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Revelation 21.2-8
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June 24th 2018
So last week we read (and covered) verse 1 where John says:
1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
We explained in great detail the different things this verse could mean relative to the New Heaven and Earth AND there being no more sea.
Let’s move out to verse two where we continue to examine the revelation concerning the final and eternal state of the earth, which I reiterate, is never going away – at least not by God’s hand.”
2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
As we have stated before it seems that the new Jerusalem represents the church and/or the bride/body of Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 11:2, Paul writes,
“I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”
In order to marry the church, God would have to divorce His previous wife, the unfaithful of the Jewish old covenant community, as He had done in Jeremiah 3:8 and Isaiah 50:1 during the Babylonian invasion.
Isaiah 50:1 says, “Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.”
Jeremiah 3:8 says
“And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.”
We know that Revelation 17 presents the unfaithful people of Jerusalem as an adulterous wife. Jerusalem is said to be an adulteress in order to make the divorce lawful, as Jesus made clear this is the only justification for divorce.
That is according to Matthew 5:32, and therefore because her adulteries (with Rome) Jerusalem was given her certificate of divorce.
Here in Revelation 21:2, God marries the New Jerusalem, which is the Christian body of believers or the church.
Duncan W. McKenzie makes the following interesting point concerning the marriage of the New Jerusalem after the destruction of the old Jerusalem and its Temple symbolizing the old covenant. He says:
I find it interesting, one of the reasons given for the breaking of the glass at Jewish weddings is that it is in remembrance of the A.D. 70 destruction of the Temple. This is most appropriate. As Revelation 19:1-9 shows, the destruction of the Temple happened at the time of a wedding.
We recall the language of that chapter –
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
The Saints when? The saints of the church then and there. They were the ones who Jesus and the Apostles were preparing and who were faithful to the end.
They were the ones who Jesus promised to come back and save. They were the replacement of the Old Jerusalem – as much as I’d like to say that this applies to us now out into the future.
Because it doesn’t, what does this mean for us today – those of the world and those of the faith.
All I can offer are suppositions – but it seems that those who are His creation will still be His creations, those who are His children will still be His children, and those who are His Son’s and Daughters will also continue to be His Son’s and Daughters.
But I can say definitively that I believe that the New Jerusalem here is represented by the faithful righteous Saints THEN.
As it says, the New Jerusalem is to come down from heaven to the earth which illustrates the fact that the saints on earth are “strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13) “not of the world” (John 17:16)” and have their “citizenship in heaven” (Philippians 3:20).”
Something we covered last week. But there is more to this imagery. In John 3:13 Jesus says, “No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.”
It seems to me that it is through and by Jesus Christ (who descended from heaven) to establish His church that the New Jerusalem (the Christian Church triumphant) is said to come down from heaven in Revelation 21:2.
This message is implicit in Daniel 2 where Daniel sees a rock cut out without hands that crushes the feet of the statue of four metals.
This rock (obviously representing Jesus who is called the Rock in both the old and new Testaments) presumably descends from heaven before it shatters this statue representing four Gentile empires.
After shattering the statue, this rock then grows to become a large mountain that fills the earth.
As we know Mountains represent kingdoms in the Bible (with Psalms 2:6; 48:1; Isaiah 66:20; Jeremiah 51:25; Joel 3:17 being proof of this).
Therefore, this mountain represents the kingdom of God which (as stated above) is the New Jerusalem or the Christian Church rolling over the world and filling it up.
Now, it is my opinion, that because this Kingdom is Spiritual, and not material, even though the rolling rock imagery tends to suggest a material fulfillment of this (like the Mormons suggest) but because this Kingdom is spiritual, I suggest the following:
With Jesus having had the victory over sin and death, the fulfillment of this is seen partially in this world through the spread of Christianity and then in total beyond – as supported by the plethora of near death experience accounts – but admittedly, these are all conjectural.
In Revelation 21 and Revelation 22, the Jerusalem that is on earth is described in a similar euphoric state to that of the Jerusalem that is in heaven mentioned in Hebrews 12:22 and Galatians 4:26.
In other words, the Jerusalem of this world is described in what is often called poetic hyperbole.
I believe the reason that post-war Jerusalem is sometimes described as a utopia is not just to contrast the present joy and peace with the previous despair of war but also to use Jerusalem as a poetic illustration of its heavenly counterpart.
Now get this – just as the old Jerusalem at its destruction in Revelation 19:3 is described in the image of hell, the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22 is described in the image of heaven.
Perhaps Jerusalem may also be described in this way as a means to hint at the fact that it is occupied to a large extent by Christians destined for heaven?
Whatever the case, we read here that John sees the Holy City (the NEW JERUSALEM) coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
(Verse 3)
3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
Now where have you heard that language before??
As indicated in both Exodus 25:8 and Ezekiel 43:6-7, God resided in spirit within the Holy of Holies of the Temple.
The above verse is a virtual quote of Leviticus 26:12 which says:
“And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”
But here in the description of the New Jerusalem, we read that God would walk among His people and be their God because of the presence of the Temple among them.
However, verse 22 here in the chapter tells us that in “the New Jerusalem there is no temple within the city.”
So what is this New Jerusalem that has come down from heaven to earth where it is described like this:
“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
(beat)
It is proof that the New Jerusalem is the body of believers- in whom God dwells, and which makes the temple that is not made with hands.
This passage supports other places in the New Testament where we have read the following (which I believe speaks to the day and age after the destruction of Jerusalem to the present)
Hebrews 11:16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
Hebrews 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
In Hebrew 8 the writer speaks of how God admonished Moses to make a tabernacle that would be a shadow of things to come. Then we read:
6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. {covenant: or, testament}
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
In this temple city, this New Jerusalem, God freely dwells in spirit with His people as He had within the Holy of Holies of the first and second temple.
Jesus promised His people that after His death they would be indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God and so in this way, every member of the church body has become a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16) similar to the temple in Jerusalem in which God was thought to dwell in spirit.
Recall 1st Corinthians 3:16 which says
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
Then 2nd Corinthians 6:16 which says:
“For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’”
The former Jerusalem of dust and brick and mortar were bondage – as they were under the Law.
This is why Paul wrote in Galatians 4:26
“But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”
Verse four, taken as it is written, is admittedly difficult to apply to our day and age as it says:
4 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.”
Did you catch the key phrase? Let me read it again with EMPHASIS –
4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. (To me this suggests upon our entrance into the Heavenly realm) There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
So, what was the Old Order that, in this part of the Revelation, has passed away?
To me, the old order was one where there was weeping, pain, anguish, perhaps even gnashing of teeth.
In other words, the Fact that there is no more death means that the physically Dead in Christ are now raised to Heaven immediately without having to await for their redemption from Sheol or hell, which was called the Land of the Dead because it was a place separated from God.
Again, because we are speaking of the Heavenly Kingdom I think we can surmise that John is referring to the fact that in Heaven there is no more crying or pain.
It is a state of bliss reserved for those in the presence of God in heaven. Some suggest that this speaks to Christians who went to Pella returning to Jerusalem and since the war was over, so was the pain and sorrow and tears, but I tend to see this as a reference to the faithful in heaven.
Of course as with most things, this state was evidenced in the physical history of the Jews, who returning home mirrored that of the Jewish exiles returning home from Babylon as we read in Jeremiah 31:12:
“[T]hey will sorrow no more.”
Isaiah says something similar in his description of the Hebrews re-entering into the Promised Land:
“They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
Because this phraseology is used in the Old Testament which described the return of the Jews to the Promised land we know that the words are symbolic and they are not literal.
As we read on through a description of this New Heaven and New earth we read that there are those who do evil (etc.) and so this age, played out here on earth, does not contain perfect utopian ideals.
The words are describing a state of peace that has resulted in the future age resting down in the hearts of humankind because Christ, in this age, bears the sorrows for His own.
Remember that Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would bear our sorrows, saying
Isaiah 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
This is that age of Grace that we entered and if Christ surely bears our sorrows we surely would have our tears dried, etc., leaving all the follows of Christ in this age with joy in the Holy Spirit.
Describing the Kingdom of the future age, which had begun with the Aposltes and the Lord, Paul says eloquently in Romans 14:17
“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
Do you see the contrast between the present age of the Old Covenant the believers lived in, that age of Law, and tears, and suffering and the coming age they looked to in fullness when all things of the former covenant were destroyed and this Kingdom, this new Jerusalem, this new heaven and new earth would abide on earth (in the hearts of human beings) and in heaven?
This Kingdom is NOT in meat and drink, but in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit!
This promise of no more “mourning, crying or pain which is fulfilled on earth in the joy in the Holy Spirit is merely a shadow (meaning it is not complete, as we all know) but is a mere shadow of the literal fulfillment of this promise in heaven.
Adding to the joy of the believer is the promise of eternal life in heaven through Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross and because of this sacrifice, there is no more death (death is done away in the Victory of Christ) as the old order has passed away with the covenants of is being nailed to His Cross.
In Isaiah 65:17, Isaiah looks ahead to the new Jerusalem of Revelation 21 and Revelation 22 with the words: “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.”
The new Jerusalem of Revelation 21 and 22 opens with a nearly identical expression in Revelation 21:1:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.”
Now listen – in Isaiah’s description of the new Jerusalem which is on earth, he makes it clear that there will still be physical death.
Isaiah 65:20 reads,
“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.”
Therefore, when Revelation 21:4 states that in the new Jerusalem “there will be no more death,” this death is not physical death, it is spiritual death.
Before Jesus’ death for the remission of sins, the Old Covenant saints had no perfect sacrifice to cleanse them from sin and therefore the resulting scourge of spiritual death which is separation from God in heaven.
Therefore, those Old Testament “saints” were confined to Sheol, the realm of the dead, after physical death.
Sheol is “spiritual death” because it is a realm of darkness and separation from God in heaven.
Sheol, the afterlife realm of death, is often just translated death in the Bible but it is also translated hell.
Prior to the seventh trumpet and the concurrent resurrection, the saints had to await their redemption in Sheol before they could receive their inheritance in heaven.
Verse four makes it clear that in this new Covenant age there is no more death which means that after the seventh trumpet, the saints no longer have to wait in Sheol before they are allowed to enter heaven.
I suggest that all of the dead are now immediately resurrected to heaven after death, and it is here that there will also be no more death or “mourning or crying or pain.”
Remember what we read and have read in 1st Corinthians 15:50-54 which says, speaking of this age:
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
We also remember 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18, which Paul wrote in an epistle to THOSE believers in that age:
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, (those who had died before Jesus promised return, Paul says) that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Verse 5
At this point we have heard from a couple of voices that John describes.
In verses 3-4 John hears a voice from heaven.
Then at verse five John describes the origin of the voice as being from “he who was seated on the throne.” It could be that this was the same voice in verses 3-4 – but we don’t know – just seems so.
Whatever the case, the voice speaking in verse 5-8 is described as “the one seated on the throne.”
THE ONE seated on THE THRONE.
Let’s read from verse 5-8:
5 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.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.
7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Now who the speaker is is debated. Some say it is God Almighty and others say its Jesus. I must admit that there are clues that lean both ways.
So, let’s go to the board and tease these verses apart and try and see if we can make a guestimation.
(GO TO BOARD)
READ AND FILL IN THE BLANK
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 him who is thirsty I will give to drink
without cost
from the spring of the water of life.
He who overcomes will inherit all this
and I will be his God and he will be my son.
GOD THE FATHER
JESUS
BOTH/EITHER
ONE THRONE / on the throne
I AM MAKING EVERYTHING NEW
WRITE this down for these word are trustworthy and true
It is done
I am the Alpha and Omega
The beginning and the end
To Him that is thirsty I will give to drink
Which sprang from the water of life
He who overcomes will inherit all this
And I will be his God
And He will be my Son
Then at verse 9 one of the seven angels begins to do the speaking, saying
9 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.”
Okay, let’s go back and wrap verses 5-8 up
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And he said unto me, “Write: for these words are true and faithful.”
We have two ways we can read this – as actual literal or as figurative and representational.
If you are in the actual literal camp then you are looking for a futuristic, literal fulfilment of these passages in some utopian state.
There are problems with this view and the rest of the chapter will point them out clearly.
The other view (representational) in my estimation makes far more sense (especially in light of what we will read) and if representational non-literal is your take, then your eschatology can slip into the preterist views.
Using this passage futurists will say:
“Well, are all things new? Obviously not?”
Preterists will say, “When Paul says that all things become new to the believer is that literal or representational?”
And the battles rage on.
I would strongly suggest that God is speaking of everything about the new age is made new relative to the Old. Period.
(Verse 6)
6 And he said unto me, “It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
I want you to notice two really important lines here in this verse. “It is done,” and “I WILL give unto him or her that is athirst of the fountain of water of life freely.”
These two phrases are so important to a contextual understanding of the age we are presently in – and the age that will forever be.
It is an age where everything necessary for God’s victory over sin and death is done – His Son has had the victory. When God says, “it is done, it IS done.”
But we also note that he also adds something that proves EVERYTHING is not done, that He is still calling and bringing those who are His into relationship with Him. We can say this because He adds:
“I WILL give unto him or her that is athirst of the fountain of water of life freely.”
This giving is a future tense to all who are athirst, showing that there is a continued searching and seeking in the New Age and that these passages are NOT describing a Utopia – they are describing a new spiritual age where the Kingdom of God is in place spiritually in heaven and on earth, but the world continues to spin, and people can still accept or reject Christ. This is further proven by verses 7-8 where God says:
7 He that overcometh (again, something that God admits can be done after He has said that everything is done) shall . . . inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
So again, we can see that the futurist literalist ideal does not hold water here as God is not describing some future state of perfection – not at all.
People are STILL overcoming! Overcoming what?! Satan and hell have been cast into the Lake of Fire.
People are still THIRSTING – “I thought EVERYTHING was Done!” This is the problem with the literal interpretation of these verses. Revelation 21 and 22 are describing the final, ruling, victorious Kingdom of the New heaven and the New earth, the New Jerusalem, which is above, which is spiritual, leaving all of the material world in place forever for humans to decide if they are thirsty enough for God.
Finally, the next verse re-emphasizes this point I am trying to make as God says (and remember again, chapter 19 wrapped up death, hell, and the Great White Throne Judgement) . . . God says . . .
8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
In summary, I suggest the following:
God has finished all things necessary for the redemption of humanity. (as described in chapter 20 and admitted here in chapter 21)
Satan, hell, and spiritual death is over.
We are presently in the new (and final) age, where there is a new heaven and a new earth, where there is a heavenly Jerusalem of which believers in Christ are citizens – both here and there when they pass.
The resurrection is immediate for all people as God gives everyone a heavenly spiritual body in which to experience heaven.
There is the thought, because the Lake of Fire is still receiving people post chapter 19, that those who are not God’s by faith in His Son, meaning therefore those who described post chapter 19 in the verse we just read, being exposed to the Lake of Fire (which was created for Satan and His angels) and in so doing they will have “their part” in it – which I suggest is the fire of the eternal God purging them of whatever is present within them so they can abide in some sort of proximity to Him in heaven.
Those who are His by faith will exist with God and Jesus in the Heavenly Jerusalem, within its city walls, and will experience eternal life with them from within.
We will describe this heavenly locale next week.
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