Revelation 11:15-19 "A slice of heaven"

Revelation 11:15-19

Philippians 3:17-21

“A slice of heaven”

Let us look at Revelation 11:15-16 again:

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever”

We have probably all heard of the saying, “this is a little slice of heaven”

Perhaps someone said that when they were looking at a beautiful sunset in the sky.

Perhaps someone said that as they were looking out at the ocean on a clam crisp and clear day

Perhaps someone said that as they were looking out over the green mountains of New Zealand, or the vast Grand canyon The USA, or the glaciers of Alaska, or even the shores of Cronulla.

In that moment of awe, wonder and joy, perhaps someone has exclaimed, “ah, this is a little slice of heaven”

Perhaps you said that, as you devoured a chocolate cream cake, or a meat and potato pie, or a chicken curry….ah, this is a slice of heaven, and as you ate that…whatever it was….you savoured every moment- you didn’t want it to end.

Perhaps it was a moment that you wanted to live again and again, the honeymoon, the birthday celebration, the wedding day, the grand final win, the job promotion, ah…you may have thought, this is “a slice of heaven”

Whatever that thing is, whatever that moment is, it is something that you just want to put on repeat and live again and again.

In the year 1, that is 2026 years ago, give or take a couple of years, the world, literally experienced a slice of heaven.

In the year 1, in a stable in a little town of Bethlehem in the middle east, heaven literally came down to earth in the person of Jesus.

John chapter 1 tells us that in the person of Jesus the eternal word of God, Jesus came from heaven to earth and dwelt, that is lived amongst us.

When Jesus came to earth, heaven came to earth, ………and guess what?

The world could not cope with heaven, the world could not cope with Jesus, and so they rejected Him, mocked him and killed him.

When heaven came to earth in the person of Jesus, people witnessed the awe, and wonder and power of heaven breaking through to earth. The deaf could hear, the blind could see, the sick were made well, the dead were raised back to life, forgiveness of sins was given, life that was lived to the full, was shown.- “heaven burst onto earth”

Not only did people see kingdom of heaven breaking through to earth, but they heard about the kingdom of heaven or what is also known as the kingdom of God.

Jesus taught people about the kingdom of God.

For example, in Mark 1:15, Jesus taught,

“Repent and believe for the kingdom of God is near”

In Luke 17:21, Jesus taught his disciples that the kingdom of God was not just near but the kingdom of God was actually amongst them, as the king of the kingdom of God- Jesus walked this earth.

And so when Jesus came to this earth, a slice of heaven came to earth, but, but………. the whole pie of heaven didn’t come to earth. This is why Jesus was able to say, in the days when he walked this earth, “Yes, the kingdom of God is here among you, and yet it is also still coming, it is near”

Jesus proclaimed, “Yes, the kingdom of God, otherwise known as the kingdom of heaven is now here, but it is not here in its fullness”

And this brings me to the main point I want to make today from our passage in

Revelation 11.

The kingdom of God, that is the kingdom of heaven will not come to this earth in its fullness until Jesus returns again, or as it says in verse 15, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

And this will happen when the final trumpet is blown and Christ returns.

Did you know that when Christ returns, we won’t all be whisked off up into heaven…..No….heaven will come down and meet us. I think according to 1 Thessalonians 5, those believers that are still on earth when Christ returns, will be whisked up into the clouds to meet with Jesus and his angels, but then, at the same time, Christ and his people will come down to earth, and on that day, heaven will meet earth, and the earth will be renewed.

Revelation 21:22 says that on that day, the holy city, the new Jerusalem, that is God’s people will come down out of heaven from God, and there will be a new heaven and new earth, as heaven finally and fully meets earth.

In 2 Peter 3:6 and 7 it says that when heaven and earth meet that day, it will be like the days of Noah. In the days of Noah, God sent his judgement on the earth by sending a flood. Only those people that were on the ark were spared God’s judgement. And then after the flood of God’s judgement, God made a fresh start.

2 Peter describes the coming judgement not as water but as fire. And so when heaven meets earth on that day when Jesus returns, it won’t be like a totally new planet being brought in, but it will be a renewing of this planet through the fiery judgement of God.

And it is only those people inside of Christ, the true Ark, that will be spared God’s wrath, and who are able to enjoy the new heaven and the new earth.

On that day, when heaven meets earth, Jesus will renew this earth by doing four things according to Revelation 11:17-18

1.        He will reign over all this earth, now just individual hearts

2.        He will judge all people, the living and the dead

3.        He will reward those who have been faithful to Him

4.        He will destroy those who have destroyed the earth

And friends, we may find it hard in our limited knowledge of good and evil of just how joyful that day will be, when God renews this earth through his judgement, but it will be a glorious day, as we will be singing in loud voices, as it says in verse 16 “ the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever”

Friends, we should be yearning, longing for that day when heaven meets earth in its fullness, yearning for the day when God makes all things new, yearning for the day when God will wipe away every tear from our eye, yearning for the day when there will be no more death, no more pain, no more sorrow.

And if what are not looking forward to that day, if we are not praying with John, “come Lord Jesus come”, we must ask ourselves why not?

Have we settled for what we consider our slice of heaven here on earth?

Have we settled for the sunset, the job promotion, the new house?

If so, we have settled for the crumbs.

Or perhaps we are not looking forward to the day when heaven meets earth, because we haven’t totally surrendered to the king of God’s kingdom- Jesus.

Perhaps we haven’t given Jesus our whole lives.

We just want a little slice of heaven on a Sunday, but the rest of the week is ours.

Perhaps we put Jesus on the throne for one day of the week, but the rest of the week, we sit back on the throne of our own hearts.

Perhaps we are not eagerly wanting the king to return because we fear he will expose our selfish hearts.

Brothers and sisters, the kingdom of God will fully come when Jesus returns and not a day sooner.

Until that day, when Jesus returns and as it says in Revelation 11:15, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom or our Lord and Christ, we live in a time where we live in two different kingdoms, the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of heaven.

As believers living now, we are citizens of two places, citizens of this world and citizens of heaven.

Until Jesus returns, we will always have dual citizenship……..however, our heavenly citizenship is the one which is more important, because our heavenly citizenship is eternal, our worldly citizenship is temporal.

As followers of Christ, we live in this tension.

On the one had we live on this earth as citizens of heaven, that is we live according to the rule of heaven, we love our enemies, forgive those who persecute us, love our neighbours, show justice to the orphan and widow, care for those who are looked down upon, we hate what is evil, we speak for justice, and so on.

On the other hand, we live as citizens of this earth, we pay our taxes, we obey the governments that God has put over us, we do good for our communities, we invest in the people around us, we try to influence those people in authority to follow God’s laws, ………however, and this is where some brothers and sisters disagree with me…….

As much as we live God’s way on this earth, we ourselves will never totally bring heaven to earth,

No, only Jesus will do that on the day when he returns.

This is why live for God’s kingdom now, desperately wanting Jesus to return, so that he will fully and wonderfully bring heaven to earth.

This means as believers, we shouldn’t worry too much about the politics of this world.

History has shown us that when believers have tried to bring heaven to earth through this world’s political system, it simply hasn’t worked. The authority of the kingdom of this world has been given over to Satan for a period of time. That means, this world does not operate according to the ways of God, but this world operates according to the rules of Satan, the prince of the power of the air, who operates in the spirits of the disobedient. It’s aim is death, destruction, greed, power, lies.

Friends, if believers want to bring in heaven through the worldly political system, I think we are going about it the wrong way.

When Jesus was on trial before Pontius Pliate, he had every opportunity to bring in the kingdom of heaven through some political means, but he didn’t……

He brought in his kingdom through his death and resurrection.

He brought in his kingdom through service and sacrifice.

He brought in his kingdom, not through political games, but by the resurrection power of the spirit.

Borther and sisters, one day, King Jesus will return and heaven will reign on earth, and all the world will know and bow.

But until that day brothers and sisters, we keep living on this earth as citizens of heaven.

We pray that God may use us in the time he gives us to show people a slice of heaven, we pray that God may use us to show people, Jesus, the true slice of heaven, who one day will bring in the whole lot.

Let us pray.