All Things New

A bright river flows down the middle of a wide street in a radiant city, with fruit-laden trees on both banks and people walking, resting, and talking beside the water

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” Revelation 21:3
“Behold, I am making all things new.” Revelation 21:5

Introduction: The Last Page

Last week John saw the risen Jesus walking among his churches and a throne in heaven that was not empty. When no one was worthy to open God’s scroll, he looked for a Lion and saw a Lamb, standing as though it had been slain, and all creation sang his praise.

This week, the last of our year together, we watch evil lose, the dead stand before God’s throne, and heaven come down to earth. It is the last page of the story, and the best one.

Part Three: The Battle and the Victory

The middle chapters of Revelation are the hardest to read. In waves of seals, trumpets, and bowls, they show war, famine, persecution, and God’s judgments on a world in rebellion. They show the dragon, “that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan” (12:9), and the beasts he uses: cruel empires and false religion that demand worship. Christians have understood the timing of these visions in different ways. What everyone can see is the pattern: evil is loud, but it is losing. The believers “have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (12:11).

At the end, heaven opens and Christ rides out as “Faithful and True,” and on his robe is written, “King of kings and Lord of lords” (19:11, 16). Every enemy is defeated, the devil included. Chapter 20 also speaks of a thousand years when Satan is bound and the saints reign with Christ. Faithful Christians read that “millennium” in three main ways: as the present age between Christ’s first and second comings, as a coming golden age of the gospel before he returns, or as a reign on earth after he returns. All three agree on the main point, and you do not have to settle the rest to see it: Christ wins and Satan loses. Then comes the final judgment. John saw “a great white throne,” and “the dead, great and small, standing before the throne.” They were judged by what they had done. “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (20:11–15).

This is sobering, and it should be. Revelation does not pretend that everyone will be saved. Judgment is real, and it is just. Notice that two kinds of books are opened. The books of deeds tell the truth about every life, and on their own they condemn us all. Then there is another book, “the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (13:8). No one’s name is written there because of their record. It is written there because the Lamb was slain for them, and the good they did only shows that they truly belonged to him. Everyone who is saved will be saved by his blood. If you belong to the Lamb, you do not need to dread that day. The city is open to “those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (21:27).

Part Four: All Things New

Then the curtain rises on the last scene of the Bible.

Revelation 21:1–4 “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, 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 man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 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.’”

Notice the direction. Heaven comes down. When believers die, their souls go to be with Christ, but that is not the end of the story. The final hope is a renewed world, with raised bodies, where God lives with his people. When John says the first heaven and earth “had passed away,” he means the old order of sin, curse, and death is gone. God does not throw away the world he made. Paul says “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption” (Rom. 8:21), and here God says, “Behold, I am making all things new” (21:5). The Bible ends where it began, with heaven and earth, a river, and the tree of life. But the garden has grown into a city, filled with people from every nation. Only now there is no serpent, no curse, and no sword guarding the way.

And at the center of it all: “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” On either side grows “the tree of life,” and its leaves are “for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face” (22:1–4).

They will see his face. Adam and Eve hid from God’s presence among the trees. Moses was told no one could see God’s face and live (Ex. 33:20). Now the people of God look on him with nothing between. That is what we were made for.

Thread Watch: The Threads Come Home

The Lamb From the garments of skins in Eden, to Abraham’s “God will provide for himself the lamb” on Moriah, to the Passover and the Day of Atonement, every covering and every sacrifice pointed forward, until John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God,” and Jesus died on the cross. In the original Greek, Revelation calls Jesus “the Lamb” twenty-eight times. The last we see of him, he is on the throne: “the throne of God and of the Lamb” (22:1, 3).

God with his people God walked with Adam in the garden. He lived in a tent in the desert and a temple on Moriah. He “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). He lives in his church by the Spirit. And at the end, “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev. 21:22). The whole new creation is his dwelling place. The two threads that began in Genesis meet at one throne.

Core Doctrine 26 of 26Christ’s Return and the New Creation

Jesus will return bodily and visibly in glory. He will raise the dead, judge the world in righteousness, and make all things new. Those who belong to him will live forever with God in a renewed creation, and those who refuse him will go away into eternal punishment under his just judgment (Matt. 25:46).

Key versesActs 1:11; 17:31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17; Revelation 21:1–5

What the church confesses“From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” (Apostles’ Creed (“the quick” means “the living”))
“At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.” (Westminster Shorter Catechism 38)

Why it mattersHistory is going somewhere. The story that began in a garden ends in a city where God lives with his people, and you are invited.

The Turn: Come

The Bible’s last invitation is one word, repeated: “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (22:17).

The Bride is the church, the people the Lamb loved and bought with his own blood. God’s Spirit and God’s people are both calling you. Without price. After fifty-two weeks, that is still the heart of it. You cannot buy your way into the new creation, and you do not need to. The Lamb has paid. If you are thirsty, if you know you are a sinner, if you are tired of a world full of tears and death, come to Christ. Turn from your sin, trust him, and take the water of life as a gift.

And if you already belong to him, live as someone who knows how the story ends. Jesus said, “Surely I am coming soon.” John answers for the whole church, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (22:20). If “soon” sounds strange after two thousand years, Peter explains that God does not count time the way we do, and that every day of delay is his patience, giving more people time to repent (2 Pet. 3:8–9). No one knows the day or the hour (Matt. 24:36), so we do not waste our time guessing. We worship the Lamb, we hold on through suffering, we love his people, and we tell others to come. The whole story ends with a wedding feast. “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (19:9). You are invited.

Living It: Three Practices for This Week

1Grieve with hope. Bring one sorrow to God and read Revelation 21:4 over it.

2Say “Come.” Invite one person to read the Bible with you or to come to church with you.

3Memorize Revelation 21:3. “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

Where to go from here: You have walked the whole Bible. Now read it for yourself, a chapter a day: the Gospel of Mark, then Genesis, then Romans, with a psalm each day to pray. Join a church that preaches the whole Bible, and if you have come to trust Christ through this study, tell the pastor, and if you have never been baptized, ask about baptism. Find one older Christian who will read with you and answer your questions. And come back to Week 1, “The Road to Emmaus,” and read Luke 24 again. It will mean more now.

For Discussion

How should the reality of final judgment shape the way we live and speak to others?
Heaven comes down to earth in Revelation 21. How is that different from what most people imagine?
Which of the “no more” promises of Revelation 21:4 means the most to you right now?
Looking back over all fifty-two weeks, what is the most important thing you have learned about God’s story?

Sources & For Further Study

On the last things: Westminster Confession of Faith 32–33; Westminster Shorter Catechism 37–38.
On Revelation: Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb; Vern S. Poythress, The Returning King; G. K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary.
On the new creation: Randy Alcorn, Heaven; Anthony A. Hoekema, The Bible and the Future.
On the millennium, with each view argued by its own advocate: Darrell L. Bock, ed., Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond.

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