Set Apart: Holiness Completed
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Notes prepared by Bruce Fidler
Focus: The story of redemption is completed, and God’s people now reflect the holiness of God so that he can dwell among them.
Revelation 21:1–7 ESV
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. 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.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”
The Text in the Story of Redemption
Revelation 21:1–7 are the opening verses for a section (21:1–22:5) describing the new heaven and earth that God’s people will experience in the coming age. Revelation is predominantly an apocalyptic work portraying God’s progressive victory over sin and worldly and spiritual forces of evil. Written explicitly to seven churches in Asia Minor of the Roman empire in the first century, it contains extraordinary, symbolic visions and words given to John. John urges the churches to be faithful to Christ despite persecution, ungodly Roman society, and internal threats from false teaching.
This section begins the celebratory description of God’s consummation of redemption after Jesus has returned to the earth and the final judgment has occurred. John describes the beginning of the new age and our new experience of everlasting life. God has finalized his victory over sin, evil, and death, conformed his people into the image of Jesus, and begun to dwell openly with them in a new world characterized by his holiness and goodness.
The vision is beautiful and compelling, inspiring hope and longing for the Lord’s return and God’s consummation of all things. John intended his message to stir the faith-filled imagination of the believers in Asia Minor with an anticipation of everlasting life with God and one another in the wonderful age to come. His text sought to motivate them to persevere in their love for God and one another, their faithfulness to the gospel, and their commitment to holy living. Despite their difficult trials, a glorious, certain future awaited them.
This sermon should provide a motivational vision to spur us to a life of holiness. When we see the destination clearly, we will sacrifice to get there.
Successful athletes picture the prize at the end of the season. A young football player may envision holding the FIFA World Cup trophy one day. An aspiring swimmer may imagine herself receiving the gold medal in a future Olympics. These visions empower the athlete to press on through setbacks, injuries, and pain.
In 1968, John Stephen Akhwari represented Tanzania in the men’s marathon. But in a collision with other athletes jockeying for position, he fell to the ground, gashing and dislocating his knee. Most observers assumed he would pull out and go to the hospital. Instead, he received medical attention and returned to the track. Though eighteen of the seventy-five starters had pulled out, he resolved to complete the event.
More than an hour after the winner crossed the line and the awards were distributed, Akhwari finished the race, cheered on by a few thousand remaining spectators. When reporters asked why he’d carried on, he said, “My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.”
Temptation, trial, and difficulty militate against a life of holiness, but the vision of the new creation spurs us to action when we get weary of the fight.
Revelation 21 gives us a picture of the race completed and motivates us to press on despite the obstacles.
1. God will bless his people with a new creation and a new city.
21:1–2: 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. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The New Creation
The story of the new creation begins with the Genesis account of God’s original creation. Six times God declared that what he had created “was good” (1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). Then God created humans in his image, male and female. He blessed them and told them to be fruitful, fill the earth, subdue it, and rule over all living creatures (1:26–28). After this, “God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (1:31).
The Garden: God planted a garden on the earth in the land of Eden (2:8). The Hebrew word for Eden has a range of meaning that includes joy, delight, and gladness based on favorable circumstances and anything of outstanding quality. God filled the Garden of Eden with visually beautiful trees bearing delicious, nutritious fruit, including the Tree of Life that could impart immortality (2:9). God placed the first humans in his garden (2:8, 18) and tasked them to cultivate and keep it (2:15). The Hebrew terms for this responsibility commonly describe the priestly service rendered to Yahweh in Israel’s Tabernacle and Temple. We should understand Adam and Eve’s garden responsibilities as a way God ordained for them to express worship to him as the Creator.
Adam and Eve were God’s royal representatives to harness the creation’s potential for the glory of God and the good of creation. The result would have been a cultivated earth of worship filled with God’s glorious presence. But man’s sin delayed the fulfillment of God’s intentions. Although they were delayed, they were not terminated.
Jesus will fulfill them through the gospel of his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return.
In Romans 8, Paul looks forward to the final resurrection and Jesus’ return to the earth. God’s glorious presence and power will roll back the curse and liberate the planet. The creation will no longer be subjected to futility but will be freed to fulfill its divinely intended purpose.
Romans 8:19–23
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
God will eradicate sin and evil from the new creation. Nothing and no one unholy will have any part in it (Revelation 21:8, 27). Righteousness will permeate the new heavens and earth (2 Peter 3:13).
The New City
Genesis 1–2 describes God’s mission for humans in a way that implies a broad range of cultural activities.
Genesis 4 purposefully identifies numerous cultural developments, such as animal husbandry, musical instruments, and toolmaking.
But the population increase created cities, leading to greater sin. This is true historically and is true today. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that in 2021, the violent-crime rate in urban areas was 121 percent higher than in rural areas. Violent and property crime rates in the largest cities were three to four times as high as in rural communities. These statistics are accurate in nearly all other nations. There is more violent and property crime in cities worldwide.
In contrast to ungodly cities, God designated Jerusalem as his earthly dwelling place. The Tabernacle and the Temple were located there with their Holy of Holies—the inner sanctuary where God manifested his presence.
Isaiah envisioned a time when the nations would send delegates to Jerusalem to worship and learn God’s law (Isaiah 2:2–4). Sadly, Jerusalem was judged and destroyed, first by Babylon, then by Rome. The earthly Jerusalem never became what God desired.
Instead, God will bless us with a new city, the New Jerusalem—the city we long for. The author of Hebrews states that Abraham lived as a sojourner in tents, “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (11:10). Instead of longing for their Mesopotamian homeland, the patriarchs lived as “strangers and exiles on the earth,” because they desired “a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (11:13, 16). The author encourages his readers, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (13:14).
This new Jerusalem will have all the communal and cultural advantages of cities without all the chaos and evil.
Human cultural development stripped of every vestige of sinful influence will continue in the age to come as God’s people, holy and conformed into the image of Christ, worship and serve him and reign together with Christ forever.
The song “Hallelujah” by the Newsboys expresses the theme of longing for the new creation.
I’m looking up
Holding out
Pressing forward
Without a doubt
Longing for the things unseen
Longing for things I believe
My true country
We hope and wait
For the glorious day
All tears will vanish
Wiped away
On the saints this day already shines
On the saints this day already shines
It already shines
We’ll be singing hallelujah
We’ll be singing hallelujah
At the top of our lungs, hallelujah
To Your glory, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah
And I know that it’s coming
But I can’t see it now
And I’ve touched it in moments
But I can’t hold it yet
And it glows in the darkness
And it calls us away
To our true destination
To that glorious day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPK9nzF8qzs
2. God will dwell with his people in the new Jerusalem.
21:3–5: 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. 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.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
This is an extraordinary promise. God will live with us former sinners, having cleansed, sanctified, and conformed us into the holy image of Jesus. We will not be ashamed in his presence. Everyone will experience the full extent of his merciful and gracious love. We will know he loves us like a groom loves his newlywed bride (19:7–9).
In profoundly moving terms, a voice from the throne assures John that God will remove all the grief and misery of this world. The sadness of past sins committed and suffered will forever be forgotten. God will wipe the tears from our eyes and comfort us. Never again will anyone or anything cause sorrow in the age to come.
The Lord will put an end to the turbulence of the nations. No longer will kingdom rise against kingdom. God will eradicate greed, covetousness, envy, pride, resentment, vengeance, anger, hatred, and prejudice from our hearts. We will be pure even as God is pure.
Concerning this glorious future, God declares, “Behold, I am making all things new” (21:5). Nothing will be the same as it is now in this sinful, weary, troublesome world. The excitement of God’s people will overflow as we experience all the new things God has planned for us. God’s presence and beauty will permeate everything that we encounter.
Best of all, we will enjoy God. From festive gatherings to direct face-to-face conversations, we will enjoy God’s company.
3. Those who thirst and overcome will inherit life with God in the new creation.
21:6–7: And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”
Those Who Thirst
John 4:14
Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
In Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, he promised to satisfy our spiritual longing if we would come to him. God offers this water of life “without payment” to thirsty people. If payment were required, we could not receive it because of our indebtedness to God due to sin. Instead, Jesus paid for our sins through his death on the cross. With great love, he offers everlasting life free of charge to everyone who comes to him. He invites all to come and drink from the refreshing water of life.
Those Who Overcome
1 John 5:4–5
Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
The verb translated three times as “overcome(s)” is the same verb translated as “conquers” in Revelation 21:7.
We conquer when we trust in Jesus. We overcome the world when we persevere in trusting and obeying him.
Overcoming does not depend on age, gender, ethnicity, wealth, education, strength, intelligence, or other human characteristics. Faith overcomes the world and inherits all God has prepared for the new age.
God promises that he will be our God, and we will be his “son(s).” The context implies that this promise belongs to men and women. In the Greco-Roman world, women’s legal standing and inheritance rights varied. Societies were patriarchal, with male heads of households possessing the estate’s legal and property rights. God’s promise, however, belongs to all his redeemed living images, male and female.
God’s inheritance includes a deep, familial relationship with him. God has always desired a parent-child relationship with us. Being made in God’s image and likeness implies God intended to relate to us as his children (Genesis 5:1–3 with 1:26). In the age to come, we will thoroughly know and experience God as our Father, full of grace, rich in kindness, and entirely good. Everyone will confess with John, “We have come to know and to believe the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16). No one will ever again doubt that God loves them as his children. All will know that God’s posture of heart and disposition of mind toward us is always that of a good Father. We will be filled with righteous pride, knowing that our inseparable Father is the great, holy, powerful, sovereign Creator and Ruler of all that exists.
Four Questions
1. How is God glorified in the text?
God’s power, faithfulness, and goodness are on full display as he fulfills his ancient promises to renew the creation and fully redeem all who would come to him.
2. How is our heart transformed in the text?
Our hearts should be filled with hope, longing, adoration, and thankfulness for what God will bring about in the end. We should be motivated to live set apart to him as our heavenly Father.
3. How is the mission accelerated in the text?
The great hope of eternal salvation should motivate us to communicate the gospel to others in the hope that they, too, will inherit the magnificent redemption God has planned.
4. What is the gospel application of the text?
God offers salvation “without payment” (21:6). The Son of God lived, died, and rose again so that we might be forgiven and inherit eternal life in the new creation and new city. Our responsibility is to believe in Jesus and overcome the world as we long for God and the age to come.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher