In this message, Pastor Brian continues to show what the New Earth will be like according to Revelation 21 and 22. It will be characterized by Joy, Life, and Holiness!
What Will The New Earth Be Like? – Pt. 2
Revelation 21-22
Last week we began taking a good long look at the New Earth, and what life will be like on it. After Christ returns, and He resurrections and judges all people, this heaven and earth will pass away, and He will create a new heaven and earth. This will be our eternal state. But just what will life look like in this New Earth?
The first thing we noticed is that the New Earth will be characterized by Renewal. In other words, God is not going to completely scrap this present earth and create a new earth completely different from it. Rather, He is going to renew this earth. This will involve burning away the dross and all vestiges of sin and the curse. But it will be the present creation set free from its bondage to corruption. The curse will be lifted. Paradise lost will become Paradise restored!
The second thing we noticed is that the New Earth will be characterized by Intimacy. We will be His sons and He will be our Father. We will be His bride, and He will be our bridegroom. He will be the temple there, extending His immediate presence everywhere and to everyone in the New Earth.
We also noticed that the New Earth will be characterized by Worship. We will never be distant from the Lord. Wherever we go and wherever we are, we will have direct and immediate access into the very presence of Christ and God. The Church is not only the Bride of Christ, but it is the holy of holies, giving every redeemed sinner access into God’s very presence at every moment, with nothing to hinder us. We will take advantage of that access in order to bring Him worship continually. Of course, we worship God now, but through the weakness of our flesh and our sin, we often don’t take advantage of that wonderful privilege. Well, all that will be a thing of the past in the New Earth!
I want to continue this morning and focus on three more characteristics of the New Earth: joy, life, and holiness.
1. Joy
Revelation 21:4, “and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” These words are coming from a loud voice from the throne, suggesting that they are coming from God Himself. In order to showcase the joy we will experience, God tells us about several things that will be eliminated from the New Earth which work against our joy.
Tears, Mourning, crying, pain. Where do our tears come from? Let’s think about it for a moment. Except for the times you shed tears of joy, those tears all came from sin, either yours or someone else’s. Because of sin, sickness and pain entered the world. Because of sin, we cry when we lose our loved ones. We live in a fallen, sin-cursed world, and therefore our tears flow freely! However, one day that will not be the case! One day there will be no reason to shed tears of sadness, pain, or grief.
Death. 1 Cor. 15:25-26 says, “For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” In verses 54-55 it says, “But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” In Revelation 20:14 we read that at the great white throne judgment, death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. There is coming a day where death will be no more. That is hard to imagine isn’t it?! Every single person dies in this age. Even all animals and all plants die. Everything dies! We are headed to world where no one and nothing dies! Death is part and parcel of the Old Earth, but not of the New Earth!
These are the things that fight against joy: tears, mourning, crying, pain, death. But they have all passed away!
Revelation 21:3-4, “There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads…” There is no longer any curse! And what’s more, “they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.” Now, I can’t think of anything that is more joy-producing than that. They will see His face! Saints, that is what we are waiting for! That is what our soul longs for. We want to see Jesus face to face, the One who died to redeem me and all other believers from sins, and to redeem the Earth from the curse! In Jesus’ parable of the talents in Mt. 25:14-28, there were two faithful slaves. One had been given five talents, and he traded and made five more talents. The slave who was given two talents traded and made two more talents. To both of them the master said, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” Did you hear that? On Judgment Day, if we have faithfully lived for Christ we too will hear those words. And the best part of all is His words “enter into the joy of your master.” Now, I don’t know what it will be like to enter into the joy of our Master, Jesus, but I’m sure it’s going to be amazing!
Also, notice that “His name will be on their foreheads.” Just as cattle are branded with the name of their owners, having Christ’s name on our forehead points to the fact that we are His forever. He owns us, and we belong to Him, and that can never change.
Our joy will spring up because we are the treasured possession of Jesus Christ and will see Him face to face.
2. Life
There are several indicators from these chapters that one of the primary characteristics of the New Earth is life.
Revelation 21:6, “I will give to the one who thirst from the spring of the water of life without cost.”
Revelation 22:1-2, “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Here we are shown three things: the spring of the water of life, the river of the water of life, and the tree of life. Of course, as in the rest of the book of Revelation, John is writing down symbolic visions he is seeing. Thus, I believe these three are not to be taken literally, but are symbols, all pointing to LIFE. There is a certain quality of life that we will experience in the New Earth that is far greater than anything we have ever experienced.
But what kind of life are we talking about? Notice in Rev. 22:1 that the river of the water of life comes from the throne of God and the Lamb. The throne of God is the source of this river of the water of life. Of course the throne of God points to God Himself in His sovereignty. This life is God’s life. God communicates His own life to us. That is what we will experience in its fulness for eternity. Now, of course, this is what we who are born again are already experiencing now.
John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life.” This eternal life is not just something he will receive one day. It is something he begins to experience the moment he is born again.
John 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
Ephesians 2:5 “even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ…” Our being “made alive” had to do with our being “with Christ.” In other words, the kind of life we were given when we were dead was not natural life, but supernatural life or eternal life.
2 Peter 1:4 “partakers of the divine nature…”
Sometimes we get the idea that eternal life is God’s gift to us, all wrapped up with a pretty bow on top, and He gives it to us when we die. That’s not true. God’s gift of eternal life is His gift of Jesus. He who has the Son has the life, and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. This life is in God’s Son.
Therefore, this spring of life, river of life, and tree of life, all picture the truth that we share in God’s very life in its fulness on the New Earth. God’s life is God’s own nature. It is who He is. His life is holy, righteous, merciful, truthful, faithful, wrathful, powerful, and sovereign. We will drink of it and eat of it. We will experience it in a greater and fuller way than we ever have before. We experience God’s life now, but in unredeemed, fallen bodies of flesh, surrounded by a sinful world, and tempted by the devil and his demons. In the New Earth, we will experience God’s life in resurrected and glorified bodies, without the allurements of a sinful world, our flesh and the devil. I don’t know exactly what it will be like, but I’m sure it will be wonderful and amazing beyond anything I can presently imagine!
3. Holiness
In Revelation 21:2,10 and 22:19 the church is called “the holy city.”
In Revelation 21:8 we read, “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” What does that tell us? That all those not saved and transformed by the gospel will be excluded from the New Earth. Let’s think of each of these sins mentioned:
Cowardly: this would be in contrast to those who bravely profess their faith in Jesus come what may.
Unbelieving: this is in contrast to those who believe in Christ and will not deny the faith
Abominable: the word means “that which causes disgust or hatred; detestable.” This is definitely in contrast to God’s beloved children whom He cherishes and loves with an everlasting love.
Murderers: a murder is “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.” I believe most abortions fit this definition. Thus, mothers that kill their unborn babies in an unlawful and premeditated way would be considered murderers by God, as well as the doctors who take the lives of their babies at their request. If that is true, we have millions of murderers in the United States.
Immoral persons: the word “immoral” refers to sexual immorality. It is a person who engages in unlawful sexual intercourse. This would include prostitution, incest, bestiality, homosexuality, adultery, and fornication. Sexual immorality has become so common, that it is considered normal today. That tells you how deviant the morality of our culture has become.
Sorcerers: this refers to “a person who claims or is believed to have magic powers; a wizard.” This person is able to do supernatural things, like casting spells on people, by the power of Satan.
Idolaters: this refers to a person who worships anything other than the true and living God.
Liars: this of course refers to a person who tells lies.
Now, of course, Christians have committed some of these same sins. The difference between believers who have fallen into these sins and these who will be cast into the lake of fire, is that these sins characterized their lives. They did not repent of them, and they were not forgiven for them, because they lacked a living faith in Jesus Christ.
In this world there are two kinds of people – followers of the Lamb and followers of the dragon. The followers of the dragon will die in their sins and forever removed from God’s New Earth and everlasting kingdom.
In Revelation 21:27 we read, “and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
In Revelation 22:14-15 we read, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.”
The clear point is that the New Earth will never be populated by sinners. Everyone in this holy city will be holy, absolutely holy, perfectly holy. Anyone who practices abomination and lying, sorcery, immorality, murder, idolatry, or lying will be forever excluded. In short the New Earth will be a place “in which righteousness dwells.”
One day, living in a world where we sinned and committed evil acts, along with everyone else, will only be a distant memory. I suspect, we will look back and think that our time here in this life was strange and unusual, because in the world to come we will all love God and serve Him in holiness.
Conclusion
Last week we saw that the New Earth will be characterized by Renewal, Intimacy and Worship.
Today we have seen that it will be characterized by Joy, Life, and Holiness.
Because we will share in God’s Life, we will also share in His joy and His holiness.
The really amazing thing is that even though we live in a sin-cursed and wicked world, we can begin experiencing all of these things now!
Christian, we began to experience the life of God the moment we are born again. You were made a partaker of the divine nature. You were made alive together with Christ. You became a new creature in Christ. You were given a heart of flesh. Your blinded eyes were healed so that you could see the glory of Christ and His gospel. Your ears that were deaf to God’s truth were unstopped so that now you can hear the truth and love it.
Christian, you have already begun to experience God’s joy. Romans 5:2 says that “we exult in hope of the glory of God.” Exultation is extreme rejoicing. Pau says that it is normal for Christians to do this. In fact, that is what we have been doing last Sunday and today. I feel my heart exulting in the hope of the glory of God! At the end of Jesus’ teaching on our need to abide in Christ and the fruit it will produce, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (Jn.15:11). If the Holy Spirit dwells within you, He will produce this fruit in you.
Christian, you are already experiencing God’s holiness. The moment God justifies you, He begins to sanctify you. He progressively sets you apart from sin to Himself. “Without sanctification no one will see the Lord” (Heb.12:14). “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes.5:23). From the very moment a person is saved, he will begin to experience aspects of God’s holiness. I think we see this even in the thief on the cross. He rebuked the other dying thief because he didn’t fear God, which tells me he did fear God. He freely confessed that he deserved to die for his crimes. He confessed that Christ was innocent. He asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom. That tells me he believed Jesus was a King, and could do something for him. In all of these little things we already see God at work to set him apart from the old sinful person he once was and make him a new man, set apart for God.
In the Christian life there is the Already and the Not Yet. We already experience something of these wonderful virtues. However, we have not yet experienced them in the way we will one day. Knowing that your eternal future is one of Joy, Life, and Holiness, we ought to strive to experience as much of these things now as we can! Why? Because, in so doing, we will be bringing heaven down to earth. Remember Jesus’ prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That is what we are doing when we experience more of God’s joy, life, and holiness!
Unsaved person, I am speaking of these things today that you will never find anywhere but in Jesus. You might experience some temporary happiness, as long as the right things happen in your life. But that is not the same thing as the joy of Jesus. You may have physical life, where your heart beats and you can breathe. But that’s not the same thing as experiencing God’s life. God’s life is spiritual, and powerful! You may be able to stop some bad habit like smoking or drinking, but that is definitely not the same thing as experiencing God’s holiness. It’s as different as night and day. You stopping smoking is the result of your effort alone. But when we experience God’s holiness, it is something that God is actively doing in our life. Yes, we cooperate with Him, but we know that He is working in us. “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil.1:6).
Would you like to experience God’s joy, God’s life and God’s holiness? The only way is to come to Jesus by faith. Place your faith in Jesus of Nazareth – the One who lived for you, died for you, and rose for you! Take Jesus Christ to be your Savior, and your Lord today. Let’s pray.
Glory: 21:10-11; 21:23; 24,26; 22:5
- Security: 21:12; 25
- Love: 21:18-21
- Service: 22:3
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