I’m so glad the biblical narrative ends as it does. The final two chapters of the Book of Revelation provide a fitting conclusion to John’s apocalyptic vision and are among the most glorious passages of all Scripture. The Lamb wins. We are redeemed. Heaven is open.
I wonder what thoughts ran through John’s mind after he laid down his pen for the last time, and paused to watch the ink dry, and reflected on this masterpiece of apocalyptic literature he had written.
The first book of Christian Scripture, the Book of Genesis, begins with God creating the heavens and the earth out of nothing. It tells of humankind falling into sin, and the ensuing spiritual death we have all inherited as a result.
The last book, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, closes with sin abolished, death destroyed, and the redeemed people of God living in eternal fellowship with their Creator through union with Jesus Christ, the greatest descendant of our first parents.
In Revelation 21–22, three truths shine with singular clarity: the absence of sin and death, the communion of saints, and the union of God with his people in Christ. These truths do not describe an imagined utopia perhaps too good to be true. They shape our lives today as we follow Jesus, step by step, anticipating the new creation that is on its way.
1. The absence of sin and death
The first and most striking feature of John’s vision is what is missing from the new heaven and the new earth. He writes, “[God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more” (Rev 21:4).
This is not simply the removal of pain; it is the eradication of everything that has ever marred human life since the Fall. Death, the last enemy that has stalked humanity from Adam onward, is swallowed up in victory. Paul echoes this when he declares, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:26). In heaven, death no longer reigns over us. It is Jesus alone who reigns – Jesus, who overcame death on the cross.
Along with death, sin itself is absent. Revelation 21:8 describes the fate of “the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable,” and all who persist in rebellion against God: they are excluded from the new creation. Later, John adds, “Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev 21:27). The holy city, the New Jerusalem, is entirely pure. Its gates are never shut because there are no threats, no enemies, no possibility of corruption.
This absence is crucial to our hope. We often think of heaven in terms of what will be present—golden streets, pearly gates, a river of life. Yet the glory of heaven is equally revealed in what will be absent: no sin to stain conscience, no death to steal loved ones, no tears of grief, no pain of body or soul. Every shadow cast by sin is driven away by the Light of the world, the Lamb of God, slain for our sins and risen to endless life.
2. The communion of saints
John’s vision of the future also embraces community. Heaven is not a solitary existence of disembodied souls, or a lonely place where we wander among clouds, but the perfect fellowship of the people of God.
John sees “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:2). This is figurative language, but I think we can discern here a beautiful image of collective identity.
Heaven is not for isolated individuals but for the redeemed people of God gathered as one. Heaven has all the excitement and fellowship of the best of human community, with none of the drawbacks we know so well. This communion of the saints fulfils Jesus’ prayer in John 17, that his followers would be one even as he and the Father are one.
In Revelation 22, the vision of the river of life flowing through the city underscores the grace of abundance for all. The tree of life bears fruit each month, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations. Here is the perfect reconciliation of people formerly divided by conflict and misunderstanding, by injustice and indifference, by malice and misery, by the withholding of mercy and love. The curse that shattered and scattered humankind at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11), and has fractured nations ever since, will be lifted.
The saints in heaven share unhindered fellowship with one another. We will recognise, love, and rejoice with those who were redeemed by Christ from every tribe, tongue, and nation. The communion of saints is a beautiful expression of unity in diversity, perfected in love.
This has profound implications for our life in the here and now. Jesus calls his church on earth to be a foretaste of this ultimate communion, a community where barriers of ethnicity, class, and ideology dissolve as we follow Jesus together. Revelation 21–22 reminds us that the reality of life after death is a wonderful, shared life with God’s people, not a private paradise – far less the myth of cessation of being. Heaven is community perfected.
3. Union with God
The heart of heaven is not its matchless beauty, nor even its freedom from suffering, but the immediate and accessible presence of God. John hears a loud voice proclaim, “Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God” (Rev 21:3).
This is the fulfilment of the covenant promise repeated throughout Scripture: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” In the new creation, God dwells among his people. The climax of salvation history is the realisation of the promise, “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (22:4).
To see God’s face is the ultimate joy, the beatific vision for which the faithful have always longed. It is the capstone of union with Christ. It is made possible through Christ, the Lamb. The city has no temple, “for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (21:22). Jesus, the victorious Lamb, is the mediator of our ultimate fellowship with God, and the content of our communion with God. Heaven is heaven because we are with Jesus.
This is no passive union. Revelation 22:5 declares that the saints will “reign forever and ever.” The Greek word for “reign” here has the same thought as the Hebrew word “rule” in Genesis 1:26-28, where God blessed our first parents and commissioned them to “rule” all the other creatures and the whole earth with godly stewardship.
Likewise, I have no doubt that our future life with God will include meaningful service, joyful worship, and shared rule under Christ. The restlessness of human ambition, and the frustration of earthly labor, and the injustice and lack of freedom that comes with the rise of employers and managers and masters, will be gloriously transformed into purposeful and fruitful practices that perfectly express our union with Jesus in the fullness of the kingdom of God, precisely as God always intended.
4. An invitation
Revelation’s vision of heaven is not given simply to satisfy our curiosity but to summon us to faith. John closes his grand book with an invitation: “Come! Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life freely” (22:17).
It’s an invitation with a warning: those who persist in sin will remain outside the place where God dwells. The reality of these two ultimate human destinies confronts us with a choice.
The way into the holy city is not through the privilege of birth, or moral achievement, but through our identification with the holy sacrifice of the Lamb of God, given for us.
We follow Jesus into heaven. Our names must be written in the Lamb’s book of life, and not everyone’s name graces those sacred pages. If you are weary of sin, or burdened by guilt, or you fear death and what it may bring, the Revelation of Jesus Christ offers you the best hope you could imagine.
The testimony of the Bible is reliable. The consistent witness of God’s people for thousands of years is true. The future described is not a fanciful dream but a rock-solid certainty for all who trust in Christ. Jesus really did die and rise again to secure heaven for you. He alone can forgive your sins, heal your wounded soul, wipe away your tears, prepare you for heaven, and bring you into the joy of God’s presence.
Open your mind and heart to the light and love of Jesus, and you will share in the glorious absence of sin and death, the eternal fellowship of the saints, and the wonderful union with God for which each of us truly longs.
Sermon 829 copyright © 2025 Rod Benson. Preached at North Rocks Community Church, Sydney, Australia, on Sunday 5 October 2025. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).
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iDigress 
so true and that is our final destination waiting for