New Heaven and Earth

Good morning and welcome to another week of church here together.

Over the last several months we have been following along with the Lectionary and selecting passages out of there. As i was preparing for this mornings sermon I had some choices. Today is Halloween or all hallows eve. The eve of all saints day. This allows us to have two days of passages to look at. The passage that was on all Saints day kept drawing my attention and was where i decided that we needed to be at this morning. We will be in Revelation this morning. This passage also weighed heavy on my this week because of what happened in my life a year ago.

A year ago yesterday i lost my dad. He went home to heaven. The loss of a loved one is always difficult for people. I wasn’t honestly sure how i would feel when this day came. I can safely say that this sermon was one of the most difficult ones i have ever had to write. I think that one of the reasons that this was hard was because of the passage that was chosen. Before we get more into that let’s read the word together.

Revelation 21:1–6 NIV

1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 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 water without cost from the spring of the water of life.

One of the challenges with preaching from the book of Revelation is that there is a lot of descriptive language that is used to help us try to understand what John is seeing as he experience this revelation that God is showing to him. It is here that we pick up this image of the coming of the new earth and heaven and all that is going on that i was just so drawn to this week.

I was drawn to it because the thought of the new heaven and new earth drew me to my dad. It had me thinking about my dad and being with him again. I couldn’t escape these thoughts and because of that it made it a hard week. Sometimes we can’t escape the human desires and longing for loved ones who have gone before us. Sometimes we can’t escape the reality that we miss them and that we want to see them again instead of thinking about the joy of the day that we walk into heaven we will be more excited to be in the presence of God.

Thats the truth though that when we talk about heaven and we talk about things like the book of Revelation that we get busy looking to what we hope heaven or seeing loved ones that we forget the most important thing is the fact that we are in the presence of God. This is one of the reasons i don’t overly concentrate on end time messages or on heaven extensively because in many ways when we have these kind of conversations we get wrapped up in our human understandings instead of approaching them from a Kingdom focused perspective.

WE look to the end because we want to understand what is going to happen and because we think about what we desire as humans. This is the fascination with the book of Revelation that captivates us. It is also as i have experienced this week a look of hope that we will one day be able to fulfill the losses of humanity.

At the end of the day is it important for us to talk about the second coming. Absolutely!

Is it important for us to talk about Heaven. Absolutely!

We must never forget that when we speak of heavenly things that we need to remember that they need to be focused on God and not us.

I need to get off my soap box on some of the challenges of preaching on Revelation and heavenly issues and lets look at why this passage is such an amazing piece of scripture.

Two Visions

It is important that when we talk about this passage we recognize that we are actually seeing two visions in this passage of scripture. The first vision is...

Revelation 21:1 NIV

1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

New Heaven and Earth

We see here the first vision that reveals that we will experience a new heaven and earth. This is important because to many of us think that God will just redeem this world. It is important for us to know that God intends for us to see that this won’t be a recreation or a copy of our world but will be a new and different creation. It is also important to remember that this isn’t just a spiritual recreation but is in fact a physical recreation.

Not only is this important but we have this other reference in this passage that we can’t ignore. There will no longer be any sea. This is an important phrase because in those times the sea was a reference to chaos and evil. It’s absence is important because it can be seen as a reference to God’s victory over all that the sea represents. We no longer have to worry about the chaos and the pains of the sea any more. The hope that comes with this revelation is the fact that also means that God gave us victory over things like death, mourning, crying, and pain.

This first vision is often the one that we look to and long for because of the victory over the evil of world.

We have also the second vision that is seen in

Revelation 21:2 NIV

2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Holy City the New Jerusalem

This passage is a beautiful one that shows the wonder of imagery that we have in the scriptures and the joy we have in the future. We often talk about the idea of being caught up or going to heaven. Here we have the imagery of the city coming down out of heaven from God.

This shows us the promise of the divine presence in our lives but that isn’t all that it is showing it promises the indescribably glorious consummation of God’s eternal, intimate fellowship with people.

This is the the power of the bride that is coming down beautifully dressed for her husband. It paints for us a picture of beauty and wonder that is the bride of Christ.

It is here that we often lose sight of what this means. This is the moment that realize that the true joy that we find in revelation isn’t the freedom from pain, or loss, or the other hardships in this world but it is in the continuous relationship with God that we were really longing for. It is in him that we find hope, joy, and Peace. This is why the vision is so important for us to see. This is why the second vision is followed by this...

Revelation 21:3–6 NIV

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 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 water without cost from the spring of the water of life.

Our new Freedom

It is in this passage that we often miss the true gain we get with the new creation and the coming of the holy city.

It is here that we focus on that he is wiping every tear from our eyes, and that we no longer feel death sting or pain.

Don’t get me wrong these are wonderful things and they are things that we all should be looking forward to but the real power is in v. 3. His dwelling place is now with us and he will dwell with us. Think back to the beginning. Imagine what it was like for Adam and Even to be walking in the garden in the cool of the day with God just walking and talking. Knowing that they were in his presence and nothing else mattered because they were in God’s presence. All these good things are gained becuase we are in his presence.

Conclusion

I shared earlier about my father, and the difficulty of writing this sermon. I was struggling so much i had to call my mom and talk to her about everything that i was going through. It was good to talk to her about all the emotions that i was feeling also being there as a support for her. I am thankful because i know my sister and brother are there for her when i can’t be. However my mom reminded me of something that was powerful for me and a testament to my Dad’s life.

She reminded me that even when my dad received his cancer diagnoses that he was at peace. Even in the midst of something that he knew was almost certainly going to take his life, and ultimately did. The final months of his life a hymn became his mantra and i want to share the words with you.

My faith has found a resting place, Not in device or creed; I trust the ever-living One, His wounds for me shall plead.

I need no other argument, I need no other plea, It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me.

Enough for me that Jesus saves, This ends my fear and doubt; A sinful soul I came to Him, He’ll never cast me out.

This made me realize that more and more we can have peace and confidence and rest in knowing that he is with us now and that he will dwell with us in the future and we can look forward to that and have a peace and joy in our hearts.

Let’s Pray.