Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Sermon preached on Revelation 21:1-8 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 07/06/2025 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
At last, we come to what we all are waiting for! Today’s passage introduces the final blessed state of God’s redeemed people in the age to come. This is what every redeemed saint will enjoy together when Christ returns. After the final judgment takes place, which we studied last time, we who have been predestined unto life will be ushered into the new creation. After today’s introduction, Revelation will then elaborate on the new creation in the following section that starts in verse 9 and runs through chapter 22, verse 5. After that, there will be a final concluding section to close out this glorious book. Today then, we are introduced to our final paradise that awaits us in glory.
We will study this passage in three points. First, we’ll consider how God will make all things new in this new creation. Second, we’ll see how God declares that, “It is done,” describing his sovereign accomplishment of this redemption. Third, we’ll recognize that this blessed future is only for “those who overcome”, the rest will sadly be in hell.
Let us then begin by considering how God will make all things new, as he declares in verse 5. Starting in verse 1, John is given a vision of a new heaven and a new earth, and it describes the former ones passing away. The end of Isaiah also foretold a new creation with this same description of a new heavens and a new earth. This is exactly what the Apostle Peter said Christians are waiting for in 2 Pet. 3:13, that, “According to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” This vision foresees the fulfillment of the Isaiah prophecy and further expands our understanding of the new creation it foretold.
Let me begin by noting that the timing of the new creation is closely related chronologically with last week’s passage about the great white throne judgment. While sometimes in Revelation the words, “Then I saw,” like in verse 1, introduce a new vision that might rewind the timeline, this time it clearly recapitulates and further develops last week’s passage. Last week in 22:11, it said the sky and earth fled away at the final judgment, so too verse 1 of our passage repeats that the earth and sky had passed away, connecting the timing between this passage and last week’s. Likewise, last week’s passage ended by speaking of how the unsaved end up cast into the lake of fire, just as today’s passage also ends in verse 8. So, the text tells us to see that this vision of the new heavens and the new earth is an expansion of what happens at and after that great white throne judgment. While the wicked are cast into a place of eternal damnation in the hell described as the lake of fire, God’s redeemed people are ushered into this glorious paradise of the new creation.
This vision begins to tell us how better the new creation will be over the old, by telling us of five things that won’t be in the new creation any longer, saying the former bad things have passed away (vs 4). Next passage will tell us of 2 additional things that won’t be there, for a total of seven. The first thing that won’t be there is the sea, verse 1. Remember this is an apocalyptic vision, but we can consider how the sea both literally and symbolically can be considered a danger to humans. Many have literally drowned to death in chaotic seas. Symbolically, we remember back to chapter 13 how the beast rose up out of the sea, a common theme in apocalyptic and poetic literature that evil rises up from the sea. No such threats will exist in the new creation. Then verse 4 mentions that there will no longer be any mourning, crying, pain, or even death in the new creation, explaining these in that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. None of the things that cause us sorrow or grief will exist anymore. Isaiah’s prophecy gave us a glimpse of this, but this passage makes it even clearer. This description pairs well with how Romans 8 foretells the new creation. Romans 8 speaks of how the creation, and even our own flesh, groan in the vanity of this present age. We remember how the book of Ecclesiastes speaks of all the troubles that we go through right now in this life. We remember all the way back to the fall in Genesis 3 where God cursed this creation because of our sin and also cursed our bodies so that they would be subject to death. Romans 8 says all this will be this way until our Christian hope is realized at the return of Christ. Then finally, Romans 8 says that both the creation and us Christians will be set free from this bondage and corruption in the freedom of the age to come. Indeed, we see here how the creation will be made anew without the previous curses, even as we know that our bodies will also be made new, as 1 Corinthians 15 describes that in a twinkling of an eye, our bodies will become immortal and imperishable.
But that’s not all, brethren! For the new creation is also described as a New Jerusalem come down out of heaven. This heavenly Jerusalem confirms that the prophecies about a restored Jerusalem do not have anything to do with the present Jerusalem in this current world. Hebrews 11:16 says that Abraham waited for a heavenly city and here it arrives. Amazingly, this heavenly Jerusalem is described as the Bride adorned for Christ. Next week’s passage will again identify the New Jerusalem as Christ’s Bride. Wonderfully, we might remember that God covenanted to Abraham both a people and a place. These come together in the picture of the Bride of Christ. Is the Bride a holy city as presented here? Or is the Bride the sanctified saints as presented back in chapter 19? Yes and yes! The Bride is a people and a place! The Abrahamic Covenant is fulfilled in the new creation when the Bride is the church in the holy city dwelling with Christ forever. Indeed, as such heaven comes down to earth, it is explained that God will somehow literally make his dwelling with us on this new earth. The old Jerusalem was the place of God’s special presence among the people, but the new Jerusalem is that all the more. As verse 3 announces, then God’s dwelling, his tabernacle, will be on earth with his redeemed saints. It’s wonderful that all the old problems like sorrow, pain, trouble, danger, and death, won’t exist in the new creation. But it’s even better that God will dwell with us forever.
Let us turn next to consider what God means in verse 6 when he declares that, “It is done!” What is done or completed? Why, surely, the redemption of God’s elect and the bringing them into their eternal reward! So then, we see here that there is a sovereign God who stands outside of time and yet works in time and human history to execute his eternal plan of redemption. His eternality is emphasized right after he says it is done, because he calls himself the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, so it’s another way of saying the beginning and the end, the first and the last. God was, and is, and always shall be, the great I AM. Yet this God who always exists, who has eternally decreed all which comes to pass, can nonetheless speak of accomplishment. I love that at the beginning of Revelation, he also described himself in 1:8 as the Alpha and Omega. This description of his eternality helps bookend Revelation. Because at chapter 1 he didn’t yet declare, “It is done.” But here, now, with this vision of the consummation at the new creation, he declares “It is done!” By the time this vision comes to pass, God’s plan will be accomplished!
There are several ways we can see here this idea that the eternal God accomplishes his redemptive plans progressively over time until they are finally complete. One place is right in verse 2 when it says the new Jerusalem is a bride that has been “prepared” for her husband. The church has been progressively prepared for this future. This period of preparation is the very thing the book of Revelation has been showing us. Why didn’t Jesus return back in chapter 1? Because in God’s good providence, he ordained that the church would go through a period of trial and testing that would simultaneously be a period of outreach and evangelism. During this time the church would grow numerically but also morally and spiritually. Our souls would be strengthened, our faith confirmed, our hope solidified. All this would prepare us for the time God ordained to wed us to Christ at the end. The eternal God works his plan throughout history until it is finished.
We also can see God’s progressive working of his redemptive plan by the declaration that is in verse 3. There it says about God, that finally, “He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.” This is an important announcement because it is something that is repeatedly prophesied under the Old Testament, that God’s redemptive plans will be consummated in a situation where God will be our God, and we will be his people. Most clearly this promise and prophecy is found in Leviticus 26:11-12. There, God says to Israel that if they keep the Mosaic covenant, that God would dwell with them, and walk with them, and that he would be their God, and they would be my people. Leviticus also warned how he would curse and exile them if they abandoned them in apostasy, which is what happened. Yet, the prophets later promised that God would one day restore Israel so they would ultimately receive this promise. Ezekiel 37:27, God says, “My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Or Jeremiah 30:22, “And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” These and other prophecies speak of this in terms of what will happen under a new covenant. That new covenant was inaugurated at Jesus’s first coming. It will be consummated at what is foreseen here. When God makes his dwelling with us in the new creation, he can say that these age-old prophecies are completed, they are “done!”. Verse 5 can properly say in this context that these words are trustworthy and true. What God promised, he will faithfully fulfill.
Let us turn now in our last point to see how this blessed future is only for “those who overcome”. The rest will sadly be in hell. This point really drives home the personal application for today’s passage to make sure you are prepared for Christ’s return, to make sure that you will enjoy this new creation and not be cast into hell.
Those who end up in the hell of the lake of fire are described in verse 8. On the one hand, this repeats what was already said last chapter in 20:15, that the unsaved are damned to hell. But let us appreciate that the list of sins that identify the damned are very relevant to this book. This book is an encouragement during this age of trial and testing to stand fast in faith in Jesus. Will you hold to your faith or turn back from it when persecution from the Beast or the world comes? In other words, will you show yourself to be the cowardly and the faithless that are mentioned in verse 8? Likewise, Revelation has warned that Babylon will try to tempt you to her various immoralities and abominations. Will you stand apart, undefiled from her depravities, or will you give in to her temptation and so embrace her wicked practices. In other words, will you show yourself to be the detestable, or the murderer, or the sexually immoral, or the sorcerer, or the idolater that is mentioned in verse 8? Likewise, will you be someone who outwardly claims to be a Christian yet does not follow his commands? John in 1 John 2:4 says such a person is a liar and the truth is not in him. In other words, will your hypocrisy show yourself to be the liar mentioned in verse 8?
Let us all pause and really take in the warning here of verse 8. The list of sins here certainly describes the world. But this list of sins threatens to describe any one of us. The opening of Revelation saw Jesus presenting such concern to the seven churches. These are the sort of temptations that threaten to conquer us. If you are conquered by them, it will reveal that you never really knew Jesus, that your name was never in the book of life, that you aren’t truly a Christian. But in Jesus’ love and mercy, he gave us this book of Revelation to warn us so that such might not be found to be the case for any of us.
Remember, how each of those seven letters ended at the start of Revelation. Each ended with a promise “to the one who conquers”. Remember how each of the seven letters followed a similar format or template. They each included some sort of an exhortation to faithfulness amidst these trials and temptations, and then promised a glorious reward to be received by, “the one who conquers”. So then look at verse 7. “The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” Do you see how this brings us full circle in the book of Revelation? Chapters 1-3 encourage the church, to be one who conquers in Christ. Then the book now arrives at the end and shows us the reward for us who conquer in Christ. In between, the heart of the book shows us the sort of the challenges that we would have to conquer and overcome. And right in the middle of the book, we were told how we conquer, Revelation 12:11, we conquer by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony, not loving our lives even unto death.
Let us not misunderstand here. We do not conquer by living perfect lives. Otherwise, it would not chiefly say we conquer by the blood of the Lamb. We chiefly conquer by trusting in the cross of Christ where Jesus’ blood was shed to forgive us of all our sins. It’s faith in Jesus that ultimately gives us the victory. Yet, a true faith perseveres, by the grace of God. And a true faith that has found forgiveness of sin doesn’t continue to embrace a life of continued sin. Yes, we won’t live perfectly, but in faith we are called out of this world, to live in but not of it. Our faith is to seek a holy life of following the way of Jesus, and in our imperfect ways to keep looking to Jesus for his sufficient grace and abundant mercy. But let us not be found to mock the grace of God by claiming it yet not looking to live out the ramifications of it. Otherwise, you will find that you will reap what you sow (Gal 6:7).
So then, if we so overcome in our Christian faith, we have the beautiful promise there in verse 6. “To the thirsty, I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.” To find such eternal satisfaction, as it says, “without payment” quoting from Isaiah 55, it means our salvation is a gift. The next passage will go into this further, but let us appreciate that this promised water of life tells us more about the new creation. The new creation isn’t just where there won’t be any more bad things like sorrow and death. The new creation is also where we will be eternally satisfied in all ways. We will thirst and hunger no more, finding eternal sustenance. The new creation doesn’t just remove all curse, but it also showers us with all blessing. This is the heritage, the inheritance, the we God’s people, and only us, will enjoy. It’s as Jesus promised in the beatitudes, blessed are poor in spirit, for ours is the kingdom of heaven, and blessed are the meek, for we shall inherit the earth.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, are you one who conquers, or are you one of the cowardly and faithless? If you would conquer, hold fast to your testimony of Jesus. If you have faltered in this area, it is not yet too late to repent and return to Christ and be saved. Trinity Presbyterian Church, are you one who conquers, or are you one of the detestable, or the murderers, or the sexually immoral, or the sorcerers, or the idolaters? If you would conquer, seek the holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). For, “What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” If you have faltered in this area, it is not yet too late to repent of your sins, to repent of your mingling with Jezebel and Babylon, and find the blood of Jesus that washes you clean of all such filthiness. Trinity Presbyterian Church, are you one who conquers, or are you one of the liars? If you would conquer, then may your faith be shown to be genuine by walking in the way Jesus walked, abiding in the love of God, seeking to keep his word. May you not be shown to be a hypocrite who claims to love the light of Jesus while continuing a life that walks in the darkness. If you have faltered in this area, it is not yet too late to repent of your pretending and truly follow Jesus.
Today’s passage is magnificent in the victory it displays for the Christian. But it also is soberingly calling each one of us to make sure that we personally will be able to enjoy such victory. Such a victory is ours if we are in Christ. May today’s passage spark the sort of self-examination Jesus wants Revelation to bring to us. May it also spur us on to keep pressing on in faith because this victory is so very much worth it. Indeed, may the Lord grant us the courage, fidelity, holiness, and genuineness of faith that we need to be prepared for such a victory. Surely this is why God has us yet here during this time of testing as a way to grow us in such things. Praise be to God, our Great High Priest who cares for his church!
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
