All Things Renewed

AI Transcript

Amen. Well, welcome. Glad you're here this morning. My name is Mark. If you're just joining us, welcome. If you've been with us for the last six months, you know we've been in this book of Revelation that we started back in August. So we are coming down to the end. I want to start with a question. A question I like to ask in group settings for an icebreaker. And it's simply this. If you could go anywhere and spend a day anywhere doing anything, where would you go and what would you do? Just think about that for a moment.

If you could go anywhere, spend a day anywhere and do anything, where would you go and what would you do? I love the question because it prompts something in us and I hope maybe you will share your answer over lunch or invite someone to lunch and begin to share that answer. I love it because it prompts something in us but also there's just such a wide variety of responses to that question. Like some people are like, hey, I'm a mountain person. I'm going to...

go to the mountains somewhere. I'm an ocean person. Others are like, this one place where I grew up and my family went and we had such good times. I'd love to go back there. I would go to this city and see the architecture and the history there. I'd go to this museum and see the masterpieces there. It just on and on. It just starts to roll off. I'd go have this meal with these friends and have these conversations.

Again, I love the question because it reveals something in each of us. It reveals a longing, really a longing for the world to be set right. And it's interesting to me because the way we answer that question actually reflects our longing for and the reality of what heaven's going to be far more than what most of us believe about heaven. We have been influenced for 2000 years by a heresy that came at the end of the first century called

Gnosticism and Gnosticism has shaped our imagination about heaven in the worst way possible. It shaped this idea that heaven is some place we go to after the end of this life and it's ethereal, it's disembodied, it's floating on clouds, strumming a harp and it's no wonder that Christians don't long for that. We long for the answers that we just gave. The real places, the real people, the real sights, the real sounds.

We long for that. Well, I have good news for you today. Good, good news. My aim is to show you that as we turn the page to Revelation 21, that what is to come is going to meet us in our deepest longings. What we really want, even beyond that, what we really want, it's going to...

Obliterate our view, hopefully, of any Gnostic notion that will go off to heaven someday. But rather that God is doing a new work that's going to meet us right where we're at, right where we long for. So if you have your Bibles, we're in Revelation 21 this morning. But again, I mentioned we started this series about six months ago, and it's important to remember what John said six months ago because

His point six months ago has been the same throughout. And so what John is doing in 21 and 22 is the same goal of what he did in the first few chapters. And if you remember in the first few chapters, we learned that this was a real letter written by a real person to real churches, seven of them in at the end of the first century. They faced real challenges, real persecution, real pressure.

The pressure to compromise their faith, the pressure to keep it private and personal, the pressure to be cowards and to be liars. And it was real pressure. Like there was economic pressure. Hey, you want to sell and buy goods in the marketplace? Well, you need to make an offering to Caesar and you need to proclaim to everyone, Kaiser Curios, Caesar is Lord. But Christian, if you do that, you're a coward.

And you're a liar because Caesar is not Lord. Jesus is Lord. So real pressure. There was real pressure. They're seeing their family members, brothers, sisters, uncles, cousins being dragged off and put to death. You want to talk about pressure? This is what they were facing.

And so John sits down and after receiving a revelation, an apocalypse, a pulling back the curtain on some spiritual and physical realities that are actually happening all around us, he writes this letter and his aim in the letter, if you remember to the seven churches, the repeated phrase, to the overcomer, to the one who conquers. And there's a promise tied to all those, those that overcome, those that promise, those that are not cowards, those that do not lie about who Jesus is, if they

persevere and persist to the very end. the things that await you. And so this is what he's been doing. And now as he turns the chapter to the last two chapters, which unveil an apocalypse, a pulling back of the curtain of what heaven will be like, his aim is the same. He wants us to get a glimpse that will pull us through, that will strengthen us, that will literally encourage us, put courage into our spine.

Yes, if that's what's waiting, I'm all in. I can endure all things if I believe that's what's to come to encourage us. And so this is what he's doing in Revelation chapter 21. Now, let me say something about this. Again, hopefully if you've been here a while, you know that in Revelation, there are all sorts of apocalyptic imagery.

Apocalyptic genre was a thing in the first couple centuries and centuries leading up to that. But what it does is it takes signs and symbols to point to greater realities. Better than what we see. So do not come to Revelation 21 and 22 thinking, this is an exhaustive description of what heaven will be like. No, but follow the signs and the symbols to see, it's far greater than what I mean. Doesn't that make sense after all?

Like, do we really think that John could, in two chapters, describe all the glories of heaven? Do we really think he's trying to describe it literally, or is he pointing to something that is far, far greater? That's what he's doing. So, if you have your Bible, we'll pick it up in verse one of chapter 21. Revelation 21, says this. 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. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Let me make a few observations. You read that and you say, it's a new heaven, a new earth. Does that mean that God is just going to roll this thing up, destroy it, and start over? No. No.

The word there in Greek could actually and should actually be translated. Then I saw a renewed heaven and a renewed earth. After all, we read that that God is really, really into his creation. We can read this in Genesis one and two. God created the universe. He created the earth. He created you and me as image mirrors. And what does he call it? He calls it very good. Very good. And so when when sin comes into the world and Mars, the creation,

Well, what does he do? He doesn't just destroy it. No, God is not going to let his enemies get the last word on creation. No, he has already a plan in place that will be rolled out to rescue, redeem, and renew the earth. And the ultimate proof of that is that at just the right time, in that just the right place, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, steps into the creation. He puts on flesh

to live a life that you and I could never live, a life of perfect obedience to the Father, to pay a price that you and I deserve to pay, not to start over, but to rescue and redeem. God's really into His creation and in the end, He wins. He's making all things renewed. Not only that, did you notice what it says? And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Again, think of this. What is...

What is John pointing to? He's pointing to we're not going to go off to some ethereal place, spiritual world. No, heaven's coming down right here. In heaven, we will have mouths to praise God, lungs to praise God. We will have taste buds to taste the glories of heaven. We will have nostrils to smell, eyes to behold, ears to hear, so on and so forth. Heaven comes here. The veil is completely removed. Heaven and earth come.

Fully rescued, fully redeemed. I think of a quote I read this week by one theologian, Anthony Hakema. Think of the implications of a fully renewed, fully redeemed earth. He says this, I love what he says. says, will there be better Beethoven's on the new earth? Better Rembrandt's? Better Raphael's? Shall we read better poetry? Better drama and better prose?

I love this one. You probably didn't think about this one. scientists continue to advance in technological achievement? Will architects continue to build imposing and attractive structures? Our culture will glorify God in ways that surpass our most fantastic dreams. Doesn't that stir something in you more?

Again, if we think in the Gnostic way where we're going to go off and strum a harp and after 10,000 years there's no time off the clock and you're like, what's going on here? No, but if you think in a biblical way, you're like, yes, this is what I was made for. This is what I love. So in Revelation 21 and a little bit into 22, one of the ways that we can start to follow the signs and symbols, understand what is actually going on here,

is through two lens. What's not going to be in the new heaven and new earth. OK. He's going to talk about that. And then what is going to be in the new heaven and earth. And we follow those signs to the glorious reality. So let's talk about what's not going to be in the new heaven and new earth. So jump to me with me just to one verse in chapter 22 verse three. John writes this. No longer will there be anything.

a curse or your translation might say, no longer will there be the curse. Again, this is hard for us to fathom because it's the only world we've ever known. Curse everywhere. And it doesn't take long to look around to see the effects of the curse. if there's no longer any curse, there are 10 billion implications of that. Let me just deal with one. So in Revelation chapter two,

where there is no, sorry, Genesis chapter two, where there is no sin yet. Adam and Eve and God live in this perfect harmony, perfect unity with one another. Adam and Eve are naked and unashamed. And did you know that God gave them meaningful, soul satisfying, mind satisfying, body satisfying work? And they loved it. It was good.

work and they put their hands, their minds, and their effort into it. But then sin came into the world and one of the first effects we see in Revelation or Genesis 3 is that there is a curse and that curse affects our work. There is toil, there is thorns and thistles. This is the life and experience we have. No matter how good your job is, there's an aspect to it of toil. Amen. Right?

There's an aspect of, this is what thorns and thistles look like in my job. I love my job, but man, these people were this, my boss or this thing, or it's just not, there's always toil on this. So it's hard to fathom that. Did you know that you're going to have work in the new heaven and new earth? And for some of you, that sounds like a bummer because you can only imagine work through the curse. But it's work that will be soul satisfying.

Mind-satisfying, body-satisfying work. He's going to invite us to work. So there's no curse anymore. Again, it's hard for us to imagine, but John wants us to imagine a life that is without the curse. Now, again, there's 10 billion implications to no curse, but let's jump back to chapter 21. Maybe you saw it in the first verse. It says, the first heaven and the first earth, the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.

Okay, again, do we come to this saying, this is a literal description of the new heaven and earth, or is he saying something more? He's saying something more. Are we to believe that on the new earth there's no ocean? So all the people that said I would go to the ocean, sorry, bummer. No ocean, no fish, nothing. No, that's not what he's getting at. No, the first readers would have saw this immediately. The sea was this symbol throughout the Bible and in their lives as chaos. Like the sea was dangerous.

The sea would kill people and you wouldn't know it. It would swallow up people on ships and all that. So this is a picture of chaos. What John is saying is, there is no more chaos in the new heaven and new earth. Again, hard for us to fathom because we only have lived in a world full of chaos. Natural disasters, man-made disasters. He's saying there's gonna be no floods. There's gonna be no earthquakes, no tsunamis, no tornadoes, no hurricanes.

Not only that, in the natural world, there's going to be no chaos in our lives between one another. No governments rising up and making war on other nations. No genocide. No school shootings. On and on and on. No injustice. Wherever there is chaos. And we could all pull out our phone and go to any news station and all we would see is the curse and chaos. The curse and chaos. And John says, no more.

There is no chaos. It goes on in verse four. It says, shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Jesus has conquered all those enemies. There's no curse, there's no chaos, therefore there is no death. There's no mourning, there's nothing to mourn. There's no crying, there's no pain.

The former things have passed away. Again, this is the only world we know. This is our story. There's chaos, there's curse, and there's pain. There's mourning and there's death. We bring it into this room right now. Our story, even this week, some of you have shed some tears. You've faced the reality of living in a broken world. Hear the good news this morning. This is not the end of the story. Jesus will get the last word.

Drop down to verse eight, there's gonna be none of the sinful behavior brought into the kingdom of God. Look at verse eight, says, as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexual immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Now when John writes that list,

He's not writing an arbitrary list. Did you notice how he started and how he ended the list? He says, but as for the cowardly, and then he ends with, and there won't be any liars. This is the refrain throughout his letter. Don't deny Jesus. Persevere. Become overcomers. Don't give into the cultural pressure to bow down to Caesar. Don't be a coward, because there's no cowards that go to heaven. Don't be a liar. Anyone that says,

Caesar is Lord is a liar because Jesus is Lord. And so he is trying to encourage him. So there's no curse. There's no chaos. There's no mourning, crying, pain anymore. There's no sinful behavior in this place. But perhaps most surprising thing that will not be there is found in verse 22. I saw no temple in the city. It's surprising.

Maybe not for us, but it would be surprising for any Jewish person. What do mean no temple in the city? The temple is the place of the center point of Jewish life and culture and religion and worship. It was the place where you would come and enter into it and meet with in a way the living God of the universe. What do you mean there's no temple? By this point, those that received this letter a decade or two before this,

Rome had rolled into Jerusalem, destroyed it, destroyed the temple. And the Jewish people were wondering, God, what are you going to do? Are you going to rebuild this temple? And they looked to Ezekiel. There's eight chapters in the book of Ezekiel talking about how the temple will be rebuilt in intricate detail. Here's all the things that are going to happen because, again, the temple is a place where God dwelt. And so they were like, this doesn't make

since even if you go today, if you go with Pastor Rick to Jerusalem when he takes the next trip, you're going to go to Jerusalem and all that's left of that temple is the Western Wall, sometimes called the Wailing Wall, because you'll see pious Jews just pleading with God, begging God, leaning into their prayers, asking God to rebuild the temple. Why? Because then they can restore their sacrifices. Then they could be made right with God again. Then they can meet with God.

want the temple. But even at the temple, it was really only one person, one time a year, that could go into the inner sanctuary or the Holy of Holies. The high priest could go in after making sacrifices for himself and for his nation and he could go in and he could sprinkle blood into the most holy place and encounter the presence of the living God. And John says there will be no temple.

What's up with that? Well, let's go back to verse nine. It's gonna start to become clear. Verse nine. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls of the seven last plagues and spoke to me saying, come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God, its radiance.

like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal. There's symbolism there, but we don't have time. Verse 12, it had a great high wall. Now I want you to listen to something. I've said this throughout the series, but numbers have symbolic and deep meaning. They point to greater realities. So listen for numbers here. He says, it had a great high wall with 12 gates and at the gates, 12 angels.

And on the gates, the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. On the east, three gates. On the north, three gates. On the south, three gates. On the west, three gates. And the wall of the city had 12 foundations. And on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. You start to see it. You actually don't have to do that much math to recognize what's going on with this 12, 12, 12, 12, 12.

12 we've always seen represents the people of God. And here he is very clear, both the old covenant people and the new covenant people, the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles. So this represents who's gonna be there? All of the people of God. Everybody that belongs to God is going to be there. Verse 15. And those who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls.

The city lies four square, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. They're like, well, what's a stadia? We don't use that. In fact, some modern translations, for example, if you have an NASB, which is otherwise a very good translation, they're like, let's help them out. They don't know what stadia is. And so they translate it to the modern equivalent, 1,380 miles.

So if you're reading it, oh, it's 1,380 miles. But is that the point? No! That is not the point. That this city is 1,380 miles by 1,380 miles. A perfect square. Flat earthers rejoice. No! It's not the point. He could have said 12,000 kilometers, 12,000 miles. The point is that 12 multiplied. A massive 12 times 100 times 100. 12,000!

its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits. Again, we're like, cubits, what's that? NASB will tell you 260 feet. No, not the point. 12 times 12, what's the square root of 144? 12 times 12 is 144. Again, this is the point. The numbers have meaning. 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper.

while the city was pure gold. Does that mean everything in the city is just gold? Pay attention, we'll get back to that. The city was pure gold, like clear glass, which is a strange kind of gold. Says the foundation of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first, Jasper, the second, Sapphire. And he goes on to a bunch that I can't pronounce, but notice there's 12 of them. In fact, if we...

know our Bible. Those twelve stones have tremendous significance. They are the twelve stones that would be worn on the chestplate, the ephod of the high priest. Remember the high priest? The one person who could go into the Holy of Holies once a year? He's got those twelve stones. These are the same stones. Each of the gates made of a single pearl in the street of the city was

your gold like transparent glass. What is happening here?

I read through it intentionally kind of quickly, but did you notice verse 16? I'll put it on the screen here. says, city lies four square. Its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Again, we can now picture a square city. It's 12,000 stadia. If you want to say that's a literal city, it's 1,380 miles. But then the next part of the verse, he says, its length.

and width and height are equal.

So, do the math. Is he talking literally? If this city is 1,380 miles by 1,380 miles, we can fathom that, but now it's a perfect cube going up 1,380 miles. Do you know where the International Space Station sits? 250 miles.

We think this city goes up to high altitude, not low earth orbit, but high earth orbit. No, he's pointing to something. This is a sign. This is a symbol to a greater reality. This would have immediately brought to mind the only other place in scripture where there is a perfect cube. Let's show it here. First Kings chapter six, verse 19 and 20. Solomon, as he's been commissioned by his father David to build the temple, now he's working on.

You guessed it, the Holy of Holies. Solomon prepared the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies within the temple to set the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord there. Go on. The inner sanctuary was 20 cubits long, 20 wide, and 20 high. It was a perfect cube. And look what he says. He overlaid it, the inside with pure gold. Now do you see the symbol? Here's what John is saying.

in the new heaven and the new earth, the entire universe is the holy of holies and all of God's people are inside the holy of holies, amen? This is the best news. This is the best news because this says that of all the things that are going to be in heaven, God will be there. It is the hope of every

believer forever and ever. there are going to be amazing sights. There's going to be amazing sounds and smells and places to explore all of that. But all of that pales into comparison to be in the very presence of the Holy of Holies without sin, without shame with God. God is the gospel. When you come to faith in Jesus, you get God. This is the good news.

It isn't that you get to be reunited with your family and you get to have a really cool place. You get those things, but if it isn't God who excites you, you don't understand the gospel. You get God. You get to go into the Holy of Holies forever. Let's just use our imagination for a moment here. Go back with me to verse 3. It says, 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. He will be the one who wipes away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying or pain anymore for the former things have passed away. Back down to verse 22. I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon.

Doesn't say there isn't a sun or moon to shine on. has no need of sun or moon. For the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the lamb. And by its light the nations will walk and the nations of the earth will bring their glory into it. And its gates will never be shut and there will be no night. Its gates will never be shut because there's nothing threatening the new heaven and new earth. There will be no night there. Again this is a symbol for no darkness, no wickedness there.

I think there's going to be night. I think we're going to see the stars and explore the stars even. It says there will be no night there. will be they will bring the nations will bring the glory and honor. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. Who's that? That's you and me. Every tribe, tongue and nation rescued and redeemed bringing in without sin, without baggage, without idolatry, bringing in all of the best of our culture.

bringing it to the party. Notice there'll be kings and queens. That's because we're going to be co-heirs with Christ. We're going to rule and reign over this new heaven and new earth under Christ's rule and reign. It's going to be amazing. is all the promises of God finally and fully being fulfilled for you and for me. It reminds me of some of those last scenes in

C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, Jewel the Unicorn. She finally comes into the real Narnia. Here's what it says. She says, I have come home at last. This is my real country. I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it until now. The reason why we love the old Narnia is that it sometimes

looked a little like this.

The old Narnia was a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia, which has always been here and always will be here. We live in the shadow lands now. But once Jesus returns to establish all things, it will no longer be the shadow land. So again, what is John trying to accomplish here? He's not trying to tell us everything that's gonna be in heaven. Man, our finite minds couldn't perceive that. He couldn't write enough books in all the universe to capture all that, but.

He wants us do something in us. He wants this vision to pull us through this life, to persevere, to be encouraged. Doesn't this help us understand the Christian life better, right? Doesn't this help us understand how the Apostle Paul lived his life, right? When Paul writes to Philippians, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain? Yeah, because he understood.

He's not just going to go off and float on a cloud some day. He's going to enter into the holy of holies. That's gain. He writes in Romans 8, 18, I consider that our present sufferings, this world of curse and chaos, that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Brothers and sisters, use your spirit-filled imagination to begin to ponder these things. Let them pull you through. I love what Augustine says on this. He says, these are the beauties afforded to sinful men, what does God have in store for those who love him? In this world, we still get glimpses, as Jules said. We still get glimpses of amazing, glorious things. If you've ever...

stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon or if you've ever gone scuba diving and seen the fish in the coral reef you're like wow here's what I want you to do though when you see that