Introduction: Yesterday the judgement of evil, individualized for the multiple billions of people who have ever lived since the world began was dealt with in five verses! I guess we are now no longer thinking in millenia, centuries, weeks, days and hours. Today in eight verses we deal with a) the destruction of our known world and the heaven which is a word used in different contexts to mean different things! Does it mean the ‘cosmos’? Or the structure in which God is now the ruling Master, that is what we now call heaven when comparing it to hell? b) A New Heaven and New Earth formed and a New Jerusalem descending from the New Heavens! c) God making His presence known as the on-site living Ruler and God of the Redeemed! d) The absence of those things which make life difficult these days. Physical things -“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,” and moral things -“as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars“. That was the reason for the Judgement. The forgiven were sinners, doers of the things listed but by their choice and God’s calling and Grace they are washed clean from every stain of what they have done! e) A re-affirmation of Jesus’ ability to get all this done! :“It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” Read the passage slowly and prayerfully and let God free in your heart and mind to explain the richness and universality of God’s Plan for the Future!
1 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. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 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. 4 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.”
5 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.” 6 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. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 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.”
Revelation 21: 5 – “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.“
Prayer: Thank You Father for invitation to keep this date! Thank You, Jesus! I gladly accept You, Jesus, as LORD of my life!