What Will the City of Heaven Be Like pt. 2

Mark Finley: that in heaven there will be such incredible breaking down of every barrier between ethnic groups, and there will be that constant renewal of relationships, and there will be a healing among the nations.
Guest (Female): This is Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message, What Will the City of Heaven Be Like? Part two. Enjoy, and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with Hope Lives 365 and Pastor Mark by going to hopelives365.com. And now, Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: Now the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. I think about that. James and John, the sons of thunder, that often spoke before they thought very much. You remember what James and John did? There was a guy that wasn't quite with Jesus and they said, can we call fire down from heaven and consume him? And what does Jesus say? He says, no. He that's not against us is for us. Let's leave this guy alone. But James and John were quite fiery. And then you have Thomas, he's quite, he doubts a great deal. You have Peter who denies Christ. You have Philip, and you never know what he's thinking at all because he doesn't say very much. And so you have all this variety of personalities, and but yet Jesus says, their names are on the foundation. Why? The 12 patriarchs above the gates represent everybody in the Old Testament. The 12 apostles represent everybody in the New Testament. And 12 times 12 is 144 that represents the 144,000, not necessarily a literal number, but the the the total number of redeemed that will walk through those gates because of the blood of Christ. And so the names above the gates and on the gates are names that encourage us that all humanity through the pearly gates of Christ can be saved. But there's something else about that city that we don't often point out. And you find it in verse 19. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kind of precious stones. What kind of stones were there? There was Jasper, there was Sapphire, there was Calcedony, there was Emerald, there was Sardonyx, Sardius, Chrysolite, Beryl, Topaz, Chrysoprase, Jacinth, and Amethyst. Have you ever seen those stones in the Bible before? Have you ever seen them before? Where were those stones in the Bible before? They were on the breastplate of the High Priest. So when you look at the Holy City, what do you see? You see a symbolism of Christ in the pearly gates. You see a symbolism of Christ, our High Priest, who bears us on his heart. So when I look at the Holy City, what do I see? I see the names on the gates above them, of the patriarchs, fallen men and women. I see the names of the apostles, fallen there, representing fallen men and women. I see them beckoning us to come in. And they say, if we have made it, you can make it too. I see the pearly gate swing open, and I see Jesus Christ there saying to you and me, never give up, because through my blood, you can walk through those gates. I see the glittering of the Sardius and the Chrysolite and the Amethyst, and I remember that Jesus is my High Priest, bearing me on his heart. And if Jesus bears me on his heart, I can make it there. Two things so far about that Holy City. First, Jesus wants to restore fellowship with you and me. Second, he has made provision for us, every single one of us, to be in that city. And then we go to Revelation chapter 22 to notice a very unique thought that I've been pondering a lot recently. Revelation 22. He shows me a pure river of the Water of Life. Notice it's the Water of Life. Everything about heaven is life. When we look at things about this Earth, everything is about death. You look out your window at this time of year in the autumn and you see the changing of the leaves that look so beautiful, but what do you know is going to happen in November? Those trees are going to die. Those leaves are going to die. All around us, we see death. The green grass that looks so beautiful today will be brown tomorrow. The flowers that grace our landscapes will droop their heads and die in the frost. The gardens that we have planted, if we haven't harvested them by now, there's going to be death. All around us, we look at death. We see friends of ours that we've known for many years, dear friends. We don't get the phone call anymore because they too have passed away. Everything around us speaks of death. Everything about the New Jerusalem speaks of life. Everything about the New Jerusalem speaks of the abundance that Christ has for us. First, chapter 22, verse one. He shows me a pure river of the Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life. Now, notice the tree of life has two trunks. One on one side of the river, one on the other side of the river, and it joins in the center with its fruits. It says, which bear 12 fruits, each yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. So there are 12 different kinds of fruit. And that's, remember when the Bible says that you'll go up and from one Sabbath to another, and from one new moon to another, they'll all come to worship before me. You remember that in Isaiah 66? People have asked me, what does it mean that we'll come to worship from one new moon to another? What does the tree of life produce? It produces a different fruit, what? Every month. And what's the what's the time span between new moons, right? It's a month, right? One month. So every month we will go up and participate in taking a different type of fruit, which brings into our bodies a new life, new energy, new concepts, new ideas, new abilities of thinking we can't possibly imagine that. Now, I've pondered a great deal about this phrase, the healing of the nations. What does this mean, that and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations? There are two possibilities, but I've come to favor the last. The first possibility is this. Although after sin, and I think both of them are true, but I want to emphasize the last one because I've emphasized the first one in presentations that some of you may have heard. The first possibility is the word healing is better translated the rebuilding or the restoring of the nations. And I've often thought that what this must mean is that when we come out of the grave, we're pretty defiled by sin. You know, Adam was twice as tall as men now living, and and and Eve came to his shoulder. So Adam must have been, must have been 12, 14 feet tall, maybe 14, 15 feet tall. I mean, that that's Adam. And you just think of that. I mean, one of our math professors figured out that if you take a slide rule, and or now a computer, and if you try to measure Adam's pace, that Adam could walk at a mild pace of about 25 miles an hour. That if you take Adam's size, you know, our brains are about three and a half pounds of rubbery gray matter. They have over 100 million brain cells. And we can think thousands of thoughts, we think thousands of thoughts every single day. But if my brain is three and a half pounds, but if I were 14 feet, what my brain be in proportion? And the idea is that your intellect is based on the surface of your brain. If you have an IQ of over 140, you're considered to be a genius. Well, just think of how smart Adam must have been to name all those animals. I mean, and remember all those names. Some of us have difficulty, the older we get, remembering the name of five friends. And so some of us, we we get a little older and names are are very difficult. You know, Tini and I travel a lot, and so people come up to us and say, do you remember me? I've got a classic now. I shouldn't give this one away. But anyway, I've got a classic because you know, it's hard to remember so many people. So what I always say is, how could I ever forget you? So so now, please, don't tell that, don't tell on me, would you? So here, we will be restored. You see, if Adam had if I have this brain that's three and a half pounds, Adam's brain was be someplace between 20 and 25 pounds. And think of the cortex, think of the frontal lobes of the brain. I mean, Adam's IQ from human terms could have easily been 800 or 1,000. I mean, way off the chart. So I think one of the things about the eating of the leaves of the tree of life is this. When we come up out of the grave, we're going to have immortal bodies. No sin, no sickness, no suffering, no death, no pain, glorious immortal bodies. But we will partake of the tree of life and continue to grow. And that's according to Malachi chapter 4, verse 3 as well. It says, we'll continue to grow as calves in the stall. In other words, we're going to continue to to grow in every way in heaven. But I really believe that there's another meaning of this text that may even be more accurate, because when you look at the passage, it says in Revelation 22, last part of the verse, The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. It does not say the healing of individuals. I want you to think of the conflict between nations today. I want you to think of the conflict between the Ukrainians and the Russians. And I want you to think of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities that totally devastate them, and husbands that are left without their wives and wives that are left without their husbands. How can those Ukrainians and Russians live together in heaven? I want you to think of the conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis. A a blood feud that has existed for thousands of years. How can they live together in heaven? I want you to think about the Hutus and the Tutsis, and the massacre that took place there in a nine-month period of a million people. How can they live together in heaven? And I want to posit this to you, that in heaven there will be such incredible breaking down of every barrier between ethnic groups, and there will be that constant renewal of relationships, and there will be a healing among the nations. And I have been able to witness a miniature heaven in those healing experiences, and let me share it with you.
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Mark Finley: A number of years ago, I was in Jerusalem because from 1985 to 1990, I was the Ministerial Secretary of the Trans-European Division. We lived in St. Albans, England. And in those years, one of the territories that I was responsible for was Israel. So when I traveled in and out of Israel, I wasn't traveling for tours like I do today, but I was traveling into Israel, meeting with our believers there. In those years, we had about 300, 350 Seventh-day Adventists in Israel. And I was in Jerusalem alone one day, because I travel in and out alone, and I went to our church in Jerusalem. We have churches in Jerusalem, churches in Haifa, churches in the Galilee area. Some amazing things are happening in Israel today with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. We're making some real headways among the Arab population, particularly in Nazareth. We've just put in a new Arab center in Nazareth, and we're making some real real significant headway. Weam Ali, his story is just incredible. Was an Arab who became a Seventh-day Adventist, and he's leading out in our work there now. But I was in Jerusalem, there was war in the streets. Molotov cocktails were being thrown. Gas was the the Israeli police were keeping the protesters back with shooting gas at them, and it was a horrible situation. We came to a communion Sabbath, and I was in the little church in Jerusalem, and it came to foot washing. And I looked across and there was a Jewish convert who had become a Seventh-day Adventist. And then there was an Arab convert who lived in Bethlehem, because you know, Bethlehem's an Arab town. He was a convert. And I had a miniature of heaven. Here, an Arab and a Jew, and a Christian, the three of us, knelt with a basin of water and washed one another's feet. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. All prejudice is broken down. All barriers are gone. We live in a society where there are no ethnic tensions. We live in a society where there is no prejudice. We live in a society where all humanity has fellowship with God, fellowship with one another in restored relationships. Just last week, a week before last, I was at a series of meetings at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. We brought world leaders in. And we brought the leader of our work from Ukraine in and the leader of our work in Russia in. And I couldn't help, you know, tears came to my eyes because I thought, here is the war going on in Ukraine and Russia. Our Ukrainian leader, the president of our work in Ukraine, does not speak English. He speaks only Ukrainian and Russian. The leader of our work in Russia speaks English very very well. Michael Kaminsky, he's a young pastor that we trained, came with us many many years ago when we were working in Russia, and he's now the president of our work not only in Russia, but in 17 countries in the former Soviet Union. And as I sat there, Michael Kaminsky, the president of our work in Russia, has his arm around the president of our work in the Ukraine. And he's translating for him into English for our meetings, because the president of Ukraine doesn't understand English. And I'm thinking, what does the Gospel do? Isn't that what heaven is all about, bringing us together? Tini and I traveled into Rwanda sometime after the genocide. It was a very difficult situation. In the genocide, see, see, Rwanda was administered by the Belgians. And the Belgians to keep the African population under control, they favored one group who were the Tutsis. The Tutsis are tall, slender, you can tell them apart. I'm able now to tell most people, if I meet somebody from Africa, I can usually tell what country they come from by their looks, and I can tell by their accent, the way they speak English. If you're from Ghana, I can usually know something about you. I can tell by the way you look, because I've traveled there so much now. But, so the Tutsis are tall, slender, these beautiful long noses. The Hutus are short, they're more stocky and they're more more muscular. The Tutsis were largely farmers. The Hutus were largely merchants. They were, and so the government knew that they had to keep the Hutus in control. So what they did is they elevated the farmers above them and created ethnic tensions between them. For weeks, months, the Hutu population was preparing a massacre to take over the country. They imported machetes by the thousands. They trained hundreds of young people to get there to to take their machetes and to slash and slash and kill. Now you had a lot of intermarriage, Hutus and Tutsis that had intermarried together. And the Hutu husbands were told to kill their wives, the wives were told to kill their husbands. It was just a horrendous situation. They were told that when the announcement comes on the radio, cut down the tall trees. That was the time to go out and slash. And so they did, and the bodies were, people were massacred, bodies were stacked in the streets. They were thrown in the rivers. The rivers became blood, dogs ate the bodies. When we got there, it was shortly after it was after the genocide. And we came to bring peace, we came to minister. It was a very difficult time. I was traveling with the Union President, Aman Rutalenga. And I said to Aman one day, I said, Aman, did you lose anybody in the genocide? He dropped his head and he said, I was out preaching and my wife and my children were in church, my grandchildren. He said, the killers came in. They took out my wife, they took out my children. They took them in a truck, brought them out in the forest and shot them through the brains, killed them. And he said, Mark, you know, this is the product of sin. He said, these people are taken over by sin. And he told me that after this was over, the President of the nation, Paul Kagame, who's an amazing man. I've I've talked to Paul before, President Kagame before. He had they established 16 prisons for the killers, 16 prisons just for the killers, new prisons. But they let us go into the prisons to preach, and we saw transformations by the grace of God in those prisons. But Pastor Aman Rutalenga said to me, he said, Mark, he said, after the genocide was over, the police captured the killers of my family. They brought them before me, and they put a whip in my hands and they said, you slash them, you whip them for what they've done. And he said, I can't do that, because by the grace of God, I forgive them. But he said, Mark, I want you to meet somebody that if you meet this person, you'll never be the same in your life. He said, I want to take you in my truck. So, we got in the truck and we drove these rough, rough roads. Went out to this pastor's wife's house. Her name was Adele Sefu. We got to the house and she was in another room, and I came in and sat in the waiting room. And I said to Pastor Aman Rutalenga, I said, tell me a little bit about her. I don't want to go into the meeting blind. He said, she was with her husband when he was slashed to death and hit in the head with a machete. But you need to hear her story. That day, Revelation 22:2 was fulfilled for me. That day, I could understand what it would mean that we'd have the healing of the nations. That day, I could understand what it would mean that Christ so traumatically changes our life that we're never the same again. I walked into the house, there was a picture on the wall of her husband. And I just sat there looking at that picture, suit, tie. I thought, this man was one of my colleagues. Adele came in, and I looked at the picture and I said, your husband was an amazing man. I said, what a man of God. And she sat down and I said, we talked a little bit, and I said, Adele, do you want to share with me the story, or is it too painful? And through her tears, she said, Pastor, I want to share.