Introduction:
John 19:28-30 - After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Revelation 16:17 - The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”
The Hope is Real: The Truth About Heaven (Revelation 21:1-8)
- Everything is New. (Rev 21:1-2)
- Every day is in God’s Presence. (Rev 21:3)
- Everything that Hurts is Gone. (Rev 21:4-5)
- Everything is Yours. (Rev 21:6-7)
Romans 8:16-17 – The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
- Everyone is Not Going. (Rev 21:8)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the Scripture,
"I thirst." A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a
hissy branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished."
He bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Over this past month, we've been examining God's Word to
see that the Son of God came to finish some things. And we've been trying to just answer one question.
What is finished? Jesus made the declaration, "It is finished." Well, what is? Well, I guess to put it
all in one word, salvation. The way of salvation, it's done. The work is done. And we've been spending
time looking at different facets of salvation. First, we saw justification. The guilt is gone.
You realize Jesus has taken your sin away. There are no grounds for punishment when you're in Christ.
The guilt is gone. He's made you righteous. And then we saw reconciliation. The relationship is
restored. By nature, you are not God's friend. The Bible says by nature, we are enemies of God.
And Jesus Christ came to restore the relationship with God. Pastor Taylor a couple of days ago
talked about redemption. The price was paid. There was a literal price that was paid. You see, you
have sinned against God, and it wasn't as if God was like, "Oh, that's okay. Don't worry about it. I'm
just going to forget about it." No, no, no. As Pastor Taylor pointed out, you owe God an infinite debt.
And God paid that Himself through the death of His Son. It is finished.
You know, you think of those words on the cross, "It is finished." You know,
that's not the only time that Jesus declares that something is finished.
It's only the first time. Do you know the next time Jesus says it is finished?
It is when God pours out judgment. Revelation 16-17, it's the last bold judgment. The book of
Revelation talks about there's seal trumpets and trumpet judgments and bold judgments. When the
last judgment of God is poured out, look at this, Revelation 16-17, the seventh angel poured out
His bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, "It is done."
That's the next time Jesus says it is finished. Today I want to talk about the last time He says it.
Do you know the last time Jesus declares something is finished?
As after He creates a new heaven and a new earth. Revelation chapter 21, I want you to turn there.
Revelation chapter 21,
Revelation chapter 21, look at verses 5 and 6. It says, "And He who was seated on the throne
said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'" Also, He said, "Write this down. For these words
are trustworthy and true. And He said to me, 'It is done.'"
Like, wait, wait, what is He talking about here? What is finished, the promise
of glorification? That is, the hope is real. The hope is real. We're going to talk about hope today.
Because when we talk about hope, we use it in a different way than the Bible uses the word hope.
When we say hope, what we mean is wish. You know what I mean? We say, "I hope it doesn't rain today."
What are we saying? "I wish that it doesn't rain." Or we say, "I hope that the pirates win today."
What are we saying? We're saying that our theology allows for miracles.
But you see, that's not how the Bible uses the word hope.
Biblically, church, listen, hope is the confident anticipation of receiving Jesus' promises.
Biblically, hope, it's in the bag. It's happening. I'm just waiting for it to take place. But it's
going to happen. I'm not wondering if it's going to happen. I can't wait. I know it's going to.
I'm just waiting for that to happen. That's biblical hope. That's the receipt that we hold on to
that says it's coming. I know that it's coming. And I can't wait for that day. That is biblical hope.
See, that's what we're here to celebrate today.
Actually, every Sunday we celebrate this. And actually, for the Christian,
you celebrate this every day of your life. That Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
We've been spending so much time talking about the fact that He died for our sins. Yes,
that's true. But three days later, He rose from the dead to give us the promise of eternal life.
And the Bible says that He went back to heaven. And you're like, "Well, what's He doing now? Do
you know what Jesus is doing right now? Like, right now, do you know what He's doing?"
He told us in John chapter 14 what He would be doing. He says, "I go to prepare a place for you.
Right now, Jesus Christ is building a place for His people in heaven."
We're going to talk about heaven today, the place of our hope. Do you know what heaven's like?
Sadly, there's so much confusion about heaven because people embrace ideas about heaven that
just aren't in the Bible. I think for a lot of people, their ideas of heaven come more from a
Bugs Bunny cartoon than from what God actually said. There's just so much nonsense about
that people believe about heaven. It's just not true biblically. You know what number one is,
by the way? The most nonsensical, wrong, false thing that people believe about heaven that's just
absolutely not true? Is that good people go to heaven. You have to be a good person to go to
heaven. That's just bombarded onto us from society. Good people go to heaven. Good people...
Well, that's not true. If that was true, heaven would be empty. We're going to talk more about that
in a bit. But no, you do not get to heaven by being a good person.
But you know, even Christians, honestly, even Christians are clueless about heaven.
Just grab your Christian, your average churchgoer, and say, "Well, what's heaven like?"
You're going to get answers like, "Well, I'm thinking grandma's there."
They're like, "Well, what are you doing heaven?" "Well, I guess you play a harp."
And then you sit on clouds. And yeah, that's all I got. Like, well, maybe you've been getting
your theology about heaven from Bugs Bunny or from a far-side cartoon.
But I think many Christians aren't really excited about heaven because they don't know what the
Bible actually says about it. You know, we had a funeral last week for the oldest member of our
church. She was two weeks shy of 99. And she's having a good day. What a great celebration of her life
and a celebration of the fulfillment of her faith. But I think a lot of people, even that we're sitting
in that funeral, might not have been excited because they don't really know what she's experiencing
in heaven. What is coming in the future in heaven? We need to educate ourselves, church.
I mean, think about it this way. Imagine if I booked you a three-month vacation.
Imagine that. If I booked you, I'm like, "You know what? You've been working hard. You know what?
I'm going to get you the plane tickets. You know, you just bring your wife, jump at the airport,
and get on the plane, three-month vacation on me." Would you want to know where you're going?
Would you want to know what you'd be doing? What if you said, "Oh, thanks, Pastor Jeff. That was
really nice of you. Where am I going? What am I doing? What if I said, "Don't worry about it. You'll
like it." No, I want to know where I'm going to be spending three months of my life. And I'm like,
"Oh, it'll be nice. What am I going to be doing there? Fun stuff."
Wouldn't you want more information of where you're going to be spending three months of your life?
Okay, reminder, heaven is eternal. Wouldn't you like to know what it's going to be like
for eternity? If you do, you're in the right place this morning, because that is exactly
what we're going to be seeing from God's Word. So on your outline, take some notes.
The hope is real. The hope is real. The truth about heaven.
The truth about heaven. Number one, write this down. Everything is new.
Everything is new. Verses 1 and 2 in Revelation 21, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Stop there. New heaven and new earth. Why?
Why do we need a new heaven and new earth? Well, because this is talking about what's
happening in the future. And at this point, the heaven and earth now, the one that you're
sitting on right now, will be vaporized by God's glory according to 2 Peter 3, according to Revelation
2011. He talks about this new Jerusalem. Like, what is new Jerusalem? What's the capital city
of the new heaven and the new earth? And John describes it as coming down from heaven onto this
new earth. It's a fascinating study. You can really dig into it on your own. Just to give you a little
overview. Verses 15 and 17 give us the dimensions. And by the way, these are literal measurements.
The Bible is clear about that. But new Jerusalem is a massive city and it's shaped like a cube.
And each wall is 1,380 miles long. And each wall is 216 feet thick. You're like,
"Can you give me a frame of reference?" Yeah, absolutely, I can. If you were to take this new
Jerusalem and put it on our current earth, just drop it onto North America. If you were to drop
it onto North America, it would go from Canada to the Gulf of America. It would go from the Atlantic
Ocean. I'm still trying to adjust to that. I'm sorry. It would go from the Atlantic Ocean
to Colorado. That is the size of new Jerusalem. You're like, "Why do I need to know this?
That is the place that Jesus is preparing for you right now."
And this passage describes the final and eternal heaven. And over and over, he uses
the greatest word possible that he could use to describe anything. And it's the word "new."
New. Look at verse 5. This is the best verse in the Bible. And I know somebody would say,
"Well, actually, Pastor Jeff, it's all God's word." Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But this is the best
verse in the Bible. It says, "And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things
new.'" Look, that is awesome. And we can relate to that, can't we? Because there's nothing
like getting new stuff, right? Don't we love new things? New shoes? A new car? New jeans?
A new phone? I'm pleased to announce that Pastor Taylor finally upgraded from his iPhone 8.
Yeah, a little bonus celebration today. But wasn't it so exciting getting that new phone, Pastor Taylor?
You know what? I thought it was bad until Jane Auer showed me. He has, what do you have an SE?
Yeah, take good care of that, Jay. We're going to put that in the museum.
So we love getting new stuff, right? Getting a new computer. Men, get that new fishing rod. Ladies,
get the new purse. How about a new puppy? Oh, that's the best. But there's nothing like
getting new stuff. And you know, the Bible says in heaven everything is always new.
So a little tip for you. If you're in Christ and if you are, you will end up in heaven. I just want
to encourage you, if you're trying to make friends, to not walk up to somebody in heaven and say,
hey, what's new? Because they're going to say, you are an ego because I don't know if you got the
memo, but everything here is new. I had people say to me sometimes like, you know, heaven sounds
kind of boring. Like, what are you talking about? That is a clueless statement. Boring.
Everything is always going to be new.
And if that's not a beautiful enough description with that little word,
he gives us a word picture that really drives it home. He says, it's prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. Like Jesus, what kind of care and attention are you putting
into creating this new heaven and earth, this new Jerusalem? You know, what kind of
meticulous care is going into preparing this new city? The Bible says it's like a bride
preparing herself for her husband. That's a word picture that really impacts me.
Because I've been to a lot of weddings. It's part of my job. I've been to a lot of weddings.
And you know something that I've never, ever, ever seen in a wedding is this. Like, it's wedding day
and you know, I come to the front of the chapel or the woods or the barn or whatever we're having
and like, and like, oh, they have them everywhere now, but like, I'm up there with the guys, right?
And here comes the bridesmaids and they take their place. Oh, it's the big moment.
The music shifts, right? And you know what's next. Here comes the bride, right?
You know what I've never seen? It's the doors fling open and there's the bride
in a college hoodie.
Wearing sweatpants and crocs.
Crocs will not be in heaven, by the way. Well, the Bible doesn't say. I'm just
thinking it's a safe assumption, but I've never seen her where she's got a near-terminal case of bedhead.
I've never seen that ever. Do you know what I have seen though? Every time.
A breathtakingly beautiful bride.
How did she get that way? She prepared. Do you know how much time and effort and energy and money
and detail and it goes in? She puts everything into making herself as beautiful and perfect as she can
for her husband.
And that is the kind of attention and care that Jesus is putting into preparing this place
for his people. Wrap your brain around that. But the Bible says in heaven,
everything is new.
Oh, it gets even better than that. Because number two, write this down, every day is in God's presence.
Everything is new and every day is in God's presence. Look at verse three. Verse three.
He says, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with
man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their
God.'" Every day is in God's presence.
Don't you wish that you lived at the time that Jesus lived? Wouldn't it have just been absolutely
amazing to watch Jesus, like to sit down with Him, to hear Him teach, to watch Him heal,
to watch Him feed the thousands with the little kids lunch? Wouldn't that have just been awesome
to personally be in the presence of Jesus Christ?
Well, I got good news for you. In heaven, you're going to get that, like every single day.
Because according to verse three, we're always in God's presence.
You see, that's good news, my friends, because I think if we're honest, sometimes God seems distant
right now. I mean, He's not, right? He's not distant.
But can we just be honest in church for a second and say sometimes it feels like He is?
You know, we go through trials. We're hurting. Maybe you've been betrayed.
Disappointed. You're just worn out. And you're like, "God, where are you?"
Seems like I need you the most right now. You seem absent. Where are you?
Well, never again will God seem distant.
The Bible says He is going to tabernacle with His people. He is going to pitch a tent
in unprecedented, perfect fellowship in the midst of His people. Every day of heaven
is being in the presence of God. It's the truth about heaven. Everything's new.
Every day is in God's presence. In number three, everything that hurts is gone.
Everything that hurts is gone. Look at verse four.
"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be
mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
No mourning, no crying and no pain." Do you know what that means?
That means no a lot of other things. That means no depression. That means no cancer.
That means no diabetes. That means no organ failure. That means no autism.
That means no wheelchairs. That means no mental health problems.
That means no dentist appointments.
I see somebody rejoicing in the back greatly over that.
But I get to tell you in the first service, there was a group of dentists sitting
right about where the Zentcos are right now. I told them, "Look, we're going to be out of a job in heaven.
Nobody's going to need to hear about Jesus from me. Nobody's going to need their teeth fixed by them."
There's no more tears. There's no more death. There's no more goodbyes.
Every bit of pain and heartache and discouragement. Never again. Never. Everything that hurts is gone.
People ask, "Well, will I remember the failures of my life on earth?"
Because I would think if I could remember my failures of my life on earth, that, boy,
there'd be some tears over that in heaven. Will I remember the failures of this life?
I don't know. But I do know this for a fact.
That if you do remember the failures of this life, it's not going to bother you.
Because there's no more mourning or pain. I'm sure about that.
And you can get to this point, you're like, "Really?" Hang on a second.
This sounds just a little too fantastic. Really? Well, look at verse 5 again.
"And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'
Also, he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'"
Oh, everything is made new. Everything stays new. And you're like, "Is that really true?"
Jesus says here, "Write this down. You write this down. You take this to the bank.
You build your life on this, man. This is trustworthy and true."
Listen, this isn't fantasy stuff. This isn't like fairy tale stuff that we say to
placate children when grandma passes away.
Jesus says this is real. This is trustworthy and true.
"Every hurt is forever behind you." Everything that hurts is gone. Number four,
oh, it gets even better. I know you don't think it can, but check this out.
Number four, everything is yours. Everything is yours.
Look at verse 6, "And he said to me, 'It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end, to the thirsty. I will give from the spring of the water of life
without payments.'" Who are the thirsty? Who are the thirsty? I hope you are.
Thirsty refers to people who realize their spiritual need and genuinely thirst for God.
Heaven is for people who know they need Jesus Christ and they receive Jesus Christ and they love
Jesus Christ. That's what he's talking about here. You see, water biblically is a symbol of
fulfillment. It's a symbol of satisfaction. "I was thirsty in a need. Now from the living water,
I have been satisfied." That's what water is talking about. That's what the Bible is talking
about when it talks about water. It's satisfaction. It's great news. That means heaven is not going
to be lacking anything that would add to your satisfaction. You know that? That means you're
not going to be walking around heaven and say, "You know what? This place is pretty good, but
I have a few ideas that would make it a little better."
You're going to be absolutely, totally, perfectly satisfied in heaven.
And this, this is your heritage. Look at verse 7. He says, "The one who conquers
will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my Son."
We talked about this with justification. We don't live in fear of God as judge. If you're in Christ,
that is. You're not afraid of God as judge. You live in the freedom of God as Father.
That He adopted us as His children.
But being a child has implications for the future.
Like what do you mean? What I mean is, if you're a child of God, you receive an inheritance.
Look at Romans chapter 8 here.
Romans 8 says, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if
children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him
in order that we may also be glorified with Him."
You see, Paul wrote this to the Romans and Roman adoption was very interesting. I was reading
about it this past week. Do you know in Roman culture adopted children actually received greater
honor than naturally born children in the home? Like if a couple has natural children, it's like,
well, you just came into the world the regular way. But if you adopted someone, it was, ah, you,
though on the other hand, you were chosen to be a part of this family. But there's something else
interesting about Roman children, including the adopted children, by the way, that they all
received an equal share of the inheritance. You're like, good for the Romans. What does that have
to do with me? Here's what this has to do with you. Look at this. We are fellow heirs with Christ.
Do you know what that means? I can tell some of you aren't very excited about that. So we're going
to walk through this together. You are fellow heirs with Christ. Do you know what that means?
That means you will receive the same inheritance that Jesus receives.
So what does Jesus own? Everything. So what do you stand to inherit? Everything.
Everything. You're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on a second there, Pastor Jeff.
You was talking about the new heavens earlier. Do you mean I'm going to inherit the new heavens?
Everything. And if you're like, oh, well, he's creating the new earth. Do you mean I'm going to
inherit that new earth too? That's going to belong to me? Everything. And you're like, well, that
giant city that you was talking about, am I going to inherit that too? Is that going to belong to me?
Like, look, I'll do respect. What part of everything do you not understand? Everything will belong to you.
But do you know the greatest thing that you're going to inherit?
Is God Himself? Do you see that in verse 7? He says, "I will be His God." Oh, no, let's not gloss over that
because that's like the Levites in the Old Testament. Remember, Israel was told, you know,
that they were going to receive an inheritance in the Promised Land. But you got like Deuteronomy 18-2.
The Levites did not get an inheritance like the other tribes of Israel. They were told
that God is their inheritance.
And if you get God, you get everything. If you're a fellow heir with Christ,
that means someday everything is yours.
And finally, number five, truth about heaven, everything's new.
Every day's in God's presence. Everything that hurts is gone and everything is yours.
But we do have to say this because it's in the text. Everyone is not going.
Now look, you know, it'd be real easy to come into Easter service and we're all wearing our
spiffy clothes and the music is fantastic and it would be so easy to get caught up in this passage
and get excited about a heaven that some of you aren't going to see.
Look at verse eight. John says, "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable,
as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars,
their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur," which is the second death.
See this list? These are people that love their sin more than they love Jesus.
But I could ask you, are you on that list?
Is there anything here that characterizes you?
Understanding that murder means hateful and sexually immoral means lustful
and immoral.
Are you there?
You know the one that always sticks out to me in this list is the first one, cowardly.
What does that mean? It's not saying, being afraid of stuff is a sin, like in the sense of
I'm afraid to go camping because I'm afraid of bears and snakes.
And that's not what that's talking about at all. It's talking about being afraid to follow Jesus
Christ because there is a cost. And what will my friends think? And what am I going to have to give
up? And refusal to follow Christ, God says, "You're a coward." You mean He bought your way to heaven
with the blood of His Son? And you're too afraid to receive Him because of what your goofy friends
might think. Because of what sinful thing you might have to give up. You're a coward.
And that's not my opinion. That's God's opinion. Well, I guess it is mine if it's God's.
But He said it.
You think following Christ is easy? You think it's easy to trust God?
Do you think it's easy to say no to sin? Do you think it's easy to say yes to serving Christ
when it's inconvenient or difficult or harder than we thought it was going to be?
This ain't for cowards, okay?
All of the items on this list characterize people who have never repented. They've never received
Christ. And these are just evidences. He's saying that this is what they lived like.
And I have to ask you, if you took an honest inward look at yourself, would you say that my life is
generally characterized by a love for Jesus Christ? Or would you say my life is generally
characterized by a love of my sin, myself, my way? Which one is it for you?
Because if it's the latter, then none of these promises about heaven, none of this hope is for you.
If I can have the worship team join us back up on the platform here.
It is finished.
It is finished. Someday, you're going to hear Jesus say those words again.
For some of you, you're going to be horrified to hear him say it when he brings judgment.
And for some of you, you will rejoice when you hear him say it
because he's giving you everything, the hope of heaven.
It is finished. Today, today, we hear those words from the cross.
So if you have received Jesus Christ, your sin has been taken away. If you have received Jesus
Christ, he rose from the dead to give you eternal life. And if you have received Jesus Christ,
you do not need to wait for heaven to rejoice in him. So let's stand and let's celebrate him
for who he is and all that he's done. Let's rejoice in the victory of Jesus Christ.
Small Group Discussion
Read Romans 8:16-17, Revelation 21:1-8
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What are some wrong ideas about heaven that even many Christians believe?
What is an aspect of heaven covered in Revelation 21 that was new or surprising to you?
What does it mean that we are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17)? What exactly do we inherit?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
