Revelation 21:1
Let’s hear God’s word together.
Revelation 21, beginning at verse one. This is John speaking and
he says, 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. And I 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
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. 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. And he who is seated on
the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. And he
said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.
And then he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the
omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give
from the spring of the water of life without payment. The
one who conquers will have his heritage and I will be his God
and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the
faithless, the detestable, and as for murderers, the sexually
immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion
will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. which is
the second death. Then came one of the seven angels
who had the seven bowls full of the seven plagues. And he
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 he showed me the holy city,
Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory
of God, its radiance, like a most rare jewel, like a Jasper clear
as crystal. It had a great high wall with
12 gates and the gates at the gates, 12 angels. And on the
gates, the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed
and on the East three gates and on the North three gates on the
South three gates and on the West three gates and the wall
of the city had 12 foundations and on them were the 12 names
of the 12 apostles of the lamb. And the one who spoke with me
had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates
and its walls. The city lies four square, its
length the same as its width. And he measured the city with
its rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height
are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement,
which is also an angel’s measurement. The wall was built of jasper,
while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. foundations of
the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The
first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the
fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh
chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase,
the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve
gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made a single pearl,
and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God,
the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun
or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light,
and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations
walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,
and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no
night there. They will bring into it the glory
and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever
enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false,
but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Then
the angel showed me the river of water of life, bright as crystal,
flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle
of the street of the city Also on either side of the river,
the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its
fruit in each month. The leaves of the tree were for
the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything
accursed, but the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it
and his servants will worship him. They will see his face and
his name will be on their foreheads and night will be no more. They
will need no light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be
their light and they will reign forever and ever. Amen. This is God’s holy word. Well,
last Sunday, some of you came to Sunday school class and you
heard the elders give their five-year plan for the church. We are on
a mission to worship, make disciples, and to evangelize. You heard
our values. We want to be a A church that
reverently and joyfully worships the one true God. We want to
proclaim the truth of the Holy Scriptures. We want to preach
salvation through faith in Jesus. We want each and every one to
have a personal renewal by the Holy Spirit. We want to be involved
in Christian love, fellowship, and service. And finally, we
want to have worldwide evangelism and missions. And we want to
keep doing that. And we want to grow into a church
of about 150. Of course, bigger would be fine. But while we’re under 100, 150
is a good number. And we have this vision. We see
over the next five years these things being good things to accomplish. Now, these are for our church. These are for Saddle Club Road.
But these are also good things for the church on earth. These
are biblical things. Every church on earth ought to
strive after these things. But I want you to see tonight
there is a greater vision for the church. Sometimes we think
the kingdom doesn’t go past the doors of our little buildings.
Sometimes we think the kingdom can’t possibly be on earth in
another church. They do it wrong. They are this. They are other. But we need to
realize that the church on earth has a bigger vision, a bigger
destiny. In fact, the church will exist
into eternity. for Jesus has a greater and eternal
plan for the church triumphant, and it will last forever and
ever. There’s a couple things I want
you to think about before we dive into this passage tonight.
First thing is this. God made a promise with Abraham
long ago. I will be your God, you and your
offspring will be my people, and I desire to be with you and
to dwell with you. That’s the covenant promise of
Abraham. It was made possible through the greater offspring
of Abraham Jesus, and we’re going to see it come into fulfillment
in our passage tonight. Another thing to remember, Romans
chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 has an interesting little phrase
that says, from the words of the Apostle Paul under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, groans and eagerly awaits the adoption of
the sons and daughters of men. For creation itself was subjected
to futility.” This was back in Genesis at the fall. And it eagerly
awaits the adoption of God’s children so that it can be made
new as well. creation because of Adam’s sin
was subjected to futility and the curse of the fall. We sing
of this at Christmas. Jesus comes to make his blessings
flow as far as the curse is found. There’s a third thing I want
you to think about in addition to God’s covenant promise with
Abraham in the Romans 8 principle of creation being subjected to
the curse. And the third thing is this,
the city of God. God has always desired to be
with and to dwell with and be worshiped by his people. It first
took place in the garden in the mountain of the Lord at Eden.
It from there took place at various altars in the promised land when
God called Abram to live there and worship him. We see at Mount
Sinai in the wilderness when God rescues Israel from Egypt,
we see them gather at the mountain of Sinai and worship God. The
tabernacle was constructed and wherever God led Israel, they
set up the tabernacle and God dwelled in their midst in the
center of their camp and they worshiped him. And then when
David took the city of Jebus, ran off the Jebusites and built
the city of David, Jerusalem, his son Solomon would later build
a temple where God dwelt in the midst of his people, Israel,
until the exile and until Babylon came and laid waste to the city
because of the judgment of God against the wicked and idolatrous
people of Israel. And then we see after the exile,
the return, the rebuilding of the temple, but God promising
a greater temple, a greater exodus, a greater mercy. And we see the person and the
work of Jesus Christ. where he comes into each of our
hearts and builds us as Christians into temples of his Holy Spirit. And then finally, the new Jerusalem.
Tonight we’ll see the fulfillment of God’s dwelling place with
men. So God made a promise with Abraham.
We’ll see it fulfilled. God subjected the whole earth
to the futility of the curse of the fall. We’ll see that reversed. And then the ultimate, goal of
God’s work of redemption is that a people called by the name of
Christ would be gathered into the presence of God at his holy
mountain, the New Jerusalem. So first, we want to think about
creation restored. Some of you have read and watched
the Narnia movies, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
And one of the questions that the children ask as they enter
in through the wardrobe into Narnia, they say, Is it always
winter here? And the Narnians, under the curse
of the white witch, they say, will it always be winter and
never Christmas? And you see what Lewis was doing
in light of our understanding of this creation being subjected
to the fall of Adam and Eve. It’s winter. It’s not yet Christmas.
There’s signs of Christmas. There’s glimmers of hope. But
we can ask the same question the Narnians asked, can’t we?
Will it always be winter and never Christmas? Well, Christmas
is coming. Christmas is coming. And this
passage shows us that the earth is ruined by the fall. Creation
is subjected to the bondage of sin and futility. It’s why if
you read our local newspaper, we were asking the question,
why are so many local trees dying? Why is there no rain? And we
always say, don’t we, when it rains too much, there’ll be one
day where we don’t curse the rain. We’ll be wishing for it.
Here we are wishing for it. We may not even get the colorful
fall and autumn colors that we so desire. But we see over and
over and over all around us, there’s abundant evidence that
this earth is subjected to the fall that was brought upon us
by Adam and his sin. Now, sometimes we hear people
to speak of global warming, we hear people speak of taking care
of Mother Earth, we hear people speak of taking care of this
earth, and we want to be good stewards of the earth, right?
In fact, in Genesis, God tells Adam and Eve, take care of the
earth, dress it and keep it, subdue it, make it fruitful.
It’s the job of Christians to take care of this planet. But
we also, at the same time, know we cannot save it. Only Jesus
can save this planet. We can do our part. Yes, we can
recycle. Yes, we can reduce our footprints and all those things.
Not all of that is crazy. We can be good stewards of the
earth as God has called us to be. But we’ve got to remember,
at the end of this day, God will make this a new heaven and a
new earth. The old will pass away, but creation
must be restored. we can stop here for a moment
and think if only. What if Adam and Eve never sinned? What would the earth be like?
What would the earth be like? Well, and the goal was this,
if Adam and Eve lived for a time under that probationary law,
do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for
the day you eat of it, you’ll die. What if they had not eaten
and they had passed that probationary testing period Well, the thought
and theology is this, that Eden, through the work of Adam and
Eve, through their offspring, raising children and growing
them in the nurture and admonition of Yahweh, who dwelled in their
midst in the garden and visited with them each day, Eden would
have spread and the whole earth would have been Eden-like. But
we know that not to be true. And so Adam and Eve did sin and
God booted them out of paradise. into the fallen world and we
might say this is a good way to think of it. They left paradise
and they entered the jungle. They left peace and quiet and
tranquility and fellowship with God and they went into the wilderness. They went into exile away from
God. Not only does C.S. Lewis figure
this out and put it into his Narnia series, but maybe some
of you have read in your literature over the years the blind poet
John Milton, I think it wrote in the 1600s, and he wrote Paradise
Lost and then Paradise Regained. It’s a common theme, but we don’t
think about it much in our day and time, but it’s such a common
theme of Scripture. And so we live now east of Eden. We live out in the jungle. We
live outside of paradise. And we are striving to make things
better. We’re striving to make things
flourish under our being image bearers. with salvation through
faith in Jesus, but we live east of Eden in the jungle and we
look forward to a fully restored order. Now, sometimes when someone
gets sick or we ourselves get sick, we say, oh, I can’t wait
till heaven. I’ll be all better. But how often do we think of
the earthquakes and the hurricanes and the tsunamis and the the
avalanches, the snowstorms, and the natural disasters, and we
say not only about our own hearts and our own broken bones, we
can’t wait for Jesus to come. How often do we say, Jesus, come
and restore order to this earth, make it new? That should be one
of our prayers in light of the promise of the future of the
fully restored order. And as we read just a little
bit ago in Isaiah 65, in this restored order, There will be
the lion lying down with the lamb. The child will play by
the hole or the den of the adders, and they will not be bitten.
So that’s one aspect of this passage to consider, creation
restored. A second aspect to consider is
the new Jerusalem. You remember Jesus says in his
gospels, he says to his disciples, if I go, I will prepare a place
for you. In my father’s house are many
rooms, many mansions. If it were not so, I wouldn’t
tell you, but I will go and I will prepare a place for you.” Well,
you know how when you’re a kid, you get these things in your
mind, right? Well, when I was a kid, I had
it in my mind. Y’all will think this is very interesting. In
about 1979 or 80, my dad went to Israel for about a month.
He went with Jack Kinsley, who some of y’all know, and some
others from Burlington. And I thought for some reason
Israel was the Ramada Inn over off Alamance Road. I just got
it in my head that he was at the Ramada Inn for a month. But
when I would think of Jesus saying, I will go and prepare a room
for you, for some reason I had in my mind the Econo Lodge in
Graham. that we were going to get a little
motel room. You know, we’d have the little key with the little
plastic thing that says, if it’s lost, drop it in an email box
and it’ll get mailed back. But for some reason, I thought
the Econo Lodge in Graham, which was behind where my grandparents
lived, that was what Jesus was preparing for us as a room at
the Econo Lodge. I do think more highly of heaven
now than the Econo Lodge in Graham. My view of heaven has increased
and the Econo Lodge has decreased, I do believe. What Jesus has in store for us
is not a room at the Hakanah Lodge. He has in store for us
the new Jerusalem, life in a new heavens and a new earth with
the new Jerusalem at its center. And we read, we read lots of
descriptions of the new Jerusalem here, a walled city. And if you
interpret all the stadia and all the Strange measurements. It has walls 200 feet thick. Boy, wouldn’t our current president
like to build a wall like that? 200 feet thick, the likes of
which no one has ever seen, as he would probably say. But it’s
a walled city. It’s a place of beauty. It’s
the bride of Christ. And there is a temple with pure
worship. No longer will there be worship
wars. No longer will there be denominations. No longer will
there be creeds and differences of opinion between Christians.
We will worship together in the temple with pure worship by God
and his covenant people. The temple is God himself. It is not a building or a structure,
but it’s God himself and the lamb. And the Bible tells us
in this passage, nations will be gathered from the world for
worship of the living God. So there’s the new Jerusalem.
There’s a third thing that we ought to think about from this
passage, not just creation restored or the new Jerusalem, but also
citizens of heaven. Who are the citizens of heaven? Your whole life, you should be
saying as a Christian, This is not my home. I’m a stranger.
I’m an alien. I’m a pilgrim. I’m an exile. I am not from Babylon below,
but I am from Jerusalem above. Hebrews chapter 11 speaks of
Abraham and all the heroes of the faith all the way through
and says, they died in faith, looking forward to a city whose
foundations were not of this earth and whose designer and
builders were not of this earth. but foundations that were heavenly,
a city of God in heaven and not a city of man on earth. They died in faith looking for
this city. Sometimes we drive our tent pegs
a little too deep into the earth, do we not? I mean, think about
our homes now, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and
I have some of these things in my house, but we build these
homes now that are, they’re made to last. You know, we get granite
countertops. We get marble bathroom counters. You know, we get hard surface
this. We have oak flooring. We have
houses that are built to last and places of beauty. And maybe
it seems to us we ought to be living in tents. We ought to
be living a nomadic lifestyle. I’m not saying we should go sell
everything we have, give it to the poor, and wait for the second
coming. Those are usually cults, aren’t they? We don’t want to
do that. It’s fine to live in your house. But we do drive our
tent pegs a little too deep, do we not? For we are strangers. We are citizens not of this earth,
but citizens of heaven, the lasting city, where there is no sin,
there is no sorrow. And we are citizens who have
come to Jesus thirsty, and we have received his water of life. We are citizens who have overcome
this world, and we have conquered. And we have been given the right
to live in his presence. But I want you to notice who
are not citizens of heaven. We’re living in a day and an
age where the church is being called on in this world to be
open and affirming. That’s the new catchphrase. And
we want to be open, but not affirming. And what I mean by that is we
want to be open to all, any who want to seek the refuge of Jesus
ought to come into our midst, but we cannot affirm and validate
and call holy what is a lifestyle that is not. And so if you come
to the church and if you seek membership, if you seek baptism,
you must be striving after holiness. But notice in 21 verse eight,
who is not allowed in the city, it says in 21 eight, As for the cowardly, the faithless,
the detestable, as for the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers,
the idolaters, all liars, their portion will be in the lake that
burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. And then
skip down to verse 15. Verse 15 says, and the one who
spoke, oh, that’s not the right verse. that talks about measuring. Well, there’s another verse in
here that, that speaks about, um, Oh, verse 27, nothing unclean
will ever enter it or anyone who does what is detestable.
or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book
of Life. And so what I want to point out to you is that the
citizens of heaven are those who put their faith, hope in
Jesus. But what happens when in this modern era, we become
tempted to become inclusive in the church and we say, oh, we
welcome all and we affirm all. Well, what’s going to happen
at the last day? We may have been welcome and affirming, but
what about God? the gatekeeper of the great city
of the New Jerusalem. He is not welcoming and affirming
to those who do not repent of their sins and stop living in
a way that is displeasing to him. And so just a word of caution
there. It’s a wonderful thing to be
a citizen of heaven. but we cannot hand out citizenship
to those who do not meet God’s standards. And so we need to
take great care while it is still today to preach the gospel, which
includes a message about sin and about judgment, but also
the free offer of the gospel to those who will receive what
Jesus offers by faith in him. There’s a fourth feature, a last
feature we want to think about tonight, not just creation restored
in the new Jerusalem and the citizens of heaven, but we want
to think lastly about the river and the trees and the beauty. We used to sing a little song
when I was growing up in church. You probably did as well. Heaven
is a wonderful place filled with glory and grace. Heaven is going
to be wonderful. You may ask, what’s heaven going
to be like? It’s not going to be like the economy lodge. Okay.
You got that, right? That’s actually probably the
first level of Dante’s Inferno to be stuck at the economy lodge.
That would be a Roman Catholic purgatory probably to be at the
Econo Lodge. And if we need to raise a little
money for the sanctuary, maybe we’ll resurrect the doctrine
of purgatory and we’ll sell you a year at a time in purgatory
for bringing coffee into the sanctuary or something like that.
But you can get out if you make a donation to the Sanctuary Upfit
Project or something like that. We’ll figure that out later.
I’m sure the elders will ban that idea. But heaven is a place
of rivers and trees and beauty. And there’s lots of other things.
I just put those three down. Sometimes we think, don’t we?
I remember thinking this as a kid. It was really mean of God to
expel Adam and Eve from the garden. Don’t you feel that way when
you read the Bible, you read Genesis 3? He just booted them
out. He made the place, he put them
in the place. And then they just ate a little fruit. What’s the
big deal? But he kicked them out. He put an angel there with
a flaming sword and the cherubim in the flaming sword kept Adam
and Eve from re-entering the garden. Wasn’t that just a mean
thing for God to do? Who wants to serve a mean God
like that? That’s how I used to think. But isn’t it a mercy? Isn’t it a mercy that Almighty
God in his wisdom blocked the way to the tree of life so that
Adam and Eve could not eat and live forever in their estate
of sin and misery? Isn’t that a blessing? Isn’t
that a mercy? Sometimes as children, and you
children who are sitting here, and you big kids as well, us
big kids, think about this with God. It’s a mercy when parents
intervene. It’s a mercy when grandparents
intervene. It’s a mercy when God intervenes
or the elders intervene in our life and say, stop your madness. We think, oh, this isn’t fair.
This isn’t nice. They just want me to be miserable. But what
if Adam and Eve were not blocked from the tree of life and they
took and ate and lived forever in their sin? Sometimes we need
to remember, maybe all the time, we need to remember God is wise,
our parents are wise, and they are protecting us from far more
than we can ever imagine. You think about your teenage
years when you wanted to stay out late, and your parents knew
that just a little saying, nothing good ever happens past 10 p.m.
isn’t just a little saying. Nope, nothing good ever happens
past 10 p.m. or when a little child is trying
to stick their finger in the electrical outlet and you say
no and pop their hand and modern psychology says oh no you’re
a mean parent you need to let your children explore no they
need the hand popped they need to realize the pain of a parental
pop is far better than 110 volts of juice entering their little
30 pound bodies We need parents. We need God. We need leaders
who will say, no, for it is a mercy for what would have become of
Adam and Eve if they had eaten in their state of sin and lived
forever. Nothing but everlasting futility. Well, this is a place of beauty. It’s a place of rivers and trees
and beauty. And there’s a handful of the
attitudes flip back, if you will, to chapter two, chapter two,
you may think is a little bit disjointed, even chapter three,
but remember those chapters of this church and that church.
I like what you’re doing. I don’t like what you’re doing.
You’re going to get here. trip to the woodshed, this church,
and all that. But at the end of every of the
seven letters to the seven churches, what did Jesus promise? If you
do what I say, if you overcome, there’s gonna be blessings. And
there’s a handful of these little blessings at the end of each
we wanna see. Look at two, verse seven. This is at the end of
the church letter of Ephesus. He says, he who has an ear, let
him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to the one who
conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is
in the paradise of God. And then look over at 17. This
is at the end of his letter to Pergamum. He who has an ear,
let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To the
one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will
give him a white stone with a new name written on that stone that
no one knows except the one who receives it. And then in chapter
two, verse 26, at the end of the letter to Thyatira, to the
one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him
I will give authority over the nations. He will rule them with
a rod of iron as when earth and pots are broken in pieces, even
as I myself have received authority from my father, and I will give
him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear
what the spirit says to the churches. There’s another promise, three
verse five, to the one who conquers will be clothed in white garments,
and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will
confess his name before my father and before his angels. And then
another promise, chapter three, verse 12, to the one who conquers,
I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall
he go out of it. I will write on him the name
of my God, the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem,
which comes down from my God out of heaven and my own new
name. He who has an ear, let him hear
what the spirit says to the churches. And then finally, Chapter 321,
this is what he says to the Laodiceans. To the one who conquers, I will
grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and
sat down with my father on his throne. throne. And so the citizens
of heaven enter this place by promise of God, by virtue of
them overcoming in Christ. And they enter a place of beauty,
a place with rivers and trees and the Beatitudes of the Bible
are fulfilled. Blessed are the meek for they
shall inherit the earth. You see all the Bible coming
into play here. These trees have purpose. They
heal the nations. They produce fruit in their season.
There are stones. There are walls. There’s the
glory of God. There’s wonderful, wonderful
things written of here. But notice what there’s not.
There is no night. There is no sun. There is no
moon. And there really is no physical
temple. And why is that? God is the temple
and the lamb. The sun provides the light. There is no moon for there is
no night. And so day and night are everlasting. God himself is the light. And it circles back to the beginning
of creation. Some people say if in the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth and on whatever day he
created the light to rule the day and the light to rule the
night, how was there light before the sun and the moon and the
stars? Well, we got the answer right here. God is always the
light. It’s just been eclipsed or covered
over by sin. And so we get a wonderful picture
here of a river and trees and beauty with God and His glory
everywhere. And so you see, in light of all
of this, our little bitty five-year plan here. It’s a good one. We
need it. It’s wonderful. We should seek
God’s help and blessing to see it come to fruition. It’s a wonderful
thing to have a glorious church on earth, but isn’t it better
to see the greater vision, to be in the presence of almighty
God, the glory of God, and the presence of the Lamb? This is
an eternal plan of God for his church, to gather all his people
from all ages across all lands into his glorious presence in
the new heaven, the new earth, and into his presence, the temple
through Jesus Christ. And so how can you be a citizen
of heaven? It’s simply this, by coming to
Jesus, who is the one who offers us water, which if we drink,
we will never thirst, we will never die. And if we come to
Jesus by faith, if we come to Christ and rest in him alone
for our salvation, we will be in this glorious place forever
and ever. Otherwise, if we continue in
our disobedience, if we continue in our idolatry, and we continue
in our rebellion against God. We may just find out that hell
is a bit like the EconoLodge and it’s forever. Let’s pray
together. Our Lord and God, we thank you
for this word, which reminds us of what is to come. And we
thank you that there are down payments, as it were, on the
new heavens and the new earth. We see the sun and the moon and
the stars. We see the changing seasons.
We are blessed with fruit from this land. We hold a piece of
food in our hand that was grown from this earth. We hold phones
that have come from the natural resources and built with human
ingenuity. There’s so many wonderful things
that we can see that make this earth wonderful. But how much
more wonderful to be in a new heavens, a new earth where there
is no sin, no sorrow, no sickness, no night. And so help us to think
on these things and to long for the Lord Jesus to come and make
all things new. Hear our prayers as we make them
in the name of Jesus. Amen.