New Jerusalem Rev, 21:9-27

All right, now we're going to be turning to our Revelation passages as Norm read for us, chapters 21, 9 through 27. Here we are getting towards the end of the book of Revelation. I say computers are wonderful except when they're not. We'll be getting towards the end of Revelation here in just a few weeks.

And it's been kind of amazing as you look back on it. We started in the middle of September last year, and we're going to be finishing up just in the first week of next year, the way it looks here. That's if the Lord allows us to be here, okay? If the Lord allows us to stay on this earth. But anyway, what's interesting, I've just been kind of reviewing, and just kind of rough estimates, about 600 pages of message notes, about 60 handouts, and about 800 overheads.

So, I mean, there's been a lot to this. You've got it all memorized, right? Good, good. That's what I was hoping. Alright, let's go ahead and proceed with it. Let's start with verse 9. Then one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke to me, saying, Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. Now this is very much like what we've read just a few chapters earlier.

It says in Revelation 17.1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me, saying, Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on the many waters." So here's one of these seven angels again. We don't know whether it's specifically the same or another one, but I'm not sure it matters terribly.

But we do know that the bride, the wife of the Lamb, is the Church, the body of Christ. John himself, it's interesting, here's John himself who is a part of the church who's being invited. Thus John would be most interested in seeing what the angel had to show him, right? John is about to see the bride, the wife of the Lamb, the glorified church, and a great many other things as well. Take a look at verse 10.

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me a holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal clear jasper." Now we've seen that John writes about being carried away in the Spirit several times in this book. As a matter of fact, this is the fourth and last time that we're going to be reading about that particular thing. The last two of those, interestingly enough, he just starts off with the same, and the angel was the one who was effective in carrying him away in the Spirit.

Now what did he mean by that? This is a special state of divine revelation. This is not referring to being in the Spirit as is commonly used in the New Testament. It's a different sense because John is being given a revelation. It's not something that he did, is it? As a matter of fact, it's being carried away. That implies that it's passive. It's something that's done to him.

So as we look at this, John is having these visions here that are given especially by divine revelation, and so this angel takes him up on a high mountain. And as this angel takes him up on a high mountain, you may have had, for example, an instance to climb one of the Rockies' Fourteeners, or maybe even more than just one of them. But the view from one of those mountains is just phenomenal.

I remember a friend and I took a backpack trip one time where we climbed up one of the taller mountains in the area where Nancy and I were in Carson City for about 14 years. And we got up on the top of one of those mountains and after we caught our breath, which took a little bit, believe me, we got up to the top and the view was just spectacular. We could see just for miles and miles and miles. It was a perspective that we had never had. I would suppose in our day we would compare it to like getting up in an airplane where you see just a vast view in front of you compared to what it would be ordinarily.

So here John was at this high mountain and he had an extraordinary view. He had an ability to see things that ordinarily you wouldn't get because you're seeing too much detail at once. So he had this amazing perspective. Now, John gets this view of the New Jerusalem and coming down out of heaven.

And here we see that phrase. It's a phrase we've seen before, and this, like the prior one, is the last time we're going to see it. And you start to think, okay, why is this the last time? Is it just because we're at the second to last chapter? I think there's more to it than that.

Why would there be a need previously for something to come down out of heaven? There would be a need previously because heaven and earth were separated. There was a great distance between heaven and earth. There was a sense of expanse between heaven and earth. This now bringing the New Jerusalem down out of heaven reduces or eliminates that expanse. You no longer have any need for something to come down out of heaven.

Furthermore, you notice several of these down-out-of-heaven instances in the middle of this list are for judgment, right? Well, what need is there for further judgment? That's been done. It's been taken care of. So because of no more judgment, because of the end of the separation, no more down-out-of-heaven either. This is the last one. So it isn't just accidental. It isn't just a literary instance. There's purpose in it.

It's because there's no more need for that down-out-of-heaven to take place, whether for judgment or simply for the New Jerusalem to be brought near. John writes for our benefit that this holy city has, or is having, the glory of God. Notice he didn't say had or would eventually have, but having. The glory of God is present and ongoing. It's continuous. As we said before, the glory of God is the essential radiance of who He is. God does not have glory. He is glory. What is amazing is that He shares that glory with us. That is amazing.

Now, immediately you notice here, and he's going to expand on it some more, but immediately he makes the comparison He says, this is very much like precious stones. That's what it looks like, like precious stones. And we're going to be reading more about these precious stones in detail in the next few verses. But there are several reasons why these precious stones are brought out as a comparison. One, is that precious stones are valuable and rare. We consider them valuable. We would have people hunt for them, try to find them. We've put lots of effort into mounting these rare things. And what does the Lord do? The Lord says the whole thing is like that. This entire New Jerusalem is like what we search for and long for and search the world over for now. The whole New Jerusalem, the expanse of it, will have that character.

The second thing, the precious stones for each of the tribes of Israel were something only the high priest wore. Remember some time back? He wore a breastplate and he had 12 of those stones. We'll see a picture of those in a minute. And so, since the high priest was the one who would have special relationship to the Lord in the Jewish system of things, this would also indicate continuing special relationship with the Lord, ongoing fellowship with Him. Isn't that great? There's another thing.

Precious stones, as beautiful as they are, do not have a light of their own. You don't hold one up in the dark and expect it to glow. You cast light on it to see its beauty. But the precious stones are beautiful because of the light, and so it calls attention to the light. And that's the value in these precious stones, too. We look at the precious stones and we say, isn't that beautiful? But then we say, oh, what marvelous light, what necessary light to see the beauty. And what's more, as we're soon going to see, the light is continuous. There's another reason.

He points out that the precious stones are very costly, and there can be no doubt that our eternal home, and that's what we're reading about here, isn't it? Our eternal home, though totally free to us, came at a great price. It was very costly. And that is the very reason why he talks in this passage and elsewhere about the Lamb. The Lamb, God's price paid for us. Very costly, like the precious stones, but totally free by grace to us. Isn't that marvelous? Okay, let's take a look at verse 12.

And it had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and the gates and at the gates twelve angels, and the names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel." As John says, he describes the gate as great and high. And we also see a pattern here that continues from chapter 21 even into chapter 22, and that being an ongoing reference to the twelve. And we see in this chapter here, and even into the next, 12 gates, 12 angels, 12 tribes, we see this description of 12 again and again and again.

And it's interesting because we'll see that this was something patterned even in the Old Testament law. At the same time we say, well, we're not under law, the Lord built into the law a great many things that were patterns for things to come. The sacrifices. was a pattern for God's own presentation of His lambs. The precious stones, as we saw, will actually show up here in this New Jerusalem. Those were also in the breastplate of the high priest.

Here again is this pattern of twelve, and we're going to be seeing that some more in some detail here. One of the things you see consistent reference to in this passage, this verse being no exception, is to the gates. Here, for example, is the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. They have several gates in Jerusalem that are named after the city towards which the gate heads, and that's how it got this name.

And to think about it, the gates in John's day were for what purpose? Those gates during John's day were to allow entrance and exit, certainly that, but also they would close them. Why? Because when there was attack, or even the threat of an attack, they could close the gates and have protection. Furthermore, They would close them at night because then there was a time of vulnerability. They could be attacked in stealth at night, so they would close them just as a regular pattern. And so this closing of the gate was a standard thing to be done in those days. Now, here John is describing a different situation as we'll see in verses to come.

These gates never close. Why? There's nothing to worry about. There's no defending to be done. There's nothing to protect against. The gates are always open. Always. All of them. All 12. And then he makes a specification here which is interesting. Verse 13.

There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. Now, this pattern of three gates also reminds us of Israel. since every time Israel is camped out in the desert, they were to camp out in precisely the same configuration. You'll see this on the back side of your handout, and we'll go ahead and put it on the overhead here. This is the configuration, and you notice the eastern direction is listed first, and that's because the opening of the tabernacle was to the east. That is also the direction of opening of the temple in Jerusalem, to the east. So here you have As the tribes were shown here in this pattern, you have the New Jerusalem set up in exactly the same configuration. You'll wonder, here are these Israelites and they're out there in the desert and they're camped around this square here around the tabernacle.

They must have been scratching their heads thinking, I wonder why we're doing this? This must have sounded pretty strange to them. And yet, you look at this here, What were they doing? The way that they were encamped was prefiguring, giving a picture of what the New Jerusalem would be like.

Thousands of years before when they didn't even understand. There are many things, by the way, we're given to understand that they were not. Isn't that a marvelous thing? There's more about Israel in a minute, by the way, but we'll get back to it. Can you hold on? We'll get there.

And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. So, the walls will have twelve foundation stones, and on these twelve stones are the twelve names of the twelve apostles. These are the twelve apostles of the Lamb. That's interesting, because in the last two chapters of Revelation, our Lord is not called Christ any longer.

Isn't that interesting? Here we are at the very end, you'd think, call him by... No. He's not called Christ any longer. And it doesn't say that you're not supposed to. Don't misunderstand me. But it's interesting, the pattern, what you find most in the last two chapters of Revelation, here where we're in the New Jerusalem, Christ is called the Lamb. He is called Jesus, and He's called Lord Jesus, but even more than those put together, He is called the Lamb. And we see it here in this passage. Now, the New Testament has already told us some things, before we even get to this book, which fit in very well with what John has just written to us.

Paul told us in Ephesians 2.20 that the apostles are a foundation. Doesn't that fit? The author of Hebrews says in 11.8-16, which I quote in part and place on the overhead in part, who is looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God, all these, that is, Abraham and the others who were in chapter 11, died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and aliens on the earth. And jumping ahead to verse 16, but as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one, Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."

This is it, folks. Okay? He's prepared a city for them. Isn't it amazing? Here's these apostles. The Lord takes mundane, simple apostles and builds them into the very foundation of our eternal home. Imagine, here's Peter, the cowardly loudmouth The Lord is going to transform that man into someone who would be worthy of his name by Christ's righteousness on those foundation stones.

How about Simon? He was the one who, his identity, he was Simon the Zealot. He wanted to get rid of Rome, he wanted to be a rebel. And the Lord says, no Simon, you're going to be transformed. You're going to be transformed. Imagine the Lord taking a man like that who wants to just overthrow the government, taking a man like that and making him of such a character, by Christ's character, by Christ's life, that his name would be written on the foundation stones of our eternal home.

Just compare to that Matthew. Here's one who collected taxes for the disgusting Rome that Simon wanted to overthrow. And yet, yet this Roman tax collector, who was really a Jew, but collecting taxes for the Romans, the Lord would transform him as well. We could go down the list, but isn't it amazing what the Lord does?

And here's John. Think of what John had passed through his mind. He doesn't make note of it here. He's saying the names of the twelve apostles. Guess what John is? He's one of them. His name is on there. He doesn't make note of it here, but I have a hard time having him see that and not think, whoa, what am I seeing? Whoa, what am I seeing?

What has the Lord done? You see, these apostles had the very life of Christ empowering them and enabling them to do and to be what they were and who they are now. Now, I said before that we should point something else out about Israel, and the point is this. Now that this new Jerusalem is being revealed, we see that even though here in these verses the eternal home for the Church and for Israel is the same, both have a place in the people of God, but they are kept separate.

Do you notice that? The apostles are recognized separately. What symbolizes Israel is recognized as well, separately. Both are identified. We do not see Israel shoved aside. We do not see Israel's place usurped. We do not see the Church replacing Israel. Both of them have an identifiable and still separate identity as we look here at this New Jerusalem. Let's take a look at verse 15 through 17.

The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and its wall. The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width. And he measured the city with the rod fifteen hundred miles, and its length and width and height are equal. And he measured its wall seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.

Now the one who spoke to John was this angel that he had mentioned earlier in verse 9. This is one of the seven who had been given the task of pouring out those last plagues. And believe me, this has got to be a lot more pleasant task than the pouring out of the plagues. So here's this angel who has a measuring rod. And if you remember back in Revelation chapter 11, John was given a measuring rod too.

And so what I'd like to do is have us look at some contrasts between those. And you'll see this on your handout on the back side, bottom of side 2. First thing is that although the word comes across in English as being a measuring rod, the Greek word behind them is different. In chapter 11, which was in the middle of the Tribulation period, the Greek word was raddos.

That was a staff that a judge would carry. This is a different measuring rod, a kalamos. It's not one that a judge would carry. Second, the staff was likely made of reed, We'll see a picture of that in a minute. But this one is made of gold. Also, the measure in the first case, in chapter 11, was John. In this case, it's the angel, the one of the seven. The purpose was judgment, really clear by the Greek word that's used. There's a judge who carries this rhabdos. And in this case, the angel is simply giving dimensions, not a picture of judgment anymore.

The structure life of what John was measuring was seven years, roughly, that time of the tribulation. And here in chapter 21, the structure life is eternal, forever. And then something you can add to your list there, Jerusalem. The old Jerusalem was being measured in chapter 11, and here we have the new Jerusalem. So there's some contrasts and comparisons between these.

Now, as we look at this, one of the things we looked at previously, the Romans had a measuring rod that looked something like this and they would take, you know, iron and bronze and materials that they were accustomed to using and make something like this, typically put a folding mechanism so it wasn't quite so long, a little easier to carry. And, but some of the, that was a Roman measuring rod. Some of the others they had were bone for shorter length items that they would measure. They would use wooden rods as well and bulrush wreaths. We've got some pictures of those here. And those could be used for longer lengths.

But anything we know about measuring rods in John's day, they never, ever, ever used a gold one. We don't have any record of using a gold measuring rod. And that must have really shocked John. I mean, as important as anything would be, they would never use a gold measuring rod before.

This structure, however, was different. We would measure this with a golden rod because it has a value beyond anything we've seen on Earth. The gold symbolizes and pictures that immense value. Therefore, you'd use this gold rod that would never even be considered in any other case.

And notice the thickness that he comes up with. The wall thickness, 72 yards. You want to get an idea, a good number of the walls in the ancient cities would be somewhere like 3, 9, 12 feet, somewhere in that range. So this is thick. Something over 200 feet. This is a substantial wall. Let's look at verses 18 through 21. The material of the wall was jasper.

The city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the 8th barrel, the 9th topaz, the 10th chrysoprase, the 11th jacent, and the 12th amethyst. And the 12 gates were 12 pearls, each one of the gates was a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass." Now those are some phenomenal things. One of the things that comes here that's kind of amazing, these foundation stones that were adorned with these precious stones, It's interesting that they are transparent.

Do you see that? Gold, but transparent. Now, you and I know gold isn't. Even just a thin sheet of gold, gold leaf, is not transparent. But this is. And there's a very good reason why, as you'll see described here, this entire structure, even though it describes colors and even materials, that in our realm would be not transparent. It would just stop all light from passing through.

These are, and there's a very good reason. We'll get to that. Okay, can you hold on? Good, good. All right, now, there's something else here that's wrapped in this, and that is that as Jews would read this, they would look at it and they would say, ah, I recognize these stones.

These are stones like we would see in the high priest's breastplate. They're described there in the Old Testament. And so, matter of fact, in this particular case here, each of these stones are a part of a piece that is ready over in Jerusalem to be used in the temple that's going to be built for the tribulation.

They already have it ready at the Temple Institute, and they even have the names already on them, ready to go. Okay? And they're hoping to build soon. I mean, they keep trying to make applications constantly to try to get onto the Temple Mount and do that.

Now, what's amazing is here this is there in abundance enough so that even as massive as this New Jerusalem is, you readily see the precious stones, quickly. John looks at it, it's the first thing he sees, and he continues to describe them. What's amazing here is that they're found in such abundance that they occur mile after mile after mile. That is phenomenal. What is amazing, too, is that here human beings will search and search and search for these things.

People have given their lives for the things that you see represented here up on the screen. The New Jerusalem? That's everyday stuff. That's everyday stuff. Now there's something else that shows up here. Begins to show up and we'll see it continue to show up.

John writes the word no repeatedly. John writes no more often than a two-year-old says it. He writes it that way, no longer, no longer, no temple. John is not suddenly regressing. There's a reason for him writing no and no and no longer and not. The reason is this.

What he is describing is in sharp contrast to the world and the realm and the life that we've come to know, isn't it? It's not like it. So that's one of the things he's trying to get across. Huge contrast from everything we've ever known. And so he keeps coming, no longer this, no longer that, not this, not that, no temple, none of this. He has to state it that way just to get across to us a sense of how different this will be from everything we have known. He's described what he can compare to what we know, and then he's saying, no, but there's other things that Don't compare at all, and you need to know about those. And so he uses the word no, no, no, and not to get that point across to us. Verse 22, And I saw no temple for it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are its temples. Now this is amazing.

You think back in John's day, every major city that John had been in and seen had at least one temple. Obviously, Jerusalem had the major Jewish temple that was there, but every major pagan city, including the ones that John had lots of exposure to around this time in Asia Minor, in the western part of what is now Turkey, those cities all had temples, sometimes multiple temples. One of them that John no doubt saw was the Temple of Artemis. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and the largest structure of its time. It was huge, it was massive. the numbers of columns in that building exceeded 100. It was a huge structure. And furthermore, many of the temples were put on prominent places so you could see them.

And he sees the New Jerusalem, and one of the things he says, no more temple. Now why? Think about what a temple is for. A temple is a place to have an interface with God, or as the Greeks would have it, with a god or gods. with the idea that there was a separation between me and God. There was a separation between myself and God or gods, as the Greeks would have it. And so I needed the temple and I needed the high priest in order to be able to span the gap. That's what those temples were for.

Well, guess what? The gap's missing. There isn't any. Matter of fact, we saw last week, the Lord says four times, in different ways, I'll be with them. I'll be among them. They will be my people. I'll be their God. I'll be among them. I'll be with them."

And he keeps telling that, and the reason is that he's going to be. And you don't need the temple because he's there. The whole purpose, the reason people have temples, the reason even people build huge cathedrals, is gone. Why? Because God Himself is there. Always, ever, and continuously there. Then we look in verse 23.

And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime, for there will be no night there, its gates will never be closed, and they will bring the glory and the honor of nations into it. Now we come to the reason why everything in Jerusalem is described as transparent.

You won't need to say, boy, this room is dark, I'm going to go turn on a light. You won't need to say, better get those street lamps lit. You won't be calling the power company, and good news, no power bill. You won't be getting any heavenly power bill to pay. None of that. Why?

Everything is translucent and transparent, so the light of the Lord, the light of the Lamb, is visible everywhere you go. Everywhere. Without exception. light comes through. There will still be colors, there will still be variety, there will still be this immense amount of gold appearing, and yet with a translucency, so that the light of the Lord, the light of the Lamb, shines throughout the entire city and lights it all non-stop.

That's why. Even though the walls are 200 feet thick, still translucent. still transparent. Isn't that amazing? The Lord Himself will light up the entire city. No night there. The glory of the Lord, the essential radiance of who He is, will light all of it.

Verse 27, And nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Now we're brought back to the fact here that no one who practices evil lives in this city or has access to it. John's told us actually three times in chapters 21 and 22, so we've heard it twice in 21. No evildoers in the New Jerusalem.

They just aren't there. He keeps reinforcing that. Here's one reason why I suspect he may be reinforcing it. One of the major cities where John continued to have influence later in his life, and one of the cities that received This book of Revelation was Ephesus. That was a place where if someone who committed a crime could make it alive to the Temple of Artemis, they were free. So Ephesus was a place where lots of evildoers hung around. Lots of bad people would hang around Ephesus.

And John's saying, no more. None of that. Now, you might be thinking, wait a minute. We've been learning all along, don't believers have a sin nature? I mean, we've talked about this, you know, this fact. If that's what you're thinking, well, good for you. You've gotten so far. But remember, we're going to be with the Lord here. Our position and our condition will be made one.

There will no longer be a tension between the sin nature and the new nature in Christ, as we have now, as we read of in places like Galatians 5.17. Therefore, though, we as believers who stumble now, at that time will no longer stumble. Our condition and our position will be made one.

But for now, but for now, because this is a good thing to look forward to, isn't it? But for now, our walk with the Lord is by faith in the spiritual facts, including the ones we just read, In the spiritual facts that have been revealed in scripture, for now, we have faith in those spiritual facts, and we have a certain hope.

It's an absolute hope. It's not an I hope so kind of hope. We have a certain hope. Until the day when we see them face to face, and it will be some time after that, when this New Jerusalem will have been brought forth, faith and hope will have met their end. Isn't that interesting?

Faith, hope, and love. But love is the one that remains. Because faith and hope will have met their fulfillment. They will be fulfilled because we will see Him as He is. We will no longer have to have faith in the spiritual facts because we will see the spiritual fact. The risen Christ.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look ahead to this new Jerusalem, eternal home for us. We just give you thanks that we can look forward to a time when the regrets, the things that keep us up at night when we struggle, the things that we get concerned about so easily, that when the wrestlings with our sin nature have come to an end, we look forward to that. But Lord, until then, we just pray that you would remind us, bring to heart and to mind these spiritual facts that have been laid out before us, as well as many others. And we just give you thanks that we can depend upon you your very life. We just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.