All Things New
Behold, Jesus is Coming! • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Review: Rapture- —> Tribulation —> Second Coming of Jesus
Afterward: 1000 year reign of Christ —> final battle —> Great White throne judgment
[Rev 21:1-8]
“New” – Greek kainos, meaning “previously unknown or unheard of; new”
· So the heaven (sky) and earth that John saw in this moment was unfamiliar to him. Why? I don’t know, but his vision gives some clues.
New Heaven, Earth, Jerusalem
New Heaven, Earth, Jerusalem
“…no longer any sea.”
· It’s impossible to imagine how a planet sustains life without “any sea” as oceans are instrumental in regulating weather and water, well, everything alive needs water.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
Reading this in an era of climate change gives it a different feel.
How this happens is up for debate. That it happens is not. The new heaven & earth with be completely unfamiliar, not following established physical and biological rules. They will be kainos.
John uses the same word, kainos, to describe the city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God “as a bride adorned for her husband.”
John may not be referencing the Church here (typically signified as the bride of Christ), but describing the emotion he feels upon seeing the brand new city descending from the sky.
“Made ready” and John 14:2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places…I go to prepare a place for you.
This Jerusalem, like the heaven and earth, is kainos, unfamiliar, new (verses 10-27).
All Things New
All Things New
“…the first things have passed away.”
Tears, death, mourning, crying, pain are all called “first things” which have passed away (come to an end) in heaven.
Life in the new Jerusalem on a new Earth under a new heaven will be kainos, unfamiliar, new.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
It’s the same word here, kainos, to describe what life becomes in Christ: unfamiliar, new.
It’s unfamiliar, walking in the light when we’ve been so accustomed to the darkness, unlearning our way and learning to walk in God’s way.
It’s unfamiliar to have plans interrupted by unforeseen circumstances and/or opportunities.
The life of a Christian is kainos, unfamiliar. Part of the struggle is learning to lean into the unfamiliarity, trusting God to bring us to this moment in Rev. 21.
The End
The End
“It is done…”
This is the moment history has marching toward from the moment Adam and Eve sinned against God.
Notice God’s promise: to give water of life to anyone who thirst, no cost. Just come thirsty.
Notice God’s comfort: calling those who overcome the ills of the world His child.
Notice God’s warning: those who reject His offer will suffer the “second death.”
These are things which “must soon come to pass.”
We tend to speak of these events in the abstract, but they are certain. The end is a foregone conclusion.
“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”
“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.
Revelation is a book meant to encourage those who are following Jesus as both Savior and Lord and to warn those who aren’t.
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Let’s be a people who can, like John, respond to the imminent return of Jesus with “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”
= prayer =