Revelation 21:1-27 Part 12

Revelation 21:1-27 Part 12

 

1)      Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, (the first heaven and the first earth went away, and the sea is no more),

2)      and the new holy city Jerusalem coming out of the heaven from God having been made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

3)      Then I heard a great sound from the seat saying “Lo, The tabernacle of God with man.”  He will tabernacle with them, they will be His people, God Himself will be with them;

4)      and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, the death will be no more, neither sorrow nor crying nor pain will be any more, for the firsts passed away.

5)      Then the One sitting upon the seat said: “Lo, I make everything new!”  And He says, “write; for these words are sure and true”;

6)      He said to me, “they are come to pass.  I, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, will freely give from the source of the water of life to him who thirsts;

7)      and the one overcoming will inherit these things, and I will be  God to him and he will be My son.

8)      But burning in the lake of fire and brimstone is the allotment of all the fearful and unfaithful and the corrupted and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters and all the liars.”

9)      Then one of the seven messengers that had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came and spoke with me saying, “here, I will show you the bride – the wife of The Lamb”.

10)  And it did bear me in spirit upon a great and high mountain and showed me the city – the holy Jerusalem coming down from the God of the heaven

11)  having her God’s glory, her radiance like a precious stone, crystal clear as a jasper stone,

12)  having a great and high wall having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve messengers and names written which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel,

13)  three gates to the east, three gates to the north, three gates to the south, and three gates to the west;

14)  the wall of the city having twelve foundation stones, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15)  The one speaking with me had a golden measuring reed to measure the city and her gates and her wall,

16)  (the city is shaped square – her length the same as the breadth); and he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand stadia, her length and breadth and height being equal;

17)  and he measured her wall: a hundred and forty four cubits (man’s measurement as is that of a messenger),

18)  the structure of her walls jasper, and the city as pure gold, crystal clear,

19)  the foundations of the wall of the city adorned with every precious stone; the first foundation jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,

20)  the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst,

21)  the twelve gates twelve pearls (each of the gates were of one pearl), and the city’s street pure gold as transparent crystal.

22)  I saw no temple in her, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb is her temple.

23)  The city has no need for the sun or the moon that they should appear in her, for the glory of God was manifest in her and her light - the Lamb;

24)  the nations will walk by her light, and kings of the earth bear their glory into her

25)  by day (none of her gates will in any way be closed, and there will be no night there),

26)  and they will bear the glory and honor of the nations into her.

27)  By no means would anyone unclean ever enter into her doing abomination or falsehood, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life.

 

First, hear the Word of God spoken directly to the prophet Isaiah at chapter sixty-six:

 

18)  For I know their works and their thoughts.  It shall come that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and they shall see my glory.

19)  I will set a sign among them (i.e. Israel), and I will send the ones who escape from them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan,  and to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame nor have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.

20)  And they shall bring all of your brethren for an offering unto YAHVEH from all nations…… upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts… to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says YAHVEH, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of YAHVEH.

21)  And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, says YAHVEH;

22)  For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says YAHVEH, so shall your seed and your name remain.

23)  And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says YAHVEH.

 

 God’s Word, put into the mouth of Isaiah seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, is the same as what John is shown here in our text.

John wrote to the Churches of the first century about these very things that were about to happen.  The Savior of the World was about to appear in the cloud of glory at the end of the age; and all things would be made new.

God would tabernacle (make His abode) with those of the tribes of Jacob who Jesus came to seek and to save… the hundred and forty-four thousand scattered into the nations of the world.  Our Lord had set His “sign” on them; and they had escaped from Israel. 

John has already seen them with the Christ in their white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb; and they would be with Him at His appearance.

This was the New, and holy, Jerusalem in all of its perfections, from which would flow the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the River of Life – to all flesh.

John is shown the New Jerusalem descending from God upon the New Mount Zion – the Kingdom of our Lord (the first one – Jerusalem the prostitute of the nations… about to be destroyed.)  And through all the years decreed, kings and rulers and peoples and tribes and tongues from all over the world would see the glory of God and His so great salvation; and multitudes would come into the new, and holy, Jerusalem.

The multitudes in the nations would be clean vessels in the tabernacle of God… the seed – the offspring – of the original hundred and forty four thousand.  The Gentile nations would be the children of the Daughter of Zion; and the name written on those elect from the tribes of Jacob would also be written on all their seed from the Gentile nations of the earth.  And the name written on them would endure forever.

And as the Sabbaths come and go, and as the months come and go, and through all the years of our Lords reign and rule, the whole earth would be filled with the knowledge of God as the water covers the sea.

And the multitudes of the seed, promised to Abraham, would fill the earth to the glory of God our Creator and Savior.

Now hear from the prophet Joel at chapter three:

 

15)  The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

16)  YAHVEH then shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake.  But YAHVEH will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

17)  So shall you know that I am YAHVEH your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain.  And Jerusalem shall then be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

18)  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the tabernacle of YAHVEH, and shall water the valley.

 

The Word of God by the prophet Joel is the same as that spoken by Isaiah, and is the same as that seen by John (here in our text) and written to the Churches just before the end of the age.

The first heaven and the first earth, and the first Jerusalem, would be “shaken”.  And only that which could not be shaken would remain.  It would be a new heaven and a new earth, and there would come a New, and holy, Jerusalem.

This would be the hope and anticipation and strength of those who Jesus came to seek and to save; for God would dwell with them.  And from the mountain of our Lord’s Kingdom would flow the “new” wine.  Not the wine of fornication, as it was from the first Jerusalem.

And a fountain of the waters of life would flow from the New and holy Jerusalem into all the dry and wilderness places; and they would come; and no “stranger” would ever be granted entrance into His new tabernacle.  For “Lo, the tabernacle of God with man”.

And let’s hear from the prophet Zechariah at chapter two:

 

10)  Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says YAHVEH.

11)  And many nations shall be joined to YAHVEH in that day, and they shall be my people.  And I will dwell with you.’  You shall know  (Zechariah says) that YAHVEH of Hosts has sent me unto you.

12)  And YAHVEH shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall elect Jerusalem again.

 

It is the “daughter of Zion”, the elect of the twelve tribes of Jacob, that will sing and rejoice; for God will tabernacle with them – dwell in the midst of them.  He would choose Jerusalem again, and it would be the New and holy Jerusalem into which many nations would come and be His people.

Once again from Zechariah, this time from chapter eight:

 

3)      Thus says YAHVEH; I will return unto Zion; and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of hosts (shall be called) the holy mountain.

4)      Thus says YAHVEH of Hosts; there shall yet be old men and old women dwelling in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for his very age.

5)      And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.

6)      Thus says YAHVEH of Hosts; If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it not also be marvelous in MY eyes, says YAHVEH of Hosts.

7)      Thus says YAHVEH of Hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east and from the west;

8)      and I will bring them.  And they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem in truth and in righteousness.  And they shall be my people; and I will be their God.

 

The Word of God through the mouth of the prophet was spoken and written to the nation in captivity in Babylon, and was written after the temple and the city of Jerusalem was reduced to rubble in the fifth century B.C.

Zechariah spoke of a New Jerusalem – one in which truth and righteousness would dwell; for God would be with the remnant, the daughter of Zion, the elect of the twelve tribes for whom Jesus came to seek and to save.

And from the New Jerusalem, on His new Mt. Zion, would flow the River of Life to the East and to the West; and He would save His people and dwell with them.

And there would be His people of all the nations and tribes and tongues living to great age; and the children of the daughter of Zion playing in the streets in peace and tranquility and prosperity; for God would tabernacle with them.

As you can hear from these few passages, the New Jerusalem is prophesied throughout the older Scripture.  It is a new – and holy – and perfect – and permanent Jerusalem; for God would bring His people from all the nations, and He would tabernacle with them…..dwell with them.

The New Jerusalem and its perfections were first seen by John as written in chapter seven of The Revelation.  Here it is once again:

 

13) And one of the elders uttered, saying to me ‘who are these who have been arrayed in white garments?  And from whence did they come?

14) And I addressed him: ‘my lord, you have known!’  And he said to me, ‘these are the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation.  And they did wash their garments and make them white in the blood of the Lamb.’

16) Because of this they are before the throne of God.  And ‘they do service to Him day and night in His sanctuary’, and ‘the one Who sits on His throne shall tabernacle with them.’

16) ‘They shall no more hunger, nor shall they thirst any more, nor shall the sun fall down upon them, nor any burning heat.’

17) ‘For the Lamb in midst of the throne shall feed them, and He shall lead them upon springs of living water, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.’

 

As one might expect, the continuity of the covenantal Revelation is displayed once again as the older and newer Scripture speak the same.  As the prophets Isaiah and Joel and Zechariah spoke, so did the last prophet – John; for the Revelation is the same.  And it is the same language; for it was God speaking to them and through them.  God gave them the words to speak and to write.  God’s Word is faithful and true; so how could it be “other than” the same?

And what is spectacularly revealed is a new, and perfect, and permanent New Jerusalem in which God dwells with us.  Since the Parousia of our Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the age, God dwells with us.  He is our Rock, our shield and our defense, our Fortress.  And nothing, or no one, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The name is written on us!  It’s the name given to the remnant of the tribes of Jacob who He came to seek and to save.  We are their “seed” (their children) from the Gentile nations.  And God tabernacles with us.  We live in the New Jerusalem with them.

And from Him, through us, flows the River of Life unto all the nations and peoples and tribes and tongues.  It is the Gospel of the Savior of the world.  And there will be multitudes of us, as promised to Abraham. 

As I’ve mentioned several times before, here in the Revelation of Jesus Christ there is a striking connection and similarity to the prophecy of Ezekiel.

The perfections and excellencies of the new Jerusalem promised to Israel through Ezekiel are fearfully and wonderfully connected to what John sees about to be at the shortly-to-come Parousia of Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel was called of God to prophesy about five hundred and eighty years before Christ was born.  If you remember your history and the dates, that would put Israel in captivity in Babylon.

The vengeance and deception of the serpent of old had been used by God to raise up the first world-wide kingdom of man… a ferocious and terrible beast full of lust and power, lusting for blood and conquest, submitting the peoples of the world to its will by the sword.

And the land of Israel and its city of Jerusalem, because of its great wealth and beauty, was clearly in the sights of the beast.  And incensed and deceived by the serpent – satan, in 586BC the armies of king Nebuchadnezzar descended upon the land with a mighty force; and Israel was defeated.

Leaving a mere scattering of the destitute, and leaving nothing of worth, everyone and everything of value was removed from the land and from the city, and taken back to Babylon, including the gleaming gold and all of the implements of worship from Solomon’s temple… leaving nothing but an empty shell.

Sometime later, the tribes of Jacob in captivity received word that the walls and the city and the temple on the dome of the rock had all been destroyed, and everything lay in ruins.

Two generations of the tribes of Jacob were devastated.  The promise to Abraham; the twelve sons of Jacob; Moses and the mighty exodus from Egypt; the tabernacle in the desert and the sacrificial and ceremonial system; the promised land; the eternal kingdom of David; the building of Solomon’s temple and the wall around the city atop Mount Zion… all gone.

For over four hundred years God had sent prophet after prophet to Israel, warning of coming judgment should she not repent of her idolatry and corruption and fornication with the nations.  But she would not.  And now everything was gone.

But God also sent His prophetic Word to his people during their captivity in Babylon.  Not only was Daniel there, but there came His Word through Jeremiah and Zechariah and Haggai….  And there, in the Word of God through the prophets, were the promises from God of a new heaven and a new earth, and a New – and holy – Jerusalem in which God would tabernacle with them!

And God had raised up Esther who saved the tribes from complete annihilation at the hands of the Persian beast – the gogite – Haaman.

And there also came the Word of God through Ezekiel.

God showed Ezekiel His tabernacle in the heaven, and gave him a view of the glory of God above His tabernacle.  And he showed Ezekiel the corrupted and degraded nation and its idolatrous and fornicating city.  And He showed him the temple/tabernacle on the dome of the rock on Mt Zion and the evil that inhabited and infested all of its rooms and on its walls and in its corridors and passages.

The abode of God – His tabernacle in Jerusalem – was filled with every abomination.  The contrast shown to Ezekiel was startling!  The brightness and glory of God’s tabernacle in the heaven - with the covenantal bow around the One seated above it all - contrasted with the darkness and corruption of the evil-infested tabernacle in the first city of Jerusalem!

And the tribes in captivity were caused to hear these things in the words of the prophet sent to them.  Here’s the reason it was all destroyed, wrote Ezekiel!

And then Ezekiel describes for them what is to happen after their release from captivity.  They will return to the promised land and a new Jerusalem and a new temple and a new wall; and he describes a messenger from God who measures all the perfections of the new temple and the new city and its wall.  And it’s perfect in all its measurements; and it is bright and clean and with no idolatry and no fornication and no unclean things in its rooms and corridors and on its walls; and all its gates open.

What is being prophesied through Ezekiel is the New Jerusalem that John sees coming down from God upon the new Mount Zion of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. 

In the context and setting of Israel’s return from captivity is the prophecy that John receives of the tabernacle of God-with-man.

The language is the same as that of Ezekiel; and John is even shown the gog and magog event prophesied by Ezekiel.

In the prophecy of Israel’s return to the promised land, God would save Jacob – Israel - in a flood of His wrath against the descendant of gog – Haaman the Persian.  And at the Parousia of the Christ, the remnant of Jacob, the daughter of Zion, the true Israel would be saved, and God would tabernacle with them in the New Jerusalem.

In the context of Ezekiel’s prophecy of the return of Jacob to the promised land, and the rebuilding of the walls, and the building of a new Jerusalem, and the building of a new temple on the mountain, we hear the language of John here in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

In the context of Ezekiel’s prophecy of the release of Jacob’s seed from captivity, we hear the same language of John here in the Revelation; for the Gentile nations who have been in captivity to gross darkness will see a great light!

In the context of Ezekiel’s prophecy of a new Jerusalem, we hear the language of the tabernacle of God-with-us, the New – and holy – and perfect – and permanent Jerusalem coming down upon the mountain of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

In the context of Ezekiel’s prophecy to the tribes of Jacob, and their release and escape from the beast of Babylon, we hear in the prophecy of John the birth of the daughter of Zion and her escape from Israel into the nations.

In the context of Ezekiel’s prophecy we hear the measurements of the new temple of God – measured by a messenger from God; and in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the perfection of the New Jerusalem is measured by a messenger from God.

There are many more continuities and equivalencies in the two prophecies.  All this to say that Israel’s hope was to be in the coming Messiah of God in the fullness of the time.  For then, and only then, would there be a new heaven and a new earth, and a New – and holy – Jerusalem in which would dwell righteousness; for God would tabernacle with us.  And there would be nothing abominable in it – for the Savior of the World will have poured out His blood for the world’s salvation.

We can’t read twelve chapters of Ezekiel’s prophecy (that’s where the measured perfections of the New Jerusalem are prophesied); I’ll leave it to you to read them.  But let’s listen to just a few quotes from God’s Word to Ezekiel; for here is where we find those prophesied perfections  – the holy tabernacle of God-with-us… just as we read here in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

First, after thirty-five chapters of God’s indignation toward Israel and her idolatry and corruption, He speaks of her salvation.  Listen from chapter thirty-six:

 

24)  For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.

25)  And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26)  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

27)  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep My ordinances, and do them.

 

Right there is prophesied the resurrection from death unto life in Christ Jesus.  And in the very next chapter God shows Ezekiel the dry bones that will be raised to life by Holy Spirit.  And Ezekiel also is shown the two “sticks” becoming one… two kinds of flesh becoming one flesh in Christ.

In chapter twenty of the Revelation, John says this is the “first resurrection”, you remember.  It is our God giving light and life in Christ to those who were in darkness and death in Adam – and not only to those of the tribes of Jacob, but also to Gentiles in the nations.

Then in chapter thirty-eight, in the context of the Persian descendant of gog being destroyed by fire from the heaven, Ezekiel hears the shaking of heaven and earth, and God would bring a sword and fire against Israel and the first Jerusalem.  In His great wrath she would be destroyed forever.  And there would be a new heaven and a new earth that could not be shaken.  And He would make Himself known in all the nations of the earth; and they would all know that He is God.

And in the next chapter Ezekiel is shown the feast of the vultures (just as John is shown in chapter twenty).  And in the new Jerusalem all Israel shall be saved.  They shall come from all flesh and from all the nations, peoples and tongues.  And God will sanctify Himself in the sight of many nations.

And then comes chapter forty.  Listen to the beginning:

 

“In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that very day, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me to the city.

In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city to the south.

When he brought me there, behold, there was one whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand. And he was standing in the gateway.

And this one said to me, ‘Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you, for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel.’”

 

And from chapter forty through chapter forty-six the new city of Jerusalem and its walls and its temple are meticulously measured by the one with the measuring reed, and it is perfect in all respects.  And its temple is completely free of any idolatry or abominations.

In chapter forty-three, Ezekiel heard this:

 

“As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east,

 the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

While the one was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the temple,

and he said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name….

Now let them put away their whoring and the dead bodies of their kings far from me, and I will dwell with them forever.”

 

Lastly, Ezekiel hears the names of the tribes of Israel.  Their names are written on the gates of the city, three on each side (just as John was shown).  And the last thing written in Ezekiel’s prophecy is this (at the end of chapter forty-eight):

 

“And the name of the city from that time on will be ‘YAHVEH is there’”.

 

This is exactly what John is shown just before the end of the age and the appearance of the King of Kings and Savior of the World.  He writes it all to the Churches:  there was about to be, at the Parousia of the Christ, a new heaven and a new earth.  The old serpent and deceiver of the nations would be cast into the abyss… never to deceive the nations again.

And the New Jerusalem would come down from God.  It would be, unlike the first one, a “holy” Jerusalem – the tabernacle of God with man.  And it would be perfect in all respects; and no idolaters, fornicators or liars would ever be found in it.

Its brightness is the glory of God and the Lamb – filled with the gold and the beautiful stones and the covenantal bow of the first paradise; and, unlike the first Jerusalem, it would bring light to all the gross darkness of the earth.  And the nations and peoples would walk by that light!

And from the hundred and forty-four thousands of the sons of Jacob who Jesus came to seek and to save would flow the River of Life to every nation, tribe and tongue… even to the farthest reaches and islands of the earth.

And they would come.  The kings and rulers of the earth would bring their glory and the glory of their nations into the new city of God… a city whose foundation cannot be shaken.  The foundation is the apostles of Jesus and apostolic doctrine and preaching.  They are the glorious stones of the first paradise in all the colors of the covenantal bow, and the stones of the priesthood of all the faithful.

All the gates, named for the twelve tribes and all of their seed, would be open… pearls of great price indeed!  And through all the years decreed, a great multitude from the nations – those written in the Lamb’s Book of Life – would stream into the New Jerusalem.  And the whole earth would increasingly spring to life and peace with God; and it would prosper.

Having groaned for its coming redemption, the whole earth would then flourish in its Savior’s work.  And at the end of all the years, it would perfectly reflect the glory of its Creator. 

You see, the Son of God had given His body and poured out His blood to save all of His people and His Father’s creation.  He IS the Savior of the world.

           This was the Word of God to the Churches just before our Lord’s Parousia.  And it is our great anticipation as well, for the salvation of the world IS the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And there is no room in the New Jerusalem for the fearful and the faithless.  Our Lord will complete the work that He began; for He is faithful and true!  There is your confidence and assurance, you see.

You are to hold His testimony and keep His Commandments.  You are the seed of the remnant of Israel – true Jews in Christ.  And you are messengers of the Gospel of God concerning His Son Jesus – the Savior of the World.