Revelation 21:1-8 (All Things New)

Introduction

At the end of the novel The Hobbit, Bilbo is reminiscing with some of the friends he’d made along the way in his epic adventure. The dwarves and the elves, the hobbits and the men, these races were all from different parts of the map, but they all were now benefitting from the great victory that had been won over evil.

Bilbo’s home was a land called the Shire, and it was a place of peace and comfort and simple pleasures – good food, cushy armchairs, lots of greenery, warm fires, and a fascinating sense of shared community… a place where friends are treated as family, and neighbors enjoy a deep and rich history with all around.

The story of The Hobbit begins and ends in the Shire, but everything in between is an adventure through dangers, hardships, challenges, and threats to life and limb. All along the way, though, Bilbo is sustained by remembering the Shire and by planning to return there. He remembers his fire on cold and dark nights; he remembers his dining table and pantry when he can’t remember his last meal; and he even remembers his neighbors back home when he finds himself in the most ridiculous and most dangerous situations.

One might say that the story of The Hobbit is all about Bilbo trying to get back to the Shire, but it’s also about quite a lot more than that. The Shire is home, and it is the treasured destination, but the story of The Hobbit is about all that is revealed through the epic adventure in between.

There’s a sense in which the Bible tells a story like that too. It begins with God and man together in a garden, and it ends with God and man together again in a renewed and glorified garden… but there is a great story of adventure in between (of loss and victory, war and peace, desperate hardships and miraculous blessings).

In our main passage today, we’re going to read about the beginning of the very end of the Bible’s story. It’s like that scene at the end of an epic where we see all the themes converge… we see all the conflicts resolved and left behind… we see all the characters enter a new setting, a new way of living, a new world that could not have been known or understood before.

And the sometimes implied, sometimes explicit application throughout the rest of the book of Revelation is… “Believe! Remain faithful! Don’t give up! Just hold on a little longer!”

May God encourage our hearts today as we consider this passage together, and may He motivate us all to believe and to persevere… as we await that coming day when Christ will make all things new.

Let’s stand together as I read our passage aloud… Revelation 21:1-8.

Scripture Reading

Revelation 21:1–8 (ESV)

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Main Idea:

God’s plan to save and sanctify sinners will be fulfilled, and all who trust Christ and persevere to the end will enjoy the full inheritance of the sons of God.

Sermon

1. An Ancient Story

If there is one phrase that captures all that is described here in these eight verses, it’s that first heavenly announcement in v5 – “Behold, I am making all things new.” This isn’t the first announcement in our passage (it’s the first of two in v5), but it’s the one that seems to pull together and summarize all the others.

In fact, the last two chapters of the book of Revelation give us a grand description of the conclusion of that “making” or “working” that God has been doing since the beginning. God began by “making” or “creating” the “heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1), and here at the end of the story God is “re-making” or “re-creating” – He is forming a “new heaven and a newearth” (Rev. 21:1).

John tells us that he “saw” both “a new heaven and a new earth” as well as “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming out of heaven from God” (v1-2).

The theme of the “new Jerusalem” is the major feature of the rest of Revelation 21, and we will dive much more deeply into it next Sunday (Lord willing). But today, these first eight verses offer us a summary conclusion of the whole Bible, touching on theological themes and key concepts of the biblical plotline that we want to take some time to understand… so that we might marvel at what we’re reading here.

I promise that I’ll get to the text before us today, but let’s not take for granted that we are all as familiar as we’d like to be with the whole story of the Bible – what we might call the narrative of redemptive history… or the unfolding story of the gospel… or the progressive revelation of the covenant of redemption (that agreement or compact that was made between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – before time began – that agreement among the triune God that He would save an assembly of sinners and bring them into glorified fellowship with Him in order to make Himself known in the fullest sense).

The Bible tells that story, and if we read the Bible like a novel or an epic, then we would call Rev. 21 the new setting or the resolution or conclusion.

Remember back when your English teacher taught you about the elements of a plot? There’s the setting or exposition, then comes the rising action or conflict, then there’s the climax (where everything comes to a head), then the falling action (where the climactic moment begins to reshape everything), and last, there’s the resolution or new setting or conclusion (it’s the way things are now, after the climax resolved the conflict, and all is now re-settled as a new normal).

1. Setting or Exposition

a. A story begins with a settingor an exposition, where we are introduced to the main characters and the circumstances… at least the ones we need to know in order to follow the rest of the story.

b. The Bible does this in Genesis 1-3, and at least a couple of other times in Genesis.

i. God is the main character.

1. He is creator, sovereign, all-powerful, and all-wise.

2. He is meticulously intentional and lavishly generous, and He is good, and He also delights in good.

ii. God’s chief creation is man.

1. Man is the object of God’s goodness and care.

2. He’s the focus of God’s design.

3. And he’s both under God’s sovereignty and (in some sense) man also shares a delegated authority to rule over creation and to reflect God’s character as he does it.

iii. And these two characters (God and man) are together (in warm and glad fellowship) in a garden, with a whole world outside to tame and set in order – just like the garden itself.

1. Of course, Adam is the first human to fit this character mold, but Noah and Abraham both serve as echoes of this same God-man relationship and setting.

2. Problem or Conflict or Rising Action

a. Next in the story, we encounter a problem or conflict (or maybe more than one) – and this is called the rising action.

i. Here our hero (or protagonist) is challenged, peace is threatened, prosperity seems to be in jeopardy… and there is usually a villain (or an antagonist).

b. In the biblical storyline, this first happens in Genesis 3.

i. God’s image-bearers begin to reflect the character of another – rather than worship and obedience and love, Adam and Eve demonstrate pride and rebellion and ingratitude.

ii. Man rejects God’s all-powerful and all-wise word, and he hears and believes the devious words of a devilish snake.

iii. And the result is that the once-warm-and-glad fellowship between God and man was turned into hostility.

1. God’s righteousness demanded justice, and man himself now lived under a curse…

a. both dead in sin at present

b. and expecting death in the future.

c. The conflict or rising action of the Bible’s storyline can be summarized by Genesis 3:15, where God said that the “serpent” and the “woman” would have “enmity” between them, and that there would come an “offspring” from the woman – a man who would one day “bruise” or “crush” the head of the serpent, though the promised offspring would himself suffer too.

i. And, of course, this is the repeated conflict throughout the whole Bible’s story.

3. Climax

a. The third element of a story’s plot is the climax.

i. That’s where everything finally comes to a head – the hero and the villain face-off, and only one can be victorious.

b. And there’s a sense in which the Bible’s story has many climaxes.

i. Right away (in Gen. 4), Eve had two sons – Cain and Abel; and Cain took up violence against his brother, echoing the serpent of old…

1. One of Eve’s offspring (Cain) defiled himself by committing murder, and the other offspring (Abel) was snuffed out by the devilish anger and pride of his brother.

ii. But the promise of the offspring was still alive, since the woman bore another son – the great-great-great-grandad of Noah (a righteous man among a world of sinners).

1. God saved Noah and his family from the flood that killed everyone else in the world.

2. But Noah turned out to be just as flawed as Adam before him, and he was not the promised offspring.

iii. Again and again, throughout the OT, there are those who seem to be possible candidates for fulfilling the prophetic promise… and again and again, the devil rises up in opposition against God and against anyone who might fill this role of promised “offspring” or “son.”

1. For example: God chose Abraham and reiterated His promise of an offspring, but Abraham’s descendants (later called the people of Israel)… they all ended up as slaves in Egypt, under a snake-like pharaoh.

2. And again: God chose Moses and sent him to deliver the people of Israel, but pharaoh acted murderously against them… and it was only by God’s miraculous strength that they were able to escape.

3. Later: God chose David to be king over Israel, but David sinned grievously and showed himself to be unable to fulfill God’s promise of old.

4. Still, God’s promise remained true, and one day an offspring would be born who was unlike any other.

c. The main climax of the Bible (that moment in the story when everything begins to change) is the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

i. Jesus was born of a woman, but He was also God the Son.

1. Jesus had to grow up, He got tired and hungry, and He was even tempted as other humans are.

2. But He also knew the secret thoughts of men, He commanded the storms and healed the sick, and He lived with perfect righteousness under God’s law.

ii. Significantly, the devil (that ancient snake) clashed with Jesus on some notable occasions during His earthly ministry.

1. The devil tempted Jesus in the desert, but unlike Adam, Jesus refused to sin and remained faithful.

2. Jesus confronted many of the devil’s demons, and He showed His complete authority over them every time.

3. At least twice, the devil’s character appeared in Jesus’s own disciples; but each time, Jesus rebuked the devil and made the disciples know that God’s plan would not be thwarted.

4. And, finally, the devil seemed to win a victory, when the promised offspring – the Son of God, the Messiah of old – was crucified on a Roman cross.

iii. But it was in this very act of dying that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy (of Gen. 3:15); He crushed the head of the serpent.

1. You see, Jesus did not die like other men…

2. Oh, sure… He bled, He felt the agony of death, and His life was extinguished just the same as many others… but Jesus did not die as one who had inherited Adam’s curse, and He did not die as one who had sinned against God in any way.

3. Jesus died as a righteous man… suffering the consequences of the curse… but suffering voluntarily, not because the penalty was due Him, but suffering on behalf of or in the place of those who are guilty.

iv. The death and resurrection of Christ was that moment when the Bible’s epic conflict was resolved.

1. God’s law and justice were satisfied, and sinners could now re-enter genuine fellowship with God.

2. Satan was defeated, and all who join him in hostility against God are condemned.

3. But there would still be quite some time before the ultimate conclusion of this grand and wonderful story.

4. Falling Action

a. The falling action of the Bible’s storyline is the part that is probably most familiar to us.

i. It is (generally) the contents of the NT.

ii. It’s Jesus’s Great Commission – go and make disciples by baptizing new Christians and teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded (Matt. 28:18-20).

iii. It’s the expansion of the kingdom of Christ in the form of outposts (or local churches) – the people of God in the world are no longer Israelites (bound by ethnicity and geography), but repenting believers of any color and from any nation.

iv. It’s the explanation of what actually happened at the climax of human history…

1. that Christ lived and died for sinners

2. that Christ was raised as the firstborn from the dead

3. that God has always intended to create a people in and through Christ

4. and that God’s Spirit is now working (in the lives of everyday Christians) to bring about the completion of a new people, a new temple, a new kingdom.

b. And all of this has led us right up to the conclusion or the new setting we’re reading about today.

The whole point of our passage today is that God’s plan to save and sanctify sinners will be fulfilled, and all who trust Christ and persevere to the end will enjoy the full inheritance of the sons of God… but the more we know about the storyline that led us here, the more spectacular will be our perception of this scene.

2. A New Beginning (v1-5)

Let’s note four features of the newness of the conclusion or new beginningwe read about here in Rev. 21. There are at least four of them here, and we could probably break these down into several others, but I’ll note them in broad categories today – new creation, no sea, new Jerusalem, and renewed fellowship.

Remember, I said that the summary phrase of this entire section is there in the middle of v5, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And this section is indeed meant to give us a rapid-fire list of several “new” features or characteristics of how things will be when the story of redemption reaches its conclusion.

1. New Creation (v1)

a. In reverberating language from Genesis 1, John tells us that he “saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (v1).

i. This was prophesied long ago.

1. God spoke through the prophet Isaiah about 700 years before the birth of Christ, saying, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered…” (Is. 65:17).

ii. And this was the hope of NT believers.

1. The Apostle Peter wrote to NT Christians, saying, “according to [God’s] promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (3 Pet. 3:13).

b. The Bible doesn’t actually give us a lot of the details about what the new creation will be like, but it is clear (in the plotline of the biblical story) that it will be a new beginning, a new creation… something unlike what we have known.

2. No Sea (v1)

a. We ought to take note now that we are going to read about a lot of geographical or structuralor material features of the new creation, but many of these (maybe all of them?) are symbolic… much like the whole book of Revelation has been.

b. In the biblical storyline, the “sea” or the “water” has often represented chaos, uncertainty, danger, and even God’s judgment.

i. Think of the chaotic and formless “waters” in Gen. 1…

ii. Think of the “flood” of God’s judgment in Gen. 6-7…

iii. Think of the “sea” that God parted for His people and that God brought right back upon the heads of the pharaoh and the Egyptians in Ex. 14.

c. So, when we read here that “the sea was no more” (v1), we ought to understand that this is symbolically telling us that all the danger and chaos and judgment (which the sea has represented) is gone.

i. In other words, in the new creation (i.e., at the conclusion of the biblical story), all is in good order, there is no danger of loss, and God will never judge the world again.

3. New Jerusalem (v2)

a. John “sees” two things in this initial vision of the new creation:

i. One is “a new heaven and a new earth” (v1).

ii. And the other is “the holy city, new Jerusalem” (v2).

1. An important question to ask here is: “Is the ‘holy city’ a feature of the new creation; or does the ‘holy city’ cover the entirety of the new creation?”

2. We will dive into this next Sunday (Lord willing), but today I want to note that the “new Jerusalem” is described as a “holy” “bride.”

b. More than anything else, the Bible describes the new creation as a people, not a place… a people, not a building… a people, not land.

i. Now, I believe the Scripture teaches that the people of Christ will physically live in a realplace in the new creation.

ii. But it seems to me that the emphasis of the Bible is not on the location or the material of the new creation…

1. rather it is on the people who will dwell there

2. and the Messiah or Christ or Savior-King who will dwell with them.

iii. And we can know that the “holy city” and the “bride” who is “prepared” and “adorned for her husband” is a people because this bride-husband imagery appears throughout the Bible – it’s no coincidence that we’re seeing it here.

1. When the prophet Isaiah spoke of the love of God for His people, he said, “your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name” (Is. 54:5).

2. When the prophet Jeremiah spoke of Israel’s sin and unfaithfulness toward God, he said, “as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me… declares the LORD” (Jer. 3:20).

3. And when the Apostle Paul spoke of the love of Christ for His people (despite their adultery and sin), he said, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her [i.e., make her holy]… so that he might present the church to himself in splendor [as a beautiful bride], without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27).

c. The vision John saw – “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down… from God, prepared as a bride for her husband” (v2) – is the fulfillment of the “husband” / “bride” imagery.

i. Friends, in the new creation (i.e., the new setting or conclusion of the redemption story), the people of Christ will be presented to Him as a holy bride… a glorified and physical people, a people living in a real/physical place, and a people who enjoy renewed fellowship with God Himself.

4. Restoration of God with man (v3-4)

a. After John “saw” the “new heaven” and the “new earth” (v1), and after John “saw” the “holy city,” the “new Jerusalem,” the “bride adorned for her husband” (v2), John “heard” a series of four announcements from “he who was seated on the throne” (v5).

i. The first of these announcements is what we read in v3-4… all of which speaks to the consummation or fulfillment or total resolution of the conflict that was introduced at the beginning of the biblical story.

1. Verse 4 is a summary of the undoing of God’s curse upon humanity… a succession of three descriptions of the situation for God’s people in the new creation.

a. One, there will be no “mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore” (v4).

b. Two, “death” itself “shall be no more” (v4).

c. And three, God will Himself “wipe away every tear from their eyes” (v4).

i. In other words, God’s curse is completely eradicated, and God Himself will comfort His people.

2. And all of this is true because of v3, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (v3).

a. Brothers and sisters, this is the echoing desire of humans and God’s repeated intentionthroughout the whole Bible.

ii. Remember in Gen. 3, that Adam & Eve were excluded from the Garden (i.e., God’s fellowship) because of their sin?

iii. And even when God came to dwell among the people of Israel in the OT (in the tabernacle, and later the temple), it was a precarious situation – they might just as easily suffer God’s judgment as enjoy His blessing; and eventually, God departed from them too because of their sin and rebellion.

iv. It is no small thing that the Bible tells us that God came to dwell among us when Christ was born, but still there was not yet the full restoration of what was lost in Genesis 3.

v. And when Christ ascended to heaven (after His death and resurrection), He sent the Holy Spirit (God Himself) to dwell within His people… but again, this is still not the completion of the unifying work God will do in Christ.

b. Friends, at the conclusion of this epic story of God’s plan to save sinners, there will not only be the restoration of warm and glad fellowship between God and man… but there shall be no future loss of this fellowship ever again.

i. God’s plan to save and sanctify sinners will be fulfilled.

ii. There will never be another snake in the garden.

iii. There will never be another sin or sinner.

iv. There will never again be separation between God and man.

v. “Behold,” says the one who is seated on the throne, “I am making all things new” (v5).

3. A Gracious Inheritance (v5-8)

Our passage this morning concludes with two more divine pronouncements, one specifically to John, and another specifically to those who would read John’s words. Of course, all of Revelation was and is written for the benefit and edification of all Christians… but take a look at this with me, and let’s see together how Christ Himself is calling us (today) to believe and to persevere.

1. True Words

a. The second half of v5 is the third statement from the one “seated on the throne,” and there He tells John to “write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” (v5).

b. This is an echo of how the book of Revelation began.

i. John says that he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and [he] heard behind [him] a loud voice like a trumpet saying, ‘write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches…’” (Rev. 1:11).

ii. Also, John began by proclaiming a “blessing” on the one who “reads,” who “hears,” and who “keeps” the “words” of this book (Rev. 1:3).

iii. So too, at the beginning of each of the seven letters to the seven churches, there is an opening line that emphasizes the fact that these are the “words” of the One who has supreme authority (Rev. 2:1, 2:8, 2:12, 2:18, 3:1, 3:7, and 3:14).

c. Like the Mosaic covenant in the OT, the whole book of Revelation describes and sets the terms of the new covenant in Jesus Christ.

i. This will become all the more prominent when we get to the end of ch. 22.

2. A Providential Sovereign

a. The fourth statement from the throne contains yet another claim to absolute sovereignty, just as we read at the beginning (Rev. 1:8).

i. God is the “Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (v6).

1. This is a reminder that all John has seen and heard – from Revelation 1 until now – (which has constantly alluded to the whole story of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation)… it is all under the complete sovereignty of the One who is seated on the throne.

2. The God of the Bible not only hasthe authority to reign over every detail of human history… He actually does rule over it all… and He is moving this whole story toward His intentional conclusion, which is the full salvation of sinners – their justification, sanctification, and glorification.

ii. And note also the affirmation “It is done!” (v6).

1. The fulfillment described here is so sure and certain that it is as good as “done!”

2. You may not know how, and you may even sometimes see what appears to be evidence to the contrary, but God will most assuredly finish what He has started… and those sinners He loves will enjoy the full inheritance that God has promised in Christ.

3. A Son’s Inheritance

a. So many of the promises Christ made to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 are reiterated here, but v7 is a kind of summary of all of them… it is the promise of a full inheritance as a son of God.

i. Consider:

1. The offer is gracious – “to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment . The one who conquers [i.e., “overcomes” or “prevails”] will have this heritage [lit., “he will inherit these”], and I will be his God and he will be my son” (v6).

2. And the warning is just – “but as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion[i.e., their “part” or “share”] will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (v8).

b. The implicit call from Christ here is to “hold on”… “don’t give up”… “stay the course”… “keep the faith”… “give yourself to perseverance”… “endure whatever comes”… “and if you do, then yours will be an inheritance unimaginable.”

c. In just a moment, we will sing of God’s amazing grace toward sinners like us… and there is rich theology throughout the song.

d. But consider a couple of verses in particular:

i. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come;

ii. ‘Tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

iii. The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures;

iv. He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.

One day soon, brothers and sisters, we will join together with Christ in the Shire (the new creation, the new Jerusalem) – that place of life and peace and order… that place of goodness and truth… that place of beauty and joy… that place of unbroken fellowship with God and with one another.

On that day, we may be able to reminisce about all the dangers, toils, and snares through which God preserved us and even forged a deeper and stronger faith within us. It is not for nothing that God is taking us along this present path, and we shall glorify Him in the end for doing it the way He did it.

Friends, I pray that we will all be able to sing of God’s grace as those who have received it – those who have heard the gospel and believed, those who are turning from sin and clinging to Christ as our only hope in life and death.

And I pray that we who have received God’s grace will be comforted and sustained and even motivated to persevere by what we have read and considered today. This is a story that began long ago. It is an ancient epic that God has been composing since before time began. And He will bring it to its good and glorious and gracious conclusion.

God’s plan to save and sanctify sinners will be fulfilled… and all who trust Christ and persevere to the end will enjoy the full inheritance of the sons of God.