Sermon for Pilgrim Church on Revelation 21

We are reaching the end of the book and the end of the age.  We have repeatedly looked at God’s judgment of the wicked in the church age and his protection of his people during the time of tribulation.  God and the Lamb are present with the church during this age and he is at work now.  We have also seen that there will be a final and complete judgment of Babylon, the beast, the false prophet, the devil and every person who refuses to believe the gospel.  In the final two chapters of Revelation the focus is on the church and the glorious new heavens and new earth.  There is less mention of those who are excluded and more details about what things will be like for believers forever.  This is the bit we have all been hanging out for after the long hall of chapters 1-20.

1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. (Rev 21:1-3 NIV)

In chapter 20, we saw that at the great white throne judgment, earth and heaven fled away and there was no place for them (20:11).  The old creation has come to an end.  The old creation was corrupted by sin and therefore God’s presence could not be fully experienced there nor his glory seen.  But now, a new heaven and a new earth appear to replace the old heaven and old earth.  This is the new creation that God has made possible through Christ (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15), and which the church has experienced in part during this age.  No more will the church live in the now and not yet of the current age.  The new creation is not mixed with the old in any way.  It is completely new in its very essence.

There is no longer any sea.  This probably does not mean that large bodies of water don’t exist in the new creation.  Instead, we should understand this in terms of what the sea means in the rest of Revelation.  It represents the origin of cosmic evil, the unbelieving nations who persecute God’s people, the place of the dead, and the place in which idolatrous trade happens.  Thus, the statement that there is no longer any sea means that evil is gone, people who persecute the church are gone, death is gone, and idolatrous trade is done away with.  There may actually be literal oceans as part of the landscape, but this is not the point here.

The new Jerusalem comes down from heaven.  The New Testament speaks elsewhere of the heavenly Jerusalem (Gal 4:26; Heb 11:16; 12:22).  The descent of the new Jerusalem from heaven is the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise in 3:12.  Jerusalem is called the holy city in the OT (Neh 11:1, 18; Isa 48:2; 52:1; Dan 9:24) and in the NT (Matt 4:5; 27:53), the place where the temple is found.  Here in Revelation, the holy city, the new Jerusalem comes down from God because God himself has prepared this city for the saints.  As we will see later, the city is also the place of God’s temple.  It is a beautiful city, dressed like a bride prepared for her husband.  The contrast with the other city we have seen is quite plain.  Babylon is an earthly city; she is not a bride but a prostitute.  There is no holiness in her.  She has gone to her destruction.  But the holy city is glorious and eternal; she will be with her husband forever.

The holy city is not in heaven anymore because now God has come to dwell with humanity.  Heaven and earth have joined together into one.  God promised that a time would come when he would always dwell with his people (Ezek. 37:27-28; Lev 26:11-12).  This is the culmination of God’s plan from the beginning that he would have a people for himself and he would be in communion with those people.  Adam and Eve lost their chance to dwell in the Garden of Eden in God’s intimate presence (Gen 3:8, 22-24).  But now the plan of God has come to completion and his people are with him in his holy presence.

Since heaven has come down to earth, at this point the resurrection of the dead has occurred.  It is not explicit in the passage, but it could not be otherwise.  The saints in heaven up to this point are described as souls (6:9; 20:4).  Those who worship God in heaven after they have died do not have resurrected bodies.  But humans are not intended to be souls without bodies; that is only temporary.  The resurrection will occur before the Day of Judgment, as we saw in chapter 20.

4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.” (Rev 21:4-6 NIV)

What the people of God have been waiting for has arrived.  The times of suffering are over and will never return.  Just as God promised (Isa 25:8; 35:10; 51:11), there will be nothing but joy in this new order of things.  “I am making all things new” implies that none of the reasons for pain can ever apply again.  Nothing of the old creation, with its sin, hatred of God and his people, death and the things which go with that, will remain.  It is actually difficult to picture something like this, so we are told “these words are trustworthy and true.”  They are true because they come from the one who cannot lie.

“It is done” is actually “they are done”, that is, the prophetic promises are done.  All that Jesus accomplished through his death is now fulfilled.  At the cross, Jesus cried, “It is finished”.  His work was complete and only awaited God’s timing to bring about the new creation in its fullness.  Here it has arrived.  The Lord God Almighty is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.  The book began with this statement (1:8) and it ends with Jesus claiming the same title (22:13).  None of the things in the middle are outside the control of God and the Lamb.  Because he has declared the end point, we can trust him in the midst of history, while suffering, sorrow and death are still in existence.  We can be sure that these things are temporary.

God offers the thirsty living water.  During the church age, when God sends plagues and judgements upon the earth, the springs of water are polluted (8:10; 16:4), but now the water of life is on offer.  The people of God are thirsty for God and his presence.  What God offers to them is pure, living water that quenches the thirst.  It is salvation that satisfies the longings of the weary soul.

7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death. (Rev. 21:7-8 NIV)

Verses 7-8 are two opposing descriptions of inheritance.  Those who are victorious are called God’s children and thereby they inherit all the goodness of salvation which God offers, just as Jesus promises in the letters at the beginning of the book (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12; 21).  This involves a deep, intimate fellowship with God and life in his presence forever.  But the wicked will have their share in the lake of fire.  Their inheritance is damnation and an eternity without God’s loving presence.  Throughout the book, we are continually encouraged to remain faithful, to be victorious instead of compromising with the idolatrous world system.  The list of sins here – “the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars” – are those we are warned to avoid, so that we will not fail to receive our desired inheritance.

9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Rev. 21:9-14 NIV)

Here is a close-up picture of the nature of the bride.  This passage begins in a very similar way to chapter 17, in which the great prostitute is introduced.  In both passages the angel who had the seven bowls speaks and says, “Come I will show you.”  This gives us the hint that we should be comparing the prostitute and the bride.  The prostitute is very earthly.  She is connected with the kings of the earth and the wicked multitudes (17:1-2, 15), plus the beast and the devil himself (17:3).  On the other hand, the bride is heavenly.  She belongs to the heavenly Lamb and she comes down out of heaven from God.  The prostitute went to her destruction (ch 18) but the bride is heading for the wedding supper of the Lamb (19:7-8).  Both have a kind of glory.  The prostitute impressed the people of the earth with her splendour (18:14) and wealth; she had gold and precious stones and pearls (17:4).  These things are earthly and come to nothing.  But the bride shines with the glory of God, like a precious jewel.  The glory of God cannot be extinguished because it is God’s.  The clothing of the bride is not merely pretty clothes by the very glory of God.

The way the Holy City is described in vv 12-14 evokes the description of Ezekiel’s vision of the end-time temple (Ezek chapters 40-48).  The Holy City and the temple have become one; it is now the city-temple or temple-city.  The city has a high wall, symbolizing protection (see Isa 26:1-2).  Ezekiel prophesied that the city walls would have twelve gates with the names of the tribes of Israel written on them (Eze 48:30-34).  The walls of the city have twelve foundations on which are written the names of the apostles of the Lamb.  The apostolic witness to Christ has built the church, which is the new Israel.  Yet the glory belongs always to the Lamb.  The wonderous thing about this new city, according to Ezekiel is that “the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE” (Ezek. 48:35 NIV).  The new Jerusalem is a place where God is continually present with his people.  It is the fulfilment of all the promises that have gone before (e.g., Gen 26:3; Exo 33:14; Deu 2:7; Josh 1:5).  It is what the church has been longing for throughout the centuries of persecution and simply living in a sinful world.

15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. (Rev. 21:15-17 NIV)

The city is 12,000 stadia high and 12,000 wide and 12,000 long.  For the sake of comparison, 12,000 stadia is approximately 2220 km, which is a little over half the width of Australia at its widest point.  At that height, the city would be knocking global positioning satellites out of the sky.  However, we must not be tempted to take this length as literal.  The number 12,000 should instead be read as including the people of God (12) entirely (1000).  The city-temple is not small but huge.  The size as given would have taken up approximately the entire known-world of the day.  It encompasses all the nations who have been redeemed by responding to the gospel.

The holy of holies, in which the high priest encountered God’s presence, was a cube (20 cubits by 20 cubits by 20 cubits; Kings 6:16, 20) just as the new Jerusalem is.  The picture of the city as the holy of holies is in keeping with the picture of the holy city as the temple.

According to a human measurement the wall of the city is 144 cubits thick (or possibly high).  Clearly, a wall of this size is woefully out of proportion to a city that is so big.  A wall of this thickness could not support a height of 2200 km.[1]  So instead of thinking that way, let’s think about 144 as a number in Revelation.  144,000 represents the complete number of God’s people.  If we added up the measurements of the twelve sides of the cube which is the new Jerusalem, this comes to 144,000 stadia.  So, the idea is that both the dimensions of the city and of the wall represent the totality of the people of God.  They will all be inside the city and safe in the presence of God.  There is room for every person who responds to the gospel.  None will be excluded if they are followers of the Lamb and put their trust in him and are washed in his blood.

18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass. (Rev. 21:18-21 NIV)

Here the temple metaphor continues.  The city is made of gold just as the temple of Solomon was overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:20-22).  The gold is pure as glass and therefore able to reflect the pure, holy glory of God.  There are twelve precious stones because there were twelve precious stones on the high priest’s breastpiece of decision (Exod 28:15-30).  The precious stones represented the twelve tribes of Israel and each tribe had its name engraved on one of the stones.  When the high priest entered the presence of God, he represented all the tribes of Israel.  The colours of the holy of holies were the same as the colours of the high priest’s clothes (Exod 26:1, 31-33; 28:6-8, 15).  In this way, the high priest’s clothing was a micro-version of the holy of holies.  The new Jerusalem, then, is a giant version of the holy of holies, which fills the new creation.

The gates are made of giant pearls.  Obviously, no natural pearl could be this big.  There is a contrast again with the pearls that Babylon, the great prostitute wears (17:4).  The prostitute has pearls but they are just trinkets in comparison with the massive pearls that flank the city of God.  The prostitute’s gold cup is full of abominations (17:4), but the bride, the new Jerusalem is built from gold that is pure as transparent glass.  The purity of the city is due to the glory of the holy God, who dwells in it.  The street of the city is made of gold.  This is the destiny of the church, which in 11:7-8 was slain in the street by the beast.  The church will no longer be mistreated but now forever glorified.

The point of all these metaphors – the cube, the wall, the precious stones and the pearls – is that the new Jerusalem is the new holy of holies.  It is no longer a small space that only the High Priest can enter once a year, but so large that every one of God’s people can be within God’s presence continually.  Believers are priests in the new temple and can be in God’s presence because of the blood of the Lamb.  It is a picture of great security and peace for God’s people in the presence of God.  This is the fulfilment of Isaiah 54:11-15, which promises that the besieged city will be rebuilt of precious stones and no one will ever succeed in attacking it anymore.  The wicked will never prevail against the church again.

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Rev. 21:22-27 NIV)

The new creation does not contain a physical temple because there is no need for one.  Although the people of the old covenant had a physical temple for offering sacrifices and meeting with God, in the new heavens and new earth, the glory of God will fill the whole earth.  His presence will not simply be confined to a building in one city.  The presence of God will be throughout the city-temple.  There will never be a need to journey to worship God because God will be worshipped in all places at all times.  In the same way, there will be no sun or moon because the glory of God will be so powerful there that this will light up the whole physical world.  The glory of God and of the Lamb will fill the temple-city.

The gates will never be shut.  The city gates of a fortified city would have been shut at night to keep out unwanted people, the enemies of the city.  But the people of God no longer have enemies who can harm them because their enemies have been judged and thrown into the lake of fire.  Instead of enemies at the gates, there are steams of people from the nations, bringing their glory and honour into the city.  Isaiah (60:1-14) predicted that the nations will bring their treasures to Zion through the gates of the city, that will never close.  Those who do not serve God will perish.  What the nations bring into the new Jerusalem is not material riches so much as worship of the true and living God.  They will no longer worship the beast.  It is not that random unsaved people are going to be saved over a period of time after the last judgment.  This is simply a symbolic way of saying that what used to be the enemies of the people of God can enter the city to give glory to God because they have repented and come to faith in Christ.

The impure will have no access to the city.  They will never enter it because God has judged them and put them outside it forever.  This is not merely an encouragement to believers but also a warning.  Those who are unclean, doing detestable things and lying, will not enter the city.  If those within the church fall into this category, they too will be excluded.  Those whose names are in the Lamb’s book of life alone can enter.  How do you have your name entered into the book of life?  This passage implies that our choices will tell us whether we are in the book of life or not.  The wicked within the church are not in the book of life but actually part of the ungodly world.

In this chapter the bride has joined with the bridegroom.  The way in which this works is that bride is the holy city and the holy city is the temple space in which God is always present.  The glory that we look forward to is nothing less than eternity with our holy God in close fellowship.  It is hard to imagine because nothing in this present world matches up.  It is, however, something worth waiting for.