Last week, you may recall, we looked at Revelation chapter 7 and the theme of “The Church Militant,” that is, the Church suffering on earth this side of the new creation. Today, I want you to turn with me please to Revelation chapter 21, page 1041 if you’re using our church Bible, as we think about the other phase of the Church’s life, what we call “The Church Triumphant,” the Church in heavenly glory and eternal victory in the age that is to come.
My wife and I enjoy watching a TV show which follows ordinary people who decide to build their own dream homes. What’s compelling about the show is the honest examination of the human struggle that producing these remarkable buildings almost always demands of the builders – naivety about the time it will take and the complexity of the self-build project, the hidden construction costs, the unexpected weather delays, disputes with subcontractors. The problems are myriad, often very painful, but almost always when the TV cameras return sometimes years later to see at last the finished product, the results are invariably remarkable. And when the presenter sits down at the end of the show with the people who undertook the project, they all say that it was the vision of the finished home and the life that it will afford them and their families that drove them on to overcome all the obstacles and to complete the project. Sometimes the demands of the work were grueling, the task herculean, and yet it was this singular vision of a new life to come that enabled them not to give up.
Now if you look down at verse 7 just for a moment, you’ll see God tells John something very similar. He says, “The one who overcomes will have this heritage.” So as we struggle and suffer and labor in the construction site of the Church that Jesus is building in this life, we are meant to see in Revelation chapter 21 what the finished home will look like so that we do not give up, we persevere, we overcome. Here is the architect’s vision for your heavenly home. If you are going to make it through the rubble and the mess of the building site of your life, you need to keep this vision before your eyes. And that’s our task this morning.
The chapter, you’ll notice, divides neatly into two sections, each signaled by more or less the same statement repeating in slightly different ways. So in verse 2, John says, “I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” And then if you look down at verses 9 and 10, that language repeats. Do you see it? An angel says to John, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And then John adds, “and he showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.” And so these two statement signal the beginning of the two sections of the chapter. Verses 1 through 8 are about the Church triumphant as a Bride. And 9 through 27, the Church triumphant as City. The Bride and the City.
Before we look at each, let’s pray together and ask for the Lord’s blessing. Let us all pray.
Lord our God, Your Word is now spread before us. Would You so fill our gaze with the bright hope of eternal glory promised to all Your people that by this portion of Your Word and by the ministry of Your Spirit in our hearts, we might be enabled to persevere through the rubble and the chaos of the construction life, the construction work of our lives that is taking place all around us and in us until this great and glorious day dawns at last. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.
Revelation 21 at verse 1. This is the Word of God:
“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 was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And 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 this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, 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 last plagues and 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 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 twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed – on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve 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 walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his 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, like clear glass. The 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, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent 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 it 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.”
Amen.
Now one way to get at John’s teaching in this amazing chapter is to notice what he says will not be there in the glory that is to come. Keep that in mind as we look at verses 1 through 8 first of all and the Church as Bride. And the first thing John tells us to help us unpack what all of this involves in verse 1 has to do with the context for the life of the Church triumphant. Verse 1, “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.” So here’s the first thing John says will not be there – no more sea. Isn’t that a curious exclusion from the world to come? No more sea. In verse 10, John is taken to a high mountain. “So, pastor, are you telling me all the folks who like the mountains better than the beach will be happy while all the beach people will be disappointed? Is that the message?” I don’t think so. John isn’t interested in the topographical features of the new creation or whether or not the folks who like the beach more than the mountains will get to enjoy their favorite vacation spot in the world to come. That is not John’s concern.
John is dealing with symbols, isn’t he, and the sea in Scripture is an emblem of chaos and threat. In other words, the first thing that’s not there in the new creation, not there in the experience of the Church triumphant is the sea. That is, there’s no more threat, no more chaos, no more of the destructive forces of elemental nature red in tooth and claw, debased and broken by the fall. Instead, one day all things will be made new for the Church triumphant richly to enjoy. No sea.
Then notice the second thing John says is not there. He says there is no sorrow. Look please at verses 2 through 4. The Church in verse 2 is “a bride adorned for her husband.” That image is a central, the central metaphor in the Bible for the relationship between the Lord and His people. Throughout the Old Testament, idolatry is described as spiritual adultery and illicit breaking of our covenant bond with God. That’s why the story of the prophet, Hosea, and his unfaithful wife, Gomer, picks up on that theme. Isn’t it? It is a parable of God’s unfailing covenant love and commitment despite Israel’s infidelity to Him. It’s also why Isaiah 54 verse 5, God tells His people, “Your Maker is your Husband, the Lord of hosts is His name.” God and Israel are like husband and wife, bound together in the loving bonds of covenant commitment.
Strikingly in the New Testament, the covenant God, the Bridegroom of His people, is identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 5:34, Jesus was once asked by His disciples do not fast. And He replied, “Can the wedding guests fast while the Bridegroom is with them? I am the Bridegroom and I’m here. I’ve come.” That’s what He’s saying. And so in Ephesians 5:25-27, Paul says earthly husbands should love their wives like Jesus, the great Bridegroom loves His Church, His Bride. And so as a husband, Paul says, Jesus has given Himself up for her “that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word that He might present the Church to Himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
And now here in Revelation 21 at the new creation, all that Jesus died and rose and reigns to give to His Church, His Bride, in order to beautify and adorn her has at last been fully realized. Now, John says, she appears as a Bride adorned for her husband. The work is finished; it is done – verse 6. The Church is now at last in John’s vision, perfectly cleansed and washed and presented to her Bridegroom in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. She is now and forever holy and without blemish. That’s what John sees – a vision of the great wedding day finally come.
What do you imagine heaven will be like, I wonder? What’s your picture? Is it a bit like a royal wedding at Westminster Abbey, perhaps, with lots of pomp and ceremony, everybody sitting stiffly in their fancy clothes and their uncomfortable shoes on their best behavior, minding their “Ps and Qs,” speaking to each other maybe in whispers? Is that something like what you imagine heaven will be? The great wedding day of the Bride and the Lamb, her husband? I don’t think so. At least that’s not what John sees. What a dreary place heaven would be if that was the case.
No, the picture John gives us is all about the Bridegroom’s tender love for His Bride, the Church. There is nothing stiff or formal here. He loves her. That’s the big idea. “Heaven,” as Jonathan Edwards famously puts it, “is a world of love.” And we have a remarkable description, exposition of the tender love of Jesus, the Bridegroom, for His Church, His Bride, in verses 3 and 4. Don’t we? Look at verses 3 and 4. “Behold,” He says, “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.” What is the great consequence and effect of the union of the Bridegroom with His Bride, of Christ with His Church in glory? No more sorrow.
Just like with the Bridegroom image, actually this language here in verses 3 and 4 echoes all the way down throughout the whole storyline of Scripture. God uses it with Abraham in Genesis 17. “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be your God and the God of your offspring after you, and I will be their God.” In Exodus 6 verse 7, He renews that promise with Israel. “I will take you to be My people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” In Leviticus 26:11-12, He told the Hebrews in the wilderness, “I will make My dwelling among you. My soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God and you shall be My people.” Later on in Jeremiah 30 in verse 22, in the face of coming judgment upon God’s wayward people, the promise is repeated, “You shall be My people. I will be your God.”
Then Ezekiel 36, “After the judgment falls, the promise of the new covenant says, ‘I will put My Spirit within you, causing you to walk in My statutes and obey My rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your forefathers and you shall be My people and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses.” And then at last in John 1:14, in fulfillment of those promises, Jesus Christ, the Word who is God and who was with God, became flesh, John says, “and dwelt among us.” Over and over, God signaled His love and saving purpose for His wayward people by renewing this wedding vow, this promise to be with us and dwell among us and take us for His people to be our God, to have and to hold from this day forward and forever, and not even death will part us. That’s what He’s saying.
It’s a promise of the closest intimacy and tenderness and fellowship and love, which is why the closest earthly analog is marriage. And when the great union comes and the wedding celebration begins, what will be its effect? Look what the Bridegroom’s love will do on that great day. Verse 4, John says every last remnant of our fallen lives will evaporate like morning fog in the summer sunshine. His finger will brush away every tear from our eyes. His presence will banish death itself. Mourning and crying will be replaced with laughter and joy. Pain overwritten with pleasures at Your right hand forevermore. These are, John says, “the former things,” and at the wedding of the Lamb and His Bride, the Church triumphant, they will pass away. And what a day this will be when at last there will be no more sorrow; no more sorrow.
Bodily pain can be endured, financial hardships can be borne, can’t they, so long as they are not compounded by sorrow. Sorrow makes every other trial harder to bear. Sorrow makes all our other sufferings move in slow motion, doesn’t it? But when the Church triumphs at last, there will be no more sorrow because then, then we’ll be with the Bridegroom face to face. We’ll see His lovely face .And no thought of anything dark or sad or sore will ever again interrupt our enjoyment of His beauty and His love. He will dry every tear from our eyes. No sea. No sorrow.
Then thirdly, John says there will be no sin. Look at verses 5 through 9. The Lord who is Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, will give the water of life to the thirsty. His heritage to the one who overcomes. “But,” verse 8, “as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, 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.” Notice carefully that it’s not abstract behaviors per se so much as it is people characterized by those behaviors that are being excluded from the glory to come. There’s no sin in heaven because there are no sinners in heaven. In Matthew 14, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven, appropriately enough, to a royal wedding banquet. And in verse 11 of the chapter, he says when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. And the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Do you see the message? It’s the same point that John makes for us here. You can’t slip in unnoticed. There are no wedding crashers on the great day when Jesus the Bridegroom and His Bride, the Church, are joined in the world to come. If you don’t have a wedding garment, if you’re not dressed the part, that is, if your life is still marked, dominated by the prevailing power of sin, you are among the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolators, the liars. If you’re not a Christian, John says when this day dawns it will be the outer darkness. That place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, not heaven but hell that will be your residence forever. There is no sin in heaven because there are no sinners in heaven.
But take another look at those who do belong there. Who are they? Did you notice they are not described simply as the moral opposites of those who are shut out and excluded. John doesn’t describe them here as “the brave, the faithful, the admirable, the charitable, the chaste, the pious, the trustworthy.” They are all of those things, of course, but none of them provide the reason for their possession of the triumph that awaits the Church in the world to come. We so badly need to get this clear, so listen up. We are excluded by our sin, but we are not welcomed in on account of our righteousness. On what basis is John told that sinners might be welcomed into glory? Look again at verses 6 and 7. “To the thirsty,” God says, “I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who overcomes will have this heritage.”
Don’t let those two words skip past you too quickly – “without payment.” The thirsty get the water of life from the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ without payment. You don’t earn your place in the Church triumphant by the personal payment of your moral debt. It’s a debt you could never pay! The only way into the glory to come is to receive it freely as a gift from the hands of the Bridegroom Himself. You come to Jesus thirsty, thirsty for forgiveness, thirsty for rest, thirsty for soul-satisfaction, and He gives you the water of life without payment. The great tragedy of the last judgment will surely be that so many of those that are finally shut out of the wedding feast will actually have been invited to come and sit at the table by the Bridegroom Himself. Come freely! The wedding invitations all go out, they’re all mailed out to your mailbox in Revelation 22:17. “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ Let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; and anyone who desires take the water of life” – listen, how? On what basis are you entitled to come and take the water of life and be satisfied? You come “without price.” You come freely.
There is no sin in the Church triumphant because there are no sinners in heaven. That doesn’t mean that you can’t go there, take your place there, sinner though you may be. Rather, it means that Jesus the Bridegroom invites you to the feast and you must accept the invitation, repenting of your sin, trusting in Him. He wants you to belong to His Bride, the Church. He’ll give you the wedding garments to clothe the filth of your sin. He’ll deal with your guilt freely by His grace. Are you thirsty? Come and drink, without money and without price. Come to Jesus Christ without payment. Drink Him in. Receive His pardon. Be robed with the wedding garments of His righteousness and take your place at the great banquet on the final day. The Bride. That’s the first thing.
Now, notice the second half of the chapter, verses 9 through 27, and the way John develops here the motif of the City. Two more things I want you to see very quickly that John says are not present in heaven. No sea, no sorrow, no sin – and now, no sanctuary and no sun. Now as we read this chapter, it really helps to remember this is not a literal city. This isn’t a description of what heaven actually looks like. This is a visionary description of the Church under the metaphor of a city, which is why in verses 12 and 13 it has a high wall, with twelve gates, bearing the names of the twelve apostles. Verse 14, “twelve foundations” – sorry, the twelve tribes, and now with the names of the twelve apostles.
What’s the message? Walls and gates are about defining the city limits, about containing the city. And the message is the whole people of God – the old covenant people, the twelve tribes, the new covenant people represented by the apostles – everybody who belongs to the Bridegroom, they are comprehended within the City. In verses 15 and 16, the City is measured – do you see this? 12,000 stadia long and as wide and high as it is long. Its wall is 144 cubits. Now do those numbers ring a bell? 12,000 and 144? We saw them last week, do you remember, in chapter 7? Symbolic of the complete number of the elect of God, the Church of Jesus Christ, from every tribe and language and nation. This City that John is seeing isn’t made out of bricks and stone. It’s made of human lives, redeemed by grace. It’s made of people, living stones, built together for a dwelling place of God by His Spirit, as Peter puts it. And these symbolic numbers make the point that every one of God’s people is here and none are lost.
In the course of this last week, an elder and I were talking to a young man who had recently been released from ten years in prison. And he told us he had been converted in jail, came to know the Lord Jesus. And then he broke down and he began to sob because he said his temptations were so fierce. He was scared he might lose his salvation and go to hell in the end. What a blessing it was to assure him of the wonder of the Gospel that everyone who Jesus saves, He keeps, and He loses none of them. “He that began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” All the 144,000, all of that vast, innumerable company that no one can number from every nation and tribe and tongue, every one of them will be here, saved to sin no more in the Church triumphant. That tattooed ex-con has nothing to fear. You have nothing to fear if you are trusting Jesus Christ. Not one living stone in the building of God’s dwelling will be missing on this great final day.
And you noticed, I’m sure, that the city is a perfect cube. Did you see that – as wide and long as it is high? Why is it a cube? It’s a cube because it is echoing the shape, the proportions of the holy of holies in the heart of the temple in Jerusalem, that place where the high priest could go once a year. There, the glory, the shekinah glory of God was said to dwell. But here, the whole city is the holy of holies. The whole city is the holiest place. The Church is the temple of the living God and He inhabits the Church with His glory. That’s why in verse 22 John says, “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.” He’s everywhere, and we are filled with Him. That’s why there is no sanctuary in the world to come because the whole place is the sanctuary of God.
It’s also why the Church is described in such dazzling beauty here. In verse 11, “its radiance is like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” In verse 19 through 21, each of the twelve foundations is another precious stone. Each gate is a single pearl. These precious stones, they adorned the breastplate of the high priest every time he went into the holy place representing the people of God. Well here now is the people of God, symbolically, glorious and beautiful like precious stones. More importantly, this description of God’s people echoes the description of the One who sits on the throne who is said in chapter 5 to be like jasper and carnelian, with an emerald shining around Him.
In other words, the Church here that John is seeing is the mirror of its great Redeemer. His glory shines from us in that place. The glory that dwells in the holy place now beautifies the people of God. God is so generous with His glory. That’s what verse 11 says, explains the symbolism here. John sees the Church, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. There’s no sanctuary in heaven because the whole place is the sanctuary of God and His glory will fill it.
No sea. No sorrow. No sin. No sanctuary. Finally, no sun. Look at verses 23 to 27. “The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” The nations walk by this light, bring their glory into the city. Because of this light the gates never shut and nothing unclean or wicked ever enters the City. The light of God in Jesus Christ guides all, draws the praise and honor of all, and provides perfect security for all. You sometimes still hear about people who live in usually small, rural communities, don’t you, where everybody knows everybody and nobody locks their doors. There’s trust, there’s security, there’s peace, and that’s the picture here.
I was talking to a US attorney this past week. He said Jackson is the most dangerous city in America. We don’t lock our doors, do we? We do lock our doors, rather – I hope you do! Please lock your doors! But John says here in the new creation there are no locked doors. The gates are never closed because the light of the Lamb makes it safe. And there’s one constant that binds all of these things together that John says are not there – no sea, no sorrow, no sin, no sanctuary, no sun – one thing that runs through this whole description that will be there that unites all of it. God Almighty and the Lamb. God in Jesus Christ. There is no threat, no sea, because our God will keep us safe. No sorrow, because we will be with the Bridegroom in wedding celebration. No sin, because the Bridegroom’s work of sanctifying, beautifying, adorning His Bride will be complete. No need for a sanctuary, because we will be the temple and our fellowship with God and the Lamb will be unbroken and the shekinah glory will fill us forever. No sun, because the light of Christ will suffuse all and leave us utterly secure.
Sometimes when we think about heaven we want to know if our favorite things will be there. Will we eat cheeseburgers in heaven? Will my beloved pet make it to heaven? Will I still be able to enjoy Beethoven or The Beatles or the Delta Blues in heaven? Those are the wrong questions to ask. They put your attention on all the wrong things. The glory and the joy of heaven will be that you will see Jesus there. The glory of God will radiate from you there. You’ll be like your Savior there. “The bride eyes not her garments, but her dear bridegroom’s face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace. Not at the crown He giveth, but at His pierced hands. The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s Land!” Jesus will be our joy, our rest, our very great delight. Everything else here is a consequence, really a subset of our enjoyment of Him.
So right now, Jesus is building His Church. There’s workmen, you know, scaffolding, bricks and cement mixers, jackhammers all around. This is one long, arduous construction project – your life, my life – isn’t it? How do you keep going when the going gets tough and the labor starts to take its toll? Have you grown weary in well-doing lately? How can you not give up? John’s telling us how right here, isn’t he? You fill your eyes with the architect’s vision of your final home and you remind yourself all of this is worth it. All the tears, all the weariness, all the suffering, all the struggle. It’s all part of the construction process, you know. But the work will soon be done. The day is nearer now than when you first believed. And you can press on till that day dawns. Yes you can.
Let’s pray together.
Lord Jesus, we come to You with longing, with longing for the great day when we will see Your lovely face and Your nail-pierced hands will brush all the tears from our cheeks. Help us, please, so to fix this great vision of our final destination, the home that You are building in our minds, so that while we labor on through the mud and the rubble of the construction site of our lives and we are tired, that glorious, bright, shining vision of what we will be helps us keep going. Please, would You do that in our hearts for Your honor and glory? Amen.