"Is There a Light at the End of the Tunnel?"
By Rev. James D. Pardue on March 16, 1997
Revelation 21 & 22
During this time as we prepare for Easter, I have been going back and looking at some of the great Christian Doctrine. Let me give you an assignment to read in Revelation. Go home today and read Revelation 21 and 22, and what you are going to read is one of the most wonderful, exciting, awe-inspiring passages in the Bible. It tells us about what we, as Christians, believe about heaven.
Because of the rapid advance of medical technology, there are many people who are having what is called near-death experiences. Many of these individuals are literally, clinically dead, and they have resuscitated, and many of them have been near death but revived; they have said that out of those experiences that one of the things that has happened to them is that they have felt they have gone through a tunnel, and they are approaching a great light, and then they have been called back. The question that the new technology provides us is an opportunity to ask is there a light or what kind of light is at the end of the tunnel?
Many of you have read to your children the works of Frank Baum; you perhaps do not know that name right off but if you've read some of the 14 books he published about the wonderful world of Oz; in particular the wonderful Wizard of Oz, about the wonderful wizard, about a girl and a lion and a straw man and a tin man, and they are trying to go to this castle where their needs are going to be met. And you recall that when they got there they found out that the wizard was a fraud, that everything they had heard about him was all smoke and mirrors. The question that I wanted to ask you this morning is" Can Christians believe that there is really a light at the end of the tunnel or are we going to find out when it is all over that there is really nothing to hope for at all? It is amazing, as you go through the Bible, how many people based their life on an assurance that one day they would live with God. You only have to take the Bible and turn to the 12th chapter until you are introduced to Abraham. The Bible says that Abraham traveled with God but he was looking for a city whose foundations were laid by God. Then it talks about Moses; it said Moses was willing to suffer for this world because he looked beyond this life for his reward. And the Bible says that Jesus endured the cross and despised the shame because He was looking for the joy that was set before Him. All the way through the Bible people had a deep, deep assurance that one day, as they ended this life, they were going to live with the Father.
As you begin to read the 21st and 22nd chapters of Revelation, the Bible is going to say something that I am very familiar with: it says that as you began to look at the new heaven and new earth that it was so beautiful, and then it said it's like a bride adorned for her husband. Now you know I know that terminology because in my lifetime I have married close to a thousand couples, and my job in a wedding is the groom, my job is to keep him upright! My job is to tell him all doors are closed, my job is to help him to be able to come and stand. And then I am always the first who comes out and the groom is standing right here and then the wedding party comes. All the girls come, then the boys come, and then we hear this great sound come from the organ, and then framed in that double door is the bride! Now, take a moment to look at the bride, but I also look at the groom. Most girls, even today, don't let their husbands see them before they are married, and most of the boys have never seen the girl in the dress! You should see the looks that come on the fellow's face! He is standing there and the music starts and she starts down the aisle. I have never seen a groom who has not broken into a smile, and everyone of them inside is thinking: You know, I am the luckiest dog in the world! Listen to the Scripture: "I want you to see heaven as a bride adorned for her husband." What He is saying is: It's more wonderful, it's more beautiful, it's more awe inspiring, it takes your breath away! And, as you begin to understand it, you will begin to say I am the luckiest person on the face of the earth.
When the Scripture refers to it in Revelation 21, it gives three word pictures. I wanted to talk about just one today. It tells about a city, it tells about a temple, it tells about a garden. The first is about a city. It says:" I saw the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven." Now why would it mention a city? Why would heaven be compared to a city? Well, I wanted you to mark another passage of Scripture in your Bible that will help you to understand it; it's in the Book of Hebrews and it's Chapter 12, verse 22. Let me read it for you: "But you have come to Mt. Zion to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God." This is a place that though God lives everywhere, this is the place where He lives most completely; this is His home. Listen to what He says: "You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly." One reason it has to be called a city is because if you take all of the things that the Bible says about heaven and compare it to what it says abut the angels, there are at least a hundred million angels that are there. Then it says, "plus thousands and thousands of other angels." And they are there in joyful assembly.
Think about it. Here is a place where all of these angelic beings are praising God. Then listen to what it says: "You have come to the church of the first born whose names are written in heaven," they are there. Every person you have read abut in the Bible, every person you have read about in history, every person you have known in church who has gone on to be with the Lord, they are there. Then he says, "And you have come to God, the judge of all men to the spirits of righteous men made perfect," and that means all of the people who were before the church who trusted in Christ and trusted in God. They are there. Then it says, "And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant." And when you get to this great city, He is there. The Bible in this passage of Scripture even gives something of the dimensions of the city. It says it is 1500 miles long and 1500 miles wide. If you were to take the city of London, on of the great cities of the world, it's 140 square miles. This one is 1500 times 1500. And then it says it is 1500 miles high. And someone in Carnegie Institute said that if you took every person who had ever lived and you project every person who is going to live for a period of the next one billion years, that if everybody went to heaven we would have 25 square miles a piece! We are all going to have the huge city to dwell in.
But Jesus gave us something far more comforting to me. He said, "I am going to prepare a place for you." He said, "I am going to have a place just for you." In biblical times in Israel when sons and daughters married they didn't go out and build a new house. What happened was their mothers and fathers would build a room on to the house and if you had a lot of children you had almost like a "Motel 6," and they were all around the same patio. What Jesus was saying is this: When you get there and see this big city, you are going to wonder is anybody going to know I am here. He said what I want you to know is that the Father is there and He has built a little addition onto the house. And when you come out, you are going to see all of your brothers and sisters who were there. And you are going to share the same patio with the Lord and we are all going to be a very special person in a very large place.
God has a place for you if you give your heart and life to Him. Jesus banked His whole integrity of His ministry, that if you put your faith and trust in Him, there is a place for you! Listen to what He said: "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me." Believe what I am saying to you. In my Father's house there are many places to live. And if it were not so, then I would have told you about it. Jesus said, "I want you to know you can trust in Me. And you can depend on that if you have given your life to Me. I have a place for you," and you can put your hope and trust in Him!
Now let me ask you: are you going to go to heaven? I can tell you how you can know. You are going to go to heaven if you have already let part of heaven come into you. If, in your life, you really want to live with God, you really want to serve Him, you want to live by His principles, you want to adopt His life-style. And if, in your life, you want Him and you to walk through life together, the Bible says that part of heaven has already come to live inside of you. And that then, when you die, God who has come to live inside of you, what happens is that you go to live inside of Him. And if that has already happened in your life, you can know when that opportunity comes you will go to be with Him.
Let me tell you the other side of that. Someone has said that hell is God honoring your personal choice, that if you want to live this life without Him, if you want to get as far away from Him as you can in this life, then He will provide you the opportunity to do that in the next life. Do you understand that to take someone who doesn't want to be around God, who doesn't want to live with God, and take them to heaven, heaven would become hell to them! Sometimes people who are not believers go to someone and they will say, "Why don't you go to church with me on Sunday," and they are absolutely miserable. "Why don't you read the Bible together," and the time is terrible. Who wants to spend time around Christians? Who wants to spend time around God? Well, let me assure you: if you don't want it here, He is not going to force it on you there! But if you want Him and want to serve Him and want to live for Him, then He says I'll give you an assurance, I'll let part of that heavenly experience come into your life and you can know now that in one day that what you have, a little part of you will have more than you even can imagine. And one day you are going to stand at the end of the tunnel and see the light. And like an old boy who is looking at the double doors and seeing the bride walk down, you are going to say, "It's more wonderful than I ever imagined!" That's your hope if you are in Christ.