose and you gain nothing for all of eternity. But if you are in Christ, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain for all of eternity.

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And you can be resting in the security that you have in a Savior who knows you, who loves you, and listen, this should not scare you,

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He has planned the day of your death. He knows when He is bringing you home to be with Himself.

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He knows it infallibly, which means the day of your death cannot change. You can do nothing to avoid it, you can do nothing to delay it, you can do nothing to avert it.

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It is fixed in His mind and it is fixed infallibly in His mind. He knows how He is going to kill you and He knows when

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He is going to kill you. And that should not terrify you, that should comfort you and motivate you to use every last minute that He has ordained for you here to do everything that we've talked about, to prepare mentally, spiritually, and emotionally to meet your great

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King and spend eternity in that brand new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, the heavenly Jerusalem, Mount Zion, the city of the living

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God. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your great grace. Your mercy to us is beyond what we deserve, it is beyond what we can even imagine in You destining us for such pleasures, such joys, and such delights for all of eternity.

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I pray that our time here today would serve to enliven our hearts and to strengthen us for the days and weeks ahead, but also to fix our affections and our hearts upon our great heavenly inheritance that You have secured for us through the blood of the covenant shed by the

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Lord Jesus Christ, who even now is preparing a place for those who are His, so that we might dwell with You on high everlastingly.

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We praise You, our great God, for Your great works that You have done, and for the hope that You have given to us, and for what

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You have revealed in Scripture concerning our eternal home. Strengthen us through this, we pray in Christ's name, amen.