Back to The Garden — Forever
Revelation. 22:1-5

What do you think about when you think about heaven?
I read the story of a little girl who was outside with her dad one night. The only lights were the dazzling stars in the sky. And she turned to her dad and said “If this the wrong side of heaven, and it’s so beautiful, what do you think the right side of heaven will look like?”

Now the book of Revelation tries to paint a picture of the beauty of heaven, it speaks of streets paved with gold, and gates and walls of precious stones and jewels. And the point of all that imagery was to help us understand that – heaven is going to be one of the coolest places you’ve ever seen.

Today, numerous songs we sing declare that same excitement: One of those songs is “I'm satisfied with
just a cottage below, a little silver and a little gold.
But in that city where the ransomed will shine.
I want a gold one that's silver lined.
(Chorus) I've got a mansion just over the hilltop,
in that bright land where we'll never grow old.
And some day yonder we will never more wander,
but walk on streets that are purest gold.”

When we hear songs like that - there’s something about the music and the words of those songs that declares:
HEAVEN IS A PLACE TO GET EXCITED ABOUT.

Revelation 22:1–5 reveals the end of the story — and it looks strikingly like the beginning. God restores what was lost in Eden, but greater, eternal, and unbreakable. Humanity is healed, creation is renewed, and God dwells with His people face to face.

1 “The river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
     • The river is a symbol of God’s life-giving presence
     • In Eden, a river watered the garden; here, it flows from God Himself
     • No barriers, no distance, no drought — pure, unfiltered life

2 “On each side of the river stood the tree of life… yielding fruit every month.”
     • Humanity was banished from the tree in Genesis
     • Now the tree is accessible, abundant, and eternal
     • Its fruit never runs out; its leaves bring healing to the nations
God doesn’t just forgive — He heals. He doesn’t just restore — He multiplies.

3 “No longer will there be any curse.”
     • The curse of Genesis 3 is fully reversed
     • No more decay, division, disease, or death
     • The world is finally as God intended
We live in a world still groaning, but Revelation promises the curse has an expiration date.

4 “They will see His face.”
     • The deepest longing of the human soul is fulfilled
     • No veil, no temple, no separation
     • God’s name on our foreheads means identity, belonging, and ownership
Heaven is not about a place — it’s about a Person.

5 “And they will reign for ever and ever.”
     • Humanity’s original calling (Genesis 1:26–28) is restored
     • Not passive existence, but active partnership with God
     • Eternal purpose, eternal joy, eternal authority
God doesn’t just save us from something — He saves us for something.

Revelation 22:1–5 is God’s final promise:
The story ends in life, not loss.
In healing, not hurt.
In glory, not grief.
Eden is not just restored — it is perfected.

A little 6-yr-old girl came home from VBS one day and excitedly said: “Mom, God’s so neat, and heaven’s so great. Could me and Gloria go there for a sleep-over on Saturday?”
That little girl understood what heaven’s all about – GOD’S NEAT… AND HEAVEN’S GONNA BE GREAT.
Now there are some people who don’t believe that. They say they believe Heaven will be boring, monotonous, and dreary.

A popular Irish Playwright named George Bernard Shaw, observed, “Heaven, as conventionally conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in heaven…”

Revelation 19:1-7 tells us “After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just” …
And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!" And from the throne came a voice saying, "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great." Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready…”

People pay good money to go to concerts where things like that happen. Concerts where people are just jumping up and down with excitement.
I mean - that kind of thing is not boring… UNLESS you don’t like the music, or unless you don’t like who’s onstage.
There are many in the world today who aren’t going to like the music in heaven – because it’s all about Jesus and worshipping God. And they won’t like who’s onstage - because that would be Jesus. So, of course they’re going to be bored.
They’ll be bored out of their minds.

But, there’s going to be a lot more than singing & rejoicing going on in heaven.
Revelation 22:5 says that “(We) will see his face, and his name will be on (our) foreheads. And night will be no more. (We) will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be (our) light, and (we) will reign forever and ever.”
We’re going to REIGN, and that means we’re going to be doing SOMETHING. I don’t know what exactly WHAT we’ll be doing, but I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be enjoyable.

Back in the book of Genesis, we read that “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:15-16

WHAT’S THAT SAYING?
It’s saying that God gave Adam and Eve work to do.
And God gave them the Garden of Eden … which was THEIR place to look after and to take care of.
In that Garden, they REIGNED as King and Queen.
Now, is that what’s going to happen in Heaven?
I don’t know. But I DO know this:
when God gave Adam and Eve a place to reign… it wasn’t boring. It was a time of joy and pleasure.
And when Jesus returns God promises we will REIGN, and that will be a time of joy and pleasure.

ILLUS: Randy Alcorn — wrote a book called Heaven … and he wrote “Our belief that Heaven will be boring betrays a heresy — that God is boring.
There’s no greater nonsense.
Our desire for pleasure and the experience of joy come directly from God’s hand. He made our taste buds, our adrenaline, our nerve endings, etc. which convey pleasure to our brains.
Likewise, our imaginations and our capacity for joy and excitement were made by the very God we accuse of being boring. Are we so arrogant as to imagine that human beings came up with the idea of having FUN?”
OF COURSE NOT!

There’s an old hymn that says “Heaven is WONDERFUL place, filled with glory and grace. I’m gonna see my Savior’s face, cause heaven is a wonderful place.”
And heaven’s going to be a wonderful place… partly because of what’s NOT going to be there; and partly because of what WILL be there!
So, what’s NOT going to be there in heaven?

Well, Revelation gives us a list.
Revelations 21:3-5
“I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"

We can keep a list of things he know WON’T be in heaven.
In heaven “there’ll be no more cancer. No more divorce.
No more rejection or loneliness. No more depression.
No more wheelchairs or pacemakers.
No more radiation or chemotherapy.
No more crosses along the side of the road.
No more child abuse. No more rape.
No more funeral homes or orphanages or nursing homes.
No more treatment centers. No more Pink slips or foreclosures. No more quarantines or face masks or social distancing.”
That’s a lot of stuff that’s NOT going to be going on in heaven.

Now, there’s going to be ONE thing in heaven that will make it all worthwhile.
BACK TO VERSES 3-5 of our TEXT
“The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
There will be no more night.
They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.”

What’s going to be there in heaven? GOD!
The one thing that will make everything worthwhile in heaven will be God. He will be there waiting for us, and He’ll make EVERYTHING new!
Jesus said “Let not your hearts be troubled.” But why would we be troubled? Because this is a hard world… and it hurts to live here. But then Jesus goes on to say:
“Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms.
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:1-3

What Jesus was saying was this: I’m coming back for you.
And when I come, I’ll have a place prepared JUST FOR YOU.
One of the main themes of Revelation is this: God’s coming back. And He’s coming back for you.
And when He comes back you’re going to have everything you didn’t have on earth.

CLOSE: The story is told of the days when doctors visited their patients at home. It was obvious the patient didn’t have long to live and as the doctor was about to leave, the sick man called out to him: "Doctor, I am afraid to die.
Can you tell me what lies on the other side?"
The doctor was very quiet for a moment and then said, "I don’t know."
"You do not know?
You are a Christian and you do not know what is on the other side?"
The doctor’s hand was on the doorknob… and on the other side of the door there was the sound of scratching and whining. It was the doctor’s dog which he had brought with him. And as he opened the door the dog leaped into the room and jumped up on him…
and eagerly licked his face.
Suddenly the Doctor realized how to answer the man’s question.
"Did you see what my dog just did?
He’s never been in this room before.
He didn’t know what was inside. He just knew that I was here … and that was enough. When the door opened, he pushed through – excited that I was here.
Now, I know very little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing: I know my Master is there, and that is enough. And when the door opens, I’m going in.”