"Heaven Must Be a Beautiful Place"

“Heaven Must Be”

The late Wille Banks of the Messengers wrote a song entitled “Heaven Must Be a Beautiful Place” that describes the eternal destination for the redeemed of the Lord. Wille says this place is “filled with nothing but my Jesus’ grace.” He went on to say that he was on his way home, and asked the listener did they want to go. He said his mother and father are both gone, and he was just a poor little child left all alone. Today, family a husband, children, siblings, grandkids, nieces, nephews, and friends experience loss, but live in the hope that she made it home. The question left by her for those who remain is “don’t you want to go?” Though the song is decades old, it left a poignant and powerful question that still need answering today, do you want to go.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

John, the Beloved disciple, one of the “inner circle,” the disciple Jesus left his mother to, and the one Peter inquired about at Jesus’ appearance is exiled to the isle of Patmos to live out his days until he makes it home. He wrote the gospel and epistles that bears his name, and the apocalyptic book properly entitled “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” John received this vision in the spirit on the Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:9-11). It is an eschatological book in nature, yet it provides comfort and hope for Christians knowing God will make all things right. The chief theme of the Apocalypse is not what God in Christ has done for the world, but what He will yet do, and what the assured consummation will be. It is therefore the Gospel of faith and hope, and seeks to inspire the churches anew in these; respects; for that the end is nigh. As it sets forth its theme, it instructs, though incidentally, and its teaching is always fresh, and in some respects unique.

Chapters 21-22 become a final hortatory challenge. The considerable beauty of the new Jerusalem is outlined at some length. However, these beauties pale before the relational promises and magnificence of the vision of God himself. The vision emphasizes again the importance of having one’s name in the Lamb’s book of Life.

Prepared for Presentation

Revelation 21:1–2 ESV

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.

John, the Beloved Disciple writes in his Gospel....

John 14:2 ESV

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

The word hetoimazo, meaning prepare or make ready calls to mind the promise of the Lord to his disciples. The perfect passive participle indicates that this place, having been prepared, now descends, looking like a bride prepared for her husband. Another perfect passive participle coming from the word kosmeo, meaning “adorn” and from which have evolved the English words “cosmos” and “cosmetics,” references the way which this heavenly city was adorned. The reference to the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband captures the awe of the moment of the presentation of a bride to a groom. In addition to the beauty of the bride, there is the anticipatory union that is about to take place in the midst of the general excitement of all who are a part of the moment. “God uses situations in our live to makes us wedding ready.”

Prepared for His Presence

Revelation 21:3 ESV

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

God desired relationship with man, hence, creating a paradise for Adam to dwell in with God. Sin enters and wrecks the relationship between God and man, leading him to exile man from paradise, and his presence. Eschatology presents the eternal hope that creation will reunite with God’s presence. The Holy Spirit dwells in man, but here John the Beloved hears the voice say essentially God declaring his place is with God and man’s place is with him. The word “dwelling” is skene, in Greek, which carries the sense of tent or tabernacle. It is used in its verbal form in the latter part of the clause when skenoo, which literally means “live in a tent,” is employed. This choice of verbiage, referencing a tent rather than a colossal structure like the temple may have seemed strange to John’s readers. However, the tabernacle, or the tent in the wilderness, was not only the model for the temple when Solomon finally constructed such but also was a sign to all Israel that God dwelt among them. The shekinah glory of God that winged its way into the tent when it was dedicated was a sign of the presence of God dwelling within the holy of holies in that tent. Furthermore, if all the other deities imagined by the human family had residences and permanent dwelling places and therefore were lords only of given geographical areas, the God of Israel was the omnipresent God who moved with his people wherever they went.

Here in John’s vision, God declares his tabernacle is with men and that he dwells among them has in one sense been true for the history of the human family. For Adam and Eve, prior to their sin, the voice of the Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day Gen 3:8

Genesis 3:8 ESV

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

The Spirit of God came upon men in the Old Testament and permanently indwelled believers in the New Testament. And the doctrine of the omnipresence of God is well known throughout holy Scripture. But there is clearly some sense in which the book of Revelation now declares that God dwells uniquely among men. John made several observations concerning God’s presence among his people...

Prepare for a Peaceful Place

Revelation 21:4 ESV

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.”

The place is peaceful because God’s presence emanates the new heaven and new earth. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be abolished. Since there will be no more death, then, there will be no more mourning or crying. There will be no more pain, and the former things will have passed away. The doctrines of the omnipresence of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit throughout the history of the church have been doctrines of great comfort and an assurance of the providences of God. But the heart longs for the opportunity to walk visibly with Christ as was the privilege of the first-century apostle. “God is Spirit,” and they that worship him “must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24). It is not clear whether a simple visual but rather a unique sense of God’s presence transcending anything that redeemed humans have ever experienced.

For God to be so knowingly present obscures even the beauty of the new Jerusalem and of the bride, for in this case the Bridegroom is more breathtaking. Specifically, he is known by his actions. First, every tear is wiped from their eyes. Of course, tears come for reasons other than sadness. What seems to be in view here is that every tear of sadness is wiped from the eyes of God’s people. One of the reasons men weep is the cold cruelty of the hideous triumph of death in the human family. Even for believers, who do not “grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope” (1 Thess 4:13), the sense of separation felt at the loss of a saved loved one is still profound. When death comes, those precious ones are no longer present and the absence of their presence induces an unquenchable loneliness. This hurt will be abolished. As a result, no more people are found mourning with hearts broken and lives shattered. Neither will there be any further agonizing pain. People who have never experienced the excruciating pain sometimes endured by the human body and who have been unable to find relief from such suffering cannot adequately appreciate this promise. But before death comes, most do reach the point of experiencing serious discomfort. And then the final phrase stresses that the things associated with weeping, pain, agony, and death shall all pass away, and God’s presence will make all new and fresh.