Christians frequently speak of “going to heaven.” And that is certainly appropriate. But the much more common picture in Scripture is that of heaven coming down to us. In fact the Bible is framed by two instances of heaven coming down to earth. In Genesis God comes down to earth and walks with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. And in the last two chapters of Revelation we see heaven coming down to us so that once again God can have intimate fellowship with His children.
In between those two events, we find a number of times when heaven comes down to earth. Obviously the most important and notable of those occurrences is the incarnation of Jesus where God takes on a body of flesh in order to bring heaven down to earth and dwell among His people.
This morning, we’ll be introduced to that final time that heaven will come down to man. Turn in your Bibles to Revelation 21 and follow along as I begin reading in verse 1:
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And 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 from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Here in this passage, we have a picture of an unbelievable renewal that will take place when heaven comes down to God’s children. There are three major aspects of that renewal that are revealed to us in this passage.
When heaven comes down, God’s children will experience:
• A renewed inhabitance
The first thing that we discover in this passage is that God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth. This is a direct fulfillment of the words of God given to the prophet Isaiah:
For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
Isaiah 65:17 (ESV)
There are actually two different words in Greek that can be translated “new”. The word “neos” indicates something that is new chronologically and is in contrast to something that is old. For instance, if I were to go down to the local auto dealership and purchase a brand new automobile, it would be “neos.”. But the word that is used here in Revelation is the Greek word “kainos”. It is used to describe something that is new qualitatively. If I were to take an old automobile and restore it to like new condition, it would be “kainos”.
So when God says that He is going to make all things new and create a new heaven and a new earth, the idea is that it will be qualitatively new and fresh. Certainly after all of the destruction that we have seen throughout the book of Revelation, God will need to make everything new in order to prepare it to be our eternal home. Although we don’t know exactly how and when God is going to do all this, we do get a few clues from Scripture, including these words written by Peter:
… the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
2 Peter 3:12-13 (ESV)
As we’ve discussed before the current creation has been corrupted by man’s sin so that it is no longer the perfect place that Adam and Even enjoyed before the fall. That’s what Paul is describing in Romans 8:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Romans 8:20-22 (ESV)
So, as part of the process of making all things qualitatively new, God is going to burn up and get rid of that which has corrupted His original creation.
Over the next two weeks, we’ll look at this new heaven and earth in more detail, but in this passage God does reveal one attribute of the new creation – there will be no sea in it. Throughout the Bible, the sea is often a picture of evil and chaos, but in the new heaven and new earth those elements will not exist.
• A renewed intimacy
As I mentioned earlier, the first instance of heaven coming down to man is when God walked with Adam and Even in the Garden. But the moment that Adam and Eve sinned, that intimacy was severely damaged. Although Jesus, through His death and resurrection, paid the penalty for our sin, and provided us with the ability to have a personal relationship with God, we do not currently experience the same degree of intimacy that Adam and Eve did. But God is going to restore that intimacy in the new heaven and new earth, fulfilling the promise that He made to His people thousands of years ago:
I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.
Leviticus 26:11, 12 (ESV)
You’ll notice I this passage that it is not a matter of man going up to heaven, but rather a matter of God coming down from heaven to dwell with His people. This is exactly what Jesus did at His first coming. In fact John even uses the same verb at the beginning of His gospel to describe that event as he uses here in Revelation to describe how God will permanently dwell with His children in the future:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…
John 1:14 (ESV)
At His first advent, Jesus only spent a little over thirty years dwelling with those he had created. But in the new heaven and new earth, God will permanently make His home with His children. And when that occurs, we will get to experience a degree of intimacy with God that is just not possible now.
Several years ago Mary was selected to go to Space Camp for teachers in Huntsville, Alabama. And for the week that she was gone, I talked to her every day on the phone and communicated by email. And I was glad for that opportunity to connect with her in that way. But when she finally got home and I got to see her face to face, we experienced a whole different level of intimacy.
The same thing is true of our relationship with God. That certainly doesn’t discount the importance or the value of the relationship we have with God right now that has been made available to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is amazing that the holy God of heaven would choose to reveal Himself to us in His Word and allow us the privilege of participating in His work through our prayers and give us the ability to commune with Him spirit to Spirit through His Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
But as unbelievable as that is, it can’t even compare to the intimacy that will result from being physically in the presence of God for all eternity. And it is that renewed intimacy that will lead to the third renewal that we will experience when heaven comes down…
• A renewed insight
In the new heaven and earth God is going to remove the one thing that ultimately brings much of the pain to our lives right now – death. And along with that, all of the former things that bring tears and mourning and pain will be removed as well.
This is exactly what the prophet Isaiah predicted in the passage we looked at earlier:
For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
Isaiah 65:17 (ESV)
When God says that he will wipe away every tear, that is not implying that there will be crying in heaven, as some claim. In fact, the sense of the verb used there is that God will permanently remove anything that might give rise to our tears. Although I’m not sure exactly what our resurrection bodies will look like, I’m convinced that they won’t even have tear ducts because we won’t need them.
I’ve had a lot of people ask me whether we’ll mourn over the family members and other people we’ve known that never committed their lives to Jesus once we get to heaven. Based on this passage, I think we can be confident that there will come a time when we enter into the new heaven and earth where God is going to remove all of those memories completely. I’m also convinced that one reason we’ll be able to do that is that once we’re physically in the presence of God and experiencing the intimacy of face to face fellowship with Him, nothing else is going to matter. We’re going to be so enthralled with God that He will be the only one we think about.
This had to be such an encouraging passage to John’s audience. Even though they were in the midst of horrible persecution for their faith in Jesus, they could look forward to the day when God would not only remove the persecution itself, but even any memory of what they were undergoing.
This also ought to be a great encouragement for all of us. No matter what we might be going through now – physical pain and suffering, problems at work, difficulties in our relationships, or any other kind of emotional trauma – one day God is going to take that away. He’ll even remove the memories of the pain we’re going through.
But God doesn’t promise to do that for everyone. You’ll notice in verse 8 that there will be those who will never enter into the new heaven and earth and who will face everlasting punishment and torment in the lake of fire. So here’s the question we must ask:
How do I make sure I experience this renewal?
Fortunately we get a very clear answer to that question in this passage.
• God promises this experience to those who:
o Thirst
To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. (v. 6)
Not surprisingly, this is another fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy:
Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Isaiah 55:1 (ESV)
Obviously, this is not referring to physical thirst and physical water, but rather to those who recognize the parched condition of their souls and thirst spiritually. They are the ones Jesus referred to in the Beatitudes:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Matthew 5:6 (ESV)
And you’ll notice here in Revelation that for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness God will provide the water of life without payment. Living water is not something we can buy or earn through our own good works. It has already been provided for us by Jesus. Jesus confirmed that with His own words as He spoke to the woman at the well in John 4:
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:13, 14 (ESV)
Twice in this passage Jesus speaks of the water He will give. There is no other source for that living water. And it is clearly not something we can buy from Jesus. But for those who hunger and thirst spiritually, Jesus promises to supply them with the living water that they need.
So the first question we must all ask this morning is this:
Do I genuinely thirst for God and the things of God?
Do I really long for God they way the Psalmist who penned these words longed for God?
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
Psalm 42:1, 2 (ESV)
While I can’t answer that question for you, I can share with you some questions that might help you to honestly answer that question in your life:
How much time do I spend in God’s Word?
When I read the Bible, do I do that out of a sense of duty or obligation or because I really long to know God better?
How much time do I spend in prayer?
When I pray, do I do it to get something from God or because I really want to know His heart and spend time with Him?
Do I enjoy being with other Christ-followers so that I can be encouraged and equipped in my walk with Jesus and also encourage and help equip others?
While thirsting for God is a necessary first step, there is one other attribute that we must also demonstrate in our lives if we want to experience the new heaven and earth:
o Overcome
The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. (v. 7)
As we have pointed out frequently, the verb “conquer” in the Book of Revelation can also be translated “overcome”, as it is in several other New Testament passages, including this one that helps us to determine what it means to “conquer” or “overcome”:
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:4, 5 (ESV)
It is not enough to just thirst for God. There are a lot of people in this world who thirst spiritually who will never enter the new heaven and new earth because they seek to satisfy that thirst in the wrong manner. It is only through faith in Jesus alone that we can become overcomers. Any other method that we try to use in order to satisfy our spiritual thirst will come up short.
But although our faith in Jesus is what provides us with the ability to be overcomers who experience the new heaven and new earth, the book of Revelation also makes it clear that our faith must be demonstrated by our actions. In each of the messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus promises a reward to those who overcome, or conquer by remaining faithful to Him in spite of the difficult circumstances they face. Turn back in your Bibles to Revelation 2 and follow along as we review these quickly:
Church at Ephesus:
To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Revelation 2:7 (ESV)
Church at Smyrna:
The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’
Revelation 2:11 (ESV)
Church at Pergamum:
To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’
Revelation 2:17 (ESV)
Church at Thyatira:
The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star.
Revelation 2:26-28 (ESV)
Church at Sardis:
The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
Revelation 3:5 (ESV)
Church at Philadelphia:
The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.
Revelation 3:12 (ESV)
Church at Laodicea:
The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Revelation 3:21 (ESV)
What great rewards await those who overcome!
So the second big question we must ask this morning is this:
Am I an overcomer through my faith in Jesus?
Again, I can’t answer that question for you. But once again let me share a few questions that might help you to answer that question honestly:
Have I satisfied my spiritual thirst by trusting in Jesus Christ alone or have I tried to satisfy that thirst by some other means – either through my own good works or by placing my faith in something or someone else?
Am I living my life in a manner that is consistent with my professed faith in Jesus?
Am I holding fast to Jesus even if I am experiencing difficult circumstances in my life?
This morning, if you’re struggling with some of these questions, then we are here to help you work through some of those questions and equip you to answer those questions in a way that will guarantee that one day you’ll be able to take part in the wonderful experience of heaven coming down so that you can enjoy intimate fellowship with God for eternity.
Any of our elders would love to spend some time with you to discuss these issues and pray with you about them. But in order for us to do that, you need to let one of us know that you would like some help. There are a couple of ways you can do that. One is to fill out the information on the flap of the bulletin and place it in the offering plate or give it to one of our elders or greeters after the service. Or you can speak directly to one of our elders. Although I think most of you probably know who are elders are, I’m going to ask them to stand right now so that you can identify them.
Since thirsting for God and becoming overcomers are issues that affect our eternal destiny, these are not matters to be taken lightly, so please don’t put them off. It is the deepest longing of my heart that everyone here in this room this morning will one day get to experience the day when one last time heaven comes down.
