Listen for God’s word to you from Revelation 21…
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
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 water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
All Things New: Heaven, Earth & Jerusalem
I believe the key verse in this chapter is verse 5. The voice from the throne says, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” In Revelation 21 we see that the work of Christ begun the moment he comes into our hearts is made complete.
As we have seen repeatedly throughout the book of Revelation, John’s vision is based in Hebrew Scripture. In Isaiah 65:17 we read…
See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
However, the way John retells this old story of the universe being recreated raises a question: Will the new heavens and the new earth be a replacement for the old or a remaking of the old out of the same stuff?
John does not really answer this question. He simply shows us that the demolition squad (ie. one of the angels with the seven saucers) is also part of the reconstruction team. But Paul gives us, in a way, a more complete picture in Romans 8. He says…
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Paul’s picture is definitely one of redemption, remaking, not simply replacement.
What John adds to this picture is the New Jerusalem descending from heaven and being joined to earth. This too is based upon an Old Testament hope. The Jews of old looked forward to the time when the nations would come up to Jerusalem there to worship Yahweh.
John takes up this picture and transforms it. There is going to be a new Jerusalem, like but unlike the old one. And it is going to come down from heaven. In other words, it is going to be the gift of God to humanity. And, here is the really important part, heaven and earth will be joined as one.
G. B. Caird puts it this way…
John’s heaven is no world-denying Nirvana, into which men may escape from the incurable ills of sublunary existence, but the seal of affirmation on the goodness of God’s creation. The treasure that men find laid up in heaven turns out to be the treasures and wealth of the nations, the best they have known and loved on earth redeemed of all imperfections and transfigured by the radiance of God. Nothing is excluded but what is obscene and false, that is, totally alien to the character of God. Nowhere in the New Testament do we find a more eloquent statement than this of the all-embracing scope of Christ’s redemptive work.
Notice too that the New Jerusalem is both a city, and it is the bride of Christ. It is a place, yes, but it is also a people—the people belonging to the Lamb.
I was fascinated by this description of the New Jerusalem when I was young. We need to read Revelation 21 not with flat-footed literalism. Rather, we need to read it like we read poetry and allow it to affect, to woo as it were, our imagination.
John notes for us certain things the New Heaven and Earth, the New Jerusalem, doesn’t have, and what it does have. First, let’s look at what this new place doesn’t have…
There are three types of things this new place does not have. There are things we are glad it does not have. There are things we may be concerned that it does not have. And there are things we may be surprised it does not have. First, let’s look at the things we are glad it doesn’t have…
In the new heaven and earth, the new Jerusalem, there will be no more tears. Why? Because God will wipe them away. There will be no more death. Death itself will be destroyed. And if there will be no more death then there will be no more mourning for lost loved ones. There will be no crying out in anguish. There will be no more pain. All of this I am sure we are glad to hear. John paints for us a beautiful picture.
But secondly, there are things we may be concerned that the new Jerusalem doesn’t have… It does not have the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominations, the murderers, the prostitutes, the sorcerers, the idolaters, the liars, or any kind of defilement. In other words,the New Jerusalem will be a place of purity. In the new creation there will be no room for anti-creation. In the world of total life, there will be no room for death.
We may be glad to hear this, depending upon how we view ourselves. But John’s picture also raises a question: what if I am not perfect? How will I fit in such a perfect place as the New Jerusalem? I think the answer is that those who once were impure, God will purify. In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul asks, “Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?” Then he gives us a list of various types of wrongdoers. And, just as with the reading of Revelation 21, the list might make us concerned if we see some of our own sins in the list. But then Paul says, “That is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” I had a counselor who once said to me something very powerful. He said, “You are not your past.” That is what Jesus says to you today: he wants to make you a new creation.
Third, there are things we may be surprised the New Jerusalem doesn’t have. For example, it does not have a temple. Why? Because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. If we enter into them, we shall be in the temple. This image suggests that God is accessible to all. As Habakkuk 2:14 says, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
In the new creation there will be neither sun nor moon. Sun and moon are redundant in the new creation because God is the light of this new heaven, this new earth, and this new Jerusalem. No candles are needed where the Son is shining at full strength.
There will be no night in the new creation. It will be a place of perpetual light. And we will be equipped to handle that light. There will no longer be a cover of darkness to hide evil deeds. The new creation will be a place of complete safety.
And perhaps most surprising for those of us who love Cape Cod: in the new creation there will be no more sea. “Why is that?” you may ask. And some may say, “I don’t want any part of the new creation if there is no sea, no ocean, no beach!”
Again, we must be careful not to take John’s images too literally. We must also remember that the sea was a fearful thing to the Jews of old who were not sea-faring people. And the sea was the mythical source of chaos in Genesis 1. The Jews shared this view of the sea in common with some other ancient mythologies. (For more on the ancient Jewish attitude toward the sea, see also Job 38:8-11; Psalm 89:9; Isaiah 57:20; Revelation 13:1.)
Now let’s look at what the new creation does have…
It has God! Above all else, the new creation is a place for us to enjoy to the full our relationship with God. We will dwell with him and he with us.
The new creation has water. It is the place where the water of life is offered to us free of charge and without limit. We see Jesus offering this water of eternal life to the woman at the well in John 4. Of course, water was a precious commodity to people who lived in the desert of the Middle East.
The New Jerusalem also has a wall great and high. For ancient people a wall was synonymous with a city. What was a city without a wall? Conquered, that’s what! The wall suggests that the New Jerusalem will be a place of safety and protection and perfect peace.
Is it not interesting that the Bible begins in a garden, another picture of paradise, and it ends in a city? The Persian picture of paradise combines these two images. The Persians thought of the walled garden as a picture of heaven.
The New Jerusalem has twelve gates. The gates of the city are named for the twelve tribes of Israel. And each gate is made of a single pearl. Remember Jesus telling the parable of the pearl of great price? Notice, the gates of the New Jerusalem are never closed for there is no night. They are open 24/7, so to speak, because there is perfect safety there. And there is access for all. John presents us here with a universal hope.
The New Jerusalem has twelve foundations. Each foundation layer is named for one of the twelve apostles and is made of a different precious jewel. Intriguingly, the jewels mentioned by John were those found on the breastplate of the high priest. John’s picture of the New Jerusalem is one where Israel and the Church are one. As Paul says in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
In the New Jerusalem we also have measurements. And the measurements tell us an interesting story. The city is immense: 1400 miles in length, height, and breadth. Again, the number 12 is important. John gives us the Roman measurement. 12 times 12000 stadia equals144,000 square miles. This is roughly the same size as the Roman Empire.
And note: the New Jerusalem is a cube. The cube was thought to be the most perfect geometric form according to ancient Greek philosophy. And according to 1 Kings 6:20 the Holy of Holies in the ancient Jewish temple was also a cube.
Of course, the one thing many people remember about the New Jerusalem is that it has golden streets. In ancient times streets were not paved. So, what a contrast we have here! And what a picture this is of permanence!
As already mentioned, we have much light in the New Jerusalem flashing off the golden streets and the bejeweled architecture. The light of the New Jerusalem is a supernatural light; it comes from the glory of God and the Lamb as its Lamp.
Finally, this picture of the New Jerusalem would not be complete without people. The kings of the earth, and the nations in fact are pouring into this city. Bringing in all their riches to be placed in service to the Lamb.
Who will be the residents of this New Jerusalem? Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of Life. And how do you get your name in that book? By giving your life to Jesus. By asking Jesus to come into your life and be your leader and forgiver.
Let’s pray…
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