SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/27/2015
2:14 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Supreme Reality of the New Heaven
and the New Earth
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Rev. 21:3
Message of the
verse: “3 And 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.”
As I look at this verse I decided to look up how many
times the phrase “loud voice” is found in the book of Revelation and found that
it is found twelve times. I guess that
perhaps heaven will be a little loud from time to time gauging from this
phrase. Now I used the Online Bible concordance
to find twelve times and as I read the commentary from John MacArthur he states
it is found twenty times so I guess that perhaps there may be something
different in the translation of that phrase to find it eight more times than I
found it. Now as far as who is speaking
this phrase we will have to guess that it is an angel because we do not see who
it was who said it as they are not identified.
When we get to heaven we will find out that the joy and
glory of heaven will be that God Almighty lives there. “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides
You, I desire nothing on earth (Psalm 73:25).”
The angel goes on to say “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men.” John MacArthur writes “Skene (tabernacle) can also mean ‘tent’ or ‘dwelling place.’ God will pitch His tent among His people; no
longer will He be far off, 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.
The amazing reality that ‘the pure in heart…shall see God’ (Matt. 5:8)
will come to pass. Christ’s prayer,
recorded in John 17:24, will be answered:
‘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’ (cf. John
14:1-3; 1 Thess. 4:13-17). There will be
‘no temple in [heaven], for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its
temple’ (21:22). Their presence will
permeate heaven and will not be confined tone place of manifestation.”
It seems that the angel cannot contain himself as he goes
on to say even more about God dwelling with men: “and He will dwell among them, and they shall
be His people, and God Himself will be among them.”
In heaven we as believers will enjoy fellowship with the
Lord and that is kind of hard to think about because of the sinfulness of man
even after the new birth. It seems like
we will need to take a long shower, but what will happen is that we will
receive a new glorified body, the kind that our Lord has and the sin nature
will then be gone forever. John MacArthur
quotes Puritan Richard Baxter from his book The
Saints’ Everlasting Rest, a book from the seventeenth-century who
writes: “Doubtless as God advanceth our
senses, and enlargeth our capacity, so will He advance the happiness of those
sense and fill up with himself all that capacity….We shall then have light
without a candle, and perpetual day without the sun….We shall then have
enlightened understanding 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 we 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. To have no necessity at all, is the
prerogative of God himself.”
The next thing believers will be able to see God as He is
as John wrote in 1 John 3:2: “Beloved,
now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We
know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as
He is.” Seeing God as John speaks of is
impossible for human beings for if we saw God as a human we would die because
of His glory, something He had to hide from Moses who wanted to see His
glory. MacArthur adds “Even the saints
in heavenly glory will not be able to comprehend all the infinite majesty of
God’s wondrous being. But they will see
all that glorified beings are able to comprehend. Is it any wonder that Paul, thinking of the
glory of heaven, had ‘the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very
much better’ (Phil. 1:23).”
Thirdly as believers we will worship God. Now as we have gone through the book of
Revelation and seen some glimpses of heaven we got to see how the angels and
others who were there worshiping God. Remember
in chapters four and five along with chapters seven and also nineteen we saw
this.
Fourthly we as believers will be able to serve God and
this actually comes from 22:3 “There will no longer be any curse; and the
throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve
Him.”
Finally, and John MacArthur writes “most astounding of
all, the Lord will serve believers.
Jesus told a parable reflecting that truth in Luke 12:35-40:
‘35 “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. 36
“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. 37 "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. 38 “Whether he comes in the second watch, or
even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 39 “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. 40 “You too, be
ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.’’
“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 will it be for believers in
heaven, forever to be served a heavenly feast of joy by their Lord.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Looking at the
five things that I as a believer will be able to do in heaven causes me to be
so thankful that the Lord has saved me to be a part of what He has planned in
the future.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to prepare my heart, soul, and
mind in preparation for what will happen in heaven.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Capernaum” (John 4:46).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who protected the spies that
Joshua sent to Jericho?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/27/2015 3:02 PM
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