Look up and Live, Part 2, The Eternal home of God’s Conquering sons

Revelation 21:1-8

Big Idea: Be thirsty conquerors whom God will adopt as sons in his new creation, and to whom God gives from the fountain of life; don’t be cowards destined to burn forever in the lake of fire

Is anyone here born outside of Australia?

It doesn’t matter where you came from; I am fairly certain that there’s one thing in common.

If you’re born outside of Australia, you will have to travel over oceans to come, since Australia is an island.

We sing this in our national anthem: our home is girt by sea.

Some of us might have come by air, but for others - including the First Nations people, as well as the first British settlers - would’ve come by sea.

I think it would be pretty hard to come to Australia by sea.

It would’ve been a very difficult journey.

They had to make preparations for food and water.

Why do they have to provide water when they have so much water around them?

It’s because the water around them is salty.

The more you drink salty water, the thirstier you will get.

Ironically, the more you drink, the more dehydrated you will be.

If you want to survive at sea, don’t drink seawater!

What applies to physical seawater also applies to spiritual seawater.

There are things in this world that seem to satisfy our thirst, but in the end, they only lead to a greater spiritual thirst.

Drinking seawater is deadly, but drinking spiritual seawater is even more deadly, even more dangerous.

There is, of course, a far better option than spiritual seawater.

It’s water from the fountain of life.

What is this spiritual seawater? What is this water from the fountain of life?

That’s what we’re going to look at today.

If you have your Bible there, please open to Revelation chapter 21, beginning from verse 1.

We’re going to see three things:

1. Living in the new heaven and the new earth: no sea and no salty tears.

2. Drinking water from the fountain of life: God’s gift to thirsty conquerors

3. Dying in the lake of fire: God’s sentence for faithless cowards

Before we look into it, let’s pray,

“Heavenly Father, give us faith to receive your word, understanding to know what it means, and the will to put it into practice; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

1.   Living in the new heaven and the new earth: no sea and no salty tears

In the book of Revelation, God gives us a glimpse of what it looks like to live in the new heaven and the new earth.

Revelation chapter 21, verse one, “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.”

 A new heaven and a new earth are coming.

We’re now living in a heaven and an earth that will pass away, and it will be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth.

There’s also a curious note that the Bible wants us to pay attention to: “And the seas are no more”.

Most ancient Israelites were not lovers of the sea.

For them, the sea was the symbol of chaos and death.

And they have a good reason to not not love the sea.

Here’s a photo of the sea on a cruise with my parents and my sister’s family (See photo on screen).

We were quite high above the sea and there were points in the voyage where all we could see was the sea.

It would be dangerous to fall into the sea.

The sea can swallow you up, and nobody would know.

You might be able to stay afloat for a little while, but eventually, you will grow tired and drown.

Your death would make hardly any difference at all to the sea.

In the new heaven and the new earth, there will be no sea.

One day, our fear of the sea will disappear.

We don’t know exactly what the Bible mean by saying that there will be no more seas, but there is one thing we know for sure.

One day, we don’t need to be afraid of the sea anymore.

More than that, there will be nothing that will threaten our lives in the new heaven and the new earth; there will be no more death.

Look with me at Verse 4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.”

Can you imagine a world without death?

Imagine never having to say goodbye to a loved one because of his death or yours.

Imagine being there with your family and your friend, forever!

And the Bible tells us that it gets better.

Not only will there be no death, but there will also be no pain, no crying, no grief.

Why?

Will it be because we as humanity have evolved to a perfect state? No!

Will it be because we’re more educated? No!

Will it be because there’s enough food and money for everyone? No!

Look with me at verses 2-3, “also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and will be their God”

There will be a new heaven and a new earth, where there is no death, no tears, no pain, because God’s people, described here as the holy city, the new Jerusalem, will come out of heaven to meet and live with God.

They are also described as a beautifully dressed bride, prepared for her husband.

It will be the most beautiful moment of our humanity.

God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them and be their God.

God will live with his people; God will make his home with his people.

Heaven is not an eternal amusement park or holiday; it’s God’s home.

In heaven, God himself will wipe away every tear from his people’s eyes.

God sees every tear that we’ve shed for all the pain, all the sorrow, all the sacrifices that we’ve made for him.

God sees them all, and he will wipe them all away.

All the things that caused us sorrow and pain will pass away.

But there’s more. Look with me at verse five, “Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”

God wanted his people to know about this, to know about the future he has in store for them and so he told the Apostle John to write these things down.

What God’s said is faithful and true.

The old heaven and the old earth will pass away. God will make everything new.

On Wednesday, Jenny and I went down the coast to have a day off; it was our first one in a very long time.

We went down near Stanwell Tops, where we went for Church camp last year.

It is a beautiful place. It is so beautiful that the locals have called their place “God’s country”.

Stanwell Tops is beautiful, but it’s not the place that God longs to be in.

It shouldn’t even be the place that God’s people long to be in, either.

In fact, don’t set your hearts on Sydney, or Shanghai or San Francisco, as beautiful as these cities may be.

Set your heart on the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, where God himself will live with his people.

Don’t set your heart on London, or Beijing, or Seoul, where, as good as the governments may be, people still die.

Set your heart on the city where the citizens will never die.

Set your heart on God’s eternal home.

Set your heart on the holy city, the new Jerusalem.

Does setting your heart on heaven make you less useful on earth?

No, it’s the very opposite.

Setting your heart on heaven makes you more useful on earth.

What do I mean?

Earlier this week, I met a successful retiree who had earned a lot more money than I could ever imagine.

Some of his friends might plan a long holiday or go on a cruise, but this man who was about to retire was thinking about how he can serve God’s people and help more people come to know Jesus and be saved.

Who’s more useful? The one who travels overseas or the one who helps people see the glory of Jesus?

Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 6:19-21 about why we should set our hearts of heaven: “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.  ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Friends, where are your treasures, where do you spend most of your time, your imagination and your resources?

Whatever we spend on this world will end up as worm food or rubbish.

Don’t waste your time setting your heart on the treasures of this world.

Set your heart in heaven, in God’s home, in the heavenly Jerusalem.

2.   Drinking water from the fountain of life: God’s gift to thirsty conquerors

Heaven will be filled with people from throughout history and from across the world. However, not everyone will be in heaven. Those who will be in the city will be there because they’re thirsty conquerors.

Look with me from the second half of verse 6 to verse 7, “ I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life. ⁷ The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.”

Who thinks of themselves as a conqueror?

Most of us don’t think of ourselves as conquerors.

When we think of conquerors, we might think of Genghis Khan, whose birth name was Temujin, who conquered many countries, stretching from the Sea of Japan to Eastern Europe at its peak.

I don’t think any of us thinks we’re like him.

If you do, then please see me afterwards.

I’d love to hear about your conquests as we calmly make our way to the police station.

That’s why it might sound strange for us to hear that God says that in verse 7 that the one who conquers will inherit these things.

These things include being in God’s home forever, and experiencing no death or pain forever.

It also includes drinking from the water from the fountain of life.

These are the best things to have; these are the best things to live for!

And God gives these great things, these best things, to the conquerors.

By the way, the Greek word translated as conqueror here is from the word Nike, the sports brand.

What does it mean to be a conqueror in the Bible?

Earlier in the book of Revelation, the writer wrote about people who overcome. Look with me at Revelation 2:7.

The letter was addressed to the Church in Ephesus. Jesus says,   “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

And to the Church in Smyrna, Jesus says, in verse 11, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will never be harmed by the second death.”

These churches were facing persecution and trials because of their faith.

They were pressured to leave Christianity.

Some had witnessed their ministers and friends die for their faith in Jesus.

It was tempting to give up, but Jesus urged them to conquer and to overcome.

Being a Christian can be very hard. This was what Jesus taught, what his disciples taught, and what we have taught here at St Paul’s Kogarah.

It’s tough to be a Christian.

And so, stand firm and resist the temptation to quit.

That’s what being a conqueror means, according to Jesus.

It means trusting in him and not giving up.

It means rejecting the world’s view on sexuality if it contradicts the Bible.

It means following Jesus even if it means imprisonment or death.

It means obeying Jesus and praising him despite trials.

It means rejecting worldly fame and fortune if to be rich and famous means betraying Jesus’ teachings.

That’s a conqueror; that’s a person who stands firm in Jesus.

Friends, that’s why I have a lot of respect for older Christians who keep trusting in Jesus. Children, youth, young adults, old adults, these older Christians are people who stood firm; these are the conquerors who are still conquering.

Don’t see these older brothers and sisters from a worldly point of view, from a human point of view.

Instead, see them from Jesus’ point of view.

I often get asked about how we know whether a Christian is growing.

One of the sure signs is what they do under persecution.

Do they grumble about the situation or do they praise God?

Do they quit or do they persevere?

Will they stay true or will they turn their back on Jesus?

Another sign of whether a person is growing as a Christian is whether they are thirsty for the life that Jesus has come to give.

Last week, Peter talked about the importance of our having a hunger for people to be saved.

Here we see a thirst for water from the foundation of life.

Those who are mature, those who are conquerors, will have a thirst for the water from the fountain of life.

Those who are defeated usually stumble and fall because they thirst for the things of this world.

Their desires are for the things of this world.

Like someone who drinks salt water from the sea instead of fresh water, they drink the lies of this world, which only makes them thirstier until they die.

But the conqueror in Christ is different.

Those who are conquerors in Christ also have a thirst, but they know that the only thing that can quench their thirst is the fountain of life.

They know that there’s only one source of water that satisfies the soul, and that source is found only in Jesus.

This is what Jesus says in John 4:14, “But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again.  In fact, the water I will give him will become a well    of water springing up in him for eternal life.”

The one who conquers is the one who thirsts only for the water that Jesus gives. He will stay faithful to Jesus, and when he passes from this life to the next, God will make him his son.

The same applies to women as well.

Why doesn’t God say he will make people who conquer his sons and daughters?

It’s not because God will change the person’s sexuality.

It’s because in ancient times, only sons could inherit from their fathers.

And so, for the one who conquers the struggles, the challenges, the doubts that we encounter because we’re a Christian, whether the conqueror is a man or a woman, God now adopts as his son to inherit what God has to give to Jesus, God’s One and Only Son.

And these conquerors thirst for the life that only Jesus can give, the only life that can truthfully be called life.

Athanasius was one of the strongest supporters of the truth that Jesus is the true God from the true God.  

However, in declaring this truth about Jesus, he faced a lot of opposition.

But despite these oppositions, he kept teaching the truth about Jesus.

He once wrote, "If the world is against the truth, then I am against the world" That’s a thirsty conqueror who stood firm in the trust of Jesus.

I don’t know your situation in life, but chances are you are facing some sort of obstacle in your life.

It could be doubt, it could be sickness, it could be relationships.

Some of these will bear such weight on your heart that you feel is making it hard for you to keep trusting in Jesus.

Friends, if that’s you, stand firm and conquer.

Trust in Jesus, follow his way and overcome.

Thirst for Jesus’ fountain of life more than all the sea waters of this world.

The seawaters of the world won’t satisfy; only what Jesus offers can truly quench your thirst.

3. Dying in the lake of fire: God’s sentence for faithless cowards

What about those who didn’t conquer?

What about those who didn’t stand firm and put their trust in Jesus?

Look with me at verse 8, “But the cowards, faithless,  detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars—their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur,which is the second death.”

There is a list of things that will stop you from enter heaven.

I’m just going to focus on one:

Cowards won’t enter heaven; cowards will have their share in the lake of fire.

As some of you would know, I recently moved into a new place with a pool.

I’ve never lived in a home with a pool in the backyard, so I’ve learned a lot about pool care.

One of the things I learnt was that adding the right amount of chlorine to the pool.

The right amount of chlorine is crucial; too little chlorine can increase the risk of diseases, while too much can burn your eyes.

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about the lake of fire.

It could be like the molten lava that we often see in the movies or TV shows.

Instead of molten lava, the lake could be filled with sulfuric acid.

Or it could also be both sulfuric acid and lava, since both fire and sulphur are in Revelation 22:8.

However, the truth is that this burning lake of sulphur will be worse than anything we can possibly imagine, just as heaven will be better than anything we can possibly imagine.

Those who have not conquered will burn here, in this lake of sulfur and fire, forever.

We might understand this as punishment for murderers, the sexually immoral, and other bad deeds.

Some of these people might deserve it.

Burning forever is severe even for these sins.

But being a coward or unbelieving? Should they be punished with such severity?

Is being a coward as bad as murdering?

What does it mean to be a coward?

It means knowing the right thing but failing to do it.

A coward lacks the courage to do the right but dangerous thing.

They quit when doing the right thing is sacrificial.

In the spiritual sense, being a coward is the opposite of being a conqueror in Christ.

Being a coward means letting doubt overtake you, giving in to struggles against sin, and giving up trusting in Jesus when things get tough.

O that final day, when Jesus comes back, and God’s people, the new Jerusalem, finally gets to spend time with God forever, there will be no cowards in the crowd.

There won’t be any cowards in heaven, not one.

That doesn’t mean that as soon as someone has failed to trust Jesus, then Jesus will give up on us and won’t bring us to heaven.

We are weak and still sin, so we will fail as cowards sometimes.

The Bible isn’t talking about people who fail, who recognise their failures, and turn back to Jesus.

Instead, it’s talking about people who know about the good news of Jesus but choose to remain in the world and turn their backs on Jesus.

These people constantly live as cowards, constantly failing to trust God in their trials.

But we need to be careful, for there are cowards who don’t look like cowards at all.

In the world’s eyes, these cowards may look strong and wise, but they lack the courage to trust in God when things are difficult or when life doesn’t go their way.

They may look down on Christians who trust in God and say that looking to heaven is a waste of time.

They don’t have the courage to trust God when things are difficult or when life doesn’t go their way.

These cowards choose to do things their way, rather than God’s way.

These are cowards.

Conquerors, however, have the resilience to trust God even when they look foolish in the world’s eyes.

They point to Jesus and pray, even in the midst of being ridiculed.

Conquerors fall on their knees to pray because they trust in God and thirst for God. Cowards turn away from God and trust in themselves, drinking the salt water that is the wisdom of this world, not knowing that with each sip, they are another day closer to drowning in the lake of fire and sulfur, forever.

Thomas Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury 460 years ago.

He believed in the Bible and was responsible for writing many prayers in the Anglican Prayer Book, which helped shape the English reformation.

However, when another Queen, Mary I (also known as Bloody Mary), persecuted all of the church leaders of England and ordered everyone to go back to Roman Catholicism, Cranmer gave in.

He was acting as a coward at that point.

He was trying to save his life instead of setting his heart on Jesus.

At the very last moment before Cranmer was burned to death, Cranmer recanted his first recantation.

That is, he didn’t want to be a Roman Catholic but to stay true to Jesus.

As he was about to face fire, he declared that he would punish the hand that originally signed the recantations by burning it first.

Though he had failed, in the end, Cranmer chose to be a conqueror rather than a coward.

How about you? Who are you tempted to give in to? Who would you betray God for?

Don’t be cowardly.

If you have been cowardly, repent, turn away from the world and do the right thing.

Be a conqueror and trust in Jesus instead.

Am I thirsting for spiritually salty water? 

Friends, if you are spending more time on entertainment than serving Jesus, then you’re thirsting for pleasure; you’re thirsting for spiritually salty water.

If your mind is constantly thinking about  how to get more money, then you’re thirsting for riches; you’re thirsting for spiritually salty water.

If all you talk about is your achievements, then you’re thirsting for fame; you’re thirsting for spiritually salty water.

Friends, thirst for the water from the fountain of life.

Thirst for a new heaven and a new earth.

Thirst for the love of God in Jesus.

Be thirsty conquerors whom God will adopt as sons in his new creation, and to whom God gives from the fountain of life; don’t be cowards destined to burn forever in the lake of fire

Here are three questions for us to think about this week:

Three Questions

1.    Will those around me know whether I thirst for the new heaven and new earth, or the old one?

2.    What obstacle must I conquer to follow Jesus until the very end?

3.    In what way am I living as a coward that will stop me from entering the new heaven and new earth?

Be thirsty conquerors whom God will adopt as sons in his new creation, and to whom God gives from the fountain of life; don’t be cowards destined to burn forever in the lake of fire

Let’s pray, “Father, we thank you for giving us a glimpse of what heaven would look like. Help us to put our trust in Jesus and be a conqueror. By your Spirit, give us the strength to overcome our struggles, that we may be where you are, that we may drink from the water of the fountain of  life.

Father, don’t let our cowardice overtake us. Keep us from straying into the treasures of this world. Give us the discernment to see the spiritual seawater in our lives. Let us thirst for the water of the fountain of life, that we may live lives that glorify Christ, that we may be holy to him. Our hearts often wander, and so, please, Father,  set our hearts on the things of heaven. By faith, give us a longing to be where you are, for there, in your heavenly home, is true joy and peace. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.”