In the closing chapters of this Revelation
given to the apostle John by the Lord Jesus, he receives insight into what happens at the end of time as we know
it, when God’s judgment finally comes upon the whole earth.
It will be the end of all gospel preaching. It
will be the end of the great invitation for all sinners to be
reconciled with God through Christ. It will be the end of
God’s great mercy expressed to an unwilling and
rebellious people. It will be the day of accounting! And it
will be the beginning of a new era for God’s people, and this
era begins with a great feast which is called the marriage supper of the Lamb![1]
I remind you again of the scheme and flow
of the Revelation to John. Central to the Revelation
are the visions of three cycles of judgment :
- seven seals (6:1-8:5)
- seven trumpets (8:6-11:19)
- seven bowls (16:1-21).
This vision is then contrasted with a vision of
heaven and the gathered
saints (19:1-11). These are also known
as the bride of Jesus Christ, which is
the church! Here we see her reacting to the news of God’s judgment of the great prostitute and this leads to the
marriage supper of the Lamb.
Revelation
19:11-21 then describes
the judgment of the beast (the anti-christ) and the false prophet, who are caught alive and thrown into the lake
of fire at the time of Christ’s
return.
Then follows Revelation 20 - a difficult
chapter to interpret.[2]
It
does
not follow the events of Ch. 19. Ch. 20 depicts
another vision, which like the others describes the entire period of time
between the first coming and second coming of Jesus. This chapter stands on its own
, and as such it describes a particular part of these last days between
Jesus ascension and His second coming .
The most remarkable fact concerning this
period is that the gospel which Christ announced , and the kingdom
which He introduced[3] are now
a reality in our day ! The
gospel has bound Satan in
this sense that nothing that he does can stop the church growing and throughout the whole world for a specified
period ( 1000 years) . Note however ,
that it says that at the end of this
gospel period Satan will be
released for a little while ( Rev.
20:3;7-8) . We might well be approaching this time! In this time
Satan is permitted to deceive the nations. His goal
would be to destroy the true church . However , we read that in this process Satan will find Himself defeated by
God ( Rev. 20:9). History ends with God’s victory and the final deliverance of the saints. The devil, the beast and the false prophet ( the
unholy trinity) are now thrown into the
eternal lake of fire (Rev. 20:10).
Following this is the Great White Throne Judgement (Rev. 20:11-14) when
Jesus, now not Saviour, but Judge
opens the book of life. We are
told that those whose names are not found written in the book
of life are thrown into the same lake of fire as the
unholy trinity. This then is the end
of all evil and the beginning of
an exciting new future for the people of God , beginning with the
recreation of the heavens and
our earth. We now consider the
first four verses of Revelation 21 as we observe :
1. The Recreation of the Universe and the Earth (Verse
1 )
“Then I saw a new
heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away, and the sea was no more.”
Firstly , John saw the old creation giving way to a new creation of the same. The first heavens and earth (Genesis 1:1) created by our Tri-une God have now been recreated. In that sense the passing away of the old creation and the creation of the new can be compared to the resurrection of our bodies.
Firstly , John saw the old creation giving way to a new creation of the same. The first heavens and earth (Genesis 1:1) created by our Tri-une God have now been recreated. In that sense the passing away of the old creation and the creation of the new can be compared to the resurrection of our bodies.
What are we to make of the statement "and the sea was no more "? The text here refers literally to the sea,
even as it refers here to the literal heaven and the earth. Does this mean that in
the new creation there will be no sea as we know it ? We don’t think so . The reference here is to
the first sea, even as we speak about
the first heaven and the first earth.
The old sea will be no more , even as the text speaks of the first
heaven and the first earth. That old sea (70 %)
which occupied such a vast
influence in our lives on this earth is
no more. And since God created
everything ( including the sea) as very good , there is no reason for us to believe that the new creation will include the sea . The great difference will be
that the first heaven and the first earth shall be replaced by a
creation which is radically new. There shall be nothing sinful
and the new creation shall be a perfect
place for the perfected people of
God who live in perfect unity [4].
Note that
the OT prophets have spoken of such an age :
- Isaiah 65:17 : "For behold , I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered, or come into mind."
- Isaiah 66:22 : "For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain."
- 2 Peter 3:13 anticipates this : " But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells ."
"And I saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband.
Some say that we
must think here of a literal city , but
the context makes that impossible.
Remember that this is a vision of heavenly things , and so we
find in this passage that this New Jerusalem is the bride of the
Lamb. The same thought is also expressed in 21: 9 –
10. The New
Jerusalem and the bride of the Lamb are the same, and
we cannot talk here about a literal city. In this case
this is a metaphorical city.
As we survey the Bible we
see this development :
(i) Jerusalem as the capital of the old land of Canaan and then of
Israel.
(ii) Jerusalem as the dwelling place
of true believers (NT church )
(iii) Jerusalem as the perfected church, the bride of the Lamb in
glory. This is how the text uses it here
- the city of God now perfected
and glorified. This is plain from more than one passage of Scripture.
- Galatians 4:26 "But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother ."
- Hebrews 11:10 "For(Abraham) was looking for to the city that has foundations, whose designer and is God." And in v. 16: "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 for them a city.
Note also that
this city is called the New Jerusalem, and not merely Jerusalem. In the OT
period it was here
that God chose to dwell among His people. In that sense God ruled
over His people, and He protected them from Jerusalem them against their enemies. But we must remember that this Jerusalem was an imperfect place , and as such it could only
foreshadow and therefore be typical of the New Jerusalem which was to come. In fact, that old Jerusalem and her temple came to an end when Jesus died on the cross and when the temple
curtain was torn in two and when later
she was destroyed in AD 70 .
The New
Jerusalem is the fulfilment of prophecy. She is the
hope of the OT saints. She is realized, first of all, in the church of the
new covenant which came into being at Pentecost. She differs from the OT city in that
she is not a city of brick and stone.
The believers themselves are the dwelling place of God (1 Peter 2:5) . The New
Jerusalem also differs in this respect
that God does not merely dwell among His people, but within
them by the Holy Spirit. [5] But even in this form the NT church is still imperfect , for sin is still a reality for us . We groan because of this and we long
to be freed from this as we wait for the
redemption of our bodies.[6] The New Jerusalem will only be perfect in this
state in which we now find her in our text.
Here she
is truly beautiful, without spot or wrinkle – without sin - and ready to meet her perfect husband , the Lord Jesus Christ . She comes down from God out of heaven. God is
the
One who presents her to His Son.
The Tabernacle Of God (verse 3)
And I heard a loud
voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be
with them as their God.”
The New Jerusalem is the city where God dwells. She is
the tabernacle (the dwelling
place) of God. In the tabernacle of the OT
God met with His people and they with Him . This was their place of
fellowship. God dwelt in the temple, or
tabernacle, but His presence did not
fill the city. Even in our own day as
new covenant believers ,we dwell with and in Him by faith , but there is still sin and imperfection . Therefore
the fellowship which we have with God is imperfect. However, there shall
come a time in the future,
when God's presence
with His people shall be perfect and complete. Again , this is what the prophets had foretold :
- Ezekiel 37:27 : "My dwelling place (tabernacle) shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
- Isaiah 25:6-8 : "On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine, a rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever ; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken." [7]
So then , in this
vision in Rev. 21, the goal of all
prophecy is accomplished!
This is what you can expect in Heaven (verse 4)
“He will wipe away
every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be
mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed
away.”
It is hard
to understand and imagine
this new state. John can only describe things by way of comparison with the present
things. In a nutshell – things in heaven
are not as they are in the here and now.
One of the
most significant facts is that there shall be no more death and therefore there shall
be no sorrow or pain , which means that there shall be everlasting joy and
gladness and everlasting well- being. God
shall wipe away every tear from our eyes! What a lot of tears have been shed in
this world!
The reason given is that the former things have passed
away. The "former things" are the present state of things since sin entered into the world.
So , “the present
form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31). This is the
essence of our Christian hope , and
therefore we remember that "the sufferings of this present time
are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." (Rom 8:18) Amen!
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