Source: https://nightlightblogdotcom.wordpress.com/tag/the-future/page/2/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 07:03:09+00:00

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Revelation 21:9-27: The Eternal City.
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 twelves 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 measure 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 one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
There is a city on this earth which claims to be eternal. As we’ve seen in earlier posts, this claim will be shown to be incorrect. Though it’s in a different context, something God said in the last part of Jeremiah 44:28 might apply here: [They] shall know whose words will stand, Mine or theirs. There is only one city which will endure into eternity. That city is described in our text.
The city is almost beyond description, certainly beyond our ability to picture it. The most important thing about it, though, is said right away. It’s not it’s impressive size nor its unbelievable beauty. The most important thing is – it has the glory of God, v. 11. This is implied in the fact that the it’s called the holy Jerusalem, v. 10, but not everything that called holy in this world has the glory of God, and maybe not anything. This city is not of this world.
John says her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. This is also the description of the wall surrounding the city, v. 18. There’s some discussion about what this “jasper stone” is. Some think it might have been green like an emerald, others think it is a diamond. Whatever it is, the Shekinah glory of God shining through its crystalline structure will be breathtaking. We’ve seen the beauty of light refracted through a diamond, or, for that matter, the beauty of light refracted through drops of rain in a rainbow. I used to drive for a living. One day, a storm had just passed and there was a rainbow, one end of which was right there on the hood of my truck. It’s the only time I’ve experienced it, but that rainbow so close up was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t even begin to describe it. I don’t know exactly what the city will look like, but earthly examples will pale into nothing compared to what we will see in the New Jerusalem.
In v. 16, John tells us the city is laid out as a square, 1500 miles to a side, and 1500 miles high. This is certainly like no earthly city! It appears to be a cube, though Ironside envisioned it as a triangle, with the apex being at the throne of God. Others see it as a circle. It’s surrounded by a wall 216 feet high, with three gates on each side attended by an angel, though it’s unclear what their function will be in a holy and righteous environment, v. 12.
The really interesting thing about these gates in v. 12 is that each gate is named after one of the twelve tribes of Israel. We’ll come back to this in a moment.
In v. 14, John tells us that this wall had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Cf. Ephesians 2:20.
Let me turn aside for just a minute. The Lord Jesus is referred to as “the Lamb” 26 times in Revelation. I think there’s something here that we need to remember. It’s so easy to get all wrapped up in the splendor of this city and of the prospect of streets of gold and of pearly gates that we forget one vital fact. In 5:6, the first reference to Him, John saw a Lamb as it had been slain.
You see, much of this would not be possible, at least as far as we’re concerned, if the Lord Jesus had never been born of the virgin, lived a perfect and sinless life, died a substitutionary and atoning death on the Cross, and rose from the dead. Heaven would still be heaven; we just wouldn’t be there. We get so wrapped up in the blessings He bought for us that we tend to forget the price He paid for them. But throughout eternity, He will be worshiped as the Lamb.
We should be doing that now.
John mentions our Lord’s twelve apostles as each being named on one of the city’s twelve foundations. In v. 12, he mentions the twelve tribes of Israel.
There are a couple of major views of the place of Israel in God’s redemptive plan. One view says that God is finished with Israel; she has no further place in God’s purpose. When she crucified the Lord, she shut the door in His face – and in hers. She’s done. “The church” has taken her place and her blessings, though in a “spiritual” sense. The OT prophecies will not be fulfilled “literally,” but spiritually, in the church. A second view is that when Israel crucified her Messiah, God’s original plan was frustrated, and so He instituted “Plan B”: the church. This is the view I was brought up with and held in the days of my youth.
Since then, though, I’ve come to look at this a different way. The church is no “plan B”; how can a believer even have such a low view of God? Sadly, too many do. I don’t know about you, but if God had to change His plan every time I mess something up, He’d be way beyond plan B. I know I’ve said that before, but it’s still true. No wonder Christianity is in the mess it’s in! Who wants to follow and serve such a feeble god?
No, no. The Church is not some “Plan B”. She is “Part B”.
The death of Christ didn’t catch God by surprise. It didn’t throw a monkey wrench into the works. That’s why our Lord came into the world in the first place – not just to live, but to die. Israel’s rejection was just the means of accomplishing that. And it’s through that death that she will ultimately be reconciled to her Lord, Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:26.
In Ephesians 3:6, Paul wrote that Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel. The early church had a lot of trouble with the idea that Gentiles could come to the Lord Jesus on their own without having to become Jews first. This is what Acts 10 and 11 are all about: the extension of the Gospel and salvation to Gentiles.
In Ephesians 2:12, 13, Paul reminded the Christians at Ephesus, who were Gentile, about their pre-conversion state: that at time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, emphasis added. In 2:14, he wrote that it was God’s purpose through the Lord Jesus, who Himself is our peace, then in v. 15, 16, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two,…and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, emphasis added.
The church isn’t a replacement for Israel. She isn’t some spiritual version of Israel. She is a “new man”, a new thing: a body composed of both Jew and Gentile. Ethnicity counts for nothing in the church – or it’s not supposed to – where there is neither Jew nor Greek, Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11. I suppose in our day he might have written, “there is neither black nor white nor brown.” He doesn’t deny our ethnicity or our gender or our economic status; it’s just that at the foot of the Cross, none of that matters. It’s a shame that so much of our thinking even in the church is shaped by politics rather than by the plain teaching of the Word of God.
Though united in the holy city, Israel and the Church will never lose their distinctive identities.
Having said all that John has, still the wonder of the New Jerusalem isn’t its physical beauty or size. As he mentioned in v. 3, where he said that God would dwell with men and do away with sorrow and suffering, here in vs. 22-26, he elaborates a little on that thought. We won’t get into that so much because we have nothing to compare it with. Our history and culture as a world has nothing like it. It may be that things will be somewhat like they might have been had our first parents never sinned. The important thing is that God will be there. All else is insignificant.
In v. 27, John closes on a solemn note. God will be there, but not every person will be there. There are some who will be excluded, some things not permitted. There shall by no means enter into anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Once again, we get into this idea of being saved. Oh, that we might understand this. Not everyone is going to “a better place.” The truth is, not a single one of us deserves to go to such a place. We’re all sinners by birth and too often by choice. Apart from the Lord Jesus, we live under God’s wrath and condemnation, John 3:18, 36. Only through Him is there salvation from our sin and our condemnation.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, Acts16:31.

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