All Things New Week 1 • Revelation 21:1-8

Show Notes

Sunday, December 26th • Beau Bradberry

"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." — Revelation 21:4

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Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

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Well, good morning. I hope you guys had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. I know that we did. I know

that I did. Our day was filled with gifts, with food, with family, celebrate the birth of Christ,

and I just want to share that in my experience yesterday, there was another Christmas miracle

that happened yesterday. I share this with a few different people, but yesterday I got three naps

in three different recliners, and that was just fantastic, right? It just progressively moved

throughout the course of the day. Different ones, wherever we went, I found my spot, and at some

point in time, the people in that place heard me snore, and it was just absolutely, absolutely

wonderful. But we're glad that you're here, right? It's that Sunday after Christmas. A lot of people

were traveling. A lot of people were getting ready to travel, were getting ready to come back, but we

are so grateful that you are here worshiping with us today, so thank you. If you've got your Bibles,

go ahead and open up to Revelation chapter 21. It's where we're going to be this week. As you turn there,

there's a lot of things. We look to the beginning of the new year, of starting off around here at Willow Ridge Church,

and one of the ones, it's kind of over the last several years, become a new tradition for us,

and we're changing it a little bit this year. We've had our chili cook-off. Well, this year,

we've decided, because maybe your thing is chicken noodle soup, all right? Or maybe you make a good

chicken stew, or maybe you got something else that you like to cook and like to do, so we're going to

have a chili and soup night cook-off here at the church, and so we'd love for you to bring your dish,

and in typical Willow Ridge fashion, right? There is a little bit of a competition, right? You can't earn

your salvation, but you can earn first place, right? In this, and so sign up. That night, we'll be given

out the 14 karat gold. They are solid gold, all right? Spoons for the winners of that. There'll be a chili

category and just a general soup category. Would love for you to come and be a part of that, all right?

So, as we look into the new year, we are beginning a new series called All Things New, and what we're

going to do over the course of three weeks is, is beginning this week, we're going to look at the

truth of what God does in the course of eternity of making all things new. It's going to be that

refresher of hope of what we long to, of what we look for as we look at Revelation 21. But then next

week, we're going to, we're going to come back here together. We're going to talk about that God makes

us new. And what does that mean that God makes us new? That in salvation, we become new. And what

God does is He takes what is broken and He uses it. But He takes what is also broken and changes it

and makes us new. We're going to look forward for that of how God uses our story before Christ, how God

uses our story in Christ. And then week three, how God's going to use us after we have our relationship

with Christ. And God gives us a new purpose. That through salvation, through the gospel, we have new

purpose, we have new meaning, we have new joy. And the beauty of it is for all of us, no matter where we

come from, no matter how long that we've been saved, no matter what our past was, no matter what our

current situation is, that we share a commonality in ministry and how God uses the work of the body

to bring Himself glory. And so we're, we're looking forward to, to, to spending that time in these next

three weeks of going through this series together. So before we dive into this though, let's, let's go to

the Lord in prayer. God, I thank you so much for this morning. I thank you for the hope that we are

reminded of in the gospel. We thank you for this special season that we are in right now, Lord, where

we celebrate the birth of Christ. And Lord, I pray that as we dive into your word today and we look at

the newness that comes with a relationship with Him, the newness of the hope of eternity, Lord, that if

there's anyone here who does not know you, Lord, by the end of the service today, they will place their

faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, Lord, receiving your forgiveness and walking in the

newness of light. And we will celebrate you because it's your work, not ours. And it's in Jesus' name

and we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, I want to kind of show you something real quick. I got a new shirt

on, all right? Some of you have come up and already said, hey, is that a new shirt? Did you get that

shirt for Christmas? Yep, I got this shirt for Christmas. Now, if you know me, you're really

surprised because it's plaid, right? If you don't know me, plaid is my favorite color. I tell my kids

that all the time, right? I love plaid. Plaid's my thing. I think every button-up shirt that I own,

unless it's a dress shirt, is plaid. So when my kids went shopping for me for Christmas, they got

me this shirt and they knew that I would like it because it is plaid, right? So what they did was,

and I don't know if all of this has been put together, but I'm beginning to remember a trip

that we took to the Mass General Store this past, like, late summer, early fall. And we were walking

through, and I walked through a section that had shirts that looked just like these. And very

strategically, I made a couple of comments, right, about how much I liked these shirts. And whether

it was them hearing and processing the hints that I was dropping or the grace of God working in their

life to know that this is what Dad liked, they pulled their money together and they bought me this shirt.

And yesterday morning, as we gathered around in our living room and gifts were opened and gifts

were exchanged, I had the opportunity. They gave me this and opened it up and immediately thought,

man, I am wearing this shirt tomorrow. I love this shirt. I was excited to get it. Excited that my kids

put their money toward this, that they thought through this, that when they saw this, they knew that Dad

would like this shirt. It was a wonderful experience for me. But imagine, like, if I had to open up the

package and it wasn't this shirt, what if on Christmas Eve, my kids realized, oh, we didn't get Dad anything.

And they scramble up to my closet and they said, we know Dad likes plaid. And they begin to look

at the shirts that I've owned. And they grab out a shirt that I've owned for years. And so we see him

wear this a lot. He'll appreciate this shirt. And so they take the old used shirt that probably has

some stains on it, right? Probably has a few buttons that are missing, maybe. Got a seam that's coming

loose. And they thought, but I got a lot of good memories of that shirt. I've seen Dad wear it before.

I know it's comfortable for him. So let's give Dad that shirt tomorrow. Now, don't do that ever,

please. But what if they did that? I'd be a little disappointed. I'd be a little sad that they didn't

think, that they didn't plan, that they weren't intentional with this. But they weren't. And on

Christmas morning, when I opened up the package, what was in there was a new shirt.

Here's where I'm going with this as we look at this with all things new. Some of us, spiritually

speaking, practically in our lives, wake up every single morning and the opportunity to walk in the

newness of what Christ has for us. But we walk up and we choose the old. We choose that which is

comfortable. We choose that of which we've owned before. We've choose what we've experienced.

And instead of walking in the newness of what God has for us.

Now, when we look at the first of the year coming, we're all going to make New Year's resolutions,

right? And my New Year's resolutions typically start on January 1st and they typically end sometime

around five o'clock of that same day. All right. We want to think of things new. We want new spending

habits. We want new exercise habits. We want new disciplines in our life. But what if for the body

of Christ, if we just said, you know what, what's already been made new for us, if we just walk in

and experience that every single day of what God has for us? You know, I've said this. I heard another

pastor say it. I don't want to take credit of it, but I say it all the time. God loves us too much

to save us from what we were and then just leave us that way. But he's constantly working and moving

in our lives, making us new, sanctifying us. But the decision that you and I have to make on a day in

and day out basis is that do I choose to walk in the newness of that and the hope of eternity that

comes with that. And so this morning, we're going to begin by looking into the future and begin by

looking into eternity. And so let's start reading in Revelation 21 verse 1. John writes and he says,

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first earth and the first heaven 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. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is

with man and he will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their

God. In verse 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. 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. 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 his heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless,

the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion

will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. You know, it's hard

hard to effectively see the brokenness of the world we live in if we live practically like this is as good as

it gets. If what we see in this world is the culmination of the best that things can be, it's hard to see the

depth of brokenness and the impact that sin has had. We see things that are broken.

We look out into the news, into the relationships, into the world. We see the sinful things of this

world that from person to person may be hit differently at our core, but we hear the tragedies,

we experience them ourselves, we are hurt by other people, and in that we sense the essence of the

brokenness of the world. But we are sometimes, we miss the understanding that all things are broken.

All things. Sin has affected it all. Think about the most beautiful sunset you've ever seen.

It's been affected by the brokenness of sin. It's why even the most picture-perfect marriage

at its core is difficult because you take two people that have sin in their lives

and you place them together and you ask them with the perfect picture of what you think of what

marriage should be. You ask a couple with what that looks like, of what their marriage is like,

and if they're being honest, they'll tell you, it's work. It's hard. It's not easy. Why? Because sin has

taken it and broken it. You take the most wonderful meal that you've ever experienced in your life

with the company and the service and the people who are there, and yet at its very core, at its aspect,

that's what's there. There's still a piece of it that is broken and that is missing because of sin.

You take the most perfect day you've ever experienced in your life, your wedding day,

birth of your birth of your child, the day you graduated. You take all of those days when you think toward them and the fond memories that you have for them,

and at the very core of even the most wonderful day that we could ever possibly imagine in our life is still affected by the brokenness of sin.

And so what's so beautiful about Revelation 21 of what we look at into the future is what God will do is he takes everything,

everything that has been broken by sin and makes it fully new, not just for a season, but for all of eternity.

Everything that was broken will be made new.

And so this morning, pretty quickly, I want us to look at the four things that can just set our mind and the hope of what God is doing that will be made new in all of eternity.

And number one is this, we will be spiritually and morally new.

Apostle Paul writes in Romans 7 verse 23, and I apologize, these words aren't on the screen.

But he says,

But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

Paul talking about himself here.

The battle of sin that the apostle Paul has in his life.

The battle of the war that rages within him.

And as a follower of Christ, what we know is while we are new, while we are born again,

while we know that we have been purchased by the blood of Jesus,

there's still this battle of sin that rages within us.

And that while we have been freed from the condemnation of sin,

but we have not yet been freed from the battle of the desires of sin.

And Paul says,

This is what is raging war within me.

But John tells us in Revelation that God makes this new.

Makes all of this new.

And one of the themes that we get in Revelation 21,

and there's another theme that is there throughout all of Revelation,

is what God is doing is making the bride, the body of Christ, new for the bridegroom, Jesus.

Right?

Perfect, ready, acceptable, and pleasing.

Right?

Talk about perfect days.

I remember the day that we got married, Aaron and I.

I remember Matlock Baptist Church on a middle of nowhere road

stuck somewhere between Beach Island, South Carolina, and Jackson, South Carolina.

Now, raise your hand if you can get to both of those places without your phone.

Right?

A handful of us.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Yeah.

Right?

Middle of nowhere.

And I remember standing there at the top of the stage that was there,

this country church, the bright blue carpet that was in there, right?

The doors open.

And there stands the bride, ready for the groom, right?

Revelation gives the same picture of what God is doing to solve the battle that rages within us.

Right?

Let's be honest.

And this list could go on and on and on, but not in eternity with the Lord.

In eternity, and I think this is what's hard for my human mind to wrap around.

That in eternity, not only is sin gone, but the desire to sin is no longer with us.

Right?

The impure thought has left us never to return.

The impure motive will never creep back in again because of what God is doing in making us new.

All right?

Number two, I just feel like we should get some amens for this.

Our bodies will be new.

Right?

Amen.

Amen.

Right?

Now, a couple things, a couple misunderstandings.

All right?

In this, we will not be spirits floating around.

Number one, that's not who we are.

We are not disembodied spirits.

And number two, we are not angels.

That's not who we will be.

Angels are separate created beings by God.

But in the newness of eternity of what God has for us, our bodies will be new.

In death, the body that we know, it dies.

And then we will see there is a change of things.

Revelation says there will be no more pain, no more tears, no more death.

Well, if death is gone, if pain is gone, if tears is gone, the body that we know, the body that we've existed in,

the body that our mind, it's all that it's ever been, is now gone, and it is changed as well.

Paul writes in Philippians 3, starting verse 20,

But our citizenship is in heaven.

And from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body,

by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Our bodies will be new.

And it's hard to picture, it's hard to imagine.

Right now, I've got some ideas of what I'd like.

Like, I thought this morning, like, when did I peak?

You know, like, when was that?

Like, is that what God does?

Like, takes my peak, right?

But no, it's still broken.

And I probably never really fully peaked, right?

I don't know the age.

I don't know the condition.

I don't know the BMI number that we'll have, right?

I know we all have a preference.

But here's what I know.

It won't matter, because it'll be perfect.

It won't matter, because it'll be perfect.

Because God takes all that pain, all those tears, all that suffering, all of that sickness, all of that hurt,

and he says, in the new body that you're going to have, you won't experience that anymore.

The physical pain of sickness, but the emotional pain of brokenness, the spiritual pain of persecution,

and the new body that we'll receive, all of that will be gone.

Never to be experienced again.

That's the goodness of the Lord.

Number three, creation will be new.

Look back at 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, right?

We could spend hours working through this.

And don't worry if parents of little kids in here were not, all right?

But there's a newness that's going to be found in creation.

Paul writes in Romans 8, 21, the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption

and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God, all right?

As pretty as it is, it's broken.

As pretty as it can imagine, it's broken.

How many of you have ever gone through a renovation in your home, right?

Raise your hand if you've ever gone through a renovation, right?

That's a painful process, right?

Whether it's a simple bathroom, and I say simple bathroom because we've walked through that.

It ain't simple, all right?

Or the entire house.

It's a long process.

It's a painful process.

It's a costly process.

But do you remember the feeling when it was finished?

Do you remember walking into that room, and you're like, man, the floor doesn't slant anymore.

The pipe doesn't leak.

The wallpaper isn't coming down.

And you walked in, and you could see it.

You could see that it was new.

You could touch, and you could feel.

This is new tile that is down, and it is new.

You can smell the new fresh paint and the cleanliness of the new furniture,

the new appliances that have been brought in,

and your senses are overloaded because it's new.

And then you come back a few years later.

You're like, where did it go, right?

And it's broken again, and it's busted again,

and the pipe is back to leaking again,

and the paint that you chose isn't the paint that you wanted anymore,

and it ages, and it's broken.

But not with God.

With God for eternity, as creation groans in itself because of the brokenness of the world,

God takes it, and God makes it new.

And in that new, it never gets old.

And it never breaks.

And it's never going to let down because the word that we have of revelation, right,

is that the beauty of it is it is finished.

It is finished.

And then lastly, and we'll wrap up with this.

Number four.

The newness of relationship with God.

Look at verse three.

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.

A couple of things real quick.

Right now, what we can know and what we can cling to is the words of Scripture.

That right now, in this very moment, through the power of the Holy Spirit,

that God is with us.

That if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you are indwelt by the very Holy Spirit of God.

And that he is with us.

That is true.

Jesus, in his very own words, promises to never leave us or forsake us.

But the Bible also says that as you and I go on this journey of life,

is that we walk by faith and not by sight.

So while the Spirit of God is in me,

while Jesus promises to never leave me or forsake me,

as I walk on this journey,

I walk by what I know and what I trust of who God is and not what I see.

While God is with us,

the truth of the life that we live and the brokenness of this world

is that there's a painful reality that we still feel that we are far away from the Lord.

And God changes this.

The best illustration that I could think of this morning,

and it's still probably limited, is this.

My family and I, we love to go to the beach together.

Our favorite beach that we like to go to,

and I know a lot of you here like to go to this beach as well,

it's Harbor Island.

It's a little, small, tiny island off the coast of South Carolina off of Beaufort.

And we love to go there, and we love to go there for a lot of reasons.

It's very quiet there.

And because it's very quiet, what we love is the wildlife that we get to experience while we're there.

We get to see deer while we're there walking around.

We get to see different birds that we don't get to see in other places.

We even get to see alligators from time to time that are down there.

And some of you are like, well, then I'm never going there, right?

But we like to look at those from a safe distance, right?

But our favorite, our favorite are the dolphins.

And because of the way Harbor Island is set and the tides that come in,

like you can be out in the water kind of up to your waist,

and the dolphins, they'll get pretty close.

And I remember kind of, I think it was probably our first year there,

our kids were young, so young they don't even remember this trip.

But I can remember we would be out there,

and we'd be sitting underneath our tent on the beach,

and you'd see the dolphins are coming up and jumping through the water that are there.

And, you know, if you've seen, there's that brief moment.

They come out, they're back under.

And you, look, look, look, look.

And I remember taking them like maybe four years old the first time we went,

and we took them there.

And you're like grabbing them,

and you're trying to like aim their head like a water cannon, right?

Like you got them behind their ears, like, no, no, there, there, there, there, there, there, right?

And you're like, look, see it?

And I'm like, no, I didn't see it, Daddy.

I didn't see it.

And then finally they saw it.

And the joy that came from them when they saw the dolphin.

But then the disappointment because the dolphin was gone.

Now, was the dolphin gone?

Nah.

He's still out there.

But because of the limitations of us, we couldn't see him anymore.

And in eternity, that is removed.

I know the Lord and praise him that he knows me.

But if I'm being honest with you, there are times, there are days, there are seasons of life

that while I know that while I know he is with me, while I know he is in me, that while I know he will never leave me or forsake me,

he feels so far away.

And I can't see him.

And I feel like a little child out on the beach just looking for a glimpse of him in the moment.

And God tells us in Revelation 21, it's different.

Because the dwelling place of God is with man.

And in that, the newness of the relationship is just different.

It's just different.

He doesn't love us less.

We're just there with him.

The hope that we have.

He's not going to feel distant.

He's not going to feel away.

And we're not going to have wondered.

Because we're with him for all of eternity.

Now, all of these things are new.

All of these things we'll get to experience.

But only for those that are found in him.

And only through a relationship found in Christ.

And so this morning, I'm going to wrap up.

And we're going to sing one last song as we celebrate together.

And as we think back and look, I just want to ask you this.

I'll ask you this.

Your newness is not going to be found in what you've done and what you've achieved

or what you've set for it.

But your newness is going to be found in Christ and in Christ alone.

And this morning, have you placed your faith in him?

Have you received the good news of the gospel?

Do you walk in the faith and the trust of him and in him alone?

If not, why not today to experience something new?

Would you pray with me?

Lord, I thank you so much for who you are.

Lord, you and your kindness and in your compassion.

Lord, in Revelation 21, you just give us a glimpse.

Through the best way that John could share with us what he was seeing and what he was experiencing.

Lord, we celebrate that the battle that rages within us will be over.

Lord, we will just love.

Lord, we will just worship.

Lord, we will just celebrate you.

And the struggle of sin will be gone.

Lord, we thank you that our bodies will be new.

And Lord, while we have such a hard time of separating our vanity from our hope of the new body.

Lord, what we'll see is the purpose of the new body is because there's a new way.

There's no longer death.

There's no longer pain.

There's no longer tears.

As in death in our body, it is gone.

And what we experience is something else.

And we don't know what it will be like.

But we know it will be perfect.

Lord, we look to the opportunity when creation, as beautiful as it is now, will no longer groan.

Will no longer be held in bondage to the corruption of this world.

But will be made as it is in perfection.

And that, Lord, to look at that, to appreciate that, to see that, will bring glory and praise to you.

And, God, we thank you that we will no longer walk by faith, but by sight of a hope that we would know fully as you were with us and we are with you.

Lord, I pray if there's anyone here who doesn't know you as Lord and Savior, I pray that today would be the day that a new decision is made.

As they admit that they are a sinner who needs to be saved as they believe in who you are as Lord and Savior and confess that.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

We're going to stand and sing one last song.

There's prayer encouragers on either side of our auditorium.

If you'd like to talk with somebody, you'd like to talk about a relationship with Christ, if you'd like to talk to someone about a prayer request, have them pray with you, they would love to do that.

After the service, several of our pastors back here at the welcome table, we'd love to talk with you there as well.

If you're a first-time guest, please come and see us.

We'd love to thank you for being here and thank you for worshiping with us.

But we just ask that you respond this morning as Christ leads.

Would you stand as we worship Him?

Thanks again for listening to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.

We hope that you enjoyed listening to this week's message.

If you'd like to learn more about who we are or explore additional resources, visit us online at www.willowridgechurch.com

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Willow Ridge Church

Thank you.