Revelation 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

‘Behold‘ means ‘Look’.

the tabernacle of God is with men‘

The tabernacle of God is with men but there’s no temple of God. That’s because it’s within us. God’s residence can be in us. A lot of people may assume that the tabernacle must be in physical Jewish form as described in the Old Testament. This is indicated in 2 Corinthians 5, that to those who are saved and have come to Christ, our bodies are considered the tabernacle or temple of God.

‘they shall be his people‘

Everyone who does not believe will be cast out. Imagine this, that every person that you meet in a cafe is a child of God.

‘God himself shall be with them‘

Imagine that Jesus Christ Himself will be at the cafe. What a glorious eternity!

Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

‘And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes‘

This appears to be contradicting the previous verse if there will be no tears shed in eternity.

What could possibly be the reason for the shedding of tears?

Looking back at the previous chapter, it is mentioned that we would be condemning and judging our loved ones who are not saved and seeing them being cast out to the lake of fire for eternity. It could be our mom or dad, our best friend, our neighbor. We would be filled with so much guilt and sadness, this explains the shedding of tears in Revelation 21:4.

‘and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain‘

After that, there will be no more sorrow and death, because the last encounter of death was in Revelation 20:14. All the things that we lived before shall pass away.

Revelation 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

‘I make all things new‘

God makes everything new, all of creation is brand new. That’s the idea.

Then will we still be keeping the sweet and great memories we had before?

This remains unknown because the verse itself only emphasizes the sorrowful and negative experiences and emotions, which will all pass away.

‘Write: for these words are true and faithful.‘

It is true and faithful. God is not going to go back on His words. Can you imagine John writing this out with passion?

Revelation 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

‘It is done.‘

From the above passage, it reminds us of the three finales of God; the past, the present, and the future. Pastor has preached about this a long time ago.

1. ‘It is finished’, which concerns our salvation (Past) because this is referring to Christ completed His redemptive work for us,

2. ‘It is past’, which is found in the book of Psalms. (Now) David talks about the beauty of forgiveness in his present walk and fellowship with God. We can also spiritualize that passage to our Christian walk and our fellowship too.

3. ‘It is done’, where God makes all things new. (Future) This is the future we are all waiting for.

Dr. Ruckman mentions there are 2 endings in the book of Revelation. The first time is in verse 6 when God says ‘It is done’ and the second time is in Revelation 22: 13-22.

Whenever you get discouraged, take a look at the 3 finales above.

‘I am Alpha and Omega‘

Alpha and Omega are the first and last alphabets in the Greek alphabet. Why would He declare Himself to be the first and the last alphabet? That’s because Jesus Himself is the word.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

You will notice that every word counts in the Bible. We should be very afraid to mess with any word in the Bible. If you hate the word, you hate Jesus Christ. Jesus does not declare Himself to be the Bible, but He connects Himself very much with the word.