Let's pray. Our Father, as we open your word, we pray that you would encourage our hearts to continue the race and persevere, persevere with joy and confidence of knowing of what's ahead for the believer. Our Father, we would ask that you would open your word to us in Jesus' name, amen. You be seated. We'd invite you to open God's word with me to Revelation chapter 21. We'll read the first eight verses, and then also the first five verses of Revelation 22. Revelation 21, verses one through eight. 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. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with man. He will tabernacle with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. 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. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. And he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. 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 payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. 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. And over to chapter 22. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, brightest crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also on either side of the river the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Tonight we're considering what the Bible teaches about our eternal home. Isn't it beautiful in God's providence this week our sister Marlene died in the Lord, so this subject is more timely, it's more personal, it's more on our minds. Why don't we think about this more often? Why is it that it takes a funeral to bring these subjects more to the forefront? Is it because we're too preoccupied with the present world with schedules and demands and goals and raising family and careers and education? Is it because we're too comfortable with the present world? And God has given us many things to enjoy, family and beauty and arts, science. For some it may not appeal to them because they just don't know what it is. It's an ignorance or misconceptions. Maybe it's a reaction to lots of people's own speculations, so they just put it out of mind. What is our eternal home like? I was always asked that question at camp or right on the spot. And it may surprise you that there's really not much in scripture. Jesus tells us very little. The Apostle Paul, almost nothing. John, the most in the book of Revelation. Even in our creeds, the apostles and the Athanasius creeds limit the treatment of our eternal home to life everlasting. In the Nicene Creed, the life of the world to come. John Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1,266 pages, he only had two pages on the life to come. Birkhoff's Systematic Theology, 784 pages, only one page on heaven. But it's really striking to me. Here we are at the conclusion of the series on the Westminster Confession, and the Westminster Confession doesn't even mention the word heaven. What's the last chapter in the Westminster Confession? It's Judgment Day. Well, isn't there more? It does refer to, on the chapter on resurrection, chapter 32, by the power of Christ, the bodies of the unjust shall be raised to dishonor. The bodies of the just shall be raised to honor by his spirit and brought into conformity with Christ's own glorious body, period. Okay, but isn't there more? Yes, there's more. I would love to have seen a chapter in the Westminster Confession on our eternal home. Some have suggested that maybe the Bible doesn't tell us too much because we just couldn't grasp it. Jonathan Edwards, writes, quote, to pretend to describe the excellence, the greatness, or duration of the happiness of heaven by the most artful composition of words would be but to darken and cloud it. To talk of raptures and esticacies, joy and singing is to but set forth very low shadows of the reality. And all we can say by our best rhetoric is really and truly vastly below what is but the bare and naked truth And if St. Paul, who had seen them, thought it but vain to endeavor to utter it, how much less shall we pretend to do it? And the scriptures have gone as high in the description of it as we are able to keep pace with our imagination and conceptions." End of quote. But even with this caution, and even though the Westminster doesn't have a concluding chapter on our eternal home, I think we need to meditate on it because the scripture gives us the hope of what our eternal home is. We begin to understand what our eternal home is if we realize that it's the new paradise. Paradise is used in scripture to speak of both the Garden of Eden, the original Garden of Eden, as well as our eternal home. Tonight let's look at two themes from Revelation 21 where to imagine our eternal home as similar to the old Garden of Eden, the first Garden of Eden, but secondly, we're to imagine our eternal home as greater than the Garden of Eden. First of all, we're to imagine our eternal home as similar to the old Garden of Eden. The theme, the Garden of Eden restored, really ties all of scripture together. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, rebelled against God, ate the forbidden fruit, they were driven from the garden. away from the Garden of Eden, and paradise was lost. So the question is, is it lost forever? But no, there's going to be hope that God is going to restore sinners to himself. He's going to restore paradise. And so we see that theme woven throughout the Old Testament as we're coming to the work of Jesus Christ. The Garden of Eden theme is in the tabernacle, in the presence, in God's presence. God required the art of the tabernacle, the draperies, the carvings, the furniture to have carved fruits. The angels over the mercy seat remind us of the angels guarding the way into the Garden of Eden that sinners may not come back into the presence of God. Ezekiel and Solomon's temple had carved flowers and palm trees of the garden. Why? Well, to remind the worshiper as they were approaching God that The intimate presence of God in paradise, in the Garden of Eden, has been lost because of Adam's sin. But now, through the way of sacrifice, through the way of the shed blood, God has opened again fellowship with his people, through the Lamb, through the Redeemer, who would shed his blood for our full atonement. The restored Garden Paradise becomes the hope of the believer. And so now we come to the book of Revelation, the end of written scripture, and we see this theme really coming to full. The first chapter of the Bible, how God created the heavens and the earth, the last two chapters in the scriptures in Revelation is how God is remaking heavens and the earth and describes them in terms of a new Eden. Where to think of our eternal home is similar to the old Garden of Eden. Anthony Hoeksema writes, since where God dwells, there heaven is, we conclude that in the life to come, heaven and earth will no longer be separated as they are now, but will be merged. Believers will therefore continue to be in heaven as they continue to live on the new earth. We're to imagine our eternal home as similar to the old Garden of Eden. Let's push that some more. We're to, secondly then tonight, we're to imagine eternal home as greater than the old Garden of Eden. In two ways, greater in the sense that creation is renewed and secondly greater in the sense that communion with God is renewed. Our eternal home as the new Garden of Eden is greater in the sense that creation will be renewed. Scripture speaks of when Christ returns at judgment that he is going to burn this old cosmos with fire, 2 Peter 3.12, which we read earlier in the service. But that's not to annihilate and completely remove this world and this universe, as the Belgic Confession writes, Christ will return, burning this old world with fire and flame to cleanse it. not to annihilate it. This creation is going to be renewed and remodeled in three ways. It's going to be, first of all, new and restored. We know this from several different ways of looking at it. Again, from 2 Peter 3, where we were reading earlier, the parallels between the destruction at Noah's flood and the renewal that came to the final destruction of the universe and the renewal. of the new heavens and the new earth. 2 Peter 3, verses 6 and 7 calls the flood a destruction. And it was a destruction. All perished who did not believe the word of the Lord. There were geological changes to the continents and polar ice caps and vegetation and animal life. But when God restored after the Noah's flood, He remodeled it, if you will, with the same vegetation, with the same animals. And so we read in Revelation 21 and 24 and in 26, the glory and the honor of the nations will contribute to the magnificence of the new earth. Whatever that means, I think it's telling us is that what is good and beautiful of this creation is gonna reappear, it's gonna be purified and enhanced, remodeled in the new setting of the new Eden. And isn't that the promise that's given to creation, even as God put the creation under the curse? Romans 8, 21, this creation groans to be released from the bondage to decay to the joys that it once knew before sin. There's going to be a transformation of this present world. There's going to be a redemption of this present creation, not its annihilation. There's continuity, there's gonna be similarity from the first creation. Even this world is going to be remade new. Dr. Gaffin, the substance of the present world. will be preserved but will be restored and purified in glory. And so there's this analogy from Noah's flood and the renewal of the earth to the destruction of the earth with fire and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. There's also another analogy in continuity and that is from Christ's resurrection and his glorified body. His body was the same as ours, and yet after his resurrection, mortal was glorified, he put on immortality. But it was Christ's same body in which he suffered on the cross. It wasn't a different body. And that's the hope of our resurrection. He will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory, Philippians 3.21. Transform, not substitute something different than the body that we already have. The resurrection body is our present body, but it's going to be glorified. And so by analogy, this present creation is going to be glorified. It's going to be restored. It's not going to be annihilated and replaced by something completely different. Don't think of our future home as something that much different from this earth, it's going to be similar to the Garden of Eden, but oh, much, much better. Gaffen again, redemption restores and perfects creation. This creation is going to be renewed and remodeled. This new creation is then going to be new and sinless. In our new home, the tree of life is there again. But you notice how it's greater. Look at Revelation 22. Through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves are for the healings of the nations. Not just one tree of life, like in the first Garden of Eden. Now you have a whole park. There's rows of trees of life on each side of the river. And they're full of fruit. They're not just bearing fruit once or maybe twice a year, but there's new crops of fruit. Every month there's an abundance. And this is for the healings of the nations. Death is going to be so removed. The tree of life is going to be there in abundance so that God is going to remove all memory of sin and pain and the curse. Our new earth and new heavens is going to be new and sunless. We see this just from the analogies of the tree of life. It's going to be a whole park. And in our new home, the tree of life is secure forever. In the first Garden of Eden, Adam's enjoyment of the Tree of Life was only based upon his perfect obedience, but he disobeyed and he rebelled against God, and so he was driven from paradise, particularly from the Tree of Life. Well, for us in the new heavens and the new earth, we're going to enjoy the Tree of Life, and it's also going to be based upon perfect obedience, but it's based upon the perfect obedience of the second Adam. It's going to be based upon the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, his perfect obedience to all of God's law and righteousness, and that has been credited to us, to our account, to receive by faith. Just like the first Adam lost the tree of life because of his disobedience, the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, won the tree of life for us. because of his perfect obedience, and all those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will enjoy it forever. He gives us the right to eat, his church, he gives us the right to eat, as he did to the church of Ephesus, Revelation 2.7, to the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. The new heaven and the new earth is going to be new and remodeled. It's going to be new and sinless. It's going to be new and newer. Revelation 21, 1 and 2, 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 and new Jerusalem coming down. God. New, this is not the word that's new in the sense of a newborn, young infant. It's not the sense of time or origin or new beginning. But it's the Greek word for new in quality. It's going to be always new, always fresh, always rejuvenated, always brand new. Imagine a new car, and we think it's new at the beginning. As soon as you drive it off the lot, it's deteriorated in value and maybe you stop to get something at the grocery store and you come out and somebody's already dented the door as they open their door in the parking lot and soon it's dirty and soon it loses its smell of a new car unless you go to the car wash and you can buy those little tags, new car smell. New heaven and the new earth is not just new at first and then will wear down. No, it's always going to be new and newer. Not even just that it all stays brand new, like a car that never got old or never got scratched or never lost its new car smell. The new earth is going to be always more new, newer. The tires are going to improve with age. The paint job is going to improve, more beautiful. The engine is going to run better. The analogy, perhaps we could say in the new heavens and the new earth, the second law of thermodynamics that everything is going to entropy and disorder will no longer operate. It's going to be the opposite of aging. Everything is going to get newer and better. As Jonathan Edwards put it, in heaven, by length of time, things become more and more youthful. That is more vigorous, active, tender, and beautiful. In heaven, we keep getting smarter and wiser and happier. We keep falling more in love. The unfolding of the story of redemption will have us taking one gasp after another, our joy and amazement ever increasing. Lloyd-Jones, it's not merely that we're restored to where Adam was. We're taken beyond it to the place at which Adam would have arrived. had he continued in a state of innocence and obedience. Our eternal home, this creation, is gonna be remodeled and renewed, and this new world is going to be our new home. You see it in chapter 21, verses 2 and 10, this new, the new heaven, the new earth is where God brings down the new Jerusalem. to this earth, and it's where God dwells with his people, verse three, in chapter 22, verse three, to this earth as our eternal home. This is fulfilling the promise to Abraham to inherit the land, which God expands to inherit the whole cosmos. Romans 4.13, as Jesus promised the believers, the meek will inherit the earth, Matthew 5.5. We're looking forward to the restoration of all things, Acts 321. Jesus is now in heaven until the time for restoring all things. And those all things is referring to this present creation, this creation that's now under the curse and is awaiting its liberation, a restored creation, the last removal of the vestige of sin. This is earth made new. It's going to be our eternal home. the only analogy that we know of. It's going to be far better than what we could even ask or imagine or think, but if it's an extension of what God has given to this world, it's going to be something like an eternity of always exploring the sciences and the arts and music and botany and physics and astronomy. and all of their fullness and beauty and the glory of God's creation. Some of you may say, well, I'm not very musical now. I don't want to sing too loud. Then it's going to be the fullness of beauty without a curse, without any imperfection forever and ever. The new heavens and the new earth is not like we're gonna be sitting on clouds singing with harps. As this epitaph in the London Cemetery, quote, weep not for me, friend, though death us do sever, I'm going to do nothing forever and ever. It's more like Sam Albury in his book, Lifted. He writes, this is our hope. Our future is very much physical. Contrary to the view most people have of heaven, our ultimate destiny is physical. We will not be floating around disembodied in the middle of some cloudy vista. We will have bodies risen, transformed, glorious bodies in the new heavens and the new earth. Virtually none of my mental imagery of heaven had come from the Bible, but from the medieval artists and modern day cartoonists, clouds, harps, and winged babies floating around in nightdresses. In fact, part of the blame lies in calling it heaven to start with. It's the new earth. It will be no less physical than the present earth. God says, I will make all things new, not I will make all new things. The new earth will not be completely unrecognizable. It will still be this world, a renewed version of it, not a replacement for it. And that's what we're waiting for in our eternal home when Christ returns and judges this present cosmos and then renews and remodels it and makes it new. Until Christ returns, believers now at our death are immediately with Christ in heaven as Marlene has seen the face of her Savior and is comforted with fullness of joy with being with her Savior. But believers who die now, their bodies, the Bible speaks of, their souls are now unclothed because their bodies are still here. Their bodies have been buried, waiting for the last day of resurrection. Until that last day of resurrection, Romans 8.23, we're waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. and that will only happen on the last day when Christ returns with his command and all the bodies will rise and will be glorified and united to our souls forever. I hear well-meaning people speak of the dead in Christ now as dancing or clapping as if they had bodies or people say of a believer who's been sick in this life after a long illness At the funeral, people might say something like, well, we rejoice that their body's been made new. No, that's bad theology. It's not what the scripture teaches. They're in the intermediate state. In heaven, in the presence of Christ, yes, yes, there is fullness of joy, but they don't have their resurrected bodies yet. They're not yet glorified. Their redemption is not yet complete. They in heaven, and we here still, are waiting for resurrection day and for the renewed bodies. And that status quo of waiting for our glorified bodies is not what eternity is going to be. This is a temporary until the return of Christ. So don't view the status now of how a believer dies and goes to Christ without a body as if that's the way it's going to be forever. No, that's not the way it's going to be forever. This is only temporary until Christ returns. When Christ returns and unites our bodies and soul and glorifies them, we enter then into our eternal home, which is the new heavens and the new earth. We're to imagine our eternal home is greater than the Garden of Eden, greater in the sense that creation is going to be renewed. Well, what could possibly be better? The second aspect that's greater than the old Garden of Eden is greater in the sense that communion with God is going to be renewed. In the first Garden of Eden, God came and walked with Adam and Eve. In the evening, they had intimate communion and friendship. But because of their sin, they hid from God. They lost that communion with God because of their rebellion. And now our sin separates us from God. Christ has come to deal with that issue and to deal with our sin and to pay for it and to pay for it in full so that all who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ are reconciled. There's a friendship again restored. But then on that last day, there's going to be the fullness of communion restored. God is first of all going to deal with Satan and remove him and his kingdom. They're going to be thrown into hell, Revelation 20, verse 10. Our shame, our sin, our guilt are going to be then gone forever. And the curse is going to be gone. You'll see it in Revelation 22, 3. No longer will there be anything accursed. Where did the curse come from? Well, it's because of sin that was placed upon creation. All disease and sickness and suffering and death and the vanity of life, there's gonna be no more tears, Revelation 21.4, and all that causes tears is the idea. There's gonna be no pain, there's gonna be no vanity, nothing's ever gonna break again or wear out. There's gonna be no frustration in work, There's going to be no misunderstandings in relationships, no disappointments, no goodbyes, no death, no fights, no sin, no fears, no injustice, no poverty. Nothing will ever happen in eternity to cause us to mourn. In the new earth, communion with God that was lost in the Garden of Ed is Eden is going to be now finally fully restored. And so we read in Revelation 21 3 that New Jerusalem comes down and behold the dwelling place of God is with man and he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them. God's eternal home is God coming down and dwelling with us forever. Behold the dwelling of God is with men. And you notice as I read the text, verse 3, tabernacle is the word in both the noun and the verb form. To cause us to remember the Old Testament tabernacle, surely when the presence of God came down and dwelt in the midst of his people, but even that presence of God was guarded and veiled and you could not see it. It's to remind us how Jesus Christ has come and taken on human flesh and tabernacled with us. Well now, finally, at the consummation of all things, when sin and Satan have been dealt with forever and we've been glorified, God is going to come and tabernacle with us forever. And God will be their God. implying that he will be a faithful and loving supplier of all their needs with all unimaginable fullness, all the commitments and promises of God through history, find the apex of their fulfillment. Verne Poitras, he will never leave us, he will never forsake us. In verse four, and they will see his face. Moses couldn't see the face of God and live. He had to be shielded from God's glory. Israel could not see the face of God and the Holy of Holies. There had to be a thick curtain. Only the high priest could even enter once a year. But God is going to reveal his face to us, his very presence in our new home when he comes and dwells with us. Finally, fully, tabernacling with us forever. The presence of God is going to be fully restored. Why is the new heaven and the new earth described in these terms of Garden of Eden, Garden of Eden, so much better? Well, for at least these two reasons, to assure us the time is coming when we will experience the fullness of creation as God has intended, without sin, without the curse, without the limits of time. We're going to be back to the presence of God that Adam lost from the garden, but it's gonna be so much greater. C.S. Lewis put it, if I find myself having a desire which no evidence in this world can satisfy. The most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. When I realized that my desire to have a perfect world, perfect relationships, and perfect beauty, and no more pain, no more loneliness, no more sorrow. When I long to experience the fullness of joy, to be perfectly known and loved. That's a longing for communion of God, in Eden, which will be ours again in the new earth. The terms of our new home, in terms of the Garden of Eden, second reason is to assure us that the victory of the Lamb is coming, it's final, and it is complete. Verse six, he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Satan seemed to have an apparent victory in the Garden of Eden. He seemed to have taken over humanity, which God had created for himself when Adam and Eve chose and disobeyed God, and now they were part of his kingdom in sin and in darkness. But Jesus Christ has come to redeem us and transfer us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. And on that day, the last day, when Jesus Christ Is glorified when he glorifies his church and brings us into the new heavens and the new earth. He's going to finish history as the victor. He's going to conquer all of his and our enemies. Yes, he is already procured our salvation on the cross and his resurrection, but his return is going to consummate the glory. that awaits us. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, if God is to defeat Satan finally and completely, he must restore everything to its original condition. Can you grasp what's ahead for you, believer? Your home, your new home, your future home. It's the new paradise. And all's going to be restored as God had originally planned in the Garden of Eden and now extremely expanded. The presence of God that had been lost because of sin with Adam and Eve is going to be restored far beyond expectation. What no eye has seen or ear has heard nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. The new heavens and the new earth is going to be all about Christ and his glory and his completing all things. The new heavens and the new earth is not primarily for your joy. It's not primarily for our comfort. They don't primarily exist for us. But it's primarily for the restoration of God's glory. It's the restoration of Christ, his plan of redemption. is accomplishing our salvation. Begun in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3.15, to the final last day, the new heavens and the new earth exists for God's own glory. If we don't get this, then we're going to view our eternal home as what's in it for me. Donnelly writes, heaven exists for God. And apart from God, it has no meaning. We must never, not for a moment, think of heaven apart from Him. We will be sane and safe and biblical in our studies only if right at the forefront of our thinking is the concept, heaven is for God and His glory. David Moore relates the story of a phone call from elderly Martha to her pastor. Martha's words were very serious, but calm, and she asked her pastor to come by that afternoon. He did, and then when they sat down, she told him that the doctors had just told her that they discovered a tumor. The doctors say, I probably have six months to live. Pastor Jim spoke to her, I'm so sorry, but before he could finish the sentence, Martha interrupted, oh, don't be, the Lord's been so good, I've lived a long life, I'm ready to go, and you know that. But I wanted to talk to you about my funeral. I've been thinking about it, and there are things that I know I want. The two talked quietly for a long time. They talked about Martha's favorite hymns, the passages of scripture that had meant so much to her through the years, the many memories that they shared from the five years that Pastor Jim had been pastor at Central Church. And then when it seemed they'd covered about everything, Martha paused, looked at Jim with a twinkle in her eye and added, one more thing, Pastor, when they bury me, I want my old Bible in one hand and a fork in the other. A fork, Pastor Jim was caught by surprise. Why do you want to be buried with a fork? I've been thinking about all the church dinners and banquets that I attended through the years," she explained. I couldn't begin to count them all, but one thing sticks in my mind. At those really nice get-togethers, when the meal was almost finished, a server, maybe a hostess, would come by to collect their dirty dishes, and I can hear the words now, sometimes at the best ones, somebody would lean over my shoulder and whisper, you can keep your fork. And do you know what that meant? Dessert was coming. And it didn't mean a cup of jello or pudding or even a dish of ice cream. You don't need a fork for that. It meant the good stuff, like chocolate cake or cherry pie. When they told me I could keep my fork, I knew the best was yet to come. And that's exactly what I want people to talk about at my funeral. Oh, they can talk about all the good times we had together. That would be nice. But when they walk by my casket and look at my pretty blue dress, I want them to turn to one another and say, what the fork? And then that's when I want you to tell them that I kept my fork, because the best is yet to come. What no eye has seen or ear has heard, the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. Almighty God and Heavenly Father, thank you for the hope of the scriptures. Forgive us for being distracted and not meditating more often, more deeply on the joys of what's to come. We get so occupied and distracted and even overwhelmed by the sorrows and troubles of this broken world and our own sins. And all that's going to be gone. And you will bring us into the eternity of the fullness of your love and joy. Our Father, we pray that we would Keep our eyes upon Christ, what he's accomplished for us, and all that awaits the joy of the believer in his presence. And we pray, Lord Jesus, come quickly. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.