No More Tears, Mourning, Crying, or Pain

RV244-01

Eternity

The apostle Paul, on one occasion, was privileged to look into heaven himself, and he was told not to reveal what he had seen. It was so great; it was so staggering; and, it was something that human beings are not prepared to cope with until they have crossed over to the other side. But it is indeed, as is described in Scripture, as a place of great beauty and of great joy.

John actually says very little in a positive way about our heavenly life. But what he does here is stress some things that just are negative, which are not going to be there anymore. Of course, negatives are the most positive way that you can express a thing. Thus, the Ten Commandments are basically expressed as negatives, because that makes a very positive statement.

The bottom line confronting each human being is the joy of eternity in heaven, and the nightmare of pain and grief in an eternity in the lake of fire. Every human being is faced with that basic issue. Accepting the grace salvation offer of Jesus Christ, or rejecting it, determines destiny to one place or the other. Only the Bible can give us the truth about these two destinies, and our entrance into them. ...

Most people, unfortunately, are misinformed on this issue. They are misinformed because they approach it from human reason, so they come out with the wrong idea on how they can get to heaven, or they are actually misinformed from false religious instruction, where human elements and opinions have been incorporated as the Word of God, such as works as part of the road to salvation.

So, the human race hinges upon this one little factor: knowing the grace way of salvation. None of us know our appointed time for facing eternity. So, delay on the gospel issue can be very dangerous. We have seen how dangerous this can be by the contrast now between what happens to the people who have rejected that gospel (as we saw at the end of Revelation 20), and their eternity in the lake of fire; and, the other side, here in Revelation 21, those who have entered the magnificence of God's heaven, and the throne room of the New Jerusalem.

In Revelation 21:3, we read, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne." Here, our attention is once more directed to an authoritative pronouncement. "A loud voice" is a technical term that has been used in the book of the Revelation to introduce a pronouncement of great importance. This is the last time in the book that this expression "loud voice" will be used. It has been used a total of 20 times in the book, and the first one was in Revelation 5:2. And periodically, as important things were to be presented, they were presented with a loud, authoritative voice, so that there was command presence behind the information.

The Throne

The Tabernacle of God

So, this tabernacle of the Old Testament very clearly signified the presence of God. Here in the new Jerusalem, it also conveys that same concept. The proclamation from heaven echoes the promise actually made by God to the Jews in the Old Testament in Leviticus 26:11: "Moreover," God says, "I will make My dwelling (My tabernacle) among you, and My soul will not reject you." Here is the dwelling (the tabernacle) of God.

We are told that it is here among men: "I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold (pay attention), the tabernacle (the presence of God) is among men.'" This word for "men" in the Greek Bible is the one which means mankind in general. As the dispensations, in time, dissolve into eternity, the tabernacle of God is again seen among men, just as it was in the Old Testament among the Jewish people in their wilderness wandering. The Old Testament Tabernacle tent was the visible symbol of God's presence among His people.

Verse 3: "And He shall dwell among them." This is a verb which is connected to this noun (the tent). Then the word for "dwell" looks very much like it. It's "skenoo." So, the word "dwell" here means "God will tabernacle (God will tent) among them." At some future time, here, in fact, in eternity, God Himself will be once more among His people.

One of the greatest tragedies of the Jewish people was the day when they saw, through the eyes of the prophet, the Spirit of God leaving the temple, and moving out, and completely abandoning the Jewish people. So, the next time the high priest walked into the holy of holies, it was dingy dark. There was no light; no candles; and, no outside light. And with the glory of God gone, there was nothing left there. What a shock that must have been. And now they knew that God was no longer among the people. The time is coming when, for all mankind, God is going to dwell among them. His headquarters will be the new Jerusalem, and He will be among the saints forever.

Interestingly enough, this word "to dwell" ("to tent") is the word which is also used in John 1:14 concerning Jesus Christ: "And the Word." This is the Greek word logos, and it refers to Christ: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." There is exactly the same Greek word you have in here in Revelation: "He tented among us." Jesus Christ temporarily (in His human flesh on this earth with His divine glory veiled) literally was tenting among us. So, He then became the tabernacle of God in the midst of mankind.

The word "dwell," of course, does connote fellowship. So, God is among men: "And He will dwell among them" (with them). The supreme human blessing is to be with God, as to be separated from Him is the supreme agony. When someone dies, whatever pain; whatever suffering; or, whatever distress they've gone through, immediately there's an explosion of great joy; a great relief; and, something that absolutely we cannot experience. We could not even describe it. But it is absolutely euphoric beyond our fondest dreams, the joy of coming into the presence of God. And that's what happens. We come into the presence of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, there is no agony so great as when a person dies, and they suddenly find themselves in the darkness of the holding pen of Hades awaiting their transfer into the lake of fire. And all they experience is suffering and great tragedy.

So, for God to be with them when he says, "He will be among them," that means that He will literally dwell with them (tabernacle with them). God is present in the midst of humanity in the new Jerusalem on the new earth. In eternity, God dwells with His redeemed and unbroken fellowship.

We are also told that: "They (the saints of God) will be His people." From all nations will come saints to the new Jerusalem as the people of God. Why are they the people of God? Because they have accepted Christ as Savior. Everyone is not in the family of God. While the religious world likes to pretend that God is the Father of all mankind, that is not true. And all of humanity does not compose the family of God. They are not His children. They became God's redeemed peoples through trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior. Unbelievers are declared to have a different father. Their father is Satan. All that the heart of man longs for and needs is bound up in God.

This is one of the agonies of being in the lake of fire. You have needs and desires as a human being that only God can fulfill, and you will not have them fulfilled then. Knowing God through the Word of God is where it all comes together for us. The more of the Word of God you know, the more acquainted you will become with God.

Believers themselves, at this point in time, in the eternal state, will have been transformed into the image of Christ, so they will be fully qualified for full fellowship with God the Father. 1 John 3:2 puts it this way: "Beloved, now we are children of God. It has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is." What a promise! We are going to be exactly like Jesus Christ. Therefore, we will have eternal, joyful, total fellowship with Him – redeemed man with his Creator. That is our destiny. We will be capable of living our lives in perfect harmony with the will of God. That's something we can't do now. Sometimes we can come close to living our lives in perfect harmony with the will of God. Then it will be automatic.

Emmanuel

Theophanies

In John 1:14, this is declared: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory; the glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." Then verse 18: "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." So, in the manifest member of the Trinity (the one we see) is Jesus Christ. And in New Testament times, people saw God when they saw Christ, for He was then tenting among them.

Today, God the Holy Spirit has taken up the Christian's body as His temple, and thus as His dwelling place. And each believer is indwelt in that way by the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God; that you're not your own? For you have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body." This is a great doctrine, and one that we need to be very much aware of. Here's how God tabernacles (how He tents among us now). He lives within our bodies. Therefore, all that we do; everywhere we go; all we think; and, all that we participate in, God is there with us.

In the millennium, God's presence will of course be seen by the reigning King Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, in His human body, will forever then tabernacle with mankind in eternity. God thus will be related directly to His people in the eternal state. 2 Corinthians 6:16 says, "Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, 'I will dwell in them. I'll walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." God will be directly related to His people.

So, you and I cannot comprehend what it's going to be like to be in the world of tomorrow, where we actually see the glory of God from that new Jerusalem capital city, and that we will be in the very presence of Christ as the visible member of the Trinity, there as His child. We will see and we will share His glory. At that point in time, the prayer of Jesus Christ in John 17:24 will be fulfilled: "Father," Jesus said, "I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You did love Me before the foundation of the world." Jesus said, "I want to bring these people to the point where they will see My glory, and they will love Me then as I love you." That's the fulfillment of that prayer.

He Shall Wipe away Every Tear from their Eyes

There again is something that is hard to imagine – a life where there is never a cause for grief. And what a tender picture we have here of God, our Heavenly Father, as a parent, comforting His child to remove every tear. And in the Greek Bible, it says just that: "Every tear," in a very explicit way. And what that indicates is that all causes are going to be comforted by Christ in such a way so that the tears are wiped away. And I think that probably one of the tears that will be there will be the tears that may be shed at the Judgment Seat of Christ, as Christians realize how they have wasted their life potential for Christian service. The Bible speaks about there being loss and there being gain. Nobody ever claps his hands when they experience a loss. Nobody says, "Hooray, I just lost $1,000. I'm so happy. It's just thrills me." But somebody who gets $1,000 – that gain, that is joy.

Paul's words are very explicit. There is loss, and there is gain at the Judgment Seat of Christ, based upon how you have fulfilled your mission, and based upon how you rose to the moment for which you have been brought into existence in time, as Esther did to her moment. Every tear (I think) will include the moistening of the eyes when we see how much could have been ours in eternal reward and treasures in heaven; and, yet how little we sent up.

God's comfort, however, will come to our aid at that moment, and our tears will be removed, and it will be a permanent removal. Today, people can only dry our tears selectively, and for the moment. There is no permanent removal of our tears. Only God can remove the sin which causes the reoccurring tears and the accompanying grief. It is a sin that causes our tears.

Perfect Justice

That is hard for us to enter into now, but we will look at things the way God looks at things. And the consequences of sin, which bring tears, will be seen to be fair treatment by God. Once we look at things through His perfect justice, then the picture changes. Thus, our experience of loss and disappointment will be seen through the justice of God, and it will remove the grief and tears. Yes, we'll say, "I wish I had done better. I wish I had used my life in a better way. I wish I would have quit thinking that I was going to live forever. I wish I would have stored for eternity, just as Jesus told me to do many times very clearly. And yet, my loss is fair." And the tears will stop. And as Job said, "The Lord has given. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." And Job's tears stopped because justice was being executed.

So, the effects of evil upon us have been neutralized by Christ in His death for sin, so that there is a possibility for permanent no more tears, once the old sin nature is removed. And that is a great eternity to look forward to.

As I said, John doesn't give us a lot. As we'll see in the rest of this book, there's not a lot about heaven. There's a lot more about hell in the Bible than there is about heaven. And we wish we had more information about it. But here's one bit of information that we can take a great deal of comfort from: no more tears. All the grief that sin has caused is going to be at an end.

No more Death

I heard an atomic scientists speaking for Young Life campaign many years ago at a meeting, and he enunciated that fact that death was a natural process that was built into the world system. So, I raised my hand, and I asked him about that, and I quoted that verse from Paul that says, "That death came by sin, and that before sin, there was no dominion of death upon us." That's when death became came. And I said, "How would you relate that to what you have just said – that death was built into the system?" Then there was this painful pause, and he looked over at some of the leaders of Young Life campaign, and said, "Would some of the theologians help me out?" Well, I had already helped him out. He was all the theologian I needed at the moment.

Sin is where death comes from, and death is enormous agony in the human race. With sin removed, the new Jerusalem will have no death in it whatsoever. The greatest cause of tears (I suspect) in mankind is the fact of death, and it is everywhere present with us. It is present in the obituaries every time you open your newspapers. It is present every time you pass a mortician's establishment. It is present when you see the hearses going down the streets with a funeral procession following. It is present in the cemeteries that you pass – the tombstones that are carved, and of all the mourners that gather at memorial services. Death is constantly there, and death is constantly bringing grief into the human race. And all the sophisticated skills of the medical profession and the medicines of the pharmaceutical companies cannot stem the tide of death, which, in time, overtakes everyone. But in the new Jerusalem, death itself dies by the power of God.

1 Corinthians 15:54 tells us that death is swallowed up in the victory of Christ on the cross. In the eternal state, there is never another death vigil, and there is never another grave dug.

No more Mourning

No more Crying

No more Pain

Well, the time is going to come when you can chuck your wrinkle-removing suave, because God is going to totally perfect your looks. While you may look at the person next to you and wish that there was some improvement, I can assure you there will be. There will be no more external threat to the human body in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, there'll be nothing to cause pain. We talk about these things, and they are hard to imagine – a world where there's no longer any death. Our tears are wiped away from the eyes. There's no longer any mourning; no sorrow; no crying; and, no pain: "The first things have passed away." "The first things" are things that are of life today – the things the death; of mourning; of crying; and, of pain. They have passed away.

The voice from heaven gives us a preview of life in the new Jerusalem in God's heaven. From sin and Eden have come death; mourning; crying; and, of pain. Today, Job 5:7 tells us that it is a lot of man to experience sorrow. That is the way of life of man today. But God has promised to remove these first things caused by sin.

As a matter of fact, this promise was made long ago – that God was going to remove these first things: these things that are part of the original creation. In Isaiah 26:8-9, the prophet says, "He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth. For the Lord has spoken. And it will be said and that day, "Behold, this is our God, for whom we have waited, and that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation." Here, Isaiah is talking about this very thing that is being described in Revelation. God is coming to remove all these terrible things that we experience.

Notice Isaiah 35:10. He touches on it again: "And the ransom of the Lord will return, and come with joyful shouting to Zion with everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy and sorrow, and sighing will flee away." Here again we have the promise that the mourning and the grief will be gone.

Then, near the end of his prophecy, Isaiah touches on this once more in Isaiah 65:19: "I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people, and there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying." Now that has never happened. That is going to happen. That is in the future. That is the eternal state. This is accomplished by the removal of the divine curse from the earth, because there will be a new earth.

Genesis 3:17-18 pronounce the curse. Romans 8:20-22 tells us how the earth looks forward to being released from that curse. That happens in the eternal state. Thus, the believers in the new Jerusalem enjoy the consummation of God's grace in freeing us from all the consequences of sin. Death turns into life; morning into joy; crying into peace; and, pain into relief. Everything is reversed in the New Jerusalem as God restores His creation to its pristine perfection. It will be a world with no evil and no sinners. In contrast to the first things of the old earth, the new heaven and earth are places of ineffable blessings free of all sorrow.

So, when God takes up His abode with mankind in the New Jerusalem, all the debilitating effects of sin are going to be abolished forever. That's good news. God's loving hand removes all the traces of sorrow that have been upon us. Jesus Christ bore the curse of sin for all mankind on the cross (Galatians 3:13). Thus, that curse can be now removed. God the Father, in perfect justice, removes all the curse of sin from the believers.

The New World Order

Wouldn't it be a great tragedy somehow to miss this? How do you know for sure that that will be your condition? How do you know for sure that you will be in a situation where the tears will all be wiped away? Death will no longer threaten. There'll will be no mourning; no sorrow; no crying; and, no experience of pain. All of that will be passed away.

Please turn to Jude 24. At the end of the book of Jude, there is this comforting verse – a doxology-like expression of praise that reassures us why it is that we will experience this release from all the things that distress us now. Jude 24 says, "Now to Him who is able to keep you." "Now to Him" refers to God the Father who is the author of the divine plan of salvation. That plan, which is executed by the Son and God the Holy Spirit, brings a convicting power to apply it: "This God who is able." This word connotes an ability to do something: "To him who has the capacity," because He is omnipotent and immutable, and because He does something in his own ability. God has the ability to do something for us. He is not dependent on some man. He is not dependent on some outside element. He is sovereign in this. God doesn't depend on someone else to make Him successful in this matter here.

Apostasy

It is very hard today for you to stand up against what our society believes, and for you to stand up against the evils that are pouring out from the highest echelons of government, and say that they are wrong in what they are doing; what they are promoting; and, what they are saying. It is very hard for us to stand and not go along with the evil. God has the capacity, in His own right, to keep you from stumbling. He can keep you from stumbling in two ways: from losing your salvation; or, from losing your spirituality. Jude says that our Father has the capacity to protect us from losing our salvation, and from losing our spirituality.

Security of the Believer

So, we are immediately separated from God. There's no way back. The sin nature simply produces sins and human good, and all that is evil in the sight of God. So, it was the lord Jesus Christ who had to come in. He took our sins; He took our human good; and, He nailed them to the cross, and He covered them both with His blood.

Spirituality

No matter how spiritually weak a Christian is, once he's born into the family of God, He is there for good. So, please don't insult God by suggesting that you need to do something to get right with Him. Have you ever been in a church service where they ask you to rededicate your life? "Please come forward, those of you who would like to commit yourself to re-dedication." To whom are they appealing? They're appealing to some poor Christian out there who knows that there's something wrong between Him and God. They're out of step. They're out of sync. He may even know that there's some problem with sin, but he doesn't know how to get back into fellowship with God the Father. What a terrible thing to say, "Come forward, those of you who would like to rededicate yourself to Christ."

So, all of these poor folks come and they hustle down. They hunker down in front, and they stand before the crowd, and they're miserable on the inside. Then the preacher pronounces some platitude over them, and they hunker back home just as miserable.

1 John 1:9

Some people are so obsessed with this. I've had people in days past at the end of a service, jump up and walk forward and say, "I want to say something to the congregation." When I was younger, a few years ago, I used to kind of go along with that and I'll be: every time they would get up, they would say something like "I'm the lowest scum." That guy in Oklahoma, who loved those pigs, whose name was Joe, and he'd start putting out all their dirty linen before the congregation. It was a lot of fun. Everybody got wide-awake then, and they listened. Now I don't let anybody do that. What are they doing? Because the poor soul has been conned somewhere, the only way he can cleanse himself and get back in fellowship is to tell people his sins, and confess his sins to people. The Bible doesn't tell you to do that. It tells you to confess to the Father, and He'll handle it from there.

So, don't go for that gimmick. Don't go for these altar calls. Don't go for this reaffirmations of your faith. My predecessor at Berean Church used to have a bench out front covered by an army blanket for the altar calls, and people would come up there, and they would kneel. And I remember this one woman one Sunday, when they had a real jumping and jiving altar call, came up to me, and she was really the high-emotional type of gal. And she said, "Couldn't you just feel the spirit here this morning?" I said, "No, I smelled a little, but I don't think I felt anything." It was like a drunken orgy. It wasn't a dignity of God. If you want to get yourself realigned with God, then you have to do it His way, and you're going to confess your known sins, and you're not going to go for these preacher-made gimmicks which spiritually disorient people.

God keeps you. So, all those wonderful things of change – you're going to have them. There's no way that you can lose out. The Father protects us from stumbling: "Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling." And furthermore: "To make you stand." When you learn the Word of God, and maintain your temporal fellowship through confession of known sins, you move through life on the basis that protects you from stumbling just like Jesus did in His humanity. That's how He made it. He operated on doctrine, and He kept His fellowship with the Spirit of God.

Learning doctrine under the filling of the Holy Spirit produces the capacity to stand – to be able to stand in the presence of His glory. That's what you're going to do out there in that new Jerusalem. You will be able to stand there blameless, meaning without a fault. This is the word that was used to describe an animal that was fit for sacrifice. He had no blemish. You stand there blameless. That's your position in Christ. You are in His absolute perfect righteousness. He has imputed that to you. The grace of God can make any sinner blameless before the justice and the righteousness of God – to make you blameless in the presence of His glory, standing right there in the presence of a holy God, and you will do that in the sphere of great joy.

Inner Happiness

So, heaven, folks, is going to be eternally exhilarating. It will be great joy. So, what sadness there must be to choose to reject this salvation, and to enter into His presence in fear; in shame; in condemnation; and, in all those terrible things that will be before us then. Isn't it better to choose the course through Christ, which makes it inevitable that there will be no more death; no more tears; no more mourning; no more crying; and, no more pain? That is the better way.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1993

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