His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: No longer do we have a curtain that's just torn where we could see and remember that there was a barrier. Now there is no barrier. We have gates, but the gates are what? Opened sometimes? All the time. So that people can freely come and have access to the Lord any time they want. Do you see how beautiful that is? To me, that is the gift of heaven. That is the point of heaven. It's not the minimizing or removing of death and pain and sorrow, and I'm thankful for that, but it's being in the presence of Jesus Christ always.

Guest (Male): Hey, welcome to another His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt VanderVen. We're on the final leg of our journey through Revelation, and we plan to finish up chapter 21 and head into chapter 22. It is exciting to contemplate all that God has planned for us in heaven. We've already learned that there will be no more tears, pain, and suffering. And as great as that is, it gets even better. Today Pastor Matt emphasizes the total access we'll have to the Lord. We'll be dwelling with God and in His presence forever. Now, that is incredible. Here's Pastor Matt.

Matt VanderVen: Isn't this a beautiful passage here this morning? It really is God's heart. We get to see His heart's desire, and that is eternal relationship, being with us forever and ever. He could have anything, and all He wants is you. Every Christmas we talk about exchanging gifts and celebrating, most importantly, the birth of Jesus Christ. And that gift He gave us was Emmanuel, God with us. What does it mean, God with us? It means relationship. Jesus Christ with His creation, His desire.

And so He tells us in verse 22, "But I saw no temple in it." It's interesting, John is looking upon this. He was already told to write these things as he had jaw-dropping moments. But one of the things that John points out, and the Holy Spirit doesn't make mistakes here with calling our attention to certain things, the first thing he notices, he says, "But I saw no temple in it." That was strange to John. Everything to do with religion, even Judaism or even Christianity, we think of a church. In modern-day Christianity, we have churches we gather in. At times of Judaism, they had a temple in which they gathered in. These were things that were normal and customary of that time.

He says in heaven, there's not going to need to be a physical building that can contain us, although He is in His Spirit with us right now among us here this morning. He is going to be in personal touching distance to each and every one of us all at the same time. I can't get my mind around that. We don't need to go to a specific place because we are dwelling with God. We are in His presence. We, in some ways, are in part and parcel with Him eternally.

It's something that from metaphysics you begin to think about that because He did tell us He's living in us even now. But in the glorified body, in the perfected body in heaven, His desire is such an intimacy that every one of our atoms and molecules will be shared. I just went deep there. I just want us to understand the very being, the fibers of everything. It's going to be so intertwined with God that we will not be able to be contained in a physical building. We'll be contained in Christ, in Christ.

And that's what we need to see here. "I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." That tells us we're gathering in whom? In Him. The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it. Just going back to this here, in the ancient world, it was unthinkable to have a great city without many different temples, especially at the time this would have been written around AD 95. John on the island of Patmos, it was unthinkable as he's being given this vision, he's writing these things down.

The temple and the tabernacle were necessary in Judaism. It was necessary in Christianity. And again today, many of us come to the church to meet God and we minister to one another to dwell in the presence of God, His Word. We even think about the idea of what he described as his lampstand. However, this city is marked by the fact that there's no temple in it. There's no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. You know what that tells me? That the temple's been expanded. Everything and every place is holy and the dwelling place of God. There is no end to His presence or reach. I just really love that.

And again, verse 23, it says, "The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light." I think that's remarkable in itself as well because to this point, we cannot see the face of God. Jesus Christ came as a human being, an image bearer of the Father, as we read in the Scriptures. Moses, even back in the Old Testament, wanted to see the face of God and was unable to because just the presence of God's holiness and the Shekinah glory, it just illuminates too bright. I don't know that these mortal eyes could lay hold of such beauty and radiance.

We see nowhere in Scripture has it, other than the image of Jesus being the image of God the Father. There's no other example throughout Scripture. The most that even Moses, when he said, "God, show me more of your glory," the most he could have was literally the backside of God's head passing by. That was what mere mortal eyes could comprehend or be able to see. And even on the Mount of Transfiguration, where some of that was contained and restrained by Jesus, as Peter gathered and John and they were watching these things, they were just—and that's just the Transfiguration. That wasn't the internal presence and radiance of God fully.

They were like, "We don't ever want to leave." There was something about being in that presence, seeing the glory of God in its perfection, that they don't want to leave. Does everybody comprehend that? We don't want to leave. And he's pointing this out, he's showing this, and this reminds us that heaven will be a place of pure worship. There's not going to need to be a power grid. We're not going to have to worry about EV or not EV and all these things. The Lord conducts light. He is light. We don't need a generator. There'll be no one and anything up there that goes, "We gotta lather up the Holy Spirit." You'll have none of those kinds of things.

It will be pure and holy. And the things that we're going to use to help us worship—think about today, what do we use? What are part of the instruments that we use in worship? First of all, a building. We gather in a building and we sometimes overlook that, but we do, it's church. What about a music system? There's a soundboard there, there's a whole team back there that has to work all these speakers. There's channels and lines and I don't want to speak about it because I'll sound like a fool. I don't know all the details of all of this, but there is a lot of technology and components and things that are, even up here, I know when the piano's playing, if their inner ear isn't right, it can affect everybody because these things are all communicating together.

There's customs, things we bring in, cultural customs. Some of those things, when they're not working right, they can be a distraction to worship. Do you realize that in heaven, we are not going to require any of that? There's no temple. Nobody's gotta come in and say, "Okay, turn on the piano. Check, check, check." We're not going to have to worry about going to the board and making that whole thing equalize.

The worship team that comes in, they come in Thursday nights, they have worship practice, then they come in and practice because they want to not be a distraction. I know the heart of the worship team here. If they could meet behind that wall and play behind the wall there and yet the volume could come out—if it wasn't so cold back there, they probably would because they don't want to be a distraction. What they want to do is be the ones that help to bring you into the glory of God through heaven. They want to literally lift their voices and their instruments to bring us into that place of worship without distraction. They don't want to be seen. They want God to be seen. They want glory to God. That's real worship.

A picture of that, limited here on this earth, in heaven, as we read here, there'll be no limitation to that, there'll be no distraction to that. Our focus will totally be on the person we're supposed to be worshipping. Amen? The Lord God Almighty—look at it here, underline it in your Bible—the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, Jesus. There's not going to be those thoughts that we're all being honest this morning, how about it? You're worshipping, glory unto the Lord, "Did I leave the stove on?" Unto His high name, "Hallelujah, did the dog get taken out?" We're not going to have any of those distractions. It's going to be like worship that we have never experienced on this earth. I can't wait. It's going to be wonderful.

Look at verse 24, "And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light." That's a qualifier. He's telling us, and the nations of those who are saved, because if you are not a born-again believer, guess where you're at? You're not here in the new heaven. Where are you? You are in the lake of fire. Did God send you there or by your rejection of Jesus did you effectively send yourself? Please don't blame God for that. He has given you a free will, free choice. And He says, "Come unto Me, all of you," not some of you, "all of you." He's willing to save. Are you willing to be saved?

Isn't that interesting? I've yet to see somebody turn down a billion dollars. Anybody in here, you ever turn down a billion dollars? Somebody says, "I have a billion dollars that I think I can help change your life or help change the life of other people." "No, I don't want comfort." Has any human being ever said, "I reject comfort"? I'm sure there's some that maybe have done it in form of asceticism. But truly? And yet we're talking about something that's priceless: the love of Jesus Christ. Just let that penetrate for a minute.

"And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it." I love that. So verse 24, it's talking about access into the city. That's what this verse is really actually talking about, access into the city. And it says, "the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it." The kings of the earth, well, who are they, these kings of the earth? This may be difficult to understand, and I think different commentators, as I remember reading, I really rely less on commentaries anymore. Nothing wrong with them, they're probably very helpful. They're fine.

I love the purity of the Word. I'm to the point where I'm not interested in another man's wisdom, and I don't discount those things. They're very helpful. They're very helpful to have in your library. I encourage all of you to have a commentator, know you're on the right sort of right point or basis, but let the Holy Spirit speak. Let God Almighty from the Word of God speak and let His Word be the thing that reflects in your heart and life.

You see, so much of the difficulty in seminary and cemeteries and these places today has to do with the scholarly debate, and while that scholarly debate's important, my opinion doesn't matter. My obedience to Jesus Christ, the handling of His Word is all that does matter. That's it. Paul had to find that out the hard way, didn't he? He studied under Gamaliel, the rabbi of rabbis, the Pharisee of Pharisees. And even the people of Paul, your learning—it's made you, I'm paraphrasing, cuckoo.

Not in heaven. No, it's simple, this idea. There are saints on the earth at that time, and they're known as millennial saints, those who were saved during the millennial reign of Christ. We've talked about that, that is the context we're in hermeneutically, where we've been in previous chapters. Those that did not rise up with the devil, remember when the nations all rise up at that last time and then God calls fire down one last time and then he's released from the bottomless pit? That whole thing happened.

Then apparently there are these leaders, we read about it, there were kings at that time that were not in line with the devil. And the nations that came against Jesus, they're going to go through this great white throne judgment. And those found in the book of life, these leaders will bring glory and honor to Jesus Christ, the one true King in the New Jerusalem. Friends, why is that so hard? That's what we just read. That's what we read in context, scripturally, in previous chapters. We don't need to pontificate about those things.

The Word of God speaks. Are we willing to lay down our presuppositions and opinions and sometimes even be challenged by what God wants to reveal and speak to our hearts? I know that's a conviction point for me here this morning. I want to make sure I'm faithfully doing that. Well, that's what he said there. I don't think it's up for debate that these millennial kings on the earth, they're going to come in and they're going to bring glory and honor. And how are they going to do that? Because they went through the Great Tribulation, they chose not to fall—in other words, they received Jesus Christ.

They chose not to get into cahoots, I'm going to use that term, okay? Some of you know that old-fashioned term, not to get in allegiance or alignment with the devil at the last rising of the nations. And they chose to stay true and faithful to Jesus Christ. And then what does that do? Their lives bring glory and honor to who? God. Is that not the same thing that happens in your life? Do you not bring glory and honor to God when you put Jesus above all of your opinions and He is the center point and preeminent in your life, the most important person in your life?

Sometimes I know I've heard some of our more "seasoned saints," seasoned saints, those that may be getting a little bit older that may not be able to do some of the things they used to when maybe some of the fine motor skills and things were working a little bit better, younger and different things like that. And sometimes there's heartache that come past, "I can't do—I used to come in, I was part of the decorating team." I always say, "But do you think God is done with you? You could be 95 years old. Do you think God is ever done with you?" "Well, Pastor, what can I do now?"

You could be His son or His daughter. You could love Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. You could be a prayer warrior even if you can't leave your bed. Don't minimize that. Don't ever minimize that. And by doing so, you are bringing glory and honor to Jesus Christ the King. We just need to see that and that's also pointing that out here, that these kings are men that are going to do that, these leaders. Look at verse 25 and 26. It says, "Its gates shall not be shut at all by day." Well, that makes sense because as we already know, there shall be no night there.

So what is he saying? Does heaven's gates or doors ever close? It's only at night that they would close and yet there's no night. So what's he really saying to us? The gates shall not be shut at all. So they're always open. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. Again, there shall be total access all the time. Do you see that? Access to the Lord any time we want. That's what we're supposed to see. Just look at Judaism and then look at Christianity. Judaism had interesting the way it was brought by God because of sinful man and our inability to be righteous and holy before God perfectly.

There was a high priest that would go in, Yom Kippur. Yom meaning the word in Hebrew "day," Kippur or Kaphar meaning "atonement." And that priest would go in how many times? Twice. Sometimes you'll hear people say once. That's not biblically accurate actually. Twice. Why would that high priest go in twice? The first time was what? For himself. He had to be sanctified and holy. You mean to tell me priests and pastors need to get right with God and be holy and sanctified? You mean they haven't arrived? They should never, ever be put on a pedestal.

Yeah, yeah, because there's only one perfect God-man, Jesus Christ. Only one Jesus. Nobody else compares to Jesus and He's who we put our eyes on. He's who we look to. He's the establishment. He's the holy perfect God. So they would go in and they would turn around and do what? They would say, "Okay, well, I'm going to sanctify—Lord, forgive me," sprinkle blood, the whole thing. Then what would they do? They would come back out, tie the string on, make sure that if he got dropped in there for whatever reason, they could pull him back out. This happened. This is what was done.

He would then go back in and what would he do then? He would then make an atonement for the nation of Israel, for the sin of man. And that was only a covering. Forgive me if I said that wrong. When Jesus Christ came, it was actually a removal of sin. It was no longer just a covering kind of like when we're home and we're sweeping up and we're getting ready to clean up a little bit here. You put a little bit of the broom there and you put it under the carpet. Carpet goes back down. It's clean. Or for my young people, what do we do in our closets? Cram it in. Shove it right in.

Not that you don't do that. But what do we do? We take and we shove it in there and the whole thing like that. Is it removing? Is it really washed the—no, we just it's putting it in there kind of removing it so we can't see it, but it's covering it so we can't see it, but it's not removing it. Do you see what he's trying to show us here? That even with the Old Testament understanding that they could only go in to the tabernacle and that Holy of Holies, the high priest, he still had a point where he couldn't go in every other day. He could only go in as God prescribed and it was only twice that one day.

We know that Jesus Christ after His perfect work, the shroud was torn, that curtain torn top to bottom so that man couldn't obviously get to it and stop it ripping because if you know man wanting to control things, you know if it started ripping from the bottom, they'd go over there and start putting it back together. God had a better plan. He says, "I'm going to rip that shroud open because from now on, you will be able to come into the Father and you can press in as deep as you want." That's what He was communicating to us. That was what He was communicating to the early church.

No longer is there anything that keeps you. When you've been washed by the blood of the Lamb, you can now enter in in fullness to God the Father as close and as intimate as you want and there is nothing that stops you except yourself. And now to give us the perfect illustration, no longer do we have a curtain that's just torn where we could see and remember that there was a barrier. Now there is no barrier. We have gates, but the gates are opened all the time. So that people can freely come and have access to the Lord any time they want.

Do you see how beautiful that is? To me, that is the gift of heaven. That is the point of heaven. It's not the minimizing or removing of death and pain and sorrow, and I'm thankful for that, but it's being in the presence of Jesus Christ always. If that's not what heaven is to you, you might want to ask yourself a question: is it fire insurance or is it truly a love intimate relationship?

Verse 27 and we'll close this section up. "But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles it, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." And that makes sense. And what he's saying is that all sinners and death have been cast into the lake of fire. We remember reading about that in chapter 20 already. He said that your name, my name, those born again, their name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I truly believe as Revelation chapter 3, verse 5 teaches us, there's a blotting out of names. Those who are overcomers, their names stay in the Book of Life. In other words, they don't reject Jesus Christ.

But that presumes upon the idea that from the very foundations of the world, Revelation chapter 13, verse 8, that all names were written in that book because you can't remove what's not already there. God didn't set the whole thing up that some go to hell, some go to heaven. He set it up that all would come into salvation, but through free will, men and women have the ability to elect, choose to have their names removed from that Book of Life by rejecting Jesus Christ. But it's God's intention to save all and that the names would be there.

So he's reminding us once again: there is no halfway. You are either a born-again believer in Jesus Christ. Remember, forgiven sinners are who occupy heaven, not perfect people. Forgiven sinners. That's either who you are or you are one of those that have rejected Jesus and mocked Him and you will find that you will spend eternity in the lake of fire because that's your place that you wanted to go because you didn't want to be in the presence of God, so God gave you over to your will.

Guest (Male): Well, friend, we hope and pray that you've taken that step of faith to trust in the Lord Jesus for the salvation of your sins. It's the one way to gain access to this wonderful place called heaven that we've been talking about. And we'll hear more about it next week on His Perfect Love when Pastor Matt VanderVen opens the 22nd and final chapter of Revelation. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Let the word go out, the perfect love of Christ to shine. Our lives will shout. I am my beloved's and He is mine. Every heart is in His hands. We'll never stop reaching out. This is His perfect love.

If you were blessed and encouraged by the Lord, we'd like to know. Email us while it's fresh on your mind there at our website, HisPerfectLove.org. Be sure to include your prayer requests. Also at our website, you'll find an archive of these studies in Revelation, making it easy to replay a message you enjoyed or catch what you missed on the radio. Again, we're at HisPerfectLove.org and now at OnePlace.com as well. Look for us wherever you get your podcasts. And we also have a free mobile app. This is a convenient way to listen to Pastor Matt on your mobile devices. Go to HisPerfectLove.org for more information about that. And if the Lord is leading you to support this ministry with a one-time gift or ongoing monthly support, you can do so through the website at HisPerfectLove.org.