NO MORE DEATH, SORROW, CRYING, PAIN REVELATION 21.

When the Kosovar refugees saw the Nato troops arrive in their camps, they cheered and wept and embraced the newcomers. Their grief and sorrow were ended. No More killings or brutal treatment of women, soldiers or children.

God used the term ‘no more’ to tell of the beauties of heaven, for we can only understand as we contrast the total absence of the ‘bad’ things of life with the overflowing wonder and beauty of Heaven in the Father and Son’s Presence.

John wrote in verse 1 ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven

and the first earth had passed away.’ Why a brand new (not remodelled or polished) heaven and earth? Satan had rebelled in heaven when he ambitiously planned a coup to take over the supremacy of the eternal God. And failed. He was thrown out of heaven with one third of the angels ( spoken of as stars). He diabolically attacked the earth, deceiving Adam and Eve in the garden and involving every generation of mankind, and demanding the death of God’s beloved Son. Therefore, there is ‘no more’ of the old heaven and earth. Isaiah 65:17 had foretold this in ‘I create new heavens and a new earth: the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.’

‘No more sea’ teaches that the oceans ( languages, cultures, ethnic pride and superiority ) that separate nations, will not continue. We will be all one in Christ. We will have greater than national devotion for the ‘holy nation’ of believers in Christ Jesus. The sea also speaks of the diverse humanity, which shall be ‘no more’.

There will be ‘no more’ singleness in Heaven. ‘I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. (v2) Many of God’s choice servants have chosen to be single, serving their Lord sacrificially in other nations or at home, or caring for aged parents . Heaven will remove all such aloneness. The beauty of the bride, as recently seen in the wedding of Prince Edward and his charming Sophie, is a foretaste of the radiance of the bride of Christ, when she is presented to her Saviour-Husband. Christ has waited 2000 years to prepare His church as the chaste bride. ‘No more’ aloneness for all eternity, for, for in union with Christ, we shall not leave the side of our Beloved.

‘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.’ ( v3) Nations have lost their integrity, such as the 15 million Kurdish people who pre WW11 held their own homeland. They are now displaced, without the right of their own territory. Those who trust the Lord identify with Him as His people and enjoy the Saviour as their God. There will be ‘No more’ loss of identity or statelessness in heaven.

We value this precious truth most when we have been deprived or excluded.

Our amazing ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be ‘no more’ death, nor sorrow, nor crying, and there shall be ‘no more’ pain, for the former things have passed away.’(v4) Only a heavenly Father cared enough to wipe every eye of its tears. Only the eternal Son could taste death for every man, as He hung on the tree. Jesus promised to destroy it as ‘the last enemy’. The hope of the resurrection of Christ and every believer is implicit in this striking statement of ‘no more’ death.

After a lifetime of medicine, I long for the eternity free of sorrow, crying and pain.

I encouraged the mother and father of a dear teenager, who had just gone to be with his Lord. Oh, the joy of telling of ‘No more death’ – and the drying of their tears.

No more broken-heartedness in human relationships, no more distress, no more uncontrollable weeping. Today our Lord Jesus is the living fountain of healing, flowing as a stream of comfort to the down-trodden. But then – ‘No more’ anguish.

Medically, ‘no more’pain is heavenly relief. The fracture, acute appendicitis, or cholecystitis, ( gall bladder infection) the dental abscess, the burning of shingles, the difficult child-birth, the stages of cancer, demanding increasing Morphine, and countless others will be ‘no more’. Christ suffered the just for the unjust to bring us unto God. (1 Peter 3:18) Heaven’s freedom attracts the sufferer. Let’s teach it.

In heaven, there is ‘no more’ falsehood or unfaithfulness’. ( v5) The gracious promise of ‘Him that sat on the throne said, ‘Behold I make all things new.’ He commanded John ;’to write, for these words are true and faithful.’ Home life is only strong when truth and fidelity bind a husband and wife and children in closest bond. Nations walk freely when treaties and conventions are preserved – not trampled on.

No more is needed for our great salvation, for ‘It is done’ (‘it is finished’ was Christ’s cry from the cross ). No works of righteousness can add to the cup of salvation, which our Lord drank. ‘I am ‘ the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending’. The first and last letters of the 24 in the Greek alphabet are all that are needed for every word of the New Testament in Greek.. All of the gospels with the teaching of Christ, the Acts of the apostles with the Holy Spirit, filling the new believers, the letters that complete our precious New Testament are written in the 24 letters in Greek and 26 in English. Christ is our great I Am.

There is another beautiful ‘no more’ in verse 6, namely ‘ I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts’. ‘No more’ unsatisfied longing or craving in God’s heaven. In this life, ‘The deer pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after You my God.’ That will be no more, for there is no ungratified yearning in the glory land. We will be satisfied when we awake in His likeness. During the World War 11, I dug roads for our hospital unit in Papua New Guinea. The humidity was 100% and I sweated fiercely, thirsty as never before. I drank pints of water to quench the deep longing, supplemented with salt tablets. In heaven, Christ fulfils all physical, soulish and spiritual expectation.

Also there is ‘no more’ deprival or disinheritance’ for the child of the King. ‘He who overcomes inherits all things, and I shall be His God and He will be My son’. ( v7) A dear friend inherited little from his family life. However, when he came to faith in the Lord Jesus, God made him an overcomer. He inherited all things in Christ Jesus and His death on Calvary, and preached to crowds the unsearchable riches in Christ. Take courage from this valuable promise for you have no spiritual deficiency.

You will live in a perfect environment in heaven for verse 8 tells us that there will be 'no more’ ‘cowardly, unbelieving ( refusal to trust their God) ; abominable ( relating to sexual perversions such as sodomy or incest ); murderers ; sexually immoral ( from a generation of sexual filth and broken trust ); sorcerers (in a rapidly-growing demonic activity); idolaters ( worshipping any alternative to the living and glorious God ) and all liars ( empty of truth and reliability ). ‘They will be cast into the lake, which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. We lost the perfect setting when man fell in sin, but regain this when the just Lord purges out all the gross, unrepentant, contaminating sin. We should long for heaven and home.