Revelation 21 – The New Heaven and New Earth, and the New Jerusalem

Revelation 21:1

(1) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; (2) for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, (3) and there is no longer any sea.

  1. There will be a completely new heaven and new earth.  Not a “re-tread”, as in a truck tire, but brand new completely.  The first were completely dissolved in the coming of Christ, and this is a completely new creation.
  2. The first heaven and earth had passed away, meaning, they were no longer.
  3. This could refer to the crystal sea before the throne.  Without the need for separation, there was no longer a need for a sea before the throne, and God’s throne could co-mingle upon the Earth, however He saw fit.  Consider, when the sea is seen in the Old Testament, the prophet always appears to be looking up through the sea at the throne.  In the Revelation, because of the blood of the Lamb, John appears to see the throne room from on top of the sea.  Here, the sea is done away with completely, revealing no more need for a division.

Revelation 21:2

(1) And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, (2) coming down out of heaven from God, (3) made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

  1.  This, then, is the new city for the New Earth.
  2. It is coming down out of the New Heaven.  It is the city that God built, the one Abraham was looking for.
  3. The city, presumably the church, is the bride.

Revelation 21:3-4

(1) And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, (2) “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and (3) He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and (4) there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; (5) the first things have passed away.”

  1. God Himself appears to speak.
  2. The tabernacle, the dwelling of God, is with men, and He now dwells with them completely.  What was true in the church is now true in the whole.  What was by faith in the powers of the age to come, has become the present age (which is still future), in John’s vision.
  3. There will be perfection, and peace.  No more striving or loss.
  4. Death has been destroyed, and cast into the lake of fire.  No one will die there.  No sadness or grief.
  5. The first Earth is completely removed.  This cannot be a re-made Earth, a “re-tread”.  The record of even the destruction of Noah’s day is encased within one mile of sediment in the fossil record.  This is not done away with.  This is not re-made.  The world we live in is not like God’s first creation.  It is broken, and like all of the fallen humanity, shows the signs of the fall.  The New Earth shall be perfect, and the universe without corruption.  The first has passed away.

Revelation 21:5

(1) And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (2) And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

  1. All things are made new.  Reflects the previous verse.
  2. The words are “faithful and true”.  They are altogether trustworthy.

Revelation 21:6-8

(1) Then He said to me, “It is done. (2) I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. (3) I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. (4) He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. (5) But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and 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.

  1. All is done, likely refers to the time of handing all things back to the Father, along with the creation of the New Heaven and New Earth.   This does not reflect the exact timing of this, but it could represent it.
  2. Jesus, who created the first world, creates the second.  The beginning and the end.
  3. Eternal life in His Kingdom is always His desire for His saints.
  4. This is promised for all those who overcome.
  5. He reminds us with a list of those who will face judgment fire.

Revelation 21:9

(1) Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, (2) Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

  1. One of the previous angels is still in view, or comes back into view.  Why specifically one of these angels is the messenger at this point is not certain.
  2. The angel will show John the New Jerusalem.

Revelation 21:10-11

(1) And he carried me away in the Spirit (2) to a great and high mountain, and (3) showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, (4) coming down out of heaven from God, (5) having the glory of God. (6) Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. 

  1.  Still in the Spirit.
  2. The mountain is not identified, only its height and greatness.
  3. Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God.
  4. The city is coming down from God, for God has built this city, the hope of Abraham.
  5. God’s glory appears to radiate from it.
  6. This brilliance like that of jasper, which is usually reddish, but here is transparent.

Revelation 21:12-14

(1) It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; (2) and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. (3) There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. (4) And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

  1. It is described as having a wall, and gates.
  2. The twelve tribes of Jacob are on the gates, indicating this New Jerusalem, which is the church, indeed has the root of Israel.
  3. The arrangement of the gates, no longer like Old Israel, this one has gates on all sides equally.
  4. The foundation of the wall has the names of the apostles, again, indicating the church of Jesus Christ (on this rock I will build my church), again, connecting Israel to the church.  The church truly is Israel with unbelieving branches broken off and believing Gentiles grafted in. 

Revelation 21:15-17

(1) The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. (2) 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, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. (3) And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also (4) angelic measurements.

  1. As with the temple in Revelation 11, John measures this new city.
  2. The city is a square on the base, with a height.  This either means it was a cube, or, perhaps more likely, a pyramid.  This is no wise makes the pyramids of Egypt anything other than thieves and robbers, any more than it makes Nebuchadnezzar something special because he made an image and said bow down or be thrown into fire.  The demonic functions only on counterfeit, and the enemy’s main job is to so pollute and confuse the real so that people and up looking at the earthly when they are attempting to study the heavenly.  The overlap appears so convincing, at so many times, it is only in the realms of discerning of spirits that the Christian can differentiate the true from the false.  Regardless, the shape of the New Jerusalem appears to be pyramidical, and yet we know that all who attempt to re-create the things of heaven by earthly means are merely idolaters.
  3. John measured the wall.
  4. It is unclear what exactly this means, other than that, apparently, the human and angelic have now coincided, so that they are now on the same plane, the same scale, and co-exists, in some manner or fashion.

Revelation 21:18-20

The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.

  1. John sees the walls, and describes the materials.

Revelation 21:21

(1) And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. (2) And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. 

  1. The gates were of pearl, and each gate a single pearl.  As a relatively unrelated note, this disqualifies the argument that some have that the pearl of great price in the Gospels is somehow an unclean stone.  Here, the gates of the city are made of it, so it is hardly unclean.
  2. The streets are also clear, like pure, transparent glass, although gold.

Revelation 21:22-24

(1) I saw no temple in it, (2) for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. (3) And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. (4) The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

  1. And, the greatest revelation of the city is its lack of a temple.  No need for sacrifice, no need for forms and types and shadows.
  2. The Lord and the Lamb are its temple.  All sacrifice was done away with in Christ, and now, God alone is the temple.  This, and this alone, was the heart of God.
  3. Not even the sun was needed, for God lit it, and Jesus is the lamp.
  4. Even the nations walk by it.  This is the new earth, which has nations.  They all worship and honor the Lamb.  It is both spiritual and physical light, as this is the New Creation.

Revelation 21:25-27

(1) In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and (2) 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.

  1. Indeed, it is never dark, and the gates are never closed.
  2. And, it seems but a reminder, since all the wicked are done away with, but there will be no unclean thing there.  This is encouragement for the saints of light.  Let us continue to do good while we have breath, and hate evil in all ways.   Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall certainly be filled.