Matt Chandler - All Things New

Well, good morning! If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to the last two chapters of our study through the book of Revelation. Man, I have had such a great time preaching this book to you. I didn’t know how much I needed it, does that make sense? Even in my own spirit and soul, I have been built up, encouraged, and reminded. It’s been so good for me. I have this mixture of joy and sadness that it’s kind of over. Trevor Joy made the joke that I should just keep going and call it «Revelations from Revelation.» Yet, I think this is just a good stopping point.

I don’t know where or how you grew up, but here is how I understood the world was going to end after I became a Christian at the First Baptist Church where I was saved. Here’s the narrative—maybe this matches what you knew, or maybe it doesn’t. What I heard was that before suffering and loss got really, really bad, I was going to get sucked up into the air. It’s the rapture, right? You know, it’s like, «Where did my friend go?» Then, all the stuff that God said to His people about how suffering would show the glory of God in their lives—He was kidding. He was just going to suck us out right before all that happens. Then, Jesus, much like Luke Skywalker, was going to show up in a kind of spiritual X-wing fighter. He would dodge demonic photon phasers and drop two spiritual torpedoes down into the exhaust shaft of the earth, destroying it forever while you and I lived some other place for eternity, in some sort of ethereal space called heaven.

Did anyone else grow up with that? That was the version I grew up with. It was terrifying and confusing, and while it would have made for an epic ending, it’s just not biblical. That’s not what the Bible actually teaches. So, what I want to try to do is what I have been trying to do all along in this 12-week series: the purpose of the book of Revelation is to embolden your confidence in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, come what may.

So, here’s the outline—you don’t have to wonder where we’re going. What does the end of all things look like? What is your future, and my future? Here’s what I’m arguing: it is in a literal place with literal physical people in the presence of the Creator God. There’s your outline from these two chapters.

Now, let’s dive into this. I want you to notice, if you’re even paying attention to the passage we just read, that the idea of you and me escaping isn’t the story. What happens? Did you get sucked up into heaven, or did heaven come down? I see you look confused. The text said heaven comes down—not that you and I go somewhere else, but that the week three convergent space that we talked about—remember that sermon? That idea of convergent space is where all of the universe was flowing into this throne, and on this throne sat the Lion Lamb who ruled and reigned over everything. He was worshiped, exalted, and praised.

As Christians, sealed with the Holy Spirit, we can get into that space: this little space where heaven and earth kiss for a second. We’re there when we gather in worship. We’re in that convergent space when you pray in your home. We’re in that convergent space wherever the people of God dial into heaven. We get these glimpses, these tastes, these moments where that reality breaks through. This passage just said all of that comes down and lands. It’s not some sort of ethereal, otherworldly, escapist reality. You’re not going to get rescued out of a broken world; the broken world will be redeemed, and you’ll stay.

What you see in this passage is materiality everywhere. There are gates, there are walls, there is a river, and there are trees that bear fruit in season. This is a physical location—a real place. It’s not like what I’ve said for 20 years—it’s not Tom and Jerry, not you on a cloud playing a harp. If that’s my end, I’m going to say no thank you. This is the world remade.

If you’re like, «What about that First Peter passage where the whole thing’s destroyed with fire?» It’s not destroyed with fire; it’s refined with fire. God doesn’t abandon what He has created. Do you think He’s going to concede the earth to His enemies? Have you been paying attention to the God of this book—the real God of the Bible, not the feathered-hair, white Jesus? This is the God of the Bible. You’re looking at Him. Do you think He’s just going to take the earth and say, «I’ll start over»? He’s not doing that! What do you think the incarnation is? Bam! I mean, it’s His! What do you think the resurrection is but a reminder that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it? He’s not conceding the earth to the enemy; it’s His, and it is as an inheritance ours. George Eldon Ladd.