I've selected for our meditation tonight, Revelation chapter 21, verses 1 through 8. I was informed that your pastor has begun a series on Revelation. So I was in fun banter, teased by a couple of the elders that, oh, you're going to tell us the end of the story, to which I responded. Because I always learn you have to have a good, quick, ready quip from my former boss. That if Chris handles the text correctly, you'll hear the end of the story constantly throughout the next several months. Those who know something about the interpretation of Revelation got the joke. But anyway, I'd like to read verses 1 through 8 this evening. This is God's word. Give careful attention to it. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men. And he will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And also, he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And to the thirsty I will give from the spring of water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, for the faithless, the detestable, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death, thus the reading of God's holy word. May he bless it to our hearing, and especially our obedience and understanding this evening. Well, I'd like to open with a quote tonight, a very pithy quote. Some of you will recognize the name, some of you may not. Michael Walzer. And I'll read it twice. It's very simple. First, that wherever you live, it is probably like Egypt. And second, there is a better place, a world more attractive, a promised land. And third, that the way to the land is through the wilderness. Again, first, wherever you live, it's probably like Egypt. And secondly, there's a better place, a more attractive place, a promised land. And third, that the way to that promised land is through the wilderness. Now this evening, as we look at this passage briefly, I would like to make the suggestion that this is the climax of all the Old Testament typology up to this point, especially with regards to the Exodus. There are many allusions to the description of this new consummate creation that we're told about here as the curtain is torn back and we're given a picture into the future that has constant subtle citations and allusions to various Old Testament passages we don't have time to read. But since we're jumping into the end of the Bible tonight, I would like to give you a little bit of context in order to help your minds and your hearts understand this very sublime passage more as we prepare to understand it this evening. First of all, this short section that we're looking at this evening comes in a very important sixth part of Revelation, the last part of the sixth part of the book of Revelation. And the theme of the new creation dominates this chapter all the way up to the end of the book of John here, the apocalypse. But if you have your Bibles open, if you'll look back to help us as we jump into the deep end, so to speak, here. If you look back to the previous chapter, in order to contextualize what God has to say tonight, look at verse 11, for example, where we read, or read, Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it, and from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. Then you have intervening three verses that talk about a cosmic destruction of the entire universe. And so that's the larger picture that we're given here. And then you come back in chapter 21, the verse 1 following, and then all the way up into chapter 22. And the main theme is all about the new creation, that God is going to usher in at the consummation of the ages, where his elect people will be gathered to worship him forever and ever and ever into eternity. And you get various figurative portrayals of the glorified community of believers, like turning a diamond with various facets of how that's portrayed. Now this evening, in order to help you understand the sermon title and why I'm going to make the claim that this is the climax of the New Exodus typology and the Old Exodus typology throughout the scriptures, is that there are all kinds of antecedent allusions to the Exodus and the New Exodus. So let me say what I mean first by the New Exodus. There is one paradigmatic primary salvation category in the Old Testament for how the Hebrews thought about their salvation. They developed, if you will, a whole grammar of talking about salvation, and that can be summed up in one word, which won't come as a surprise to this congregation, namely Exodus. The Exodus was the means by which God saved his people in the Old Testament. But it wasn't nearly the first exodus that God was concerned about in teaching his people. Throughout the scriptures, in the Psalms, in the prophets, especially in the post-exilic literature, what we see is the prophets herald a new day coming when there will be a new Moses who will far exceed the old Moses who brought people out of tyranny in the fiery furnace of bondage. But this agent of a new exodus will come, and he'll have a new creation and a new exodus that will showcase a salvation that far outstrips the old exodus. And of course, then you come to the Gospels, and you see that John heralds the agent of that new exodus, and it's nobody other than Jesus Christ himself, who brings about something greater than Moses perhaps ever saw. He will be a deliverer from the tyranny of sin and from the tyranny of Satan. And he will usher people into a new exodus reality that will far outstrip anything in the old. Now we saw that even when we looked at the prophet Isaiah at the opening, if you were paying attention to the call to worship. Don't look to the former things. In the larger context of that passage, it has to do with the exodus. I'm going to do something new. So instead of bringing you through the sea, I'm going to bring you exiles through the desert, and I'm going to make a new way, and I'm going to lead you now into Jerusalem as your home. And many, many other passages that we don't have time to look at filter into this, especially New Exodus, New Creation passages, Isaiah 65. But it all climaxes to where we get to at this point, with the consummation of all this typology coming to fruition where we see that God ushers in a new creation because the agent of the new exodus has accomplished his work and now the old things are passing away and he's doing something new. That'll give you a little bit of a context. I have three points tonight. The first one, for those of you taking notes, the first one is the cessation of the sea. Now, you know that begins with a C, cessation, okay? I have to explain this a little bit. I don't teach preaching or practical theology. I teach Old Testament. This is the best an Old Testament a prof can do, all right? So the cessation of the C. Secondly, the creation, but not the old creation, the new creation. And finally, the consummation of the ages, the consummation of all things. Now, did you notice this remarkable statement on the first point, cessation of the sea, with which John begins? He says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And my Old Testament colleague who's in the audience is going to be very disappointed about this because there won't be any surfing in heaven. I got a chuckle. I thought, I was told, when you preach at Escondido URC, if it's quiet, everything's good. So, but did you notice this striking statement? I did not understand this statement until about a year and a half ago. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. So if you're going to rightly interpret scripture, you want to ask, well, what does the sea mean to John? And John uses the word sea and the concept of sea in about five different ways in the book of Revelation. And I won't give you all the verses to prove this because I want to keep it short. I like to be invited back occasionally. But this is how John uses the sea. First of all, he talks about it as the origin of cosmic evil. okay chapter 13 and such the beast rises out of the sea secondly he talks about the sea in the book of revelation as a kind of symbol for unbelieving rebellious nations at times this is kind of a stand-in symbol for that and nations that war against god's people in particularly and then thirdly the sea is also the place of the dead if you look in chapter 20 verse 13 you'll see that the sea is the burial place, in that chapter at least, if not others, for the dead. And then fourthly, it's also a location for idolatrous trade practices. Now you've got to be picking up a lot of negative connotations at this point. And finally, it's also used to refer to a literal body of water together with the earth that becomes synecdoche for the entire universe synaptic is the part for the whole so sometimes the sea is used together with the earth to talk about the whole cosmos i think all of these things are influencing john to one degree or another when he writes this the sea is no more but then if i can ask you to stretch your minds on this sunday evening a little more ask yourself what the concept of the sea means throughout scripture from your scripture reading and listening to preaching for years on end and what ought to be triggering in your mind is the sea is often the place of chaos and evil. It's often the barrier that keeps people from going through the sea, out safe on the other side so that they might worship God at the mountain. It's a pattern over and over and over again in scripture. So when you read C as a biblically informed Christian, you ought to often be thinking chaos, evil, wickedness, barrier to worship the true God at his throne on the mountain, time and time again. And so when we look here and we see that Christ's work is culminating in this description by John in the new heavens and the new earth, and John says, the sea is no more. It's done. Time and time again, whether it was Noah, whether it was Moses, you needed a leader to take at people and lead them in the train through the body of water, which was the barrier to the mountain where you worship the presence of God. A trial by ordeal, if you will. Safe out on the other side for the purpose of worship. But now John starts out and he says, the sea is no more. There is no longer a barrier for the people of God to worship him in holiness and truth at the heavenly Mount Zion. The sea is destroyed. You no longer have to go through the waters to the mountain for worship. Christ has destroyed the waters. and brought about the new Jerusalem so that people may worship him in spirit and truth forever and ever and ever. So then you would say, well, what happens with the destruction of the sea? Well, the disappearance of the sea provides the opportunity, if you will, the doorway for a renewed cosmos, for a renewed new creation to come to the fore. And this second Exodus motif clearly emerges, if you look down at verse 7, John summarizes the inheritance theme. That's the theme throughout the Old Testament. That you would have a land, that you would be able to not just stop at the mountain, that you would be a whole corporate people worshiping God, turfed in a particular place. And the writer of the Hebrews tells us Canaan was nothing. That all points forward to a new Joshua who would lead us to a heavenly Jerusalem and a heavenly land, right? That's the typology. So when you look at verse 7, notice what John says there. He says, the one who conquers will have inherited this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. And in verse 6, and he said, it is done. I am the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of water of life without payment. Well, what are all these things, this, which John is referring to? Well, it includes the dwelling place with God, just like we've read. It's very simple. Absence of tears, no more pain, no more sorrow, no more disease or fear of disease or wondering about prognosis of disease, it's all gone. And the consummate blessing, lest we get ahead of ourselves, it's this family relationship that God will create. He will be our God, and we will be his people forever and ever and ever. Did you notice the parallelism in verse 1 and verse 4? In other words, the destruction of the sea, what happens? Verse 1, the sea will be no more. Look what is preceded by that. For the first heaven and the first earth have passed away. Look at verse 4. Death shall be no more, which is followed by, and the former things have passed away. And neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. In other words, I'm trying to get you to see something you can only imagine in your mind's eye by the help of the Holy Spirit. This radical foundational statement that the sea will be no more necessarily entails you ask another question, what's on the other side? What does that open the door for? A new heaven and a new earth, a new world. That's what John's describing to you. Something nobody has fully experienced yet. So there's the cessation of the sea and we move on to the creation, that is the new one. So what is this new world once the sea has been destroyed? Well, the new world is None other than the holy city, the new Jerusalem, if you look at what John says here. But this new city imagery is woven together now as you begin to plow through the passage with other imagery and concepts as well, marital imagery. So what's the new creation going to be like? You see, John's accommodating. He wants to expand your minds and lift your souls to see what your inheritance is going to be. And so he uses a common thing that most of us are familiar with, namely a wedding. And here's the bridegroom celebrating in festive apparel at the presentation of the bride. Now, many of us have been to weddings. Some of us were at a wedding just a couple weeks ago with a URC ordnance potential and another daughter of a URC congregation. And there, as often happens, after the bride gets all gussied up, You know, and all the men are up front. She's brought down, and everybody stands, and you can look around, and the number of dry eyes, you can count her less than the number of wet eyes because of the beauty of the bride. So verse 2 introduces the blood-bought bride of Christ, the church of Christ, and here she comes in all her beauty so that they may have intimate communion and union and consummate the marriage. And you say, well, where do these come from? These come right out of the Old Testament, too, these images, this intimate union and communion. Probably Leviticus 26, interestingly enough, and Ezekiel 37. You'll remember that Leviticus 26 is a passage that talks about covenant stipulations and sanctions. Now, sanctions aren't just negative, like what we do against North Korea. They're either negative or positive. Depending upon the fulfillment of conditions. In Leviticus 26 verses 11 to 12, this is what God said in looking towards the future to encourage the people. I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you, and I will walk among you, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Now there's a covenant formula that's shot through the Hebrew Bible. That's the goal. I will be your God and you will be my people we're in the dialect and grammar of John and you will be my bride what a great statement of accommodation especially embodied in a passage that's full of curse language if the people don't obey and then you turn to Ezekiel 37 most of you will remember Ezekiel 37 it's all about the dry bones in generality the whole first half of Ezekiel is about do the law and you shall live and you will also inherit the land don't do the law and you will be cursed and your enemies will be the head and you will be the tail and the worst curse is you will be extirpated that is kicked out of the land well it's obvious when you get through 31 32 33 chapters of Ezekiel the people don't do the law and they're exiled because of it but the great glorious gospel news on the heels of the latter part of Ezekiel is what the people could not do God by his initiative will do what their king David could not accomplish David's greater son will accomplish what the people in chapter 37 because they're just dead bones cannot do God by his spirit will breathe into them new life and resurrect them and accomplish that goal of dwelling in their midst. I will make a covenant of peace with them. Ezekiel 37. And it shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them and I will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. And my dwelling place shall be with them and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. Now that would have been striking to ancient ears, whether in Ezekiel's time or Moses' time, or even in New Testament times as those biblical passages were read. Who gets to dwell in God's presence in each of those ages I just mentioned? Only a handful. Only the Zadokai priests. Not all you common lot, the Hoi Palloi. Only the selected priest gets to go into the Holy of Holies, gets to go into the presence of God. But now they're reading this and they're saying, that's gone. I will be your God, you will be my people, we will dwell in intimate union and communion, just like a husband and a wife. That would have been striking. And that's what's taught about the new creation here in the new earth. But having looked at the cessation of the sea and then the new creation, now we look at the consummation of all things. And people of God, here's where the real meat comes forth. Look at verses 5 to 8. And there it says, He who is seated on the throne. Now John begins to portray God as speaking directly to you and to his original audience. Now that might not strike you at first, but this is only the second time in the entire book of John, the Apocalypse, where God is presented as a direct speaker. So that ought to wake us up on Sunday night and say, He has something important to say. So from verse 5 through what follows, God is trying to address you directly to drive these things home in your mind and your heart. And I think that's the significance of why it's portrayed that way. God wants us to hear that he himself wants to write this on your heart and your minds. Now Paul had talked about this kind of thing earlier, a new creation inaugurated. But not a new creation consummated. In 2 Corinthians 5.17, if anyone believes in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. But that's merely the inauguration of it. It's not the consummation of it all. Here, by way of contrast, you see, John is driving home the consummation of all things. The fulfillment of the old exodus, the fulfillment of all of Isaiah's prophecies. The new creation prophecies in a comprehensive manner. And look what he says. These things are faithful and true. Those exact words only repeated one other time. Chapter 22, verse 6, verbatim. Which probably itself is allusion to Daniel 9 and back to Isaiah 65 of the new creation. But God wants you to look forward to this new thing that he's doing and is going to do. Namely, bring about the new heavens and the new earth. And he wants you to know it is for sure to happen. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. It is a fatal complete. It is going to be done. And that's what he says in verse 6. It is done. The only place in John that that occurs, one other place, is in the bowl judgment. And it's all about judgment. But the exact phrase occurs here, second time, and it's all about blessing. God wants to speak to you directly from his throne and say, it is done. This is the climactic nature of the new creation and consummation. And then the next thing that God does is he identifies himself as the Alpha and the Omega. Now that's what we call in literary circles a merism. You express totality by opposites. If my wife says I was sick as a dog with all three of my children when I was pregnant, In other words, I was sick night and day. I was sick all the time. That's what God is doing when he says, I'm the Alpha and the Omega. He's, again, solidifying the foundation and the authority by suggesting and claiming he's the sovereign over the entire universe. He's the beginning and the end. He's the Alpha and Omega. Therefore, you ought to believe what he's saying. He's sovereign over history. He will bring about this new creation. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So, so far in our passage, there's only been general references to who the recipients of these blessings are. But now I want to unpack and tell you who it is. They're the overcomers. Previously, I didn't cite passages, you had to trust me, for my claims. But now, especially for those of you who take notes, I'm going to name some passages, not all. But who are these overcomers that these promises are given to? According to John, those that persevere to the end. They are the ones to whom is promised the tree of life, which is the paradise of God. Chapter 2, verse 7. Chapter 22, verse 2. Who are these overcomers, these conquerors? They are the ones who are included in the new temple of God. Chapter 3, verse 12. Chapter 21, verse 22 and following. Who are these conquerors to whom this new creation is promised? They are the ones who participate in the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven. Chapter 3, verse 12. Chapter 21, 2, which we read. And verse 10, which we did not read of this same chapter. Who are these conquerors who will worship the Lamb forever and ever at his footstool? They are the ones whose names are written in the book of life. Chapter 3, verse 5, chapter 21, verse 27. Who are they? They're the ones who will be given bright garments with bright stones that become luminous, according to John. Chapter 3, 5, 21, 2, 9, chapter 19, 7, and 8, and too many other passages to mention. Who are these conquerors? They're the ones who will reign consummately with Christ, reign with him, beside him. Chapter 2 is where John introduces this, that we will rule with Christ at the end. Chapter 2, verse 11, chapter 21, 7, and 8. But don't miss verse 8. Not so the wicked, the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, the immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars. Church of God, let us not pass over this passage too quickly. It is there to serve even as a warning for the church of God so that we shall not be excluded from the family presence of God. But for those of us in Christ who, by God's grace, undergirding, persevering grace, conquer until the end, overcome until the end by his grace, then we will receive the inheritance that John has described here, The sure promises of David and the accomplishment of the second exodus by David's greater son. And we will receive the full inheritance as adoption as the sons of God. Application, which we do believe and teach, by the way, up the hill for the students that we took an offering for tonight. First of all, this is not to be a literal description of the city of God. nor does it even literally apply to the present-day church. Now, be patient, go with me. Because the church in this age is under affliction, under wilderness wanderings. That's not what we see described here. Not only that, but if we were to read further on, when John asked to see the city that he's being shown in the verses that follow immediately after what we've read, Basically, he's taken to be shown the glorified community of the elect, worshiping God, and go back to the earlier part. This is the New Jerusalem, the gathering of the elect, worshiping God forever and ever. The city of the bride, identified by John. Come, I will show you, verse 9. And then the holy city of Jerusalem, verse 10. So that helps you understand what he's talking about. The dwelling place of God with man. He will dwell with them, they will be his people, and God himself will be their God. Now, when I said this doesn't apply immediately to the president of the church, I meant in a descriptive sense. We deal with death. We deal with the common curse. We deal with all those things about which I was praying tonight, that God would minister to our souls and give us consolation. That won't be the case in the future. But now I want to back up and say it does apply. to you in the present church. Well, how does it apply to you in the present church? God wants you to know tonight, in the present, what's in store for you in the future. He wants you to be so heavenly-minded that you will be earthly good and able to do earthly good. At least for tonight, this is the means of grace to help you persevere in this life, which is sometimes no better than a veil of tears. Now, in my family, I don't know about your family, but in my family, it's really, really, really bad form to give a spoiler alert. You know what a spoiler alert is? You remember, like, what was it, teenagers a year and a half, two years ago, Star Wars came out after being, you know, laden for 20, 25 years? Now, it would have been really bad form if my kids rushed off to go see that movie, and then they came home and talked about who died in the movie and that kind of thing. Before Lisa and I had a chance to go see it. Or this is the kind of person that reads a mystery novel and knows you're going to read the mystery novel and tells you how it's all solved and the criminal's caught and the victims are justified and vindicated at the end before you get a chance to read. That's not cool. That's not God's way. God is the great despoiler. He loves giving spoiler alerts. Because he's a heavenly father who cares for you. And that's part of his means of grace to help you persevere to the end. So he tells you the story. And by saying the story, it doesn't mean it's not history or won't be history. He tells you the end of the story so you might persevere. Tells you everything that's going to happen. So you might keep going. The church of which you are a part is caught up in the greatest drama. the greatest story ever told. Nevertheless, it's beleaguered with afflictions, with heresies, with pressures. In our age especially, to faithfully communicate the gospel is often construed in modern culture as a violent hate crime. But God tells us the end of the story to help us keep persevering. Many of you are familiar with Tolkien's stories, Immortalized in the Movies. Do you remember this part? It's pretty, it'll probably resonate. Sam and Frodo are beleaguered after long travels, trying to throw the ring into the fiery pit of Mordor. Why, to think of it, we're still in the same tale still. It's still going on. Don't the great tales never end? No, they never end as tales, said Frodo. But the people in them come, and they go when their part's ended. Our part will end later or sooner, and then we can have some rest and some sleep, said Sam. All of you who are present here this evening are part of God's very grand story. It's of epic proportions. To call it a story does not imply it's not true, but you're playing a part in a huge mega-narrative. And by way of conclusion, I'd just like to encourage you to say, Occasionally in the scriptures, God steps in as the great despoiler and pulls back the curtain and gives you a glimpse of what is in store for you in the future if you're in Christ. And he's done this, I judge, even this evening in a small way by letting us see the victory of the Lamb over the sea, chaos, evil, over the beast. He's done this in giving us a picture of the new creation in all its glory, the bride of Christ, the consummation in the future, which will happen when he will be our God and we will be his people without interruption. This passage is meant to encourage you to look especially to the future, and it's meant to promote endurance among you God's servants by offering you a glimpse of the victory that awaits you. Shall we pray? Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we do thank you that you allow us, O Lord, especially in worship, called on your Lord's Day to see a glimpse of what awaits us. And Father, there are many things known publicly here about our lives and the difficulties that we have faced, but there's also many things that aren't known. And Lord, we thank you that you give us a glimpse of what you have accomplished through your Son, Jesus Christ. and what is sure to come about. Father, we praise you, and we are very thankful to you for the blessing that you give us in allowing us to see the promised inheritance that awaits us. Oh, help us by your grace, oh Lord, to overcome our afflictions, our frailty, our human shallowness, and help us to set our jaws like flint because of what you have done in the victory that you have accomplished to the end goal. And once again, Father, as you help us to do that and our loved ones to do that, we will give you all the praise and glory, for it is your just due. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen.