I guess we’d all express the perfect world differently for some it may involve lots of sport, for others laying on a beach, or sailing a boat, or shopping. But all of our perfect worlds would have something’s in common. It would be a world without poverty, a world without pollution, a world without crime, a world without sickness, a world where wealth is distributed evenly, a world where we wouldn’t grow old or have to lose those that we have loved, a world without terrorists, a place where loneliness is extinct, where we were never hurt by others and where we in turn never hurt others. Isn’t that the world we all want?
Is it just a dream? Like those of Martin Luther King and others, whose dreams were never realised. But this hope, this dream is different and Revelation 21 and 22 gives us a glimpse of just such a world and if you are a Christian, if you are following Jesus Christ that is your hope, a new earth with all the bad bits taken out.
Revelation is a little bit like the scene in the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy pulls back the curtain to reveal reality, not an all powerful wizard but an old man. But in Revelation as the curtains are pulled back, John, and we with him, get a glimpse not of a weak old fraud pulling the wool over peoples eyes BUT of the Almighty, majestic God in all his glory and we see him ruling. We get a glimpse of the real reality, of the events behind the events we see. And here at the end of the book are the final images before the curtain falls back in place and they are images to inspire and encourage, just like the rest of the book, because they show us the certain future of God’s people.
There are two images in these two chapters both of which have their roots in the Old Testament but which are transformed and fully realised in the believers future. They tell us that we will be:
1. Citizens in the New Jerusalem
The first image is of (2) “the Holy City, the New Jerusalem…” and the description of it is couched in terms that are hundreds of years old used by the prophet Isaiah 65:17-19.
“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
Nor will they come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I will create,
For I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people;
The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.”
Do you see the words that Isaiah uses to describe God’s peoples future reality? It is a place that God makes for his people, a new heaven and a new earth, it is a place of joy and delight to those who will be there but which will also be a place God will rejoice over and in which he will delight in his people who are there. That is an amazing idea isn’t it God will delight in his people who are there. It is the New Jerusalem which God has prepared (2) a place where God’s people gather ready to enter relationship with God.
It is a place where there is no barrier to relationship that’s why in (1) it says there was no longer any sea, the sea was a symbol of conflict, chaos and separation. But in the New Jerusalem there is no sea why? Because there is no separation and no chaos and this new earth is marked by relationship and security.
Notice it is not heaven as the Simpsons portray it, there are no clouds, no harps, no sandals. It is a new heaven and a new earth with all the bad bits removed.
What marks this new creation (1) is relationship with God (3). In Revelation voices matter, the words that are spoken are important. That is what the voice announces from the throne as John watches this scene that is what he needs to understand, that is the cause of everything else that is good and wonderful about the new creation about the new Jerusalem, it is the direct result of God’s presence and relationship.
“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.”
Sometimes we find relationship with God hard don’t we? Praying can be a battle, understanding the Bible can be hard, making sense of life can be difficult, and we constantly fight against ourselves and our sinful natures. Why is that? Is that we are not Christians? No. Is it that we are not very good Christians? No. It is that we are on the frontline living in a fallen world in the midst of the cosmic conflict between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of opposition, and because we have not fully realised our relationship with God yet.
It is because we live in a ruined world. But in the new creation, the promise is of a totally unfettered and unhindered relationship with God. That is the most significant feature of the new Jerusalem, in fact it is what makes it what it is, that’s why it is emphasized. Not only do we share a city but “They will be his people, and God himself will be their God.” It is not just a shared place but a realised relationship.
The things that we look forward to, the world with no death, or mourning, or crying or pain are the overflow of living in a world which is in relationship with God.
Why are those things absent? (4) Because God is there, God wipes away all their tears as he wipes away the old order of things.
2. A servant in Eden restored
In chapter 22 the image changes slightly to an image that is even older than that of Jerusalem, it is the image of the Garden of Eden. There are the rivers, and there is the tree of life, as in Eden in Genesis 1.
But this is not a return to Eden as we see it at the end of Genesis 3, and Eden scarred and barred, but Eden in all its glory of Genesis 1 and 2, a world which God says is “good”. Look at (3) “No longer will there be any curse.” It is Eden perfected, Adam and Eve removed the key stone that governed the kingdom when they challenged God’s rule. And every second of suffering since is a direct consequence of that challenging of God’s right to rule and our determination to depose him and usurp his throne. But God is bringing his people inexorably to a day when we will experience Eden again.
But though this is an image of Eden restored it is also Eden transformed. (1,3) Unlike Genesis 1-3 where we know God walked with Adam in the new creation God’s throne is there, there is no night, there is no need of the sun because God is its light, and his name marks his people, and the lamb is there.
This second image is marked again by relationship as the curse is undone, God’s people can serve him (3-4) and see him. There is no barrier to knowing God, no battle to serve God, no striving against temptation, and all made possible for all eternity because it is secured by the lamb.
Every moment of struggle for relationship, every second of frustration, every pang of pain, every death is meant to make us long for home. But how can we be certain of this future?
3. How can we be certain?
‘I want to stand where you’re standing’, those are the words you’ll find on a grave stone in America and underneath it is the story behind those words. During the American civil war, a group of confederates were lined up and about to be executed when a 19 year old Yankee soldier recognised the man he was about to shoot. He marched over to his senior officer and said Sir, I cannot shoot this man. I know if I shoot him I end the lives of his young children too. That young man walked over and stood before the condemned man and said those words, I want to stand where you’re standing, he took his place and the confederate soldier left to go home to his family, and that 19 year old was executed in his place. I want to stand where you’re standing.
How can we be certain of this future? Because Jesus came and stood where we are standing, because of the presence of the Lamb in the city, the Lamb who in chapter 5 we see slain. The Lamb who came to earth and gave us glimpses of what the world we all want looks like in reality. Who gives us a glimmer of what our future will be like in the new creation as citizens of the New Jerusalem and servants in Eden restored.
Jesus does it as he calms the storm, as he heals a sick woman, as he feeds the hungry, as he delivers the oppressed, as he raises the dead back to life. As he stands where we should be standing as he goes to the cross and dies in our place for our rebellion. We know it’s our future as he rises and ascends into heaven to prepare a place for his blood bought people.
Why does Jesus do that? Because he has to. Look at (21:27) “Nothing impure will ever enter it…but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Jesus has to die in our place because nothing impure can enter this new creation. This future is only for those who are pure because otherwise it will not be the world we all want.
How can you be made pure, you have your name written in the Lamb’s book of life. You confess your opposition to God and your longing for a world marked by relationship with him and you trust that Jesus came and stood in your place so that you can stand in his as a citizen and servant in the new creation for eternity.
The Lamb wins – The simple three word slogan was all the poster said on the sign erected outside the small Methodist church in Prague. It was Nov 27th 1989, the day communist domination came to an end in Czechoslovakia. Until that day even displaying the title church was forbidden. But now the message was blatantly and strikingly displayed for all to see; The Lamb wins. Not in the sense of victory over communism at last, but Christ the lamb is always the winner. He was winning when the church was being harassed and seemingly crushed by the communists, but now the church could proclaim what it had always believed, what had always been the truth; ‘The Lamb wins.’
If you want a tag line for Revelation, a snappy but accurate summary of the book, it is: The Lamb Wins! The Lamb wins, that is reality, and because the Lamb wins he secures our future for us as citizens of the New Jerusalem and servants in Eden Restored because he stands in our place. Live as if the Lamb wins because that is reality, it is where history in inevitably heading.
Do you see the encouragement for us in these chapters, it is the destination of those who believe and put their faith in Jesus. That is our destination no matter what happens now and it is certain, because of Jesus, because of the Lamb.
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