Talk

All Things New

Louie Giglio

October, 20, 2024

Louie Giglio teaches through some of the final words in the book of Revelation. In today’s reading, we see the promise of a new heaven and earth and rejoice over the hope of the new Jerusalem and our eternal dwelling with our Father.

Key Takeaway

Heaven is about being with God and God being with us.

God is making all things new.

Heaven needs to become real to us, and it should impact how we live.

"Then I saw..." is the key idea in the book of Revelation—it's having our eyes opened to what God is doing now and around us. John tells us, on behalf of Jesus, that there is a new heaven and a new earth.

When we reach the end of the story, we also reach the beginning. The story starts and ends with creation.

“The biblical story began, quite logically, with a beginning. Now, it draws to an end, not quite so logically, with a beginning. The sin-ruined creation of Genesis is restored in the sacrifice-renewed creation of Revelation. The products of these beginning and ending acts of creation are the same: “the heavens and earth” in Genesis, and “a new heaven and earth” in Revelation. The story that has creation for its first word, has creation for its last word: “The end is where we start from.” (T.S. Elliot)"

— Eugene Peterson

It's not the end; it's a new beginning—a new heaven and a new earth.

The whole earth yearns for this future city with God (Romans 8:22). Creation groans, knowing that all things will be renewed and restored at the end of the day.

"I am making all things new," not "I am making all new things." He takes the broken things and makes them new. It will be a familiar place. We see what we understand and it's perfected in a way we cannot begin to imagine. Everything in the new heaven and the new earth will be better than what we are experiencing right now. You're going to spend your future on a perfect earth. It's a place for you to return to the start that God created in the beginning.

John saw a new city of God coming down from heaven. It was not built by the efforts of anyone but God.

We started in a garden, but we ended in a city. It's a city of perfection—God collecting His people from every nation, tribe, and tongue into an eternal gathering. This is what is coming down from heaven. Abraham knew a new city was coming. There was no architect or designer; God was the designer.

Heaven would be God's dwelling place among the people.

God has shepherded more than one group through the covenant—it's every nation, tribe, people, and tongue.

Heaven is not about the streets of gold. It's about being with God and about God being with us. The prize of heaven is God.

“If we don’t want God, or don’t want him very near, we can hardly be expected to be very interested in heaven.”

— Eugene Peterson

If you don't love God and want your life to be about God, then you are definitely not ready for heaven because heaven is about God being in the midst of people.

It's about the relationship with God and His created ones—it's at the epicenter. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, crying, mourning, or pain. The old order of things has passed away.

The holiest place was a cube, and now it is the Holy City. The Holy City is a cube because it is the Holy of Holies because God dwells there. Man never dwelled with God in the first cube, but man dwelled forever in the cube that is the Holy City of God. In the restored earth and heaven, in the city of the Holy of holies, Jesus Christ is still the Son of God slain before the foundation of the world.

Only when you see people face-to-face is when you truly know them. We're going to see His face. And The Father's House is being built right now.

In this corrupted world, we're agents of a God who is making all things new. How can I make new what is around me? He's not going to build the Kingdom—He's building it right now. It is here right now. I'm living as a Kingdom agent, mentally keeping stock of what I am a part of. For a season, I'm here in a broken world.

I've got my eye on my city. Praise God that we have a future that is better than we have ever dreamed.

“

"Let's live like we're going to inherit the greatest city in the history of the world and the ability to see the face of God."

”

Louie Giglio

Discussion Questions

Does the reality of heaven impact how you live? In what ways?
Scripture begins and ends with creation. How has this perspective impacted your understanding of the Word of God?
Are you yearning for heaven right now? Why or why not?
God is making all things new, not all new things. How does this truth bring you comfort?
Heaven is about dwelling with God forever. How has this impacted your understanding of eternity?
There is a tension between yearning for heaven while also living here on earth still. We must not be caught up in either extreme—only living for the promise of heaven and only living for right here on earth. How are you personally reconciling this tension?
How are you living as a kingdom agent right now in a broken world?

Scripture References

A New Heaven and a New Earth

1Then 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. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4‘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.”

5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

The New Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb

9One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick.18The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.21The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

22I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb

2down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

3No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.

4They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

5There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

10But 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 done in it will be laid bare.

11I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Louie Giglio

Louie Giglio is the Visionary Architect and Director of the Passion Movement, comprised of Passion Conferences, Passion City Church, Passion Publishing and sixstepsrecords, and the founder of Passion Institute.