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Revelation 21:9-22:5 – 21:9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 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— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 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.
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 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. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 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.
22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
What comes to your mind when you think of eternity in heaven? I was listening to a Muslim priest who brought joy to desperate men in his audience when he said that in heaven, each of them will receive seventy virgins. Another said the virgins would be as tall as giants.
The problem is that people create their own version of eternity to suit their fleshly desires. They need to know that God determines our eternity, whether it is eternal life with Christ or eternal torment in the lake of fire.
Last time, our text revealed that after Christ defeats the devil and destroys death, He will damn the deniers in the lake of fire forever. Revelation 21:9-22:5 gave the church an exclusive look into eternity to show believers their eternal state in heaven.
The big idea is that no matter what picture the world paints of eternity and heaven, only we, the followers of Jesus, are given an exclusive look into eternity. So, what would our life in eternity and heaven be like? Our passage outlines three truths about our life in eternity:
We Will Be in the Dwelling Place of God Forever (Revelation 21:9-21)
Revelation 21:9-10 tells us, “9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb. The Lamb is Christ crucified, risen, and coming again. 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” Rather than showing the bride, the wife of Christ, the angel shows the eternal dwelling place of God— Jerusalem, because just as on earth, the church made of believers, is the bride of Christ, in eternity, in heaven the holy city of Jerusalem, is the bride, the wife of Christ.
However, this eternal city of God is made of Jews and Gentiles. The first thing God chose to show in heaven is the Bride of Christ depicted as eternal Jerusalem. Though heaven is about God, God makes it about the redeemed people of God because He probably wants to show us that all His promises to the church and Israel will come to pass. Three promises to Israel and the church are seen, separately and collectively:
First, God’s Promise to Israel. The earthly Jerusalem is the only city in which God chose to dwell to show His glory to nations through Israel. Hebrews 11:10 says, “For he [Abraham] was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” He was looking forward to the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:12-13, “12 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— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.” The design of the city reveals the distinctiveness of Israel in heaven. The church has not and will not replace Israel regardless of the prevalent replacement theology that seeks to dissolve God’s promises to the nation of Israel.
Second, God’s Promise to the Church. The design also reveals the distinctiveness of the church. Revelation 21:14 reads, “And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”
Third, God’s Promises to Israel and the Church. Two promises to two separate entities are destined for one place through the redeeming work of Christ. In the Old Testament, Israel is the bride of God and in the New Testament, the church is the bride of Christ. In Christ both, Israel and the church, will live in the dwelling place of God in the heavenly city on new earth forever.
After the design, in Revelation 21:15-17, we see the description and the dimensions of the heavenly city. It is a perfect cube. It should remind us of the holy of holies, the cube section in the earthly temple where God’s glory dwelled.
In Revelation 21:18-20, we see the construction material are precious jewels, metals, and stones.
Then Revelation 21:21 reads, “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.”
Some years ago, I was leading an overseas missions trip and I told the participants to leave their diamond and gold jewelry behind. The participants thought I asked that so the host community would not feel that we were wealthier than they were. I said, no because someone might harm you to rob you.
In our world, these precious stones, metals, and jewels represent wealth that people kill each other for but in God’s kingdom, they are just building materials.
The application is, do not seek the glory, glamor, and grandeur of this corrupt world; seek the Kingdom of God all things shall be added to you.
We Will be Under the Direct Protection of God Forever (Revelation 21:22-27)
Revelation 21:22-26 continues, “22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 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. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.”
The theme of the glory of God saturates our passage today. In Revelation 21:11, the Bride of Christ depicted as eternal Jerusalem had the glory of God, now we see the word glory three times in this little section. The Bible talks about two types of glory and says the that the glory that comes from man is antithetical to the glory that comes from God. One is eternal and leads to life and the other is temporary and leads to death. Seeking both is like trying to enter God’s Kingdom by keeping one foot in the world and one in the Kingdom of God.
I was talking to someone who asked an interesting question that might have crossed your mind, too. He asked, what is the guarantee that after we enter heaven we will not sin again? The answer is, God’s glory. His glory will protect us from any ungodly thing. As written in Revelation 21:27, “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.”
The application is, if God will eternally protect us from sin and evil, He can do it even today if we do not seek the glory of man but God. That was the problem in Eden.
We Will Be in the Divine Presence of God Forever (Revelation 22:1-5)
Revelation 22:1-2 says, “1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.” This tree was central to the Garden of Eden story.
Revelation 21:3 continues, “The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” The Greek word for healing correctly translated would be therapeutic because Eden would return to man with the eternal divine presence of God.
The Problem of Sin Would Be No More. The story of Eden is the story of God’s desire to create a dwelling place where God and man can live in harmony. Man lost Eden when sin entered there. It separated man from God. It brought a curse on man, earth, and the whole created order. Heaven, the new Eden, would be a sinless place.
The next verse, Revelation 22:3 says, “3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.” True worship will resume.
The Punishment of Sin Would Be No More. The original sin in Eden resulted in a generational curse of physical as well as eternal death, which is torment in hell forever. However, the immediate punishment of sin was that man could no longer see God face to face for He is holy and His glory can destroy sin and sinners. After the curse is lifted, Revelation 22:4 continues, “4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”
The Presence of Satan Would Be No More. Once Eden is returned to us in the divine presence of God and the absence of Satan, the darkness will be no more. In Revelation 22:5, “And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” Only light can defeat darkness.
My children do not like night time because of the darkness and they don’t want to go to sleep. I do not blame them— darkness scares me too, partly because I always lived in cities full of light. I cannot wait for heaven because there will never be night and in our glorified bodies, we will never feel the need for sleep. It will be one long, never-ending celebration in the divine presence of God who will be the light.
The application is, though the problem of sin and the punishment of sin guarantees hell and eternal torment in the lake of fire, God offers us the plan of salvation. If we believe in Jesus alone and not in any works we do, we will live in the dwelling place of God, under the direct protection of God, and in the divine presence of God forever.
In John 14:2-3, Jesus promised this when He said, “2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
However, before that, many cosmic events will come to pass.
The next event on the church’s calendar is the Rapture, then the Great Tribulation, and the arrival of the antichrist who will bring false peace on earth.
In the first three and a half years of his undisputed reign, the final temple in Jerusalem will be built, worship and the Old Testament sacrifices will resume.
However, in the second half of the seven-year tribulation, the antichrist will put himself in the temple in Jerusalem demanding worship. Jews will reject him, and he will bring his wrath against Jews. God will shelter them and provide for them.
At this point, Christ will descend in His marvelous glory, and Zachariah 14:4 says, “On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley.”
Revelation 16:16 called this very wide valley Armageddon where all nations under the leadership of the antichrist will assemble to destroy Israel.
Revelation 19:11-21 says Christ will return with the heavenly armies to wage the war against those who come against Jerusalem and in the battlefield of Armageddon right outside of Jerusalem, Christ will slaughter the enemies of God and Israel.
Then Christ will capture the antichrist and the false prophet and throw them into the lake of fire along with all the worshipers and followers of the antichrist thus purging this corrupt earth of all unrighteous people.
This will prepare the earth for one thousand years of literal messianic reign of Christ on earth. Christ with the saints who by this time would have received their glorified bodies similar to the resurrected body of Christ will rule with Christ.
However, after the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, Christ in His divine wisdom will release Satan to test the faith, free will, and faithfulness of those under Christ’s righteous reign for a thousand years.
Once released Satan will deceive and lead nations to attack Christ and His saints. Once more but this time for the last time nations will come against Jerusalem the city of God because Christ, in His earthly global Messianic Kingdom, will reign from the throne of David in Jerusalem, the only city on earth where God chose to dwell.
Christ will defeat the devil, destroy death, and damn the deniers once and for all and throw them into the lake of fire forever. This will be the end of the first creation before Christ ushers humanity into eternity which was described in Revelation 21:9-22:5.
Imagine a world with no sin, no suffering, and no sun. Imagine your new bodies that will never get sick, never need anything but will have access to everything because you will live for eternity in the dwelling place of God, under God's direct protection, and in God's divine presence.
As I close, the action step I want you to take is: no matter what picture the world paints of eternity and heaven, you are given an exclusive look into eternity, so do not fall for any other version of heaven in eternity.
Tell others about heaven but also what comes before that. Tell them only by trusting in Jesus can we go to heaven because it is His Father’s house.
Study Questions
1. How do you picture heaven and eternity and how does Revelation 21:9-22:5 inform your understanding of both heaven and eternity?
2. What is the connection between the new Jerusalem and the Bride, the wife of the Lamb?
3. Is there any significance in that God chose to show the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, first in the new Heaven and new Earth?
4. How does Revelation 21:14 help us understand the distinction between Israel and the church? Also, in Revelation 21:12-14, their unity in the eternal state before God?
Deeper Study Questions
1. In the future kingdom of God in the heavenly city (Revelation 21:22), there will be no temple to worship God because God will be among His people. The New Testament makes it very clear that we, the believers, are the temple of God and that God’s Spirit dwells in us (1 Corinthians 3:16). How do you function as the temple of God in your everyday life? How is God being worshiped, served, and proclaimed because you are the living temple of God?
2. In Revelation 22:4, believers will have the name of God on their forehead; it will indicate that they belong to Him. As Christians, even today, we belong to Christ. Discuss how you make intentional efforts to let people know that you belong to Christ. Share how and what behaviors, actions, and steps show other people that you belong to Christ.
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