LESSON AIM

1. We will better understand that just as GOD created the earth, HE will create yet another, safer, more peaceful earth for those who have BELIEVED, KEPT HIS COMMANDMENTS, and LIVED RIGHTEOUSLY.

KEEP IN MIND

“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of GOD is with men, and HE WILL DWELL with them, and they shall BE HIS PEOPLE, and GOD HIMSELF SHALL BE WITH THEM, AND BE THEIR GOD” (Revelation 21:3).

John saw a vision of a NEW HEAVEN and NEW EARTH, with a NEW JERUSALEM descended to earth from heaven. JESUS WILL make all things new and give the WATER OF LIFE to those who thirst for it. The NEW HOLY CITY will have no temple because GOD HIMSELF WILL BE PRESENT. There will be no sun because JESUS (THE SON) WILL BE THE “LIGHT.”

By way of background, the book of Revelation talks about a 1,000^th year period. The 1,000 years are often referred to as the Millennium (Latin for 1,000). Just how and when this 1,000 years takes place is understood differently among Christian scholars. The three major positions on this issue are called postmillennialism, premillennialism, and amillennialism. Postmillennialism looks for a literal 1,000-year period of peace on earth ushered in by the Church. At the end of the 1,000 years, Satan will be unleashed once more, but then CHRIST will return to defeat him and reign forever. Postmillennialists believe CHRIST’S SECOND COMING will not occur until after the 1,000-year period. Premillennialists also view the 1,000 years as a literal time period but holds that CHRIST’S SECOND COMING iniates HIS 1,000-year reign, and after that this reign occurs before the final removal of Satan. Amillennialism understands the 1,000-year period to be symbolic of the time between CHRIST’S ASCENSION and HIS RETURN. This Millennium is the reign of CHRIST IN THE HEARTS OF BELIEVERS AND IN HIS CHURCH; thus, this is another way of referring to the CHURCH AGE. They believe this period will end with the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. The position taken in this lesson is premillenial.

In Revelation chapter 20, readers are given a glimpse of a period of unprecedented rest. During the Millennium, the earth will experience universal justice, peace, and prosperity under the reign of the LAMB OF GOD. The highlight of the millennial reign will be the binding of Satan by an angel “having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand” (Revelation 20:1). Demonic activities will, for the first time in history, cease. Chained and bound, the angel will “cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, til the thousand years should be fulfilled” (20:3).

1. GOD PROVIDES A NEW HOME (Revelation 1:1-2)

Chapter 20 closes with John witnessing the great white throne of judgment. We see the dead standing before CHRIST HIMSELF to be judged “according to their works” (20:12). The names of those who have rejected CHRIST during their lifetime are excluded from the BOOK OF LIFE. These souls experience a second death by being cast into the lake of fire. The decision to spend eternity in the lake of fire or AT REST WITH THE SAVIOR is our own.

Revelation 21 and 22 present us with the Bible’s longest and best portrait of what people commonly call “heaven,” although we notice that “A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH” comes “DOWN FROM GOD OUT OF HEAVEN” (21:1-2). Isaiah 65:17 also predicted “NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH.”

1 Peter 3:10 also paints a picture of a cosmic changeover, a world-changing, total transformation or makeover. It also describes a time when the current “heavens [or atmosphere] shall pass away” and “the earth…shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:12 amplifies: “the [present] heavens being on fire shall be dissolved.” Therefore, Christians await “NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH” (2 Peter 3:13).

Chapter 21 opens abruptly with John witnessing “A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH.” Just as THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT created a world out of nothingness in Genesis, in the end, A NEW CREATION WILL ARISE out of destruction and decay revealed in the previous chapters. The NEW HEAVEN is described as a bride dressed to meet her husband. This image of a pure and unblemished bride indicates that the “bride” or the NEW JERUSALEM is the final resting-place for THE ENTIRE BODY OF REDEEMED BELIEVERS.

2. PROCLAMATION OF GOD’S PRESENCE (vv.3-4)

In Old Testament times, GOD localized and centralized HIS PRESENCE WITH HIS PEOPLE AT THE TABERNACLE (Leviticus 26:11-13; Ezekiel 37:27). In New Testament times, GOD came in the form of man, and HE “DWELT AMONG US” (John 1:14). The word “dwell” occurs in both Revelation 7:15 and 21:3.

GOD SPEAKS directly at the beginning (1:8) and at the end (21:5) of the Book of Revelation. Those who receive CHRIST in this life are already “NEW CREATIONS” (2 Corinthians 5:17), but we live in a sinful world (Romans 8:19-22) until the time that it will become new. WHAT A MAKEOVER THAT WILL BE!

The hallmark of the NEW JERUSALEM is THE CONSTANT PRESENCE OF GOD WITH HIS PEOPLE. There will be no need for a tabernacle because GOD’S PRESENCE WITH HIS PEOPLE WILL BE PERMANENT. In HIS PRESENCE, the memory of painful past experiences will be erased, and HE “SHALL WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS FROM THEIR EYES.” This image of a loving father comforting his child should provide us with the assurance that our past experiences have not gone unnoticed by our HEAVENLY FATHER. The earthly distress that we have experienced will no longer exist. In the NEW JERUSALEM, there will be no more death, sorrow, or pain; hence, THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD WILL NEVER CRY AGAIN.

3. A NEW BEGINNING (vv.5-7)

Just as JESUS EXCLAIMED, “It is finished!” when HIS WORK which provided our salvation was complete (John 19:30), so also GOD WILL ANNOUNCE, “IT IS DONE” (Revelation 21:6) at the end of human history.

Here, in verse 6, CHRIST is called the “ALPHA AND OMEGA.” Alpha and Omega is the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The author explains this first phrase by saying, HE’S “THE BEGINNING AND THE END.”

THE ONE WHO once offered a woman at a well “living water” (John 4:10) and said that “living water” could spring up inside of HIS PEOPLE (John 7:37-38; cf. Zechariah 14:8) promises in Revelation to give unto those who thirst of “the fountain of the water of life freely.” Look up Isaiah 5:1. Compare this promise in Revelation 21:6 with those in Revelation 2:7, 10a, 17, 28; 3:5, 12, and 21.

4. THE GLORY OF GOD REVEALED (21:22-25)

The absence of temporal want or need in the presence of GOD is reemphasized in verses 22 and 23. Just as the eternal presence of GOD means there is no need for a physical tabernacle, so the presence of GOD THE FATHER and GOD THE SON mean there is no need for a sun or a moon within the NEW JERUSALEM. THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE LAMB WILL PROVIDE THE LIGHT.

Despite the fact that old Jerusalem was always thought of by the Jews as the Temple City, the “New Jerusalem” (Revelation 21:2) will have “no temple” (v.22). Presently, the LORD JESUS makes HIS TEMPLE INSIDE OF HIS PEOPLE (1 Corinthians 3:17; 6:19), so if a church building should burn down, the real “temple” still goes on. IT IS US!

Verse 23 is similar to Isaiah 60:19-20. GOD’S brilliance (or glory) is the only light fixture needed! “GOD IS LIGHT” (1 John 1:5), and GOD LIVES “in the light which no [one] can approach unto” (1 Timothy 6:16). Light is a symbol of GOD’S PERFECTION AND PERFECT TRUTH.

Some Bible students have understood verses 24 and 25 as referring back to the earthly, thousand- year reign of CHRIST (Revelation 20:1-6). Others hold that eternity here is simply being pictured like an ancient walled city where people went “in and out” (Psalm 121: 8; John 10:9). Of course, the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:2 and 10 is said to come down out of heaven, presumably onto a new earth (21:1).

In verse 24, the city contributes something to the people (they “walk in the light of it”) and the people contribute something to the city (they “bring the glory and honor into it”). This is a fulfillment of Isaiah 60:3: “Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”

The NEW JERUSALEM is pictured like the ancient walled cities with gates that would be closed at night for protection. However, in the eternal city, “the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day” (v.25); there are no invasions to fear (cf. Isaiah 60:11).

5. THE GLORY OF THE SAINTS REVEALED (v.26-27)

It is clear here that the citizens of the city are only those who are CHRIST’S. There shall enter none who “defileth.” This is the Greek word koinon (pronounced koy-NAHN), which means “common.” Nothing morally dirty will enter that eternal city.

While the glory of the FATHER and the SON are represented by LIGHT, the glory of the saints is represented by purity. Some scholars have theorized that the word “nation” refers to the place the Gentiles have among the redeemed. Others presume that the saints will have territorial reign not only in heaven, but on the new earth as well.

Conspicuously absent from the New Jerusalem are sinners. There will be no one in the HOLY CITY who can defile or corrupt it in any way. Only those saints whose works have been judged and found faithful, whose names are “written in the LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE,” will have a place in the New Heaven.

It is only when we have the assurance of our salvation through CHRIST that physical death is no longer frightening to us. With the assurance that JESUS CHRIST, the SON OF THE LIVING GOD has indeed prepared a place for us, we can conquer our fears and look forward to leaving this world to join HIM in that prepared place, THE NEW JERUSALEM.

THINK ABOUT IT!!!!

Spiritually Yours,

Rev. Chris Lowe, Sr. DD

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