Destiny's Children

Introduction

REV21.1

Revelation 21:1–8 ESV

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. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 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. 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.” 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.” 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. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 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.”

According to bridalguide.com, the most popular months to get married are June, September, and October. They say that this is because the weather is typically beautiful in early summer and fall. Now the fact of the matter is the most important thing isn’t actually the wedding date, but the marriage itself. As I take couples through pre-marriage counseling, one of the messages that I work hard to emphasize and repeat is that I’m not simply preparing them for a wedding day, I'm trying to prepare them for a long life together as husband and wife. It’s so easy, as you prepare for a wedding, to become consumed with all of the details in trying to make sure that the day goes well and that everything is beautiful. When you’re consumed with all of those details you can easily miss the whole point, which is your union together and the new home that is formed by that union.

I always tell couples that the day is going to be beautiful, even if everything isn’t perfect. The day is going to beautiful because of what’s taking place. I don’t know what goes through your mind when you attend a wedding. When I hear the wedding vows I’m reminded of my own vows and renewed in my commitment to live them out. If you’ve never been married and you attend a wedding, you can experience a sense of longing as you anticipate the day when you’ll be married. For people who were once married and are no longer married because of death or divorce, while you might be happy for the newlywed couple, weddings can be challenging. They can remind you of your loss and the accompanying pain or disappointment of that loss.

So, whether your experience at weddings is delightful or difficult, whether your marriage experience is mostly picturesque or painful, what should amaze us that when God wants to give us a picture of what heaven is like, the imagery he uses is of a wedding. Do you want to know the destiny of those who come to God through faith in Jesus Christ? Picture the most wonderful marriage you can imagine and then multiply it by infinity. Take it to infinity and beyond! When God wants to declare to his people what their destiny is, have the picture in your mind of a beautiful bride decked out for her husband in anticipation of life together with him. Understand that the Bible begins and ends with a wedding. In the first two chapters, the pinnacle of creation is the man and woman. We hear these words from at weddings all the time, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Those words weren’t just for repetition at weddings, they also set a trajectory forward in anticipation of these words in , “I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem as she descended out of heaven from God after being prepared and adorned as a bride for her husband…And I heard a great voice out of heaven say, ‘Behold the dwelling of God is with humanity. And he will live with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

What does it mean to have this kind of destiny? What does it mean to be “Destiny’s Children”?

So, there are just two words I want to hone in on as we work through this passage, Longing and Life. Destiny’s Children live with longing. They have to become comfortable with the fact that as long as they are in this world they will not escape the reality of longing for something more and something better. Things are not as they ought to be. The wedding is scheduled but they don’t know the date. Secondly, Destiny’s Children live together in the reality that they are being prepared for life as it ought to be. Therefore, life now is not a hopeless venture. They have eyes to see that renewal, renovation, and transformation is coming.

Longing

John says in v. 1, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the former heaven and the former earth, they passed away. Also, the sea was no more.” Let’s quickly situate ourselves in this last book of the Bible. This book has caused no small amount of confusion and controversy as Christians try to understand it. Revelation has a sevenfold structure to it. We are given and introduction or prologue, then there are seven cycles, and then we get the conclusion or epilogue. It’s often the case that there’s overlap between the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. Each cycle tells the same story and the end of each cycle is about glory. As we progress through each cycle, the picture of glory gets more and more clear and detailed. Our passage comes at the end of the sixth cycle and also serves as the bridge into the seventh cycle.

The point is that we are seeing here toward the end, with greater clarity is how God intends to satisfy the longings of his people. One of the questions that God’s people ask him in the Bible is, “How long?” David asked in , “How long, O Lord? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul, sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” Here in , the martyrs ask, “O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

How long can you wait for things to be the way they ought to be?

Do you know what words repeat themselves over and over again in Revelation? John keeps saying, “I saw this,” “I saw that,” I heard this,” “I heard that.” The covers are pulled back for him so that with his own eyes he sees, and with his own ears he hears the true reality. It’s not that the things you and I see and hear with our senses isn’t true. It’s that what our senses provide isn’t the full picture. There’s more to it. The Lord gives John and the Church insight to what’s going on behind what we’re able to perceive.

There’s a purpose to it.

The curtains are back and John sees a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and earth passed away. The sea was no more. John is letting us know, “This is where the world is headed. This is the world’s destiny.” Not only that, John says, but the holy city, the new Jerusalem, I saw that too. I saw that city as she descended out of heaven from God after she was prepared as a bride who had been adorned for her husband. “I didn’t only see the destiny of the world; I saw the destiny of God’s people.” Therefore, you must persevere in hope. You must live in the right now messy world with hope.

The point is that we are seeing here toward the end, with greater clarity is how God intends to satisfy the longings of his people. One of the questions that God’s people ask him in the Bible is, “How long?” David asked in , “How long, O Lord? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul, sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” Here in , the martyrs ask, “O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” How long can you wait for things to be the way they ought to be?

Do you know what words repeat themselves over and over again in Revelation? John keeps saying, “I saw this,” “I saw that,” I heard this,” “I heard that.” The covers are pulled back for him so that with his own eyes he sees, and with his own ears he hears the true reality. It’s not that the things you and I see and hear with our senses isn’t true. It’s that what our senses provide isn’t the full picture. There’s more to it. The Lord gives John and the Church insight to what’s going on behind what we’re able to perceive.

There’s a purpose to it. A few years back, when we studied Revelation in our Wednesday night Bible Study, I would ask the question each week, “What is the central focus of Revelation?” The central focus of Revelation is to exhort, to encourage, the church to continue faithfully witnessing and living for Jesus Christ in the midst of a compromising and idolatrous church and world. That’s the purpose of the whole book. That purpose is evident right here.

The curtains are back and John sees a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and earth passed away. The sea was no more. John is letting us know, “This is where the world is headed. This is the world’s destiny.” Not only that, John says, but the holy city, the new Jerusalem, I saw that too. I saw that city as she descended out of heaven from God after she was prepared as a bride who had been adorned for her husband. “I didn’t only see the destiny of the world; I saw the destiny of God’s people.”

And John wasn’t the first to see it or say it. The Lord declared it to Isaiah centuries before John was alive. Israel was in exile, longing to be restored to her land. The Lord gives Isaiah a message,

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. ()

We didn’t read this passage, but just a few chapters before our Scripture reading, the Lord says to his people in ,

You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

In Isaiah’s day the people’s longing was too short cited. They just wanted to get back to that patch of land in Palestine. The Lord had to say to them, “Your vision is too small. It’s too short sighted. I’m not just concerned with some little piece of land. I’m remaking this whole deal.” And hundreds of years later, after Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world―after he comes to save his people, giving up his life on the cross for their sake, being buried in the tomb, rising on the third day in triumphant victory over death―after all of that his people are still waiting. When is our resurrection? How long, O Lord? The one who sits on the throne has to reiterate, “Behold, I am making all things new. Write it down John, because these words are faithful and true. It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”

You see, we ache. We groan. We long for things to be better than they are. The compromising and idolatrous nature of humanity is that we try to fix our longings ourselves. Every effort to make things better is an effort to fight against death. I batter my body doing CrossFit. I try to eat right, doing a Whole30 every year. And I tell people, “I’m just trying to delay the decay.” The human mind has been able to discover and develop great medical advancements. We put our minds to use through technology, attempting to make life better, to heal what’s broken, whether it be bones or relationships. I’m glad that I can Skype with my cousin in France when she wants to talk. I can’t afford to fly over there whenever I want, but can see her face. I’m glad that medical research continues to discover remedies and medicines that attack the diseases that attack our bodies. I’m glad that the creative genius in humanity tries to strive for something better by making beautiful music and art.

In all of our striving, in all of our longing, we cannot make things radically new such that there will be no more decay! Death is not the great enemy defeated by modern medical technology. Death is the great enemy defeated by the cross of Jesus Christ. John is declaring to us that only God can do this. Only God can make all things new. It’s not the outcome of human scientific or technological advancement. As one commentator put it, “The new city comes ‘down out of heaven from God,’ a sheer miracle, a gift [that is] bestowed at the end of history and not the outcome of history.” That word in the text, “Behold,” isn’t a call to first and foremost do something. It’s a call to observe and see. “Behold, I am making all things new.” Watch and see. It’s an invitation to look, believe, and rejoice. God is committed to the renovation of his creation. The word for “new” used in our text typically indicates newness in terms of quality. In other words, through the victory of Jesus Christ over death, God is executing his renovation project.

Why is there a new heaven and a new earth? Because the first heaven and earth were temporary installments. Why is there a new heaven and earth? Look a few verses earlier in 20:11, “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.” This is all sin and lawlessness, all injustice and unrighteousness running away from God’s presence, running away from God’s creation.

That’s what makes way for what John hears in vv. 3-4, “I heard a mega-voice from the throne say, ‘Behold the dwelling of God is with humanity, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them as their God. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. Nor morning. Nor crying. Nor pain. There will be no more because the former things passed away.”

The goal of God’s renovation project, of his making all things new is communion. It is to establish the permanent experience of communion between God and his people. Let me remind you of what we saw in , when Moses and Aaron, along with Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, went up Mount Sinai. It says that they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very sky for clearness. And God didn’t lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and they ate and drank. They experienced communion with God. But it wasn’t permanent. Over and over in the book of Exodus we saw God promise, “I will be with you.” Moses doesn’t want to go back to Egypt in . The Lord says to him, “I will be with you.” Before God give them the law in ch. 20, he tells them in 19:3-4, “I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” They were to build a sanctuary in , so that the Lord may dwell in their midst. He tells them in that the reason he brought them out of the land of Egypt was that he might dwell among them.” That’s what happens at the end of Exodus, in chapter 40. The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. But there was a problem. It says in that Moses wasn’t able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. He didn’t have unhindered entrance into the presence of God.

Do you remember what we heard last week in ? Let me remind you. The Pastor said to the Hebrews, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, as a result (of Jesus’ once for all sacrifice for sins) we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus―which he opened for us, the new and living way through the veil, that is, through his flesh.” Jesus Christ has done for us what Moses could never do. He has opened the way for his people into the very presence of God. Praise the Lord. But there’s still an issue! Right now we can only experience it by faith. Right now, through faith in Jesus Christ we believe that God is with us and we are with God. We believe that God is faithful to keep his promise. But faith is required because life experience is regularly trying to tell us a different story. We experience death every day. We still mourn. We still cry. We still feel pain.

The longing of our life can be compared to a bride who’s waiting and waiting and waiting for her husband-to-be to set the wedding date. He’s proposed to her. He’s said, “I love you more than you can imagine. I want us to be together forever.” She said yes, and he placed the ring on her finger. But every time she asks him, “When are we going to set the date?” He says, “It’ll be soon. Don’t worry about it.” How long will she way before she gives that joker the engagement ring back and says, “You keep telling me it’s our destiny to be together, but I don’t see you making it happen! Later for you man. I’m better off being alone than waiting for you.”

The covers have pulled back for John and he hears God saying to his church, “The wedding date has been set! It is your destiny to be with me. Those who hold on will drink freely from the spring of the water of life. The one who overcomes will inherit these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.” Not only that, but no one better is coming along. No one or nothing better can come along because there isn’t anyone or anything better. So, don’t shrink back. Don’t try to return the engagement ring Just because it seems like you have to wait an unreasonably long time, know that there’s a horrible fate for those who refuse to wait. There’s a horrific end for those who refuse to believe. The cowardly, the faithless, those who are detestable, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Destiny’s children hold on. Destiny’s children take their cues for living from what has been revealed by God. The churches to whom John was writing were in a fight. They were suffering persecution. They were facing poverty. They were facing political oppression. They were facing the temptation to compromise their faith so that life would be better and easier. They needed to know that God’s promise that their destiny was to be with him as he remade everything was more certain than what their eyes were seeing and their ears were hearing. It’s the same thing we need to know.

The people who have this destiny can live with longing. They live now knowing that they are being prepared for life as it ought to be. So we know that the grace of God comes, in the renewal of all things, not to destroy God’s creation, but to make it perfect. Do you understand that because of who God is he can declare in v. 6, “It is done”? The Greek text literally says, “They are done!” Not a singular, “It is done.” Everything I said was going to take place, everything I promised they’re already done. I am the Alpha and the Omega. I’m the God of the beginning of history, of the end of history, and everything in between!

Destiny’s children live right now knowing that it’s all done. God doesn’t promise us that we won’t be wounded. He doesn’t promise us that we will no longer have any longings for something better. He promises us that our ultimate healing and satisfaction is a done deal.

And John wasn’t the first to see it or say it. The Lord declared it to Isaiah centuries before John was alive. Israel was in exile, longing to be restored to her land. The Lord gives Isaiah a message,

Isaiah 62:3–5 ESV

You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Isaiah 65:17–19 ESV

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.

ISA65.

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. ()

You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

In Isaiah’s day the people’s longing was too short sighted. They just wanted to get back to that patch of land in Palestine. The Lord had to say to them, “Your vision is too small. It’s too short sighted. I’m not just concerned with some little piece of land. I’m remaking this whole deal.” And centuries later, after Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world―after he comes to save his people, giving up his life on the cross for their sake, being buried in the tomb, rising on the third day in triumphant victory over death―after all of that his people are still waiting. When is our resurrection? How long, O Lord? The one who sits on the throne has to reiterate, “Behold, I am making all things new. Write it down John, because these words are faithful and true. It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”

You see, we ache. We groan. We long for things to be better than they are. The compromising and idolatrous nature of humanity is that we try to fix our longings ourselves. Every effort to make things better is an effort to fight against death.

I batter my body doing CrossFit. I try to eat right, doing a Whole30 every year. And I tell people, “I’m just trying to delay the decay.” The human mind has been able to discover and develop great medical advancements. We put our minds to use through technology, attempting to make life better, to heal what’s broken, whether it be bones or relationships. I’m glad that I can FaceTime with my cousin in France when she wants to talk. I can’t afford to fly over there whenever I want, but can see her face. I’m glad that medical research continues to discover remedies and medicines that attack the diseases that attack our bodies. I’m glad that the creative genius in humanity tries to strive for something better by making beautiful music and art.

In all of our striving, in all of our longing, we cannot make things radically new such that there will be no more decay! Death is not the great enemy defeated by modern medical technology. Death is the great enemy defeated by the cross of Jesus Christ. John is declaring to us that only God can do this. Only God can make all things new. It’s not the outcome of human scientific or technological advancement. As one commentator put it, “The new city comes ‘down out of heaven from God,’ a sheer miracle, a gift [that is] bestowed at the end of history and not the outcome of history.” That word in the text, “Behold,” isn’t a call to first and foremost do something. It’s a call to observe and see. “Behold, I am making all things new.” Watch and see. It’s an invitation to look, believe, and rejoice. God is committed to the renovation of his creation. The word for “new” used in our text typically indicates newness in terms of quality. In other words, through the victory of Jesus Christ over death, God is executing his renovation project.

Why is there a new heaven and a new earth? Because the first heaven and earth were temporary installments. Why is there a new heaven and earth? Look a few verses earlier in 20:11,

Revelation 20:11 ESV

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

This is all sin and lawlessness, all injustice and unrighteousness running away from God’s presence, running away from God’s creation.

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.” This is all sin and lawlessness, all injustice and unrighteousness running away from God’s presence, running away from God’s creation.

That’s what makes way for what John hears in vv. 3-4, “I heard a mega-voice from the throne say, ‘Behold the dwelling of God is with humanity, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them as their God. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. Nor morning. Nor crying. Nor pain. There will be no more because the former things passed away.”

The goal of God’s renovation project, of his making all things new is communion. It is to establish the permanent experience of communion between God and his people. We find this through the pages of the Bible as well. In , when Moses and Aaron, along with Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, went up Mount Sinai. It says that they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very sky for clearness. And God didn’t lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and they ate and drank. They experienced communion with God. But it wasn’t permanent. Over and over in the book of Exodus we saw God promise, “I will be with you.” Moses doesn’t want to go back to Egypt in . The Lord says to him, “I will be with you.” Before God give them the law in ch. 20, he tells them in 19:3-4, “I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” They were to build a sanctuary in , so that the Lord may dwell in their midst. He tells them in that the reason he brought them out of the land of Egypt was that he might dwell among them.” That’s what happens at the end of Exodus, in chapter 40. The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. But there was a problem. It says in that Moses wasn’t able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. He didn’t have unhindered entrance into the presence of God.

Here’s what we find in the NT letter to the Hebrews. , the Pastor said to the Hebrews, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, as a result (of Jesus’ once for all sacrifice for sins) we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus―which he opened for us, the new and living way through the veil, that is, through his flesh.” Jesus Christ has done for us what Moses could never do. He has opened the way for his people into the very presence of God. Praise the Lord. But there’s still an issue! Right now we can only experience it by faith. Right now, through faith in Jesus Christ we believe that God is with us and we are with God. We believe that God is faithful to keep his promise. But faith is required because life experience is regularly trying to tell us a different story. We experience death every day. We still mourn. We still cry. We still feel pain.

The longing of our life can be compared to a bride who’s waiting and waiting and waiting for her husband-to-be to set the wedding date. He’s proposed to her. He’s said, “I love you more than you can imagine. I want us to be together forever.” She said yes, and he placed the ring on her finger. But every time she asks him, “When are we going to set the date?” He says, “It’ll be soon. Don’t worry about it.” How long will she way before she gives that joker the engagement ring back and says, “You keep telling me it’s our destiny to be together, but I don’t see you making it happen! Later for you man. I’m better off being alone than waiting for you.”

The covers have pulled back for John and he hears God saying to his church, “The wedding date has been set! It is your destiny to be with me. Those who hold on will drink freely from the spring of the water of life. The one who overcomes will inherit these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.” Not only that, but no one better is coming along. No one or nothing better can come along because there isn’t anyone or anything better. So, don’t shrink back. Don’t try to return the engagement ring Just because it seems like you have to wait an unreasonably long time, know that there’s a horrible fate for those who refuse to wait. There’s a horrific end for those who refuse to believe. The cowardly, the faithless, those who are detestable, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Destiny’s children hold on. Destiny’s children take their cues for living from what has been revealed by God. The churches to whom John was writing were in a fight. They were suffering persecution. They were facing poverty. They were facing political oppression. They were facing the temptation to compromise their faith so that life would be better and easier. They needed to know that God’s promise that their destiny was to be with him as he remade everything was more certain than what their eyes were seeing and their ears were hearing. It’s the same thing we need to know.

The people who have this destiny can live with longing. They live now knowing that they are being prepared for life as it ought to be. So we know that the grace of God comes, in the renewal of all things, not to destroy God’s creation, but to make it perfect. Do you understand that because of who God is he can declare in v. 6, “It is done”? The Greek text literally says, “They are done!” Not a singular, “It is done.” Everything I said was going to take place, everything I promised they’re already done. I am the Alpha and the Omega. I’m the God of the beginning of history, of the end of history, and everything in between!

Destiny’s children live right now knowing that it’s all done. God doesn’t promise us that we won’t be wounded. He doesn’t promise us that we will no longer have any longings for something better. He promises us that our ultimate healing and satisfaction is a done deal.