The Heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22)

The Need to Recover a Biblical Vision of Heaven

Hebrews 12. We're going to read our verses here in just a moment, but let's bow in a word of prayer before we begin. Our Father, it is our great desire that we would hear from You in the pages of Your Word.

Today.

We thank 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. 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.

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. 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.

Questions like, what year or what day did America declare its independence? From what country did America declare its independence? What century was the 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.

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

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.

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

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. 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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? I mean, boredom is a kind of misery, but at least 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.

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

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. 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. 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 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 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.

So you'll know what this place is that you're going to spend eternity in. Hebrews 12, verse 2, so great is our eternal home that this destiny called heaven 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.

There are seven of them there. Verse 22 mentions heaven, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. And then there are six other blessings that are listed there.

The heavenly 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, 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.

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

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. 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 God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

Those are three designations for our heavenly destiny. 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.

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, 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 Jerusalem, this place where we will spend forever and ever and ever and ever together if you are in Jesus Christ. That's our goal today. Let's look at these three designations.

Mount Zion as the Place Where God Dwells With His People

First to Mount Zion. First to Mount Zion. Verse 22, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God and the heavenly Jerusalem. The first description is Mount Zion. Mount Zion is contrasted, you remember, with Mount Sinai.

Mount Sinai was the mountain in verse 18 where God's judgment and His law was given and God's judgment was felt. At Sinai, there was this separation between men and God, you remember that? And the condemnation, and nobody could approach unto 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. Zion is completely opposite. Zion is where God dwells with His people.

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

Why?

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

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 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.

It's an actual physical mountain there. It goes back, it is mentioned 150 times in the Old Testament, 38 times in the book of Psalms which describe the glory of God that dwells there, it's 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.

The first time we read the word Zion is in 2 Samuel 5, verse 7, which describes David's capture of the city in 1000 BC. Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David. 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. 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 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, 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. The Temple Mount later became known as Zion. Now the Temple Mount is a little bit north of Mount Zion and it was actually Mount Moriah.

So originally Mount Zion was the city of David, it was just a hilltop city enclosed by a wall that David conquered. Then David, after David, Solomon moved the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle up onto the Temple Mount, which was 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. 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.

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. 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 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. 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. 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 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. 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.

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

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

Psalm 132, verses 13 and 14, we read this earlier, for the Lord has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His habitation. 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, 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 God through the blood of the sacrifice, where the priests interceded for the people for whom they had made the sacrifice. 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.

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 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 through 8 says that someday, one day in the future, God Himself will reign in Zion.

Micah 4, in that day, declares the 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 Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion.

That has never happened to today.

It will.

Which Zion? The one Micah was talking about. The one I've been describing. In the land of Israel, the 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 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 ransomed of the 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. 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 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 His plan here on earth with His King, His reign, His seat, His promises, His land, His nation,.

And His city.

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. 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 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.

The City of the Living God and the Reality of a Heavenly Jerusalem

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.

Why?

Because it's just this massive rock outcropping that is not even in the least bit attractive, it's not beautiful. 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. You don't have anything delightful or appealing at all. But Zion, that's the land that flows with milk and honey.

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 Jordan River. It's right there nearby. It's a plush land, a glorious land. Now, Mount Zion, you could build a city on top of that mountain, but not Sinai.

Sinai was foreboding and unwelcoming. Zion is welcoming and inviting, glorious, beautiful, luxuriant. 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. 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. Remember Hebrews 11, verse 14. For those who say such things, make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.

And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they wouldn't have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. We're looking forward to a heavenly country.

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

So it's described as a country, but it is described as a city multiple times here in the book of Hebrews. In fact, Revelation 21 and 22 refer to heaven as a city 15 different times. 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.

It's just a symbol. And I say to you, what is it a symbol of? Well, it's a symbol of some place where people gather. Well, Scripture could have had a way of describing a place where people gather, describes gatherings of other people.

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. 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.

Guess what?

You know what else is like a city? Stay with me now.

A city.

Very city-like. Lots of city features. In fact, if heaven is not like a city and it does not have a city, then God was deceiving us in calling it a city so many times. It's described as a city. 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. 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.

We're actually looking for a city. A city that is Mount Zion, a city that is a heavenly Jerusalem. 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., 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. 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. It's not to be taken literally.

If that's your approach to Scripture, then your ignorance regarding heaven is self-inflicted. 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.

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.

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

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

Now if you haven't gotten this message before till now, you need to read Randy Alcorn's book called Heaven. It's thick but it's an easy read. There's no pictures in it but it's an easy read. 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. 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.

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

That's why 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, 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. I feel your pain. I have an aversion to Coeur d 'Alene and Spokane. 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.

I would rather live in Clark Fork than Spokane. If we could get a Duluth Trading Company store in Sandpoint and a 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, 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, it's not Spokane that's got that going for it. So you don't like cities? I feel your pain. Maybe you say, 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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

That's your heavenly home. It is called Mount Zion, it is called the city of the living 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 God, and the heavenly Jerusalem.

The New Jerusalem, Resurrection, and Life in the New Creation

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

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, 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.

That's Romans 8. The creation longs for the redemption of God's people, even now it moans and it groans and we see the curse upon creation. The creation itself is longing for the day when the Redeemer comes back and consumes it by fire and resurrects it into a brand new heavens and a new earth.

Second 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.

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

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

Now let me ask you, is this earth a physical presence, a physical reality? It is. Guess what we're waiting for? A new one, brand new physical earth. That is what God has promised to us. 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.

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 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. The first things have passed away and everything is then made new. Now Revelation 21 and 22 describes this new city. 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. 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 the city will go up 1 ,400 miles because its dimensions are 1 ,400 x 1 ,400 x 1 ,400 miles.

That would cover two-thirds of the continental United States. The city wall around the New Jerusalem is 200 feet thick and there are 12 enormous gates with streets that lead in and out of that city. 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. 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.

If I lived a hundred, I haven't lived a hundred years. If I lived a hundred more years than I have lived already, 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 United States and that tall and that would just be one city out of many cities in that new creation.

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. 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.

Okay, well, what is it symbolic of? Big? Is it symbolic of big? 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 He gives us the dimensions of.

This city.

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.