1. The Book of Revelation Chapter 21-22
December 14, 2016

2. 1-3
4-7
8-11
12-16
17-19 20
21-22
Vision of Jesus and Seven letters to seven churches
Throne of God & Scroll with seven seals
Seven trumpets
Christ, the Dragon & the Seven Bowls
The Harlot on Seven Hills & the Bride
The King reigns
New Heaven & New Earth
Each ends with a promise of 2nd Coming
Christ wipes away every tear (7:17)
Christ will reign forever & ever (11:15)
Fall of the nations
“It is done” (16:17)
Rider on the White Horse (19:16)
Judge &
Lake of Fire
I am coming quickly (22:20)

3. Revelation 21 & 22
The final two chapters present the glorious future awaiting believers of all time.
From here on the Revelation is a glorious and hopeful sight, one that is clearly meant to strengthen and reinforce the believer in any time and any circumstance
There is no question of the extraordinarily great reward God has for His followers and it is presented in fantastic terms here
The eternal state of both the saved and lost is described in the first 8 verses of chapter 21
Verses 9 through 27 present the beautiful and amazing description of the New Jerusalem

4. Revelation 21:1-3 The New Heaven and the New Earth
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
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 dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

5. Revelation 21:1-3
We saw the passing away of old creation at the conclusion of the Great White Throne Judgement – it was fulfillment from what Jesus said in Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
It is also described in 2 Peter 3:7, 10-13, “But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly … But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed … the Day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
In the new world it appears the sea is eliminated – possibly because of its connotation with wickedness (Isaiah 57:20, “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.”)

6. Revelation 21:1-3
The New Jerusalem is the heavenly or celestial city which comes to hover eternally over the new earth in the new heavens
The New Jerusalem is the one Christ has been preparing for two thousand years as Jesus said in John 14:2, “I go to prepare a place for you”
Now God descends to live among His people – as He had intended at the beginning in the garden.
It is the perfect circle of God’s plan and His will played out that He brings all to the perfect place He has always intended

7. Revelation 21:4-6
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I lam making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

8. Revelation 21:4-6
Verse 4 should be among the favorite verses of all God’s people – it is the ultimate reassurance – all bad will be eliminated and this clearly goes hand in hand with 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is you victory?”
This clearly shows the great and total victory of God and His will over all
As great as this is, still the greater fact is that God’s people will see His face (verse 22:4)
God’s words in verse 6 are an echo and can be translated exactly as Jesus’ last words on the cross – “It is Done (Finished)”
Now God’s will has been completely accomplished in His Son Jesus Christ, God is the beginning and the end, and again this is shown in Jesus
All creation began without sin through Jesus
All creation has ended without sin through Jesus

9. Revelation 21:4-6
God also promises to us, as Jesus promised to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:13-14, “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.”) to completely satisfy our spiritual thirsts forever

10. Revelation 21:7-8
7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and she will be my son.
8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

11. Revelation 21:7-8
Who is the conqueror? He is the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God – the follower of Jesus who is saved by faith and by our Lord and Savior
Verse 8 clearly states those who will be condemned to the lake of fire in the judgement of chapter 20:11-15
There is no second chance when they come to final judgement – this is the final end state
The cowardly – those who rejected Jesus to avoid ridicule or persecution
The faithless – rejected Christ’s deity and shed blood as the only means of obtaining eternal life
The detestable – those engaged in wickedness and wicked acts – some may claim to know God but their lives and actions show otherwise
The sorcerers – those engaged in the occult
The idolaters – those who worshipped or revered anyone or anything over or before God

12. Revelation 21:9-11 The New Jerusalem
9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,
11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

13. Revelation 21:12-14
12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—
13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.
14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and hon them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

14. Revelation 21:9-14
John is carried to a point where he can have a fuller appreciation of the City of God as it descends from heaven
John is impressed by its brilliance, size and beauty (as would be expected of the city where our Lord would choose to reside)
There is an interesting lesson here in the construction of the city – why would God’s city have walls? There is no evil, no war anymore so nothing needing to be kept out of the city
The reason is to remind God’s people that He protected His people while they were on earth
The wall is an eternal memorial to the fact that we owe all to God and His loving care
It is possible that the 12 angels who man the 12 gates are the angels who were responsible to those tribes during their time on earth

15. Revelation 21:15-18
15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls.
16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal.
17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement.
18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.

16. Revelation 21:15-18
We see that the city is squared in shape, a perfect cube in fact
The distance of the sides of the city – 12,000 stadia – equals approximately 1500 miles – so the city is 1500 miles cubed
The size if put over the U.S. would cover ¾ of the country – North to South from Main to Florida, East to West from the East Coast to Colorado
Given the size in every direction, it could contain every person who has ever been born plus billions more
The wall around the city – 144 cubits – is approximately 216 feet high ( a cubit is the distance from a man’s elbow to the tip of his middle finger, approximately 18 inches)
The wall of the city is made of jasper – a stone with quartz in it that is usually red, yellow, brown or green in color – and it represents Jesus in His radiant glory
The pure gold city shows the righteousness of God’s holy nature

17. Revelation 21:19-21
19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,
20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.
21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

18. Revelation 21:19-21
The collection of stones are believed by some to show the Lord’s attributes as well as various aspects of His redemptive work
They are also the twelve stones worn by the high priest of Israel
One thing is certain – these jewels shoe the unbelievable splendor of the city
The foundations of the city are visible because the city likely hovers above the ground
Pearls were highly prized in the ancient world – imagine an oyster large enough to produce pearls the size of city gates
The gold of the city and streets also represents the purity and cost beyond calculation of God and His salvation
Remember that ancient glass was normally dark and filled with flaws, only kings and the most wealthy possessed clear glass and in the temple only the priests walked on gold floors
These are signs of the great splendor accorded to everyone in God’s great city

19. Revelation 21:22-25
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,
25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.

20. Revelation 21:26-27
26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

21. Revelation 21:22-27
Under the new covenant we know that God is wherever His people meet – He is not confined to a temple
This is shown in its fullest expression here at the beginning of eternity with Him – He is present among His people, God the Father and God the Son are the temple in the midst of His people
In His presence there is no need any longer for a sun or moon because the glory of the Lord provides all the light now in His presence
Verses 24 and 26 are hard to interpret – there is much discussion but none really are fitting with what God has revealed
It is most likely an illustration by John to show the ultimate state of peace in God’s new world, but it would seem unlikely that there will be nations in this new world
Because of God’s constant light and the end of evil there is no need to close the gates, there is no evil or rebellion to deal with any longer

22. Revelation 21:22-27
Verse 27 simply restates all that has been shown – all the detestable and evil cannot enter the City of God because they are in the Lake of Fire
Only God’s redeemed are with Him, those whose names are written in the Book of Life
With the total absence of evil and the doers of evil then certainly none will enter the city or cause any further harm or sin in God’s perfect new creation

23. Revelation 22:1-3 The River of Life
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

24. Revelation 22:4-5
4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

25. Revelation 22:1-5
This closing chapter continues our tour of the new Jerusalem and reinforces the fact that only those saved by the righteousness of Christ are admitted
We see in the first verses that even in our new bodies we will get to continue to enjoy the habit of eating
Remember we will be like Christ who, in His glorified body, ate in the presence of the disciples
We will drink the best drink ever – pure water from the throne of God
We are now allowed to eat of the 12 different kinds of fruit from the Tree of Life and even the leaves of the Tree will provide health to the nations living in the light of God
Obviously the curse from the Garden has now been completely removed and all are in God’s intended relationship with Him which He desired from the beginning

26. Revelation 22:1-5
Another essential gift we are shown is that we will see the face of our Lord – remember that man has never been allowed to see His face without death but now we are blessed with looking on His perfect face
God’s intense glory will be the light for all of us and provide the warmth that the sun once did – in His perfect presence God now provides all for us

27. Revelation 22:6-8 Jesus Is Coming
6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
7 “And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me,

28. Revelation 22:6-8
John is now told why God has given him this revelation – so that he can relate this, show this, to God’s people, what is to come
Again we see a difference in God’s time and ours – to God who is infinite all this will come quickly but we do ourselves a disservice if we try to confine God to our human time ideas and constraints
Another key thing to remember in terms of time is that the quickness of it refers to the pace of events when they begin – not necessarily to hours, days or years
Blessed are those who keep God’s Word and obey Him because they have nothing to fear when all of His revelation takes place
The power of God and His revelation is such that John again makes the mistake of falling down in worship to the messenger angel

29. Revelation 22:9-12
9 but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
10 And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.
11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.

30. Revelation 22:9-12
In spite of John’s repeated mistake we see the gracious love and forgiveness of God – even after warning John and his repeated error, we know that God loves and forgives and sees to him
When God gave His prophesy to Daniel, the prophet was told to “seal the book until the time of the end” (Daniel 12:4)
Now, with the Revelation of Jesus, John is told NOT to seal up this prophesy
In Greek the word used for time is “Kairos” which means “opportune moment” or “correct season”
The angel is telling John that the time for revealing of the prophetic truth has come
We are told that we now must think of how we behave and who we follow since He is coming quickly (in His time) and we must be obedient and ready

31. Revelation 22:13-16
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

32. Revelation 22:13-16
Jesus is telling us that He was there at the beginning and will be the One who ends all things – He will through His work save and complete the redemption of the very creation He made
Those “who wash their robes” show that we must prepare and be obedient to Jesus – our robes, our lives, hearts and souls, must be washed in the Blood of our Lamb, Jesus Christ our Savior
We have seen the punishment of the “dogs” and “sorcerers” – those who have rejected Jesus and the new birth of accepting Him – they are “outside” as in the Lake of Fire
Jesus tells us He inaugurated and guaranteed this Revelation
Jesus is God of the Old Testament as the “root of David” – He is David’s Lord
As the “offspring of David” He is the Messiah, the Son of God, the incarnate Christ

33. Revelation 22:17-19
17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,
19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

34. Revelation 22:17-19
God compassionately calls to us all to come to Him – we have several calling us 1) the Spirit; 2) the Bride of Christ; 3) everyone who hears and believes; 4) and your own spiritual thirst is calling you to come to Jesus
As we are so graciously called by our creator to our salvation with Him, we are reminded of the seriousness of this invitation and this Revelation
Anyone who rejects His invitation, anyone who considers the message of Revelation unimportant, anyone who dismisses it should BEWARE
God Himself warns us of the ABSOLUTE IMPORTANCE of this prophesy
Do not disregard these words and do not manipulate them!!
God means what He says and He has chosen to reveal so much to us BUT it is for His purposes and not for man’s purposes
We must take His words and His warnings to heart and take the water of life that He has offered us in full gratitude to Him

35. Revelation 22:20-21
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

36. Revelation 22:20-21
Jesus’ final promise of the Revelation is “Surely I am coming soon”
When we see the beginning of these events we should know that all follows quickly
BUT do not be misled into thinking in man’s time, step back and take God’s time into account
Wait, be watchful, be faithful, know that He means what He says and go to Him – live this time before the end in pursuit of Him and a strong, eternal, loving relationship with Him
With that relationship the rest is only a matter of course because you already have accepted His living water and you are in His Book of Life
May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all!!!

37. Questions?