New Jerusalem

Revelation 21:9-27

Immanuel – 8/21/22

I think it’s fairly safe to say that the majority of people reading Revelation 21 and 22 think they are reading about Heaven. And I would not disagree. I just believe that it’s not the complete picture.

Most of you can already anticipate that I will take a symbolic interpretation of these chapters, rather than a literal one. I hope to show you why literal makes little sense, and that the text is directing the reader towards a symbolic interpretation.

Purpose

I want to show you that the New Jerusalem is the Church.

Read Revelation 21:9-27

The Bride

Our passage today opens with John being told that he will see “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” Clearly, these are symbols. Jesus is not actually a Lamb. When we deserved to be slaughtered for our countless sins against God, Jesus stood in our place and faced that divine fury. He was like a sacrificial lamb.

Additionally, Jesus does not have a literal wife. But Scripture repeatedly, and symbolically, refers to the Church as the Bride of Christ.

One of the most striking examples of this is from Paul’s exhortation to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5.

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husband. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so 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…This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. -Ephesians 5:24-27,32

Elsewhere Paul writes:

For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. -2 Corinthians 11:2

We looked at these verses when we considered the Marriage Supper of the Lamb back in chapter 19. I said then, and I will say it again: God created marriage to be a symbol of the union between Christ and the Church. When the Holy Spirit indwells the hearts of men, and faith in Jesus Christ springs to life, it is a union so close, so intimate, that the very best earthly picture (symbol) is that of marriage.

Therefore, when John is told that he is going to be shown the Bride of Christ, we should immediately recognize that John is about to see the Church.

But before we consider what John sees, let us consider more deeply the announcement he hears. As we do so, I hope you will see that the artistry of Revelation is masterclass. In fact, it would do every reader well to recognize that John, as he is carried along by the Holy Spirit, is intentionally writing artistically. He’s writing something that not only conveys information, but is beautiful, infused with powerful symmetry, meant to strike at your sense of wonder.

Let us observe how this is happening in our passage.

Read vs 9

Now, let’s read a parallel, yet contrasting verse.

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute”…And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw… -Revelation 17:1,3

John was shown the great prostitute immediately after the seven bowls of wrath were poured out upon her, and she was destroyed. And as we saw, that woman was a fallen bride, a harlot bride, a symbol for old Jerusalem. It was the Jerusalem that insisted on living by laws and rituals. It was the Jerusalem that reveled in self-righteousness. It was the Jerusalem that rejected and killed her Messiah.

It was the Jerusalem that Jesus spoke these words:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.”

-Matthew 23:37-38

Old Jerusalem was destroyed, both covenantally (spiritually) and physically. And John was taken into the wilderness, a barren and desolate landscape to behold the ruin of the Harlot Bride.

Now, in chapter 21, John is shown the glorious Bride of Christ. But symbols are being merged; for she is not just the Bride of Christ, she is the New Jerusalem.

Read vs 9-10

In contrast to the seven bowls of wrath poured on Old Jerusalem, John has just beheld seven visions of the new covenant, seven visions of Christ’s union with the Church, seven glorious graces poured out upon the church.

In contrast to the wilderness where John beheld the ruin of the Old Jerusalem, now the Spirit carries John to a great and high mountain. It’s meant to remind you of Mount Zion, where – as we saw back in chapter 14 – dwells the Lamb with His saints. No coincidence, then, that from this place John was told he would see the Bride of Christ.

It would seem that John is about to see a woman of some sort, but that is not what he sees. He sees a city. He sees the New Jerusalem.

Hopefully, by now, you are familiar with what is happening. John hears one thing, and he sees another. He is told about one thing, and he is shown a different thing. But these two seemingly different things are both symbols of the same truth, the same reality.

John is told about the Lion of Judah, but he sees a Lamb that has been slain. He is told about 144,000 Israelites mustered for battle, but he sees a vast multitude of nations worshipping. In these passages (and more) we are given two symbols of the same great truth. But one truth, given in two symbols, reveals just how big and glorious is that truth!

John hears about the Bride of Christ, but he sees the New Jerusalem. Just as Jesus is the Lion and Lamb, the Church is the Bride and the New Jerusalem. And did we not read this earlier in the same chapter?

Look back at verse 2. I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. -Revelation 21:2

Notice how in verses 2 and 10 the New Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven from God. The fact that John repeats this phrase twice communicates its importance. It is not an empty phrase. Knowing that the New Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven from God communicates the nature of this glorious city. Keep that in your mind; we will be returning to that phrase later.

John is told he will see the Bride, but he sees the New Jerusalem descending. Now we get into the description.

Read vs 11

The New Jerusalem possesses the glory of God. Consider that for a moment: the glory of God! God’s righteousness is absolute moral perfection. He exists in sublime purity, incorruptible. The breadth and height of His love stuns the soul, and His generosity knows no bounds. The entire universe is built upon His incomparable holiness. And when all of these attributes, and the many others, combine and shine forth, that is what we call the glory of God.

And this is what the New Jerusalem possesses! How can an inanimate object, like a city, possess such personal glories?

Note also the appearance of the city. It looked like jasper, yet it was clear like crystal. John is echoing earlier descriptions of the Ancient of Days.

At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne. And He who sat there had the appearance of jasper… and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. -Revelation 4:3,6

If fire could be solidified, it would look like jasper. It is used here to symbolize the blazing glory of God. The clear crystal is a symbol for the absolute purity of God. Jasper and crystal were symbols John employed to describe our invisible God.

The Bible tells us that God cannot be seen. So John employs earthly objects, as symbols, to describe non-physical glories.

Likewise, Jasper and crystal are not the physical building blocks of the New Jerusalem. They are symbols of the glory and purity of the city. How interesting it is that glory and purity would be two very appropriate ways to describe a bride adorned for her husband.

And speaking of the Bride of Christ, the Church, consider how she already possesses both glory and purity.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” -Matthew 5:8

And everyone who thus hopes in [Jesus] purifies himself as He is pure.

-1 John 3:3

Everyone who trust in Jesus is purified. As John says in his first epistle, the church possesses the purity of Jesus. We shall, therefore, see God.

Right before the cross, Jesus prayed: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” -John 17:22-23

If you have come to Jesus in faith, then He has already given you His glory; just as He said. All the glory that the Father has given to Jesus is given to you. It is yours. What an unbelievably generous gift that we could never have deserved! How marvelous the grace of our God!

Of course, we do not yet possess the fullness of the glory of Christ. Even still, we cannot minimize the fact that the glory of Christ is present within us!

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. -2 Corinthians 3:18

The Bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem, the Church, already possesses the glory and purity of Christ; like jasper, like the clearest of crystals. It is measured now, it will be in full upon His appearing.

Read vs 12-14

The city has a great, high wall. It is secure. Because if God is for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31)?

There are twelve gates that correspond to the twelve tribes of Israel. If you look down at verse 25, you will see that these gates are never closed. Day and night they remain open. Though the wall is a mighty fortification, anyone can walk in at any time; whether they come from north, south, east, or west.

This was the great hope of the Old Testament, that the nations would stream into Jerusalem, coming from all points on the map.

“I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people…saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear’…they shall not hunger or thirst…for He who has pity on them shall lead them, and by springs of water will guide them…Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and the west.”

-Isaiah 49:8,9,10,12

You see this hope all over the Old Testament: the nations streaming into Jerusalem. It was the hope of the New Jerusalem, the kingdom of God.

Jesus said: And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. -Luke 13:29

How fitting it is that we read in verse 24 that the nations will walk by the light of the New Jerusalem. This one city will illuminate the entire planet. It we are interpreting literally, that’s cool. Those are some pretty amazing light bulbs. If we are interpreting symbolically, and we are being shown spiritual realities, that is astounding! The church, radiating the glory of Christ, will be a spiritual light unto this world; and the nations will stream in from north, south, east, and west.

Is this not true in our day? Do we not come from one of those distant nations? And how about our brothers and sisters in Zambia, India, Ukraine, and Peru?

The foundations of the New Jerusalem have the names of the twelve apostles, the gates the twelve tribes of Israel. What John is seeing is not mean to be understood as physical realities, but spiritual realities. Old and new covenant believers, Jews and Gentiles, all belong to this magnificent city. It is the city of promise, and God has always saved those who trust in His promises.

Further emphasizing that we are not seeing physical realities, but spiritual ones, Paul writes:

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 also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. -Ephesians 2:19-22

There is something out there called Replacement Theology. It’s the idea that the Church has replaced Israel as the apple of God’s eye. That is definitively not what Scripture teaches and that is definitively not what I teach. For the old and new covenants point to the same Messiah. Both the apostles and prophets point to Jesus. Therefore, only He is the way to the Father.

Israel has not been replaced. Israel has been fulfilled. Just as Abram and Sarai and Jacob and Simon were all given new names by God, Israel was also given a new name: the church. And we Gentiles have been grafted into what had previously existed.

The city in which we all dwell has been built upon the testimony of the apostles, and you still enter by faith, just as the first sons of Israel did. Through these gates of faith, the nations stream from north, south, east, and west; in this present age of the new covenant.

Read vs 15

The Temple

I haven’t yet mentioned it, but John’s vision of the New Jerusalem is intentionally patterned after Ezekiel’s vision of a new temple. The last eight chapter in Ezekiel are all about this new temple, and nearly everything in John’s vision is an echo of Ezekiel’s.

Ezekiel is taken to a great and high mountain and sees a temple that looks like a city. Ezekiel likewise observes as an angel measures the city with a measuring rod.

Take some time this week to check out Ezekiel 40-48.

Read vs 16-17

In modern measurements, the wall is 216 feet thick. This would make the 12 gates more like tunnels if they were physically real. The city would be a 1,500-mile wide and tall cube. Its footprint would be as big as a continent.

1,500 miles tall would mean that this city protrudes from the inhabitable atmosphere by 1,450 miles. Satellites would crash into its walls. If this is a literal city, its mass would be so great that it would introduce a cataclysmic wobble to the earth’s rotation. It would have a gravitational pull that would draw the moon closer, creating more cataclysm. And finally, the combination of these occurrences would throw the earth out of its orbit around the sun. Unless God alters the laws of physics, a literal New Jerusalem would destroy the planet.

But instead of changing the law of physics, every indication is that these number are symbolic. And as we have seen throughout this book, every time we encounter a number in Revelation, it carries symbolic meaning.

12 is the number for the people of God, God’s elect: 12 tribes, 12 apostles. 12 times 12 is 144; a number symbolic for the fullness, or completion, of God’s people. 12 times 1,000 is 12,000; a number that symbolizes the vast quantity of God’s people. Both of these numbers, together in a single object, symbolize the fullness and vastness of the church – just as John is seeing a mind-numbingly vast city with perfect symmetry.

And consider the New Jerusalem’s symmetry. It is a perfect cube. There is only one other object in the entire Bible that is a perfect cube.

The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold.

-1 Kings 6:19-20

The Holy of Holies is the only perfect cube in the Bible: the place where God’s presence was most manifest on earth. But in the new covenant, The New Jerusalem is the dwelling place of God; it is the Holy of Holies. The symbol John is seeing the full and complete number of God elect. God dwells with His people and they with Him. The church is the Holy of Holies, and the earth has become the temple courts. It is this temple into which the nations stream.

Consider these measurements again, for we find another indication that they are symbolic in nature. Because how strange that John mentions this human measurement is the same as an angelic measurement.

David Chilton has an interesting comment on that sentence: “The angelic activity seen in Revelation is a pattern for our own activity; as we see God’s will being done in heaven, we are to image that activity on earth. Heaven is the pattern for earth, the Temple is the pattern for the City, the angel is the model for man.”

-David Chilton, “The Days of Vengeance”, Pg 557

All this symbolism and imagery is God promising us that there is a glorious and awesome answer to our prayers. His will, will be done! His kingdom has come and will more completely come! His name will be hallowed in all the earth! For Scripture promises that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea! (Habakkuk 2:14)

Now after dimensions, we get materials.

Read vs 18-20

More symbols. Remember, at the beginning of Revelation, John said that Jesus has made us a kingdom of priests to the praise of the Father (Revelation 1:6). These precious foundation stones are modeled after the ephod worn by the priests. It was a 2-dimensional perfect square.

It shall be square and doubled, a span its length and a span its breadth. You shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle shall be the first row; and the second row an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold filigree. There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes. -Exodus 28:16-21

In Revelation, the 12 foundations of the city appear as 12 precious jewels, each corresponding to one of the 12 tribes, and the city is pure gold. The priest’s ephod was made of pure gold, with 12 precious stones set within it, each corresponding to one of the 12 tribes. The ephod and the city are both symbols for the greater reality.

As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

-1 Peter 2:4-5

And once more from Ephesians:

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 also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. -Ephesians 2:19-22

Brothers and sisters, we are the precious living stones, for which Christ spilled His own blood. He is joining us together, building us into a spiritual house, building us upon Himself. God the Spirit dwells within our hearts. The Holy of Holies hidden within flesh and bone. And now God refines our faith to be more pure and more precious than all of earth’s gold.

The New Jerusalem is a picture of us! All of us, joined together, across covenants, by faith in the Messiah and King, Jesus Christ! He has given us His glory and made us to shine as light in the world!

Read vs 22-26

We will see the same language in next week’s passage, so I will not spend much time on it now.

There is no temple within the city, because the city is the temple, for the city is the dwelling place of God. Like we read earlier in Revelation:

“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence…For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” -Revelation 7:15,17

We have seen it multiple times now in Revelation; all of these things are present realities. Jesus is our Shepherd today. He gives us living waters. He comforts us in our sorrow. And any time we like, we enter into the Holy of Holies, and worship.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.

-Hebrews 10:19,22

Read vs 27

The unrepentant and disobedient have no place in the New Jerusalem. Only those who belong to Jesus enter the kingdom of God. Only those in the Lamb’s Book of Life belong to the Church.

There is the visible church; it gathers every week all over the world. But we all know that among these many flocks, there are wolves, there are posers, there a many who say “Lord, Lord;” and will hear “I never knew you.” That’s the visible church, the one we can see.

Then there is the true church, within the visible church. These are the true followers of Jesus, the ones who live in obedience, those who do not come to church as consumers, but those who come to give their lives away; just as Christ has given His life for us. This is the true church. This is the New Jerusalem. These are the lights in a very dark world, possessors of the glory of the Risen Son!

One more thing to note in all of this. In last week’s study of Revelation, we read that God is making all things new. Today we saw, in Ephesians 2:22, that we are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. In our passage today, John saw the New Jerusalem not having arrived, but in the process of descending from heaven.

All of these point to the same reality. The kingdom of God is breaking upon the earth progressively. It is not completed all in one moment, but progressively increases through the centuries, growing in influence, growing in numbers, growing in effect.

Remember Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the four empires of antiquity, symbolized in a statue of four layers? Daniel’s interpretation of that dream ended with these words:

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.

-Daniel 2:44-45

John’s vision of the New Jerusalem is the fulfillment of Daniel chapter 2. It is a fulfillment in which we live today. And both of these visions will be consummated and completed upon the return of Christ.

The New Jerusalem is our home. She is our mother. John is seeing a symbolic picture of us, and all our brothers and sisters through time. See the glory, the majesty, the splendor of it all. It’s unshakably secure and no foe can stand against it. The nations stream in it. And the Creator of the universe dwells within it, communing with His people.

Just as the Spirit is transforming us from one degree of glory to another, so also is He – through us – transforming this world from one degree of glory to another. What have we done to deserve such wonders? How generous is our God! How gracious beyond measure!

Now, brothers and sisters, let us live our lives in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. This is our home, and we are a kingdom of priests unto the nations. We are to lead the nations to worship the true and living God!

We are ambassadors, God making His appeal through us. Let us go to all the nations, to our communities, to our neighbors, and call them to be reconciled to God! For every time we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, we fling wide the gates of this city.