All Things New

Over the last few weeks we have walked with John through his vision as he reported it to the church : we have stood before the throne, wept before the sealed scroll, heard the song of the multitude, and trembled at the beast.

We’ve heard a message of hope to a troubled people, a reminder that the lamb has conquered death, and an assurance that almighty God is above the rulers of this earth, and that He was a plan to make all things right.

And now we see that plan fulfilled: “a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”

Now the word here translated as new, kainon, carries with it an implication of renewal and transformation - it suggests that heaven and earth have become new in quality, but that there’s a continuity in the thing - the old has passed away but it hasn’t been replaced.

And this is a really important point to understand.

Recently I saw someone, undoubtedly well meaning, say that the good news of the gospel is that God is going to take us away from this corrupted earth and bring us to be with Him in heaven. But that’s not what we see happening here.

Rather we see that the earth is renewed, and a loud voice says

Revelation 21:3 NRSV

“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them;”

Let me repeat that: “The home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them.”

Again, “The home of God is among mortals...God himself will be with them.”

This isn’t about God spiriting us away from the earth to be with Him in heaven, it’s about God coming from heaven to the earth - restored and made new - to be with us.

There’s a risk that by focussing on the idea of going to heaven and being taken away from this fallen earth, we can turn our focus entirely to that imagined future.

That we can find ourselves thinking of this world as less important.

As secondary.

That we can start to think that things like war and disasters and environmental damage are bad but they’re just to be accepted as something which one day we won’t have to worry about.

But what we see here is more subtle than that: because this world is the world that will be made new. And it also is the world that was, before the fall. The world which, in the beginning, God gave man dominion over and instruction to maintain.

So it seems that we have an obligation, then, to maintain this world in preparation for the coming of the Lord. There is an expectation that we do our best to make this world a place where God’s kingdom is seen - because God’s people are carrying out the instructions that Christ left us with - in preperation for the coming of the Lord to dwell here on it with us, and its ultimate renewal.

Now look at how life in this new heaven and earth is described;

Revelation 21:4 NRSV

he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

And what’s really interesting here is that John is focussing on those awful things which will not be present. Rather than attempt to describe the indescribably glorious he assures us that those things which are emblematic of this world’s current fallen state will be no more.

Death will be no more.

Because there will be eternal life.

Mourning and crying and pain will be no more.

Because God will dwell with us.

And whilst we can’t even begin to imagine how wonderful that will be, we do know that it will be absent of all those things which are bad. and all those things which are evil, and all those things which bring pain and tears and which cause us to mourn.

And now we see the Father speak from the throne - and as you may remember from a few weeks ago, this is only the second time in Revelation that we see Father speak: he speaks at the beginning and at the end, and just as he did at the beginning, he states that he is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega. He reassures us that these words are trustworthy and true - that we can known that this is a message from the God of all creation. And he makes a promise:

Revelation 21:6–7 NRSV

To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

Water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Let’s turn now to the gospel reading.

`We see the saviour, tired out by a long journey, stopping to rest by a well while his disciples go on to the city to buy food. And as he sits there resting, a Samaritan woman arrives to draw water and he asks her for a drink. A request that makes a lot of sense - it was about noon, the height of the day with the hot sun beating down on them. He’s been walking likely for a few days - the distance from Jerusalem to Sychar is roughly the same as the distance from here to Reading. He’s tired and he’s thirsty, and as the woman observes he doesn’t have a bucket with which to draw water for himself from the well.

But rather than immediately offer him the drink he asks for, the woman responds with confusion - she asks why he’s asking her when Jews and Samaritans don’t share things. And he turns this into a teaching moment: he tells her that if she knew who he was, he would ask her for living water. He tells her that the water he gives will become a spring gushing up to eternal life.

Now it becomes clear that this is a metaphor: Christ is not speaking of literal water, but rather of the quenching of a spiritual thirst. He is telling the woman that just as he was tired and thirsty from his long journey, so too is she spiritually weary and in need of replenishment - as are we all. And he offers freely the water that is his teachings, that if we take and meditate upon them and we follow them and we carry them out, we will recieve a spiritual replenishment. One that leads to eternal life!

And he assures her that whilst actual physical earthly water will temporarily quench thirst, the water of his teachings will ensure that we are freed from that spiritual thirst which afflicts the unsaved

And then when we turn back to Revelation we see a call back to this covnersation: remember the voice from the throne says

Revelation 21:6 NRSV

To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

God is promising us an ultimate fulfilment of our spiritual thirst. Because He will make His dwelling place amongst us and we will be in his presence for eternity in the renewed earth.

Then in verse 22 the vision shows river of the water of life, and on either side is the tree of life - a call back to the very beginning, when Adam and Eve in the garden were given the tree of life to eat from. As a result of their disobedience they were denied access to that tree, but now as all things are made new God returns that tree to His people.

And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of all nations - an end to war and conflict and to internal troubles.

And nothing accursed will be found there.

No death, no mourning, no pain or crying, nothing accursed.

And this is the ultimate message of revelation to God’s people:

That despite trouble and persecution

Despite corrupt leaders and broken nations

Despite the pain that comes with sickness and death

All will be made well

God will make all things news

And he will dwell with us and we will be His people and He will be our God.

And he will quench our spiritual thirst with living water from the river of the water of life, and feed our spiritual hunger with the tree of life.

In Samaria that day, Christ promised a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. With his return in glory that spring becomes a river that flows through the city of God, a torrent that heals the nations.

And the message for us today is twofold: the first thing is a message of hope. A message that just as our spiritual thirst is filled when we devote ourselves to Christ’s teachings, so too will all of our needs be fulfilled forever when He returns. We can be confident of an end to sorrow and suffering, and resurrection from death unto eternal life.

But the second thing is a call to action: It’s a call to recognise that just as this earth will be made new, so we are not to abandon it. Rather than focus on that future time of renewal to the point that this life becomes secondary, rather we are to prepare the way. It’s a call to invite all those we meet to come to Christ and to drink the living water that he offers. It’s a call to go into the world and to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and comfort the afflicted, combatting pain and suffering as best we can in preperation for the time when God will bring a permanent end to those things.

Chapter 22 continues on, past today’s reading, with a simple invitation. One which is offered to all, one which we must eagerly accept, and extend to all.

“Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.”