Revelation: A New Place…Better Than Ever

2023-08-13

Pastor Jonathan Falwell

A Recap:

Chapter 1        John’s vision of Jesus, Jesus’ message for the churches, and His plans for eternity

Chs 2-3           Jesus delivers a message to each of the 7 churches

Chs 4-7           Jesus pulls back the curtain and unveils what things must happen and will happen

Chs 8-10         We walked through the 7 trumpets, then the Little Scroll that God had them seal up what the seven thunders said and not write them down

Chs 11-12       We were introduced to 2 witnesses who were killed by the antichrist and continues the campaign of persecuting Israel as an attack on God and His promises to Israel with the ultimate goal of destroying Jesus Christ

Chapter 13      The beast of the sea and the beast of the earth

Chapter 14      The Great Tribulation

Chs 15-16       The Bowls of Wrath & the Vision of Destruction

Chs 17-18       Woman & the Beast; The Fall of Great Babylon

Chs 19-20       The Second Coming of Christ; The Final Judgment

Chapter 21      The Place of Eternity Revealed

In chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation we find a return to God’s original design which is found in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. God created perfection, yet the serpent (Satan) in Genesis 3 persuaded man to sin. In Genesis chapters 1 and 2, Satan is not found just as he is not found in Revelation 21 and 22. Why? Because as we wrapped up last week from chapter 20, the final judgment took place in that Satan and all of his followers were cast into the lake of fire for all of eternity.

Revelation 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Genesis	Revelation
Heavens and Earth Created (1:1)	New heavens and earth recreated (21:1)
Sun created (1:16)	No need of the sun (21:23)
The night established (1:5)	No night there (22:5)
The seas created (1:10)	No more seas (21:1)
The curse announced (3:14–17)	No more curse (22:3)
Death enters history (3:19)	Death exits history (21:4)
Man driven from paradise (3:24)	Man restored to paradise (22:14)
Sorrow and pain begin (3:17)	Sorrow, tears, and pain end (21:4)
The Devil appears (3:1)	The Devil disappears (20:10)[1]

So, now we see what happens to those whose names ARE written in the Book of Life.

John 14:1-4 Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴ And where I go you know, and the way you know.

1. The current heavens and earth destroyed, and a new heaven and earth is found

Revelation 21:1-27 (NKJV) Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. ² Then I, John, 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 heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and betheir God.

• Mark Hitchcock says, “The Greek word for “new” in Revelation 21:1 is kainos, which denotes something not just new in time but new qualitatively. Something that is different and superior to the old. It will be a perfect place existing in a perfect environment.”^[2]
• After the 1,000-year reign of Christ on THIS earth, God now creates a new Heaven and Earth where we will live for eternity
• God will be with us permanently
• Adrian Rogers said, “Adrian Rogers used to say, “Death is only a comma to a Christian—not a period!”^[3]

2. This “new place” is greater than we could ever imagine

⁴ 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.” ⁵ Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” ⁶ And He said to me, “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. ⁷ He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”

• Here we find some of the greatest words in all of Scripture which point to the supreme and eternal comfort only God can give
• In verse 5, God Himself speaks the words, “I make all things new”
• We find a interesting statement in verse where God says we shall be His “son” (This is not a specific statement to men only, it is generic and encompasses anyone who has believed in Jesus as Savior and Lord)
• Paige Patterson says, “Therefore, God is not just present with the human family, but he actually maintains a relationship as of a father to his son. While God has but one ontological Son, namely, Jesus, the Word of God (John 3:16), he has many children by adoption (Rom 8:15, 23; Gal 4:5). And the children who by faith have been adopted into the family of God are just as much the heirs and joint heirs as the supernatural Son of God. Hence, the relationship is not just one of the benefits enumerated in the previous verses but also includes the son’s inheritance bequeathed by his father.”^[4]

3. This place is only for the ones who believed

^8 “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 the second death.”

• Again we are reminded of Revelation 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
• Vernon McGee states, “Finally, the lake of fire is eternal, for it is the second death, and there is no third resurrection. It is eternal separation from God, and there is nothing as fearful and frightful as that.”^[5]

4. So, what is the place really like?

⁹ Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” ¹⁰ 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, ¹¹ having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. ¹² Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: ¹³ three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. ¹⁴ Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. ¹⁵ And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. ¹⁶ The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. ¹⁷ Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. ¹⁸ The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. ¹⁹ The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. ²¹ The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

• Kendall Easley states, “The glory of God was magnificently displayed in his throne room, as John had seen in chapter 4. When Moses had set up the Israelites’ tabernacle in the wilderness, it was filled with the visible, shining manifestation of God (Exod. 40:34–35). Now the entire Holy City, Jerusalem, visually declares his presence.”^[6]
• The twelve gates represent the twelve tribes of Israel
• Verse 16 – The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. – This would represent a “cube” of 1,400 miles long, wide, and tall.
• Ultimately, this “cube” would be equal to the distance between San Francisco and Houston and from the tip of Texas to the tip of Michigan, and then that tall again
• Verse 17 – Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man… – Here the thickness of the wall is described as about 216 feet.
• The passage leads us to believe the New Jerusalem is actually not descending to Earth and that is suspended between Heaven and Earth
• Ed Hindson states, “The picture painted in this chapter is that of the New Jerusalem suspended between heaven and earth. It is the final and permanent bond between the two. Notice also that the new earth, not just heaven, is a part of the final state. It would appear that the redeemed saints of God travel from heaven to earth by means of the levels of the eternal city.”^[7]

5. Jesus at the center of it all

²² But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. ²⁴ And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. ²⁵ Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). ²⁶ And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. ²⁷ But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

• The absence of a temple leads us to the fact that God and His Son are its temple
• The eternal presence of God eliminates the need for a Sun
• While gates indicate a level of security, they are not needed for there is no sin in this place
• This is the ultimate return to God’s perfect design

^[1] Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Revelation, ed. Daniel L. Akin, David Platt, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2016), 326.

^[2] Mark Hitchcock, The End: Everything You’ll Want to Know about the Apocalypse (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2012), 451.

^[3] Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Revelation, ed. Daniel L. Akin, David Platt, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2016), 329.

^[4] Paige Patterson, Revelation, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 39, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2012), 366.

^[5] J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary: The Prophecy (Revelation 14-22), electronic ed., vol. 60 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 172.

^[6] Kendell H. Easley, Revelation, vol. 12, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 398.

^[7] Ed Hindson, Revelation: Unlocking the Future, Twenty-First Century Biblical Commentary Series (AMG Publishers, 2002), 215.