Skip to content Revelation 21:1-22:5 - Heaven is Not the End of the World - Growing Deeper - Dr. Andrew Hébert Jul 13 · 48 min ...more
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Growing Deeper with Dr. Andrew Hébert is dedicated to helping believers grow in their walk with Christ. Through the expository preaching of the Bible, Dr.
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Where Are We Headed: The New Creation 0:02 Welcome to Growing Deeper with doctor Andrew Hebert. For more information about this ministry, visit growing deeper dot net. I invite you to open your copy of God's word with me to the book of Revelation. We're0:14 gonna be in Revelation chapter 21 and part of chapter 22, this morning as I get to speak with you for a few moments about what eternity is going to be like.0:26 And there are some texts of scripture that you just can't wait to preach. This is 1 of them. I have been looking forward to walking through this text with you together for literally for months. Someone has said that0:37 trying to preach this section of scripture is kind of like diving to the bottom of the ocean where you're looking for treasure. And you get all the way to the bottom, and there is so much treasure that you discover, you0:49 just can't pull it all up to the surface. And that is true about this passage. There is so much treasure to enjoy in Revelation 21 and 2. It's just a matter of deciding what I have time to highlight. And I'm a1:01 long winded preacher. But I can tell you I don't have enough time to show you everything that is in this passage. We're just going to get to absolutely as much of it as we can in the next hour and a half.1:13 This past just making sure you're awake. This passage describes where everything is headed for the believer. Revelation 21 and 22 describes1:26 our glorious future. If you are in Christ, this is where you're headed. This will be your forever home. There's 1 big idea I want to share with you from the text today. And that is this, that the1:37 believer's bright hope for tomorrow is the new creation, free from sin and full of God. CS Lewis in1:49 The Chronicles of Narnia, his volume called The Last Battle, pictures what it's going to be like to enter God's new creation through a character that he creates2:01 who enters the real Narnia. It's the unicorn. And when the unicorn enters into the real Narnia, he says, I've come home at last.2:13 This is my real country. I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never2:25 knew it till now. The reason why we love the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Well, church, I want to introduce you this morning for a few minutes2:37 to the place that is your real country, your true home, the land that you have been looking for your whole life. So here's what I want to highlight for you this morning. I want to just simply ask 3 questions in the text.2:49 Number 1, where are we headed? Number 2, what will not be there? And number 3, what will be there? Okay, where are3:01 we headed? What will not be there? And what will be there? The 1st question is, where are we headed? Right? We looked last Sunday at Revelation chapter 20. We know that there are some big things3:13 still to come. The return of Christ is still to come. The resurrection of the dead is still to come. The final judgment at the end is still to come. But what about what happens after3:25 all of that? What does eternity future look like for the believer? Where are we headed? Well, look with me at Revelation chapter 21. And I want to read the 1st 3 verses as we3:37 begin this morning. The apostle John says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the 1st heaven and the 1st earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And3:48 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. And then I heard a loud voice from the throne,4:00 'Look, behold, God's dwelling, God's tabernacle, God's tent, God's abode is with humanity, And he will live with them. And they will be4:12 his peoples. And God himself will be with them and will be their God. The 1st treasure I want to pull to the surface for you is a simple but important truth.4:24 And here's how I want to word it for you this morning. Heaven is not the end of the world. Heaven is not the end of the world. Here's what I mean by that.4:36 It is common, but not fully precise, to talk about spending eternity in heaven. Now, I know what people mean when they say that. I've said4:48 it. I'm sure you have said it. There's nothing really problematic at all to say that we're going to spend eternity in heaven, but it isn't actually biblically precise. To be more precise, in truth,5:01 we are not going to spend eternity in heaven. Revelation chapter 21 says that there is something to come after that. Revelation 21 says that the 1st5:13 heaven and the 1st earth will pass away, and a new heaven and a new earth is coming. In other words, the believer's bright hope for5:24 tomorrow is not that we will die and go to heaven, but rather that 1 day, heaven is going to come to earth. And the5:36 eternal state, eternity future for a believer, is not about going up there. It's really about new creation coming down here. Scotty Smith put it this way.5:48 He says, in a real sense, we aren't going to heaven. Heaven is coming to us. Now, let me do a little explanation of that for a moment. Because heaven, if you're a believer, heaven is where we6:00 go after we die. Amen? I've shared this verse with you a couple times, so I know you can say it with me. The apostle Paul says that to be absent from the body is to be Present. Present with the Lord. So if you know6:12 the Lord and you die prior to the return of Christ, if you die, you will immediately be in the presence of God, which is what we call heaven. Heaven is the dwelling place of6:23 God. It's where God is. But that's not actually the end of the story for a believer. The very end of the story is that 1 day, this earth will be6:35 renewed and recreated. There will be a new earth, which will be our forever home. Heaven's not the end of the world. It's not the end of the story.6:48 Our future home for eternity is actually a new earth, what you can call new creation. Can we say that together? New7:00 creation. New creation is what the scholar NT Wright calls life after life after death. Life after life after7:11 death. And I don't know about you, but that's an exciting thought to me, to think about spending eternity with God on a new Earth. Because I've shared with you before, growing up, I had certain conceptions of what7:23 eternity was going to be like. I imagined in my mind that you die and your spirit sort of floats up into heaven somewhere and you kind of exist as sort of this spirit force that maybe has wings andWhat Will Not Be There: No Sea, Sorrow, or Sin 7:34 halos and floats around bouncing from cloud to cloud with angel harps and angel choirs. And I've shared with you that frankly, that sounds a little more like hell than heaven to me. And that does not sound like a great7:45 place to spend forever and ever and ever. Can I get a witness? Thank you. 3 of you are honest about that. But the Bible tells us that's actually not what eternity is going to look7:57 like. For a believer, we are going to live forever in resurrected, glorified bodies on a glorified new8:08 earth. Now think about what that means, resurrected, glorified bodies. It means we're not going to exist as sort of a spirit being floating around from cloud to cloud. We're actually going to be 1 day when Christ comes8:18 back, the dead in Christ will be raised, our spirits will be reunited with our bodies, and we will live in resurrected and glorified bodies. What is a glorified body? A glorified body is your8:29 body minus the effects of sin. How How many of you over the age of 40 says, that sounds great. I saw a meme on Facebook this week that said, what would you tell your younger self? And the meme said,8:41 enjoy your knees. That would not have made sense to me 5 years ago. It makes a lot more sense now. Our bodies degenerate, don't they? Right? Our knees go out. Our eyesight's not great. We lose8:53 our hair. And you've got to decide which hair you're going to comb this morning. And we deal with chronic pain and sickness and disease and all these things. In our glorious future with God,9:05 we're going to live in resurrected and glorified bodies, which means a body that is not marred or affected by sin in any way. That sounds great. No more back pain. Listen, guys, no more waking up in the middle of the9:17 night and just hurting for no reason. Resurrected, glorified bodies in a glorified, new earth. God is going to actually make a new earth that we're going to live9:29 on for ever and ever. Now, I just want you to think about this for just a 2nd. Just imagine with me the most beautiful places on this Earth. Somebody just shout out. What are some of the most beautiful places on Earth?9:39 Scotland. Scotland, Cozumel, Forest. Buc ee's. You win today. A little girl at the9:51 1st service, she's like, Burger King. I was like, you have it your way. All right? Hawaii, Switzerland, Italy. Think10:03 Amarillo. We ought to represent West Texas there. That's good. But think about it. The most beautiful places on Earth are all10:15 affected by the fall. Every 1 of those places, as beautiful as Hawaii is, it is still marred by sin. Can you imagine living forever on a new Earth that is completely10:27 untouched by the effects of sin and spending forever there, right? How many of you have ever gotten to the end of vacation and thought, I got all the vacation I needed right there? Anybody? No? 1 hand.10:39 Okay. That never happens for me. I get to the end of the vacation. The last couple days, I'm just depressed because it's coming to a conclusion. It's like it's never enough time. Imagine, though, spending eternity on a10:50 new, glorified Earth, unmarred by sin in any way, and God is there and his people are there, and you get to enjoy that forever, and it never comes to an end. Folks, that is where we're11:01 headed. That is new creation, a new Earth that God creates for us to explore, for us to enjoy with him forever. Now, John describes that new creation 4 ways in the 1st 311:13 verses. Number 1, he says that the focal point of that new creation is a capital city called the New Jerusalem. This is the centerpiece of the new creation. Humanity's story begins in the book of Genesis in a garden,11:25 but it ends in a garden city in Revelation 21. Secondly, we're told that the city is like a bride that is adorned for her husband. It's prepared. Think about a11:37 bride who gets ready on her wedding day. All the hours that are spent with the dress and the hair and the makeup and the perfume and so forth getting ready for that wedding day. John says that the city that we're headed11:47 for, the city of God, the city of joy, is like a bride that's been adorned. The word adorned means to be made beautiful or to be made attractive. We're reading John's apocalypse.11:59 But in John's gospel, John quotes Jesus saying this in John 14. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to12:11 what? Prepare a place for you. And if I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself so that where I am, you may be also. We're told that this city is a place that's been12:23 prepared. Who is preparing this place for us? God himself. Think about this. The text tells us Jesus says, I'm going to go prepare this place for you. Amy, my12:34 wife Amy, has a wonderful gift of hospitality. She just has the ability to make people feel at home and refreshed and comfortable. Some of you have that wonderful gift of hospitality. If you've ever been on the receiving12:43 end of someone who's got the gift of hospitality, you know what a refreshing gift that is. Just you feel at home, you feel comfortable, you feel like you can kick your shoes off. You're just made to be at home. Think12:54 about this. 1 of the things that Jesus is doing right now is preparing the new Jerusalem for you. He what's it going to be like to be on the13:06 receiving end of the hospitality of Jesus? Right, when you invite somebody in your home, right, you kick all the junk into a closet. You sweep all the dirt under the floor. You're getting13:17 things ready, right, to make somebody feel comfortable. That's what Jesus is doing right now. He is preparing the new creation for us. Number 3, the new creation is like a tabernacle, we're told. In verse 3,13:29 God's dwelling is with humanity. The word dwelling is the word tabernacle. Tabernacle simply means tent. It's a reference to the Old Testament where God would travel with the Israelites through the wilderness wanderings.13:41 You remember that the Israelites lived in tents. And God tented among them. He tabernacled right at the heart of where they are. John is saying, in the new creation, God will live13:53 right at the heart of his people. God's going to move right into the neighborhood. And he will be our God, and we will be his children. He'll be with us for eternity. Number 4, in the new14:04 creation, everything is new. Everything is new. Did you notice the repetition? New heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem. Look down in verse 5. Then14:16 the 1 seated on the throne said, look, I am making everything what? New. The new creation is a place where everything is new again. The14:28 poet Louis Fletcher Tarkington writes about a place called the land of beginning again. I wish there were some wonderful place called the land of beginning14:40 again, where all our mistakes and all our heartaches and all our poor selfish grief could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door and never put on again. Folks,14:53 I'm here to tell you this morning, there is just such a place. There is a land of beginning again. It is where we're headed. It is the new creation. Amen? So where are we headed? We are headed15:05 for new creation. All right. What is that new creation going to be like? Thank you so much for asking that question, because Revelation 21 and 22 unpacks it. It gives us more details about the new creation.15:16 And so I just want to talk about this under 2 headings. 1 is what will not be there. John tells us there are some things that will not be a new creation. And then what will be there? What15:28 is absent and what is present? Okay. So what will not be there? John tells us there are 3 things that will be absent from the new creation. Number 1, he says there will be noWhat Will Be There: Full of God 15:40 sea. S E A, no sea. Look in verse 1. I saw a new heaven, new earth. 1st heaven, 1st earth had passed away. And the sea was no more. Now, the 1st time I ever read that verse, I thought, bummer.15:52 I love the sea. I love the ocean. That's where my soul feels most at rest, is on the water. Does this mean that there will be no beaches or no beautiful ocean views? I don't think that has anything to do with this16:03 statement. What's this about? Well, in the Jewish mind, the sea was a place that represented darkness, chaos, and evil. From the very beginning in the book of16:15 Genesis, we're told that prior to God putting creation into order, that the spirit was hovering over the face of the watery deep. A sense is that the water is this sort of dark, chaotic16:27 place. And that continues throughout the biblical narrative. If you think about the book of Daniel, the sea is where the monsters come from. The book of Jonah, when Jonah the prophet runs away from God,16:39 God sends a storm onto the sea. And you remember that the sailors are terrified by this. And they begin to toss all the cargo overboard. And some people say, well, they're just trying to lighten the load of the boat. But16:49 most scholars believe that they believed in a sea god called Yam. And the sailors were trying to appease the wrath of the sea god by tossing their cargo17:01 overboard. There was great superstition and fear associated with the sea. The sea is a place of chaos and evil. Even in the book of Revelation you remember Revelation chapter 13 when we're 1st introduced17:13 to the beast? The beast comes from where? From the sea, right? This is why it's so important, for instance, that Jesus does things in his ministry like walk on the water. Because the place that17:25 for a Jewish person would be the source of evil and chaos and darkness, Jesus puts it under his feet. It's why it's important that Jesus calms the stormy sea, that with a word he demonstrates his power17:37 over disaster and over darkness. So when we come to Revelation 21 and verse 1 and it says the sea will be no more, it doesn't mean that there won't be beaches. It doesn't mean that there won't be beautiful ocean views.17:48 It just is simply a statement that says that in the new creation, evil will be abolished. That in the new creation, the place from which the dark and the demonic and the chaotic comes will be no18:00 more. There will be no sea. That means there will be no evil in the new creation. Number 2, there will be no sorrow. No sorrow. You see that in verse 4 of chapter 21. God himself will be with them and will be18:11 their God. And look at this. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death will be no more. Grief, crying, pain18:23 will be no more because the previous things have passed away. 1 of the things that will not be in the new creation is anything that makes you sad. There will18:35 be nothing in new creation that brings sadness. And anything that you experience in this life that is sad will be done away with. JRR Tolkien in The Lord of the18:47 Rings put it this way, that 1 day, everything sad will come untrue. We have a lot of sad days, don't we? We experience things that are heavy on our hearts.18:59 We experience things that are dark and sorrowful. You can experience lots of sad days, but listen to me. Your sad days, that's not the last day.19:11 On the last day, there will be no more sadness, no more sorrow. And I want you to notice the language that's used here because it teaches us something about who God is. It says he will wipe away every tear from there. I19:22 want you to notice that. The sense is that God himself is the 1 who wipes away our tears. Now that's important because when we've read the book of Revelation through the last few months, we see that God delegates a lot19:34 to angels, right? How many times does God delegate a task or an assignment to an angel? Even in the 7 letters to the 7 churches, when God wants to get a message to the churches, he sends an angel to bring the message.19:45 When God begins to pour out judgment in chapter 6 through 16 and you see the seals and the trumpets and the bowls of judgment, God sends angels to crack open the seals or blow the trumpets or pour out the bowls.19:57 There's all kinds of assignments and tasks that God gives to angels in the book of Revelation. Do this, deliver this message, hand out this judgment. But this is 1 task that God delegates to no20:09 1 else. No angel is given this assignment. God himself is the 1 who will wipe away our tears. That's how important our tears are to God.20:21 He himself is going to do this. And notice that he will wipe away every tear. Do you see that in verse 4? He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. The sense is that God is going to himself wipe away each20:33 individual single tear from our eyes. Every individual single tear matters to God. Think about what that says about who God is.20:45 Because sometimes we think that we have problems that are so big that God can't fix them. Other times, we think that we have problems that are so small20:57 that we wouldn't want to bother God with that small problem. Like, God's so big, why would I bring my little old issue to him and interrupt his busy day? But the fact that God wipes away every tear from our eyes means21:09 that there is no hurt that is too big for God to fix on the 1 hand. And there's also no wound that is too small for God to care. Every21:20 individual single tear matters to God. And 1 day, God himself will wipe those tears out of our eyes. The Bible tells us that death and21:32 grief and crying and pain will 1 day be no more. Now, that is only good news if there's ever been something that's broken your heart. If you've ever had something break21:44 your heart, if you have cried, if you've grieved, if you've stood at a graveside and mourned, then this is what you can look forward to. Death and tears and pain, all of that is21:56 temporary. 1 day, it will be no more. My grandfather died a few weeks ago. And we went to his service. My dad gave the eulogy. And he said something that has stuck22:08 with me the last few weeks. I've thought about it again and again. He said, you know, when we go to a funeral, we often think about death as leaving the land of the living, leaving the land of the living and going to the22:19 land of the dead. But in reality, it's the other way around. We are living in the land of the dead. Think about it. You're born, you grow, you hit a22:31 peak, and then your knees go out, and your eyesight dims, and your hair falls out, and your teeth fall out, and your memory goes, and you you decline, right, and you die. We are22:43 in the land of the dead. But we are going to the land of the living. There will be no more death there, no sorrow. Number 3, there will be no22:54 sin or unredeemed sinners in the new creation. No sin and no unredeemed sinners. Look down at verses 7 and 8.23:06 The 1 who conquers or overcomes will inherit these things. And I will be his God, and he will be my son. So who is going to inherit the new creation?23:18 Those who are sons of God. But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their share will be in the lake that burns with23:30 fire and sulfur, which is the 2nd death. We've been introduced to the lake of fire a couple of times over the last several chapters. That's where the dragon and his beasts go. And now John says, if you don't know the23:39 Lord, that's your future. Look at the last verse of chapter 21. Verse 27 says, nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only23:51 those written in the lamb's book of life. Look down at chapter 22 and verse 3. There will be no longer any curse.24:03 So put all of that together. What is John saying? What won't be in the new creation is sin, the effects of sin, or unredeemed sinners.24:15 This is a city that will be occupied by God's people. If you know Jesus as the Lord and Savior, God is your God, and you are his son.24:27 And you will inherit these things. But if you reject Jesus in this age, you will not be with him in the age to come. New creation is free from sin. It's untouched by24:39 the effects of sin. There's no curse anymore there. And it will not be enjoyed by unredeemed sinners. So this is a really good moment for me just to stop and say that you24:51 don't have to be unredeemed. Listen, you are a sinner, and so is I. Amen? Look at your neighbor to your left and say, you're a sinner. Look25:03 at your neighbor to your right, you're a sinner. We are all sinners, every 1 of us. There25:15 are no, listen, no good people here. Amen? Can you amen? There are no good people here. There are25:26 no good people in new creation. So when you think about eternity, don't think in your mind, oh, good people get to be with God, bad people go to hell.25:38 That is not the way it works. We all bad. Every 1 of us is a sinner. The Bible says that we are children of wrath, that we are spiritually dead without Christ. There's no good people25:50 in this room. And I am the chief of sinners. But there are forgiven people in this room. And see, the line that is drawn is not between good people and26:02 bad people. It's people who know Jesus and people who don't know Jesus. And here's the really good news of scripture is that God gives a big, wide, and open invitation for all people to know him. He26:14 wants you to know him. God wants you to be in relationship with him in this life and in the life of the age to come. He wants you to enjoy him now and forever. And that is a big, wide, open invitation that is given26:26 to anyone. I want you to notice a verse that I skipped over. Verse 6 of chapter 21. Then he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. And I will freely26:38 give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life. I will freely give to those who are thirsty. Let me ask you, is your soul thirsty? Are you parched by the desert of this26:50 world? Is there something that you long for and this world is just not meeting you there and you're hungry and thirsty, this is what Jesus is saying. There are some thirsts that only I can satisfy.27:03 And if you're hungry and you're thirsty and this world's not doing it for you, if you'll come to me, I will give this to you freely. Freely. You can't buy it. You can't earn it. Once you got it, you27:15 can't lose it. This is a free gift, right? So the question is, have you received that free gift from God? If you just say to Jesus, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I want you to satisfy me, Jesus will27:27 offer you that water of life that will satisfy your soul and is a free gift of God. And if you've never accepted that free gift, I want you to know there's no more important decision you could make today than that27:36 decision right there. At the end of the service, I'm going to stand right here for a few moments. And if you don't know Jesus in that way yet, I'd love to talk with you about how you can receive that gift because God27:46 wants you to be with him in eternity. I want that for you as well. I want you to enjoy God as the greatest joy of your life in the here and the now, and I want you to enjoy the new creation that he's preparing27:57 for you. Amen? And this church family would rejoice with you in that today. No sin or unredeemed sinners in the new creation. All right. Finally, we've talked about what's not there. What is there? WhatShow more In this video 0:00 Where Are We Headed: The New Creation7:30 What Will Not Be There: No Sea, Sorrow, or Sin15:33 What Will Be There: Full of God28:06 Eternal Joy: Every Chapter Better
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