Our God Will Make All Things New Series

OUR GOD WILL MAKE ALL THINGS NEW

REVELATION 21:1—6 MAY 18, 2003

REVELATION 21:1-6

1Then 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. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He 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."

5He 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."

6He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:

We’ve been going through Revelation and we’ve looked at Chapters 1, 5 and 7. We’re at chapter 21, next week chapter 21 again and then chapter 22. Just to remind us, for those of us who weren’t here, John is on the island of Patmos, a small rocky place about five miles by ten miles. The government didn’t like him preaching about Jesus Christ. They didn’t want him to tell people about the Savior so they put him on an island to be by himself and there, John was spoken to by God. He was given the book of Revelation for us to learn from, study and be encouraged by. We see here another one of the visions of John as the Lord encourages him, to remind him that he’s not alone. He wasn’t by himself even though he was no longer with his Christian friends, even though he would never again get off the island of Patmos or preach to a congregation. He was reminded that where he was at this time on Patmos and where he dwelt was not his permanent home. He had something more to look forward to because he was a child of God. You and I are children of God. As children of God, only passing through this life in a very temporary state, we too have something better to look forward to.

We had our reading from 3rd John. Before we got to those verses, here’s 1 JOHN 3:2 that tells us, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” It says when the Lord comes we will know everything completely. What comfort John had in knowing that. Here, as he struggled on Patmos by himself and maybe sometimes wondering if this is where he really needed to be (it certainly wasn’t where he wanted to be) it was where the Lord wanted him to be until he would see the Lord face to face. Then he would know everything.

On this side of heaven there is all kinds of evil. What does the Lord say to us in our text today? “I will make everything new!” We will use that as our theme today.

OUR GOD WILL MAKE ALL THINGS NEW

I. A heavenly home

II. For eternal living

I. A heavenly home for us

In the book of Revelation, there are seven visions. Chapters 1 to 19 take us through six visions. Chapter 20 starts the seventh vision of Judgement Day. Chapter 21 where we are at today, talks about that heavenly home after Judgement Day. Let’s hear what it is described as. 1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. When we study about Judgement Day, we know that is what will happen. The Lord will come quickly and the earth and everything in it will be swallowed up in an instant and will be destroyed. John says after Judgement Day there was a new heaven and a new earth because (later on he says) the old order of things has passed away…the first earth, the first heavens are all gone. Then we have a little phrase that was dear to John’s heart and he said, ‘and there was no longer any sea.’ We might not think much about that but during the time of the apostles the sea was an unknown place and it was a scary place. They spent a lot of time fishing there. Remember when Jesus walked on the water to them? They thought it was a ghost! They were pretty superstitious about the sea…dangerous! And John, on the island of Patmos, was separated from the big congregation in Ephesus by the sea. When he looks into he says, ‘No more sea. There is no more separation for my friends and me. There is no more separation for me and God.’ That is the new heaven and the new earth.