He Will Make Everything New

Scripture: Revelation 21:1-21

 

Introduction

• Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
• Last week we celebrated the birth of Christ as new life sent by God to save us from our sins. We have hope for an eternal future.
• We focused on WHAT God did for us, but this week, we are focusing on WHY He did.
• Why did God send a Savior into this world? What was His end game?  Eternal life.
• If eternal life is the goal, is it a life like we know now? NO
• It is a new kind of life in Christ where God walks with His people as in the beginning.
• It is what God has always wanted since He created us – He wants to hang out.
• The problem was and is, we choose to hang out with the enemy instead.
• Here, eat this apple! have that drink, take that drug, watch that porn, have that affair.
• The enemy convinces us that these human desires should be fulfilled, and they are good.
• But these are all lies. The fact is: these behaviors are destructive and hurtful.
• And they are not just hurting the person who does them – it affects many around them.
• The enemy has seized control of all the media around us: print, video, music, movies, internet, everywhere and everything.
• And the church is sliding into a position of lesser and lesser influence in our society.
• Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the church is here to dictate morals.
• I think the church has hurt its cause trying to be the moral authority because the enemy so easily twists it – why? because church leaders are human and fallible.
• The job of the church and MY job is to focus on fighting against sin.
• SIN is not about violating moral rules. SIN is about separation from God.
• As we think about sin, the church (all of us) needs to focus on being the opposite of SIN.
• What do you think the opposite of SIN is? Drawing closer to God.
• We need to focus on the end game and teach the world about how God will create a NEW world – a world that is the opposite of sin:

1. A new place
2. A new people
3. A new beauty

1. A new place

• Dorothy, we are not in Kansas anymore!
• God will twist this planet like a Rubik’s cube until all the oceans are squished out.
• I want to talk about Pangea for a moment.

The word Pangaea means “All Lands”, this describes the way all the continents were joined up together. Pangea existed 240 million years ago and about 200 million years ago it began to break apart. Over millions of years these pieces came to be the continents as we know them today.

• According to the United States Geological Service on USGS.gov:

Pangea first began to be torn apart when a three-pronged fissure grew between Africa, South America, and North America. Rifting began as magma welled up through the weakness in the crust, creating a volcanic rift zone. Volcanic eruptions spewed ash and volcanic debris across the landscape as these severed continent-sized fragments of Pangea diverged. The gash between the spreading continents gradually grew to form a new ocean basin, the Atlantic.

• Allow me to show a demonstration of how it would go back together again. [Rachel]
• What we observe is the plausibility of verse 1 that says: “there was no longer any sea.”
• It is implied that the earth will still exist as a place because of the description,
• “The Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven” implies a physicality.
• What we see happening is a merging of sorts between the old earth and heaven.
• Even still you see an image of something with substance – a real place.
• We will not be bound by the current laws of physics, but I am sure there will be order.
• I think that is what He meant when He said, “the old order of things has passed away.”
• Dimensions also still seem to mean something. Even if as an illustration of grandeur.
• We see the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven in verse 2.
• It is huge by our standards: picture a cube that is 1400 MILES wide by 1400 miles tall.

2. A new people

• We know from God’s words the kinds of people who WON’T be there.
• There won’t be the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, or liars.
• All those people will be weeded out – thrown out with the trash – destroyed, burnt up.
• Unfortunately, I think many of us can identify with these people who won’t make it.
• It is terrifying to think that I might not be one of the ones whom God refers to in verse 7 as: “Those who are victorious will inherit all this.”
• I know I have checked off several of those bad items God mentions.
• Does this mean there is no hope for me?
• Does this mean that I “will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur?”
• This would be the case except for one major distinction: Jesus Christ.
• NONE of us would be victorious on our own – nope, everybody’s flawed.
• Jesus died on the cross and took my sins to the grave: past, present, and future.
• Now, I’m no longer defined be the vulgar, vile, disgusting human things I do.
• I am now defined by my Savior, Jesus Christ: the pure and unblemished lamb.
• So, if I am defined by Jesus, then I won’t be taking my old self into this new
• That’s why God says in verse 5: “I am making everything new!”
• He is making a new people who are not sinners because He is removing the gap between us.
• He is changing us from a people who are driven by the enemy and this world to sin, to a people who walk side by side with Him.
• We know from the example that Christ set for us in His 40 days with the disciples in Acts that we will still maintain some type of physicality and persona.
• Meaning, we will still have a body and a personality and an identity and move about and interact with each other and our environment,
• Jesus did all of that. He was recognizable and ate and drank and talked with the disciples
• Granted, He could walk through walls and just suddenly appear in locked rooms.
• This new place for us to go will have some sort of physicality and we as people will still have some sort of physicality.
• The good news is, as He says in verse 4:

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.

• So no more disease or disabilities or pain or suffering or depression or anxiety or stress.
• There will still be people as we mostly understand people now – only a NEW version.
• When we are NEW, we will be pure and healthy and happy forever.

3. A new beauty

• This new world that God is creating for us will be beautiful beyond our comprehension.
• He describes the image of the Holy City in verse 2 “as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”
• Can any of you guys remember what it was like to see your wife walk down that aisle?
• Or what about the first time you saw your new baby? Especially grand babies, right?!?
• How do you describe the beauty and glory of heaven to a bunch of humans?
• We don’t have anything to even compare or relate it to – it is beyond our comprehension.
• The author does the best he possibly could under the circumstances.
• Beginning with saying in verse 11: “It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”
• I didn’t include verse 23, but it might help explain what is going on here:

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.

• In our world, we see things because they reflect light, but, in the new earth, light will come from the Father and the Son.
• Another part of the description of the city is its massive size with walls 200 feet thick.
• There were twelve gates, three on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west, with an angel at each gate.
• On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.
• The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
• The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.
• The foundations of the city walls were each decorated with one of twelve different kinds of precious stones.
• The doors for each of the twelve gates were giant pearls, each gate made of a single pearl.
• The great streets of the city were of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
• Basically, we have enough information to know that it is beautiful – far beyond our imagination.
• As we celebrate a new year, let’s reflect on how God will make everything new.
• May this coming year bring beautiful blessings from God.