[This is a transcript of a sermon on Revelation 22:1-5 preached by Rod Benson at Lithgow, Australia, in May 2018]
In our most lucid and reflective moments, we all hope for the best. We all yearn to transcend death and decay. We long for a better world.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord,” said Augustine long ago, “and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.” And oh! How many forms that restlessness takes in an ordinary life. And how many wrong paths and cul-de-sacs it compels us to follow. And what pain and tears, disappointment and despair, will often come as we try to satisfy this restlessness through our own ingenuity.
And oh! How wonderful to find genuine rest from our restlessness! To cease all our striving and straining, and lean into the grace of God. And to know that this beautiful rest is not for this life only but forever!
Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). This is the Christian hope:
- Belief in a transcendent God, the ultimate source of life, who has the power to preserve life beyond physical death;
- Belief that God really cares for people, like you and me, and has the power and freedom to grant us eternal life;
- Belief that God will ultimately acknowledge the good that is done in the world, and right the wrongs, so that justice prevails, evil is vanquished, and good triumphs;
- Belief that, after this ethical reckoning, the people of God will experience the eternal enjoyment of the good in a “place” we call heaven.[1]
The British writer and apologist C. S. Lewis observed:
We are very shy nowadays of even mentioning heaven. We are afraid of the jeer about ‘pie in the sky’, and of being told that we are trying to ‘escape’ from the duty of making a happy world here and now into dreams of a happy world elsewhere. But either there is ‘pie in the sky’ or there is not. If there is not, then Christianity is false, for this doctrine is woven into its whole fabric. If there is, then this truth, like any other, must be faced, whether it is useful at political meetings or no. Again, we are afraid that heaven is a bribe.[2]
But heaven is not a bribe; life beyond the grave is not a fairy tale. The promises of God about the future are as real and trustworthy as the fact that you awoke from sleep this morning. Come with me to the most awesome, most puzzling, and most encouraging book of the Bible, and look for a moment at “things which must shortly come to pass.”
In Revelation chapter 19, we see the return of the King to our world, no longer in humility but now in glory and majesty. In chapter 20, the world is judged, and divine justice is dispensed. In chapter 21, we catch a glimpse of how the world will end, and what comes next. In chapter 22, the last chapter in the Christian Bible, in the first eight verses, we see the climax of history and the conclusion to all the tremendous events of chapter 21.
“Then,” says John, who is writing the book, “the angel of revelation showed me the river of the water of life” (v. 1a). This is the mighty, majestic river of Psalm 46:4, whose streams make glad the city of God. This is the fabled river that flows from Genesis chapter 2, through Joel 3:18 and Ezekiel 47:1-9, through Zechariah 14:8 and on to John 4:14, where Jesus announces to a curious but cautious woman at a well in Sychar, “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.”
Have you tasted the water of this river? Has Jesus satisfied your spiritual thirst? Have you discovered new life through the kindness of the Saviour, through his redemptive sacrifice for you? This is no ordinary river. It is “as clear as crystal.” It flows “from the throne of God,” down the grand central avenue of the New Jerusalem, and out into the world.
God is its source. God is the source of all life, and of all true light and love. This river is a symbol of God’s love, and its benefits are a sign of God’s grace at work in our lives. The whole earth is filled with the glory of God – in creation, in revelation, in redemption, in reconciliation, in healing, in fellowship, in service.
The New Jerusalem is a city. It is not the entire heaven, nor the whole of the new creation, but its centrepiece, the essence of its glory, the spring and fountain from which divine blessing flows to the nations.
Notice that the throne at the centre of this great city-temple is “the throne of God and of the Lamb” (v. 1b). There is only one throne (cf v. 3; also 3:21). Jesus is Lord; Jesus is also God. And heaven is not quite heaven without the victorious Lamb of God at the centre of its activity, receiving endless adoring worship from his redeemed people and all the holy angels. Everyone has unmediated access to the presence of God here, in the new creation: the full expression of the reality of union with Christ. Theologian John webster writes:
John reminds the followers of the Lamb that the new heaven and the new earth depend entirely upon the centrality of the sacrifice of Christ. Even in heaven’s glory the humility of God is always front and center, and the words of Jesus are never forgotten: ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ The triumph of the Lamb is never triumphalist, and those who follow the Lamb never forget the testimony of Jesus. There is no arrogance or ego at the throne of God – only the sacrificial humility that extends redemption to a lost and dying world.[3]
The original Eden was made off-limits to Adam and Eve because of their sin. Now, there is renewed access to the new garden, and the garden is a great city. John is recalling the ancient prophecy in Isaiah 35:6-10, which is now being fulfilled. The fruit in verse 2 emphasises abundance: 12 crops, 12 months. Biblical scholar G. K. Beale suggests that this highlights “the fullness of redemptive provision and … [links] it with the number representing the fullness of God’s people who benefit from it.”[4]
“And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations” (v. 2). In that place, there is no suffering or death, no conflict or injustice, no need, no sin, no evil. Throughout history, the nations of the world have tended to be hostile to God’s rule and God’s purposes, but now we see the wideness of God’s mercy. People from every nation are redeemed, healed, and brought together with all the saints gathered around the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Praise God that today, the boundaries of the Garden of Eden have been extended to encompass the whole world. Praise God that today, Jewish and non-Jewish people alike are welcome in God’s family. This does not imply universalism, as though everyone accidentally or on purpose finds themselves one day in heaven. No. That is not what the Bible teaches. There is one God, and one source of eternal life, and one way of salvation. If you find yourself around the throne on that day, it is because Jesus found you and saved you for his glory.
Verse 3 celebrates the lifting of the curse (imposed on humankind by God back in the Garden). No more suffering, or scarcity, or strife. No more sentence of spiritual death. No more condemnation for sin – only peace, rest, abundance and joy.
“And we shall see him as he is” (v. 3; cf 1 Jn 3:2; Rev 21:3). And we shall serve him with joy, wonder, gratitude and praise. Faith will on that day give place to sight, and we will see the face of God in Jesus Christ our Lord, who is “the radiance of God’s glory, and the exact representation of God’s being” (Heb 1:3). God’s name will be on our foreheads (v. 4). In Exodus 28:36-38, The name of God was to be written on the forehead of Israel’s high priest; now, every person has that office and honour.
Verse 5 declares the end of night (cf Num 6:22-27, the Aaronic blessing). “And They will reign forever and ever” – not rule with subjects and lands under dominion, but sharing Christ’s reign – leaving, breathing, exulting in the perfect shalom of God. British scholar and author C. S. Lewis once said, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
Reading and reflecting on the Book of Revelation strengthens our faith, inspires our worship, challenges our ethics, and encourages perseverance in a world increasingly hostile to holiness and godliness.
This is the future for the people of God. Embrace it, draw comfort from God’s truth, and live this week in the knowledge that you were indeed made for another world, and that your life is eternally hidden with Christ in God.
Sermon 764 copyright © 2018 Rod Benson. Preached at Lithgow Baptist Church, Australia, on Sunday 27 May 2018. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011).
[1] Adapted from Richard J. Plantinga, Thomas R. Thompson & Matthew D. Lundberg, An Introduction to Christian Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 388.
[2] C. S, Lewis, The Problem of Pain (London: Harper Collins, 2002 [1940]), 145.
[3] Douglas D. Webster, Follow the Lamb: A Pastoral Approach to the Revelation (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014), 294f, quoting Mark 10:45.
[4] G. K. Beale & David H. Campbell, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 499.
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