His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Pastor Matt on some of the "no mores" of heaven. He begins by what the new Jerusalem does not have. And what doesn't it have? Tears, sorrow, death, or pain. That's good news, isn't it, friends? That is your future and my future. That is our inheritance. God doesn't do anything halfway. That is amazing and miraculous. The only way I think God does that is He gives an understanding or an acceptance of heart.

Guest (Male): You know, this side of heaven, everything that's good doesn't last. A good day or a good week, even a good year are too often met with a bad one. The good comes and goes so quickly. But one of the great things about eternity in heaven is that it lasts forever. That is, if you're on the right side of eternity.

It's great. Today on His Perfect Love, we'll hear more about the new heaven and new earth from Revelation 21. Our pastor and teacher is Matt VanderVen, and Matt says what makes heaven so great is not only what's there, but what's not there.

Matt VanderVen: So our passage this morning, we're going to pick up back in verse four. Again, if you remember from last week, he said, "Now I saw," in verse one. So John clearly seeing something different. He says he sees a heaven, a new heaven and a new earth. It's coming down. He's able to see it. The other scriptures tell us specifically that it happens almost instantaneously.

So while John is sort of getting the slow-mo on this, maybe, watching it come down, the reality is everyone else, we're going to be on the earth because we come back with Christ. If you remember Revelation chapter 19, and then we enter through a thousand-year millennial reign, we're on the earth with Jesus Christ as heirs and co-heirs with God. As we're going through this, we're serving and ministered not only to Jesus Christ and His people, but also the surrounding nations. Those that are what we would call the Great Tribulation saints.

And so those that came out of the Great Tribulation that believed in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. As we're ministering and doing all these wonderful things, Jesus—whether He gives us advance notice, I don't know—but a new heaven and a new earth begin to come right down to the point of where John says he sees it. So you and I, because other scripture tells us it's instantaneous, I don't know what that's going to be like. We're going to be in one moment here present, and then the next moment we're going to be on this new earth and see this new heaven.

And I don't know that we're going to be able to necessarily sense the difference. We will be in glorified bodies, remember, by this point. And we know that glorified bodies don't apply the same physics as we understand today because Jesus Christ was the demonstration of the glorified body as the firstfruits of the resurrection as scripture teaches us. He could walk through walls, time, space, all of those constructs that are temporally here for us today seemed to not apply to the glorified body as He could walk through matter. He could come inside and outside of creation.

So all of those things we can expect in our glorified bodies as He again was the firstfruits of the resurrection. So in looking at that, it's fitting that it says in verse four, "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." He's telling us the things that you and I understand, the former things, are to be no more.

Now, how He does this, we're not told specifically here. This is important because He tells us that there will be no more crying. He's going to wipe away the tears from our eyes. In other words, this new Jerusalem is distinguished by what it does not have, not necessarily in this passage just by what it does. We read that later on, but He begins by what the new Jerusalem does not have. And what doesn't it have? Tears, sorrow, death, or pain. That's good news, isn't it, friends? That is your future and my future. That is our inheritance. God doesn't do anything halfway. That is amazing and miraculous.

The only way I think that Jesus Christ could do that is to give us an understanding of these things that needed to be, including those that may be prodigals we're praying to come to salvation. Including those that we know because at this point, we'll know who, certainly after the great white throne judgment, we will know who will be in heaven and who will be eternally separated from God at that point by their own free will. Again, their choice to reject Jesus Christ, not something God ever pushed upon any man, woman, or child.

But it says that the former things have passed away. There's no crying, there's no tears. The only way I think God does this is He gives an understanding or an acceptance of heart that those things... because I don't know about you, if I think of a loved one or a family member or somebody that I knew and they weren't in heaven, I think I would be, even in heaven, cry or weep for them, mourn for them that they were not there. So God is going to do something supernatural and I can't explain what it is. I can only tell you that He says that there will be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more death, no more pain. And if Jesus says those things are going to be true, those things are going to be true.

Later, it will be shown that the new Jerusalem also has what? No temple, no sacrifice, no sun, no moon, no darkness, no sin, and no abomination. So again, He's telling us a lot about what the new Jerusalem will not have. And these are all wonderful news to all of us because creation as we understand it will fundamentally be changed forever in that new heaven and new earth. Again, these bodies, that's why we need the glorified body. It makes all the sense in the world now why Jesus says, "I will give you a glorified body."

Because with this flesh and blood-driven system, as I've mentioned last week, we can't get too far away from the sun, we can't get too close to the sun, because we'll either burn up or we'll experience hypothermia. We have to worry about platelets and clotting and all kinds of things, nutrition and all these things. Light that sets our circadian rhythms today. All of us have circadian rhythms. It affects our sleep, our melatonin, our dopamine responses. Lack of dopamine, all of a sudden all your motor skills, everything that you take for granted, don't work. Some of you know what Parkinson's is; it's a lack of dopamine. Fine your motor skills.

There's no sun. There's no moon. There's nothing that regulates these things. And it says that Jesus illuminates the city. You know what's beautiful about that? It's all in utter complete dependence on Jesus Christ, God. And through that dependence, our glorified bodies work as they were always intended to work. Not dependent on anything else in creation like we are today, nutrition of food. We know that there will be leaves that will heal. We'll read that later. I'm not saying we're not going to eat. We might make a munch, I don't know.

But He says the former things have passed away. The emphasis here that God wants us to see before we go on to verse five is what? Is comfort. Comfort in God, comfort in Jesus. No more remorse over what has happened even through history through the saints. It's God's prescription played out perfectly. You know, some of you heard me use that term, God's prescription. I actually started to write a formula for it because it makes sense for just me remembering it. C squared plus R squared equals G plus P. Clear as mud, right?

C squared plus R squared equals G plus P. What is that? It's God's plan. It's conviction (C) brings about repentance (R), which then brings about reconciliation (R), which then brings what? Comfort (C). C squared plus R squared: conviction, repentance, reconciliation, and comfort. And what does that bring you and I? Grace and peace (G plus P). Now you have a way of remembering it: C squared plus R squared equals G plus P.

He wipes away every tear. He says He makes all things new. Look at verse five. Some of you are like, "I don't get it, forgive me." It's just a way to memorize it, to think about it. Because you go throughout Isaiah, you go through the Old Testament, and what does He always bring? Even to Israel as the example, He brings conviction, discomfort, and then repentance comes after that. 70 years of captivity changes a person. And then what brings? "I'm bringing you back into the land, the place that I have prepared for you, Israel," Israel meaning governed by God. That's what that word means: governed by God.

And then what comes when He says He brings reconciliation? And then what does it say directly in Isaiah? It's quoted, and we read it together: "And now you will experience my comfort." That's why Jesus Christ will never, ever beat the bride. He doesn't beat the bride. No, He brings the bride comfort. And is that not what we just read in Revelation chapter 21? It's all about the former things: no more tears, no more sorrow, no more death, no more pain. Comfort. Dependence on Him alone.

Look at verse five: "Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said to me, 'Write these words, because they are true and faithful.'" He is true and faithful, isn't He? And it says He who sat on the throne said. This is an authoritative announcement from the King, coming from the throne of God itself. We see very few actual passages describe this throughout your whole 66 books of the Bible. Many times there's a voice, many times we hear it, but it's very clear. He who sat on the throne is making it very authoritative and dogmatic about this, that it's God Himself.

And the way He speaks, and He's speaking directly from His throne. And what comes out of God's mouth or spirit? He says, "Behold, I make all things new." The statement is in the present tense in the Greek. He's saying, "I am making everything new." What does that mean? Well, if you take this in the present perfect tense—we've talked about those tenses before and they matter in the Greek—because what did Jesus Christ declare from the cross at Calvary? "It is finished." But we know in the present perfect tense of the Greek, what does it really mean? It is finished, it keeps being finished, and it will always be finished.

So what is Jesus, if He's using the present perfect tense here, by saying, "Behold, I make all things new"? "I am making them new and I have already begun presently even right now beginning to make things new as I bring and usher in a new heavens and earth." That's why you often hear me and other pastors and yourself saying, "These things need be." Why do we declare that "these things need be"? Old Testament type of language there. What are we saying? These things have to happen to bring about God's perfect, holy, wonderful plan.

But it's beginning here and now in the present time and actually has begun since the time that Jesus Christ went to the cross at Calvary. You see, Paul saw this transformation in the work of eternity. Paul understood this. Remember Paul, one of the few apostles that got direct divine revelation from Jesus Christ. The other apostles were with Him for three to three and a half years; Paul was not. But it says very clearly in his letters that he received from Jesus Christ direct revelation. That means an *apokalupsis*. It's actually the Greek word for an unveiling. He says to Paul, "I'm giving you an unveiling. I'm showing you something that once was hidden or veiled."

So 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16 and chapter 5, verse 17, and I'll just read it to you here this morning. "Therefore we do not lose heart." He's talking to all of us, He's talking to the church. "Even though our outward man is perishing..." We understand that every one of us, every moment of every day, cells are dying. We're getting older. You know, when you're 25 and 30, remember what that felt like? No problems with the bones and energy. Well, let's focus on what he's saying here. But he says the outward man is perishing, right? I think every one of us goes, "Yes," the earth is slowing down, everything. We know what's happening.

He said, "Yet, I want you to know something. Something that Jesus has revealed to me." He says the inward man is being renewed day by day. The outward tent is perishing. You're dying and I'm dying. But this is not something we frown upon. You see, that's a man's perspective, a human perspective, a humanistic perspective, might I add. Not God's perspective. Every moment we get older is one moment we are younger in Christ Jesus and closer to eternity. Amen.

That's the whole point of it. It's not avoiding death; it's welcoming it because death brings life. And he tried to say it so eloquently when he talked about a seed that gets buried in the ground and without the seed having been dead, then new life comes from it, the fruit. How many of you like to eat? Don't you be shy here, calorie chapel. Don't you be shy, right? The reality is the inward man is being renewed. When we go to that supper table or whatever, if we have some juice or something to drink and maybe a little snack or pick-on, whatever that looks like to each and every one of you, are we not giving thanksgiving to God? Do we not have thanksgiving, thankful to God?

We enjoy that. But do you realize that for that to be on our table—I know there's some vegans and vegetarians out there, so just bear with me a minute—because your seed, like a tomato seed or something else, it was once alive, but it had to die. And you took the seed and you planted it and from that came new life, fruit. He's told us this. Our understanding in the mere human, from a mortal's perspective, we get it wrong when we think life is about longevity. I don't mind having a long life, we want a healthy life, but really it's about the inward man being renewed day by day.

He goes on to say, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new." He is already declaring what Jesus Christ is quoting in Revelation here. He's saying that's given as a gift to you and I and it's already begun. And we can all testify to that because each day we get older and older and yet the inward man, can I say it this way, is renewed newer, newer, closer and closer to Jesus.

Did you ever think about it from that perspective? That it seems like we're getting older, we're more frail, but we're more alive in our hearts. We're more closer to Jesus. Our spirit is more in tuned with His will. It's wonderful. It removes from me the fear, the anxiety. It does, because I know that my life is not supposed to go on forever and ever here. I know that my eyes will close, my eyes will open with Him. And then my life will truly begin as it was always intended. I will hold His hand and I will walk in the cool of the garden. That's my goal because that's the point of my birth. That's the whole point of everything. It's not temporal; it's the eternal.

That's why we put on the helmet of salvation, which is the armor of... He has told us all of this through the scriptures because He knows if we don't put on the helmet of salvation, we don't put on the breastplate, we don't put on the shield of faith, we don't carry the sword of the spirit, we don't wear the belt of truth, we don't walk with the shoes of peace, we forget where we're going and we spend so much time and living on where we are.

He says all things are new. This is a brief glance at the thinking behind God's eternal plan to allow sin and its destruction in order to do what? He's allowed it, but what was the point? You ever wondered what was the point? He kind of tells us here. It's the working in making all things new. It has to die so that new fruit... this mortal must put on immortality, this corruption must put on incorruption. He told us these things. And this at this point in His plan in the ages, the plan is complete. He's basically declaring it from the throne of God: all things are made new.

You see, we fail to realize that a redeemed man is greater than an innocent man. Just listen to that again. We fail to realize that a redeemed man is greater than an innocent man. That we gain more in Jesus than we ever lost in Adam. God's perfect state is one of redemption, never one of innocence. That's not what He says. How many of you got caught up into that whole lie? It's a lie from the pit of hell. It steals your joy and your peace. When God finally completes this work and makes all things new, they will stay new because that's the present perfect in the Greek.

They actually never become old. I don't understand that in this simple mind of mine, because if it's new, then what happens after that is still new. But how does it still new in the present tense? Because it's no longer new; it's past. Then I remember that God is outside of what? Time. It's a construct of time that was given to you and I so that we could understand day from night and all that mattered. And all that even went down to pathophysiological responses. Again, the circadian rhythms, the melatonin, the dopamine, all of these hormonal responses that are needed in this body, but now we're going to have a glorified body which no longer requires these things.

Which makes sense why we're moving past all those things and new will be new and new will continue to be new and new will always be new even in the present tense. It will still be new. Nothing will wear out. Did Jesus do this once before for the Israelites when they were in the wilderness for wandering for 40 years? I can't... my boys, I love my young ones. How about you? You got young ones, right? 12, 10, 14, 15. Sneakers. Man alive, in them jeans.

You know, we used to, when I was growing up, we put patches on them. How many of you remember the patches? Now they buy jeans with holes in them and pay more money. I don't get it. I wish I was the guy that would have thought of that. "Here, let me cut a hole in your jean and sell it to you for twice as much." Meanwhile, in my day, my mom would have been like, "You're out of your mind. Where's the patch? I got ripped off. They gave me a holey set of jeans," and I don't mean holy as in set apart.

He says nothing's going to wear out. Nothing will decay. What about sneakers and sandals? How many of you get forever with your shoes? Anybody got a pair of forever shoes? It's a funny story. I've had the same shoes, one pair of shoes that I have had since I was 13 years old. No, let me clarify the statement. I have had the same brand and the same type of shoe since I was 13 years old that I will typically order every couple years because I like the fit and the comfort and I know what to expect. And I know how long they'll last, I know everything about them, and it brings me comfort. It brings my feet comfort, right?

I want you to think about having a pair of shoes that never wear out. No decay. No one will age or atrophy anymore. Do you know what I mean by that? Atrophy? It's like when you're laying in a bed and you don't move, sometimes your muscles kind of get weak, they atrophy. There'll be no breakdown of muscle anymore. We won't have to worry about fat, we won't have to worry about any of them. Again, I truly fundamentally believe we're all going to feel like we're 25 or 30 unless when you were 25 and 30 you didn't feel so good. Then you're going to feel like whatever age you felt great at, you're going to feel like that for eternity.

He said, "And I want you to make sure that everybody understands this because I want you to write this very specifically, John. Pay attention, son." That's what He's saying. "Pay attention, son. I want you to write this specific. Dad's speaking now. These words are true and they're faithful." Why? Because to a mere mortal they sound unbelievable, don't they? They sound almost too good to be true.

And Jesus repeats it again. He says, "No, you are to write not only is Jesus true and faithful, that's how He's described, but so are His promises. God's promises are true and faithful." True, that word in the Greek means genuine or sincere. We've talked about sincere before. At that time, sincere, that idea behind it meant "without wax." It means no hypocrisy.

So wax was something that people would take with marble or something else and they would basically try to amalgamate or take the two together so that if like a nose got broke off a statue, take wax, form it, put it on there, gel it, it kind of looks like it's the same thing. But it wasn't, was it? It was an amalgamation of the two. No, it means without wax. It means genuine. It's not thrown together, put together, or repaired. It is truly new and it's sincere. Then He says faithful, and that word faithful in the Greek here means completely trustworthy.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. You can hear the study from Revelation again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. That's hisperfectlove.org. We've expanded our podcast too. Look for us on oneplace.com and most of the major podcast platforms.

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And whether you live in or around Mechanicsburg, PA or will be visiting the area soon, we'd love to have you join us for a service at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek service too, Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. You'll find us at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information.

Well, that'll do it for today, but come back next time when Pastor Matt will again study the Book of Revelation with us here on His Perfect Love. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.