Basic text: Ap 21. 1-8
This life is just the cover and the cover of our lives. The first chapter begins in the new heavens and the new earth, and each chapter is better than the last. The world seeks utopia, but the perfect earth will come only by the will of the Father. decree, for the salvation of the Son and the regeneration of the Spirit.
- This utopia is the utopia of God.
- V.
- 5:?And he who sat on the throne said.
- Look.
- Am I doing all the new things.
- ?.
Only God can bring perfection. Men turn to education, to better laws to generate utopia, but only God can bring it. God can create a new world and now begins with the work of the Spirit. ?And so, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; Old things have happened; Behold, has any new ones been made?(2Co 5. 17). Today we live between now and not yet, growing in holiness, but fighting sin; but one day everything will be renewed.
John says there will be a new heaven and a new earth, but this new earth is not a totally different earth. The Greek term means new, but that doesn’t mean another. It’s a new world, but not another world. Is Jesus talking about a future era of regeneration (Mt 19:28)?Not something completely different, but a regeneration. It will be a physical world and we will have resurrected and immortal physical bodies.
In this new world, John says that God and Christ will be present everywhere: will the holy city descend and will the tabernacle be with us?God will live fully with us. God’s presence will become palpable and faith will be seen and we will see the king in his beauty, today it looks like through a foggy glass, but there, face to face (Ap 22:4), the angels cover their faces, but we will be as perfect as Christ and we will be able to contemplate God face to face.
Joo then says that “the sea no longer exists”. This can have 5 meanings: (1) there will be no separation from everything we love; (2) Will there be no more danger?Any evil will be on the outside and all good will be inside; (3) Is there no longer instability ?, unpredictability of the sea; (4) Will there be no longer conflict?In and out; (5) Will there be no more suffering, pain, or sin?There are no negatives, but the positives are even better.
Above all these things, heaven is a perfect communion with the Trinitarian God and we will always rejoice in his smile, bathe in his glory, and celebrate in his presence. God is a man who prepares God. The Father prepares eternity, the Son, the place and the Spirit, the people.
V. 7-8: “The victor shall inherit these things, and I will be God, and he shall be my son. But as for the cowards, the unbelievers, the abominable, the murderers, the filthy, the sorcerers, the idylathers and all the liars, your share will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, that is, death second.
As we go through this life, either we overcome the dominion of sin or we are defeated. Yes, we always sin, but sin no longer has dominion over the Christian. The difference between the believer and a non-believer, John Owen said, is that sin embraces the believer, but the disbeliever embraces sin.
If this life is so short, why live in the pleasures of this life?Your little life in this world will determine your eternal destiny. This is extremely serious and eternity is extremely long. Stop hiding from the omnipresent God.