Isaiah 65

Order of Service

• Sunday School Lesson — Isaiah 65:17-25
• Prayer

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Sermon Title: New Creation, New City, New Society

Scripture: Isaiah 65:17-25

I. New Creation — Isaiah 65:17

A. The "new heavens and new earth" language echoes Genesis 1:1; "heavens and earth" are bookend terms encompassing all of creation

B. The newness is not an ex nihilo replacement but a renewal and restoration of what God has already made

C. The former things — all that has come with the Fall — shall not be remembered or come to mind

1. C.S. Lewis (The Great Divorce): "Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory"
2. Full and whole healing — body and soul — is promised in this restored creation

D. The new creation is described three times in verses 18–19 in terms of gladness and rejoicing, pointing to how surpassingly good it will be

II. New City — Isaiah 65:18b-20

A. The Lord declares he will create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness; Jerusalem and Zion are interchangeable for Isaiah — the city and the people together

B. This answers the prayer of desolation in Isaiah 64:10-12, but goes far beyond what the people could have imagined

C. The city contrasts with Babel and Babylon (humanity's self-organized world-city); the New Jerusalem is the Lord's perfect organization of his new creation as a perfect setting for his new people (Motyer)

D. Life in the new city is characterized by the absence of grief

1. No more weeping (felt pain) or crying out in distress (inflicted pain) — both the emotion and its cause are gone (Motyer)
2. No infant dying young; no old man cut off before his days are full — the picture is of all people coming to full maturity and beyond (cf. Psalm 90:10)
3. The language of death still appearing is metaphorical; it does not contradict the "forever" of verse 18 or the "no more" of verse 19, nor Isaiah 25 where death itself is swallowed up (Motyer)
4. Sin likewise will have no place; even a sinner hypothetically surviving 100 years would still face the curse

E. The joy and gladness of this new city is grounded in God's presence — he is there with his people; this fulfills the covenant promise: "you will be my people and I will be your God"

III. New Society — Isaiah 65:21-25

A. Familiar, earthy metaphors are used to help the people grasp what lies beyond comprehension

1. They shall build houses and live in them; plant vineyards and eat their fruit — a direct reversal of the coming captivity experience, where others took what they built and grew
2. The days of God's people shall be like the days of a tree; his chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands

B. The metaphors are steeped in Genesis 1–3 creation language

1. The Dominion Mandate — be fruitful, multiply, have dominion — is echoed: expanding the garden, enjoying its produce, labor that is not in vain
2. "They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity" echoes the fruitfulness and multiplication of Eden
3. There will be meaningful work in the new creation

C. Animosity within creation is done away with

1. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox — recalling the pre-Fall state in Genesis 1 where God gave green plants as food for all creatures
2. "Dust shall be the serpent's food" — the curse upon the serpent from Genesis 3 continues; the serpent receives his due
3. The full destruction of the serpent awaits Revelation, but his ongoing curse is affirmed here

D. Closing declaration: "They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord" — a picture of complete shalom

E. Application: This is the hope the resurrection of Christ points toward — eternal life in the new heavens and new earth, in perfect fellowship with God, in a fully restored creation