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Revelation 21
How do you encourage someone who’s suffering? Let me suggest that whatever we say it
should be a combination of sympathy and hope. In other words it’s a combination of entering in and
pointing ahead. Entering into
the pain of the situation, and pointing to something much better. Some people are good at entering in,
but not very good at pointing ahead.
In that case you get two people stuck in a dark place just
sympathising with each other.
Other people are great at pointing ahead, but they don’t enter in
and so their comfort just seems very far away.
Jesus is someone who enters in and points ahead. Jesus entered into our world, our
suffering, our darkness, our pain.
Jesus – the eternal Son of God – became flesh and lived among
us. The prophet Isaiah wrote this
about Him:
He
grew up before His Father like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry
ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His
appearance that we should desire Him. 3 He was despised and
rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one
from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. 4
Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we
considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted.
Jesus entered in. Love enters in doesn’t it? Love draws near, and Jesus in His love
drew very, very near. He came, He
stooped, He suffered, He cried, He bled, He died.
Jesus does not call to us from heaven and say ‘chin up’, one day if
you struggle through you’ll get up here.
No He comes down in order to lead us out to something so much
better. Sympathy and hope. Revelation is the same.
Revelation is written to suffering people. It’s written to a church that looks
very weak and is undergoing great persecution and so Revelation addresses suffering people with this mixture of
sympathy and hope, entering in and pointing ahead.
Most of the book addresses the sufferings of
this life and it paints them in technicolour. No-one can read this book and think ‘Revelation just
sugar-coats my present struggles, it’s got this utopian vision for the
future but it doesn’t really enter in to my pain.’ Rubbish! Revelation tells you there are four horsemen of the
Apocalypse coming to get you, all creation is going to have a terrifying
shake-down, your enemies aren’t just humans trying to behead you they are
super-human beasts under the power of the dragon - Satan. Revelation speaks to suffering people
and it says ‘You know what? It’s
much worse than you think.’
But Revelation also says ‘The future is
better than anything you can imagine.’
That’s what we see in Revelation 21. Here is the ultimate happily ever after. And it’s written to suffering people –
to people who are tempted to pack it all in and John says: ‘Hold on. Let me tell you how this ends:
Then
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. 2 I
saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And
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. 4 He 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." 5
He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything
new!"
The new-ness of John’s vision is in every verse. Verse 1: a new heaven and a new
earth… because the first heaven and first earth have passed
away and there’s no longer a sea. Verse 2 the city is the New Jerusalem. Verse 3, ‘God says ‘Now the
dwelling of God is with men’.
Verse 4: No more death, mourning, crying, pain, the old
order has passed away.
Verse 5: I am making everything new.
But we so desperately want to be new don’t
we. Look at the headlines on any
magazine you like and I bet you it has the word ‘New’ on it. Ten steps to a New you. Get a new job, a new look, a new
warddrobe, a new wife, a new car, a new body, a new life in the
country. We’re desperate to be
new. It seems like half the
programmes on television involve making over your house your car or your
face. And in 60 minutes you’re
set upon by a team of mechanics and cleaners and surgeons and
engineers. And the conclusion of
these ‘life changing’ shows is people tearfully saying ‘I have a new
lease of life.’ And even that
phrase betrays our problem – it’s a lease of life. And the lease is going to run out.
But what about the new heavens and the new
earth. Truly, properly, eternally
new. A place that John has to
describe in the most dazzling terms:
v11: it shines with the glory of God Himself, its brilliance
was like that of a very precious jewel. Verse 18 – the city is made of pure gold. Verse 19 – it is decorated with every
kind of precious stone.
Dazzlingly, gloriously new.
As you hear about this coming reality, this
passing age just doesn’t match up does it? Reading this, don’t you feel how old and worn out this world
is? I’m still in my 20s (for
another fortnight) but I hear this and I feel old, and worn out – and I
look at the world and by comparison it’s dull and threadbare isn’t
it? Are you feeling how old this
world is? The bible says the
world in this age is groaning but the world in the coming age will
sing. Now we make our
cities out of brick and mortar, then we will make them out of gold
and precious jewels. We are
headed somewhere dazzlingly, gloriously new.
But please understand about this
new-ness. This doesn’t mean we’re
looking forward to a different heaven and a different earth. God is not consigning this world to
the dustbin and creating something else.
We’re talking about this world renewed. This is important: Jesus rose from the grave with the
same body that went into the grave – but that body was mightily
renewed. The bible says that
Jesus is a prototype of the whole world.
This dying world will be put to death and raised up again. The same world but renewed. And this new-ness to the new
heavens and the new earth will never get old.
This is not simply a vacation from pain and
death, this is not a period of respite, this is not an oasis of comfort,
not a calm in the storm. Death is
gone and it’s not coming back.
Crying, mourning, pain I gone and it’s not coming back. The sea which symbolizes in the bible
chaos and the raging nations in opposition to Christ, symbolically that
won’t be there. Don’t worry,
there’ll be plenty of places to go swimming we’ll cover that next week,
but the sea as a symbol of chaos, it’s gone and chaos will never
return. Verse 21: Nothing impure
will ever enter in.
So as I drive out of church past the sex
shop, that’ll be gone. I keep
going past the DGH – that’ll be gone too. Out to the crematorium – a distant memory. A world without sex shops, without
hospitals, without crematoriums – unbelievable isn’t it?
No wonder God has to tell us verse 5: “Write
this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." God knows we’ll find this
unbelievable. You know He says
very little in Revelation. This
is one of the few things God the Father says – He says “Take it from Me: This
stuff is true. Write it
down. Pin it up on your mirror or
your fridge. Post-it note your
entire house with these words: No more death, crying, mourning or pain –
these words are true.”
God Himself promises bliss – unadulterated,
unending, unconquerable, bliss.
But even as I use the word bliss, I don’t
want us to get the wrong idea – this is a very earthy bliss.
Notice in verse 2 that this city comes down
out of heaven from God. Then v3,
the dwelling of God is with men.
It’s amazing to think that the ultimate Christian hope is not us
going to be with God. God comes
to live with us. One day heaven
and earth will marry and our future will be here, on the renewed earth.
Bliss yes, but a very earthy, tangible,
grounded, bliss.
When
Jesus rose from the dead He walked and talked with His friends, He ate
with them, He cooked breakfast for them on the beach. All of this was a little picture of
life in the new heavens and new earth – communal, physical, personal,
bodily, sensory bliss. The bible
looks forward to feasting and singing and dancing – here on the renewed
earth.
Do you want to travel the world, do you want
to see the sites? You can
wait you know. We’ll go together
if you like, we can take our time about it. Do you feel like you need to get every experience you can
out of life, because it’s so short.
You have time you know.
Let your heart rest in that.
Does your heart long for marriage? Verse 2 and verse 9 tell us, we, the
people of God, will enjoy the ultimate marriage. We will share a relationship with
Jesus that will make current experiences of marriage seem like the pale
imitations that they are. Do you
long for intimacy? How
about v4: God will wipe away every tear from your eyes. Who in your life has wiped away your
tears – I guarantee they’ve been very close to you. Our relationship to the Father will be
that close. Do you long for good
health? Verse 4 again: No more death, crying, mourning or
pain. Do you long for satisfaction? How about verse 6: Drinking without
cost from the spring of the water of life. Do you long for a sense of achievement? Verse 26 speaks of bringing glory and
honour from the nations into the city.
There will be industry and creativity and success and achievements
in the new creation and we will bring that great stuff into the city for
the glory of Jesus and He will love to receive it.
Whatever you’re looking for, marriage,
intimacy, health, satisfaction, achievement, if you’re a Christian you
won’t miss out. Christians, you
won’t miss out.
But there are some who miss out. Verse 8 tells us that there are those who
will not enjoy the new heavens and the new earth. Verse 8:
8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the
sexually immoral, those who practise magic arts, the idolaters and all
liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is
the second death."
Or look again, verse 27:
27
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is
shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the
Lamb's book of life.
There is no place in
this future for sin. Which is
great – there are many things that we want excluded from God’s
future. Death and pain is
excluded – brilliant. Murder and
idolatry is out – ok, good. But
so too is deceit. There’s no
place for cowardice, no place for unbelief, no place for lies, no place
for anything impure. Now that’s a
great thing actually. Ask
yourself, what would it be like never ever ever to be angry. To never be lustful, not once. To never lie. To always love God with all your heart
and soul and mind and strength and love your neighbour as you love
yourself. Imagine that and you’ve
imagined our life in the new creation.
But you’ve also
described something that’s very different to how we are now. It’s very different to how I live
now. I want to be like that, but
I have to admit: I’m not like that.
So what hope do we have?
How can any of us be allowed into this future?
Well v27 points us to
the Lamb. We all deserve the
second death, but Jesus has a book of life. To belong to Jesus is to be in the book of life – to be put
on the ultimate guest list. And
why is He desribed as the Lamb?
Well it’s referring to Jesus’ death. His death on the cross was as the sacrificial Lamb of
God.
Because this is what
it cost God to give us this future.
He sent His Son into the world and His Son came gladly into the
world even though they had enjoyed perfect face-to-face fellowship for
all eternity. And yet Jesus went
to the cross as the sacrificial Lamb.
And you know what a
sacrificial Lamb does? A
sacrificial Lamb is an innocent substitute that takes the hit because of
someone’s sin – that’s what a sacrifice does. And so on the cross we saw Jesus taking the hit for all the
accusations of verse 8 and v27:
It was as though the Father said to Jesus: “My Son, because you
are the willing Lamb, I count you as the ultimate coward, you will be
counted as the ultimate unbeliever, you are vile, you I reckon as the
great murderer, you will be counted the world’s most sexually immoral,
you I consider the magician, the idol worshipper, the
liar of all liars. Verse 27: On
the cross, I will count you as Impure, Shameful, Deceitful and I condemn
you to the second death which all these crimes deserve,” And Jesus willingly took the
punishment as the sacrificial Lamb.
On the cross, He was excluded from the presence and love of God,
so that we could be included.
Those who find themselves in the Lamb’s book of life are not those
who are good enough. Those who
find themselves on this guest list are those who have simply come to
Jesus as their Lamb. They’ve said, “Jesus I deserve death, but you’ve
taken the hit for me – thank you for being my Lamb.” Eternity belongs to Jesus and to all
those who belong to Jesus. Those
who do not count Jesus as their Lamb, well they will continue to be
counted as cowardly, vile, unbelieving.
They will suffer the consequences for this
Those who want Jesus
will have Jesus forever. Those
who do not want Jesus will not get Jesus forever. And so we see that it does all turn on
our response to Jesus, the Lamb.
And that brings me to
what I think is the most important point to make about this future hope. And if I
don’t say this, you may as well disregard everything else I’ve said. The centre of our future hope is not
never-ending blessings. It’s not
being re-united with loved-ones, The centre of our future hope is verse
3:
3 And 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.
When I was in London, occasionally I’d go
down to Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park where people get up on soap boxes
and preach to the crowds. Now
there are always lively debates down there between Christians and Muslims. One time I got to hear an American
Christian called Jay Smith who is one of the world’s best debaters
against Islam and he did a little double-act with an english friend of
his. With booming voice Jay said,
“I want to talk to you all about Muslim paradise.” And immediately he attracted
a crowd of maybe 80 or 100. He
said ‘My friend here has a Qu’ran and the sacred writing the Hadith, so
I’ve asked him to tell me about Muslim paradise, what’s it like.’ And Jay’s friend said ‘Well, it says
in the Hadith that there’ll be 72 virgins for every faithful
Muslim.’ Jay says: “Fantastic!
Plenty of women in Muslim paradise.
What else is there?” ‘Well
it says here, there’ll be palaces for everyone.’ “Jay says “Fantastic! Palaces for everybody. What else is there?” ‘Well it says here there’ll be rivers
of wine.’ Jay says: “Fantastic! Plenty of alcohol in
Muslim paradise.” Then Jay said:
“Wait a minute – girls, palaces, alcohol – that’s not paradise, THAT’S
LAS VEGAS!”
And by then the Muslims are ready to riot. But Jay goes on: “You know what’s not
in Muslim paradise? According to
your own book, you know what’s not in paradise? God’s not there!
God’s not there! God’s not
there!”
And that’s absolutely right.
The Muslim vision of heaven is full of rewards but one thing that
won’t be in the Muslim vision is their god. Allah can never dwell with his people according to Islam –
the idea of him wiping away tears is blasphemous.
But verse 3 says God dwelling with us is the
whole point. This is the
conclusion to all God’s purposes from the beginning. God Himself will be with us. That’s where everything is headed –
that’s the logic behind everything that God has ever done. Throughout the bible He keeps saying
‘I will be your God and you will be my people.’ The Father has created a people for Jesus – a bride for His
Son – and He is the proud Father hosting the marriage of Christ to His
people. And on that day God
Himself will feast with us. And
He will dwell with us. He will be
our God and we will be His people.
Face to face.
Forever. Isn’t it an
astonishing thought that God wants to be with us? In fact He will literally move heaven
to earth to be with us.
Christians, God does not simply tolerate you. Your future is not to move into the
suburbs of God’s love, to remain on the outside and hopefully not get in
His way. You won’t spend eternity
on the outskirts of His presence, He is moving house to live among
us. He will wipe away our every
tear.
God does not simply tolerate His people. He moves heaven to earth to be with
us.
That’s always been His pattern. The temple was a kind of picture of
Him dwelling with the people of the OT.
Jesus was His only Son dwelling with us. And the Father sent Him to earth so that He could cleanse a
people He could call His own.
Finally the Father Himself will move house and dwell with Jesus
and His people, and that will be the consummation of all history.
Verse 22 teaches the same thing:
I
did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the
Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the
moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is
its lamp.
You don’t need a temple, you don’t even need
sun and moon, you have the Father and the Son at the centre of the new
creation. They will be our joy,
our hope and our praise.
Seeing old relatives will be great, the
intimacy and satisfaction and achievements will be great, but what are we
really looking forward to? The
LORD God Almighty and the Lamb, they will be at the centre.
Here these words from Zephaniah 3:17 – when
Christ returns we will see the tremendous truth of them:
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take
great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice
over you with singing."
That’s where we are headed. Revelation has
entered into our suffering, it’s shown us the depths and it’s taken us to
the heights. Will we be comforted
by these words – verse 5 assures us they are trustworthy and true. Whatever you’re struggling with bring
it to the text and in the silence see the comfort that’s on offer
here. After a minute I’ll offer a
prayer for us…
May
the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing that, by the power
of the Holy Spirit, we may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)
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