Time To Choose

TIME TO CHOOSE

Revelation 21

Rev 21:1 And 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.

Is there literally going to be a new heaven and new earth?

Is the heaven we enjoy…and the earth we live on going to be done away with and replaced by another?
And when it is, will there no longer be any sea?

Many think so because they want to take what John sees here and insist that it must literally be fulfilled.

But notice the first part of the verse again. John says “I saw” a new heaven and new earth.

Once again this is part of the vision that John has been seeing.
And notice the word “And”, that means this is a continuation of what he has just seen in chapter 20.
And in chapter 20 we have seen the total and utter defeat of Satan and his workings through the Roman Empire…and we have seen the total and utter defeat of all those who served the beast.
Their world has been totally and completely dismantled…and that is why John says here that he “saw a new heaven and new earth”…the world of the oppressor has been done away with.

Notice verse one again: And 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.

The passing of the heavens and earth is not a new figure at all.
This type of terminology is used over and over again throughout scripture.

For example in Isaiah 13 the prophet speaks of Babylon (Vs. 1) and the judgment that is coming at the hand of the Medes (vs. 17) and look how he describes this coming judgment:

6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore all hands will fall limp, And every man’s heart will melt. 8 And they will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor, They will look at one another in astonishment, Their faces aflame. 9 Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it. 10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises, And the moon will not shed its light. 11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud, And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. 12 I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold, And mankind than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I shall make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place.

He talks here of a disruption in the stars, the sun, and the moon…and he talks of “punishing the world” for its iniquity…and shaking the earth right out of its place.
All of this is going to be done by God through the Medes.

Now, we all know history well enough to know that none of this literally occurred.

It wasn’t intended to occur.
This is a prophetic description of God’s attack on the Babylonian world.
This is language of judgment.

Another passage, Isaiah 34:1-17. God is going to bring judgment on the nations, Edom in particular. Notice how he describes the judgment:

Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples!Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it. 2 For the Lord’s indignation is against all the nations,And His wrath against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to slaughter. 3 So their slain will be thrown out,And their corpses will give off their stench,And the mountains will be drenched with their blood. 4 And all the host of heaven will wear away,And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;All their hosts will also wither away As a leaf withers from the vine,Or as one withers from the fig tree. 5 For My sword is satiated in heaven,Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom,And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.

Now, is all of this to be literally fulfilled?

In the days of Isaiah was the “sky literally rolled up like a scroll?”

This is a prophetic way of describing the end for Edom.

Edom’s world will be brought to an end.
This is language of judgment.

Here is another found in Nahum 1:1-5:

1:1 The oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

2 A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; He dries up all the rivers.Bashan and Carmel wither; The blossoms of Lebanon wither. 5 Mountains quake because of Him, And the hills dissolve; Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence, The world and all the inhabitants in it.

These describe the God who is about to bring judgment on Ninevah…but these things do not literally take place.

This is prophetic language of judgment…and it is intended to strike fear, call people to repentance, and assure them of their complete destruction.

Then there is Micah 1:3-6 and Micah’s words concerning Jerusalem and Samaria:

3 For behold, the LORD is coming forth from His place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. 4 The mountains will melt under Him, And the valleys will be split, Like wax before the fire, Like water poured down a steep place. 5 All this is for the rebellion of Jacob And for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the rebellion of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? What is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? 6 For I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country, Planting places for a vineyard. I will pour her stones down into the valley, And will lay bare her foundations.

This is prophetic language of judgment…the world of Samaria is going to be dismantled.
But none of this literally happens…”the valleys were not literally split like wax before the fire.”

This kind of language simply says, “The world of the wicked as they knew it is coming to an end.”

Now, go back to Rev. 21:1 and what was it that John saw?

And 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.

He saw the destruction of the world of the ungodly.
Rome’s world came to an end just like Babylon’s and Edom’s, and Judah’s.
This is language of judgment.

But now, if the language of judgment on the ungodly is the destruction of their heaven and earth, what would the opposite be?

Well, it would be language of blessing…speaking of a “new heaven and new earth.”
And that is what you have here in chapter 21.

The world of those who were servants of the beast has been totally dismantled…Rome is destroyed.

And now, a “new heaven and a new earth” comes to be.
It is a new environment, a new state of affairs.
In the new heaven and earth the old oppressors do not exist.
They have been dealt with.
It is a new beginning for the people of the Lord.

So, let’s go through this now and see what John saw. Vs 1 again:

And 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.

The last phrase here: “There is no longer any sea”; if you remember back in chapter 13 the beast was seen as coming up out of the sea.
Well, that won’t happen again.
The Roman world is gone!

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.

This is not a literal city because down in verse 9 we are told that this bride is “the wife of the Lamb.”
And we know from Eph. 5: 22 and following, and 2 Cor. 11:2 that the “bride of Christ” is the church…the saints…the blood purchased of God.

Now, notice, he says that the “new Jerusalem came down out of heaven from God.”

What is being stressed here?

Well, back in chapter 13 the beasts in the chapter came up out of the sea and earth.

Theirs was of human origin.
“New Jerusalem” or the church has it’s origin in heaven.

And notice the phrase: “As a bride adorned for her husband.”

She has just come through a period of great trial and suffering at the hands of the beast.
How does she look? Blood stained? Smoke covered? Sullied?
Not at all.
She has come through her great trial pure and clean.
She has been true to her beloved and her dress speaks of her innocence, loyalty, and joy.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them,

Several places in scripture the church is spoken of as the dwelling place of God. (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:20ff; 1 Peter 2: 5)
What you have here is God coming down among His people.
And what you are being told here is that God is not ashamed of His people.
He is willing to be called their God, and not only willing, but pleased.
His people have valiantly remained loyal throughout their fiery ordeal with Rome.

4 …and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away. “

This has reference to the past troubles they had endured.

This reassurance has been made before in the scriptures.

In Isaiah 14:3, speaking of the pressures from Babylon, Isaiah says, in reference to Israel, that God: will give you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved,

Isa 65:19, God says: “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people;

And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.

Isa 30:19 God assures His people that he will take care of them and look what he says:

O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.

In Isaiah 35:10 He tells the Jews that if they would accept the Messiah that: They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Then in Isaiah 25:8 we have a prophecy of God’s going to punish Israel’s enemies and in the process of speaking about it Isaiah says: He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;

In each of these situations God is talking about removing Israel’s enemies and taking away the reproach suffered at the hands of those enemies.

And that is what is being said in Revelation 21: 4.
The enemies of God’s people manifested in the Roman Empire have been taken away…and so too has the hardship suffered at the hands of Rome.

Rev 21:4 and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death;

Death has been personified in this book as an enemy of God’s people.
It was used by Rome against His people.
But now that Rome has been defeated…so too has Rome’s use of death.
Rome will martyr no more.

…there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.

Good news for those who have remained faithful through out the ordeal under Rome.
The oppressor’s gone…and the future is secure no matter what.

Rev 21:5 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.”

This was not just talk.

He who sits on the throne is “faithful and true.”
And all of this is being said to lead them to make the decision which He calls them to make.
He has declared what is about to transpire.
Now they must make up their minds
They must choose if they are going to be faithful to Him…or follow the beast.
But before they choose they should consider the following.

6 And He said to me, “It is done. (The things He has been speaking of…the destruction of Rome…and a new state of things afterwards…are as good as done.) I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. (He is the beginning of the judgment on Rome and He is the end of the judgment on Rome.)

Now, notice the call to decision in the next couple of verses. They must decide…and so do each of us: I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7 “He who overcomes shall 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.”

A commitment must be made.

Those who are too afraid (of Rome and the serpent) to make that commitment will suffer utter defeat with the rest of the ungodly.

What will it be for you?