"4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
In this life, pain and sorrows are always seem to be with us. And we may wonder how they could ever be removed, we imagine that they must somehow follow us into eternity. In fact, it’s perhaps hard to imagine life without our sorrows and pain. We live with regrets that one might have over sin and failures. Especially, a loved one who never trusted in Jesus Christ, perhaps a father or mother, sister or brother, a son or daughter. These verses give us God’s assurance that our present pains and sorrows, and yes, even their remembrance, will one day, be forever wiped away.
Let's look at verse 4, "And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." Here find out what life there will be like. Since we cannot understand what we haven't experienced, it can only be described to us with negatives. In essence, what you have here is a series of "no mores." In other words, the previous human experience is gone forever.
So John begins with the phrase "And He shall wipe away," and come the negatives. "every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain." Then, at the end of the verse, he says "the first things have passed away." John is saying is it’s not going to be like life here. It's going to be different. In other words, since we cannot comprehend what it will be like, John describes to us what it won't be like, hence the negatives.
John first says "And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes." What this means is there will be nothing to cry about. There will be nothing sad, disappointing or lacking. There's no more tears, because there's nothing to cry about. To put it another way, all the tears of loneliness; tears over lost love ones, tears of regret, they won't exist. There will be nothing wrong.
Then, he adds "and there will no longer be any death." This is the fulfillment of what Paul promised in I Corinthians 15, death is swallowed up in victory. The curse is eliminated. Death, along with him who had the power of death has been thrown into the lake of fire. He then says "there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain." In other words, all the things behind that leads to tears are removed.
Remember Isaiah 53, and what he says about the death of Christ, and it says, "He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we didn’t esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, our sorrows He carried." He took away our sin on the cross, and He ultimately took away our sorrow as well. Because all the debilitating effects of sin are gone.
There will be no more sadness, pain or depression, so some of you, you are going to have to find a new way to live, because these things take up an awful lot of your time. He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases, we just don’t realize that until we get to heaven. "The first things have passed away." There's nothing but eternal bliss.
Then, verse 5 "And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true." Here, after all the negatives, John adds a positive statement. Everything will be new and different, that's why John doesn’t give you any detail, because that's all he can really say about it. It won't be anything like what you know now. I've been asked "How do you know that?" Because the One on the throne says so, here in verse 5. God and God in Christ, the One who created the first time will do so again, "Behold, I am making all things new." This is completely different than the creation we know now. "And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true."
"Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost." These words are very much like the words of Jesus on the cross, "It is finished." This is the voice of the Lord God, the Lord Christ. This is in the perfect tense which indicates that the action now stands accomplished. Presently, all that awaits is the actual moment in history in which it will be manifested.
Remember back in Luke 21, Jesus said "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." The present universe is now gone, but it's not an end to the truth that God speaks. This is the end of all redemptive history. That event that is signified by the term "it is done." Then, here John is told to write the words of Christ back in Revelation 1, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." He says "I’m in charge of when it starts and when it ends." This confirms the words of Jesus when He said, "I and the Father are one." John sees the supreme reality Who is God Who will take His tabernacle with men. There exists One God and Father of all Who is over all, and through all, and in all.
At the end of the verse, "I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost." In verse 7, it tell us who’s going to be in heaven, "He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son." Those are the two descriptive phrases. This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 5, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness." He describes for us who will be in the eternal heaven. This is in contrast to people that live to drink and to party, they are filled with immorality, they are never satisfied. They are never happy. They have to have more and more and more until they ultimately destroy themselves.
This goes all the way back to Isaiah 55, the words of the great prophet Isaiah. "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost." For the person who is earnest for undeserved mercy, for forgiveness, for a
righteousness that is foreign to their own so that they can somehow
come into the presence of a holy God, to that person, I am going to be
their satisfaction. I am going to give them eternal life. That's the picture here.
And, in Psalm 42, "Like the deer pants after the water brook, so my soul pants for You, O God." It’s that same kind of thing.
In John 4, the Lord Jesus Himself said the same thing in the words that He gave to the Samaritan woman, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink." He's talking about eternal life. I can assure you, if far better than to drink from the golden cup full of abominations and immorality, for which there is a severe cost! Heaven then belongs to people who know their souls are parched by sin, those who recognize they don’t have what they need.
It starts with a pleading, and begging heart arising out of a deep sense of spiritual thirst. It isn’t enough to know you need it, you must have the right faith, the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Believing the incarnation, the deity of Jesus Christ, His sacrificial atonement, His resurrection, all that that encompasses. "He who overcomes will inherit these things." Those who come to Christ with a broken and a contrite spirit. That implies a repentance from sin, a turning from spiritual wasteland, and faith exercised in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the only people who will get into heaven. As Peter says in I Peter chapter 1 there's "an inheritance reserved in heaven." Hebrews 12 says that in heaven are the spirits of just men made perfect.
Isaiah 55:7 "Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon."
If you are living today without a true relationship with Christ, there is no escape the painful realities of life. Because you are living in rebellion to Him. And unless you come to the fountain of eternal life through repentant faith in Christ Jesus, your rebellion will one day doom you to eternal separation from God in hell.
Do not be deceived by the false teaching that provides a false sense of security. Only the truth can set you free! In John 14, Jesus, " I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." Later, in verse 15, Jesus said "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."
At the end of verse 7, "and I will be his God and he will be My son." What an astounding truth. The blessed promise comes to the overcomer, that you will be a son of God, so much a son that you will be made like His only begotten Son, conformed to His glory. How tragic for those who continue to pursue all of the unsatisfying fleeting pleasures of this life, believing they are safe, because they were not taught the truth about their sin, they will forfeit the inheritance of the Kingdom of God.
That brings us to verse 8, "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." This is a very solemn verse, it describes the outcasts from the new heaven and the new earth. This is a very serious warning! This identifies the character of those people who are going to be kept out, those who will sent to eternal hell.
Don't allow yourself to fall prey to all of the politics and pain and sinful ways of this fallen world. In I Corinthians 6, the Apostle Paul says "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" He says, "Do not be deceived." The reason he says that is because there is great deception. There are people today trying to deceive you. "Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."
In Closing..
This speaks to all people who are still slaves to sin, who continue to live in the bondage of all of those things, are those who have never experienced genuine transformation, the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, they have never been made "new creatures in Christ" by God's grace. Those who claim Christ, but are not living in obedience to His commands. Tragically, this will include many of those in the modern church, who claim Christ but have yet to surrender to His Lordship. Clutching to the ways of their sinful pasts. They fall by the wayside. This deeply grieves my heart. Because they have believed the lies of deceptive teaching, they will be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.
In John 8 Jesus said, "If you continue in My word, then you’re My real disciple."
Those who believed Christ was ok with with their sexual immorality, believing because they said a simple prayer and didn't weren't required to turn from their immoral lifestyles, they won’t be there. Because their faith is not sound and strong. When they look at their life, they do not see that they are abominable.
In Galatians 5, Paul says "The deeds of the flesh are evident: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these; and I have forewarned you, just as I forewarned you before, that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." It could not be any clearer, you can't get anymore explicit than that. Yet, because they chose to believe the false teaching in the modern church, that accommodates their sinful lifestyles, they have chosen to deny the truth in God's Word. That’s not a true Christian. They have no saving faith. It's not only deceptive, it's damnable and destructive. to the soul.
If you are reading this, I plead with you today to repent, to ask God to show you the reality of your sin and the glory of the cross before it's too late! I pray that you will learn to live in the light of eternity.
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen