"I make all things new"
January 2, 2011
Introduction
We called yesterday New Year’s Day. Exactly what does that mean? We have a real appreciation for new things. Several years ago, in one of my sermons, I made the comment that children were full of life and energy and could get around so well be “They had all new parts.”
We have members who have had knees replaced and heart valves replaced and different part of our bodies that no longer function properly, but in Revelation 21:5, we have this tremendous statement: “Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
Look at the statement: "Behold, I make all things new." That’s not just a knee or heart valve or a liver, that’s “all things.” And that is wonderful! How and when does this take place? Let’s read the context of the verse:
(Rev 21:1-5 NKJV) Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. {2} Then I, John, 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 heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. {4} "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." {5} Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
How badly do you need all things to be new?
Richard Baxter was a very effective pastor in England in the 1600s. His whole adult life was spent battling one sickness after the other. He was harassed by a constant cough, frequent nosebleeds, migraine headaches, digestive ailments, kidney stones, and gallstones. He believed in supernatural healing and said several times he was restored to fruitful labor because of God's direct intervention. He said once a cancerous looking tumor in his throat vanished while he was in the pulpit testifying to God's mercies in his own life. Yet bodily suffering was with him to the end, and he once said that from the age of 21 he was "seldom an hour free from pain."
One of the effects of this suffering was to make him intensely conscious of how temporary his life is and how inevitable death is. Once, when he was 35, he was bed-bound by one of his diseases and thought he would probably not recover. He began to meditate on the joys of heaven and the age to come in preparation for leaving this world. He focused especially on "the hope of glory" and began to write his thoughts.
To his surprise he recovered and his thoughts became a book entitled The Saints' Everlasting Rest. He took up the practice of meditating on heaven a half hour each day because of the powerful impact it had on his life. He commended the same thing to his readers.
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
Body
I. What will be made new?
God is going to make us spiritually and morally new and glorious.
The Greatest Frustration of This Age
The greatest frustration of this age is that we still sin. I believe Romans 7 describes this painful truth. For example verses 23–24: "I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind." This war is the most frustrating thing about life in this age—at least it is for the children of God. We want to be holy and we fall short of the holiness we long for. We want to love and we say hurtful things. We want to worship and we feel cold. We want to walk in peace and we feel anxiety. We want to be pure in thought and impurity bombards our minds.
There is some progress as the Spirit helps us in our weakness. But what we long for is deliverance from this bent to sinning.
Second, God is going to make us physically and bodily new and glorious.
Our Final Hope Is Not Disembodied Spirits
The Bible does not teach that the final state of glory is one of disembodied spirits. Plato and his kin wanted it that way because they thought the body was a drag on the freedom of the spirit. But the Bible teaches a very different destiny for God's people. God will make all things new—including our bodies.
Verse 4 points in this direction: "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away."
No more death. No more pain. No more tears. What that means is that the body we know now will be changed. Because it dies. And it hurts. And it cries. If death is gone and pain is gone and tears are gone, then the body as we know it here is gone. That may sound like Plato—good riddance to the body of pain. Revelation is plain that the point is not good riddance to the body but that God will make all things new.
Third, God is going to make the creation new and glorious.
This is the point of verse 1: "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." I don't think this means that God picks us up and takes us to a new solar system—though he certainly could if he wanted to. The hope of the prophets seems to be that this earth and these heavens will be made new. God will renovate the whole thing—a kind of global rehab project. And everything futile and evil and painful will be done away.
Paul put it like this in Romans 8:21, "The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the liberty of the glory of the children of God." The newness and the glory of the church, the children of God, is primary and first. But then God promises that the glory of his people will demand a glorious creation to live in. So the fallen creation will obtain the very freedom from futility and evil and pain that the church is given.
So when God makes all things new, he makes us new spiritually and morally, he makes us new physically, and then he makes the whole creation new so that our environment fits our perfected spirits and bodies.
That leaves one last work of renewing when God makes all things new.
God will make our relationship with him new and glorious.
John tells us about this in verse 4: "I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them."
It's true that God is with us now. His Spirit dwells in us (1 Corinthians 6:19). Jesus promised never to leave us to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). But in 2 Corinthians 5:6–7 Paul said, "While we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord, here we walk by faith and not by sight."
So there is a deep and painful sense in which we are "away from the Lord"—we do not see as we will one day see. "Blessed are the pure in heart," Jesus said, "for they shall see God." It's a promise. Something greater is coming for all of us in our relation with God. . . . .Revelation 22:4 gives the answer to it: "They shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads."
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
II. There is a newness which begins in this life.
A. Paul describes it as symbolizing burial with Christ.
(Rom 6:1-4 NKJV) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? {2} Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? {3} Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? {4} Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
1. Paul speaks of it symbolizing dying to sin.
(Rom 6:2) “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
2. Do we understand that baptism symbolizes death?
(Rom 6:3) Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
C. We die by way of repentance.
1. Repentance is more than godly sorrow.
(2 Cor 7:10 NKJV) For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
2. Repentance produces a changed life.
(Acts 3:19 NKJV) "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
II. Being baptized is part of obeying the gospel.
A. The gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
(1 Cor 15:1-4 NKJV) Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, {2} by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you; unless you believed in vain. {3} For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, {4} and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
1. Each of these three is symbolized in baptism.
2. These are called the gospel.
(1 Cor 15:1-4 NKJV) Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
B. Obeying the gospel is essential to our salvation.
(2 Th 1:6-8 NKJV) since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, {7} and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, {8} in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
III. Finally, baptism is also called the new birth.
(John 3:1-3 NKJV) There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. {2} This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." {3} Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
A. Jesus further explains what He means.
(John 3:4-6 NKJV) Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" {5} Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. {6} "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
1. born of water = Baptism
2. born of . . . the Spirit, has reference to the spiritual part of our baptism. Repentance and dying to sin.
B. The importance is underlined.
(John 3:3) Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Conclusion
I. Have you been born again?
II. Are you ready to begin a new life in Christ Jesus?
Scripture quotations marked "NKJV™" are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
