End of Life, End of Times: Paradise Returns Revelation 21:1-22:5

The End of the World, the Fall, and the Hope of Restoration

To this point, we have gone through a long journey to see how the end of the world is going to take place. We have seen the pre-tribulation rapture of the church. We have seen all the events of the seven-year tribulation.

We have seen that Jesus returns to the earth after the tribulation. We have seen the 1 ,000-year reign of Christ. We have seen the destruction of the universe and the final judgment that follows. So what we have seen are all the events that bring an end to world history.

What I mentioned in previous sermons in the secular world... Sorry, let me say that again. What I've mentioned in previous sermons is the secular world thinks the world is going to keep going and going until it ends in nothingness.

But thankfully, that's not how the world is going to end. The Bible is never wrong. It is without error in everything it says. So we can be sure that how the Bible says the world is going to end is how it is going to end.

Now once this world ends, everything will be how it was meant to be. It is interesting when you ask people the question, would you want to live forever? It's interesting to hear their responses. Usually their response is always similar.

What people say is they wouldn't, and that's because we know that this is a world full of pain and suffering. This world is a messy place, and what they find is that lasting happiness and peace is so often elusive.

This fallen world is full of suffering and death, and who would want to live forever in a world like that? The world has not always been like this, and we don't always obviously understand it unless we read the Bible, because it's all we know.

It's our whole experience. We live in the fallen world. When God created the world, what the text of scripture says in Genesis 131 is that everything in God's eyes was very good. Everything was precisely as it was supposed to be.

The world ran according to God's design, and the two humans on the earth at that time,.

Adam and Eve,.

Lived how they were supposed to live. They lived in this communion and this joy in God. They lived in unhindered fellowship with Him. They were sinless, and of course God is holy. He can only be around sinless people in His presence, but we know how the story goes.

After a certain amount of time had passed, Adam and Eve fell into sin. Then everything changed. Adam and Eve were cursed as sinners, and since the whole universe, since then the whole universe is also cursed.

World history for thousands of years has been a story of a few bright spots with mostly darkness. Those few bright spots are God's work in the world. The most notable work was when He sent His son Jesus to the cross to die for our sins.

The life of Jesus was the hinge on which the future of the world was held. When Jesus accomplished His mission at the cross, He ensured that the world would be restored to its original perfection. His redemptive work ensured that once again, mankind would dwell in unhindered fellowship with Him.

Now in our sermon series, we have seen the judgment that God brings on the unrighteous world, and only those who have been redeemed by Christ will live on in the new world with God. Only those redeemed by Christ will be the new humanity, the humanity that God desired to have when He created the world.

So this is what we are going to see this morning. We will see a new creation with God's glorified people. Here's our big idea. Set your hope on the world you have always longed for, prepared by your glorious God.

Set your hope on the world you have always longed for, prepared by your glorious God. We're going to see five future realities that you will experience. And here's the first one. You will inhabit a new universe.

You will inhabit a new universe. And we're going to see this in Revelation chapter 21, verses one through eight. So at this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Revelation 21. And I don't need to tell you what page to turn to because just go to the back of the Bible.

It's the very end. So we're going to begin by reading verses one through eight. What we will see is that you will inhabit a new universe. This is John's vision, the apostle John, his vision of this glorious place.

He said, or he wrote, 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.

What we saw two Sundays ago is that God is going to destroy the old sinful universe. There will be a mammoth atomic explosion. And this universe that we presently exist, that exist in, will cease to exist.

There will be nothing once again, just like there was nothing when God created the world. Remember at one time it was Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And then God created everything out of nothing, ex nihilo.

And what is hard for us to understand is that the present heaven, the place where believers go when they die, where their spirit goes, and the present hell, the place where the unbelieving spirit goes when they die, these aren't located in our universe.

It's not like you can get a spaceship and travel to these locations. These are realms, these are spiritual realms that are not in this universe. When God destroys this universe, the unredeemed will already be in hell, in their new bodies, and the redeemed will be in heaven with their glorified bodies.

And when all humanity are in their respective locations, this is when God is going to recreate a new universe. And what's going to happen is that the believers in their new bodies are going to be able to come to this new universe.

As the apostle John sees this vision, this is what he sees. He sees a new heaven and a new earth since the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Now, when we hear the word heaven, we think of the place where believers go when they die.

And that's true, as I just mentioned. But there are three heavens according to scripture. The first heaven is the atmosphere. This is where the birds fly or where planes fly. The second is outer space.

This is where astronauts grow or go. They don't grow there, but they go there. And they go to the moon and they go to places like that. And the third heaven is the place where God dwells. And this is the place where believers go when they die and where believers are right now.

You maybe know some of them. But in verse one of our text, when we see heaven, this is referring to outer space. And the earth is, of course, referring to planet Earth. And that would include the atmosphere.

Okay, so it has in mind here the first and second heaven. So what we see here is a new creation. God created the first creation out of nothing. And he will do the same with the second creation. And once he creates it, then redeemed mankind will, of course, be able to inhabit it.

God creates a universe that is to be enjoyed just like he did the first creation. The world is meant to be a playground and resourceful for humanity to enjoy. Creation is a display of God's goodness to his people.

How wonderful God is. And we think about this playground that we live in. We get to enjoy and live in. And God creates it for us to be people who enjoy it. And what we read at the end of verse one is that the sea was no more.

This does not mean that there will be no bodies of water in the new creation. The word sea is used figuratively in the book of Revelation, specifically in Revelation 13 .1. When the Antichrist comes into the world, it says that he comes out of the sea.

So in Revelation, the word sea is meant to mean rebellious humanity. So when it says in Revelation 21 that the sea is no more, what it means is that the rebellion of humanity is no more. It's a thing of the past.

It's never going to come again. And Revelation 22 .1 mentions that there's going to be the river of the water of life running through the holy city. Okay, so there will, according to my understanding, there will be water on the new earth.

One of the most beautiful forms of scenery that we enjoy in this world are bodies of water. We know that living where we live, right? We're surrounded by it. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, there are roughly 25 to 30 ,000 lakes.

And there's lots of rivers, of course, as well. Brianne and I, we just went up to Lake Superior. We went up to Duluth, and we were able to kayak a little bit on Lake Superior. And that was quite an experience.

That's something that we had never done before. And when you think about these large bodies of water or small bodies of water, it's truly breathtaking. We enjoy these things. And so I believe that in the new earth, we will enjoy bodies of water just as we do here.

Then in verse two, we see the capital city known as the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to the new earth. The center of God's work in this world has taken place in Jerusalem. That was the capital city of His holy people, Israel.

But in the age to come, this city will be much more glorious than it is now or it has been historically. Much more glorious. What the text said is that this city is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

In other words, the Lord has prepared this city for His people. And just as the bride makes herself beautiful for the groom on their wedding day, so God makes this city beautiful for His people. And we're going to look at how marvelous this city is in a little bit.

If your jaw is not dropping by the end of the sermon, then there's something wrong with you, okay? We're going to see some things that are hard to imagine. Then in verse three, we read a voice coming from the throne.

This is the voice of God that says, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. The greatest blessing of heaven will not be the wonderful creation that we will get to enjoy or being reunited with loved ones.

And it won't be that we won't experience pain or suffering, but we will only experience happiness forever. All of these things are so wonderful, but the greatest blessing of heaven is this. The dwelling place of God will be with mankind once again, where we will be able to have unhindered fellowship with God just as Adam and Eve had before they sinned.

Think about that.

That's the most wonderful blessing of heaven. Sometimes I've asked people, and this is a good litmus test. Would you want to go to heaven if God were not there? If Jesus were not present? So in other words, people just want the other things that go with it.

And of course, the best part of heaven is God. His presence will be among us as we enjoy all of his gifts as well. Everyone in this room who knows Christ understands that you have fellowship with God right now.

But that fellowship is not as good as it could be. This is because we still live in sin, and sin prevents us from having more joy in the Lord. I experience this all the time. I'm thinking as I go through some of my days, Lord, I'm not enjoying you as much as I should be, because every day is a fight against sin.

But a day is coming when sin will be no more. We won't have our sinful nature anymore, and we will be able to enjoy God the way He made us to enjoy Him. Then in verse 4, we learn that the pain of this life will be a thing of the past, as the Lord wipes away every tear from our eyes.

You think about how many tears come out of our eyes as we live in this world. How much discouragement that we go through and suffering. It says here He's going to wipe away those tears. There won't be tears of sorrow in heaven.

There's going to be no more death, as verse 4 says. No more sadness or crying or any kind of pain since the former things have passed away. In other words, all the difficulty and suffering of this life will be a distant memory for the believer.

So if you are facing any kind of suffering right now, remember that a day is coming when this will be a distant memory. You're suffering and hold tightly to the hope that you will be in this home one day with your God.

As you look at your life right now, you can remember difficult times of your past. And those of you who live longer, some of these difficult things happened so long ago. You still remember the difficulty and the pain, but it is a faint memory.

This memory of the past will make you more grateful for the bliss you experience in the present and the bliss that will go on forevermore. Think about this. We know this well as people who live in the north.

When we go through the suffering of winter, I mean, think about it. I mean, we lose sight of it. I mean, it's so beautiful out right now. You can just go walk outside in your shorts and just enjoy the day and sip some lemonade.

I know that Jackson and Mason, right? They had a lemonade stand the other day. I wish I would have known about it.

I would have come.

But I know Mark enjoyed it. He told me about it. Yeah, next time they do that, everybody in the church, let's go there.

That'd be fun.

Wouldn't that be a fun thing to do? But anyway, we enjoy the weather here, right? In the summer. Winter comes, we're locked in, right? We get buried in snow. It's frozen. Everything, and you can't stand outside for more than two minutes without freezing.

But when the summer comes, we're more grateful. We're more grateful than people in the South who always have nice weather. And I think this is what it's going to be like, right? We will be more grateful in the age to come because of the suffering we face in this life.

And so we must remember that, that there is more joy that is able to come from this because of the trials that we face now. And so this should fill us with great hope as we look ahead to the future. A day is coming when we won't have to deal with our sin anymore.

We won't have to deal with our sufferings anymore, but only enjoyment forever. Then in verses five through eight, the one who is seated on the throne, God, said that he was making all things new. And he tells John to write this down because everything that he is being told is trustworthy and true.

So future readers, that's us, everything that we read is true. This isn't a fantasy. You might talk to some people who say, this sounds just like a fantasy.

This isn't a fantasy.

This is true. This is future history that is going to come. And John makes certain of that by saying, this is trustworthy and true. Then God on the throne tells John, he says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

The Lord promises to give from the spring of the water of life without payment. This is the forever spiritual water that Jesus talked about in John chapter four, verses 13 and 14, when he was telling the Samaritan woman about salvation.

This water will always satisfy you forever. Then in verse seven, the one who conquers is the one who has trusted in Christ. When Christ saved you, you became a conqueror along with him over sin, Satan, and death.

And that's a marvelous reality to understand. We are conquerors in Christ. At the end of verse seven, we read that we will be God's son. I mean, think of it this way. Jesus is like the biological heir to the father.

And scripture talks about us as adopted. We are adopted into the family of God. Obviously, Jesus never had a beginning. But just for the sake of the illustration, Jesus is the natural heir. And we are the adopted ones who are brought into God's family.

And God calls us his children. We are sons and daughters of him. And that's what Romans 8, verses 14 through 17 says. It says, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

So we are adopted into his family and we are promised an inheritance. Jesus receives the inheritance and because we are united to him, we receive the inheritance also. On the other hand, the unbeliever's experience will be the exact opposite.

The unbeliever's experience is going to be horrible. Verse 8 describes this. It describes their inheritance. Verse 8 said, 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. And remember, these are people, everybody sins, yes, but these are people who are defined by this. First John 3 .9 says that no one born to God makes a practice of sinning, right?

Sin is not a pattern in your life if you're a believer. You can't be comfortable in sin if you are a believer. You repent, you turn,.

You want to grow,.

And you do grow. An unbeliever, on the other hand, is comfortable. They stay in their sin. And that is someone who will be thrown into the lake of fire. And as the text says, this is their inheritance.

So this is our first point this morning. Set your hope on the world you have always longed for prepared by your glorious God. The first reality you will experience is that you will inhabit a new universe.

The New Jerusalem as the Capital City of God’s People

And here's the second reality. You will live in a new capital city. Verses 9 through 14. So this is where we get to see what the city is going to look like. So what we're going to do is we're going to read this in four sections, four small sections.

The first section is verse 9 through verse 14. Let's read this together and then we will talk about what we see here. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal.

It had a great high wall with 12 gates and at the gates 12 angels. And on the gates, the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.

And the wall of the city had 12 foundations and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. The angel who poured out the seven bowls tells the apostle John, the same angel, he tells him that he is going to show him the bride.

Now, some think the bride here is referring to the church because throughout scripture, that is what the bride is referred to as. However, the angel here, he's not describing the church. He's describing the city.

And we will see that with the upcoming description of this city. And what verse 10 says is that he was carried away in the spirit. And I think what this means is not that he had a dream, like he started to see something that God showed him, but he was actually taken away by the spirit to heaven to see this vision.

So this is remarkable to think about. And what he says in verse 11 is that the city carries the glory of God with it. God is great in this city. The new Jerusalem is going to be great. It's going to reflect his greatness.

John says that its radiance is like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. And if you don't know what a jasper is, a jasper is a diamond.

Okay, so it's going to be.

A place full of diamonds. And when you see a jewel, it shines. And when it shines, it's quite a sight to see. The diamond on Brianna's wedding ring belonged to my grandma, Dorothy. And when she passed away, we held onto it.

And so I bought a ring band for her. But the diamond she has is from my grandma. And when we got it appraised, we learned that it was a rare diamond that was worth a lot. When my grandfather purchased the diamond, he had no idea how nice it was.

But this many years later, that becomes known with advances in technology. The whole city is going to dazzle with these diamonds. And remember, if you see Brianna's ring in certain places,.

Or any of the women here.

Who have rings in certain places, it really shines. It dazzles. And the city is going to be like this. Then in verse 12, we learn of the dimensions. The city had a great high wall with 12 gates. So in other words, there are 12 entrances into this city and exits for people to come and go.

At each gate, there will be an angel. And verse 13 tells us that there are three gates for each direction, north, south, east, and west. Verse 14 tells us the wall of the city had 12 foundations, these strong foundations.

Holding the walls up.

What we read in verse 12 is that each gate, there will be the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. And verse 14 says the 12 names of the 12 apostles. Earlier in the sermons, I explained to us that there's a distinction between Israel and the church.

And we see that right here. There are the 12 tribes of Israel, and then we see the 12 apostles. These two peoples of God, they're going to have their names written on these walls. And so this is the second reality we see in our text.

The second reality is this, you will experience a new... Sorry, I missed. You will live in a new capital city. Okay, that's what we're seeing here. That's the second reality. The third reality is this, you will encounter the most marvelous city ever imagined.

The Most Marvelous City Ever Imagined

Okay, now we get to the best part. Verses 15 through 21. This is what John sees. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies four square, its length the same as its width.

And he measured the city with his rod, 12 ,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.

The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third a gate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth barrel, the ninth topaz, the 10th chrysoprase, the 11th jackinth, and the 12th ammonith.

And the 12 gates were 12 pearls. Each of the gates made of a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. So what we see here is that the angel was the one with John as he saw this vision.

And the angel is the one who had the measuring rod in his hand as verse 15 tells us. Everything is so beautiful. Even the measuring stick the angel holds.

Is gold.

The angel is going to tell him the dimensions of the city. And these dimensions are jaw-dropping as we are about to see. I think when you read it, you don't realize it at first. But then when you realize what these things mean, that's where our jaw drops.

What verse 16 says is the city lies four square. The city is as long as it is wide. The city is the shape of a cube just like the inner sanctuary of the Old Testament tabernacle and temple. The angel measured the length, width, and height at 12 ,000 stadia.

And you may have a footnote in your Bible next to the word stadia to see what that means. 12 ,000 stadia is about 1 ,380 miles.

Okay, think about that.

1 ,380 miles. So let's do the math here to see how big this city is. The New Jerusalem, the capital city of heaven, is two million square miles. To say that that is enormous is an understatement. The United States is 3 .8 million square miles, and that includes Alaska.

So this capital city of heaven is over half the size of the United States.

That's a big city.

The largest city area-wise in the world is New York City, which has an area of about 4 ,600 square miles. And the New Jerusalem.

Is going to be about.

Two million square miles.

So, I mean,.

This is, it's not even worth comparing them. One is just a speck, and one is enormous. So our jaws should drop. And some believe that all of the saints will live in this giant city. And the billions there will be.

Would fit,.

But at minimum,.

We know that this will be.

The central place of activity on the new earth, right? So if you like living in the country, you can live in the country, and then you can also have a home in the city as well. And verse 17 says that the wall surrounding the city is 144 cubits.

A cubit is 18 inches. This means that the wall is 72 yards thick.

That's a thick wall.

That's about three-fourths of a football field. As I mentioned earlier, this city is going to be full of the most precious material, the most precious materials imagined. In verse 18,.

We read that the wall.

Is built of jasper. As we learned earlier, jasper is a diamond. Then we learned that the city is pure gold,.

Transparent.

Another word for transparent is clear. It's clear as glass. When I take this to mean is that the buildings of the city are gold. It's just going to shine gold everywhere. Think about the history of the world,.

How people,.

How hungry people have been to find gold. And this whole city is going to be full of gold. But the gold that we see in our world is not clear. This gold is going to be different. It's going to be clear, transparent gold.

What a sight this will be. And I love seeing the light shine off of things in our world because you can see the sparkle, especially when it's going down at night.

Or even in the morning.

When it's coming up, that angle of the sun where things just shine. Our world is heavenly in so many ways. Everywhere you turn, we see glimpses of the new earth. We see glimpses of heaven. It is heavenly and it points to heaven.

It's not heaven, but it is a taste of heaven. And this is what C .S. Lewis, C .S. Lewis, of course, he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia and lots of Christian books. He talked about how creation points to God.

He's one of the best people in human history to tell us how the creation points to God. And the way he wrote it was so eloquent. And he said, what must be the quality of that being who's far off and momentary flashes of light are like this.

One's mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun. So whenever we see something in creation that points to God, that's the sunbeam. And the sun represents God. Everything in creation points to God. When we see beauty in this world, we need to think of the greatness of God and how everything is a testimony of His greatness.

The glory of this world is a faint reflection of the glory that is to come.

And may we keep that in mind.

As we live in this world. The whole city is the New Jerusalem here. It's going to be sparkling with light, radiant light of God's glory. And what verse 19 and 20 tell us is that the foundations of the wall will be adorned by every kind of jewel.

These are 12 jewels and each of these has different colors. So as the light shines from the throne of God, each of these are going to shine. And what a beautiful sight it will be. In verse 21, we read that each of the gates will have a single pearl.

And each of these pearls, once again, this is a jaw-dropping figure, they're gonna be 1 ,400 miles high. Each pearl, 1 ,400 miles.

High.

So as we have seen, this is going to be a remarkable city. Why do we live for this world if this is our future?

I mean, how pathetic.

The things we settle for in this life.

C .S. Lewis, once again, he once said,.

We settle for the mud pies on the shore instead of the holiday at the sea. So often that is so true. So set your hope on the world you have always longed for, prepared by your glorious God. The third reality that you will experience is that you will encounter the most marvelous city ever imagined.

The Glory of God, the Lamb, and the Light of the New Jerusalem

Okay, the fourth reality is this, you will see the glory of God. Verses 22 through 27. And this is the best part. This is what John saw. And I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb.

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

And its gates will never be shut by day. And there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it. Nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

So we read here that there's no temple. The old Jerusalem had a temple, but this one does not. This is because God will once again dwell with mankind. And there's no need for a temple because Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins.

This temple was this bridge between God and sinful man. But Jesus is that bridge. And so there is no need for a temple in the age to come. And verse 23 tells us that the city will have no need for the sun to shine on it like we need to have for us to have day in this present world.

There will be no need for the moon to light up the earth at night. And this is so because the glory of God's light is going to shine from the throne in the new Jerusalem. And it's going to be so bright that there's going to be no need for the sun nor the moon.

And sometimes what people say is that this means that there's going to be no sun and moon. I don't think that's true because there's going to be a universe. And in a universe, you have sun, moon, and stars and planets.

And the new universe is going to have those things. All the text is saying is that in the new Jerusalem, there's going to be no need for it because the light from the throne of God is going to be so bright that we don't need the sun and the moon.

And so there's going to be light 24 hours a day in the new Jerusalem. And this made me think of my time in Alaska when I was younger. We visited Alaska this time of year in June. And guess what? It didn't get dark.