Revealed!

Why Do We Need a New Jerusalem?

Dr. Charles Redwine opened by naming the heart of the morning: why would God promise a new Jerusalem? Why, after all Jesus finished on the cross, does Revelation show more to come? We heard reminders from Daniel and the gospels, and Dr. Redwine led us through prayer, naming how worship and faith only make sense because God has revealed something real:

"You've revealed your light. You've shined your light and your truth in our hearts."

He drew us together as church family, naming how we share communion because we believe in the communion of the saints, and how these simple acts declare the truth that Jesus is Messiah.

Stories of Visions and God’s Interventions

Dr. Redwine moved into stories, grounding the sermon in the reality of visions and moments when God breaks in. He spoke of Daniel and Paul’s visions, and asked whether we believe that God still speaks so directly.

He told two stories that have shaped his own walk: a moment from his childhood, and a young adopted boy tormented by visions and trauma. With frank detail, he did not rush past their pain or the struggle to make sense of suffering:

“He said, 'Do you believe me?' I said, 'Well, of course I believe you. God gave you a vision. Let’s find out what it means.'”

Each story anchored the message that God is not distant or abstract, but sometimes intervenes in overwhelming, inexplicable ways, and often it is not possible to understand why.

"Why did God reveal that to me? I don't know. I don't know today. Guess what I have to talk about when I get up there? Why would you show that to a 10-year-old?"

The Thread of Rebellion in History

The heart of the sermon moved from personal stories into the sweep of scripture: rebellion, from the garden to the pages of Revelation. Dr. Redwine used slides tracing this thread. He asked us to look again at Genesis and the Tower of Babel, at humanity’s recurring urge to become like God, to build a foundation of "bricks" after their own design, not on what God had given.

“They said, 'Come, let us make bricks.' See, God lays the foundation of Jesus Christ, and Christ is the cornerstone. It's on Him. But they said, 'Let us build a city for ourselves.'"

With gravity, Dr. Redwine named the ways ancient patterns of rebellion echo in our world today: violence, the loss of life, and the twisting of good and evil. His examples ranged from current events to the vulnerable, never for sensationalism, always to bear witness and remind us that injustice demands God’s justice.

“There is a holy God. There is a just God. There is a God in heaven that says no more. When the wrath of God is poured out...the rebellion’s going to be ended. Amen."

Two Cities: Babylon and New Jerusalem

We moved through the vision of Babylon in Revelation 17-19. With methodical care, Dr. Redwine read and walked us through the text: the harlot in purple and gold, the abominations, the city drunk on the blood of saints. He did not gloss over the horror of injustice or the reality of people wronged in this world. He named how rebellion becomes beautiful to the eye but deadly in truth:

“Beautiful to look at, poisonous to touch. But what is she sitting on? She was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus."

He showed the direct scriptural contrasts: while the city of rebellion sits in the wilderness, the New Jerusalem comes down in light, built not from human bricks but with unimaginable beauty and divine foundations.

God’s Promise: Beauty, Presence, Belonging

Turning to Revelation 21-22, Dr. Redwine invited us into the breathtaking vision: no more sea (no more chaos, no more hiding places for evil). The New Jerusalem appears, dazzling, immense, and filled with the presence of God:

"Look here, he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. No longer be any death. No more funerals. No more making arrangements. No more making decisions. There'll no longer be any mourning or crying or pain..."

He lingered on these promises, urging us to let their comfort really land. The sermon slowed here, to sit in the promise that God wipes away every tear, not with platitudes, but with presence. The old world’s wounds are not minimized, but replaced by something utterly new.

"Behold, I am making all things new."

Dr. Redwine described the foundations: twelve stones, each named and shining, with gates of pearl and walls like clear jasper. He worked through the extraordinary scale and gemstone imagery, showing that God’s home for us is not an abstraction but a breathtaking reality. He invited us to imagine walking through gates that never close, into a place without night, sin, or shame.

The Open Gates and the Outside

There was one image in the final chapters of Revelation that, in Dr. Redwine’s telling, carried particular weight. In the vision, the city’s gates are always open. Those inside are named as blessed, washed, and welcomed. Outside, he noted, are those who have chosen rebellion, who remain apart by their own decision. It is this image, he said, that breaks his heart for the lost:

“Will they be looking into the gates that are always open? Seeing the light shining through these 1500 mile tall walls, the color blinding them. Hearing the saints hallelujah and singing worship to God and knowing...I think that is hell, knowing that you're always going to be outside that city and you can never walk through those gates. Now, if that doesn't give you a heart to reach people for Christ, I don't know what does."

He called us to gratefulness, never pride, that we have heard and believed this gospel, and he raised the call for us to shine light, not as isolated individuals, but as a community marked by Christ’s self-giving love.

Living It Out

Dr. Redwine closed by urging us as a church family to walk this out together: to encourage, support, and hold one another as we persevere through a world marked by rebellion. Our hope is not that we can earn our way in, but that God has made a way. And with the vision before us, we now face the question: how will we live, and for whom?

"So Lord, as we go out this week, may we honor you. May we praise you, Lord. May others see it in our faces that we have been with the Lord."

Discussion Questions

1. When have you most felt that God revealed something unexpected in your life, and how did it shape your trust?
2. What part of the vision of the New Jerusalem most moves you, and why?
3. How do you sense God calling our church family to bear light in a world still marked by rebellion?