The New Heaven and the New Earth Part 3
The Book of Revelation • Sermon • Submitted
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And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Introduction:
I. The Coming of the New Heaven and the New Earth (vs. 1)
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
II. The Capital of the New Heaven and the New Earth (vs. 2)
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
III. The Companion of the New Heaven and the New Earth (vs. 3)
I
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
One of the great truths that we brought out in this point is the fact that the tabernacle, the “σκηνη” will dwell with us.
That means that the house of God is going to be a reality.
What has been a reality for all those people that have died and went to the Lord, will now be a reality on earth, that God’s house will dwell with us; that we will move into the house of God.
I like what John writes next, that “he will dwell with us”.
“Dwell” is the Greek word “σκηνόω”, very similar to the Greek word for tabernacle (in fact, they share the same Greek root), but the idea that is given to us is the fact that God will settle with us.
And being that it is in the indicative mood, gives us the assurance that this is an act to which there is no doubt of it happening.
The time will come when the Creator of the Universe will make His home with His children on the earth and He will settle with us.
We saw last time that this brings with it a number of different promises:
First, we have the promise of fellowship with Him.
Now, lest that notion seem cliche to us, we really need to grasp what it means to have fellowship with God.
And I want you to get a since of the fellowship that we have with God by looking at what it is like to not have fellowship with Him.
Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Bible Doctrine b. Our Fellowship with God Is Disrupted and Our Christian Life Is Damaged
The Westminster Confession of Faith wisely says, concerning Christians,
Although they never can fall from the state of justification, yet they may, by their sins, fall under God’s fatherly displeasure and not have the light of His countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance. (chap. 11, sec. 5
The Westminister Confession of Faith says:
Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Bible Doctrine b. Our Fellowship with God Is Disrupted and Our Christian Life Is Damaged
Although they never can fall from the state of justification, yet they may, by their sins, fall under God’s fatherly displeasure and not have the light of His countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance. (chap. 11, sec. 5)
When we sin; although the Father never ceases to love us, He is displeased with us.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
Imagine, if you will, leaving in the same house as God and never doing anything for all eternity that would every bring Him displeasure.
That is what the opposite of fellowship with God is all about; therefore, to be inconstant fellowship with God is to say that there is never a time when I can bring Him displeasure.
And for the believer, that is paramount in their lives; for God to be pleased in all that I do.
Second, we will see God as He is.
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
The blinders are off and we will be able to see God is the fulness of His glory.
Third, believers will worship God
And because we can never do anything that would bring Him displeasure, all of our worship will be perfect worship.
Another glorious hope for any child of God, that I can offer to God perfect worship, free of me.
Fourth, believer will serve God.
That is what is so troubling for me with people who claim to know and love the Lord, and well they may, but when you call on them to serve the Lord, “let me pray about it”.
Listen, you do not have to pray about serving the Lord down here, it will be good practice for you.
“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
The last great hope we saw of this companionship is the fact that Jesus will serve believers.
We looked at the parable that Jesus Christ told in the Gospel of .
Where Jesus pictures Himself as a noble who return from a long journey and found His servant faithfully serving Him.
And as a reward He took off His role as the Master and He prepared a feast for His servants and serves them.
And so it will be in eternity, where the Lord Jesus Christ will serve an eternal feast of Joy to His children.
IV. The Changes of the New Heaven and the New Earth (vs. 4-6a)
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
When we were looking at this last time together we said to you that the changes in heaven will be so great that the best way to describe it is by the use of negative.
First, we saw that God will wipe away all tears from our eyes.
It has often been said that what that means is that God will be wiping away the tears from our eyes because we have just witnessed countless millions being plunged into Hell.
And that is probably often said because this chapter follows immediately the chapter describing the eternal punishment of the wicked.
And while that may seem to make for emotional preaching, there really is not any Biblical evidence that we will actually witness as the eternal judgment of God falls on those people.
The idea that is given to us here is just the idea that Heaven will be such a perfect place, that there will never be a need for their to be anything in Heaven that would being tears or fears.
And I think what we have here is symbolic language as a header.
Meaning what is given is the fact that God will wipe away all tears from our eyes, and then he gives a list of all the things that cause tears.
So the wiping of the tears is a symbolic header because none of these other things will exist.
There will be no more “θάνατος” no more dying.
That surely brings tears; doesn’t it.
God will be said to cease tears because where are there is not going to be any more dying.
There will also be no “πένθος” or mourning.
There will be no sadness whatsoever.
There will be no experiences of grief.
God will be said to wipe away all tears because He will wipe away all reasons to be sad.
There will also be no more crying.
It is the word “κραυγή” and does not just speaking of crying but it refers to wailing.
In particular, the Greek gives us the understanding that this is the outcry of grief or anxiety, with emphasis on the noise that such grief brings.
I have stood by and tried to comfort a grieving mother who has that deep moan that comes out when the grief is just so horrible.
Gos is said to symbolically wipe away our tears because He will wipe away everything that would ever cause that deep throated moan to come out.
Then there will be no more “πόνος” or “pain”.
And this is just not speaking about physical pain, but it is also speaking about mental pain, emotional pain, distress.
All of it is gone, why?
“Because the former things have passed away”.
Revelation 12–22: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Changes in the New Heaven and the New Earth
Old human experience related to the original, fallen creation is gone forever, and with it all the mourning, suffering, sorrow, disease, pain, and death that has characterized it since the Fall.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
The one that sits on the throne is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ and He says: “Behold”.
“ἰδού” and we said to you last time together that that is a word that is used to basically says, “stop, take that in and listen to this”.
It was almost as if John was becoming noticeably overwhelmed by what he was hearing and seeing that Jesus says, “now, stop and take that it and in case you do not understand what is going on (because John, like us, had never known a world without those things that God said that He was getting rid of), remember I am making all things new.
As previously stated, the new heaven and new earth is not just a refurbished planet and galaxy; because Peter said that was going to melt with fervent heat, but it is going to be brand new.
It is not going to be a planet and galaxy where the results of the fall have been removed; it will be a planet and galaxy where the fall had never had its grip.
And Jesus says to John, “Now, stop and take that in.”
Why do we have so much hope in what is being said?
And Jesus says to John, “Now, stop and take that in.”
Because Jesus tells John to “write, because these words are faithful and true.”
There have been a lot of things that John did not write, but Christ wanted to make sure that His people throughout all ages knew about this blessed hope.
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
God says, “it is done”.
I have made all things new and I have taken away everything that would ever cause a tear.
And I can do that because “I am alpha and omega”, I am the beginning of everything and I am the ending of everything.
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last.
Revelation 12–22: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Changes in the New Heaven and the New Earth
God started history, and He will end it, and all of it has unfolded according to His sovereign plan. That this same phrase is applied to the Lord Jesus Christ in 22:13 offers proof of His full deity and equality with the Father.
What great hope that we have seeing the changes that will be in the New Heaven and the New Earth.