Revelation Chapter 21 Verse 1

John isn’t just seeing something that has that new heaven smell, as in it’s right out of the factory! This word for “new” in the Greek also means new as in unprecedented. Like never before and like nothing else. Something unknown, different, mind-widening in experiencing it! What he sees in what God has coming for us because of Jesus Christ is the answer to every question, the cure for every complication. The harmony for every melody of life. Where all things are not only made new but pure. Superb, absolute and defectless in all ways. This is my homeland. Where I fit. Where I belong. Where I and all that are filled with the Holy Spirit are homesick for! 

What’s it like? 1 Corinthians 2:9, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” The new heaven and the new earth will be everything that we never knew we wanted because it will be better than anything we’ve ever considered or contemplated! It’s home…

For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. When? At the onset of the White Throne Judgement. Recall, Revelation 20:11, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.”

New earth. Understandable. This one is stricken with storms. Destructive qualities like methane gas. Dang cows. Radiation, wars, pollution, destruction, poisons and movies like Grease. HORRIFYING!! HA! 

New earth I understand. But new heaven…? That one is interesting. Why a new heaven? Well, it too has been polluted. Job 15:15-16, “If God puts no trust in His saints, and the heavens are not pure in His sight, how much less man, who is abominable and filthy, who drink iniquity like water!” Why is “heaven not pure in His sight?”

Heaven as it is today still echoes with a battle of blasphemy. Even beyond that, Satan was still able to come and go somehow in the presence of God in heaven after he rebelled and we see that clearly in Job 1:6-7, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So, Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” 

Again, in Job 2:1, “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.” This continues, this unfettered access to heaven, until the time of the Great Tribulation where we read in Revelation 12:7-8, “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.”

So just as earth is defiled, heaven is as well with the history, the flavor and the echo of battles and blasphemy. So, John sees all things made new, a new earth and a new heaven. And he tells us here that there was no more sea. Interesting characteristic to mention. What’s the significance?

The waters of the world since the days of Peleg in Genesis Chapter 6 have been a barrier of division. Genesis 10:25, “To Eber were born two sons; the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided.” Genesis 10-11 gives us what is known as the “Table of Nations” and speaks of the movement of the land, tectonic plates, and the waters dividing the land.

Also, while water is essential for human life as we know it, it’s incredibly rare. 71% of the earth is water and yet, in total, less than 0.1% of all the water on earth is readily available for human consumption. So, water speaks of division and it speaks of impurity. In the New Heaven and the New Earth, the new way, there is no more division and we are all perfect/pure image bearers.

Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Perfect unity. Not uniformity. Each of us will still be us, in fact it will be the first time we are actually truly ourselves…, but there is perfect unity. One race of people, just truly as it is today. No more Greeks, or Italians, or Puerto Ricans. No more Demobrats or Republicants. Simple and perfect unit. No more sea.

Revelation Chapter 21 Verse 2 

We will talk more about the holy city, New Jerusalem later in this chapter as an angel explains to John that this city is, just like the church, called the bride and the Lamb’s wife. So more on that later. However, enough to say that John sees the new heaven and the new earth and then the capital appears and descends from heaven to earth, which at this point there is no separation (between heaven and earth), and check this out, John sees it descending which is a picture of being in between and connecting.

Why is that cool? Because it is the entire story! Jerusalem, the word itself, means, “City of Peace,” or “Foundation of Peace.” This is full revelation of all things right here in one moment. The bride and wife of the Lamb is the New Jerusalem. The peace in between. The connection of a perfect heaven and a perfect earth. All things new and founded upon peace.

Now check this out. Remember how the Bible teaches that the husband and the wife are one? Ephesians 5:31, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” And yet Paul revealed this to us in the very next verse about this statement. Ephesians 5:32, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

SO, this New Jerusalem, this bride and NOW wife of the Lamb, this is a picture of the connection, the coming together, the mediation, the reconciliation that enables and brings to reality a New Heaven and a New Earth with New Jerusalem as the capital and key to it all because this is Christ and the elect, the hope of glory. One.

All of the gospel shadows point to this moment. The veil torn. The blind see. The lame walk. The dead live. The One Mediator between God and Man. We are in Him and He in us, Emmanual, God with us… All for this revelatory moment that depicts the entire story!!!

Revelation Chapter 21 Verse 3

This statement and scene is a prophetic promise twice fulfilled. The nation of Israel, the people of God, were given a promise in Exodus Chapter 6 verses 6-8, “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord.” That promise was fulfilled, and folks would say, “There it is, God is faithful,” but God overfulfills His promises! This one is twice fulfilled because it also spoke of and pointed to this day… When for all nations, all of the people of God, He would do the same thing.

What’s the point? Sometimes I find it hard to trust the Lord on the first fulfillment. But the Word over and over shows me that God is FAR more faithful, new phrase here, even OVERLY FAITHFUL than I have the faith to trust Him for!

Ephesians 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think!” God is faithful to every Word He has ever given. And what a fact to ponder, that He will even OVER deliver! And I imagine if I would just trust Him. What kind of man of joy, hope and confidence I would be….?

Revelation Chapter 21 Verses 4 - 5

Why tears? The Great White Throne Judgement just took place. Perhaps as a witness to what took place there, there will be great sorrow. Not just in the hearts of the elect but also in the heart of God. But that ends here….

Isaiah 65:17, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.” It’s a stunning truth…, that those who were cast into the Lake of Fire at the White Throne Judgement, with verse 4 of Revelation 21, the implication is that at this moment, sorrow over them is erased, which would only be possible if at this point we will remember them no longer nor will they come to mind.

John is so stunned at what he is seeing and what he is hearing that it appears that he isn’t writing… So, God has to remind him to write these things down.

Revelation Chapter 21 Verses 6 – 8

This is what God wanted to make sure John didn’t miss. Write these things down. It is done. It is finished. This is endgame. This is the heaven we all speak of and imagine. This is eternal life. All things are new. All things prior have passed away. So many things Jesus said in His earthly ministry coming to light at this moment.

As Jesus said from the cross, “It is finished,” and as Jesus cried out in the temple, “If anyone thirsts, let Him come to Me and drink.” As Jesus said to the woman at the well, “If anyone asks of Me, I will give them living water!” Saved by grace, through faith…

That’s the overcome. It says here, “He who overcomes…” 1 John 5:4, “Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith!” To trust in the Lord. To see the reality of the truth of creation rather than living in the shroud and darkness, blinded by the system of this world and the pangs of your daily flesh!

Those that fail ultimately, and the Lake of Fire is ultimate failure, we are given here a list but this is likened unto the list we are given in Galatians 5 concerning the fruit of the Spriit where we read there, “The fruit of the Spirit is LOVE,” and then it goes on to list a bunch of other things but love is first because it is the foundation of all the others…

It’s the same here. All these things listed but it starts with, “But the cowardly…” It is the courageous that face themselves and that face the cross. The adventurist, the valiant, the gutsy…the tough and tenacious…it is the strong, because it takes true grit…to actually be honest with ourselves and see the plain truth, that we are all broken, busted…we all sin and we all need a savior.  

And look, God Himself says here that it is the cowardly who never go there. Who see the hard path, the path of reality, to do the hard things, face the hard things, confront their own sin… And then those that see the wide path, the path of serving self and self-medicating their immaturity by feeding the flesh and in that they choose the easy way…

Here’s the thing about the wide and easy path. It’s wide and easy in the moment but tragic and difficult in its result. The hard and narrow is for the moment. The decision. The circumstance. But it leads to a holy satisfaction in the heart of hearts and ultimately it leads to eternal life. 

Another drug won’t do it. Another job, another man, another girlfriend, another party, another rage, another another another, there is no other. Only God can satisfy what we seek. And He freely gives! I love that about Him! He doesn’t make Himself out of touch, out of reach, hard to get! Not at all! John 6:37, right now, “The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out!”