REVELATION 21
The Bible begins in Genesis 1:1 with the expression, "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Verse 1 here could read, "In the end, God recreated the new heaven and the new earth." A new heaven and a new earth is necessary, because sin has existed in the old earth, and even in the old heaven, as Ephesians 6:12 and Revelation 12:7-8 tell us. No evidence of sin or conflict will exist in the new heaven or on the new earth.
It seems odd that verse 1 tells us the sea will no longer exist. I justify my frequent craving for seafood by telling my wife we won't always be able to get any. Note also that there is no sea, even though the twelve gates described later are each made of a single pearl. God doesn't have to rely on a race of super oysters to create pearls for the pearly gates. The absence of the sea probably means more than just the physical absence of oceans. Remember the beast in Revelation 13:1 comes out of the sea, probably meaning out of the sea of humanity, the sea of humanity which is in the process of choosing (or fulfilling, based on God's election) their individual eternal fates. Everyone's destiny has now been realized, so the sea of humanity which represents the current age no longer exists.
Actually, the sea is one of seven things which are gone. The others are death, mourning, crying, pain, mentioned in verse 4, and there will no longer be any curse (Revelation 22:3) or night (Revelation 22:5). Death and pain are certainly physical distresses, but death, mourning, crying and pain, most of all, are the emotional ailments of man. No one who reigns with Christ will have anything to be sad about for all eternity, because God himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
1 Corinthians 1:22 says that we have been given God's Spirit as a pledge, a guarantee or a security deposit. During the present age, the Holy Spirit comforts and counsels us, dwells within us and reveals the things of Christ to us (John 14:16-26). It is hard to imagine a greater blessing than that, unless God physically dwells with us in a world free from death, mourning, crying and pain, which is what this chapter foretells.
Verse 5 says, "Behold, I am making all things new." I am almost amused sometimes by how much Christians want things to be new, including this old book, the Bible. It seems impossible for anyone to publish a version of scripture, without insisting it's new. We have the New American Bible, the New American Standard Bible, the New International Version, the New King James Bible, the New Life Bible, the New Living Translation, the New Revised Standard Version, etc. Christians love new things, and everything in God's kingdom will be brand new, eternally new, a sort of new world order in a new world.
Verse 6 echoes both Revelation 1:8 (NASB) which says,
8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
as well as John 4:14 (NASB), which says,
14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
Verse 7 reminds us of the promises to those from the seven churches who overcome, found in Revelation 2 and 3. Though these are addressed in those chapters to specific churches, they probably apply universally to everyone who overcomes by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, so they are worth reviewing here. The following are all take from the NASB translation.
Rev 2:7 "To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God."
Rev 2:11 "He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death."
Rev 2:17 "To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it."
Rev 2:26 "He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS;
27 AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father;
28 and I will give him the morning star."
Rev 3:5 "He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels."
Rev 3:12 "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God,
and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name."
Rev 3:21 "He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne."
Those blessings are in stark contrast to the warning in verse 8.
8 "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."
It seems odd that the word cowardly is first on this list, but it reminds me of a contrasting passage in Joshua 1:6-9 (NASB), which says:
6 "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
7 "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.
8 "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
Joshua is commanded three times here, and again in verse 18, to be strong and courageous. If the Lord is with us, as he was with Joshua, the same command applies to us regarding whatever God calls us to do.
I won't comment on the other disqualifications from the kingdom found in verse 8, because the reasons God is displeased with such things seem fairly obvious.
However, it does seem worth pausing to briefly discuss the second death, which has been mentioned previously in Revelation 2:11, 20:6 and 20:14. We think of death as the final moment of our physical life on earth. Whether someone dies in their sleep or they die violently, it is over in a moment, and the spirit is released from the body. This is apparently not the case with the second death.
Revelation 20:14 (NASB) "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire This is the second death, the lake of fire."
Matthew 18:8 (NASB) "If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire."
According to Revelation 14:10-11, the second death is an eternally painful experience, an experience so grim and terrifying that it may constantly be like the last moments of those who jumped from the upper floors of the World Trade Center on the day it was destroyed. Their moment of terror, however excruciating, was brief, but the second death is not.
I mention this, not to frighten anyone, but because it should give us a sense of urgency about praying for the lost, as well as boldness about sharing Christ with them when an appropriate opportunity arises.
One of the main purposes of Revelation is to show that God will judge all sin, first inside the church and then outside of it, and he will put an end to sin forever. So what becomes of the sins of Christians?
Matthew 3:11 (NASB): "As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
We usually ignore the part about being baptized with fire, or we assume it has something to do with the tongues of fire described on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. It is true that the second death will not harm believers, but our works will be tested by fire, as Paul indicates in 1 Corinthians 3:15 (NASB):
11 "For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.
14 If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.
15 If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."
I mention this here, only so I can support what I believe is the real significance of this chapter. Verse 2 says John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, like a bride beautified and adorned for her husband. At first, this seems confusing. Why would anyone, let alone Jesus, marry a city, even a beautiful one? We are told in various places that the bride of Christ is the church itself, as follows:
2 Corinthians 11:2 (NASB): "For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin."
Ephesians 5:22-30 (NASB): "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;
29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,
30 because we are members of His body."
I believe there will be a new heaven, a new earth and a new Jerusalem, with all of the radiance this chapter describes. But the deeper meaning of this chapter is that once our sins and faults have been dealt with, Jesus will see us in the same way we imagine and will see the city which is called the new Jerusalem. This is truly a stunning possibility, given our individual imperfections and failures. But Christ will see the church, men and women from every tribe, tongue, people and nation, as we see jasper, saphire, agate, emerald, onyx, carnelian, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth and amethyst. Each of us will be like one of those precious stones. How awful it is that Judas gave this up for thirty pieces of silver. I don't know much about making jewelry, but most jewelry goes through a purification process involving intense heat which separates the dross from the precious metals. That is the purpose of the baptism by fire, not to judge us, but to determine which of our works will be rewarded.
Of course, the reference to the church here is really all-encompassing, including the saints from the beginning to the end of time, which is why the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are on the gates and the names of the twelve apostles are on the foundations of the walls of the city.
I have never been to a very early wedding. Probably the earliest wedding I have ever attended started at 11 a.m., and most of the weddings I've attended, including my own, were in mid-afternoon or later in the evening. The reason is so the bride can feel fully prepared and look beautiful, not only for the bridegroom, but also for the guests. Bridegrooms don't need that kind of preparation. They would gladly take their brides at 7 a.m., if they were ready. When the new Jerusalem descends out of heaven, the bride will be ready.
The purpose of these last two chapters is to give us a picture of the great love Christ has for us, an eternal love which none of us deserve, but all of us can be grateful for.
It seems odd that verse 1 tells us the sea will no longer exist. I justify my frequent craving for seafood by telling my wife we won't always be able to get any. Note also that there is no sea, even though the twelve gates described later are each made of a single pearl. God doesn't have to rely on a race of super oysters to create pearls for the pearly gates. The absence of the sea probably means more than just the physical absence of oceans. Remember the beast in Revelation 13:1 comes out of the sea, probably meaning out of the sea of humanity, the sea of humanity which is in the process of choosing (or fulfilling, based on God's election) their individual eternal fates. Everyone's destiny has now been realized, so the sea of humanity which represents the current age no longer exists.
Actually, the sea is one of seven things which are gone. The others are death, mourning, crying, pain, mentioned in verse 4, and there will no longer be any curse (Revelation 22:3) or night (Revelation 22:5). Death and pain are certainly physical distresses, but death, mourning, crying and pain, most of all, are the emotional ailments of man. No one who reigns with Christ will have anything to be sad about for all eternity, because God himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
1 Corinthians 1:22 says that we have been given God's Spirit as a pledge, a guarantee or a security deposit. During the present age, the Holy Spirit comforts and counsels us, dwells within us and reveals the things of Christ to us (John 14:16-26). It is hard to imagine a greater blessing than that, unless God physically dwells with us in a world free from death, mourning, crying and pain, which is what this chapter foretells.
Verse 5 says, "Behold, I am making all things new." I am almost amused sometimes by how much Christians want things to be new, including this old book, the Bible. It seems impossible for anyone to publish a version of scripture, without insisting it's new. We have the New American Bible, the New American Standard Bible, the New International Version, the New King James Bible, the New Life Bible, the New Living Translation, the New Revised Standard Version, etc. Christians love new things, and everything in God's kingdom will be brand new, eternally new, a sort of new world order in a new world.
Verse 6 echoes both Revelation 1:8 (NASB) which says,
8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
as well as John 4:14 (NASB), which says,
14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
Verse 7 reminds us of the promises to those from the seven churches who overcome, found in Revelation 2 and 3. Though these are addressed in those chapters to specific churches, they probably apply universally to everyone who overcomes by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, so they are worth reviewing here. The following are all take from the NASB translation.
Rev 2:7 "To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God."
Rev 2:11 "He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death."
Rev 2:17 "To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it."
Rev 2:26 "He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS;
27 AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father;
28 and I will give him the morning star."
Rev 3:5 "He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels."
Rev 3:12 "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God,
and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name."
Rev 3:21 "He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne."
Those blessings are in stark contrast to the warning in verse 8.
8 "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."
It seems odd that the word cowardly is first on this list, but it reminds me of a contrasting passage in Joshua 1:6-9 (NASB), which says:
6 "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
7 "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.
8 "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
Joshua is commanded three times here, and again in verse 18, to be strong and courageous. If the Lord is with us, as he was with Joshua, the same command applies to us regarding whatever God calls us to do.
I won't comment on the other disqualifications from the kingdom found in verse 8, because the reasons God is displeased with such things seem fairly obvious.
However, it does seem worth pausing to briefly discuss the second death, which has been mentioned previously in Revelation 2:11, 20:6 and 20:14. We think of death as the final moment of our physical life on earth. Whether someone dies in their sleep or they die violently, it is over in a moment, and the spirit is released from the body. This is apparently not the case with the second death.
Revelation 20:14 (NASB) "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire This is the second death, the lake of fire."
Matthew 18:8 (NASB) "If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire."
According to Revelation 14:10-11, the second death is an eternally painful experience, an experience so grim and terrifying that it may constantly be like the last moments of those who jumped from the upper floors of the World Trade Center on the day it was destroyed. Their moment of terror, however excruciating, was brief, but the second death is not.
I mention this, not to frighten anyone, but because it should give us a sense of urgency about praying for the lost, as well as boldness about sharing Christ with them when an appropriate opportunity arises.
One of the main purposes of Revelation is to show that God will judge all sin, first inside the church and then outside of it, and he will put an end to sin forever. So what becomes of the sins of Christians?
Matthew 3:11 (NASB): "As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
We usually ignore the part about being baptized with fire, or we assume it has something to do with the tongues of fire described on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. It is true that the second death will not harm believers, but our works will be tested by fire, as Paul indicates in 1 Corinthians 3:15 (NASB):
11 "For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.
14 If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.
15 If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."
I mention this here, only so I can support what I believe is the real significance of this chapter. Verse 2 says John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, like a bride beautified and adorned for her husband. At first, this seems confusing. Why would anyone, let alone Jesus, marry a city, even a beautiful one? We are told in various places that the bride of Christ is the church itself, as follows:
2 Corinthians 11:2 (NASB): "For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin."
Ephesians 5:22-30 (NASB): "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;
29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,
30 because we are members of His body."
I believe there will be a new heaven, a new earth and a new Jerusalem, with all of the radiance this chapter describes. But the deeper meaning of this chapter is that once our sins and faults have been dealt with, Jesus will see us in the same way we imagine and will see the city which is called the new Jerusalem. This is truly a stunning possibility, given our individual imperfections and failures. But Christ will see the church, men and women from every tribe, tongue, people and nation, as we see jasper, saphire, agate, emerald, onyx, carnelian, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth and amethyst. Each of us will be like one of those precious stones. How awful it is that Judas gave this up for thirty pieces of silver. I don't know much about making jewelry, but most jewelry goes through a purification process involving intense heat which separates the dross from the precious metals. That is the purpose of the baptism by fire, not to judge us, but to determine which of our works will be rewarded.
Of course, the reference to the church here is really all-encompassing, including the saints from the beginning to the end of time, which is why the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are on the gates and the names of the twelve apostles are on the foundations of the walls of the city.
I have never been to a very early wedding. Probably the earliest wedding I have ever attended started at 11 a.m., and most of the weddings I've attended, including my own, were in mid-afternoon or later in the evening. The reason is so the bride can feel fully prepared and look beautiful, not only for the bridegroom, but also for the guests. Bridegrooms don't need that kind of preparation. They would gladly take their brides at 7 a.m., if they were ready. When the new Jerusalem descends out of heaven, the bride will be ready.
The purpose of these last two chapters is to give us a picture of the great love Christ has for us, an eternal love which none of us deserve, but all of us can be grateful for.
posted by TAPIOCA at 12/31/2006 05:20:00 AM
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