John sees a vast crowd—in the immediate presence of Jesus Christ—standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They are dressed in white robes that speak of complete purity. They have palm branches in their hands—a symbol of victory. These people are celebrating total victory, which they ascribe to God Himself.

What they are experiencing there in heaven is very different from what we are experiencing here on earth. We live this life in a fallen world where God is dishonoured, righteousness is spurned, and evil casts a shadow of pain and destruction. We are up against the pull of the flesh. The direction of that pull may change, but the struggle it brings never goes away. And we have an enemy—the devil—who, though he can never finally succeed against us, will never give up.

So, we continue to live a life of repentance and faith. Repentance, because we never get beyond the awareness of our own sins and failures. Faith, because we walk by faith and not by sight. And we do these two things with the help of the Holy Spirit.

The Christian life is a struggle, but it will not always be so. John sees believers in the presence of Jesus. They are celebrating victory. Their long struggle is over. Their battle has been won.

How might this glimpse of eternity encourage you to persevere in faith today?

There is a good–better–best pattern to the Christian life.

• To be in Christ is good. No matter how bad things get in this world, if you are in Christ, you are blessed with every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3).
• But to be with Christ is better by far than anything you’ve ever known, can know, or will ever know in this world.
• And for every Christian, even those who are in heaven now, the best is yet to come.

In Revelation 6, the souls of believers in the presence of Jesus are experiencing the better. Yet these believers are crying out to God, “How long?” (Rev. 6:10). How long until the evils of this present world and the sufferings of God’s people are brought to an end? How long until King Jesus returns in glory, and we get to come with Him? They are told that they must wait (6:11).

Herman Bavinck, the great Dutch theologian, has a fascinating comment on the experience of believers in the presence of Jesus: “They have a past which they remember, a present in which they live, and a future which they are approaching.”

One day the Father will say to the Son, “That’s it! Go wrap this up and bring my children home.” Jesus will come in glory. Our loved ones who have gone ahead will be with him, and we will be forever with the Lord” (1 Thes. 4:17).

When Jesus returns, every child of God will receive a resurrection body, and we will live on the new heavens and the new earth, and experience God’s best forever and ever. Amen.

As you think about loved ones who have died in Christ, remember that the coming of Jesus is getting nearer.

How so? In what ways will we be like the angels in heaven?

Angels are spirits without bodies, though they occasionally appeared to people in the Bible with a temporary body. But God has given us life in this world through the union of a body and a soul. And death is the separating of the soul from the body.

So, the activity of angels gives us a model for thinking about the kinds of things that believers can do in the presence of Jesus while they are waiting for the resurrection.

Angels see, and so do believers in heaven: “In heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10).

Angels speak, and so do believers in heaven: “The voice of many angels… saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!’” (Rev. 5:11-12).

Angels rejoice, and so do believers in heaven: “There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

Angels worship, and so do believers in heaven: “There was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’” (Luke 2:13-14).

Angels inquire, and so do believers in heaven: “Things into which angels long to look” (1 Peter 1:12).

As you think about loved ones who have died in the Lord, take heart, take heart that they are actively engaged in the presence of Jesus.

Jesus said to the thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise”—immediate, conscious enjoyment of the presence of God!

Now, some have seized on the fact that the Bible sometimes describes death as sleep (1 Cor. 15:51) and have suggested that the souls of believers go to sleep when they die. Please remember that what sleeps is not the soul, but the body. The body is laid to rest until the resurrection. But the soul is very much alive in the presence of Jesus.

Some people latch onto the idea of soul sleep because it is easier to imagine unconsciousness than it is to imagine the life of a soul without a body. But unconsciousness is not the promise of Jesus. Enjoying His presence is. Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). In other words, Paul is saying, “I get more when I die, not less.”

You are blessed in this life with every spiritual blessing in Christ. There is no way in the world that unconsciousness is better than that. What is better by far is that your faith will be turned to sight. Your pain, grief, failure, and persecution will be over. You will sin no more, and with your spirit made perfect, you will consciously enjoy the presence of Jesus.

To be with Christ is better than all you can experience in Christ now. It is better than anything you have ever known, and anything you can know in this world. It is better by far.

*Do you feel that you will get more when you die? Why or why not?*

What was death like for the thief? And what does the experience of a Christian believer look like immediately after death?

Jesus promised that the thief would be with Him, and He said that it would be today. In other words, Jesus was saying, “For you, death will be an immediate translation into the joyful presence of the Father in heaven. You will be with me!”

Jesus died before the thief, and He committed His spirit into the hands of the Father. So, when the thief died, he went immediately into the presence of Jesus. After all that he’d been through, there was no post-traumatic stress for him in heaven, no wounds from the past, and no fears for the future—only complete healing in the presence of Jesus.

The experience of the thief is a prototype for the death of every believer. “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).

When a believing loved one dies and you wonder, “Where are they now?” your first answer should be: “With Christ!” You will draw great hope from the clarity of this answer. They are away from the body—that is why we lay the body to rest—and they are at home with the Lord.

Have you (or has someone you know) recently lost a loved one?

Today the thief is in heaven and the reason he’s there is not because he was without sin, or that he lived a good enough life. The thief is in heaven because Jesus paid the price for his sin and gave him eternal life. What Jesus did for the thief, He is able to do for you.

But remember, there were two thieves, and while one was saved, the other was lost. Both of them had the same need and the same opportunity. Both of them were next to Jesus. Both of them heard Him pray, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Now think about the difference between them: While one turned to Jesus in repentance and faith, the other remained at a distance. You may be thinking, I don’t want to make a commitment right now. I’ll think about this later.

If you make that choice, one of two things will happen: Either you will come to repentance and then wish you had come earlier, or your heart will harden toward Jesus, and you will never come to Him at all. So come to Jesus in faith and repentance now.

Or maybe you fear that it is too late for you to turn to Him. Remember the thief on the cross. It was not too late for him, and it is not too late for you. The time for you to turn to Jesus, ask of Jesus, and trust in Jesus is now. Early is better than late, but better late than never.

Lord, I confess that I am a sinner and that I do not deserve to enter your heaven. But I believe that you died on the cross for me, so I ask that you remember me and bring me into your kingdom. I trust your promise that those who come to you will never be cast out.

This is the promise of the Saviour to every person who places their trust in Him. So turn to Him, ask of Him, and take Him at His word.

Trusting Jesus will involve trusting Him in three very challenging circumstances:

1. Trusting Jesus in the darkness
Immediately after the thief trusted Jesus, “there was darkness over the whole land” (23:44). This darkness came in the middle of the day, and it lasted for three hours.

Put yourself in the shoes of the thief. You have just trusted your hope of heaven to Jesus. Then you are plunged into darkness, and you hear Jesus crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). The thief must have wondered, What in the world is going on?

There may be times in your life when you experience great darkness. Don’t be surprised by this. You can depend on the promise of Jesus as surely in the darkness as you can in the light.

2. Trusting Jesus in your pain
The pain of crucifixion got worse by the hour, as wounds in the hands and feet widened, and as fever raged through the body. So, the thief experienced more physical pain after he trusted Jesus than he did before.

Anyone who suggests that trusting in Jesus will lead to a pain-free life has not yet come to terms with what the Bible teaches. You will have to trust Jesus in the darkness, and there may be times when you have to trust Him in pain.

3. Trusting Jesus at your death
You will also have to trust Jesus, as the thief did, when the moment of death comes for you. The way to die is the way to live. Forget what you have done or failed to do for Jesus and trust wholly in what Jesus has done on the cross for you.

Is there anything keeping you from trusting in Jesus?

This was an audacious request. The thief did not say, “I know I’ve made some mistakes, but nobody’s perfect, and I’ve done a lot of good things in my life.” He said, “We are receiving the due reward of our deeds” (23:41).

This man asked Jesus with honesty and humility. He faced the fact that he was a sinner. He had sinned against God and against his fellow man. And we are like him. We have failed to do what God has called us to do, and we have done what He has told us not to do.

This is precisely why Jesus went to the cross, where He became the sacrifice and the substitute for sinners. “The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus carried sins into His death, so that you would not have to carry them into yours.

We don’t like to ask. We prefer deals: “Here is something that I can do for you. And there’s something I would like you to do for me.” And our first instinct when it comes to God is to think in terms of a deal. If I pray… If I go to church… If I’m generous… If I live a good life… God will get me into heaven.

But here’s what happens if you come to God that way—you go through life feeling God owes you, and you hang your future on a deal that doesn’t exist, because God doesn’t make deals.

Asking means that you come to Jesus with empty hands, knowing that there is nothing you can offer Him. You are casting yourself upon His mercy and looking to Him for grace.

What the thief did was deceptively simple. He began to fear God. He recognised his sinful condition. And he asked Jesus to save him.

Have you ever tried to make a deal with God? Have you ever come to Him empty-handed?