What will we be doing in heaven?
A common question I receive from friends, whether they are believers or non-believers is, “What will we be doing in heaven?” While I cannot answer all of the activities that occur in Heaven, in this small blog post as well as my ignorance of what heaven is like fully, let’s focus on one specific aspect of it. In Revelation 5, we see that one of the main activities of heaven is corporate worship.
A general outline of Revelation 5 is:
Verses 1-4 -- Our Hopeless Situation
Verse 5 - The Hope!
Verses 6-7 -- The Mystery Revealed
Verses 8-14 -- A Proper Response: Heavenly Worship
In verse 8 there is a new song, not a new teaching or doctrine. There is not a new feeling or emotion, but a new song. The content of the song is: the Lamb who was slain within time. So something new occurred in heaven after the incarnation of Jesus Christ. His life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension must have taken place before this “new song” was sung. Christ ascended into heaven. But when He ascended, he ascended to the right hand of the Father, and took hold of the scroll with the seven seals. So when Christ ascended he ascended to the throne of heaven as a conquering King!
Moving forward to verse 9, “From every tribe and language and people and nation,” note a couple things here. Drawing from Daniel 5:19, this is essentially saying, “from the whole world.” However, John is saying that it is certain that Christ’s blood effectively ransomed people from all these lands and people.
Finally, note in this passage that there is one people of God. There are not multiple peoples of God, but there is one people of God. The Apostle Paul goes to great lengths to lay this point out in Ephesians 2:11-3:6. Not just to the end of this age, but for every age to come, there will only be one people of God. So, too here, we learn that not only are there not two distinct peoples, there is one. There is only one plan. This plan is that there is one people that is worshiping together in one unified, corporate body.
As believers, we believe that the spiritual realm is a real realm and it is just as real as the one you live in today. This realm calls us to worship and there is activity, and life in this realm. So in verse 10, we see this truth abundantly clear. There is a union between this physical realm and this spiritual realm when we participate in heavenly worship! Since this is speaking about believers now, Revelation chapter 5 is in fact for believers today. It is not just speaking about a future event. This is why Revelation 5 is also for us because it is speaking about us, so the church is found here, worshipping!
When we move to verse 11, we read, “Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands and thousands.’” What a beautiful picture this is drawing from Daniel 7:10! We live in a day where certain polls and the media are saying how many are turning from Christianity. Their message insists on how secularism is growing, and how the “religious nones,” and Islam is growing. However, what we see here is that in the midst of a declining church attendance in the 21st century, the number of God’s people are growing —myriads and myriads!
Verses 11 and 12 are about the angels but verse 13 is about all of creation. “All creation” is in the light of the “ransomed from every tribe, nation, language, and people,” spoken of from verse 9. It is not speaking of every single part of creation, like the birds and the trees. Nor is it about every human being that has ever lived. It is all creatures who have bowed before God. But here we find an innumerable number of believers worshiping God and doing so together.
In Verse 12 we see, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!” However, in verse 13, is the most important aspect in my opinion. Verse 13 is about the corporate nature of worship. Often we may want to be alone and isolated from everyone else. We might be tempted that listening to a sermon on the computer or television is enough. We might even hear in our modern churches, “worship God in your own way, by yourself in your prayer closet.” However, that is not what heavenly worship looks like, so why do it now? We are to be gathered together and not abandoning the fellowship of believers. Corporate worship is not just for the spiritual benefit that we gain when we gather together, but it is also a balm to our souls. It benefits us because it reflects heavenly worship.
In verse 14, we also see that the elders fall down and worship. Again, we are seeing what heavenly worship looks like here. It is God centered. It is not about anyone else nor is it about anyone's feelings or tastes. It is not about our preferences but it is about a person — The Lamb who was slain! We must think deeply about this for, we are in the earthly church, are to reflect what heavenly worship looks like. This kind of worship is good, honorable, and acceptable to our God. We are given a glimpse of what acceptable worship looks like and what it sounds like. It is God-centered worship for God’s glory.
Conclusion
Our longing for heaven is far greater than our desire to stay on this earth. We tend to flip the Apostle Paul’s words and say, “it is better for me to go than to stay with you.” But who wouldn’t want heaven? I mean, when Christ returns in power to reign, who will lift up their voice to sing? Who will fall on bended knee? All creatures of our God and King! (To borrow from the great hymn.) And what will this one day look like? That day, we will see sin abolished. Death will be conquered. We will see a day where there is no grief, no death, no sorrow, no pain, and no tears. On that day it will no longer be our future, but it will be our present. We will see the restoration of all things and we will be able to see our God unhindered, unfettered, and unfiltered!
Do we long for heaven? Do we long to worship together, side-by-side with all of the redeemed washed by His blood in heavenly worship? Do we long for Sunday morning services the same way we long for heaven and eternal worship? When we meet together, we are joining in heavenly worship now.
