When God Pitches His Tent: Revelation 21’s Promise of Presence

But we are back in the book of Revelation tonight, and we're going to pick up

where we left off, Revelation 21, verse 3 tonight.

Revelation 21:3

This is our deep dive into this passage, into this first part of it.

And we left off last week speaking on the supreme reality of the new heaven

and new earth. That's where we left off, so that's where we're picking up tonight.

And we'll pick up in verse 3, and it says, I heard a loud voice from the throne

saying, behold the tabernacle of God is among men and he will dwell among them

and they shall be his people,

and God himself will be among them y'all the supreme glory and joy of heaven is who,

you got it y'all got it it's a person of God you know and and you know it's

not a lot of times in our culture we have this view of heaven or we see the

view of heaven like well you know we floating on clouds, playing harps,

you know, those type things.

Or, hey, you know, heaven is just a place I'll have my best vacation ever, right?

But the whole supreme glory of heaven will be to be with our Lord and Savior,

to be with God Almighty, right?

And here, as 20 times previously in Revelation, a loud voice, do you see that?

A loud voice actually heralds an announcement of great importance.

And the source of the voice is not revealed directly in the text.

It's not God, but it's probably an angel.

But the announcement itself he makes is what?

Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men.

Now, that word tabernacle in Greek, that skene, it can also mean tent or dwelling place, okay?

And God will, in other words, pitch his tent among his people.

I like that intimate look into that, right?

As you look into the text there in the Greek, he will actually pitch his tent among his people.

No longer will he be far off. This is an intimate relationship.

This is coming near to his people, right?

And no longer will he be distant, transcendent.

No more will his presence be veiled in the human form of Jesus Christ,

even in his millennial majesty, or in the cloud and pillar of fire,

or inside the holy of holies.

That amazing reality, y'all, as we look in this text that we think about,

I think about to Matthew chapter 5, verse 18, y'all probably remember this,

Matthew 5:18

the pure in heart shall see God. Y'all remember?

And it's going to come to pass here in Revelation 21.

Christ's prayer that's actually recorded in John chapter 17,

John 17:24

verse 24, is going to be answered.

You know the prayer he prayed? Father, I desire that they also whom you have

given me be with me where I am so that they may see my glory which you have

given me. That's in John 14.

I mean, amazing. And 1 Thessalonians talks about that. 1 Thessalonians 4.

There will be, y'all, no temple in heaven for the Lord God, the Almighty,

and the Lamb are its temple.

According to verse 22 we haven't got quite that far in this

chapter but that's there their presence will

actually permeate heaven and it's

not going to be confined to one place of manifestation

like the holy of holies for example and y'all

if you think about it tonight so staggering is this truth that the heavenly

revoi heavenly voice here actually repeats it several ways because it's a little

bit mind-boggling when you think about it that mind-boggling reality that the

tabernacle of God is among men.

He adds the statement that God will what?

Will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be

among them. You see how he repeats it?

This is going to be a manifestation, again, of God's glorious presence to his

people like no other, y'all, in redemptive history, and it'll be the culmination

of all the divine promise and human hope.

I mean, we're going to be with our Lord and Savior, with our God, right?

And, you know, what would it be like to live in God's glorious presence in heaven?

You ever thought about that?

Well, first we see that believers will actually enjoy fellowship with him.

The imperfect sin-hindered fellowship that we have today with God in this life

will become I'm full here in heaven, complete, unlimited, y'all, unlimited.

And in fact, I think of the book that's entitled The Saint's Everlasting Rest.

It was written by the 17th century Puritan Richard Baxter.

Now, I don't know if any of y'all, Brother Ronnie, you didn't know him back

in the 17th century, did you?

Probably not. Yeah, a little bit younger. But Richard Baxter actually describes

the intimate communion with God that believers are going to enjoy in heaven. Listen to what he says.

He says, doubtless as God advances our senses and enlarges our capacity, so we will be so he will.

So will he advance the happiness of those senses and fill up with himself all

that capacity. We shall then have light without a candle, he said,

and perpetual day without the sun.

We shall then have enlightened understandings without scripture and be governed without a written law.

For the Lord will perfect his law in our hearts, and we shall be all perfectly taught of God.

We shall have joy, which he drew not from the promises, nor fetched home by faith or hope.

We shall have communion without sacraments, without this fruit of the vine,

when Christ shall drink it new with us in his Father's kingdom and refresh us

with the comforting wine of immediate enjoyment.

To have necessities but no supply is the case of them in hell.

To have necessity supplied by means of the creatures is the case of us on earth.

To have necessity supplied immediately from God is the case of the saints in heaven.

Wow. And he goes on to say, to have no necessity of all is the prerogative of God himself.

17th century Puritan. Those Puritan writers, I mean, they can,

I don't know if y'all have read some of the books from some of these guys.

I mean, some of them can be a bit hard to read, just kind of the language and

stuff, but boy, you know, just the insight.

Well, second, believers will see God as he is.

In 1 John 3, too, if you remember, the apostle John actually writes these words.

He says, beloved, now we are children of God, he said, and it has not yet appeared

what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we'll see him just as he is.

Y'all think about it. Such an unveiled view of God is impossible for mortal man.

As we sit here today, none of us could look at God's full glory and majesty and live.

And you stop and you think about this today, no living person has ever seen

God in the fullness of his glory, right?

He is invisible and dwells in unapproachable light, it tells us in 1 Timothy 6 and Psalm 104.

And exposure to that, again, would mean instant death for any living person.

But in heaven, in heaven, the pure in heart, y'all, we're given a promise,

Matthew 5, 8 again, will see God.

We will see him and it'll be unveiled since we will be like him.

We'll be perfectly holy. We're going to be given an eternal and expanded vision

of God manifest in his shining glory.

It tells us here in verse 11 of chapter 21, talks about it in verse 23 and then

chapter 22, verse 5 as well.

Even the saints in heavenly glory will not be able, y'all, to comprehend all

the infinite majesty of God's wondrous being.

But we will see all that glorified beings are capable or able to comprehend somewhat, right?

To me, it's no wonder that Paul actually, that he was thinking about on the

glory of God or glory of heaven.

And he said he had the desire to depart and be with Christ. Y'all remember that?

For that is very much better, he said in Philippians 1, verse 23.

Philippians 1:23

I think about a hymn. Y'all know I'm going to bring up a song somewhere,

but I think about a great hymn. And sometimes it's seldom sung.

It's called My Savior First of All. Does anybody even know it? It's by Fanny Crosby.

And it really echoes Paul's sentiments. Listen to this.

When my life work is ended and I cross the swelling tide, when the bright and

glorious morning I shall see, I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side,

and his smile will be the first to welcome me.

Through the gates to the city in

a robe of spotless white, he will lead me where no tears will ever fall.

In the glad song of ages, I shall mingle with delight, but I long to meet my Savior most of all.

First of all, right?

And third, though, we see in this passage that believers will worship God. We will worship God.

Every glimpse, y'all, of heaven in Revelation actually reveals the redeemed

and the angels, too, in worship. Did you know that?

In worship. And that's not surprising since Jesus actually told us in John 4,

John 4:23

verse 23, that true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

And for such people, he says, the Father seeks to be his worshipers.

We'll be worshiping in heaven. In heaven, the glorified, the perfected saints

will offer God y'all perfect worship.

Today, we come here and we celebrate. We want to worship the Lord,

right? That's why we're here.

But you know, no matter how much we try, today we have imperfect worship, right? We do.

But in this moment in heaven here, this will be perfect worship.

And then fourth, believers will serve God. It says in verse three,

it's said of the saints in heaven pictured all the way back in chapter seven,

verse 15, that they serve God day and night in his temple.

Believers' capacity for heavenly service is going to reflect their faithfulness in this life.

All believers will be rewarded with capacities for heavenly service.

I mean, that's amazing, y'all. But those capacities are going to differ according

to 1 Corinthians 3, verses 12-15, and chapter 4, verse 5.

1 Corinthians 3:12–15

And then finally in this text, and I think it's most astounding to me,

is that the Lord— Did y'all catch it? The Lord will serve believers.

Jesus actually told a parable reflecting on that truth in Luke chapter 12, verses 35 through 40.

Luke 12:35–40

Listen to this. Be dressed in readiness and keep your lamps lit.

Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding

feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks.

Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes.

Truly I say to you that he will gird himself to serve and have them recline

at the table and will come up and wait on them.

Whether he comes in the second watch or even in the third and finds them so,

blessed are those slaves.

But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the

thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

You too, be ready, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you do not expect.

Y'all, Jesus pictures himself as a wealthy nobleman who returns to his estate

after a long trip, finding that his servants ministered faithfully in his absence.

He rewards them by taking the role of a servant and preparing a feast for them.

So it will be, y'all, as we see in this text, for believers in heaven,

forever to be served a heavenly feast of joy by their Lord.

Man, does that not blow your mind?

Well, that brings us to the next section tonight, the changes in the new heaven and the new earth.

All right, let's pick it up, if we can, in verse four through the first part of verse six.

I like this one. I tell you, I like it all. And he will wipe away every tear

from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death.

There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain.

The first things have passed away, And he who sits on the throne said,

behold, I am making all things new.

And he said, right, for these words are faithful and true.

Then he said to me, it is done.

I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

Y'all, heaven will be so dramatically different from the present world that

to describe it really requires the use of negatives, I think,

as well as, you know, previous positives,

but to describe what's totally y'all beyond human understanding also requires

pointing out how it differs from our present human experience today, right?

The first change that we see here from our earthly life, you know,

believers in heaven will experience that what?

God will what? He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Do you see that?

That doesn't mean, y'all, that people who arrive in heaven will be crying and God will comfort them.

They will not, as some imagine, be weeping as they face the record of their sins.

There is no such record, by the way, because there is therefore now no condemnation

to those who are in Christ Jesus, it says in Romans 8.1.

And since Christ bore our sins in his body on the cross, church,

so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by his wounds,

it says, you were healed.

You were healed. So what it declares is the absence of anything to be sorry about.

In other words, no sadness, no disappointment, no pain.

There will be no tears of misfortune, tears over lost love, tears of remorse,

tears of regret, tears over the death of loved ones, or tears for any other reason.

And another dramatic difference from the present world will be that in heaven

there will no longer be the last enemy, which is death.

No more death, y'all.

No more death. It talks about Isaiah 25, 8. The greatest curse of human existence will be no more.

Death, as Paul promised, 1 Corinthians 15. Y'all have heard this probably millions of times.

It's swallowed up in victory, y'all. Swallowed up in victory.

Both Satan, who had the power of death, it tells us in Hebrews 2,

14, and death itself will have been cast where? To the lake of fire.

We saw that, and we see that in this passage. We saw it in chapter 20, verses 10 through 14.

Nor will there be any mourning or crying, y'all, in heaven.

The grief, the sorrow, and distress that we think about today that produce mourning

in its outward manifestation, which is tears, right?

Crying. That will not exist in heaven.

This glorious reality will be the fulfillment, actually, of Isaiah 53, verses 3 and 4.

Isaiah 53:3

You'll probably remember this. It says, he was despised and forsaken of men,

a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him.

Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried.

Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

When Christ bore believers' sins on the cross, when he bore your sin,

my sin on the cross, he also bore our sorrows.

Since sin is the cause of sorrow, did you know that?

The perfect holiness and absence of sin that will characterize heaven,

as we see here, will also mean that there will be no more pain.

Come on, woo, yeah, right? No more pain. I know there's some people here,

man. I used to, y'all remember Joni Erikson Tata?

I mean, she was talking about, boy, she's looking forward to today.

She just throws that wheelchair in the sky. You know what I'm saying?

No more pain. On the cross, Jesus was pierced through for our transgression, Scripture says.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

The chastening for our well-being fell upon him.

And by his scourging, it says, Isaiah 53, 5, we are healed. And while that healing,

y'all, in view in that verse is primarily spiritual healing,

it also includes physical healing.

You know, you think about that commenting actually on Jesus's healing of Peter's mother-in-law.

Matthew chapter eight, verse 17 says this, says this was to fulfill what was

spoken through Isaiah, the prophet going back to the Old Testament. Right.

He himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.

Y'all think about this. I mean, hallelujah.

I mean, celebration, the healing ministry of Jesus, don't miss this,

was a preview of the well-being that will characterize the millennial kingdom

and the eternal state, which you're talking about right here.

The glorified, sin-free bodies that believers will possess in heaven will not

be subject to pain of any kind.

Amen? Any kind.

All those changes that will mark the new

heaven and the new earth indicate that what does

it say here in the text the first things have passed away

they passed away old human experience related to the original fallen creation

is gone forever and with it all the mourning y'all all the suffering sorrow

disease pain and death that is characterized all of it since the fall. It's gone.

And really summarizing all those changes in a positive way, listen to this.

He who sits on the throne said what? Behold, I am making all things new.

The one who sits on the throne, church, is the same one from whose presence

earth and heaven fled away, if you remember, and no place was found for them

back in chapter 20, verse 11. You remember?

Just think about this. All of this, all the different things that's going on

here, this present universe that we talked about a couple weeks ago, will be uncreated.

Just as he spoke it into existence, he will speak it out of existence.

The new heaven and the new earth will be truly a brand new creation and not

merely a refurbishing of the present heaven and earth.

And in that forever new creation, there will be no decay, no decline,

and no waste. None of it. None of it.

And we talked some last week about, you know, would be a sea and all that.

And Brother Ronnie, yeah, I don't know. I kind of feel like maybe we can fish.

I don't know. We'll see in the river of life. Who knows?

But overwhelmed by all that he had seen, John seems to have lost his concentration.

God himself y'all the glorious majestic one on the throne actually said to him write,

write John for these words are faithful and true do you see it and and the words

John was commanded by God to write is faithful and true as the one revealing

them to him and we see that throughout revelation we saw it in chapter 1 we

see it in chapter 22 coming up next verse 6,

Though the present heaven and earth will pass away, still God's words will not pass away, will they?

They will not pass away. There'll be an end to the universe as we know it,

but not, y'all, to the truth God reveals to his people.

Whether or not men understand and believe that truth, it will come to pass.

It will come to pass. And also, by way of summary tonight, the majestic voice

of the one here sitting on heaven's throne, said to John, it is done.

Did you see that? It is done.

Those words are reminiscent of Jesus' words on the cross. What were they?

It is finished. It is done, right? Jesus' words here mark the completion of the work of redemption.

It's full circle, right? Full circle.

These words mark the end, if you will, of redemptive history.

It's the time of which Paul actually wrote about In 1 Corinthians 15,

he says, then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father,

whom he has abolished all rule and authority and power, for he must reign until

he has put all his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy that will be destroyed or abolished is death,

for he has put all things in subjection under his feet.

But when he says all things are put in subjection, it is evident that he is

accepted who put all things in subjection to him.

When all things are subjected to him, then the son himself also will be subjected

to the one who subjected all things to him so that God may be all in all.

The one y'all who sits on the throne

is qualified to declare the end of redemptive history. Do you see it?

You know why he says here, because he is what the alpha and the omega.

The first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet, the Alpha and the Omega.

We might think in our language today, the A and the Z, right?

A through Z, right? The beginning and the end.

God started history and he'll end it. You know, God exists out of time.

You know, he's outside of time, right?

He started history and he will end it. And all of it has unfolded.

Don't miss this tonight.

According to his sovereign plan.

That this same phrase is applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to see

in Revelation 22, 13, offers proof of his full deity and his equality with the

Father as we're taught throughout Scripture.

Well, then we come upon the residence of the new heaven and the new earth.

And I'm going to pick up there next week. Is that okay?

We'll pick up there next week on the residence of the new heaven and the new earth. Yes.