In Conclusion

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”” (Revelation 21:1–4 ESV)


Introduction
Some people like surprises and some people do not.  I do not mind surprises as long as I know all the details ahead of time.  I am guilty of enjoying reading spoilers.  Spoilers are information about a story that spoil the surprise.  For television shows I follow, I check the Internet to find out what will happen later in the season.  Some people are worse than me.  Some people go into a bookstore and read the last couple of pages to decide if they want to purchase the book.  No matter what, how a story ends is extremely important.  This is especially true of the Bible.    The Old Testament originally ended with 2 Chronicles.  2 Chronicles ends with the return from exile and the promise of support from the Persians.  It is rather an open ending, with things able to go either good or bad.  Our current order of the Old Testament ends with Malachi.  Malachi ends with God promising to do something in the future.  I happen to prefer the way the New Testament ends.  The book of Revelation is not primarily a book of details about the end times.  It was written to real churches suffering real persecution.  But the encouragement to these churches was that they would get a glimpse of what God will do to conclude this stage of human history.  The mistake most people make is to get caught up in the details.  What we must focus on is the big picture of what life will look like once Jesus returns.  Let us take a look.
Place on Earth
What is the hope of the Christian?  Most would say that they hope to go to heaven when they die.  They look at the world as it is, all of the pollution and natural disasters and poverty and perhaps cannot wait to get out of this place.  It is common for Christians to say things like “This world is not my home” or “I am just passing through.”  When a loved one passes away, we might say “He went home to be with the Lord.”  All of that sounds very spiritual.  The problem is that it is not quite correct.  If you read through the book of Revelation, you will find a passage where there are the spirits of dead calling out to God, eager and restless for the consummation of God’s plan.  That does not sound like our picture of heaven where we are in our final resting place.  That is because heaven is not our final resting place.  Earth is.  That seems strange to us but it is the biblical truth.  When I say that earth is our destination, I do not mean the earth exactly as it is now.  In Romans 8, Paul tells us that creation is longing for resurrection as much as we are.  One day, our bodies will be transformed into new resurrection bodies that will be built to survive eternity.  The exact relationship between our old bodies and our new bodies is unknown.  Jesus’ resurrection body, which was the prototype of the resurrection, was both like and unlike his earthly body.  The same will be true for the resurrected earth, which Revelation calls the new earth.  It will be like the old earth in a way, it will be physical and real, not a soft fuzzy cloud the way many people imagine heaven.  But it will be different.  It says there will be no more sea.  In the Bible, the sea is an image of chaos and death.  It was representative of that general foreboding in life that is completely out of our control.  But in the next chapter, Revelation says that there will be rivers.  Rivers are more closely associated with life.  They provide irrigation for agriculture, water for drinking and so on.  Rivers were places of assurance, not of fear.  When I first began to read the Bible, I was confused regarding what people said about the afterlife and what the Bible says about the resurrection.  Revelation tells us that we will spend our eternity on the new earth.
Place with God
As I say this, you might be slightly disappointed or even skeptical.  After all, who would want to be stuck on earth rather than being in heaven with God?  Even among the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they believe that an elite 144,000 will go to heaven and the rest of the good Jehovah’s Witnesses will get second class accommodations on the new earth.  There is a big problem with that belief.  Revelation says that God will come from heaven and dwell on earth with his people.  Any place that God chooses is far from second rate.  It does not say that God will make periodic visits, slumming with the humans.  It says that God will make his dwelling on earth.  In fact, in the next chapter, it says that we will not even need the sun, because God’s presence will provide all the light we need.  This is what it is all about.  The reason we study the Bible and worship and pray is not just to earn some points to avoid hell.  We do this to deepen our relationship with God because our ultimate destiny is to be with God.  Revelation 22:4 says that we will see God’s face.  Take a moment to take that in.  Throughout the Bible we are warned that we cannot see God’s face and if we tried we would be destroyed.  Even Moses and Elijah were only given a glimpse of a part of God.  But after the resurrection, we will be equipped to see God and not just survive the experience but to enjoy it.  Our hope is spend eternity in God’s presence.  
Place of Healing
It is fair to ask, what are the consequences of being in the presence of God?  What will that mean to us?  Will it be just the excitement of seeing a famous actor, musician or athlete?  Will it be about a bunch of students asking the ultimate teacher all the theological, philosophical and scientific questions that we have always wondered about?  Perhaps there will be some of that.  But the emphasis in these passages is on healing.  In a way that seems strange.  If this after the resurrection, we will not have physical illnesses or weaknesses.  What healing will be needed?  We are told that God will wipe away every tear.  I think that there are some things that will not be healed with just a new body.  There are hurts that go deeper than the physical flesh.  Notice that it is God himself that will wipe away every tear.  He does not send an angel or a prophet, God himself will bring the healing.  I think it is possible that there will be some tears that will not appear until this moment.  We are so good at suppressing our hurts and pains, just so we can go on from day to day.  Being in the presence of God will finally free us to look at all the things we have experienced, all the things we have lost, all the dreams that were dashed and confront them head on.  And God will be there to wipe away our tears.  As a parent, I enjoy many aspects of my relationship with the children.  I enjoy playing with them, reading to them and so many other activities.  But the most rewarding part of my role is when they are hurting either physically or emotionally and I am able to hold them and wipe away their tears.  Just the other day, Abby was home for a visit.  At one point she started to cry and seemed so sad.  It was so nice to be able to hold her and comfort her in her pain.  God will do that to each one of us.
Conclusion
How does the story end?  I do not have all the details.  I cannot give definitive details about dates, raptures or tribulations.  But I do know something.  Both we as individuals and our planet will experience a resurrection, a transformation from weakness to wholeness.  We will live not as disembodied spirits floating in the clouds.  We will have physical bodies and will live on a physical planet.  This will not be a second rate eternity, for God himself will descend out of heaven and will dwell with us.  The result of this will be a complete healing, not just of physical ills but of emotional and spiritual ones as well.  There it is: the final chapter of the story.  However, I am confident that these spoilers will far from spoil your enjoyment of the life God has given you.