Revelation 21:1-4
21 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. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 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. 4 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.”
Have you ever had the end of a great movie spoiled for you by an over-excited family member? It happens regularly in my house. My wife and oldest daughter can’t keep quiet once they know what’s coming so I try to never watch movies with them that they have already seen. In movies we like the tension that comes with not knowing. We enjoy the suspense because we know in a few hours everything will be wrapped up and we’ll walk out the door unscathed by the happenings on the screen.
But in real life we are often stuck in intense situations where we don’t know the outcome. Friends and family members get sick. Tragedy strikes. Jobs are lost. Sadness overwhelms us and there seems to be no end in sight for our troubles. This was the plight of the early Christian church when John wrote Revelation - only it was way worse. Christians were being persecuted by torture, imprisonment, and excruciating executions. Sounds like a movie, but it was real. In this situation, Christians needed to know the end of the story. They needed to know that they were living and dying for something real and eternal. They needed hope.
God gave this wonderful vision to John to let people know that no matter what was going on in the world around them, the end of the story had already been written. They could have hope in Jesus and in an eternal kingdom where God will dwell with man 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.”
Spoiler Alert - God wins! We have hope in Jesus and a beautiful eternal kingdom where we will enjoy the beauty of His creation but will be free from the sorrows and pains of this temporal earth!
Ray Sanchez is the Pastor of Worship and Administration at First Baptist Church Weslaco. He loves talking about scripture and reminding himself and others of the hope we have in Jesus Christ.