A. “I Am Doing a New Thing!” (21:1-8)
This section throbs with the theme of newness. Kainos, new, appears in 21:1, 2, and 5. John envisions a new heaven, a new earth, and a New Jerusalem. God announces a new existence free from tears, death, mourning, crying, and pain because the old order of things has passed away (vv.3-4). John drives home the emphasis on newness by defining God as the one making everything new, which is similar to Isa 43:19, where God announced, “See, I am doing a new thing!” John draws upon Isa 40-66 at least five times in these verses. As Isaiah promised a new creation and restoration of Israel after the judgment of the Babylonian exile, John speaks of a new creation for the church after the final judgment.
John ties the content of Christian hope to the previous twenty chapters through the repetition of eight key themes, summarizing Revelation.
1. The sentence skeletons, I saw and I heard, refer to the inspiration guiding John’s writing. They denote the divine and human elements in John’s writing of Scripture. What he saw and heard from God passed through his human personality.
2. The end time equals a return to the beginning of time. After the judgment, a new era will dawn, which will be a return to the harmony of Eden.
3. The Holy City, the New Jerusalem sets up a contrast between Babylon the harlot (ch. 18) and Jerusalem the bride (21:10ff.) By picturing heaven as a holy city, John establishes an ideal for human society. Revelation is not an antiurban book. John’s answer to the pagan city of Babylon is a city of God.
4. The word throne (22:3) appears in seventeen of the twenty-two chapters. Throne denotes the political message of this dramatic contest between the rule of God and the rule of Caesar/Satan. Also, throne recalls the scenes before the throne of God in the visions of creation and redemption in chs. 4-5.
5. The parallelism of skana/skanosei, dwelling/he will live establishes a relationship between God and God’s people in 21:3. That corporate relationship has a parallel in the promise of a personal relationship for faithful overcomers (21:7). In opposition to this relationship between God and the church, John contrasts Pergamum as the place where Satan’s throne dwells (2:13). Faithful saints enter into a saving relationship with God.
6. The new era is a time of healing for a church battered by persecution, social stress, and sin. In heaven God acts as an eternal pastor. Heaven is a place of healing for Christians who do not experience physical or emotional wholeness on earth. Revelation relegates tears, death, mourning, crying, and pain to the banished first heaven and first earth. Heaven is a place of healing, not as a mental escape from suffering as Karl Marx accused, but as God’s eternal response to earthly suffering. John’s church endured sufferings on earth because they believed God would soon act on their behalf to end their stress and bring eternal victory. The human spirit can encounter and endure tremendous tension if the mind believes its capacity for survival will not be stretched ad infinitum. Sometimes we live not by what we have but by that for which we hope. Heaven is our ultimate hope. That hope supplies stamina during stress.
7. Designating God as the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End continues the tendency to speak of God in terms of time (1:8; 4:8). Revelation abounds with temporal contrasts. As John nears the end of the book, he returns to an initial announcement that punctuates Revelation with a contrast between what is and what is to come.
8. In 22:7-8 a moral contrast is set up between faithful conquerors and faltering compromisers. Nikon (“conquering, overcoming”) recollects the seven conquering promises in chs. 2-3. The Lamb “has triumphed” (5:5). Martyrs conquer and attain eternal life (12:11; 15:2-3). Yet the leopard beast conquered saints and the evil trinity waged war against the church. Built into the structure of Revelation is a dualism that creates a moral contrast. Faithful conquerors including God, the Lamb, martyrs, and saints oppose antagonists including the beasts, the serpent, the Dragon, the harlot, and faltering compromisers. These verses contrast the faithful overcomers who received a halo of victory with those who do not enter heaven. Heaven serves an ethical and moral purpose.
With these eight verses, John affirms truths he has taught throughout Revelation.