Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth...

Revelation 21 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

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.” 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.”

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. ¹² It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. ¹³ There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. ¹⁴ And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵ The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. ¹⁶ The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal.¹⁷ And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements. 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.

I thought it appropriate as we come to the end of this year and look forward to the year to come, that we reflect and meditate on the words from today’s text. It occurred to me that the things we read in today’s text are not only things that are to come at a time in the future, but they are also things which we should apprehend now, and in the coming year in our lives.

Look at the description of what is to come upon Christ’s return, when we see the new heaven and earth:   “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,  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.”  In Matthew 4:17, Jesus says:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”   To repent is to change. It is not only to turn from sin though, it is also to change the way we think. Jesus was called Emmanuel, God with us. In John 14:23 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.”  God and Christ already dwell with us and in us, we need only to apprehend all that His abiding provides for us and through us. In the new heaven and earth it says:  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.   In Matthew 5:4 Jesus says:   “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”   The comfort of God for those who mourn and cry is a promise from God, not only for the future, but now. In John 16:33 Jesus says: “I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  Isaiah 53:4-5 says:  Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken,Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.   Jesus established the New Covenant on the night He was betrayed and He instituted it on the cross, not in some future time. In John 19:30 Jesus said:  “It is finished!”  Everything that Jesus came to do, all the promises of the New Covenant and all the realities of the kingdom of heaven are already ours. They are completed for us in the overcoming finished work of the cross. We need to apprehend them in and for our lives now.

The text says:   I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 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. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed;  and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 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.    It says:  I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says:  Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?      6:19 says:  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.  The text says: nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it. 2 Corinthians 6:16 says:  What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people."   The text says:  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. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed;  and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.    In John 8:12 Jesus says:  "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."  1 John 1:5 says:  God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus says:  “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”    We are to be the people in whom the presence of God dwells now. We are to be a people who live the overcoming life of the New Covenant now. We are to be a people who shine the light of God and Christ, a people in whom there is no darkness now.

Jesus taught us to pray saying:  Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.   Even today, as we come to the end of this year and look forward to the new year which is coming, even as we look forward to the return of Christ and the new heaven and new earth, may we be the people who apprehend all of the finished work of the cross in our lives and for the world.

‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.  ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. ‘Give us this day our daily bread. (finished)  ‘And forgive us our debts, (finished) as we also have forgiven our debtors.(with your help)  ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (finished) For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory (now and) forever. Amen.’    Amen.