Gabe Fluhrer

All these major biblical themes that come together in the New Jerusalem.

And the centerpiece of it all is the fulfillment of the covenant promises of God, which are so tightly bound up with the resurrection of Christ and our coming resurrection.

What is the great hope and promise of the Old Testament that God would dwell among his people?

What is the book of Leviticus about following the last roughly 20 chapters of the book of Exodus, preparing in Exodus for God to dwell among his people, then instructions for God dwelling among his people, and yet even then those were partial shadows.

Undone by Israel's idolatry as it sends them into exile.

And then Jesus comes and there is the true temple among us.

John 1.14, the word became flesh and translated from the original, tabernacled amongst us.

God himself will be with them.

Matthew tells us that Jesus' name is God with us.

He tells us, behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

And here is the end of the age, as it gives way into the ages that will last forever.

And at the centerpiece, at the heart of it all, is the God who fulfills his covenant promise to dwell with his people.

And what does that mean but the undoing of all that was part of this present evil age?

Dying, sickness, mourning, grieving, all of it's gone.

And just consider the imagery.

Just consider the imagery of God himself will wipe away their tears.

Before I came down here, my daughter was very upset.

One of my daughters, my youngest, was upset one night.

And I came into her room and she had had some kind of a bad dream or something.

And when you see your precious child crying, what is the first thing you want to do?