[Originally preached 21 March, 2004]
Revelation 21.4-5; 22.1-5
In our text John continues to explore eternity. He is telling us what heaven will be like for us. Through His apostle, our Lord Jesus is encouraging us with a series of images of the bliss that most certainly awaits all His faithful. The image of today’s text focuses on the healing of the saints. Again, we see that John has a summary statement (21.4-5a) and then a more detailed explanation (22.1-5). Let’s start with the summary.
In this passage we hear the enthroned God telling John, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ He fills this out when He says, ‘… the former things have passed away’. What are these ‘former things’? The answer is in our text: death, mourning, crying, pain. These are all tied to ‘the former things’ and they will be no more. We’re going to take a look at what it means that in the New Jerusalem they will be no more. But before we do it is important that you see what this is saying about now. Do you see the implication of these words? While these things will no longer be, these things now are. Those words of God describe now: death, mourning, crying, pain. Is this an overstatement, an overly pessimistic view of life? Just think back over how Revelation describes the situation of the saints. The assumption of our text and of the rest of the book is that faithful living in this world is hard. It will include death, mourning, crying and pain. There will be tears.
Why is it important to note this? It has to do with expectations. If a Christian is expecting a smooth life how will he respond when it isn’t smooth? How will he respond when life takes a hard left turn? There is the danger of falling into anger, a bitter spirit or discouragement even to the point of giving up the faith. There is also the temptation to look for the fastest way back to a smooth life, regardless of the cost. Satan and his agents know this. So, they offer a smooth life. Early on in our study of Revelation I mentioned the Christians at the church of Smyrna who were struggling because they could not work. Jobs were not available to them because of their faith. The solution was easy. Offer a sacrifice to the Caesar, then be allowed to join the guild and be offered a job. The problem with this, of course, is that it required compromise. To sacrifice to the Caesar included saying, ‘Caesar is lord’. The temptation must have been great. But that is why John also wrote, ‘But nothing unclean will ever enter [the New Jerusalem], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false...’ [Rev. 21:27] Those who are ‘false’, who compromise the faith, whether for a job or any other reason, will be excluded from heaven. One of the themes of Revelation is that life here for the saints will be hard. It’s part of the cost of discipleship. It’s part of what it means that we are in the midst of a war. But that theme is paired to another theme of the book, the theme of our text. The suffering is worth it. The New Jerusalem is coming.
That leads, then, to this question. What do you expect of this life? Are you surprised, maybe even a little annoyed, when your faithfulness to the Gospel is put to the test and life gets a bit difficult? What are you expecting? What are the developing expectations of your children? Are they believing the myth of our culture that a smooth life is the goal? Our text – along with the rest of Revelation – is telling us to expect death, mourning, crying and pain. We need to expect tears.
Now, that is not the end of the story. There is more in our text, another image to believe. It’s in 21.4: ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes…’ This is a very powerful image which I’ve pointed to before. Picture a sobbing child sitting in his mother’s lap. Something has deeply upset him but he finds solace as his mother holds him, gently rocking him back and forth, and telling her child, ‘It’s okay now.’ The image of our text pictures our God gently comforting His children. The struggles of this life have been hard. There have been many tears. But He promises us all that, one day, He will wipe them all away as He tells us, ‘It’s okay now.’ It is important for us to see that our tears – even now – are not forgotten by our God. David knew that.
You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book? Psalm 56:8
Our God understands that faithful living is hard. Our pain is not overlooked. Our tears are not ignored. We will be delivered from it all. Our text is a dear promise to those who are suffering. It is a picture of our transition from the troubling struggles of this world to the comforting glories of the next.
This is tied to two other images in our text: the river of the water of life and the tree of life. Let’s look at the river first. At the heart of the Scriptures is the theme of gaining life. Life was lost in the Garden. Remember what God said. ‘In the day that you eat of it your shall surely die.’ In Adam, we all forfeited life. And so, a purpose of Christ’s coming was that we might have life once again. ‘I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.’ [John 10.10] When the Gospel promises eternal life it isn’t talking about how long but rather what kind. The Gospel offers the life of eternity. This life is often tied to the image of water.
How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light. Psalm 36:7-9
What might be the most familiar example of this is found in John 4 where Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well.
Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 4:13-14
Seeing this kind of life as refreshing water is so fitting when you consider the imagery of Psalm 63.
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1
The psalmist finds himself in a barren place. He finds himself here, in this fallen world. He is thirsty for more than what this world can offer. He is thirsty for God, for the life that God offers. The Gospel offers the water of life. In our text John is told that in the New Jerusalem the water of life is a river; not a creek or a stream but a river. Think of the Mississippi River. There the thirst of all the saints will be fully satisfied so that they will never suffer thirst again. So, there is a progression. The lost have a thirst that only God can slake, but they are trying to satisfy it with the things of this world. Once a person is converted he enjoys a taste of the water of this life. And yet, he is still thirsty for more. The taste is good but incomplete. Once the New Jerusalem comes, the saint’s thirst for life, his thirst for God is satisfied – completely and forevermore.
Do you see what John is writing about? This is what eternal life will be for the saints. It is one way of encouraging us to pursue faithfulness in this barren wasteland. Yes, there are times when it feels as if we are trudging through a desert. But the oasis is promised. The thirst we still feel even now will be slaked – completely. We shall all drink from the river of life.
Then there is the tree of life. This takes us back, again, to the Garden of Eden. There was a promise attached to that first tree of life. It was the promise of life forever. This is the same basic idea as the river. But notice that something has been added to this tree in our text. Notice how the tree functions here. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations. In this life we are wounded, some of us quite seriously. We taste death in its various forms. But our wounds will be cared for. There will be healing in the age to come. Please bear in mind that it isn’t our bodies that our text is talking about. We’ll have resurrection bodies when we get there. It will be a healing of our souls. It is the inner life that endures the worst suffering. Our text is a promise that the wounds that you carry on the inside, even the wounds that your best friends will never see, will be healed. And how will God heal? Will He pass a magic wand over our heads and make us forget our past experiences of pain and sadness and death? Do the wounds just disappear? No. Our text explains how God will heal us by pointing us to another image. ‘They will see His face.’ [Revelation 22.4] Let’s consider this a bit.
The idea of the face is simply fascinating because the notion covers so much territory. We recognize people not by their hands or feet but by their faces. In a way, the face is the person. And the face can be a window into the inner life of a person. How do you know if someone is surprised or happy or angry or concerned? His face tells you. It reveals something of what is going on within. Now, fallen man is not allowed to see God’s face. To see God’s face means death. Even Moses, who was God’s premier prophet and who met with God often, could not see God’s face. But all that changes in the New Jerusalem. In heaven you will be able to sit down and have a face-to-face conversation with God. You will see His face. That will be glorious. But how will that help us to be healed of our wounds? Once you are able to see God’s face you will begin to understand Him and His ways. God’s face will reveal His soul to us. We will be able to understand something of His inner life. Then we will begin to understand His plan for our lives. Then we will be able to recognize the wisdom of that plan with all of its twists and turns. As we look into His face we will come to see why it was best that we suffered in the ways that we did. As we gaze into His eyes we will see more and more clearly how our sorrows brought Him glory. We’ll see all of the crying and mourning and pain in a larger context. We will see how the pieces of our lives fit together in the larger plan of God. We will understand the wisdom and the love of our God, even as we remember our tears. Then, we’ll be healed of our wounds that we suffered during our trek through the barren desert of this life. And then we’ll be able to agree with our God that it was all good, it was all worth it, it was the best route to take, because it all honored our God. This life will then make sense.
Once again we see why John was given a picture of the New Jerusalem to share with us. The more that we understand what then will be like and the more that we focus our hopes on eternity, the better able we will be to live faithfully now. The clearer heaven is to our souls, the better able we will be to endure the suffering and tears of this life. Our text is the Gospel of hope for you. Hear it, believe it, be encouraged and comforted by it.
Revelation 21.4-5; 22.1-5
In our text John continues to explore eternity. He is telling us what heaven will be like for us. Through His apostle, our Lord Jesus is encouraging us with a series of images of the bliss that most certainly awaits all His faithful. The image of today’s text focuses on the healing of the saints. Again, we see that John has a summary statement (21.4-5a) and then a more detailed explanation (22.1-5). Let’s start with the summary.
In this passage we hear the enthroned God telling John, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ He fills this out when He says, ‘… the former things have passed away’. What are these ‘former things’? The answer is in our text: death, mourning, crying, pain. These are all tied to ‘the former things’ and they will be no more. We’re going to take a look at what it means that in the New Jerusalem they will be no more. But before we do it is important that you see what this is saying about now. Do you see the implication of these words? While these things will no longer be, these things now are. Those words of God describe now: death, mourning, crying, pain. Is this an overstatement, an overly pessimistic view of life? Just think back over how Revelation describes the situation of the saints. The assumption of our text and of the rest of the book is that faithful living in this world is hard. It will include death, mourning, crying and pain. There will be tears.
Why is it important to note this? It has to do with expectations. If a Christian is expecting a smooth life how will he respond when it isn’t smooth? How will he respond when life takes a hard left turn? There is the danger of falling into anger, a bitter spirit or discouragement even to the point of giving up the faith. There is also the temptation to look for the fastest way back to a smooth life, regardless of the cost. Satan and his agents know this. So, they offer a smooth life. Early on in our study of Revelation I mentioned the Christians at the church of Smyrna who were struggling because they could not work. Jobs were not available to them because of their faith. The solution was easy. Offer a sacrifice to the Caesar, then be allowed to join the guild and be offered a job. The problem with this, of course, is that it required compromise. To sacrifice to the Caesar included saying, ‘Caesar is lord’. The temptation must have been great. But that is why John also wrote, ‘But nothing unclean will ever enter [the New Jerusalem], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false...’ [Rev. 21:27] Those who are ‘false’, who compromise the faith, whether for a job or any other reason, will be excluded from heaven. One of the themes of Revelation is that life here for the saints will be hard. It’s part of the cost of discipleship. It’s part of what it means that we are in the midst of a war. But that theme is paired to another theme of the book, the theme of our text. The suffering is worth it. The New Jerusalem is coming.
That leads, then, to this question. What do you expect of this life? Are you surprised, maybe even a little annoyed, when your faithfulness to the Gospel is put to the test and life gets a bit difficult? What are you expecting? What are the developing expectations of your children? Are they believing the myth of our culture that a smooth life is the goal? Our text – along with the rest of Revelation – is telling us to expect death, mourning, crying and pain. We need to expect tears.
Now, that is not the end of the story. There is more in our text, another image to believe. It’s in 21.4: ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes…’ This is a very powerful image which I’ve pointed to before. Picture a sobbing child sitting in his mother’s lap. Something has deeply upset him but he finds solace as his mother holds him, gently rocking him back and forth, and telling her child, ‘It’s okay now.’ The image of our text pictures our God gently comforting His children. The struggles of this life have been hard. There have been many tears. But He promises us all that, one day, He will wipe them all away as He tells us, ‘It’s okay now.’ It is important for us to see that our tears – even now – are not forgotten by our God. David knew that.
You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book? Psalm 56:8
Our God understands that faithful living is hard. Our pain is not overlooked. Our tears are not ignored. We will be delivered from it all. Our text is a dear promise to those who are suffering. It is a picture of our transition from the troubling struggles of this world to the comforting glories of the next.
This is tied to two other images in our text: the river of the water of life and the tree of life. Let’s look at the river first. At the heart of the Scriptures is the theme of gaining life. Life was lost in the Garden. Remember what God said. ‘In the day that you eat of it your shall surely die.’ In Adam, we all forfeited life. And so, a purpose of Christ’s coming was that we might have life once again. ‘I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.’ [John 10.10] When the Gospel promises eternal life it isn’t talking about how long but rather what kind. The Gospel offers the life of eternity. This life is often tied to the image of water.
How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light. Psalm 36:7-9
What might be the most familiar example of this is found in John 4 where Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well.
Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 4:13-14
Seeing this kind of life as refreshing water is so fitting when you consider the imagery of Psalm 63.
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1
The psalmist finds himself in a barren place. He finds himself here, in this fallen world. He is thirsty for more than what this world can offer. He is thirsty for God, for the life that God offers. The Gospel offers the water of life. In our text John is told that in the New Jerusalem the water of life is a river; not a creek or a stream but a river. Think of the Mississippi River. There the thirst of all the saints will be fully satisfied so that they will never suffer thirst again. So, there is a progression. The lost have a thirst that only God can slake, but they are trying to satisfy it with the things of this world. Once a person is converted he enjoys a taste of the water of this life. And yet, he is still thirsty for more. The taste is good but incomplete. Once the New Jerusalem comes, the saint’s thirst for life, his thirst for God is satisfied – completely and forevermore.
Do you see what John is writing about? This is what eternal life will be for the saints. It is one way of encouraging us to pursue faithfulness in this barren wasteland. Yes, there are times when it feels as if we are trudging through a desert. But the oasis is promised. The thirst we still feel even now will be slaked – completely. We shall all drink from the river of life.
Then there is the tree of life. This takes us back, again, to the Garden of Eden. There was a promise attached to that first tree of life. It was the promise of life forever. This is the same basic idea as the river. But notice that something has been added to this tree in our text. Notice how the tree functions here. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations. In this life we are wounded, some of us quite seriously. We taste death in its various forms. But our wounds will be cared for. There will be healing in the age to come. Please bear in mind that it isn’t our bodies that our text is talking about. We’ll have resurrection bodies when we get there. It will be a healing of our souls. It is the inner life that endures the worst suffering. Our text is a promise that the wounds that you carry on the inside, even the wounds that your best friends will never see, will be healed. And how will God heal? Will He pass a magic wand over our heads and make us forget our past experiences of pain and sadness and death? Do the wounds just disappear? No. Our text explains how God will heal us by pointing us to another image. ‘They will see His face.’ [Revelation 22.4] Let’s consider this a bit.
The idea of the face is simply fascinating because the notion covers so much territory. We recognize people not by their hands or feet but by their faces. In a way, the face is the person. And the face can be a window into the inner life of a person. How do you know if someone is surprised or happy or angry or concerned? His face tells you. It reveals something of what is going on within. Now, fallen man is not allowed to see God’s face. To see God’s face means death. Even Moses, who was God’s premier prophet and who met with God often, could not see God’s face. But all that changes in the New Jerusalem. In heaven you will be able to sit down and have a face-to-face conversation with God. You will see His face. That will be glorious. But how will that help us to be healed of our wounds? Once you are able to see God’s face you will begin to understand Him and His ways. God’s face will reveal His soul to us. We will be able to understand something of His inner life. Then we will begin to understand His plan for our lives. Then we will be able to recognize the wisdom of that plan with all of its twists and turns. As we look into His face we will come to see why it was best that we suffered in the ways that we did. As we gaze into His eyes we will see more and more clearly how our sorrows brought Him glory. We’ll see all of the crying and mourning and pain in a larger context. We will see how the pieces of our lives fit together in the larger plan of God. We will understand the wisdom and the love of our God, even as we remember our tears. Then, we’ll be healed of our wounds that we suffered during our trek through the barren desert of this life. And then we’ll be able to agree with our God that it was all good, it was all worth it, it was the best route to take, because it all honored our God. This life will then make sense.
Once again we see why John was given a picture of the New Jerusalem to share with us. The more that we understand what then will be like and the more that we focus our hopes on eternity, the better able we will be to live faithfully now. The clearer heaven is to our souls, the better able we will be to endure the suffering and tears of this life. Our text is the Gospel of hope for you. Hear it, believe it, be encouraged and comforted by it.
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