The End | Revelation 21

Turn to Revelation 21

How many of y’all are vacation planners? (before you go, you look up where to go)

Going to Universal Studios for the first time (looked up best rides; as I looked up rides I got more excited to go)

We’re gonna do that tonight (going to Heaven, not just a trip but eternal home)

It’s All About Jesus series (the end)

Setting up Revelation (apostle John wrote it, been transported to Heaven, seeing the end times play out)

John at this point has seen so much (plagues, satan being condemned, those who don’t place their faith in Jesus condemned)

Now at the end of the book, he gets to see the new Heaven and the new Earth

Those who have faith in Jesus, this is where we’re going for eternity

Let’s scope out Heaven and see what we have to look forward to

Revelation 21:1–27 NLT

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” 5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 6 And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. 8 “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” 9 Then one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls containing the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come with me! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone—like jasper as clear as crystal. 12 The city wall was broad and high, with twelve gates guarded by twelve angels. And the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were written on the gates. 13 There were three gates on each side—east, north, south, and west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16 When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles. 17 Then he measured the walls and found them to be 216 feet thick (according to the human standard used by the angel). 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass. 19 The wall of the city was built on foundation stones inlaid with twelve precious stones: the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were made of pearls—each gate from a single pearl! And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass. 22 I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. 24 The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. 25 Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. 26 And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city. 27 Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

tonight is gonna be a bit different: each point is just another thing we have to look forward to as Christians

What We Look Forward To:

1. The Wedding of the Lamb and the church (vv. 1-2)

As John witnesses the old Earth and the old heaven pass away and the new heaven and Earth come, it says he witnesses the new Jerusalem descend like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband

Seemingly strange imagery; but I want to show you that this is actually really awesome

First off, let’s talk about what Jerusalem is

To keep us from getting too far into the weeds, I’ll summarize by saying that we are the inhabitants of this new Jerusalem (the church)

And in many points in the Bible the church is considered the “bride of Christ”

Marriage is actually a picture of the church being united with Jesus

In the end times, we will see the wedding of the Lamb and the church where we will be with Jesus for eternity

2. Reunited with our Father (vv. 3-7)

Verses 3 through 7 are a beautiful picture of what Heaven is (its like being reunited with your father)

God is our Father in Heaven (so much better than any earthly father; He is the ultimate dad)

And Heaven is being reunited with the best dad ever

Right now, on this Earth, we’re away from our Heavenly Father

He still sent His Son for us to pay the price for our sins so we could be reunited with Him, but until we go to Heaven we’re still away from Him

It’s like having a dad in the military (can’t see Him in person, but you can talk to Him)

But y’all know those videos of the kids seeing their dad or mom in the military come home? (I know y’all be seeing those TikToks)

One day we’re gonna have the ultimate reuniting with our Father (we’ll never be away from Him again)

We are like kids who long to be with our Father

V. 6 mentions those who thirst after God, who realize they need Him and desire Him more than water itself, He will give to them freely from the springs of the water of life

We’re all broken, sinful people and this is another reminder that we need God (we don’t realize it, but we do)

Through Jesus, we have a way to the Father (through the payment of our sins on the cross)

Do you thirst for God? Do you see Him as the One you need above all else?

This applies to anyone not saved or who are

Not saved: acknowledge and confess your sin to God and place your faith in Jesus as the Savior for your sins

V. 7 says if you’re one of the ones who place your faith in Jesus, you will inherit all the blessings of God. He will be your God, and you will be His child. That is the ultimate blessing. Don’t pass that up.

Saved: Do you get distracted from the things of this world and forget that God is the One you truly need? Do you need to recenter your life on God?

3. No more death, sorrow, crying, pain, or evil (vv. 4; 8; 27)

Going back to verse 4: says there will be no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain

And verses 8 and 27 says there will be no one who is evil and no evil at all in the new Jerusalem

Like I said earlier, this world is a broken place (atrocities, heinous crimes, groups that do terrible things; even things that we see in our daily life like greed, people being rude and petty)

But one day, we are gonna live in eternity where there is no death (not a single person will pass away)

There will be no more sorrow (no more sad days, only joy), no more crying (no reason to cry), no more pain (we’ll never even so much as stub our toe)

And there’ll be no more evil (not a single evil act in Heaven, just people enjoying God)

Imagine all the bad things that have happened to you in just the past few months (all the pain, sorrow, evil from yourself and others)

There will be none of that in Heaven, only joy

This last thing we have to look forward to I want to camp out on for a minute

What do we see described in verses 9 through 27? The new Heaven and Earth

4. A city shining with the glory of God (vv. 9-27)

We could spend forever talking about how beautiful the new Jerusalem is gonna be (city sparkling like precious stones, huge grand city walls that are miles wide, walls made of jasper, a city made of pure gold clear as glass, gates made of pearl)

I don’t think even John knew what he was seeing (you see him say the city is pur gold but clear as glass)

I think he was so in awe and enamored by the beauty of the city before him and he just tried to describe it as best he could (I don’t think we even have words to capture the full beauty of it)

But perhaps the most special thing about this city we see in verses 22 and 23

Revelation 21:22–23 NLT

22 I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light.

Imagine a place with no sun or moon, it was simply full of light all the time from the very glory of God

God will be present in this city (GOD WILL BE THERE)

And His very presence lights up this entire gigantic city

It’s not like God is just using His superpowers to light everything up, that’s just what it’s like being in His presence, everything is illuminated

There was a speaker at Watty WKND that had some incredible sermons

The second one focused on 1 John 1; about God being light (similar to Rev 21, turn there)

1 John 1:5–10 NLT

5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

This passage isn’t saying that you have to be a good person to have fellowship with God (that’s not what v. 6 is saying)

It’s saying that if you go on living your life with sin hidden from everyone else, you’re not walking with God

So having fellowship with God is not achieved through being a good person, it’s through acknowledging you’re not and confessing your sin

God is light, and so we can’t walk with Him and live secret lives hidden from everyone else

I encourage you to be honest about your sin, don’t keep it hidden; because it’s through confessing your sin that you can start to find freedom from it

One day, we’ll be in Heaven where there’ll be no evil, and everything is illuminated by the glory of God

Don’t y’all think that Heaven is awesome? It’s so much better than we could ever perceive it being!

This series is focused on where Jesus is in these passages we’ve been walking through (and Jesus is littered throughout this passage) but the very end of Revelation 21 is what I want to focus on

It says those who will be allowed to enter into this glorious city will be those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life

Can y’all guess what the Lamb’s Book of Life is?

Jesus is the Lamb of God, slain as the sacrifice for our sin

Those who place their faith in Jesus; their names are written in this Book of Life; those are the ones who will be with Him in eternity

The first question I want to ask: Is your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? I promise you, you want your name in that book. If you haven’t done so, place your faith in Jesus

For those who already know they’re in the Book of Life, why, after hearing about how great Heaven is, do we still struggle with being afraid of the world?

If Jesus says He is working all things for our good and commands us to share the gospel and make disciples, why do we waste our lives on things that are gonna pass away one day anyway, why do we fear what other people think of us when we share the gospel?

If you’ve placed your faith in Jesus, you know where you’re going and you know how awesome it is. You know who saved you so you can go there and you know how everything on this Earth pales in comparison to how awesome God is and His plans for us are.

Knowing what God has planned for us in the future gets us more excited to go and gives us the desire to be with the Him, be obedient to Him, and share with others the gospel so they can go where we’re going to