Revelation 21:1-27 Part 10
Revelation 21:1-27 Part 10
1) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, (the first heaven and the first earth went away, and the sea is no more),
2) and the new holy city Jerusalem coming out of the heaven from God having been made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
3) Then I heard a great sound from the seat saying “Lo, The tabernacle of God with man.” He will tabernacle with them, they will be His people, God Himself will be with them;
4) and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, the death will be no more, neither sorrow nor crying nor pain will be any more, for the firsts passed away.
5) Then the One sitting upon the seat said: “Lo, I make everything new!” And He says, “write; for these words are sure and true”;
6) He said to me, “they are come to pass. I, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, will freely give from the source of the water of life to him who thirsts;
7) and the one overcoming will inherit these things, and I will be God to him and he will be My son.
8) But burning in the lake of fire and brimstone is the allotment of all the fearful and unfaithful and the corrupted and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters and all the liars.”
9) Then one of the seven messengers that had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came and spoke with me saying, “here, I will show you the bride – the wife of The Lamb”.
10) And it did bear me in spirit upon a great and high mountain and showed me the city – the holy Jerusalem coming down from the God of the heaven
11) having her God’s glory, her radiance like a precious stone, crystal clear as a jasper stone,
12) having a great and high wall having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve messengers and names written which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel,
13) three gates to the east, three gates to the north, three gates to the south, and three gates to the west;
14) the wall of the city having twelve foundation stones, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15) The one speaking with me had a golden measuring reed to measure the city and her gates and her wall,
16) (the city is shaped square – her length the same as the breadth); and he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand stadia, her length and breadth and height being equal;
17) and he measured her wall: a hundred and forty four cubits (man’s measurement as is that of a messenger),
18) the structure of her walls jasper, and the city as pure gold, crystal clear,
19) the foundations of the wall of the city adorned with every precious stone; the first foundation jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,
20) the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst,
21) the twelve gates twelve pearls (each of the gates were of one pearl), and the city’s street pure gold as transparent crystal.
22) I saw no temple in her, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb is her temple.
23) The city has no need for the sun or the moon that they should appear in her, for the glory of God was manifest in her and her light - the Lamb;
24) the nations will walk by her light, and kings of the earth bear their glory into her
25) by day (none of her gates will in any way be closed, and there will be no night there),
26) and they will bear the glory and honor of the nations into her.
27) By no means would anyone unclean ever enter into her doing abomination or falsehood, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life.
We have to read; and then we have to read some more – and then again – until there is clarity about our God’s new heaven and new earth, and about the new Jerusalem and her perfections (described here by John in detail).
Not only is our own faithfulness and assurance and anticipation at stake; but when others around us have ideas and opinions and “sentiments” that are out of accord with Scripture, we must be able to say “oh, no… let me tell you what our Lord Jesus has really done!”
What He has really done, and what He’s really doing, is the Gospel (as is what He will have done when He’s finished); and the Gospel (the Good News) is sharper than any two-edged sword, and pierces down to the very essence of man and rebirths him from death unto life and sets him free from captivity unto the liberty of the sons of God!
Because of what Jesus has done, there is now a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells! Whereas, before, righteousness did not dwell in the first heaven and the first earth.
Because of what Jesus has done, there is a new Jerusalem in which our God tabernacles with us! Where, before, in the first Jerusalem, there was only a man-made copy – a “shadow” – of God tabernacling over-and-above the heaven and the earth (so separate and remote was He from this cursed earth and cursed humanity).
Because of what Jesus has done, there is a new heaven and a new earth in which our God makes His abode with us, and in which righteousness dwells. Whereas, in the first heaven and the first earth, God condescended to even look upon it all!
Because of what Jesus has done, there is a new heaven and a new earth which will never again be destroyed; rather, He is saving it, and will save it. And it will flourish and prosper and be filled with the multitude of His people! Whereas, in the first heaven and earth, He destroyed it in floods of His wrath.
And while I’m here (mentioning floods), I want to just make the connections for you between Noah and Jesus. (Everything in the Scripture is prophetic of the Christ, isn’t it? It all foreshadowed Him; it all prophesied Him and it all reveals Him; and it all leads to a greater understanding of what He has done… and will do!)
From the sin of Adam until Noah’s time there was no righteousness upon the earth, for everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes. And at the advent of Jesus, the same thing was true. All the nations were in gross darkness and were a foaming sea of depraved humanity. And Jerusalem and the land of Israel was the demon-infested harlot that made all the world drink from the wine of her fornication. There was no righteousness upon the earth – even in God’s special, cosmic paradise… especially in God’s paradise – Israel!
In Noah’s time God’s wrath was poured out in a flood of cosmic proportions in which every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed. And at the advent of Jesus Christ at the end of the age, the wrath of God was poured out upon His heaven-and-earth Israel; and every living thing was destroyed by the sword and by fire. And the first Jerusalem was as it had never existed. The way this is described in the language of God in His Revelation, it was a flood of cosmic proportions that left the promised land a complete wilderness… devoid of life, just as the flood in Noah’s time. So, you see, righteousness did not dwell on the earth… from the sin of Adam all the way to the Parousia of the Christ at the end of the age!
In Noah’s time one man was chosen to save humanity and replenish the earth. And at the end of the age, one Man – Jesus, the Christ – saved humanity and would renew the earth and fill it with His people.
In Noah’s time one man and his family would be the prophetic forerunner of the Second Adam – Jesus Christ. The third son of the first Adam would be the “seed” of the woman through whom the Christ would be born. And Noah, the seed of Seth, had three sons – one of which would be the seed from whom Jesus – the Second Adam – would be born.
Noah’s family (his wife and three sons and their wives) were saved in the flood of God’s wrath. In the flood of wrath upon Jerusalem and the land (at the end of the age), our Lord’s family were saved… all of them. As the apostle Peter makes clear in his letter, Noah and his family were saved in the baptism of water; and just so, every single one of Jesus’ family would be marked out, given a new name, and saved in the baptism of fire.
There are many “likenesses” to be ascertained between Noah and Jesus; but let me give just one more. As the rain stopped and the flood receded, what emerged was a dawn of a new day and a cleansed and renewed heaven and earth – a new beginning. And at our Lord’s Parousia, what is described by God to the apostle John is the creation of a new heaven and a new earth in which the light of a new day would shine upon all the gross darkness of the earth… a world in which righteousness dwells; for our God would tabernacle with us!
The renewed earth after the flood was a prophetic foreshadowing of the salvation of the world by Jesus Christ our Lord! ... the very Gospel that we’re hearing here in The Revelation.
That’s just one example of how our minds must work as we think God’s thought after Him. We’re told to take every thought captive to The Christ. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that the world must hear.
And, also, the world must see that we live how we think and what we say. Righteousness now dwells in the earth; and the peoples of the world must see the works of righteousness: worship, faithfulness; obedience and anticipation.
So, living the Gospel is good. It’s necessary; for life in Christ is faithing! And faith without the works of obedience is dead… it’s no faith at all! Those who are watching to see your faithfulness will recognize your inconsistencies in the “blink-of-an eye”!
But the world must hear the Gospel. It is the River of Life flowing from us who thirst for that water! Seeing the works of faith may be a confirmation to those who are watching; but hearing the Gospel is life from death! We are messengers of light and life!
Praying for our Lord’s salvation of the world and, at the same time keeping our mouths shut from delivering the message, is a faithless perversion born of fear of rejection and/or persecution.
Prayer is good; it’s very good. We all must be men and women and children of prayer. But living a life of prayer and, at the same time, remaining monastically separated from the world, and living a so-called “secret” Christian life, is a twisted abasement of the nature of a messenger!
Resting, and being at peace with God, and being assured and joyful and thankful in His salvation and, at the same time, not engaging the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is an abdication of the role of a messenger. It’s succumbing to the two-kingdom theology that we heard about last Lord’s Day… a theology that leaves professing Christians living secluded, hyphenated, schizophrenic lives of secret devotion rather than contending for the Kingdom!
Being content in the state in which you were found, and praying for the salvation of this world, are both very good things. We’re commanded to be content in Christ in the state in which we were found; and our Lord has revealed the salvation of the world! So praying for it is the prayer of faith.
However, we are invested and ordained as messengers! And you can’t grant authority to rule this world to somebody else other than the Christ by leaving your Christianity at Church and at home!
And neither are you granted power to negotiate with those to whom this world does not belong! It isn’t negotiable! It belongs to Jesus Christ; therefore it belongs to you – IN HIM. And you are to engage it and speak His Word which is the rod of iron of His reign and rule. And by the power of His Word He will overcome and bring the world into submission to His Kingship.
Speak! Write! Use the new media! Engage the magistrate; engage the enterprises of art and music and architecture; engage technology; engage archaeology; engage medicine and science and mathematics; engage business and business enterprises! Engage practices of idolatry and fornication and deceit and exploitation of the poor and widows and orphans!
Public worship on Sunday morning isn’t the place to leave your Christianity! And you don’t leave your Christianity at the door when you leave the house! Confront the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and He will secure it and occupy it and rule it as He sees fit.
You aren’t to compromise with it; you aren’t to settle with it; you aren’t to make terms with it; you aren’t to strike a balance with it… that’s negotiation! That’s not your job! You are to speak to it with the authority of the Christ! You are priests in Him in your own right! And Jesus Christ the Word of God will do the work!
Since the advent and Parousia of The Christ, righteousness now dwells upon the earth; God is with us! And He has covenanted (promised) that, through all the years decreed, the earth will increasingly come under the reign and rule of Jesus Christ the King. And the Light will increasingly enlighten every dark place on the earth. And the River of Life will increasingly water every dry place on the earth.
And the promise to Abraham for a multitude of his seed filling the earth will be fulfilled. And the whole earth will be a paradise of God reflecting His glory; for the Second Adam will not abdicate as did the first Adam!
As you can hear and see… this is not negotiable! You and I are not to compromise with anyone about anything that our Lord has said or done; or about anything that He is doing or is going to do! It isn’t yours or mine to do!
And while we’re at it, let me just say that we don’t demand that others outside our spheres of authority submit themselves to our wills! Avoid that like the plague that it is! It’s not your place – nor mine! Our Lord will submit this world to Himself… not you! One who requires submission to himself is a king and tyrant of his own right and in his own eyes, and it is self-idolatry. Your place is to make judgments according to His Word and speak the Truth of the Gospel in faith. And our Lord will impose His OWN will as He chooses.
Okay. Now, back to our original proposition: we must read; and we must read some more. The Word of God is faithful and true and sure. The prophets wrote and spoke His very words.
Our Lord’s disciples knew the words of the prophets very well; but they didn’t understand them until Pentecost when Holy Spirit caused them to understand them for the first time!
We aren’t as familiar with these passages (which are spoken and written in the prophetic language of God seven hundred years before the advent of Jesus); so we have to read them and become familiar with them. And we will be caused to understand them in the same way the apostles were given to understand them; for our God now abides with us!
You know, we spent seven and a half years learning the words and deeds and parables of our Lord from the Gospel of Matthew. And we saw, over and over again, that His disciples didn’t understand that He was the Savior of the World, and that He would create a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem in which righteousness dwells… all of which is prophesied from the beginning!
It wasn’t until after Jesus was crucified and arose out of death; it wasn’t until He ascended to the right of the Father above His tabernacle; it wasn’t until He poured out His Spirit at Pentecost that His apostles understood. And then they remembered all that He had said and done. And they then understood God’s words to Isaiah that all things would be made new. And they then understood the perfections of the New, and holy, Jerusalem to come at our Lord’s Parousia.
And that’s exactly what John is shown, and what he describes in our text (which we’ve now read ten times together).
So let’s hear once again the words that God spoke to Isaiah about what was to be at the appearance of The Christ of God at end of the age. From Isaiah sixty-five, listen to the words spoken directly to the prophet….
1) I will be inquired of by them that didn’t ask for me; I will be found of them that didn’t seek me: I will say, ‘Behold, ME’, unto a people that was not called by my name.
2) I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, that walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;
3) a people that provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense upon bricks;
4) a people that sit among the graves, and lodge in the secret places; that eat swine's flesh; and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
5) that say, ‘stand by yourself, come not near to me, for I am holier than you’. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day.
6) Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense; yea, I will recompense to them fully
7) your own iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together, says YAHVEH; a people that have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills; therefore will I first measure their work unto them fully.
8) Thus says YAHVEH, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, ‘don’t destroy it, for a blessing is in it’, so will I do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all.
9) For I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an Inheritor of my mountains; my Chosen One shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
10) And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in for my people that have sought me.
11) But you that forsake YAHVEH, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for Fortune, and that fill up mingled wine unto Destiny;
12) I will destine you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear; but you did that which was evil in mine eyes, and chose that wherein I delighted not.
13) Therefore thus says YAHVEH, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;
14) behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and wail for vexation of spirit.
15) And you shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen; and YAHVEH will slay YOU; and call his servants by another name.
16) so that whoso is blessed in the earth shall be blessed by the God of truth; and he that swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles will be forgotten, because they are hid from mine eyes.
17) For, behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
18) But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a joy, and her people a delight.
19) And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying.
20) There shall then be no more an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days; for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.
21) And my people shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
22) They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; and as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23) They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of YAHVEH, and their offspring with them.
24) And it shall come to pass that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
25) The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says YAHVEH.
The new mountain of God – the new heaven and the new earth – would not be the first Mount Zion. The first one was the prostitute of the world. The new one would be the mountain of the Inheritor of all the nations – the King of Kings and Savior of the World… the mountain over all the mountains and hills of the earth.
And God says to Isaiah that the former won’t even be remembered, for His people would be called by another name; and He would abide with them.
And unlike the first paradise/mountain of God, in the new heaven and the new earth there would be no predators preying on the sheep (as was the case with the priests and elders and pharisees of the first Mount Zion) , and no serpent deceiving the nations! There would be increasing justice and length of days and a flourishing earth and peace and joy in all the earth. And God would be with them and hear their prayers even before they spoke them.
Now hear what God continued to speak to Isaiah… this is from chapter sixty-six:
6) A voice of tumult from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of YAHVEH that renders recompense to his enemies.
7) Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child.
8) Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
9) Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? says YAHVEH: shall I that cause to bring forth shut the womb? says your God.
10) Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her;
11) that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.
12) For thus says YAHVEH: Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream. And you shall suck thereof; you shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees.
13) As one who his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14) And you shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass; and the hand of YAHVEH shall be known to his servants; and he will have indignation against his enemies.
15) For, behold, YAHVEH will come with fire, and his chariots shall be like the whirlwind to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16) For by fire will YAHVEH execute judgment, and by his sword, upon all flesh; and the slain of YAHVEH shall be many.
17) Those that sanctify themselves and purify themselves in order to go unto the groves, following after one another (i.e. to worship idols), eating swine's flesh, and the abominable things, and rats, they shall all come to an end together, says YAHVEH.
18) For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and shall see my glory.
19) I will set a sign among them. And I will send such as escape of them (i.e. escape the idolators and predators) into the nations - to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, all the way to the isles afar off - that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations.
20) And they shall bring all your brethren out of all the nations for an oblation unto YAHVEH, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says YAHVEH, as the children of Israel would bring their oblation in a clean vessel into the house of YAHVEH.
21) And of them also will I take for priests and for Levites, says YAHVEH.
22) For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says YAHVEH, so shall your seed and your name remain.
23) And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah.
24) And they shall go forth, and look upon the dead bodies of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
God told Isaiah that, at the end of the age, before Israel even travailed in the birth pangs of the Daughter of Zion, a Man-child would be born!
And it was unthinkable that God would then shut the womb and stop the birth of the daughter from between the legs of the harlot! The Man-child would seek out and save a remnant of the seed of Jacob, and put His “mark” on them, and give them another name; and in great travail they would be birthed out of the first Jerusalem and sent into all the nations – to the farthest reaches.
And unlike the first Jerusalem, a great River of Life would flow into all the nations from the new Jerusalem. And the first Jerusalem would be recompensed for all its idolatry and its fornication and its hypocrisy and its predatory treatment of the poor and the sick and the widows and orphans; for a flood of wrath would be poured out from the lake of fire in God’s tabernacle; and it would be worse than with Sodom and Gomorrah! And the land of Israel and the first Jerusalem would cease to exist forever.
And all things would be made new. And in this new heaven and new earth, God would dwell with them in the new Jerusalem; and all the nations would come; and they would see His glory!
And through all the days and years of the decree, the Light of the new Jerusalem would shine in the gross darkness of all four corners of this creation; and all flesh would see it and come. And the River of Life would flow to the ends of the earth; and multitudes (promised to Abraham) would be raised out of death unto life and flow into the new Jerusalem. And there would be increasing peace and comfort and life and prosperity in all His holy mountain; and all the nations and peoples and tribes and tongues would flourish; and they would delight in the new Jerusalem; for God would be with them. And righteousness will dwell in all the earth.
This is exactly what John saw and heard (as recorded here in our text); and it’s what he wrote and sent to the Churches just before our Lord’s Parousia/appearance in the cloud of glory at the end of the age!
This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
He is the Man-child born in the fullness of the time. He is the sacrificial Lamb of God, prophesied from the beginning, Who was made sin for the salvation of the world (as John the baptizer put it: “Lo, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world”); and so righteousness would dwell on earth (as it had never been since sin entered the world through Adam).
He’s the One who gave His body and poured out His blood, and Who saved every last one of The Father’s elect from the tribes of Jacob.
He’s the One (the Word of God made flesh) Who ascended – bodily – to the Right of The Father, making satisfaction for the curse upon humanity and the earth itself.
He is the One Who is the Right Hand and Strong Right Arm of God Who saved all His people to the uttermost; and He is the Inheritor of all the nations, and given all authority in the heavens and upon the earth, and crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He is the One – The Inheritor of the kingdoms of this world – Who has set the mountain of His Kingdom over all the mountains and hills of the earth. It is a new heaven and a new earth, for Jesus Christ paid for it with His Own blood! It belongs to Him! The old has passed away, and righteousness now dwells in it! And God is satisfied with His sacrifice; and He tabernacles with us in His new – and perfect – Jerusalem!
The first heaven and the first earth is gone; the first mountain of God is gone; the first Jerusalem is gone… all never again to be. There is a new heaven and a new earth; and there is a new Mount Zion and a new Jerusalem from which all the earth is enlightened, and from which flows the River of Life. And there is no dragon to deceive the nations ever again. God tabernacles with us; and righteousness dwells on the earth.
And our Lord Jesus Christ – the Owner Who paid for it and inherited it – would do what the first Adam did not do… which is to populate the world with those written in the Lamb’s book of life, and cast the full legacy of the first Adam into the eternal lake of fire.
And all of God’s creation will reflect His glory forever. This is the Gospel of God concerning His Son Jesus – The Christ.
Next time we’ll see the perfections of the New Jerusalem that John was shown coming down from God at the soon-to-occur Parousia of The Christ at the end of the age.