"9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. 12 It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.15 The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. 16 The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. 17 And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements. 18 The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; 20 the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
Today's Message:The New Jerusalem
The description of the capital city of heaven starts in chapter 21, verse 9, and runs all the way to chapter 22, verse 5. Obviously, this is a very large portion of Scripture and one may be inclined the to conclude it would take us a rather long time to get through it. However, because the Scripture itself is so magnificent, there really isn't much to embellish here. We never want to underestimate the love of God in the giving of his Word, so we'll see just how far the Holy Spirit takes us. That said, what a privilege it is for us to come together and humble ourselves today before the teaching of his Word.
Open your Bibles then with me to to Revelation chapter 21 and I'd like to invite you to read with me verses nine through chapter 22 verse five. I personally, cannot wait to get to heaven and to see these things. I pray that by the time we conclude our message, you will agree. Revelation 21:9-22:5.
"Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements. The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; 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 one of the gates was a single pearl. 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 night 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 street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever."
In the first eight verses, we already looked at the introduction to the new heavens and the new earth. We were given an incredible glimpse of the capital city, the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. This capitol, holy city now becomes the focal point of the rest of the description here. This is not only amazing, it will be our eternal home. So, fasten your seat belts, because we are about to go on the most magnificent, breath taking journey! Let’s look together at this holy city that the Lord has prepared for us.
Verse 9 "Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." Throughout John’s vision, the Lord has used various angels to reveal certain events and to fulfill certain judgments upon the world. The last mention of an angel was in chapter 20 and verse 1, a thousand years earlier, however, it would certainly appear that John recognizes this angel. Because this angel is described to us as one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues.
The city is like a bride, because the people are forever united to God and to the Lamb. It takes on the character of its inhabitants. From this passage as well as others, I believe that we too will actually be able to recognize these angels in glory, that we will be able to know them distinctly, perhaps even by name. This angel now summons John on the Lord’s behalf and invites him to come with him on an astonishing tour that is absolutely mind boggling.
Look at verses 10-11, "And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper." John is being transported in some supernatural state beyond the realm of human experience. The angels takes John to a great and high mountain. From this viewpoint John has an unobstructed view to be able to behold the bridal city. And, again, John says 'It was coming down out of heaven from God." This is what we would call today, "a virtual tour," through the revelation of the Word of God of our future home. This must have been absolutely magnificent for John to see. By the way, the book of Revelation is an evangelistic appeal to men to respond, for if one does not, there is no other message which can change him.
Notice John's description in verse 11 "Having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper." In the original language, the word brilliance is the word "phóstér," which means that which illuminates, something from which light radiates. Remember, when God manifests His invisible spiritual attributes, He manifests them as Light. We see that throughout the Scripture. Jasper was a crystal clear type of stone, similar to a diamond, not like the jasper stone, which is opaque. This is perfectly and ridiculously clear. With refractive light shining from within it. The holy city is like one massive perfect diamond gem, flashing the reflection of God’s glory in infinite light. I am always amazed at how God gives us little glimpses of His glory this side of heaven. If you have ever been to a jewelry store and looked at diamonds, you know what I'm talking about.
Verse 12, "It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel." This is not some nebulous, floating place; it is a real place with dimensions. By the way, this wall around the city will not be for the purpose of defense because certainly there will be no enemies there. You can go in it and you can come out of it because it has gates.
Look at verse 13, "There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west." This shouldn’t surprise us because this is reminiscent of how the twelve tribes were commanded to arrange their camps around the tabernacle during the days of their sojourning. You can read more about that in Numbers chapter 2. We will come and go as we serve God throughout eternity. We're not incarcerated as some have imagined.
Verse 14, "And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." Here, we see each gate has a name written on it, and each of those names was taken from one of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. It's not difficult to understand, you’ve got a great and high wall, that’s got twelve gates; and at the
gates, twelve angels; and each of those gates has the name of one of the
tribes of Israel on it. I believe these inscriptions serve as an eternal memorial to the unique role that
his covenant people, the people of national Israel, have played
throughout human history in his plan of redemption and God’s covenant relationship with the Church of which the Apostles are the foundation.What a breathtaking description so far of our future home, heaven’s holy city, the new Jerusalem.
Then verse 15, "The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall." This probably sounds familiar to some of you, because we’ve seen this before, in Ezekiel 40 to 48 you have a description of the millennial temple.
In Verse 16, "The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal." So we here, that it's a cube, and it is 1500 miles in every direction. That's about the distance of the western portion of the United States. That is 2,250,000 square miles.
Verse 17 tells us "And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements." I find it is interesting we are told in verse 17 that the angelic measurements are the same as the human measurements. Again, this is a literal city, when Scripture goes to such lengths to describe this, I believe we would do well to take it literally. This colossal structure, a bejeweled city with all of these magnificent stones, rising up above the earth.
I'd like to pause for a moment and say something here, if all this so far doesn’t ignite your heart to praise and it does not stir you to a deeper longing to go home, you are either unsaved or if you are saved, you are not storing up your treasures in heaven, and are probably living in the pathway of divine chastening. As you can imagine, it is so much easier for me to talk about heaven than it is to talk about hell. Knowing I have some who are close to my heart, who well be going there is very difficult for me.
By the way, Henry Morris has a wonderful book discussing this subject, if you get a chance, be sure to read it. He’s a scientist and through some kind of exotic calculation, he estimates the approximate number of inhabitants, from the time of Adam, including infants deaths. He says it is reasonable that about 100 billion men, women and children could have been members of the human race past, present and future. And that the average space assigned to each person would be one over thirty cubic miles.
New Jerusalem will be a massive sanctuary of God Himself. As an interesting footnote, keep in mind our glorified bodies will allow us to travel in any direction including vertically as well as horizontally.
Verses 18 through 21, we get a description of it appearance. This is amazing detail, "The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; 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 one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass."
Some of these stones names have changed through the centuries, so I’ll try to explain what they refer to. If you go back to the book of Exodus, you will see that eight of these twelve stones are found in the breastplate of the high priest. The first foundation stone was jasper, we already covered this, it's essentially a diamond. Crystal clear with its flashing colors. This city is translucent gold. Pure gold, not the opaque stuff we see today. The second was sapphire, a brilliant blue. The third was chalcedony. Sky blue with translucent flecks with gold color. By the way, Chalcedon is an old name for Turkey, this was some kind of an agate stone. The fourth stone was emerald, which is a deep blazing bright green. The fifth stone was sardonyx, which is a red and white stone. The sixth stone was sardius, rather a common red stone it's from the quartz family, like a ruby.
The seventh stone was chrysolite, which is a transparent gold. The eighth stone was beryl, this is similar to an emerald, except it would have more of a blue or a sea green color to it. The ninth stone, was topaz; which is a transparent yellow green. The tenth stone, was chrysoprase; which is a golden green. The eleventh stone , jacinth, which was a brilliant shining violet color. And the twelfth stone, an amethyst, which is purple in color. One cannot help but notice the stark contrast between the bride's holy ornaments and the tawdry jewelry worn by the blasphemous harlot.
Look at verse 21, "And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass." Imagine the size of those gates. These pearls are like nothing ever produced by an oyster. All precious gems are metals or stones, but a pearl is the only one formed by living flesh. The humble oyster receives a wound, and around the offending article that has penetrated it, the oyster builds a pearl.
In Closing..
How appropriate these gates are made of pearl. Throughout the endless eternal ages, we shall be reminded by those pearly gates of the immensity of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is beyond amazing to think that His wounds produced the perfect pearl of the redeemed. Only those who will enter through the narrow gate of repentance and faith in the One who suffered on his behalf. Those in heaven have been purchased by the blood of Christ. That is why it is the poor in spirit but rich in faith, whom God hath chosen to be heirs of His kingdom.
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen