The New Jerusalem (Revelation 21 & 22)

The New Heaven, the New Earth, and the New Jerusalem

We finally made it to the end of the book, the end of the Bible, so the story of redemption is coming to a close. And I'll just bring this up now, one common misconception a lot of believers have. I think if you ask the average Christian, where are you going to spend eternity?

They would say, well, we're all going to spend eternity with Jesus in heaven, right? That's probably what you think or what most people think, but that's actually not true. We're not going to spend eternity with Jesus in heaven.

If you're saved, you will spend eternity with him in the new earth or on the new earth and in the new heavenly city, new Jerusalem. So we're going to start revelation 21, we'll hopefully get through 21 and 22 and just kind of pick up where we are in the story.

The great tribulation has ended. Jesus has come back. He reigned for a thousand years at the end of his kingdom, you had the final judgment, and now we are entering into what we would call eternity. So this is the new heaven and the new earth.

Let's begin reading revelation 21. We'll read verses one through eight. John writes, now I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.

Then I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, and there shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. Then he who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new.

And he said to me, right, for these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. And I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake, which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

The Fate of the Unbelieving and the Nature of the Eternal State

Okay, we'll stop here. So we're entering into eternity and who is going to be there? Who's going to be in the new heaven and the new earth? Well, God's going to be there. Jesus is going to be there. Interesting.

There's no mention of the Holy Spirit. I'm not sure quite what to make of that, but believers are going to be there, right? The saints, who's not going to be there? Well, you could say all, all liars.

Well, doesn't the Bible say, you know, let God be true in every man, a liar. Well, obviously there are people where their life, if someone's life is characterized by sin and debauchery, if they are just known as a liar, they're a murderer, like murderers can be forgiven, but if that's just who you are and that's how you live your whole life, if there's no repentance, there's no place for you in the new heaven and the new earth.

So that's what it's saying. The saints are going to be there. And then these other people, the unbelievers is what we would say would not be there. Another interesting thing. The first, you know, the first sin is the cowardly.

That's probably not the first thing that you think of as far as sins, things that God doesn't like. The cow, why, why do you think the cowardly is the first one mentioned any, any thoughts on that? They're afraid to stand up for their faith.

They're afraid to stand up for Jesus. I think that's true. Um, you know, back in 2020, there was a lot of people afraid to stand up for Jesus. I think not that that would prevent you from being in the kingdom of God necessarily, but back in Jesus's time, there was a lot of people.

It indicates that many of the priests within Judaism believed in Jesus, but because of their fear of the Jews, they wouldn't profess him openly. So there's a lot of people who would believe in Jesus, but they're afraid of what that means, you know, the backlash or what that means for their life.

So some people don't believe in Jesus because they're afraid, might be afraid, fear of man, fear of other things. So yeah, I just find it interesting. It starts with that. Uh, but let's just go over these verses and try to learn what we can about the new heaven and the new earth.

So the old earth and the old heaven. So I think this would be a reference to, you know, heavens would be the sky, uh, outer space, the, the universe, maybe as we know it, it's all been dissolved. So that would be second Peter chapter three.

Let's turn there. Uh, second Peter chapter three, there's basically two positions. Uh, some people believe that, uh, this earth and the creation are just going to be totally destroyed and, uh, God is going to start over.

Uh, the position that I'm inclined to, I'm inclined to think it's going to go this way that it's going to be the same earth, just maybe renovated, just made new. But either way, this is how it's described.

Second Peter chapter three, uh, let's pick up in verse nine. It says the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. So this is his promise to return, uh, as some count slackness, but as long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Uh, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in them will be burned up.

And that's really what happens at the end of the kingdom age, that transition into the new heaven and the new earth. The old creation is just either, you know, uncreated or totally transformed. And then he goes on to say, therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, I mean, just look around you, every, everything here except for those who know Christ, but all of this is going to be gone, uh, one of these days, therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

And then he gets into in verse 13, uh, the promise we look for a new heaven and a new earth. So let's go back to revelation chapter 21, but Peter talks about this. And if I can kind of summarize that we want to live right right now, because when we're with the Lord, there's not going to be any, you know, lying.

There's not going to be any, um, rebellion. So we want to live right now. That way it's an easy transition, right? So in eternity, there's going to be just fellowship with God. Everyone's going to be doing the right thing.

There's no sinful flesh or temptation to contend with. So we want to start living that way right now. And that should be our, our desire, of course. So either the earth, the creation is uncreated or it's renovated.

Um, if it's right, you know, say, well, how can it be a new, a new creation or a new earth? If it's a new earth, it can't be this old earth. The way I look at it is when who's ever got a new kitchen, did they take the roof off and they brought in a crane and totally lifted the whole kitchen and just dropped in a new one?

No, it, it's a new kitchen, but it's really the, it's the same kitchen. It's just made new. So I tend to think that's what God does. He redeems us. He's going to redeem this earth. So I think it's the same earth, but if you disagree, that's fine.

So the first detail we get about the new earth is that there's no more sea, there's no more ocean. So those of you who like going to the beach, you know, there's a, that's what it says. Now there is a river.

We're going to read about that in the next chapter. But today, uh, what's that? Yeah. Rivers. It depends who you ask, you know, but today 70 of the earth's surface is covered by, by the sea. I mean, most of it, like 71 is water, but like 70 is, is ocean.

So you know, you know how it is. Some people interpret this symbolically because in Hebrew poetry, you know, the sea represented the nations or, uh, the sea was threatening. So you know, no sea is symbolic for no threats, you know, all of God's enemies are, are gone.

Well, that, that's true, but I think that's literal. I think it's, it's, it's the fact that there's no wasted space, uh, in the new heaven and the new earth. So presumably the entire earth, uh, will be populated when, once we get into eternity.

One prophecy scholar, a guy named Jimmy D young, he speculated that during the millennium, uh, the entire earth will be repopulated, which I think is, is true. And he said that those people who repopulate the earth, they will live through eternity with their natural bodies being kept alive by the tree of life.

So you have people living all over the world. The world will be full of people, but those who have been, you know, redeemed and resurrected are going to live in the, the heavenly city, new Jerusalem. So that's, that's one thought that he had, uh, but certainly, uh, it presents the new Jerusalem as our home.

What do you, what do you know about the, this new city, uh, the new heavenly city or yeah, it's, it's like a big cube. You see it here on the screen. It's like a big cube, uh, 14 depending on who you read.

It's something like 14 or 1500 miles high, 1500 miles wide and, and long or deep. And basically it's just going to come down to the earth. And this is, this is the heavenly city, new Jerusalem. There's no need for the sun because the glory of God illuminates it.

And we're getting all sorts of different details as we go along. Yes, Larry.

Just to get an idea, a little bit of 1500 miles from here to the Western edge of Minnesota as a pro flies about 1500 miles. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's, it's that high too. So I think, yeah, there's no wasted space in the new heaven and the new earth. Uh, the website got questions .org. I just want to read what they say about, uh, the new Jerusalem.

They say, this is the city that Abraham looked for in faith. In Hebrews 11 verse 12, uh, it is the place where God will dwell with his people forever. Revelation 21 verse three, the inhabitants of this celestial city will have all tears wiped away.

The new Jerusalem will be fantastically huge. John records that the city is nearly 1400 miles long as it is wide and high. The new Jerusalem will be equal in length, width and depth. Okay. That's revelation 2115 through 17.

The city will be dazzling in every way. It is lighted by the glory of God. Verse 23 it's a foundations has 12 foundations bearing the names of the 12 apostles and it is decorated with every kind of precious stone.

That's verse 19 it's, it has 12 gates. Each is a single pearl bearing the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. And then the street will be made of pure gold. I think that's one of those things that everybody knows about, you know, heaven or the new heaven, right?

The, the, the streets of gold. Everyone's heard of that. Uh, yeah, the new Jerusalem will be a place of unimagined blessing. They say the curse of the old earth will be gone in the city are the tree of life for the healing of the nations and the river of life.

It is the place that Paul spoke of in the coming ages. God might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us. And that's Ephesians two seven. The new Jerusalem is the ultimate fulfillment of all of God's promises.

The new Jerusalem is God's goodness made fully manifest. Who are the residents of the new Jerusalem? The father and the lamb are there. The angels are at the gates, but the city will be filled with God's redeemed children.

And here's the point, just here's the end of the paragraph, but this is a good contrast of what revelation has been talking about. The new Jerusalem is the righteous counter to the evil Babylon. That's revelation 17, right?

So, so God has a city, new Jerusalem, but in revelation, the wicked have a city, right? And their city is, is what right? Babylon. And of course, Babylon was destroyed in chapter 18. The wicked had their city.

God has his city to which city do you belong? Okay. So that's what a gut question says. Now, John is going to go on and describe, you know, the beauty of it. And I think these two chapters, it's like the rest of the book of revelation, you know, how much do you take literally and how much do you say is, is symbolic?

Well, just my general rule, and it's not my rule, but you always take the Bible literally unless there's a really good reason not to. So you know, when it says that a gate is going to be made of one pearl, like you think, well, how, how can that be?

But I mean, that's, that's what John saw. So I don't think there's any need to question it. One thing that comes across clearly that everyone can agree on is that it is more beautiful than you can possibly imagine.

So whatever John's writing probably doesn't actually do justice to what he saw and what we hopefully we'll see. In verse 22, John notices that something else is missing. So there's no sea, right? We know in the city, there's no sun already talked about that.

That'll come up again. What else is missing in verse 22? No temple. Why? Why would there be no temple? I mean, for the Jews, the temple was everything. The temple was the center of everything. Even now there's many people in Israel who want to rebuild the temple and that's kind of would be a symbol of, Hey, we're back.

And you know, this, this is something that they was very near to them. Why is there no temple? Why is it not necessary? What? Okay. Right now in the church age, believers are the temple because the Holy Spirit resides within your body.

So your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. What is a temple though? If you go, because we don't really have temples here, we have church buildings and that's really a, it's really a different concept.

The idea, if you go over maybe to China or India, they have temples and that's the idea is that's where their deity dwells. So a temple is a structure where the deity he's there or she's there. The deity dwells in the temple.

Well, there's no need for a temple in the new Jerusalem because God himself is present. So a temple is completely unnecessary because God is there and Jesus is there. Uh, revelation 22 verse four, just skip ahead to revelation 22 and this, this is the best part about it.

It's not the gems, it's not the gold. The best part about it is that God is present. I mean, if God is there, nothing else really matters, right? You imagine if, if God showed up in the room tonight, nothing, nothing else, you wouldn't be worried about what's happening over there if God's here.

But in revelation 22 verse four, uh, it says, and they shall see his face. Most commentators believe that that's a reference to not the face of Jesus. Many people have seen the face of Jesus. It's a reference to God's face, like the face of, of God, the father.

What does that mean? You say, well, he doesn't have a face. He's not a man, right? Well, I mean, this is one of the mysteries, uh, theologians call it the beatific vision, but ultimately this is the greatest reward to dwell with God and to see his face, whatever that means.

I remember in the old Testament when Moses asked, he asked for that, that big ask, right? Moses said to God, I want to see what your face and God reminded Moses, you know, no man can see my face. And that's something that the Jews and Christians all understand.

You can't see God's face and do what live, right? No one can see God's face, but God did put Moses in the cleft of the rock and he passed by and it says that Moses saw God's, you know, back basically is the translation.

So Moses saw God's back and what was the result of that? Yeah, his face shown so bright, the people, I mean, they were afraid to, it was so bright they couldn't look at it, but they were afraid to look at it.

So if that's the result of seeing God's back, I mean, what's the result of seeing God's face? I mean, we just, again, it's, it's this great mystery, but ultimately this is our reward. We think of eternal life as a reward, you know, my reward for believing in Jesus and trusting in him and living for him.

My reward is eternal life. Yes. And no, I mean, eternal life is not that great. If it's a life lived without God. If you think about it, those who spend eternity in the lake of fire, I mean, I know it's called the second death, but technically they are conscious.

They are, you might say they're alive in the sense that they're, you know, alive or conscious. They know what's going on, but they're separated from God. So ultimately the real gift is eternal life with God in his presence, even seeing his face.

Any questions or comments on that? Yeah. And again, like what is the, I can't even begin to like describe what, what that would be like, but it's nice to think about.

All right. So in revelation, yes, Ray, you do get a new body so that the body might be sufficient to be able to look at it without, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the idea that no man can see God's face and live that Moses was a human, a fallen human. Obviously you can't see God's face in this condition with a new glorified body. Yes. It's different.

So good point. All right. So revelation 21, we see the blessings of the eternal state. First four talks about how God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There should be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There should be no more pain. And he says for the former things have passed away. So that verse along with, you just make a note of this, Isaiah 65, 17 is where the Lord says for behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth in the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

So this is one of those questions a lot of people ask, and we want to try to figure this out. Will we remember our former life? So once you're in heaven and then you got the millennium, then you're in eternity with God.

Will you remember this? Okay. What do you think? Who says yes. I heard a lot of nos already. Who says you're going to remember your former life?

No. Maybe at the very start where God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. Yeah.

At the beginning, but. Well, here's the thing. If you don't remember anything, then presumably you wouldn't be able to recognize loved ones, right? Well, he does say the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

I think that at the very least means we're not going to long after former things. There's not going to be any nostalgia like, you know, you guys remember the good old days back when Satan was in charge of the world.

Those are good times like that ain't going to happen. I think we're going to have some awareness that we had a previous life and that we were redeemed. I think we'll remember something, but yeah, the, the painful things, let's face it.

There's some things that you don't want to remember.

Uh, dot. Tiff. Sorry. Um, what about loved ones who aren't safe? Um, are we going to mourn that loss one day? I mean, like a parent, sister, um, really close friend, right? You go, you know, they weren't safe to begin with.

You did what you could. You go up there.

They're not there. Are you ever going to mourn that? Yeah. Well, I mean, that's what, that's a common question. If my loved one isn't there, or if I knew they were in hell, how could heaven be heaven?

If even one of my loved ones was in hell, uh, you, you have to, you have to believe that you're either not going to be aware of that, or if you are aware of that, you are going to be so completely sanctified that you're going to be at peace with it.

I mean that you said, well, I can't, I can't fathom that. Well, right. I mean, cause we're fixated on everything here and the relationships in this life. And that's not going to be the focus in the life to come.

It should motivate us to want to try to get loved ones saved, but God is the focus. And I mean, let's face it, if there is someone in our life that is more important than God, there'll be people who say, well, you know, uh, maybe a foolish comment.

Well, if my dog can't go to heaven, I don't want, actually, I heard someone say that if their pet can't go to heaven, I don't want to go there. Well, if that's really your attitude, you probably don't have to worry about that, but, but let's say there is someone, this would be a natural human thought, feeling that you put, you put someone above God.

I mean that that would be idolatry. So God has to be the focus. And ultimately, I don't know, we don't know all the answers, but there's going to be no sense of mourning or loss or regret. Nothing like that.

Okay. We're going to have to move on to just a couple more. Meg?

Well, I was just going to say that I know C .S. Lewis isn't the Bible, but in Narnia, at the end, when he has them go to heaven, I think it's a good example because he, there's four siblings and one of them is Susan and she doesn't go and then three other siblings go and they just have no, they're all happy and there, but they just, they don't remember her at all.

And as a reader, you get frustrated. Like what the heck? Because you're down here in heaven. A lot of people have had, have rallied and were like, why didn't you save her or whatever? But in the book, she also possibly is still alive.

So she possibly is still on her journey because it's not, sorry, it's not supposed to be a revelation. They just died and went to heaven. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know. I do find that interesting that they just, it just fades away.

He just says everything fades away and what's there is there.

Most things I think will fade away. All right.

Yeah. It also says to wipe every tear from our eyes and maybe in that moment, that's our time to mourn those who didn't come with us. Yeah.

If there's mourning initially and he wipes away the tears, it's not going to continue on. Maybe. Linda, last comment.

We're getting new bodies. And I feel that that means your brain is going to be able to do whatever it is God wants you to do. I mean, the disciples knew Moses. Right. Yeah. And so we're going to know people regardless of what they look like.

Sure. Okay.

All right. Good. Let's continue on. Verse nine goes over the detail of the new heaven and the new earth. For the sake of time, I'm not going to read everything. Revelation 21 verse nine says, then one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to meet me.

And he talked with me saying, come, I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God.

Now, typically we would say that the church is the bride of Christ, right? Well, here, New Jerusalem is the bride. Of course, the church is going to live and reside in New Jerusalem. But, you know, another thing I find interesting is how everything is described in what we might say Jewish terms, right?

It's the new Jerusalem. Look at verse 12. And she, the city, had a great and high wall with 12 gates and 12 angels at the gates. And the names written on them are the names of what? The 12 tribes of Israel.

We've talked about this already going through revelation. There's this common belief in Christianity called what we call it. I call it replacement theology where God is finished with Israel. And now it's all the church.

The church is the new Israel. I just don't see it. I mean, it's still very much, you know, God does not break his promises to the descendants of Abraham. Just the way it's described, it's described in Jewish terms.

The 12 tribes, New Jerusalem. But at the same time, there's New Testament terminology. Look at verse 14. It says, now the wall of the city had 12 foundations and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb.

So in eternity, you have God's Old Testament people, the nation of Israel. And of course, there were people saved outside of Israel in the Old Testament and the church and the two are going to be one.

So in the end, there's one redeemed people of God. So one shepherd, Jesus, one people. So that distinction that we make today between the church and Israel. I mean, it's just not going to exist in eternity.

Okay, and then you get this idea of the cube. 1400 miles high, miles long, miles wide. And ultimately what happens, as you see in the picture, heaven. This is how I like to describe it. Heaven descends and heaven and earth, in a sense, become one.

Verse 21 says the 12 gates were the 12, were 12 pearls. And of course, this is where you get the idea of the pearly gates and the street of gold. And it says the street, the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

And you say, well, yeah, but gold isn't transparent. Well, in heaven, apparently it is. So again, what is definitely communicated is just the immense beauty of it. And then verse 22, there's no temple.

We talked about that for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God illuminated it and the Lamb is its light.

And this is where, this is another point in Revelation or at the end. You're starting to see connections between the end of the Bible and the beginning of the Bible. The last few chapters of Revelation tie in to the first few chapters of Genesis.

Why do I say that? Because in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the first thing he did, he said, what? Let there be light. But the sun, the moon, the stars were not created until day four.

He said, let there be light on day one. So how can there be light without the sun and the stars? Well, presumably in the beginning, it was the glory of God that illuminated the earth back then. So there's a lot of tie-ins between Genesis and Revelation.

And the tree of life shows up in chapter 22 as well. So we got to get moving. So Revelation 22 verse 1. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

And in the middle of its tree and on either side of the river was, what? The tree of life. Which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

And again, this is the idea that some people have. That there's the saints who are resurrected, have a glorified body. But then there are other people that have a natural body. And they live forever. And they are healed if there's anything.

I don't think there would be any sickness. But the tree of life is sufficient to keep everyone alive. If that's how it happens. Any questions on that? Verse 3 says there's no more curse. Okay, when did the curse come in?

Genesis. What? Genesis 3. So the world has been under the curse for the past 6 ,000 years. Genesis 3. Now the curse is completely lifted. And there's no more death. If you remember last week at the end of chapter 20.

Death itself was cast into the lake of fire. In 1 Corinthians 15. 24 through 26. It says for Christ he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death itself.

So no more death. So if we live forever. Here's another thing. Don't feel bad if you thought this. Because we probably all thought this. If I'm going to be living forever. Like forever. Eternity. What am I going to be doing?

Aren't I going to get bored after a while? Who's thought that? What am I going to be doing forever and ever and ever? Well verse 3 tells us. It says and his servants shall serve him. So there may be a thousand different ways that you're going to be serving God throughout eternity.

But you're never going to get bored. God is always going to be more than enough. You're never going to get tired. Another thing there is. Absent from the new heaven and new earth. There's no night. There's no sleeping.

You don't get tired. So it's totally different from life now. Verse 5. There's no night there. No need of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

The Time Is Near, the Warning Not to Alter the Book, and the Invitation to Come

Now starting in verse 6. This section is titled. The time is near. Okay. This isn't the first time in Revelation we've read. The time is near or it's at hand. You say well when did John write this? How many years ago?

About. Mark says two days. Day to the Lord is as a thousand years. And a thousand years as the day. So two days or two thousand years. 1900 years but who's counting? So how can the time be near? How can it be at hand?

Well this is the idea that it's not near in the sense like it's going to happen next week. It's near in the sense that all of these things are imminent. Okay. So the return of Christ is imminent. The end times or you know we call it eschatology.

The eschaton. End time events. It's all at hand. Like literally all of this stuff could start today. Tomorrow. And then once it starts happening it's all going to happen fast. But really the new heaven is at least one thousand and seven years away.

You understand the math? Why it would be? But Jesus is coming. Could happen at any time. Alright. Look at verse six. Says he that is the angel said to John these words are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the Holy Prophet sent his angel to show his servants the things which must shortly take place.

And again this is the idea of imminency. How do we know? Verse seven. Jesus says behold I am coming what? Quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. So Jesus his coming ever since John wrote this.

The apostle John could have seen Christ coming in the clouds with great glory. We could see that. Again Jesus could come back. This is what we would identify as the rapture. The catching up that's described in first Thessalonians four.