What Will We Do In Heaven?

What Will We Do in Heaven?

Revelation 22:1-5

Sunday, September 6, 2026 • First Baptist Church of Blairsville • ESV

INTRODUCTION

What a privilege now to take you to the book of Revelation, chapter 22. It's the last book in your Bible. Look at Revelation, chapter 22, verses 1 through 5. I want to ask you a question: what will we do in Heaven?

In fact, I wonder, what do you think about when you think of Heaven? For some people, when they hear the word Heaven and think about being there, their thoughts immediately go to people on clouds, wearing white robes and plucking a harp, singing for all eternity. And they think, that sounds boring. How long can you do that? That just doesn't sound like it's fun at all.

That's a popular misconception about Heaven. In his book Heaven, Randy Alcorn, and I would recommend the book if you'd like to dig deeper into this topic, talks about how this idea of Heaven being boring has entered pop culture. He mentions that the Star Trek: Voyager series had an episode with the Q Continuum. This is a group of beings who are immortal, and one of them wants to die.

When he's asked why he would want to die when he has immortality, he basically replies that everything that can be said and done has already been said and done. It's just repetition, and he would rather not be here. Maybe that's your thought. Maybe you think Heaven is boring.

The science fiction writer Isaac Asimov did not believe in an afterlife. He said, “I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.” Can you imagine that? He thinks Heaven is so boring he would rather go to hell.

C.S. Lewis pinpointed the problem with that conception. He says we have treated Heaven like a little schoolchild making mud pies in a slum, who would rather do that than take a holiday at the beach, because we just don't realize what awaits us. So we content ourselves with making mud pies, as if that's all there is.

If your concept of Heaven is boring, then you need to go back to the Scriptures and see what God says about it, because it is anything but boring. And rather than talking about this from the book of opinions, or pooling our ignorance in speculation, we have God's revelation, we have the Bible, God's Word, and we have the promises of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So here at the beginning of this message, I want to go ahead and give you the bottom line. Often people think Heaven is just escaping life. But Heaven is not escaping life.

BOTTOM LINE

Heaven is the beginning of life as God always intended it to be.

Because we have lived in this fallen world, we sometimes just can't fathom what God is up to. But He is up to something wonderful. In Revelation chapter 22, the Apostle John has been given this revelation, this unveiling of the Lord Jesus and what He's going to do when He returns the second time. In chapter 22 we read these words. I'm reading from the English Standard Version, Revelation 22:1.

Revelation 22:1–5 ESV

1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 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. 3 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. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 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.

May God bless the reading of His holy Word.

FROM EDEN TO THE NEW CREATION

Previously in chapter 21 the angel had given John the Apostle a glimpse of the new heavens and the new earth that God will one day bring into existence, the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God, adorned as a bride for her husband. God will be with them, and they will be with God. Now, in chapter 22, he goes a little deeper into the new heavens and the new earth. And what did he notice? Did you catch it? He saw a river, and he saw a tree bearing fruit every month. And he saw that there is no more curse.

God is taking humanity back to where it should have been before sin broke God's good world. We're reading Revelation 22, but if you know your Bible, go back to the first book, Genesis, chapter two. You see God creating the Garden of Eden, and in that garden He places His creation, Adam and Eve. He says, I want you to tend this garden. And what was there in the Garden of Eden? The Bible says a river ran through it. The Bible says in the midst of it there was the Tree of Life. The Bible says there was unhindered fellowship between God and Adam and Eve, that God would walk with them in the cool of the day, nothing between them.

But we get to Genesis chapter three, and we see that Eve was deceived by the serpent. Adam disobeyed God with his eyes wide open, and sin came into our world, sin, which means to rebel against God. And because of sin, it was like a grenade of spiritual destruction. It severed Adam and Eve's relationship with God. It severed their relationship with each other. They started the blame game. Adam says, it's that woman You gave me. You see the first marital conflict right there in the Garden of Eden.

You read from Genesis 3 on through the rest of your Bible, and you see the outworking of sin and destruction and death and rebellion that has come into our world. But as you keep reading your Bible, even in Genesis chapter three, you see God promising that one day He will send One to be born who will destroy Satan and redeem God's people. The whole Old Testament is the foreshadowing of Messiah, God's King of Kings and Lord of Lords, coming. We know His name as Jesus of Nazareth.

And what did Jesus do? He came into the world as Emmanuel, God with us. He came into the world not only as the Son of God, but in real humanity, the Son of Man. He lived a perfect, righteous life where we have lived sinful lives. He went to a bloody cross, and He took the curse of sin upon His own body. On the cross He died your death and mine. He took your punishment and my punishment. And He rose from the dead three days later to prove that He is the Son of God. He can forgive sin. He can restore us to a right relationship with God the Father. And the Bible says in Romans, chapter 8, verse 1, when you have placed your faith in Christ, there is therefore now no condemnation.

So we're right with God, but we're still living in a world that has gone wrong, a world that is broken, a world that is struggling with sin, sickness, and sorrow. All through Jesus's earthly ministry, He performed miracles and preached messages to give us a glimpse of what His kingdom will be like when it fully comes. Jesus didn't simply heal the sick, feed the hungry, love the outcast, calm the storms, subdue demonic forces, and raise the dead just to put on a show. Those were the business cards of the Messiah, validating that He is who He says He is. But those miracles were little foretastes of glory divine, of what it will look like when His kingdom fully comes. No more sickness, no more sorrow, no more death, no more pain, no more tears. Revelation chapter 21-22 is what that's going to look like.

So what will we do in Heaven? John would have us know four realities.

I. WE WILL BE WITH GOD

We will be with God. Did you hear that? In verse three he says, “the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it.” The throne of God, where God sits, where God rules and reigns. The throne of God and of the Lamb, that's Jesus, the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world, the Lord Jesus, whom John the Baptist called out before His baptism: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it. And did you catch verse 5? “The Lord God will be their light.” You won't need lights. You won't need the sun or the moon, because we have the glory of God, and that will be the light for us.

The central reality of Heaven is not the streets of gold or the pearly gates. The central reality is that Heaven is not so much a place as it is a Person. We get to be with God. No more separation.

When sin came into the world, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, because in their fallen condition, if they had eaten of the Tree of Life, they would have been eternally in that condition. So God banishes them, out of grace, from the Garden of Eden. It is paradise lost. But Jesus came to bring us back.

You catch glimpses of God wanting to be with His people, and His people to be with Him, even in the Old Testament. Do you remember, as Moses led the people of Israel through the wilderness wanderings, that God instructed them to build a tabernacle? He spelled out in explicit detail how this tabernacle was to be built, how it was to be set up, how it was to be used, the furnishings, and who could approach and who couldn't. Later, that became the temple in Jerusalem.

In that temple, and even in the tabernacle, there were layers. And the further in you went, the fewer people could go, because you were approaching a holy God. There were the outer courts, the inner courts, then the Holy Place, and then there was a veil, a massive veil that separated the Holy Place from what was on the other side of that veil: the Holy of Holies, the holiest place, where the Ark of the Covenant was, where God would uniquely manifest Himself in His glory, His power, and His presence. And only one person could go back there, the high priest of Israel. And even he could only go once a year, on the Day of Atonement.

And then Jesus comes. You remember John 1:1 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And in John 1:14 “14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” God literally tabernacled, among us. God was coming near His people.

But even now that we're saved as followers of Jesus, we still feel a distance, don't we? We know we're right with God. We know we have a personal relationship with God, but we still feel a distance. We pray, and we know we're praying by faith, not by sight. We trust the Bible, and it's living by faith and not by sight. And even a good Christian, can I be honest with you, even a pastor can at times know that he's saved, but God can feel distant.

Or is it just me? Am I the only one who sometimes reads the Bible and just thinks, okay, I don't know if I got anything out of this today? You ask of your prayers, did they get past the ceiling? Your struggles, God, I'm feeling alone here, I don't know what to do.

And in those moments, we're living by faith. But the Bible tells us there is coming a day when we will be with God for eternity, and there's nothing between us. It's amen. It's based on His grace, not my goodness. Every world religion says climb your way to God. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is not that you have to work your way to Heaven. Heaven comes down to man. We will be with God.

It was in 2017, I was pastoring Fort Caroline Baptist Church in Jacksonville. Our church was about seven miles from Mayport Naval Station, so we had a lot of military in our church. We also had a lot of Coasties, Coast Guard folks, and a lot of Marines. It was just an honor to pastor those dear people. My dear friend John Schultz was our preschool and children's director. He was a Master Chief in the Navy. He could get those kids in line. He was great with our kids.

But in 2017, I got invited by a church family to come on base to welcome their sailor home, who was also a member of our church. I said I'd be thrilled to come. So they got me on base. We stood there at the pier, we watched, and we waited with a couple hundred other people for the USS Philippine Sea to arrive. And when people saw it coming, you could just feel the excitement in the air. Then when the gangway came down and sailors started disembarking, you could hear the excitement as people started cheering when they saw their sailor coming down the gangway.

We were holding signs: “Welcome home. We missed you.” There were moms there, wives, dads, grandparents, little children. One family had a little infant who had been born, and dad had not yet seen this infant in person.

It was an exciting time, but not a single one of those people was excited because they hoped they were bringing home some trinket or souvenir from some faraway place. They were excited because their person was coming. Can I tell you, I love what the Bible teaches about Heaven, and streets of gold, and all the rest, but that's not what makes Heaven Heaven. What makes Heaven Heaven is we get to be with God. He's the prize.

In Psalm 16:11, David said, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” St. Augustine famously prayed, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

What will we do? We will be with God.

II. WE WILL SEE GOD

Secondly, what will we do? We will see God. Verse four was very explicit: “They will see his face.” And you say, whoa, can that be true? Because all throughout Scripture, we are told that sinners like us cannot stand bare before the unveiled presence of a holy God. We can't stand the glory of His presence. Moses even asked God, “Show me your glory.” And God said to Moses, “You cannot behold my glory. No man can behold my unveiled glory and live.”

Maybe that's where Steven Spielberg got the idea for Raiders of the Lost Ark, when you look, your face melts. I don't know if that's exactly how it would work. But God says, you can't live and see My unveiled glory.

I was invited by a church member who was a supervisor at the power plant there in Jacksonville. As you're approaching the Dames Point Bridge, you used to see these, I don't know if it was two or three towers, and people thought they were nuclear power plants. They weren't. They were coal burning. He took me into the bowels of that energy plant. We put on protective gear. He walked me across a gangplank, and then he said, Pastor, I want you to walk up, and I'm going to move a little metal plate and slide it up, and you're going to look with your protective gear, and then I'll slide it back down. He was showing me the inner workings of that coal fired power plant. And when he did, it was like looking into hell. And between me and what was on the other side of that was massive steel, thick glass, and protective gear. I couldn't stand there on my own with nothing between.

And yet, when we get to Revelation chapter 22, how is it that we can stand in the presence of God and see Him? First Peter 1:8: the Apostle Peter said we live by faith this side of Heaven. He says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him.” That's the Christian faith, isn't it? None of us in this room have seen Jesus with our physical eyes. None of us have handled Him with our hands of flesh. None of us have heard Him audibly with our ears. We live not by sight, but by faith.

The gospel is based on the eyewitness testimony of those who saw and heard and handled. That's why the Apostle John would say in John 1:14, “And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” That's why he would write in his first epistle, called First John, that we have handled the word of life. He says, we were there with Jesus. We touched Him, we ate with Him. We watched Him perform miracles. We heard His messages. We saw Him crucified. We encountered Him risen from the dead, even when we weren't looking for Him.

And when Thomas finally saw Jesus alive from the dead, he fell on his knees before Jesus and said, “My Lord and my God.” And Jesus said to Thomas, “Blessed are you, Thomas. But you know who's really blessed? Those who haven't seen Me, and yet believe.” He was talking about you. He was talking about me. But the day will come when we will see Him face to face. Our faith will give way to sight.

The Jesus who spoke the world into existence. The Jesus who was born of the virgin Mary, contracting Himself to the span of a virgin's womb. The Jesus who lived a perfect life, who grew up, walked on water, turned water into wine, fed thousands of people with a little lad's lunch. The same Jesus who spoke and the storms stilled, spoke and the dead rose from their graves. The same Jesus who went to a bloody cross and cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” quoting Psalm 22:1. The same Jesus who cried out, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” and having breathed His last, dismissed His spirit, dying not as a victim but as a volunteer. The same Jesus who was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. The same Jesus who walked out of that tomb three days later, alive. The same Jesus who appeared to His disciples over a period of forty days, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening, sometimes at lunch, sometimes over breakfast, sometimes to one, sometimes to five hundred at one time. The same Jesus they watched go back physically up into Heaven, passing through the clouds. And the same One of whom the angel said, this same Jesus you've seen go will come in like manner. This same Jesus who sits at the right hand of God the Father, still bearing the nail prints of Calvary in His own body. This same Jesus is coming back for His people one day, and we will see Him as He is.

The Jesus I've preached about all my life. The same Jesus I've pointed other people to. The same Jesus that I've said, put your trust in Him, He'll never leave you, He'll never forsake you. He will be the One we see. Right now, we see through a glass dimly. The Apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians 13:12 that one day we will see Him. The Apostle John said in 1 John 3:2, “We know that when Jesus appears, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.”

When we were expecting our first child, Donna, my wife, she's sitting over there, she had the hardest part of all that (lol). I would go with her to the doctor's appointments. I remember the first sonogram, and I don't know how many more they did after that, but I remember that one.

And I'm just going to give a word of confession as your pastor. Prior to us having children, it was not uncommon for church members to say, “Pastor, we're expecting, here's the sonogram picture.” And I would look at it and say, “Oh my goodness, that's amazing.” But inside I'm thinking, what is that? I think there's something wrong with their camera. Are you sure? Sometimes I'm out of ink, but I think they got too much ink, this is just black with some white, I don't know what I'm looking at. I never said that, but I was thinking it. It's like when you go to the hospital and see a newborn baby and they're all red and wrinkly. And as a pastor, you're not supposed to lie, so you don't want to say, “What a beautiful baby.” You don't say that. You just say, “Oh, that's a baby.”

So I could never make heads or tails out of those sonogram pictures until Donna was expecting our first child, Joshua. I remember looking at one of those sonogram pictures, and it helped that I was in the room when they were taking the pictures, and the technician could point things out, measurements, here's this and here's that. That did help a lot. But I remember the time we saw his face. I've always been pro-life because I have common sense. I believe in the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception to natural birth. But I couldn't be anything but pro-life after having seen that sonogram. I saw his face, but it was still black and white on a little piece of paper. I do remember when he was born, and they placed him on Donna's chest. And I walked over and I looked. I recognized him because I had seen that face.

And I'm going to tell you this: one day, when we're together in Heaven, and you've only heard sermons about Jesus, and you've only read Scriptures about Jesus, and you've only sung songs about Jesus, but you've believed in Him and you've loved Him, you're going to recognize Him. You're going to say, “I know Him. That's my Savior right there.” We will see Him.

So what will we do in Heaven? We'll be with God. We'll see God.

III. WE WILL SERVE AND WORSHIP GOD

Number three, we will serve and worship God. Did you catch that phrase in verse 3? “His servants will worship him.” That's an interesting turn of phrase, because the word worship in the Greek literally carries the idea of an act of service, a ministry, an act of devotion. So God's servants will worship Him through serving Him, and their serving Him is an act of worship. It's not one or the other. It goes hand in hand.

God created us for a purpose. When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden, He said, tend it, have dominion over it. You remember that. Sometimes people mistakenly think, “The reason I have to work is because Adam and Eve sinned.” No, no, no. Work preceded the fall in the Garden of Eden.

Remember, when God created Adam before He created Eve, He delegated to Adam the responsibility of naming the animals. I wonder why God did that. I think one reason God said, “Adam, why don't you name them?” is because God knew men are slow. Sometimes it just takes us a little bit to figure things out. And Adam is naming all these animals, and he notices that for Mr. Cow, there's a Mrs. Cow. And don't ever call anybody Mrs. Cow. For Mr. Blue Jay, there's a Mrs. Blue Jay. But it finally dawned on him, I don't know how long it took Adam, but it finally dawned on him: there's no one here like me.

And that's what God wanted him to know, because God says, “It is not good that man should be alone.” So He created a helper fitting for Adam and brought her to the man. So if you're lonely, be careful of that country song, don't go looking for love in all the wrong places. Just look to God and trust Him, whatever He wants.

I think the second reason, probably the most important reason, God gave Adam that task of naming the animals, was because, as Creator, it was God's divine prerogative to name His creation. But He delegates that to Adam: Adam, I want you to represent Me here, do things like I would do them. It was God's way of saying, I'm putting you in charge, reflect My glory and My dominion through your life.

Work is not a curse. It was the fact that we have to toil, the sweat of our brow, the thorns and thistles that make it so hard, that's a part of the curse. But work is a good thing. The New Testament says, if you're not willing to work, you probably won't eat. Work's a good thing. But even with the best boss, work is still work, isn't it? It can be tedious, it can be frustrating. You feel like you take three steps forward sometimes and two steps back.

By the time you think you got your staffing structure right, something changes, and it's all up in the air again. About the time you think you got a good employee, something goes wrong. You go to work and you think, “What a jerk.” And please, I hope none of my staff say amen to that. So you think, man, I would love this job if it wasn't for him, if it wasn't for her. You work for a corporation that sometimes treats you like a number, a disposable commodity, and you can become discouraged. That's a part of the curse we suffer down here. But work is a good thing. And God is not going to have a bunch of lazy bodies up in Heaven floating around on clouds, doing nothing. He created us to find purpose, to glorify Him.

Do you remember the movie Chariots of Fire? There's a line given to the character based on a real person, Eric Liddell, a Christian who was running. He said, “When I run, I feel His pleasure.”

You say, what does that have to do with my work? Friend, don't think it only counts if you're the pastor, the one God says, “That's really important,” or the musician on a Sunday morning, “That's the real spiritual work right there.” Whatever He has gifted you to do, whatever skills, talents, opportunities, responsibilities He has placed in your hands, you are to offer it back to Him as an act of worship. And like Eric Liddell, when I do this, I sense His pleasure. When you’re a good mom, taking care of children and changing diapers, you feel His pleasure. When I'm an employer, taking care of my company, leading with integrity, taking care of my people, I feel God's pleasure. When I go to school and take my test, if I do it to the best of my ability, I feel His pleasure. Because it's an act of worship.

And we should do it not out of duty or drudgery, but out of devotion to God, who has given us life and given us this opportunity. Remember, in Romans 12:1, the Apostle Paul had spent eleven chapters on the sovereign grace of God and how He saves us from the penalty of our sin through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jew or Gentile, slave or free, there's only one way, and that's through Jesus. And then he shifts gears. He changes from talking about doctrine to deportment. He goes from talking about belief to behavior in chapter 12. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies,” everything you do, “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship.”

Don't you know that serving and worship aren't two different things, when we do what we do for the glory of God? It was the Apostle Paul who wrote in First Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

We will be with God. We will see God. We will worship and serve God for all eternity, not out of drudgery, but out of devotion.

IV. WE WILL REIGN WITH GOD

And number four, and we're going to close with this: we will reign with God. We will reign with God. Did you hear that last phrase of verse five? “And they will reign forever and ever.” You say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out. Don't you mean Jesus will reign forever and ever? Yes, He will reign forever and ever. But the Word of God says that His people, that they will reign forever and ever.

You remember how the story began in the Garden of Eden? Rule over it. Subdue My creation. Show how I would do things if I were down here doing them. I delegate this responsibility to you. Rule over the earth. Sin may have effaced God's purpose, but it didn't erase it. And the day will come when we will rule and reign with Christ.

2 Timothy 2:12 “12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;”

Revelation 3:21 “21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

You say, whoa, what does that mean? We are out of time, but if after the service you'll talk to Pastor John Dixon, he would be thrilled to explain all of that (lol). There's no way our finite mind can understand what it means to reign with Christ.

In my limited understanding, I'm just going to give you this. I believe the new heavens and the new earth, when Christ rules and reigns in righteousness for all eternity, and He has made all wrong right, will be the fulfillment of the prayer He taught us to pray. Remember, the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples to pray.” And Jesus said, “When you pray, therefore, pray in this manner: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Here it is, listen, He taught us to pray like this: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

That prayer will be answered in the new heavens and the new earth. It's not about Ricky's kingdom. It's not about the Southern Baptist Convention's kingdom. It's not about the Catholic kingdom. It's not about your kingdom. It is about His righteous kingdom coming, where Christ rules and reigns in righteousness over all the universe. And we, as His children, we as His followers, are joint heirs with Christ, and we rule and reign with Him.

He says, hey, I'm going to give you a job to serve with Me. Now humanity won't be in competition against God. Now we serve at His pleasure and for His glory. Now we serve in unity with Him. The difference between Adam and Eve is they lived in untested holiness, and they sinned. We, in the new heavens and the new earth, will be redeemed children of God, set free from the penalty of sin, set free from the power of sin, and eternally set free from the presence of sin. And now we get to live in His kingdom in its fullness.

CONCLUSION

What do we do in the meantime? In the meantime, we keep our eyes on Jesus. That's the reason God gave the book of Revelation to the first century church, and to us. When things get bad, keep your eyes on Jesus.

The late Dr. John Phillips was a great Bible expositor. Many of us heard him at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, or Bellevue Baptist in Memphis, Tennessee. He would preach at the pastors' conferences. He has several commentaries out. I always enjoyed hearing him. One time I heard him preach in Jacksonville, and he said, “I love to read mystery novels.” And he said it's okay for a pastor to read a mystery novel every now and then. “I love a good whodunit. But sometimes I've just learned that if I get my mystery novel and go ahead and read the last chapter, I can figure out who done it. Then I can go back to the front and just keep my eye on him all the way through the story.” And I thought, that's exactly what the Christian needs to do.

Friend, I've read the last book of the Bible. I've read the last chapter. I know how the story ends. I know who done it, for our good. His name is Jesus. So in this chapter of our lives, let's just keep our eyes on Him. Let's pray together.