LIFE’S QUESTIONS: WHAT IS HEAVEN REALLY LIKE?

2026-05-31

Pastor Jonathan Falwell

Isaiah 65:17–25 (CSB) “For I will create new heavens and a new earth; the past events will not be remembered or come to mind. 18Then be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I will create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight. 19I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. The sound of weeping and crying will no longer be heard in her. 20In her, a nursing infant will no longer live only a few days, or an old man not live out his days. Indeed, the one who dies at a hundred years old will be mourned as a young man, and the one who misses a hundred years will be considered cursed. 21People will build houses and live in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22They will not build and others live in them; they will not plant and others eat. For my people’s lives will be like the lifetime of a tree. My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands. 23They will not labor without success or bear children destined for disaster, for they will be a people blessed by the Lord along with their descendants. 24Even before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear. 25The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle, but the serpent’s food will be dust! They will not do what is evil or destroy on my entire holy mountain,” says the Lord.

1. Eden, Part 2 (but better)

Rev. 21:1-2 (CSB) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

• The order of things: Rapture/1000 Year Reign/Return of Christ/New Heaven and New Earth
• This will be the restoration of God’s original plan
• Randy Alcorn said, “Since God will dwell on the New Earth with His people, and the thrones of both Father and Son will be there, we might view the New Earth as Heaven central, or Heaven’s capital planet, with New Jerusalem its capital city.”[i]

2. The Ultimate Melting Pot

Rev. 7:9–10 (CSB) After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. 10And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!

• Heaven will be full of people from every place and every time; all for one purpose

3. Beyond Our Wildest Imagination

Rev. 21:3-5 (CSB) Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away. 5Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”

• This is a declaration (a restating of Isaiah 65) of the perfection of Heaven
• It is difficult to comprehend how wonderful this will be
• We will have “resurrected” bodies in Heaven (1 Cor. 15)
• David Martin Lloyd Jones – “When I have received this resurrection body I shall no longer be subject to disease; I shall no longer be subject to age; I shall no longer be subject to death. My body will never decay, it will never change in any way. This body is corruptible; that body will be incorruptible. What a glorious prospect!”[ii]

4. With A Full Schedule 

Rev. 22:3–5 (CSB) and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. 4They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5Night will be no more; people will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever.

• “worship” – (latreũo – to serve) means Heaven will be a busy place of constant activity
• Vernon McGee said,“…heaven is not a place of unoccupied idleness but a place of ceaseless activity. It will not be necessary to rest in order to give the body an opportunity to recuperate…It will be a peculiar service to God that you and I will perform in eternity. What it is, I do not know. He may give us charge of universes. There will be ceaseless activity since there is no night. Man will at last fulfill his destiny and satisfy the desires of his heart.”[iii]

5. In Absolute Perfection

Rev. 21:22–27 (CSB) I did not see a temple in it, because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25Its gates will never close by day because it will never be night there. 26They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. 27Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life.

• In the previous verses (vss 14-21), we are given a clear picture of the perfection which is Heaven consisting of gold, pearls, precious jewels
• But the greatest ingredient of this place will not be the value of the materials, but the presence of God the Father and His Son

2 Peter 3:13 (CSB) But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

[i] Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspectives: A Collection of Quotations on Heaven, the New Earth, and Life after Death (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2012.)

[ii] Tony Sargent, Gems from Martyn Lloyd-Jones: An Anthology of Quotations from “the Doctor” (Milton Keynes, England;  Colorado Springs, CO;  Hyderabad, AP: Paternoster., 2007), 4.

[iii] J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary: The Prophecy (Revelation 14-22), electronic ed., vol. 60 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 194.