Charles Spurgeon Commentary Revelation 21

Astronomers tell us that, within living memory, several starry worlds have burned out and vanished out of sight. The apostle Peter has told us that this world also will be destroyed by fire, but it will afterward be renewed, and a new sky and a new earth will appear after the first firmament and the first earth will have become extinct. God intends for this planet to continue to exist after it has undergone a new creation and renewed its youth.

The regeneration of His people, their new birth, is a foretaste of what is yet to happen to this whole world of ours. We have the first-fruits of the Spirit, and we groan within ourselves while we wait for the fullness of that new creation. The first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea, because the sea is the emblem of separation, and destruction, and unrest. The sea has her dead which will be given up. The sea now cannot rest nor be quiet, but all will be calm and tranquil in the new heaven and the new earth.

John saw, in vision, the glorified Church of God coming to dwell on the new earth, descending for a while from heaven to be the very glory of the newly-created world.

When there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the Church will be in her new and glorified condition, then there will be no need for all those purifying forces which have been so active here on earth. There will be no death, nor sorrow nor crying, nor pain, nor trial of any kind; all will be happiness, for all will be holiness.

And then, just as God dwelt in ancient times among His people in the wilderness, and as Jesus Christ, the Word, was made flesh, and tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory, so in that new world God will reveal Himself to His people by a special indwelling and a particular nearness.

Once, the Lord might have said, "Behold, I make all things;" but now he says, "Behold, I make all things new." Glory be to the great Creator! Did not the morning stars sing together for joy when he made the world? But equal if not greater glory must be ascribed to the great Regenerator, the New Creator, shall we not all sing together to his praise? Yes, that we shall if we are numbered among the "all things" that he makes new.

Probably John did not expect to hear that sweet gospel message just then. The Lord Jesus Christ was speaking of lofty themes, of worlds newly made, and yet in the very middle of it all he puts this gracious promise. Let this be a pattern to all of you who are preachers or teachers: no matter what your subject may be, a gospel promise or invitation is always in place and in season. You may put it among the most golden sentences, like a precious stone in a setting of pure gold, and it will never be out of order, no matter when it comes.

Men hate God without the slightest reason for doing so, and God loves men without the slightest reason. There was every reason why men should love God and not hate him; yet they have hated him without a cause. And there is every reason why God should hate man and not love him. Yet he loves him so much that he gave his only-begotten Son to die, so that whoever believes in him may live forever.