Preparing for the Future
Revelation 22.6-21
The final cycle of visions in the book of Revelation comes to a climax with the appearance of the New Creation. The old world has passed away and all evil has been removed. Only the people of God remain in the New Heavens and the New Earth, where they will worship God forever and see His very face. Unfortunately, some people have been excluded from this New Creation and are permanently shut out of the presence of God. After this vision fades we come to the formal conclusion of the book of Revelation, which is also the conclusion to the entire Biblical canon. The book ends with both a promise and a warning: Jesus is coming soon, but woe to those who are not ready to meet Him! The book of Revelation has told us much about the future. The end of this book urges us to prepare for the future that has been revealed in the preceding visions.
A New Creation is coming but the time to prepare for this future world is now, while we are still in this world. This New Creation has already appeared in embryonic form and if we want to be able to enter the fullness of God’s new world, we are going to have to belong to it now. The final words of Revelation show us how we can become a part of the future New Creation even while we live in this present world. This world is a staging area for the next world and what we do now will carry over into eternity, either for our eternal good or our eternal ruin and frustration. Life is serious business. If we miss what God is doing, then our lives will have been wasted.
Jesus is coming soon and so is the end of this present world order. The eternal state of things is rapidly approaching, and we must be giving what is eternal the priority in our lives over what is passing away. The present world order seems like it will last forever, and it is often difficult for us to think seriously about our own physical demise and eventual death. We may not live to see the passing of the natural order that is described at the end of the book of Revelation, but we will certainly all have to face our own passing away. Life has a way of distracting us from this eventuality. Even religion can make us too casual about the central issues of life.
The main business of the Christian life is preparing for the future. And we do this with a sense of holy fear because we know what is going to happen to those who are not prepared for what is coming. The Christian can look to the future with hope and expectation because the best is yet to come for the people of God. But we walk by faith and not by sight. The things that are revealed in these glorious visions in the book of Revelation have not yet appeared to our physical senses. It is going to take some grace for us to live in this present world while we make ourselves ready for the world that is coming. We must use the time that God has given us in this world to prepare for the next world. This is the true meaning of life. If we are ultimately excluded from the New Creation, then our lives in this world will have been lived in vain.
Time is going to run out and the world as we know it is going to end. That is the message of this text at the end of the book of Revelation. It is a fitting end to the Bible as well. Time is in the hands of God and He is guiding the history of the world and the future according to His purpose and will. God was there at the beginning when time began, and He will be there to bring time to an end. The Biblical view of time starts and ends with God. The book of Revelation says that God is the Alpha and the Omega. God is the Creator at the beginning and the Judge who stands at the end of time.
In contrast to the Biblical view of time, the pagan view has been cyclical and repetitive, like the cycles of nature. If all you have is the natural order to look at, then reality just seems to be an endless cycle of birth, corruption, and then death. The cycle just keeps repeating itself. This cyclical view of time is ultimately meaningless. The world is like a dog endlessly chasing its tail, going nowhere. If we have no further revelation, then this view of the world is reasonable. The cyclical view is even given some space in the Bible in the book of Ecclesiastes. Having been given great wisdom, Solomon made his observations about life in this world. He correctly saw how everything seems to just go through various, repetitive cycles. His conclusion was that life under the sun was ultimately meaningless. And it would truly be meaningless unless we have an additional revelation from outside the natural order.
But there is another view of time besides the cyclical view. We know from the revelation in Scripture that time is linear: there was a beginning when God made the heavens and the earth, and there will be an end to Time when Jesus comes again and brings a New Creation. We do not learn about this from studying the natural world. Nature will only teach you the cyclical view and lead you ultimately to despair about life. The modern materialist sees no higher purpose to his life because all he believes is what he sees in the endless cycles of the natural world that eventually leads to his own demise. There is no hope found in nature. If we are to have any hope of anything beyond the endless cycles of birth, decay, and death then something will have to come from outside. The Bible tells us that there is something, or rather a Someone, who stands outside the confines of this world and has broken into time and history to bring something new.
The Hindus believe in reincarnation, which is just an extension of the pagan, cyclical view of time. In that religion, it is taught that human beings experience a cycle of birth and death until a higher form of consciousness or enlightenment is achieved and the individual escapes the cycle to enter the impersonal state of Nirvana. In this view of life, there is more than one chance to get it right and escape the endless cycles of birth and death. If you happen to live a bad life, there will be another chance to better yourself in your next reincarnation. You do not have to get everything right the first time around!
The Bible does not teach reincarnation. The message of the Gospel is much better and more hopeful. Our time in this life is filled with the goodness and grace of God who wants us to turn to Him and acknowledge Him as the source and ultimate meaning of life. We were created by a good and loving God so that we might come to know Him. This seeking after God is the whole purpose of our time on earth. And God is not playing a game of hide-and-seek with us. If we seek God, then we will find Him (See Acts 17.26-28). As the angel said to John, we must worship God because this is the whole point of our lives in this world as well as the world to come. Our time in this world is like a period of training or education. This life is preliminary. The startling implication to this is that it is possible to go through our time in this life and miss the point! One of the biggest lies out there is that our lives are our own to do with as we please. But the Judge is standing there at the end and He will make the final assessment of our lives. Sometimes wicked people seem to be getting away with their rebellion against God. Even wicked men seem to be happy and enjoying life, perhaps living long and luxurious lifestyles. But the feet of the wicked are set in slippery places (See Psalm 73) and time runs out for every man. Time is God’s limitation for sinful man. “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment.”
The book of Revelation sees the end fast approaching. When Time has finally melted away all that will remain is the fixed state of the eternal order. This is what the text means by this rather unusual statement: “Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” In this world the concrete is still wet, so to speak, but it will be set when Time comes to an end. Those who wash their robes will enter the eternal city of God. But those who remain defiled by sin will remain forever outside in alienation from the life-giving presence of God. We are called upon to think about this final state of things and where we will be when eternity sets in. If we are needing to change, the time to begin that change is now.
, The new world is coming, and we must be made fit to enter it. But “flesh and blood will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” In our natural state, we are not ready to live in the New Creation. The new world that is coming has been prepared for a certain kind of people and we must become the kind of people who can live in this new world. This means that a change must begin while we are still in this world. The change must be something more than superficial. We must somehow be changed from people who are alienated from God and hostile to Him to people who are in fundamental agreement with His nature. We must be changed from people who ignore and even avoid God to people who love and seek after God. We must become people who glorify God and serve Him as He deserves if we want to be a part of the New World Order. Somehow our disorderly, misdirected hearts must be put right before we can enter the New Creation.
A person who is not prepared to live in the world to come would not even be able to enjoy it. A person who has only lived in alienation from God to suddenly be thrust in the presence of the God that he or she has been diligently avoiding would not be at home in “heaven” at all! The eternal bliss of the Redeemed, on the other hand, will be to finally be in the presence of the One they have been seeking. “The pure in heart shall see God.” But does God not love us just as we are, even in our sinfulness and alienation? Yes, but God also loves us too much to leave us in a state of alienation. He wants to make us His children; sons and daughters who reflect His glory and share His nature. God is not just after a certain kind of behavior but a certain kind of person. He wants to share Himself with us for eternity. We must become the kind of people who want what He wants. Otherwise, heaven could never be heaven.
It is not uncommon to hear someone talk about heaven as a place where all our dreams come true and we get the things we want. But this is a misleading half-truth. Heaven is not just a state of mind, it is a real place that is eventually going to break through the veneer of this world. Will we want heaven when it breaks through? It is going to require a complete transformation. You must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God. There will have to be a change of affections and loyalties. And these changes will certainly put us at odds with this present world order. We must become strangers and aliens in this world so that we can have citizenship in the world that is coming.
There is still a part of us that is attached to this present, evil world. This Old Man belongs to the Old World, and he wants to stay attached to it perpetually! But we have also received something from the New Creation. The Holy Spirit of God has already been sent to dwell in believers and orient them to the New Creation. And if we have received the Spirit of God then we are truly children of God.
Something from eternity has broken into our time and space. There has been an invasion preceding the final victory. In Jesus, Heaven invaded earth and set up a kind of colony or beachhead. When Jesus began preaching He declared that the Kingdom of God had landed, and He invited everyone to orient themselves to this new world order. Another way of looking at this is to say that Jesus came to bring eternal life. The eternal has invaded and is spreading its influence throughout the world. We are invited to come and participate in this new life. “Let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” Eternal life means that the future has broken into the present.
People become confused about this offer of eternal life. We often think of something eternal as that which lasts a long time. But eternal life is a qualitative description of something. This is a certain kind of life, not just a life like we have here that lasts a long time. In fact, eternal life is a very different kind of life from the earthly kind of life that we know and have experienced. The only kind of life we have known is a natural or a biological kind of life. But there is another kind of life in the universe, and that is a Divine kind of life. All biological life was created by the Divine life. But the biological life that was created must not be confused with the kind of life that God Himself possesses. The world is alive, but it does not share in the Divine life that is found only in God Himself. You and I are alive, but if left to ourselves we will not share in the Divine Life. But what if that Divine life were to appear and be offered to mankind? What if those who had only known the natural or biological kind of life were able to partake in the Divine or eternal kind of life? When this natural world and all its biological life finally runs out, the only kind of life that will remain is the Divine kind of life. That is the future that is being prophesied in the book of Revelation. Those who partake of this eternal kind of life, this Divine kind of life, belong to that future time and will remain after the heavens and the earth have passed away.
There are several signs that this coming Age is already breaking through. There are people walking around in this world right now who already possess this Divine kind of life. This Divine kind of life can be seen in the lives of people who have a desire for God and for a kind of life that puts God at the center of everything they do. Eternal life is fellowship with God. We do not have that final, face-to-face kind of fellowship that is going to be there in the world to come. In our present state, we could not handle that kind of life. The eternal life comes to us in a kind of preliminary form, being mediated to us through such things as baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In these sacramental acts, the future is mediated to us in the present and we can receive a kind of life that will never diminish or fade away. The saints belong to the future because the future life lives in them. Becoming a Christian is the closest thing we have to time travel! When the Church gathers for worship it is possible to sort of slip out of time and touch what is eternal. In our hearts or our affections, we already live in the world to come, even though our bodies and the rest of the created world have yet to be redeemed.
Eternal life is a gift. We cannot earn it, but we must receive it. Likewise, we cannot make the new heavens and the new earth. But we can prepare for it. We are not passive spectators in what God is doing but active participants. If we are going to eventually end up in the presence of God, then we must come to know something about Him now. We primarily come to know God through what He has revealed in Holy Scripture. Therefore, we devote ourselves to Scripture. If we are going to end up in the presence of a holy God, then we must begin in this world to purify ourselves from everything that God would find offensive. This means pursuing holiness and forsaking all worldliness, idolatry, and sin. There are some things we cannot take on this journey. This is not a kind of detached, mystical escapism from this world. On the contrary, Christians are those who give the most meaning to this life, not as an end of itself, but as a kind of prelude to an even greater life. That is why the saints are always the most joyful people. They have something to really live for. We are running towards a heavenly prize and fighting for an eternal crown of glory. Christians never live aimlessly but are always thinking about the goal that is ahead and striving to reach it.
The Church was sent out into the world to be a witness for Christ and His Kingdom. The Church is like a neon sign pointing to what God is doing in the world. It is the people of God who get to invite other people to come and be a part of the New Creation. Not even angels have this great commission of preaching the Gospel to every creature! Since the Church has this commission, it is imperative that she is ready for the work.
We cannot give what we do not have. One of the great hindrances to the Gospel is the Church itself. How can the Church be the harbinger of a New Creation if she is dominated by the Old Order? The only glimpse that people in the world can get of the New Creation that is coming is what can be seen now in the Church. The Church does not dispense salvation, but it must tell people where the water of eternal life may be found. And it must be evident that the Church is partaking of that life-giving water herself. We share what we ourselves have tasted.
The Church is the steward of Christ until He returns. And then we must give an account to the Master for how we have managed His goods. The Church must remember that the Master is coming soon. And we must all stand before His judgment seat to give an account of our deeds. The book of Revelation ends on this sobering note. What are we going to do with what Christ has given us? Here at the end of the book of Revelation, and the end of the entire Biblical revelation, it should be clear what we are to be doing as we wait for Jesus to return. The Lord has given His marching orders and we have no right to refuse.
Only the Church knows what time it is in the world. We are living at the end of an Age and the beginning of a new world. The only thing that really counts is the New Creation. Everything that is old is disappearing and will soon be gone forever. In the modern world, people often wonder if the Church will last when it is the world that is obsolete and about to pass away.
There is both a warning and a promise in this message. The warning is for those who chose to live only for the present while ignoring the future that has been revealed to us. But the promise is for those who want something more than this present world has to offer. It is only when we get a glimpse of the future that God has prepared for His people that we will be able to let go of the present world. We will not be eternally homeless. Like Noah and his family on the Ark, we will pass through the flood of God’s judgment and come to rest on the mountains of Ararat to find a new world awaiting us.
Unless we are ready to enter the New Creation, all our activities will be null and void. The world rushes madly into the future with a million things to do. But only one thing is needful. We are busy and concerned with many things. Some of these things involve religion and ministry. These things are also vain unless we are ready to meet the Lord when He comes. Jesus is coming soon! That is the final word from Heaven. But what does “soon” mean? How many generations of believers have scanned the heavens looking for signs of His coming and waiting for Him to appear? Now more than ever we must hear the cacophony of scoffers mocking the Lord’s promise to return. We do not know when He will come. He means for us to be ready for Him whenever He comes. “The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of heaven breaks.” Either our lives in this world will end, or He will come for us in the clouds. Either way, we are destined to meet Him someday. May we be ready for that glorious day!
