Revelation 21

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is based on Revelation 21. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

By now, everyone knows that we had a new house built on our property in Potter Township. I was amazed at the process. After finding a builder and designing our own layout, we filed permits and submitted plans. Giant trees were removed in minutes. A bulldozer laid the way for a new drive way. Excavators removed clay soil eight feet beneath the surface. Contractors poured concrete walls and floors. Amish carpenters walked on the edges of 2x6’s twenty feet in the air as they assembled the framing. Others installed the heating, electrical and plumbing systems. Cindy and I applied all the finish coats of paint, picked out flooring and furniture, and now, after one year, we are starting to landscape. It’s been a lot of work and we enjoy sitting on our back deck in the summer and in front of our fireplace in the winter.

I open my sermon with this personal experience because our reading from Revelation opens with John seeing a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem. You may be wondering why we need a new heaven, earth and Jerusalem. Maybe you think that our world is wonderful. Anyone who has been to Hawaii or Alaska raves about the beauty. If you have material possessions, good health, wisdom, family and friends, you may say that life is good. On the other hand, for many people, life ain’t so great.

Let’s first go back to chapter 20. There, as God on his throne held the last judgment, earth and heaven (sky) fled from his face and no place was found for them.[1] This suggests that the present heaven and earth created by God is not a fit home for his resurrected and righteous saints. This follows from the prophecy of Isaiah, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.”[2] Isaiah goes on to tell how God’s people will build houses, plant vineyards in peace, and how the wolf and the lamb eat together. Young men will die at the age of 100.[3] In chapter 66, Isaiah reiterated his prophecy, “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain.”[4]

 

This may tax the limits of our imagination, but we need to keep in mind that God communicates to us in human language. So, such truths surpass our earthly language and existence. These descriptions should not be seen as literal restrictions on life in the new era, but seen as pointing far beyond our present limitations on human life. Isaiah’s prophecies echoed by Paul, Peter and John point toward eternal life, but eternal life has already begun for Christians on this earth and extend forever in the new heaven and new earth.

To the Corinthians, St. Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”[5] And to the Ephesians, God “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”[6] Peter echoed this in his Second Letter (3:15). And during his earthly ministry Christ asserted that “heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”[7]

John does not describe this new heaven and earth, but immediately draws our attention to the holy city, the new Jerusalem. This is not a restored historic city, but a new one from God. Earlier in his letter (to Philadelphia), John wrote, “the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven.”[8] Paul also wrote to the Galatians, “the Jerusalem above is free, who she is our mother.”[9]Hebrews too references this city where God dwells with his people.[10]

In this city God dwells with his bride, his people, the Church. The voice reminds us that God has bound himself to his people in an incarnational and sacramental way – in Christ, who is the new temple, and in divine worship, when God comes to his people through his Word and Sacraments.[11]

God’s dwelling place, also known as the tabernacle, is associated with His glorious and gracious presence with his people in the new heaven and earth. Exodus 26 tells us that the tabernacle erected by Moses was the visible location of God’s covenantal presence with his people. The tabernacle and the subsequent temple were structures that enabled God to dwell among sinful people. They were also part of the sacrificial worship that provided atonement for sin. In this new dwelling place, God’s actual and personal presence among his people is a permanent reality. As verse 22 tells us, John sees no temple in the city; all that remains is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.[12]

The benefits of God dwelling among us are listed in verse 4. Death, mourning, crying and pain are gone like yesterday. As the Psalmist prophesied, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy…”[13] In last Sunday’s reading, we heard that the “Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”[14] When we truly repent, tears flow openly as we face death. Here, death has been conquered. God’s promise to ransom us from death is accomplished. What was corrupted by sin resulted in death. Here, death and all corruption in the first creation is replaced by eternal life and incorruptibility,[15] and John describes God’s people after the resurrection in the state of eternal life in the new heaven and earth.[16] When we read that God is making all things new, it refers to the new heaven and earth of verse one, but it was promised long before this.[17]

The One speaking from the throne is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. We know those to be the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, but they refer to all creation and all life. Alpha and Omega should be seen within the context of the new heaven and the new earth.

When he says, “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment,” he echoes Isaiah, who prophesied, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price,”[18] Jesus spoke these words twice in John’s Gospel. So, here the words serve as a reminder to heed Jesus’ gracious invitation to drink freely of his living waters.

I opened this sermon with a description of how our new house was built. The entire process was exciting. Finally, in May 2021, we moved into our new home. Now, here’s the sad part. We built our new home about 50 yards behind the house where I grew up. My dad and others built an 800 square foot brick house with a detached garage in 1955. At first, my parents and older brother lived in the basement. Originally, the house had well water, a cistern, a coal furnace and propane for cooking. Over the years, dad attached the garage to the house and added a third bedroom over the garage.

As a family we enjoyed many memorable moments in that house. Birthday parties and family reunions, homework at the kitchen table and basketball on the driveway. There were sad moments as well. Both of my parents and my younger brother all died there.

Watching our builder demolish our old house was like watching my mother die. There was no joy in the inevitable ending. I mention that because, although our reading does not include it, verse eight reminds us that the cowardly, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will be consigned to a fate worse than the death of a family member or destruction of an old familiar home. That is not something I want; nor is it something I want for others. It is, however, part of the message, and the Word of God.

God’s plan is not a motto for Planet Fitness. There is no Judgement Free Zone. God’s plan includes a judgment, and in any judgment, there are the forgiven and the unforgiven. If we did not have the new house, watching the destruction of the old house would leave me hopeless, but we had a plan, and that plan included not only the destruction of the old house, but the building of a new house.

There are many nonfiction books we can read about the end of America, the fall of Western Civilization, the destruction of the planet and so on. There are plenty of apocalyptic books to entertain our minds, and sometimes lead us astray. As faithful and hopeful Christians, we, like John the Apostle, must remain focused on God’s Kingdom. Bear in mind the words of the Exalted Christ, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”[19]

Friends, our new home is a beautiful home. We have everything we need to live there for the rest of our lives, but it is not our final home. Cindy and I know that. We’re making plans with attorneys and funeral directors to take care of our estate and our bodies. We know who’s getting what and where we’ll be buried.

More importantly, we entrust our souls to the judgmental mercy of God. We hope in Christ’s promise that there is a room for us.[20] For now, God dwells among us. John wrote, “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.”[21] He is here with us now, and that brings more joy to us than any new house, truck, tractor, puppy or hip.[22] God is with us in Word and Sacrament, and God has kept that promise for more than 2,000 years. That in itself should suffice more than any new teaching, way or movement. With that gracious promise, I can live anywhere and under any circumstances for I know that my redeemer lives.

My friends, we do not consider ourselves self-righteous. We live righteously only because of God’s mercy. The Gospel we need to share with others are the words John heard from God in today’s reading. Take some time today to ponder those words, and do not be afraid to share them with someone who needs to hear them. When you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus the Risen Lord. Amen. Alleluia!

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[1] Revelation 20:11.

[2] Isaiah 65:17.

[3] Brighton, 591.

[4] Isaiah 66:22.

[5] 2 Corinthians 5:17.

[6] Ephesians 2:6.

[7] Matthew 24:35.

[8] Revelation 3:12.

[9] Galatians 4:26 – Berean Study Bible.

[10] Hebrews 12:22.

[11] Louis A. Brighton, Revelation. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (1999), pp. 596f.

[12] Brighton, pp. 597f.

[13] Psalm 126:5-6.

[14] Revelation 7:17.

[15] See Hosea 13:14; Psalm 49:14-15; 1 Corinthians 15:20-57.

[16] Brighton, p. 599.

[17] See Isaiah 65:17; 66:22.

[18] Isaiah 55:1. See John 4:10-14; 7:37.

[19] Matthew 6:33-34.

[20] John 14:2.

[21] Revelation 21:3.

[22] For those of you who don’t know it, Cindy is recovering from hip replacement surgery.