Like we always do, I'll show you the timeline that we've been working through. You'll kind of get an idea. We're coming to an end.
So we've kind of worked our way after Christ resurrected. He was on earth for around 40 days. He actually revealed himself to the apostles several times, revealed himself to different people. You can read about those different accounts. And then after 40 days, he gathers his apostles together on the hillside, and then he ascends up into heaven.
And he promises them that a comforter would come. We would know that as the Holy Spirit.
So they leave and they go wait for this comforter to come. And then we know in Acts 2 that the Holy Spirit comes and indwells the believer. That was the beginning of the church age. And that is the time period that we are living in now, is the church age. And Revelation chapter 1 through 3 completely summarizes the church age.
And then in chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation is the rapture of the church. That is when we are taken up, or John rather is taken up. Taken up out of what is happening on earth, and he is taken up into heaven and he gets a glimpse of what's happening. We take that as the rapture of the church, which is, by the way, the next event on the timetable of our Lord. Nothing that we know of needs to happen for that to happen.
And so, as far as we know, it could happen at any moment. And so, we must be ready for that time to come. That's when the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will rise first, and then we which are alive and remain will be called up together to meet him in the clouds.
So, remember, that's not the second coming because he's not coming down to earth. He's going to be in the clouds, and we will go to meet him. Chapter 6 through 18. Are all about the tribulation period? There's seven years of tribulation.
That's God's wrath being poured out to what is happening down here on earth. And so we see God's wrath being poured out in three specific ways: trumpets being blown, seals being broken, and bowls being poured out. And that is God's way of judging the sin and rebellion that is on earth. That is on earth. And then in chapter 19, we see the second coming of Jesus.
That is going to happen after the seven-year tribulation. And he is going to come to the earth, and he is going to rule, and he is going to reign on the earth for 1,000 literal years. That's how we interpret that. During that time period, Satan. will be bound.
He will be bound. God gives the authority to an angel to come with a chain and bind him.
So, for those a thousand years, he will be in a bottomless pit. He will be bound, and so there will not be that satanic influence on the earth.
Now we learn that in the thousand-year reign of Christ, there will be sin because people are being born and they are going to be born with a sin nature and things like that. And so there will be sin, but there will probably be a lot less sin because the devil will be bound during that time. After the 1,000-year reign in Revelation chapter 20, we see that Satan will be loosed.
So he's going to be loosed, and as soon as he does that, he does what Satan does. He goes around and he deceives people, and he deceives nations, and they rise up against our Lord. And then fire comes down from heaven and completely destroys them at that moment. And then we see in chapter 20 the lake of fire where the devil will be eternally cast into the lake of fire forever. He will join the Antichrist.
He will join the false prophet who are already there. And then those who never accepted Christ will be judged at the great white throne judgment. There's two judgments in Scripture. The first one, the judgment seat of Christ. We will all be there.
That's for believers, where we will be judged for what we did with the gifts and resources that Christ gave us. And that's when crowns will be passed out, different things like that. Don't get too caught up in that because if you receive a crown, it's not going to stay in your possession very long. You're going to be laying it right back down at the feet of Jesus. And so don't get too wrapped up in that.
But there is a judgment seat of Christ that we will stand at. But then there's a great white throne judgment, that is for unbelievers. At that judgment, that is when the Lord will say, Depart from me, I never knew you. And those who die rejecting, or those who stand there rejecting Christ, will be eternally cast into the lake of fire. That will be their home.
I want you to remind yourself that every soul lives forever. Yes. Every soul. It's just a matter of whatever we do with Jesus and the gospel will determine where our soul lives. If it will be in the lake of fire, or if it will be in the place that we get to read about here today.
And so that takes us right into chapter 21 and 22, where we learn about the new heaven. The new earth, as well as the new Jerusalem. And that's where we're going to be.
So, last week when we were together, we tackled the first eight verses of chapter 21, looking at the new heaven and the new earth. We covered a few things. I'm going to give these to you, they're not on your notes, and then we're going to dive into verses 9 through 27 here tonight.
So, we learned in verse 3 that at the new heaven and new earth, God will dwell with us forever. Uh so remember that is the purpose. For the for mankind even being created. That's why we were created back in Genesis so that God could walk with us, and God could talk with us, and God could have a relationship with us. That's your purpose.
That's my purpose. And so when sin entered into the world in Genesis chapter number three. What we see is the relationship that we were created and designed to have with our Creator, God. Sin entered into the world and it ruined and destroyed that relationship. And so, from Genesis all the way to the very end of the book.
We have God with a plan to redeem us. Back into a relationship with Him so that we could walk with Him and He could dwell with us forever. And that's what we learned: what this new heaven and this new earth is going to be like. God will dwell with us forever. We also learned in verse 4 that the effects of sin will be no more.
There will be no more crying, no more sorrow, no more grief, and no more sin. anymore. You will never have a bad day again. Isn't that good? Nobody's going to annoy you in the new heaven and the new earth ever again.
How amazing will that be, right? In verses 5 and 6, we learn that God will make all things new. This is not an episode of heaven on Fixer Upper or something like that, okay? He is going to create a new heaven and a new earth. He's not just going to improve on what it is.
Now, he might use elements. I don't know how all that's going to work, but what scripture tells us is this is a brand new heaven and a brand new earth. And so it's not like he's just going to come and just fix all the problems here. I think it is going to be brand new and he's going to make all things new. Verse 7, this is a place.
created for believers. Everyone in this new heaven and this new earth. We'll be Christians. will be Christ followers. They will know Christ and they will believe on Christ and have trusted him.
And then in verse 8, unfortunately, what we learn is that unbelievers will be absent. during this time, which does mean that If you have a loved one, Or a friend, or whatever, somebody that you know that does not know Jesus, and they die without knowing Jesus. Uh they will not be there. Uh to experience uh this this moment and this new heaven and this new And so we're going to go verse number nine.
So we left off in verse eight last week. And so, in verse number 9, what I'm going to do is I'm going to read to the end of the chapter. I know that's a lot of reading. It will be up on the screen if you don't have your Bible with you tonight. And I'll read through it, and then I'm going to give you some points and just kind of summarize and outline these verses together.
Verse 9. And there came unto me one of the things that One of the seven angels. which have the seven vials full of the seven last plagues. and talked with me saying, Come hither. I will show thee the bride.
The lambs. Why?
So, real quick, just to remind you, in chapter 16. Um there were seven angels. that were dispatched from heaven. And God gave them the authority with these vials, these bowls that were going to be poured out onto the earth. In other words, that's the last, the final plagues, as they're called here, the final judgments that were going to happen to the earth during that tribulation period.
And so these seven angels came and they poured out these bowls of judgment onto the world. And if you remember... In chapter 17, one of those angels actually talked with. With John. And he carried him into, in spirit, by the way.
John in the book of Revelation is carried away into spirit four times. And in chapter 17, he was carried away in spirit by one of the angels that had the authority to pour out these bowls of judgment onto the earth. And he carried him into the wilderness to see the prostitute.
Now, we would know that as that was Babylon, and he was showing him the fall of Babylon, which was the system that the Antichrist and the false prophet had really built during that tribulation period. And so he takes him into the wilderness to show him the destruction of Babylon.
Well, here in chapter 21, one of the angels... As well, carrying those bulls, he came to him and he talked with him as well, and he takes him. And he's going to show him the bride. The Lamb's wife, which is the new Jerusalem that we are going to look. At.
Now, if you remember last week, we didn't get too much. We talked about the new heaven, we talked about the new earth. We didn't talk a whole lot about the city, this new Jerusalem that is going to come down out of heaven. But in verse 2, it was also described as a As a bribe. The most beautiful thing that John could ever write and describe what he was seeing was that of a bride.
on her wedding day. And so he describes this city as that, verse 10, and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and he showed me that great city. The holy Jerusalem. descending out of heaven From From God.
Now, I mean, there's a lot about Revelation that we do not know. I do not have all of the answers about this, but it is interesting because there's a couple of times in scripture that you see specifically, you would remember this one because we did a little bit of a series on this a couple years ago. But do you remember when Moses was on Mount Sinai? And he was receiving the instructions. or the tabernacle.
And while he was receiving it, it says that God gave him a glimpse into heaven. And so by um Imagination here wonders if like what Moses was kind of getting this glimpse of what is in heaven, and then he was given instructions of how to build this tabernacle, this temporary dwelling place on earth. Perhaps some of that is what is going to come down and be this beautiful city. I don't know. But you see that this new Jerusalem, this city is coming, descending out of heaven from God.
Verse 11. It having the glory of God. And her light was like unto a stone. Most precious. even like a Jasper stone.
Clear as crystal. And had a wall. Great and high, and had twelve gates. And at the gates twelve angels. and names written thereon.
which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. On the east, three gates. On the north, three gates. On the south, three gates. And on the west, Three gates.
The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me, that's that angel. Had a golden reed to measure the city. and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth four square In other words, it's like a cube.
And the length is as large as the breadth. and he measured the city with the reed twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof a hundred and forty four cubits, according to the measure of a man that is of the angel. Verse 18.
And the building of the wall of it was at was of jasper. and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. The foundations of the wall of this city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was Jasper. the second Sapphire the third, a chalcedony the fourth, an emerald the fifth, sardonx the sixth, sardias, the seventh, chrysolite, the eighth, beryl, the ninth, a topaz, the tenth, a Chrysophoris.
The eleventh a Jesse, the twelfth an amethyst, And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Every s um every several gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold. as it were transparent glass. Verse 22.
And I saw no temple therein. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of Aaron. The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it. And the Lamb is the light thereof. The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.
Verse 25, we're almost there. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day. For there shall be no more no night there. and shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything. that defileth Neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's Book.
A vibe.
So there's a lot there, and we'll slowly kind of work through this. And my goal is to kind of just outline it for you here tonight. But the way that we're going to tackle all of these verses is similar to how we did last week with the new heaven and the new earth. As we look at this city, I want to just summarize some aspects about what the city is going to look like and some details that are mentioned. John is seeing this vision.
And he's seeing this, and he's writing down as best he could of what describes what he is seeing. And so I'm going to give those to you. First of all, it's on your notes. Uh in this city Where remember, this is where we are going to dwell forever. This is your future home.
Okay. This is what we have to look forward to as Christians, as Christ's followers. And one day we are going to see this. And so you might have questions here tonight.
Well, all of those questions will one day, if you know Christ, be answered. I might not be able to answer them for you tonight, but if you know Christ, one day you are going to experience all of this, everything that chapters 21 and 22 are talking about, and you're going to forever live in this city. together with Christ. And with all other Christ's followers as well. And so, what does this city look like?
First, there will be no sun or moon. You see that in verse 11? It says, having the glory of God. And her light was like unto a stone, most precious stone, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. And then, if you drop down to verse 23, you'll see this: the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamb is the light thereof.
So in this city, there's no sun, there's no moon. Jesus is is the wild. In other words, where this is going to be, there's not going to be need for the sun or need for the moon because everything, this whole city is going to be lit up. All the time, because Christ is going to be, as He's identified Himself in the Gospels, I am the light of the world. And so in this new city, his light will shine.
And so this city will be bright, not because of the sun, not because of a moon, but because of the light of the world being present in this city. You know, you've heard of New York City being the city that never sleeps, right?
Well, this city is going to be light all the time. This is going to be the actual city that never sleeps because it's going to be bright all the time. There's not going to be nighttime anymore. Because Christ is going to dwell among us, and because of that, there's no need, you know, for night because He is going to, through His His glory and through His brightness, will light up the entire world. You know, you think about it, I mean.
No nighttime, what does that mean? I mean, are we ever going to sleep again?
Well, think about it: your body, you'll be within a glorified body. The reason why we need sleep today is because it helps our bodies be rejuvenated, right? And so in this glorified body, I mean, I don't think we're going to need any. any sleep anymore. And I don't think we're going to sleep.
And I know some of you, you're like, man, that sounds terrible.
Okay. I'm telling you, it's going to be better than anything you could ever imagine for yourself. But it will constantly be bright, not because of the sun, not because of the moon, but because of Christ. Another thing I want you to think about is if there's no sun. And a lot of this is just our imagination with verses like this.
But if there's no sun and no moon, think about the purpose of the sun. Right? You know, the sun is designed really to heat the earth. And so, if there's no sun, what is that going to mean for temperature? I think that for all of time in this new city that we get to live in, there's going to be just a a perfect temperature, a regulated perfect temperature for all time.
Because there's not going to be a sun, there's not going to be a moon. There's not going to be thermostats. No one's going to complain that it's too cold. I know some of you, you come up to me from time to time and you're like, it's too cold in here. The auditorium is too cold.
Well, I have some people that tell me it's too hot. And here's what I want you to know. In this new city, No one's going to be fighting over the thermostat. I'm not going to go over to Abby's parents' mansion. If I'm staying with them for a couple of days in this new city, I'm not gonna go there, and immediately when my father-in-law's not around, Jot it down a couple because it's so hot there, right?
So there's not going to be that. There's going to be this regulated temperature because there's not a sun to heat the earth. There's just going to be this regulated temperature. And I guess Christ is going to have his hand on the thermostat. None of us will care.
And so, but there's not going to be sun, moon. Number two. There will be a large wall around the city. with twelve gates. of pearl.
There will be a large wall. around the city. With twelve Gates of Pearl. And you read about this, verse 12, it says, and it had a wall, great and high. and had twelve gates.
And at the gates, 12 angels. By the way, the wall is not designed to keep people out because there's not any fear anymore. To let people in. But that wall is a reminder of the security and safety that we have in a relationship with Jesus. The wall is not for your protection.
The wall is just a reminder that we are always safe and secure because of the blood of Jesus that was shed for us. That's the only reason any of us are going to be in this new city to begin with. It's because of Christ's sacrifice for us.
So there's this wall around the city, it's great and it's high, had 12 gates. At the gates, there were 12 angels. And they had names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. And he says, on the east, three gates, on the north, three gates, on the south, three gates, on the west, three gates. And then if you drop down to verse 17, he measured, that's that angel, he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is of the angel.
And then in verse 21, and the 12 gates were 12 pearls, every Several gate was of one pearl and the street of the city was pure gold. As it were, transparent glass.
So let's talk about this wall and these gates for just a moment.
So there are 12 gates. Around the city, there's three on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel. We're on the gates of of the city. And so each gate had a different name, and there's three on the north, three the south, three the east, and the west.
And you know, I don't know what that's going to look like. But if you remember in the Old Testament, And when we did our series through the tabernacle, Um This is how it was designed. There was a, you know, the tabernacles in the middle, and what they did was they gave, I think I have a picture, and my design skills are not good, but here's what I want you to know: is that in the Old Testament, The temporary dwelling place of God that Moses was given instructions to build and to take with them as they wandered around in the wilderness so that God had a place to dwell with them was that tabernacle was in the center. And the 12 tribes of Israel were surrounding it. And so, if you were to go back to your Old Testament and look, this is what it would look like.
So the tabernacle would rest in the middle, and then to the north, to the south, to the east, and the west, these different tribes would pitch their tents with their families in these different places, and they would surround.
So, all of the nation of Israel had kind of this access, if you would, to the tabernacle, to the dwelling place of. Uh of God. And so, in my mind, I mean, I would say, I mean, I can't definitively say this, but I think it could look something like this. If there's gates, three to the north, three to the south, three to the east, and three to the west, and they have names of the children of Israel, perhaps it's going to be a mirror of something of what we saw in the Old Testament surrounding the tabernacle. And so we don't know, but that's just an idea that I'll share with you.
Twelve angels. At each gate. Um And each gate was a single pearl. We see that here. And so, can you imagine how big these gates were, but how big of a pearl?
That must be. And how beautiful. That must be. This is where we get the phrase, you know, I'll see you at the Pearly Gates. You ever heard somebody say that?
That's where this is from. It's talking about the new city that one day we as Christ followers will all live in, and it does have pearly gates. The wall is 144 cubits.
So approximately just a little over 200 feet. And so the wall's big, this city's huge. And The wall's big, the gates are big, the gates never shut, they're always open, just reminding us that we always have access to the presence of God. And he dwells amongst us. I mean, he's there.
And so, just a beautiful, beautiful city. The third thing that you see here. The wall had twelve foundations. You see this in verse 14. It says, In the wall of the city have twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
And then in verse 18, You see, and the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass, and the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was Jasper, the second, and then he goes on and he lists all of these different stones. in all of their beauty.
So here we find in verse 14 That the wall had these 12 foundations, and in them the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb.
Now remember, the Lamb is the name given to Jesus in the book of Revelation. And I mean, you see it all the way from when Jesus began his public ministry. Um when John the Baptist Says, when he sees him, what does he say? Behold the lamb. The Lamb who comes to take away the sins of the world.
And everybody would understand that because the Jewish people understood. What a lamb was for in their relationship with God because the lambs, they had killed so many of them through the years because that was the atonement for whatever sins they'd committed.
So when John says, Behold the Lamb of God, which comes to take away the sins of the world, it was literally John in that moment declaring that Jesus has come to take away the sins of the world forever. He's become our sacrificial lamb, the rescue plan that God designed to deliver us from sin so that we could all one day live forever in this city, this new Jerusalem. And so here we see the lamb. It's given to Jesus this title 29 times in the book of Revelation. And here these foundations They they have the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb on them.
All of your 12 apostles are listed on these foundations.
Now, the question that I have is. I mean, surely Judas Iscariot's not one of those, right? I mean You know, and so there's a lot of people that's like, okay, speculating what could that mean? Like, okay, if he's not on there, then who would replace him? Many believe that it's probably the Apostle Paul.
We don't know. That's just something for you to understand.
So, if you kind of read that and you're wondering or speculating about it, we don't know, but many speculate that he could be that additional. Apostle that would take the place. Of one of the twelve apostles here since Judas betrayed Jesus. And here, John is trying to describe this city. With all of these Uh precious stones.
And when you read this, It is very familiar to the Old Testament if you remember with the priestly garment. And on the priestly garment, the ephod, there were these 12 stones that they had to wear.
Now, it's not identical because only eight of those were mentioned here in Revelation chapter 21. But it is very, very close. But I think what John was doing with all of these, if you kind of looked at each one of these stones. And you just kind of did some quick study on each one of them, you're going to find how beautiful he was like describing what he was seeing. And so he just started listing out all of these different stones as he sees.
You know, this city coming down from heaven, and he's describing it and how colorful. They are Uh what's interesting is Jasper. is the first foundation here. It's the first foundation, and Jasper in scripture represents glory and purity. And what's interesting is on the priestly garment, it was the last Stone on the breastplate, and here it is the primary stone, the first in the foundation.
And I think that's just a reminder that in the New Jerusalem, it is a reminder that we are with divine and total holiness. God's beauty dwells around. around us. And so you see these This city and the gates and the nation of Israel mentioned here. I do want you to understand that Jewish.
History plays a part, a significant part in prophecy. And you don't need to miss that because I do think in our culture today, there is a. You know, this trend, and you see things and stuff that God's done with the nation of Israel and things like that. I want you to know, you see it right here, He's not done with the nation of Israel. He's not.
In fact, the nation of Israel is going to play a significant role. In what is to come. And it's super important that you don't lose sight of that. And so you see it throughout this city: the nation of Israel, but also these apostles. Which is a reminder that this city is not just for the Jewish people, it's a reminder for all nations.
For Gentiles, such as us. And so the next thing you see is that the city was large, verse 15 and 16. You see, and he, verse 15, and he that talked with me had this golden reed to measure the city. and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth four square, and the length is as large as the breadth.
And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. the length and the breadth and the height of it. are equal.
So, the city that's coming out of heaven that he's seeing and he's describing it is a square. It's like a cube, if you would. And what's interesting: the length, the height, the width, they're all the same.
Okay. So they're all the same and the city measured 12,000 furlongs in each direction. Pretty big city. Say, what does that mean?
Well, um Most commentators, when they look at 12,000 furlongs, they say that this is around 1,500 miles. 1500 miles. That's a pretty big city in each direction. 1500 miles is the distance from Uh it's just over 1500 miles, but from Lexington, North Carolina, all the way to Denver, Colorado.
Okay. It's also about the distance from Maine to Florida.
Okay. So that's how big this city is. Ears. Yeah, I mean it's it's huge. And we're all gonna Dwell there as Christ's followers one day.
Remember, I mean, last week we looked, there's no seas. And so we're all going to be there together, dwelling with Christ. Just for fun, I read this this week. I thought this was interesting. A man by the name of Henry Morris, you might have heard his name.
He's big on creation research. He's passed away now, but he did a lot for defending creation and he did some research and math surrounding how big this city really was and that John was seeing. And he just basically was curious about how many people could live there. In 1500 miles, and what this would look like in each direction, all that kind of stuff. And in his, he was basing this off of because you don't really know how many people are going to accept Christ.
It's just a guess. But when he was looking at it, he said that in his calculations here that without C's. And understanding that gravity. And this is him just reading into it, not definitively saying any of this, but I thought this was fascinating or whatever. He thinks it's possible.
Because gravity will be non-existent, I guess, during this and all this kind of stuff. He thinks it's possible that people could live. North of you, south of you, and everywhere. And he said, if that's the case with these 1,500 miles in each direction that this angel was measuring with this reed, 1,500 miles, 1,500 miles, 1,500 miles. He said that in his calculations that 20 billion people.
Could live there, and if that was the case, they could each have 75 acres. Is that definitively true? I don't know. It's just him calculating if that was the case based on what John is describing, how this angel was measuring and stuff he was just saying. And so, in other words, he's saying there could be streets, you know, that go up.
I don't know. And so, we don't know what it's going to be like. It's hard for our minds to completely comprehend and that kind of thing. And uh and so I don't really know what that's going to look like. I just want to know who's going to live next to me, okay?
Because there's some people, okay. I still have the flesh today. By that point, I'll like every single person in the new city, and they'll like me, and so it doesn't matter who my neighbors are and things like that. But I want you to know that the city is large. And um and then uh the next one, number five.
The city will be made of pure gold with streets of gold.
So the city's made of gold, but then there's gonna be streets of gold as well. I mean, we sing about this, we look forward to this. And what's interesting about the stones and the gold that you see here is it describes the gold as transparent. I mean, you can see through it. And It's incredible to think about.
Because I think that what he was noticing and the way that he was describing it, gold is, you know. Just the purest of ways that you could describe something is gold. It is rich and it's beautiful. And so he describes it with gold, but then he adds this descriptive that it was transparent. And the reason is, I want you to understand that this entire city.
Everywhere you look. Uh To this side, to that side, below you, and all around you. Here's what's going to happen. The reason why everything's transparent, it will all show the glory of the Lamb. everywhere you turn.
Everywhere you turn, you will see God's glory on His flight.
Now I do think, and this is just me thinking a little bit into scripture and stuff like that, and here's what I want you to understand: I think God's glory is on display today. Everywhere we turn. But the problem is, Romans tells us That because creation's screaming the glory of God at us. Every time you walk outside and take a breath or look around, the glory of Almighty God and creation is screaming it at us. But here's the problem.
Romans calls it that humanity has suppressed the truth. That in other words, that as the glory of God is showing us, we get so busy because of the flesh that the enemy leads us to focus on other things to where what have we done? We love creation more than we do the Creator. And so I think that the glory of God's still on display here. But I think for some of us we're too busy to know.
And we're too busy to see it. And we're too busy to be amazed by its beauty. Uh But in this city when we will have our glorified bodies, there will be no sin anymore. And so, when there is no sin present, you know what really shines bright? The glory of God.
And we will see it everywhere we go. And so this whole city is made of gold. And it will illuminate, God's glory will illuminate and shine through everything. Number six. There is no temple.
In the city. Verse 22. And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
Now, this is super important. Because in any ancient city In any ancient city, it would be unthinkable. Not to have a temple. Right? It'd be unthinkable.
It's like for us, like it'd be unthinkable for a city not to have I don't know, a bank. A dollar general.
Okay. Right? It's they're everywhere, right? And so it just makes sense. You got to have it, and that kind of thing.
Well, for in ancient times, there wasn't a city without a temple. There's always going to be a temple. But here's what's interesting: this temple, John takes a moment to notice because for him, all the cities that he lived in, there was always a temple there. It was just common practice. for them to have a temple in every city.
So, as John's seeing this beautiful city come down from heaven and he's describing it as best he could, he takes a point here in verse 22 to specifically mention: hey, one thing I want you to know, all of my readers for thousands of years who are going to read this after me, I want you to know that there is no temple in this city. You say, why is there no temple?
Well, he mentions it here, but there's two specific things that I want to remind you about as we kind of draw this thing to a close in chapter 21. The reason why there's no temple. is number one Because God will dwell with us forever. He will dwell among us. God will dwell among us.
So he will be, you know, everywhere. The temple. Was in the Old Testament, it was the place where God dwelt. Right? It started with the tabernacle, the temporary dwelling place, then it was Solomon's temple, and that's where God dwelt.
And if you wanted to go meet with God, you had to kind of mosey your way down, you know, down the street into the temple, and that's where you could know God, that's where you could meet with a priest, and they could go in and offer sacrifice, which would provide atonement for whatever you had done, and that kind of thing. And so, here's what I want you to know: is that. That this is just a you got to remember that there in this new Jerusalem, there's not going to be any need for that. And also, with you and I, we have a relationship with Christ, and He's with us right now because in John, John reminds us in His gospel that when He came, He, what did He do? He dwelt among us.
The actual word is He tabernacled among us.
So in the Old Testament, The tabernacle was where God would dwell with his people. Remember the picture? The nation of Israel surrounded it, God was in the middle of them.
Okay. And but that wasn't. the perfect new Jerusalem yet. Because sin still existed. God's plan to redeem us into that relationship was still.
still coming to fruition. Got Solomon's temple. That's where God would dwell. People don't meet with them there. New Testament, Jesus comes.
He dwells among us. We bought With man? And people followed him, people knew him, people touched him, all of that. He dwelt among us. When he ascended up into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the Godhead, came down, God in the form of a Holy Spirit, 100% God, by the way.
He comes down in full deity, and he indwells the believer.
So now, what we have in Christ is the indwelling Spirit of God with us. He's with you all the time. I love that you come to church, but here's what I want you to know: you don't have to come to church to see God. You don't have to come to church. to hear from God.
You don't have to come to church to meet with God.
Now, you do all of those things here, right? We do meet with God. We do invite His presence. We do all of those things. But here's what I want you to know: you have the presence of Almighty God with you when you get in your car.
And by the way, you need it here in this town. You have the presence of God in your home tonight. When you lay down in your bed tonight. You have the presence of God wherever you go, when you go to work, when you go to school, you have the presence of God with you. And so we see that.
But then in this day, in this new Jerusalem, this city, there's no need for a temple. God will literally dwell with us. He will be around, we will talk with him, we will walk with him, and we will worship him forever. And so because of that, there's no need for a temple anymore. Because he himself will dwell with us and walk with us, and we will see him forever.
face to face. That's going to be a good day. It's gonna be a good day. Second, the second reason why there's no need for a temple. is because there's no need for sacrifice.
or confession anymore. The reason for the temple was so that when. You know, you send. You would take that sin to the temple. The priest would go in, that one day of year, we call it the Day of Atonement.
He'd go in. And he would, you know, do all of these rituals and he would sacrifice. And here was the good news: it was a great day for the nation of Israel because all of the sins that they had committed. all of the wrongs that they had done. were made right.
It was probably the best day on their calendar. It was a somber day, and we did some study on that in our church a couple of years ago. But it was a somber day, but here's what I want you to know: it was a good day because we were forgiven of everything. Right? Well here in this day, there's not a There's not a temple.
Why?
Because there is no more sin. There is no more wrongdoing. You know that sin you struggle with all the time? You know, the one that you continue to go back to God, hey, Lord, it's me again. I did the same thing I did yesterday.
I said I wasn't going to do it, and here I am. It's like the Apostle Paul. What did he say? He said, The things that I want to do, I find myself not doing, and the things that I don't want to do, that I hate, I find myself doing.
Well, aren't we the same way? We fall into the same traps of the enemy all the time. And here's what I want you to know. In this new city, John was reminding us: hey, listen, this is good news for us as Christians. Here's what he's saying.
He said, There's no need for a temple because in that city there is no more sin. There is no need for atonement. The atoning sacrifice was forever made on the cross of Calvary. And what that did, the sacrifice of Jesus, it atoned and paid for every sin that you would ever commit. That means that his sacrifice, it's paid for every sin that you've committed in the past.
It's also paid for the sins that you're going to commit. They're completely 100% under the blood of Jesus. Listen, I'm going to harp on that until you say amen tonight, okay? That's a good thing. That's a good thing.
We need that. We need that. And so the atonement has covered us for forever. And what we learn, there's no temple because. The atonement.
is dwelling among us. And we are forever covered. We're forever covered. There is no need for a temple anymore because there is no sacrifice and no need for confession. Yanny.
So the question is, as we come to chapter 22, the final chapter. which we'll look at next week. Don't miss the final week in the series. As we come to the final week, Um The question I just want to ask, and I know it's Wednesday, and so you're probably...
Well duh, Pastor, of course. I wouldn't come on Wednesday if I wasn't. But here's the question. Which city? Do you belong to?
Which city do you belong to? You know This study Especially chapter Twenty one and twenty two for sure. It gives us a clearer picture. On like what Paul And Peter would say in their writings When they would talk about the fact that we are citizens. of heaven.
It it means that We're just passing through. You're just stationed here for a short period of time.
Now I know seventy years in our minds is a is a long time, 70, 80, 90 years. is a long time. But here's what I want you to note. For God. A day is like a thousand years for him.
And so, for him, this is not a long time. You're stationed here for just a short period of time. You're really, if you know Christ, you're a citizen of this city. And so what I want you to understand is Like, I get it. We're citizens of this country and we're grateful.
I think it's the best country in the world. But here's what I want you to know: you should be a citizen of there before you are here. And people should know you. Not just as an American, which is a part of life, and I love that, and I'm proud to be an American, but here's what I want you to know: they should know us as citizens of heaven before anything else about us. That should be the number one thing about your life.
You should live like a citizen of there. It doesn't mean you have to be perfect. I get it. We're going to still sin. We're going to still mess up.
We're still going to have flaws. But what I want you to understand is we are citizens of this perfect place that is our perfect home one day. Why don't we live like that now? Let's live like we're citizens of there.
so that we can reach more people here.
so that they can experience. what this place is going to be like one day. It's going to be a good day. What a day. That will be when my Jesus.
I shall see. And I look upon his face, the one who has saved me. By his Grace. The Returning King is coming soon. Mm.
