So how does it all end? The poet T. S. Eliot prognosticated, "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper." At the end of our year of reading through the New Testament together, we come to the last word. How does it all end? With a new beginning! First, John sees the city of heaven coming down from the heavens to a new earth (21:2). Then he sees a river of water of life flowing from the throne. The river gives life everywhere it goes. The tree of life is there giving healing to the nations. The curse is reversed. Now there are no lights, because the same God who said let there be light provides all the light we need. Life wins over death. Light eradicates the darkness. God overcomes sin.
Heaven is about God. He is there. Jesus identifies himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star. Heaven is for those who thirst for God and the life he gives. In response to Jesus' gracious promise to return to the earth, the Spirit and the bride say "Come." Jesus says, "I am coming soon." John responds, "Amen. Come Lord Jesus." John offers a benediction of grace to bless God's people. Are we ready for the end? Are our hearts saying, "Come, Lord Jesus!"
My friend and encourager Paul Powell went home to be with the Lord last night at the age of 83. After a stroke stole his voice in recent days, he was put on hospice and went home. Paul Powell fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith. In fact, he ran all the way through the finish line here. But he was ready to go and be with Jesus. Are we ready? The last word is Amen which means, "Let it be so." Let it be so Jesus. Come again and take your people to live with you in the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. G. K. Chesterton once observed that he was homesick even when he was at home. We were made for another place.
As C. S. Lewis explained at the end of the Last Battle, "And as He spoke, . . . the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us, this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures here had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."
Amen!
