The New Heaven and the New Earth - Part 2 - Revelation 21:1-8
INTRODUCTION:
Last Sunday we began looking at six features that John records for us about the new heaven and the new earth. We looked at the first three, the first being the appearance of the new heaven and new earth and though we do not have a lot of detail John does record that the new earth will have no sea. Second, we looked at the capital city of the new heaven and new earth, the holy city, new Jerusalem as it came down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. We spoke of this city being the dwelling place of all the redeemed of all the ages. Then we spoke of the most important feature of the new heaven and the new earth and it is that God will dwell among the redeemed and the redeemed will be His people and God Himself shall be among them and I asked what that would be like to have the Person of God living among us. It is something that I cannot even wrap my mind around, but I am excited for that time when there will be no sin and our fellowship with God will be full and unlimited, we will worship and serve Him from pure hearts in righteousness and holiness, and we will see Him as He is in all His shining glory. We have an exciting future ahead of us, something to look forward to as we are intentionally diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.
This morning we are going to look at the last three features that John records for us about the new heaven and the new earth. First, we are going to see how the new heaven and new earth are different from this present one, then we are going to look at the citizens of the new heaven and the new earth, and finally we will look at those who will never be allowed into the new heavens and the new earth. Let’s pray and get into God’s Word.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Revelation 21:1-8 again this morning. We are going to read this whole passage again and then look at verses 4-8. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
Revelation 21:1-8,
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’ And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’ Then He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’” (Revelation 21:1–8, NASB95)[1]
ITS DIFFERENCES FROM THE PRESENT HEAVEN AND EARTH (Revelation 21:4-6a)
Life in the new heavens and the new earth will be very different from life on this present earth. The fact that God Himself will be living among us and the absence of sin will make life dramatically different.
The first feature that John says that will make this new heaven and new earth different is that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. This does not mean that people who arrive in heaven will be weeping as they face the record of their sin. That does not happen, there is no such record. Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12, NASB95)[2] How far is that, it has no end the distance between east and west. Because God has removed them through the death of His Son, Paul writes in Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1, NASB95)[3] If you have agreed with God that you are a sinner and helpless to do anything about your sin condition, but you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sin, taking the penalty required for sin as your substitute, that He was buried and on the third day rose from the dead proving that sin had been paid for and triumphing forever over death, the penalty for sin. Then your sins are forgiven, and you can never be condemned for your sin because the penalty for sin has already been paid on your behalf. What this statement is saying when it says that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes is the absence of anything to be sorry about, there will be no sadness, no disappointment, no suffering, no pain. There will be no tears of regret, or tears over the death of a loved one, no tears for any reason.
The second dramatic difference in the new heaven and new earth that John records for us is that “there shall no longer be any death.” This curse that has been greatest curse of human existence will be no more. Remember that death was thrown into the lake of fire back in Revelation 20:14. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15:54 concerning the transformation that takes place at the rapture and resurrection, “But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’” (1 Corinthians 15:54, NASB95)[4] Again a victory that is ours through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. No more death for the rest of eternity.
John goes on in verse 4 to tell us that there shall no longer be any mourning or crying. The grief and sorrow that brings about mourning and crying will not exist in the new heaven and new earth. There will be no grief and mourning and crying will be replaced with joy.
John also informs us that there will be no more pain. The perfect righteousness and the absence of sin that will characterize the new heaven and the new earth will also mean that there is no more pain. Since we will have glorified, sin-free bodies we will not be subject to any pain of any kind.
The loud voice from the throne tells us that “the first things have passed away.” Life in the new heaven and new earth will be unique. Old human experience related to this present creation is gone forever, and with it is gone all mourning, suffering, disease, pain, and death that has characterized human life since the fall. In the forever new creation, there will be no death, no decay, no decline, and no waste.
John then hears the voice of the One who sits on the throne, and He summarizes all that the loud voice said, by saying, “Behold I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5a, NASB95)[5] The One who sits on the throne is the glorious Lord Jesus Christ, the same One “from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.” (Revelation 20:11, NASB95)[6] The One who will uncreate this present universe, will be the Creator of the new heaven and new earth and will make all things new.
John possibly overwhelmed by all that he has seen and heard seems to have lost his concentration or at least to have stopped writing what he seen and heard. Because the glorious, majestic One on the throne commands him, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” (Revelation 21:5b, NASB95)[7] These words are as faithful and true as the One revealing them to him. The One sitting on the throne is qualified to declare the end of redemptive history. Just as He declared that sin was paid for, that God’s wrath against sin was satisfied when He called from the cross, “It is finished.” So now He calls from the throne, “It is done.” At that moment history as we know it will cease and the history of God living among those redeemed by the death, burial and resurrection of the One sitting on the throne will begin. Jesus Christ again declares that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, so we are clear He declares He is the beginning and the end. He was there before the beginning, He created time in the beginning, He started the clock of history and He will end it, and all of it will unfold according to God’s sovereign plan.
THE CITIZENS OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH (Revelation 21:6b-7)
In the end of verse six and verse seven the One who sits on the throne uses two descriptive phrases to describe who will be the citizens of the new heaven and the new earth. In the end of verse six the citizen of the new creation is described as “one who thirsts.” This phrase signifies those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6b, NASB95)[8] The citizen of the new heaven and new earth will be those who are dissatisfied with their lost and hopeless condition and turn in faith to Christ for salvation and crave God’s righteousness with every part of their being. The psalmist described it this way in Psalm 42:1, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.” (Psalm 42:1, NASB95)[9] To those who are truly seekers of God, the promise is made that their thirst will be satisfied. You will drink from the spring of the water of life without cost. Salvation was fully paid for at the cross, you may now drink of the water of life for free and live forever and become a citizen of the new heaven and new earth.
Next, the Lord Jesus describes the citizen of the new heaven and the new earth as “He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.” (Revelation 21:7, NASB95)[10] According to our Scripture reading this morning from 1 John 5 an overcomer is one who has put their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. The one who overcomes shall inherit all the blessings of the new heaven and the new earth. And God makes a wonderful promise to the citizens of the new heaven and the new earth, to those who thirst after righteousness and have overcome the world through their faith in Christ. God says, “I will be his God…” and added to that amazing promise is “and he will be My son.” Paul wrote of this adoption in Ephesians 1:4-5, “…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,” (Ephesians 1:4–5, NASB95)[11] Even in this life we have the privilege to be the adopted sons and daughters of the God of the universe, but only in the new heaven and the new earth will that be fully realized.
THOSE WHO WILL NOT BE IN THE NEW CREATION (Revelation 21:8)
John brings his overview of the new heaven and the new earth to a close with a serious warning. John tells us of those who will be excluded from the blessings of the new heaven and new earth. This includes all the unforgiven and unredeemed sinners from all of earth’s history. Those who refused to repent and turn to Christ in faith for the forgiveness of their sins.
John gives us a list of those who will be excluded, and he begins that list with the cowardly. The cowardly are those who fell away when their faith was challenged or opposed, because their faith was not genuine. These may be very religious people, but they believed they were saved by their works, not faith in Christ and when put to the test they fell away out of fear of what man could do to them. The unbelieving are those who never believed that they need to be saved, they loved their sin. The abominable are those who are just evil, they have no desire to be saved, instead they seek to pull others down to their level. John goes on to list murderers and sexually immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and liars.
Those whose lives are characterized by such things give evidence that they are not saved, and they will never enter the new heaven and the new earth or the new Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus Christ reminds us and warns us that those who live such lives are destined for the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. In contrast to the eternal bliss of the righteous in the new heaven and the new earth, the wicked will suffer eternal torment in hell.
CONCLUSION:
This morning we looked at three more features of the new heaven and the new earth. First, the differences of the new creation from the present creation. Then we looked at the citizens of the new heaven and the new earth, and finally we looked at those who would be excluded from the new heaven and the new earth. My question to you this morning is which group do you belong to? Do you know without a doubt that you will be a citizen of the new heaven and the new earth? I do not want you to leave this place without knowing. I believe that there will be people at the great white throne judgment who will be surprised to find themselves there. They will have believed all their life that they would go to heaven, they had trusted in their good works, their faithful attendance to church every Sunday, the fact that they were a Sunday School teacher or volunteered at the Food Bank. They will believe that they will get to heaven because their parents or grandparents were good people and went to church and did all the right things. Those things will not get you to heaven, will not make you a citizen of the new heaven and the new earth.
There is only one way that you can know for sure that you will be a citizen of the new heaven and the new earth and it does not require you to do anything, because all that needed to be done has been done for you already. Do you understand that you are a sinner? That you have said, thought, or done things that have broken God’s law? We all have, all have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard and because of this we all deserve to be punished eternally in Hell. When you understand this and agree with God that you are a sinner deserving eternal punishment, but you believe in faith that Jesus Christ took that punishment for you, that He paid the penalty for your sin when He suffered God’s wrath against sin on the cross and died in your place. Then He was buried and on the third day He rose from the dead. When you believe this your sins are forgiven and you are adopted into God’s family and you will be a citizen of the new heaven and the new earth. This is the only way that your sins can be forgiven, only through faith in Jesus Christ.
What about those of us who already know that we are citizens of the new heaven and new earth? We need to be diligently seeking to live holy lives in this very unholy world and to be witnesses of the good news of Jesus Christ. Are you praying for an unsaved loved one or friend? That is the place to start, pray for their salvation. Then pray that God would use you in their life by what you do and say to be a witness to them. When you run into people and chat with them for a few minutes do they know that you are a Christian when you walk away, have you planted a seed of the gospel in their life. Just some ideas of how you can be a witness for Christ.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[6]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[7]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[8]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[9]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[10]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[11]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995