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Here's Anne Graham Lutz.
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Heaven is a physical place we can look forward to the beauty of it, the glory of it, filling the place, but it's also a populated place. Inside is the Lord God, the Lamb of God, who is Jesus, of course, the Holy Spirit and his loved ones.
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Today on Living in the Light, Bible teacher Anne Graham Lotz continues with her message titled the Vision of His Glory to Be. Now, our passage is taken from Revelation chapter 21. And that word resplendent means just this shining brightly, dazzling, or very bright and beautiful. But that's only a very narrow definition of what the Bible teaches about heaven and wants you to know that God is expecting you to be there one day because he has left his light on for you. Here now is Ann.
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So heaven is a safe place. The walls tell us that. And then John looks down and he sees the foundations. And in verse 14, it says there are 12 foundations. On them were the names of the 12 apostles. So there's John looking at the heavenly city, and he sees it's gorgeous with these walls and it's just glowing. And then he sees the foundations, and his eyes must have gotten big. His name is on one of those foundations. So, and it says the foundations down in verse 19, they were decorated with every kind of precious stone. 12 foundations, names of the apostles, every different kind of stone. Do you remember what Hebrew says about Abraham? That he left Ur of the Chaldees. He was looking for a city whose maker was God, a city that had foundations. I want to see a video of Abraham when he first sees that city. This is the city he left Ur to find. So I think it means that it's a stable place. Heaven doesn't move, doesn't change. You know, today down here, what was right yesterday is wrong today. What was wrong yesterday is right today. Our culture is changing so fast it almost makes you spin. And with the technology and AI, you don't even know what's true anymore. And even you see that AI is writing a Bible and so how confusing things are. But in heaven has 12 foundations. It's absolutely stable, solid ground. You never have to worry about it undulating, changing under your feet. In the streets. Verse 21, he sees the streets. The great street of the city was of pure gold, polished gold. It would act like a mirror, just reflecting the glory of Jesus throughout the city. But my mother, she's known for her quips and her insights, and she's very quick. And she said that in heaven, gold down here is one of our most precious commodities. And we Buy it, we wear it, we hoard it, we work hard to get more of it. And she said, you can see what God thinks of it because in heaven it's just asphalt. And then she says, maybe what he's telling us is that we need to get our priorities in order. Because the things that we treasure down here may be as nothing in heaven, and the things that are treasured in heaven, we're neglecting down here. Jesus told us to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust don't corrupt, thieves don't break in and steal. So some of the treasures you can lay up. There are two things I think you can take to heaven with you. One is your own Christ like character. And as you get into God's word and you take that paragraph of verses and you're reading, what does it say? What does it mean? What does it mean in my life? And you apply it to your life and you live it out, then Corinthians says that day by day you are changed from glory to glory, character to character, until even your closest friend, your spouse, can see Jesus in you and his glory is revealed in you. You can take your Christlike character to heaven that's eternal. And I think you can take other people to heaven with you in this sense that when you share the Gospel and what you share with that person brings them to faith. Maybe you don't pray with them to receive Christ, but maybe you sow a seed and somebody else sows a seed, and then at some point they give their hearts to Jesus and they're born again into God's family. That person will be in heaven in part because of you. You can take that person. Do you see what I mean? Those are the two most precious things. So lay up for yourself. Treasures in heaven and the streets of gold remind us to get our priorities straight. So when you go home, look at your schedule. Look at how you spend your time, where you're spending your money. You need to make an adjustment. If Jesus is first in your heart, first in your life, he ought to be first in your time. So ask him, what doors of opportunity can you open for me? I want to serve you. I want to live for you. I want my life here to count for you. When I stand before Him, I want something to show for the life I've lived down here. So I think one of the most dramatic, impactful aspects of the physical city of heaven are the gates. And it says in verse 12 and 21 there are 12 gates. Each gate is made of a single Pearl. Now think of how big those pearls would have to be to hang in walls that are 200ft thick. And do you know how a pearl is formed? It's formed when a grain of sand or something that irritates the oyster gets inside the oyster and he begins to coat it with a layer of mother of pearl. And he continues coating it until he can't feel the irritation anymore. So when you see pearls that are as big as these gates that hang in walls that are 200ft thick, they speak of gigantic suffering. And I wonder if the gates to the city themselves speak of the death, the blood, the cross of Jesus Christ. Do you know somebody who says the cross is not necessary? I wonder if every time we walk through those gates of pearl, we're going to be saying, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for what you did to open these gates for me. Tell other people the gates of heaven are opened through the cross. But you have to come through the cross. There's no other way, Ray. Truth made that so clear the other day. There's one door into the ark, one door into the most holy place. There was one door into the Garden of Eden, one door into heaven, and his name is Jesus. So heaven is a physical place we can look forward to the beauty of it, the glory of it, filling the place, but it's also a populated place. Heaven is not just a show place. You know, I've been to. We've taken time to go to Windsor Castle and to Buckingham Palace. Not as guests, as tourists, but anyway, when I went to those two places, the home in Buckingham palace where the royal family did live, I now think they've spread out different places in London and then Windsor Castle, where the Queen loved to live. And when I went through, I never saw a book that was open that somebody had been reading or a sweater that was thrown over the back of a chair or a toy that was on the floor left by a child or, you know, it really is a museum. It's a beautiful, beautiful, perfectly kept place. Heaven is not a museum. It's not a show place. It's a home where God the Father lives with his loved ones. Inside. Verse 22. Let me read. Says I did not see a temple in the city because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light. And the Lamb is its light. So inside is the Lord God, the Lamb of God, who is Jesus, of course, the Holy Spirit and his Loved ones. And it says that he's the light of that city. When I used to go home and my mother was home, if I drove up to the mountain, it's across the valley, but you went up this winding road to the house. And I would go up through the dark. And when I came through, if it was in the spring or summer or the fall, I loved to roll down the windows. I loved to hear the crickets and the katydids and the night sounds and feel the night breeze and just hear the sounds on the mountain where I grew up. And then I would always look as I came around that curve, the last curve, I would look. Because in the front, by the door, there was a post. And on the post was a birdhouse. But under the birdhouse was a lantern. And that she would leave on for me. She would leave the light on for me when she knew I was coming. So I knew I was expected. So I'd look around that corner. I wanted to see the light and I wanted to know my mother was expecting me. And I don't know how she did it, but she was always at the door to meet me when I pulled in. And in verse 22, I didn't see a temple in the city because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamborghinis temple and the city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light. And the lamb is its lamp. God has left the light on for you. He's expecting you. You're coming to a place prepared for you. You're coming home prepared for his loved ones to live with him forever and ever. So in verse seven, I want to go back to verse seven. It says, he who overcomes will inherit all this. And I will be his God and He will be my son. And you can just put, she who overcomes will inherit all this. And he will be our God and he will be my daughter. So you just. You can put. The son is generic. In other words, what I'm trying to say, it's not just for men. Okay, you know that. But how do we inherit all this? How can we make sure heaven is our inheritance? You have to overcome your doubts, your unbelief, your pride, your religiosity. And you have to come as a little child, you come to the cross and you tell God you're sorry for your sin, all the wrong things you've done. And I know we've gone through this. You inherit heaven as your birthright, your heavenly home. When you come by faith to the cross. And you tell God you're sorry for all the wrong things you've done. And you believe Jesus died on the cross as God's sacrifice for your sin. If nobody else needed a savior, he would come and die just for you. And you claim Jesus as your Savior and his blood to atone for your sin. And you ask him to be your Savior. And you believe he rose up from the dead to give you eternal life. And you receive the eternal life that he offers, which means not just heaven when you die, but a right relationship with him now. But you open up your heart. You invite him to come in. He comes in to live with you in the person of the Holy Spirit, who will never leave you, never forsake you. And you walk with him through life, day by day, month by month, year by year, until you walk right into heaven. And heaven is your birthright. You inherit heaven when you put your faith in Jesus like that. Do you hear me? It's not a hope. So I just talked to somebody this last week, and I was trying to find their spiritual journey, and they said, well, I hope I'm going to heaven. And I said, oh, man, you don't have to hope. You can know. You can know you're going to heaven. And he indicated he had been saved if put his faith in Jesus. Somehow he hadn't come to that assurance. And I think it's because we just know we don't deserve it. And we feel, how can God give me all of this when I've been the person that I am? And so we just. Our guilt and our shame makes us think we can't deserve it. So we can't really be sure we're going. But yes, you can. It's God's promise to you. Heaven is your home. It's your inheritance. So you just. I'll just ask God to give you that assurance. You're going home. None of us deserve it. None of us are good enough. That's why God sent Jesus. That's the thing that separates our faith from every other religion in the world. Every other religion in the world is trying so hard to get up to God through their rituals, their traditions, their good works, their suffering, their whatever they do. And they're all, you know, trying to climb up to God. You can't do it. That's why God sent Jesus down to us. He's done it for us. All we do is put our faith in him, commit our lives to him. And heaven is our home. It's ours. So heaven is a populated place. Inside by the Lord, the Lamb, his loved ones. But there is an outside to heaven. Verse 8. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death. The second death is hell. And I want to be quick to say, if one of you find yourself on that list, Paul says in Corinthians, such were some of you, but you've been bought, you've been redeemed, you've been cleansed with the blood of Jesus, okay? Don't let Satan put that kind of guilt on you. So maybe you've been a liar, maybe you committed adultery, maybe you've done something, you know, I don't know, maybe something else in that list. But if you've come to the cross, you're forgiven of all of your sin, past, present, future. You'll never be held accountable for it again because Jesus took the punishment for you. Do you understand? So just receive that. But take the warning that if you don't put your faith in Jesus, that's the unbelieving. If you step into eternity and you don't believe that Jesus died for you and you've not committed your life to him, then you will go to hell. So let me describe hell to you, and this is a biblical description. I won't give you all the references. Hell is a place of great suffering, weeping, gnashing of teeth. So hell is a place of physical torment. Heaven, on the other hand, is a place where there's no more suffering or death or mourning or crying or pain. Hell is a place described as a bottomless pit. If I fell into a bottomless pit, I would always feel I was in danger. I would never feel safe. Heaven is a place that's safe and secure within those 200 foot thick walls. You'll never be in danger again. And hell is described as a lake. And a lake would undulate, change. You would never feel like you were on solid ground. In fact, Maura and I were on a boat this summer. And one of the things I did not enjoy about it was knowing I was floating on this freezing water. It was a. We did Joel Rosenberg. I was speaking on his conference tour the coast of Alaska, but. But I was so glad when we got off the boat and were on solid ground. There's something about being on solid ground. So hell, you'll never be on solid ground. Heaven is described as a place that's stable, unshakable, has 12 foundations. Hell is a place described as total darkness, where the sun never rises and the sun never shines. So people say, I want to go to hell. All my friends are down there. We're going to have a big party and maybe all your friends are there, but you'll never see them because it's dark. There's no light there. Maybe you can hear them screaming, but you won't see them. Heaven is a place that's described where there's no more night, no more darkness at all, because the Lord and the Lamb fill the city with his glory. Hell is described as a place of solitary confinements where you'll be all alone in some of the hardest times, if you're sick in the middle of the night when it's dark and you're by yourself and there's nothing to distract you from your pain and your suffering or your nausea or whatever it is. And hell is a place that's dark, where you're all alone with your memories and your hatred and the abuse and the whatever, the anger and darkness, nothing to distract you from it. And heaven is described as a place where the kings of the nations bring their glory and God's children gather. Place of fellowship, the marriage feast of the Lamb. I'm sure there'll be dancing in heaven, Dino. So. And I looked at him that way when he asked me that, this one, because I was afraid he was going to ask me to come up here and do that. So. But yes, I think they'll be dancing in heaven, and I hope it's to that song that you played. But hell is also described as a fire, a place of intense thirst, dissatisfaction, torment. Do you remember when Jesus told that parable about Abraham and Lazarus and a man had gone to hell, and he said, please tell my brothers. And Jesus said, we can't do that. And he said, well, just take some water and just touch it on my tongue. I'm just so thirsty and couldn't do that. There's just a gap that you can't cross over and. But intense thirst, not just physical thirst, but knowing you were created for something that you never fulfill it, never feel fulfilled, never feel satisfied. Heaven, on the other hand, is a place in chapter 22, where the river of life flows continuously from the throne, bringing healing to the nations, an outpouring of God's spirit. That's what I've prayed for the nation of Israel, that God would just pour out his spirit and bring healing to that nation. So the best part of, well, the worst part of Hell is that people there are totally devoid of God's presence, the One for whom they were created, the One who loved them so much that he sent his own Son to die on the cross to take away their sin and open heaven for them. And they're separated from Him. They'll never see his face, never know his name, never be in his presence. Presence. Heaven, on the other hand, is a place where we're told we will serve God and we'll see his face. So who do you know who's going to go to Hell? Just about everybody we bump into. So maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they don't know they have a choice. Maybe they don't know they can choose to go to heaven. Would you tell them? You don't have to push it on them. You don't have to demand that they put their faith in Jesus. Just ask them if they'd like to make an informed choice and then give them the information. I can't imagine anybody choosing to go to hell. So. Verse 27, going back to chapter 21, the last verse, and it says, nothing impure will ever enter heaven, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's womb. Book of Life. And you get your name written in the Lamb's Book of life. When you come to the cross, put your faith in Jesus as your Savior and your Lord, and open up your heart and you surrender to him, and the Holy Spirit comes in and you're born again into God's family, and your name is recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life. So when you show up, they look down that list. Your name is on it. My mother told me another story I love to tell. Years ago. It's a true story. There was a little boy living in London, England, and he heard Dr. D.L. moody was coming to town to preach. So he walked through London, came to the church where Dr. Moody was supposed to preach, and people were singing and the lights were shining out of the stained glass when it looked like heaven to him. So he ran up the steps and he came to the door. And just when he did, there was a big hand that grabbed him on the shoulder, spun him around and said, sonny, where do you think you're going? And he said, I've come to hear Dr. Moody preach. And the big man looked at him, and the uncombed hair and the unwashed face and the torn clothes and the unshod feet, and he said, not you. You're too dirty to go Inside. So the door was closed. So the little boy thought, well, I'll find another way in. So he walked all the way around the church, but the windows were barred, the doors were locked. So he came back on the front steps, and he sat down. He just began to cry, he was so disappointed. And just then, a carriage pulled up at the foot of the steps, and this very distinguished man got out and walked up the steps, and he saw the little boy crying, and he looked at him, and he asked him why. And the little boy told him, I've come to hear Dr. Moody preach, but they say I'm too dirty to go inside. So the big man just held out his hand, and he said, then take my hand. So the little boy did, and hand in hand, they walked up the steps. Now, when they came to that door that had been closed, it flung wide open. And they walk into the church, and they go down the center aisle, and the man puts a little boy on the front row. And then the man gets up on the platform to preach. And the man was D.L. moody. The only way that dirty little boy got inside the church was because he was holding the hand of Dr. Moody. And the only way anyone. Doesn't matter who you are, if you're Billy Graham or if you're the Pope or if you're your grandmother or whoever you can think of, Mother Teresa, whoever you can think of, no one will get into heaven. The only reason you get in is because you're holding the hand of Jesus. Has nothing to do with what you've done, who you've been, how you dressed. It's just that you've put your hand in his. And you do that when you come to the cross and he stretches out his hand. Little girl, little boy. Put your hand in mine. Put your trust in me. I'm dying to save you, to forgive you of all of your sin. And I'll rise from the dead to give you eternal life. Put your hand in mine. I'll take you to heaven. And he will make sure you've put your hand into the hand of Jesus. Please, would you tell somebody else that God so loves them, that he gave them Jesus, that if they put their faith in him, they would not perish and go to hell, but they would have everlasting life. That includes a right personal relationship with God now, having peace in your heart and hope for the future and joy regardless of the circumstances. But it also means heaven when you die. Tell people there is a God who loves them, and he's prepared a place for them that's perfect and it's an actual place populated by God the Father, God the Son, his loved ones, and available for them if they'll put their faith in Him.
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Living in the Light is a weekly study in God's Word with teacher and author Anne Graham Lotz. Learn to listen to his voice, then start making the choice to keep on going and believing and trusting who God is. Go to anngramlotts.org Take advantage of the many helpful free resources to get you started. Join us again for Living in the Light.