Our New Jerusalem

The whole city is like a precious gem, transparent and gleaming like a diamond in a gold mounting. This city is the wedding ring of the bride, the symbol of the union of the church to Christ.

Hi everyone, I’m Tammy Becker.  Welcome to the Almighty God & Gospel Girl Podcast.  This is week 27 into our series of Revelation and our podcast today is titled: Our New Jerusalem

My podcast today will be based on the reading of Revelation 21:9-27.  And if you would like to follow along with the notes or maybe you would like to find the links to anything mentioned in the podcast today, you can go to the link in the description or by visiting www.youministries.com and visiting the corresponding page.  As we get started today, I would like to remind you of my disclaimer, that as always…do not take my word, or anyone’s word for what you read…get yourself in the Bible and let God discern His Word to you.  I am only human and make many mistakes and do not claim to know or understand everything in the Bible…I just hope by bringing out this study that your interest is sparked enough to get into God’s Word and begin to deep dive on your own.

The New Jerusalem is the eternal hometown of the church. We travel towards this new home as we pitch our tent each day closer on our journey home. Now that earth’s sorrows are hushed and eternity has begun, the curtain can rise on the scene of this heavenly city and encourage every weary pilgrim on their journey here.

The appearance of the New Jerusalem is the epitome of beauty, refined loveliness, and uncontrolled joy. During the Millennium, righteousness reigned in Jerusalem, but in the New Jerusalem, it will dwell.

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven final plagues invited John closer. “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (v. 9). And the angel carried John away in the Spirit to a high and huge mountain where they watched the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, filled with His radiant light. What a scene!

Even from its entrance, we see something of the love and worth that the Bridegroom is giving His bride. Earthly cities are built from the ground up, but this city comes down out of heaven but doesn’t touch the earth.

Scripture leaves the city hanging in midair, the center of all things. All activity and glory revolve now around this city. God will be there; it will be His headquarters. No wonder it will hold such a preeminent position for eternity.

The New Jerusalem will have the glory of God. Every blessing from God radiates from the city. Even though the saints will live there, it won’t inhibit God’s glory from shining. Sin formerly caused God to remove His glory from people’s presence, but now that is past. It used to be that God’s glory struck terror to the sinful heart, but we will then be clothed in Christ’s righteousness. God’s high purpose has always been to bring “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). The apostle Paul instructs believers to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). This hope will now be realized in the holy city.

This city is the source of light in the new heavens and earth. It doesn’t reflect light like the moon, nor does it generate light by physical combustion like the sun, but it originates light. Jesus literally becomes “the light of the world” (John 9:5). First John 1:5 tells us God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. Light is His character. He’s not a kind of light, but He’s light itself.

The whole city is like a precious gem, transparent and gleaming like a diamond in a gold mounting. This city is the wedding ring of the bride, the symbol of the union of the church to Christ.

The New Jerusalem has 12 gates to the city, three gates on each side. On each gate is the name of one of the tribes of Israel, listed in the order the children of Israel camped about the tabernacle in the wilderness wanderings. Everything in eternity will face in toward this city, for God is there. The children of Israel on earth will enjoy the same relationship to the city that they did toward the wilderness tabernacle and later the city temple. This city will be a tabernacle to Israel. The children of Israel will be among the multitudes who come from earth into this city to worship in eternity. The 12 tribes of Israel will come up to the celestial city to worship, three tribes coming up on each of the four sides. They will then return back to the earth after they worship, but the bride will dwell in the New Jerusalem.

The walls of the New Jerusalem have 12 foundations, and on them are inscribed the names of the 12 apostles (just like Ephesians 2:20 tells us the church today is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone”). When Jesus Christ returned to heaven the first time, He committed the keys into the keeping of the apostles. In place of Judas, likely the apostle Paul became the twelfth apostle.

To these 12 apostles were committed all the writings of the church. They preached the first sermons, they organized the first churches, and they were among the first martyrs. In a real sense they were the church’s foundation with Christ as “the chief cornerstone.”

The size and shape of this city is difficult to describe, as we try but come short of translating our concepts from our time to an eternal dimension. We’re told the city is a cube, with 12,000 furlongs, about 1,500 miles on each side. Architectural difficulties resolve when we consider the city as a cube within a crystal-clear sphere. What we are given are the inside measurements. To enclose a cube measuring 1,500 miles on each side, the circumference of the sphere would be about 8,164 miles. The diameter of the moon is about 2,160 miles, and that of the New Jerusalem sphere is about 2,600 miles. Thus, the New Jerusalem will be somewhat larger than the moon, and it will be a sphere like the other heavenly bodies. We would likely live inside this sphere, not on the outside like we live here on earth. This city bears the creative and generous trademark of its Maker. The Lord Jesus, the Carpenter of Nazareth, is the One who built this city.

New Jerusalem will also be surrounded by a wall made of jasper—built for beauty, not protection. A walled city is a safe city, but the heavenly city will enjoy the fullness of safety because of who lives there. The walls are a sign that this city has achieved the full meaning of her name: Peace.

The magnificence of the city is further expressed through the 12 foundation stones constructed of 12 different gemstones, the most precious known to man. It will be an exquisite, multi-colored galaxy of color—jasper (diamondlike, reflecting light and color), blue sapphire, greenish chalcedony, emerald green, red sardonyx and sardius, yellow chrysolite, green beryl, yellow topaz, golden green chrysoprase, violet jacinth, purple amethyst.

God’s light on the inside, shining through these colors, will flood the universe like a prism with every color of the rainbow reflecting out. It’ll be the most breathtaking sight you’ve ever seen. The rainbow that appears today after a summer shower gives only a faint impression of the beauty of the coming city of light. This will be a glorious place!

The angel tells John that New Jerusalem’s 12 gates are each made of a pearl, and they never will be shut because there will be no danger. The street (singular) was made of pure gold, as transparent glass. This city will be on display inside a crystal sphere, showcasing the church on display throughout eternity to the myriads of God’s created intelligences (see Ephesians 2:7). God will show off His grace toward the church as the fairest jewel of all (see Malachi 3:17-18).

In the new creation, God’s presence is the physical as well as the spiritual light. After the entrance of sin into the old creation, God withdrew His presence, and “darkness was on the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). Then God made use of the physical lights in His universe. He put them up like we turn on lamps in our homes. In the new creation, sin is removed, and He again becomes the source of light.

The One who is light will be there, and the radiance of His glory will be on display. In the Old Testament tabernacle there was the golden lampstand, one of the finest pictures of Christ. In the New Jerusalem, Jesus is the golden lampstand. The Old Testament temple that replaced the tabernacle was an earthly enclosure for God’s shekinah glory. Because of sin, a relationship with God could only be approached by ritual of sacrifice. In the New Jerusalem sin is no longer a reality (just a hideous nightmare). God’s actual presence with the redeemed eliminates the need for a temple. In fact, the whole city could be thought of as a temple. It’s the same shape as the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and temple where God dwelt: A perfect cube. (No coincidence.) Now God lives there in person. It’s probably the first place where God will make a personal appearance before man. What a glorious thought!

Jesus Christ dwells in the New Jerusalem with His bride, but Israel and the nations will commute back and forth from the earth to worship. Redeemed Gentile nations, who like Israel don’t belong to the church because they were saved in the Old Testament or after the church is raptured from the earth, also come and go in worship. Hebrews 12:22-23 tells us of an infinite company of angels who serve the Lord in the city. All nationalities meet here, and the created intelligences of God walk the street of the New Jerusalem.

God has accomplished His goal: Fellowship with mankind. He now has a creature who is a free moral agent who chooses to worship and serve Him eternally. And the greatest joy of the redeemed heart will be abiding in our Lord Jesus’ presence for eternity (see John 14:3). This is heaven—to be with Him. Revelation is all about Jesus Christ—He is the centerpiece of God’s universe.

What is your passport to live in this magnificent city? Your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life contains the record of the redeemed of all ages. No one who is not redeemed by the blood of Christ will be permitted to enter the portals of the New Jerusalem. A great fixed gulf separates the saved and the lost. This is not the Garden of Eden where Satan’s lie created an entrance for sin. No lie or liar will ever enter the gate of the heavenly Jerusalem. All those who live there and all tourists who visit are not only redeemed from sin but they have also lost their taste for sin.

Nothing will compare to the privilege of being with the Lord Jesus there throughout eternity.

Next week we will talk about what will we do in heaven.