All Things New

They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 11:9

I don’t know about you, but when I am going somewhere I’ve never been before, whether it’s a family vacation or a trip to a ministry conference out of town, I want to know everything I can about the place I’m going.  If I’m staying in a hotel, I’ll visit the hotel website and look up pictures of the rooms and the lobby.  I’ll scout out things to do in the area.  Where are the best places to eat?  Does the hotel have an exercise room?  What kind of bed will I be sleeping in?  I do my best to picture myself there and anticipate what it will be like.  When my wife and daughter went to Disneyworld years ago, Carrie bought a book about the place and carefully researched it to make sure they would get the most out of their stay.  If we would do that for a place we’ll only be for a few days, how much more curious should we be about the place we’ll stay for all eternity?  Yet if you ask most Christians, “What will heaven be like?”  You won’t get much information.  It’s true we don’t know much about the place believers go when we die; we know Jesus will be there and sin won’t be, and that Jesus called it Paradise.  But Scripture describes, over and over again, a place called the New Earth that will be established after Jesus returns.  God has told us far more than a hotel website about The New Earth, because this knowledge is supposed to change us, make us hopeful in the midst of the very worst our world can throw at us.  We should be obsessed with this stuff; it should be on our minds and lips every day.  So this Sunday, as we wrap up our look at the book of Revelation, we'll examine chapters 21-22.  We'll take a tour of our future home.  And hopefully, you and I will be able to picture ourselves there.