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Our Father, what a privilege and a blessing it is to gather together this morning on this beautiful morning to have fellowship to look into what your Word says about heaven and how we should really anticipate it, long for it, have it fixed in our minds as our ultimate goal, reminding ourselves that we are citizens of heaven, even as we sojourn here on earth that we might store up for ourselves treasures in heaven while we struggle sometimes with the issues here on earth.
Lord, would you just bless our time this morning that we would be edified, be encouraged, and Lord, just be exhorted to think rightly about you, about what you have promised us. In Christ's name we pray.
Well, Claire's excited. Well, good morning, everyone. You know, from time to time I bring you different things. I saw this last night. I thought, I have to mention this. I don't know why when I saw this last night.
Now, initially you'll think this isn't so great. A man tried to commit suicide, and this is straight out of the news, so you know it's true. No, he tried to commit suicide, and what struck my interest was he did it, he jumped off the George Washington Bridge, and my wife and I had just driven over that a couple times.
Actually, we drove over it once and then sort of creeped over it the second time, but that's neither here nor there. Listen to this. Authorities say 28-year-old Adrian Ron stopped his car on the lower level of the bridge connecting Manhattan to New Jersey at about 1130 a .m. on Friday, then walked to the rail and jumped.
He fell 200 feet into the water and lived. When it didn't kill him, he made the long swim to the New Jersey shore. The impact shredded his clothing, but he pulled himself out of the water without help.
He was hospitalized after the plunge and everything, and I just thought, now here's a guy, he's a water polo guy and was on the team that won a gold medal at the Pan Am Games, but I thought, here's a guy who tried to kill himself.
200 feet into the water would kill almost anyone, and it didn't kill him. And I just thought, you know what? If it's not your time to go, it's not your time to go. And if it is, it is. God is sovereign over all things, and I thought, I don't know what that man's mindset is now, but I hope someone will reach him with the gospel.
All right, we've been talking about heaven for the last many weeks, different aspects of it, and I wanted to give kind of a summary of where we are before we move on to today's handouts. I think John MacArthur captured it nicely when he says this.
Our human nature, our fallen nature, is so tainted by the effects of sin, people left to their own instincts will inevitably corrupt every spiritual truth. Subjects like heaven, angels, and eternal life are certainly no exception to this rule.
So even talk of heaven gets mangled. Betty Eadie, a Mormon, wrote a book called Embraced by the Light some time ago. She was a nurse. She said she died in a hospital. She had one of those near-death experiences, and the only problem with a near-death experience is it isn't a real death experience.
You're either dead or you're not dead. But while she was dead, she said that she saw three men in robes who said that they'd been with her for eternities. She said she was able to remember her pre-existence, which is a very Mormon concept that we existed as souls before we got bodies.
She said she obtained omniscience during this event, and then we contrasted that with Paul and how Paul said that he went to the third heaven, first heaven being the skies above us, second heaven being outer space, and the third heaven being where God lives, that Paul went in a vision or in physically, he's not even certain.
He went to the third heaven, and he was not even allowed to talk about what he saw, and yet she wrote a whole book about what she saw. I guess she had more permission than the Apostle. Anyway, she goes on, and she just commits heresy after heresy.
It's interesting. There's no reference to hell, and Jesus eventually shows up and tells her not to be so hard on herself about her sins. Then we talked about Don Piper. Again, no relation to John, and he had another near-death experience.
His book is a little bit more recent, Ninety Minutes in Heaven. Piper's description of heaven, Tim Challies wrote, left me cold. I was dismayed to find out that his heaven seemed largely man-centered.
John Piper, talking about heaven, talked about a contrast. John Piper says, the critical question of our generation and for every generation is this, if you could have heaven with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human contract, or conflict, or natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ was not there?
So, contrasting this idea of heaven as a place of pleasure, a friendship, of nice things, with the actual presence of Christ, which is, of course, what heaven is all about. Eric Raymond, a notable preacher from Nebraska, said this, aside from the verse at the beginning of each chapter, talking about the Ninety Minutes of Heaven book, this book is devoid of the Bible.
In fact, I would argue this book is what you would write if you did not have the Bible. Piper's view of heaven is more akin to what you would see on Oprah, rather than what we would read in Revelation.
So, that was kind of our introduction, quote from the Puritan Richard Baxter. Again, just thinking about what we gather together to worship God, but ultimately what we are doing, what we are thinking about, what we are celebrating, is the fact that we have been delivered from hell.
Left to our own devices, we would be running headlong into eternity, facing the wrath of God, and God rescues us out of that and promises us heaven. Baxter said this, a heavenly mind is a joyful mind.
I would challenge you even this morning, are you joyful? You're a Christian, you're going to heaven, are you joyful? This is the nearest and truest way to live a life of comfort, and without this you must needs be uncomfortable.
Can a man be at a fire and not be warm, or in the sunshine and not have light? Can your heart be in heaven, implied where it ought to be, and not have comfort? On the other hand, what could make such frozen, uncomfortable Christians, but living so far as they do from heaven?
Oh Christian, get above, in other words, live as if you are a citizen of heaven. Believe it, that that region is warmer than this below. We talked about Abraham being the test case for how you get into heaven, that he was justified by faith and not by works.
I said that Abraham was a trophy of grace, an example of God's accounting or reckoning righteousness to those who believe. We talked about that in Romans 4. We talked about how works could never justify us in the sight of God, and this becomes vital as we will see.
Works can never justify us in the sight of God. This is what Matthew Henry said, and therefore to him that worketh not, that can pretend to no such merit, nor show any worth or value in his work, but disclaiming, in other words saying, nothing I have done matters, any such pretension, casts himself wholly upon the free grace of God in Christ, by a lively, active, obedient faith, to such a one faith is counted for righteousness.
And that is the qualification to get into heaven, he goes on to say. We talked about how a Christian gives evidence of their heavenly citizenship. It's to change life. We talked about how heaven is misrepresented, different ways that are presented of arriving in heaven, universalism, that everybody goes there.
In fact, sometimes when I read Pope John Paul, I would think, this guy is really saying that everybody's going to go to heaven. He seemed very confused about that. We also talked about annihilationism, that is the idea that some evangelicals have presented or prevented, that when you die, if you are not saved, you don't go to hell, you just get wiped out.
We talked about that, and why that is a false view. Pastor Dave brought up the idea that we are the truth, that we are image bearers, and one of the facts of being an image bearer is that we are created with a soul that will exist forever, not to be destroyed.
We also talked about purgatory, another false view of how you get to heaven, as a reward for those who die in faith, and then are purged of their remaining sin, which really says that ultimately, the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory says that Jesus Christ's death, in and of itself, is not enough for you.
And we briefly mentioned some of the other issues in the Roman Catholic system, such as indulgences, that is, being able to buy time out of purgatory, how the Pope is able to dispense those things. We talked about the treasury of merit, the idea, and this is just, again, and I can't say this enough, I don't take any delight in the fact that people believe in this system, but it ultimately is one that says you can work your way to heaven.
The idea of a treasury of merits it's one thing to say that the death of Christ exceeded the need for every single man, woman, and child who would ever be born to go to heaven, if they would repent and believe.
That's one thing. It's quite another thing to say that this goes into a treasury, then his excess merits goes into a treasury of merit, which then can be dispensed. That is nowhere in the Bible. And it's a whole nother leap to say that any mere mortal, not someone who is fully God and fully man, but a mere mortal, such as Mary, who said she needed a Savior, could then somehow be part Savior herself, or any of the other people that are known as saints.
The idea in the treasury of merit is that you have excess merit, that is, merit that is over and above that which is needed to justify getting into heaven yourself. So when Mary died, the Catholic Church says her excess merit also went into this treasury.
You think, well, if the Bible says that you have to be perfect to get into heaven, then what was Mary? Perfect plus a little bit more? The idea is just is bizarre. There are other Roman Catholic doctrines that I don't really think we talked much about a little bit, but the idea that Mary was assumed into heaven, she never tasted of death.
I see that hand, I'll get to you in a minute. She never tasted of death. Why? No scripture, but because Jesus would not want his mother to undergo death, and therefore she was taken up into heaven. She is called a mediatrix, that is, she mediates on behalf of Catholics, they believe, with Jesus, because Jesus cannot turn down his mother.
So therefore they pray to Mary so that she will intercede with her son. And this is all a very convoluted system, and it leads us away from Christ toward reliance upon self, toward reliance on the works of even others, Mary and the other saints in the back.
Well, it's a good question, and I mean, just running through my memory banks, I mean, it seems to me like it was sometime in the 19th century where they made that an official doctrine, but that's been going on for quite some time.
I mean, it goes back, and she's become... I'd have to research it to figure out exactly when they named her Mediatrix, is the name they've given her, but they've definitely prayed to her for quite some time, Daniel.
It's a great point. Daniel says, you know, they somehow take on this kind of omniscience. Well, imagine that there are, I mean, we don't have to imagine, there are close to a billion Catholics in the world somewhere in that vicinity, and if they're all praying to Mary, let's say a third of them are praying to Mary on any given day, how does she do that?
You know, so it's not just omniscience, but it's also kind of omni-presence. You have to kind of, you know, either that or answer machines. I don't know, but I mean, somehow she picks up all these prayers and, you know, allegedly is able to intercede.
That's quite a bit of work, and we have, we would have nothing in the Bible, again, that would suggest that anyone who is, I mean, obviously, Mary's in heaven, but we have nothing to, in the scripture, that would suggest that those in heaven are cognizant or in any way involved in the things that we are doing down here.
Yes, Pam. Yeah, you know, two issues there, and I've forgotten the first one, so I'll just deal with the second one. Maybe we can get back to, oh, yeah, the necromancy, the praying to, praying to dead people, divination, whatever it's called, you know, I mean, the idea that we would somehow, it's condemned in the Old Testament, not really talked about in the New Testament, but if Jesus says, not specifically said, but I mean, it's kind of implied, isn't it?
When Jesus instructs his disciples on how to pray, he doesn't say, now, here, here's what you do. There are gonna be a bunch of saints, and they're gonna have different, specific places that, you know, there's the patron saint of bicyclists, and, you know, all these different things, and you need to, I made that one up, but I mean, there are, there are patron saints for what, sailors, and things that are lost, and travel, and all these other things, and, you know, you're supposed to, so how does that work, and why would, why would Jesus say, you know, when you pray, pray in this way, our Father in heaven, you know, our Father who art in heaven, all these kind of things.
It doesn't really make any sense, doesn't really cohere, doesn't make any biblical sense, whatsoever, and your second point was, oh, yeah, she said, you know, talking about the profitable, unprofitable servants, you know, you do everything right, and what is that?
If you, if you did everything after salvation, let's say you did everything that you were supposed to do, well, that's what you were supposed to do. So, how could you have excess merit? Well, you, you, you can't.
That whole idea, just doesn't fit in with the biblical picture. So, again, it's not like I take any special pleasure in condemning the Roman Catholic system, but there's a reason why there was a Reformation, and the reason wasn't because there were some minor tweaks that needed to be made in the system.
The reason was because they'd lost the gospel. They'd walked away from the truth, and purgatory is a very false, and ultimately, what it suggests is that you need to suffer in addition to the sufferings of Christ in order to be perfect and get into heaven, and if Jesus Christ's death isn't enough, then nothing is enough.
Okay, let me indulge me for a moment. I read this by J .C. Ryle, Get Our Minds Focused on Heaven. The very Bible itself, he says, only lifts the veil a little, which hangs over this subject, heaven. He says, how could it do more?
We could not thoroughly understand more if more had been told us. Our Constitution, our bodies, our minds, is as yet too earthly. Our understanding is as yet too carnal, especially to appreciate more if we had it.
The Bible generally deals with the subject in negative terms and not in positive assertions. It describes what there will be in the glorious inheritance that is in heaven, that thus we may get some faint idea of what there will be.
It paints the absence of certain things in order that we may drink in a little the blessedness of the things present. It tells us that the inheritance is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away.
It tells us that the devil is to be bound, that there will be no more night, and no more curse, that death shall be cast into the lake of fire, that all tears shall be wiped away, and that the inhabitants shall no more say, I am sick.
And these things are glorious indeed. No corruption, no fading, no withering, no devil, no curse of sin, no sorrow, no tears, no sickness, no death. Surely the cup of the children of God will indeed run over.
But reader, there are positive things told us about the glory yet to come upon the heirs of God, which ought not to be kept back. There are many sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comforts in their future inheritance, which all true Christians would do well to consider.
There are cordials for fainting pilgrims in many words and expressions of Scripture, that is, things that give us warmth, which you and I ought to lay up against time of need. He says, is knowledge pleasant to us now?
Is the little that we know of God and Christ in the Bible precious to our souls, and do we long for more? We shall have it perfectly in glory. What says the Scripture? Then I shall know even as I am known.
Blessed be God. There will be no more disagreements among believers. Episcopalians and Presbyterians, Calvinists and Arminians, millenarians, that is those who believe in the millennium, and anti-millenarians, friends of establishments and friends of the voluntary system, advocates of infant baptism and advocates of adult baptism, all will be at length of one mind.
Is holiness pleasant to us now? Is sin the burden and bitterness of our lives? Do we long for entire conformity to the image of God? We shall have it perfectly in glory. What says the Scripture? Christ gave himself for the church that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
Oh, the blessedness of an eternal goodbye to sin. Oh, how little the best of us do at present. Oh, what an utterable corruption sticks like birdlime, whatever that is, to all our motives, all our thoughts, all our words, all our actions.
Is rest pleasant to us now? Do we often feel faint though pursuing? Do we long for a world in which we need not always be watching and worrying? We shall have it perfectly in glory. What sayeth the Scripture?
There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God. Is service pleasant to us now? Do we find it sweet to work for Christ and yet groan being burdened by a feeble body? In our spirit often willing, but hampered and clogged by poor weak flesh.
Have our hearts burned within us when we have been allowed to give a cup of cold water for Christ's sake? And have we sighed to think about what unprofitable servants we are? Let us take comfort. We shall be able to serve perfectly in glory and without weariness.
What sayeth the Scripture? They serve him day and night in his temple. Is satisfaction pleasant to us now? Do we find the world empty? Do we long for the filling of every void place and gap in our hearts?
We shall have it perfectly in glory. We shall no longer have to mourn over cracks in all our earthen vessels and thorns and all our roses and bitter dregs and all our sweet cups. We shall no longer lament with Jonah our withered gourds.
We shall no longer say with Solomon, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Is communion with the Saints pleasant to us now? Do we feel that we are never so happy as when we are with the excellence of the earth?
Are we never so much as at home as in their company? We shall have a perfectly in glory. We shall see apostles, prophets, patriarchs, martyrs, reformers, missionaries and ministers of whom the world was not worthy.
We shall see the faces of those we have known and loved. And over those whose departure we shed bitter tears. We shall see them bright and are more bright and glorious than they were before. Is communion with Christ pleasant to us now?
Do we find his name precious to us? Do we feel our hearts burn within us at the thought of his dying love? We shall have perfect communion with him in glory. We shall ever be with the Lord, the Bible says.
We shall be with him in paradise. We shall see his face in the kingdom. Ah, reader, if you are not yet among the heirs of glory, I do pity you with all my heart. How much you are missing, how little true comfort you are enjoying.
There you are struggling on and toiling in the fire and wearying yourself for mere earthly ends, seeking rest and finding none. Chasing shadows and never catching them. Wondering why you are not happy and yet refusing to see the cause.
Hungry and thirsty and empty and yet blind to the plenty within your reach. Your expectations all perishing. And none to look forward to beyond the grave. Oh, that you were wise. Oh, that you would hear the voice of Jesus and learn of him.
Reader, if you are one of the heirs of glory, you may rejoice and be happy. You may well wait like the boy patients in Pilgrim's Progress. Your best things are yet to come. You may well bear crosses without murmuring.
Your light affliction is but for a moment to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed. I just thought that is exactly right. I mean, we need to have that kind of heavenly mindset, that sort of expectation, that longing for heaven.
So what will heaven be like? Page 24, it's going to be beyond our wildest imaginings, and we're going to do something never done in the history of my Sunday school class. We're going to read Ezekiel chapter one, starting in verse four.
The prophet writes,. As I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it. And in its midst, something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire.
Within it, there were figures resembling four living beings. And this was their appearance. They had human form. Each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight and their feet were like a calf's hoof.
And they gleamed like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides were human hands. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, their wings touched one another. Their faces did not turn when they moved.
Each went straight forward. As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man. All four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left. And all four have the face of an eagle.
Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above. Each had two touching another being and two covering their bodies. And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go without turning as they went in the midst of the living beings.
There was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living beings. The fire was bright and lightning was flashing from the fire and the living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightning.
Now, as I looked at the living beings, behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the four beings for each of the four of them. The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like sparkling barrel and all four of them have the same form.
Their appearance and workmanship being, excuse me, as if one wheel were within another. Whenever they moved, they moved in any of their four directions without turning as they moved. As for their rims, they were lofty and awesome.
And the rims of all four of them were full of eyes roundabouts. Whenever the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. And whenever the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose also. Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go in that direction and the wheels rose close beside them for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.
Whenever those went, these went and whenever those stood still, these stood still. And whenever those rose from the earth, the wheels rose close behind them for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.
Verse 22. Now, over the heads of the living beings, there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal spread out over their heads. Under the expanse, their wings were stretched out straight one toward another.
Each one also had two wings covering its body on the one side and on the other. I also heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of abundant waters as they went, like the voice of the almighty, a sound of tumult, like the sound of an army camp.
Whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings and there came a voice from above the expanse that was over their heads. Whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings. Now, above the expanse that was over their heads, there was something like there was something resembling a throne like lapis lazuli in appearance and on that which resembled a throne.
High up was a figure with the appearance of a man that I noticed from the appearance of his loins and upwards, something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it. And from the appearance of his loins and downward, I saw something like fire and there was a radiance about him as the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day.
So was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And I saw it. I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking. I think that's very clear.
MacArthur describes, you know, beginning of verse 26, we clearly see, I mean, it's it's kind of an unfolding scene where he sees kind of the emissaries and all the glory that surrounds them. And then ultimately it is.
A vision of, I believe, pre-incarnate Christ, do you get the idea that I mean, notice all the times I didn't count them, but did you notice all the times he said something like, like, like, like, why is he doing that?
There's nothing I mean, he's just overwhelmed. The glory of God is just beyond our capacity to grasp. MacArthur writes, you know, talking about the throne, he says, a man, the Godhead appears in the likeness of humanity.
Though God is a spirit, as we read in John 424, those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. The Messiah God incarnate is the representative of the fullness of the Godhead. So this can be, I mean, MacArthur's not even definitive here, a prelude to the incarnation of the Messiah in his character as savior and judge, the glory of the Lord.
That glory shines fully in the person of Jesus Christ, which is a constant theme in Ezekiel. This is just a mind boggling experience. In fact, the wonder is that he could even write anything down or even afterwards.
Listen to this quote from MacArthur's, the glory of heaven, that is Ezekiel's description of God's throne in heaven, we can't fully understand all that he described and neither did he, but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he attempted within the limitations of human language and intelligence to describe what he saw, blazing light reflected off polished jewels and colored wheels of light mingled with angelic beings.
Those are the living beings in the beginning around the throne of the eternal, glorious God, he saw flashing, sparkling, spinning rainbow of brilliance. How do we interpret such symbolism? And I think the mistake he points to here is one that we ought not to do.
Some strive to find meaning in every facet of Ezekiel's vision. One source he consulted, for example, explains the faces of the angelic creatures like this. The lion refers to majesty and power. The man represents intelligence and will.
The ox stands for patient service. And the eagle speaks of swift judgment. Some of those things you can say, but I mean, you know. How about the eagle speaks of swift judgment? Okay, but you certainly, what would that have to do with the text?
He goes on, he says, but we must be cautious and not get carried away to read meaning into symbols that are not explained to us. That's the key. This is not a secret message to be decoded. It is a large picture designed to display the sovereignty, majesty, and glory of God and the incredible beauty, symmetry, and perfection of heaven.
Although it's impossible to interpret the specifics definitively, we can understand that Ezekiel's aim was to put the glory of heaven on display. The wheels that moved in concert, the flashing lightning, the sparkling jewels, and all the brilliant light, and the brilliant light, all picture God's glory.
So although Ezekiel's picture of heaven may be beyond our ability to fathom, we can certainly grasp the main idea. Heaven is a realm of inexpressible glory. And that's the key. And even as we look at that, you know, it's interesting, you know, again, to compare Betty, Edie, and Don Piper, you know, where they're just kind of palling around with Jesus, or they're seeing all their friends and family.
And then, you know, Ezekiel, the son of man, a prophet of God, says this, and when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking. When people are in the presence of God, when they're in the presence of holiness, when they're struck by the majesty of God, it's not just another day at the office.
Let's look at Revelation 4. And again, before we get into, you know, the specifics of, you know, what we're going to be like and all these other things, I think it's just good to get an idea that whatever we think heaven is like, we don't really know what heaven, I mean, heaven's going to be above and beyond.
It's going to meet and exceed all expectations. You know, you have those little customer satisfaction surveys. We're not going to be dissatisfied. Well, yeah, and go ahead. Yeah, MacArthur relates a story in one of his books where a charismatic pastor said to him that Jesus came up to him while he's shaving one morning and put his arm around him, and, you know, the guy just kept on shaving.
I mean, that very idea, there's nothing like that in Scripture. Yeah, there's nothing like that in Scripture where, you know, people are visited by God and they just kind of, I guess the closest we would have was on the road to Emmaus where, you know, the disciples are walking along and they're not aware that it's the resurrected Lord with them.
And what happens then, though? He explains to them what? Himself. And so they just kind of go, well, you know, that was pretty good. Their hearts are burning with him. But when we see the glory of God, we are overwhelmed by it.
We don't just continue shaving. And, I mean, I think if Jesus showed up when I was shaving, it would interrupt my shave. Daniel. Yeah, Daniel points out that when they went to take him, capture him in the temple, that he escaped, and we're not really told how.
And so I'm with you on that. I've always thought, you know, because we have to kind of fill in the blanks. It just kind of says he'll lose them now. We don't know if there was, because there was some kind of friction between the crowd and his disciples sort of shielded him, or if he just did some kind of, can I say this?
You know, Jedi mind trick, you know. We don't really know. You know, it's not given to us. What we do know is that he escaped. And so, you know, can he cloak as a prince? Well, certainly. I mean, when we think about when he appears to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, and they're out fishing, and they don't recognize him immediately.
So, yeah, if you're going to say, you know, he showed up while I was shaving and I knew right away it was Jesus, well, I think you'd have a different response, because obviously, well, two things. If you didn't know it was Jesus and all of a sudden somebody's just saying, you know, that would be disconcerting.
And if you did know it was him, you're, you know, it's going to change the way you do things. But, again, it's this whole idea of, you know, people presenting, really lowering God. And what the Bible does is always exalt him.
And when we think about heaven, heaven is not just a place where, you know, it's this world, only a little bit better. It's not just that we're going to have, you know, universal health care, the trains will run on time, and we'll have no pollution and low taxes.
That's not heaven. Heaven is going to be filled with the glory of God. I mean, it's going to be utterly mind-blowing, and just like it is here in Ezekiel and in Revelation chapter 4, Pam. Well, you know, that would have to do, Pam's question was, you know, didn't Jesus say when he returns that everybody's going to know about it?
And the answer is yes. You know, but, again, so what would someone like, you know, the shaving story, what would they say? They'd say, well, this wasn't his official coming. It was just a, you know, special appearance, a guest starring role, you know.
So, in the interest of time, I'll read Revelation 4, verses 1 to 3. The apostle John writes,. And behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I had heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, come up here.
Now, there's an invitation. Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. Immediately, I was in the spirit. And behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and one sitting on the throne.
And he who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance. And, again, similar imagery to what Ezekiel talked about.
I mean, the idea of color and light and just this overwhelming sense of God's glory. Kismacher says, How does a mortal being who is privileged in a vision to see the God or the throne of God speak out about the one sitting on it?
John gives his readers a sense of the majesty and beauty of the appearance of God and the throne by referring to three precious stones. Now, he uses a different translation for his commentary, but the jasper stone, the carnelian, I didn't even know what that was, and the emerald.
The jasper is also mentioned in the description of the New Jerusalem. There, John, speaking of the glory of God, says, Its brilliance was like a precious stone as a crystallized jasper stone. It may be a variety of quartz that came in various colors, so that God's glory transmitted through this stone presented indescribable beauty.
In general, commentators compare its brilliance to that of a diamond. This brilliance is a picture of the unapproachable light of God that allows no one to see him. When we see, and we will see, the glory of God over and over and over again, I mean, we think about Moses even coming down from the mountain, what happened?
Just the reflected, the remaining glory that was on his face was too much for people. The glory of God, the glory of heaven, is beyond our feeble capacity to understand. I don't even know if we'll fully grasp, but I think we'll continue to learn and to appreciate more and more all the time, the glory of God.
Is there an end to the glory of God? Is there a limit to it? No. All right, well, I need to stop there, and we will pick it up next week. Father, what an incredible, awesome God you are. Unmatched in glory.
Lord, we rejoice that you would give us even a glimpse of heaven in your scripture, a glimpse of your glory. Father, we long to be with you in heaven. We long for your Son's return. Lord, would you make us a people that would be busy about your work while we're here, knowing that we have the glory of God, the presence of Christ, the comfort of the Spirit to be with us eternally, always in your presence, rejoicing in the fellowship of the saints?
Lord, would you make us a people just with joy inexpressible, going about our lives in such a way that people would think we're almost crazy with delight, that they might literally, even when we're not being persecuted, ask us for the reason for our hope, that we could point to Christ?
Lord, I pray that you would make us a people that are, in a growing way, aware of the danger that every single unsaved person faces, of being cast out of your presence and facing only your wrath for all eternity.
Lord, make us a people of your word who would delight in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, proclaiming heaven, hell, Christ, salvation, sin, forgiveness, repentance, resurrection. Lord, all the truths that will lead us to rejoice in you forever, we pray in Christ's name.
Amen.