All Things New -- FPC sermon excerpt

I have stood before grieving families many times. Usually they are seated in the front row of the church, with flowers near the pulpit and the casket in the center of the sanctuary.

After a few Scripture lessons are read, I will say, “God loves us so much that he does not want our existence to end with the death of our bodies. No, he wants our lives to continue in his everlasting kingdom, that place where there is neither illness nor crying, pain nor dying.

“‘Look! I’m making all things new,’ says the Lord of all creation (Revelation 21:5). God is working to bring us all to a better place, where we can be closer to him, and to one another, free from anything that can hurt or divide us.”

I often use the Book of Revelation at funerals, because it is a source of tremendous comfort and hope in a time of grief. Now this may come as a bit of a surprise to you, given the disturbing images of chaos and conflict that we have encountered during this sermon series on Revelation.

But this book ends on a high note — a promise of divine restoration, in which everything is made new and trouble-free. Revelation assures us that God is creating a new heaven and a new earth, free from the agonies of this life. We have a future that looks radically different from the present — nothing less than the restoration of the Garden of Eden!

So how do we get from chaos and conflict to a happy ending?

Chapter 19 begins with the sound of a huge crowd in heaven celebrating the power of God and the punishment of “the great prostitute,” the city of Rome (19:2). You remember her from last week, don’t you? The city of Rome exploited both people and resources throughout the Roman Empire, and the residents of heaven are now rejoicing in the destruction of the city.

Then heaven opens, and the author of Revelation sees Jesus on a white horse (19:11). Jesus appears as a Divine Warrior — judging fairly and making wars justly, while bearing the names “Faithful and True” (19:11). His eyes are like “a fiery flame,” he wears crowns and a robe dyed with the blood of his death on the cross, and his name is called “the Word of God” (19:12-13). Following him on white horses are the angelic armies of heaven.

The Roman beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies gather to make war against Christ and his army. But the beast and his false prophet are thrown alive into the fiery lake that burns with sulfur, and the rest are “killed by the sword that comes from the mouth of the rider on the horse,” leaving their bodies to be eaten by the birds (19:20-21).

Another angel comes down from heaven, “holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain” (20:1). He seizes “the dragon, the old snake, who is the devil and Satan,” and binds him for a thousand years. Satan is thrown into the abyss, which is then locked and sealed over so that Satan cannot continue to deceive the nations (20:2-3). “After this,” says John, the author of Revelation, “he must be released for a little while” (20:3).

Does this seem odd to you? Why is Satan given another chance by God? Why not destroy him immediately? I think that this time of captivity is a reminder to us that Satan is one of God’s creatures. He is a fallen angel, not a divine being who is equal to God. Satan is confined to show us that God is in control.

Also, when Satan is released, he is given a second chance by a merciful and compassionate God. God actually gives Satan a chance to repent and change his ways. But Satan fails the test. After a thousand years, he is released from prison and immediately begins to deceive the nations. Then God throws him into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet reside (20:7-10). The old snake is finally crushed — the ultimate evildoer is brought to justice.

Then John sees “a great white throne and the one who is seated on it” (20:11). Dead people stand before the throne and a number of scrolls are opened, including “the scroll of life.” People are judged by what they have done, in an act of final judgment (20:13). Then Death itself is thrown into the fiery lake, along with anyone whose name isn’t in the scroll of life (20:14-15).

After the dead are judged, the scene shifts and John says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,” he says; “for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more” (21:1). Many years earlier, God had revealed this vision through the prophet Isaiah, saying, “Look! I’m creating a new heaven and a new earth: past events won’t be remembered; they won’t come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17).

This new creation is one in which the past is forgotten, and the future endures forever. Even the sea, described earlier in Revelation as the home of the beast and a symbol of watery chaos, is “no more” (21:1).

John sees “the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (21:2). This holy city can be seen as the church, the bride of Christ, but even more importantly as the beautiful place where God and humans will live together eternally.

The voice of God speaks from the throne, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them” (21:3). These words are the language of covenant, the words of promise-based relationships. They update the covenant first established between God and Abraham (Genesis 17:7), one that was reaffirmed through the prophet Ezekiel, “My dwelling will be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Ezekiel 37:27).

After long years of struggle — with humans frequently breaking their covenant with God — the promise is made that God “will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (21:4). The promise of Revelation is that the covenant will be renewed, for all eternity.