The Hope of New Life

The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting Revelation 21:1-6 Our Scripture this morning is found in Revelation 21:1-6. This is toward the very end of the vision given to John of the heavenly throne room. He has seen the final battle between Jesus and Satan; he has seen the judgment of all humanity before the throne of God. Now Jesus sees the hope that many had been longing for. I invite you to follow along as I read Revelation 21:1-6. 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. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 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. 4 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.” 5 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.” 6 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.1 This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Prayer of Illumination: About 10 years ago, the movie The Road began to make waves. It’s a pretty faithful adaptation of a novel by Cormac McCarthy. It’s the story of this man and his son as they walk south down this road. The world has experienced a nuclear winter. There is no work, there are no animals, there is no vegetation. It is a bleak world that is slowly dying as the effects of nuclear fallout continue to destroy the earth. Most people find the situation hopeless and begin forming gangs to kill and pillage whoever and whatever they can so they can survive one more day. Periodically the father wonders if he is doing the right thing. Him and his son are starving, eating whatever scraps they can find as they walk south, hoping against hope that it might be warmer and there might be food there. He wonders if he should have killed himself and his son because things seem so hopeless. The film ends on that same note of hopelessness. The father hands his son off to another group so he might survive just one more day even as the father states it is hopeless. The film resonated pretty strongly with many in our culture. Why? The film isn’t exciting. There aren’t any spectacular fight scenes or stunning visual effects. It’s a film where the two main characters just walk and talk. So then why did it resonate so strongly with people? It resonated so strongly because many people feel hopeless. At that time, we were experiencing the greatest financial depression since the Great Depression in the 1920s. People felt hopeless about finding work or finding fulfilling work. But on a deeper level, people felt hopeless about life. There was no hope for today, no hope for tomorrow. There was no hope for anything beyond this physical life. Today, we conclude our series on the Apostles’ Creed by looking at the final line. I believe in resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. That line sums up the hope we have as Christians; the hope that in Christ all things will be made right. As we examine Revelation, we will see we have the hope for creation and the hope in God’s promises. The Hope for Creation The very first thing we should see is a hope for creation. John tells us that he “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. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”. There is a new heaven and a new earth. Wait. What happened to the old heaven and the earth? They passed away. Remember a few weeks ago when we were looking at Jesus judging humanity for their sins? We were looking at the passage right before this one in Revelation 20 and we saw that as God was judging humanity for their sin, the heavens and the earth “fled away”, they disappeared. There was only humanity standing before the throne of God. But now John sees a new heaven and a new earth. I can imagine the saints standing before the throne with nothing else around them. If they were to look anywhere other than the throne there would be nothing, pitch black. Then a new bright blue sky above them and green grass beneath them as God recreates the heaven and the earth. There will be a physical earth. So often in TV shows and movies, people are pictured as ethereal spirits sitting on clouds. Many people believe that; many people think that we will just be disembodied spirits for all eternity. A professor of religion recently wrote that the majority of her students don’t believe in a physical resurrection or a physical heavens and earth. These aren’t students at UNC or NC State that don’t profess to be Christians. This was at a Christian university where the majority of students are professing Christians. But Scripture tells us that we won’t be sitting on clouds playing harps as disembodied spirits. There will be a physical re-creation not just of the heavens and the earth but also our bodies. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that when Jesus rose from the dead he had a physical body and for those who believe in him they too will have a glorified body. It’ll be the body we had before Christ’s return but glorified. No one is sure how that will happen. We don’t know if that means we will have our youthful bodies full of vigor and strength with flocking locks or if we’ll have bodies of our middle age. But we will have bodies and we will enjoy a re-created heaven and earth. But things won’t be completely the same. We’re told that the sea will be “no more”. I know many of us here enjoy fishing and spending time of the lake. And maybe you’re wondering if your favorite hobby will be taken away. Keep in mind, Revelation is a highly symbolic book. In Scripture and in many ancient cultures, the sea symbolizes chaos and destruction. Chaos and destruction are the results of sin. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve take the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and eat it. The result of that was sin entered into God’s creation. It affected all aspects of creation. We most often talk about sin affecting humanity. But when God is telling Adam and Eve about the effects of their sin, he also says it will affect the earth. Sin brought about thistles and thorns in God’s garden; sin brought about chaos and destruction. So the fact that the sea is gone symbolizes the end of chaos and destruction, the end of sin and it’s affects on humanity and the earth. The new creation will be what it was before sin’s entrance. The new heavens and the new earth will be free from the affects of sin. There will be no chaos, no destruction. After the new heavens and the new earth have been established, John sees “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”. This is crown jewel of God’s re-creation and where the saints will reside. We didn’t read it but the very next section describes what the new Jerusalem will look like. John writes: Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. 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 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. 2 There is a lot of symbolism in that passage but it’s clear this city will be glorious; it’ll be the most beautiful part of the new creation. The new Jerusalem will be like a beautiful jewel sparkling with radiance. And that’s not all. We, the saints, will spend eternity in this glorious city. This might be hard for some of us to hear. We don’t always like cities. But we, the saints, will be there. The multitude that John saw earlier in chapter 7 will inhabit the new Jerusalem. It will be the entire multitude from every tribe and tongue, worshipping and praising God together. What all this means is that the renewal of the earth, the renewal of society that many of us are longing for will come in Jesus Christ. The hope for creation isn’t found in politics, even though as Christians we should be engaged in politics to care for the current creation; the hope for creation is found in Jesus Christ. In Christ, creation will be healed from the effect of sin. The renewal of society that many long for is found in Christ. We look at this in depth last week, so I won’t take too much time on this. But all of the divisions found in humanity are healed in Christ. We don’t see it completed now, only in part, but when Christ returns the divisions found in humanity will be healed. We will be one people. The Hope in God’s Promises John has just shown us the hope for creation. Now he will show us the hope we have in God’s promises. John says in verses 3-4, “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. 4 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’”. The thing we see is the covenantal promise. The angel says that the dwelling place of God is with man, and he will be their God and they will be his people. That phrasing is found several times throughout the Old Testament. The most prominent place comes in Ezekiel 37. In Ezekiel 37, the prophet is told that there will be a day when God gathers his people who have been scattered throughout the world. They will be brought to God’s holy mountain and they will live there forever under the Davidic king. God is promising that those who are in Christ will be his people. We mentioned this last week. If you are in Christ, then in the new heavens and the new earth you will be with him. We will get to spend time in fellowship with God. Think about it. Have you ever been away from someone you care about for a long time but then reunited? What do you do? You want to be with them; you want to spend time with them. It doesn’t matter what you do, you just want to be with them. In the new heavens and the new earth, God will be present amongst us. Christ will be there, walking with his people, eating with his people. Other places in Scripture tell us that when Christ returns, we will feast. There will be a huge feast celebrating our union with Christ where we eat the best meat, drink the best wine, and enjoying the fact that God’s promise of being with us has come true. When we partake in the Eucharist we are proclaiming our hope that one day Christ will return. And on that day, all things will be made right. There will be a new heavens and a new earth. Our bodies will be glorified. And we will feast with our Lord and Savior. The promise that God will be amongst us is not the only promise in this passage. God promises that he will wipe every tear from our eyes, that death will be no more, and we will no longer mourn or cry or feel pain. All of those things will have passed away. That is an incredibly tender image. How many of you have held you children or grandchildren after they have had a bad dream? I can remember once when I was five or six, I had a nightmare. I had gone down for some water and my mom was watching one of the Child’s Play movies. I was young enough that I still had a stuffed monkey. Even though I only saw a little clip of the movie, it scared me. That night I dreamed that a stuffed doll attacked me. I screamed out in my sleep. My screams woke my parents up and they came in and comforted me. They wiped away my tears and said, “It was just a dream. It’s over. Nothing can hurt you any more”. God promises that when he re-creates the heavens and the earth, he will comfort us. He will wipe away our tears and say, “It’s over. Nothing can hurt you any more”. That is our hope during this life. During this life we will face difficulties. We will face sickness, disability, and death. We will experience physical pains as we age and our mobility decreases. And in a culture that values youth and fitness that can compound that pain. But our hope is that when Christ returns and the new heavens and the new earth are created, he will wipe away our tears and say, “It’s ok. It’s over. Nothing can hurt you any more”. In this life we will face mockery for our faith. Maybe that scares you. Maybe you worry that people will mock you for your faith in Christ or make life difficult because you don’t engage in their sinful behavior. The hope is not that we won’t face persecution or mockery for our faith. The hope is that one day it will be over. The early Church experienced this in ways those of us in America can’t even imagine. The Apostle John wrote this to churches and Christians that were experiencing a wave of persecution. The Church experienced systemic persecution under Nero in the 60s and again under Domitian in the 80s. They also experienced uncoordinated moments of hostility and persecution since the ascension of Christ. Christians lost their jobs, were excluded from certain markets, and in some cases expelled from cities. John was telling them and us that there will be a day when those persecutions are like a bad dream. So we can face difficulties in our life with hope. We face health issues in the hope that one day Christ will make return and our bodies will be glorified. We can face mockery for our faith in the hope that one day Christ will return and he will say to us, “It’s ok. It’s over. Nothing can hurt you any more”. We have a hope in God’s promises. The Road and other stories might continue to resonate with our culture if we put our hope in politics or work or even ourselves. We can look around and find reasons to be hopeless. But in Christ we will find strength for today and a bright hope for tomorrow. A hope that one day he will return and re-create the heavens and the earth. They will be free from the stain of sin. And with all the saints we will live together in the glorious new Jerusalem. In Christ we have a hope that God’s promises will come to fruition. He will be with us, his people. We will eat, drink, and be with our redeemer. And he will comfort us by telling us it’s ok, nothing can hurt us any more. Let us pray.