REVELATION 21:1-8
21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 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 tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” 6 Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give water to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life, without cost. 7 The one who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 8 But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
21:1 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
2 Peter 3:10-13
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be discovered.
11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
*The theme of ‘making things new’ is consistent through the Bible
Hebrews 1:10-12a “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the works of Your hands;
11 They will perish, but You remain;
And they all will wear out like a garment,
12 And like a robe You will roll them up;
Like a garment they will also be changed.
1 John 2:17 17 The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God continues to live forever.
Matthew 24:35 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
Romans 8:22 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
1 Corinthians 5:17 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (other versions say ‘all things have become new’)
Is this just a rehab of the old earth, or a brand-new heavens and earth? All brand new, like you and I upon our salvation that will ultimately be fulfilled when we get our perfect new minds and bodies in heaven.
John 3:3 3 Jesus responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Gives a dual meaning to what Jesus said in Mark 2:21-22
21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
No longer any sea? Literal or metaphorical? Look back in Revelation 17:15 15 And he *said to me, “The waters which you saw where the prostitute sits are peoples and multitudes, and nations and languages.”
From Pulpit Commentary:
and the sea no longer exists. The threefold division of heaven, earth, and sea represents the whole of this world (cf. Revelation 10:6). Some interpret the sea symbolically of the restless, unstable, wicked nations of the earth, which now exist no longer; others understand the absence of sea to typify the absence of instability and wickedness in the New Jerusalem.
From the Cambridge Bible:
the sea is no more. We cannot be sure that this is to be taken literally; we hear of a river in the next chapter, and a perennial stream implies an abundant reservoir of water somewhere. To us, the absence of sea seems, so to speak, a defect in the landscape, while to the ancients it seemed a pledge of security and of unfettered intercourse between all nations: see Isaiah 33:21.
MacLaren Commentary:
‘And the sea is no more’ probably is to be taken in a symbolic sense, as shadowing forth the absence of unruly power, of mysterious and hostile forces, of estranging gulfs of separation. Into this renovated world the renovated city floats down from God.
Dr. Andy Woods: Literally no more ocean. But whatever God takes away will be replaced by something better than we can ever understand.
Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Literally, no more physical ocean.
My concerns: What about all the sea creatures? Well, we know from Revelation 16:3 that with the second bowl, everything in the sea died:
3 The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.
There is nothing ‘symbolic’ about this verse, it speaks of a literal sea.
Second, I love a sunrise and sunset at the beach. Since God Himself will be the source of light, maybe we’ll get to enjoy ‘God-rises’ instead.
Revelation 21:2-7 are self-explanatory and will be covered as well later in the chapter
21:8 – 8 But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Sexually immoral persons – so like David, who was a man after God’s own heart?
All liars? Didn’t Peter lie three times when he was asked if he was one of Jesus’ followers? Yet didn’t Christ say ‘upon this rock I shall build my church in Matthew 16:18?
Didn’t Abraham lie about his wife being his sister (though she WAS actually his half-sister but was also his wife and the Pharaoh was almost struck down by God because Abraham withheld this information). But isn’t Abraham in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:8-19?
Didn’t Rahab lie about having seen the two spies? And isn’t she also listed in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:31?
Are all three of these faith giants doomed to spend eternity on the lake of fire? Well why not, as they are all liars? (Haven’t we all been a time or two?)
What then, is God’s standard for determining who is a ‘bad enough liar’ to be sent to the lake of fire vs. those who are established liars (like all three above) but seem to be exceptions to the proclamation in Revelation 21:8?
Is there perhaps a particular lie peculiar to the last days that these who are damned forever will be guilty of propagating?
And the peanut is neither a pea, nor a nut, we can discuss that too…
**I think the answer ‘lies’ in verse 27 of this chapter…
27 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.
CHARGE *Hold on very loosely to the things of this world. Invest wisely – store up treasure in heaven.
Final discussion
We will meet again on January 15th to continue Revelation 21. Please read Randy Alcorn’s book called ‘Heaven’ in the meantime.
Revelation 21:9-17 – the primary difficulty of this passage is identifying who exactly is the Bride of Christ – is it the Church, or is it the New Jerusalem? Or both somehow?
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.”
The New Jerusalem
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 valuable stone, like 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 the gates, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, 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, 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, twelve thousand stadia; its length, width, and height are equal. 17 And he measured its wall, 144 cubits, by human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.
(cube or pyramid?) (Dr. Woods’ graphic is a cube, but Ron Rhodes thinks it could be a pyramid)
Dr. JVM –
‘This city is what Jesus meant when He said in John 14:2, ‘I go to prepare a place for you’…
‘The New Jerusalem will be to eternity what the earthly Jerusalem is to the Millennium…
‘The new Jerusalem is the eternal abode of the Church…
‘We must pause here to consider the relationship of the city to the citizens – the city proper, to the Church. Certainly we are not to infer that the empty city without the citizens is the bride. The citizens are identified with the city in Revelation 22:3,6, and 9. Although a distinction between the bride and the city needs to be maintained, it is the intent of the writer to consider them together.
‘This passage is a description of the adornments which reveal something of the love and worth that the Bridegroom has conferred upon His bride.’
(JCH note – much like a bride’s wedding dress isn’t the bride herself, but her beauty is inseparable from her dress. (no one says, what an ugly woman but what a beautiful dress! They are seen as one unit). This new Jerusalem is our wedding dress. Our new glory so thoroughly shines through its gates and windows, etc. we can be considered inseparable from the city.
Recall Revelation 19:8…
8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Now obviously this is God’s grace and power in action because what does Isaiah 64:6 say about our righteousness?
Isaiah 64:6a
6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; (literally menstrual rags)
But remember…
Ephesians 2:4
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) (NLT) end JCH note)
So it is by God’s grace and power that our righteous acts, which are really no better than ‘menstrual rags’, are supernaturally transformed into ‘fine linen, bright and clean’ and the glory of the New Jerusalem. Kind of like when Jesus fed 5000 with five loaves and two fish – he takes our little and applies His supernatural blessing to it to transform it into something significant.
*Read page 223 in ETICO*
Dr. Andy Woods notes:
Revelation 070 – God’s Two Great Programs | Sugar Land Bible Church | slbc.org at 1.25x – as long as we can, then stop at 10:09 for discussion and closing prayer.
The New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:9 – 22:5)
- Four Titles (21:9-10)
- Glory (21:11)
- Construction (21:12-14)
- Measurements (21:15-17)
- Materials (21:18-21)
- Relationship to God (21:22-23)
- Relationship to the Nations (21:24-26)
- Holiness (21:27)
- Contents (22:1-5)
I would encourage everyone to watch or at least listen to all of Dr. Woods’ sermons on Revelation as well as read Randy Alcorn’s book, ‘Heaven’.
To access Dr. Woods’ sermons on Revelation, go to slbc.org and click on ‘sermons’. Scroll down to ‘Revelation’.