Sermon Tone Analysis

We are now in the last two chapters of Revelation, and these are perhaps some of the most beautiful pictures in all of Scripture that we’re about to see.

I don’t know how anyone can read these verses in light of their own sinfulness and just weep at the beauty of His grace for us.

I’m excited to get into some of these things with you.

Hear now the word of the living God:

Pray

So we see here some really beautiful things.

We see the hope of everyone who trusts in Christ throughout all of history fulfilled in this passage.

But we also see a warning that Jesus wants us to take very seriously.

As we get into this, let me talk for a moment about the word “new”.

discuss νέος and καινός /babies and cars

This is a kainos heavens and earth.

In the same way that you are new now, the world will be new then.

The curse of sin will be lifted and creation will be as it was intended to be.

And the sea will be gone.

Remember this is a symbol.

This does not mean there are no oceans in heaven.

This means there is no chaos or evil in heaven.

The guiding hand that has moved throughout history will be seen and all people will glorify him.

Everyone will bow.

Everyone will worship.

Everyone will celebrate.

Everyone will rejoice!

This is redemption language.

Christ did not just die for us.

He died for the earth.

He died to remove the curse.

It will be purified and redeemed.

It will be new.

This is the fulfilment of Romans 8:

If God had to completely start over, Satan won in some sense in the Garden with is rebellion.

But God undoes all the work of Satan through what he accomplished on the Cross.

Chaos and evil are gone.

Banished forever.

That means no more death.

No more cancer.

No more asthma.

No more arthritis.

No more heart issues.

No more allergies.

No more headaches or chronic soreness, or back pain.

No more broken bones.

No more colds.

No more addiction.

No more anxiety.

No more depression.

No more stress.

No more sickness of any kind!

Everything in the face of the Father will be set right!

And God will dwell with us!

And I’ll finally have the answer to the question that I’ve asked since I read Genesis 3:8- “What does the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day sound like?”

What songs does God sing as he walk?

“There is none like me”? “I am mighty to save”?

“I don’t have to imagine”?

But seriously, right now, we do not have eyes to see our God and live.

In our sinfulness, if we see our God, we will die.

But we will receive new bodies that are sinless and eyes to behold the incomprehensible God, and we will not die, and no more will our souls cry out with longing the phrase, “WHERE ARE YOU, LORD?”

He will be right there face to face.

See, there’s this shout FROM THE THRONE declaring that God will now live with us.

Who is shouting?

God.

Do you think that people are the only ones longing for that day?

No.

The God of the present tense is looking forward to that day with longing.

He’s making you new, and is longing to live eternally with you face to face.

He will live with us in the same way that Jesus lived with us during his ministry on earth.

It’s the same word and the same author!

And God, the source of everything will himself supply you with everything you could ever want in His presence.

There won’t be any more money.

There won’t be any debt.

There won’t be houses that we have to pay to maintain.

There won’t be any cost.

Everything will be without cost in heaven.

This calls for us to be generous now.

Short talk on giving as a necessity because of the generosity of God.

Everything will be made new.

No more sin.

We will be perfect in the presence of the perfect God.

No more sin or curse or their effects.

I am so excited for that day!!! We’ll talk more about what that might look like when we talk about heaven in a couple of weeks.

I’m looking forward to it.

But there are two things that I really want to emphasize from this passage, and they come in verses 7 and 8. Let’s look at verse 7 first:

Here’s what I want to highlight from this verse: God has no grandchildren, he only has children.

Did you catch that?

God has no grandchildren, only children.

You guys whose parents are Christians, you need to know this.

You don’t become a follower of Jesus just because your parents are.

You must follow Jesus for yourself.

You need to make your own commitment and have your own reasons for believing.

You must be ready to give a defense for the hope that you have.

Because as you leave home, you will be confronted with arguments that might sound compelling.

Do you have an answer for them, or do you have some work to do?

God has no grandchildren.

You don’t get to go to heaven on borrowed faith.

“Authentic faith cannot be inherited.

When Christianity is viewed in this way, intelligent and energetic young men and women will undoubtedly reach a point where they question the truth of Christianity and, when challenged, will abandon this “inherited” faith that they cannot defend.

They might begin to associate with peers who are unbelievers.

In this company, they will find themselves unable to intelligently respond to objections to Christianity with which they are confronted.

Had they really known what they believe and why they believe it, these kinds of encounters would not shake their faith one bit.”

Here’s what this means, you guys: You need to be asking questions.

Statistics say that you’re going to fall away from the faith when you graduate high school and leave your parents’ house.