Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #8 of Revelation chapter 21 and we are continuing to look at Revelation 21:4-5:

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 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.

We were looking at verse 4 last time.  Again, this is a wonderful verse which the Lord has given in His Word, the Bible, and it is very comforting and hopeful.  God is speaking to His people in all generations, but especially to the people today that have lived through the grievous period of the Great Tribulation and into the Day of Judgment.  The world has increased in wickedness and evil has multiplied everywhere and the souls of the righteous are vexed, day by day, with the unlawful deeds of the people around them.  And, of course, the child of God is troubled by the sins within his own body, too, so there is much sorrow, affliction and tribulation, so it is encouraging when we read a Scripture like this where God points our attention to the glorious day when all these things are past and gone forever.  God says He will “wipe away all tears from their eyes,” and He emphasizes it again, as He says, “and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying.”

It is interesting that when we look at the word “tears” in the Bible we find that the word “tears” primarily relates to God’s people.  We do not find this word used very often at all in regard to the unsaved.  One exception to that is found in Hebrews 12:16-17:

Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

This is one of the few places that I could find in the Bible where an unsaved person (like Esau) is identified as someone shedding tears.  What is interesting about that is that he shed tears after the blessing had already been given.  Then Esau seeks the blessing and he is doing what he should have done previously and it would have been a good thing if he had done it earlier before the blessing was given, but he is doing it after the fact when it is too late.  So his shedding of tears at that point is not a good thing. 

Look at what the Bible has to say about “tears.”  We are going to read several verses, beginning in Psalm, chapter 6, where God is speaking of chastisement and rebuke, which normally comes to the believers for their sins.  It says in Psalm 6:5-6:

For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.

The context leads us to understand that this is someone that is troubled as a result of sin.  They are vexed with the struggle between the flesh and the spirit.

It also says in Psalm 42:3:

My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

Here, it refers to a true believer and he is seeking after God.  The previous verse said he thirsted for God and, yet, his tears are said to be his meat day and night.

It says in Psalm 126:5-6:

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

In these verses God is relating the sowing of the Gospel to shedding tears.  It is a sorrowful thing to bring the Word of God, which was a “savour of death unto death” for the unsaved and in the day of salvation, we could weep when we shared the Word of God with those that were in darkness because most would remain in that condition.  Of course, our hope was that among those that were receiving the seed that was sown would be some of God’s elect.

It says in Jeremiah 9:1:

Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

Of course, Jeremiah was known as the “weeping prophet” because he brought such sorrowful news to the people of Judah.  They were under the judgment of God as God judged his own people.  It also says in Jeremiah 13:17:

But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the JEHOVAH'S flock is carried away captive.

Then it says in Jeremiah 14:17:

Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.

Tears were shed because God’s wrath had come upon the people of Judah, which typified the judgment of God upon the corporate churches at the time of the Great Tribulation.  God’s people learned about this when the Lord unsealed His Word and knowledge increased.  The people of God living at the time of the end began to understand that the church age was over and God was commanding them to come out of the churches.  All that remained would be the tares to be bundled for the fire.  It was very sorrowful information, so the Lord relates it to weeping and to the shedding of tears day and night.  As the people of God had to share these things with their former “brethren” that had also called themselves Christians, there was much sorrow because most did not listen and come out of the churches.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says in Acts 20:19:

Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:

Further on in this same chapter it says in Acts 20:26-28:

Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Then he says in Acts 20:31:

Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

With that statement, the Apostle Paul is connecting “watching” and “warning,” which God also does in Ezekiel, chapter 33, regarding the watchman.  When the watchman sees the sword come, he has a responsibility to blow the trumpet and warn the people, so the Bible is linking together the work of a watchman in warning the people and with the shedding of tears.  That also ties into sharing the Gospel with tears, as we go forth (with the Word) with weeping and we come again with the sheaves in the time of harvest, with rejoicing.  So the whole period of sharing the Gospel is likened to “weeping” or shedding tears.

Of course, in Revelation 21, it is the end of Judgment Day and God had ended the evangelization of the earth at the beginning of Judgment Day on May 21, 2011 to the very last day when the heavens and earth will pass away.  The people of God were used by God as He moved in His elect to will and to do of His good pleasure in sending forth the Gospel and we had been ambassadors beseeching other in Christ’s stead to be reconciled to God.  It was as if we were begging people: “Go to God while He may be found.” 

Of course, that was during the time of the day of salvation when God was still saving and a true believer was a humble servant that went forth as a messenger of God with His Word.  We would plead with people: “Cry for mercy, cry for mercy, for God is a merciful God.”  Especially at the end we were letting people know that God was saving a great multitude.  We told people, “Go to God.  It is very possible you might be included in that number and He might have mercy upon you.”  All of this was done with tears, according to the Bible.  Many times true believers actually cried, although it was not necessary to physically shed tears; there could have been someone very faithful who did not shed actual tears, but in bringing the Gospel it was as though he were shedding tears.  But many of God’s people have shed actual tears, especially for their own families, as they prayed for them and besought the Lord, “O, Lord, they do not see.  They do not hear.  They do not understand.  Will you have mercy?” 

But at the point of Judgment Day and into the future, God has wiped away all years.  No more tears are shed.  God does not liken Judgment Day to a time of shedding tears.  Notice what the Lord says in Luke 6:20:

And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

Again, this is a reference to the time when salvation was still possible.  God’s people wept then, but at that future point they would “laugh.”  If we read further, the Lord says in Luke 6:24:

But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.

The future tense used here was pointing to the time of Judgment Day (when those that had laughed prior to Judgment Day when it was still the day of salvation) when they would “mourn and weep.”  There will come a time when they will be like Esau as he began to beseech his father Isaac and he is shedding tears.  He is not crying at the time when the blessing was available, but only after the blessing had already been given.  That is the spiritual case today.  The blessing of God, which is salvation, has already been bestowed upon all the elect whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. 

It has been given and it is done, but now there are individuals, as typified by Esau, and they want to continue the day of salvation.  They will even use language that is faithful to the Bible and which speaks of God doing all the work of salvation.  But they are like Esau because they want to continue the sending forth of the Gospel of salvation and they are, therefore, beseeching with “tears,” because the Gospel is identified with the day of salvation.  They are continuing to say that God is still saving and God is still merciful to sinners and it is still the day of salvation.  They are trying to manipulate God with “tears” through their (attempted) perpetuation of a Gospel of salvation during the Day of Judgment, but that cannot be because the Bible says God will have “judgment without mercy.”  There are no more “tears” at that point for God’s people.  They are no longer “weeping” and “mourning” and “sowing with tears.”  Now it is the time to “laugh,” in the sense that God will not hear and the people of God are identified with Him in judgment as Christ has come with “ten thousands of his saints.”

Let us go back to 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.

The Greek word translated as “passed away” is a different word than was used in Revelation 21:1, where it said, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”  The word translated as “passed away” in verse 1 is Strong’s #3928.  The word in verse 4 is Strong’s #565, a very different word.  This word is often translated as “departed” or “went away” or “gone.”  That is the idea.  The former things are gone; they have gone away and they have ceased to exist.  The old world and the old heavens are gone.  They have departed.

The word “former” in verse 4 is a word that is often translated as “first.”  For instance, it says in 1Corinthians 15:45-46:

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

I wanted to read that because that is the process that God had established.  First, there is the “natural” and then the “spiritual.”  There was the first earthly man, Adam, and then there is the heavenly man, Christ Jesus.  First, we have this present physical earth and then we will have a new earth and we cannot even describe what kind of earth that is going to be because we do not know.  But the pattern is, first, earthly (natural) and then spiritual.  So the “first” things are passed away and gone. 

The word “former” in Revelation 21:4 is translated as “first” back in Revelation 21:1, where it said, “for the former things are passed away,” so we could read this as “for the first things are departed or gone,” and that would relate to the opening statement concerning the first earth and the first heaven.

We will get into verse 5 in our next study.  It is another very hopeful verse because God speaks of making all things new.  You know, the Lord knows how incredible these things sound.  They are very straight forward when He says the first heavens and first earth are passed away and He will make a new heaven and new earth and He will make all things new.  Yet, they are gigantic statements, so God reassures us, not because there is any doubt of His Word, but He does this for our sakes (in our weakness) when He says, “These words are true and faithful.”  Lord willing, in our next study we will look at verse 5 and these encouraging statements.