The New Jerusalem - Part 1 - Revelation 21:9-27
INTRODUCTION:
This morning we have been celebrating “Rural Ministry Outreach Sunday” with all the Village Mission churches across the U.S. and Canada. We are remembering those who have been reached by Village missionaries in the rural places of North America who might not have ever had the opportunity if Village Missions had not sent a missionary-pastor to the church in that community. Village Missions vision statement says, “Village Missions exists to glorify Jesus Christ by developing spiritually vital country churches in rural North America. We fulfill this aim by placing pastors in small town and rural churches that might otherwise have to close, and in doing so, preserve the Gospel presence in over 220 communities across the United States and Canada.” Take a few moments this afternoon to read the bulletin insert and prayerfully consider becoming a partner with Village Missions in reaching the lost in rural North America.
As I think about “Rural Ministry Outreach Sunday” I think about the incredible love that is available to us through Jesus Christ. Our Scripture reading this morning spoke of that love being demonstrated by God in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. But as we look to the future which we have been doing a lot in the book of Revelation we see God’s love demonstrated again in the beautiful city He is building for us that John describes for us in our passage of Scripture this morning. This is the new Jerusalem where we will spend eternity in the presence of God. Let’s pray and then get into our passage of Scripture.
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Revelation 21:9-27. I will not get through all these verses this morning, but we will see how far we get as John describes the new Jerusalem to us. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Revelation 21:9-27,
“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, ‘Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements. The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; 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 one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:9–27, NASB95)[1]
THE BRIDE OF THE LAMB (Revelation 21:9-11)
One of the seven angels who held the final seven bowls of God’s wrath which they poured out on the earth, one of these seven angels approached John. If you remember this is not the first time that John has been approached by one of these seven angels. Back in chapter 17 one of these angels approached John to show him the judgment of the great harlot, the city of Babylon. This angel that now approaches John may be the same one as in chapter 17, or it may be another of the seven.
This angel approaches John to show him another city personified as a woman as well. The angel says to John, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” (Revelation 21:9b, NASB95)[2] Since a city is not a bride, nor a wife, the truth being presented here is that the city draws it character from its occupants, the redeemed of all the ages are the residents of the new Jerusalem, which includes the church, the bride of Christ. The city is compared to a bride for its beauty and because it is intimately related to Jesus Christ. I believe it is also personified as a pure and beautiful bride who belongs to the Lamb, Jesus Christ alone in contrast to the city of Babylon, a prostitute who prostituted herself to all mankind. This new Jerusalem, the new capital city of the new heaven and the new earth will be holy and undefiled, like a bride adorned for her husband.
This angel transports John in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed him the holy city, Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. This observation by John is almost identical to what he observed in verse 2 of this chapter. Notice that what John is describing is not the creation of the new Jerusalem, but the descent from heaven of what has already been created and waiting for this moment. This is the city whose architect and builder is God which Abraham was waiting for according to Hebrews 11:8-10.
The new Jerusalem is the palace of the eternal, almighty God and because of this it contains the glory of God. Radiating from the new Jerusalem will be the brilliance of the full manifestation of God’s glory. As John looked at this city he sees the brilliant light of God’s glory streaming out of it through what he describes as a very costly stone of crystal-clear jasper. The city in its appearance to John was like a huge precious stone flashing with the glory of God. The jasper that John refers to here is not the modern stone that we call jasper. It is from a Greek word that refers to a translucent stone, it may refer to a diamond, a very costly one that is crystal clear and unblemished. The holy city, the capital of the new creation is pictured for us by John as a gigantic, flawless diamond, refracting the brilliant, blazing glory of God throughout the new heaven and the new earth.
THE WALLS AND GATES OF THE CITY (Revelation 21:12-14)
After giving us the general appearance of the city, John now begins to describe for us some of the specific features of the new Jerusalem. The first feature that he mentions is a great and high wall that encloses the city. The fact that the city has a wall indicates that this city is not without dimensions and limits. The fact that this wall also has a foundation as we will learn indicates that it is not floating somewhere above the earth, but descends and settles on the new earth.
Within this wall are twelve gates, and at each gate is an angel, so twelve angels. These angels cannot be guarding the gates as there is nothing to guard against, instead they are stationed by the gates to attend to God’s glory and to serve His people. John goes on to tell us that names were written on the gates; the names of the gates are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The gates are arranged evenly with three gates on each side, three gates on the east side, three gates on the north said, three gates on the west side, and three gates of the south side. The naming of the gates after the twelve tribes of Israel celebrates for all eternity God’s covenant relationship with Israel.
Next John tells us that this great and high wall is anchored on twelve foundations or foundation stones and on each foundation is written the name of one of the apostles of the Lamb. These stones commemorate God’s covenant relationship with the church, with the apostles as the foundation.
So above each gate is the name of one of the tribes of Israel, and on the twelve foundation stones under the wall are the names of the apostles. The layout of the city’s gates and foundations pictures God’s favor on all the redeemed under both the old covenant and the new covenant. The new Jerusalem will have as citizens not only the church, or saints of this present time in history, but also the saints of Israel and saints of other ages, whether in the Old Testament before Israel was a nation or those saints of the Tribulation period. The names on the gates and foundations indicate that our home is in the new Jerusalem, but we are able to go out of the city to places on the new earth and maybe even places in the new heaven, I do not know what our glorified bodies will be capable of doing or where they will be able to go.
THE DIMENSIONS OF THE CITY (Revelation 21:15-17)
John records that the angel who spoke to him had a golden measuring rod or reed. Back in chapter 11 John was given a measuring rod like a staff and told to measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it, but he was to leave out the outer court because it had been given to the nations and they would tread it underfoot for 42 months. In Ezekiel 40 when the prophet has the vision of the millennial temple he also sees a man with a measuring rod measuring the millennial temple. The significance of all three measurements, the measuring of the tribulation temple, the measuring of the millennial temple and now the measuring of the new Jerusalem is to mark out that which belongs to God.
The measurements made by the angel revealed that the city was laid out as a square. The city measured twelve thousand furlongs which is about 1500 miles. John says the city was 1500 miles long, 1500 miles wide, and 1500 miles high. It was the same in all three dimensions. It seems from the equal distances that the city is in the shape of a cube. Some believe that it is in the shape of a pyramid, but “Henry M. Morris has noted that ‘the language of the passage [is] much more naturally understood to mean a cube, with the length and breadth and height all the same.’ He argues the pyramidal shape typically is associated with pagan worship, ‘with the pyramid’s apex being dedicated to the worship of the sun, or the host of heaven.’”[3] I also think that there is another reason that this shape is a cube, in the temple there was a room that was in a cube shape, in 1 Kings 6:20 where we read of the building of the temple by Solomon and we read this about the most holy place, “The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height, and he overlaid it with pure gold.” (1 Kings 6:20a, NASB95)[4] In the Old Testament this inner sanctuary, the most holy place was the focus of God’s holy presence in the midst of His people. In those days the high priest could only go into the holy of holies or the most holy place once a year and only with blood from a sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, in contrast this most holy city is where all of God’s people will dwell in God’s presence and God Himself will be among us. This cube shaped city is to remind us that we are in the most holy place as the city becomes the focus of God’s holy presence in the midst of His people, God Himself living in our midst.
The angel also measured the wall of the city and it was seventy-two yards. John does not tell us if this is the height of the wall or the width of the wall, but considering that the height of the city is almost 1500 miles high I do not think that this is the height of the wall since John earlier described it as a great and high wall. This measurement of 72 yards I believe is the thickness of the wall. John then adds a parenthetical note for us that the dimensions that he has given us are according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements, or at least that is the measurement that the angel used. A massive city large enough to accommodate all the redeemed of all the ages.
CONCLUSION:
I am going to stop here this morning and we will pick up next week in verse 18. What can we take away from this message? Earlier this morning I spoke of God’s great love for mankind. As I said that our Scripture reading from Romans 5 spoke of how God demonstrated His love for us in the past by sending His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to die for us, to pay the penalty for our sin, to suffer God’s wrath against sin as our substitute. He did this while we were still sinners and His enemies. This same passage goes onto say in verses 9-10, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, [by our faith in Christ death for us] we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him [We do not have to suffer God’s wrath against sin because Jesus Christ suffered it for us]. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:9–10, NASB95)[5] The life of Jesus Christ, His resurrection life guarantees our resurrection life. This morning we have begun to look at the new Jerusalem which is another demonstration of God’s love for us. Within this city we see the beauty and the holiness of the One who died for us and was buried and who rose from the dead on the third day. This city is the place that Jesus Christ promised to go and prepare a place for us. It is large enough as we saw this morning to house all the redeemed of all the ages. It is the city that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were looking for and only saw at a distance.
Its shape is to remind us that we dwell in the most holy place with God Himself dwelling among us, again His love demonstrated to us in that we will see Him, we will have fellowship with Him, we will worship and serve Him and He will be our God and we will be His children.
I don’t know about you, but I am excited about my future, as I read and study about the new heaven and the new earth and the new Jerusalem it gives me great hope for the future, to be in that place where there will be no more sin, no more crying, no more death, no sorrow or mourning, no more pain. To be in that place where I will worship God in all of His glory. This wonderful place that will be our future forever home makes me want to be there now.
As those who have put our faith in Jesus Christ we should seek to live pure and godly lives in this world today and seek to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with those around us, our loved ones, friends, co-workers, neighbors. I encourage you to pray for the salvation of one person last week, this week I challenge you to begin praying for 5 unsaved family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors but not only pray for their salvation, but pray specifically that God would give you opportunities to be a witness to them either through words or actions, speaking or showing them the love of Christ. I do not think that we have a long time until the Lord returns, we need to be diligently and persistently sharing Christ with others.
--LET’S PRAY--
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]Morris, Henry M., The Revelation Record. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale, 1983, quoted by MacArthur, John, Because the Time is Near : John MacArthur Explains the Book of Revelation. Chicago, Ill. : Moody Publishers, 2007
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995