The New

The book of Revelation is encouragement for Christians to overcome. Many gifts are given to the overcomers to enable them to know and to serve God better. We see the word “new” written many times. And, if so many things are going to be made new, one wonders why people think that God is happy with the way things are now. What are we, as individuals, and corporately, as the Church, to change about the way we do things?


In Revelation we read about singing a new song (Rev 14:3-4), being given a “new name”(Rev 2:17), the City of God is called “New Jerusalem” (Rev 3:12), and even Jesus is called by a new name (Rev 3;12). Since we know that Jesus wants us to overcome while we are alive, we also know that the “new” will take place before we go to heaven.

One of the biggest clues to why things are new is a theme found throughout the Bible; purity. Those who sing a new song “did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure.” (Rev 14:3-4). This is spiritual purity, not abstinence from sex between a man and his wife. This purity is the opposite from what the teacher Jezebel taught when she “mislead My servants into sexual immorality . . . “ (Rev 2:20). Those that are pure will sing a new song. If the Church is preaching about purity, she is preparing people to sing a new song.

Those who hold onto their crown, their rightful authority in Christ, will be given the name of the new Jerusalem, and Jesus’ new name. Holding onto our authority must, therefore, be a difficult thing to do. For those who see their authority as a privilege amongst men and an entitlement to the earth’s goods, they will become indebted to pleasing both men and the world to maintain their position amongst them. For those who see authority as a God-given responsibility for which they will someday give account, they will refine themselves and their works in the fire of God’s Spirit. Churches who set men and women into places of responsibility and hold them accountable for godly living are preparing people to build and live in the new Jerusalem.

One of the most difficult concepts to grasp is that Jesus will have a new name. Yet He did not complete all that His Father has for Him to do when He died as the sacrificial Lamb. Jesus knew that one day He would also judge men’s works. Before that time, He wished to send His refiner’s fire. He said “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!” (Lk 12:49-50). Jesus wants to get us ready to receive our reward, and not judgment. What He began at the Cross He continues by the baptism of fire (Mt 3:11). Our Redeemer is now a refining fire, preparing those who follow Him, who overcome, for their reward.

Does the Church want to see Jesus’ ministry on earth as one of sanctification and fire? Or does the Church want to see the sacrificial Lamb on the Cross (His baptism), but not the fire which purges? Will we hear of the price paid for our souls, and how much God loves us, and not hear of the Holy Spirit’s fire which daily burns out our dross? If we only want the good and take no responsibility for purity of ourselves and those entrusted into our care, we are failing what God has entrusted us to do. The Church’s authority is only as good as the works she accomplishes, and those works must endure the Refiner’s fire also (1 Cor 3:13).

Because of corruption, God will bring the “new.” Because many leaders in our ministries do not set people in their rightful place, God will set those people as pillars in His temple and stones in His City. Because many preach a soft gospel and redemption without responsibility, Jesus will set his Refiner’s Fire ablaze in people of true authority. Because there are teachers who tickle the ears of many with lessons of “God accepts you just the way you are,” God will find men with integrity before Him who will preach purity, and it will be a new song amongst the redeemed. And because men hold other men down, blood-washed redeemed men who bear the forgiveness of God in their souls, and count them as worthless, God will give those who are scorned a new name which is their identity in Christ; and no man can steal it away from them.

God is about to turn our churches upside down, and inside out. He is not looking for a restoration of churches to their former selves; He is making things new for those who overcome. Amen, come Lord Jesus.