And so we come
to one of the loveliest portions in the Revelation given to John by the
Lord Jesus – the vision of the holy city, the
new Jerusalem (21:2,10), the
bride, the wife of the Lamb. The vision began in v. 2. We have already
considered the first 8 verses. In the detail to follow (21:9- 22:5) John is given further
information concerning this
vision.
Vv. 9-10: "Then
came one of the seven angels who had
the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come,
I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he
carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me
the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God…”. The angel who shows John the vision, is one of those angels we had met before in Chapter 16. He is one of those who poured out the 7 bowls of God’s wrath upon
the earth. There is a connection between those judgments and the appearing of the New Jerusalem. It is these judgments and the final destruction of Babylon
that open the way for the
renewal of the heavens and the earth and
of the coming of the New Jerusalem.
This angel carries John away in
the Spirit, and in that state he is shown the New Jerusalem from a high mountain. Again we remember that
John did not see a literal city here. The context makes that clear.
John is shown spiritual things (i.e. in the Spirit), and these heavenly
things can hardly be described in human words.
The language used here indicates
this. This new Jerusalem is a metaphorical city. She is called "the
bride, the wife of the Lamb". This
is as we know, a reference to the church of the new creation. She is literally
indescribable, breath-taking in beauty, and so
it is that symbolic descriptions of her must suffice for the time being! From that high mountain John is able to get a perspective of this new city, just
like the
current spacecraft called “New Horizons” , which is sent to explore Pluto sends back perspective of Pluto by way of images from a current
distance of approximately 146 000
kilometers above this planet. In the same manner John is
able to view this new Jerusalem, the church, as she descends down from heaven (21:2,10).
We observe
that the shape of the city is a perfect cube - twelve thousand stadia each
way. Just to get some perspective on this: A stadia
is about 185 meters long. If we
multiply this by 12 000 we
shall find that the city is 2200
kilometers long, wide and deep. To further
illustrate: It would be roughly the distance
from Namibia’s northern
border with Angola down to Cape Town,
and from our West coast (Walvis
Bay) across to Maputo in Mozambique!
Around the city is a wall which is said to be 144 cubits high. A cubit
is approximately 45 centimeters, making
the wall about 65 meters high. In the
wall there are 12 gates, three on each side. At each
gate there is an angel, and on the gates are written the names of the twelve
tribes of Israel. The wall has twelve foundations and the names of the twelve
apostles of the Lamb are written in the foundations. The 12 tribes of
Israel and the 12 apostles are symbolic of the entire church of the OT and NT. The
wall is made of jasper stone, while the city itself is constructed of pure gold which
is transparent like glass. The foundations were decorated with precious stones of various kinds. The gates were made
of pure pearl. The street of the city is
also made of pure gold, and transparent as
glass. The overall impression of this enormous city is one of striking beauty, summarized in v. 11… “having the glory of God, its radiance like
a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”
THE MEANING OF THIS SYMBOLIC
VISION
We make the point once again. What John sees here is not a literal city. It is a
metaphorical description of the church.
After all, houses and buildings
are not what makes a city. It is people that constitute a city. And the fact
that the church is described as a city is to show that this is a community, a place where people live closely together. The
church, the New Jerusalem, will be a new
perfect society where the saints of God
from all the ages will live together.
This is a vision
“in the Spirit“. It is a vision described with human eyes
and with human language. It is a vision of the bride, the wife of the Lamb. This
is not a picture of heaven. Remember that this church is coming down from
heaven. Many times we hear people speak of heaven as a
place with streets of gold and with pearly gates, and where there is no night, etc. There is no doubt that heaven will be
glorious, but remember that this is not the description of heaven. It is a
description of the church, the dwelling place of God. The
church is not in this city; but this city is the church.[1]
This city, the bride of the
Lamb is intimately connected to the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have seen the
picture of a marriage taking place in Ch.
19: 6-10. This city – this great
multitude of people loves Christ greatly and Christ greatly loves her!
What about the
names of the apostles in the foundations of the city? In Eph.
2:19-21 we read this:
“So then
you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with
the saints and members of the household
of God, built on the foundation of the apostles (NT) and the prophets
(OT), Christ Jesus himself being
the cornerstone, in whom the whole
structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”
THE
PERFECTION OF THIS CITY
1.
This perfection is seen by the
fact that the city is in the shape of a
perfect cube. The church here is so to speak ‘in perfect shape’. She has truly
become holy Jerusalem - the perfect, holy and suitable dwelling-place of God. Incidentally, the most
holy place in the tabernacle and in
Solomon’s temple was a perfect cube of 20 cubits ( i.e. 9 cubic meters)! [2]
2. Concerning the wall we may
say that it is certainly not for protection, and the angels at the
respective gates do not function as guards. Besides that fact we read that the city gates are never shut (v. 25). There is no need for
guards or for protection, as is the case here in our world,
where the church has to be constantly guarded with
sound doctrine where she has to be
constantly under the watchful leadership of her elders.[3] In the new creation there
will be no enemies. So what is
the wall for? It is a perimeter, a place of inclusion
for all those of
Christ’s sheep that have been gathered throughout the ages and who have been brought into that city. And the angels at the gates? Do you remember that at the end of time the
work of the angels will be to bring in the human harvest? The angels standing at each of the twelve entrances of
the city are the angels who have served in the ingathering of the citizens of the new Jerusalem . “The sons of Israel” in v. 12 are all those spiritual children
from all the ages who like Abraham were called by God, and who in
time believed. Israel here is more than a nation. It here indicates the
entire church of God, made up of Jews and Gentiles. [4]
In Christ there is neither Jew nor gentile (Gal.
3:28,29). There is one only people – they are the spiritual Israel -
loved by her bridegroom, the Lord Jesus!
3.
The number 12 - 12
gates, 12 angels, 12 tribes, 12 foundations, 12 apostles signify the number of perfection, completion and accomplishment. The church is
now perfected. The complete
number of God’s elect people have
entered through the gates, and all are
within those walls. If we consider the
size of the city, then we understand
that this is indeed a multitude like sand on a seashore – a great multitude which
no man can number.
4. The dazzling glory of the new Jerusalem: The materials
i.e. gold, jasper, precious
stones, pearl furthermore indicate this perfection. We do not want to fall into
the trap of allegorizing these
details. We are interested in
the principles. To the eye of John all this appeared to be glorious, for this
was the reflection of the glory of God in
the lives of these redeemed
people of God. This city bought
with the blood of the precious Lamb of
God reflects the expense at which her people
were bought. Righteousness and holiness
and love and purity shine
from these people as they with unveiled faces[5]
reflect the glory of God, and what can
John do but to describe all this in
terms of the most stunning materials given to us on earth?
This is the reflection of the glorified church - “having the glory of God, its
radiance like
a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” This church is beautiful and precious, and this is exactly what the
apostle Peter spoke of, when he wrote of
the “tested genuineness of your faith-
more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found
to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ!”
(1 Peter 1:7).
The
Quality of Life in the New
Jerusalem (21: 22-27)
Again, remember the
symbolic nature of this vision
1.
No need for a temple ! (v.22) “And I saw no temple in the city, for its
temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” The text does not mean
that the temple-idea is done away, but rather that it has come to its
highest and fullest realization. The whole city is in a sense a temple. The
fact of the matter is that the
temple of God will not be a building. The building is ….”a
spiritual house made up of living stones….offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (see 1 Peter 2:5). Not a special
building will be His temple, but the whole city, shall be His
dwelling place.
2.
It is in this context that we must also consider v. 23:
“And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on
it, for the glory of God gives it
light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” The light spoken of here is not
the illumination given by sun and moon, but the illumination given
by God the Almighty and the
Lamb whose
word is a lamp to our feet and a light
to our path (Psalm 119:105). The
reference here is not to the new creation, but to the church, the bride of the Lamb. At that time we shall no longer see in a mirror dimly, but face to face (1 Cor. 13:12). We shall see the glory of Christ directly and immediately.
3. In that context we shall be
busy: (v. 24)
“By its light will
the nations walk[6]…”
. The Greek word denotes activity. We shall be
active. In the new creation there will be work
that will never make us tired. Our work will be of such a restful
nature that we do not need a night
to catch up with sleep.
4.
This city, this
church is made up
out of all nations. (vv.24,26). The church
is made up of nations – not in the
sense that we shall be separated by language and culture – but
the glory of the church shall be seen in the fact that all the redeemed
among the nations having appeared from one common root are able to get on with each other. The mentioning
of the “kings of the earth” (v.24)
does not mean that structures in heaven will be simply transplanted from this earth,
for many of our kings and structures are very evil, and such cannot inherit the
kingdom of God[7]. These things will be destroyed by fire. It seems
however that there will be
authority structures found in the new Jerusalem. There will be great
and small. There are ranks in the world of angels. The apostles shall sit on
twelve thrones. The doctrine of rewards
teaches that there are some who will be given greater rewards & positions etc. However,
all conduct of such shall be pure and in humble submission to the King of kings,
and Lord of lords.
5. There will be no fear and there
will be no night: the city gates will be
open and never closed for fear –
there will be a constant activity and
flow - a constant fullness of life and
joy. There will be no night to make us
afraid, and there will be no evil.
6. There
will be no imperfection (v.27) Only those
who are written in the Lamb's book of life shall have a place there. The possibility of sin and
corruption is forever gone. The reason is that Christ will be at the center of
this new community.
What a wonderful picture. What a wonderful
promise. Can you imagine living in
such a glorious surrounding? What a
contrast there is between Babylon, the symbolic city of man bound in sin and its end in outer darkness, and
the New Jerusalem, the church, with its everlasting light and perfection,
happiness, satisfaction and glory!
Remember
that you can only be the citizen of one city. If
you participate in Babylon's corruptions, then your name is
not written in the Lamb's book of
life. But if all your hope is in Jesus
your bridegroom, and if you serve Him with all your heart, despite many challenges and
weaknesses, then continue to persevere.
Remember that the Day of the
Lord is now nearer than when you
first believed. Amen!
[1]
A.H. Hoeksema : Behold He cometh
[2]
See 1 Kings 6:20 ; Ezekiel 41:4
[3]
See Acts 20 :17- 32
[4]
Ephesians 2:11-3:13
[5] 2
Corinthians 3:18
[6] Gr.
peripateĊ. This word is used in the
scriptures to signify the whole round of
the activities of the individual life ( W.E. Vine) e.g.
in newness of life (Rom 6:4) , in
honesty ( Rom 13:13), by faith (2 Cor. 5:7),
in good works (Eph. 2:10), in love ( Eph.5:2), etc.
[7]
Galatians 5:20,21
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