His Perfect Love

Pastor Matt VanderVen: The New Jerusalem is something to get excited about. We're going to be together, and I'm going to get to hold your hand and we're going to worship together forever and ever and ever. I'm going to look at you and be like, "You guys remember we talked about this? How great is this? This never has to end." I'm going to be spiritually high-fiving you everywhere. I'm going to be that kind of guy because you know how passionate I am and how I get crazy. I'll be like, "Yeah! Woo! This is heaven."

Get excited about this. He says he's coming with this gift for you. He wants all of you excited this morning. He wants you laying down the worries and the fears and the cares of this earth that can be overwhelming and to embrace the joy and the goodness and the inheritance that is coming to a city near you, to your Jesus. He says, "It is done. It is going to happen."

Guest (Male): I'm sure you've taken a tour of some beautiful cities, but none can compare to the beautiful, radiant city we'll hear about today on His Perfect Love. It's the New Jerusalem, where believers in Christ will dwell with God forever. It features streets of gold, a river as clear as crystal, a tree of life, and the throne of God. We'll give you a guided tour today, so get ready for a real treat. It's going to be good. Here's our tour guide and teacher, Pastor Matt VanderVen, in Revelation chapter 22.

Pastor Matt VanderVen: And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and true." And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, "See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God."

And he said to me, "Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still." "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

"I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star." And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

When you look at this chapter, there is a lot going on. We start to look at the interior. Remember, at this point, we've only been shown the gates and the foundation of the city, but we have not even gone into the New Jerusalem. Ironically and beautifully, this is the only place and the only chapter in all of sixty-six books of Scripture that give us the intimacy and the details of this river flowing from God. It's wonderful, and it's a new vision that he's been given here.

It says in verse one again, "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb." This is a river, not a sea here. He's telling us it's a river. He's making it clear he's not contradicting the earlier writings in the Bible where it says there is no more sea. For those of you who love the ocean, I encourage you to visit the river. There are going to be some beautiful things by this.

Throughout the Old Testament, prophets used the picture of a river as a powerful expression of provision and peace. Remember the sea has been used in context sometimes as a scary thing or a fearful thing. He would not put that in heaven. Instead, he uses a river which throughout the Old Testament represents richness, provision, and peace. You can look at Isaiah chapter 48, Zechariah chapter 14, and Ezekiel chapter 47 if you'd like to look that up.

He then tells us a very important detail. It's as clear as crystal. God's provision in the New Jerusalem is described as pure, and he makes sure we understand there is no pollution. It's absolutely unpolluted. It's not possible for any pollution or anything unholy to be in heaven. I think about the pollution of our country: abortion, sodomy, sin. Ezekiel chapter 44 tells us that God literally smells it leaving His sanctuary and coming up to heaven. How about the sanctuaries across America?

Do you want to live with water flowing through you like the Sea of Galilee, or do you want the water from the Dead Sea? He put both in Israel. Both are freely accessible. Which sea do you want to be a part of or drink of or receive of? The Dead Sea or the living water on the Sea of Galilee? He has given us so many examples throughout creation to remind us. He then says, "From the throne of God and of the Lamb." Again, he's told us there's no temple there. Everything radiates from Him.

This river of provision comes right from God's throne. How can he have a throne not in a temple? We're just going to see His area where He is placed. We should expect to see that. Don't get up to heaven and embarrass me by asking, "Where's that temple?" Don't do that. Don't look for the temple; look for the throne. I don't even think you need to look for it because you're going to be with Him always. You'll know where it is, He'll know where you are, and he'll be able to meet you up there.

I can't wait to actually grab your hand because I will see you in heaven if you're born again. We're going to be together, and I'm going to get to hold your hand and we're going to worship together forever and ever and ever. I'm going to look at you and say, "Do you guys remember we talked about this? How great is this? This never has to end." I'm going to be spiritually high-fiving you everywhere.

This is heaven. Get excited about this. He says he's coming with this gift for you. He wants all of you excited this morning. He wants you laying down the worries and the fears and the cares of this earth and to embrace the joy and the goodness and the inheritance that is coming to a city near you. He says, "It is done. It is going to happen." He wants us excited about that. This river is going to pour and flow abundantly. It can't be anything but pure and abundant as we've already talked about.

It's the idea of the living waters that he spoke about even when Jesus was on the earth. Do you remember he says, "Anybody who thirsts," and he made this big proclamation? He kind of interrupted the regular doings of the religion at that moment when he did that. If you read it in context, he drew attention to what he was saying which would never have been done at that time because normally they would go down, get the water, and they would make their way back up.

Jesus is saying, "Even though that person just went and did that as part of the holy sacrifice and ritual that was done, you're still thirsty. I am the living water. He who drinks of me will never thirst again." It makes sense that he has this river flowing of water just to remind every one of us. Are you thirsty? Because it all emanates from Him. It all comes from Him. He knows us, doesn't he?

There's not going to be any lack of anything or need or want. There's not going to be any coveting in this city. We're going to be blessed to spend eternity in the presence of God. Look at verse two. "In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." How many of you read this passage before and wondered what he's talking about here?

It brings up a bunch of things. I'm glad there's not two trees there, aren't you? Think back to Genesis. It started with two trees. We've been there, done that. We don't want to go back to that again and never will. No, this is a tree of life. The Bible begins with the tree of life. Man was not allowed to eat from it after the sin of that other tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We don't see a tree of knowledge of good and evil anymore in the new heavens.

In the middle of its street, on either side, please let the video run in your mind now. Just take a moment and meditate on the word. Just close your eyes with me this morning. I promise nobody's going to come up and go "boogabogga." Close your eyes for a second. Just try this with me. I want you to see this beautiful, radiant city. I want you to see this body of water, this little river going down the middle.

I want you to see a tree on one side where its leaves and foliage hang over the river. I want you to see at the end of it this beautiful throne and this light that radiates and emanates and bounces off the walls of the city. Then there's these leaves that hang over. The water isn't that deep; it's a river so you can walk through it. You can even see probably to the bottom of it because it's clear and there's no corruption. You're just seeing and you picture the cool of the breeze.

It's always well-lit. It's got the radiance of God. At any moment, you can turn around and hold God's hand. You can actually climb up in His lap and say, "Just hold me. I just want to be with you forever." Just let that settle for a minute. That's heaven. That's what we're reading here. That's for the born-again believer. You can go ahead and open your eyes. Sorry I brought you back for a minute. That was really nice to be there in your mind's eye.

That's what it's going to look like. In the same way that just sort of peaced you out this morning, that is the gift of the Scripture. Those are the holy Scriptures that are living and breathing. He's telling us that in the middle of the street again, there's this tree and it's going to be a tree of life. On either side of the river, its foliage hangs over. Please remember that this is a fifteen-hundred-mile-long street with this river right next to it. It's fifteen hundred miles long.

Again in your mind's eye, the landscape describes a large street flowing down the middle, a large tree or series of trees, but every month, you're going to see something different. Different leaves or foliage come out. It changes on a monthly basis. I think that's a beautiful picture. Spurgeon said the picture is of a wide street with a river flowing down the center with trees growing on either side. He sees it that way, all of them of the same kind, all called the tree of life. He actually sees trees on either side instead of one tree that hangs over. I see more of one tree based on the reading of Scripture.

Walvoord visualizes it this way: the visual picture presented is that the river of life flows down through the middle of the city and the tree is large enough to span the river. He sees it more how I see it in my mind's eye, so that the river is in the midst of the street and the tree hangs over the sides of the river on both sides. Seeing the tree of life again points to something really important for us this morning: a restoration of life. Going back six thousand years, it's a restoration of how things were intended to be.

Each tree yielding its fruit every month. Here we learn that there will be a time indicator. We have no other idea of time in heaven except for this one verse. I encourage you to underline it if people ever wonder if there is time. There is going to be some kind of a time indicator. We're not like how we're in time right now; we'll be outside of time, but there will still be a time indicator because we'll know when a month goes by. How will we know? We'll see the tree. We'll see the fruit or the foliage change. So in heaven, it'll still mark time in some capacity, but we're not subject to it the same way we are on this side of eternity.

And yes, because there's foodies in here, somebody's going to say, "Pastor, I always wondered, are we going to be able to eat in heaven?" The best answer that I can give you based on what we can see here is that we will eat, but we may not have to. In our resurrection bodies, His resurrection, remember Jesus is the example of all things. He's an example of the glorified body after His resurrection. He could pass through walls and do different things.

When he met the boys at the side of the Sea of Galilee, he was cooking up some fish. Do you remember that? They went and he told them to cast their nets down and Peter just jumped in the water. He took off his outer coat, jumped in the water, and started swimming. The boys were just rowing back to shore, and they beat him back almost. They get out and they've got all this fish. Jesus is already there with fish on the grill cooking up.

He does what? He sits down and he eats with them in his glorified body. Luke chapter 24 and John chapter 21. So can you eat in heaven in a glorified body? Yes. Do you need to? I don't know. You won't need to for nutrition or to keep your body alive, but there's something about these leaves here. When I look throughout Scripture, Genesis chapter 18 specifically talks about angels that ate with Abraham. So immortal beings were eating with Abraham.

Revelation chapter 19 describes the great heavenly reunion between Jesus and His people as a marriage supper. He instituted communion where we partake of food. I do believe that we will see food in heaven. That's my opinion; this isn't "thus saith the Lord." This is my opinion and understanding of my reading. It appears that God will still allow us to eat in heaven. Back to the point of this verse, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation. It's interesting that the leaves and not the fruit promote the healing.

I think most times when we think of leaves and fruit, we might look at an orange tree or some other tree and we might go and partake of the fruit of the tree. I know there's probably some people here that are eating the leaves too, and good on you for that. I'm eating the fruit, the orange or the apple. So why do the nations need healing? It's interesting if you go into the ancient Greek. The Greek language "healing" can also mean health-giving. I think this may be the sense here.

Walvoord notes that "healing" is *therapeian*. How many of you have heard that Greek term *therapeian*? It's actually where we get our English word "therapeutic." It derives from the Greek *therapeian*. So when you're learning in medical school or nursing school and they talk about therapeutic interventions, it's from the Bible. Everything comes from the Bible. All of man's wisdom and knowledge and all these things we do originated with God.

Well, this *therapeian*, almost directly translated from the Greek, means healing and its idea should be that it is health-giving as in the word its root means the idea of these leaves will serve or minister to us. That's really what it's saying in our language today. I like that. Again, I don't think it's written here as a figure of speech or a metaphor. I believe we're going to see a real tree, we're going to see real fruit and real leaves, and it's going to be for the serving or ministering to all of us.

I can't give you much more than that because the Bible doesn't really give us much more than that. It says that "there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord gives them the light and they shall reign forever and ever."

Clearly here, there shall be no more curse. He's also done away with that in heaven. The curse is gone. Since the Fall, man and creation have lived with the effects of this curse that was described in Genesis chapter 3:16 and onward. Just think about that: sorrow and pain in childbirth for women, friction between the sexes, husbands and wives, male and females. The necessity of hard and often futile work for sustenance, the sweat of the brow as it was described.

And most significantly, the programming to understand death. Death was not something that was in God's original DNA; it came after the curse. Just remember one thing though: work was pre-curse. There's something good about working, being able to do things. There's something very good about that and it's enjoyable in whatever capacity we can do it.

If you look at Isaiah chapter 65, verses 17 through 25, it speaks of this New Jerusalem. "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind." That's good news. We're not going to remember anything here. We're going to be given an eternal amnesia from this life of earth and all the pain and heartache. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

"I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old." He's talking about the idea of living on. "They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands."

We're going to work in heaven, but we're going to enjoy it. We're going to want to do it. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble. Again, we know that we're not married in heaven and we don't give in to marriage. So it's talking about things in helping us understand differences. "For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain," says the Lord.

So even leading up to the new heavens, the New Jerusalem, the curse is done away with forever. The throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it. Perfect fellowship with God. We shall serve God, ministering for all of eternity. That's what he wants us to see here. Heaven will be a place of work and service of God's people. And what a wonderful privilege. It's truly Christ-centered or God-centered.

If you're just looking for fire insurance, friends, you're going to be sorely disappointed because it's not about escaping wrath; it's about enjoying Jesus. It's about enjoying relationship. It's God-centered. There's not going to be boredom. You're going to be very busy. Every one of us, we're going to be very busy.

"And they shall see His face." Look at verse four. "They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads." This is the first time we read that heaven will be a place where God's people see His face, a place of intimate face-to-face fellowship with God, like originally in the garden. Remember when Moses asked to see His face in Exodus 33:20? In heaven, they shall see His face. The focus is on intimacy, on a personal relationship. It's a wonder that God created us to be friends and yet ministers. Today Paul said we see dimly the face of God. We will know ourselves and be known by God intimately, it says. 1 Corinthians 13:12 teaches us that.

Guest (Male): That is Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. We're going through Revelation at the present time, and I'll remind you that you can hear the program again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. That's hisperfectlove.org. We're also at oneplace.com, and look for us wherever you get your podcasts.

We also offer a mobile app. This is a great way to take Pastor Matt's teachings with you on the go. You can learn more about the mobile app and start your download when you visit our website, hisperfectlove.org. We can't thank you enough for your prayers for this ministry. Please pray that as God's word goes forth, lives will be greatly impacted for the glory of God and people would grow by His grace and love, or even enter into a relationship with Him.

And if you have a prayer request, please send that our way. You can email that to us through our website at hisperfectlove.org. If you live in the Mechanicsburg, PA area, we hope you'll stop by for a visit. Just like you hear on the radio, Pastor Matt teaches verse by verse through the Bible here at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek gathering on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. We're located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information. And then join us next time when Pastor Matt will pick up where he left off in Revelation, here on His Perfect Love.