There is a literary device that has become more common in the last twenty years or so. The rule of film and tv used to be that as soon as the main plot point was decided, you had about five minutes to wrap up all the subplots before the audience lost interest. Now it’s becoming more common to have an epilogue. In Harry Potter at the end the movie jumps ahead 20 years or so to see what became of all the characters. In Parks and Recreation we get a jump ahead to many years later in the lives of each of the characters. In Lord of the Rings, the second half of the last movie is just one giant epilogue.
As you may have realized through this study, the Bible is one big story. The story begins in Genesis, where mankind rebels against God and evil and death enter the world. The promise of eventual redemption comes with Abraham and the theme of rescue is explored through the story of Moses. When David comes, we see a prophecy about the great king that will one day rescue God’s people and usher in a golden age. When Christ comes the first time, we see how his plan was far greater than the physical salvation of an oppressed nation, but the spiritual salvation of a corrupt humanity.
Now with Revelation, we get to see the end of the story. Christ will reign over the world, the heavens and the earth will be renewed. Though Satan will make one last rebellious gasp against God, he will be defeated and both he and death will be thrown into the lake of fire.
Introduction
But after that, we still have two more chapters. Understanding these is a challenge, but the better we understand the endgame of our mission, the better able to execute it we will be.
Revelation 21:1 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. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 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. 4 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.”
This is sort of the introduction to the final chunk of Revelation. John refers to a new heaven and a new earth, which we will have to have an extended discussion about. There’s a lot going on in these few verses, which we will be exploring for most of the teaching. For now I just want to focus on a single line from this passage, where he says “He will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death, sorrow, crying or pain.”
Wipe Away Every Tear
One of the most important aspects of humanity’s final condition is that humanity’s suffering will be at an end. With all of the pains and struggles of this life, it would almost be enough to know that these will be at an end. There’s a book by Charles Swindoll about the book of Romans, where he mentions that he once asked a bunch of people what they thought the best feeling in the world is. Many people said love, joy, happiness, excitement. But his sister said something interesting: “relief”. He said that struck him and upon reflection he thinks she is right. I think so too. There’s just nothing like the awareness that your anxieties and struggles have passed on and will not return.
It’s also worth mentioning that he says that there will be no more death. Death is often the most painful thing that people go through in this life. The death of a loved one can haunt a person for a very long time. There’s something very intrinsic to our nature that seems to realize that death is somehow unnatural. In our modern secular society we hear platitudes like “death is just a part of life”, but that is not really what the Biblical picture is. The bible teaches that we are intended to be eternal creatures in permanent relationship with one another. Therefore the cutting off of those relationships by death is extremely tragic.
This is the importance of the Bible’s shortest verse: “Jesus wept” (Jn 11:35). This happens in front of the tomb of Jesus’ friend Lazarus, right before Jesus was about to raise him from the dead. This always struck me as odd, because you would think that he’d be saying to himself: “No big deal, I’ll just undo this, no harm no foul.” But I think the reason Christ cries here is because he realizes the awfulness and unnaturalness of death. He knows this is not how God intended the world to be and it’s a truly sad thing to witness this corruption. It’s important for us as Christians to remember that Jesus wept, even when he knew he would redeem the pain. We also can feel free to feel the pain and grief of this life, even when we know that someday God will make everything right again. We shouldn’t use the awareness of God’s sovereignty to dismiss pain and suffering. It still is painful and it is appropriate to have emotional reactions, even when you know God will work things out in the end.
A New Heavens and a New Earth
I like to think of a beautiful painting. Specifically the one that comes to mind is Mucha’s Slav Epic, which we were lucky enough to see when we visited Europe a few years ago. It’s a series of 20 enormous canvases depicting different scenes from Slavic history, with themes that run throughout the series and recur in multiple paintings.
The reason this occurs to me here is that when you look at those paintings, there’s not a brushstroke that’s out of place. Every facial expression had been worked out in excruciating detail. Every choice of color has meaning and the more you look at it the more you see little details that are meaningful beyond the initial impression you might have had.
That is what life is designed to be like. God crafting every experience so that it perfectly meets our needs and brings us joy. Every moment of life is supposed to be a work of art, where every tiny detail is full of meaning and connects to every other. I think this is what it means when it says we will drink from the fountain of the water of life.
CS Lewis has a view of things in the last book of the Narnia series:
“And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream.” . . . The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can’t describe it any better than that: if you ever get there, you will know what I mean. It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right forehoof on the ground and neighed and then cried: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.”
The new heaven and the new earth might as well be called the “real heaven and the real earth”. It is still our home, but so much more than this world could ever hope to be.
Isaiah
But this is not the Bible’s first use of the concept of the New Heavens and the New Earth. While some commentators are at pains to believe this is somehow different than Isaiah’s use of the phrase, I think we ought at least to look at Isaiah 65:
Isaiah 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in my people;
no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping
and the cry of distress.
20 No more shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not fill out his days,
for the young man shall die a hundred years old,
and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They shall not labor in vain
or bear children for calamity,
for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,
and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
and dust shall be the serpent's food.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.
You will probably be struck by a couple of significant similarities:
Isa: I create new heavens
and a new earth,
Rev: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth
Isa: I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness.
Rev: And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Isa: and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
Rev: the former things have passed away
Isa: no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping
and the cry of distress.
Rev: neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore
Isa: I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in my people;
Rev: He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Honestly, with all of the parallels, the idea that these are two different events that are not intended to be referring to the same thing seems like a huge leap. If John is familiar with the Old Testament, and he was, then it seems very odd to borrow so much language from a prophetic passage in Isaiah that was not intended to make people think it was the same event.
But the weird thing about the Isaiah passage is that it does not appear to be the end of the world. There is still death, and later, in Isaiah 66, you see that there appears to be a continuation of the theme about this blessed Jerusalem, but tied in with judgement upon the evil of this world:
Isa 66:10 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
all you who love her;
rejoice with her in joy,
all you who mourn over her;
11 that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her consoling breast;
that you may drink deeply with delight
from her glorious abundance.”12 For thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;
and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip,
and bounced upon her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforts,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice;
your bones shall flourish like the grass;
and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants,
and he shall show his indignation against his enemies.
15 “For behold, the Lord will come in fire,
and his chariots like the whirlwind,
to render his anger in fury,
and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment,
and by his sword, with all flesh;
and those slain by the Lord shall be many.17 “Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig's flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the Lord.
18 “For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, 19 and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. 20 And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. 21 And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the Lord.
22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth
that I make
shall remain before me, says the Lord,
so shall your offspring and your name remain.
23 From new moon to new moon,
and from Sabbath to Sabbath,
all flesh shall come to worship before me,
declares the Lord.24 “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
He speaks in similar language to Rev 21-22 in a few places:
Isa: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;
Isa: And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord
Rev: By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,
Rev: They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
Rev: The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And Isaiah references the New Heavens and New Earth again in verse 22. It appears that this is both present and still to come at the moment that Isaiah is relating.
Already, Not Yet
This I believe is the key to understanding the teaching of the New Heavens and New Earth. It is like the new creation, which Paul declares we already are:
2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Gal 6:15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
And yet it is just as clear that we are not yet in the state which we will be after the final resurrection:
1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
1 Cor 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Cor 15:35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
Therefore, if the metaphor is applied in a similar fashion, the teaching of the New Heavens and New Earth is both before and after the final judgement and resurrection. Or more specifically, it is inaugurated with the Resurrection of Christ, by which the New Heavens and New Earth are born, and, just as people as new creations progressively see more of what they are meant for through sanctification, Christ is also sanctifying the Earth itself through the preaching of the gospel.
Once all enemies have been put under his feet (1 Cor 15:25), Christ will return and judge the quick and the dead. The second resurrection happens, those not in the book of life to the second death and those in the book of life to life everlasting. At that moment, not only are we made fully into the New Creation, but the Heavens and the Earth also fully become the New Heavens and New Earth.
This harmonizes the expressions of Isaiah, before death is defeated, with the expression in Revelation, in which death has been thrown into the lake of fire. Like many other aspects of God’s divine plan, it is both now and not yet.
The Alpha and Omega
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 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 the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 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.”
God sums it up with his statement, that it is done. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Everything that exists is from him, by him, through him and for him. Let’s also reflect that he proclaims “it is done!” He claims that this is already set in stone and that those who are among His people will inherit this new creation. Those who do not repent of their sin will only receive the second death.
Verse 8 touches on something I would like to take a moment to address. The question comes up often of how we can ever be happy in heaven if some people we love now aren’t with us. I think there is an answer, but it is a hard answer for us to fully understand and sympathize with. I think truly we will not be able to really see things for what they are until we can see God face to face and view this world from his perspective. But roughly, I think when we are there with him we will see and accept the justice of condemnation. Here on Earth we are more easily able to sympathize with the sinner and not with the righteous because we are sinners ourselves.
Fundamentally I think our issue with it is that we don’t think Hell is really deserved. Even in this series, I bet there are some of you who thought that all that judgment seemed like a little much. Maybe we feel like we need to make excuses for God. That all speaks to a failure for us to recognize the depth and gravity of our own sin. We may give lip service to the idea that we all deserve condemnation but that is a hard thing to truly feel in your heart.
If we ever get to the point where we can say: I absolutely deserve any punishment God might dish out and worse. It is completely unjust that God is allowing someone like me to be saved. And the same goes for all of humanity, I think we will be closer to the viewpoint we will have in heaven.
I think really this is indisputable. What’s the alternative really? Either the condemnation is just and correct or it is wrong and indefensible. If you believe that God is truly good, you must believe that condemnation is acceptable and right.
Now none of this means that we won’t be emotionally moved by the tragedy of it all. It’s incredibly sad and God also expresses his wish that none of this had to happen. (2 Peter 3:9, 1 Tim 2:4) We will sympathize with the condemned I’m sure.
But maybe that’s why the verse above talks about wiping away every tear. We will be comforted. We will grieve for the lost and move on. I think part of the reason we are so haunted by loss on Earth is because we don’t understand and accept it. In heaven it will be different. We will see why it is this way and why it had to be this way and be able to work through our grief and be freed from it.
The City
Continuing on, let’s read verses 9-21 and 22-27 and 2:1-5.
Rev 21:9 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.” 10 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, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 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— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 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, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, 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 of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 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.
Rev 22:1 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 2 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. 3 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. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 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.
So this is a crazy city he’s describing. It’s enormous, a 1400 mile on a side cube. That’s about the distance between NYC and Dallas Texas. It’s made of gemstones and doesn’t have a day or night. Earlier in the passage it mentioned not having an ocean.
Several modern commentators believe this to be a literal city we will someday live in. There are some verses in Hebrews that refer to heaven as a city that might be meant literally. It seems pretty crazy to our ears and some have theorized it would have to be a floating city to make any sense at all. Some say that maybe it’s not a cube, just the tallest buildings are 1400 miles tall.
Still. Doesn’t make it a whole lot easier to imagine. We have to admit though, that if God wanted to create something this insane, he certainly could do so.
But I don’t think this is the right interpretation. When you look at older commentators, they are virtually universal that this is symbolic of the Church, meaning all of God’s people.
I think this matches the passage much better. For one thing, the city is called the Bride of the Lamb. Not only is it super bizarre to imagine that God would refer to any inanimate object, no matter how awesome, as his ‘bride’ but that idea of God’s bride is used elsewhere in scripture universally to refer to God’s people. For a quick list, see Eph 5:25, Rev 19:7-9, 2 Corinthians 11:2, Isaiah 54:5, Isaiah 62:5 and Jeremiah 3:14.
With that in mind, let’s try to tease out some of the symbols and what they might mean for us, God’s people, in this future state.
For one thing, he mentions that the city is bedecked in gemstones, and that it’s light was like that of a gemstone, and that the streets are paved with gold.
This is an interesting way to think of it, since a gemstone does not have any light of its own. It merely reflects light from other sources. I think this is a depiction that we will be spiritually radiant but that the light will not be coming from us. Instead we will reflect and enhance the glory of God through that reflection. Like light passing through a cut stone, we will make that light shine in new and interesting ways.
There are the twelve foundations and the twelve gates. The twelve foundations have the apostles names on them, symbolizing that the Church was built on the foundations that they laid. This reminds us of Matthew 16, where Christ says about Peter: “On this rock I will build my church”, 1 Corinthians 3, where Paul says that he laid a foundation among the believers, and Ephesians 2, where it says that we are “God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.”
The gates have the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on them, representing that it was through Israel that God opened the way to come to him. The gates themselves are supposed to be of “a single pearl”, which could mean large spherical gates, or, more likely, it refers to the gate being literally a “single pearl”, specifically the “Pearl of Great Price”, which is often an oblique reference to Christ. Christ uses the gate analogy himself in John 10:9, where he literally says he is the gate to God’s kingdom, and in John 14, where he says “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me”.
There is no temple, which is a call back to what was said in verse 2, that God has made his dwelling directly with the people. This I think refers to how our entire lives will be one large act of worship to God. Not that we’ll be singing hymns the whole time, but that every action we take will specifically have as its purpose the bringing of glory to God. This is also reflected down in verse 24 where it says the kings of the Earth will bring glory and honor of the nations to God. Every moment of life will be glory to God.
It’s gates are not shut, but always open, but we will not see anything which defiles entering. The people of God will be truly done with sin. I think this might actually be the hardest thing to imagine. Sin so infects everything we do and think that it’s actually kind of hard to imagine what it might be like without sin.
The river and the tree of life is the central part of the last five verses. The tree of life with its many fruits represents the variety of experience that God has waiting for us, each in its own season. We will see him face to face and be with him and reign with him.
There’s not much explanation behind the idea of reigning alongside God in heaven, but the theme is there throughout scripture. My own pet theory is that mankind is just the first of many sentient spiritual creations that God will make and that we will be like parents and kings to the others. We will guide them and protect them and teach them to bring glory to God for eternity future. Maybe we will even get to help participate in the creative act itself.
The End
The book closes with a scene between John and the angel, where John falls to his knees and tries to worship the angel. The angel rebukes him for this reminding him that as spectacular as the angels may be, they are still merely servants of the one who truly deserves our worship.
Then Christ gives his final words, a warning not to change the words of the book and a promise to save all of his people. He says that he is returning. John closes with a prayer that Christ would come swiftly.
And that’s it. We know how the story ends, but we don’t know everything about what comes in between. We are living that out now. Christ has offered the water of life to anyone who thirsts. This means that for all the people living today, we have merely to come to him and we will be saved. As it says in Romans 10, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”. There are no conditions. We do not need to clean ourselves up to come to him, and in fact we are not even able to do so. Only he can cleanse us, so we should come to him dirty. We come to him as a beggar, not deserving salvation but humbly asking not because of who we are, but because of who he is.
Anyone who does will be in the kingdom forever. It is made as simple as possible, and all that remains to the people of the world is, will you take his hand or turn your back on it?
I hope that everyone chooses to take his hand.