Latest / Collierville Radio Network / Admonition Podcast - Revelation 21 (Lesson 1) - Aaron Cozort - October 04, 2026

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Admonition Podcast - Revelation 21 (Lesson 1) - Aaron Cozort - October 04, 2026 · Collierville Radio Network

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Good morning.
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Good to see everyone out this morning.
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When I left it was summer.
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I came back and it it was almost like the weather started to make sense.
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But ~ it's still Tennessee,
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so don't know that that'll stick around for mu much longer.
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All right. Take your Bibles
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if you will and open them to Revelation chapter twenty.
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As we close out chapter 20 and we get into chapter 21,
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we're seeing some things in this text that
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for f many years I know ~ I've heard lesson after lesson after lesson
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about the text of the end of chapter twenty and its picturing
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of the final day of judgment and the final ~
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The return of Christ and the resurrection and the saints at that final day.
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And you know, sometimes what
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is popular is not exactly what the text says.
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And now are there lessons to be learned?
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Yes, but we got to pay attention to the text.
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So we're gonna open with a word of prayer and then we'll get into
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our study this morning. Gracious Father in heaven,
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we bow before your throne, grateful for
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For the day that you blessed us with,
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grateful for the life that we have been granted,
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the energy and the health that we have,
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and at the same time mindful of all of those who,
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for one reason or another, do not have that health and that opportunity.
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Lord, we pray that you will be with them in their struggles that they have
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in their daily walk. We pray that you give them health and strength.
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We pray that you help them to.
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Have the endurance and the capacity to do the things that they need to
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do and desire to do, especially in spiritual matters.
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Lord, we pray that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
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We pray for this nation and we pray for the leaders of the world throughout
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the world. We pray that we might boldly speak the gospel and always stand firm
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in the truth. All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name,
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amen.
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Now Peter would write concerning Paul's writings that Paul wrote
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things that were hard to understand,
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and that as a result of that, those who were not faithful
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in their diligence with the scriptures often would rest the scriptures
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to their own destruction.
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I don't know what Peter's opinion was of what John wrote,
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but not everything that John wrote is easy to understand.
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But one of the things that we should always remember
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as we're in Revelation, as we're in a book like Revelation that uses apocalyptic
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language, which just simply means it uses picture language to convey a truth,
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is that When
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The text tells us what something means.
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That is what it means. And when we get into chapter 20,
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or chapter 21, rather, we're going to see the text tell us exactly what something
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means. And while we can learn lessons from
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the picture about other things,
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we must admit that whatever John says,
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this is what it is.
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It is what it is. If the text tells us what it means,
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that's what it means. If the text gives us a picture and doesn't tell
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us what it means, then we're supposed to ask the question,
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what does it mean? Chapter twenty,
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we've noticed that the text opens,
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you have the one who had the key of the bottomless pit,
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and he is going to lay hold of the dragon and place him in that bottomless
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pit for a thousand years.
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Now what does the w what does the term a thousand mean in the book of Revelation?
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A complete or total period of time.
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God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
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God is faithful to a thousand generations.
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It doesn't mean that in the thousand and first all that's gonna be over,
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that the thousand and first hill doesn't belong to the Lord and the cattle
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on it don't belong to him. It means all of them.
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God is going to end Satan's use of Rome permanently,
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finally.
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Doesn't mean Satan will never attack the Christians again,
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never persecute them with a r a government again.
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It means this saga is over.
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You know, sometimes when you watch movies,
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especially in the last probably 30 or 40 years,
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~ certain certain movies, if if it did well enough on the first one,
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they're going to make three. Right?
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So everybody signed a contract for three if the first one sells well enough.
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And s there are times you get to the end of the third,
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like, okay, but there's more stories.
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Surely there's something else to happen.
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And you know, depending on how much money they make,
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they may make three more. And they may make three more.
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Star Wars. ~ but the fact of the matter is you're like,
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well, there's got to be more story because there's there's things that just
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got introduced in the last movie.
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Well, here in Revelation 20,
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21, 22, there is more story.
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There is more to be known about the church and what would follow from these events.
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But there's a context to the story.
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And the context is limited
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to the events of the first century church with Rome.
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What we learn from that is altogether different.
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That is something that is timeless.
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There's a passage over in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 where Paul is going
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to write about the events of the very first generation that came out of Egypt.
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So here's Paul in the first century writing to the Christians,
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and he is going to tell the Christians in Corinth,
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most of which were not even Jews.
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He's going to tell the Christians in Corinth.
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That the events that happened to the first generation of people that came
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out of Egypt happened so that we could learn lessons.
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So that we might learn not to lust after the things that they lusted after.
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So that we might learn not to be unfaithful to the Lord once the Lord
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has redeemed us. Now, true or false.
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The things that happened to the first generation of Israelites that came
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out of Egypt actually happened to teach them lessons too.
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First and foremost, it happened to teach them lessons.
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But that doesn't negate the fact that by inspiration,
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Paul says these things happened for us.
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So that we might know not to do the same things they did.
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Completely appropriate for us to learn the lessons.
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The timeless lessons from the events of the first generation
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of Israelites that came out of Egypt.
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Completely appropriate, biblically appropriate for us to learn those lessons
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and apply those lessons to our lives.
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And it's equally appropriate for us to learn the lessons from
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the first generation of Christians that lived through a persecution in Rome as well.
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What we shouldn't do is the same thing that Paul didn't indicate
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the Christians should do. Paul didn't tell the Christians,
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now, there's going to be a bondage,
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and you're going to go through it,
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generation after generation after generation,
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and then God's going to bring you out through a series of plagues and
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a series of miracles, and you're going to walk through the Red Sea just like they
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did. Paul didn't say that.
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Rather, Paul said, You're going to go through this spiritually.
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You're going to have to apply this spiritually.
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You're going to have to learn the lessons from their circumstances.
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And we have to do the same thing with Revelation.
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So, verse 1 the one who has the keys is Christ,
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all the way back to chapter 1,
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verse 18, chapter 9, verse 1. ~ And so Christ gives authority,
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the keys.
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~ bottomless pit is ~ guarded up with a great chain.
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The one who is the dragon, the devil's bound for a thousand years,
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he's thrown in the bottomless pit.
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Verses two and three, the devil's done in his use at Rome.
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~ verses five through ten, there's a thousand years that the Christians
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are going to reign with Christ.
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The same thousand years, complete amount of time that Satan's going to be bound,
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the Christians are going to reign.
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Even those that
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were killed. Even those that Satan seemed to have defeated are going
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to live again and they're going to reign with Christ.
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Now we may mention again, just for the sake of reminder,
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this passage says nothing about how long Christ is going to reign.
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Even if you were to turn the thousand years into a literal amount of time,
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it still says nothing about how long Christ is going to reign.
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It only says how long the Christians are going to reign with Christ
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Christ.
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I also th thought about something else when it came to a thousand years.
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I was thinking about this this morning on the way here.
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Think back in the scripture.
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What's the longest amount of time that we have record of anyone living on the earth?
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Nine hundred and sixty-nine years.
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Who was it? Methuselah. Adam lived to be nine hundred and fifty years.
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Methuselah nine hundred and sixty-nine years.
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The Christians are said to reign for how long?
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Thousand years.
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Just a thought there for a moment.
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God says, I can make you live,
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and I can make you reign faithful with me longer than anybody's ever walked this
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earth. Just a just a thought lesson there.
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So then we see the devil isn't thrown in the fire,
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but God tells his people their future is secure.
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Now, in Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39,
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God is going to tell the Israelites of old about
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A great nation that's going to come against them,
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Gog and Magog. And there's no historical event that it corresponds to.
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There's no moment in time in Israel's history from that point
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of Ezekiel's day all the way forward till today,
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or ever will there be, where there is a Gog and Magog that are going
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to come physically against Israel in the multitudes that are presented.
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In Ezekiel.
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So you have to ask yourself a question.
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Was Ezekiel wrong? Was was God by inspiration incorrect when
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he told Ezekiel to prophesy what Ezekiel prophesied in Ezekiel thirty eight
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and thirty nine? And the answer's no.
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And if Ezekiel wasn't wrong, is John wrong?
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Cause John is going to tell us again about Gog and Magog.
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Verse seven Now when the thousand years have expired,
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Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive
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the nations which are in the four corners of the earth,
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Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle,
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whose number is as the sand of the sea.
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They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints,
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and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
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There's a great battle scene that arrives.
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And it's this nation that Ezekiel prophesied about.
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This nation that is the culmination of nations,
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this nation that is the multitudes that are innumerable on the earth,
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and they're all coming against God's people,
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and they all surround one single city.
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And they lose.
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And they don't lose because they're overwhelmed by God's people.
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They don't lose because God's people outnumber them.
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They lose because God says,
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you lose.
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The message here is not about a historical event.
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The message in Ezekiel wasn't about a historical event.
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The message in Ezekiel and the message in Revelation 20 are about the fact that
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God will defeat every enemy of his people every time.
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So the Christians don't have anything to worry about.
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The Christians are secure if they're faithful to the Lord.
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So verse ten says the devil who deceived them was cast in the lake
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of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are,
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and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
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Now, this is Isaiah's language.
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This is Isaiah's language of the time of the return of Israel.
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God's enemies are going to be cast into the lake of fire.
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Edom was cast into the lake of fire.
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This is Jerusalem language.
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Because the lake of fire was a picture that
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the Jews could visualize.
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Because it was the valley of Hinnam outside where they burned the trash.
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Where the refuse went. God says,
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I'm not only going to defeat them,
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I'm going to take the one who deceived them,
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and I'm going to put him in the trash pile.
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Then I saw a great white throne,
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him who sat on it, verse eleven,
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from whose face the earth and heaven fled away.
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Notice you have this picture
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Of heaven and earth fleeing the face of God.
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Who created heaven and earth?
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When we are opening Psalm nineteen and we read,
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the heavens declare the glory of God,
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and the firmament shows his handiwork,
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day unto day under his speech,
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night unto night showeth knowledge,
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who whose glory does the earth and the heavens
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and the universe declare? God.
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So so why would the heaven and earth flee away?
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The picture here is kind of like this.
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The world, so inundated with evil,
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gets every nation under heaven to come against God's people.
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And God wipes them all out. Well,
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if every nation under heaven came against God's people and God destroyed them with
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fire, what's left of the earth?
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Not much.
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God says, That's okay. I've dealt with this before.
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I'll make a new one.
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When in history, in actual events of history,
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did God take an earth that was covered with evil and make a new one?
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During Noah's time. Did he implode the suns and take take the planet back
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to molecules in order to do it?
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No. And was the world perfectly sinless
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afterwards? No, you don't even get Noah out of that event perfectly sinless,
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do you?
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The picture is like what Isaiah was told when God says,
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I'm going to bring back my people to their city,
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I'm going to bring them back to their nation,
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and I'm going to remake the world.
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I'm going to start all over again.
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I'm going to give you a new heavens and a new earth.
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That's Isaiah sixty five and sixty six.
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And I'm going to do it by the word of my power.
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I made it the first time. I made it again in Noah's day.
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I made it again in Israel's day.
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No, make it again. I'm going to restructure the planet.
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Because I'm in charge. Now here's where the contrast is.
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Could Caesar sitting in Rome fold up the mountains?
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Could he make the oceans go away?
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Could could could he just declare to the stars,
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you know what? I'm done with you.
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Don't shine anymore.
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Could he stop the sun from rising?
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Could he make a day last more than a day?
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Who did all of those things? God did.
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The point is not that God's going to wipe the planet away,
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take everything back to the elements,
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remake it, and drop his people back on it.
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The point is God has complete
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and entire authority over all of it.
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In contrast to the devil,
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to Satan, to the beast, to the ~ the sea beast,
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to Caesar, none of them have authority over any of it.
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Saw a great white throne, him who sat on it,
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whose face ~ from whose faith heaven and earth fled away,
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and there was found no place for them.
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And I saw the dead, small and great,
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standing before God, and books were opened,
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and another book was opened, which is the book of life,
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and the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written
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in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it.
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Now, the sea
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Here is much like heaven and earth.
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This isn't a resurrection of all the sailors that got dropped off in
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the ocean along the way and got buried in Davy Jones locker.
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The sea is the place where the sea beast came out of.
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The sea is the place where the nations came out of that opposed God's people.
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The sea in the prophets is almost always a representation of the nations
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of the Gentiles.
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They're the ones who show up across the sea on boats.
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God says, I'm not missing anybody.
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Heaven, earth, the sea, got them all.
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All of Satan's tools are going to be judged.
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The sea gave up the dead who were in it.
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Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.
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And they were judged, each according to his works.
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Then death and Hades were cast in the lake of fire.
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This is the second death.
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When you kill death, you've done something.
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When you cast death into judgment,
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you've done something. But bear in mind that Hades
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and the grave, or death and Hades,
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rather, were characters in the vision.
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We saw them in chapter six. They were riding on a horse.
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They were part of the persecution.
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God says, I'm going to judge you for what you did.
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I'm going to judge you for those who you
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destroyed. I'm gonna judge you for those who you persecuted.
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And anyone not found in the book of life was cast in the lake of fire.
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The picture teaches us something about the day of judgment,
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doesn't it?
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When Jesus sent his disciples out on that missionary journey,
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and or sorry, when when he sent his disciples out into the cities of Israel,
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and they came back and they were all excited because they
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had performed great miracles. They had healed the sick.
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The demons were even subject to their word.
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And they come back to Jesus and they're telling Jesus about all the things that they
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were able to accomplish while they were out on their own and he wasn't with them.
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And Jesus will praise them for those things,
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but he will remind them.
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Take joy that your name is written in the book of life.
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Jesus says, all that's great. But here's something that's more important.
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You make sure that your name is
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in God's records as one of the faithful.
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Because if the demons are subject to you,
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hmm, seems like I remember Paul saying something about this.
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If the demons are subject to you,
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if you can by faith tell a mountain to go cast itself into the sea,
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and you have not.
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Love, you're nothing.
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They were impressed with the things that they had never been able to do before,
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that God had given them the ability to do,
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and Jesus is just reminding them,
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all of those things are great.
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Don't get them out of proportion with the thing that matters,
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and that is being in a right relationship with God.
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So, do we learn lessons about the day of judgment from this?
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Yes. Absolutely. Is this picture the picture of the final day?
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No. Does it inform us about the final day?
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Sure. Does it tell us how it's going to turn out?
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Absolutely. It's going to turn out where God's people are going to be blessed,
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Satan's people are going to be destroyed,
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and God is going to judge those who
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who walk this earth based upon what they've done while they were on the earth.
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Chapter twenty one. We're not going to dwell significantly
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on twenty one or twenty two. We're going to just spend the rest
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of today and probably next week in the
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But if you wanted to take chapter the end of chapter 20 and make it literal,
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final day of judgment, an event that occurs right after
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God has figuratively described many things,
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then you're gonna get in chapter 21,
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you're gonna have to deal with,
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well, if that's literal, then so isn't this?
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And so many will try and say, Well,
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this is a picture of heaven.
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Except John tells us it's not.
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Now, for the same reason that we've just discussed about all of the things that
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we can learn from chapter 20 about that final day.
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The lessons we can learn because they went through it first.
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We can learn the same things about eternity and heaven
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and fellowship with God from chapter 21 and 22.
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But we must let the text speak for itself.
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We must let the context demand what the context demands.
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So we open up chapter 21, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
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For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away,
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and there was no more sea. First thing you gotta deal with
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if this is an eternal,
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glorified heaven and earth.
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The home of the saints for eternity,
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we're going to be living on a planet with no water.
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Ask Mars how that works out.
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We just spent ~ over in North Carolina we homeschooling camp that we went to,
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we spent an entire week talking about the universe and astronomy and planets
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and you know, one of the unique things about this particular ball we live on.
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Or the C's.
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Yeah, the vast majority of the planet is covered in water,
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and that's the difference between a living planet and a dead one.
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So if this is a picture of the new heavens and the new earth where
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all of us who are Christians live forever,
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according to some.
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Then John was certainly right,
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we don't know what we'll be like because we're going to be able
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to live without water.
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That's not the point, is it? The seas in Revelation don't picture the water
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on the planet, do they? They picture the nations of the enemies of God.
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And God says, they're not there.
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Your enemies aren't there anymore.
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I took care of them.
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He says, chapter 21, verse 1, I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
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for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,
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and there were no more sea. Then I,
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John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
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coming down out of heaven from God,
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prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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The second thing that we notice
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is that John explicitly says, This is not heaven.
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John says, I didn't see heaven.
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I saw this descending.
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Heaven.
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So John sees a new heaven and a new earth.
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And there's no water. And then John sees a new city,
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a new Jerusalem, and it's descending
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out of heaven.
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But it is arrayed like something John
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recognizes.
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What's it arrayed like?
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Like a bride.
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Who's the bride of Christ? The church.
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Now you say, Well, well, yes, but here it he it's just an analogy.
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It's l it it arrived with the fanfare.
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It arrived with the rejoicing,
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the way the bride arrives at the ceremony.
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It it's it's an analogy. Okay.
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All right. You might be able to get the analogy out of verse two.
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You're not gonna get it out of verse nine.
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Because verse nine, then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with
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seven plagues came to me and talked with me,
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saying, Come, I will show you the bride,
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the lamb's wife. And then he's going to proceed to show him the city.
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So the analogy is more than just an analogy of entrance.
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It's the bride.
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When the book tells us what something is,
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what is it?
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Exactly what it says it is. When John sees the New Jerusalem coming out of heaven,
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what is it? It's the bride of Christ.
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Now notice I heard a loud voice from heaven saying,
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Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.
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If we were to go searching in the plain spoken portions of the
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New Testament about the tabernacle and the typology between the tabernacle,
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what was the tabernacle a type of?
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It was a tent, it was a temporary dwelling place for the people of God,
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it was a type of the church.
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It was a picture in the Old Testament
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of the real thing.
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And that picture on earth is a picture of eternity.
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So he says, Let me introduce you.
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To the dwelling place, the communion place of God with men.
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That's what the tabernacle was.
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The tabernacle was the place where all Israel came together to be in
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the presence of God.
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And the bride is the place where all the people come together to be
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in the presence of God.
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And it's the jerk.
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He says, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
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and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.
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God himself will be with them and be their God.
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This is Old Testament Israel language.
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Of God giving the tabernacle to Israel and saying,
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I will be your God and you will be my people.
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And I will put my name with you,
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and I will give you my name, and you will dwell with me,
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and you will commune with me.
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God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
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We sing a song, it's in our songbooks.
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No tears in my life.
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This is one of those moments where we say,
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you know what? The lessons learned are appropriate.
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But don't be confused.
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There's no tears here either.
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Actually, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute.
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~ I read the book. ~ read around Revelation chapter six.
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There were some souls under the altars crying out,
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How long, O Lord, faithful and true.
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Don't you think there were probably some tears?
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When those who were faithful to God were beheaded for the cause of Christ,
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were killed for the cause of Christ,
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were persecuted for the cause of Christ,
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do you think there were probably some tears?
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Yeah. Yep.
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So how is it that there's not going to be any more tears?
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How can we have a physical earthly existence where there are no tears?
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All right. Turn to first John chapter one.
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As Eddie pointed out, this isn't about physical tears.
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This is about something that Paul would write about in First Corinthians chapter
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fifteen.
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Do people die? Yeah. Do we grieve?
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Yes. But Paul says, we don't grieve as those who have no hope.
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~
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We mourn over separation, knowing it's temporary.
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You Think about David when his child was sick
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and nigh into death as a result of David's own sin.
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And David fasted and prayed and mourned and grieved
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all the way up until the point where the child did what?
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Died. Died.
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Then David got up, washed his face,
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washed himself, sat down and ate.
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And all of his servants were confused.
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Why did you stop grieving when the child died?
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But you were grieving when the child was alive.
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David said, He's gone. Paraphrasing.
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But I can go to him.
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While he was alive, I could plead for him to be able to remain.
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Now that he's gone, I don't have to grieve now.
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I know where he is, and I can go to him.
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John will write in first John chapter one that which was from the beginning,
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which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
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which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life.
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The life was manifested, and we have seen,
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and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life was with the Father,
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and was manifested in us, that which we have seen and heard,
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we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us,
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and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son,
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Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you.
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That your joy may be full.
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John introduced his letter of first John saying,
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I'm going to write you these things so that you don't have to mourn ever again.
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So that your joy may be absolutely complete.
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And then he's going write to them about the fact that they're going to sin.
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And they're going to need forgiveness.
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And they're going to need, but he's writing to them to tell them that their
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fellowship with God, their oneness with God,
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is perfect in Christ.
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Because Christ did come. He did live.
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He did walk this earth. He did die.
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He is the propitiation. His blood does cleanse us from all sins.
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And therefore we do not grieve.
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The way we would if we had no hope,
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Eddie.
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Yeah. Absolutely.
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We're gonna read in verse four of chapter twenty-one.
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God's going to wipe away every tear from their eyes.
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There should be no more death,
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nor sorrow, nor crying. There should be no more pain,
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for the former things have passed away.
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The message here about the tears and the mourning and the grief and
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the sorrow is the grief and sorrow and tears
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of the tribulation they've gone through.
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God says, I've dealt with it. You cried out and said,
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How long, O Lord, till you deal with it?
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And the answer is, I dealt with it so completely you have no memory of it.
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There's nothing to cry about. Everybody you thought was dead's alive now.
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Everybody you thought was defeated,
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was beheaded, was sacrificed for the cause of Christ,
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they're alive. Not physically walking the earth,
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they're victorious with Christ.
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So what do you have to cry about?
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There's no everybody you thought was dead's not.
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Everybody you thought had been killed for the cause of Christ and
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for the testimony of Christ.
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Is alive. Who you could cry about?
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See, the context is just like the context in Isaiah when Isaiah says these exact
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same words.
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Isaiah is going to tell Israel,
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there's going to be a time when you're going to return from Babylonian captivity
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and you're not going to weep anymore.
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God's gonna wipe away all tears.
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There's not gonna be any more death.
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There's not gonna be any more crying.
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There's not gonna any war. Because God's going to have put aside
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the old world and all of its troubles.
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And he's gonna make a new thing in Israel.
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And John's going to use Isaiah's terminology.
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Verse 5: then he who sat on the throne said.
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Behold, I make all things new.
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And he said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.
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And he said to me, It is done.
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I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
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I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
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Have you noticed we've got a problem?
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Cause this new world, if it's a physical literal one,
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has no Cs, but it has a fountain.
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N'a gonna work out.
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When we try to insist that the text means something that the text doesn't ever
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say it means, we're gonna have problems because the text is gonna stand
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up and whop us.
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For not letting the text talk for itself.
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In this new world,
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God says, I made a fountain of the water of life.
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Now I seem to remember there was someone who spoke about that fountain while sitting
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at a well.
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And he told a lady who was needing water that
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if she would just partake of the water that he could give her,
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she'd never thirst again.
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And she did the same thing we're often tempted to do with Revelation twenty one.
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She says, Great. Hand me the water.
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I don't ever want to have to come to this well and draw water ever again.
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She took what God was talking about spiritually and she wanted to make it physical.
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We do the same thing with Revelation twenty one.
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We take the lessons that God is teaching the first century church about their
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existence after God defeats all of their enemies.
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And we say, that's what heaven's gonna be like.
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Here's what heaven's gonna be like.
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John wrote very explicitly about it.
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It's in 1 John chapter 3.
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First John chapter three verse one Behold what manner of love
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the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God.
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Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him.
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Beloved, now we are the children of God,
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and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be,
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but we know that when he is revealed we shall be like him,
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for we shall see him as he is.
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And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
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That is the single most explicit statement
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of John about what eternity will be like.
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His answer is, I have no idea.
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I can give you only one piece of information about
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our eternal existence.
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Will be like Christ.
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For we'll see him as is.
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Now remember this one message.
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No man has seen God at any time.
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What's that tell us? That tells us that we've seen manifestation of God,
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we've seen Christ, we've seen,
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as Paul, as John points out, we handled him,
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we we we saw him, we touched him.
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We saw a manifestation of God as Paul ~
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as ~ Christ appeared to Saul of Tarsus on the road.
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We see a manifestation of God as John describes him,
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as he sees him here in the vision.
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But the text of scripture is incredibly clear.
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No man has seen God at any time.
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And John tells us why.
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'Cause we're not like him. Yet.
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But we will be. That's John's explanation of heaven.
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The rest of this is John's explanation of victory in the church.
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Thank you for your attention.