Good morning. Today's sermon text is from Revelation chapter 21 verses 1 through 6. Hear the words of the true and living God. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then he who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Shine within our hearts, loving master, the pure light of your divine knowledge, and open the eyes of our minds that we may comprehend the message of your gospel. For you, O Christ, are the light of our souls and bodies. And to you, we give glory together with God, who is without beginning, and your all holy, good, and life-giving spirit now and forever into the end of all ages. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. At our church in Lynchburg, we're following the church calendar through the revised common lectionary. And according to that calendar, we're nearing the end of the longest of the special holiday seasons, which is Eastertide. During the Eastertide season, We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ in specific focus every Lord's Day. This lasts for seven weeks leading up to Pentecost, which is next week. The idea is that we would follow in the footsteps of the disciples as they learned about the weight and the meaning of Christ's resurrection. They sat under his intensive teaching for an additional 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension. followed by a 10-day period of waiting after he ascended into heaven. It was a season of preparation to receive the Holy Spirit in great power and influence. Then they would be ready to face many trials as they went forth to preach the gospel and advance the kingdom. And advance the kingdom they did. When the power of the Spirit came to them, they turned the world on its head. Beginning in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, and we are to follow our fellow soldiers in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. My hope is that we would use this week to prepare our hearts and minds for the upcoming Pentecost festival next week. We should see that Jesus accomplished in his resurrection in such a way that we will be ready for our hands and feet to do the work of spreading his kingdom to the coastlands and bringing him the first fruits of the harvest. The resurrection was the beginning of the new creation. And when Jesus rolled away the stone, he didn't just open the tomb. He opened a new world, a new city, and a new people. We've been invited to live in this new world and to play a key role in building it out. But to do so requires us to catch the vision of where we now belong and what we're working towards. I learned last night that the Kennedys have a family motto, consider the end, is that right? Consider the end. Think about that as I continue. It's exactly what John provides for us in the beginning of Revelation chapter 21. In his vision, he was granted the ability to look beyond the work that God was presently doing and into the finished product. He was granted the ability to consider the end. It's helpful for most people to have an idea of where we're going. If you're going through your tasks one step at a time, only able to see an inch in front of your face, it's tiresome and demoralizing. Has anybody seen the Karate Kid? Daniel wanted to learn karate, but Mr. Miyagi had him waxing the car. Wax on, wax off. The kid was losing his mind and was ready to give up. Obviously, if you've seen the movie, you know he learned what he needed to know by the end, but the process was unnecessarily frustrating for him. He couldn't see the whole picture, and so the lessons were exasperating. But God hasn't left us without the bigger picture. He hasn't made us move around in circles without knowing what it is that we're actually working towards. Even though there are still some aspects of our lives that remain mysterious for us, I'm thankful that God has not left us without a vision. He has made it clear what we're working towards. We have the ultimate and final goal, and he's even given us his son as an example to follow. So what is it that is our goal and our vision? Well, it's a new world, the new heavens and the new earth. And it's described today in our sermon text. You probably read Revelation 21 verse one and see that the old heavens and old earth have passed away. That phrase passed away according to our understanding suggests death. Combine that with a few other verses that sound like they say something similar on the surface, and you end up with an idea that this present world is going to be destroyed with fire and one awesome act of final judgment. But really, what John said when he said passing away, is that the old heavens and the new earth, or excuse me, old heavens and old earth are moving on. Rather than making a statement about life and death, He's using a word that communicates direction. He's saying that the way things used to be have changed and that the heavens and earth are moving in a different direction. But I still haven't answered the question. What direction is that? And what's new about it? To answer that question, let's look at the last phrase in verse one. John said, there is no longer a sea. It seems odd that the new creation, the new direction of the earth is simply that the water will be dried up and the fish and sea creatures are all going extinct. Unless, of course, that isn't what he meant at all. Scripture is full of parables and symbolism regarding the sea and the fish and the dragnets. So if you take a broad overview of the sea throughout scripture, and if you remember that Revelation is a highly symbolic and highly Old Testament dense book, you will come to a very different conclusion. John is not talking about more dry land and less sea creatures. Instead, you'll find that the sea represents chaos. It's the abode of dragons like Leviathan. It's full of violence and rage. It roars and stirs up tempests. It's a brutal and savage character that whips up waves to crash against God and his people, representing all the hostile nations of this world. But if you follow me to Isaiah, you'll see that he also speaks of a new heavens and a new earth. And in it, the Lord says through him that the nations who did not bear his name and who practice every abominable thing will be sought after and they will be called by his name. The former things will not be remembered. The heir of Judah will make a way for rejoicing and gladness, even in the foreign lands. The nations will come to him to nurse, to bounce on his knee, and to be comforted as a mother comforts her child. There will be brothers suckling together from the farthest coastlands who had not previously even heard of the glory of Yahweh. So, on the one hand, the sea represents hostile nations and God's enemies. On the other hand, we see that the nations will be converted. Therefore, when John says there is no longer a sea in the new heavens and new earth, it seems that he has in mind that the enemies of God will no longer exist. For sure, some of them will be put to the sword, but many will find themselves among his chosen people. In either case, the enemies will have vanished. The sea will be no more. There will be true and abiding peace on earth with no more dragons, No more chaos, no more violence. This is one of the reasons we know that this section of Revelation is still in our future. Lord, help us if what we have right now is already the earth with no sea. Instead, the earth with no sea is what we're working towards and what we hope to behold one day. Now, as I say that, I suspect most of you are probably on the same page already. Of course, we hope for the day when the enemies of God are no more. Of course, we hope for the day when there is true peace on this earth. But what John is describing for us does not match our dull, of course attitude that we often have. When John had this vision, he saw the new city coming from heaven and from God. He described it like a bride adorned for her husband. Notice though, he did not say wife, he said bride. Specifically, he used the word nymph, which means a young, beautiful, fertile woman betrothed to a man, adorned, put in perfect order, just for his good pleasure. For the married men in the room, I hope you understand what's being described. Single man seeking a godly spouse. I pray that the Lord will allow you to one day see this moment soon. Allow me to describe it for you. The organ or the piano starts playing. Here comes the bride. Everybody stands to their feet and faces the back of the sanctuary. There she is standing with her father. She's wearing the most gorgeous dress she'll ever wear. She's got her hair and makeup done to perfection. She's got one of the biggest smiles she'll ever wear with tears of joy on her cheeks. And all of this is just for you, no one else, not now or not ever. The whole audience is smiling and staring until slowly a few people start looking back to the front to see what you're up to. There you are, smiling ear to ear. Maybe you have a few tears of your own. You're so excited and so nervous You forgot to bend your knees and now your ankles and your feet are tingling. You're thinking, oh my, she's beautiful. She is beautiful walking up to me. She's wonderful standing next to me. She's all that I could ever need. She's beautiful and she's a part of me. That's my bride, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, and she's mine. The point is, this is the kind of excitement and emotion asked of you when you think about the new heavens and the new earth. That is your bride coming from God and from heaven. Saints, how many of us have pins and needles in our feet at the thought of it? How many of us are so enraptured by its prospect that we have to consciously remind ourselves to breathe so we don't pass out? How many of us are afraid to blink because we don't want to miss even a fraction of a second? Let's look at it from a different angle. Let's say, for example, that we used to be an ugly harlot caught in adultery and deserving of execution. But instead, our king cleans us up, beautifies us and adorns us with a gown of a royal bride. We go from being a streetwalker to a queen in the palace of a righteous king who not only cleans us up but pledges that we will never be defiled again. Does that evoke any emotions for any of us? Can you cry out that I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh? My soul shall be joyful in my God for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with jewels. Beloved, on the one hand, you are that bride made beautiful and prepared for Jesus, your husband. And on the other hand, in him, you will receive your bride in the blessings of this new heavenly city. There's dual imagery here. You receive the city, but you're also part of the city. In either case, we should be floating at this thought. We ought to be giddy, thinking of the butterflies in our stomach from our wedding day. John says at that moment there will be a great voice from the throne making the pronouncement, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. I now pronounce you husband and wife. Your veil has been raised, your vows have been recited, and your father has given you to your husband. You have been blessed to dwell in his house for the remainder of your days where he will shelter you and protect you. He will lead you and provide all that you need in his undying love for you. And you will serve him and submit to him. You will have a proper fear for him and worship him. You will use your skills and your energy to be fruitful for him, producing much fruit and building up his home and his sanctuary. This is not a fictional fairy tale, but you will live happily ever after. For all the blessings of obedience that Christ has earned on your behalf will be accessible to you. The rain will come in its season, the land will be fruitful and productive, You will eat until you're satisfied and dwell in safety. When you lie down, there will be none to make you afraid, for your husband's sword will have rid the land of all evil beasts and all enemies. Your husband who looks on you favorably will make you fruitful and multiply you, and he will confirm his covenant with you and be your God. In tabernacling with men, he will have fulfilled all promises. The greatest longing of the human heart will be realized. We will finally be basking in the presence of our Lord day and night as a honeymoon that never ends. And the ransomed of Yahweh shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Beloved, look at all that will go away when everything has been made new. No more tears, no more death, no more mourning or crying or pain. Think of it. When you were a kid, maybe you fell down a lot and sometimes it hurt and made you cry. Mom and dad might've been there to pull you off the ground, pick you up and brush you off. When you were really little, maybe they kissed your wounds and the episode probably ended with an encouraging word and a loving hand to dry off your face. As I'm seeing with my rambunctious little boy back there, this scene can happen on repeat every few minutes. But when your God pulls you off the pavement, when he dusts the gravel and dirt off your wounds, when he speaks to you with encouragement and dries your tear-streaked face, there will never be a repeat. Whatever it is that we can't see or comprehend right now will have been answered. The great sadness we feel from untimely losses and tragedies will be wiped away. Somehow, he will turn it all into songs of rejoicing. So be still, my soul, when dearest friends depart, and all is darkened in the veil of tears. Then shalt thou better know his love and his heart, who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears. Be still, my soul, thy Jesus can repay from his own fullness all that he takes away. Be still, my soul, the hour is hastening on when we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone, sorrow forgot, and love's purest joys restored. Be still, my soul, when change and tears are past, All safe and blessed, we shall meet at last. Oh Lord Jesus, let these words be the song of our hearts as we wait for our wedding day. And as we wait, know that we have confidence in the certainty of all of it. We don't wait as those with no hope and no foundation. John saw in his vision the one who sits on the throne speaking. It's the first time in the book of Revelation, in chapter 21, verse 5, that we hear directly from God the Father on his throne. And in the first time that he speaks, he gives us a great dose of assurance. He says, I am making all things new. He's speaking in an active and present voice as if to say, this is happening right now before your very eyes. I'm currently doing this thing. It's not sitting in the past, nor is it something that I'll get to sometime in the future. God is in progress, bringing it about right now. All that we just talked about, all that we hope and long for is moving ever closer for us. And if that isn't enough, he said, John, write this down. These words are faithful and true. This isn't a myth. This isn't a fable or a moral lesson for suffering people. This shall come to pass. Mark my words, they are true and faithful. They shall not fail. These words are found in him who is the beginning and the end. Before him there was no God and nor shall there be after him. So the promise is secure in the character of an everlasting and unchanging God. Saints, know for certain that your bridegroom is coming for you. For now, he's gone where we cannot yet be. And in his departure, he's left us with the command to love each other in the same manner in which he has loved us. While we wait for our husband, we must practice loving each other. This is how the world will know that we belong to him. This is how we will know that we belong to him. For if we have no love of the brethren, the love of our God is not in us. But if we do love one another, then we know that we love him. And we'll obey his commands so that at our wedding banquet, he will find us faithful and ready. We can start by loving the members of our own household and our own church well. Be merciful and of a generous temperament. Assist one another in good faith and with a hearty will. And do not remove your hand from helping a brother. But loving the brethren does not stop at these walls. We are called to love all the brethren whenever and wherever we encounter them. God has made a people from those who were not his people. They were not formerly called by his name and they come from north, south, east, and west to dwell in his presence as his bride. If you are God's people, then they are your people too. Christ has torn the veil and knocked down the dividing wall. I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this increasing rift in the reform world surrounding this very topic. It's creeping into many churches. through reform sources like certain podcasts and social media platforms. And like most of the dangerous or divisive doctrinal positions that gain traction, it starts with a foundation and a nugget of truth. For example, there's a claim that you should have a proper order for your loves and affections. To be specific, it always starts that you should love your wife more than you love another man's wife. You should love your kids more than you love someone else's kids. There's not much to argue at that point. I assume we agree with that to an extent. But the problem arises when the principle is extrapolated. Where this is leading to in real time is to a strange interpretation of honoring your father and your mother. At that point, the order of loves fans out to loving your biological kin in a special and unique way. And that is then applied to ancestors and contemporaries regardless of their spiritual condition. In the interest of keeping this section short, I'm going to jump to the conclusion. This way of thinking has been driving people towards a sense of superiority that makes spiritual judgments based on biology and ethnicity, rather than being based on a person's covenantal status before Almighty God. So I'm here giving warning to King's Cross. not against the basic and foundational truth underlying all of this, but against the overemphasized and unbalanced expression when there are no guardrails. I pray that this has not overcome any of your members. I pray that should it raise its head, you will wisely and effectively cut it off and stay the division that it will bring. Our God has made his people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. So we have an option. We can respond like Peter did when he first saw his vision of the sheet descending from heaven. We can call something unclean and common which God has declared clean. What that would look like is a preferential pride for our own demographic that causes us to cringe at the thought of bringing others in. Maybe our preferences and comfort around our own group has transformed into a disdain for other groups. This is happening, saints. I hope it's not happening here, but it's infiltrated our church. Defend against it. Your job as a Christian is to bring these people in, as Isaiah says, as an offering from all the nations. Just as the Israelites brought their grain offerings to the house of the Lord, we will bring the whole world to him. So love the brethren, all of them. And next, though it is not the primary point of our passage, you should seek to fulfill these roles of bride and bridegroom in your marriage. The relationship between husband and wife mimics the relationship between Christ and his church. It is a visible representation of the gospel. So husbands, provide what your wife needs through the sacrifice of your labor. Adorn her and make her beautiful and uplift her. As the priest in your home, lift her up to Jesus to be renewed and refreshed and make her fruitful. Wives, in reverent fear for your husbands, build his castle. Be fruitful, submit to him, and serve him as he serves Christ. Use your skills and energy to be productive in support of his mission in life that God has given him. All of us should be confident in our God's promise to bring us to our wedding day. We should meet him with all the excitement and zeal that we had with our own spouse. For all creation will praise him when he makes all things new. Praise ye the Lord on high. From heaven his glory raise. Ye angels in the heights, him let his armies praise. Praise him, ye sun and moon. Praise him, ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens heaven. Praise him, ye waters high. Praise ye the Lord from earth. Ye dragons sing his praise. Ye beasts and cattle sing, all things that creep and fly. Ye princes, judges, and ye kings of earth, ye tribes, young men and maidens fair, old men and children too. Oh let them praise him there his holy name anew. Oh let them praise the name of the Lord for he a horn has raised salvation drawing nigh the praise of all his saints the sons of Israel cry they are his people all near to his grace they are praise ye the Lord most high praise him upon the heights. Amen. Let's pray. Our merciful God, who is pleased to condescend to speak to us through your word, grant us all grace that we may not be mere hearers of your word, but doers also. Give us the grace of your Holy Spirit that we may believe what has been proclaimed to us. May we bring glory and honor to your name and all that we do as you conform us to the image of your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. All of this, gracious Father, we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, your son. Amen.