“Jesus is Making Things New”
Revelation 21:1-6
What comes to mind when you hear the words “passing away or “passed away”?
This idea of death going away is something we are going to talk about today. This idea of something passing away will actually (hopefully) give us hope!
We want to see how There will come a time when death will pass away and God will dwell among his people, as it was in the beginning. Then we will discuss Jesus dwelling with us, and what that means for us.
Revelation 21:1-6ESV
Right away we see what we were talking about as we started today. The first heaven and first earth have passed away.
With the first earth and heaven passing away, the things associated with them have also passed away. The things that have passed away are things like death, suffering, pain, and sorrow. Things liked oppression, abused power, and war. Things like we talked about last week: divisions have passed away, being marginalized has passed away.
With these former things passing away, we now have Jesus dwelling with us. This word we have for dwelling place in verse three is also the word for tabernacle. This word means the God will live with us. He will take up residence with us.
When Jesus is in our lives, He works to have the former things pass away in and through us
Both here and in Isaiah 65 God says that He is making all things new. It isn’t in the future tense and it isn’t in the past tense. It is in the present tense.
He says that it is done He is the beginning and the end. Again we don’t see it done yet. We are still living with the “former things” in our lives.
The people who would have read John’s “Revelation” were dealing with persecution. The Roman people would accuse Christians of not supporting the Roman government because they didn’t worship the state. “Persecution arose, not from the emperor, but at the grass-roots level when local citizens accused Christians of neglecting the ritual duties of Roman state religion. The emperor acted against Christians when citizens brought charges against them.” Asbury commentary https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/asbury-bible-commentary/i-authorship-date-and-cultural-situation Therefore, hearing that God would make the old things pass away would bring them a lot of hope!
What does Jesus want for us today? For Jesus to dwell in us and let Him work to have some of the former things pass away.
Why am I supposed to have Jesus dwell in me and let Him work? Where Jesus dwells is being made new. The old passes away.
How am I supposed to have Jesus dwell in me and let Him work? Invite Holy Spirit to fill us and allow Him to work in our lives.
We got to see again today that Jesus is making a new heaven and a new earth. Jesus makes His dwelling with us. When He does, the former things pass away. We are left with the presence of Jesus and him making things new. Of course, right now we don’t see all of the former things passed away. However, we do see that Jesus is presently making things new.
We are to let Jesus dwell with us and join His making things new. When we do, we will be sharing Jesus’s hope with the world around us. We are to invite Holy Spirit in our lives. We are to let Jesus work through us to relieve the death, mourning, crying, pain, and oppression. Is God dwelling with us now? Are we sharing God’s dwelling with those around us? Are we letting the former things pass away in our lives? Are we causing the former things to pass away in other people’s lives?