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Friends, I have, I have a friend whose name is Sonia Martinez, but I've never met Sonia. I've never met her face to face. I know about her because someone introduced her to me. Sonia lives on the other side of the world. She lives in Manila, in the Philippines, and she's involved in setting up a clinic, a counseling center for folk who are Philippines, Filipinos in Manila. I've seen Sonia's picture. We have it on our little map of the world, but I've never seen her face to face. We get letters from Sonia, and we've written letters to Sonia, but I've never talked to her mouth to ear.
How do I know that Sonia is there? I've never been to Manila either. Some of you in this room have been to Manila, and you tell me that it's there, but I've never physically been there. How do I know that Manila exists? How do I know that? Well, someone told me. Someone told me. And I believed the report that someone spoke to me. I believe that someone in Chicago told us many years ago that a woman named Sonia Martinez was worthy of our trust and worthy to pray for, and so we started writing to Sonia, and we get letters back.
But I've never met Sonia. I think if she came in the door right now, I'd recognize her, but I've never seen her with my eyes. I suspect if I ever went to Manila, I'd recognize some of the places, even though I haven't been there. I've seen pictures. I've heard people tell me about Manila. In fact, if you go through this door, what says exit, at least last I looked, there's a little closet in there, and on the closet there's a picture of a Manila taxicab. Jack brought it back with his wife Cora. It's unlike any taxicab you've ever seen in your whole life. Some of you sometimes take a ch- just a look. I've never seen that taxicab, but Jack did, and he brought back a postcard, a picture with it.
You know where I'm going, don't you, friends? I've never seen Jesus either. I haven't seen him with my eyes. I haven't seen him face to face. You know what? I haven't been to heaven, but I know it's there. How do I know it's there? Well, I've got several witnesses to that fact. One of them is the words that we've read together, that John himself heard from the Spirit of God, and then by angelic vision saw pictures that we have read this morning, and he's given it to us to encourage us that when we get there, we're going to recognize it.
You see? We're going to get there in such a way that someday we're going to see it, and we're going to say, you know, it's not like what I imagined, but still I recognize it. Someday I'm going to see Jesus. I think I'm going to recognize him right away. It's not going to be quite like I imagined, but I'm going to recognize him. And so the last two chapters of the book of Revelation encourage us to see that the end of history is really the beginning of a whole new history. That the end of the biblical record ends with a beginning. And for Christians that are going through incredibly hard times, what we need to hear and affirm is that the end is only the beginning.
And so we praise him, and we sing these songs, and we say to each other, you know, one day we'll see him, and it's not going to be quite like what we think now, but it's going to be recognizable. It's kind of the difference between a phone call and a face-to-face communication. I've heard the words, not just orally, but in my soul, and when I hear Jesus speak them to me again, I'm going to say, yeah, it's got the voice of recognition. So that what John sees in the last couple chapters is the fact that God starts to come near to his people, and he becomes recognized by those people who know him.
I'm looking forward to that one. In the midst of the despair, in the midst of all the headaches, in the midst of the heartaches of life, the difficulties that come my way and come your way, it's nice to know that at the end of history, there's a beginning, and there's a beginning where we're going to recognize Jesus. Of course, the question that came to John and came to the people of the first century is, have you met him? Have you met him? Have you heard his voice? The second thing that's true about this particular text is that heaven is not only a place where God comes near, but it's a place where perfection becomes apparent. By that, what's fascinating to me as I read it again is that John seems to spend, and the angel seems to spend, an inordinate amount of the time talking about building stuff.
Now, if you and I were going to finish the end of the Bible, we'd start with some spectacular explosion or some kind of great reunion. Why in the world does he spend all this time talking about gates and foundation and precious stones and things like that? Why does he do it? Well, I think he's got a reason. The reason is, is that the most precious thing on earth is used as just building material in heaven. The thing that we would say is of ultimate value up here, some of us wear it. I've got gold. It's, it's a precious, it's a ring. Some of you have diamonds on your finger. You don't wear diamonds all over your body. You don't have enough money for it.
You see? We don't wear jewels and a- a- and we don't, I don't think any of you have gold as a part of your driveway, do you? You don't. But in heaven, it's a building material. Why? Because God, when he builds heaven, wants us to recognize that what we consider precious is only a little clue to recognize that heaven's beyond our greatest expectation. It's the place of perfection. I can't wait. I'd like to walk on a gold driveway. You know, what we see down here that we esteem as precious is only a little symbol of how amazing life with God is.
You know, Millstone, my friend Tim and I, we commiserate. Millstone's going through a tough time because they have a hard time generating energy. You know, in heaven they don't have Millstone. They don't need. We're not going to worry about whether the air conditioning comes on and the lights dim because of the load on the compressors. We don't have to worry about that. Why? Because it says in the text that the glory of God is of such a capacity that he becomes all the light we need. Isn't that amazing? And so what we're given, not only is heaven in some place a place where God comes near, but it's a place where what we consider to be fabulously expensive is used as common stuff.
Do you have any gold on your fingers right now? Look at it. Just look at it. You got diamonds on your fingers? You look at it and say, you know, that's going to be the driveway. And you got to look at it because you're going to recognize it. Some folk that are real wealthy have real big diamonds. Some people have pearls. You know, they're going to use pearls just for gates in heaven. Just gates. I can't wait. Can you? If what we consider precious on earth is mere building material in heaven, how much more exciting is it going to be? The third thing that the text says is that heaven's a place where God's people are freed. I've been nervous this morning because we tried to do something we hadn't done before.
We tried to get the praise team and the orchestra and the piano and the organ and you all to sing the same time. We didn't have a chance to practice. I'm sweating. You know, I'm trying to, I, I, you know, like how it works? Heaven, we have all eternity practice, and we'll be free to do it the best we can. Some of the folk over in that section way over there before the service, I said I was going to come back to inspect how loudly they sang. They says, well, you don't want to hear us sing. I said, you know, in heaven, we'll sing better than ever. We're going to be freed from all the limits of our internal world, freed from all the evil of our external world, to say, hallelujah, God, and not just once, but forever.
And it says in the text that we'll be freed because he will give us his name as our identity. I proclaim that Jesus is my Lord. There, it will be there for everyone to see. Secondly, it says that his work will become our agenda, we'll become servants. Even that John gets all mixed up. You read it in the text. He starts to worship the angel, right? And the angel says, ah, you got it all wrong, John. I'm just a fellow servant with you. See? Thirdly, we'll just enjoy his presence. You note there's this extended description in both chapters twenty one and twenty two about who is in and who is out. But he wants us to know that how we live our lives on this earth prepares us for the thing we'll enjoy doing.
We'll be free to do it. So we're given the opportunity to practice. I have a friend named Sonia Martinez. I've never met her. Uh, we've written letters back and forth. Sometime there's been confusion. At one point, she thought I was an old man. Well, she probably wasn't that far off, but she thought I was dying of cancer. I didn't know that I was. You know how that was. So we had to write a letter back saying, you know, Sonya, you might be thinking of someone else. Sonya is from Toronto, but she's Filipino. I don't know how that happened, but she got involved with a group of people in Chicago that I know, international teams.
And a friend of mine, Kevin Dyer, said, you really ought to take care of Sonya. She's in her mid-thirties and she's single. She's never been married. She needs people to pray for and give to her. So we've given her a little bit of money, and we get letters. I've never met Sonya. How do I know she's there? The same way I know my Jesus is there. I had a friend who introduced him to me. I have some letters that he's written to me. I have some pictures of where he lives. One of those pictures is what we do this morning. And the singing of praise songs, amid all of the uncertainty of the morning, my heart gets lifted, and I start to sing, and I start to say, oh Lord, it's got to be this much better, and that much better, and ten times this much better when we get to heaven.
Help us to sing. Help me to sing with all the muster, all the worship I can muster. And I can't wait. Probably won't meet Sonya till I get to heaven, but I'll recognize her. Probably won't see Jesus till I get to heaven, but I'm going to recognize him. And you know what? I'm going to recognize heaven too, because I got gold on my finger, and I'm just going to look at the pavement. I know what that looks like. I know pearls, and there'll be the gate that we use to get in and out. And there'll be spectacular gems and glistening things and a certain measure to life that I'll recognize, and so will you.
And what are we going to do? We're going to worship our Lord. We're going to sing praises to him. You ready to go with me? I would like if he came today. It would solve a whole lot of problems. It would free me to be the kind of person I want. But John says at the end of his book, oh Lord, come quickly. Come quickly. Come quickly. And in the interim, what are we called to do, but to be the servants of the God of heaven here on earth? As best we could this morning, Father, we've sought to sing some of the songs of heaven and to express to you what John expressed to your people almost two thousand years ago.
Come, even come, Lord Jesus. We've sought to say to yourself, it's soon and very soon that we're going to come to meet you there, that there'll be no more crying, no more tears, no more death, no more dying. In light of that, Father, would you encourage us as we go from here? Encourage us to be the citizens of heaven who are temporarily left here on earth so that we could represent the kingdom that soon will be visible to all. Father, you know the concerns of our hearts. You know what happens to us from here through next Sunday.
You know the battles that we fight, the discouragements we face, and yet in the light of the sureness of your coming, would you help us to be people who are confident of your grace and strength in it? We give you thanks for these things in the name of Jesus Christ.