BELIEVERS LOOK TO THE NEW JERUSALEM
REVELATION 21:10—14, 22, 23 MAY 25, 2003
REVELATION 21:10-14, 22,23
10And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. ...
22I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
John once again gets to see a vision of what heaven is going to be like. He describes it as the New Jerusalem. John thought he was going to spend the rest of his life on the island of Patmos in exile, a lonely man, yet God gave him great things to see and to do. During the past few weeks we have heard about those things…how the Lamb is at the center of the throne, how the living creatures and the beasts and the angels and the saints all bow down to worship the Lamb at the center of the throne, and how all things are going to be changed…the list goes on and on. When we think of all things being changed, we sometimes think this life changes quickly. It changes too often; sometimes so much so that we can’t keep up or at least we think.
Then we have the blessed assurance that the last change that takes place is that we are taken to heaven. We have the blessed assurance that no matter the changes that take place, whether we can keep up or not, certainly one thing is sure. That is our salvation. Our salvation is described as a product of our faith. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” (HEBREWS 11:1,2) He’s saying the Old Testament people looked ahead to the Messiah who was to come and Jesus came. You and I, in the New Testament times look ahead to the Jesus who is to come again, not as Savior, but as a Righteous Judge. That is what we are certain of. That is what we are sure of. In essence, as John describes it for us this morning, we look forward to the New Jerusalem. We use this as our theme.
BELIEVERS LOOK TO THE NEW JERUSALEM
I. The gates are open
II. God’s glory shines in it
I. The gates are open
We have seen and discussed some of the visions that John got to see. Here, once again, we are given a description of what is going to take place. 10And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. We’re told that John was given ‘insight’ into what heaven was going to be like. He says ‘carried away in the Spirit’. He was, in a sense, given special understanding in order to write down these words so that you and I would be able to study them today. John’s insight was given to write down these words in order that they would encourage the believers of the day. We get the picture of him figuratively being taken to the top of a great and high mountain. He is there because the vision he’s going to see and the sight he’s going to see cannot be contained by earthly parameters. It is too great to be contained. He now describes this vision. It is the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. Jerusalem was a good-sized city. What does he see? What he describes for us is described in very concrete terms. 12It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. In Biblical times the walls had only one purpose and that was to protect it’s people from those who were their enemies. We’re told this New Jerusalem had great high walls. The people are no longer in need of protection in heaven are they? The great high walls certainly reminded them of the security they had inside the walls at the throne at the Lamb of God.
It also tells us that the New Jerusalem had gates. It would be through those gates that the people would enter. They wouldn’t be able to climb over those great high walls. They wouldn’t be able to work their way through the great high walls but they had to come through the gates. The twelve angels at the gates are welcoming those saints who finished their journey in this life.
John goes on to tell us, 13There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. It was symmetrical and in the verses we don’t have in our text John tells us it’s a perfect cube. There are three gates on each side. He goes on to say, on the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. It’s very significant that John states that to remind the people who hear these words or read them that only the believers would be entering those gates, symbolized by the twelve tribes of Israel. When he describes that, I picture for myself that in the Old Testament in the tabernacle, when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, the tribes encamped around each side of the tabernacle. They did it because they had different functions to perform. They did it also to protect the tabernacle.
Then there is the combining here of the Old and the New Testaments. He said, 14the wall of the city had twelve foundations, (no wall could stand without foundations) and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. …We have the twelve names of the tribes of Israel written on the gates. We have the twelve names of the apostles of the New Testament written on the foundations. It’s not just the name of Peter. Some would say that Peter was the foundation of the church, but here John says there were the names of the twelve apostles. The number twelve in Revelation, if you keep track of numbers, represents the church. Here we have the unity of the church…from the Old Testament Church, the twelve tribes of Israel; from the New Testament Church, the apostles; even to the Church Triumphant that John is describing in heaven. These words probably sound familiar to us, don’t they? These twelve apostles had their name on the foundations.
Paul writes in Ephesians to the believers. He reminded them as he reminds us today that once we were not God’s people and once we were not close to Him or did not belong to Him, but the Lord has made us His people. God, in His grace, has given us faith to believe in Him so that we look forward with every believer to that New Jerusalem. Rather than being estranged from God or aliens or foreigners, he says in EPHESIANS 2:20, "Consequently you are...members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” It’s pretty familiar isn’t it? When John sees the New Jerusalem now, what does he see? He sees the foundation of the apostles but again, with the chief cornerstone as Christ, Himself. That’s important for us today.
There are some who try to build on different kinds of foundations, the teachings of men. There are some that try to start a church with a different cornerstone, without Christ. We have seen some of those and their followers come to a bad end, to destruction, not just on this earth but eternally also. There is no other foundation. There is no other cornerstone than Christ, Himself. That may sound quite familiar to us and we’re used to hearing that. We believe in that with all of our hearts. There are people around us who wonder if Christ is the answer. They talk about God…God this and God that…but to mention Christ is another step we might call a leap of faith. Without Christ as the chief cornerstone, you and I are lost and the whole world would be doomed to eternal destruction. It was by Christ and His cross that He gives us the victory. In COLOSSIANS 2:15 we read, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Near and dear to our hearts as believers is the cross of Christ. That instrument of death that became an instrument of victory destroyed the power of Satan. It says he made a public spectacle of them. In our day and age when people like to believe what they want to believe and in a God they want to believe in and not fine-tune it to understand that Christ is the only source of salvation, it’s all the more important for you and I to hold fast to our confession of faith.
We’re reminded today also of the great high walls and the gates that are there. The Lord Jesus again describes salvation for us here on earth. He says to us that our lives are changed because of faith. Before us lies the path of life. When we come to faith, when the Lord gives us believing hearts, then we can look down that path. He reminds us of His grace. We can’t save ourselves with man—that’s impossible—but all things are possible with God. There are choices that we make in life. Jesus says these words in MATTHEW 7:13, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” How sad it is to hear the Lord Jesus say that…that wide is the path to destruction and many go that way rather than through the gate.
The Lord reminds us through John’s vision today that you and I as believers look forward to the New Jerusalem. We look forward to it because the gates are open. Yes, some in this life may consider that path to be too narrow, too restrictive. For you and I, we have our sins forgiven. By the grace of God we realize the gates are open for believers.
II. God’s glory shines in it
As John continues he says the glory of God shines in it. We have heard already the concrete description of this New Jerusalem, these new holy city great big high walls, twelve gates, and twelve foundations. As people enter in they get to see the names of the twelve apostles and the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. What a glorious sight that will be! The children of Israel always wanted to see Jerusalem in all of its glory. It wasn’t the walls, it wasn’t the gates that brings the glory was it? A very short phrase in the beginning says, (the new Jerusalem) 11it shone with the glory of God…the glory of God shines in it. That’s what makes it precious and new and holy. Then he describes it again (in order for people to understand) saying, its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. You have to remember that John is having a very hard time because he’s seeing a heavenly vision, which as he says is almost too much for a man to comprehend and almost too much for him to describe. Now, after he describes the walls and the gates and foundations, he says the glory that is there is like a precious stone, a crystal. We would say like a diamond, he uses the word jasper because that’s the glory of God.
John is looking around as curious as anyone else. He says 22I did not see a temple in the city…Remember, Jerusalem was always where the people came to worship. Where the temple of Solomon was built was where the temple was rebuilt. It’s where they are trying to rebuild the temple today in all of its’ glory. John looks at the New Jerusalem and didn’t see a temple. He was not disappointed because he goes on to say, 22I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. There was no need for a temple built by human hands because then all things were understood. All the saints that were there, all the angels that were there were worshipping, not in a temple, but were worshipping the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.
The glorious description that ends our text says, 23The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. As we heard last week, all things will be changed. There’s no more need for the sun or the moon because the glory of the Lord would be enough to light up the whole new Jerusalem, enough to light up heaven itself.
What is this glory of the Lord? We’ve heard about it and we’ve studied it from time to time. We may remember that as the children of Israel wandered through the wilderness, the glory of the Lord led them at night with the pillar of fire. The glory of the Lord led them in the daytime with the cloud. When the temple was built and dedicated, the glory of the Lord settled on the temple so much so that people couldn’t get in or out. The high priest had to stay out; it was so ‘thick’. Moses wanted to see this glory of the Lord and the Lord reminded him, ‘you can’t see it. You would die because of your sinful nature.’ Then the Lord says I will show you just the trailing parts of my glory. We have a description of the glory of the Lord in EXODUS 33:19. "And the LORD said, ’I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’” That is the glory of the Lord! This is the Lord God. He loves to show mercy and compassion. He will show His mercy and compassion.
This is the glory of the Lord that mankind cannot comprehend. You and I cannot see fully on this side of heaven because it would overcome us. Let me explain. The society in which we live, doesn’t like to show mercy and compassion anymore. They like to get vengeance. They like to get even. They like to make sure judgement is exacted out just according to their standards. Those that ought to be punished are punished according to their standards whatever those standards may be. They change a lot, don’t they? God’s glory is that He would show mercy and compassion, that He would forgive sinners, that He would forgive us. We begin to understand it a bit, but that’s part of the glory of God. It’s not just that He’s majestic and He creates the heavens and the earth. He loves us in spite of our sinfulness. He has come and sent His Son to be our Savior in spite of our rebellion. He shows us compassion and mercy.
The glory of the Lord that lights up heaven…what a majestic sight that must have been for John to see. Isaiah describes it as "The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory"(ISAIAH 60:19). Isaiah uses the future. He says your God will be your glory. Certainly we look forward to the new heaven knowing that there we will see the glory of God unmasked. It won’t be hidden from us anymore. We won’t have to be protected from God’s glory.
We want to remember that we also see God’s glory here on earth. We also see God’s mercy and compassion in our lives. He says as He has shown us His glory, we ought to reflect His glory to others. That’s important especially in a world that doesn’t want to see God’s glory. They’d rather live in the darkness of their sin. They’d rather turn away from the light. You and I know that the light of the world has made a great difference in our lives. "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ’I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’"(JOHN 8:12). You and I have been given light in our lives. You and I have been given the light of life. He says eternal life is ours.
What joy then, is ours! What thanksgiving we owe to God. Even though things may change quickly and drastically around us and we might feel we cannot cope or adjust, the Lord says we can be sure of one thing. He will return. We can be sure that we can look forward to the New Jerusalem with all the other believers. In that New Jerusalem the gates of heaven are open. When we enter through those gates we will see the glory of the Lord shining in.
There’s a lot in these verses today and a lot more. Maybe we’re like John—he almost thought that he couldn’t understand them. It’s true. On this side of heaven it’s always hard to see that clear picture especially of heaven. As Paul says, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known"(1 CORINTHIANS 13:12). We might not know fully all the mysteries and wonders of God but we are fully known by God. God knows us fully and that’s important. That makes us look forward as believers to the New Jerusalem with gates open for every believer where we will see the glory of the Lord face to face. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
