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Revelation 21:1-8
Brighter Future

Title: Brighter Future

Text: Revelation 21:1-8

Key Point: Empty Grave … Endless Hope

Intro: When Walt Disney dreamed of building Walt Disney World in Florida, almost everyone thought he was out of his mind. The land was swampy. The project was enormous. The technology didn’t exist yet. And the vision was so big that even Walt himself didn’t live to see it completed.

He died in 1966 — five years before the park opened.

On opening day in 1971, Walt’s brother Roy Disney stood before the crowd to dedicate the park. A reporter approached Roy and said:

“It’s a shame Walt didn’t live to see this.”

Roy paused, smiled, and replied:

“He did see it. That’s why it’s here.”

  • Empty Grave … Endless Hope
  • Tensions:
    • All humanity can feel the tension that there is something wrong with this world
    • As followers of Jesus, we know what is wrong and we have the solution, we have hope for today, yet… we still live in a broken world.
  • Revelation is a peak behind the curtain. A message of hope to people who have the hope of Jesus, are getting some stuff wrong, but not everything, either way the world is coming down on them hard. And God gives a message of hope to his people, a peak behind the curtain.

1Then 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. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And 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. 4‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5He 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.”

6He 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. 7Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

 

Look at Jesus’s 5 point sermon in 2 verses

  1. “I am making everything new!”
    1. Both creative and redemptive
      1. Heaven and earth one place – a new heaven and a new earth
      2. Every Christian is a new creation – this is a model of redemptive creation – 2 Cor 5:12 – New Creation old has gone new has come
    2. Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true
      1. Emphasizing importance – Grave importance
      2. Modeled throughout scripture
        1. Ex 17 – write it on a scroll of remembering
        2. Ex 34 – Write down this covenant
        3. Deut 31 – Write down this song and teach it as a witness
        4. Isaiah and Jeremiah – Write things down as a witness
      3. It is done – History of Salvation echoing back through time and yet. It is over ant yet … beginning
        1. Gen 2:2 – Finishing Creation – concluding – Nothing left to do - כָּלָה
        2. John 19:30 – It is Finished – completed – fulfilled – the checklist is complete - τελέω (Teleō)
        3. Revelation 21:6 – becoming – It has come into existence it is born - γίνομαι (Ginomai) – When we give our lives to Jesus, something is done and something is begun
      4. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End
        1. God is sovereign over all
      5. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life
        1. Tree of Life – Genesis
        2. Story of the Woman at the Well – John 4
        3. Drink from the one in whom is LIFE!

In Jesus is LIFE that is why we can say

Empty Grave … Endless Hope

Yet for the 7 churches of Revelation and the Church for today the hope for tomorrow is our hope today. Because of the Empty Grave we can:

  1. Rest – Because chaos is not final
    1. 1Then 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
    2. Lack of sea is a picture of God’s sovereignty
    3. Reflection back to Gen 1
  2. Hope – Because we do have victory in Jesus
    1. 7Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
    2. These verses are addressing the issues that the 7 churches were experiencing at the beginning of the letter and throughout
  3. Look to the future
    1. “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. 4‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
    2. Fulfillment of the promises from the OT
      1. Lev 26:11-12 – I will put my dwelling place among you, … I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.
      2. Jer 31:33 - I will be their God and they will be my people
    3. Restoration to Eden when God walked in the Garden

The True Story of Horatio Spafford After the Sinking of the Ville du Havre

(Documented in ship records, newspapers, and hymn histories)

Spafford’s fortune evaporated in the wake of the great Chicago Fire of 1871. Having invested heavily in real estate along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, he lost everything overnight.

During this time also lost son to scarlet fever.

In 1873, the Chicago lawyer Horatio Spafford “Desiring a rest for his wife and four daughters Spafford planned a European trip for his family in 1873. In November of that year, due to unexpected last-minute business developments, he had to remain in Chicago, but sent his wife and four daughters on ahead as scheduled. He expected to follow in a few days.

“On November 22 the ship was struck by the Lochearn, an English vessel, and sank in twelve minutes. Several days later the survivors were finally landed at Cardiff, Wales, and Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband, ‘Saved alone.’”

All four daughters drowned.

His wife, Anna, survived and was
“Saved alone.”

Spafford immediately sailed to meet her. As his ship passed over the approximate location where his daughters had died, the captain called him to the deck and told him, “This is the place.”

Standing over the waters that had swallowed his children, Spafford began to pen the now famous lines
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

 

Not from denial.
Not from numbness.
But from a hope anchored in a future he could not yet see and yet did see.

He believed in a tomorrow where Jesus would wipe every tear, where death would not have the last word, and where reunion was guaranteed.