Christ and the Bride Part 1
The Conquering Lamb • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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INTRO/REVIEW/CONTEXT
INTRO/REVIEW/CONTEXT
The last time we were together in Revelation, we saw the new heaven and the new earth. The old was being wiped away and behold—the new had come.
No more tears. No more death. No more mourning. No more crying. No more pain.
The former things had passed away and created received the redemption it has been groaning for.
Tonight, we see who will fill the new earth.
Tonight, we are not so much talking about a place, but a people.
We are talking about the beautiful Bride who is wed to the beautiful Bridegroom.
Tonight, we see the New Jerusalem—the Wife of Jesus.
We have five observations tonight.
We will see that:
The Bride of Christ is the people of God (v. 9-10, 12-14, 24, 26).
The Bride of Christ is perfected by God (v. 9-10).
The Bride of Christ reflects the pure beauty of God (v. 11, 18-21)
The Bride of Christ is protected by God (v. 12, 15-17, 25, 27).
The Bride of Christ is in the presence of God (v. 16, 19-23).
Let’s read the passage and then we will jump into it.
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
THE PEOPLE OF GOD (v. 9, 12-14, 24, 26)
THE PEOPLE OF GOD (v. 9, 12-14, 24, 26)
There are some who read this passage of Scripture and they understand it to be literal.
They understand it to be the literal dimensions of the New Earth.
For example, Clarence Larkin, one of the earliest dispensationalists, wrote this:
The New Jerusalem is a literal city, with literal dimensions, and is to be located on the earth. It is not a symbol of the Church, but is the abode of the Church.
Clarence Larkin
Dr. John MacArthur, another famous dispensationalist, says that the New Jerusalem is the capital city of heaven.
But I believe these brothers are mistaken for a number of reasons.
First of all, Revelation is a book of Apocalypse, written in the genre of Jewish Apocalyptic literature.
As we have seen throughout, the nature of the book is symbolic.
There are pictures and numbers and animals which act as symbols, pointing us to the reality of how things have been, how they are and how they will be.
Secondly, the size and scale of the city in this passage are described to us in numbers that are significant and have been significant throughout Revelation.
The number 12, God’s perfect number for His people, is all over this passage.
The number 10, the number that represents a multitude from a human perspective, is also heavily involved in the measurements of the New Jerusalem.
But most importantly, we understand this passage to be speaking symbolically of a people and not a literal description of a place, because of the text itself and what is clearly taking place in the passage.
If we go back to Revelation 17, it is abundantly clear that we are in a game of comparison.
Much like we compared Van Gogh’s most beautiful work and his ugliest work, we are seeing John comparing the harlot of Babylon and the Bride of Christ in two parallel visions.
Consider what we see in the verses with me:
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters,
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
You do not need to go to seminary or know Greek to pick up on the parallel.
And then it is just continues.
In chapter 17, John is carried to a a lookout point:
And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.
He sees a woman in the wilderness.
The wilderness represents the world. The former age.
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,
John is not in the wilderness now. He is on a high mountain.
That is where he needs to be in order to see the woman of heaven descending.
The harlot is adorned with the jewelry and clothing of the world:
The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.
The Bride, called the New Jerusalem, is adorned with the glory of God:
having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
At the end of each vision, the angel confirms that what John has seen in the visions is true.
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
And in each case, after the truth is confirmed, John falls down at the feet of the angel and receives a rebuke:
Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
These clear parallels show us that just a Babylon the Harlot symbolized the world and everyone in it who rebels against the Lord and refuses to worship Him, The New Jerusalem is the Bride of Christ, a symbol for the people of God who love the Lord and will dwell with Him forever.
1. The Bride of Christ is the people of God (v. 9-10, 12-14, 24, 26).
1. The Bride of Christ is the people of God (v. 9-10, 12-14, 24, 26).
These parallels demonstrate this to us, but so does the language in verses 12-14.
The city has a “great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”
12 gates
12 angels
12 tribes inscribed
12 foundations
12 apostles
Do you think the Lord is trying to get a point across to John and to the rest of us?
We have twelve gates and each of the gates has the names of the 12 sons of the tribes of Israel inscribed on it.
These names represent the Old Testament people of God.
Those who repented of their sin and trusted in the Messiah to come.
On the foundations of the city, the names of the Apostles are inscribed.
These names represent the New Testament people of God.
Those who have repented of their sin and trust in the Messiah who came.
Together, they represent the one people of God.
They represent TRUE Israel.
Some have argued that the names on the gates and the names on the foundation show us two distinct groups in heaven—Jewish believers and Gentile believers.
I don’t just find that idea to be in error. I find it to be offensive to what Christ has accomplished.
There was never a time when the people of God was decided purely by bloodline and ethnicity.
While Israel was the people group that God revealed Himself to and set His love on by giving the Law and the tabernacle and the prophets, not all of Israel was Israel.
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
There were some Israelites who, despite receiving the sign of circumcision, turned away from the Lord, proving they had uncircumcised hearts.
Furthermore, there were some Gentiles included in the Old Covenant promise, despite not being Jewish.
Tamar and Rahab.
Ruth and Bathsheba.
These are Gentile women in Jesus’ genealogy.
The true Israel of God are those who are a new creation in Christ the Messiah.
It is those who believe God and have their faith credited to them as righteousness, in the same manner as Abraham.
For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
In just a few minutes, we will see how there is no temple in the New Jerusalem.
That is because they entirety of the New Jerusalem IS the temple.
The whole people of God is the temple of God and will be forever.
He is building this temple now, brick by brick. Christ is the cornerstone. The Apostles are the foundation.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
And in this temple, there is no dividing wall between Jew and Gentile.
by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
If He has created in Himself one new man in place of the two, why would we hold to a theology that keeps trying to create two men in place of the one?
Instead of seeing a Jew and Gentile distinction in heaven, we should just see one people.
The Bride of Christ is made up of many nations, but she is one Bride.
She is made up of people groups from every shore, but she is one Kingdom.
This is demonstrated in v. 24 as you see a myriad of the redeemed from every nation walking by the light of the Lord—the greatest of these redeemed people groups bringing their glory into the city.
They are laying the glory and honor of the nations at the feet of Christ (v. 26). He is the only One deserving of this sort of praise.
The Lord’s Bride is a diverse Bride, but she is one Bride—bringing glory and honor to her Bridegroom.
And she is perfect, as her Bridegroom is perfect.
We see this in our next observation.
PERFECTED BY GOD (v. 9-10)
PERFECTED BY GOD (v. 9-10)
You will notice that she is coming down out of heaven from God.
She is not like the harlot, who is found in the wilderness of the world, riding on Satan’s beast.
Instead, she comes from God and to even see her, John must be taken up to a high mountain.
She is not a city filled with sin and rebellion.
She is a holy city.
She is not born from below.
She is born from above.
She is a Bride that has been called out of the world, into covenant with God, by the power of the Spirit.
She has been washed in the blood of Christ.
And now, as we speak, she is being sanctified.
We see this idea very clearly in Ephesians 5, where Paul is talking about marriage and how husbands should love their wives as Christ loves the church and wash them with the water of the Word.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Do you see what Jesus is doing?
He is sanctifying His Church with the water of the word so that on the day of her wedding, she would be in splendor.
She would have no spots. No wrinkles. No blemishes.
She would be a pure bride—the opposite of the whore of Babylon.
2. The Bride of Christ is perfected by God (v. 9-10).
2. The Bride of Christ is perfected by God (v. 9-10).
This has not happened yet. His Bride is not perfect yet.
We know that. We know that we sin against each other. We offend each other and have to forgive.
We fall short of righteousness in how we deal with one another.
We can believe wrong things at times.
We can boast of wrong things at times.
We can bellow about things at times.
We can beat on each other at times.
In thought, word and deed, the Bride of Christ finds herself quite wrinkled and spotted and blemished.
We see this clearly in Revelation 2 and 3.
The seven churches of Asia Minor, which represent the entirety of the New Testament church throughout the ages, are filled with problems.
A lack of love
A flirtation with the world
False Teaching
Lukewarmness
And yet—here we are at the end of the book and the same church is perfected by the sanctifying love of God.
So though we are imperfect, take heart in knowing that He is daily washing us in the water of the Word.
He is daily perfecting us until the day when we will be made perfect forever.
And in the Bride’s perfection, she is actually reflecting the pure beauty of the Lord.
PURE BEAUTY OF GOD (v. 11, 18-21)
PURE BEAUTY OF GOD (v. 11, 18-21)
We see this pure beauty in v. 11 and in v. 18-21.
The Bride has the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
And then the walls of the New Jerusalem, which is the Bride of Christ, is built with jasper and the whole city is pure gold, like clear glass.
The foundations are adorned with every kind of jewel.
The streets are like gold that is clear as glass and the gates are made of pearls.
3. The Bride of Christ reflects the pure beauty of God (v. 11, 18-21).
3. The Bride of Christ reflects the pure beauty of God (v. 11, 18-21).
As John sees the New Jerusalem descending, she has the glory of God.
And this makes her more beautiful than any bride who has ever walked any aisle.
I remember very little from my wedding ceremony. The whole thing was pretty surreal.
I remember the doors of the vestibule of Red Lane Baptist opening and I remember Katie coming through those doors and it was breathtaking.
I had heard rumors of her beauty throughout the day, but when I saw her, with the hair done and the make up and the lipstick—I took a mental picture to hang onto as long as my memory will hold up.
But with that said—I love my wife—but her radiance on that day has nothing on this.
The radiance of this bride is so beautiful that John stretches the use of human language to its edges.
He starts describing her in ways that kind of break the brain.
For instance, in verse 11, he says that she has radiance “like a most rare jewel.”
He says she is like jasper.
Jasper is a jewel that can be red or brown. It can be green or yellow or even gray.
Most of the time it is a reddish-brown.
But what it is not is clear.
Jasper is an opaque jewel.
And yet, the New Jerusalem is like a jewel that is clear as crystal.
John is straining the limits of his hearers’ experience to try to communicate a beauty that lies beyond the capacity of the first earth.
Dennis Johnson
You see this again in verse 18, where the city is pure gold, like clear glass, as well as verse 21 where the streets are described in the same way.
We know what pure gold can look like, and we know that pure gold is not clear.
It is not like glass.
So once again, John’s describing a heavenly vision that breaks the boundaries of the former age.
This is a new earth beauty and perfection being described that we are only left to imagine at this moment with our very limited minds.
In verse 23, you see that the Bride is a city of light.
Light pervades the whole scene. Light covers every inch of the New Jerusalem.
The people of God are a people of light, just as they are a people of radiance.
But all of this is because of the glory of God, which is theirs forever.
THE JEWELS
THE JEWELS
Aside from the light and the jasper radiance and jasper wall, we also see that the foundations of the wall have every kind of jewel (v. 19-21).
Jasper is mentioned again.
Sapphire and Agate
Emerald and Onyx
Carnelian and Chrysolite
Beryl and Topaz
Chrysoprase and jacinth and Amethyst
There is an interpretative significance to these jewels that I will get to in a moment, but for now, I will simply say that the colors of all these stones give us the full spectrum of the rainbow.
You will remember that we have seen a rainbow before in Revelation.
And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.
This only confirms what John has said in 21:11—the Bride has the glory of God—the very glory that you find at His throne.
The Bride is reflecting the glory of God.
At her very foundations, she is adorned with His beauty and will be forever.
The perfected, people of God are reflecting the pure beauty of the King.
THE PEARLY GATES
THE PEARLY GATES
And then we have the pearly gates, which have become almost a cartoon in our Western minds, imagining Peter standing there with a clipboard.
When I was a kid, I used to think there was a long line into heaven and when you got into the gates, they would check their list like Santa Claus and send you away if you were more bad than good.
Cut me slack—I didn’t go to church.
But how many people have that thought because of comic strips and Hollywood and folk theology?
In truth, the gates cut from one pearl just add to the symbolism of the purity of the Bride.
A pearl big enough to cut 12 giant gates from would have to be the most massive, brilliant, undefiled, sought after Pearl to ever exist.
And indeed, it is. After all, the gate into the people of God is the Christ of God.
Jesus is the door that you must enter through if you are to be in the Kingdom.
He is pure righteousness and His Bride is cut from Him. Formed by Him.
And she reflects His purity like she reflects His glory.
What a beautiful Bride this is—because she is reflecting the pure beauty of the Bridegroom.
PROTECTED BY GOD (v. 12, 15-17, 25, 27)
PROTECTED BY GOD (v. 12, 15-17, 25, 27)
Let’s keep moving along—we have two points left.
The Bride is the people of God.
The Bride is perfected by God.
The Bride reflects the pure beauty of God.
Now, let’s consider her security on the New Earth.
We saw in verse 12 how the Bride-city has a “great, high wall.”
In verse 15, the angel has a measuring rod and he is going to measure the city, the gates and the walls.
The fact that the city is measured is incredibly important.
Back in chapter 11, we got a brief vision of a measured temple, but the court outside the temple was not measured.
It was trampled for 42 months—referring to the time of the church age when the Lord’s people are persecuted and suffer in the world.
But now, on the New Earth, the entire city is to be measured, showing that the time of trampling is over.
The nations will no longer tread the church under her feet.
Instead, the only thing underfoot in this measured city are streets of gold, like pure glass.
4. The Bride of Christ is protected by God (v. 12, 15-17, 25, 27).
4. The Bride of Christ is protected by God (v. 12, 15-17, 25, 27).
FOUR-SQUARE CITY
FOUR-SQUARE CITY
There are a number of ways in which we see the protection of God in this passage.
The city itself lies foursquare. The length, width and height are all completely equal, meaning it is a cube.
If you calculated the city’s size in physical terms, it would be 1,365 miles wide, long and high.
Dennis Johnson points out that this height would put the city’s height in the path of man-made satellites today.
But again—the number and unit of measurement—12,000 stadia—clues us in to the fact that we are not talking about the physical dimensions of a literal city here.
This is more symbolic language to help us understand the people of God who will dwell on the New Earth forever.
We have already established tonight that 12 is God’s perfect number for His people.
12 tribes.
12 apostles.
Here, the number 12 is multiplied by 1000.
1000 is a multiple of ten.
In Apocalyptic literature like Revelation or Daniel, ten is significant. Here is Michael Kuykendall talking about the number ten.
This number (and its multiples) emphasizes indefiniteness, magnitude, and completeness, often from the point of view of time and humanity...
Michael Kuykendall
So with these things in mind, the measurements of the city reveal not so much the dimensions of the New Earth, but the delivered people who will live there.
It will be the people of God and their number will be both vast and complete.
No one whose name is in the Lamb’s book of life will be left out. They will all be there.
It is not the first time we have seen the people of God described with the number 12,000. We saw it in Revelation 7:4-8
And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
WALLS
WALLS
The walls of the Bride-city are measured 144 cubits thick.
Our math people in the room will recognize that 144 is 12 x 12.
Old Testament people of God—12.
New Testament people of God—12.
Multiplied together—144 cubits.
Another hint in the vision that the New Jerusalem is the Bride and the Bride is the New Jerusalem.
144 cubits is 216 feet.
Those are some thick symbolic walls!
Indeed—and there is meaning in that as well.
The thickness of the wall is speaking to the security of the people within them.
God’s people are as safe as His hand is secure.
God’s people will be as eternally secure as He is strong.
In his series on Revelation, Voddie Baucham pointed out the symbolically thick walls communicate a very important truth to us—that the fall will not happen again.
Have you ever thought about that?
Have you ever wondered what will stop someone from sinning on the New Earth and starting all of this over again?
Well when God saved you, He made a resurrection promise to you.
That you will be resurrected and you will be given a body in the likeness of the resurrected Christ.
The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
By the redeeming grace of God, you will be resurrected with a body that bears the image of the man of heaven.
You will never sin again because you will have no potential to sin again.
The wall symbolizes a theological reality. That God has made a distinct, permanent separation between those who are His and those who are not. Those who are outside and those who are inside. The heaven is made new, the earth is made new and through the resurrection of our bodies, we are made new. And when we are made new, we are made like Him in a way that Adam never was.
Voddie Baucham
We will be secure from sin forever. There will be no hint of it in us or in the New Earth.
GATES (OPEN AND ANGELS)
GATES (OPEN AND ANGELS)
But it is not just the wall in the Bride-city that gives us this picture of protection. It is also the gates in the walls.
Notice in v. 25 that they will never be shut by day and there will be no night.
What do gates do in cities?
They keep enemies out.
So why will the gates be open?
Because there are no enemies left.
God has tossed them all into the Lake of Fire.
There will be no more night. This is when the enemy would usually attack, hoping to catch a city slumbering, but in the New Jerusalem, there is no night.
God’s people will never again be under attack.
And just to be abundantly sure of this, we see 12 angels at the 12 gates, reminiscent of the angel with the fiery sword, guarding Eden after man fell.
He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
In Revelation 21, the angels guard the gates to ensure that that no one on the outside, would ever come inside.
It is another way for God to make clear to us that our enemies will be vanquished, and we will be safe and secure forever.
Or as v. 27 says— “…nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
PRESENCE OF GOD (v. 16, 19-24, 26)
PRESENCE OF GOD (v. 16, 19-24, 26)
The people of God, perfected by God, reflecting the pure beauty of God, protected by God...
And now, our final observation tonight—the fulfillment of the New Covenant promise:
5. The Bride of Christ is in the presence of God (v. 16, 19-24, 26).
5. The Bride of Christ is in the presence of God (v. 16, 19-24, 26).
TEMPLE
TEMPLE
There is a lot of temple language to be seen in this passage. Direct temple talk and allusions to the temple.
And to understand this, we need to understand something of Ezekiel 40-48.
In those chapters, Ezekiel sees a vision of a temple. The language should remind you of what we have read tonight.
In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city to the south.
A temple like a city being viewing from a high mountain.
Sound familiar?
Many believe that this is a temple yet to be built.
They say that this temple must be built on the temple mount in Jerusalem before the Lord Jesus will return.
But I believe this is a complete misunderstanding of the biblical text and the meaning of Ezekiel’s vision.
The similarity in the language is indeed pointing to the building of another temple, but it is not a physical temple built in Jerusalem—it is the spiritual temple of God’s people.
Just like the Bride-City in Revelation 21, Ezekiel’s temple is measured.
Ezekiel’s temple has an impenetrable wall.
Ezekiel was seeing what John was seeing.
It is not the building of a literal structure, but of a spiritual people.
And so as we get to Revelation 21:9-27 and we read this passage, you notice that there is temple inside of this city (v. 22).
Why? Because the entire city is the temple.
Because the PEOPLE of God ARE the TEMPLE of God forever and ever on the New Earth.
This is no less than what God promised us prophetically through Jeremiah:
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
It is what we saw in Revelation 21:3
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Remember how the city is a perfect cube?
If you know your Old Testament that might remind you of something...
It might remind you of the Holiest Place in the tabernacle and the temple.
The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid an altar of cedar.
20, 20, 20. A cube.
In the days of sacrifice, only the High Priest could enter in, once a year on the Day of Atonement.
He would make sacrifice for himself and then sacrifice for the people.
This was the only interface with God allowed in the Most Holy Place.
But those days are over now. The curtain was torn upon the death of Christ.
Jesus, the Great High Priest, has laid down His life and atoned for our sin and he intercedes for us and He will do so for eternity.
For now, we enter into the temple of prayer by His blood and we can pray anytime, anywhere.
But when the New Earth comes, it will get even better.
Then, the whole city become the Holy Place.
The entire people of God, will be the temple of God.
We will dwell in His presence—in the light of His glory—for all of eternity.
As we will see in 22:4, we will see His face.
JEWELS
JEWELS
Do you remember the jewels from v. 18-21?
Eight of those 12 jewels were found in the breastplate of the high priest—the only one who could enter the Holy Place.
But now, those jewels are on the very foundation of the New Jerusalem, showing that the Bride of Jesus will not interface with God once a year, but at all times.
It is a fulfillment of what was promised to Israel as they suffered in Exile. They were separated from Jerusalem and their place of worship, but God comforted them with a promise of a time when they would suffer no more and be separated no more.
“O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted,
behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
and lay your foundations with sapphires.
I will make your pinnacles of agate,
your gates of carbuncles,
and all your wall of precious stones.
NO DAY OR NIGHT
NO DAY OR NIGHT
And finally, we see that there is no need of sun or moon to shine on the city.
This is God communicating through the vision that as His people dwell in His presence, there will be no darkness.
He is a God of light and we will be a people of light.
The sun and moon, which has dictated day and night and time for us, will no longer serve that purpose.
Instead, we will be in the light of the presence of God forever—without threat.
Much like the disappearance of the sea being symbolic, I am not completely sure that this means there will be no celestial lights in the New Earth, but if there are—they won’t serve the same purpose.
We won’t need them to.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
God’s grace to His people is better than we even understand.
And as His Bride, we will spend eternity tracing that grace.
His people. Perfected.
Purely beautiful like the One we will marry.
Protected.
In His presence forever.
If I could have one word of application after all of this heavy teaching, I would say, let this impact how you talk about His Bride in the here and now.
I know that we can get to complaining about the church.
The people in it.
The structure of it.
Changes taking place.
Leaders who hurt us in the past.
It is easy to sit around at a cookout and start bashing the church.
Just remember brother and sister—that is the Bride of Jesus you are turning your mouth against.
Would you come within earshot of me and badmouth my bride?
I don’t like her music.
I don’t like her mistakes.
I don’t like how she looks.
If you do, we will probably have some confrontational conversation, right?
Because I am a man who loves my wife.
Why do you think you can badmouth the Bride of Christ, whom He died for and washes and is preparing for this great glory, and you think it’s no big thing to Him?
Repent of this sin. Intend to do it no more.
For we have seen what He has in store for His Bride.
Oh, how much He must love her.