Paradise!

This is my third attempt at this text. The first week, you remember, I wasn't ready, so I preached out of Matthew 24. The next week in which I was supposed to preach this, I was sick. So this is the third attempt at this text. So take your Bibles and let's turn to Revelation chapter 22. You follow as I read Revelation 22, verses 1 through 5.

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 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. 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.

They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 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. O God, our Father, as we come now to this text, we want to hear You speak to us. Lord God you have given life to this word that in it as we read the text of scripture we hear the living voice of God would you please Lord use this now to teach us to prepare us to give us hope in the certainty of what you will accomplish thank you for your mercy to us in Jesus whose mercy and grace whose love will see us to that day.

Give us insight now, we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, our tour continues in chapter 22 of Revelation, led by one of the seven angels that we have met earlier in the book. As this supernatural tour guide has taken us through this beginning in chapter 21, He has opened amazing vistas of the new heavens and the new earth. And as we looked into the distance, we saw a new Jerusalem descending upon the earth.

He takes us to that city showing us its unimaginable beauty, but most of all, the radiant glory of God and of the Lamb who dwells there. He measured the city. And then He took us to the gates to witness kings and nations streaming in to honor God with praise and joy and the works of their hands. Now, here we are as the gates swing open to the city. And as we walk into the city, there you see a breathtaking garden.

A paradise that resembles the first paradise of Eden. Like the first Eden, there's a great river. But this one flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. a crystal clear river called the River of Life. And like the first Eden, you see again the Tree of Life, but this time expressed in groves of trees on either side of the river. And like before in that first Eden, God manifests His presence to His people in this new Eden.

And like before, the curse cannot be found there. this Eden exceeds the original paradise because this is founded by the work of the Father and of the Lamb and of the Holy Spirit however again I would say to you this we cannot think that eternity will be a walk in the park as this seems to indicate, that we're going to walk in and just spend eternity walking through this park, walking through a place with marvelous trees and green grass and spectacularly fresh air and an amazing river. My vision of the perfect environment is a crisp, cool September day in the third week of September in the hills and the trees and the rivers of Wisconsin. In fact, I have told people many times, I am convinced that on the new earth we're going to be in a place like Wisconsin where no matter what time of the year it is, the temperature will never exceed 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

You see, that's my view. Of course, for many people, the thought of spending eternity in a garden sounds more like another place than heaven or the new earth. So, again, we have to remember, right? Revelation doesn't give us photographs. It gives us symbols in order to communicate truth. because this new Garden of Eden symbolizes the glorious life that God promises those who by faith in Jesus overcome the persecutions and the seductions of this present age.

This is a paradise, only it's given to us in these symbols so that we understand what God is giving us. Remember, as we walk towards this place, it's a city, right? We've seen a city up to this point. When the gates open, we see a garden. What happened to those huge tall buildings made of gold that we saw way off in the distance? Right?

It's because this is symbolic of what God has promised. The paradise inside those gates shouts one thing to us. It says to us, life. It says life. but the kind of life we have never experienced in this sin-broken, sin-cursed world. It eternal life Not meaning life that never ends Rather it a life that is abundant It quenches the thirst of our hearts It a life that satisfying It satisfies our spiritual hunger It's a life that's restored.

It heals all our wounds and our woes and restores to us life the way it was always intended to be lived. So let's understand this eternal life that's given to us in this symbol of this second but greater Eden. He says, embrace the vision of an abundant life. Look with me. When the angel showed me, then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, brightest crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.

You need to embrace the vision of an abundant life. Out there in the distance, you see the throne of God and of the Lamb. And flowing from it is this grand river. It's called the river of life. Now, no doubt behind this vision are two other pictures. The first is this wonderful life-giving river that flowed from the temple in Ezekiel's vision.

This river that flowed from below the throne and that comes out of the temple heading toward the east. We heard about that this morning. Behind that vision is a vision of this great refreshing river that flows out of the Garden of Eden. But what you notice here that's unlike the vision that Ezekiel had is that there is no temple. And the reason why there is no temple is because God and the Lamb are there.

The Father and the Lamb are there. The temple was always symbolic of Jesus. It was always the picture pointing forward to Jesus, the meeting place between God and man, the one from whom we would receive eternal life and the forgiveness of sins. the temple always was pointing toward Jesus. With the coming of Jesus, the temple is no more. And the flow of that river depends on the work of the Father and of the Lamb.

The flow of that river comes from their throne because it's the Father who purposed to redeem a people and sent His Son and crushed His Son. Amen? In order that we would have life, you see. It flows from that throne. Because it was their doing that gives us life. The water of life comes to us through the finished work of the Son, accomplishing the Father's will.

And this is the river of resurrection life. Not just physical life, but resurrection life. There's a difference. I don't know about you, but I don't want to go on living forever like this. Do you? right? I don't want to go on living forever fighting against sin and fighting against the weaknesses of this body and the temptations this body gives me all the time.

That's not what it's saying. Eternal life is a life of unbroken fellowship with God the Father and God the Son. It's a life of love. It's a life of joy. It's a life of peace. It's a life of enjoying God.

That's what it's about. It is the life that we already enjoy through the Spirit of God. Listen to Jesus in John chapter 7. Jesus stood up in the temple and declared this, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And then John adds this comment.

Now this he said about the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive. You see what he's saying? Jesus said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and let him drink and he'll never be thirsty again. And John says he's referring to the Holy Spirit which satisfies us and gives us all that we want. It gives us the love and the joy and the peace.

Listen, living in life, and I love what my friend Charlie Cordell, when we talk to Charlie, Charlie always talks about his former life. He always refers to it as the darkness. He always talks about the darkness. I love it. He says, you know, life in the darkness is not anything like life in the Spirit, is it? Life in the darkness is just that.

It's stumbling around, not knowing what's happening. not knowing what going on Life in the Spirit is a life of love and joy and peace Life of enjoying God And yet, we only enjoy life in the Spirit in part right now. Is that not true? Our life is not known by unadulterated, unhindered love. Right? Right? I know this comes to surprise you, but I get angry at my wife every once in a while.

I don't know a life of unhindered love and unhindered joy. I mean, we're still fighting against the weaknesses of our bodies, are we not? Our bodies are so weak. It's hard to be joyful when you've only had two hours of sleep. Right? It's hard to be loving when the person you're seeking to love doesn't always return that love.

That doesn't mean I'm not supposed to love them. I should still love them, but would you not say that's a little more difficult? I still have to do it. I still can do it. But it's still hard. It's hard to live an unhindered life of the Spirit with temptations around me all the time and sin and the curse of sin.

You know, part of the reason why we're going to have unhindered joy is the fact that everyone that I love will not be dying. Right? They're not going to ever die again. It's this kind of life. The eternal spring of the Holy Spirit will give us that life in unhindered abundance. and God's overflowing goodness imparts life to all who respond to His invitation to drink deeply.

Look again at chapter 21, verse 6. And He said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. Here is that river for us. Here is that river and God calls us to drink deeply of it. Drink deeply of this life of love and joy and peace and enjoying God.

And just life the way it should be See And he says the water from this river is crystal clear It pure There nothing in it to pollute it Can you imagine going outside and someone standing right, let me get my bearings, right outside the door over here and saying, come on everybody, let's go down the riverbank here to the Scioto and let's drink deeply. Right? Right?

No? No. This is crystal clear and pure. This water is inviting and delightful. When I was a kid, and I lived in a little town, a tiny town of about 400, and that was back in the day when there were spaces between the towns where I lived. And between our town, Merton, and the next town over to the west, Heartland, there was a little road called Ainsworth Road, and on that road was a little spring of water.

It was the only pure water that you could have any confidence of drinking from it. And when we were kids and we'd be riding our bikes, we knew we could go down Ainsworth Road and go down into this, it was a little pool and you could just see the water bubbling up over here. And it was a little pool of water. We could just dunk our heads in that and drink it. it was pure, clear, cold water.

That's what he's talking about here. This is crystal clear, pure delight. And it flows, notice, it flows right down the main thoroughfare of the city. This is not the dripping of some water trickling into a puddle in some back alley in the middle of the city. it's coming right down the main thoroughfare this eternal enjoyment of god that is delightful and inviting is the essential characteristic of this city that's what he's saying it comes right down the middle it's the essential characteristic of this city this is the place where we will no longer be fighting against weaknesses and temptation sin and the curse of sin but we'll find unhindered, abundant, delightful, pure enjoyment of God and of one another.

So we have life so abundant that we will never thirst again Not thirst in the sense of physical thirst That not what he talking about There's a sense in which our souls are always longing for something. You know what we do? We fill that longing with so much junk. We fill it with entertainment. We fill it with drugs. Or we fill it with sex.

Or we fill it with some other things. Some guys fill it with cars or whatever. but there's a sense in which we want to live for something. And at that point, we'll be completely satisfied in what we're living for. The glory of God and the love for one another. So we have a life so abundant that we'll never thirst again. We'll be completely satisfied.

Completely satisfied with life. isn't that an amazing thought to be completely absolutely satisfied with life that's marvelous to think about that a life so abundant will never thirst again now so we see first of all this great pure life-giving river but there's more there's trees there are trees. I love that part. I love trees. I absolutely love trees.

Where I grew up, we had trees all over the place. I climbed trees to my heart's delight. I absolutely love trees. And there are trees in this place. Embrace the vision here of a satisfying life. Alright?

Now, again, what do we read? Let's look at it. The tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month. Okay, 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. Again, behind this vision is the picture of the trees lining the river outside the temple in Ezekiel's vision.

The same picture is here. Now, I cannot imagine a single tree on both sides of the river. Okay? What is he saying? The tree of life is on both sides of the river. It's like there are groves of these trees on each side of the river.

These trees are all of the species called tree of life. Okay? Is this someone looking at that great river with these groves of trees on either side saying, what kind of a tree is that? You see it's all the same. You say, what kind of a tree is that? And someone responds, that's the tree of life.

That's the picture here. It's groves of this species called the tree of life on either side. On either side. Now, isn't that interesting? There's only one tree of life in the original Eden. But in this garden, you will find it multiplied and lining the river.

What's that all about? What is that all about? Well, do you remember what happened in the original tree of life? Turn back to Genesis 3. Genesis 3. In Genesis 3, verse 22, we read this.

Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

The symbolism here in Revelation is that this is the continuing source of eternal life. You see? This is the continuing source of eternal life. Man is not barred from it. Man is brought to it. It's open now.

In Ezekiel's vision, the river flowing from the sanctuary causes the trees on the banks to be fruitful, so the resurrection life of the Spirit causes the trees to be fruitful. The fruit is so abundant and so regular, it's just there for the taking. will always have this unbroken, wonderful fellowship. It produces the fruit, what? Twelve kinds of fruit every month.

The idea there is it's always there. You know, we have an orchard in our backyard. It's kind of like that's our refuge. That's where we go. We want to hide from everything. Of course, all of you know where the orchard is, so it doesn't do any good.

But anyway, back in our orchard, we have these apple trees and a cherry tree some plum trees and they only come out once a year That stuff only comes out once a year and you got to pick it at the right time If we don get out and get the cherries at the right time the birds eat them all. And so we have to get out there at the right time to get it here. You don't have to get out there at the right time.

It's always there. The fruit's always there. You never have to worry about it. It will always be there. There will always be this unbroken, wonderful fellowship. And again, here you see these multiples of 12.

Twelve kinds of fruit, twelve times a year. Okay? Again, what have we seen in the book of Revelation? That that twelve symbolizes completeness. Our redemption is so complete, there's nothing else to be done. There is nothing more to be done.

Do you realize that we have access to the tree of life because Jesus hung on the tree of death. Because Jesus hung on the tree of death, we have access to the tree of life. And it's complete. There's nothing more to be done. When Jesus cried, it is finished, that included purchasing for us an eternity of unbroken fellowship with God. Do you realize what Jesus meant when He said, it is done?

That means there is nothing for you to do. There is nothing. Do you realize how free it is? Jesus said, it is finished. There's nothing more to be done. The only thing you need to do is embrace it by faith.

You embrace Jesus by faith and everything is yours. There's nothing for you to do. There's no more good works for you to do. There's no more striving on your part to get what God has promised. It is yours. There's nothing you can do to get the fruit from this tree.

There's nothing you can do now except to rest in Jesus. That's how complete His redemption is. He bought that for you. He bought that for you. He purchased it for you on the cross. It is yours.

Adam and Eve and all their posterity were barred from the first tree of life. But now Christ posterity that is His children those who have put their faith in Him have not just one tree but many Open with the fruit freely offered. Here is life so abundant and free that we will never be hungry again. But there's one more thing. As you look at those trees, you notice something different.

Not only do they produce fruit, but their leaves possess a healing quality. Their leaves possess a healing quality. Isn't that interesting? He goes on to talk about that here. Let's keep reading. Verse 3.

Or the last part of verse 2. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 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. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads, 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.

Embrace a vision of a restored life. A restored life. It's found in these leaves. Now what could those leaves represent? John does not mean by this that we're going to need healing all through eternity. Just like when you look back at chapter 21, verse 4, where it says, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

It doesn't mean that throughout all eternity, God is going to go around dabbing on your eyes all throughout eternity. You know that from that, don't you? You know that He's talking about wiping the tears from our eyes so that there will be no more tears. Well, here, the healing is so complete there will be no more need of healing. The leaves represent this healing that will have been accomplished.

And it's the healing of the nations. Now, the only two times that that phrase has been used in this book is found in Revelation 5 and Revelation 7. That term, these nations. So let's go back and take a look at that. Okay? Let's go back and take a look at that.

Revelation 5, verses 9 and 10. Okay. Revelation 5 verse 9 And they sang a new song saying Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.

All right? Chapter 7. verse 9 after this i looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice salvation belongs to our god who sits on the throne and to the lamb now here what is he saying then well for one thing i think he's saying when he talks about the healing of the nations is In chapter 5, Jesus purchased a people to be priests and kings. In chapter 7, these priests are at rest.

And that's exactly what you find here in chapter 22. You have priests, as you look on and see how they're worshiping, and they're before the throne, and they're serving and worshiping God. Those are the priests and the kings, and we're going to reign forever. Kings and priests finally resting. Now, the final verses then go on to describe what this healing of the nations is.

What do these leaves accomplish? Here's what it accomplished. The curse is eradicated and we're restored to paradise. The curse is eradicated and we're restored to paradise. The original garden flourished, but because of Adam's rebellion, God subjected all of creation to a curse. Man was cursed with guilt.

He was guilty before God and he was devoted to destruction because of his sin. And he in all creation was subjected to the curse of God, the curse of decay, dissolution and death entered the picture. And it says now what? There's nothing a curse found in this paradise. Paradise is restored. because of Adam's disobedience humanity was expelled from the garden and cursed but now because of Jesus obedience believers are redeemed from the curse and ushered into the garden Do you see that?

Nothing occurs anymore. We're back in the garden again. We're back into this perfect environment. We are back to what God always intended. The curse of judgment is gone. We've been freed from the curse of pain and sorrow.

I say those words and they just don't. I look at you. Listen, I'm looking at all of you sitting here and I know your stories. Most of you. And when I use this phrase, you will be redeemed from the curse and the sorrow of sin. I'm looking at you and I know your stories and I know the sorrows that you've experienced.

I've known what you've been through and I know the struggles you're in the middle of and I'm telling you right now that on that day there will be nothing to curse there. Everything will be just the way it should be. There's going to be no more temptation for you. None. No temptation. Nothing evil around you at all.

Nothing evil in you. You're totally transformed. It just defies description, does it not? Can you just think about that? I think we ought to just take one minute of silence and think about life without temptation, sin, without any of that. All of it's gone.

Completely gone. paradise again we will be restored alienation is gone and god's presence is restored to us what was the greatest blessing of eden the greatest blessing of eden was not a perfect climate and the ability to grow vegetables without weeds that is not what made eden so wonderful. What made Eden so wonderful was that every day God showed up and walked with Adam and Eve. And they enjoyed each other's company.

Can you imagine? I mean, we have a sense of that now through the Holy Spirit because of what Jesus has done. We've been reconciled to God and we can walk in fellowship with God, but both you and I know that there are things that interrupt that fellowship. Am I right? And there coming a day when we will walk with God again comfortably Right Comfortably Like it always should have been And it's mentioned here with the fact that the throne of God and of the Lamb are there.

We're back in their presence again. Fear is removed and perfect worship is restored. He goes on then and talks about his servants worshiping him. Fear is removed and perfect worship is restored. Like priests, we now serve God. We now serve God in the Holy of Holies.

You remember, as we've looked at this holy city, we have seen that it's a perfect cube that is like the Holy of Holies in the original temple and tabernacle. And that means that in this city, we are in the presence of God. It's like the priest going into the Holy of Holies. All right? And that was God's original intention. Now restored to us fully in the new Eden.

We will see His face. We will see His face. The whole community of the redeemed will have the privilege of seeing God's face. You remember what it was like in the Old Testament? No one could see God's face and live. you remember Moses said Lord show me your glory and God said okay here's what I'm going to do I'm going to pass in front of you and put you in the crevice of this rock I'm going to pass in front of you and I'm going to cover you up because you can't look at me and live and as I go by I'll uncover you and you can see my glory but my face you cannot see do you know that the high priest before he went into the tabernacle and the holy of holies there's that great curtain there and there is right before it is the altar of incense.

And that altar of incense had to be burning so that when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, into the very presence of God, it had to be filled with smoke. Did you know that? The curtains of the tabernacle itself shielded Israel from the terror of God's holiness. In the New Eden, in that paradise, we will see God face to face. with no fear. No fear.

Why? Because Jesus has reconciled us. Because Christ work is reflected in those leaves As His priests His name will be on our foreheads Now remember we seen this name on foreheads before Turn back to chapter 13 Chapter 13. Here it's talking about the second beast, remember? And we talked about this, who the beast is, and all that sort of thing. And we talked about the mark. and you remember the mark is not a literal mark it's a sign of ownership i i say it's not a literal mark because the people of god have the name of god on their foreheads so if one is a mark that's literal then the other is a literal mark and i'm looking at the congregation today and i don't see it would really make the elders job a lot easier when we interview people for membership if God's name was written across their forehead.

We could say, sure, you're a Christian. That's for sure. All right? Mark of the beast? No. Okay.

You remember, that mark is not a literal mark. It's a sign of ownership. It's a symbol of being owned by Satan. Let's read it. Chapter 13, verse 16. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead so that no one could buy or sell unless he has the mark that is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man. His number is 666. Then I looked and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads. And if you drop down to verse 3, No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

Down to verse 4, the last part. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and of the Lamb. That is to say that those who are redeemed have the name of the Father on their foreheads. Every one of you who have been redeemed by Christ have His name on your foreheads. That is to say you are owned by Him. and protected by Him. Those who have been redeemed by Christ have been sealed They are protected and secure And so as we worship His name is on our foreheads We are there, secure, never, ever to be lost out of that paradise.

But always to have the privilege of being before God and look at Him in the face with no fear, but with perfect fellowship and enjoyment in his presence. And because of that, there will be light. There will be no darkness. There will be no darkness that will ever hinder our worship. Nothing will interfere with our access to God. Again, perfect, joyful, beautiful fellowship of worship is restored.

And lastly, verse 5, With the curse eliminated, we will reign righteously. and they will reign forever and ever. Now, I used to struggle with this. I used to ask myself, what are we reigning over? If I'm a king and you're a king or queen, and we're all kings, who is there left to rule? Have you ever thought that? Or am I just a silly guy?

All right, well, that's what I thought. What is there to reign over? And I look at this and I say, ah, it's obvious. This is Eden again. And what did God call man to do in the original Eden? To reign over the earth.

To subdue it. And to develop it. And to do everything. To reign over the earth for the glory of God. Here it is again. Over a perfect earth we are now set. just like that original Adam only better we are now set to reign again over the earth but with no sin no curse, nothing to fight us in that reign nothing wow we're going to reign over a new earth in a way that was always intended but was lost in a way that now is enhanced by the fact that we are there by the sacrifice of the Son of God.

And out of gratitude for eternity, we will reign over this new earth. What a joy, what a delight that will be. There will be no hindrances from us. There will be no hindrances from us. You know, the industrialists say, you environmental wackos, you just want to keep people from working. You don't care about people's livelihood. and the environmental wackos shout back you guys are nothing but greedy destroyers of everything you serve the dollar that's all that's gone there will be no more greed and we won't have to worry about jobs we'll all be working for the glory of God and there will be nothing of destroying the environment we will be developing it like it always should have been we'll be enjoying life reigning over a new earth as God always intended here is the vision of life restored through the healing of Jesus redemption so let me ask you this morning are you looking for paradise Where Our problem is that we looking for paradise now Now that doesn't mean that we don't work for God, because I think this very vision tells us your work is not in vain as you serve the Lord Jesus Christ wherever you are.

But I am saying this, you won't win the battle against sin, and you won't win the battle against persecution and you won't win the battle against the seduction of this age unless you have this vision of paradise always in your mind. If you're not looking for paradise, listen, if you're not looking for paradise, you won't endure the rigors of ministry in a world that opposes you. I am finding out, the older I get, that the rigors of ministry are very hard.

But you know what? Recently, before God, I can say this to you. The rigors of ministry seem less. When I fix my eyes on an eternity I have plenty of time to rest You know what? I'll have time to rest. The rigors of ministry are hard, and if you're involved in ministry, you know what I'm talking about.

But you can endure the rigors of ministry when you look ahead and you say, that is certain. And I fix my eyes not on what is seen, which is transient, but on what is unseen, which is eternal. You will not be able to face death without this vision of paradise. Nothing can defeat you or overwhelm you when you know that the Father has reserved for you the inheritance of a better Eden. you will win when you embrace the certainty of an abundant, satisfying life with everything restored to where it should be.

God help us to have that vision I pray we are so rooted in this age that this does not enter our minds God make us a people who are heavenly minded so that we are earthly good God help us to embrace this reality because Father you've told us that the reality in which we live is passing away. It is real. It is here. It is now. But it will pass away. But the reality that we have just seen revealed in Your Word is a reality that will not pass away.

And it is the reality in which we must live if we will live victoriously now. God, give us this vision. I pray, Father, this has not been something that just gives us lots of things to think about, but it will transform our lives as we live in this sin-cursed world that opposes us with its persecutions and its seductions. Give us this vision that we might live glorifying You.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.