GOD COMPLETES THE STORY
Living the Christian life is like taking a long journey. We encounter delaying interruptions and hardships all along the way. Often we grow weary of life in this sin-laden world. God encourages us to press on because He already has revealed the completion of His Story. He wants the promise of Christ’s return and of heaven to encourage us. We need not live in fear of the end time because God has a home for us where we can be renewed. Have you read a book, watched a movie, or recorded a sporting event a second time when you know the end of the story before you start? Knowing the ending of a story takes the anxiety and fear out of it. This is actually what God has done for us.
Read John 14:1-3 The Plan
We are to live in joyful anticipation of Christ’s return and spending eternity in heaven with Jesus. John 14:1-3 is part of Jesus’ farewell discourse, extending from 13:1 to 17:26. Jesus was preparing His disciples for life after His ascension. The disciples were troubled by Jesus’
announcement of His imminent departure (13:36). Jesus was trying to comfort His anxious disciples because they did not know nor understand the end of God’s Story at that point. Instead of being “troubled”, Jesus called His disciples to “believe”. “Believe” occurs twice in the verse. The particular verb form can either make a statement or issue a command. It could be Jesus was doing both. It is likely Jesus was telling the disciples to “believe in God” as a statement but to “believe also in Me” as a command. By trusting in Jesus as they already trusted in God, their hearts would be comforted. This is what Jesus is telling us also.
This 13-week study has been much more than just a patchwork quilt of Bible stories; it has been many stories that all fit together to tell one story of God’s redemption. Verses 2 and 3 are a marvelous promise or covenant of how God completes His story. This was more than a reservation for the disciples in heaven; Jesus was expecting them to show up there. Jesus’ comments indicated there would be room enough and space for all to have an abiding place in the Father’s house. This is a promise that the believer will live in the roominess of the Father’s house with perfect fellowship forever. On the other hand, it is a present promise that Jesus calms the troubled heart with the assurance that He has prepared both the place and the way and will always be present with His believers to strengthen and guide them. The result would be a shared relationship for all eternity (v.3). How could we use John 14:1-3 to help someone who always worries about the future?
Read Revelation 21:1-54; 22:1-5 The Place
As Revelation 21 begins, Satan and unbelievers have been judged and banished eternally. All should read the description of Jesus’ return in Rev. 19:11-16. It says we (all believers in heaven) will follow Him to earth and stay on earth. This description is vastly different than 1 Thes. 4:14-17, which says believers will be caught up in the cloud to go to heaven at the sight of Jesus (Rapture). Chapter 19 describes Jesus return with us and cleansed the earth of the three evil leaders (Satan, the Beast, and the Anti-Christ) and all unbelievers, when their judgment occurs. Chapter 20 describes the Millennium, but not in any real detail. However, we are told that Satan is in chains during this period, only to be released for a brief period. (While I can explain some reasons for this brief release of Satan at this time, only God knows why for sure.) Nevertheless, God sends Satan and any unbelievers to the Lake of Fire for the rest of eternity before Chapter 20 ends.
Basically, the Bible begins in a garden and ends in a garden. Yet between the two gardens a great deal of action, both sacred and secular, takes place. The sacred mainly concerns God’s redemptive efforts, and secular concerns mankind’s sin, rebellion, and puny self-efforts to realize their true destiny. The overall story is about paradise lost and paradise regained. Because people sinned, the material world somehow suffered from mankind’s fall (Gen. 3:17-18) and also will share in His redemption (Rom. 8:22-23). Although the prophet Isaiah was probably the first to envision as ideal society in which people “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isa. 2:4), others at different times also have dreamed of a perfect society. The biblical term for the ideal society is the kingdom of God.
Following Isaiah’s lead (65:17), John wrote: “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” (Rev. 21:1). Peter also wrote of “new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). Heaven as well as earth will enjoy the newness that accompanies each life which began when the believer trusted Christ as Savior and Lord (2 Cor. 5:17). IN the new creation, there will be no “sea”. As noted in other Scripture, the sea represented danger, turmoil, restless masses of people, and separation. The first beast came up out of the sea (Rev. 13:1). John saw a sea before God’s throne (4:6), symbolizing HHHis moral transcendence or holiness. On the isle of Patmos, the sea separated John from those he dearly loved. Now in heaven there is no more sea, thus no more separation. Believers will enjoy God’s presence in the fullest sense and have sweet fellowship around His throne. Since the redeemed will be saved even from the presence of sin, there will be no residue of sin to prevent them from enjoying intimate fellowship with God. Revelation seems to depict mankind’s perfect environment as fulfilled in heaven, not during the millennium.
The new Jerusalem is where God lives among His people. Instead of our going up to meet Him, He comes down to be with us, just as God became man in Jesus Christ and lived among us (John 1:14). Wherever God reigns, there is peace, security and love. The “holy city, the new Jerusalem” is described as the place where God will remove all sorrows. Forevermore, there will be no death, sorrow, crying, or pain. What a wonderful truth!! No matter what you are going through, it’s not the last word- God has written the final chapter, and it is about true fulfillment and eternal joy for those who love Him. We do not know as much as we would like, but it is enough to know that eternity with God will be more wonderful than we could ever imagine. The heavenly scene is both spectacular and beautiful. Instead of a sea before God’s throne (as in 4:6), now there is a river flowing from it right through the middle of heaven’s main street. (This is just one of the indications that there is a Present Heaven, as John describes scenes and events prior to Revelation 21, which is vastly different from when the new heaven and new earth come down.) The water of life is a symbol of eternal life. Jesus used this same image with the Samaritan woman (John 4:7-14). It pictures the fullness of life with God and the eternal blessings that come when we believe in Him and allow Him to satisfy our spiritual thirst (Rev. 22:17).
“Also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (v.2b). Ezekiel’s description of the temple with a river flowing from it (47:1), also added “And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing” (47:12). This tree of life is like the tree of life in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:9). We know Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat from this tree. When they did, it caused the curse of sin. But because of the forgiveness of sin through the blood of Jesus, there will be no evil or sin in this city. We will be able to eat freely from the tree of life when sin’s control over us is destroyed and our eternity with God is secure.
So why would the nations need to be healed if all evil is gone? There is not an obvious answer here. We must look deeper! John in quoting from Ezekiel (as mentioned above), is not implying that there will be illness in the new earth, he is emphasizing that the water of life produces health and strength where it goes. So that is why we will be able to eat freely from the tree of life in the new earth. Does this indicate we must eat from it? This may be one of those questions you will want to ask Jesus or God in-person.
Verse 22:3 “There will no longer be any curse.” means that nothing accursed will be in God’s presence. This fulfills Zechariah’s prophecy (14:11). Then the rest of verse 3 stresses the centrality of the Heavenly Father and Son and suggest that worship will be the main activity in the heavenly city, but not the only activity. We observed earlier that the most faithful of God’s servants on earth could not see God in His fullness. As John wrote in his Gospel, “no one has ever seen God” (1:18)! Now John could write, “they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads” (v.4). (maybe we all get tattoos after all!) This passage assures intimate fellowship eternally, with complete security, for those who are God’s very own people. Then verse 5 reiterates the truth expressed in 21:25 concerning the absence of night, which symbolizes sin and danger. This verse also repeats 21:23 that “they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light”. Notice it does not say there will be no sun, just no need for it. Then John adds icing to our eternal cake by asserting “and they shall reign for ever and ever”.
What do you look forward to finding out about heaven?
Read Revelation 22:12-14 The Promise
When Jesus said He was “coming quickly”, it refers to “how” He will come not to “when” He will come. No one knows when Jesus will come, but God. David Jeremiah in his book says that unless your name is “no one” you will not know when Jesus will come. Jesus will come too quickly for people to change their allegiances. So Jesus was challenging His disciples to live by faith, doing His work every day, for no one knows the hour of His coming. He also promised rewards to those He found working when He returns (Matt. 24:44-46). The rewards will be matched to what each person, who already believes and serves Him (2 Cor. 5:10), “has done” for Christ.
Then Jesus said “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, beginning and the end.” The same words, earlier applied to the Father (1:8, 21:6), apply fully to the Son. Verse 14 contains the seventh and final Beatitude in Revelation. Those who “Blessed” (happy) “who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates”! The figure of washing their robes is equivalent to trusting Christ concerning His sacrificial death on their behalf. Those who wash their robes are those who seek to purify themselves from a sinful way of life. They strive daily to remain faithful and ready and ready for Christ’s return. In the final analysis, the real entrance to the heavenly city is through Him who said “I am the door; if any one enters by Me, he will be saved” (John 10:9).
God’s entire Story focuses on His desire or fellowship with those whom He created in His image. Sin broke the fellowship; faith in Jesus restores it. God revealed the completion of His Story by promising Christ’s return. Jesus is preparing a place in His Father’s house for all believers and will come to take them to be with Him forever. The curse of Genesis 3:14-19 is replaced with the blessing of Revelation 22:14. We must get ready for Jesus’ return, knowing what we do in this life has eternal consequences. God’s people living in God’s house for all eternity provides the perfect conclusion to God’s Story.