The Capital City of Heaven, Pt. 2
Revelation 21:22-22:5
We come to Revelation chapters 21 and 22 and a look at the capital city of heaven. When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, He included a marvelous promise to believers. He said to them in Matthew 5:12, "Your reward in heaven is great." Jesus also included in the Sermon on the Mount a command to "Lay up treasures in heaven."
Later on in the nineteenth chapter of Matthew it is recorded that Jesus told the rich young ruler these words, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven and come follow Me." In Luke 23 it is recorded that Jesus said, "Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven."
Interesting, isn't it, that Jesus talked about the treasures of heaven, the reward of heaven, the riches of heaven. The Apostle Paul followed up on that and reminded believers that he was thankful for the hope laid up for him in heaven. He talked about a crown which is righteousness. He talked about a crown which is rejoicing, a crown that belongs to all those who love the Lord's appearing.
And Peter echoed the sentiment of Paul when he said that we have an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for us, 1 Peter 1:4. Heaven is our place. It's where our inheritance is. It's where our reward is. It's where our hope is. It's where our treasure is laid up. Heaven is our eternal home and the place of eternal glory. So, we're looking at heaven, particularly in Revelation 21 and 22, we're looking at the capital city of the eternal state, none other than what is called the new Jerusalem, the holy city, our forever home. It's the place where we're going to spend eternity.
Now Revelation 21 opened with the announcement that the present universe will be uncreated. John says, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there is no longer any sea." I told you the significance of the statement "there is no longer any sea" is the fact that in the new creation there will not be a water-based existence. This existence in which we now live in the present universe is dependent upon water. Most of what we are is water, as you well know from a scientific analysis perspective. And we are in a water-based existence. The very fact that there is no longer any sea in the future, new heaven and new earth, indicates that it will be of a completely different order than anything that we can understand in the life in which we now live.
And so, we see then in the opening of this twenty-first chapter the introduction of the new heaven and the new earth. And immediately after that the jeweled city of that eternal state is introduced. Verse 2, "I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband." She comes down, as it were, out of heaven in splendorous garb, taking her place in the new heaven and the new earth, perhaps even settling on some place on the new earth, settling into some location on the new earth.
That city then that descends into the eternal state becomes the focal point of attention for the rest of this section, running all the way down to chapter 22 and verse 5. Now keep in mind that we're talking about a new heaven and a new earth. There will be a new earth. And there will be a new heavens or heaven in which that earth exists. It will be an infinite heaven, it will be a vast...as I said infinite heaven...at the same time it will be crowned in the very center on the new earth or perhaps hanging over the new earth with this glorious city called the new Jerusalem.
So when we talk about the new Jerusalem or the holy city, we're not just talking about all that heaven is, we're talking about the capital city within the infinity of the new heaven and the new earth. The city then, as I said, became the focal point of attention and we started in verse 9 last time to take a look at this city. And verses 9 through 11, actually a couple of weeks ago, gave us a general appearance. And you remember that general appearance is like a bride, verse 10, "He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. And her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper," which we said would be like a diamond, perhaps a diamond is exactly what is in mind here.
And so the general appearance of this city is like a transparent lucid diamond in the center of which is the glory of God blazing out through all the refractions of that diamond and scattering light throughout the entire new heaven and new earth. It is God revealed as light because when God reveals Himself, you remember, He reveals Himself as light. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." John said that, "In Him is light and there is no darkness at all." He is...He is unlimited and unmitigated and unhindered and non-obstructed light and when He reduces His attributes to that which is manifest or visible, it comes out as light or glory. God's presence, God's Shekinah manifest as light. And so the city itself is a diamond reflecting light coming from the very heart of it. We saw that general appearance.
Then we came to verse 12 and we saw the exterior design. That ran all the way down through verse 21, and I'll just read it to you.
It had a great and high wall with twelve gates and at the gates twelve angels and names were written on them which are those 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.
So the city identifies the twelve tribes, pulling together people from the Old Testament era, it names the twelve Apostles, of course, representative of those of the New Testament era. Verse 15: "The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod," and we noted that that occurs a number of times in prophetic literature and shows God measuring out what belongs to Him, marking off the boundaries of that which is His possession. And so, the gold measuring rod was used to measure the city and its gates and its wall. And the city is laid out as a square. We talked about it being symmetrical, three gates on every side. It is a perfect square. It has twelve foundation stones as well, corresponding, I'm sure, to the three gates, three foundation stones on each of the four sides.
Its length is as great as its width. He measured the city with a rod 1500 miles its length and width and height are equal.
And we talked about the fact that it is a cube, 1500 miles in every direction.
And then he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, a hundred and forty-four cubits.
And I suggested to you that that is not the height of the wall. If the city is 1500 miles high it wouldn't do much good to have a 216 foot high wall. That is, no doubt, the measurement of the width of it, not the height of it. And somebody at this point is going to say, "Yeah, well this isn't actually literal." And so, just for those folks who might say that, he says, "This is according to human measurements which are also angelic measurements." And I told you how I love that kind of statement which just backs off anybody who wants to tamper with the text.
And the material of the wall was jasper. So 216 feet or 72 yards in width, and again it is this diamond crystal. And the city inside of these walls that run from the bottom to the top, the city inside is made of pure gold like clear glass. And again, the light can blaze through the clear gold glass and come blazing through the thick crystal diamond walls, blazing through the foundation stones also. And you remember, there were twelve of them and he names them, they were every kind of precious stone, jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth and amethyst. And we gave you some idea of what those might mean.
Then the street of the city was like...pardon me, verse 21 says, "The twelve gates were twelve pearls." Verse 21 indicating the construction material of the gates being twelve pearls. That is to say each gate was one pearl. If they're 1500 miles high, then that is a fairly large pearl...a 1500-mile-high pearl making a gate. Remember now, the city is tiered and I talked about the fact that we'll be in our glorified form moving horizontally as easily as moving vertically...moving vertically as easily as moving horizontally, and so the gate will run all the way to the top so we can go in and out and traverse the city in any way that we would wish. Each of the gates was a single pearl. The street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass.
And I suggested to you a few ways to comprehend the dimensions of the city and to understand that there's going to be plenty of room for all of the redeemed to have space there. Henry Morris calculates, "Each believer could have a cubicle block a little over a third of a mile in each direction," and that would be if there were calculated a certain number of believers based upon how many people have lived in the world and just making sort of a good educated guess. So there will be plenty of room. And besides, we'll all be coming in and out of the city and there will be plenty of infinity for us to traverse, so we're not going to get too crowded there.
All right, now we come to the third feature, or the third series of features and that is the internal character of this city. We've looked at the general appearance which is like a diamond with light blazing out of it. We looked at the exterior design, the configuration of the city and its walls and all of that. And now we're going to go inside the city and see what is inside, what are the internal characteristics. John takes us inside for a glimpse of our future home. Verse 22, and the first thing that he says is, "I saw no temple in it." I saw no temple in it. Up to this point we would have to acknowledge that there has been a temple in heaven. Chapter 8 verse 3 talks about an angel standing at the altar, holding a golden censer with incense given to him that he might add it to the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. Now those are all the kind of features that you would find in a temple. There would be an altar there and there would be incense there and certainly we are inclined to believe that there was a temple in heaven, that there is indicated in the Scripture that God dwells in heaven in some form of temple. There is in chapter 4 and verse 2 the indication of a throne in heaven. There wasn't a throne in the temple and so we don't necessarily associate that with the temple, but we do associate the altar here and the golden censer with things that were characteristic of a temple.
Over in chapter 11 of Revelation and down in verse 19 it says it very clearly. "And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple." So at the time that John sees the vision in chapter 11, he is literally taken by vision into heaven and a temple opens up and he can see into the temple. What we have to conclude then is that in the eternal state that temple is gone. There's no more temple there.
And why is that? Well there's no need for an abode of God because God will literally occupy by blazing glory the whole of the new heaven and the new earth. There's no need for a temple. There's no need for a cathedral. There's no need for a church. There's no need for a chapel. There's no need for a house of prayer. There's no need for a place of worship. There's no need for a day of worship. There's no need to for anyone to go anywhere to worship God. There won't be any place where they'll be having services. There won't be any facility at all. There won't be any temple.
Why? Verse 22, "For the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple."
You know what that says? That says literally that this city dwells within the temple which is the very presence of God and Christ. In other words, the presence of God literally fills the whole new heaven and new earth. Right now, as you know, God certainly is omnipresent, but you also know that Satan is the prince of the power of the air and that demons have access not only to the earth but to heavens as well, that the universe itself has been polluted. There is a unique place which is identified as the temple of God but in the new heaven and the new earth when the glory of God fills the earth and the glory of God fills the new universe with all of His infinity, there will be no need for a temple because God Himself will be the temple in which everything exists.
You see that back in chapter 21 verse 3 in different terms, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men. He shall dwell among them. They shall be His people, God Himself shall be among them." We literally will live in His presence. We will live in the temple of God and Christ. They are the temple by presence and we are in their presence forever.
So there wouldn't be any need to go to a church. There wouldn't be any need to go to a cathedral or go to a place of worship. Worship will be life. That's all we'll do. We'll worship, worship, worship and that's all we'll do. All of life, never a moment when we're not...listen to this...never a moment when we're not worshiping, never a moment when we're not in perfect holy communion with the perfect holy Almighty God and the Lamb, never a moment when we are not engaged in rapturous joyous worship and service to Him. Never a moment when those things are not reality. We will be the true worshipers that the Father has always sought. Our worship will be pure and true and perfect. We will be worshiping in perfect Spirit and in perfect truth in His eternal presence.
And I think it's interesting that that's the first thing that John noted because it was important to him, it was priority to him. After all, he was the one that wrote about God seeking true worshipers. He was the one who was so concerned about God being worshiped and he was the one who had been taken through all of these tremendous visions in the book of Revelation and been instructed about how important worship was and what happened to people who didn't. And he had seen glimpses of heaven where worship was the constant occupation.
And so, naturally the first thing he would look for when he was taken to the inside of the capital city of heaven would be to see if there was a place of worship there and the answer is...there isn't any. It's not necessary. Because there won't be anything but worship there wouldn't be any need to go somewhere and worship.
And then in verse 23 he goes back to that glory that's blazing out of the middle of the city which he talked about in his initial perspective in verses 9 to 11. And he says this, "And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it for the glory of God has illumined it and its lamp is the Lamb." Now that will tell you a little bit about the new earth because whatever the new earth is it won't be an earth like we know now because the earth as we know it now depends upon the sun and the moon, it depends upon time for the sun to shine and time for darkness to run its normal cycles. So whatever goes on in that new earth will be dependent on a completely different structure, a completely different creation than anything we know today. There will be no sun, there will be no moon. They're not necessary for light because the glory of God has illumined it and its lamp is the Lamb. And again it's God and the Lamb.
And you see that pretty much through all the visions of the book of Revelation. You see the Father's throne but the Lamb is sitting on the throne. And you see them share the responsibility. The tabernacle of God is with men but so is the tabernacle of Jesus Christ. He dwells with them as well. You see the great White Throne and Him who sat upon it is no other than the Creator and yet God has committed all judgment on to His own Son. So you see them together. The Creator and the Lamb then are the light of that eternal city. And remember now the new Jerusalem is a prism of utterly dazzling light.
Then in verse 24 he says, "And the nations shall walk by its light and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it." Now this might take a little bit of explanation. I'll do my best to make it as simple and plain as I can.
Some people assume that this is a millennial description, that this is describing something in the MIllennium because it mentions the nations and the kings. But if you make this the thousand-year Millennium, you have a real problem because this is the new heaven and the new earth which come after the Millennium.
And you really can't do justice to the chronology of the book of Revelation by going back. And I can't imagine anything in the Millennium that could fit this description because you still have physical human beings living in the Millennium, don't you? Those who went through the judgment because they are the sheep and entered into the Kingdom and received the earthly Kingdom and they could never live in a place like this that is built on a different creative order than anything we know today. This has to be the eternal state.
You say, "Well then explain to me how the nations got there and the kings got there?" Well, that's not really that difficult. Nations is the word ethnae, and all it means is "the peoples." It can be translated "nations," most often do you know how it's translated in the New Testament? Most often it is translated by the word...what?...Gentiles. It's the same word. It can be translated "peoples," that's really all it means. In the broadest sense all the peoples from every tongue and tribe and nation and the world will all be walking in its light. In fact, what he is really saying here is this is not going to be limited to one group. This is going to be...this is going to be the eternal capital where everybody is welcome. There will be no more divisions as we know them. All of the nations shall walk by its light.
What it really is saying is that there will be no more divisions. It will be the capital city for everybody. It's not the idea that heaven is going to be organized by political sections, but that all ethnic groups will be moving in and about that city, no...no race, no culture, no one left out.
And then it says, "And the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it." Some see this as indicated...and I think it may well indicate that...no social structure, no upper and lower class, all the kings of the earth who come to that place, that would be those mighty men, noble men, those leaders, those great men, give their glory to that city. That is their glory is gone. Everybody is at the same level. All human glory dissolves into the glory of God. All races dissolve into the people of God. And the character of that city is universal in the fact that everybody there belongs and there is no social strata. The kings give up their glory.
There's another interesting possibility about this verse and I suggest it to you. There will be believers living at the end of the millennial Kingdom, think with me on this, there will be believers living at the end of the millennial Kingdom, right? In other words, when the Kingdom starts there will be people on earth who will have children, they'll populate the earth. Many of those people who populate the earth will be unbelievers and even though Christ is ruling in Jerusalem, they won't believe in Him. Satan will be released at the end of the thousand years. He'll sweep through the earth with his demons. He'll create a rebellion. He'll gather a huge army. And he'll fight against the Lord Jesus Christ. But there still will be millions of believers all over the world, all over the world.
Now when the...follow this one...when the present creation in its millennial form is uncreated, the question is: what's going to happen to all those living believers? And some commentators feel that this verse, "And the nations shall walk by its light and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it," is a reference to the translation of those living believers on earth, people and rulers, who are taken into the eternal state. Perhaps that is what John had in ind, we certainly can't be dogmatic about it. But it could refer to those believer who simply are alive at the end of the millennial Kingdom and are translated into the new heavens and the new earth without going through death and certainly they wouldn't be judged by God and executed in the rebellion when God judges Satan and all who fight with him.
It may well be that as the new heavens and the new earth come immediately into existence and the old is uncreated, they are translated instantaneously into the descending new Jerusalem and it is those nations and kings to which he refers. But in the end everybody is going to be there, all peoples are going to be there and all rulers are going to have their glory dissolved into the glory of God which is all the glory that will be in the eternal state.
Now I know some of you are counting big on the fact that there's going to be variations in the social strata because somewhere down the line you heard some guy preach a sermon on whether you're building a big mansion or a little one. I want to hurry to say that when John went to visit heaven he didn't see any mansions. He didn't see any.
You say, "What about...what about John 14, `In My Father's house there are many mansions.'" That's one of the saddest translations I've ever heard. What it says in the Greek is, "In My Father's house there are many rooms, or in My Father's house there are many dwelling places." How could you have a house with many mansions in it? It doesn't even make sense in English. It's a house with many rooms. There will be room for all of us. I don't think that we're going to be up there saying, "Boy, I wish I had his house."
Verse 25 takes us a step further. "And in the day time," and then to make sure you don't misunderstand that, "for there shall be no night there," so it will always be...what?...daytime. "In the daytime and there will be no night there, its gate shall never be closed." Now that's an important thing to say. You don't understand that because you don't live in an ancient time. Although some of you have learned the importance of gates and you've got a...you've got a place behind some kind of security system and you know what that means to have those gates closed, you feel secure and that's the way it was in an old ancient city. They were walled cities and they had gates and the gates were closed at night to keep invaders, marauders and criminals and dangerous people from coming into their city in the night. But the point here is there's never any night and so you never need to close the gate. It's a place of rest and safety and security and refreshment.
The city gates were shut at night because they were there for protection. Not in the new Jerusalem, no night...by the way, nobody will ever sleep anyway because we will have entered into eternal...what?...rest and be continually refreshed all the time. Heaven is eternal rest and that's what it will be. And so...in fact, Revelation 14:13 says, "We'll rest from our labors while the ungodly in hell have no rest," 14:11. So the gates never close because there's never any night, and frankly there's never any danger. We enter into rest.
Richard Baxter, the great Puritan writer, comments on rest, eternal rest, with some interesting words that I found. "Rest," he says, "not as the stone that rests on the earth, nor as these clods of flesh shall rest in the grave, so our beasts much rest as well as we. Nor is it the satisfying of our fleshly lusts nor such rest as the carnal world desires. No, no, we have another kind of rest than these. Rest we shall from all our labors which were but the way and means to rest, but yet that is the smallest part. O blessed rest, where we shall never rest day or night, crying, `Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabbaths,' when we shall rest from sin but not from worship. Rest from suffering and sorrow but not from comfort. O blessed day when I shall rest with God, when I shall rest in knowing, loving, rejoicing and praising, when my perfect soul and body together shall in these perfect things perfectly enjoy the most perfect rest. When God also who is love itself shall perfectly love me, yea, and rest in His love to me as I shall rest in my love to Him and rejoice over me with joy and singing as I rejoice over Him." That kind of rest. And so, we will have protection, security, safety, rest without ever sleeping.
Verse 26, not just the kings will give all their glory to God but everyone will. Verse 26 says, "And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it." That is to say all people no matter who they are or what country or nation they've come from will bring all their glory, all that is good about them and it will dissolve, as it were, in the eternal worship of God and Christ. The glory and the honor of all the nations dissolves, as it were, in the glory of God.
Now this tells us, I think, something about what this whole matter of rewards means. When we receive our eternal glory, when we receive our eternal honor, I really believe that we receive it and yet it is defused into the glory of God because after all, whatever good we did, whatever we achieved for the cause of Christ, the Spirit of God did in us, right? And He gets all the glory in the end. So all of the redeemed who enter into the eternal city and receive their eternal reward will give...give that back to God and God will be all and all and the eternal worship of God and the eternal worship of Jesus Christ will be everything.
And so, it's a shining city. It has the glory of God and it has all the glory of all the people who have ever received from God honor and glory diffused into that glory of God. It is a breathtaking glory, blazing everywhere. And that above everything describes that city.
The commentator Cise(?) writing many years ago wrote a vision of this glory that stuck with me through the years. In fact, I've never found anything to surpass it. And I went back digging through my old notes to find it and I found it. This is what he says about this blazing jewel of the holy city. He says, "That shining is not from any material combustion, not from any consumption of fuel that needs to be replaced as one supply burns out, for it is the uncreated light of Him who is light, dispensed by and through the Lamb as the everlasting lamp to the home and hearts and understandings of His glorified saints. When Paul and Silas laid wounded and bound in the inner dungeon of the prison of Philippi, they still had sacred light which enabled them to beguile the night with happy songs. When Paul was on his way to Damascus, a light brighter than the sun at noon shone round about him, irradiating his whole being with new sights and understanding and making soul and body ever afterward light in the Lord.
When Moses came down from the mount of his communion with God, his face was so illuminous that his brethren could not endure to look upon it. He was in such close fellowship with light that he became informed with light and came to the camp as a very lamp of God glowing with the glory of God. And on the Mount of Transfiguration that same light streamed forth from all the body and raiment of the blessed Jesus. And with reference to the very time when this city comes into being and place, Isaiah said, "The moon shall be ashamed and the sun confounded," ashamed because of the out beaming glory which then shall appear in the new Jerusalem, leaving no more need for them to shine in it since the glory of God lights it and the Lamb is the light thereof.
And so does John describe the general appearance, the exterior design and the internal features. And there are more. Continuing in our look on the inside, let's go to chapter 22 verse 1. We're now getting our city tour. "He showed me a river of the water of life clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb." And again I point out that everything is clear, everything is crystal so that the glory shines through it all. "He showed me a river of the water of life." Remember now there's no more sea so this is not a river like we know. In order to have a hydrological cycle, in order to have a river as we know a river, you'd have to have a sea because the river would go somewhere and then it would have to dissolve into something and it would have to be evaporated and picked up and brought back and put back in the head waters to make the river go again. There would have to be some cycle that moved the water. But there's no sea. There's no hydrological creation as we know it. So this is a different kind of river. And
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