Revelation 21-22:6 January 4, 2004
New Heavens & New Earth
What’s it going to be like? What will eternity be like? What is heaven like?
It is a good question – not just in a sense of satiating our curiosity – showing us things that we have never seen or dreamed of, but it is also an important question because the destination, speaks to the road that we take to get there – the end does not justify the means, the end clarifies the means. Learning how life ends teaches us how to live!
So what does John see?
John’s understanding of heaven:
The Hebrews and Greeks made one word do the work for which English employs two. Shamayim (Hebrew) and ouranos (Greek) mean either the visible sky over us or the invisible realm of God invading us, with the context determining which sense is being expressed. But whichever sense is at the fore, the other is whispering in the background, making its presence felt.
Heaven is a City 21:1-2
Many of us imagine that eternity or heaven looks like some idyllic English countryside, with rolling hills and big oak trees and willows waving in the breeze down by the stream. But that is not the picture that we are given – heaven is a city!
This is not the only place where heaven is seen as a city – Isaiah sees heaven this way as well.
Isaiah 65:17-19
17 "Behold, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.
Paradise is a garden in Genesis, but it is a city in Revelation.
We might be shocked to hear that heaven is a city, especially if we are not too fond of cities, but the fact that it is a city speaks deeply to the core of our faith.
This is what Peterson writes: “Many people want to go to heaven the way they want to go to Florida – they think the weather will be an improvement and the people decent. But the biblical heaven is not a nice environment far removed from the stress of hard life. It is an invasion of the city by the City. We enter heaven not by escaping what we don’t like, but by the sanctification of the place in which God has placed us.”
Our eternal destination is not an escape from the material, natural world, it is a purification and intensification of that world. Heaven is not the big retirement in the sky, it is the place where all of God’s purposes for you and for the world come together.
It is a BIG city!
In verse 15-17 the angel measures the city and it is 12,000 stadia in length. If you follow the footnote down to the bottom of the page, you see that that is equal to about 1,400 miles or 2,200 km. Once again, 12,000 stadia could be the exact size of the city or it could be more symbolic meaning that the city is really big and perfect in size. 2,200 km is about the same distance from here to midway between Regina and Calgary, or the Saskatchewan/Alberta boarder. And it is the same with as it is long – it’s a square!, actually it’s a cube because it is as high as it is long – and you thought the CN tower was big!
The City of God 21:3-8
Unlike our cities which we often see as Godless because of the images of inner city life we get from the TV, this city is the city of God
5He 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."
The City of God’s Presence – 3, 22-27, 22:3-5
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.
The sweetness of a church service is found in how God makes Himself present in the worship – if you are in a service where God’s presence is illusive, you either find it boring or painful.
Eternity is the place where we will know God’s presence like we have never known it before.
There is no need of a temple, or a church, because there is no place in this huge city where you can go where God is not present.
There is no need of the Sun, Moon or stars, because the Light of the universe is among us, lighting the streets and houses so that there is never any night. No fear, no shadows, no darkness.
Psalm 27:4
One thing I ask of the LORD , this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.
Psalm 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
The City of God’s Peace – 4
4He 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."
The peace that we will experience is a full peace – not just the absence of war or strife. The Biblical concept of peace, shalom, includes total well-being and fulfillment.
Isaiah’s picture of the heavenly city is described this way:
20 "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 [1] a hundred
will be considered accursed.
21 They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the works of their hands.
23 They will not toil in vain
or bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD ,
they and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
but dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,"
says the LORD .
The City of God’s Provision – 6-7, 22:1-2
6He 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.
1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3No longer will there be any curse.
We have this return to Eden – except it is now a city, but a city with an abundance of the simple things we need – water and fruit, if there are wounds in heaven the leaves of the trees will heal them – in fact all the wounds that have been created by person against person, nation against nation find their healing in heaven. The wounds of nationalism, racism, prejudice, crimes against humanity, greed and want find their healing through the leaves on the trees beside the river of life.
The City of God’s Purity – 7-8, 27
7He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8But 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."
27Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Our God is a holy God and his city cannot be anything but holy, there is no sin allowed in the city, and none can exist they because we are living and breathing in the very presence of God, anything impure would be burnt up in his presence.
It might sound harsh, but we need to remember that it is sin that separates us from God, and sin that separates us from one another, and sin even makes a division within ourselves. If we are going to live in a city of God’s presence, preace and provision, it must also be a city of his purity.
But there is also Good news in this harsh word
The Redeemed City - 21:10-14
The city is also a redeemed city , a re-formed city, a renovated city if you will. It is a city that has bee touched by grace.
Jerusalem 10
In verse 10 we discover that the eternal city is Jerusalem, “the holy city” Jerusalem is paradise! Back in the 80’s through reggae music we started to become aware of this strange Caribbean religion called Rastafarianism. They have their share of strange beliefs, one of which is that Ethiopia is the promise land – I learned of this belief at the same time as the Ethiopian famine. And I said Ethiopia the promise land?! You’ve got to be kidding!”
Jerusalem as the holy city might be just as surprising – today it is a divided city, home to the wailing wall and terrible fear of terrorist attacks. Jesus cries over the city:
Matthew 23
37"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 38Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ’Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’
Luke 19
41As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you."
This is the city of Heaven.
Tribes 12
The city in John’s vision has 12 gates – one for each of the tribes of Israel, the twelve sons of Jacob, Israel.
Peterson writes, “The marvel in the stories of those twelve sons of Israel was not their sanctity nor their heroism but that God willed to use such intractable and unattractive human lives to lay the groundwork for the great salvation work that he completed in Jesus. Thre father of the twelve, Jacob/Israel has little to commend him, and his seed did not improve in his sons. We have stories of brutality, fraud, violated and violent sex, cowardice.
Apostles 14
Our stories of the twelve apostles are not as extensive as those of the tribes, but what we do have does no more to encourage pride in our spiritual genealogies. These are a random gathering of ordinary hopeful and fearful, sacrificing and grasping, courageous and inconstant human beings.
But in and through those life stories, God persistently brought about the salvation of wretches that didn’t deserve to be saved, and revealed his glory.
God takes this city with it’s faithful and faithless history, the tribes of Israel with their faithful and faithless history, and the Apostles with their faithful and faithless history, and like taking the dust to create Adam, he takes them and forgives their sin, and purifies them and makes them the city, its gates and foundation stones of the perfect eternity that we will enjoy.
This is what is so amazing about Grace – even heaven is full of grace!
C.S. Lewis writes about heaven and hell in his book “the great divorce.” He has amazing images of both places. In the book there is a bus trip from hell up to heaven, and the amazing (albeit non-biblical) thing is that if the people want to, they can stay. When they get off the bus heaven is so real, that it hurts their feet to walk on the grass, and hell is so unfulfilling that they look like ghosts walking around heaven. People from their past are there to meet them and talk to them and show them around heaven. I read this book years ago, but one particular exchange has stuck with me from chapter 4.
As the solid people came nearer still 1 noticed that they were moving with order and determination as though each of them had marked his man in our shadowy company. ’There are going to be affecting scenes,’ I said to myself ’Perhaps it would not be right to look on.’ With that, ] sidled away on some vague pretext of doing a little exploring. A grove of huge cedars to my right seemed attractive and I entered it. Walking proved difficult. The grass, hard as diamonds to my unsubstantial feet, made me feel as if : were walking on wrinkled rock, and I suffered pains like those of the mermaid in Hans Andersen. A bird ran across in front of me and I envied it. It belonged to that country and was as real as the grass. It could bend the stalks and spatter itself with the dew.
Almost at once I was followed by what I have called the Big Man-to speak more accurately, the Big Ghost
He in his turn was followed by one of the bright people. ’Don’t you know me?’ he shouted to the Ghost: and I found it impossible not to turn and attend. The face of the solid spirit-he was one of those that wore a robe-made me want to dance, it was so jocund, so established in its youthfulness.
’Well, I’m damned,’ said the Ghost. ’I wouldn’t have believed it. It’s a fair knock-out. It isn’t right, Len, you know. What about poor Jack, eh? You look pretty pleased with yourself, but what I say is, What about poor Jack?’
’He is here,’ said the other. ’You will meet him soon, if ,you stay.
’But you murdered him.’
’Of course I did. It is all right now.’
, All right, is it? All right for you, you mean. But what about the poor chap himself, laying cold and dead ?’
’But he isn’t. I have told you, you will meet him soon. He sent you his love.’
’What I’d like to understand,’ said the Ghost, ’is what you’re here for, as pleased as Punch, you, a bloody murderer, while I’ve been walking the streets down there and living in a place like a pigsty all these years.’
’That is a little hard to understand at first. But it is all
over now. You will be pleased about it presently. Till then there is no need to bother about it.’
’No need to bother about it? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?’
’No. Not as you mean. I do not look at myself. I have given up myself. I had to, you know, after the murder. That was what it did for me. And that was how every- thing began.’
’Personally,’ said the Big Ghost with an emphasis which contradicted the ordinary meaning of the word, ’Personally, I’d have thought you and I ought to be the other way round. That’s my personal opinion.’
’Very likely we soon shall be,’ said the other. ’If you’ll stop thinking about it.’
Verse 8 says that heaven has no room for the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars, but it does have room for the people who have done such things, but come back to God and confessed their sin, and repented. In fact Heaven is built on the foundation of redeemed sinners! This is the power that God has through the cross. Because Jesus came and dies on the cross to pay for the sins of the world, God can take those sins and throw them as far as the east is from the west, away from us, and then he can call us into his glorious presence into his glorious city forever and ever!
This is our destination, but it also speaks of the journey that we take to get there. Galileo quipped that the intention of the Holy Spirit is not to teach us how heaven goes, but how one goes to heaven.
The way that we go to heaven it through living it here on earth.
Live in the presence of God
Worship him with all you have, seek out his presence, if you catch the smallest whiff of Him, run after him
Live the Peace of God
Romans 12:18
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Live in God’s provision
Matthew 6
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[2] ?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Live the Purity of God
1 Peter 1:15
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;
Live in God’s Grace
Accept his grace through confession and repentance
Extend God’s Grace.
Forgive those who harm you, and treat people with same grace God has given you.
