That's Us!

I have to warn you, I'm going to be reading the

passage little by little during the sermon. So

that's why we're not having a scripture reading

before the sermon. But we will look at the whole

passage. So it's Revelation 21, verse 9 through

Revelation 21:9

chapter 22, verse 5. And this passage describes

an enormous city. the heavenly Jerusalem that

descends from heaven. And when we first got to

Mexico in 2005 and I started teaching at the

seminary, I did a little math and I came up with

this image that you're going to see on the screen.

It represents the dimensions that Revelation

21 gives of that heavenly Jerusalem. Each side

is, as you can see there, 2 ,133 kilometers.

But for those of you who don't know metric system,

it's about 1 ,400 miles each way, each side.

But keep in mind that that city was not a square,

but a cube. And so you have to imagine it going

up 1 ,400 miles into space. Just for reference,

Mount Everest is 5 .5 miles tall. We're talking

about 1 ,400 miles. And we're talking about a

massive structure about two -thirds the size

of the moon. The clouds would be at the bottom

of that square. Now, if I ever took those dimensions

literally at some point, a little bit of thinking

helped me realize that that couldn't be the case.

The walls are only 200 feet thick. Only, but

that's very thick. But for a 1 ,400 mile tall

wall, that's not enough support. So I concluded

that this must be a symbolic rather than a literal

vision of the city where we're going to live

forever. And you know what? I was still wrong.

This vision isn't about a city. It isn't about

heaven. It isn't even about a place. You say,

wait, what's this? That's a description of us.

And that's why I entitled the sermon, That's

us, because it's a vision of the church, of the

body of Christ, of the people of God. And not

just the perfect glorified church of the future

after Christ returns. It's also got features

of the church as we are now, or as we should

be even now. The vision mixes up the already

and the not yet. It's a description of the church

as it will be at the end and as it is and should

be now. Now maybe some of you are ready to lynch

me. This idea of this passage being a city, a

place that we're going to live is very deeply

ingrained in our way of thinking. We talk about

the streets of gold. We talk about the pearly

gates. But this image is one of several portraits

of the church placed throughout the book of Revelation

in between the stories of monsters and disasters

and everything else. For example, in chapter

7, we actually see two portraits of the church.

The church as the 144 ,000 of the tribes of Israel,

marching tribe by tribe. The church militant,

the church on earth. And in the same chapter,

we see the great multitude that no one can count,

praising Jesus in heaven. The church in glory.

In chapter 11, we see the two witnesses who represent

the mission of the church, the church as persecuted

and then vindicated by God. In chapter 14, the

144 ,000 appear again, and this time they're

following the lamb wherever he goes, which is...

Kind of ironic because we normally think of sheep

and lambs following a human shepherd, but in

this case, the people are following the lamb.

In Revelation 20, we see the passage about the

millennium. We see the souls of the martyrs come

to life with Christ and reign with him for a

thousand years. And in Reformed theology, that

represents the church. The Christians who deceased

on earth and they're instantly by Christ's side

in heaven, in what we call the intermediate state,

the condition that we're in from the time we

die until the time that Christ comes again. And

finally, here in chapter 21, we have this glorious

description of the church as a giant, beautiful

city. Maybe some of you still aren't convinced.

And you think it's a description of the place

where we'll live. Well, let me prove it to you.

Because John isn't even subtle about it. He's

very clear. So let's look then at the first passage,

Revelation 21, verses 9 to 11. Then came one

Revelation 21:9–11

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.

Something similar to what we see in chapter 5.

In chapter 5, an angel says to John, Hey, I'm

going to show you the lion of the tribe of Judah.

And when John turns to look, he doesn't see a

lion. He sees the lamb that was slain. And in

the same way, in this chapter, the angel says,

hey, I'm going to show you the bride, the wife

of the lamb. And when John turns, he sees not

a woman or a bride, but a city. Now, if that's

not enough to convince you, then think about

the dimensions that we're... or have already

read some and will read some more throughout

the sermon. 12 ,000 stadia, 144 cubits, 12 pearls,

12 foundations, etc. Everything is multiples

of 12. And why is that? Because it represents

the people of God. Israel was composed of...

12 tribes, and the church was led by 12 apostles.

In the Bible, 12 is the number of the people

of God. And this vision of the church as a beautiful

city is meant to encourage us to press on when

things are hard, to press on toward the goal,

toward the people that we will become in all

of our beauty and glory, both individually and

collectively. So let's read verses 12 to 14.

It had a great high wall with 12 gates, and at

the gates 12 angels. And on the gates the names

of the 12 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 12 foundations,

and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles

of the Lamb. Now, Roman cities only had gates

on one side of the city, only one gate of the

city for obvious security reasons. You need to

control everything coming in and out of the city.

But this city has 12 gates, three on each side.

The church receives people from every direction

of the globe, every nation. We'll find out later

that these gates are open. all the time to receive

people. There's no need for homeland security

in this city. We also see the names of the 12

tribes written on the gates, the names of the

12 apostles written on the foundations. What

a beautiful image of the continuity between the

Old Testament and the New Testament, between

Israel and the church. There's one... people

of God, not two. The church is the Israel of

God, as Paul tells us in Galatians 6. And he

says in Romans 4 that people who put their faith

in Jesus are the true children of Abraham, the

man of faith, because they exercise faith as

well. Now about those 12 foundations, we can

note a parallel passage in Ephesians 2. It says

this, So then, you are no longer strangers and

aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the

saints and members of the household of God, built

on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in

whom the whole structure, being joined together,

grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him

you are also being built together into a dwelling

place for God by the Spirit. The church in that

chapter of Ephesians is a people made up of Jews

and Gentiles. Races that formerly despised each

other, formerly opposed each other, but in Christ

they become one new race, one new nation, one

new humankind. And people of every color are

being gathered together like bricks. and fashioned

into a holy temple. And God's Spirit comes to

live in them, in that temple, and fill it with

God's glory. Well, we need to keep moving. I

don't need to say too much about verses 15 to

17, since they give us those astronomical dimensions

that we mentioned at the beginning of the sermon.

But here are the verses. 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

four square, its length the same as its width.

And he measured the city with his rod 12 ,000

stadia, and its length and its width and its

height are equal. He also measured its wall,

the thickness of the wall, 144 cubits by human

measurement, which is also an angel's measurement.

Be kind of interesting to know more about the

measurements, but we can't cover everything.

We need to just limit ourselves to certain details.

This is more of a panoramic view of the chapter.

But one question is worth asking. If the gates

are on all four sides, welcoming and receiving

people from every direction, then what purpose

does it serve to have walls that are that high?

And the answer is that the emphasis is not on

the height of the wall for protection. The answer

is that the church is being compared to the original

temple in Jerusalem, to the Holy of Holies specifically.

The Holy of Holies was that inner sanctum of

the temple. And the measurements in the Pentateuch

make it a cube. And the city, of course, we saw

is a perfect cube. And so the emphasis is not

on protection, but on the fact that we as the

people of God are the holy of holies, where God

dwells in our midst, the place where God himself

dwells. Verses 18 to 21 say this, The wall was

built of jasper, and 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

and each of the gates made of a single pearl

and the street of the city was pure gold like

transparent glass. Now the point of all this

is not to interpret each precious stone, each

jewel as allegorically as if each one meant a

different thing. It's more like a cumulative

effect where we're supposed to be in awe of all

this beauty, all these gorgeous, radiant stones

and jewels together. And the meaning is clear.

That the Lamb, Jesus Christ, looks at his church

and sees his church as beautiful, as radiant,

as stunning. The Lamb is smitten by his church,

his bride. Now there's something here for the

self -esteem of every individual Christian. God

loves you, and God considers you beautiful. But

the main focus is on the church collectively.

The church is made in the image of God, beautiful.

The church is following and imitating Jesus to

the point where they reflect God's glory. And

the church is washed and purified by the blood

of the Lamb. The church is beautiful. Yes, I

know what some of you are thinking. I have my

cynical moments too. The church that squabbles

about everything, not your church, but we as

a church as a whole, the church filled with vacillating

hypocrites, filled with people who sin and are

unfaithful, people who resist change. Both individually

and collectively, we don't deserve to be described

like a jewel -encrusted cathedral that reaches

to outer space. We're unworthy. But God loves

whom he loves. And he's chosen to love us and

to call us. And those whom he called, he sanctifies

and he glorifies and makes. Beautiful and radiant.

When we think about our sins, maybe it's scary

sometimes to think that God sees us as we really

are. But I think we're missing another element

of that picture. God sees us as we really, really

are. As this beautiful people of God that comes

out in this vision. Ultimately, theologically,

we are gorgeous in God's eyes despite the sins

that we have. The question is whether we will

have the courage to begin looking at ourselves

as this chapter reveals us in all of our glory.

We need to move on to verses 22 to 26. It says,

And I saw no temple in the city. for its temple

is the Lord God 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 the nations will

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 honor of the

nations. A lot of Jewish literature in the ancient

world before the New Testament stated that when

the Messiah came, that he would rebuild the temple.

And so the commentators that I looked at mentioned

how surprising it is that this description of

the city has no temple whatsoever. But that really

shouldn't surprise us. The function of the temple

in Jerusalem was to control and limit access

to God. You might have heard how the different

patios and courtyards in the temple limited certain

groups of people. The Gentiles could only get

to the patio of the Gentiles on the outer rim.

The Jewish women could go a little further to

the court where the women went. The Jewish men

could get into the inner court there, but they

couldn't go into the building. The priests could

go into the building of the temple, but only

the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies.

And he could only do that on one day a year.

But now that Christ has died for us, he broke

down all those barriers and obstacles and gave

us direct access to God. No matter where we are.

no matter what time of day, no matter who we

are or what our past looks like, we can approach

the throne of God of great, the throne of grace,

in prayer. We have VIP access to our Creator

and Redeemer. And the Lord God Almighty and the

Lamb are our temple. And there will be no more

darkness or night. In the ancient world, darkness

was a time for the drunkards, for the sexually

immoral, for the thieves to break in, for armies

of other nations to try to sneak up on a city

and invade it. So there needed to be gates and

police and night watchmen. But in this city,

in the church, we are the light of the world

penetrating the darkness. We're a city set upon

a hill where the nations can see us. Revelation

says that the nations will bring in their glory

and honor into the city. That is, the nations

will bring in the souls of all those from each

nation that are converted, the people who come

to Christ. And here, my friends, is where I get

to do two things. One is, as we'll see in a moment,

I get to smuggle missions into the sermon. Really

not smuggle because it's already there, right?

But I also get to do something else. I also get

to give that final death blow to the idea that

this chapter is about a place where we will go

to live someday forever. So let me take that

on first. For the people who think that this

passage is about a heavenly city, then these

verses in particular create a huge problem for

them. Because how can the nations stream into

the city and bring their treasures and glory

and splendor into the city? Because what nations

are we talking about? This is chapter 21. In

Isaiah 21 · chapter mention

chapter 19, Christ comes back and destroys all

of his enemies in the battle of Armageddon. And

at the end of chapter 20, all humanity is resurrected,

and Jesus sends the unbelieving, the reprobate,

to the lake of fire. There's no one left. There's

no nations left. There's only one nation left,

the people of God. But we would be in the city,

right? Because the whole description is supposedly

the city where we will live. So what nations

would be outside of the city to be able to bring

in their treasures? But if you see this chapter,

this vision, as a vision about the church, the

church even as it is now, then the picture of

the nations streaming into the city with their

treasures becomes intelligible. It's understandable.

It's a picture of missions. The church is composed

of people from every tribe and nation and language.

This is something that the book of Revelation

repeats a number of times. And we are those who

have already come in to the city, and we call

others to come in as well. we send evangelists

and teachers and relief workers and many more

to fulfill the Great Commission, both in our

backyard and to the four corners of the earth.

And we do that because we're looking forward

to being part of that great celebration, the

great multitude that's greater than anyone can

count, an international... interracial multitude

worshiping God and the Lamb at the consummation

of all things. And we want that crowd to be humongous.

And so we take the gospel everywhere. We want

our family members, our friends, our co -workers,

our classmates to be part of that celebration.

We don't want to leave anyone out, unfortunately,

unless they want to be left out. And that's where

verse 27 comes in. 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. And this repeats the idea

of verses 7 and 8. 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. Sadly, there are people who will

not respond favorably to the gospel. They'll

cling to shameless lives. And their fate is the

fate that each one of us deserves, but that Christ

took our sentence away for us. By the grace of

God, God has written down our names in his book.

We finish our tour of Revelation 21 and 22 with

the first five verses of chapter 22. Then the

angel showed me the river of the water of life.

bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of

God and of the Lamb through the middle of the

street of the city. Also on either side of the

river the tree of life, with its twelve kinds

of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The

leaves of the tree were for the healing of the

nations. No longer will there be anything accursed,

but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be

in it, and his servants will worship him. They

will see his face, and his name will be on their

foreheads, and night will be no more. They will

need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God

will be their light, and they will reign forever

and ever. We can't look at every detail, but

I should mention that these verses portray the

church as a new Eden, a new Garden of Eden. We

see a river and a garden just as we see in Eden.

We see the tree of life that had been in Eden

in Genesis. We see the saints beholding the face

of God just as Adam and Eve had communion and

could see the face of God. And we see the long

-awaited undoing of the curse from Genesis 3.

Nothing more will be accursed. One missiologist

puts it this way. that the Bible began in a garden

but ends in a city. And we can add this, that

the city fulfills the goals of that original

garden. The church, to the extent that we love

and obey our Lord, fulfills the original goal

of Genesis 1, of a kingdom of human beings reigning

over creation in communion with God. Now in conclusion,

let's think about some applications. There are

many ways in which we can integrate this passage

into our lives. The main application would be

to reorient and rehabilitate our cynical view

of the church. The church has gotten a lot of

bad press, especially in the last few years.

And oftentimes we get a little cynical about

the church. And it's true that the church fails

in so many ways. We can be hypocritical. We can

be mediocre and boring. We can be passive. We

can be out of date. We can be out of touch. But

Jesus Christ loves his church as his bride. Jesus

told John that to him, his church, we... are

like a glorious international metropolis filled

with light, reaching space, and adorned with

precious jewels. And so how can we then contemplate

this passage and this vision to be able to reorient

our ways of thinking and speaking and feeling

about the church? On a more individual level,

as I mentioned, we can use this chapter to bolster

our individual self -esteem because we are part

of that radiant church. God looks at you with

love and longing. Yes, you're a sinner. Yes,

you're far from perfect. But this does not negate

the love that God feels for you. And so how can

this truth uphold and strengthen and fortify

you just as it upheld and fortified that small

persecuted and beleaguered house churches in

the first century another application so important

would be to overcome whatever racism that still

has a foothold in our lives the church reaches

out in missions to people of all races and all

nations and all cultures. In Ephesians 2, we

saw how the church has overcome the barrier between

the Jews and the Gentiles. How much more, then,

should it be overcoming the barriers between

us Gentiles? And the city that we saw in this

chapter has its gates open in every direction

24 -7. Our neighbors and all the nations are

invited to come in. What kind of welcome will

they receive in our churches, in our homes and

families? Will they receive a warm welcome or

are we still erecting barriers to discourage

certain races and classes of people from being

in our midst? And then connected to that point,

of course you knew that the final application

was going to be missions, right? Local evangelism,

prayer for missions, prayer for missionaries,

support of missions. These are all things that

this passage calls us to. And of course, Blanca

and I can attest to your faithfulness in praying

for us and supporting us over these last 20 years.

And we trust. That each of you is also reaching

out in some way in this context as well. And

so our prayer is that the building project that

you guys are working on might be accompanied

by an even bigger building project of building

each other up in the gospel in order to be able

to witness faithfully to the people around you.

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are

the bride of the Lamb. May you be adorned for

your wedding day with every beautiful jewel as

you purify yourselves and are purified by God

of every kind of evil. May you shine with the

very light and glory of God. May you be built

on the sure foundation of the words and teachings

of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. May

your gates always be open to welcome and receive

people from the north, south, east, and west.

May your gates be open and may you bear fruit,

the fruit of the Spirit for the healing of the

nations. And may the one who sits on the throne

And the Lamb that was slain, be your temple.

May they be your temple, filling you with their

presence by the power of the Holy Spirit now

and forever. And all God's people said, let's

pray.