Life on the New Earth

Transcript

GR 1572
06/13/10
Life on the New Earth
Revelation 22:1-5
Gil Rugh

We are at the end of the book of Revelation, really ready to start into chapter 22 and I want to just draw some things together in anticipation of these verses in chapter 22, the first 5 verses which really draw to a conclusion the vision that has been given to John beginning in 4:1. And so from 4:1 through 22:5 we have the unfolding vision given to John. And of course he has the vision of the resurrected Christ in chapter 1 and the message concerning the churches. But then he was called to heaven for the unfolding of the events that had been prophesied. As we move into the kingdom and then from the first phase of the kingdom, the millennium, the thousand years into the eternal phase of the kingdom as we usually distinguish it, there are some issues I want to be sure we are clear on and pick up. That's why I wanted you to have the chart of the resurrections again. We'll be referring to some things so that when we go back into the specifics of Revelation, but just for general information.

The book of Revelation from chapter 6 to chapter 19 was about that period of time, that seven-year period, 3½ years and 3½ years. It began around the time of the rapture of the church, the signing of an agreement between the Antichrist and Israel as noted in Daniel 9. That seven-year period concludes with the return of Christ to the earth. We noted there were judgments at that time of the living so that only believers went into the thousand years. We start the kingdom. Revelation 20 is the only place in the Bible where we are told that there is a thousand-year period at the beginning of the eternal kingdom that Christ will establish on the earth. The judgments to take place at that second coming of Christ to earth result in the death of all unbelievers. Only believers go into the millennium. During that millennial period, we noted, many people will be born, many children born. The curse is lifted from the creation. So there will be no pain in childbirth and so on, so there will be a population explosion. Now even though only believers go into that kingdom in their physical bodies, we will be there in glorified bodies but they are there in physical bodies, those children born in the millennium are born sinners. They are children of Adam and so the corruption of sin is passed on to them. They will still have to place their faith in Jesus Christ the Messiah who is ruling for salvation. At the end of the thousand years during which satan has been bound, he is loosed. And we read about this in Revelation 20. And there is a number like the sand of the seashore that will follow him in his rebellion and are judged with death.

Then we have the Great White Throne judgment and all unbelievers consigned to hell for eternity at the end of Revelation 20. We had people who went into the thousand-year period in their physical bodies who were believers. In addition I take it there will be those who were born in the millennium who became believers. The Bible doesn't address that but I assume that would be so. So we have people at least in their physical bodies during the thousand years who are believers. What happens to them when the thousand years are completed? When we come to Revelation 21 we have the new heavens and the new earth. They are not addressed specifically, but from what he has said in chapter 21 and the beginning of chapter 22 of Revelation, I take it that the people who were in physical bodies and believers during the thousand years will continue on in their physical bodies into eternity. There may be a judgment of rewards for them at the end of the thousand years as believers, but then they can move on into eternity. Their sin nature would have to be removed, but I would take it rather than just assuming they get glorified bodies I think what is said, and what we'll be looking at in chapter 22 as well as what has been said in chapter 21, they continue on. And so we have people in physical bodies living forever. We might say I don't know how that could be. But what would have happened to Adam and Eve if they had not eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but rather had eaten of the tree of life? Then they would have been confirmed in their holiness and they would have lived forever. And you remember God told them when He created them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Children can be a problem but they were part of God's plan before the fall. So I would take it through eternity there will be people in physical bodies. We say, won't we some day run out of room? I think God can handle it.

Now there are some issues. Back up to I Corinthians 15. Paul is talking about the resurrection of the body in I Corinthians 15 and he makes a statement in verse 50. And again he's been talking about the resurrected body through the chapter, so we're picking up at the end of that discussion. Verse 50: “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” From that verse some have taken that you can't go into the kingdom in a physical body. But that would create a problem if they can't go into the kingdom in a physical body. First, at the judgment of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 we saw that believers at that judgment were told to enter into the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Secondly, we do know there will be death in the thousand-year millennium reign of Christ. So there will be children born.

So I take it I Corinthians 15:50 is talking about the church. Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and for the church, we believers today, we will not be able to go into the kingdom in physical bodies. That's not part of God's plan and program for the church. Verses 51-3: “Behold I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep but we will all be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. For this perishable will put on the imperishable, this mortal put on immortality.” That's a promise to the church and so that occurs at the first stage of the Second Coming which was the rapture of the church to meet Christ in the air, when we receive glorified bodies. So no one from the church will go into the kingdom in a physical body, in a mortal body, a perishable body. But there will be those who do go into the kingdom in physical bodies.

Come back to Isaiah 65, a passage that we have looked at in previous studies. Verse 20: “No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who does not live out his days. For the youth will die at the age of 100, and the one who does not reach the age of 100 shall be thought accursed.” So you see you have children being born and for certain reasons people die. We've talked about this so we're not going to go into the details. Verses 22-3: “…For as the lifetime of a tree, so shall be the days of My people. And My chosen ones shall wear out the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity…” So you see people will bear children. So there will be people who have to go into the millennium in physical bodies for these promises to take place.

In the resurrection there will not be marriage, Jesus said. So in our glorified bodies we won't be marrying, we won't be having children. We will be like the angels in that sense. But there will be people in the kingdom in physical bodies having children and so on. So when I Corinthians 15 says “flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom,” he's addressing the church. We have to be raptured, transformed in an instant. That's why the rapture can't occur at the Second Coming. We are premillennial, we believe Christ will return pre-millennium, before the millennium. We are also pretribulational, we believe Christ will return for the church before the tribulation. There are some who are premillennial but post-tribulational. They believe the rapture of the church occurs at the end of the seven years, in connection with the Second Coming of Christ to earth. The problem with that is, if everyone gets a glorified body; who is going to fulfill the promises of Isaiah 65? And who will repopulate the earth and so on? Only believers are going into the kingdom. And if all believers going into the kingdom have glorified bodies there is a real problem. So we would understand that the rapture occurs before the tribulation, one of the reasons, and that during the tribulation there are people who will be saved. And those who have believed in Christ during that seven-year period and survived to the end will go into the kingdom in their physical bodies and fulfill some of these promises.

Back up to Isaiah 60. I just want you to see how the promises concerning a coming kingdom and you'll see some of the things we've talked about in chapter 21 and what we'll see in chapter 22 are prophesied. The Old Testament prophets did not sort out, was not revealed to them the difference there would be with the first thousand years and the rest of the eternal kingdom. They gave prophecies regarding an eternal kingdom. It's not until we come to the book of Revelation that we find out there will be a thousand-year phase at the beginning of that eternal kingdom. You see promises like in Isaiah 60:11: “And your gates will be open continually, they will not be closed day or night, So that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations with their kings in procession.” We read about that in Revelation 21. We saw kings and nations would come in to the New Jerusalem. Verse 19: “No longer will you have the sun for light by day nor for brightness will the moon give you light, but you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, your God for your glory.” These promises we saw in connection with the eternal dimension of the kingdom. For the Old Testament prophets, it was just revealed that there would be an eternal kingdom. Some of what they wrote pertained the millennial phase of that, some of it pertained to the eternal phase. For them it was just all part of the eternal kingdom, and it is because the millennium is the beginning of the eternal kingdom. But certain things that will be true in the first thousand years are limited to that. And that is sorted out in the chronology set down for us when we come to the book of Revelation.

We come down into chapter 61 and you can see something of what the Old Testament saint dealt. Verses1-2: “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners. To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord…” You could draw a line under that, because between that statement, “to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord,” and the next one, “and the day of vengeance of our God,” there are 2000 years. At the beginning of His public ministry in Luke 4 Jesus was in the synagogue at Nazareth, read from the prophecy of Isaiah down to that line in verse 2 as we have it, “to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” He stopped and sat down and said, now this prophecy is being fulfilled at His first coming. (Luke 4:21). So you see the prophets unfolded these truths but the rest of what he says here awaits events connected to the Second Coming of Christ to earth. Isaiah 61:6: “But you will be called the priests of the Lord; you will be spoken of as ministers of our God…” And keep in mind Isaiah didn't write this broken down into chapters and verses. So you can see why the prophets had a difficult time putting some of this together.

Isaiah 62:2: “And the nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. And you will be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will designate.” We saw that in Revelation, the people of God being given a new name that the Lord will give them. Later in Isaiah 63 talks about events associated with the Second Coming and the judgment in wrath that was unfolded in the book of Revelation, culminating at Armageddon.

Come back to Revelation. So we're talking about what's going on in chapters 21-22. We are in the kingdom; we've been in the kingdom since Christ established it. We've moved through the first thousand years which resulted in sin finally being dealt with, all sinners are removed at the end of that thousand-year phase. Christ has been reigning. But then we move into the new heavens and the new earth, they are new but they are connected to the old. That's why they are called a new heavens and a new earth. He doesn't just say we move out into eternity. But as we noted there is a new heavens and a new earth.

What is unfolded particularly as we come into chapter 22 and also some things at the end of chapter 21 as well is the final realization of what God intended in the creation of the heavens and the earth, the creation of man as male and female—Adam and Eve created in the image of God, the culmination of God's creation. All creation, inanimate creation, and the animals, but man created in God's image to rule over God's creation.

Genesis 1:26-8: “Then God said, ‘let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness and let them rule’…And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…” So he is to rule over the rest of creation, he is to multiply, have children and fill the earth. We're familiar with what happened when sin came in, the fall occurred in chapter 3. After addressing the serpent in verse 15 God continued in verse 16: “To the woman He said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bring forth children…’” Children aren't a result of the fall, but pain in bearing children is and then of course all the problems with kids born with the sin nature that we pass on to them are a result of the fall. But remember that God's intention was for them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth before sin entered and corrupted the race. Then to Adam, God pronounced that judgment and death will overtake them. God had mercy on them; He provided garments to clothe them, garments of skin. The garments they made for themselves were out of leaves. The animal skins for the covering were a reminder that now death is present and it will take death to provide a covering for sin.

Genesis 3:22 is key because we're going to pick up with the tree of life in Revelation 22. Verses 22-3: “Then the Lord God said, ‘behold the man is become like one of Us, knowing good and evil and now lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live forever’ therefore the Lord God sent out form the garden of Eden…” That's an act of mercy because if he had eaten of the tree and confirmed in his lost condition; there would be no redemption. But there would be a Savior provided. Now when sin is taken care of and removed we're going to find the tree of life now is freely available for people to partake of. And they are confirmed in the holiness that God has provided.

Come back to Revelation 22. As we saw in 21:3:”And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘behold the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them.” What did Adam and Eve do in the Garden before the fall? God came and walked with them in the cool of the evening. They enjoyed the privilege of the presence of God and communion with Him. Now God dwells among His people. It is as it was intended from the beginning. Sin does not frustrate the plan of God. It has brought consequences but ultimately the original plan of God is being realized.

We saw the glory of the city, the New Jerusalem which comes down and dwells on the new earth. It is not all there is to the new earth, it is a city with gates that people will go in and out of on the new earth. And as we noted we believe the New Jerusalem will be the dwelling place for glorified saints. We saw there is a distinction marked out with the foundation stones and the gates of the city. Israel is distinguished from the church and the church from Israel, but this city will be a dwelling place for glorified saints—from the church, the bride of Christ, and also from Israel. I take it outside the New Jerusalem we will have people living on the earth in their physical bodies; people who will not die. For example, Adam and Eve would not have experienced physical death if it had not been for the entrance of sin. I take it these people will have children as God intended when He told them, be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth, rule over it. Well what would have happened if Adam and Eve had not sinned? They would have been confirmed in their holiness, their sinless condition, and never died. They would have gone on having children, populating the earth. But in the plan of God He chose to allow sin to infect the race so we come to the ultimate realization after millenniums of time.

Let's look into Revelation 22. We won't have time to look at all the rest we could look at. Note how chapter 22 opens up. Everybody who we have here now has their name in the Lamb's book of life, at the end of chapter 21. The last statement, only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life have access to the New Jerusalem (20:15) because everybody else has been sentenced to hell in the lake of fire, at the end of Revelation 20. People can come in and out through the gates of this city which never close, but there won't be anybody defiled by sin coming in and out. Only those people whose names are in the Lamb's book of life.

Revelation 22:1: “And he showed me a river of the water of life clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” The water of life is life-giving water. That becomes a picture in scripture, the land of Israel, which is desert, land and water. Some of you have traveled to Israel, some of you will be traveling to Israel and one of the things that I remember being given was bottles of water. And we were reminded, bring your water. Why? This is a desert area and water is life and it came to them to be the picture of life. And here we have the water of life coming from the throne of life. Everything about life in this new heavens and new earth is about life, the life that Christ promised to give abundantly to all who believe in Him, those who have their name in the Lamb's book of life. So we have the water of life. Revelation 22:17: “And the Spirit and the bride say ‘Come,’ let the one who hears say ‘Come,’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.” Now we come to believe in Christ. Some would see the water of life here symbolic of the Spirit. But I take it, it is a real river and a real city depicting the life that is given to us and that we now enjoy in its fullness. We enjoy the life we have in Christ, but we don't enjoy it in the fullness we will when all sin is removed and we live in the perfect environment that God intends.

This comes “from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” There is one God eternally existing in three persons, but here you have the throne of God and of the Lamb of God at the heart of this city. And from their throne comes the life-giving water that flows out. Everything is about life—the water of life.

Verse 2: “in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life…” We saw the tree of life back in the Garden in Genesis 3, and Adam and Eve put out of the Garden so they could not partake of the tree of life. But now here it is. There is a street, there is a river running. It seems like the picture is you have a street and the river flows down the middle of the street, then there are going to be trees growing out on each side of this river. And again, sort of like the New Jerusalem, how do you picture it? It is described but it would be hard to put it down in any way to reflect the glory that is there. But here you do have, you have the river of life and then on either side of the river the tree of life. Evidently there is a row here. It's called the tree of life, it's one kind of tree but evidently there are trees lining both sides.

Now this is interesting; we have moved into eternity. We sometimes think that we are just out in eternity so time as we know it is gone. And then I read that the tree of life is “bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month” (Verse 2). Months? I remember John Whitcomb who has ministered here. I remember way back when I was a seminary student. He was saying we will have time in eternity because we are finite created beings, so everything happens for us in a sequence, after one another. I can't dwell as we speak of God in the eternal present and I never will be able to. I am a finite being. So it's not surprising here. So when the angel we saw in the tribulation earlier in Revelation standing and saying, time shall be no more as we noted, he's not talking about time not existing anymore as we know it. Time will always exist, we are finite beings and there will always be something happening after another, after another, which creates time. And here we are in eternity and we don't need the sun and the moon because we have the light of the glory of the presence of God, and yet we have months. So I guess we won't have a lunar calendar, but that doesn't mean God can't have time marked out with months. He's the One who determined how our months and days and so on would be structured now. Not difficult for God to bring a different structure, but still have the time. So we're going to have trees bearing fruit, twelve different kinds of fruit, every month a different kind.

So you can see even though we've moved to a new heavens and a new earth, we're not just out into some kind of floating, timeless existence. We are in a real world that has connections to the world we are in and what we identify with it. We are on an earth, there is a city here of splendor beyond what we can imagine, but it is still a city and a world. And we have trees; we have fruit trees, the tree of life. So we have the water of life, we have the tree of life. You see we have life here because there is no death. We were told that back in 21:4; there would no longer be any death. So all we have here is life and the water of life and the tree of life.

Verse 2: “…And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Healing gives us the wrong idea. We say, I thought there would be no sickness and none of those problems. Why do they have to be healed? We get the English word “therapeutic” from the Greek word here, we just carry it over. It means “the health.” So the leaves of the tree of life were for the health of the nations. In other words the nations can freely partake of the tree of life. So the life they have is for them, freely. Who are the nations here? Now we have nations, we've seen them in chapter 21 as well. Revelation 21:24:”And the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.” This is what we saw in the Old Testament prophets. They can be outside the city but they are free to come into the city. But this is not their dwelling place, the city is where glorified saints dwell, it is the center of the reign of Christ. But there are nations out here and they will bring their glory into the city, as we read in Isaiah.

So the trees were for the health of the nations. Verse 3: “And there shall no longer be any curse…” So the curse was imposed as a result of the fall in Genesis 3. Man was told, cursed is the ground because of you. But there will no longer be any curse in it because there will no longer be any sin to be dealt with, no sinners to be dealt with. We'll be living in an earth, a world that is without sin, perfect. So there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it. You see here God the Father, God the Son the focal point. Some have asked what about God the Holy Spirit? Why isn't He mentioned? I don't know. He is present earlier in Revelation. I take it without doubt he is present here but the focal point is on God the Father and God the Son.

Now note the end of verse 3, “His bond servants shall serve Him.” And that word “serve,” we get the word “liturgy” from that, often used of priestly service, religious service in scripture. And it may be denoting that our service will be a priestly service because believers will be priests of God. But you'll note; we will be active. I take it we will be administering and overseeing the people on the new earth. So we're not just going to be sitting in rocking chairs, singing songs. Not that I'm against singing, and I'll have a pretty good voice in those days. But we'll be serving. We are His slaves, His servants and we will be about His work serving Him. So eternity won't be a time of idleness. We sometimes think; I don't know what I'll do. Will I get bored? I think God will be able to keep us occupied and fulfilled in our serving Him. I can't because I'm stuck in this finite mind that can't get its thinking around something this glorious and splendid, and I can't grasp living for eternity and not running out of something to do or becoming bored. But we're talking about an infinite God, and I can't grasp that. That in a hundred billion years I still won't have exhausted the knowledge of God. My mind does not deal with those things, my finiteness. I always think with beginnings and endings, but God has not beginning and He has not ending. And He is infinite. I will always be finite, a created being. So I will never be done growing and learning about the infinite God because I will never be God. Again, how do I grasp that? Say in 600 trillion years will God say, we'll have to do something else, we have sort of run out of things to do. It's like thinking of vacation, we think we're going and after being on vacation a while everybody is saying, when are we going home? I'm bored; I want to go home to my friends. What will eternity be like? I think I might say, well God, I've done this enough, I've been everywhere there is to be on the new earth. Can we create some new worlds, do something? But it's all going to be in His hands.

So what we're going to be doing is serving Him, so we won't be idle. We will be ruling and reigning over, I take it, the people who are out there in their physical bodies. Note this, “His bond servants will serve Him.” Verse 4: “and they shall see His face…” That's another thing I don't know how to grasp. Moses wanted to see the face of God, God said that no man can see My face and live. But in eternity we will see the face of God. I take it not only the face of the Lamb, but the face of the Father on the throne. We've seen this earlier in Revelation. Back in Daniel 7 remember Daniel saw the Ancient of Days enthroned and the Son of Man coming before Him and receiving out of His hand.

Come back to Revelation 4 lest you have forgotten. And in Revelation 4:2-3: “Immediately I was in the Spirit, behold a throne was standing in heaven and One sitting on the throne. He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance.” People will be worshiping before the throne. They saw some kind of manifestation of the presence of God the Father on the throne. Revelation 5:7: “And He came and he took it out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.” And we noted then all you can take is the description here. There will be a literal throne for God the Father; He will manifest His presence sitting on that throne. What that all means, we'll see God the Father as well as God the Son. Now I can't get my arms around that either. But when you think that all the fullness of deity dwells in that earthly body of Jesus Christ, according to the book of Colossians, I would never be able to imagine how that could happen either. The things we have to look forward to. God the Father on the throne, we will see Him, and God the Son enthroned. We see Him.

Revelation 22:4: “and they shall see His face…” And there is comfort in that. You know we used to think we'll be in heaven, we won't see God; it won't be this earth. We get the idea we'll just be floating around in eternity like some vapor cloud. What am I going to do? How will it be? But God created us and He functions in relation to us as His creation. He is not part of His creation but here His presence with His creation will be fuller than anything we have experienced prior to this.

Verse 4: “…His name shall be on their foreheads.” And again Isaiah prophesied about that, that God giving them a name. It shows that we belong to Him, we are His. We give names to our children, they are our children, we've named them and they belong to us. Here we have the name of God written on our foreheads. We belong to Him, we are His. Nothing will ever come between us.

Verse 5: “And there will no longer be any night, and they shall not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun because the Lord God will illumine them…” The glory of His presence, we saw that in chapter 21 as well. This is going to be glory beyond description. And, the end of verse 5, “they shall reign forever and ever.” We are talking about His bond servants who will serve Him, the end of verse 3. “They shall reign forever and ever.” Again, there will be responsibility and activity carried out, but not the toil and the wearisome labor and the unpleasantness. But the activity that will be fulfilling, bringing joy and happiness and gladness without end. We will be bringing glory to God; we will be administering the kingdom. I take it those out there, the nations, the kings, the peoples of the world, there will be order in God's creation, structure. And we will be part of administering that. And it goes on, and will go on and on and on.

We say, I'm amazed there isn't more said about it. Did you note how quickly we blew through the thousand years? All the time on judgment in the book of Revelation and we get to the thousand-year phase of the kingdom, a verse or two and we're done and on. We say I would have spent three or four chapters on the millennium and maybe a dozen chapters on the eternal phase of the kingdom. We find in the prophets much about the kingdom but there is only so much He can tell us. I mean, what He told me, I'm having a hard time grasping onto but I know enough. It's going to be a place of overwhelming glory with God the Father and God the Son present there, visible. I'll behold His face, I will be active serving Him, never bored, never tired, never lose interest, endless glory. Not endless idleness, but unending service of my God and all that that will entail. That's what He promises to us, this is where we are going.

If we have any doubt, we'll stop here, but note verse 6: “And he said to me, ‘these words are faithful and true’…” You may not be able to grasp all that is entailed here, but “these words are faithful and true.” They come from the God who is faithful and true. It's all going to take place. Some day in glory we're going to be walking down streets of gold. We'll pass each other in the New Jerusalem and say remember when we talked about this? I never dreamed it would be like this. Can you imagine? No, we don't have to imagine, we're here. We could never have even dreamed of such glory and splendor, and here we are reigning in eternity with our God and He is present with us. And we serve in His presence and we reign in His kingdom.

That's the greatness of the salvation He has provided in Jesus Christ. What a salvation, what a Savior.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for all the promises of Your word. And Lord Your words are faithful and true. Everything You have said about judgment, condemnation will come to pass exactly as You have said. Lord, every promise, every word regarding the glory that You have prepared for Your servants will come true. With these finite, limited minds it is every difficult for us to grasp and appreciate the splendor that You have prepared for us, we who are privileged to be heirs and co-heirs with Jesus Christ. Lord, may these truths grip our hearts and minds, shape the way we live. May we keep our focus on things of eternal significance and importance, things that will be of value in hundreds of millions of years throughout eternity. We praise You for our Savior, the wonder of our salvation. We pray in His name, amen.