The Eternal State / Revelation 21-22

A New Beginning

Tonight, we’re going to look at Revelation 21 and part of chapter 22, and then we’ll spend some time in worship and communion together. As you’re flipping there, let’s pray.

Lord, thanks for Your Word. I’m just grateful as I stand up here on a regular basis that I’ve got a document that is revealed by You and inspired by You—something that I don’t have to figure out on my own. I don’t have to seek some sort of distant deity, because You’ve revealed Yourself in chapter and verse. As we talk through Your Word tonight, as we look at the new heavens and the new earth and the hope of eternal life, I pray we would receive it and that You would be pleased. We pray in Christ’s name, Amen.

Well, if you’ve been with us for a while, you’re in for some good news. Throughout Revelation, as in most things, there are high points and heavy points. I feel like we’ve finally climbed to the top of that roller coaster mountain and we’re about to head down. What we’re going to find in these chapters is the new beginning—God’s re-creation. God created the world in Genesis chapter one, spoke it into existence, and then we saw the fall of man and the repercussions of that. Now, God is going to recreate in chapters 21 and 22. We’ll see the descending of a new heaven and a new earth, a picture of what eternity will look like.

Chances are you’ve wondered: what on earth is eternity going to be like? Is it kind of this Casper the Ghost thing where we float into heaven, look down on our family and friends, and say “what’s up” for the next forever? Jesus, when He was talking with His disciples, told them, “In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you.” But what does that place look like?

I put my faith in Christ in 1993. Audio Adrenaline was real big back then. Do you guys remember those days? Remember that song, “Big House”? Seriously, if I had to hear that song again, I’d rather beat myself to death with this podium. It was great the first 5,000 times I heard it. Just two weeks ago, I was listening to contemporary Christian radio and they busted out 1993 Audio Adrenaline, and I just could not take it. But you remember that song, right? “We got a big, big house with lots and lots of rooms, and a big, big table with lots and lots of food.” Some of you know the hand motions—the big yard where we can play football. When I first put my faith in Christ, I thought, “Sweet! A big yard! That’s awesome!” But what is it really going to look like? John captures it for us here.

Revelation 21:1 (NASB)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer [any] sea.

We noticed last week that as God created the world and spoke it into existence, something happens at the end of chapter 20 and the beginning of 21. The heavens and the earth we live in now are going to be literally done away with. They’re going to be evaporated—uncreated by the word of His mouth—and God will establish a new heavens and a new earth.

Like a Bride Adorned

Revelation 21:2 (NASB)

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

One of the fascinating things about the scriptures is that as John tries to communicate what eternity will look like, you get the idea he is doing the best he can with language to describe something that is literally indescribable. How do you describe a holy city descending from the heavens? He uses the language of a bride adorned for her husband.

That is a beautiful picture. One of the highlights of my life as a pastor is being able to stand in what I call the best spot in the house. I see the guy who took fifteen minutes to get ready standing there in his monkey suit, and then the doors open. In walks the bride, who took about fifteen hours to get ready—nails, face, hair, toes, everything. She comes down in all her glory. I just did a wedding yesterday for Matt and Amber. The doors opened, and Matt was standing there as stoic as they come, and then you just see the expression on his face at this beautiful bride.

I remember doing Jeff Bachman’s wedding—our student pastor. He’s the only guy I’ve ever seen whimper. I’m totally throwing you under the bus, Jeff! He’s standing there, the doors open, and some guys might tear up, but he went whimper. It was so bad I turned to him and said, “Was that a whimper? You’ve got to be kidding me!” John uses this language because if you’ve ever stood in a wedding party as the bride comes down, there are very few things more glorious than that.

Before we move on—can you guys scoot together just a little bit? I’m sorry, that’s a total “don’t ever do that while teaching” move, but people are standing and it’s hot, and I don’t want you to have to stand. By the way, you’re the best scooting crew I’ve ever seen; that was like doing the wave. Perfect. Now, look at verses three and four. We see God tabernacling among His people.

Revelation 21:3-4 (NASB)

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be [any] death; there will no longer be [any] mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’

In the beginning, Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden. I don’t know quite what that looked like, but I know that after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they decided to play hide-and-seek. It’s not a good idea to hide from an omniscient God. It’s like when I play hide-and-seek with my daughter; she crawls under the covers and then I see her crawl back under the same covers while I’m looking at her. She’s not good at the game yet.

In Genesis 3, sin enters the world and that intimacy changed. We feel that today. When our sin list is shorter, we feel an intimacy with God. When we struggle, we feel a distance. In the Old Testament, God spoke to Abraham as a friend, and Moses met with God in a way that made his face literally glow. Then, in the New Testament, God did something that transcended comprehension: He incarnated. John 1 says He “dwelt among us,” or literally tabernacled among us. That’s a powerful word because the people of God used to live in tents in the dust—the “dusty ones”—and they followed the Tabernacle. When God moved, they moved.

In this new city, we have the embodiment of God among us. He will wipe away every tear. There will be no more death, mourning, or pain. As Paul said in Romans 7, “Who will set me free from this body of death?” We’ve all wrestled with how we can claim to be Christians and still struggle with sin. But when this new heaven and earth descend, we will be removed from all of that. We will walk with God in complete perfection.

Making All Things New

Revelation 21:5-6 (NASB)

And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’ Then He said to me, ’It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.

I’ve often wondered why verse five says, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Well, a great Bible study principle is that scripture interprets scripture. Usually, you find a truth in one place and find affirmation in another. But how many books of the Bible speak into the specific details of the eternal state? You get a shadow in Ezekiel or Isaiah, but John is writing things down and God is saying, “Look, I’m not making this up. Write it down. These words are faithful and true. You aren’t going to find this anywhere else, but it’s the truth.”

Then He says, “It is done.” I chased that phrase because it sounds like what Jesus said on the cross: “It is finished.” But on the cross, the word was tetelestai, meaning completed or terminated. Here, the word is genomai. This word has the idea of something that had a beginning, went underground for a while, and then came back up to be completed. It’s like when a president is elected; he is the president-elect, but there is a time gap until the inauguration when he is sworn in. At that point, it is done.

God began a perfect relationship with man in Eden. Sin sent it “underground” for centuries. But when this new Jerusalem descends, the plan is finally inaugurated. It is done. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He started it, and now He has finished it.

Revelation 21:7-8 (NASB)

’He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. ‘But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part [will be] in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’

He talks about the “overcomer.” This comes from the word nike, the root for victory. It means a means for winning a victory. This is interesting: it suggests the person doesn’t achieve the victory on their own, but is equipped with the means to win. An athlete doesn’t win just by being there; they are equipped with gear, cleats, and training. Spiritually, we don’t have the ability to overcome on our own. If you’ve ever tried to win a spiritual victory apart from God—trying to quit a habit or force yourself back to church by sheer willpower—you know it usually lasts about two weeks. We don’t have it in us. We can only overcome if God equips us. To those people, He says, “I will be his God and he will be my son.”

The City of God

In verses 9 and following, we get a snapshot of the city. An angel takes John on a tour.

Revelation 21:12 (NASB)

It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names [were] written on them, which are [the names] of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.

Revelation 21:14 (NASB)

And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them [were] the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Notice a huge theological point here: Israel (the 12 tribes) and the Church (the 12 apostles) are listed separately. This is important for our theology. In the plan of God, the Church and Israel are distinct entities.

Revelation 21:15-16 (NASB)

The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal.

The angel has a gold measuring rod. That might not seem like much, but in the temple, everything used for worship was gold. This time in history will be so different that even a common tape measure is an act of worship. The city is a giant cube—1,500 miles in length, width, and height. John then tries to describe the stones—jasper, sapphire, emerald—and in verse 21, he mentions the gates.

Revelation 21:22-23 (NASB)

I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp [is] the Lamb.

In this city, there is no temple. That blows up the idea of worship being tied to a geographic location. If there is no temple, where do you go to worship? Anywhere. The Spirit of God is with us.

There is also no need for the sun or moon. If that sounds strange, remember Genesis 1. God created light and “morning and evening” on day one, but He didn’t create the sun, moon, and stars until day four. What was the light for those first three days? Most scholars suggest it was the Shekinah—the glory of the Lord. In the new city, we go back to that. God Himself is the light.

Revelation 21:24-27 (NASB)

The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

There is no night there. The gates never close. In John’s day, you closed the gates at night and posted watchmen to prevent a nighttime invasion. But in this city, there are no invaders. Satan has been cast into the lake of fire. Everyone there is a follower of God. There is no need for locks or walls to keep people out.

The River and the Curse

Revelation 22:1-2 (NASB)

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve [kinds of] fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

You see a similar river in Ezekiel 47, where the water flows from the temple and gets deeper the further you go. But in Ezekiel’s vision, there are still marshes and swamps—places where the water was cut off and became stagnant. That was a picture of the Millennial Kingdom. But here in the eternal state, the river is crystal clear. There is no dysfunction.

And we see the reappearance of the Tree of Life. We haven’t seen that since Genesis 3. After the fall, God in His grace separated man from the Tree of Life. The only thing worse than being a fallen sinner is being a fallen sinner who lives forever in that state. So God blocked the access. But now, the curse is gone.

Revelation 22:3-5 (NASB)

There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name [will be] on their foreheads. And there will no longer be [any] night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

The curse is removed. No more sweat of the brow to produce food. No more pain in childbirth. No more strife in marriage. No more creation groaning.

Hope for the Now

What will eternity look like? There it is. Now, if you’re like me, you think, “That’s cool. Crystal seas and gold streets. I can’t wait.” But if I’m honest, that doesn’t always help me day-to-day. When I’m struggling with real issues, I have a hard time looking that far out. So how does this apply today?

The Gospel purchases eternity for us, yes. It secures our future. But it also gives us peace now. Hope now. Purpose now. It gives us an understanding of what God is doing in the midst of the chaos of our lives today.

If God sets a destination, He also dictates the means to get there. He doesn’t just tie the world up in a nice bow in Revelation 22 without knowing how you and I are going to hang in there in the meantime.

Friend, if you’re going through a difficult time—maybe a relational train wreck and you can’t stop crying—hearing about “jasper stones” might not immediately stop the pain. But what can encourage you is knowing that God is sovereign. You can say, “God, I don’t understand what’s going on, but I can trust You. You’ve been faithful for centuries, and I’ll hang in there.”

Regardless of the weather report in your life—whether it’s storm clouds or blue skies—God is on the throne. He has a plan for us. The journey isn’t always going to look clean or feel polished. Sometimes you’re going to feel like a spiritual toolbox. But if you’ll hang in there, God teaches us in those difficult times to become more like Him.

Our hope is that one day, as we progress through this life, He’s going to take us home. No more pain, no more tears, no more struggle. We will walk in the presence of God forever.

We’re going to celebrate that hope tonight through communion. Worship team, why don’t you guys come up?