“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea…He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” -Revelation 21:1-4

Someday everything is going to be changed; all things are going to be restored and made new. We live in the present, but we also glance backward at the past and keep an eye to the future. And it is the future which is ultimately going to matter most. As CS Lewis said in his preface to The Great Divorce, “Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone to be in the end a very distinct place. I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell; and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself.”

Isaiah 65:17-25 presents a grand prophecy of the new heavens and earth. It is only there that things will be the way they are supposed to be. No death, no war, only peace and prosperity. The prophecy weaves our earthly dreams of what that might look like – a full life, no children dying, and so on – with the ultimate renewal of the last days. These things are what we can imagine now, but the next world will surpass our imaginations; it will be life as it was meant to be. And it will be for eternity.

2 Peter 3:8-13 presents this vision in New Testament times, in which we still live. And looking to the future continues to effect how we live now. We are to live with an eternal perspective, living holy and Godly lives as we wait for Jesus’ return. All that we know will someday end; everything will be burned up. We are making a mess of the world in so many ways. But God will make it all new and right; there will be a great restoration of the heavens and earth.

Revelation 21:1-5 gives us a final grand vision of what is going to happen. At that point nothing else will matter, and there will be great celebration. We live in this hope, waiting patiently, yet still living in the present, knowing that we are not in Heaven yet.

Romans 8:22-25 presents the reality of hope and our life of eager expectation. Jesus came to this earth, lived a righteous life, died for our sins, rose again, intercedes on our behalf, and is someday coming again. He did this so that we might be free of bondage to fear and death; that we might truly live by faith and hope as we wait for his return. We are called to repent and believe the good news.

Someday everything is going to be changed.

Pastor Tim, August 26, 2007