Celebrate the goodness of God in bringing a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem to his people. Joy fills every heart in love and unity in Christ.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study Podcast. This is Episode 29 in our Revelation Bible Study Podcast entitled The New Heaven and New Earth, where we’ll discuss Revelation 21:1-8. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Oh, Wes, we’re coming to some of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. We get to celebrate the goodness of God in bringing a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem to us. A place in which there’ll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. I can’t count the number of times I’ve quoted Revelation 21:4 in my ministry at funerals, just in daily life conversations. And we get to walk through that today. A description of the new Jerusalem and the new heaven and the new earth.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read these first eight verses of Revelation 21.
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
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.”
Andy, what’s the significance of the words “new heaven and new earth?” And what does it mean the first heaven and first earth had passed away?
Andy
Wow. This is very, very encouraging and important teaching. Now as we come to this and listen, before we get into the details, I just want to say how vital it is that we Christians think about heaven. We should be thinking about heaven daily. We should set our hearts and our minds on things above and things to come. Colossians 3 tells us we should immerse ourselves in this.
If we look at verse 5 of this passage, he tells him, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and they are true.” And he wants us to study these things. He wants us to understand them. We know that there’s lots of strange these days and false, I think, visions of heaven. There are popular books based on near-death experiences. And those are no certain source of information about the world to come.
the more we meditate on a biblical view of heaven, the better our lives will be. We’ll be more faithful in the two journeys, growing in holiness and sharing the gospel with others.
These words are trustworthy and true, and so we need to meditate on them. I think that the more we meditate on a biblical view of heaven, the better our lives will be. We’ll be more faithful in the two journeys, growing in holiness and sharing the gospel with others. We’re going to be more joyful. We’re going to be a source of hope for others. And so, I would just commend a meditation on heaven.
I also want to commend a book I wrote on this very topic called The Glory Now Revealed. And it’s available through Amazon. Also, on our Two Journeys site you can get a copy of The Glory Now Revealed. And there I talk about a dynamic heaven in which we’re going to spend an eternity learning about the glory of God based on his past actions in history and all the new things that he’s made.
Now, you asked me about the new heaven and the new earth, and also we’ll talk about the word the new Jerusalem. And then we have also this statement in verse 5, “I’m making everything new.” It’s a dominant word here. It’s new. There’s a lot of newness. I think it begins with our own conversion. It says, “If anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creation; the old has gone; behold everything has become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17), for that person. That’s a new soul but not a new body.
We instead have our mortal bodies. We’re still in them. We have new souls in old bodies and then we die or rapture at the second coming. Then we’re changed in a flash and a twinkling of an eye. We receive resurrection bodies, but everything starts for us at the moment of conversion.
We are new creations. But that’s the only new creation thing there is in this present evil age of sin and death and sorrow. Nothing else is new. Everything we see around us is part of the old, part of the old order of things as he says in this passage.
And so, the new is: death, mourning, crying and pain are gone. It’s a world in which none of those things are there. The curse has been completely removed. A world in which there’s no curse, there’s no death, there’s no mourning, no crying, no pain. By the way, on the topic of the millennium, that’s the difference between the millennium and the new heaven, new earth.
In the millennium, there’s still death, mourning, crying in pain. But in the new heaven, new earth, there’s none of those things. God is making everything new. However, we should not go so far as to say therefore we won’t remember the old. I argue in my book, Glory Now Revealed that all of the things that happened in the present evil age, the old order of things, will be absolutely essential to the worship that we give to God for all of his mighty works throughout centuries of redemptive history. The great works of Christ in atoning for sin and his miracles. Heaven and earth will pass away, he said, my words will never pass away.
We’re going to remember the things that were done, but still he’s making everything new. New heaven, new earth. Now let’s talk about that. The new heavens and the new earth are the new cosmos. And we mentioned this in the podcast last time. Some people believe that God will speak this present evil age out of existence and will speak a new heaven, new earth into existence, ex nihilo, out of nothing.
The problem with that is there’s a very strong continuity between this present evil age and the world to come. Certainly, that includes our resurrection bodies. We’re not given resurrection bodies created ex nihilo any more than Jesus’s body was created ex nihilo. He said, “Touch me and see. Put your finger in my nail marks, Thomas, and your hand in my side. It is I, myself. A spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones. You see, I have been raised from the dead.”
And so, we ourselves will be raised from the dead. There’s continuity with our bodies. We will receive new bodies, but they are connected to our old bodies. In the same way the new heaven, new earth, I believe, is strongly connected to this present earth. God promised Abraham that he would give him the land that he walked on in Genesis 13. Also, he promises again in Genesis 17. He promises to give to him and to his descendants the land he walked on.
Jesus in the Sermon of the Mount said, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Inherit, meaning this present earth only resurrected. I look on it this way, the new heaven, new earth, there’s continuity but radical difference. It’s going to be a perfect world in which none of those things, death, mourning, crying or pain will occur.
Also in Romans 8, this present evil age is in bondage to corruption, groaning in yearning for their liberation from decay, which is linked to our resurrection from the dead. That implies also this present age will come with us in a resurrected sense into the new heaven, new earth.
Wes
Andy, as we think about this concept of a new heaven and a new earth, should we look on these as being united or two separate places or spheres?
Andy
It’s a very good question. There’s some mystery involved because we’re told later in the same chapter that the city, the new Jerusalem, does not need the light of the sun to shine on it. And that doesn’t directly say there won’t be any sun, but we know that God doesn’t need the sun to fill the sky with light. We don’t know if there will be sun, moon and stars. Could lean toward no, but I don’t know what the new heavens would be.
And also, when we have the plural heavens, we know that there are different orders of heavens. You’ve got the sky, blue sky, and then you’ve got outer space where the sun, moon and stars are, and then you’ve got the spiritual heavens that Jesus goes through. And then he passes through the heavenly realms. It implies that there’s layer upon layer of heavenly existence.
I don’t really understand that, but there may be different orders of heaven. I think that actually makes sense in that it says even the demons believe in God, so they don’t see him all the time. He’s in a whole other realm to some degree. There could be some very great complexity to that.
I don’t really know whether the new heavens will have some sun, moon and stars. I think it seems that there won’t be a sun based on it doesn’t need the light of the sun to shine on it, but we also have the heavenly realms.
Now, let’s talk about the Lord’s prayer where it says, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And there’s a kind of a oneness here as the new Jerusalem, the church, descends out of heaven to the earth and the Lord is seated on a throne in the midst of that. And so, there’s a sense in which heaven and earth become one. And that may be also the mystery of the resurrection body, which it says it is sown a natural body, is raised a spiritual body, a combination of spirit and physical that all becomes one. And so, there’s not going to be a distinction anymore between heaven and earth.
And so it could be that heaven is wherever God’s throne is, and God’s throne will be on earth. And so, earth and heaven to some degree become one at that moment.
Wes
What does it mean that there was no longer any sea? Why would God remove the sea?
Andy
It’s a complete bummer, isn’t it? It’s like all right.
Wes
For some. Some people are like, listen, I’m a mountain person anyway. But for those of us who enjoy the sea, what’s going on here?
Andy
Yeah, it’s hard because earlier in Revelation there’s a crystal sea there. And so, is that still there or not? I don’t know the answer to this. You could just take it at face value and say, okay, there’s no more sea. Or you could say that the sea represents churning, turbulent chaos out of which the four beasts come in Daniel 7, and the Antichrist comes in Revelation 13. There’s no more of that.
There’s no more of this chaotic churning, mysterious dark place where Leviathan, the sea creature in Isaiah 27 dwells. The nether regions of rebellion and dark primordial chaos, that’s all done. Instead, what we have is a crystal sea. But if that’s the case, you’d want at least some adjectives. There’s no longer any turbulent sea or there’s no longer any stormy sea or any more rebellious sea or any of that. It just says there’s no longer any sea.
I think I would lean toward there’s just no longer any sea because that’s what it says. But we do have that crystal sea. I don’t know. I think at least we know this. There is no, when Jesus stilled the storm, there’s no more turbulent raging of the sea. Yeah, and in Luke 21, he talks about the end times right before the second coming of Christ and it says, nations will be in anguish at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
We also see in the Book of Job where God limits the sea and says here, your proud waves must halt this kind of thing. So almost like the sea is an adversary. I have a sense that there might be a sea, but just pacified and beautiful in that sense.
Wes
What is the holy city, the new Jerusalem, and what is the significance of the fact that it is coming down out of heaven from God?
Andy
All right, so anyone who reads the Old Testament understands the yearning that God has for his people to be gathered together in one place and worship him like there was just one worship place. They couldn’t worship under every tree and on every high hill, though they sadly did throughout eras, centuries of Israel’s history, the high places, but he wanted one place of worship.
They would assemble together in this one place, and they would be together. And we see the perfection then of the two great commandments, vertical and horizontal and a desire to be together. And so, he wanted his people to love one another and be together and that he would be at the center. And yet Jerusalem, this idea, this concept, this Zion on earth was frequently a very wicked place, as is made plain in Ezekiel 16 where she’s made beautiful by the grace of God and then turns harlot and unfaithful.
And so that’s a tremendous sense of grief and sorrow to God. The concept is beautiful, but it never worked out because the people themselves were wicked and they were sinful. And so, the city of Jerusalem became a symbol of rebellion against God. And we know also in Ezekiel how the glory of the Lord rose up from the temple and moved out of the city of Jerusalem. We also have Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and saying, if you, even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it’s hidden from your eyes. But the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and circle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and your children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.
Also, he said Jerusalem is a place that kills the prophets and stones those sent to him. It’s a city of wickedness. But the idea is pure and beautiful. And so, the idea is we’re going to take this corrupt wicked city with all of this bad history and we’re going to make it new. And we’re going to have a place where all of the people of God redeemed and holy, free from sin will actually be together. And God’s throne will be in the center of that city, and they will worship him around that throne. And the idea will be perfected. That’s the new Jerusalem. And it’s called the holy city because it’s set apart unto God as his special possession in a very important way. Like a bride, later in this chapter its pictured like a bride for him, and it’s also separated from all evil and sin. There’ll be no more sin. The holy city and it descends out of heaven.
Wes
Why do you think the new Jerusalem is likened to a bride prepared and beautifully dressed for her husband? Why the marriage analogy here?
Andy
Yeah, so again, my mind just goes back to many places, but Ezekiel 16 is the strongest and that’s where God marries Jerusalem. But she’s unfaithful to him and turns on him. And he ends up the cuckolded husband who’s shamed in front of the whole world because he couldn’t keep his wife. And it’s very tragic.
But again, the idea is perfected here of a marriage, but this time with a pure bride. As it says, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27). All that language is fulfilled here in this very chapter in Revelation 21. He wants to marry us.
And so, what is the nature of that marriage? Well, it’s the highest, most intimate, most powerful human connection there is. It’s the first human relationship God ever created: a husband and wife. And the mystery of Ephesians 5 is that all sexual union between a husband and wife in a Christian marriage is a picture of Christ and the church in a very mystical way. A way we really can’t think about in detail without corruption, but ultimately it is perfected. And so, it’s not a procreation issue, it’s an issue, I think of oneness.
I think it’s John 17, where, “May they be one as you and I are one.” May they be brought to perfect unity, so the people of God are one with another, and we are all together one with God and with Christ. That’s the picture of marriage. It’s a picture of oneness. And so, the marriage union is there also. It’s a different kind of love. There are different kinds of love. God has the love of a husband for a wife. He also has the love of a father for a son. And those things are perfected in Revelation 21.
Wes
It’s amazing. We get both of those images here in these verses that we’re looking at, even the father-son language as well as the bride and bridegroom language.
Andy
Right, and also, we need to understand the preparation language. The bride is coming down out of heaven having been prepared.
And the preparation here is done by Christ. It’s not done by the bride. And I’ve talked about this and when I wrote my commentary on Isaiah where in Isaiah 62:1 it says, “For Zion’s sake, I will not keep silent. For Jerusalem’s sake, I’ll not remain quiet until her righteousness shines like the dawn.” I’m going to keep talking. It’s the ministry of the word of God. That’s Jesus speaking. I’m going to keep speaking the word to her, Ephesians 5, until she’s pure and radiant. I’m going to get her ready for that wedding day.
And so, we see that through justification, sanctification and glorification, how Jesus gets his bride ready. And he does that through conversion on earth and then justification, sanctification, glorification. And then, absent from the body present with the Lord, he’s going to prepare a place for us. And we are the place. We are the dwelling in which God will live by his Spirit. It’s very mystical image.
But little by little by little through missions and evangelism, more and more saints are becoming part of body of Christ. And when they die, they’re ascending. And he’s just getting the whole thing ready. And now at the end of history, at the end of time she descends like a bride out of a heaven. Now she’s made ready. None of the elect is missing. No one is not yet fully glorified. Everything is ready. The wedding banquet has finally come.
Wes
Now, next, John hears this loud voice from the throne making a proclamation. What do verses 3 and 4 teach us about the future world and God’s compassion for his people?
Andy
Yeah, the loud voice, it comes from the throne. It’s like the voice of God or of Christ. This is something that God is saying I think is the best way we understand it from the throne. And there’s a sense of now at last we finally have what I wanted. How many times do we see this in the language of the prophets? They will be my people. I will be their God. That’s like, that’s what I want. It’s like it’s almost a marriage union. Finally, we will be one.
You get this sense of now at last, the dwelling of God is with people, with his people and he will live with them. This is what he’s always wanted. He wanted that oneness. He wanted that unity. He wanted that life together. God wants that. And now at last has come a pale reflection of this happened when Adam saw Eve for the first time.
You get the sense, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, for she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23). She’s like poetry is coming through. It’s like he’s seen all these animals and none of them was a helper suitable. And it’s like no one’s like, but now this is something, when he sees Eve for the first time and she’s the one.
Well, this is even greater than that. Infinitely greater. Now at last I get what I’ve always wanted. I get to dwell with my people, and they get to dwell with me. And we see the generosity of God here, just shares glory with us. It’s why he created the universe to begin with. It’s why Wes, I believe that sin and death and rebellion and the whole era of redemption, all that was a big interruption/parentheses, which only greatly enhanced God’s glory. But we get back to what the original intention was.
I want to show you my glory and you’ll enjoy it and feast on it forever. That’s what he created everything for. And then the sin interrupted, and now he’s dealt with that. And now at last, the dwelling of God is with people, and they will be with him, and he will be their God, and they will be his people.
Wes
It’s an amazing picture of God’s compassion, the giving of himself. We could almost stop there and be satisfied. We can stop and be satisfied in God himself. But he describes life in the new heaven and new earth as without death or mourning or crying or pain. What an amazing thing. Help us think through the implications of that and then also how that can comfort us even now in our daily lives.
Andy
Wow, so much. Verse 4, he will wipe every tear from their eyes. There’ll be no more mourning. I tell you this, why are there tears in their eyes? Okay. And there’s one of two possibilities. One is the terrible process described in Revelation by which his people went through extreme persecution and martyrdom under the reign of Antichrist. And all of those terrible, terrible things are now over. And so, their tears of suffering and all of that are in their eyes. That’s one possibility.
And I don’t think it’s either or, it might be both and. The other is painful judgment day. Just went through judgment day, Revelation 20:11-15. And we went through everything we did. Everything, good or bad. And there’s got to be some tears from that. There’s got to be a feeling of pain at having failed Jesus. Sins of omission, sins of commission, and all of it. Wood, hay and straw burned up and we suffer loss, and we feel it.
But we also, it’s such a mixed day because you also for the first time feel his direct pleasure in our good works and our rewards. It’s not only bad, but it’s very mixed. And it’s the last time I really believe when it says you’ll wipe every tear, it’s the last time we will ever feel any sorrow or regret. As I argue in my book on heavenly memories, on The Glory Now Revealed, and I talk about heavenly review of the past. It’s done without any tears, no regrets. That’s for judgment day. It’s not for heaven.
At that point, instead, we’ll be so far beyond judgment. There’s no fear and judgment because perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with judgment. And the one who fears is not made perfect in love. We’ll be perfect in love and won’t fear judgment because that’s past. We’ll be just like, tell the story, tell it all. Every part of your life, my life, everybody’s life. Just tell it. No shame, no tears, just the story. And we’ll see God’s goodness in all of it and his grace. And we won’t have any shame because the time for that is over. And so, he’ll wipe every tear from our eyes forever, no tears. That includes also the damned. We’ll know who they are, and we won’t weep over them. That’s why I think this is very important to understand.
There is no weeping for the damned in heaven, but there’s knowledge. It’s not like we didn’t know that would be a form of annihilationism if we didn’t know that any of them ever existed. They’ve been effectively annihilated, but they won’t be. We’ll know and we’ll know that they were reprobate. We’ll know that what God did in their case was purely just. No tears, though. There’s no mourning, no death, no mourning, no crying, no pain, and no regrets. Just joy.
And so now we look at these are all negated things. No death. It means we will be, and we already see this in our resurrection bodies, incorruptible. There’s no principle of death and there’s no principle of aging when we’ve been there 10,000 years, etc. There’s no death. Again, no mourning. I mean, clearly, no sense of regret for anything we ever done life and no regret over those that didn’t make it.
And no regret over our own sufferings. None of those things would bring us sorrow. No death, no mourning, no crying and no pain. All right, no pain. How does that work? I don’t know. You’re never going to bump your head or trip and fall. No, you’ll be perfectly coordinated. Or it could be just that our resurrection bodies just don’t need pain because there’s never any cellular damage. Damage cannot happen. There’s no need for pain because no matter what you bump into or whatever, it won’t hurt you. No death, mourning, crying or pain. The terror of hell is that it’s nothing but those four things. It’s an eternal death, an eternal mourning, an eternal crying, an eternal pain. But for us, no more of those things forever.
I think we need to take comfort from this because we know that we are in mortal bodies, so there’s death for us now, physical death, and there’s physical mourning and crying and pain and all of it has a purpose. And so there are times to mourn. There are appropriate times to mourn with others who are mourning or when we lose a loved one. There’s appropriate grieving over sin in this world. But that’s just to protect us from future sin. We grieve, James says, and mourn and wail when we sin, when we’re convicted so that we won’t sin like that anymore.
In the meantime, however, when we have terminal cancer, and the statistics show that we will die within 12 to 18 months. And we’ve got 12 to 18 months to live. And unless a miracle happens, it’s like, well, keep in mind we’re going to a world in which there’s no death, mourning, crying and pain. Let’s not grieve like those who have no hope. Let’s remember that part of our hope is a world in which we’re free from all of those things.
Wes
And verse 4 concludes with as much of that sort of encouragement, the former things have passed away. These things are passing. They’re momentary, as Paul will use that language. But the future state toward which we’re bound is one without these sufferings that we experience now.
Andy
Don’t be surprised when you’re experiencing death, mourning, crying and pain. That’s what this world is. That’s this present evil age.
Yeah, let me say something about that because I think it also gives us a tremendous realism. Don’t be surprised when you’re experiencing death, mourning, crying and pain. That’s what this world is. That’s this present evil age. Don’t be stunned by it. Never saw this coming. Never thought for a moment that anyone I loved could ever die. I mean, how could that be? And never thought it would happen to me- that the diagnosis would be for me, that I would have terminal cancer and that I would have a limited time to live. I never saw that coming. That doesn’t make sense.
For me, it’s like we should see it coming. Not live in morbid fear, but just be realistic that everything we see with our eyes is temporary. And that we have to expect that there’s going to be death, mourning, crying and pain. I think it also gives us a chance to weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice, to walk with people who are going through things, gives us a chance to show compassion.
Wes
Verse 5 says, “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.”
What’s the purpose of verse 5 here in the midst of this passage?
Andy
We already touched on it at the beginning with the word new, and I don’t have anything more to say. He’s just doing a comprehensive work of newness.
Wes
Yeah, all things.
Andy
Yeah. It’s kind of like, you can imagine redoing your kitchen. And you’re working with a planner and saying, so what do you want to do? It’s like I want everything. I want the whole thing new. Nothing old. Everything in heaven and earth is going to be made new. That means no death, mourning, crying or pain, none of that. And so, he’s making all things new. He’s going to make us new. We’ll be just entirely new beings in that sense, but also continuity from the past.
And then he says, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. He wants us to read these things. And that’s the way I look at the whole Bible. 66 books. He could say these words about every single statement in the Bible, even the genealogies in I Chronicles. All of these things are written down and trustworthy and true. They’re not all equally impactful. They’re not all equally important, but they’re all equally true.
Now, this is talking about the new heaven, new earth in a world in which there’ll be no more death, mourning, crying or pain. And he’s about to describe the new Jerusalem and he wants us to read it as it says at the beginning of Revelation. Blessed are those who read the words of this book and take to heart what is written because the time is near.
We should be meditating carefully on these words. That’s the purpose, Wes, really of our work right now. This podcast. We are helping people take these words seriously and meditate on them.
Wes
Now why is the phrase I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end that we find in verse 6 here so significant at this point in the book of Revelation?
Andy
Yeah, it’s very significant, especially since he says it again at the end of the book, next chapter. First of all, it gives me a sense of history as linear and not circular. We’re not eastern mystics and we don’t believe in reincarnation or an endless cycle. You die and you get reborn as a butterfly or that’s just not biblical. There is a linear view of history and that includes our history, our birth, life, death. But there’s also a linear view of overall human history. And also, in a very minor way it tells me that there was such a thing as Greek alphabetical order. Alpha to the Omega, there’s a first letter and a last letter. Someone put them in order at some point, which is pretty cool.
At any rate, the beginning and the end. And then he says, I am those things. I am the Alpha today and I’m the Omega today and I’m every letter in between. I am history. I am the first and the last. And so, this is similar to Jesus saying, I am the way, and I am the truth and I am the life. It’s mind-bending to try to understand how Jesus is the truth. Not merely tells the truth or exemplifies the truth but is the truth. Jesus also is history in some way.
Wes
What should we make of the promise in verse 6, to him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. And why is it essential that the water of life be without cost?
Andy
Yeah, so there’s a sense in which Jesus satisfies. He is presented here as living water like he gave to the Samaritan woman. Whoever believes in me, he says, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. Jacob’s well. “But everyone who drinks of the water I give him will never thirst. But indeed, the water that I give him will become inside of him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
Also in John 7, he says, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He’s being very consistent, and he very much wants us to drink from him. Thirsty means you’re needy, you want something. And so, it links to life. He’s very refreshing. He is life itself. Come and drink. I think of it in terms of truth and Jesus is the truth. You come and read these words, and you are parched. You are dry as in a desert, and now you’re revived and refreshed. And we’re also going to see in Revelation 22, the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God, clear as crystal. And so, it’s just you can drink from it forever.
Wes
Now, as we look at verse 7, there’s a significant statement here. He who overcomes will inherit all this. We want to understand what it means to overcome, but also the significance of the promise. I’ll be his God, and he will be my son. Help us understand verse 7 here.
Andy
Right. I can’t read verse 7 without thinking about Romans 8. In all these things, we are super conquerors, or more than conquerors. And again, Revelation 2 & 3, at the end of each of the letters to the seven churches, he promises rewards to him who overcomes. What that gives is a sense that there is a battle that we have to fight to get to heaven. Justification by faith alone, there’s no battle involved in that. We just believe it.
But once we believe that we begin the two journeys, we begin the internal journey of holiness, external journey of gospel advance. Those two journeys inevitably involve us in suffering, inevitably involve us in warfare. Satan fights us every step of the way on both of the journeys. And so, as he’s going to stand in our way and block our way to holiness and block our way to missionary fruitfulness, we have to overcome him.
We saw that earlier in the Book of Revelation where it spoke of the martyrs, and it says they overcame him by the word of their testimony and by the blood of the Lamb. And so, there is that sense of overcoming Satan and overcoming the flesh and the world. We do not go to heaven without overcoming. You got to fight for it in some degree. It is with great difficulty we’re told that we enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s not easy. He who overcomes will inherit all of these beautiful things. And I will be his God, and he will be my son.
Anyone who is adopted into the family of God will have a battle to fight. And we will fight it, and we will win.
Wes
Now in verse 8, following right on the heels of this promise we get a stark warning of those who will be excluded from this vast inheritance. What do each of these words used here teach us about God and sin? And how should this list make us think about our own sin and about the grace of Christ in our life?
Andy
Yeah, so it’s again, very, very clear that this is not teaching universalism. It is not true that everyone will make it in the end. It’s just not true. And the reason that they’re not there is because of their sins, because they’ve committed sins. And there are many sin lists in the Bible. This is one of them. There’s an extensive list at the end of Romans 1. There’s a similar list in Galatians 5. The acts of the flesh are listed out there. And so, this is another.
And all of the lists are representative. They’re not exhaustive. There are other ways to sin. Even if you compiled all of those lists, there’d still be other ways to sin that are listed there. But the Bible defines the disease. There’s mumps and rabies and tuberculosis and pancreatic cancer. These are different things. They’re different diseases. They have different treatments. You have to deal with them differently. And so it is with the overall disease of the soul that is called sin with a capital S, just sin.
And then there are sins, and those are specific patterns. And when we see these specific patterns, you know that there’s a core sin issue in your life. And so, what are the specific patterns? Well, first, the cowardly. There’s a certain fearfulness, and I think that’s specifically tied to the gospel. They’re afraid of what people will think and afraid of the effects if they should convert. And they just don’t. Out of fear of man and fear of the consequences they choose to shrink back. No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven. That means, don’t be cowardly, don’t look back.
And so, there is a basic courage that the Holy Spirit works in us to help us to overcome that and become Christians. There’s courage. We can’t take any credit for it, but there’s a cowardice here I think that is tied to the very next thing he says, the unbelieving. There’s a cowardice in unbelief. But whether cowardly or not, might be defiant unbelief. But the unbelievers are on the outside. Certainly unbelievers are excluded from the new Jerusalem. And then the vile, that’s just disgusting. Sin is rancid and disgusting. Some of the things you find out that people do are just revolting, they are vile people.
Obviously, we know the word murderers and sexually immoral. That’s a breaking of the commandments. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, sexually immoral. And we think about how sex-crazed our world is. And we know that means all forms of sexual immorality. Any form of sexual involvement outside of marriage is sin. Now when you look at these things, and we look at the Sermon in the Mount, we realize we’re all guilty to some degree.
We’ve all murdered people in our hearts through carnal anger. We’ve all lusted after people in a way illicit and contrary to God’s word. And we recognize, I don’t know anybody other than Jesus who claimed to be pure in these two areas, “I’ve never had any carnal anger toward anybody, and I’ve never had any lust thoughts ever.” And then it says, those who practice magic arts, so just magicians, sorcerers, could also relate to drug abuse because the word is tied to the word from which we get pharmacy, pharmacaya, that kind of thing. It could be drugs, people that are addicted to drugs, or it could just be like it says magic. And then idolaters, it’s anyone who worships a created worships and serves a created thing.
And then all liars. And then we’re told in Psalm 118, I think it is, all men are liars. We all lie. Nobody has so passionately committed him or herself to the truth that they’d never lied except Jesus being the exception. That’s why everyone was afraid when Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead for lying because they’re like, whoa, that could easily have been me. And then their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. And we talked about the second death in the last podcast. That’s hell.
Again, this is not a comprehensive list, but it’s just sinners, unrepentant sinners who sinned in these kinds of ways will be in hell. As we look at this list, I’ve already started to say it, we can see reflections in our own hearts. And I think it’s pretty obvious that there are some sins in the sin list that we’ve personally never committed. And we find them so repulsive that we just wouldn’t commit them. I mean, there’s some things like pedophilia, homosexuality for me, other things are just not tempting. But there are other things that we have to be honest say yeah, this is something I struggle with. There’s pride and anger and covetousness and lust and evil desires and laziness. And it’s like when we look at that, we realize we deserve hell. We really do.
That’s why Jesus died in our place. He drank the cup of hell for us so that we could be set free. And I think when we get to heaven, we’re going to realize we deserved it as much as they do. We’ll be forever humble. That’s why we must remember the past when we’re in heaven so that we can give God full glory for the grace he gave us.
Wes
Andy, what final thoughts do you have as we begin this contemplation on the newness that is the new heaven and new earth? We’ll look next time at the new Jerusalem, but what final thoughts do you have for us on these first eight verses of Revelation 21?
Andy
Yeah, they’re very powerful. We’ve walked through them in detail. I hope that they’re an encouragement to you. As I said at the beginning, from Colossians 3:1-4 and other verses, we should set our minds and our hearts on heaven. We should think about it every day. Jesus said openly concerning rewards, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And he said there store up treasure in heaven. He wants us to be thinking every moment about heaven. I would urge that you meditate on the things we’ve talked about today.
Wes
Well, this has been Episode 29 in our Revelation Bible Study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 30 entitled The New Jerusalem, where we’ll discuss Revelation chapter 21: 9-27.
Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study Podcast. This is Episode 29 in our Revelation Bible Study Podcast entitled The New Heaven and New Earth, where we’ll discuss Revelation 21:1-8. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Oh, Wes, we’re coming to some of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. We get to celebrate the goodness of God in bringing a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem to us. A place in which there’ll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. I can’t count the number of times I’ve quoted Revelation 21:4 in my ministry at funerals, just in daily life conversations. And we get to walk through that today. A description of the new Jerusalem and the new heaven and the new earth.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read these first eight verses of Revelation 21.
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
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.”
Andy, what’s the significance of the words “new heaven and new earth?” And what does it mean the first heaven and first earth had passed away?
Andy
Wow. This is very, very encouraging and important teaching. Now as we come to this and listen, before we get into the details, I just want to say how vital it is that we Christians think about heaven. We should be thinking about heaven daily. We should set our hearts and our minds on things above and things to come. Colossians 3 tells us we should immerse ourselves in this.
If we look at verse 5 of this passage, he tells him, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and they are true.” And he wants us to study these things. He wants us to understand them. We know that there’s lots of strange these days and false, I think, visions of heaven. There are popular books based on near-death experiences. And those are no certain source of information about the world to come.
the more we meditate on a biblical view of heaven, the better our lives will be. We’ll be more faithful in the two journeys, growing in holiness and sharing the gospel with others.
These words are trustworthy and true, and so we need to meditate on them. I think that the more we meditate on a biblical view of heaven, the better our lives will be. We’ll be more faithful in the two journeys, growing in holiness and sharing the gospel with others. We’re going to be more joyful. We’re going to be a source of hope for others. And so, I would just commend a meditation on heaven.
I also want to commend a book I wrote on this very topic called The Glory Now Revealed. And it’s available through Amazon. Also, on our Two Journeys site you can get a copy of The Glory Now Revealed. And there I talk about a dynamic heaven in which we’re going to spend an eternity learning about the glory of God based on his past actions in history and all the new things that he’s made.
Now, you asked me about the new heaven and the new earth, and also we’ll talk about the word the new Jerusalem. And then we have also this statement in verse 5, “I’m making everything new.” It’s a dominant word here. It’s new. There’s a lot of newness. I think it begins with our own conversion. It says, “If anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creation; the old has gone; behold everything has become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17), for that person. That’s a new soul but not a new body.
We instead have our mortal bodies. We’re still in them. We have new souls in old bodies and then we die or rapture at the second coming. Then we’re changed in a flash and a twinkling of an eye. We receive resurrection bodies, but everything starts for us at the moment of conversion.
We are new creations. But that’s the only new creation thing there is in this present evil age of sin and death and sorrow. Nothing else is new. Everything we see around us is part of the old, part of the old order of things as he says in this passage.
And so, the new is: death, mourning, crying and pain are gone. It’s a world in which none of those things are there. The curse has been completely removed. A world in which there’s no curse, there’s no death, there’s no mourning, no crying, no pain. By the way, on the topic of the millennium, that’s the difference between the millennium and the new heaven, new earth.
In the millennium, there’s still death, mourning, crying in pain. But in the new heaven, new earth, there’s none of those things. God is making everything new. However, we should not go so far as to say therefore we won’t remember the old. I argue in my book, Glory Now Revealed that all of the things that happened in the present evil age, the old order of things, will be absolutely essential to the worship that we give to God for all of his mighty works throughout centuries of redemptive history. The great works of Christ in atoning for sin and his miracles. Heaven and earth will pass away, he said, my words will never pass away.
We’re going to remember the things that were done, but still he’s making everything new. New heaven, new earth. Now let’s talk about that. The new heavens and the new earth are the new cosmos. And we mentioned this in the podcast last time. Some people believe that God will speak this present evil age out of existence and will speak a new heaven, new earth into existence, ex nihilo, out of nothing.
The problem with that is there’s a very strong continuity between this present evil age and the world to come. Certainly, that includes our resurrection bodies. We’re not given resurrection bodies created ex nihilo any more than Jesus’s body was created ex nihilo. He said, “Touch me and see. Put your finger in my nail marks, Thomas, and your hand in my side. It is I, myself. A spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones. You see, I have been raised from the dead.”
And so, we ourselves will be raised from the dead. There’s continuity with our bodies. We will receive new bodies, but they are connected to our old bodies. In the same way the new heaven, new earth, I believe, is strongly connected to this present earth. God promised Abraham that he would give him the land that he walked on in Genesis 13. Also, he promises again in Genesis 17. He promises to give to him and to his descendants the land he walked on.
Jesus in the Sermon of the Mount said, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Inherit, meaning this present earth only resurrected. I look on it this way, the new heaven, new earth, there’s continuity but radical difference. It’s going to be a perfect world in which none of those things, death, mourning, crying or pain will occur.
Also in Romans 8, this present evil age is in bondage to corruption, groaning in yearning for their liberation from decay, which is linked to our resurrection from the dead. That implies also this present age will come with us in a resurrected sense into the new heaven, new earth.
Wes
Andy, as we think about this concept of a new heaven and a new earth, should we look on these as being united or two separate places or spheres?
Andy
It’s a very good question. There’s some mystery involved because we’re told later in the same chapter that the city, the new Jerusalem, does not need the light of the sun to shine on it. And that doesn’t directly say there won’t be any sun, but we know that God doesn’t need the sun to fill the sky with light. We don’t know if there will be sun, moon and stars. Could lean toward no, but I don’t know what the new heavens would be.
And also, when we have the plural heavens, we know that there are different orders of heavens. You’ve got the sky, blue sky, and then you’ve got outer space where the sun, moon and stars are, and then you’ve got the spiritual heavens that Jesus goes through. And then he passes through the heavenly realms. It implies that there’s layer upon layer of heavenly existence.
I don’t really understand that, but there may be different orders of heaven. I think that actually makes sense in that it says even the demons believe in God, so they don’t see him all the time. He’s in a whole other realm to some degree. There could be some very great complexity to that.
I don’t really know whether the new heavens will have some sun, moon and stars. I think it seems that there won’t be a sun based on it doesn’t need the light of the sun to shine on it, but we also have the heavenly realms.
Now, let’s talk about the Lord’s prayer where it says, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And there’s a kind of a oneness here as the new Jerusalem, the church, descends out of heaven to the earth and the Lord is seated on a throne in the midst of that. And so, there’s a sense in which heaven and earth become one. And that may be also the mystery of the resurrection body, which it says it is sown a natural body, is raised a spiritual body, a combination of spirit and physical that all becomes one. And so, there’s not going to be a distinction anymore between heaven and earth.
And so it could be that heaven is wherever God’s throne is, and God’s throne will be on earth. And so, earth and heaven to some degree become one at that moment.
Wes
What does it mean that there was no longer any sea? Why would God remove the sea?
Andy
It’s a complete bummer, isn’t it? It’s like all right.
Wes
For some. Some people are like, listen, I’m a mountain person anyway. But for those of us who enjoy the sea, what’s going on here?
Andy
Yeah, it’s hard because earlier in Revelation there’s a crystal sea there. And so, is that still there or not? I don’t know the answer to this. You could just take it at face value and say, okay, there’s no more sea. Or you could say that the sea represents churning, turbulent chaos out of which the four beasts come in Daniel 7, and the Antichrist comes in Revelation 13. There’s no more of that.
There’s no more of this chaotic churning, mysterious dark place where Leviathan, the sea creature in Isaiah 27 dwells. The nether regions of rebellion and dark primordial chaos, that’s all done. Instead, what we have is a crystal sea. But if that’s the case, you’d want at least some adjectives. There’s no longer any turbulent sea or there’s no longer any stormy sea or any more rebellious sea or any of that. It just says there’s no longer any sea.
I think I would lean toward there’s just no longer any sea because that’s what it says. But we do have that crystal sea. I don’t know. I think at least we know this. There is no, when Jesus stilled the storm, there’s no more turbulent raging of the sea. Yeah, and in Luke 21, he talks about the end times right before the second coming of Christ and it says, nations will be in anguish at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
We also see in the Book of Job where God limits the sea and says here, your proud waves must halt this kind of thing. So almost like the sea is an adversary. I have a sense that there might be a sea, but just pacified and beautiful in that sense.
Wes
What is the holy city, the new Jerusalem, and what is the significance of the fact that it is coming down out of heaven from God?
Andy
All right, so anyone who reads the Old Testament understands the yearning that God has for his people to be gathered together in one place and worship him like there was just one worship place. They couldn’t worship under every tree and on every high hill, though they sadly did throughout eras, centuries of Israel’s history, the high places, but he wanted one place of worship.
They would assemble together in this one place, and they would be together. And we see the perfection then of the two great commandments, vertical and horizontal and a desire to be together. And so, he wanted his people to love one another and be together and that he would be at the center. And yet Jerusalem, this idea, this concept, this Zion on earth was frequently a very wicked place, as is made plain in Ezekiel 16 where she’s made beautiful by the grace of God and then turns harlot and unfaithful.
And so that’s a tremendous sense of grief and sorrow to God. The concept is beautiful, but it never worked out because the people themselves were wicked and they were sinful. And so, the city of Jerusalem became a symbol of rebellion against God. And we know also in Ezekiel how the glory of the Lord rose up from the temple and moved out of the city of Jerusalem. We also have Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and saying, if you, even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it’s hidden from your eyes. But the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and circle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and your children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.
Also, he said Jerusalem is a place that kills the prophets and stones those sent to him. It’s a city of wickedness. But the idea is pure and beautiful. And so, the idea is we’re going to take this corrupt wicked city with all of this bad history and we’re going to make it new. And we’re going to have a place where all of the people of God redeemed and holy, free from sin will actually be together. And God’s throne will be in the center of that city, and they will worship him around that throne. And the idea will be perfected. That’s the new Jerusalem. And it’s called the holy city because it’s set apart unto God as his special possession in a very important way. Like a bride, later in this chapter its pictured like a bride for him, and it’s also separated from all evil and sin. There’ll be no more sin. The holy city and it descends out of heaven.
Wes
Why do you think the new Jerusalem is likened to a bride prepared and beautifully dressed for her husband? Why the marriage analogy here?
Andy
Yeah, so again, my mind just goes back to many places, but Ezekiel 16 is the strongest and that’s where God marries Jerusalem. But she’s unfaithful to him and turns on him. And he ends up the cuckolded husband who’s shamed in front of the whole world because he couldn’t keep his wife. And it’s very tragic.
But again, the idea is perfected here of a marriage, but this time with a pure bride. As it says, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27). All that language is fulfilled here in this very chapter in Revelation 21. He wants to marry us.
And so, what is the nature of that marriage? Well, it’s the highest, most intimate, most powerful human connection there is. It’s the first human relationship God ever created: a husband and wife. And the mystery of Ephesians 5 is that all sexual union between a husband and wife in a Christian marriage is a picture of Christ and the church in a very mystical way. A way we really can’t think about in detail without corruption, but ultimately it is perfected. And so, it’s not a procreation issue, it’s an issue, I think of oneness.
I think it’s John 17, where, “May they be one as you and I are one.” May they be brought to perfect unity, so the people of God are one with another, and we are all together one with God and with Christ. That’s the picture of marriage. It’s a picture of oneness. And so, the marriage union is there also. It’s a different kind of love. There are different kinds of love. God has the love of a husband for a wife. He also has the love of a father for a son. And those things are perfected in Revelation 21.
Wes
It’s amazing. We get both of those images here in these verses that we’re looking at, even the father-son language as well as the bride and bridegroom language.
Andy
Right, and also, we need to understand the preparation language. The bride is coming down out of heaven having been prepared.
And the preparation here is done by Christ. It’s not done by the bride. And I’ve talked about this and when I wrote my commentary on Isaiah where in Isaiah 62:1 it says, “For Zion’s sake, I will not keep silent. For Jerusalem’s sake, I’ll not remain quiet until her righteousness shines like the dawn.” I’m going to keep talking. It’s the ministry of the word of God. That’s Jesus speaking. I’m going to keep speaking the word to her, Ephesians 5, until she’s pure and radiant. I’m going to get her ready for that wedding day.
And so, we see that through justification, sanctification and glorification, how Jesus gets his bride ready. And he does that through conversion on earth and then justification, sanctification, glorification. And then, absent from the body present with the Lord, he’s going to prepare a place for us. And we are the place. We are the dwelling in which God will live by his Spirit. It’s very mystical image.
But little by little by little through missions and evangelism, more and more saints are becoming part of body of Christ. And when they die, they’re ascending. And he’s just getting the whole thing ready. And now at the end of history, at the end of time she descends like a bride out of a heaven. Now she’s made ready. None of the elect is missing. No one is not yet fully glorified. Everything is ready. The wedding banquet has finally come.
Wes
Now, next, John hears this loud voice from the throne making a proclamation. What do verses 3 and 4 teach us about the future world and God’s compassion for his people?
Andy
Yeah, the loud voice, it comes from the throne. It’s like the voice of God or of Christ. This is something that God is saying I think is the best way we understand it from the throne. And there’s a sense of now at last we finally have what I wanted. How many times do we see this in the language of the prophets? They will be my people. I will be their God. That’s like, that’s what I want. It’s like it’s almost a marriage union. Finally, we will be one.
You get this sense of now at last, the dwelling of God is with people, with his people and he will live with them. This is what he’s always wanted. He wanted that oneness. He wanted that unity. He wanted that life together. God wants that. And now at last has come a pale reflection of this happened when Adam saw Eve for the first time.
You get the sense, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, for she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23). She’s like poetry is coming through. It’s like he’s seen all these animals and none of them was a helper suitable. And it’s like no one’s like, but now this is something, when he sees Eve for the first time and she’s the one.
Well, this is even greater than that. Infinitely greater. Now at last I get what I’ve always wanted. I get to dwell with my people, and they get to dwell with me. And we see the generosity of God here, just shares glory with us. It’s why he created the universe to begin with. It’s why Wes, I believe that sin and death and rebellion and the whole era of redemption, all that was a big interruption/parentheses, which only greatly enhanced God’s glory. But we get back to what the original intention was.
I want to show you my glory and you’ll enjoy it and feast on it forever. That’s what he created everything for. And then the sin interrupted, and now he’s dealt with that. And now at last, the dwelling of God is with people, and they will be with him, and he will be their God, and they will be his people.
Wes
It’s an amazing picture of God’s compassion, the giving of himself. We could almost stop there and be satisfied. We can stop and be satisfied in God himself. But he describes life in the new heaven and new earth as without death or mourning or crying or pain. What an amazing thing. Help us think through the implications of that and then also how that can comfort us even now in our daily lives.
Andy
Wow, so much. Verse 4, he will wipe every tear from their eyes. There’ll be no more mourning. I tell you this, why are there tears in their eyes? Okay. And there’s one of two possibilities. One is the terrible process described in Revelation by which his people went through extreme persecution and martyrdom under the reign of Antichrist. And all of those terrible, terrible things are now over. And so, their tears of suffering and all of that are in their eyes. That’s one possibility.
And I don’t think it’s either or, it might be both and. The other is painful judgment day. Just went through judgment day, Revelation 20:11-15. And we went through everything we did. Everything, good or bad. And there’s got to be some tears from that. There’s got to be a feeling of pain at having failed Jesus. Sins of omission, sins of commission, and all of it. Wood, hay and straw burned up and we suffer loss, and we feel it.
But we also, it’s such a mixed day because you also for the first time feel his direct pleasure in our good works and our rewards. It’s not only bad, but it’s very mixed. And it’s the last time I really believe when it says you’ll wipe every tear, it’s the last time we will ever feel any sorrow or regret. As I argue in my book on heavenly memories, on The Glory Now Revealed, and I talk about heavenly review of the past. It’s done without any tears, no regrets. That’s for judgment day. It’s not for heaven.
At that point, instead, we’ll be so far beyond judgment. There’s no fear and judgment because perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with judgment. And the one who fears is not made perfect in love. We’ll be perfect in love and won’t fear judgment because that’s past. We’ll be just like, tell the story, tell it all. Every part of your life, my life, everybody’s life. Just tell it. No shame, no tears, just the story. And we’ll see God’s goodness in all of it and his grace. And we won’t have any shame because the time for that is over. And so, he’ll wipe every tear from our eyes forever, no tears. That includes also the damned. We’ll know who they are, and we won’t weep over them. That’s why I think this is very important to understand.
There is no weeping for the damned in heaven, but there’s knowledge. It’s not like we didn’t know that would be a form of annihilationism if we didn’t know that any of them ever existed. They’ve been effectively annihilated, but they won’t be. We’ll know and we’ll know that they were reprobate. We’ll know that what God did in their case was purely just. No tears, though. There’s no mourning, no death, no mourning, no crying, no pain, and no regrets. Just joy.
And so now we look at these are all negated things. No death. It means we will be, and we already see this in our resurrection bodies, incorruptible. There’s no principle of death and there’s no principle of aging when we’ve been there 10,000 years, etc. There’s no death. Again, no mourning. I mean, clearly, no sense of regret for anything we ever done life and no regret over those that didn’t make it.
And no regret over our own sufferings. None of those things would bring us sorrow. No death, no mourning, no crying and no pain. All right, no pain. How does that work? I don’t know. You’re never going to bump your head or trip and fall. No, you’ll be perfectly coordinated. Or it could be just that our resurrection bodies just don’t need pain because there’s never any cellular damage. Damage cannot happen. There’s no need for pain because no matter what you bump into or whatever, it won’t hurt you. No death, mourning, crying or pain. The terror of hell is that it’s nothing but those four things. It’s an eternal death, an eternal mourning, an eternal crying, an eternal pain. But for us, no more of those things forever.
I think we need to take comfort from this because we know that we are in mortal bodies, so there’s death for us now, physical death, and there’s physical mourning and crying and pain and all of it has a purpose. And so there are times to mourn. There are appropriate times to mourn with others who are mourning or when we lose a loved one. There’s appropriate grieving over sin in this world. But that’s just to protect us from future sin. We grieve, James says, and mourn and wail when we sin, when we’re convicted so that we won’t sin like that anymore.
In the meantime, however, when we have terminal cancer, and the statistics show that we will die within 12 to 18 months. And we’ve got 12 to 18 months to live. And unless a miracle happens, it’s like, well, keep in mind we’re going to a world in which there’s no death, mourning, crying and pain. Let’s not grieve like those who have no hope. Let’s remember that part of our hope is a world in which we’re free from all of those things.
Wes
And verse 4 concludes with as much of that sort of encouragement, the former things have passed away. These things are passing. They’re momentary, as Paul will use that language. But the future state toward which we’re bound is one without these sufferings that we experience now.
Andy
Don’t be surprised when you’re experiencing death, mourning, crying and pain. That’s what this world is. That’s this present evil age.
Yeah, let me say something about that because I think it also gives us a tremendous realism. Don’t be surprised when you’re experiencing death, mourning, crying and pain. That’s what this world is. That’s this present evil age. Don’t be stunned by it. Never saw this coming. Never thought for a moment that anyone I loved could ever die. I mean, how could that be? And never thought it would happen to me- that the diagnosis would be for me, that I would have terminal cancer and that I would have a limited time to live. I never saw that coming. That doesn’t make sense.
For me, it’s like we should see it coming. Not live in morbid fear, but just be realistic that everything we see with our eyes is temporary. And that we have to expect that there’s going to be death, mourning, crying and pain. I think it also gives us a chance to weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice, to walk with people who are going through things, gives us a chance to show compassion.
Wes
Verse 5 says, “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.”
What’s the purpose of verse 5 here in the midst of this passage?
Andy
We already touched on it at the beginning with the word new, and I don’t have anything more to say. He’s just doing a comprehensive work of newness.
Wes
Yeah, all things.
Andy
Yeah. It’s kind of like, you can imagine redoing your kitchen. And you’re working with a planner and saying, so what do you want to do? It’s like I want everything. I want the whole thing new. Nothing old. Everything in heaven and earth is going to be made new. That means no death, mourning, crying or pain, none of that. And so, he’s making all things new. He’s going to make us new. We’ll be just entirely new beings in that sense, but also continuity from the past.
And then he says, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. He wants us to read these things. And that’s the way I look at the whole Bible. 66 books. He could say these words about every single statement in the Bible, even the genealogies in I Chronicles. All of these things are written down and trustworthy and true. They’re not all equally impactful. They’re not all equally important, but they’re all equally true.
Now, this is talking about the new heaven, new earth in a world in which there’ll be no more death, mourning, crying or pain. And he’s about to describe the new Jerusalem and he wants us to read it as it says at the beginning of Revelation. Blessed are those who read the words of this book and take to heart what is written because the time is near.
We should be meditating carefully on these words. That’s the purpose, Wes, really of our work right now. This podcast. We are helping people take these words seriously and meditate on them.
Wes
Now why is the phrase I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end that we find in verse 6 here so significant at this point in the book of Revelation?
Andy
Yeah, it’s very significant, especially since he says it again at the end of the book, next chapter. First of all, it gives me a sense of history as linear and not circular. We’re not eastern mystics and we don’t believe in reincarnation or an endless cycle. You die and you get reborn as a butterfly or that’s just not biblical. There is a linear view of history and that includes our history, our birth, life, death. But there’s also a linear view of overall human history. And also, in a very minor way it tells me that there was such a thing as Greek alphabetical order. Alpha to the Omega, there’s a first letter and a last letter. Someone put them in order at some point, which is pretty cool.
At any rate, the beginning and the end. And then he says, I am those things. I am the Alpha today and I’m the Omega today and I’m every letter in between. I am history. I am the first and the last. And so, this is similar to Jesus saying, I am the way, and I am the truth and I am the life. It’s mind-bending to try to understand how Jesus is the truth. Not merely tells the truth or exemplifies the truth but is the truth. Jesus also is history in some way.
Wes
What should we make of the promise in verse 6, to him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. And why is it essential that the water of life be without cost?
Andy
Yeah, so there’s a sense in which Jesus satisfies. He is presented here as living water like he gave to the Samaritan woman. Whoever believes in me, he says, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. Jacob’s well. “But everyone who drinks of the water I give him will never thirst. But indeed, the water that I give him will become inside of him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
Also in John 7, he says, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He’s being very consistent, and he very much wants us to drink from him. Thirsty means you’re needy, you want something. And so, it links to life. He’s very refreshing. He is life itself. Come and drink. I think of it in terms of truth and Jesus is the truth. You come and read these words, and you are parched. You are dry as in a desert, and now you’re revived and refreshed. And we’re also going to see in Revelation 22, the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God, clear as crystal. And so, it’s just you can drink from it forever.
Wes
Now, as we look at verse 7, there’s a significant statement here. He who overcomes will inherit all this. We want to understand what it means to overcome, but also the significance of the promise. I’ll be his God, and he will be my son. Help us understand verse 7 here.
Andy
Right. I can’t read verse 7 without thinking about Romans 8. In all these things, we are super conquerors, or more than conquerors. And again, Revelation 2 & 3, at the end of each of the letters to the seven churches, he promises rewards to him who overcomes. What that gives is a sense that there is a battle that we have to fight to get to heaven. Justification by faith alone, there’s no battle involved in that. We just believe it.
But once we believe that we begin the two journeys, we begin the internal journey of holiness, external journey of gospel advance. Those two journeys inevitably involve us in suffering, inevitably involve us in warfare. Satan fights us every step of the way on both of the journeys. And so, as he’s going to stand in our way and block our way to holiness and block our way to missionary fruitfulness, we have to overcome him.
We saw that earlier in the Book of Revelation where it spoke of the martyrs, and it says they overcame him by the word of their testimony and by the blood of the Lamb. And so, there is that sense of overcoming Satan and overcoming the flesh and the world. We do not go to heaven without overcoming. You got to fight for it in some degree. It is with great difficulty we’re told that we enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s not easy. He who overcomes will inherit all of these beautiful things. And I will be his God, and he will be my son.
Anyone who is adopted into the family of God will have a battle to fight. And we will fight it, and we will win.
Wes
Now in verse 8, following right on the heels of this promise we get a stark warning of those who will be excluded from this vast inheritance. What do each of these words used here teach us about God and sin? And how should this list make us think about our own sin and about the grace of Christ in our life?
Andy
Yeah, so it’s again, very, very clear that this is not teaching universalism. It is not true that everyone will make it in the end. It’s just not true. And the reason that they’re not there is because of their sins, because they’ve committed sins. And there are many sin lists in the Bible. This is one of them. There’s an extensive list at the end of Romans 1. There’s a similar list in Galatians 5. The acts of the flesh are listed out there. And so, this is another.
And all of the lists are representative. They’re not exhaustive. There are other ways to sin. Even if you compiled all of those lists, there’d still be other ways to sin that are listed there. But the Bible defines the disease. There’s mumps and rabies and tuberculosis and pancreatic cancer. These are different things. They’re different diseases. They have different treatments. You have to deal with them differently. And so it is with the overall disease of the soul that is called sin with a capital S, just sin.
And then there are sins, and those are specific patterns. And when we see these specific patterns, you know that there’s a core sin issue in your life. And so, what are the specific patterns? Well, first, the cowardly. There’s a certain fearfulness, and I think that’s specifically tied to the gospel. They’re afraid of what people will think and afraid of the effects if they should convert. And they just don’t. Out of fear of man and fear of the consequences they choose to shrink back. No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven. That means, don’t be cowardly, don’t look back.
And so, there is a basic courage that the Holy Spirit works in us to help us to overcome that and become Christians. There’s courage. We can’t take any credit for it, but there’s a cowardice here I think that is tied to the very next thing he says, the unbelieving. There’s a cowardice in unbelief. But whether cowardly or not, might be defiant unbelief. But the unbelievers are on the outside. Certainly unbelievers are excluded from the new Jerusalem. And then the vile, that’s just disgusting. Sin is rancid and disgusting. Some of the things you find out that people do are just revolting, they are vile people.
Obviously, we know the word murderers and sexually immoral. That’s a breaking of the commandments. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, sexually immoral. And we think about how sex-crazed our world is. And we know that means all forms of sexual immorality. Any form of sexual involvement outside of marriage is sin. Now when you look at these things, and we look at the Sermon in the Mount, we realize we’re all guilty to some degree.
We’ve all murdered people in our hearts through carnal anger. We’ve all lusted after people in a way illicit and contrary to God’s word. And we recognize, I don’t know anybody other than Jesus who claimed to be pure in these two areas, “I’ve never had any carnal anger toward anybody, and I’ve never had any lust thoughts ever.” And then it says, those who practice magic arts, so just magicians, sorcerers, could also relate to drug abuse because the word is tied to the word from which we get pharmacy, pharmacaya, that kind of thing. It could be drugs, people that are addicted to drugs, or it could just be like it says magic. And then idolaters, it’s anyone who worships a created worships and serves a created thing.
And then all liars. And then we’re told in Psalm 118, I think it is, all men are liars. We all lie. Nobody has so passionately committed him or herself to the truth that they’d never lied except Jesus being the exception. That’s why everyone was afraid when Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead for lying because they’re like, whoa, that could easily have been me. And then their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. And we talked about the second death in the last podcast. That’s hell.
Again, this is not a comprehensive list, but it’s just sinners, unrepentant sinners who sinned in these kinds of ways will be in hell. As we look at this list, I’ve already started to say it, we can see reflections in our own hearts. And I think it’s pretty obvious that there are some sins in the sin list that we’ve personally never committed. And we find them so repulsive that we just wouldn’t commit them. I mean, there’s some things like pedophilia, homosexuality for me, other things are just not tempting. But there are other things that we have to be honest say yeah, this is something I struggle with. There’s pride and anger and covetousness and lust and evil desires and laziness. And it’s like when we look at that, we realize we deserve hell. We really do.
That’s why Jesus died in our place. He drank the cup of hell for us so that we could be set free. And I think when we get to heaven, we’re going to realize we deserved it as much as they do. We’ll be forever humble. That’s why we must remember the past when we’re in heaven so that we can give God full glory for the grace he gave us.
Wes
Andy, what final thoughts do you have as we begin this contemplation on the newness that is the new heaven and new earth? We’ll look next time at the new Jerusalem, but what final thoughts do you have for us on these first eight verses of Revelation 21?
Andy
Yeah, they’re very powerful. We’ve walked through them in detail. I hope that they’re an encouragement to you. As I said at the beginning, from Colossians 3:1-4 and other verses, we should set our minds and our hearts on heaven. We should think about it every day. Jesus said openly concerning rewards, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And he said there store up treasure in heaven. He wants us to be thinking every moment about heaven. I would urge that you meditate on the things we’ve talked about today.
Wes
Well, this has been Episode 29 in our Revelation Bible Study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 30 entitled The New Jerusalem, where we’ll discuss Revelation chapter 21: 9-27.
Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
