Believer’s Inheritance in the Holy City

Transcript

GRM 1074
03/11/2012
Believer’s Inheritance in the Holy City
Revelation 21:9-21
Gil Rugh

We’ve been talking about biblical prophecy. And often when we talk about biblical prophecy, the most interesting thing we find and what draws our attention are current events, things that are happening in the world. Then we look into the scripture and see if there is any correlation or perhaps indication that we’re moving toward these events that God has told are in the future. But I think by far, the most exciting portion of the bible dealing with biblical prophecy is what God has revealed about our eternal home, where we as believers will spend eternity. And He has seen fit to give us a rather detailed description. Sadly, many who are Christians fail to appreciate the wonder of what God has revealed, because they don’t take Him at His word.

We’re in the book of Revelation in our study these recent weeks. Now, what will help us in the study of the book of Revelation (we’re not doing the whole book, but in the closing chapters) if we keep in mind the book of Revelation is chronological. I stress this, but I read a number of commentaries again this week, just reviewing and I am dumbfounded that so many, and I’m talking about those who would consider themselves evangelical bible-believing Christians, who make such a mess out of the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is chronological. Chapter 1 deals with events back here with John. Around 95 AD he’s given a revelation of the resurrected, glorified Christ. Chapters 2 and 3 deal with the events that are present and ongoing during this period of time, the Church Age. And seven churches have been selected by Christ to be representative of His churches in the world. Then the messages there are addressed to those individual, historical churches, but they also are messages that’s addressed through those churches to us as the church today. Chapters 4 and 5 talk about a throne room seen in heaven. The church is raptured before chapter 6. And then chapters 6 to 19 cover this seven-year period. When you read the book of Revelation, you’re talking about what we call the Tribulation, the seventieth week of Daniel. That seven-year period that will climax in Revelation chapter 19 with the return of Christ to earth; Armageddon, the destruction of the enemies of Christ.

Then you come to chapter 20, we have the thousand-year millennium, the word “millennium” meaning a thousand years. That’s the first phase of the eternal kingdom. So, the kingdom here goes on from this point endlessly. But there is a thousand-year preliminary period in the kingdom. First phase, that was in Revelation 20, that will climax with the great white throne judgement right here. This is called the resurrections, and it’s dealing with where judgements occur in connection with the resurrections (a chart, but the order is the same). Here there is a resurrection in judgement of all unbelievers from all time, and they are cast into hell. Then we move to Revelation 21 and 22, (and when I talk about Revelation 21 and 22, I’ll primarily be dealing with the opening verses of chapter 22) we are in the eternal phase of the kingdom. This is where we will be for eternity. And it’s crucial, because something significant happens here. Heaven is the place where God manifests His presence most fully for His creation. When we get to this point, after the great white throne judgement, God’s dwelling will be removed from heaven to earth. And that’s where we will dwell. There’s a description of our residence and the condition of the earth.

So, we’re going to come to Revelation 21, then when you get there, we’re going to leave there. It’s easy to find, because it’s just before the concordance at the end of your bible. The last of the books of the bible, the book of Revelation. Chapter 21 began by saying, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” The “then,” this is in sequence, then after the judgement at the end of chapter 20, which was after the destruction of the millennial kingdom in the first part of chapter 20, which was after the description of the return of Christ from heaven to earth and the destruction of His enemies at Armageddon in chapter 19, which followed the events of the seven-year tribulation between the first stage of Christ’s coming at the rapture and the second stage. So, if we just take Revelation literally, and understand it in its chronological order, a lot of the confusion is lost and dealt with. I mean, I tried to follow some of the commentators on Revelation I was reading, I just don’t… What in the world are they talking about? Well, Revelation isn’t in order and it keeps going back and repeating the same thing, and they are going on, and then they are off to secular writings who use this kind of imagery and numbers. All said and done, it doesn’t make any sense to anybody. So, keep the chronology in order.

So, “then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away.” And we noted, main characteristic of the new heavens and new earth, there will be no sea, no ocean. Not given any reason. The large portion of our earth covered by the ocean. There will be no ocean in the new earth. We noted, these are connected to the present heavens, the heaven around the earth and the earth, because it’s called a new heaven and a new earth. Talking about the heavens around the earth, the stellar heavens and so on. Then “I saw,” the new Jerusalem, “the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.” So, we looked at this. Now you have a city called the New Jerusalem, that connects it to the old Jerusalem by the very title. This is New Jerusalem, it reminds you of the Old Jerusalem but this is the new one. It’s called the holy city as the old Jerusalem was. Jerusalem is called the holy city, because it’s the city God has set apart for Himself. The New Jerusalem will be totally set apart by God for Himself. It will be holy in the fullest sense, it will not be tainted in any way by sin. But it is the New Jerusalem. And it’s described “as a bride adorned for her husband.” The city is pictured as a bride, and in chapter 19 of Revelation, the church was called the bride. So, we have the bride, the wife of Christ. This city is the bride-city, because the key residents in this city will be the church. We’ll look at that further in a moment. And verse 3 told us this city meant that the dwelling place of God was now with men on earth. We’ll say more about that in a moment as well.

There’s a gracious invitation and reminder at the end of verse 6, presently you are invited to partake of “the water of life without cost.” To come and partake of God’s salvation, not by your works, not by your efforts, but by believing the provision God has made for you, with the death and resurrection of His Son to pay the penalty of your sin. That water of life will reappear in eternity as well in chapter 22, not so people can be saved, but as a picture of those who have experienced God’s salvation, enjoying His presence for eternity. We’ll say more about that in chapter 22.

Some people will be excluded from heaven and from God’s presence for eternity. And they are described in verse 8, sampling, cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, immoral persons, sorcerers, idolators, liars, where will they be? “Their part will be in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone” forever and ever, as chapter 20:14-15 told us. Verse 7 talked about the overcomer, we looked at the overcomer, 1 John 5:5, “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” Overcomers are those who have come to believe in Jesus Christ. And they have overcome sin and the world and the Devil. They have become the victors, by being identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection, and set free by Him. Verse 7 says, the overcomer will inherit these things. What’s he talking about? The New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. That’s our inheritance.

Come back to Romans 8. Through Romans up to this point, he has talked about the provision of Christ to be our Savior. And we are justified by God, declared righteous by God, through faith in Him. He has been provided to be the satisfaction for our sins, to pay the penalty required by our sins. So, that by faith in Him, we might have life. You come down to chapter 8:16, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit, that we are children of God.” Now, note this, “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” Now, the ultimate inheritance God has prepared for those who love Him we will experience in the New Jerusalem. Now, we’ve entered into some of that inheritance, we have the Spirit dwelling in us. We’ve experienced God’s salvation and forgiveness. And then when we have the Rapture we get glorified bodies. Then when we come back and share in the rule in the Millennium we rule and reign with Him. But the full realization of all that God has provided in His salvation in Christ will be maximized when we move into eternity here and the New Jerusalem. That becomes part of the New Earth. That’s the ultimate realization. So, it’s a progressive unfolding that we have. It’s like God calls us holy ones now. We are called saints which means holy ones set apart from sin by God for Himself. But we haven’t had to fullest realization of that, because we still have the impact of sin in our lives. We still experience parts of that. But it will be fully manifest as we’re called into His presence. And then the fullest is when we get into eternity.

1 Peter 1, almost back to the book of Revelation again. Verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy, has caused us to be born again,” you must be born again, that happens through faith in Christ, “to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” now note this, “to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” And this inheritance is what causes us to greatly rejoice, “even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.” But you understand, we have eternity as our inheritance, and all the glory that God has prepared for those who love Him. To be certain, we will enter into that here at the rapture of the church and we get our glorified bodies. But the unfolding of the fullness, really, just gets greater and greater until we move into eternity with Him and we see all that God has prepared and done. And the realization of His salvation permeating the New Heavens and the New Earth.

This city, the New Jerusalem, I think that’s what Christ was talking about when He said in John 14:2, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” I believe the New Jerusalem exists in heaven, it’s what makes heaven, heaven -- the presence of God. Here we’ll be gathered by Christ into His presence. And that New Jerusalem from heaven will come to earth here and we will dwell there with God for eternity. We’re going to talk more about that.

Look in Hebrews 11. If you’re still in Peter, it’s just before Peter. James is next, right in front of Peter and then Hebrews, Hebrews 11. The New Jerusalem was the anticipation of Old Testament saints. They didn’t have the fullness of understanding that we do. Look at Abraham, verse 8, “By faith, Abraham, when he was called,” and they describe Abraham’s faith. Verse 9, “By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as [if] in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the promise.” So, his physical line, his son Isaac and then Isacc’s son Jacob. They are heirs of the same promise. What? Verse 10, “For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are ultimately looking to the final realization of what God promised, the New Jerusalem. Now again, Jerusalem in the Old Testament was the city God set apart for Himself. It still has significance on the earth today. I watched the news over the weekend, what do you see? Issues around Israel. Will Israel have a preemptive strike with Iran? What does the United States think about that? Will Iran develop a nuclear weapon to attack Israel? Everybody’s interest is there. Why? Because God has chosen Jerusalem and the Jews as His people. That goes on.

When we get into the millennium, we see a kingdom established in Israel with the Messiah reigning. But now we move into eternity. Now, keep in mind, in the Old Testament, the Old Testament talked about the kingdom. That includes the first thousand years. That included eternity. It did not break out the chronology. It’s like the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ. The Old Testament prophets talked about the first coming of Christ, His suffering and death; they talk about His coming here to rule and reign in glory. But they didn’t tell you that all this time would intervene. So, people sometimes get confused. It’s the same thing on the kingdom. Sometimes the prophets talk about the thousand-year portion of the kingdom. Sometimes they talk about the eternal portion of the kingdom. But when you come to the book of Revelation, it lays it out in order, puts these events down in sequence.

So, here Abraham was anticipating the coming kingdom, and the promises God had given that he was aware of, of a city that He would build, not a city constructed by earthly hands. Down in Hebrews 11:16, these other people of faith from the Old Testament, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.” That’s the New Jerusalem we’re talking about in chapter 21.

Come over to chapter 12 of Hebrews. Contrasting Mount Zion, the earthly Mount Zion where Moses received the Mosaic Law with the heavenly Mount Zion, where the New Jerusalem is planted and established. So, verse 22, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.” The ultimate city placed on Mount Zion is in the New Heavens and the New Earth. So, here you will have Jerusalem in the millennium, with a temple established on Mount Zion. Here you have something on the New Earth on Mount Zion. The New Jerusalem will come down from heaven and be planted. Note here, it tells you who will be living in this city. It’s “the city of the living God,” verse 22. It’s the heavenly Jerusalem. And when you come to the New Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that’s coming down out of heaven in Revelation 21, you come to “myriads of angels,” countless angels that dwell there.

Secondly, you have “the general assembly and church of the first born.” There you have the church that was raptured at this point. Given glorified bodies. We find they are connected with the New Jerusalem that will come down to earth. That’s the general assembly and church of the first born. We’ll be part of that group. Then it’s “to God, the Judge of all,” God the Father. And then in verse 24, we’ll have Jesus particularly marked out. You note, His Spirit is present as well. We see Him in the book of Revelation, there in the presence of God in heaven.

You come “to God, the Judge of all.” And then “to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.” The righteous made perfect are distinguished from the church. I think that’s why the Spirit directed Him to put God between the general assembly and church of the first born, a separate group, the church. Then to God, the Judge of all. Then to the spirits of righteous made perfect. That refers to all the Old Testament saints and tribulation saints. Believers all back here before the cross and the establishing of the church in Acts 2, and those who became believers during this time, which were talked about in Revelation 20 as well, their resurrection.

Then “to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.” That the book of Hebrews has talked about, the superiority of Christ to the Mosaic sacrificial system. And Christ in chapter 9, He presented His blood and the effect of His sacrifice in a better tabernacle than the earthly tabernacle. He presented it in heaven before the throne of God.

So, dwelling in the New Jerusalem, you have angels, which we would expect. They were created to serve in the presence of God. They are created beings. Heaven is the place where God has chosen to manifest most fully His presence for His creation. Before He created anything, there would not have been a specific place called heaven. Because there was only God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and they are omnipresent. So, heaven is created as a focal point for God’s presence among His creation. The angels are there. They are created as spirit beings. We expect them to be there, why? Well Hebrews 2, told us that angels were created to be serving spirits. Serving on behalf of those who are the heirs of salvation, the church. Well, Christ said He was going to prepare a special place in His Father’s house for the church, and we’ll dwell in the New Jerusalem. And then, you have Old Testament saints. And of course, God is present there, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Come over to Hebrews 13:14, “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.” See where our focal point and ultimate goal is. We don’t have a lasting city here. And he’s writing to Jews, Hebrew believers. That physical city there won’t last. It will ultimately be replaced in the plan of God, with the New Jerusalem that descends from heaven. That’s the one which is to come.

Come over to the book of Revelation and stop in chapter 3. Now, important that we recognize who the residents of the New Jerusalem are. As Hebrews has told us, the angels, it will be the church believers, church saints glorified, and it will be the spirits of righteous saints. Indicates they are resurrection individuals who have received glorified bodies. So, those in the New Jerusalem as their residence, will be God, glorified saints, the church glorified and Old Testament saints, tribulation saints glorified, and angels who were created as spirit beings.

Ok, you come to Revelation 3:12, promise to the church. The church at Philadelphia, “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.” That’s the new Jerusalem, we’ll see that again as we move back there in a moment. “He will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on Him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and My new name.” You see, we belong to God. We belong in the city. We are identified with God and with the city, which is the residence of God. That will be the place of our permanent residence. I’d be interested in this above all else. It’s why I love chapter 21 and the first part of chapter 22 of Revelation. This is describing in detail. We’ve been talking about remodeling this auditorium. Everybody gets interested. What are the colors going to be? What are the seats going to be like? Are we going to have this? Are we not going to have that? What changes are you going to make? Don’t worry about it, it’s not going to last. Takes the pressure off. It doesn’t mean that we don’t want to do our best. But, you know what? In a million years, you think we’re going to be talking about whether we picked the right colors or the right seats? It won’t matter. All these things are going to be burned up anyway, right?

What we have as our focus, that’s true of your physical house. That’s true of your physical possessions. Don’t worry about it. It’s why Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” Those are enduring. Those are eternal. This is what we’re talking about. This is what we have. One of my business magazines this week, its cover story, Marilyn got it out of the mailbox and she said, ‘”Boy, that’s a thick magazine.” It’s on billionaires and if you can’t be one, at least you can read about one. So, reading about billionaires. You know what impressed me as I read about it? Sad. I can’t say for everyone, I don’t know them, but the majority of them have nothing. Remember, Jesus said the rich man who had so much, he said, I need to expand, build bigger barns. He says you wise man, you rich man? “You fool.” They have nothing if they don’t have Christ. If they don’t have the riches that God has laid up as an inheritance for those who belong to Him, what do they have? They have nothing. We have everything. I sat there and looked at that and turned the page and they are telling that this one is worth 3.1 billion. This is worth 20.9 billion. And I’m sitting there smiling, reading my magazine thinking, I’m worth more then them all put together. Because my inheritance is laid up, and I’ll have it in a hundred billion trillion years, when they have nothing but torment.

So, the promise to the church, this is their residence.

Alright, come back to Revelation 21. I know, quit talking about it and get on with it. Alright, verse 9 says, “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’ll show you the bride.’ ” Now, you can see how this connects. The book of Revelation unfolds from chapter 6 to the second coming in Chapter 19. We have seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls. And those carry us through this seven-year period. Those three series of seven judgements each, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls. So, here we’re told it’s one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls associated with the final judgements here of this seven-year period. That’s significant.

Come back to Revelation 16. These bowls are about to be poured out on the earth. Verse 1, “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying.” From the temple, the sanctuary, we’re in heaven. Important, because it’s already there, we looked at that in our previous study. We’re going to see it’s this temple that’s being moved to earth in chapter 21, which is heaven where God manifests His presence. “I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, ‘Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.’ ” So, what we’re reading, is going to be the completion of God’s plan here, wrapping up with the seventh bowl. It’s poured out of the wrath, but the wrath of God poured out on the earth, to what? To prepare the way for the new heavens and the new earth. It’s all part of that, to bring completion as the book of Revelation started with the seven-sealed book. And that book would bring us to the completion of God’s plan in its ultimate fulfillment of a new heavens and a new earth.

In chapter 17 of Revelation, “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me.” So, still same angels who are connected with the seven bowls giving the revelation here. And here, he’s going to show the judgement on the great harlot city. We call the new Jerusalem the bride city. In chapter 17 and 18, we have Babylon the harlot city. The descriptions, we haven’t taken time to compare, shows a contrast being drawn between these. Unbelievers associated with Babylon, the harlot city. Satan’s kingdom in contrast with what God has prepared. It will be in existence and a literal city, but what it represents has come down through the ages of time, as we saw when we studied Revelation. The Revelation concerning this harlot city is given by one of the seven angels associated with the seven bowls. It talks about then in verse 8, those whose name has not been written in the book of life, from the foundation of the world. They will wander and they are going to destruction.

So, now we come to chapter 21, and one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, the same source of revelation, God, through these seven angels connected with the seven bowl judgements as we wrap up God’s plan. He has shown the destruction of the harlot city of Babylon. Now, He shows the presence of the bride’s city, the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven to reside on the new earth.
“Come here”, verse 9 of Revelation 21, “I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb.” This fits the description of verse 2 of Chapter 21. The New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. We saw in our previous study in chapter 19:7-8, the church identified as the wife of Christ. And so, the city called the bride, also called the wife, the church called the wife, the bride, why? Because the key people in this city, the people who have the place of greatest honor, are the bride. It’s the bride, the bride of Christ. These people, we comprise the bride of Christ. Remember what we saw in Hebrews? In the New Jerusalem, there will be angels, there’ll be the church. There will also be resurrected Old Testament saints, but they are not the bride. Remember what John the Baptist said? Jesus said, he was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. But he said, I’m not the bride, I’m a friend of the bridegroom. That’s different than being the bride. The bride has the place of greatest honor. So, this city is identified with the church. Understand that. What a privilege, what an honor given to us to be the church, the bride of Christ. That will be significant in eternity. Not to play down the blessings God has promised for resurrected Jews. For Noah, when he’s resurrected, who was not part of Israel because he’s in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. Or Enoch, a great prophet of God in those chapters. Others. But we have a great honor. So, the city is identified with the bride. But others who belong to Christ, they have glorified bodies, will be part of this city as well. So, it’s the Holy City, Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God. Part of the description here, that is so overwhelming, it’s a city coming down out of heaven, that has the glory of God.

Now, back in verse 3 of chapter 21, “I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them.” Now, we’re told, this city coming down out of heaven has the glory of God. Now, remember the book of Revelation doesn’t have any direct quotes from the Old Testament. But it has hundreds of allusions and references. This would be an example, having the glory of God.

Come back to Exodus 40. Genesis, Exodus, the second book in our bible. Chapter 40, what is happening in chapter 40? The tabernacle. Remember God had given Moses the layout for the tabernacle as a shadow of what was in heaven. So, this portable tent structure is modeled after God’s throne room in heaven, if you will. Now, the tabernacle is erected and setup in Exodus 40. Then when its set up as God has instructed, look at verse 34 of Exodus 40, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” What we read about the New Jerusalem, it comes out of heaven, having the glory of God. Here, that tabernacle in the Old Testament, the tent of meetings, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud had settled on it. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Well, what is happening? This place is the place God has ordained, where He will manifest His presence among His people on the earth. It is the only place on the earth, where the omnipresent God is manifesting His presence among His creation in this focular way. That was in the tabernacle that had been constructed under the Mosaic Law.

Come over to 1 Kings 8, just keep going back, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings. We’re going to 1 Kings 8. We’ve moved along in time. We’re 600 years later approximately. And now we have David’s son Solomon building the temple. We’re going to move from that transitory tent structure that could be taken down and moved as the children of Israel moved from place to place. To now that they have been placed in the land that God promised to them, there will be a permanent structure, replacing the tabernacle, but modeled on the same plan. And so, Solomon has constructed the temple, then they bring the ark to put it into the temple, into the Holy of Holies in the temple that’s being constructed. Moved from the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. Remember, within the temple you had a place that we call the Holy Place and then there is a curtain. Behind the curtain there is the Holy of Holies. And only the High Priest was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies, and only once a year. And in the Holy of Holies, you have the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant, as we’ve noted, because it contained the tablets of stone that summarize the covenant that God had given to Moses on Mt Sinai. Then they had made the models of the cherubim, the angels, one on each side, their wings spread over the top of that chest. I believe that chest was about 39 inches long. I hope my memory serves me correct. So, it’s not that big of a chest, box. And the top of that box is the mercy seat. And that’s where, basically God meets with His people, under the overarching wings of the cherubim, as sacrifice is made for the sin of the people.

Well, now the temple is built and we’re moving the ark from the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, and it’s associated from that into that permanent structure of the Holy of Holies. And description on down to verse 10. We’re in 1 Kings 8:10, “It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.” We call this the shekinah glory, the word that means dwelling, presence. Because this is the glory of God’s presence. We talk about the shekinah glory, it’s the glory of the manifestation of God’s presence. But what happens when we come over to Revelation 21?

Revelation 21, you have the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. What are we being told? Verse 3, “the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them,” in a fuller, more magnificent way that has ever occurred before. You will have the presence of the Son of God in the millennium, and there will be a temple built here. But again, it is a temple built here. You have the presence of the Son of God present. But you still have the heavenly temple here. When you come to the eternal state, heaven moves to the New Earth. This is where God now manifests His presence. We talk about the angels of heaven. Well, the angels of heaven come to earth because the New Jerusalem, the heavenly temple, is now on earth. And so yes, we’re looking forward to heaven. But sometimes we don’t grasp what that means. The kingdom will go on, this eternal kingdom, but we’ll have a merging of heaven and earth to bring the fullest realization of the kingdom that God has promised, His complete, perfect rule with no sin anywhere, the New Heavens or the New Earth.

So, a description here, the brilliance of this city was like a costly stone, like a stone of crystal-clear jasper. We’ll talk about that crystal-clear jasper and the other stones, because jasper is going to be repeated, so we’ll do it together. “It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels.” So, now we’ve got a wall around the city and it’s a high wall. We’re going to get its dimensions in a moment. And it has 12 gates and there is going to be angel as the gatekeeper at each gate. This is where we get some of the mistaken imagery of, you know, when you get to the pearly gates, will they let you in and so on. Well, we pick up some of the imagery, because these gates are going to be made of pearls. And there are angels at the gates, but unbelievers have already been removed. There are no unbelievers coming to these gates. But there is a wall around the city, there are gates and there are angels at the gates.

Note verse 12, the “names were written on them,” on each of the gates, “which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.” Wait a minute, we’re into eternity here. I thought everybody just gets blended together. Now I find out that Israel is still identified as Israel. The 12 tribes are still identified as the 12 tribes. Now, how do people miss this? Well, some of the commentators I read this week (some of you are going to say, you ought to do better reading) but some of the commentators say, well, 12 is a number of perfection. And then you have the 144,000 earlier in Revelation. What are the 144,000? Well, they’re 12 times 12, just representing the perfection of God’s people, so its not literal. I take it, it is literal. Were there literal 12 tribes in the Old Testament? Did they have literal names? It says they are going to write a name on each of the gates; inscribed on that gate will be the name of one of the tribes of Israel. So, in eternity Israel will have its identity as Israel, the 12 tribes. People say, well, nobody knows who the 12 tribes are anymore. I don’t even know what to say to that silliness. God knows everything He wants to know, everything there is to know. He is not only omnipresent, He is omniscient. I just don’t understand people claim to be evangelicals, claim to believe in the God of the bible, then they come here and say, we can’t take this literally because you couldn’t have a city looking like this. Well, you’ll find out I’m right.

Verse 13, break it down, I mean, you build a house, you like to know where the doors are. God’s going to tell you where the gates are. There are going to be 3 gates on the east, 3 gates on the north, 3 gates on the south, 3 gates on the west, because this city is going to be set out in a square shape. There’s going to be directions in eternity. I’m working on learning east, west, north, south. They will be able to tell people, I’ll be coming in on the northern gate. It’s going to be there. So, things just don’t dissolve into some spiritual… we all become spirits and, you know, ghost-like entities just flittering around. I mean, these are literal gates in a literal city with literal dimensions, north, south, east, west. We’re going to get the layout in a moment. The wall of the city had 12 foundation stones. You say, well, I don’t think it’s a literal city. Going to a lot of trouble to describe it, isn’t it? What’s the foundation? I was reading on some houses, you go to a certain point, as they describe the house, they tell you, the foundation is made out of block, a cinderblock foundation. It’s poured concrete foundation. That’s noting like I have. Look at this, 12 foundation stones. Before He describes each stone, he tells you on each of these stones are written the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. Why? Well, Ephesians 2:20 tells us, the foundation of the church is the apostles and the truth that God revealed through them concerning His Son.

So, connected to this city, we have seen residents in this city are going to include the church and glorified Old Testament saints. And there is identification here, marking out Israel and marking out the church. Both the 12 tribes of Israel and also the 12 apostles, were the foundation of the church.

[Verse 15], “The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city.” People think this stuff is just made up and just symbolic of something, but what it represents is crucial. If you’re going to measure the city where God dwells, you don’t just go get a wooden yardstick, you don’t just get out your tape measure. You have a golden measuring rod. I love it! He’s going to measure the city, the gates, it’s wall. I take it, it has substance, it can be measured.

[Verse 16], “The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as its width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles,” we’ve translated it over here. You have in the margin 12,000 stadia, and it gives you a stadia was approximately 600 feet, so they’ve put it out in our miles, 1500 miles. Length, width, height are equal. Now, we find out also, it’s as high. So, pretty clear, this city is laid out as a cube, 1500 miles this way, 1500 miles this way, 1500 miles this way, 1500 miles this way and 1500 miles this way. I’ve never built anything -- I can figure that out. “He measured its wall,” remember the city has a wall around it, it’s 72 yards, 144 cubits. And people would say, well, you know, this is an angel measuring this with an angelic measuring stick made of gold; we don’t have any idea what the measurements would be. I love the way God inserts something for people like that. [Verse 17], “He measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.” Thank the Lord for clarifying that. We don’t have to have 32 commentaries written on angelic measurements. Remember, angels are created beings, even though they are created spirit beings, they are created beings. And so, interesting when we are talking about heaven, we talk about a place for God’s creation. He doesn’t need heaven for Himself, He’s omnipresent. So, the measurements here, angels measure.

So, it has a wall, since he mentions the wall and its height earlier, I take it, it’s the height. Some think the wall is this wide because it’s not a very tall wall for the height of the city. Compared to the city, that is 1500 miles, square and high, it’s large. If you read writings on this, they’ll tell you, those who take it literally, that would be like a city that the base of it, the length went from Washington DC to Denver Colorado, if we were going to put it down on the United States, then that far going north and south as well. That’s a big city. But remember we have a new earth, and the new earth doesn’t have any oceans. So, whether the new earth will be an expanded earth, or how that works. I only know what God has told us. So, we know the measure.

The city wall is small compared to the city. I mean, the city is 7 million feet high, approximately. You measure out the 1500 miles, I think that came out to around 7 million feet. That’s a pretty tall city. I’ve thought of some of the cities we have, and men pride themselves in the buildings they have built and how big they are. They haven’t seen anything. And the wall of this city is small compared to the height of the city. But the wall of the city is not for protection because there are no enemies. The wall of the city does mark out the city. And the gates aren’t to keep people out, because we’re going to see when we get further along, people are going in and out of the city. So, the purpose of the wall, is not to protect the city or to hide the city. So, the fact that the wall would be short compared to the immensity of the city and height is not really a problem.

I mentioned to you in a previous study, one person who figured out how much space you need to live, and everything said, a city of this dimension could hold 100,000 billion people. I don’t know what that number means, it doesn’t mean anything to me, except that’s a lot. But that’s the city.

Alright, “the material of the wall was jasper, “so, now we know that the wall around the city was jasper, “and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.” There is no imperfection, it’s like if you look at really good quality gold it seems to have depth. Here its pure gold, its like you can see into it. A splendid city! There are foundation stones. And remember the foundation stones, there are 12 of them with 12 apostles. Each separate stone inscribed with the name of an apostle. And they are around the city, and they form the city. Verses 18-20. The first one is green like jasper. Let me talk about jasper. You know, some of the stones, it’s hard to identify because we have to identify them as the stones that were then. You read in your bibles, maybe you read in commentaries, some say that the jasper is a diamond. Because we read earlier that it was crystal-clear like jasper. But from what I’ve been able to read, diamond wasn’t found as a precious stone as early as John wrote this. So, you might say, you might think, it was like a diamond, but it probably wasn’t a diamond because they hadn’t identified a diamond, and it wasn’t among what they knew as precious stones then. Part of the problem is jasper is just a transliteration of the Greek word. And so, there is some discussion on jasper. In fact, wanting to help you out, I pulled out a bible dictionary. Here’s what they said about jasper. It is usually red, brown or yellow, but rarely it may be green, blue or black. So, take your pick, red, brown, yellow, green, blue, black. I picked green because that’s my favorite color. So, after much exegesis of the Greek, there are some, I found more often, because they’ll connect it, some with a couple of other stones here in color, like chalcedony, which is a color green, and another one which has green in it. But I say this, we can’t be sure on every stone. Some of them are more clearly identified. You have sapphire, you see the color here in the sapphire the chalcedony, sapphire is a bluish-purple kind of color, You’re familiar with sapphire, a greenish colored chalcedony. Then next one is going to be an emerald, we know an emerald is green. Sardonyx is red and white. Chrysolite is gold and yellow. Beryl, aqua-green. Topaz, greenish-yellow. Chrysoprase, golden-green. Jacinth, some say violet, some say red. Amethyst is purple. So, the precious stones, showing the beauty of this city! I mean, we do foundations, then we cover them up with dirt generally, some of our mansions may be uncovered. We see the splendor of the place here.

The 12 gates were 12 pearls. I spoke with a scientist recently, was an evangelical Christian, he said, that’s it, he can’t be literal, there is no such thing as a pearl to be big enough to be a gate. And besides, a street of the city that was pure gold, he says, you couldn’t have a street in a city of pure gold. What do you think they have? What do you do, you know? Then I thought, oh, maybe he thinks people are going to track mud in, and you have street cleaners if you have streets of gold. You know, you go to people’s houses, they say, take off your shoes. Why? Well, you get the carpet dirty or the wood floor or the marble floor or whatever you have. But in the new Jerusalem, it’s going to be streets of pure gold, like transparent glass.

I mean, what a city! Could you draw the city? Artists have described. But how do you conceive of the glory and splendor of the place that is the dwelling place of the eternal God among His people? That’s where we’re going to live! That’s our destiny. That’s what enabled Abraham to keep plugging on when all he had was a tent, didn’t own any of the land. He was looking for a city whose architect and builder was God. You know, we get mired down in all the things of this life, we forget to keep looking for the city God has described for us. This is where you’re going, this is where you’ll live. Like the psalmist wrote, it’s not my home, I’m just passing through. But we forget. All of a sudden this life begins to overwhelm us, because we get so absorbed with them and concerned about them because the world sets the agenda for us. But this is where I’m going. I just have some temporary residences along the way, and I appreciate that. But that’s not my home, our citizenship is in heaven. And for all eternity we, as the people that have believed in the Savior, will dwell in the presence of our God.

Let’s bow in prayer. Thank You, Lord, for Your grace, Your blessing. Lord the salvation that You have bestowed upon us as a free gift through faith in Your Son goes beyond what our finite, limited minds can encompass and grasp. And yet, You’ve given us a taste, You’ve unveiled something of the glory You have prepared for those who love You. Lord, may that anticipation, our hope and our expectation shape the way we live day by day. Keep us focused on what is our inheritance, to be entered into in all of its fullness for all eternity. And use us to share the glorious message of this salvation, to those we come in contact with. We pray in Christ’s name, Amen.