Life In The City

Revelation 21:6 “And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.”

And now he sees this fountain… this river of life…

This river is unlike anything we know here on earth.

It is not fed by rain.

It does not depend on streams or springs.

Notice how he describes it.

Pure.

Clear as crystal.

Nothing pollutes it.

Nothing contaminates it.

Nothing corrupts it.

And notice where it comes from:

“proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

That is important…

The source of the river is God Himself.

Throughout Scripture, water is often used as a picture of life.

Psalm 46:4 NKJV

4 There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.

We understand how important water is when suddenly we do not have it.

Turn on the faucet one morning and nothing comes out…

and suddenly you realize how much of ordinary life depends upon water.

We drink it.

We cook with it.

We clean with it.

We grow food with it.

We cannot live without it.

And John sees a river called:

“the water of life.”

And that river pictures the endless life that comes from God…

Every breath we take now comes from Him.

Every heartbeat comes from Him.

Every good thing comes from Him.

But in eternity there will never again be any interruption to that life.

No sickness.

No decay.

No death.

Just a perfect Life… without end… …

John goes on to say that he sees…

1.2 The Tree of Life

v.2

Revelation 22:2 “In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life…

Now that should immediately take us back to the beginning of the Bible.

The Book of Genesis.

The Garden of Eden.

Before sin entered the world, the tree of life was there.

But then man sinned.

Adam and Eve rebelled against God.

Sin and death entered the world.

And man was driven from the garden.

Genesis 3:24 NKJV

24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Access was lost!

But as we come all the way to the final chapter of the Bible…

What do we find?

The tree of life is there again.

What was lost in Genesis is restored in Revelation.

But we need to understand…

Man did not find his own way back.

We did not fix what we broke.

We did not earn our way back into the garden.

God redeemed us.

He restored us.

And He brought us home.

Scripture begins with paradise lost.

But it ends with paradise restored.

I believe that what John describes in the latter half of v.2 is…

1.3 Life in Abundance

Speaking of the tree of life, he says…

… which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month…

The picture is abundance.

Continual provision.

Nothing barren.

Nothing dying.

Nothing running out.

He goes on to say…

… The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

Now, do not read that and think there will be sickness in eternity that needs to be treated.

We already know from earlier in this study that sickness and death are gone.

The picture is one of complete wholeness.

Perfect life.

Perfect health.

Perfect restoration.

Nothing missing.

Nothing broken.

Nothing deteriorating.

As has been said several times throughout this study…

Everything here eventually runs down.

Our bodies run down.

Our possessions wear out.

Our strength fades.

But not in our heavenly home.

Life will not slowly drain away.

Life will flow forever from the throne of God.

And John tells us how he knows that life will be endless… because he can see that…

2. The Curse is Gone

v.3…

Revelation 22:3 “And there shall be no more curse,

Just three little words…

But think about everything contained in them.

No more curse…

John is getting us to think about…

2.1 What Sin Produced

Again, think back to Genesis…

God created everything good.

There was no death.

No disease.

No pain.

No shame.

No fear.

No separation.

Man enjoyed fellowship with God.

But then sin entered.

And with sin came the curse.

Genesis 3 tells us what followed.

Pain.

Struggle.

Thorns.

Sweat.

Broken relationships.

And ultimately…

death.

Romans 8 tells us that the whole creation groans under the effects of sin.

We see it everywhere.

hospitals.

cemeteries.

broken homes.

We see it in war.

disease.

our own bodies.

We even see it in our own hearts.

Everything is not as it should be.

Why?

Because sin entered the world.

And sin brought the curse… …

But Then… … Jesus came!

When we think about what sin produced… we cannot help but acknowledge…

2.2 What Christ Redeemed

He went to the cross.

He bore our sin.

He took our judgment.

He died.

He rose again.

And because of what Christ has done, the curse will not have the final word.

Paul tells the Galatian believers…

Galatians 3:13 NKJV

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us…

And John says… “…there shall be no more curse.”

Sin may have entered God's creation…

but it does not get the last word…

God does!

And God's final word is restoration.

God's final word is life.

God's final word is:

“Behold, I make all things new.”

But the greatest thing about the city is not the river.

It is not the tree.

It is not the absence of the curse.

As I’ve stated over and over again… The greatest thing about Heaven is God Himself.

And John sees…

3. The Savior

v.3 continues…

… but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.”

And then v.4 starts with 5 words, to describe what we’ve been longing for…

Revelation 22:4 “They shall see His face…

When we get heaven, we will see…

3.1 His Face

In its full glory…

Going back to the story of Moses and his request to see God’s glory…

God told Moses that he could not see His face and live.

God allowed Moses only a limited glimpse of His glory.

Why?

Because sinful man cannot stand before the unveiled holiness of God.

But John says:

“They shall see His face.”

What changed?

We did!

God has redeemed us.

God has glorified us.

Sin is gone.

And now His people can stand in His presence.

Yes, We are going to a beautiful place…

but more importantly… we are going to a Person.

We will see our Savior.

The One who loved us.

The One who died for us.

The One who rose for us.

The One who kept us.

The One who brought us home.

And we will see His face.

Face to face- oh, blissful moment!

Face to face- to see and know;

Face to face with my Redeemer,

Jesus Christ who loves me so.

But its not just the Father’s face that John mentions… He also mentions…

3.2 His Name

v.4 continues…

“…and His name shall be on their foreheads.”

That speaks of belonging.

Ownership.

Identity.

We are His.

In this world, people spend their lives trying to figure out who they are.

They look for identity in…

careers.

Relationships.

Money.

Success.

Appearance.

But in eternity there will be no confusion about who we are.

We belong to Him.

His name is upon us.

We are His people.

Redeemed by His blood.

Kept by His power.

Brought safely home by His grace.

And nothing will ever change that…

When we are finally in the presence of the Father, we will immediately experience…

3.3 Unbroken Fellowship

Right now, even as believers, our fellowship with God is not everything we want it to be.

We get distracted.

We struggle.

We sin.

We grow tired.

Sometimes we pray and our minds wander.

Sometimes we read Scripture and struggle to concentrate.

Yes, we know God is near, by faith… but we long to see Him… we long for that unbroken fellowship…

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12

1 Corinthians 13:12 NASB95

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

That day is coming.

No distance.

No distraction.

No sin getting in the way.

No veil.

No interruption.

This is what David was longing for when he wrote…

Psalm 17:15 NASB95

As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.

This is what the Apostle Paul was longing for when he wrote…

1 Thessalonians 4:17 NKJV

… And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Perfect, unhindered fellowship, with our Savior…

Not for an hour.

Not for a day.

Not until something interrupts it.

… Forever.

Now let me give you one more important point…

The last thing that John sees from our passage today… is…

4. Our Service

I’ve told you before that our time in heaven is not going to be spent bouncing from cloud to cloud playing harps…

John said at the end of v.3…

Revelation 22:3 “…His servants shall serve Him.”

and then in v.5…

Revelation 22:5 “There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light…”

We covered that last week… but look at what he says next…

“…And they shall reign forever and ever.”

Listen… our eternal service is…

4.1 Meaningful

We were created to serve God.

But sin has corrupted that service.

Now…

we get tired.

We get frustrated.

We get discouraged.

Sometimes we fail.

Sometimes we serve with mixed motives.

Sometimes we want recognition.

Sometimes we get upset when nobody notices.

But imagine serving God with none of that.

Perfect motives.

Perfect joy.

Perfect strength.

Everything we do will honor Him.

We will finally serve God exactly as He deserves to be served.

4.2 Reigning with Christ

Think about that.

God does not just save us so we can survive eternity.

We reign with Christ!

Exactly what all of that will involve, Scripture doesn’t tell us…

So I’m not going to speculate…

But I do know that…

There will be purpose.

There will be responsibility.

There will be meaningful activity.

And whatever God gives us to do…

… we will do it perfectly.

No retirement from serving God.

No exhaustion.

No burnout.

No boredom.

We will be exactly where we were created to be…

doing exactly what we were created to do…

in the presence of the One who created and redeemed us.

Closing:

This is life in the city God built.

And notice again what is at the center of everything.

God.

The river comes from His throne.

The curse is gone because of His redemption.

His servants serve Him.

His people see His face.

His name is upon them.

His light fills the city.

And His people reign with Him forever.

That, my brothers and sisters… is Heaven.

(Just read the verse, not the reference)

Revelation 22:17 NKJV

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.

“…let him take the water of life freely.”

You cannot buy it.

You cannot earn it.

You certainly don’t deserve it.

You just come to Christ.

You trust in what He did for you at the cross.

You receive the life only He can give.

And one day…

those who have repented of their sin and placed their faith in Jesus Christ…

will stand beside that river of life…

in the city God built…

with the curse gone forever…

looking upon the face of the Savior who redeemed them…

Serving and reigning with Him… for all eternity…

And that, my dear church family, is why we are longing for Heaven.

Prayer:

we don’t have to wait for heaven to serve

we don’t have to wait for heaven to have fellowship

Help us to live today, as citizens of Heaven…

with our hearts set on things above,

our eyes fixed on Christ,

and our lives faithfully serving You,

… until the day we see our Savior face to face.

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