Rev No.23 The New Jerusalem

Father, we offer this service to you and pray that you'll speak to all our hearts and enliven our worship and may there be a real sense of your presence. Bless boys and girls and moms and dads and all visitors and all friends here we ask for Jesus' sake. Amen.

O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the Lord, O praise the For in the righteous name We come to testify, O Lord Of His majesty, the Son of David God is so great, so strong, and so mighty That He has brought you and your family with Him For God is the greatest, the strongest, the mightiest Reading this morning is taken from the book of Revelation, chapter 21, and I read the whole chapter. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away And there was no longer any sea I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God Prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God He will wipe away every tear from their eyes There will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain For the old order of things has passed away He who was seated on the throne said I'm making everything new Then he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true He said to me, it is done I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end To him who is thirsty, I will give to drink, without cost, from the spring of the water of life He who overcomes will inherit all this And I will be his God, and he will be my son But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral Those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars Their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur This is the second death One of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls of the seven last plagues came and said to me, come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb And he carried me away in the spirit, to the mountain great and high And showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God It shone with the glory of God And its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel Like a jasper, clear as crystal It had a great high wall, with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west The wall of the city had twelve foundations And on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates, and its walls The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide He measured the city with the rod, and found it to be twelve thousand stadia in length And as wide and high as it is long He measured its wall, and it was a hundred and forty-four cubits thick By man's measurement, which the angel was using The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass The foundations of the city were decorated with every kind of precious stone The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony The fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl The ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it For the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it Nothing impure will ever enter into it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful But only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life Thanks be to our Lord Now, you'd like to have your Bibles open, I'm sure, at Revelation 21, but I also supplement the reading with a couple of verses from Isaiah 60, and from the eleventh verse Isaiah 60, 11, Your gates will always stand open They will never be shut, day or night Verse 19, The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you For the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end Then will all your people be righteous, and they will possess the land forever They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands for the display of my splendor The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation I am the Lord, in its time I will do this swiftly The subject of heaven is in American chat shows they are now prepared to talk about heaven A recent survey in the U.S. tells us that some 78% of the people there do believe that a good life on earth will be rewarded by entry into heaven Not quite as many, but a significant category of folk also reckon that about 60% actually, that one could finish up in a place called hell Had one not lived a life that was pleasing to God So, heaven is in for consideration Newsweek, Time Magazine, it's in, so it's alright for us to talk about it And even the clergy are now beginning, we are told once more, to speak about heaven though they're not too strong on the subject of hell Maybe one of the reasons why the church has had a strange insularity towards these subjects is summed up in this little comment The young do not want to think about the afterlife because it is too far off and the old do not want to think about it because it is too near John Calvin always gives common sense and he says, I pity the man who never thinks about heaven So what I want to do is to pick up on where I left you last week and to come again to this chapter My headings were on with the new, off with the old exhortations in the meanwhile and finally a glimpse of heaven We'll race through the first bit in terms of some summary On with the new Look, chapter 21, verse 1, Revelation Then, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth and I argued last week that by new we're not thinking of complete difference from complete contrast from what has gone before There is a discontinuity and a continuity as in our resurrection body There will be a continuity and a discontinuity Our Lord's resurrection body wasn't precisely the same as His earthly body His disciples didn't recognize Him Yet there was a continuity There was some seed of resemblance So I argue and gave you reasons for my conclusion that our Lord's teaching in the New Testament and indeed buttressed by the whole of Scripture indicates, if you please, the rejuvenation of this heaven and this earth as we now know the universe One of my arguments for that conclusion was simply this that God will never be frustrated He made the heavens and the earth originally for His glory and for His glory they shall be So the day will come when our Lord will cleanse this world of every vestige of sin It's interesting, isn't it, Nat? And we had one or two powerful sermons from Brother Tim how Revelation talks about the disintegration of Babylon and by Babylon we understand the present order of things the present world order its disintegration Babylon is fallen You remember how the words come up in the middle chapters of the book of Revelation? With the disintegration of Babylon comes the reintegration of the heavens and the earth I saw the new Jerusalem, says John as he records his tremendous vision And I heard perhaps the greatest verse in the whole of the Bible Revelation 21-3 John's already told us that he saw heaven opened but it's not just an open heaven that interests us it is, is heaven audible? Can we actually hear an invitation from heaven directed toward the sons of Adam? Well, listen to verse 3 I heard a loud voice from the throne saying Now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God He will wipe away every tear from their eyes There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain I say that's the greatest verse in the whole of the Bible It's the verse that speaks of the voice from heaven saying that what God intended in the beginning in the initial act of creation has been wrought by our blessed Lord Jesus in the even, listen, superior act of recreation God made man in His own image to have communion with Him that is completely broken by man's obduracy and his sinfulness but here the blessed Lord Jesus comes from heaven He takes upon Himself human guise and He hangs on the cross of Calvary and He releases into this world the power of recreation and you and I know it in some degree at this moment those of us who have confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior we are redeemed that is in terms of the forgiveness of our sins but there is another work yet for God to do the rejuvenation of our body the rejuvenation of this earth to this end the Apostle Paul says that the whole of creation waits Romans chapter 18 waiting for its deliverance waiting for its rejuvenation well, I say all this is encapsulated in these statements in this wonderful 21st chapter of John's Gospel the dwelling of God is with men and He will be with them and they will be His people a promise of communion a promise of adoption and an underlining of promise that He will be their God forever how good were you at geometry? I began to believe in signs and wonders when I passed O-level maths I failed every other mathematics exam in my grammar school up to that point you did geometry? at the end of demonstrating a theorem a theory, the truth of it you put the letters Q-E-D Latin Quadrat Demonstrandum don't you see that this is what this verse is referring to? when our Lord Jesus came into the world He brought into being the eternal plan of God and thus He makes communion and adoption and an underlining of the promises His life's objective and achievement Q-E-D on with the new there is a great writer in the past C.S. Lewis who says this however for the most part we do not long to be near God because we feel sin utterly repugnant because we do not feel sin as utterly repugnant or goodness as rapturously attractive as we ought we are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what it means by the offer of a holiday at the sea do you ever feel like that? you see, we may be Christian people but so frequently we're moribund we're earthbound we have all these great and precious promises we know that we're only here for 40, 50, 60, 70 not that many years on the scale of human history and we tend to live our lives like kids playing in the mud instead of realizing that our God has in store for us if you like, an eternal vacation a splendor the like of which beggars description that's why Calvin said in his emaciated condition from the city of Geneva I pity the man who never thinks about heaven on with the new well yes, because off goes the old what happens on this climactic occasion on the return of our Lord Jesus Christ well, several things but amongst the most wonderful, verse 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away it's the purposes of God He promised it in the Old Testament to do away with the old that is polluted and to bring on the new that is redeemed the ransom of the Lord verse chapter 35 of Isaiah in the 10th verse the ransom of the Lord will return they will enter Zion with singing everlasting joy will crown their heads gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee away and Isaiah makes that comment after previously remarking about the way that God is going to do everything new to bring in the new order do you remember how the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians says in Christ Jesus behold, old things are passed away all things have become new 2 Corinthians 5.17 and will we mourn the passing of the old? do we not long for the new order? the eternity with God God's eternal day when all that brought about death and sorrow all the injustices of our world are completely and utterly eliminated have you got in your vocabulary the two words if only if only that had happened to me and not the other if only my poor old dad hadn't died in the way that he did if only I hadn't lost that opportunity if only I had married if only I had not married if only I had been a clever person if only I had been a healthy person if you eliminated from your speech pattern the words if only or to approach it another way if there was never any need for you to use that terminology what would you in effect be saying? that you've got heaven on earth and if you like that's the biblical definition when all the if only's have been dealt with if only there was no more famine if only there was no more injustice if only there was no more petty bickering and spite if only on with the new that's precisely the situation that is described here no more pain all those things that create pain and you know that physical pain is not necessarily the most difficult thing for you to bear and it's only kids in their immaturity who say sticks and stones may hurt my bones but calling name won't harm me he who is seated on the throne it is he who declares I am making everything new by doing that he puts off the old now notice the one who is making all these declarations he's described in this fifth verse as seated and those of you who are aware of scripture you will recall how it's said of our Lord Jesus Christ that having offered one sacrifice for sin he sat down at the right hand of God when do you ladies sit down? well when you've done your job you know when all the washing is on the line and at ten o'clock in the morning because you got up so early you can say that all has been achieved so you sit down no you don't because you haven't achieved all by then and perhaps you ought to sit down more often but you take the point you're sitting down generally at least if you're justified in sitting down it is because you have achieved what you intended to do now here is the one who's speaking to John about the newness of the eternal order who is this one? well he's the one who sits down at the right hand of the Father who is it? well more information is given for you to work it out he tells us I'm making everything new then he says write this down for these words are trustworthy and true and then he says it is done now who in the Gospels use the expression it is done or if you like in the one word finished I argue it was our Lord Jesus from the central cross came out that tremendous cry finished the work that you have given me to do has been completed what do you mean Lord Jesus? well I have released into this world the power for sins to be forgiven and in my life and death and resurrection I now have the right to bring in the new order of things who what it took God to create in the beginning it will take God to create at the end that's what one of the early church fathers said and this is the reason why our Lord came into the world so when John has this vision the identity of the one who is making these great declarative statements is clear who was seated on the throne said I am making everything new write these words down it is done I am Alpha and Omega now just in case you weren't too sure of his identity you remember right at the beginning of Revelation we read of one who claims to be Alpha and Omega in the Old Testament that term is taken and used of almighty God a verse which embarrasses Jehovah's Witnesses but here is our Lord Jesus and he is revealing himself in terms of the great I am the one who was at the beginning and the one who is at the end and now we have reached the Omega point in time and so our Saviour makes reference to his great work of bringing everything to completion what he starts he brings to fulfilment the end is implanted in the beginning the divine Alpha also guarantees the divine Omega and he wants you to know did you notice that? he wants you to know then he said write this down for these words are trustworthy and reliable I want everyone to understand this I Jesus the Alpha and Omega I am the one who was at the beginning of time and am at the end of time I make all things new I take away all pain or all sorrow I bring in the new order so that ultimately God shall be all and in all in our universe I'm off with the new sorry I'm with the new off with the old and in the meantime what? well in the meantime a few exhortations exhortations to people who are going through difficulty because we live between the two advents of our Lord Jesus and so he speaks three words from the eighth verse or rather from the sixth verse of this chapter he speaks to the ones who are soul thirsty to him who is thirsty I will gift a drink without cost he speaks to him who is battle weary he who overcomes will inherit all this he speaks to those who are ungodly the cowardly the unbelievers the vile the murderous the sexually immoral will never enter into my heaven are you thirsty? you say what do you mean? well here's our blessed Lord and he's by a well there's a woman there and she feels that he needs a drink at least he discloses that is his need she's a Samaritan it's most incredible that she should be spoken to by a man who is a Jew and a Rabbi and you remember the argument it's all there beautifully arrayed in John's gospel beautifully set out and the woman says do you ask me for a drink? and our Lord said if you had known if you had known who it is who asks you you would have asked him and he would have given you water that would slake your thirst eternally have you ever come to him? do you know him as your Lord and Savior? you say you have no righteousness you have no right well that's the reason why he came you who have no money I give you this it's without price it's utterly free there is nothing you can do to buy this this water of salvation I offer it to you he who is thirsty let him come in the interim between my first advent and my second advent he speaks to those who are thirsty he talks of the river of God which flows with the waters of salvation he speaks to those who are battle weary you have had a difficult time in your life well John will tell you that he's already had messages for people who are going through great problems he who overcomes he who overcomes will inherit all this will inherit what will? this new heaven this new earth I will be his God and he will be my son sonship indicates inheritance you and I are sons and daughters of the living God therefore the concept of this new order of things is very relevant to us for we can enter into it by his grace but can everyone go? no but verse 8 but if verse 3 is one of the most wonderful verses in the whole of the scriptures verse 8 is one of the most terrifying but the cowardly the unbelieving the vile the murderers the sexually immoral all those who have done things which displease God they will never enter into this new eternal day and if that frightens you as you feel that you fall or have fallen into one of those categories remember it's the apostle Paul who writing to the Corinthians says listing almost the same catalogue of sins and such were some of you that you have been redeemed you have been delivered you have taken of the water you have had your soul cleansed you have had your thirst satisfied you see this is just a little word in between in between what? in between the putting off of the old and the putting on completely of the new three words to the thirsty and soul to the battle weary hold on to the ungodly and then and then having warned the ungodly about the second death incidentally you know what that is you die twice our Lord referring to the Pharisees on one day who engaged in malevolent interaction with him he said to these religious leaders and it was a dreadful comment that left his lips you will die in your sins most of us our fear of death is restricted to what happens at the end in terms of the dissolution of our body and in no way am I suggesting that that is an easy moment to face and I have empathy for all the people and for younger people who are afraid not so much of death but of the mechanics of death now the word of God is indicating if you have a concern about that which incidentally our Lord Jesus can lift from you and be with you at the point of death how much more ought you to be concerned about dying in your sins for that's the indictment that Jesus levelled at the Pharisees you will die yes but all the human race dies but the problem with you men is you will die in your sins and that is the second death from which there is no recovery described here in terms of the fiery lake of burning sulfur something that we ought to be afraid of but hastening on the apostle takes us beyond that somber note back again to the concept of all things being new from the ninth verse and right through to the end of this 27th chapter of this 21st chapter of Revelation and he speaks to us most eloquently about heaven itself listen to an American theologian he says that heaven sometimes sounds a boring place there is nothing for us to do just being holy and loving God he doesn't agree with this but he's saying that this is one of the problems in our presentation of heaven it's been fashionable to say that heaven is not a state or rather heaven is a state but it's not a place and you wonder what on earth can you do just sitting around gazing and beholding some throne on which is the Lord God almighty it sounds wonderful but it sounds terribly unrealistic if we're absolutely honest one of the problems I think today is that we don't preach about heaven as a real state that's one of the reasons why I've been glad to try to help along with Tim you folk to get at least a glimmer of understanding of what lies beyond it's almost impossible you see have you ever thought about the poor caterpillar do you have a concern for caterpillars you recall this little creature more often than not just an unattractive green though sometimes they have colourful varieties he sits on this bit of twig he moves across this leaf of lettuce and he doesn't know he doesn't know what's in store there should be a missionary society for the enlightenment of caterpillars we could call it MEC or MECS Max you need to get down to him and say do you not realise that although you've got some little legs which are rather cumbersome actually one day they're going to be utterly redundant one day you're going to have wings and you will fly one day the rudimentary vision that you've got that hardly distinguishes between light and darkness will be the more amazing vision of the butterfly and if your caterpillar had human intellect he would strain to be able to comprehend this because all that there is in the concept of a butterfly is so alien to his own ability to understand if an angel in heaven was checking a heavenly dictionary and looked under the definition of man he might find this two-legged, two-armed two-eyed and two-eared and for the most degenerate specimen two-faced wingless, rudimentary, sensitivity to reality is lacking measure everything on the basis of their immature understanding as creatures in time and space difficult, isn't it for us to understand this is why the Bible grapples with metaphor to try to make it as plain as possible and why there's the apologia from some of the writers I have not seen nor ear heard the things that God hath in store and here is Peter and John on the Mount of Transfiguration and James and they reflect on the sight of heaven on earth as Jesus is transfigured and they talk about this overwhelming glory and they can't get beyond it we beheld his glory the apostle Peter writing later on speaks about the glory of the Lord Jesus on the Mount and he plunges all over in this Aramaic dialect and he can't find the words to get across what he's trying to convey and this is one of the problems in regard to heaven but you can have, as you sift your way through the metaphors of the final verses of this chapter you get the impression that heaven is real it's more real than earth is real it's incredibly beautiful it shines as the glory of God all the various precious stones of the earth are brought into play in order to describe something of the glory and the wonder of the perfections of heaven we're even told about its measurements but we're also told that as they're measured they're measured in human terms as though the meaning is much more wonderful than is actually conveyed by a literal understanding of what's described, verse 70 we're told about the 12,000 stager in length and width and breadth and the fact that heaven is, if you like, a perfect cube and you know that the numbers in the book of Revelation often give some indication as to spiritual truth the number 12, the 12 apostles the number 12, the 12 patriarchs the 12 gates of the New Jerusalem the 12 foundation stones bearing the insignia of the apostles or the patriarchs the combination, if you like of the Old Testament dispensation and the New Testament dispensation the coming together of all the people of God in this new heavenly realm that is to come onto this earth heaven is real heaven is tangible heaven is for the redeemed the only people who will go into heaven are those who are redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb that's why at the end of the chapter we're told nothing impure will ever enter it nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life or as we found it in Isaiah's prophecy and the 20th verse there is only righteousness in heaven your sun will never set again your moon will wane no more the Lord will be your everlasting light and your days of sorrow will end there's no temple there he didn't see it, says John in verse 22 why not? Well, heaven when heaven comes on earth when the new Jerusalem comes and tabernacles with us then in effect it will literally be heaven on earth and heaven itself will be the temple all the roads in heaven have an access into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, which was also a perfect cube in the tabernacle and also in Solomon's temple only one person could ever go once a year into the immediate presence of God but that will no longer be the case all redeemed men all redeemed people will have access into the presence of the Lord kings shall come all the inhabitants of the universe will have free and open access to the Lord references made to a wall the wall stands for security no one shall ever snatch the believer from my hands says the Lord Jesus heaven is compensatory all that happened, that was wrong that was unjust on earth will be balanced in the new era that is to come heaven is about relationships you knew people on earth you will know people in the new order that is yet to be heaven is discovery you seek and you save what is lost that is the way in which our Lord's ministry is described and when he spells out three parables of lost things he immediately takes us to the rejoicing in heaven there will be discovery there will be exploration there will be the use of brain there will be the response to music there will be equality there will be justice there will be no longer the law of the jungle the lion will lie down with the lamb there will be no discord there will be no harmony no disharmony all the old order of things will pass away and all that you were able to do that was godly and righteous in this life will be heightened to the ultimate to the infinite in the world that is yet to be John saw the holy city the new Jerusalem coming down from God as a bride prepared for her husband the new Jerusalem the church the righteous of the Old Testament they're interchangeable terms are you there? are you amongst the company? between the two states? a word to the thirsty a word to the weary a word to the careless do you hear the voice of the one who's seated on the throne the Alpha and the Omega giving the options now and do you respond? or are you so moribund? are you such an earthling? are you such a cat that you can't grasp the depths to some degree of what lies in store and won't you live your life like this away with your pettiness away with the bickering away with the small mindedness God deserves better citizens being prepared for His heaven than some of us are open your heart to the Holy Spirit bow before the cross of Calvary and make your repentance before Almighty God and be ready for that great awesome wondrous day when He shall come let us pray Amen