Old Testament Lesson; Acts 13:44-49
Epistle Lesson; Revelation 21:1-5
Gospel Lesson; John 13:31-35
Sermon Text; Revelation 21:1-5

There was once a little girl who was blind from the time that she was born. She was dependent upon her mother to share with her how beautiful God's creation was. And so, during each season of the year, her mother did her best to describe God's beautiful creation. In the springtime of each year, the mother did her best describing how beautiful the flowers were that were coming up from the ground, and the beautiful colors of spring. During the summer, she did her best to describe the beauty of the ocean, with its crashing waves and foaming shores. In the fall, she would describe to her daughter the beauty of the colors of the autumn trees. And in the winter, (yes even in the winter), she would try to share with her daughter the beauty of freshly fallen snow.

When that girl was ten years old, she had experimental surgery done on her eyes. After the surgery, she had patches covering those eyes. In due time, those patches came off and she could see! She ran to the window, where she looked out, breathless. After a while she said, "Mom! How come you didn’t tell me how beautiful God's creation is?"

To which the mom responded,

"I tried. But, words just would not suffice."

When we get to Heaven, I believe that we are going to ask the very same question that the little girl asked her mother. We are going to ask the authors of the pages of scripture, "How come you didn't tell me how beautiful Heaven is?"

To which they will probably respond,

"We tried, but words just would not suffice."

Talking about the beauty of God's creation, and what is to come, the Apostle Paul once put it this way. He said, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him."

The mom did the best that she could, trying to describe the beauty of God's earth. But words just would not suffice.

Today, as we look at our text, from Revelation, chapter 21, we see that John is doing the best that he can in describing Heaven's beauty. But words just can’t fully describe how beautiful heaven in going to be.

Let's look at how Jesus is making everything new. Here are three things I want to come out of our text, for today.

➢ Jesus is preparing a new home for us.

➢ He is preparing a new relationship for us.

➢ And, He is preparing a new-found confidence for us.

When God created this first heaven and this first earth, He created a home for Adam and Eve to live in. That was the Garden of Eden. But, after the fall into sin, that home became corrupt. Ever since the fall into sin, all of creation has been subjected to frustration. The Apostle Paul puts it this way, when he says, "The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the Children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning, as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time."

When Jesus returns, this first heaven and earth are going to pass away. A new heaven and a new earth are going to come forth, and that will be our new home. That is what Jesus is busy doing, right now.

Jesus is preparing a place for us.

He is preparing

a home

for us!

Jesus promises that if He goes and prepares a place for us, He will come back and take us to be with Him, that we also may be where He is.

He is building a wonderful, new home for us. Again, a home that words just can’t fully describe.

As we live in this new home that He is creating for us, He is also going to establish a new relationship with us.

Two weeks ago, during my sermon, I stood in the middle of the sanctuary. And, the point that I was trying to make was this. On the front wall, here at Holy Cross, is a large cross. I was walking away from that cross saying, "By nature, because of our sin, we are enemies of the cross of Christ. That is our relationship that we have with Jesus, because of our sin. It is really a broken relationship. We are enemies of the cross of Christ."

That carries over to the relationships we have with one another, here on this earth.

✔ Our relationships with our spouses are broken, as we get short tempered with one another, and as we get angry with each other.

✔ Broken relationships carry over to children's relationships with their parents, hating the authority that parents have over them, even though the parents are doing that which is best for their children.

✔ That relationship is also broken, as we don't want to obey the government that God has placed over us.

The relationship that is broken and strained by sin will change. It is a new relationship that Jesus is preparing for us. Look at the beauty, as it is described for us from our text, as John says, "You and I are going to be a beautifully dressed bride, prepared for its groom." Throughout the pages of scripture, you and I, all believers in Jesus as their Savior, the Holy Christian Church, are thought of in feminine terms. The Church is the bride. Jesus is making a new relationship. You, (yes, even you little boys can enjoy this too), you will be a beautifully dressed bride! We will! We will be a beautifully dressed bride, prepared for our Bridegroom. We will walk hand in hand with our Savior, for all eternity, in a wonderful, new relationship. In that relationship, there will be no sin. The Apostle John, later in this same chapter, goes on to say, "Nothing impure will ever enter heaven, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. There will be no more death. There will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain. That relationship will be behind us and we will have a new relationship of love, with our Savior."

Jesus is making everything new, including our heavenly home and our relationship and that gives us a new found confidence. John, in our text for today, closes by saying,

"These words are trustworthy and true."

A Sunday School teacher once got the same response, as he asked his children in class, "What will be the greatest thing about Heaven?"

To which one little boy responded, "Heaven is going to be the happiest part of my dead life."

That is a new found confidence that we have, a new found confidence that Heaven will be the happiest part of our life.

So, what concern should we have, as we are living out the rest of our days in this old heaven and this old earth? Well, we should live the relatively few years that we have left in this old heaven and this old earth to prepare ourselves for eternity, for that new Heaven and that new earth, the new home, the new relationship, the new confidence that we will have with our Savior.

How can we assure that will be the case? We can be sure,

as we join together confessing our sin, and as we join together confessing that we have a Savior. We have a Savior, Jesus, who went to the cross for us, to pay for all of our sin, to give us eternal life in Heaven. We can be sure that what Jesus has done for us on the cross, fully and completely paid for all of our sin - fully and completely.

Jesus is making everything new.

Amen.