Sermon Tone Analysis

Eternal Life

What will eternity be like?

We have virtually no idea.

What we see in – the final statement in Scripture about eternity to come – gives us no details at all.

But while we don’t have any details about what we will do for eternity, the Lord does give us a clear understanding of the nature and character of eternal life.

Word pictures in

We’ve seen that the book of Revelation is filled with visions and metaphors, or word pictures.

That continued in , where we saw that the church is described with two tremendous images:

The Bride of Christ

The Holy City

The Bride of Christ is a word picture that describes our relationship with Jesus Christ throughout eternity.

We are not slaves, or mere subjects, or even citizens.

We are beloved, precious, valued, redeemed, made glorious by His work.

The Holy City is a picture of the people of God, and their perfect, holy relationship to one another.

There is no division between Old Testament Jews and New Testament Christians.

They are one, holy, peaceful, perfectly harmonious people.

Word Pictures in

contains four more word pictures that describe the nature of eternal life.

There are four more word pictures in Revelation 22:1-5.

The River of the Water of Life

The Tree of Life

The Face of God

The Name of God written on foreheads

As we saw in , this is John’s final vision of the book.

Everything that we read here is in the context, or setting, of that vision.

The Bride of Christ is a word picture that describes our relationship with Jesus Christ throughout eternity.

We are not slaves, or mere subjects, or even citizens.

We are beloved, precious, valued, redeemed, made glorious by His work.

The Holy City is a picture of the people of God, and their perfect, holy relationship to one another.

There is no division between Old Testament Jews and New Testament Christians.

They are one, holy, peaceful, perfectly harmonious people.

Let’s think about these word pictures.

There is no literal City; that’s a picture of the people of God and their relationship to one another.

We see more word pictures in these verses:

The river of the water of life.

The tree of life.

Seeing the face of God (God is Spirit; He has no face).

First, The River

From the very beginning God has provided for the needs of mankind, beginning with food and water.

A river flowed into the Garden of Eden, and four rivers flowed out.

A ready supply of water was necessary when the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness, and God provided for them, sometimes miraculously.

In we read,

rev 22 1

A ready supply of water was necessary when the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness, and God provided for them, sometimes miraculously.

It’s not going to far to say that water is life.

We die without water.

It appears to me that in the beginning, the four rivers provided water for the earth, not only watering the garden, but all the dry land.

But even in the Old Testament water became a picture of spiritual life.

The prophet Zechariah wrote that living waters would flow from Jerusalem in the coming kingdom of God.

A ready supply of water was necessary when the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness, and God provided for them, sometimes miraculously.

But the picture of living water is most perfectly described by the Lord Jesus:

Later on the prophet wrote of the day when living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea (the Dead Sea) and half of the them to the western sea (the Mediterranean Sea), continuing in summer as in winter.

In we read,

The Lord Jesus spoke frequently of this spiritual water.

He said to Nicodemus,

He said to the woman at the well,

In we read,

The water of life is not simply H2O, but living water, spiritual water, granting something far more important than physical life.

The river of the water of life is a picture of God giving us life throughout eternity.

Eternal life is not eternal just because it lasts for all eternity, but because it is given for all eternity.

Second, The Tree

The second picture of eternal life is the tree of life.

I know that you remember that the tree of life was in the garden of Eden.

says,

That tree of life would have given Adam and Eve eternal life on that first day, if they had eaten its fruit.

Instead, they chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God planted a tree of life, a tree that would have given Adam and Eve eternal existence had they chosen to eat of it.

Instead, they chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; they chose the knowledge of good and evil over eternal life.

Adam and Eve chose the knowledge of good and evil over eternal life.

Once Adam and Eve had sinned, God denied them the tree of life so that they would not live in an eternally condemned state ().

banished them from the garden so they would not live eternally in a sinful, condemned state ().

God drove them out of the garden, and put an angel to guard the tree of life.

But the tree of life will be transplanted into eternity, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will perish with the world.

gen 3 24

The tree of life is a picture of the life that comes constantly from the Lord.

That life is filled with variety, and never ceases to be fresh and perfect.

God will provide us with everything we need, every moment.

Eternal life is not the absence of death or pain, it is the presence of God and His life within us.

Sin will never exist again; neither will the temptation to sin.

Instead, the first words of say, No longer will there be anything accursed.

Because of the fall of man, God’s curse fell upon creation.

Jesus satisfied the wrath of God on the cross, and brought the curse to an end.

In the eternity God has planned, there will be only life: perfect, powerful, constant life coming from Him to His people.

Instead, the first words of say, No longer will there be anything accursed.

Because of the fall of man, God’s curse fell upon creation.

Jesus satisfied the wrath of God, and brought the curse to an end.

In the eternity God has planned, there will be only life: perfect, powerful, constant life coming from Him to His people.

Third & Fourth, The Face and Name of God

Seeing the face of God, and having His name written on our foreheads, is also a word picture.

God is Spirit; we cannot see Spirit.

And we won’t have a tattoo on our foreheads; there isn’t room!

God is infinite, so His name is infinite.

You see, God dominates eternity: the Father and Son on the throne, and the Holy Spirit infusing the Church with life.

It will be a perfect environment, a perfect existence, and within that perfect existence, the people of God will serve Him perfectly.

It will be full of God.

There will be nothing that God hates, and everything that God loves.

There will be nothing there that God hates, and everything that God loves.

Every picture of the people of God reveals something about our relationship to Him.

We are a Bride, a picture of our intimacy with our God.

We are a City, a picture of our unity in Christ.