I saw a new heaven and a new earth... Thy Kingdom come...

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, ⁴ and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

⁵ And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” ⁶ Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. ⁷ He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. ⁸ But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

⁹ Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

The New Jerusalem

¹⁰ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹ having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper... ¹⁸ The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. ¹⁹ The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; ²⁰ the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. ²¹ And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

²² I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. ²⁵ In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; ²⁶ and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; ²⁷ and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Once again as we read John's description of the vision he saw of the new heaven and earth I don't want to get to involved in the details of interpreting the imagery of the various things he sees. Rather, I want to focus on what some of the words themselves speak to us. In the first 7 verses we see many of the statements about this new heaven and earth mirror the promises we have in the present kingdom of God on earth.  The text says, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,...". Jesus says  "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him."(John 14:23)  The text says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. The difference is that in this new creation, this new heaven and earth there are no longer any evidences or effects of sin at all. Everything is as God intended it to be from the begining. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

Before we finish with an additional element of this new heaven and earth. I feel I would not do justice to either this text or to us if I didn't acknowledge verse 8 and what it says tp us. We have a natural tendency to categorize sin, separating by the degree of seriousness. Let's look at what heads up this list of things that prevent us from inheriting the promises of the kingdom.    But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”    The cowardly and unbelieving, some translations say fearful and doubters, these are the sins that head up the list of things which will prevent us from being counted among the overcomers who inherit the promises of this new heaven and earth. This is not to say that anyone who experiences fear, unbelief or doubt will not experience eternal life in Christ. In truth, anyone who says they have no fear or doubt is probably one of the last things mentioned, a liar. What we need to acknowledge though is that to the extent that we allow fear and unbelief to control our lives it is sin, and sin separates us from God. Fear is the opposite of faith. It is really believing more in what we don't want than what we do want. Jesus finished work on the cross is the only solution to our sin and it is the solution to every sin listed in verse 8. We overcome fear and doubt in Christ. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of God's love. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. God's love is perfect and There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.(1 John 4:18)

In closing today let's look at verses 22 and 23. ²² I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

In the present kingdom of God here on earth we are the temple of God. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16) In the new heaven and earth God's omnipresent character will be so complete that He will truly be present every where. His glory will truly fill the whole earth as Isaiah spoke of in his vision. Isaiah 6:

In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. ² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called out to another and said,