Heaven's Radiant Capital: Inside the New Jerusalem

Yes, we're back in the book of Revelation tonight, and we're talking about the New Jerusalem, right?

The capital city, right? Of heaven, the New Jerusalem.

And tonight, we are actually going to pick up here in chapter 21.

And let's see where we're at here. We're talking about its internal character.

I'll get it right in a minute.

Its internal character. This is the internal character of the city.

So here we go. Take a listen. It said, and the street of the city was pure gold,

like transparent glass.

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. 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 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.

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 streets.

And on either side of the river was the tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit,

yielding its fruit every month.

And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

So as if just seeing the magnificent capital city of heaven from a distance

was not privileged enough, John's angelic guide here took him inside.

And as he entered the city, the apostle actually noted that the street of the city was what?

Pure gold, like transparent glass.

The streets in the New Jerusalem were made of the highest quality pure gold,

which like everything else in the heavenly city was

transparent like glass that translucent gold is not a material familiar to us

on this earth but everything there according to scripture is transparent to

let the light of god's glory blaze unrestricted,

Once inside the city, the first thing, as we see in the scripture here,

that John noted was that there was no temple in it. Do you see that?

Up to this point, there has been a temple in heaven.

I mean, all throughout Revelation, chapter 7, 11, 14, 17, 15, 16, 17.

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

But there will be no need for a temple in the new Jerusalem.

Why? According to this passage.

That's it for the lord god and the all the

almighty and the lamb are its temple it

says their blazing glory will fill

the new heaven and the new earth and there will be no

need for anyone to go anywhere to

worship god because life will

be worship and worship will be life there and

believers will be constantly in his presence

y'all constantly in his presence and there will never be a moment when they

are not in perfect holy communion with the lord god the almighty and the lamb

there so they'll there'll be no need to go to a temple y'all cathedral church chapel,

or any other house of worship.

Believers will be the true worshipers God has always sought, right?

And it talks about this in John 4, 23, by the way.

Returning to the theme of God's brilliant shining glory, John actually notes

that the city has no need of the sun. Do you see it?

Or of the moon to shine on it, for what illumes it?

What is it? The glory of who? The glory of God, right? Has illumined it,

has lit it up, and its lamp is the lamp.

So the new heaven and the new earth will be radically different from the present

earth, which is totally, by the way, dependent on the sun and the moon. Did you know that?

They provide, if you remember in your science classes, the cycles of light and

darkness, and the moon causes what? What does it control?

Right, even the ocean tides and all that. And so, but in the new heaven and

the new earth, they'll be unnecessary.

There will be no seas, remember? We talked about this back in verse one of chapter 21.

There'll be no seas anymore in heaven. And so no tides.

And nor will the sun and moon be needed to provide light for the glory of God

is gonna illumine the new Jerusalem and its lamp will be the Lamb.

So once again, in Revelation, God, the Father, and the Lamb,

the Lord Jesus Christ, share authority.

Do you see it? They share authority, even here.

And commenting on this brilliant light, by the way, that's emanating from the

New Jerusalem, theologian J.A.

Sice actually writes this. And I thought, hey, I'm going to share this with

y'all tonight because I think it's good.

He says, that shining is not from any material combustion,

not from any consumption of fuel that needs to be replaced as one supply burns

out, for it is the uncreated light of him who is light,

dispensed by and through the Lamb as the everlasting lamp, to the home, the hearts,

understandings of his glorified saints.

When Paul and Silas lay wounded and bound in the inner dungeon of the prison

in Philippi, They still had sacred light, which enabled them to actually,

he says here, to beguile the night watches with happy songs.

When Paul was on his way to Damascus, he notes a light brighter than the sun

at noon shone round about him,

irradiating his whole being with new sights and understandings and making his

soul and body ever afterwards light in the Lord.

When Moses came down from the mount of his communion with God,

his face was so luminous that his brethren could not endure to look upon it.

He was in such close fellowship with light. He notes that he became informed

with light and came to the camp as a very lamp of God, glowing with the glory of God.

And he also points out that on the Mount of Transfiguration,

that the same light streamed forth from all the body and raiment of Jesus, of the blessed Jesus.

And with reference to the very time when this city comes into being and plays,

if he says you go back to the book of Isaiah, it says the moon shall be ashamed and the sun confounded.

Did y'all know that was in the Bible?

The moon shall be ashamed and the sun confounded.

Ashamed because of the outbeaming glory, y'all, which then shall appear in the

new Jerusalem, leaving no more need for them to shine in it since the glory

of God lights it and the lamb is the light thereof.

Wow, what a great commentary on that.

Can y'all just think about that for a minute and just grasp that for a moment?

I know it's hard for us to do in our limited thinking, but wow.

The glory of God is gonna light our new home, y'all.

And there's not gonna be any more night, no more night.

The reference to the nations here and the king of the earth or the kings of

the earth has actually led some to view this passage as a kind of a.

Recapitulation of the millennial kingdom, but really an interpretation like

that, I think, fails to actually do justice to, we talked about this earlier,

the chronology of Revelation,

particularly the repeated use of those words there,

that chi adon, to indicate that chronological.

Progression that's going on in this book, what's happening here.

There will be living human beings in the millennium, but no physically alive

people could possibly exist, y'all, in an environment without sea. Did you know that?

Sun or moon. It's just impossible.

Nations here translates ethros in Greek, which can also mean people and is most

frequently translated Gentiles, right?

Gentiles. The idea is not that national identities will be preserved necessarily

here in heaven, in the eternal state, which is what we'll be in there,

but rather the opposite.

People from every tribe, tongue, if you remember, tongue, tribe,

nation, both Jews and Gentiles will be united as God's people.

Every believer, in other words, will be fully equal in the eternal capital city.

We're God's people. That's what we're known as, right?

No Jew, no Greek, none of that. It's just We're God's people.

You probably heard some people saying, that's my people. You ever heard that

phrase, that terminology? Well, we're God's people when we get there in our eternal state.

It may be that the truth that the kings of the earth will bring their glory

into it in the passage there offers this further proof of the absolute equality in heaven.

So also that phrase may indicate that there will be no social or class structure.

Obviously, we're all God's people, right?

That those who enter the city will surrender their earthly glory.

In other words, those kings who enter it, they're going to bring their glory

there. They're going to surrender their glory, right?

Because there's no such thing anymore as kings and this, that,

and the other. We're all God's people.

So everyone would be at the same level. Another possible interpretation is that

this phrase here refers to the believers living at the end of the millennium, okay?

And according to that view, the statement that the kings of the earth will bring

their glory into the new Jerusalem refers to the translation of those believers, if you remember,

before the uncreation of the present universe.

We're going back a few weeks as we look at this, talk about this viewpoint.

But John adds another detail to his description here of the New Jerusalem.

Throughout the never-ending daytime of the eternal state, for there will be

no night there as gates will never be closed.

Did you see that? Gates will never be closed, y'all.

You know, in an ancient walled city, the gates were closed at nightfall. Why?

Yeah. Keep invaders, robbers, criminals, and other potentially dangerous individuals

from actually entering the city under cover of darkness, right?

That there will be no night in eternity and the gates of Jerusalem will never

need to be closed depicts the city's complete security for one thing.

It'll be a place of rest, y'all. Safety, refreshment.

We're God's people. If we look back in chapter 14, verse 13,

God's people will rest from their labors.

How many here tonight are ready to rest from some of your labors?

The kings will not be the only ones to surrender their earthly prestige and

glory when they enter heaven.

The glory and the honor of the nations will also dissolve, as it were,

into the eternal worship, y'all, of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember, like the 24 elders, all who enter heaven are going to cast their crowns

before the throne, before the throne of God, right? We see that all the way back in chapter 4.

All in heaven will be perfectly holy. So nothing unclean, just like it says

here, nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying shall

ever come into the new Jerusalem.

You don't need a security system. Never going to be night, right?

God's glory is shining through. The only ones there will be those whose names are what?

Written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And by the way, I know y'all know this,

but when were those names written in the Lamb's book of life?

Before the foundation of the world.

I'm glad God's God and I'm not, y'all, because I, I mean, all we can do is say,

thank you, Jesus, right?

Thank you, Lord, for what you've done. We were talking earlier about how man's

plans can be easily thwarted.

You ever plan to do something, you know, and you want to do this,

that, and the other, and then something weird happens and falls through and

you have to change your plans.

Anybody been there? Somebody may have today.

Here's the good news, y'all. God's plans are never thwarted.

Everything he purposes to do goes exactly as he purposes it to go.

Wrap your head around that one. And God uses, yes, even sinful men and the choices

of sinful men to carry out his will.

He uses it to carry out his will. So the only ones there will be those whose

names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

And John's angelic tour here, his angelic tour guide next showed him a river of the water of life.

So there will be that river of the water of life out there, right, Sharon?

With no sea in the eternal state, there could be no hydro, how do you say it,

hydrologic cycle? Did I get it right?

And so therefore no rain to fill a river.

So the water of life is, doesn't seem to be water as we know it.

It's a symbol of eternal life, that water of life.

Do you get it? That water of life. Like everything else in the New Jerusalem,

the river was clear as crystal so it could reflect whose glory? God's glory.

It cascaded down from the throne of God and of the Lamb and this dazzling,

sparkling, never-ending stream, so to speak, this river of the water,

water life, right? It's pure. It's unpolluted.

It's unobstructed. And just the flow of it here symbolizes that constant flow,

y'all, of everlasting life, right?

From God's throne to God's people.

Remember when Jesus, with the woman at the well, he was telling her that he

would give her water where she would never thirst again. Do you all remember that?

The water of life, right? That's flowing from God's throne.

And so the phrase, in the middle of its street here, you can take a look at

that in the passage there.

It's really best translated, if you look at it there, in the Greek,

in the middle of its path.

In the middle of its path. And connected with that following phrase,

if you look at it there, on either side of the river was, remember what it was?

The tree of life on either side of the river.

The tree of life is the celestial counterpart to the tree of life in Eden, right?

And this tree provides for those who are immortal. We're in our eternal state there, remember?

The tree of life, it was a familiar Jewish concept that expressed blessing.

And the celestial tree here symbolizes that

blessing of eternal life and that

the tree here look at it bears 12 kinds

of fruit y'all yielding its fruit every month man we had some fruit for breakfast

the other morning i had some leftover what do they call it fish yeah what kind

i can't white fish or sushi yeah i had some leftover sushi and but i'm gonna

tell y'all that and and eggs and cheese.

And then we had like strawberries. And I think a little bit of, was it mango?

Mango and pineapple and, and what else? Raspberries, strawberries, raspberries.

But of course in that fish in there too, you know, we had to throw that in there,

but I was just thinking, man, all the fruit.

And then of course the bananas, right? I had a banana this morning.

But it says here, those 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.

It really emphasizes the infinite variety that will fill heaven, this new Jerusalem.

The use of that term month, you may be looking at that saying, wow, every month.

It really doesn't refer to time, since this is the eternal state,

you remember, and time is no more, by the way.

It's really this expression of this joyous provision of eternity that's just

kind of couched in the familiar terms of time, right?

It's always bearing, though.

It's always there. It's always fresh. It's always new.

And John makes that intriguing observation that, if we look back to the passage,

the leaves of the tree were for what?

The healing of the nations. And at first glance, that may seem confusing since

obviously there'll be no illness or injury in heaven, right?

We're in our eternal state.

Nothing that would require healing. But that word there, that therapia,

that healing, it doesn't imply illness.

Maybe a better way to translate it would be life-giving or health-giving or therapeutic even.

The leaves of the tree can be kind of likened to supernatural vitamins, if you will.

Since vitamins, y'all, they're not taken to treat illness, right,

but to promote general health.

Life in heaven will be fully energized, in other words, rich,

exciting in the glory of God.

In fact, the text doesn't say whether the saints will actually eat the leaves

of the tree, although it's possible.

I mean, actually, if you think in the Bible, angels ate food with Abraham and

Sarah. Do you remember that back in Genesis 18?

And as did the Lord, if you remember, with his disciples after his resurrection.

You remember that in Luke 24, in Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

So, Brother Ronnie, at least we know we're going to be eating in heaven.

I mean, I believe that, right?

And so it's conceivable that the saints in heaven will eat, not out of necessity, but for enjoyment.

And I got to thinking when I just shared that with y'all, Well,

I mean, you know, you know, it's fun to eat sometimes, right?

I mean, I've been on this weight loss journey or trying to be on this journey.

And I was like, wow, you know, and sometimes we have to think in this life,

man, I want to try to be disciplined or I need to lose some weight or I need

to get more exercise or whatever the case may be.

But when we're in heaven, we're going to have our new bodies will be in our eternal state.

And man, we can just have that food, that supernatural stuff just for enjoyment and praise of God. Amen.

I mean, that'd be awesome. I may stop here tonight with this one.