Funeral Sermon Revelation 21 1 7

Where Every Tear Is Wiped Away

We are gathered today in the presence of grief. That is an honest way to begin, because grief is what fills this room. You may feel it as a heaviness in your chest, a silence where a familiar voice used to be, or a sorrow you cannot quite put into words. Whatever shape your grief takes this morning, it is real, and it is right to feel it. We do not come here to rush past the pain or to pretend it is smaller than it is.

But we also come here with a question that grief cannot answer on its own. We come asking what is true. We come asking whether there is anything solid enough to stand on when the ground beneath us has shifted. And for that question, we turn not to our own feelings or our own wisdom, but to the word of God.

Open your Bible, if you have one, to Revelation chapter 21, beginning at verse 1. This is the word of the Lord.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God's dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away. Then the one seated on the throne said, 'Look, I am making everything new.' He also said, 'Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.' He said to me, 'It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty water from the spring of life. The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.'"

This is the word of God.

The Vision John Received

The apostle John wrote these words from a place of suffering. He was exiled on the island of Patmos, and the churches he loved were enduring persecution, loss, and fear. He was not writing from a comfortable distance. He was writing from inside the storm. And in that storm, God gave him a vision, not of escape from the world, but of the world made entirely new.

Notice what John sees first. He sees a new heaven and a new earth. The word translated new here in the Greek does not simply mean another one just like the old one. It means new in quality, renewed, restored, remade. This is not God abandoning creation. This is God completing it. The God who made the world in the beginning has not given up on it. He is bringing it to its intended glory.

And then John sees the holy city coming down from God. This is not human beings building their way up to heaven. This is heaven coming down to us. God moves toward his people. That is the direction of grace in Scripture. It has always been God who crosses the distance.

The Promise At The Center

Then comes the voice from the throne, and what it says is the heart of this entire passage. God's dwelling is with humanity. He will live with them. They will be his people, and he will be their God.

This is the oldest promise in the Bible. God spoke it to Abraham. He spoke it through Moses. He spoke it through the prophets. And here, at the end of all things, it is finally and fully kept. Not a promise for the future. Not a hope deferred. It is done. God himself will be present with his people, not at a distance, not mediated through a temple or a ceremony, but face to face, dwelling together.

And then the passage gives us four things that will be no more. Death will be no more. Grief will be no more. Crying will be no more. Pain will be no more. The text does not say these things will be reduced or managed or made easier to bear. It says they will be gone. The previous things, this age of loss and suffering and mortality, will have passed away.

We need to sit with that for a moment, because on a day like today those words carry enormous weight. Death will be no more. The separation you are feeling right now, that ache of absence, belongs to this age. It does not belong to the age that is coming.

What This Means For Us Today

Now I want to speak honestly with you, because honesty is what grief deserves.

This passage does not promise that pain is absent from this life. John himself was suffering when he wrote it. The early church was suffering. You are suffering today. The promise is not that God removes all sorrow from our present experience. The promise is that sorrow does not have the final word.

And I want to say something carefully about the person we remember today. I cannot tell you everything about what lies beyond this life. None of us can. What I can tell you is what God has revealed in his word. He has revealed that there is a new creation coming. He has revealed that Christ conquered death by dying and rising again. He has revealed that everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ, who drinks from the spring of life that Jesus offers freely, will inherit these things. The invitation in verse 6 is open. It is not earned. It is given freely to the thirsty.

If you are here today and you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, then this passage belongs to you as a promise. The grief you carry today is real, but it is temporary. The new creation is coming, and nothing can stop it, because the one seated on the throne said, "It is done," and he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. His word does not fail.

The Gospel Made Plain

If you are here today and you are not sure where you stand with God, I want to speak directly to you. Not to pressure you, but because this passage is for you too. The spring of life is offered freely. Jesus Christ came into this world, lived the life we could not live, died the death we deserved, and rose from the grave on the third day. He did that so that death would not be the end of your story. He offers forgiveness, new life, and a place in the new creation to anyone who turns from sin and trusts in him.

A funeral has a way of cutting through the noise of ordinary life and asking us what we actually believe. If today has stirred something in you, do not ignore that. Speak to a pastor. Open a Bible. Ask the question you have been putting off. The spring of life is still flowing, and the invitation is still open.

A Word To Carry Home

Before we close, hear this again. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes." Not a distant God issuing a decree from across the universe. A personal God, reaching down, wiping away tears one by one. That is the tenderness of the promise. That is the God we worship.

We leave here today still carrying grief. But we do not carry it without hope. The one who said "I am making everything new" is the same one who said "It is done." He is faithful. He is true. And the new creation he has promised is as certain as the empty tomb.

Sources Consulted

Beale, G. K. The Book of Revelation. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Eerdmans, 1999.

Mounce, Robert H. The Book of Revelation. Revised edition. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Eerdmans, 1997.

Osborne, Grant R. Revelation. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Baker Academic, 2002.

Keener, Craig S. Revelation. NIV Application Commentary. Zondervan, 2000.

Schreiner, Thomas R. New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ. Baker Academic, 2008.