The New Creation
Revelation 21:1-7, 22-27-22:1-5
I recently ran across a cartoon that pictured three churches, all of different denominations, standing side by side with a thought bubble above each building saying: “Finding time for all our prayers is difficult when we have to practice active-shooter drills.”
We live in a world wracked by violence and animosity, where places of worship, schools, and other gathering places have become sites of mass shootings driven by hatred and bigotry.
The situation has become so common that once the shock wears off, many of us shrug and move on.
John’s vision of the New Creation has no Temple—we are told in Chapter 21:22, because “The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.”
This shows us a future reality where every place is a place of worship, and there is no longer any violence nor any hatred to interrupt.
Imagine if we were to live into that reality right now, if having seen the vision of future worship we remain steadfast in prayer and stand against the threat of violence not with beefed up security and displays of worldly power, but bravely with a bold witness to the Lamb’s way of peace.
Think about it, in Luke Chapter 19, when King Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and the Pharisees tried to silence the exuberant crowd Jesus replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
Even the rocks will praise God when the New Heaven and the New Earth come down!
That is the power of the sovereign God, Creator of Heaven and Earth and all that is in it.
In Romans Chapter 8 Paul writes: “The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth” for the coming of the New World.
Imagine the future, when we will sing together in solidarity with the rocks, the trees, and every created thing: “Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain to receive honor glory power, and strength forever and ever. Amen!”
(pause)
He was just a little fellow.
His mother died when he was just a child.
His father, in trying to be both mommy and daddy, had planned a picnic.
The little boy had never been on a picnic, so they made their plans, fixed the lunch, and packed the car.
Then it was time to go to bed because the picnic was the next day.
The little by just couldn’t sleep.
He tossed and turned but the excitement got to him.
Finally, he got out of bed, ran into the room where his father had already fallen asleep and shook him.
His father woke up and saw his son.
He said to him, “What are you doing up?
What’s the matter?”
The boy said, “I can’t sleep.”
The father asked, “Why can’t you sleep?”
In answering, the boy said, “Daddy, I’m excited about tomorrow.”
His father replied, “Well, son I’m sure you are and it’s going to be a great day, but it won’t be great if you don’t get some sleep.
So why don’t you run down the hall, get back in bed, and get a good night’s rest.”
So, the boy trudged off down the hall to his room and got in bed.
It wasn’t long, though, before the boy was back pushing and nudging his father.
The father asked, “What’s the matter now?”
The boy said, “Daddy, I just want to thank you for tomorrow.”
Revelation gives us reason and opportunity to thank God for “tomorrow” or “what is to come,” and to especially thank God for our place in God’s kingdom which comes to us as a free gift through faith in the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As the Church of Christ, we will be the New Jerusalem, “coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”
God will live with us and He will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order to things,” will have passed away.
Think about it, we the Church are to be the Bride of Christ.
We will literally be ONE with Christ forever.
Christ is the victorious one.
He has won the victory over sin and death, and because of Him so have we.
And so, knowing this ought to re-orient our entire view of things.
You and I and all who believe are part of Christ’s victorious Church!
And as Christ’s victorious Church which He loves and purchased with His own blood, what have we to fear?
Fear has to do with punishment.
But we are saved, washed clean and engaged to the One through Whom and for Whom all things were made.
Let’s start living like it, right now as we await the return of our Savior.
Recently, Pope Francis expressed his frustration with the Church in the West because as he says faith in God has been replaced by politics.
And to a large degree this is true.
Right now, the church is in fast decline.
To the world, it appears as if we are weak and defeated.
We are often more known for what and who we are against than for who and how we love.
Christians are fighting over political leaders rather than seeking to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
In Revelation Chapter 2, Jesus says to one of the churches, “You have forsaken the love you had at first.
Consider how far you have fallen!
Repent and do the things you did at first.”
Sounds familiar.
May we all REPENT and return to our first Love.
Let’s boldly, but humbly and with great love—tell the entire world what God has done for them in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Let’s share with them the good news of the free gift of faith and salvation that comes through Christ.
Let’s show them through our lives and our mighty acts of love and generosity the transformation that takes place in people who are filled with the Holy Spirit and power.
We are called to be in the world, but not of the world.
We are called to set the world ablaze for Jesus.
Is there anything more important than this?
We are told in Revelation 21:25 that the gates of the New Heaven and the New Earth will never be shut.
Right now, we live in an era of unprecedented human displacement and migration.
And in the midst of this, nations have become suspicious of outsiders and refugees.
Nationalistic leaders fan the flames of fear and bigotry, encouraging hostility to those seeking refuge from starvation, economic hardship and threats of violence.
As the Victorious Church we are to be a community that goes against the grain of our fearful culture and thus welcomes the foreigner and shows neighborly love and kindness to all.
After all, this present earth in its present form is not our forever home.
We are foreigners here ourselves.
Our citizenship is in heaven.
And we eagerly await our Savior from there.
Why worry about keeping people out, protecting our turf, and so forth?
That stuff is of the world.
All this stuff is passing away.
The future is a New Creation where all people will be equal in every way and we will all love one another perfectly, just as we are perfectly loved.
Imagine the embarrassment of getting to heaven and seeing someone we built a wall to keep out.
How ridiculous all this is when we look at it from this perspective—the perspective of eternity and the knowledge that the old things will soon pass away because God is making all things new.
The New Heaven and the New Earth is a return to the Garden of Eden, except it is much better.
There will be no more temptation for Satan will be no more.
As we are told in verse 27, “Nothing impure will enter” the New Jerusalem.
Flowing from the Throne of God and the Lamb will be the river of the water of life.
And on each side of the river will be the Tree of Life which, we were forbidden to eat from in the Garden of Eden due to our disobedience.
But here it is, “yielding its crops of fruit every month.”
What a contrast this is to our current agricultural efforts under the curse of sin, where the ground is cursed and crops only grow “in toil” and “by the sweat of the brow” alongside “thorns and thistles.”
The leaves of the tree provide healing for all nations.
Never again will we judge others by the color of their skin nor any other thing created by sin, the devil, the Fall, and fear.
How silly these things will seem.
How far away and forgotten.
And we, even though we still see as in a mirror dimly, but are nonetheless seated in the heavenly realms with Christ Jesus are to rid ourselves of all bigotry, all favoritism, and to see and treat all persons as equals in every way.
As Paul so famously wrote in Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
If this is true of now, just think of the Reality and Beauty of it when we see it with unveiled eyes in the presence of Christ as we look into His face while His name is etched on our foreheads.
We are His; He is ours.
We are to be one with Christ.
One with each other.
And one in love and humble ministry to all the world.
This is what Christ did and was when He walked this earth.
That is what we are to do as well.
Therefore, we are to re-evaluate our relationship with “the way things are.”
We are to blaze a new trail.
We are the ones who follow the Lamb into the New Creation, and on that journey, the practices of the old world and our old lives are to be left behind.
There’s a popular retail store in the Midwest called Fleet Farm.
It’s kind of like a Walmart.
Their slogan is: “If Fleet Farm doesn’t have it, I don’t need it.”
Think of all the things that the New Creation does not have that the world has.
Imagine the radical kingdom loyalty if we the Church were to say, “if the New Creation doesn’t have it, we don’t need it.”
Imagine the impact the Church would make on the world.
The seats of the Churches would once again be full, but not because it is the cultural thing to do, but because people will be getting saved, becoming children of God and the future Bride of Christ.
They will WANT to Worship God because of their love and thankfulness for all He has done.
They will want to be in the Church because the Church is the earthly representation of the New Creation and is going on to Perfection.
They will want to be in the Church because the Church is so radically different from the world that once you are a part of it, the things that don’t last—the things of the flesh and the treasures of this life are like dross and dung in comparison.
And the reason for all this is that the central thing in the New Creation is the presence of God and the Lamb.
The Church can do without all the junk that is not part of the New Creation only because the presence of Christ in our midst is absolutely everything.
When the Church centers on Jesus alone, we will radically stand out in an era marked by isolation, violence, exclusion, bigotry and falsehood.
So, let’s get on with it.
What do you say?
The point of John’s Revelation.
The reason we are given a glimpse into our future REALITY is to provide us with the hope and courage that will make us capable of bearing witness to the Lamb and His Way right here and now, which is the Only Way.
Like the little boy who was so excited to go on his first picnic, can we thank God for tomorrow and live into Who we are created to be?
Can we start living according to who we are and Whose we are…the Victorious Bride of Christ, citizens of the New Creation who will dwell with God and Christ forever and ever and ever praising His name in marital unity with all our brothers and sisters in the faith?
“He who is seated on the throne said,
‘I am making everything new!’
Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’”
Thanks be to God!
Amen.
