"I Can Only Imagine”
Revelation 21
The famous explorer Marco Polo after completing his journeys went back to his home in Venice. When he got back to his home he began to describe some of the things he had seen. But his close friends thought he had gone made. He told then about black stones that you could actually set on fire and they would provide heat for you. But they could not imagine what he was talking about .... they had never heard of charcoal. He told them about a piece of cloth that as hard as he tried he could not set it on fire. But they could not imagine what he was talking about ... they had never heard of asbestos. He told them about large animals that were almost 20 feet long. Had jaws large enough to swallow a man but they could not imagine what he was talking about .. they had never seen a crocodile. Then he told them of a substance that came spewing out of the ground that if you lit it, it would catch on fire and actually provide light but they could not imagine because they had never heard of crude oil. Years later when Marco Polo was lying on his death bed one of the few men who actually believed him was there and he sais tell me al of those stories again. I want to hear them again. But he refused and simply said it’s all true ... every bit of it. In fact i have not told you ½ of what I saw.
In AD 90 John the apostle was sent to an island called Patmos. He was sent as punishment to live in isolation because of his witness for Christ. It was while he was there that he was given a vision and he wrote down the book of Revelation. I believe if John could speak to us today that he would tell us that he has not told us ½ of what he saw. When Paul was caught up into the 3rd heaven he said that he heard inexpressible things; things that man is not permitted to tell.
1. Heaven is a perfect place. Listen to how John describes it. Revelation 21:1-4. For most of us when we see something for the first which was what John was doing ... it’s what Paul was doing as well we want to describe everything we can possibly remember and sometimes after all of that we then share what that place didn’t have. We go to a place sometimes that is owned by some family friends in Arkansas. It is a cabin/house that sits on spring river. It’s beautiful but the first time I went there I remember i described it afterwards by what it didn’t have. It doesn’t have a phone. No TV. No radio. No pavement on the road. No AC. Doesn’t need it. It’s in the mountains. It’s a great place to go to get away from it all.
This is a bit of the way that John describes what John describes heaven. He begins by telling us that there are some thing we will not see in heaven and it these very things that help us make it a perfect place.
A. There will be no more sea. Now John is not telling us that there will be no water in heaven because in the very next chapter he describes the river of life– clear as crystal. Remember John has been exiled to an island and he is separated from the people he loves and the thing that separates him is the sea that surrounds the island. Everywhere that John looks he sees water and it separates him from those he loves. But he says this, in heaven there will be no more separation from those we love who are in Christ.
B. There will be no more tears. Tears are necessary to help us grieve. I often say to families who are experiencing grief/this terrible loss that at that time we deeply need 3 things. 1. Time. We all grieve in different ways so don’t rush it. We also need 2. Talk. We need to share with other people. 3. We need tears. Tears help cleanse the spirit. But in heaven we will won’t need them because we will not ever grieve again. There will be no more hunger, no more hurt feelings, no more abuse. Why? Because Heaven is a perfect place.
2. It is also a physical place. Too many times when we talk about spiritual things we think in terms of things we cannot see and as a result it just doesn’t seem real. But heaven is a real physical place. And the Bible gives us a physical description. Listen. Vv. 10-14.
Then John gets even more specific. Look at vv. 15-21.
Now because we don’t use words like stadia or cubit let me give this to you in terms we use today. A stadia is the same thing as a furlong which is another term we don’t use today. But if you do the math this is 1500 miles. That is the distance across ½ the United States.
V. 17. The walls are described as being about 200 feet thick. So here it is .. 1500 miles in length (and as wide and high as it is long–so it is like a cube. And the walls around it are 200 feet thick. Now let’s go inside and see what it looks like.
Vv. 18-20. The foundations were decorated with these stones. We see right away that it is a very colorful place.
▸ jasper – clear crystal
▸ sapphire– a blue stone
▸ chalcedony-a greenish stone
▸ emerald –green
▸ sardonyx– onyx
▸ carnelian – blood red
▸ chrysolite – yellow quartz
▸ beryl – green
▸ topaz – yellow green
▸ chrysoprase – gold
▸ jacinth – blue
▸ amethyst – rich purple
To say the least the number of colors in the world today has changed. As a child if I bought a box of colors there were 8. I looked online this week at one paint company and they had 2778 colors of paint. Let that sink in. They have 233 shades of green. We know what black looks like. Right? Wrong. 105 shades of black. This is the thing– there will be colors we have never seen of even thought of when we get top heaven. Amazing.
Then the 12 gates were 12 pearls. Each gate made of a single pearl. This is why we call them the pearly gates. The great street of the city was of pure gold. So pure it looks like clear glass.
So this gives us an idea .. a picture. We know it’s a physical place. More beautiful than we could ever imagine. It’s a perfect place. It’s a physical place.
3. And it is a Prepared place and a Promised place. Vv. 22-27. Notice how it is prepared.
▸ There is no temple in the city. There will be no church building. Why? Jesus is the temple.
▸ there will be no sun or moon. Jesus will provide all the light we need.
▸ gates will never be closed. The walls are 200 feet thick but the gates are always wide open. Odd. But there is no need to worry because the gates are open because nothing harmful will ever come in. Nothing impure will come in. It is carefully prepared and it is promised to you and to me.
V. 27. The only ones who will enter are those whose names are written down in the book of life. The Bible tells us that as we come through those gates into our heavenly home we will pass through the 122 gates. And we are told that these gates are made from a single pearl. That gets my mind racing. How large would that pearl have to be to be set in walls that are 200 feet thick?
Pearls are formed when a small grain of sand becomes embedded in an oyster and begins to irritate it. Now to soften the irritation the oyster coats the grain of sand with a smooth layer and that’s what is called mother of pearl. And as long as the oyster can feel the irritation it continues to coat the sand with layers of pearl. Let me ask you a question? What kind of irritation ... what kind of pain and suffering would it take to form pearls so large that they would fit into a wall 200 feet thick?
Here is what I believe. As we walk through those pearly gates we will be reminded of the great pain ... suffering Jesus experienced on the cross and we will see what it cost Him to throw open those gates for you and for me. When i buy a new book the first thing I do is write my name in it. Because it’s mine. When Jesus paid the price for our sin on Calvary he wrote our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Why? Because we are His. Is your name written there today?
