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I think that Harry Emerson Fosdick was the greatest preacher of the 20th century. And one of the things that he quite often said was that a good anthem before preaching was like sharpening your razor before you shave. But after listening to you this morning, I feel like my throat's been cut.

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Your youth and your exuberance and the excitement of your arrangements and the authenticity with which you sing them is a very, very thrilling thing for which we're very grateful. I saw something happen that I haven't seen happen in the four and a half years that I have been privileged to be working here.

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During the singing, people were coming up from the street and looking through the glass to see what the music was. Now, Phillips, that gives you a goal to shoot for. And he said, "I just took that on."

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We're grateful. We love our ministry of music here, and our people do a magnificent job. They sing a great variety of music, and they sing it well. But it's wonderful to have you in our midst this morning.

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We wish you Godspeed in your continued witness and worship. The scripture reading of the morning is from the book of Revelation, the 21st chapter, and I begin the reading at the verse which is numbered nine. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues

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and spoke to me saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." And in the spirit, he carried me away to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

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It had a great high wall with 12 gates, and at the gates 12 angels, and on the gates the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.

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And the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And he who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls.

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The city lies four square, its length the same as its breadth. And he measured the city with his rod 12,000 stadia. Its length and breadth and height are equal. He also measured its wall 144 cubits by a man's measure, that is an angel's.

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The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth

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chrysoprase, the eleventh jacenth, and the twelfth amethyst. And the 12 gates were 12 pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb.

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And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of the Lord is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and its gates shall never be shut by day, and there shall be no night there.

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They shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean shall enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life." And may the same God who inspired these words incline our hearts to their understanding.

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Pray with me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Up until a very few years ago, the letters N-D-E did not mean much to most folks.

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But then Raymond Moody wrote his two books, Life After Life, which was published in 1975 and sold about three million copies, and his book The Light Beyond, which is a bestseller in bookstores today. Ever since the appearance of those books, the letters N-D-E, Near Death Experience,

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have become well known to most people. They refer, of course, to those incidences in which an individual comes very near to death or perhaps to some degree crosses over into the life beyond, and then for some inexplicable reason returns to life and tells of her experiences in that place which is beyond the veil.

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That's an N-D-E, a near death experience. Now the most remarkable of these that I have ever heard was shared with me and some others by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. Now Kubler-Ross is probably the most noted thanatologist in the world today.

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A thanatologist is a person who studies the psychology of death and dying. In speaking to a group of us in New York, she told of a man who was going to a soccer match in Switzerland, and he was engaged in a terrible automobile accident. And after the shock of the accident, he found himself somehow floating in the air above

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his automobile. And he looked down and he could see the medics working on his body there beside the car. And as he floated above this scene, he became aware of a lot of cursing and very angry talk, and he discovered that the people in the other cars were full of anger because this accident

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had jammed up the traffic and they couldn't get to this very important soccer game. But as he floated above this scene, he became aware of the fact that someone was praying for him. And he followed the sound of that prayer to a certain car, and he actually noted in his

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memory what the license number of that car was. He then found himself drifting higher, and he entered a kind of tunnel which was dark, and he could see a light at the end. And the light was very welcoming, and he felt very warm and good, and he heard magnificent

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music. But suddenly, the process of going forward was stopped, and he was reversed, and the next thing he knew, he wakened in his hospital bed. Now, he'd been grievously injured and was in the hospital for many months.

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When he was released from the hospital, he went to the equivalent of the Department of Motor Vehicles here in the States, and he asked for the name and the address of the owner of the car whose license number he'd remembered. They gave it to him.

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And he went to that home, and he said, "On such and such an afternoon, do you remember what you were doing?" And he said, "Yes, we were going to the soccer championship." And he said, "Do you remember anything unusual that happened that day on your way to the

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event?" "Oh, yes, there was a very serious automobile accident." And "Do you happen to recall what you were doing while you were waiting for that accident to be cleared away?"

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And the woman of the house said, "Oh, yes, I remember very vividly. We were praying for the one who had been injured." Now, how do you explain that? There's a doctor here in Pittsburgh who says that it's the result of the trauma of the

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event and the effects of the anesthesia used on the patient. Dr. Carl Sagan, the popularizer of much of science, says that these images of a tunnel and the light at the end are actually recollections that go back to the time of our birth. This is what we experience as a baby coming forth from the womb of the mother, and we

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see the light, and we anticipate the warmth and the welcome. As for myself, I have no opinion to offer. But I do have three observations. The first one is this.

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This kind of experience, a near-death experience, has been recorded thousands of times as far back as the first century. There's nothing new about this phenomenon. The second observation is that as these events have been recorded across the centuries, they

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were recorded almost invariably in terms of the culture from which the person having the experience came. What I mean by this, during the medieval period, for example, it was commonly taught, and you saw it represented in art and in other ways, that when a person died, the angels, the good

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ones and the bad ones, would struggle over the body of the deceased, one trying to pull it toward heaven and the other trying to pull it toward hell. That was the common imagery of the day. And those who reported and wrote down near-death experiences at that time almost invariably

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described those experiences in terms of those images. Angels were fighting over them, either to pull them up or to pull them down. So whatever these experiences are, the people who have them are largely influenced by the cultural milieu from which they come.

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And the third observation I would make is this. That what the Bible has to say about the kingdom of heaven is infinitely more magnificent than anything any of these experiences record. Anyone who's been in the ministry for any length of time has heard about many of these

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near-death experiences. I believe, in fact, that just about every family, if you go back amongst the leaves and branches of the family tree, you'll find a story of this kind almost everywhere. But none of these stories come even close to the beauty and the grandeur and the magnificence

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and the fulfillment that is described on the pages of Scripture with regard to the kingdom of heaven. Look, for example, at the words of John in the chapter from Revelation, which I shared with you a few minutes ago.

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We might call this a kind of near-death experience for John. And he has a vision of the kingdom of heaven. Now he records this vision in symbols because that is the way things were done in that day. And some of these symbols are difficult for us to understand now, even though they would

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have been perfectly clear at the time. He says, for example, that the city of heaven glows, that it has about it a radiant beauty. And radiant beauty is the symbol for holiness. He says that the walls of the city are not very high, which indicates, you see, that

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the city does not have to have its guard up. It is a place of security. There are no enemies. There is no one to attack it.

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He says that the place has 12 gates, three to the north, three to the east, three to the west, and three to the south, which speaks of the fact that people are welcomed into the city from all quarters, no matter from what direction they might come. He says that the city is square, and that each side of the square is 1,500 miles long.

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That's a distance about from St. Louis, Missouri, to Vancouver in Canada. That's a big city. Now the square in the first century was considered to be the most perfect of geometric forms. So when the city is described as a square, we are speaking of its perfection, but we're

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also saying, with reference to its size, that it's large enough to accommodate all those who truly want to go there. He then says that the city is made of gold, so polished that it is almost like glass. Now I've never owned a very good fountain pen.

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I've always used the cheapies. And one of the things about those pens, of course, is the nib is always blotched and marred, and you have to clean it off periodically. But about a year ago, I was given a very, very good fountain pen, and it has a golden

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nib, and I have never once had to polish it. You see, gold does not tarnish. Gold does not stain. Gold does not wear away.

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And what's being said when the city is described as being made of gold is this. It's eternal. It's unblemished. It's perpetual.

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Now the city, he says, rests on the foundations of precious stones. And he lists all the stones. And what's interesting about this is that the stones that he lists are exactly the same stones that appear in the signs of the zodiac.

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You know that astrological formula. That is, John presents them, they are in exactly the opposite order. Now you see, the astrologers at that time believed that the heavens were the city, the main street was the Milky Way, and the constellations moved in and out of the gates of the city,

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appearing and disappearing. And it's as if John is saying, "No, no. You have it backwards. You've got to turn it all the way around.

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The heavens are not the city. The city is in the heavens. But the city is infinitely greater than the heavens themselves are. You can forget your astrological prognostications.

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The city of God is sublime and supreme above them." And then the most amazing thing that John says about the jewels that are part of the city is that each of the twelve gates is a pearl. Not a number of pearls.

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But each gate is a single pearl. Now the pearl was considered to be the most precious stone in the ancient world. You notice diamonds are never mentioned in any of this because diamonds were not known at that time.

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The pearl was the stone of great value. Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a pearl of great price. I think the most queenly act of self-indulgence in all of history was when Cleopatra took a pearl worth $195,000 and dissolved it in a glass of wine and then drank it.

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Pearls were of magnificent value. And what John is saying here is that each of the gates of the city is a single pearl and these pearls are 216 feet high. Now he's not speaking, of course, of a literal pearl.

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Remember, a pearl is the tear of an oyster. A pearl is the pain of the oyster wrapped round and round until it's made into something beautiful. And what John is saying here is that the entrance to the kingdom of heaven is by the gateway

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of having gone through the pain and the difficulties and the challenges of life. But what a reward! And then he says that in the city there will be no temple. You won't have to stand in line anywhere to worship God, for the presence of God is everywhere.

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You are in contact with his full content in every single aspect of this city. So you see, in these very early descriptions of the city, John is saying that it is radiant, that is, that it's holy, that it is secure, that it's open to all believers, that it's eternal, that it's unique, that it's perfect, that there's room for everyone who truly wants

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to go there, that it is a time of magnificent reward, and that it is filled with the presence of God. But having said all these things, John goes on to say one other thing. He says in chapter 21 at verse 23, "And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon

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it, for the glory of the Lord is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb, and there shall be no night there." Now there's two beautiful thoughts here. The first one is that God illuminates heaven by his very presence.

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You don't need any heavenly bodies, no sun, no stars, no planets, no moons. You know, our astronomers back in the 1960s discovered for the first time what are called quasars. Now a quasar is the brightest object in the heavens.

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They are violent, inexpressibly brilliant orbs of energy. One quasar equals the light of a hundred galaxies. Or to put that in other terms, one quasar gives out more light than ten trillion stars, of which the sun is only one.

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But what John is saying here is that the God of the quasars, the one who is brighter than these things which he has made, which are the brightest things that we know of in all the universe, his brilliance illuminates heaven. Isaiah says, "The Lord shall be to you an everlasting life."

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The psalmist says, "In thy light, O Lord, we shall see light." There's a little children's story about how once the sun noticed that the animals were excited on the earth. So he came close and he said, "What are you excited about?"

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And they said, "Well, one of the animals went down into a hole and he got into a cave and it was dark there." And the sun said, "What's dark? What does dark mean?"

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And they said, "Well, stick your face in the hole there and you'll see." So the sun went over and he looked in the hole. And of course it wasn't dark there anymore because wherever the sun goes, there is no darkness.

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What's being said by John here is this, that the pure radiance of the brilliance of God, the Shekinah glory of God is so great that when he comes into the presence of darkness, darkness instantaneously disappears. No night there.

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But there's another thought here. John is also saying to us that heaven is full of the people of God and the people of God are full of the light of God. So that the light which illumines heaven is not only the direct light which comes from

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God but the indirect light of God which comes through the believers who are gathered there in heaven. Isaiah says, "Your light," speaking of believers, "shall break forth like the dawn." And you remember Paul's word, "You are to shine as lights in the world."

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And then of course there's our Savior's word, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good work and glorify your Father who is in heaven." I like the story of a little boy who was being shown some stained glass windows and after they explained to him about them, he said, "Well, what you're saying is that in the stained

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glass windows we have pictures of the saints and we put those pictures on glass because saints are people who let the light shine through." That's a beautiful image and it's what John is speaking of here. When Jesus says, "Let your light so shine before men," he is saying, "Let yourself be

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what God is doing in you." For Meister Eckhart, the great mystic, put it this way, "Let God be God in you." And when that happens, the light is beautiful to see. So heaven is illuminated by the brilliance of God and by the brilliance of God as it

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is reflected through others. No other source of light is needed. There will be no night there. In heaven, it is always morning, which it seems to me confronts us with a serious question.

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If heaven is always morning, why is it that we sometimes try to hold our loved ones back from going there? You know that study after study has shown that most people who die in hospitals die between 1 o'clock in the morning and 4 o'clock in the morning.

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You know why that is? It's virtually impossible to die in a hospital at noon. I mean, they're coming in to take your temperature, they're coming in to weigh you, they're scrubbing the floor, they're washing the windows, they want to know how you slept, your doctor comes

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in with his charts and the questions, the emergency team is right down the hall and they're ready to rush up if you're going to try to make an honest stab at dying. Your family is there and your family is gathering around and they are telling you again and again how much they love you, but take it from someone who sat and listened to that

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hundreds of times. What they're really saying is, "Please don't die. Please don't go away. Please hang on a little longer."

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And it's only between 1 o'clock and 4 o'clock in the morning when nobody's around to bother you and the family is gone and even the emergency team has taken a little rest, then you can successfully die. You know, there's a lot of darkness in this world.

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Why then, when we gather about our loved ones who are ready to go, do we try to get them to cling to this shadowy place? When their time is gone and their faith is sure, why not let them go to the place where it's always morning?

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One of the lessons which death teaches us is this, that time is limited, that we have only a certain amount of it. And that means we must use it. We must use it to look at each other and love each other and touch each other and talk to

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each other and be openly and aggressively affectionate with each other. Why? Because time will disappear. Be extravagant then when you've got it.

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And if you've done that as you should, when the time comes for a loved one to go off to where it's always morning, you can say goodbye with great joy and great confidence. Last November I was in Toronto preaching at the historic St. John's Church there. And outside of that church they have a beautiful graveyard, all green, beautifully protected

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stones, like the graveyard next door should be kept. That's the way theirs is kept. It's beautiful. And right near the front door to the church there is one gravestone which stands out because

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it's relatively new. And on it was the name of a boy and the date of his birth and death. He had died when he was 18 years old. And beneath it there was a single line etched in the stone.

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And that line caught my attention. And when I went into the church I asked the pastor, "What about that? What's the story of that?" He said, "Well, that's a sad story.

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Here were a father and a son who were always fighting, always at odds. And one night they had a horrendous argument. The boy grabbed the keys to the car, ran out of the house, jumped into the car, drove down the street, and within a few blocks, fatal accident, and he was gone."

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And when his father had the stone put in place, he had carved on the front of it a line from William Butler Yeats, from his collection of poems, "He Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven." He altered the line a bit, and this is the way it reads, "Tread softly, for a dream lies buried here."

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I wonder what that father meant. Did he mean that the whole panoply of years that that young man might have had were lost, and the dream that all he could have been was gone, that it was buried there? Or did he perhaps mean that the dream of a relationship between his life and his son's

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life was there for his taking, had he taken it, but that the dream had not been fulfilled? And because that dream was not fulfilled, because love was not there as it should have been, there would be no opportunity for that love anymore. I wonder if that father was saying that as he stood beside that grave, he stood there

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with his arms full of a love which he had never given when he could have, and now the chance was gone. The dream was buried. If I could tell you and prove it that at three o'clock this afternoon the world would end,

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would there be any telephone calls you'd want to make between now and then? Would there be somebody you'd want to call and tell them how much you love them when you haven't told them that often enough before? Would there be some forgiveness you wanted to give or some forgiveness you wanted to

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ask for? Well, the world will probably not end before three o'clock this afternoon, but you still ought to make that call so that the time will come when your loved ones will become astronauts of the heart and will go off to that place where the Lord is lamp and that you will have

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no regrets, for you will have loved them as you ought to have loved them when they were yours to love. [PAUSE]