Lessons from Revelation 21-22:5

This week Pastor Troy taught from Revelation 21-22:5.

I love that in 21:6 God says, "It is done!" The finality and climax of it is intense.

Pastor Troy mentioned that the best day here on earth will not rival the worst day in Heaven.
Conversely, the worst day here on earth will be the best you can hope for in Hell.

There is no temple in Heaven because the Father and the Lamb are the temple. Finally the shadow becomes the substance.

The tree of life is back. The last time we saw it was in the opening scenes of creation in Genesis.

The Bible is a wonderful story that captures the imagination and inspires the soul. The story is written so beautifully and the protagonist and the antagonist go at it from Genesis chapter 3 until the very end when God in Jesus puts down for good the threat of the Devil and his evil.

Pastor Troy brought up in John 14 the opening verses indicate that Jesus told his disciples that he went to prepare a place for them, a marvelous place in the mansions of Heaven. Pastor Troy pointed out that the disciples' response was not to ask about the place, to get anxious about arriving at the place, or to worry about who would live next to who and who would have the "best" place to call home. The disciples' response was to ask where Jesus was going and how to get there to be with Him. The mansion was of little enticement compared to being with Jesus. You can have the mansion if I can have You.

That is the final centrality of Heaven and the future of those He has called to salvation in the Lamb. Glory and Honor and Praise to God, forever!

There is no sin in Heaven. For those of us who are Christians here on earth, we follow Jesus sinfully. We struggle to resist the flesh as it wars with the new Spirit placed within us at our rebirth. In Heaven, this struggle will cease and the flesh's piece of the equation will be removed. This allows us, by our own volition, to worship Jesus because the Spirit in us wants to do nothing else. It is not that we are made robots in Heaven. It is not that we lose the ability to make decisions. It is that in Heaven we are finally completely free to choose Jesus in each and everything and to enjoy Him alone forever because the partial has passed away and the perfect has come.