Revelation 21: God makes all things new
Begin in prayer
Before we read about the new heaven and the new earth, please pray together. Ask the Lord to help you long for the day when God makes all things new and lives with His people.
“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.
Job 42:2
Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Show us that You make all things new and will live with Your people, and help us to turn from our sin and trust the Lamb. Make us more like Jesus. And please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.
See where we're going
After the judgment, John sees a new heaven and earth, with the sea gone and New Jerusalem coming down from God. God will dwell with His people, wiping away tears and ending death, mourning, crying and pain. From the throne He promises all things new and free water for the thirsty, while warning of the second death. An angel then shows the Lamb's bride as a glorious city bearing the names of Israel's tribes and the Lamb's apostles. Its equal dimensions and precious materials display a holy home filled with God's glory. God and the Lamb are its temple and light, and only those in the Lamb's book of life enter.
As you read Revelation 21, look for the answers:
- What will God do for His people, and what will He wipe away? (verses 3 and 4)
- What does He who sits on the throne say He is making? (verse 5)
- Who is the temple of the city, and what is its lamp? (verses 22 and 23)
Reflect together
Key truth
God makes all things new, and He will live with His people and wipe away every tear.
The new creation follows the defeat of death, so the grief removed here can never return. God's promise to dwell with His people brings the covenant's purpose to completion, with His own hand wiping their tears. The city comes down from Him prepared as the Lamb's bride, showing a home and people His grace has made ready. Its tribal gates and apostolic foundations belong to one city, gathering God's people across the whole story of redemption. The equal length, width and height recall the proportions of Solomon's inner sanctuary (1 Kings 6 verse 20). What once marked the holiest room now describes the whole city, where God and the Lamb are its temple. Their glory supplies its light, fulfilling Isaiah's promise of the Lord as His people's everlasting light (Isaiah 60 verses 19 and 20). Open gates and absent night show safety, yet entry remains restricted to names in the Lamb's book. The free offer of life and the warning of second death both stand, calling sinners to the Lamb now.
How does Revelation 21 show us that God makes all things new, and that He will live with His people and wipe away every tear?
God makes His people's home new and ends their grief.
The old heaven and earth pass away, the sea is gone, and New Jerusalem descends as a bride (verses 1 and 2). God dwells with His people and wipes away tears, ending death, mourning, crying and pain (verses 3 and 4). These former things have passed away because He makes all things new (verse 5).
God offers life freely and warns of the second death.
The Beginning and End gives life freely to the thirsty, and the overcomer receives His inheritance and sonship (verses 6 and 7). Verse 8 names the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars. Their portion is the lake burning with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
God gathers His redeemed people into the Lamb's glorious city.
The angel promises to show the Lamb's wife and shows Jerusalem shining with God's glory (verses 9 to 11). The Lamb presents His bride in glory, fulfilling His purpose for His church (Ephesians 5 verses 25 to 27). Twelve gates bear Israel's tribal names, and twelve foundations bear the names of the Lamb's apostles (verses 12 to 14). Together they describe one redeemed people, belonging to the same city through the same Savior. Equal length, width and height, jasper wall, jeweled foundations, pearl gates and transparent gold display holiness and splendour (verses 16 to 21).
God and the Lamb fill the city with Their presence.
No separate temple stands there, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (verse 22). God's glory supplies the light, with the Lamb as its lamp, so sun and moon are unnecessary (verse 23). Nations and kings bring their glory and honor through gates that never close, and night never comes (verses 24 to 26). Nothing profane, abominable or false enters, only those written in the Lamb's book of life (verse 27).
Memorise
Behold, I am making all things new.
Revelation 21:5
Looking to Jesus in my life
Ask yourself in your heart, do I want to live with God, and have I come to the Lamb?
John saw “a new heaven and a new earth”. A loud voice said that God would dwell with His people, and that He would “wipe away from them every tear”. The One who sits on the throne said, “I am making all things new”.
Why can the holy God live with sinners? Because of the Lamb. The city is called the wife of the Lamb. Jesus Christ laid down His life for His people, and He bore the judgment their sin deserved. His blood is enough, and He rose from the dead. Through Him, God will wipe His people's tears away, and death will be no more.
So hear the One on the throne. He says, “I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life”. Come to Jesus, you who are thirsty. Turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus. He forgives each one who comes, and He gives that one the water of life.
Parent's note
Tell your children that God will live with His people and end their grief through the Lamb. Explain the sins and second death in verse 8 gently, preserving both the warning and the free invitation. Being raised in a Christian home does not make anyone ready for this city. Ask God for each child's new heart, and call them to turn from sin and trust Jesus.
Pray together
Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God that He makes all things new and will live with His people, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so let each one say a short prayer if they want to.
He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4
Father, thank You that You make all things new and will live with Your people. Thank You for the Lamb. Please make each of us thirsty for Jesus, and lead us to trust Him this week. Amen.