THE XCELLENT FILES

Christian?
Jew?
Gentile?
Got to Serve Somebody
Purpose
What it's all about
State of the Church
Surprise
Countdown
Cults
Key Words
Orient Express
X files
Strange Days
Hi-Tech
Signs of the End
Brave New World
Pre-Mid-Post-A What?
Interesting Mail
Selected Links
Maps & Charts
Info

Many of you are too young to remember this, but years ago, before World War II, there was a radio news broadcaster by the name of H. V. Kaltenborn. He always began his news broadcast with the words, "Well, we've got good news today!" That is the way I would like to start this last section of Revelation. It is indeed good news! The judgments are past, the terrible plagues upon the earth are ended. We begin with a view of heaven coming down to earth; a time when the prayers of God's people for centuries, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," will be answered.

Chapters 21 and 22 contain almost all the Bible records concerning the eternal state. Most of the prophetic passages of the Old Testament that picture a time of great blessing on earth refer to the thousand-year reign of our Lord which precedes this last great event. Very little is said in the Old Testament about heaven. But here it is in these chapters. Following the Great White Throne judgment, recorded in Chapter 20, John sees a whole new creation spring into being.

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. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 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. {Rev 21:1-4 NIV}

What beautiful words! They bring us full circle, to the beginning of the Bible again. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." That creation is what is called here "the old heavens and the old earth." They shall pass away, as we are told, but a new heavens and a new earth are coming. It is the Apostle Peter who tells us what happens to the present heavens and earth. In Second Peter he says, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare," {2 Pet 3:10}. That ends the old heavens, but now a new heavens and earth appear where Jesus will continue his reign, not only upon earth, but throughout the entire reach of the vast universe of God.

There are four statements in this opening paragraph that tell us the purpose of the new heavens and the new earth:

1. The first verse suggests strongly that the New Jerusalem, this great city that John describes, is to be the capital of the whole new universe. And it will be a universe greatly changed. It will not be like the one we have now. I do not believe that this means that God will eliminate the present heavens and earth but he changes it and cleanses it.

When we become Christians we become new creatures in Christ, but we are still the same persons, but now changed and cleansed. So also the old heavens and the old earth will be cleansed -- by fire.

We know today that the present universe in its farthest reaches (even farther than the new Hubble telescope can show us), is governed by the same laws. One of them is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the law of entropy, which says this present universe is running down. It is all decaying; losing its energy; it is growing cold. But in the new heavens and the new earth apparently that law is reversed. Instead of running down the universe begins to come together again. Instead of losing energy it will gain it and manifest a unity, stability, symmetry and beauty that the old heavens and earth never had.

One aspect of this, pictured here, is that there will be no more sea.

A man said to me last week, "I don't think I'm going to like the new heavens and the new earth, because I love the ocean." I understand that feeling. I love the ocean too.

But the one reason we have a salt sea that covers more than half of this planet is because it is God's great antiseptic to cleanse the earth and make life possible on earth. Had it not been for the ocean, and the salt in it particularly, life on this planet would have ceased many centuries ago. It is the ocean that purges, cleanses, and preserves it. The sea is an antiseptic in which all the pollution and filth that man pours into it is absorbed, cleansed and changed. But there will be no more pollution, no more filth, no more need for cleansing in the new universe. Though we are not told this, I think there will be large bodies of fresh water, larger even perhaps than the Great Lakes, that we may enjoy in that new heavens and new earth.

2. Then the second thing said here is, the New Jerusalem is called a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. Everyone loves that picture. We all love weddings. The climax is when the bride comes down the aisle, beautifully dressed for her husband! Everyone forgets that poor fellow waiting for her at the altar! Every eye is on the bride because she has prepared herself for weeks to meet her husband there.

This new city is called both a city and a woman, just as the false bride, "Mystery Babylon the Great," was both a city (Rome), and a woman. We have seen how that one was destroyed for its evil. A bride speaks of intimacy, and a city speaks of community. So we have a picture here of the redeemed of God, each one given a body of glory empowered with limitless energy. When opportunity comes in that day you will not say, as we often say today, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak," {Matt 26:41 NIV}. No, then you will be able to respond to every opportunity with a glorified, fresh and living body. We will live in close intimacy, not only with the Lord himself, but with each other as well.

I often think of that phrase in John's letters where he says, "It does not yet appear what we shall be," {1 Jn 3:2 KJV}. I keep looking in the mirror for signs of change in me. But what do I see? Wrinkles-and zits! But it won't be like that then. We will have bodies of glory and beauty that will be like his.

3. The third thing we are told here is that this will be the dwelling place of God. Isn't that marvelous? The home of God! The place where God lives, in his people. This is when the name "Immanuel" ("God with us"), will be fulfilled, and when the New Covenant will be fully worked out, "They shall be my people, and I will be their God," {Jer 24:7 KJV}. It is all in this beautiful setting. Heaven, someone has well said, is the place of "no more" -- no more death, no more sorrow, no more parting, no more pain, no more tears, no more evil!

As a young Christian I learned a song which I often sing to myself even yet:

There's no disappointment in heaven,
No weariness, sorrow, no pain,
No hearts that are bleeding and broken,
No song with a minor refrain.
The clouds of our earthly horizon
Shall never appear in the sky.
But all will be sunshine and gladness,
With never a sob nor a sigh.

A wonderful hope, isn't it? It is so beautiful that it is even hard to believe. I think John felt that way for he is given at this point certain words of assurance to help him with his possible doubt.

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." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." {Rev 21:5-6a NIV}

He brackets all of time in the phrases, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." Everything in between comes from him. These are words of truth that help us to believe. Remember on the cross our Lord uttered the words "It is finished," {John 19:30}. After the gloom, the darkness, pain, sorrow and anguish of his separation from the Father, he cried out, "It is finished!" The basis of redemption was settled. The sacrifice was ended. The basis was fully laid. Now he says, "It is done!" Redemption is complete. The redeemed are safe home in glory. Everything that God wants done is done! Not one thing is left unfinished.

4. The fourth thing the passage suggests as the purpose of the New Jerusalem is that it will be the home of the redeemed:

"To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son." {Rev 21:6b-7 NIV}

What marvelous words! This city will be the home of the redeemed, and the only qualification for it is that you be thirsty. Nothing on earth satisfies. Wealth, fame, pleasures and treasures -- none will meet that deep thirst of the soul. That is why the rich, the wealthy, the beautiful people, all are looking for something more. They are not satisfied. But here is the promise to satisfy that thirst. People who want more-who want God-are promised that they shall drink of the water of the spring of life. These are also called "overcomers" who "inherit all this," all that God has created. Peter tells us in his first letter that there is waiting for us "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for us," {1 Pet 1:4 NIV}. Those who are thus changed by God's grace are to be forever his sons. That includes all female believers as well! You godly women and girls have always had the right to call yourself a son of God because he is "bringing many sons to glory." So we shall all be sons of God in that day.

Now, by contrast, in a reference back to what we have seen of the judgment there is in Verse 8 a description of those who are not admitted:

"But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." {Rev 21:8 NIV}

As we have seen all through this book, God does not want that. He is very reluctant that anybody should be judged or condemned, but as the word points out, "they judge themselves." Here there are three attitudes of heart which result in five visible deeds that mark the lost. The three attitudes are the reasons why some will miss this beautiful city.

First, the cowards, i.e. the fearful, those who are afraid to take on the yoke of Christ, who fear to confess Christ, who are unwilling to be unpopular for a little while. They shrug their shoulders and turn away from the offer of life.

Then there are the unbelieving, those who know it is true, but don't want it and refuse the evidence, deliberately turning their backs on truth.

Third, there are the vile. The word means "to become foul." You do not start out that way, but by feeding your mind with filthy things -- foul literature, filthy attitudes and actions, you become foul-minded. If any of these are your attitude, then out of it will flow murders, fornication, adultery, occult practices, and finally, hypocritical living. Jesus warned of that -- those who profess to be Christians but really there is no change in their lives. None who practice these activities will be in the city of God.

In these eight verses we have looked at the purpose of the New Jerusalem. Now John is given another vision of it and describes it in wonderfully symbolic language as the great city of God:

First, we are informed as to the structure of this city.

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." 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. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 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. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 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}

I am sure someone is asking, "Is this literal or is it symbolic?"

I hope, by now, as we have been going through this book, you have come to realize that you do not have to make that choice. God loves to use literal things that remain symbols. The cross behind me is literal {i.e., the cross mounted behind the pulpit at PBC}, but it is also a symbol of the death of Jesus. It is both at the same time. So, all through this book, we find the blending of the literal and symbolic. I believe there will be a great, visible city of incredible brilliance and glory, located somewhere above or within the atmosphere of the earth, which also will picture activities and relationships that are going on within the community of the saints. Those will be characterized by stability, by symmetry, by light, by life and ministry. That is what is described here. The literal is very evident; the symbolic perhaps needs a bit of interpretation.

The high wall of the city speaks of separation and of intimacy. If you want to have an intimate garden party, you meet in the yard behind a wall. That wall shuts out other things and people. It speaks of intimate fellowship and separation from intrusion. The whole of Scripture with one voice speaks of God's desire to have what he calls "a people for my own possession." Everything in the universe is, in a sense, his possession. All animals, all creatures, are his. There are billions of angels and they all belong to him. But the saints are peculiarly God's own possession. That is because he has made them to correspond to himself. He can share with them the deepest things in his life and in his heart. They satisfy him and fulfill him just as a bride satisfies and fulfills her husband.

The gates describe means of access and egress from the city. There is an amazing verse in John 10 where Jesus says, "Whoever enters through me will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasture," {John 10:9 NIV}. That seems to be a portrayal of the widespread ministry of believers throughout the eternal ages. The new universe will surely be as big or bigger than it is now -- and it is mind-blowing in its immensity now! Billions of galaxies, far larger than our own galaxy of the Milky Way, fill the heavens as far as the eye can see by means of the greatest telescopes we have, and still we have not reached the end. That means that there will be new planets to develop, new principles to discover, new joys to experience. Every moment of eternity will be an adventure of discovery.

Those gates are named for the tribes of Israel. It is a perpetual reminder that "salvation is of the Jews," {John 4:22 KJV}. Access to the city is through Israel. I believe that pictures the truth that has come to us through the Old Testament prophets and the godly practices of the nation. Many of these brilliant passages that now entrance, but puzzle, us will come to life then as we have never known them before. They will lead us out to new adventures that we have never dreamed of in our wildest imaginations.

The foundations speak of what is underneath which gives stability and permanence. They are named for the 12 apostles. Judas, of course, was replaced in the apostolic band by Matthias as we are told in the first chapter of Acts. These foundations speak of New Testament truth and practice. Things that we only faintly grasp now will be wonderfully understood and experienced then, especially the three things that abide forever: faith, hope, and love! "These three," says Paul, "and the greatest of these is love," {cf, 1 Cor 13:13}. It beggars language to describe this. I find myself stumbling and unable to express fully the beauty that is portrayed here, but I hope that the inner eye of your imagination will make much of it.

Now we are given the measurements of the city.

The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its wall. 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 as high as it is long [that is about 1500 miles]. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using. {Rev 21:15-17 NIV}

When God measures something it is a sign of his ownership. The number 12, which is everywhere in this account -- 12,000 stadia, 144 cubits (that is 12 times 12) wide -- is in Scripture the number of government. So this is a fulfillment of that wonderful word in Isaiah, "the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace," {Isa 9:6}. It is a city of beauty and of symmetry, just as long as it is wide, just as tall as it is long. I do not think you need think of that as a cube; it is more probably a pyramid. It will be a city of perfect proportions. That is what it symbolizes -- perfectly proportioned wholeness!

Everybody wants that. Everyone wants to be a whole person. People say, "I want to be me. I want to fulfill myself. I want to get my act together." Many pick the wrong way to do it. They think that it is all up to them. The one message of the Word of God is that you cannot find your own way. Try to fulfill yourself and you will lose yourself. But if you let God fulfill you, then you will be fully filled -- a wholeness perfectly proportioned, containing nothing awkward, nothing out of balance, but all in harmony. Our friend, Eugene Petersen, whom I have quoted many times in this study, has put it well. He says,

The two symbolic cities of the Apocalypse, Babylon and Jerusalem, show [how a wall creates group consciousness and interrelatedness]. When evil reaches its highest density it forms a whore-city. That city is a concentrate of evil and is destroyed. Likewise, when God-consciousness and the interrelatedness of love reach their highest density, a bride-city is formed.

Not only is the size and shape of the city revealed, but the materials from which it is made are given to us.

The wall was made of jasper [imagine a great diamond shining in the sun], and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. {Rev 21:18-21 NIV}

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the health [not healing, as translated in the NIV] of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. {Rev 22:1-5 NIV}