CHRISTIAN LIFE TRAINING DATE: January 14, 2015 TITLE: “BLUEPRINTS OF AN ETERNAL HOME” MAIN SCRIPTURE: Revelation 21:9-22:5 NKJV “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, ‘Come, and I will show you the Bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysophase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.” The Apostle John must have felt that he was on an emotional roller coaster with all the visions the Lord was showing him. He had seen unprecedented worship in heavens, and unimaginable catastrophes on earth. He had seen the Savior’s peaceful thousand-year reign on earth, followed by judgment upon those who reject Him. Now the Lord was giving John a glimpse of that prepared place He had told them about before going to the cross. He was showing him the New Jerusalem, the holy city. While many mistakenly equate its description with heaven, the Scripture indicates that the holy city comes down “out of heaven,” meaning that it is not the entire realm of heaven itself, but a part of it. We must understand that this will not be a newly created city; it exists already! It was waiting even as Jesus described it to His disciples. Though heaven is a place of magnificent beauty, and a place where no pain or sorrow exists, what makes heaven really special is that it has the glory of God. We cannot grasp the fullness of the glory of God on sinful earth. We don’t know what the unhindered presence of God is. Even Moses, as close to God as he was, was not allowed to see the face of God’s glory because it would have killed him. God hid him in the cleft of a rock as the back of Him passed by, and even that glimpse radiated from Moses’ face with such brightness that the people could not look at him unless he wore a veil. Our loved ones who knew the Lord and have passed on to glory are now living this! They are seeing it! Imagine that! Heaven is heaven because of the glory of God. There are those who believe that heaven is not a literal place; that those who die experience something called “soul sleep” in which heaven is more a peaceful state of the heart or mind. This is not true! The Bible teaches that heaven is indeed a literal place, and the holy city of New Jerusalem was designed and built by the Master Builder. John is greeted by one of the angels who ushered in the bowl judgments. But instead of disaster this time, the angel brings delight! “Come,” he invites John. “I will show you the Bride.” We read about the marriage of the Lamb in chapter 19. The Bride is now not only the raptured church, but also the tribulation saints and the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation. Then John is transported in the Spirit to a high mountain where he sees a stunning sight—the holy city descending out of heaven. John faithfully recorded what he saw, but he often must have felt that words failed him! We are going to take a closer look. Because Heaven is a literal place, its description must be taken literally. “great high wall”- vs.12 We may wonder, why would Heaven or the holy city need a wall? In the Bible, walls had several purposes. One purpose was indeed protection, but walls also served to identify the people who lived within. The wall here identifies Heaven as a tangible place and also identifies His people who live within it. “gates guarded by twelve angels” v.12-Again, why would there be a need for guarded gates? Guarding may mean protecting but it also shows dominion. After God had driven Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, He placed cherubim with flaming swords at the east of the garden “to guard the way of the tree of life” but also to show His dominion there. The gates of heaven are symbolic of God’s dominion—Satan has been the “prince of the power of the air,” with power God has allowed him to have, but he will come to a final end, and the KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS will reign! The layout of these gates is also significant—three gates on each of the four walls, each gate with the name of a tribe of Israel, recalling the camp of the twelve tribes of Israel around the tabernacle. “gold measuring rod”- vs.15 We have seen a mention of a gold measuring reed in 11:1. The reed was used to measure the dimension of something. The significance of the measuring shows ownership. The gold represents purity—it is measuring something good with a total absence of evil. Size of the city-vs. 15-17 12,000 furlongs or stadia. This is equal to 1,500 miles (square), and the interesting thing about these measurements is that the measurement is the same for width, height, and breadth, forming a perfect cube, or “foursquare”. Some of the measurement is taken up by the walls, which are 72 yards thick! Another interesting point is that the measurements are the same for both man and angels! (v.17) This simply means that a yard is a yard and a foot is a foot! “wall made of jasper…city was pure gold”- The wall and city are constructed of translucent, reflective materials to reflect the glory of His presence! Though we find twelve specific stones listed, note that the Scripture says in v.19 “all kinds of precious stones,” indicating that there are even more stones there than what is listed! Like the jasper and gold, the precious stones of the foundations are there to reflect light—specifically the light of the glory of God! Upon the twelve jeweled foundations of the city walls are written the names of the apostles of the Lamb—one name on each foundation. “twelve gates were twelve pearls”-v.21 When I was a child, I used to picture gates studded with pearls, but in reality, each gate is formed by a single massive pearl! (Those must have been SOME oysters! I just had to say it.) The significance of the pearls (in truth created by God, not oysters) is precious. Pearls were very valued in John’s time and they represent suffering. The oysters that form earthly pearls do so because of an irritation in their lining—painful! On earth, we often suffer for Christ in one way or another. Often it seems like the suffering will never end, but when we are together with Him in eternity, it will be worth it all. “No temple…sun or moon”v.22,23- There’s no need of any of these because the Lord God is there! As we have seen, His glory is there, everything reflecting it—we have no need of the light of the sun and moon. The earthly temple was the symbolic dwelling place of the Lord—only priests had access. When Jesus died on the cross, God ripped the Temple veil from top to bottom, signifying that we no longer had to go through a priest to have access to Him. In heaven we will dwell with Him forever! The brilliant light of His glory is the same light that blinded Paul on the road to Damascus. In His presence we won’t even notice the sun and moon are missing! Who will be there? V.24 Perhaps the old song of our childhood expresses it best-“Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.” Note the phrase in the Scripture-- “glory and honor” rather than “power.” These will be His faithful saints from every race and every nation. These will be the ones written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. “river of life”-ch.22v.1 We saw in an earlier verse that there will be “no more sea.” The sea represents life and we will have the Life-Giver with us! In John 4, Jesus told the woman at the well about the water He gives, that we might never be thirsty again. Earthly water sustains our bodies, but it doesn’t satisfy our thirst for long. We get thirsty again quickly. But Jesus gives the water that is eternal life. Not only will heaven be special because we will have the glory of God and will dwell with Him forever, but because there will be no needs! Lazarus (Luke 16) was a poor beggar on earth who had to be satisfied with crumbs from the rich man’s table, but once he went to paradise (called Abraham’s bosom in Jesus’ parable) he no longer needed anything. On the contrary, it was the rich man, who’d had everything on earth, who found himself in great need and torment once he died, and the sad thing was, his needs and desires could not be met or quenched. “tree of life…yielding its fruit every month”- Ch.22v.2 When we first read this verse, it might be tempting to picture an amazing tree that produces a different fruit each month—sort of a “fruit of the month” deal. In reality, it is symbolic as God’s constant provision. Then we think, “Wait, why would we need that?” And the leaves—for healing? There isn’t supposed to be sickness or death, right? The word for “healing” here in the Greek is therapia, from which we get the words “therapeutic” and “therapy.” The word means “support, life-giving.” This will be a process of healing from their suffering—healing in the presence of the Lamb. The Blessing of the City- The curse that sin brought from the Garden of Eden ends here forever. The Throne of God and the Throne of the Lamb are here, and we will see His face. Revelation 3:12 speaks of His name written upon us, His servants and His saints. We will be a part of a joyous, eternal worship service and will reign with Him in that glorious city forever. “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:2,3 NKJV “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 3:20 NKJV
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 03:18:07 +0000