The New Jerusalem

The book of Revelation provides assurance that something better is coming. The city is holy. 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. At last purity, at last peace, at last joy.

Here is the picture of this city God is building for us. In Revelation, the Apostle John describes Christ's ultimate victory over mysterious creatures, the dragon, the beast, as well as rebellious humanity. Then in chapter 21, John turns his attention to the glorious future that awaits all those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Today on Renewing Your Mind, Dr. Robert Gottfried continues his study of the book of Revelation with the description of heaven and the source of our hope.

Well, we've begun to look at the seventh episode of the seventh cycle. That means we really are drawing close to the end, and what a glorious end it is that is given to us here. This is the, first of all, the arrival of the heavenly city is being described for us coming down from heaven, talked about how it brings heaven and earth together for us, how God Himself is in the midst, and then that beautiful description of what God will do for us when He's in our midst. 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 what a thing to look forward to. One of the Psalms talks about how God has collected all of our tears in His bottle. He doesn't forget a single tear, but how glorious to hope that one day the age of tears will be over, the age of dying will be over. You know how when we talk about the effect of the fall, theologians very helpfully say there are three great effects of the fall. We become guilty before God, we become corrupt before God, and we live in a misery-bound world before God.

So the first two effects of the fall are very personal and individual. I am guilty personally before God, and Christ pays the penalty for my guilt on the cross. And I'm personally corrupt so that I don't live as I ought to live before God, and the Holy Spirit is sent into our hearts to regenerate us and begin to sanctify us, but it's not till the end that that corruption is fully taken away. But also we live in a world of misery where there's pain that is not one-to-one related to my sin. So I may be healthier than I deserve in light of my sin, or I may be sicker than I deserve in light of my sin, but that's part of the misery of this world.

And that's what's being talked about here particularly. He'll finally take the misery away. He's taken the guilt away. He will take the corruption away, but He'll also take the misery away.

So we won't suffer as we have suffered. And then we go on to read, And He who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And 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. And here is Christ presenting Himself as the Lord of history. He's the Alpha and the Omega.

He's the beginning and the end. He's the one who gives to the thirsty the water of life. And that's a beautiful picture because the thirsty know they're thirsty, and they're looking for the water of life. And the tragedy of this world is so many people ought to know they're thirsty and don't know they're thirsty, don't know they ought to be thirsty. And the beautiful picture here is of Christ, the one who provides the water of life. And then returning really to the theme that we saw over and over again in the first cycle, the one who conquers, the one who overcomes, the one who faithfully perseveres is the one who will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. So here's the really positive side, the beautiful picture. But then Christ goes on to list the disqualifying sins. This book always balances the really positive with the terribly negative.

It doesn't let us off the hook. And it's very interesting, this list of sins, what does it begin with? If you were to make a list of the worst sins, where would you start? I bet if you hadn't just read this verse, you wouldn't start with cowards. Why cowards? Because it's cowards who can never conquer. Cowards run away from the battle. Cowards don't persevere. And so he's really drawing a contrast between those who will overcome with the Savior and those who will run away from the Savior.

And out of that cowardice then comes all of these other problems, faithlessness, being detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, liars. And what you have here presented is a summary, don't we, of the two tables of the law, a summary of the two loves we're called to, a love for God and a love for the neighbor. The one who is a sorcerer and an idolater is not a lover of God.

And one who is a murderer or an adulterer or a liar is not a lover of the neighbor. And so here Christ is pressing the claims of the law on His people, not so that we will try to justify ourselves, but we can see what do we love more. Do we love God more or do we love our idol more? Do we love God more or do we love our hatred of the neighbor more?

Here is a test as to determine who we really are as people. And He calls us again implicitly to come to the waters of life and drink and find that life in Him. So here's another beautiful picture of what God is doing for us and among us. And this list in verse 8 of sins are all sins found in the churches, in the letters to the seven churches. These are not things entirely outside of Christian experience, but as we see in the letters, when those sins are listed, immediately follows a call to repentance. One doesn't have to be trapped in those sins. One doesn't have to be defined by those sins. One doesn't have to be kept out of the heavenly Jerusalem by those sins. But we have to recognize sin for sin and repent of it, and then we drink from the water of life. So this picture of the new Jerusalem come down out of heaven continues here, and we are told something about the character of this city in what follows.

So this is a longish section of describing the city. Let me read it to you, verses 9 through 27 of chapter 21. Then came one of the angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues.

And he 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 of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a 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 its walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width, and he measured the city with his rod twelve thousand stadia. Its length and width and height are equal.

He measured its wall, a hundred and forty-four 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, and the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth burl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysophrase, and the eleventh jackinth, and 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."

A beautiful description of this heavenly city, remarkable in so many ways, remarkable for the jewels that characterize each of the foundations. Whenever I read that, I have to smile because I remember once being at a Philadelphia conference of Reformed Theology sponsored by Tenth Presbyterian Church and organized by James Montgomery Boice. They had arranged to have one of the sessions of the theology conference in the Philadelphia Academy of Music, and that was the opera hall and the symphony hall in Philadelphia. And so this was very exciting, and a large group of people had gathered, and R.C. Sproul was going to be the preacher, and he'd drawn many people there. Boice was going to host the evening, and he asked if I'd read Scripture.

So R.C. had chosen this 21st chapter of Revelation. And so we started with a hymn, which enables me to say to this day that I have sung on the stage of the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, which absolutely amazes anyone who has heard me sing. And so just before we went out, I had looked at the passage, and it was then an NIV, and as you notice, I stumbled a little bit on this reading. There were several of the jewels described in words I'd never seen before and had no idea how to pronounce them. And so R.C. and Jim Boice were standing there, and I said, you know, I'm not sure how to pronounce some of these words. Can I just skip that description?

And R.C. said, yeah, it's not material to the point I'm making. So I went out and read the Scripture, and then R.C. went to the stage and began his address by saying something snarky to Jim Boice about the conference. And then he said, and then the learned Dr. Godfrey doesn't even know how to pronounce these words, so he just skipped them.

And with that, Jim and I got out of our seats behind him and went after him, you know. So it was a really charming meeting because the three of us so enjoyed one another's company and had such fun together, but I always get a sort of cold chill when I look at these words that I'm still not exactly sure how to pronounce and remember that wonderful occasion. Well, here the bottom line of this description, whether we know exactly the color of each of these jewels or exactly how to pronounce them, is that this is a glorious picture, right? This is the main thing. This is a glorious picture. And it's a symbolic picture. It's a symbolic picture. A pearl large enough to be a gate. That's very likely a symbolic picture. It's not that God couldn't make a pearl that big. He'd have to make a big oyster first, but this is a symbol of glory, of splendor, and pure gold as clear as crystal. Well, that's clearly symbolic, right?

I mean, you're mixing two different things. Gold is not clear. No matter how pure the gold is, it still looks gold.

It doesn't look like glass. But this is an effort to say this is a transcendent glory. This is something we've never seen before. This is a splendor so great and so wonderful that we can hardly begin to realize what it is. So we're being called here to an appreciation of how really splendid this is. And when we begin to look at the details here of this city, at least when I look at them, I end up with twelve details. Now, I don't know whether I wanted to end up with twelve details or whether there are twelve details really there, but let me go back over this to sort of see how God, I think, is giving us twelve different angles and visions of what this glorious city is going to be like. What is the nature of its glory? First of all, in verse 10 of chapter 21, the angel carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven.

So what's the first thing we see? This Jerusalem is a gift of God. It's not something we built.

It's not a city we built. It's a city that God builds. It's coming down out of heaven as God's gift to us.

So that's the first thing we see. Secondly, verse 11, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel like jasper clears crystal. Here's a city that is glorious, manifesting something of the very glory of God, this glory coming into the world that's visible and really striking. Then third, what we see here in verse 11 is that the city is precious and valuable. All of these jewels are mentioned to make the point that God has lavished the most valuable of things upon this city to show that it is His treasure.

It is His rare jewel. His people are His treasure, this is saying. And fourthly, the city is beautiful, verse 11.

These jewels are not only glorious and not only valuable, but they're beautiful. God likes variety. We've talked about how He shows that in Psalm 104.

And so He delights to decorate His world with things of beauty. And then fifth, verses 12 through 21 that I will not read again, show that the city is safe. It's protected by walls and gates that will shut. Nothing can harm it. And again, we might say, well, in the new heaven and new earth, what could harm it?

Why do we have to worry about harm? Well, this is a picture. This is a picture of the safety of God's people. And it is a beautiful picture indeed.

For most of the history of mankind, walls and gates were critical to protection. And so that's pictured for us here. Sixth, the city is a place for all the people of God. We can see that in verses 12 and 14. The 24 elders seem to stand symbolically, we've said, for the old and new covenant. And so here we have explicitly stated the names of the 12 tribes and the names of the 12 apostles are on these doors, showing the unity of the covenant of grace here in the eternal city.

Israel and church are not forever separated as some kinds of eschatology seem to want to teach, but they're united. They're all part of one city, and they share as one people in the beauty and the protection of what God has provided for His city. And the city is huge. That's number seven.

We see that in verses 15 through 17. The city is huge. It's described as a vast cube, 1400 miles wide, 1400 miles deep, 1400 miles high.

I guess in His Father's house there are many mansions. I mean, there's space for them. This is huge. And again, of course, this is a symbol, but it's a symbol of the perfect symmetry, the perfect balance, the hugeness of the size of this city.

There's plenty of room for all who come. It's, again, a really beautiful image. In verses 18 through 21, He returns, I think, eighthly to the value and beauty of the city together.

He wants to stress that. Ninth, verse 22, He says, this city has no temple. This city has no temple. And that's because a temple is always, first of all, symbolic. We don't need symbols anymore.

It's fulfilled. But a temple also always, architecturally, is a place that separates the worshiper from God. That was particularly true of the Old Covenant temple, right?

There were a whole series of separations. If you were a Gentile, even a convert to Israel, the closest you could get to the temple was the court of the Gentiles, and then the next court was the court of the women, and the next court was the court of the men of Israel, and then was the holy place where only the priests could go, and then the most holy place where only the high priests could go once a year. So, the whole vision of the temple, in part, is forcing mankind to recognize how separated they are from God, how much distance there must be between the holy God and sinful mankind. And now there's no temple because there's no separation, because there's no distance, because the holy God has surrounded Himself with the holy people whom He has made holy.

Tenth, the city will not have any sun, moon, or night. And here, this too is symbolic, and it's symbolic that God Himself will be the light in the midst of His people. He doesn't need to be using intermediates to provide light for His people.

He'll do that directly and immediately. And again, this is symbolic language. We don't want to overly stress that all of this will be woodenly, literally true, but what's being said is God will be present. God will be our light.

We won't look at the sun and say, how beautiful is the sun. We'll look at our God and say, He's present with us and illumines everything for us. Eleventh, the nations and the kings will bring their glory and honor to serve the Lord.

This is certainly reflective of Old Testament language, but it means all the powers of the earth that know the Lord will come to serve Him. They won't establish separate kingdoms apart from Him, but they will acknowledge Him. They will honor Him. They will glory in Him. As Psalm 138 said, all the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of God.

So this is the picture of those kings coming and singing and praising Him and acknowledging Him. And then twelfth, verse 27 in particular, the city is holy. The city is holy.

Verse 27, 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. At last purity, at last peace, at last joy. Here is the picture of this city God is building for us. Holy, beautiful, valuable, huge, protected, holy.

It's almost as if He can't say it in enough ways and enough times and express fully what that glory and that vision will be. What a contrast with this sad, dying world. What a contrast with everything that passes away. What a contrast with even the best and the most glorious of things in this world, yet subject to decay.

But here's a city of life and light that will be forever and be the holy presence of God with His people. So, next time we'll come back and we'll look at this last little section of the seventh cycle and then look at the conclusion of the book and what it calls us to in the service of God. You know, there's no question that as we read the final chapters of Revelation, we're introduced to otherworldly imagery. The Apostle John describes things we cannot yet understand, but we still see the clear and beautiful hope of our future with God. Dr. Robert Godfrey is our teacher this week on Renewing Your Mind as we focus on his series, Blessed Hope, the book of Revelation.

Revelation is filled with mystery, to be sure, but also practical insight. And you're welcome to contact us today and request all 24 messages from this series. We will send you the three-DVD set when you give a donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries. You can find us online at renewingyourmind.org, or you can simply call us.

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Start your trial today when you go to tritabletalk.com. Well, I hope you'll join us again tomorrow as we wrap up our study of Revelation. So here we have this glorious picture of final judgment and final glory, of final ending to all that is wicked and in opposition to God, and the final provision for God's people of a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. I hope you'll join us Friday for Renewing Your Mind. Amen.