I Make All Things New, Rev. 21:1-8, Pt. 2

Introduction

Imagine if you will that everything you know in this world is gone. The earth as you knew it is absent. The landscape, the homes, the trees, the lakes, the roads and so on are gone. Even the dirt beneath your feet is different. Then you are overpowered with a sense of awe as you see this new Jerusalem descending out of Heaven. You are so bewildered that you are not even aware of what is going on around you. Your rapt attention is on the vision of that city. And that city is everything you have been looking and waiting for. Abraham spent his 175 years looking for the city whose builder was God. And John sees it before his eyes. And we can see it too with our minds eye. It isn’t my purpose today to reflect on the New Jerusalem. I tried to do that last week as we ended. But just to review we see that John is seeing the result of God making all things new as is stated in v.5. This is what Paul was partially referring to in when he said “If anyone be in Christ he is a new creation, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.” This is what Paul was looking toward.

We saw that in that statement “I make all things new” John sees a new creation, vss. 1-4. This is seen in the new realm (heaven and earth, the old the first is passed away). All the evidences of sin are gone. He also directed our focus to the New Jerusalem that is the city of God which he will take up a little later in this chapter. But now we are going to examine our new relationship.

To begin to see the importance of this verse, and I mean verse 3 we need to go back to the beginning in garden. On the sixth day after God created the heavens and the earth, He created man/Adam because there was not anyone to till the ground and care for the creation of God in God’s stead, . So God created man, v.7. I want to read through v.10 and then vss. 16-17. He also created the woman, v.18-25. Their purpose was to care for God’s creation, the New earth He created. They were to rule in His stead. Enter the serpent to tempt them to eat of the forbidden fruit, and they did and so were put out of the garden. Let me make a few statements here:

The garden was the place of dwelling of God with Adam and Eve. He called to them, Adam and Eve by implication must have had that fellowship with God as His people.

Their sin forced them out of the garden, because they were no longer holy. So they were separated from fellowship with God

The garden is now the New Jerusalem, we see the same characteristics, the tree of life, the river coming out of the throne, most importantly, God was dwelling there. ,

What we see then: in the beginning man dwelt with God, but because of sin, they were separated from God’s presence. In the end as recorded in our text we see that fellowship restored and once again God and man (His people, believers) dwell together.

So the bible is book ended by believing man’s dwelling in fellowship with God. Everything in between is the story of how that relationship is restored. I want to take the time to show you this connection. This city, this house of God, this dwelling with God has been something that ever since the fall God has been in the process of restoring.

Next we need to go to Abraham, who as I mentioned, sought this same city whose maker is God, . When God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees to go to a land God promised him, this is the place he was looking for by faith. He did not know where he was going. He only had the covenant God made to Him. , “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land; and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, who appeared to him.“ God appeared to him in the same way He appeared to Adam in the garden. They conversed together. They had fellowship and a sacrifice was necessary to that end. We see this again in ; Again in there is the fellowship with God and the promised seed and a land where both would dwell together, Again in Chapter 17 we see the same appearance and promise where Abram and God talked together. Especially the promise of vss. 2-8. They are the same that are mentioned in our text in Revelation. In fact, we see that Paul shows us this seed is Jesus .

This same promise is mentioned by Moses to Israel, and is the basis for Jeremiahs prophecy in .

So we have the dwelling of God with man in the garden, but that was destroyed when Adam and Eve sinned. We have the Abrahamic covenant where Abraham and God fellow-shipped together as a preview of the restoration of that broken one in the garden.

We also have this fellowship previewed once again during the Exodus as foretold By God in the Covenant in . Only this time it is Moses who God regularly appears to and it is through him that God begins to have fellowship with Israel. The template of the Dwelling of God is the Tabernacle. In this way there is a recurrence of God speaking with man as He did in the garden with Adam and Eve and then with Abraham. Now God speaks directly to Moses, Moses speaks God’s words to Aaron and Aaron to the People. Why is that important that God speaks with His people? Because that is part of dwelling with someone, communication through conversation.. And here again we have the necessity of Sacrifice to facilitate that fellowship (God dwelling with Man) which was the skin given to Adam and Eve in the garden, to Abraham it was the sacrifice at the ratification of the covenant at the smoking lamp and then the ram at the sacrifice of Isaac. Now it is the sacrificial system of the tabernacle which is the dwelling of God. The holiest of Holies where Aaron would venture once a year. And the subsequent High Priests in the years after that.

The next place of the dwelling of God is in the Temple of Solomon. You might remember that God spoke with David through a prophet such as Nathan. However, With Solomon God appeared to him personally. It was Solomon who would build the temple, the house of the Lord for a dwelling with men to serve in the same capacity as the Tabernacle. The Lord appeared to Solomon in and if you read vss. 11-14 you see the picture very clearly and then in we have the dedication of the temple to the Lord. Solomon gathers all the people to the Temple, the ark, the symbol of God’s presence, is brought in. (you will remember John saw the Ark in the temple of Heaven, ) so it is here in Solomon’s temple. In Verse 11 The glory of the Lord filled the temple. Then we have Solomon’s prayer of dedication in vss. 22-61 in which he repeatedly spoke of God’s dwelling with His people. To facilitate fellowship with God sacrifices were made.

Now we know those sacrifices don’t make them holy, but you cannot fellowship with God without the death of a sacrifice to atone for sins.

We also know as Ezekiel records that God’s presence departed the temple in and God doesn’t dwell with His people again until Jesus comes.

Then, of course, we have Jesus. Immanuel, God with us. The Word became flesh, . In Jesus we have the return of the Shekinah Glory of God returned to the Temple. But even that is short lived. Jesus tells the people the temple will be destroyed.

In this case we have God in the flesh appearing to and dwelling among men, calling out His people to come and dwell with Him. Again there is a sacrifice necessary to facilitate God dwelling among sinful men. It was the sacrifice of the lamb (Passover) who is Jesus. God Himself, dwelling among sinful man and is also the sacrifice that opens that door to the dwelling of God.

Then, of course, we have Jesus. Immanuel, God with us. The Word became flesh, . In this case we have God in the flesh appearing to and dwelling among men, calling out His people to come and dwell with Him. Again there is a sacrifice necessary to facilitate God dwelling among sinful men. It was the sacrifice of the lamb (Passover) who is Jesus. God Himself, dwelling among sinful man and is also the sacrifice that opens that door to the dwelling of God.

Paul takes up that thought in both and in and enjoins you and I as true dwellers with God to come out from among those who are sinful and unclean.

Now we are ready for our text. This is the fulfillment of all those prophecies in The OT.

Exodus 29:45 ESV

I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God.

Leviticus 26:11 ESV

I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.

Ezekiel 37:27 ESV

My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 43:7 ESV

and he said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places,

Ezekiel

And

Zechariah 2:10–11 ESV

Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.

This walking and talking with God that we so often talk about, this longing in our heart to walk with the Lord . C. Austin Miles wrote a song describing that longing, “in The Garden” the occasion was the meeting of Jesus and Mary on resurrection morning, . But it is a really a sappy spiritualist song that expresses a longed for experience on the part of Miles. Interestingly, According to Miles' great-granddaughter, the song was written "in a cold, dreary and leaky basement in Pitman, New Jersey that didn't even have a window in it let alone a view of a garden."[1] So much for walking and talking in a garden with God.

But this is what believers are looking for a time when they can talk with God in person. What we do in part now will be done in whole then. What Adam lost, Abraham, Moses, Solomon experienced but only in part. Jesus, God in the flesh dwelt with His disciples and showed them what dwelling with God was like, but even that was short lived and in part. The coming of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity, God in Spirit indwells us as believers today so that we might have fellowship with God through faith in Jesus. We would be one with God, united to God through faith in Jesus by the power of the Spirit, but even that is not complete.

What John sees and reveals to us is the consummation, the fulfillment of all that God promised way back in Genesis to Abram and before that to Adam and Eve to restore Paradise Lost . But not just paradise lost this is also a picture of the groom returning with his bride to dwell with him forever. That is what Jesus meant when we read in

John 14:1–3 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

What we see here is Paradise Regained. The Old is passed away and all is made new, a new realm, a new Jerusalem (city of God) and new relationship, or I might say relationship renewed.

What we see here is Paradise Regained. The Old is passed away and all is made new, a new realm, a new Jerusalem (city of God) and new relationship, or I might say relationship renewed.

Now what we once saw in part, we see whole.

Now we see the perfect tent of God with men. All that Abraham, Moses, Solomon and Jesus pointed to is this.

God tents with His people, and His people tent with Him. They dwell together with all that entails.

God Himself shall be with them. As Paul said, “now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face, .

We will live and dwell with God forever. In eternal fellowship with God.

This is our great hope. This is what we are looking for. We by faith look for this city, but once we are there no more faith is needed. We will experience it first hand.

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”

“He says it another way. First he says the tabernacle of God is among men. Then he says He shall dwell among them. And then he says, "And they shall be His people." It's almost as if this thing is so mind boggling he has to keep repeating himself. God Himself shall be among them. If he had just said, "He shall dwell among them," they might say, "Well, yes, in His glory and perhaps in a veiled way because He's so great." And when he said, "And they shall...He shall be among them," "Well yes, yes He's going to move in their midst, yes, we understand that." And then he says, "And they shall be His people," personal possession...personal possession.

And then as if that's not enough he adds again, "And God Himself shall be among them." Haven't we already heard that? God Himself is the addition. God is among men. He dwells among them. They are His people. Yes, you heard me right, God Himself. Wow! God appeared in the theophanies of the patriarchal time and God spoke to the prophets audibly and personally. God led His people by day and by night with His presence. God showed them His glory. God came certainly in the flesh of Jesus Christ. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten full of grace and truth. Evidently God who was transfigured before them, in Matthew's gospel 17 it tells about it. God has come to believers in the form of the indwelling Holy Spirit. God has come in the form of the reigning Messiah Jesus Christ in the Millennial Kingdom, but this is God's presence like no other occasion. And this then is the supreme personality of heaven. “

We see that this being in the presence of God is what we as believers long for. But what does that mean? What is it about this verse that we need to grab hold of and We don’t have time today, but what does it means to us is that all that was torn apart in the fall, for which the tears, death, mourning, wailing and pain will no longer be. They will be wiped away. But what that is I would guess is not what you think. We will leave that for next week.

We don’t have time today, but what that means to us is that all that was torn apart in the fall, for which the tears, death, mourning, wailing and pain will no longer be. They will be wiped away. But what that is I would guess is not what you think. We will leave that for next week.