Revelation 21:1-6a
January 4th 2009
"After Life"
In the book of Revelation John gives us a vision of what the end of time will look like as well as the beginning of eternity. He gives us a vision of what will happen when this heaven and earth is ended in the sense that it is completed. The world began in a series of 7 and in Revelation it ends in a series of 7.
There are 7 churches involved on this earth followed by 7 Seals, 7 Trumpets and then 7 bowls of wrath. The overarching story of the Bible is that God brought this Heaven and Earth into existence and one day God will be ending it, or completing it. What God started when he said “Let there be light” he will bring to completion and John sees it in his vision and declares it when he writes, “Then I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth for the first heaven and earth had passed away….”
At the beginning of Chapter 21 we are given a glimpse of “After Life.” What is to come after God ends or completes this creation that we occupy. As my mom loves to say, “All good things must come to an end, so that other good things can begin.” This world that we live in, where the effects of sin are so evident, in that there is sickness, pain, death, mourning and tears, will come to an end and there will be a completely new heavens and earth.
In these verses from Revelation we see 4 things that we will find or experience in the “After Life”, but first some other comments.
Last week I spoke about how we as Christians do not believe in “reincarnation”; except in the sense of the “resurrection of the dead.” All who are mentioned in Chapter 21 and beyond to the end of the book are those who have been resurrected from the dead. These are the ones who will have received their new perfected bodies.
Now the first thing we find in these verses is that the “New Heaven and Earth” is totally new. It is not this earth and universe renewed, or rejuvenated, it is a totally new creation.
Well in the new heaven and earth it says that there “won’t be any sea”. Not that there won’t be any water for it speaks of there being a “river of life”, but the sea was seen as a place of fear and a place where evil lurked, so that in the New Heaven and earth it is saying there will be no place for fear or evil to hide. All the effects of sin will be gone.
Now verse 2 says, “I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” The New Jerusalem is the church. It is Zion. It is the Church that has been completed or perfected and that is why it is described as “a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”
Now what is confusing here is that the word “heaven” is used to describe two things. First, “heaven” is the spiritual place or state of being our souls go on our death. It is where Jesus is. Remember “we die once and then there is the judgment and for Christians that is the “Bema” Judgment, the judgment of “well done good and faithful servants.” It is from that “heaven” that God sends down the New Jerusalem.
Now the “New Heaven and Earth” refers to a new physical heaven and earth, a new creation, a new universe or created order that will have stars and planets etc where we will live eternally. The “heaven” that we go to on our death is then in a sense an intermediary place. I like to refer to it as Paradise. From Paradise the gathered and resurrected church will descend and it, and everyone in it will have been perfected by God. Paradise is in a sense a bridge from this world to the world to come, the “After Life.”
Now who populates this New Jerusalem? It is populated by the faithful righteous from the Old Testament and all the believers in God as revealed in Jesus Christ. The faithful righteous and others from the time before Christ will be present in the New Jerusalem because as 1 Peter 4:6 says, ‘Christ descended to the dead and preached the gospel to them too’. Those that responded ascended with him at his resurrection to Paradise and await the completion of this world to enter the “After Life” the world to come.
Now the second major thing that we will experience is that “The consummation of the Christian hope (will be) supremely social. It is no flight of the alone (human beings) to The Alone (a solitary God) but life in the redeemed community of heaven.” Mounce p. God is and has always been relational. God has always been Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God has always been in fellowship and desires that same depth of fellowship for us that we will experience in the After Life. We will be one as Jesus and the Father are one.
“The heavenly city is of heavenly origin. It comes down from God, this is to say, the church is not a voluntary organization created by man, but a fellowship initiated and given by God.” Ibid.
It is no accident you are here. You have been called here today by God. And in the end, after life in the “After Life” you will be there if God calls you to be there and that goes for anyone that will be there. In the end it is God who does all the choosing and he has chosen us to be in a fellowship with each other and with God for all eternity in a new creation.
“The moment after physical death, believers go directly into Christ’s presence in Paradise. There the ‘real you’ as God intended you to be will be restored. You will be conscious and in full command of your faculties, minds, and memories.” Dr Ashbrook We will know each other then as we have been fully known by God.
And ‘Eternity in the after life will not be dull, bland and boring. “Rest” in Biblical terms does not mean lounging around, or rest from activity! Rather it is rest and fulfillment IN the midst of activity. According to Christ’s words in Matthew 25:14-23 the parable of the talents, faithful service here on earth will result in still larger and varied spheres of joyful activity undertaken for Christ in the new heaven and the new earth.’ Dr. Ashbrook We will still have a mission and a purpose in Paradise and in the “After Life”.
Now the third major thing we will experience is this: in the new heaven and earth, in the “After Life,” we will be able to see God face to face and be seen and known without the presence of the Lord destroying us. Verse 3 says, “See the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples and God himself will be with them….”
God will make a new heaven and a new earth to dwell with us directly. The word in our scripture for “dwell” is actually “tabernacle”. God will one day “tabernacle” directly with us. In the OT the “tabernacle” or tent of meeting was just that. It was a place where God came to meet with his people.
There will be no temple in the New Jerusalem because God will be immediately present. God will be in the heart of the city and we will live intimately with him and if you have ever lived with someone for weeks at a time in a tent you will know how close tent living or “tabernacling” can be. I spent 5 weeks in a tent with a tent mate on an archaeological dig.
1 Corinthians 12:12 says, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” We will see God face to face and not be destroyed and we will know ourselves as only God knows us. In fact I believe God will share intimately with us how much we are loved and how lovely we are while standing in God’s very presence.
Now all the effects of sin will be gone as I said before. The effects of sin are sickness, pain, death, mourning, crying and tears. These effects will be gone because all sin will be gone and all sources of sin. The sea will be gone. ‘There will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain for God himself will wipe away every tear.’
Now will there be more peoples in the new heaven and earth than we expect? Yes! Will there be people not there? Yes! Will our or anyone else’s religion save them? No! It is only God as revealed in Jesus Christ who will save us. It is God who saves. It is God who calls. It is God who will call us from the dead and resurrect us. It is God who creates and recreates the Church and brings it, the New Jerusalem perfected down from Paradise.
Now finally what we will experience in the new heaven and earth is that we will have achieved our goal that we held here on earth as believers. God affirms this in that he says, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”
This is God’s way of saying that God not only started time and space and creation. God was there in the beginning. But more importantly when God says “I am the Omega and the end,” God is saying that he, God, is the goal of all creation. God is saying that for us as human beings when we arrive in the new heaven and the new earth we will have achieved the goal of our being by being completely in God’s presence.
In the end when God says, “I will make all things new.” God is making us a promise for the here and the After Life. God is saying that not only will he, at the end of time make all things new, but that if we come to him now, God will make us new.
I have said this before, but I will say it again, heaven and hell or the after life and judgment begin in this life, on this earth. The parable of the sheep and goats we read last week makes that point. When the nations or peoples (note that it is not singular in Matthew 25 or in our scripture today) are judged; they are judged or rewarded for the things they did in this life right now. They choose a path either in accordance with God’s will or against it in how they treated the least of these their brothers, in how they loved one another.
In the end of time we then can expect four major things that our scripture lifts up: first, a New Heaven and a New Earth, second, a deep and complete relationship with one another in the New Jerusalem the wonderful city of God, third, a complete relationship with God and fourth, we will have achieved the goal of our being which is God.
And in the meantime in the here and now, if we believe that God will one day complete this heaven and earth and begin a new one, we can believe that God will do the same miracle in our lives. We can be, as Jesus said, “Born again”, made into new creatures by the water and the Spirit.
Heaven and hell begin in this life and heaven, the “after life” always begins and ends in love. It begins in God’s love for us and grows into our love for one another and God. I invite you to begin or grow in God’s love and love of neighbor so that you will enter a New Heaven and a New Earth.
It begins simply by answering God’s call to believe in Jesus and live that call by loving others. I invite you to do this as we sing our closing song/hymn “Marching to Zion”. You can begin the first step of this march in this world, in this time and in this place.
The rewards are out of this world. If you like to make a physical demonstration of your new faith and new life come forward as we sing and trust in the promises of God and God’s word. Take that first step into the “After Life”!
In Jesus’ name. Amen
