Revelation 21:3
3 And [kai] I heard [akouo] a great [megas] voice [phone] out of [ek] heaven [ouranos] saying, [lego] Behold, [idou] the tabernacle [skene] of God [theos] is with [meta] men, [anthropos] and [kai] he will dwell [skenoo] with [meta] them, [autos] and [kai] they [autos] shall be [esomai] his [autos] people, [laos] and [kai] God [theos] himself [autos] shall be [esomai] with [meta] them, [autos] and be their [autos] God. [theos] KJV-Interlinear
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, NASB
John hears a loud voice from within heaven, from the throne itself. This is an announcement. Whenever an announcement is made in heaven, it commands everyone's attention, because the message will indicate some reality or event of which God Himself, has ordained.
The tabernacle is a habitation. It is Gods home, as it were, where He dwells (lives).
When we think of our home, we think of it as the place we are most at ease, or at peace. It is the place where we have our privacy and our family. It is the place where we sit back to relax, and have friends over, or where we engage in our hobbies, or where we make plans for the things we like to do.
But here will be the biggest single change in all of history and existence of life. No longer will God be ambiguous, unseen, set apart in heaven, and more or less inaccessible. Today, we have access to God through prayer, and our prayer is only as effective as our spiritual growth. We cannot see God, and we cannot talk with Him in a dialogue, face to face. We live on faith and faith alone, for now.
But there will come a time when we will not only have access to God, but we will actually be able to see Him face to face and have interaction with Him all of the time.
God will pitch His tent, so to speak, among people, and He will live with us forever.
We will see later in this chapter, that there will no longer be a temple, either in heaven or on earth. God, all three members of the Trinity, will permeate all of existence, and they, all three, will be inside of each one of us.
In the sixteen-hundreds, a man named Baxter describes the intimate communion with God that believers will enjoy in heaven:
‘Doubtless as God advanceth our senses, and enlargeth our capacity, 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, 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 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.’
All of our needs, all of our wants, all of our desires, will be fulfilled immediately. No longer will we be driven by sin, and therefore all of our motives, thoughts, and actions will be honorable and perfect.
God is the temple, or place of worship of Him, and since God will be inside of each one of us, then the temple will be inside of us.
This gives each believer, the perfect relationship and the perfect fellowship, in perfection, which will be full, complete, unlimited, and both personal and one on one, with Him.
We will see God, as He really is. No person has ever seen God, in person, in all of His undiminished glory. No one now, could handle the sheer brilliance of it. But in the new universe, we will be given an expanded vision of the real and true God.
All believers will worship God. We will worship Him in spirit, that is to say, in fellowship, and in truth, in doctrine. Remember that the word doctrine, simply means teaching. Bible doctrine is Gods teaching. And in the new universe we will have an expanded access to His infinite knowledge and wisdom.
All believers will become the recipients of eternal reward. Not all believers will receive the same things. Everyone will have different capacities for reward.
12 Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. NASB
Just being saved will be phenomenal enough. It would be like having the opportunity of becoming a millionaire. But being saved and having advanced to spiritual maturity, will be infinitely more phenomenal. That will be like having the opportunity of becoming a multi-multi-trillionaire.
All of the eternal state is beyond our greatest comprehension. But God has given us enough little bits of insight, so we can understand that our lives in that future eternal state, though beyond our imagination, will be fantastic indeed, and far better than anything we might have here in this current life.
We have the opportunity now, of preparing ourselves for that future time. A time that is certain and not some children’s fairy tale. If we ignore all that God has written for our benefit, then there will be only one person who can be blamed for that missed opportunity. And you probably see that person, looking back at you, in the mirror, everyday.
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