Good to see everyone this morning.
take your Bibles, if you will,
and open them to Revelation chapter twenty
one.
We’re going to be continuing our study of
chapter 21
and chapter 22 as John presents
us a picture of the bride of the lamb.
And as we get into these passages.
You’ll read things and go, Well,
that sounds like heaven. That sounds like
eternity.
That doesn’t sound like here and now.
And we’re gonna do we’re gonna discuss a
little bit of that ~ as
we go through and help us hopefully to to
be able to frame in context
why John is talking this way. But let’s
begin with a word of prayer.
Our gracious Father in heaven,
we bow before your throne grateful for the
revelation that
you have given us through your holy
prophets,
through your apostles, through your Son,
that we might have knowledge of things
that without the word of Scripture
we would not know.
And that guides our actions, guides our
life,
teaches us concerning you and what you
would have us to do.
And may we always have a heart willing to
hear that word of yours,
willing to install it into our memory,
into our heart, into our lives,
into our actions, and into our words.
That we might be a shining light to the
world around us.
That we might reflect your glory,
that through us they might see you.
Lord, we pray that you help us to grasp
what you’re
teaching us about the church in these
passages,
that we might learn
to apply the appropriate glory and respect
to the body of Christ,
to the bride of you the of the Lamb.
Lord, we pray that you be with us as we go
through this day.
We pray that you be with those who are
mourning from the loss of loved ones,
those who are struggling with health
issues,
those who are anticipating upcoming
procedures,
and those who are seeking to recover from
long term difficulties.
Lord, we pray that you be with each and
every one of them,
and help us to be a support and a comfort
to them in all of their needs.
We ask that you forgive us when we sin and
fall short of your glory.
All this we pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Chapter 21 opens. And John says,
I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
For the first heaven and the first earth
had passed away,
and there was no more sea. Then I,
John, saw the holy city, the new
Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband.
And I heard a loud voice from heaven
saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they
shall be his people.
God himself shall will be with them and be
their God.
And God will wipe away every tear from
their eyes.
There shall be no more death, nor sorrow,
nor crying, there shall be no more pain.
for the former things have passed away.
John
Is writing to them to tell them all of the
tribulation,
all of the difficulty, all of the things
that I’m telling you
you are going to go through.
They all have an end.
They have an end in which they’ll be
finished and they’ll
be swallowed up in victory.
If you go over to First Corinthians
chapter 15,
Paul, as he is writing about life,
and as he is writing about the
resurrection,
he is going to tell the Christians in
Corinth
in this passage concerning our final
victory.
In First Corinthians chapter 15,
verse 50, he says, Now this I say,
brethren.
That flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God,
nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
Is the kingdom of God made
up of fleshly, earthly things?
Is it made up of fleshly,
earthly people? No.
Do you know why John has been
differentiating from the beginning
of Revelation to the end of Revelation?
Those who dwell on the earth as those who
are sinners and reject the Word of God,
and those who dwell in heaven as those who
are alive in Christ.
The reason he separates the two is because
he knows the same thing Paul
knows. Kingdom of God isn’t made up of
fleshly.
Things. Now the people who are alive on
the earth whose dwelling place
is in heaven are alive on the earth.
They interact in fleshly ways.
They walk around in fleshly bodies.
But Paul says that’s not the part of you
that is
in the kingdom of God. Because you can’t
inherit the kingdom of
God in the flesh.
You can’t take part in the kingdom of God
in the flesh.
And that’s completely consistent with what
Jesus said to Pilate,
isn’t it? Jesus said, if my kingdom were
of this world,
then would my what? My servants fight.
If I was coming to build a fleshly,
earthly kingdom.
You’d have a host of people out here
starting a riot and taking this city apart
till
they got to me.
He also would warn Pilate that if he were
to sow order,
he could have ten thousand legions of
angels show up.
But Paul’s point, John’s point,
Jesus’ point is the kingdom of heaven that
Daniel
interpreted a dream about in Daniel
chapter 2,
and that Daniel saw a vision about in
Daniel chapter 7 is not a kingdom
on this earth.
And so Paul will go on to say,
Behold, I tell you a mystery we shall not
all sleep,
but we shall all be changed. In a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trumpet,
for the trumpet will sound, and the dead
will be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on
incorruption,
and this mortal must put on immortality.
Notice that Paul says,
you cannot inherit eternity with
God in a fleshly existence.
He says it’s impossible.
You must be changed into an immortal
existence.
An undying, unending existence.
Now what part of our existence is undying
and unending?
Spirit and the soul. The soul and the
spirit.
James tells us very clearly what is death.
Separation of the soul and the body.
Now I I appreciate there are difficult
passages in the New Testament,
but the ones that aren’t difficult we need
to not abuse.
Paul tells us that our eternal existence
with the Father
at the resurrection involves
no zero fleshly existence.
None.
So
How could we get to a new heaven and a new
earth that are physical
and a new Jerusalem that is physical and
an existence being written about
and interpreted out of Revelation twenty
one that is physical?
What makes these two passages contradict
one another?
Rather, Paul is talking about the last and
final day.
And John is talking about the existence of
the church coming
out of a period of persecution.
And they’re using similar language.
They’re not talking about the same thing.
Verse fifty four, so when the corruptible
has put on incorruption and
the mortal has put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying
that is written Death is swallowed
up in victory. And then he quotes the Old
Testament minor prophets and says,
O death, where is your sting, Hosea
chapter thirteen?
O Hades, where is your victory?
The sting of death is sin,
and the strength of sin is the law.
The sting of death is sin and the strength
of sin is the law,
but thanks be to God who gives us the
what?
Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Question there in verse fifty seven,
is that present tense or future tense?
Does he say will give us
the victory or gives us the victory?
Already gay.
Absolutely. It is an active present
description.
The resurrection that Paul is writing
about is a future event.
The victory that he’s writing about
happens in the present tense. We have it,
we live it, it is continual,
and it is ever present with us.
You say, Aaron, how can that be?
We’re still going to die. Yeah.
It’s true.
Well what does that death mean to us?
The director of the school of preaching
where Eddie and I attended,
Brother Wesley Simons, had a habit of
reminding us that for a Christian,
death is not a sad thing.
It’s a graduation. It’s a graduation from
this life
to the next one. It is simply a transition
from a lower point to a greater point.
And Paul is writing to Christians who are
giving up on the concept
of the graduation and saying this is all
there is.
Well, Anyone who holds to a position of
the new heaven and the new earth being
a physical existence, even an eternal
physical existence like was had
in the garden has missed it.
Paul says, flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God,
and corruptible cannot inherit
incorruption.
And We already have the victory.
And so John will write, God’s going to
wipe away every tear from their eye.
There will be no more death.
Why? Death’s already defeated.
There will be no more sorrow. There will
be no more crying.
There will be no more pain. For the former
things,
the tribulation, the anguish, the
persecution from Rome,
the use of Rome by the devil, it’s over.
When Christ defeated Satan in the use of
Rome,
he defeated him completely.
Unlike the United States of America for
the last eight eighty years,
when Christ starts a war, he finishes it.
And wins every time.
Now notice we read verse five:
Then he who sat on the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new.
And he said to me, Write, for the words
are true and faithful.
And he said to me, It is done.
Where where have you?
Where have you read a a phrase like it is
done?
When Jesus Christ spoke from the cross.
And says it is finished.
And we read, It is done. I am the Alpha
and the Omega,
the beginning and the end, I will give of
the fountain of the water
of life freely to him who thirsts.
He who overcomes shall inherit all things,
and I will be his God, and he shall be my
son.
But the cowardly, unbelieving,
abominable, murderers, sexually immoral,
sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall
have their part in the lake which burns
with fire and brimstone, which is a second
death.
And you say, see, this is the judgment.
He’s talking about the punishment of all
the wicked for all time.
No, he’s not.
He’s talking about Verse 17 of chapter 19.
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun
and cried with a loud voice,
saying to the birds that fly in the midst
of heaven,
Come and gather together for the supper of
the great God,
that you may eat of the flesh of the
kings,
the cap the flesh of captains,
the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of
horses,
and those who sit on them, the flesh of
all people,
free and slave, both small and great.
And I saw the great kings, ~ I saw the
beasts,
the kings of the earth.
And their armies gathered together to make
war against him who sat on
the horse and against his army,
then the beast was captured, and with him
the false prophet who worked signs
in his presence, by which he deceived
those who received the mark of
the beast and who worshipped his image,
and those two were cast into the lake of
fire burning with brimstone.
He’s talking about the end of the war.
The war with who? The war with the beast,
the war with the sea beast, the war with
the dragon,
the war with Satan, the war with Rome.
He’s talking about all those who put the
mark of the beast on their head,
who said, I will pledge my allegiance to
Rome,
God says, and you’ll get the same judgment
they get.
What did God in the Old Testament prophets
tell the children of Israel?
He said, if you go after the idols that
this land went after,
I’m sending you into a land and I am
displacing and bringing
to judgment all these nations.
And if you go into the land and then you
begin to follow after the idols that they
followed after, and you begin to sacrifice
your children.
to their gods the way they did,
and you begin to participate in the
fornication and the adultery that they
participated in, then I’m gonna do to you
what I did to them.
And when the leadership of Israel began to
do exactly what God said not to do,
and the kings of Israel began to
participate in the things that God said
not to do,
God is going to tell the people,
if you follow after them,
to do the same things that I told you not
to do,
then I’m going to do to you, the people,
the same thing that I’m going to do to
them.
That’s what this passage is about.
Now, is it true in the world today,
and at the day of judgment,
that all unbelieving and abominable and
murderers and sexually immoral
and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars
shall have their part in
the lake which burns with fire and
brimstone,
which is the second death? Is that a true
statement about an eternal judgment
of God? Yes.
So now you get the picture. They’ve taken
a statement about judgment and said,
God’s doing it right now to these people
who are your enemies.
You asked Romans or Revelation chapter
six,
how long, O Lord, faithful and true,
until you judge the people who are
persecuting us?
And God says, Let me tell you,
I’m not gonna miss.
One of them.
Do you notice the emphasis here?
As he gives this list
In the word all
The word all liars.
Sometimes we appropriately teach children,
using this passage, that lying is wrong.
Revelation twenty one eight.
That’s not the lie that’s being talked
about.
What is the lie that these people believed
and repeated?
There’s there’s part of it. But what was
the message of Satan? What was the message
of the dragon?
What was the message of the sea beast?
What was the message of the land beast
about who God is?
They said, Caesar is God.
They said if you want to participate in
this economy,
you have to say Caesar is God.
You go back to Exodus chapter twenty.
And what does the Lord say?
You shall have no other gods before
me.
The
Is there is someone who’s God other than
the Lord?
There is allegiance to someone other than
the Lord.
John doesn’t say all the cowardly,
all the unbelieving, all the abominable,
all the murders. I mean, it’s in it’s it
it’s implied in there.
But why is the word all attached to liars?
Is it because lying is the worst sin of
all sins?
You got a guy out here murdering people,
and you got a guy over here lying.
Which one do you think we’re gonna put in
jail first?
The point isn’t about the sins,
the point is about the lying was the
culmination of them saying there
is a God other than Jehovah.
Pharaoh’s question to Moses.
was who is the Lord that
I should obey him?
Revelation twenty one, God says
I’m going to show you who he is.
He’s the one who can take every single
person
who allies themselves with Satan,
with his minions, with his puppet
governments,
with his rulers that he claims to be God,
and declares them to be equal with me,
and judges every single one.
Now the language in Revelation 21 is
Isaiah language.
There’s been times in the in the book of
Revelation we’ve been
in is Exodus language. We’ve been in
coming out of Egypt language.
But Isaiah 21 is Isaiah, or sorry,
Revelation 21 is Isaiah language.
New heaven and new earth is Isaiah
language.
New Jerusalem is Isaiah language.
This description here.
Is all about Isaiah. Because Isaiah was
the prophet
who continued to say to Israel,
Go ahead, get your idols to speak.
Get them to do anything.
Get them to judge someone.
Get them to punish someone. Get them to
give you a blessing.
Get them to do anything.
God says they can’t do it.
And this passage is a reiteration of that
to the church.
You serve a God who speaks,
you serve a God who creates, you serve a
God who blesses,
and you serve a God who judges.
Eddie, did you have a comment?
Okay.
Then one of the seven angels who had the
seven bowls filled the seven last plagues
came to me and talked with me,
saying, Now, let me jump ahead here in
some slides.
~ he says,
Come, I will show you the bride,
the lamb’s wife. We talked about this
briefly.
There’s an abundance of passages that tell
you exactly who the bride is,
who is the bride of Christ.
Church. End of discussion.
So when the angel who had one of the bowls
says,
Let me show you the bride, who is he
showing John?
The church. Any other interpretation?
is incorrect.
Okay. Now bear in mind that we have then
to discuss the church when, and the church
in what state,
and the church from what point of view.
But what we cannot argue about is it is
the church.
So notice what he says. And he carried me
away
in the spirit to a great and high
mountain.
And showed me the great city, the holy
Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God.
Where did where did Satan take Jesus
during the temptations?
First, they were in the wilderness.
And Satan says to Jesus, Take the stones
and and turn them to bread,
so you can have some nourishment.
And then now Luke and Matthew they flip
flop the second and the third one,
as to which order they were in.
Doesn’t matter. Then they go to the
pinnacle of the temple.
And at the highest peak of the temple,
Satan says to Jesus, cast yourself off
because the scripture has said that
the angels will not allow you to dash your
foot upon a stone.
Test the Lord. See if he’s true.
He made a promise to you, see if he’ll
fulfill it.
What did Jesus say in response?
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Then he takes him where?
To a very high mountain. And what does he
show Jesus?
All the nations of the earth, name one
mountain you can go stand on
and see every nation on the planet from
there.
You can’t.
Not physically.
But the point is not that they did all
of these things and used only physical
resources to do them.
We’re not reading about a nice long
journey that Satan and the Lord hopped
on the boat together, we’re gonna go climb
the Himalayas,
we’re gonna get to the highest peak,
and then we’re going to use an eyeglass
that happened to be installed up there
to go look at every nation. No.
How long did it take Satan and the Lord to
get there?
Satan shows him all the nations of the
earth,
and what was it that Satan said I’ll give
you?
Everything you see. If you’ll simply do
what?
Sound familiar to the message of a beast?
Sound familiar to the message of a dragon?
So now John gets escorted to a very high
mountain.
And John sees descending out of heaven
The bride adorned for her husband.
But as he sees it, he says,
it is the new Jerusalem.
Notice the text He carried me away in the
spirit to a great and high mountain
and showed me the great city.
The new, sorry, the holy Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God.
So ~ when we come back here earlier on in
the chapter,
and we read verse chapter twenty one,
verse one, and I saw the new heaven and a
new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away,
and there was no more sea, then I,
John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem. What is it?
It’s the bride.
When John sees the new Jerusalem in the
new heaven and the new earth,
he sees
We know that because we’re told that.
He says, I saw the holy Jerusalem
descending out of heaven from God.
He’s over here on the mountain and he’s
watching.
And out of heaven comes the bride.
And it’s the holy Jerusalem.
And he sees it descending from heaven.
out of heaven from God. Whatever we have
in this passage,
it is not heaven.
Because it is descending out of heaven.
Now put two things together. Satan took
Jesus to a high mountain and said,
I’ll give you all the nations.
And John gets taken to a high mountain.
And John sees the new Jerusalem descending
out
of heaven from God. Now connect that
and that back to Daniel chapter two.
Head of gold, nation of Babylon,
arms and chest of silver,
nation of Medo Persia, belly and thighs of
brass,
nation of Greece, the legs of iron and
feet of iron mixed with clay,
the nation of Rome.
And God tells Nebuchadnezzar, I’m gonna
tell you what I’m gonna do.
And Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar,
the Lord has seen fit to show you as the
greatest of
all of these kings.
What I’m gonna do.
In the days of these kings, the kings of
Rome,
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
which shall never
be destroyed.
And it is going to break in pieces and
crush all of these kingdoms.
It’s gonna grind them into powder.
You see, Satan came along and said,
If you don’t set up your kingdom,
I’ll give you all these.
And Jesus in essence says, I I’m I’m gonna
worship the Lord God.
He’s already got all of these.
You just don’t know it yet.
And he did what Isaiah always says the
Lord does.
He told you how it’s going to end before
it ever began.
John sees the holy city, the new Jerusalem
coming up.
So, so ~ good question. All right.
So is John seeing something that’s going
to happen?
Is John seeing something that has already
happened?
Is John seeing something that is
happening?
And the answer to that is John’s seeing
the fulfillment
of Daniel’s prophecy. Daniel’s prophecy
didn’t
big didn’t end with the coming and the
establishment of the kingdom,
did it?
It ended with the crushing of the earthly
kingdoms and doing away with them.
This is it. Absolutely. This is God
saying,
I’m going to show you that we win.
I’m going to show you that I set up a
kingdom and it is going to
do exactly what I promised it would do.
And it’s going to do to these kingdoms and
these four nations and these four beasts
exactly what I said they were going to do.
And when you look at it, you’re gonna go,
that kingdom’s never gonna be destroyed.
Now, Watch how he pictures the kingdom.
Watch how he pictures the bride.
Watch the picture,
if you were to think about it from earthly
terms,
that John now sees as he’s there on the
high mountain and he’s watching this
happen,
and he sees the bride descending out of
the very presence of God.
And notice how John is getting that
described.
He says, having the glory of God.
Her light was like a most precious stone.
And we’re going to talk about that light
again later here at the
end of this chapter. But her light was
like the most precious stone,
like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
Also, she had a great and high wall with
twelve gates
and twelve angels at the gates.
And the names written on them,
which are the names of the twelve tribes
of the children of Israel.
You look at the gate as John sees the city
descending out of heaven,
and he sees it descending from the
presence of God,
and he sees it with God’s glory and the
light of God,
and it’s so beautiful. And he sees a gate
and a gate and a gate and a gate
and a gate and a gate and a gate and a
gate and a gate and a gate.
Three entrances on every side because by
the way,
it’s City Four Square.
And he sees all of these gates.
And they’re adorned with all of these
precious stones.
And written
on the gates are the names of what?
twelve tribes of Israel.
Here’s one more Exodus reference.
In the tabernacle.
Which by the way we just read about in
chap earlier on in this chapter,
right? The tabernacle, God being with his
people,
and they’ll I will be their God and they
will be my people.
We already read about the tabernacle.
How was the camp of Israel set up when
they were there at Mount Sinai
and when they traveled and everywhere they
went in the wilderness for 40 years?
Tabernacle was in the center,
and the tribes were arrayed around the
tabernacle,
by tribes.
Just another picture. John sees the city,
and he sees the gates, and on the gate,
every gate, one tribe of Israel.
And notice he says,
Now on the wall of the city had twelve
foundations,
and on them were the names of the twelve
apostles of the Lamb.
Someone comes along and says, ~ see,
this is this is just inaccurate.
~ there were thirteen tribes.
True. Because Levi’s not among the twelve
tribes of Israel.
Levi’s the thirteenth tribe of Israel.
Because Joshua, or Joseph’s rather,
has two tribes, Ephraim, Manasseh.
So are there thirteen tribes? Yes.
Well, guess what? There’s 14 apostles.
But what does the number twelve represent?
God’s people. It’s not about exact
numbers,
it’s about what the number represents.
God’s people
And so he says, I I looked at this city.
Now he hasn’t told you what the city looks
like in size yet,
so you don’t really know just exactly how
big this foundation really is.
But he looks at the foundation and written
on the foundation,
of which there are twelve.
Are the names of the apostles.
You think Judas’ name was on one of them?
I don’t think so.
I think if John had had his way,
the only name left off would have been
John’s.
But he sees the names of the apostles of
the Lamb.
On the foundations of the city.
He sees the names of the tribes of Israel
on the gates of the city.
How many thrones were there that were
elders were sitting upon
in Revelation chapter four as John looks
into the throne room of God?
twenty four twelve apostles twelve tribes.
Twenty-four thrones. It’s a picture of
God’s people.
So notice, he says.
Now the wall of the city had twelve
foundations,
and on them were the names of the twelve
apostles of the Lamb,
and he who talked with me had a gold reed
to measure the city,
its gates and its wall. Now this is
Ezekiel language,
right? Ezekiel’s given a rod and he’s told
to go measure the city of Jerusalem.
So he takes this gold reed and he’s gonna
measure the city and the gates
and its walls, and the city is laid out as
a square,
and its length is as great as its breadth.
Okay, well that means it’s a what?
Square. John’s not done.
And he measured the city with the reed
twelve thousand furlongs,
its length and its breadth and its height
are equal.
Fifteen hundred miles.
One thousand five hundred miles.
Hmm.
I don’t know about you, but if God’s
planning on making this on a new heaven
and a new earth and it happens to be
physical,
we’re gonna have to have some
restructuring of the laws of gravity.
And also Elon Musk’s satellites are gonna
be running into this thing a lot.
Fifteen hundred miles tall.
And think about the days of John.
You think about a city that was
impenetrable.
What did ~ for all those who enjoy the
Lord of the Rings series,
what do you have to do to take a fortress?
You gotta get over the wall or you gotta
get inside the gate.
But at every gate there’s an angel.
What did one angel do in the days of
Hezekiah again to the Assyrian army?
Hundred and eighty five thousand in one
night.
Good luck with the gates.
But that’s okay. Can’t get through the
gate.
We’ll get over the wall. Good luck.
One thousand five hundred miles tall.
That’ll be fun.
Dad. Yeah. It’s quite a ladder.
What’s God saying?
You only get in if I let you in and
there’s no nation under heaven defeating
this.
See the pictures of the church.
And you say, Aaron, I just need to know
what floor I’m on.
~ And where’s Michael?
Michael, you need to work on that
elevator.
Because those steps are really long.
All right. Thank you for your attention.
We’ll be dismissed. We’ll pick up here.
