The Perfect End to the Story
True Story: God's Vision for His Church • Sermon • Submitted
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ME: Intro
ME: Intro
In 2004, Randy Alcorn published a heavy book simply titled “Heaven”
His book opened with this incredible story that I would like to share this morning:
“In 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island determined to swim to the shore of mainland California.”
That is a little more than 40 miles.
“The weather was foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam for fifteen hours. When she begged to be taken out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat alongside, told her she was very close and she could make it. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and was pulled out. It wasn’t until she was on the boat that she discovered the shore was less than half a mile away. At a news conference the next day she said, ‘All I could see was the fog…I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.’”
Alcorn then goes on to say;
“Perhaps you’ve come to this book burdened, discouraged, depressed, or even traumatized. Perhaps your dreams—your marriage, career, or ambitions—have crumbled. Perhaps you’ve become cynical or have lost hope. A biblical understanding of the truth about Heaven can change all that.”
“I pray this book will help you see the shore.”
When asked why he wrote this book,
He said it was because he was shocked to find how many people dreaded the thought of going to heaven,
Because they viewed heaven as this spiritual place where we are all just sitting on these wispy clouds strumming our harps of gold and singing Amazing Grace for all eternity.
So, Alcorn wanted to drive away what he describes as our humanly depressed views of heaven.
And in his book, he contends that the best way we can learn about heaven is to study Scripture.
And there is no better place in the Bible than the final two chapters of Revelation.
But that being said, it is still an incomplete view of heaven.
So, let us squeeze every drop of sweetness we can out of this incomplete view God has given us.
Allow this part of Scripture to help us see the shore.
Before his death, the brilliant man Stephen Hawking said;
“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
Now, Hawking was a genius, far more intelligent than I,
But our passage this morning teaches that there is a new heaven and new earth,
And it is coming.
I have heard a phrase that never sat well with me,
Perhaps you have heard it as well,
“That person is so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.”
This phrase should not sit well with you either,
Because it simply is not true.
Our heavenly mindedness glorifies God!
Colossians 3:1-2 says;
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
The truth is, the more heavenly minded we are,
The more earthly and eternal good we will be.
C.S. Lewis offers helpful comments in his book, Mere Christianity;
“A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next…Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in:’ aim at earth and you will get neither.”
This heavenly mindedness is especially true amid suffering.
Greater suffering on earth produces sweeter meditations on heaven.
A great example came from slaves who would work in cotton fields.
The only solace from the unrelenting sorrow and suffering of slavery were the songs of heaven they would sing.
For example, the song “Swing low, sweet chariot…coming forth to carry me home!
I looked over Jordan, and what did I see?
A band of angels coming after me.
I’m sometimes up and sometimes down,
But still my soul feels heavenly bound.”
I believe that our present affluence and comfort can often interfere with our ability to have this heavenly mindedness.
Like Proverbs 27:7 says;
One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet.
But this heavenly mindedness will produce a strong yearning for heaven in us.
And the Perfect End to the Story helps us with this heavenly mindedness.
The outline for our passage this morning is;
Perfect Eternity (Rev. 21:1-8)
Perfect City (Rev. 21:9-21)
Perfect Temple Rev. 21:22-27)
Perfect Garden (Rev. 22:1-5)
Thirst for heavenly mindedness, so that you will be more earthly good.
John hears the voice of God announcing the renovation of creation in its entirety.
The Alpha and Omega will dwell in this new creation.
His glory and power and beauty will extend to all of God’s people.
With it comes the abolishment of all that is evil.
Death and pain and suffering is over.
The fulfillment of God’s promises are fulfilled.
These final visions John is given knit together the Scriptures in a masterful way.
We see the theme of creation,
The holy city of Jerusalem,
The dwelling of God in the tabernacle and the temple,
Living water,
The family of God,
And a warning of judgment to those who lack faith in Christ.
These themes are introduced in vs. 1-8 and are elaborated on in greater detail in 21:9-22:5.
But there is also a contrasting relationship with the passage we looked at last week.
The negative side of God’s judgment was depicted by the great white throne.
The positive side of God’s judgment is depicted in our passage this morning.
Within the negative side of the message, a positive reference to the book of life is included in Rev. 20:15.
Within the positive side of the message, a negative reference to the lake of fire is included in vs. 8.
WE: Perfect Eternity (21:1-8)
WE: Perfect Eternity (21:1-8)
The Perfect End to the Story begins with an introduction to the Perfect Eternity in Revelation 21:1-8;
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 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. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And 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 from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
The first thing John sees in this vision he describes as a new heaven and a new earth.
Something God promised He would create back in Isaiah 65:17.
Some believe this new creation will be entirely different from our current creation.
That this world will be completely removed and a new one will take its place.
Pointing to 2 Peter 3:10-13 as the reason for this understanding;
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
It is easy to understand based off Peter’s language how one could conclude that this world will be completely destroyed and replaced with a new one.
But Peter’s language is not explicitly stating an annihilation of our world.
Romans 8:21-23 is important to consider here;
that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Thes other passages seem to indicate a transformation of the old creation.
Just like we will experience a transformation of our old bodies,
Like what Paul teaches in 1 Cor. 15.
In this perfect eternity, everything will be new,
It will be a transformation of perfect redemption,
Not a destruction of the old and a replacement of the new.
Danny Akin summarizes this well;
“I think we are on good ground to affirm some type of continuity between the old order and the new order, though the new will be radically superior. Perhaps the judgment of 2 Peter 3 is one of cleansing rather than total destruction.”
Similarly Grant Osborne adds;
“There will be a whole new reality, a new kind of existence in which all the negatives of the ‘first’ (Gen 1) world will be removed, all the discoloration by sin will be gone.”
We often summarize this new reality as heaven.
It is a term used throughout the Bible as a reference to God’s dwelling place.
For example, Ps. 33:13; Matt. 6:9; and Acts 1:11;
Heaven is where the entire church will come together to worship God according to Heb. 12:22-25;
Our passage this morning and 1 Thess 4:16-17 point to the day when we will be in heaven with Christ forever.
Heaven is mysterious in so many ways.
It is a place,
But it is more than just a place.
Ephesians 1:20 describes it as the throne of Christ at the Father’s right hand,
But it also says the life of Christians in Christ are in heavenly places.
So, this new creation will be a literal place,
And we will live in it with our resurrected bodies according to 2 Cor. 5.
Presently though, we only see the realities of heaven by faith.
The hope founded on what we see by faith gives us courage to endure until it becomes our reality.
This is what Paul teaches in Romans 8:25;
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Paul also teaches in 1 Cor. 13:12;
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
We get a partial idea of heaven now.
Part of that includes unbroken communion with God,
As Psalm 23 ends by announcing,
I will dwell in the house of the Lord all my days.
Our passage this morning tells us that heaven will have no tears or sorrow or death.
All the corruption of this world caused by sin will be undone.
I love how the Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches,
That we were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
These things we see about heaven,
The crowns, and the feasts, and the celebrations,
They reinforce our created purpose of enjoying God forever.
The Bible teaches that this is made possible by the triumph of the Lamb,
Making our union with God by the blood of the Lamb central to heaven.
This was God’s promise made multiple times in the OT;
Lev. 26:11-12; 2 Chron. 6:18; Ezek. 37:27; Zech. 2:10;
And we are only seeing this fulfillment in part.
The complete realization will be far beyond anything we can think or imagine.
This unimaginably glorious new heaven and new earth will have no sea.
Now, this may only be a symbol for the chaos of our current world.
But it could be literally speaking of our massive oceans disappearing in some way.
Resulting in the entire world no longer experience the borders created by the seas,
And having all of eternity to explore this new creation.
In the OT, God’s people were often portrayed as an unfaithful harlot.
Then, back in Rev. 19:7-9, we were first introduced to the beautiful imagery of the Bride of the Lamb.
Because the Lamb has transformed us from an unfaithful harlot into a beautifully adorned bride.
Now, the Bride is also pictured as the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
Coming down out of heaven.
She is both a place and a people.
John hears the loud voice of God from the throne making one of the greatest promises in all of the Bible.
This promise is the crescendo that the entire Bible builds toward.
God is telling John that His dwelling is with humanity!
Look, His glory living with humanity.
He is in communion with humanity.
He is our God making His home with us and we are His people.
Some from every tribe, tongue, and nation making up His people.
Our great God will be with us, we will be in His presence.
This is the central prize of heaven.
Anything about heaven that does not include or focus on God as the central part of heaven is missing the most important part of heaven.
Every other prize and every other promise of heaven is secondary to the presence of God Himself.
The intimacy of this communion is communicated in one of the most precious verses in all the Bible.
Vs. 4 shows Jesus wiping tears from our face.
Think of all the reasons tears of sadness have rolled down your cheeks.
The sinful and fallen nature of this world has left us all beaten and broken one time or another.
The pain of this world overwhelms us at times,
Crushes us from every side.
Now picture it, tears in your eyes, potentially lingering from what we looked at last week,
The Great White Throne Judgment.
The perfect Judge is seated on His throne.
All of our sin is open before Him and before our sight.
Therefore, He declares, “The consequence for these sins is death.”
We are kneeling before this King, weeping in response to our sins.
Then, He opens another book,
The cover of this second book says ‘Life.’
He closes the book,
Steps down off His throne,
And with the same nail-pierced hands His disciple Thomas touched,
He reaches out and wipes away our tears and says,
No more.
No more crying,
No more sadness,
I have paid for the consequences of all of these sins with My life.
Therefore, death shall be no more.
It is beautiful,
It is glorious,
It is wonderful,
There are not enough words!
You see, this perfect communion with God results in God making the brokenness of sin right.
His presence does away with death and all its consequences.
There is no grief from sin,
No tears of sadness,
No pain from suffering.
Death is swallowed up, as He promised back in Isaiah 25:8; 65:19;
As Adrian Rogers would say, “Death is only a comma to a Christian—not a period!”
In this Perfect Eternity, all the former things associated with our fallen world will fade away and never come back.
Briefly, I want to acknowledge a dominating question regarding memories in heaven.
Many wonder if we will have memories,
And if we have memories, why would we have no sadness,
Especially if we have family members or friends who do not believe in Christ.
And that is a great and challenging question.
John MacArthur argues for a heavenly mind swipe.
John Piper believes we will still have memories, describing them as heavenly regrets,
Kind of like a scar reminds you of an injury from your past, but you may not remember the details.
Pastor Andy Davis believes our memories will be fully in tact,
And we will spend all eternity sharing our testimonies with other believers.
So, in all our memories, we are learning the glory of God, making every memory a sweet memory.
All of these men are far smarter than me,
And they put forward some definite possibilities of how to understand this passage.
I lean more toward the ideas that suggest we will maintain our memories somehow.
So, I will go ahead and throw out my attempt at trying to wrap our minds around this mystery.
At Stephanie and I’s wedding, we had a four-year old ring bearer who was the son of pastor-friend of ours.
He was the last one to come down the aisle before Stephanie,
By the time he got almost to the front,
The anxiety of the moment got to him,
So, I was trying to get his attention and point to his dad so he knew where to go.
But while I was still trying to get his attention,
Stephanie came out,
And in that moment, I was captivated by her beauty and by her presence and what it meant at that moment.
As a result, I no longer was paying attention to our ring bearer,
I was not concerned about trying to get him back to his dad,
I couldn’t think of anything except my bride.
And that is my guess as to what heaven will be like.
Again, I confess this is a guess.
But I believe the glory of heaven will be so captivating that we still have our memories,
But the beauty of the presence of God and the Lamb will have our complete attention.
That is the type of intimacy that these verses reveal to us.
The intimate communion with Jesus results in the passing away of all that has been plagued by sin,
Setting the stage for His wonderful promise in vs. 5.
Where, He who is seated on the throne says, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
If you are a Christian, 2 Cor. 5:17 teaches that at this moment,
You are a new creation spiritually.
In the new heaven and new earth, everything will be made new.
The beautiful promises of vs. 4 to make the brokenness of sin right are just the start of what God is going to do for His Bride!
This promise to make all things new encompasses the many promises in our passage this morning.
A quick survey shows no less than a dozen promises:
In 21:1-2 God promises a new heaven, new earth, and new Jerusalem.
With this promise is the promise that chaos and disorder will be no more.
In vs. 3, He promises to live with His people personally.
Vs. 4 as we already acknowledged, promises to eradicate the effects of sin.
The promise in vs. 6 is that God will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
This promise both looks back to Jesus’ offer of living water to the Samaritan woman in John 4.
And looking ahead to Rev. 22:1 which we will look at in greater detail in a few minutes.
The promises continue in vs. 7 with a promise of plentiful and permanent heavenly blessings.
Vs. 9-21 give great detail about the magnificent splendor of the promised new Jerusalem.
God promises to permeate our dwelling place with His glory in vs. 22-23.
He promises to guide the nations in vs. 24.
Vs. 25 promises protection and peace.
Then, in ch. 22 the promise of bountiful productivity and perfect service are two final promises.
And God is not offering these promises as conditional or uncertain.
At the end of vs. 5, the One on the throne making the promises tells John to “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
God is faithful to keep His promises,
So, He tells John to write it down,
It is a guarantee!
It is as good as done, He says.
His Words are faithful and true,
As 2 Tim. 3:16 says;
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
And as Rev. 19:11 declares about Christ, the living Word,
He is Faithful and True.
He can make this guarantee not only because He is Faithful and True,
But also because He is the Alpha and the Omega,
The beginning and the end.
He is compassionate, like Isaiah 55:1 teaches.
He offers to freely give from the spring of the water of life to all who are thirsty.
Living water will always be freely available,
What a picture of grace.
This living water is the offer of eternal life.
All who conquer will inherit these things from God,
Why?
Because those who conquer are His children.
This is what God taught back in 2 Sam 7:14; and 1 Chron. 17:13;
And as His children, we receive the inheritance of the eternal kingdom from our Father.
And we receive it by grace.
In the OT, the nation of Israel were depicted as the inheritance of God.
As His inheritance, God protected, blessed, punished, and redeemed His people in accordance with His will.
This basic premise of inheritance informs the usage of inheritance in the NT.
What we are seeing here in Revelation has become the promised inheritance of the people of God who are now redeemed by grace.
One Bible dictionary summarizes it this way;
“The principal view throughout the New Testament is that God, in His grace, redeems by ‘the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit’ (Titus 3:5) poured out in the blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead.”
All who are redeemed by God’s grace in Christ become heirs of God.
As heirs, we gain a share in Christ’s imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance kept in heaven by God.
Through Christ becoming flesh, dying, and rising from the dead,
Believers become heirs to this future kingdom that is fully realized in God’s eternal reign.
Sadly, the next verse shows that those who reject Christ do not inherit this eternal kingdom.
Vs. 8 is a warning for sinners whose trajectory is currently bound for the lake of fire without Christ.
This is a tragic destiny.
Those who never trust Christ for salvation can expect a permanent and ceaseless judgment.
God’s final warning here is given to a selective list of sinners.
This is not an exhaustive list,
Rather it is eight specific sins that are noted because they characterize the lives of those who will spend eternity separated from God in the lake of fire.
Vs. 8 ends by once again stating that the lake of fire is the second death.
But before that, it includes the description that the lake burns with fire and sulfur.
We have talked about the second death multiple times in Revelation,
It is eternal death.
It is permanent death.
It is endless suffering.
The cowardly are individuals who, out of fear, refuse to confess Christ outwardly,
Especially in the face of persecution.
Hebrews 10:38-39 describes the rightful response of faithful believers.
The faithless are like the cowardly, they deny Christ either with their words or with their actions.
The detestable are polluted by gross acts of idolatry.
Murderers are malicious, not just outward murderers but those who are filled with hatred for others in their heart.
The sexually immoral are all who live sexual lifestyles that are contrary to God’s plan.
That includes any lust or sexual activity outside of marriage between a man and woman.
The Greek word for sorcerer is pharmakos,
From where we get the word pharmacy.
Sorcerers in the NT context were devoted to magical arts and witchcraft,
But they were also known to mix substances that would poison some,
And other times used to get high.
So, a modern sorcerer in our context would be similar to those who mix drugs to poison others or to get themselves high.
Idolaters worship anything but God.
Lastly, all liars are people who habitually deceive others.
People who fit this categorization are warned.
They will not have access to the promised new Jerusalem.
They will spend eternity in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur,
That is, the second death.
GOD: Perfect City (21:9-21)
GOD: Perfect City (21:9-21)
After this brief warning, Rev. 21:9-21 reveals the Perfect City
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.
The picture of the New Jerusalem outlined in vs. 1-8 now begins to unfold in greater detail in these verses.
The New Jerusalem is a simultaneous fulfillment of God’s promise to appear in glory,
And be the final dwelling place of the saints.
The saints are described as the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.
This parallels the judgment of Babylon the prostitute from Rev. 17.
The Bride of the Lamb is a city that is the polar opposite to Babylon.
Central to this Perfect City is God and the Lamb.
This Perfect City brings all the revelations about God to a climax.
It harmonizes the creation of all things by Christ from the beginning,
The redemption of all things through Christ in the middle,
And It is the completion of God’s purpose to bring all things under one Head, Christ.
John sees this Perfect City after he is carried away in the Spirit to a great high mountain.
This is an intentional inclusion because mountains are God’s special meeting places with humankind.
There are a variety of OT passages that show this,
A partial list includes;
Ex. 15:17; 19:1-25; Ps. 48:1-2; 68:15-16; Ezek. 28:14; Mic. 4:1-2;
In the NT, when the devil was trying to tempt Jesus in Matt. 4,
He took Jesus up on a high mountain to show the splendor of the world’s kingdom,
And tells Jesus that he can have it all.
Jesus was not tempted to accept the devil’s measly offer,
Because Jesus knew about the splendor and glory that John would see from atop this future mountain.
The kingdoms of the world offered by the devil pale in comparison to the eternal Kingdom John sees at the end of Revelation.
Jesus was never going to give up this Kingdom regardless of what the devil offered,
Because nothing the devil can offer is as glorious as the new Jerusalem,
A perfectly holy city coming down out of heaven from God.
This heavenly city is arrayed with God’s glory.
Like a rare, precious jewel.
Glory is closely associated with light throughout Revelation.
It represents the majesty, awesomeness, and beauty of God!
God’s glory is prominent throughout our passage this morning.
His glory is associated with the temple and with God’s appearances.
The heavenly splendor John was blessed to see in ch. 4,
Will fill all of creation when the Perfect City comes down out of heaven from God.
The angel from vs. 9 has a measuring rod of gold to measure this Perfect City in vs. 15-16.
It’s length and width and height are all equal,
Making the city a perfect cube,
Which, not coincidentally, is the same shape as the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle and the temple,
The holy of holies in passages like 1 Kings 6:20; 2 Chronicles 3:8-9;
Albert Mounce describes it as;
“The place of divine presence. A city foursquare would be the place where God has taken up residence with his people.”
This perfect city will be perfect in every way because it is the most intimate dwelling place of God.
The wall of the perfect city is also measured in vs. 17.
It is 144 cubits by human measurement, which the angel used so John could understand.
These measurements are mind-boggling.
The city would be 1,400 square miles,
The walls would be over two hundred feet thick.
And the material of these walls are precious and valuable.
Doing quick math, 144 is twelve times twelve.
This measurement combined with the descriptions back in vs. 12 and 14,
Show a relationship between this perfect city,
The twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve apostles,
And the twelve gates that are twelve pearls, each gate being made up of a single pearl.
Twelve is a number that is used symbolically to represent the people of God.
It implies the unified people of God maintain the covenant promises to Israel and the Church for all eternity.
Grant Osborne states;
“The number is obviously symbolic…It signifies not only perfection but a city large enough to hold all the saints down through the ages, the saints from ‘every tribe, language, people and nation.’”
Vs. 19-21 go on to describe the adornment of this 144 cubit wall.
The precious stones listed in these verses demonstrate the beauty and magnificence of this perfect city,
Which ultimately reflects the beauty of God who fills this city with His glory.
The list of stones also seems to be a rough correspondence to the precious stones of Aaron’s breastplate in Ex. 28:15-21.
Aaron was the high priest of Israel,
So, the precious stones on the wall reveals that the privileges once reserved for the high priest are now available to the entire city.
As vs. 21 says near the end,
We will walk on streets of gold in service of God in His Perfect City!
YOU: Perfect Temple (21:22-27)
YOU: Perfect Temple (21:22-27)
And in this Perfect City is the Perfect Temple revealed in Revelation 21:22-27;
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.
Vs. 22 begins seemingly concerning,
But quickly becomes amazing!
John looks and he sees no temple in the city!
But earlier in Revelation, he said there was a temple,
So, what gives?
The Perfect End to the Story does not have a structure as the temple any longer,
Because the temple is no longer needed in new Jerusalem.
The temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
I love Danny Akin’s summary here:
“Symbol gives way to blessed reality. The temple represented God’s presence, but believers now have God’s presence. And we will have it forever. We will have Him forever.”
This Perfect Temple permeates the Perfect City.
Therefore, vs. 23 says the city does not need a sun or a moon for light.
Because the glory of God now beams brighter than the brightest light.
And the lamp for the city is the Lamb.
Just as Jesus described Himself as the light of the world in John 8:12.
This is the fulfillment the prophecy of Isaiah 60:19-20;
The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.
Vs. 24 says the nations walk by the glorious light of God and the Lamb,
And kings bring their glory into the Perfect City.
Once again, we see cultural diversity emphasized in Revelation.
Redeemed humanity from all nations are blessed to be in the presence of God and the Lamb.
Every nation will be in perfect peace because we all have the same Father, covered by the blood of the same Son, filled with the same Spirit.
We will all have our names in the Lamb’s book of life.
Therefore, there will be nothing to fear,
So, there is no need for security,
No need to shut the gates,
There is no one coming in to attack God and His people ever again.
We will not be at war with other nations.
Instead, together with our brothers and sisters from every tribe, tongue, and nation, we will bring glory and honor into God’s presence.
WE: Perfect Garden (22:1-5)
WE: Perfect Garden (22:1-5)
The Perfect City with the Perfect Temple is also a Perfect Garden, which we see in Revelation 22:1-5:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
These verses allude to the Garden of Eden, but even better.
God uses this garden imagery to bracket the entire Bible.
Similar to Eden, there is intimacy between God and His people,
And the abundance of His blessings.
But this final Perfect Garden is more magnificient than Eden.
The light of God’s glory will drive out darkness.
As the end of ch. 21 tells us,
No unclean thing will be able to enter,
Including Satan.
There will be no serpent entering this Perfect Garden,
Because he is locked up in the lake of fire.
So, this Perfect Garden not only informs us or assures us about the Perfect Garden,
It stirs a thirst for the day we will get to experience it.
The Perfect End to the Story increases our longing for the Perfect End to get here!
The certainty of this Perfect Ending is a great comfort during times of temptation and hardship.
Ch. 22 begins with the angel now showing John the river of the water of life.
This water is like a crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
The river of the water of life,
Communicates an abundant supply of life-giving water,
And the source of this river is God.
It weaves together the allusions of the river flowing out of Eden in Gen. 2:10-14,
As well as other OT references;
Psalm 46:4; Ezek. 47:1-12; and Joel 3:18;
It also shows the result of Jesus’ offer of living water in John 4 and John 7:37-39;
Vs. 2 goes on to say how this river flows through the middle of the main street of the city.
And on both sides of the river is the tree of life.
The tree of life is full access to God’s life-giving blessings.
It represents immortality, the presence of God, wisdom, and righteousness.
It is first presented in Gen. 2,
Able to be enjoyed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
But after they disobeyed God’s command,
They invited death as a cursed experience for all humanity.
As a result, people were banned from the Garden of Eden,
And access to the tree of life was no more.
But no longer being able to eat from the tree of life was an act of grace,
Because it prevents us from living forever in this corrupted state.
In the Perfect Garden, access to the tree of life will be renewed!
A future source of healing and immortality will be available.
Grant Osborne argues that the tree of life symbolizes the cross,
Which makes access to God and eternal life possible.
It is a picture of forgiveness and the experience of God’s intimate presence.
This tree has twelve kinds of fruit, producing fruit every month.
The leaves provide healing for all the nations,
Another symbol of the promise from 21:4 that there is no more suffering or sadness or death in this Perfect Garden.
Which is echoed here in vs. 3,
There will no longer be any curse.
All that there will be is the enjoyment of God in His presence as His servants.
We will worship Him there.
We will serve Him with our worship and we will worship Him with our service.
Heaven will not be monotonous or boring.
Our service to God will be a joy and delight.
More importantly, we will be with Him,
We will see the face of God!
We will experience perfectly uninhibited fellowship with God.
Scott Duvall offers enlightening comments regarding this;
“[Saints] will see the face of God. Moses was not allowed to see God’s face, bust saw only his back (Exod. 33:20, 23), but God’s people have always longed to see the Lord (e.g., Ps. 11:7; 17:15; 27:4; Matt. 5:8; 1 John 3:2; Heb. 12:14)…God’s people will also bear his ‘name,’ meaning they will belong to him, imitate his character, and live safely in his presence.”
Vs. 5 ends with the brightness of God’s glory.
Because of His glory, we will need no other light source,
God will be our light.
And we will reign with Him forever and ever!
The Perfect End to the story entails God’s perfect care and nourishment for us.
Allow the Perfect End to the story to increase your thirst for heavenly mindedness,
So, that you will be more earthly good.