Antichrist and the End Times

Antichrist and the End Times AET-075 and 76: Rev. 21 and 22 AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • Revelation chapter 21 and 22 contain a description of the eternal state (following the Millennium and the final judgment), centering in the new Jerusalem as the eternal habitation of the saved. • The first heaven and the first earth are replaced by a new heaven and a new earth, predicted by Isaiah (65 v.17; 66 v.22) • The present universe will thus be cleansed from all the effect of sin. • Since there will be no more sea, the increased land space will be fully capable of handling large numbers of redeemed peo0ple from all ages. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • The New Jerusalem is fully described in chapter 21 starting with verse 10 and going to chapter 22 verse 5. • It is a holy city, totally separate from sin. • It is being prepared as the habitation of the bride of Christ. • From God shows its diving purpose, and out of heaven its divine origin. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • The judgments are past, the terrible plagues upon the earth are ended. • We begin with a view of heaven coming down to earth; a time when the prayers of God's people for centuries, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," will be answered. • Chapters 21 and 22 contain almost all the Bible records concerning the eternal state. • Most of the prophetic passages of the Old Testament that picture a time of great blessing on earth refer to the thousand-year reign of our Lord which precedes this last great event. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • Very little is said in the Old Testament about heaven. But here it is in these chapters. Following the Great White Throne judgment, recorded in Chapter 20, John sees a whole new creation spring into being. 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. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 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 NIV) • What beautiful words! They bring us full circle, to the beginning of the Bible again. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • That creation is what is called here "the old heavens and the old earth." • They shall pass away, as we are told, but a new heavens and a new earth are coming. • It is the Apostle Peter who tells us what happens to the present heavens and earth. In Second Peter he says, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare," (2 Peter 3:10). AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:1 • 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. • "A new heaven and a new earth": The "new heaven" is the atmospheric heaven around and above the earth. • This area has been the domain of Satan (see Eph. 2: verse 2) and must be purified before the heaven of God can come down to the new earth. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:1 • This new earth will be a perfect environment similar to that of the Garden of Eden. • A unique distinction of this new earth will be that the vast oceans of water that now cover three fourths of the world's surface will not be included, leaving much more inhabitable land for the population of the redeemed. • This "new heaven and new earth" are actually a heavenly pattern of what the Garden of Eden was a miniature of on earth. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:1 • We will see the Tree of Life restored with water that flows from the throne of God. • It didn't rain in the Garden of Eden. Plants were watered from beneath the earth. • The water in the Garden of Eden flowed out in four rivers (symbolic of enough for the whole world). • This river that flows from the throne of God is the same water that Jesus told the woman at the well, if she drank it, she would never thirst again. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:1 • That ends the old heavens, but now a new heavens and earth appear where Jesus will continue his reign, not only upon earth, but throughout the entire reach of the vast universe of God. • There are four statements in this opening paragraph that tell us the purpose of the new heavens and the new earth: AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:1 • The first verse suggests strongly that the New Jerusalem, this great city that John describes, is to be the capital of the whole new universe. • And it will be a universe greatly changed. It will not be like the one we have now. • I do not believe that this means that God will eliminate the present heavens and earth but he changes it and cleanses it. • When we become Christians we become new creatures in Christ, but we are still the same persons, but now changed and cleansed. • So also the old heavens and the old earth will be cleansed -- by fire. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:1 • We know today that the present universe in its farthest reaches (even farther than the new Hubble telescope can show us), is governed by the same laws. • One of them is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the law of entropy, which says this present universe is running down. • It is all decaying; losing its energy; it is growing cold. • But in the new heavens and the new earth apparently that law is reversed. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:1 • Instead of running down the universe begins to come together again. • Instead of losing energy it will gain it and manifest a unity, stability, symmetry and beauty that the old heavens and earth never had. • One aspect of this, pictured here, is that there will be no more sea. • A man said to me last week, "I don't think I'm going to like the new heavens and the new earth, because I love the ocean.” AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:1 • But the one reason we have a salt sea that covers more than half of this planet is because it is God's great antiseptic to cleanse the earth and make life possible on earth. • Had it not been for the ocean, and the salt in it particularly, life on this planet would have ceased many centuries ago. • It is the ocean that purges, cleanses, and preserves it. • The sea is an antiseptic in which all the pollution and filth that man pours into it is absorbed, cleansed and changed. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:1 • But there will be no more pollution, no more filth, no more need for cleansing in the new universe. • Though we are not told this, I think there will be large bodies of fresh water, larger even perhaps than the Great Lakes, that we may enjoy in that new heavens and new earth. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:2 • 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. • Now John sees the new holy city which is not heaven, but is called that since everyone who will be in it is holy. This is Christ's Kingdom. "Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection." (20 v.6) • New Jerusalem will be coming down to the new heaven and new earth mentioned in verse 1. The old heaven and earth which was in chapter 20 verse 11 fled away and was no more. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:2 • The city is illustrated as a bride because it contains the bride and takes on her character. John saw the bride adorned for her husband because the time for the consummation had arrived. The concept of the bride includes not only the church, but all the rest of the redeemed from all the ages who will live forever in that eternal city. • 1 Cor. 15 v.28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:2 • Then the second thing said here is, the New Jerusalem is called a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. Everyone loves that picture. We all love weddings. The climax is when the bride comes down the aisle, beautifully dressed for her husband! Everyone forgets that poor fellow waiting for her at the altar! Every eye is on the bride because she has prepared herself for weeks to meet her husband there. This new city is called both a city and a woman, just as the false bride, "Mystery Babylon the Great," was both a city, and a woman. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:2 • We have seen how that one was destroyed for its evil. A bride speaks of intimacy, and a city speaks of community. So we have a picture here of the redeemed of God, each one given a body of glory empowered with limitless energy. When opportunity comes in that day you will not say, as we often say today, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak," (Matthew 26:41 NIV). No, then you will be able to respond to every opportunity with a glorified, fresh and living body. We will live in close intimacy, not only with the Lord himself, but with each other as well. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:2 • I often think of that phrase in John's letters where he says, "It does not yet appear what we shall be," (1 John 3:2 KJV). • I keep looking in the mirror for signs of change in me. • But what do I see? • Wrinkles-and imperfections! • But it won't be like that then. • We will have bodies of glory and beauty that will be like his.   AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:2 • The third thing we are told here is that this will be the dwelling place of God. Isn't that marvelous? The home of God! The place where God lives, in his people. This is when the name "Immanuel" ("God with us"), will be fulfilled, and when the New Covenant will be fully worked out, "They shall be my people, and I will be their God," (Jeremiah 24:7 KJV). AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:4 • 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. • All tears, pain, sorrow, and death will be removed in that heavenly New Jerusalem where Christians will live. This is the exact opposite of the curse that resulted from Adam's sin (see Gen. 3: verses 16 to19). The effects of the curse are removed, and all things are made new. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • God does not merely repair the creation, He re-creates it for His children to enjoy for all eternity. • Just as the disciples knew security when Jesus was there to take care of all their needs, we will know perfect peace and joy in heaven. Jesus is the king of peace. Jesus defeated death on the cross. The biggest fear of mankind is death. We just read where the Christians will not taste the second death. This fear is gone away. Death will no longer hang over the Christian. The Christian has eternal life (not death). • There won't be any reason to cry for in heaven. The devil and all his problems he brought upon the Christians have been thrown into the lake of fire. Every negative thing has been done away with. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:5 • 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. • "The One who sits on the throne said", is the same One "from whose presence earth and heaven fled away. (Rev 20 v.11) • Here we see God sitting on the throne saying that He "makes all things new" when we are saved we become a new creature. Just as He did not throw us away and get a new person: He says here "I make all things new". He did not say He made new things. He just takes the old things and transforms them into new. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:6 • 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. • It is done. These words mark the end of redemptive history. This is a statement ( Gr. gegonan) of divine finality. It represents God's promise that this new state will be forever. Alpha and Omega is the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Hence, this phrase represents the sum of all things. In Revelation 1: v.11 and 22: verses 12 to13 it is used of Christ. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:6 • Here it is used of God the Father ("He that sat on the throne"), indicating the deity of both the Father and the Son. • Just as Jesus said on the cross "It is finished" You see, Jesus is the way to get to the water of life. In fact, He is the water. He is life. He who hungers and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. There is nothing before Him and nothing after Him. • A citizen of heaven is described as one who "thirsts" signifying those who recognize their desperate spiritual need, "hunger and thirst for righteousness", Matt. 5 v.6. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:6 • He brackets all of time in the phrases, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." Everything in between comes from him. These are words of truth that help us to believe. Remember on the cross our Lord uttered the words "It is finished," (John 19:30). After the gloom, the darkness, pain, sorrow and anguish of his separation from the Father, he cried out, "It is finished!" The basis of redemption was settled. The sacrifice was ended. The basis was fully laid. Now he says, "It is done!" Redemption is complete. • Not one thing is left unfinished. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. • An overcomer is one who exercises saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. A person who in faith drinks the water of salvation freely offered by God. Each of the seven letters to the churches in Rev. 2 and 3 end in the promise of he that overcomes will inherit these things. • Just as a bride is an equal inheritor of all that is her husband's, so the Church, the Bride of Christ, will inherit all that is His. He even promises that He will be our God and we shall be His son. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • These terms of endearment are experiences we as Christians shall enjoy forever. • From this scripture, we see there is something we must overcome. • If we are faithful to Him in the face of all odds, we will inherit eternal life. • The New Testament is actually an inheritance to the believers. • If we believe, we can collect on that inheritance. • Who ever we are faithful to, is our God. If he is our God, He will claim us as His son. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • The fourth thing the passage suggests as the purpose of the New Jerusalem is that it will be the home of the redeemed: "To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son." (Revelation 21:6b-7 NIV) What marvelous words! This city will be the home of the redeemed, and the only qualification for it is that you be thirsty. Nothing on earth satisfies. Wealth, fame, pleasures and treasures -- none will meet that deep thirst of the soul. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • That is why the rich, the wealthy, the beautiful people, all are looking for something more. They are not satisfied. But here is the promise to satisfy that thirst. People who want more -- who want God -- are promised that they shall drink of the water of the spring of life. These are also called "overcomers" who "inherit all this," all that God has created. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." • The contrasts between verses seven and eight are graphic. They represent the age-old concept that there are only two kinds of people with God, believers and unbelievers. They experience two different lifestyles on earth and go to two different eternal destinies. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • Believers go to "eternal life" while unbelievers experience "the second death," which is the lake of fire. Fear is not of God. Fear is the opposite of faith. In fact, it is mentioned twice here by saying "fearful and unbelieving". Jesus cannot be someone's Savior, unless they believe they He is their Savior. • Abomination, meaning vile, polluted, detestable, wholly caught up in wickedness and evil. Here, we see those who do abominable things taking part in the second death. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • Notice here this says "murderers" not accidental killing or killing in war. This is premeditated murder, or those who hate their neighbors. • We see here "whoremongers" (this means not only in the physical but also in the spiritual). • "Sorcerers" has to do with the occult and also drugs. • "Idolaters" has to do with anything or anyone you put ahead of God. • "Liars" can do more harm than you can imagine. Many have a tendency to tell little white lies, but any untruth is a lie. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • Those who are not saved are identified by their Human Nature failures and will not enter into the heavenly city. • After we are forgiven of our sins and born again, we must practice salvation. We may slip and sin, but if we do, we have an advocate with the Father. Confess, and then as Jesus told the woman who the Pharisees had caught in the act of adultery, "Go and sin no more” (Resist). • The Overcomers in this life do not practice sin. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • Peter tells us in his first letter that there is waiting for us "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for us," (1 Peter 1:4 NIV). Those who are thus changed by God's grace are to be forever his sons. • Now, by contrast, in a reference back to what we have seen of the judgment there is in Verse 8 a description of those who are not admitted: • "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." (Revelation 21:8 NIV) AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • As we have seen all through this book, God does not want that. He is very reluctant that anybody should be judged or condemned, but as the word points out, "they judge themselves." Here there are three attitudes of heart which result in five visible deeds that mark the lost. The three attitudes are the reasons why some will miss this beautiful city. First, the cowards, i.e. the fearful, those who are afraid to take on the yoke of Christ, who fear to confess Christ, who are unwilling to be unpopular for a little while. They shrug their shoulders and turn away from the offer of life. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • Then there are the unbelieving, those who know it is true, but don't want it and refuse the evidence, deliberately turning their backs on truth. • Third, there are the vile. The word means "to become foul." • Without the Cleansing of the New Birth, they are Vile; this is the evidence of their need for Salvation by Grace through Faith Alone in Christ Alone. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • In these eight verses we have looked at the purpose of the New Jerusalem. Now John is given another vision of it and describes it in wonderfully symbolic language as the great city of God: First, we are informed as to the structure of this city. • 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:9 • From the past, at the beginning of the millennium, one of the seven angels who poured out a bowl or vial appeared to John. • Now the angel was to show John the Lamb's bride, the Lamb's wife. • New Jerusalem is likened to a bride because the redeemed are forever united to God and the Lamb. • At this point, the marriage has already taken place in 19 v.7 and now is referred to as "The Lamb's Wife AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • I am sure someone is asking, "Is this literal or is it symbolic?" I hope, by now, as we have been going through this book, you have come to realize that you do not have to make that choice. God loves to use literal things that remain symbols. The cross is literal, but it is also a symbol of the death of Jesus. It is both at the same time. So, all through this book, we find the blending of the literal and symbolic. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • There will be a great, visible city of incredible brilliance and glory, located somewhere above or within the atmosphere of the earth, which also will picture activities and relationships that are going on within the community of the saints. • Those will be characterized by stability, by symmetry, by light, by life and ministry. • That is what is described here. • The literal is very evident; the symbolic perhaps needs a bit of interpretation. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • Everything in the universe is, in a sense, his possession. All animals, all creatures, are his. There are billions of angels and they all belong to him. But the saints are peculiarly God's own possession. That is because he has made them to correspond to himself. He can share with them the deepest things in his life and in his heart. They satisfy him and fulfill him just as a bride satisfies and fulfills her husband. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • 21:10-11 "And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God," " "Having the glory of God: and her light [was] like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;: • That great city, the holy Jerusalem. The Lamb's wife is described as the new city of Jerusalem. This magnificent city is where the bride of Christ (the Church) will live forever. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • The most dominant characteristic of the holy city is the presence of God's Glory, which personifies God's presence with His people. The Glory that departed from the Old Jerusalem (see Ezek. Chapters 8 to 11) is restored to the New Jerusalem of the future. • John's incredible vision began when the angel carried him away in the Spirit in Rev. 1 where he received the visions that make up the book of Revelation. John's visions were not dreams, but spiritual realities, like the one's Paul saw when he was also caught up to the third heaven. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • From John's vantage point atop a great and high mountain, he repeats his observation of verse 2 that New Jerusalem came down out of heaven from God, emphasizing its divine origin. • Note what is described here is not the creation of heaven, but the descent of what already existed from eternity past. Now it's being situated in the center of the new heaven and the new earth. • "The Glory of God": The brilliance radiating from New Jerusalem caused by the full manifestation of God's glory will be so much, the city will have no need of the sun or the moon as the glory of God will illuminate it. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • 21:12 And had a wall great and high, [and] had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are [the names] of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: • The inclusion of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles in the foundations and gates of the city (see 21 v.14), indicates that both Jewish and Gentile believers will all be part of the family of God and share eternity as one. Although it would seem that the Jews are distinct from the Church during the Millennium, they will all be one as children of the living God for eternity. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21:12 • If you have ever been to Jerusalem in Israel, you know the old city has a large wall around the city. The physical Jerusalem here has 12 gates. You see, this earthly Jerusalem is a replica of this heavenly Jerusalem. • Here we see their names (twelve tribes), celebrating God's covenant relationship with Israel, the people of the promises, covenants, scriptures and the Messiah. • These angels are stationed to attend to God's glory and to serve His people. AET-075 and 076

Revelation 21 • The high wall of the city speaks of separation and of intimacy. If you want to have an intimate garden party, you meet in the yard behind a wall. That wall shuts out other things and people. It speaks of intimate fellowship and separation from intrusion. The whole of Scripture with one voice speaks of God's desire to have what he calls "a people for my own possession." AET-075 and 076

Antichrist and the End Times