Cross Church - TBD

GOD IS MAKING EVERYTHING NEW

INTRO - Mulligan / Re-Do

Have you ever felt like you needed a re-do? When I would play golf with the Men’s group on Saturday morning, they played 2 off the first tee, so if you get off to a bad start, you can have a mulligan, a re-do, a new chance at it. When your kids play video games and they realize they’re not going to beat a level, they go back to the most recent checkpoint and try again, start over with a new chance. Maybe you wish we could go back and start over 2020.

I think we often are looking for something new, a new chance to do things differently, or better. The Bible tells about how God is doing something new and creating something new.

We’re going to be in Revelation 21 today. Now, here’s the thing about Revelation. Some of you, when I say Revelation are like, All right, let’s do this and you’re getting out your charts and your graphs. Others of you are just like please please please, don’t talk about the dragon and the beast and the horns. because I have no idea what that means and I don’t want my brain to explode. So, let me just say this to keep in mind as you read and study revelation, I can interpret the book of Revelation for you in two words: Jesus wins. Jesus. Wins. There is A LOT in Revelation that is both fascinating and confusing, but it all serves the purpose to help us know that, at the end of all things, Jesus wins. He is victorious and we are victorious with him. And when he wins, he brings about something NEW, and that’s what I want to read about today.

Revelation 21:1–8 NLT

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. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 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. 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.” 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.” 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. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. “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.”

God is making everything new.

And everyone driving a used car said Amen. Isn’t it good news that God is making all things new? This is where all of history is headed — toward something brand new. Let’s look at three ways God is making everything new in this passage.

God is giving us a NEW HOME

It talks about the new heaven and the new earth, and on that new earth, the Holy City, the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven. God gives us a new zip code, a new place to live. And this new place to live has one great amenity above all the others: the presence of God.

God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them and they will be his people. God gives us a room in his house. I’m assuming I’m not the only one who has struggled with feeling far from God. With being unsure about where he is and what he’s doing. Here’s the hope: One day, that’s gone. Just walk down the hall and he’s there.

Karly and I have some friends from college visiting this weekend, and I’ve been thinking about my college years, and the dorms, and that whole experience (and it IS an experience!). I didn’t love living in the dorm. On more than one occasion someone ran down the hall with an airhorn after midnight. But there is one thing that I miss about the dorm life: just being with your friends all the time. If I wanted to watch a movie with my friends I had to walk 12 feet. If I had a question about an assignment, I could just yell across the hall and get an answer. We would walk to dinner together every night and eat together.

That’s what our new home is like with God. God’s presence, everywhere all the time. Want to watch a movie with God? Just walk across the hall. Have a question about the universe, just ask. Share time and the eternal wedding feast with God forever, in his presence. God’s new home is with us!

And in many ways, that’s the story of the whole Bible. In the garden of Eden, humans walked with God. They were in his presence. But sin broke the relationship, and we lost that opportunity to be in God’s presence. But then, God provided the tabernacle, and later the temple for God’s presence to be with his people in a limited way. So God’s presence was in the Old Jerusalem, sort of. So, the people of Israel, they had to travel to Jerusalem, to the temple, to get just an hors d’oeurve of God’s presence.

But then, Jesus shows up. And in John 1, it says that Jesus, God’s Word, became flesh and dwelt among us, or lived among us. That word dwelt is the word for tabernacle. Jesus came to bring God’s presence among us. Now, we don’t have to travel to Jerusalem to get God’s presence, but God brings his presence to us in Jesus. And that word for tabernacle, where Jesus dwells among us, it’s the same word here in Revelation. God’s presence isn’t just in the tent or in one person, but it permeates the entire city of the New Jerusalem, the entire New Heaven and New Earth.

In fact, did you notice that it says that the Holy City is coming down out of heaven? We don’t have to go up to God to get heaven, God brings heaven down to us. He brings us our new home, our new home with him.

God is giving us a NEW WAY OF LIFE

This home ain’t like the old one. It’s NEW. And in this new Home, we have a new way of life. This new way of life is characterized, not pain, but by life and blessing. Verse four is possibly one of the most encouraging verses in the entire Bible:

Revelation 21:4 NLT

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.”

This is an almost unfathomable way of life. No more death. No more sorrow or crying or pain. I cry like twice a day. My back constantly aches. I am hurt by others and I hurt others daily. Pain, Sorrow, & Death are constantly reminding us that things are not as they should be.

When I was a sophomore in high school, my grandpa, Pop, was in a car accident. He was airlifted to a hospital in Louisville, which was a few hours from where we lived in Indiana at the time. By the time we got there, he had already died. That was the first time in my life I really understood death, pain, and sorrow. And from that moment, I have been hoping for a day without death, pain, and sorrow.

Here in Revelation, God promises that day. It’s a totally different kind of life, a life fueled by the WATER OF LIFE. Instead of death, God gives LIFE, and gives it freely, without cost. In the next chapter, this water of life will flow to the base of the tree of life. Adam and Eve lost access to LIFE when they sinned and were kicked out of the garden. Have you ever noticed how many OT stories take place at wells? They’re always hanging around water because water is life, and we are all trying to get back to life. In the NT, Jesus is talking to a woman at a well, and he says that he can give her the water of life, and she’ll never be thirsty again.

Jesus is the WATER OF LIFE. He is the one who defeats death and brings new life! Jesus is always talking about eternal life, which is a new a new kind of life in God. Eternal life doesn’t just mean life that goes on forever, it means a different quality of life.

I can’t remember where I heard this (so don’t fact-check me), but a deodorant company was trying to figure out how to improve sales on a few of their deodorant scents, but they were trying to do it in the most cost-effective way. So, instead of going back and trying to make them smell better, they just changed the name. Same exact product, different name. And you know what? It worked! Those scents became their best-selling products! Here’s the thing: When Jesus offers you life, he doesn’t just offer you the same old product with a different name. He offers you a new, better life in him, a life that is filled with his own Spirit, characterized by love, joy, peace, etc.

God is giving us a NEW FAMILY

Here’s the last thing I want to point out from this text. In verse 7, God says, I will be their God and they will be my children. So God is giving us a new family.

When God created Adam and Eve, the Bible says that they were ONE and there wasn’t any shame between them. And this is the point of family—to be one, to be together, to care for each other, and to love each other unconditionally, without shame or judgment or manipulation. Family is the place you can always come back to. But, we know that family isn’t always the way it should be. Because the ideal of family is so high, that is often where the deepest pain is. Because we weren’t created for loneliness. God said it is not good for man to be alone. We were meant to be family with God and with each other.

And we can be, in Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus has that perfect family relationship with God, and we get to be part of it. John 1 says that whoever accepts Jesus has the right to become a child of God. All over the New Testament is this idea that, in Jesus, we are adopted into God’s family. He gives us a new family, himself and his church.

Why does this matter?

Now, here’s the question. Why does this matter? This hasn’t happened yet, so what does it mean for us now? Why does God give us this vision of the NEW LIFE when heaven comes to earth?

It gives us hope in the midst of pain.

HOWARD THURMAN QUOTE NEGRO SPIRITUALS

I don’t know your circumstances—but I know many of you are in the midst of pain. Maybe you are physically in pain through injury or sickness. Maybe you are emotionally in pain because of a broken relationship, or loneliness in the midst of the pandemic, or are suffering under the weight of anxiety or depression. Maybe you are spiritually in pain because you can’t see God. He seems far from you. He seems silent.

The vision of the New Heaven and the New Earth gives you hope. Fix your eyes on heaven. Hope, trust, believe that one day, God will make all things new. Whatever you’re in the midst of, God will redeem it and remove it and it will be gone forever.

When I was a kid we had this CD of a comedian named Mark Lowry, and I remember him talking about his favorite phrase in the Bible: And it came to pass. Because no matter what you’re going through, eventually it will pass. He said, “either it will pass or you will pass!”

The reality of the NEW heaven and NEW earth is that one day, your pain will be over and you will live eternally with God in his love and peace and goodness.

It gives us a goal to strive toward.

The second reason this passage matters is because it gives us a goal to strive toward. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus prays to God “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” When Jesus walked around preaching about the kingdom of God, he didn’t talk about it like some way off in the future, but something that is here, now.

Our mission as Christians is to live as if the world was heaven. You and I get to play a part in making all things new. The Bible calls us ambassadors of reconciliation.

Our family really likes the show THE FLASH, and in the show, the Flash can run so fast that he can time travel. Sometimes, Future flash or some other super fast person will travel back in time and help the team beat a future bad guy. There like a time travel agent from the future to help them affect change for a better future.

As Christians, we are like time travel agents, who have a vision of the end of the story and we are called to show and tell the world what that new future looks like. But, the good news is that we don’t have to make it happen; God will. We can just take one small step each day to make the world look more like heaven. When you comfort someone else, wiping away their tears, you are living in the New Heaven and Earth. When you are generous to someone in need, you are living in the New Heaven and Earth. When you build a relationship with someone who isn’t like you, you are living in the New Heaven and Earth.

Conclusion

God has given us a vision of the New Heaven and Earth. He is making everything new, giving you a new home, a new kind of life, and a new family. This vision gives us hope. It gives us a goal.

Behold, God is making all things new.