Last week, in chapter 20, we were told of the millennial kingdom where Jesus would come to Earth and reign for 1,000 years. We discussed whether this is to be taken literally or metaphorically. Different people have different opinions. Personally, I believe that we should assume 1,000 years means 1,000 years “unless there is clear reason or evidence to do otherwise.”[i] But I may be wrong. One day we will know for sure.
We also talked about the fact that there will be those born during the millennium who will appear on the outside to be followers of Christ, but the truth is, their hearts are never given to Him. When Satan is released at the end of the millennium, those who have not been saved will be sent to the lake of fire with Satan and all the other unbelievers. What remains is an earthly kingdom with only Jesus and His followers.
So what happens next?
Revelation 21:1 NIV “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.”
The original Greek word for “new” that was used in this verse is kainon. Strong’s 2537:” Fresh, new, unused, novel. Of uncertain affinity; new”[ii]
The word is used only 10 times in the Bible. One of the more well-known verses that it’s found in would be Ephesians 4:24 NIV “and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
We can interpret Revelation 21:1 as John saw a new and unused heaven and a new and unused earth.
A new earth makes sense, but why a new heaven?
2 Corinthians 12:2 NIV gives us some insight. “2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.” There are other references throughout the Bible regarding “heavens”. It started with Genesis 1:1 NIV “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Notice the word heavens is plural. The simple explanation is that the sky, what we see, is the first heaven. The second heaven is what we refer to as outer space and is home to the sun, moon, stars, planets, etc. The third heaven is the dwelling place of God, Jesus, and the angels.
Ephesians 2:2 calls Satan the prince of the power of the air, meaning the atmosphere. Along with the earth, the atmosphere, or the first heaven, has been populated with evil, rebellion, and sinfulness. Hence the need for a new and unused heaven and earth.
Several Bible verses in the Old Testament speak of a new heaven and earth. One example is Isaiah 66:22 CEV “I also promise that you will always have descendants and will never be forgotten, just as the new heavens and the new earth that I create will last forever.” The New Testament speaks of it as well. 2 Peter 3:13 NLT “But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.”
A great question would be: How will this take place? In our finite way of thinking, there are only two ways this could be accomplished. Either our existing Earth and atmosphere will be renovated, cleaned up, and sanctified or they will be destroyed and re-created.
Dr. David Jeremiah’s opinion is this. “Out of this purged mass of God’s creative work, He will reshape, He will remake. H will re-create all of the heavens and this earth. There will be no destruction of what God has made. It is a renewal. It is a renaissance. It is a regeneration. It is a re-creation.”[iii]
What we do know for certain comes from, again, 2 Peter. “ 7 But God has also spoken his word to say what will happen to the world in a future time. The sky and the earth that we see now will continue for a time. But God is keeping them until the day when he will destroy them with fire. On that day he will judge all people. He will destroy the people who have turned away from him.” (2 Peter 3:7 EASY)
“10 The great day of the Lord will suddenly happen. That will surprise people, like when someone comes to rob them. There will be a very loud noise in the sky. The whole sky will go away. Fire will burn the whole universe and it will destroy everything. The earth and everything that people have made will then become clear.
11 Certainly, God will destroy everything in this way one day. So think about how you should live now. You should be the kind of people that God is happy about. You should show that you belong to God. 12 Yes, you should continue to obey God while you are waiting for Christ to return. God has chosen that day. Try to live in a way that will make that day come soon. On that day, fire will burn the whole sky. The sky will no longer be there. Heat will destroy the universe. 13 But God has promised to make a new sky and a new earth. That is what we are waiting for. That will be a home for everything that is good and right.” (2 Peter 3:10 EASY)
That’s a good thought for us today. Are our lives just adding more trash to the burn pile?
Before we move on to more of Revelation 21, let me ask a scientific question. What happens to water when it’s exposed to heat? It evaporates, right? Did you notice the end of verse 1? There will be no more sea. Whether the fire consumption and the disappearance of the sea are related or not, I don’t know. I just find it interesting.
Before you beach babes start to panic, “’No more sea’ does not mean ‘no more water.’ It simply indicates that the new earth will have a different arrangement as far as water is concerned. Three-fourths of our globe consists of water, but this won’t be the case in the eternal state. In John’s day, the sea meant danger, storms, and separation (John himself was on an island at the time!) so perhaps John was giving us more than a geography lesson.”[iv]
Other than the sea, other ordinary things to us will be omitted in the new earth.
No more death, mourning, crying, or pain. (verse 4)
No temple. (verse 22)
No sun and no moon. (verse 23)
No more nights. (verse 25)
You may notice the first part of verse 4. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.” This is a great question for debate. I’m assuming most of us have always assumed that currently there are no tears in Heaven. If you ask someone if there is crying in Heaven, they’re going to say, “No” and then they tell you, “He will wipe every tear away.” They are quoting Revelation 21:4 which, chronologically, takes place after the Rapture, after the Judgment Seat of Christ, after the Tribulation, after the 1,000 years reign, and after the Great White Throne of Judgment. That verse is part of the prophetic message of Revelation that hasn’t occurred yet.
Let me share with you a verse that has prompted me to take a closer look at God’s Word over the past few months. Back in the 5th chapter of Revelation, John sees the scroll sealed tight with seven seals. “3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look in it. 4 And I cried and cried because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even to look in it.”
“5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Stop crying. Look! The Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has been victorious so that He may open the scroll and its seven seals.” Revelation 5:3 HCSB
Some will argue that John was not actually in Heaven, but rather in some sort of trance or carried in vision by the Spirit. Revelation 4 tells us that he hears a voice sounding like a trumpet that tells him to “come up here” and then John tells us he is instantly “in the Spirit”. Does that clarify that John was at least spiritually in Heaven? Who knows? I like to think that he was.
Here’s a thought. Many verses in the Bible tell us God has emotions and those emotions are mostly in response to our actions.
Anger – Jeremiah 8:19
Hate – Proverbs 6:16
Grief – Genesis 6:6
Sorrow – Psalm 78:40
Jealousy – Exodus 20:5
Joy – Jeremiah 32:41
Compassion – Psalm 135:14
Love – Jeremiah 31:3
God’s emotions, unlike ours, are never sinful or out of place. He isn’t controlled or entrapped by His emotions like we can be. If God experiences emotions in Heaven, is it possible that we who are made in His image will also experience emotion?
“Consider this: if God wipes away every tear after the new creation, that means that tears could still be possible up to that point. It is conceivable, though by no means sure, that there are tears in heaven leading up to the new creation. Tears in heaven would seem out of place, but here are a few times in which we could speculate that tears might fall, even in heaven:
1) At the Judgment Seat of Christ. Believers will face a time when “the quality of each person’s work” will be tested (1 Corinthians 3:13). He whose works are found to be “wood, hay, or straw . . . will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames” (verses 12 and 15). Suffering the loss of a reward will certainly be a sad time—could it be a time of tears in heaven, as we realize how much more we could have honored the Lord? Perhaps.
2) During the tribulation. After the fifth seal is broken, the persecution of believers during the tribulation intensifies. Many are slain by the beast or Antichrist. These martyrs are pictured in Revelation 6 as being under the altar in heaven, waiting for the Lord to enact vengeance: “They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’” (verse 10). These souls are in heaven, but they still remember the occasion of their death, and they seek justice. Could these individuals be shedding tears as they keep vigil? Perhaps.
3) At the eternal doom of loved ones. Assuming that people in heaven have some knowledge of what happens on earth, it might be possible that we will know when a loved one rejects Christ and passes into a godless eternity. This would be distressing knowledge, naturally. During the Great White Throne Judgment, will those in heaven be able to see the proceedings, and, if so, will they shed tears over those who are damned? Perhaps.
Again, we have been speculating. There is no biblical mention of tears in heaven. Heaven will be a place of comfort, rest, fellowship, glory, praise, and joy. If there are tears, for the reasons listed above, they will all be wiped away in the eternal state.”[v]
God’s Word is so full of mystery and yet He chooses to reveal things through His Spirit to those who are willing and thirsty to hear. I’m afraid that many of us are quite content with what we think we know and are satisfied with what we’ve been taught our entire lives that we don’t seek His Word for new revealings. We take what others have taught us or what we’ve always assumed and don’t read His Word with anticipation of learning anything fresh and new. God’s Word is living and active! (Hebrews 4:12)
1 Corinthians 2:9 GNT ” 9 However, as the scripture says,
“What no one ever saw or heard,
what no one ever thought could happen,
is the very thing God prepared for those who love him.”
10 But it was to us that God made known his secret by means of his Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, even the hidden depths of God’s purposes.”
Revelation 20:2 NIV “ 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
If we think back to Genesis, specifically Genesis 3:8 NIV “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day”, where was God? He was in the garden with Adam and Eve! “Then He dwelt with Israel in the tabernacle and later the temple. When Israel sinned, God had to depart from those dwellings.”[vi] Then Jesus came and lived on Earth among the human race, and when He departed, the Holy Spirit came to dwell within God’s people. Verse 3 of Revelation 21 tells us that God’s dwelling place will be among us and that He will be with us! Which, if you think back to Genesis, that’s what He wanted all along!
There’s almost an overall summation of Revelation 21 given in verses 5 & 6. Revelation 21:5 NIV ”5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.
Going all the way back to our first lesson in Revelation, we talked about how the word revelation means “unveiling”. This book is written to unveil or reveal Jesus. The major message of Revelation is “the glorious victory of Jesus Christ over all His enemies.”[vii]
If you look back to the beginning, in Revelation 1:8, Jesus identifies Himself to John as the Alpha and the Omega. Here, near the end, in chapter 21, Jesus reveals His identity once again as the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is self-existent and there is nothing beyond Him.
What God has planned for us is the end of what we’ve always known and the beginning of what He’s always wanted for us.
[i] Study Guide for Revelation 20 by David Guzik (blueletterbible.org)
[ii] Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (biblehub.com)
[iii] After the Rapture by Dr. David Jeremiah
[iv] Be Victorious by Warren W. Wiersbe
[v] Will there be tears in heaven? | GotQuestions.org
[vi] Be Victorious by Warren W. Wiersbe
[vii] Wiersbe Bible Study Series: Revelation
Beacons of Light 