Revelation 21

Do we have a seat? It's nice to be back. Nice to see some familiar faces. Nice to see a lot of new faces too.

It's always encouraging to see more and more folk you don't know in a church.

If you have a Bible, do just turn to 1 Peter 1, that passage we read a few moments ago.

We're not going to spend most of the morning here, but I just want to start us off in that passage.

I don't usually preach from a laptop, but I wasn't very organized to get it printed off.

That's a first, isn't it? Nor did I iron my shirt.

I think my trousers have collected most of the dust in Daphne's house, which is quite a lot.

If you were hoping for perfection, your hopes have probably been let down.

But there is a hope that we have that we can look forward to, which will most certainly not let us down.

It was a very applicable question in this shorter catechism that you were looking at today.

Unlike many of Paul's letters written to certain groups of people in certain situations,

Peter is writing to Christians far and wide.

I can't turn the page in this Bible.

His audience is varied, but in this epistle, certainly the first chapter, there is one thing he is hammering home.

Look down there at verse 3 with me.

Peter writes,

Verse 6,

Verse 6,

Again down there in verse 8,

Verse 13,

Verse 20 and 21,

Christ was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God,

who raised him from the dead and gave him glory,

so that your faith and hope are in God.

I don't know you all that well.

I don't want to be overly presumptive,

but I think it is generally true that we as Christians dwell much more on our faith than we do on our hope.

That is no bad thing to dwell on our faith,

but we often deal with it in the here and now.

Rarely do we lift up our heads and look forward to the hope that awaits us.

Listen to what Calvin says on faith and hope.

He writes,

Faith believes God to be true.

Hope awaits the time when his truth shall be manifested.

Hope strengthens faith.

Hope refreshes faith.

Faith is the foundation upon which hope rests,

but hope nourishes and sustains faith.

We dwell often on what we have been saved from,

and that is good and right.

It's exactly what we're going to be doing this evening.

But I want this morning to look with you all at what it is that we have been saved to.

What does the Christian's hope look like?

What is this imperishable inheritance that Peter speaks of in his epistle?

Quite simply, I want us to consider this evening, this evening, this morning,

what will heaven be like?

In order to encourage us, right?

To lift up our heads.

To stop staring down at our own two feet and worrying about our current situation.

Stop getting bogged down in the here and now.

And reducing this world to what we see with our own two eyes.

But to look forward with eager expectation.

At what is to come.

And to live in light of that.

And it's worth getting this right.

It's worth spending time thinking about this.

Because heaven isn't some abstract reality that should mystify and confuse us.

As Peter says, right at the beginning of this epistle,

heaven, for those of us in Christ, is home.

This is where we belong.

Paul in Colossians tells us similarly,

have our minds set on the things above.

And so it is good to meditate on what our true home will be like.

So that we can be looking to that certain hope.

As we dwell in the meantime in this fallen world.

So with that in mind, I want us to turn to Revelation 21.

That is the passage we are going to be looking at this morning.

That hope that Peter speaks of.

That he encourages us to rejoice in.

That imperishable inheritance.

That is something that John saw something of in the book of Revelation.

A glimmer of what is to come.

A foretaste of what it is that we have been saved to.

So we're just going to read this whole chapter together.

And let us rejoice as we do so.

John writes,

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, 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.

For the former things have passed away.

And he was seated on the throne and 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 water,

of life without payment.

To the one who conquers will have his 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 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,

twelve thousand stadia.

Its length and width and height are equal.

He also measured its walls,

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

and 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 its 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 into it,

nor anyone who does

what is detestable or false,

but only those whose names

are written in the book of life.

Amen.

Just a couple of things

before we get sort of stuck

into this passage, right?

This is very much going to be

a general overview.

There is some amazing,

great detail in this passage

that it would be well worth

spending time unpacking

and understanding,

but that's not our aim this morning.

We don't want to get lost in the trees

because we really do want to see

the whole thing.

There's going to be little

in the way of profound insights.

I just want to show us

something of what we can

look forward to.

The other thing I want to say

is don't be afraid

to picture things in your head.

It's pictorial language

for a reason.

Don't think that just because

we don't know exactly

what heaven's going to be like,

you're not allowed to

imagine it in heavy way.

There's a reason this chapter

is full of imagery.

Full to the brim of words

and phrases that invigorate

our imaginations,

that fill our minds with pictures.

So go ahead

and imagine what

kind of painting

this is trying to

portray.

Just remember

to not hold on to that image

too tightly.

Because

if there's one thing

I can guarantee you,

it's the real thing

is going to be

unimaginably better

than the very,

very best

that our imaginations

can conjure up.

So what is

heaven going to be like?

Well,

it's not,

I think,

what people often

think it is.

And there's two main areas

people fall into

which are really just

two sides of the same coin.

We think heaven

is really similar

to this life

just without

some of the nuisances.

Right?

It's like it's going to be

the exact same

except you'll never have to

wake up in the middle of the night

needing to pee.

But when we do that,

right,

we make heaven

so much less

than it will be.

Just a slightly better version

of the world

as we know it.

On the other hand,

and probably far more commonly,

we think of heaven

as wholly unlike

anything we've ever seen

or known.

A totally separate existence.

Entirely unrelated.

It's relatable

to anything we can think of.

Maybe we just think of heaven

as some space

up in the clouds

where you play harps

all day long.

Or just this

massive church service

where you've got

thousands and thousands

of people standing

shoulder to shoulder

singing Kumbaya

for all eternity.

Sounds quite boring,

doesn't it?

We need to avoid

either of these extremes,

right,

because they both

detract from the wonder,

the reality

and the significance

of what heaven is

to us as believers today.

Because neither of them

are anything like

what is described to us

in Revelation 21.

Heaven is real life,

but on the most epic

and glorious scale.

And we see that

when we just let

our vision of it

be guided

by God's word.

So I just want to pick out

five things

this morning.

It's fairly basic

that we can be sure

heaven is going to be like

from this passage.

We're taking the big picture here,

right?

We're going to skip over

lots of details.

We're not going to have time

to dwell on them.

By all means,

go and look at them afterwards.

But I just want to put together

a framework for us

this morning.

It's five things.

Number one,

it's going to be new.

Right?

That's pretty obvious

from verse one.

Then I saw a new heaven

and a new earth.

It's a new heaven

and a new earth.

Right?

I've been saying heaven

from the beginning

just because that's what

we sort of think of it

colloquially.

But the future inheritance

that awaits us

isn't somewhere up there

in the clouds.

It is a whole new creation.

It is a new creation.

Verse two,

it's a new Jerusalem.

This is God's city.

Verse five,

and within that new creation,

he who's seated on the throne

said,

behold,

I am making all things new.

Ever since the fall,

right?

Since Adam let Eve

eat the fruit

and ate the fruit himself,

everything has been decaying.

Things have literally

been falling to pieces.

The Bible speaks

of creation groaning

because of the sin

in this world.

A lot of the time

we can see that

around us pretty clearly,

right?

Just switch on the news.

Sometimes we see that

pretty clearly in ourselves.

From the moment

that sin entered the world,

the things that God made good

have been wasting away.

But a new creation

is coming.

It won't just stop the rot.

It's not like you're just

not going to get

any more fragile.

You're not going to lose

any more teeth.

Your hair will stop falling out.

It'll be nice.

You're going to be made new.

The world is going

to be made new.

God is saying

loud and clear to John,

everything about this place

is brand new.

So not only is there

going to be no more decay,

but the things

that have decayed

will be renewed,

restored to how they

should have been

in the first place.

All the marks

of the fall,

all the stains

of sin

are removed.

I know, again,

that's very different

to just being made

young again.

We often think

that age is the problem.

It's because we get old

that we start breaking

and become fragile.

But age isn't the problem,

sin is the problem.

But everything will be new

and will exist

in a place

where there is no sin.

And there is no Satan,

and so there is no

possible way

for it to be ruined again.

Nothing again

will ever decay.

That's the first thing

about our inheritance, right?

It is a whole new creation.

Number two,

none of the pain

and misery

of this life

will be there.

Let's look at verse four.

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.

Think of all

the pains

and struggles

of this life.

None of it.

you kind of want

to just say

it'll be perfect

and it will,

but I think part

of the reason

God doesn't say that

is because we just

can't get our heads

around how amazing

that will be.

Instead of filling up

this chapter

with all the amazing

things that you

wouldn't understand,

he just says,

you know all those

things you struggle with?

All the stuff

that sucks

about life right now.

None of that

is going to be there.

all the suffering

that we've gone through,

all the sorrow

and the heartbreak.

No more death.

No more funerals.

No more losing

loved ones.

No more crying.

No more worrying.

No stress.

No anxiety.

No depression.

No more broken

relationships.

No more getting

let down.

No more people

giving up on you.

No more pain.

No illness.

No disease.

No cancer.

None of it.

not a single drop of it

for the rest

of eternity.

All of those things

which bring suffering

into our lives

will be no more.

And at the start

of verse 4 there,

we see that it's

God himself

who sees to it.

God himself

wipes away

the tear.

He doesn't just

drop us

into this flawless

new creation

and let us go free.

he is there with us, caring for us, making sure that all these things have passed away for good.

Number three, it will be beautiful.

Let's look at verse 9.

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues,

and he 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 Spirit,

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.

Verse 18, 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.

I'm not going to read them again because I struggled with it.

The twelve gates, verse 21, were twelve pearls.

Each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

It was important to remember, right, this is all a vision that John is seeing.

We don't know it's going to be exactly like this.

It might be, it might not.

But the point here is pretty clear, right?

All the things we think are most beautiful,

all the most precious gems and jewels,

crystal and gold,

all that people back then would have considered most valuable,

most precious.

The place is filled with them.

It's literally made out of them.

The point being nothing will ever surpass the beauty

of the new creation.

You imagine the most beautiful thing you've seen in all the world.

If you've been to Scotland, you'll know it's there.

It'll probably be better than Scotland.

Sometimes maybe we think of heaven as just this,

this big old plain where everyone's huddled together,

staring at a throne in the middle.

But there will be all sorts of beauty.

It's a better Eden.

Right?

Go back to Genesis and look at all the amazing things

that God filled Eden with.

And Eden was very good.

But this will be even better.

All the intricacies and marvels of this creation

will still be there.

But they will be greater.

And they will be untarnished by sin.

The new creation will be beautiful.

Number four, it'll be huge.

Right?

It's another thing I don't think jumps out to us immediately

when we start thinking of heaven.

You get that in part right from the fact

that it is a whole new creation.

It suggests it's going to be fairly large.

But then helpfully in verse 15,

some guy comes out with a measuring tape

made of gold, obviously.

And when he measures it,

well, first of all, it's a cube.

Right?

Which might seem a bit weird,

but we'll come back to that in a minute.

But when he starts measuring it,

he finds out that it's 12,000 stadia wide.

12,000 stadia high.

You might have a little footnote in your Bible

that says that's about 1,380 miles.

Just to put that into context,

that's further away than St. Petersburg in Russia.

That's the size of the place in John's vision.

And you need to remember, right,

this was a vision being shown people 2,000 years ago

who didn't have Google Maps.

You couldn't swipe across the globe in a few seconds.

They would have known their surrounding area well,

but maybe distances 50, 100 miles.

That might have meant something to them.

But then John comes along and says,

heaven's 1,000 miles wide.

It's 1,000 miles high.

It's 1,000 miles long.

The whole point is this is incomprehensibly big.

It's like someone coming up today

and saying that something's a bajillion miles away.

You have no idea what they mean,

but you know it's a long way.

Heaven will be enormous.

Finally, number five.

We've flown through those four points fairly quickly

because this is the one where we want to spend some time.

Verse 22.

I saw no temple in the city.

There will be no temple.

You might be thinking,

what's the big deal?

Right?

We can read it and quite easily think,

the other stuff, that all sounds great.

It doesn't really matter whether or not there's a temple.

But as you look there,

you see that the reason there is no temple

is because God is the temple.

which is a massive difference

from what we find in the book of Ezekiel

in the Old Testament.

One of the Old Testament prophets.

You don't have to turn there now.

But in Ezekiel,

at the end of Ezekiel,

we have this other sort of major heavenly vision

that we get in the Bible.

And Ezekiel has this,

there's a lot of similarities in the visions.

But in Ezekiel's vision,

which is eight chapters long,

seven of those chapters

are all about the details of the temple.

And then John,

in this sort of parallel vision,

just goes,

there's no temple.

Why the big change?

Well, we need to understand,

the temple, right,

had two main points for God's people.

It was where God dwelt among his people,

and it was where God's people

could come to him

through sacrifices,

through making themselves holy.

And the bit where God's presence was

in this temple,

that first major purpose of the temple,

for him to dwell amongst his people,

was at the very middle of,

at the very heart of the temple,

this little cube

called the Holy of Holies.

And once a year,

once a year,

one guy in the whole world

could go into this cube

where God's presence was.

And to do so,

he had to make all kinds of sacrifices,

go through purification,

purification rites,

so that just a moment each year,

this one guy

could enter into God's presence.

And this was the kind of temple

that Ezekiel saw in his vision,

surrounded by priests,

where there's different sections,

some bits holier than others.

The point is that while God wanted

to be with his people,

for the safety of everyone,

there had to be separation.

God was there in their midst,

but he was still separated.

Because there was a problem of holiness.

There was a problem of our sinfulness.

The story of God's dwelling with man

is a major theme.

You can trace it through the whole Bible.

But in all of it,

the fullness of God's glory

is never,

not once,

on display to God's people.

They always,

always have to be kept separate.

And we can see,

we can see the reason for that

in Exodus 33.

Let me just read you

the end of that chapter now.

Where Moses said to God,

please,

show me your glory.

And God said,

I will make all my goodness

pass before you,

and I will proclaim before you

my name,

the Lord.

And I will be gracious

to whom I will be gracious,

and will show mercy

on whom I will show mercy.

But,

he said,

you cannot see my face,

for men shall not see me

and live.

And the Lord said,

behold,

there is a place by me

where you shall stand

on the rock,

and when my glory passes by,

I will put you

in a cleft of the rock,

and I will cover it

with my hand

until I pass by.

Then I'll take my hand away,

and you'll see my back,

but my face shall not be seen.

It's not because God

reduces our glory

or makes himself

less glorious,

but throughout history,

by the tabernacle

or the temple,

or Jesus himself

or the spirit dwelling

within us today,

God is shielding us

from the fullness

of his glory,

like he was

with Moses there.

God is shielding us

from his glory

because in this state,

we simply cannot stand it.

God's holiness

and righteousness

and glory and power

are so overwhelming,

no man can see it

and live.

We see even the angels

have to shield their eyes

from the glory of God.

It's like when you stare

at the sun,

and your eyes go a bit funny.

that this big,

but don't stare at the sun,

this big burning ball

of gas,

right,

is so bright

and so powerful

that 100 million miles away,

you can't look straight at it.

You can barely look at it at all.

Look at all the stars in the sky

and think,

what is the sun

in this universe?

Look at this vast creation.

And yet,

God is infinitely bigger

than all of them.

Think of all that means

for God's glory.

You can't look at the sun.

The sun is but a speck to God.

Our eyes simply cannot behold him.

Our bodies cannot behold him.

No man can see God

and live.

But then in Revelation,

there's no temple.

Not because man

has made himself holy,

but because God

has made himself man.

The big difference

is, of course,

Jesus.

There's no temple

because at the resurrection

on the last day,

there will be no need

for a temple.

There will be no need

to separate God

from his people.

There's no need

for more sacrifices

or for special priests

to go in and out

before God

like we see in Ezekiel.

What he was seeing

was a heaven

before Christ had come.

But there still had

to be separation

between God and man.

But that has changed.

because of what he has done

for us,

we,

people like you

and me,

can look forward

to being in the very

presence of God.

I don't know how.

But we have in Revelation,

instead of this

continuing division,

there will be no more division.

For everyone,

at one point,

had to be kept out

of God's presence,

we will be invited in.

All because of Christ.

The whole of this new creation

is one massive cube.

It is all the holy of holies.

The whole of creation

is filled with God's presence.

He is its light.

The city has no need

of sun or moon

to shine on it

for the glory of God

gives its light

and its lamp

is the lamp.

I don't know

if heaven is going

to be literally a cube,

but this all points

to this amazing

reality

of the most perfect,

holy,

glorious God

that no man can see

and live

bringing his children

into his presence.

Let's look back

to verse 3

of Revelation 21.

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.

All of a sudden,

only one guy

could go once a year

under the strictest

of conditions.

only to the

footstool of God,

the whole of God's

people are living

in for eternity.

I don't know how,

I'm not going to

hazard a guess,

but the fullness

of God's glory

will be with us

forever and ever.

We will be there

sharing with him

this new,

massive,

beautiful creation

with none of the

pains of this world.

enjoying it

for all eternity

to come

in the presence

of our great God.

Just as we finish up,

the thought

of this new creation

should excite us.

We should long for it.

It is something

we should always

be looking forward to.

when we struggle

with the sin

and misery,

the pain,

and sometimes

what feels like

hopelessness of this

world,

lift up your eyes.

Look to what is

to come.

This is the hope

that we have.

And that should

spill out to those

around us.

An eternity.

this massive,

beautiful new creation

where there will be

no evil.

And God,

the very God

who made it all

will be there with us

and we can worship

him perfectly

in all that we ever do.

That is the hope

that Peter speaks of.

The certain hope

that we have

because of the

amazing work

of Jesus.

We,

through no merit

of our own,

get to enjoy

the most

unimaginably

amazing existence

to the end

of time

and beyond.

So long,

right,

verse 27,

as our names

are in the Lamb's

book of life.

So long as we

live this life

committed to Christ

come,

we know for certain

that this

is the future

that awaits us.

I know I'm

probably not alone

in having a million

other questions

of what this

new creation

will be like

or maybe what

we hope it won't

be like.

But the one thing

we can say

with total confidence

as you read

through Revelation 21,

whatever you're

imagining in your head,

whatever you can

picture,

the one thing

we can absolutely

guarantee is that

it's going to be

immeasurably

better than that.

a perfect place

where we dwell

in perfect harmony

with our perfect

God

forever and ever.

That's the life

that awaits us

when we get home.

That is our hope

that we rejoice in.

Let's pray together.

Amen.