Sermon Tone Analysis

Revelation 21:1-8

Revelation 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, [and be] their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

6 And he said unto me, It is done.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

8But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Introduction

With the closing of the twentieth chapter, the Apostle John is introduced to the “eternity stage.”

This is the new home of Jesus and His bride.

Everyone who was rebellious against God are now in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone.

Satan, the Antichrist, False Prophet, devils, and all mankind that rejected the Lord will be in eternal punishment.

The redeemed, from all time, will have a new dwelling place that will be eternal.

The old heavens and earth will be replaced with a new heaven and new earth.

In the book of Genesis, there was nothing and God spoke, and the creation took place.

Now, John is shown a new creation.

God’s statements recorded in Revelation 21:5–6 aptly summarize these final two chapters: “Behold, I make all things new … It is done!”

What began in Genesis is brought to completion in Revelation, as the following summary shows:

Genesis Revelation

Heavens and earth created, 1:1 New heavens and earth, 21:1

Sun created, 1:16 No need of the sun 21:23

The night established, 1:5 No night there, 22:5

The seas created, 1:10 No more seas, 21:1

The curse announced, 3:14–17 No more curse, 22:3

Death enters history, 3:19 No more death, 21:4

Man driven from the tree, 3:24 Man restored to paradise, 22:14

Sorrow and pain begin, 3:17 No more tears or pain, 21:4[1]

Life as we know it is over.

The judgments on a God hating people are no more.

Satan will deceive no more.

Sin will be abolished, and Eden will be restored.

John, as a prisoner on a harsh, windswept island is given a view of what eternity is going to look like.

Jesus promised the disciples, that He would be going away, but when He did, He was going to prepare a place for them to live:

John 14:1-3 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

After having a firsthand encounter with all the events of the vision, God grants John a sneak peek into his final resting place.

All the 21st and the first five verses of 22nd chapter speak of the joyful state of all believers.

Now we see what we all look forward to…a glimpse of heaven.

Our home has been prepared and now we get to take possession.

Note: twenty-one times “And” is the first word in these twenty-seven verses.

A New Heaven, a New Earth, and a New Jerusalem

Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

I believe before we go any further, we need to let these ten words sink in.

Everything we know and have seen, as inhabitants of planet earth, will be gone.

· The beauty and majesty of the Himalayas, Alps, Rockies, Sierra Nevada, Honshu, Andes, gone

· The magnificence of the Grand Canyon, gone

· The Painted Desert, coastlines, Niagara Falls, waves of grain, all gone

· The sun and moon, gone

· The big and little dipper, gone

· The Milky way, Andromeda, gone

· Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, gone

In their place, everything is new!

Wouldn’t you have loved to see John’s face as he is invited to write about the vision that the LORD is giving him for a new earth and heaven?

He is at the end of his life, incarcerated on a small island in the Aegean Sea, and God gave him a glimpse of where his next destination will be.

I imagine that his senses would be filled with wonder.

If it was me, I would be trying to search out every nuance of the new earth and heaven to write to the seven churches as a hope of things to come.

There are some arguments concerning the idea of “new” in this passage.

The discussion centers on “new” or “renovated or transformed.”

Some believe that the “New Earth” is new for the believers.

Others believe the new heavens and earth are actually “transformed” into new.

Those that support the “transformed” earth refer to the change that happens in a believer.

Before Christ and after salvation, the bodies remain the same but are considered new according to the Apostle Paul and Peter.

Another reference would be the believers “resurrected bodies.”

In Revelation 21:1, the King James Version inserts the Greek word “kainos” as “new.”

Kainos, is defined as “recently made, fresh, a new kind, novel, and uncommon.”

It has the idea of bringing news, or dramas produced for the first time.

New or regenerated, it does not really matter to me.

If God created the heavens and the earth for Adam and Eve, He certainly could make all things new for eternity.

Personally, I lean toward the regeneration side of this argument for one reason.

Jesus told His disciples:

John 14:2-3 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, thereye may be also.

If, since the time of His leaving the earth, He spent the time since he left the earth to prepare a place for believers, it does not make sense to me that all His work would be destroyed.

That idea has me scratching my head.

Nevertheless, this is only conjecture on my part.

“…for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea…”

The first heaven and first earth are passed away, renovated, or made new.

The prophet Isaiah wrote about the new heaven and earth:

Isaiah 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

Isaiah 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.

The Apostle Peter longed to see the day when there would be a new heaven and earth.

2 Peter 3:12-13 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

I am saddened by the last part of this verse; “and there was no more sea.”

I for one love the oceans.

I like its bounty, its ever-changing beauty, and the view of the earth from the stars.

Our planet is blue, because of all the water.

In the new earth, there will not be a need for the sea.

Why is there no more sea?

One thought is that there will be water, but the earth will require more inhabitable space for all believers of all time.

Today the oceans fill 2/3rds of the earth’s surface, the increased land will help in handling the multitudes of believers to live or at least visit earth.

Of course, there is a need to remove or remodel the first heaven and the first earth, as they were infected with sin.

Earth started dying the moment sin was revealed in the Garden of Eden.

Satan visited the throne room of God as he accused the brethren.

The battle between Satan and Michael the archangel took place in heaven.

Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Revelation 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

This is an interesting verse concerning the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband.