Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): Are you looking forward to heaven? Pastor Bill Lubkeman offers this perspective.

Bill Luebkemann: Why do we as Christians talk about heaven so much? Some people who are not believers would say, what a waste of time. But this is what Spurgeon said more than 100 years ago. We do not suppose that a man is shooting at a target if he does not look that way. Nor can we imagine that a man's ambition is fixed on heaven if he has no heavenward thoughts or aspirations. But if if this is the place we desire to be, if this is what we're looking forward to, then yes, we should be thinking about it and aspiring to it and looking forward to it.

Guest (Male): There's a famous hymn that says, I've got a river of life flowing out of me. Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see, opens prison doors, sets the captives free. I've got a river of life flowing out of me. What a great song. And we'll learn more about that river of life today on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Lubkeman of Calvary Chapel of Marlton. Grab a Bible and join us in Revelation 22 as Pastor Bill brings hope from the Word.

Bill Luebkemann: Consider what that means. Rejecting the one from whom life comes from. And it comes from him here as well as there. He said to the woman at the well, if you asked, I would have given you living water. He didn't He didn't mean she'd have to wait until she was in this place to get it. He meant he would give it to her right there on the spot and he'll give it to you today if you ask him. But if you reject him, you need to consider that in heaven it's even in heaven it comes from him.

There is no other place. There is no other one flowing down, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nation. It's flowing down the center of the street. What exactly does that mean? How do you have a river flowing down the center of the street? The only thing I could think of is on some highways, you know, the train runs down the middle of the highway.

On 995 in Philadelphia for a little while, the Market-Frankford L runs down the middle. Down in Washington, if you drive out towards Fairfax County, Virginia, the train runs down the center. Is it a divided highway, you know, one way on one side, the other way, river in the middle? I don't know. We can't picture this. It's three-dimensional. Is this street on the bottom of that cube and the river flowing or is it somehow in the middle? Are the people that live below it that say there is this street up there and are the people above it looking down on it?

And can you go around this river? Can you look up from the bottom and see through it to the top? I don't know that. You'll have to wait till you get there. It's going to be interesting. You can draw from this what you want to. There's a great street. And down the middle of that great street is this river of the water of life. And it the idea here is it's available for everybody. The idea here is that anyone may come and drink from it. On each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit yielding its fruit every month.

How can you have a single tree on both sides of the river? Don't know that either. Maybe it has You've seen somewhere I saw a picture of a tree and they cut a hole through the middle of it and a road went through the middle. You've all probably seen that picture. It was really a big tree and they put a road right through it. Is it like that? Is it one tree? Is it Is it connected underneath the roots but two separate trees somehow connected together at the bottom making them one tree? How is one tree on both sides of the river?

I don't know that either. But I do know there's a tree here and it's on somehow expressing itself on both sides of the river. And we here we have here another parallel to Genesis. Look back in Genesis 2 where we just were verse 9. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So this tree of life I don't think it's the same exact one. This tree of life that was in the garden of Eden was here on earth. There's a new tree of life in the new Jerusalem.

But the purpose would seem to be similar. The idea in the garden of Eden was if they ate from the tree of life, they would live forever. And unfortunately, they were never able to do that. If you look over in Genesis 3 verse 22 and the Lord God said, the man has now become like one of us knowing good and evil. He was He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. So the Lord God banished him from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. There was a tree of life that Adam and Eve could have partaken of, but they chose instead to listen to the devil and partake of the wrong tree and therefore they cut off access to the tree of life. And it's been inaccessible ever since then. The tree that would allow you to eat from the fruit and live forever. And now this new tree here in the in the new Jerusalem, this new tree of life here is a permanent tree and all are welcome to come to it.

And in fact, it bears 12 crops of fruit. Each fruit in its month. Look, the trees described singular. We said that. Some translations say singular tree, but then they go on to say each tree yielding its fruit every month. So what does that mean? Is it one tree that has 12 different kinds of fruit? Is it 12 trees, one tree with 12 branches and each one has a different kind of fruit on it? What is the fruit? Are some of them oranges and some of them apples? Is it always the same? It doesn't say that either.

It doesn't say what kind of fruit it was that Adam and Eve partake of. Even though all the pictures have them eating a nice, juicy, delicious apple, it doesn't say was this 12 trees in one? What kind of fruit is it? You can think about that and just wonder about it. But I know one thing, it's going to be good to eat. And it's going to be available to all. And this tree is probably going to If it's just one tree, it's going to have a lot of branches cuz there's going to be a lot of people there that are partaking of it.

And here's another interesting thing. This crystal clear pure water here flowing by, this tree of life with this fruit that keeps coming and you'll be able to take a drink and have some fruit whenever you want. That's a lot better than that dirty river that I cross on my way to Philadelphia so many times each week that you wouldn't even want to take a drink of. And even when I was a kid one time, my dad and my brother and I went down there and we were swimming in the river and somebody came and said, you really shouldn't be swimming in this.

It's it's not really safe, you know. And that was probably in the '60s. Imagine what it's like nowadays. When I'm over in Philadelphia and I go to get a drink from a water fountain or you go to a restaurant over there and you they serve you a glass of water and you think, this came out of the river. I don't think so, you know. I'll take something in a bottle when I'm over there. Over here in New Jersey at least we have real water. So you have this fruit, you have this river, you have everybody being able to eat and drink as much as they want, as often as they want.

Does this mean we have to eat in heaven? I don't know that answer either, but my guess is no, you don't have to eat because God is our sustenance. My guess is that we can eat though. Jesus ate. When he came back and he was talking to the apostles after his resurrection, they were looking at him. Is that Jesus? He said, you got anything to eat? Oh, that's him. He likes to eat. And so it would seem to be pleasurable. Something that we can eat. Are we all going to be vegetarians only eating what grows?

Maybe. Abraham, he prepared a meal for some angels. At least one of whom was the Lord himself. At the gathering in heaven of the saints with the Lord, it's called the, you know, the marriage supper. So the idea of Jesus when he after he was resurrected, he was in his new heavenly body. He was able to appear, disappear, go through walls, do whatever he wanted to do. I'm looking forward to being able to do those kind of things. Imagine playing hide and seek when you can go through walls, disappear and appear wherever you want to.

Isn't that going to be fabulous? You know, there was there was many examples in the Bible between Jesus and between the angels appearing to Abraham. The marriage supper. There's plenty of examples of the fact that we can eat in heaven. And you know, I don't think we need to eat. I don't think it's going to be something where you don't eat, you're going to die like you are here cuz you can't die in heaven. But there's certainly going to be plenty of food and this is just conjecture. Okay, if you want to have conjecture in your own mind and arrive at a different conclusion, you're welcome to do that.

And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of nations. You know, what's all that about? You know, why would people need to be healed if they're in heaven and already healed? That doesn't make any sense it would seem, but the word healing here it's therapeian in the Greek and it gives us the English word therapeutic. And it could perhaps be equally well translated as health giving. The health giving waters. And the root meaning of the word refers to serving or ministering. So the leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations providing health to the people that live there.

So not in the sense of healing people that are sick, but perhaps in the sense of preventing you from getting sick. This the quality that these have to keep you healthy. These descriptions are done with words that we can understand and are familiar with, but they represent things that are new and different. So John saw this stuff and he was trying to write it down with words in his dictionary that he had available to him. And I think when we stand there and see it, we're going to say, yeah, that's a river. It looks like a river, but it's it's probably not going to be exactly like what we imagine a river is today.

There's another interesting thing in here also and that is the passage of time. You know, we say all the time there's there's no time in heaven, but yet it says here this tree yields its fruit every month. So in some way, even though time doesn't matter anymore, it's irrelevant, you know, we live outside of time then and time no longer has is a master of us over us in the ways that it is today. But in some way, something like time must be going on that we can say some some time went by. We're going to see everything is going to be newer and better and it's going to be perfect and there's going to be some similarities.

And I think personally I think we're going to recognize each other and we're going to recognize a tree and a river and and a house maybe, you know. But it's going to be so much better and more perfect. Why do we as Christians talk about heaven so much? Some some people who are not believers would say, what a waste of time. But this is what Spurgeon said more than 100 years ago. We do not suppose that a man is shooting at a target if he does not look that way. Nor can we imagine that a man's ambition is fixed on heaven if he has no heavenward thoughts or aspirations.

But if if this is the place we desire to be, if this is what we're looking forward to, then yes, we should be thinking about it and aspiring to it and looking forward to it. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city and his servants will serve him. Look, now another parallel to Genesis. Let's talk about the curse for a minute back in Genesis chapter 3. Because they ate of the forbidden fruit, they were cursed. And who was cursed and how was cursed? Well, in 3:16 of Genesis, to the woman he said, I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing.

With pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. To Adam he said, because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken.

From dust you are and to dust you will return. So look, pain and childbirth certainly part of the curse. Hard and fruitless labor having to toil and work and and not getting enough return and then be you know, Adam and Eve Adam farming the ground and getting weeds when he needed food. And it might not be completely incompatible to suggest you know, buying shares in the stock market and losing your shirt. Hard and fruitless labor. And ultimately death by the way. I mean, you could look at the curse and say, what are the three main things?

Pain in childbirth, hard work and fruitless and death. Childbirth was probably going to happen anyway. There was going to be children born, but maybe God's original plan wasn't for it to be such a painful experience. There was going to be work at anyway, you know, there it wasn't the idea it wasn't God's idea wasn't that there would be no work going on. If you look in Genesis 2 verse 15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. So the idea was not that he was going to be on vacation forever.

The idea was there was going to be work. But it was going to be good work, joyful work, exciting work that pleasing work, fruitful. You're going to get something back for what you put into it. And death. Now death is something that wasn't planned for at all, you know. Adam and Eve made in the image of God. It was in God's intention that they would live forever. It was ruined when they sinned. That was not God's plan. Well, here it says, no longer will there be any curse. Those things don't apply anymore. They're going to be done away with and all other sickness and suffering and pain and aggravation are going to be done with.

The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city. The new Jerusalem will not have the curse because it'll have the throne. And we'll be able to walk right up to the throne and speak to God the Father if we want to. And we'll want to, I'm sure. Notice again, we see the throne of God and of the Lamb. Remember what I said earlier. He sits at the right hand of God the Father that all who call on his name would be forgiven of their sins. There's no curse because they've driven it out.

And we'll be serving him. His servants will serve him. We 're not going to be sitting around on clouds, you know, playing harps because we're so bored. Cuz who else would play a harp except someone who was bored, right? So we're not going to be doing that. That was supposed to be funny. There's going to be things to do. There's going to be work to do. We're going to be works of serving. We're going to be serving God. You know, nobody knows exactly what that is, but it's We're not just going to sit around and watch the football all day long or eat potato chips and cheesesteaks.

We're going to be going about his business and his servants will serve him. There's going to be things to do, some kind of a job, but it 's not going to be a job where you're watching the clock saying, you know, oh, just another hour until 5:00 and I can get out of here. No, it's not going to be that kind of job. It's going to be something that is joyful and exciting and something that you want to do. And who knows? He might send you out to the far side of the universe to take care of some business.

And with with travel away, Jesus traveled, it wouldn't take that long to get there. I bet you there'll be plenty of free time also. There's going to be things to do. It's not just sitting around bored. People look at these cartoons of clouds and angels playing harps and you know, some people today say, why would I want to be part of that? That looks so boring after the first couple of days of that. I mean, how long can you sit around on a cloud and play a harp before you get bored? I don't want to do that, someone might say.

But the truth of the matter is there's going to be things to do here. We're still going to be his servants and we're going to be serving him and we're not going to be bored or tired and we're not going to be dismal or rejected and we're not going to be watching the clock and you know, if you if you go to work and you have a job you don't like too much, maybe you know what I mean. If you're a student and you're in school, well, all your parents can sympathize with that cuz we were all there once also.

I can remember sitting at Drexel watching the clock thinking if this professor stops talking in the next 2 minutes, I can make it to the subway in time to catch the bus at 1:15. But if it goes longer than 4 minutes, then I'm stuck here for another half an hour because the bus only ran every half an hour. I just wanted to get out of there. We're not going to have that problem there. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city and his servants will serve him.

They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads in the new Jerusalem. We'll be able to see God's face face to face. We're actually going to have a face-to-face conversation with God Almighty. Unlike everything or anything we've ever experienced here on earth, no one ever had a face-to-face conversation with God in the Bible times. No one could see the face of God and live. Look, in Exodus 33 when God talking to Moses in verse 20 God said, but he said, you cannot see my face for no one may see me and live.

Then the Lord said, there is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen. Look, that was the closest anybody came to seeing God was seeing his back as he walked away. Moses there. But it seems we're going to be able to We're going to need better eyeballs because we're going to be able to see God face-to-face and I don't think our existing eyes could take in the glory.

If I had a guess why God doesn't let anyone see his face, I think it's because our eyeballs would explode or something. We wouldn't be able to to take in all that he has. It would overload our neural net as they say on Star Trek, you know. And we haven't seen God face-to-face. Nobody has. We know a lot about him from his word. And we know we know some things about him. In 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6 it says, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

And we have this in our hearts. Not seeing with our eyes, but seeing with our hearts. And he's given this light to our hearts and he's made it shine in us so that we can have this knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ because of what he did for us. And over in 1 Corinthians 13:12 another interesting verse that's kind of related. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror. Then we shall see face-to-face. Now I know in part. Then I shall know fully even as I am fully known.

Look, now we just know a little bit. Now we don't see it all. Now we you know, this is one reason why you have so many arguments between different groups of Christians because nobody can see it all perfectly. Even Calvin said a man can only be right in 80% of his theology, which always makes me wonder which of his five points he thought was wrong. Then we're going to be able to see him face-to-face. And that's what heaven's all about. People say today, you know, I don't want to have any part of that God. He's a mean old guy.

He's a God of the thou shalt not. He looks down on us from the sky saying, oh, they're having too much fun again down there. I better put a stop to it. Unbelievers look on Christians and say, why would we want to live like that? We'd have to stop drinking and stop partying and stop doing every other kind of sin that there is in the world. What it Why would we want to serve that kind of God? Well, this is the kind of God he is. He wants to see you face-to-face. He wants to have that face-to-face encounter.

He wants you to be there and to meet with him face-to-face and to live with him in his place forever. You can go and see him tomorrow, the next day, and every day, all the time, spend as much time there as you want. He'll have time forever. But everybody, how's he going to do that? How's he going to have time? Is it going to be like a long line waiting for God? I don't think so. How's it going to work with billions of people want to see him face-to-face? He has a way to deal with it.

It's we call it multitasking in the computer world. It's even better than that. It works somehow. He loves us. He died for us. He wants us to be in his presence. And not only are we going to be there with him in person, but the things that so often separate us from God here on earth are going to be done with and over with. The curse will be gone. Sin will be conquered. So I've heard people say, well, I'm just worried if I get to heaven, what if I sin? You can't sin in heaven. Well, what if I do?

What if I'm the only one who does? Are they going to kick me out? You can't do it. Just like if you flap your arms, you can't fly no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to fly. If you go out front and flap your arms and we come back an hour, you'll still be out there flapping. You will not have gained any altitude at all. In heaven you cannot sin. There is no sin there. The curse is gone. Sin is conquered. Satan is banished. So the distractions of this world are gone as well and his name it says will be on our foreheads.

They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. We belong to him. Everybody in heaven's going to have his name on their foreheads. Isn't that a little bit redundant? Well, that's what it that's what it says. Hey, we're going to be proud of that. I'm one of his. I'm a child of the King. Here's his name up here. And there's going to be no more night or darkness either in verse 5. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.

And they will reign forever and ever. And the light of his light, even the sun is artificial light. You know, when the sun goes down at night, we turn on the lights and we say, well, that's artificial light. The real light comes from the sun. That's a natural light. Artificial light, natural light. Well, compared to God, the sun is artificial light. And it's pretty dim comparison also. Compared to God, the sun is like probably a nightlight bulb what you have in your bathroom at night. Compared to his glory and his brilliance and that's why I say, you know, you need to have better eyeballs cuz even the very best Polaroid lenses, if you put them on and look at God, I think it's going to short circuit your your your brain because of the brightness.

You know, you can't look at the sun. You'll burn out your retina if you look at the sun for too long or some other thing in there. You can't do that. And imagine God being so bright and so brilliant. What would it do if we looked at him? These new bodies that we're going to have, they're going to be a lot different than the ones we have now. And there won't be able to be any more night because he gives light and he's always there. So there's always light. We won't need any lamps and we won't need the sun, the moon or the stars for that matter, for the Lord God is going to give all the light.

And they will reign forever and ever.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope from the Word. We're currently in Pastor Bill Lubkeman's Through the Bible series. If you'd like to hear this message again, you have several options. Visit our website at ccmarlton.org and download the Hope FM app to your smartphone or tablet or look for us wherever you find your podcasts. You can also request a CD copy by calling 856 983 1662. Again, that's 856 983 1662. If you've been thinking about visiting Calvary Chapel of Marlton where Bill serves as pastor, we'd love to have you. Our service times are on Sunday mornings at 10.

We also meet midweek on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. You can also live stream from home when you visit our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton. For more information, go to ccmarlton.org. We hope to see you soon. Before the day is done, we'd like to connect with you, share a praise report, prayer request, or what you're learning from this series. You can easily email us from our website ccmarlton.org or just call us at 856 983 1662. There's more to come from Bill's Through the Bible series and we'll have that for you next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Lubkeman.

This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.