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Anticipation is part of daily life. It can build hope on one end, and paralyze on the other. Joy, enthusiasm, and encouragement mark it but so does disillusionment, anxiety, and fear. The substance of one’s anticipation fuels either hope or fear. Anticipation excites the emotions and drives the mind; or plunges the emotions and stifles action. We can run a broad gamut with anticipation. There’s a big difference between anticipating gall bladder surgery and that of anticipating a trip to the mountains! Different emotions result from anticipating a funeral as from anticipating a wedding. Yet we live by anticipation, whether for good or ill.
Students anticipate the opening of school doors in the morning. Parents anticipate the changing of routines from summer’s different pace. College students anticipate leaving home and meeting new friends. Senior students anticipate graduation; senior adults anticipate retirement. A strained employee anticipates Friday’s deliverance from a torrid week. A criminal might anticipate both escape and arrest. A drug addict or alcoholic or pornographer might anticipate stopping his destructive habit as well as anticipate his next indulgence.
What does anticipation have to do with your life as a disciple? Suppose you lived under the constant scrutiny of a government opposed to your faith in Christ. Suppose you were watched day and night; every word and deed in which you engaged, sifted through to find something to incriminate you. Or suppose you were Mohammed Almed Hegazy; you were raised Muslim but after hearing the gospel, you trusted Christ and became a disciple. You lived in Egypt where sharia makes no allowance for a Muslim to change his religion. Your attorney, that was to represent you before authorities to officially change your religious status, quits; the death threats against him for representing you became too much. Everywhere you turn, family, friends, those in the community that know your face, you know might turn you over to authorities who will arrest you, torture you, and likely kill you. You go into hiding. How far can you run? Who will take you in? Who can you trust? How long will it last? [Compass Direct News, 8/8/2007, “Egyptian Convert in Hiding after Lawyer Backs Out”]
This is no make-believe story. It’s happening right now. This brother’s anticipations will either paralyze him with fear or liberate him, regardless of the immediate outcome, to walk in unmeasured joy. Something similar can be found in the letters to the seven churches. Jesus told the Ephesian church that had left their first love, “To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God” (2:7). To the persecuted Smyrna church, the Lord writes, “He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death” (2:11). The church at Pergamum where the faithful Antipas had been martyred, yet had put up with idolatrous teaching, Christ told the overcomers to anticipate being fed heavenly manna (2:17). To the Thyatira church, beleaguered by immorality and false teaching, He declared that the overcomers would have authority over the nations (2:26). Overcomers in the Sardis church could count on being clothed in white garments and having their names in the book of life (3:5). To the suffering church in Philadelphia, the Lord declared, “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name” (3:12). The Laodicean church faced lukewarmness but the overcomers were promised to sit down with Christ on His throne (3:21). The anticipation of Christ’s redemptive provisions for eternity became the source of encouragement to live as overcomers. We learn something very important from both the letters to the seven churches and how it comes together in the last part of the book of Revelation. We are to find regular encouragement to live as overcomers by anticipating the New Jerusalem and all that it promises. If our hope is bound by the constraints of geography, personality, and time, then we will ultimately face despair. But if our hope—our anticipation rests upon all that Jesus Christ has secured through His redemptive work, then we will find courage and encouragement to persevere as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.
How does the teaching concerning the New Jerusalem help present-day believers to live as overcomers? Let’s consider this in two parts: first, look at the scene explaining how we are to picture the New Jerusalem; second, look at the effects of living in the New Jerusalem.
John’s description of the New Jerusalem begins in 21:2 as he calls it “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.” He then hears an angel telling him to come, and he would show him “the bride, the wife of the Lamb” (21:9). From the vantage point of a high mountain, he saw, not what he might have expected as a bride, but rather “the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God” (21:10). Then he describes the city, using metaphorical language to explain its glory, beauty, holiness, completeness, and eternal security. It was both a bride—as the community of the redeemed, and a city—as the abode of the redeemed with the throne of God and the Lamb in its midst. The city had no temple for the Lord God and the Lamb are its temple (21:22). It has no need for sun, moon, or lamp because the glory of God and the Lamb enlighten it. “The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,” showing that everything good, honorable, and God-pleasing from every culture and nationality will be included in the re-created heaven and earth (21:24, 26). The New Jerusalem includes the best from every age in the original creation, now re-ordered by the full application of the redemptive work of Christ so that every trace of sin is purged. It’s a place of endless day where the darkness of night never enters nor those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book of life (21:25-27).
The chapter division starting in chapter 22 somewhat blurs the continued description of the city that runs from 21:9-22:5. John describes things eternal; so wondrous, so perfect, so pure and holy, that only the most imaginative human language can begin to approach what he saw with some level of intelligent grasp. He’s already described the city as a perfect cube, twelve thousand stadia long, wide, and high—or to use literal ideas, a city that is 1500 miles in length, width, and height. His intention was not to be literal but to explain something of such grandeur that only this kind of imaginative language can picture for the heart what the mind cannot fathom. And so he continues by detailing the New Jerusalem.
Living in an arid climate, the clearest statement of abundantly satisfying life would be found in an eternal river. “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” He tells us something of the purity of this water—“clear as crystal.” Not tainted by pollution or chemical run-offs or debris, the river has the appearance of something so pure and brilliant that it is always inviting. And rightly so, for his intention is for us to understand it as “the water of life,” that has come from God. The Psalmist pictures this: “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns” (46:4-5). Jesus told the Samaritan woman that He alone could give her living water that would become in her “a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14). He told those hearing Him at the climax of the Feast of Booths, that believing in Him would cause rivers of living water to flow from their innermost being (John 7:36-38). This abundant water of life was anticipated by Zechariah: “And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea” (Zech. 14:8). But the primary picture that John summarizes is that of Ezekiel’s temple vision. In his vision, he saw water begin to flow from the temple, first as a trickle but the farther it flowed, the deeper it grew until it teamed with life and even brought life to the Dead Sea (Eze. 47:1-12) [cf. G. E. Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John, 286].
Wherever the water flows it provides life because it comes “from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” That’s the primary thrust of his picture: “…death with all its baleful accompaniments has been abolished and life reigns supreme” [Ladd 286]. Because of God on the throne, the New Jerusalem will never fail in maintaining superlative abundance of life for all its residents.
John very carefully emphasizes both the unity of the Godhead—that there is only one God, and the distinction of the persons in the Godhead—in this case, “God and…the Lamb.” Some ancient and modern writers suggest that in light of Jesus’ use of water to represent the Holy Spirit (John 4:14; 7:37-38), that the use of the river as the water of life points to the Holy Spirit, thus completing a complete Trinitarian picture. Regardless, John’s use of the singular “throne” for both God and the Lamb, indicates that he does not want us to think of them as two Gods or even to think of the divine persons separately without respect to the other. The oneness of God is reinforced by the repeated use of the singular throne upon which God and the Lamb are seated (cf. 22:3) just as he did by the singular temple being the Lord God and the Lamb (21:22). Accordingly, Ladd points out that “the judgment seat of Christ…is also the judgment seat of God” [287, cf. 2 Cor 5:10; Rom. 14:10].
John adds three more pictures to help reinforce the abundant satisfaction found in the New Jerusalem. “In the mist of its street and on either side of the river a tree of life” (my translation). Adam and Eve were barred from the Garden of Eden because they might eat of the tree of life and live forever (Gen. 3:22-24). Flaming cherubim guarded the tree of life. We don’t know all that this tree involved but its properties are sustaining, overcoming even the destructive effects of sin. While Adam and Eve were barred from the tree, the residents of the New Jerusalem are welcomed to it! [cf. S. Kistemaker, NTC: Revelation, 581]. The indication of the singular tree in multiple locations, “on either side of the river,” suggests not one tree but a forest of trees lining the street of New Jerusalem. Again, it’s a picture of abundance. John also tells us that the tree bears “twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.” He resorts to using the calendar in a realm where there’s no need for a watch or Day-Timer or Outlook! But how else can he explain such abundance, never ceasing to produce abundant satisfaction without resorting to language that we can all grasp? “And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Since he’s already told us that there’s no longer any death or mourning or crying or pain, all of that having passed away (21:4), then why is there need for healing leaves? Robert Mounce offers a solid explanation due to John’s “imagery belonging to the present age. The healing leaves indicate the complete absence of physical and spiritual want. The life to come will be a life of abundance and perfection” [NICNT: Revelation, 387].
Absolute physical security in this world is impossible to know. Amusingly, some have tried to locate one place on earth that is never touched by natural disasters. Others have sought the illusive safety of the rural and wilderness areas to escape the dangers of the city. Yet wherever men live in this fallen world, the tentacles of sin’s effect on the cosmos and on the human heart, reach with pain, sorrow, and death. A hurricane leaves destruction across a three-state coastal area; a bridge falls during rush hour traffic over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis; an earthquake triggers a mining catastrophe in Utah; greedy youths murder three young people in Newark; a pedophile kidnaps a child in Portugal; we could go on and on. Not only do we anticipate the day when tragedy, sorrow, and death will no longer be in the vocabulary, but even the creation longs for such a time (Rom. 8:18-25). The key to this security is found in the reality that the abundant satisfaction of the river of the water of life comes “from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” John saw “a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them” (20:11). As the creation is renewed, judgment is completed from this same throne (20:12-15). The One on the throne declares, “Behold, I am making all things new” (21:5). And now, from the throne flows an abundant, never-ending source of life (22:1). Because of God and the Lamb on the throne, there will be no more curse or anything remaining under the curse of sin (22:3). The presence of the throne ensures security for all eternity. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever” (11:15).
What we find here is the creation re-created, completely renewed with all sin forever gone, conquered with finality by the redemptive death of the Lamb of God. What the creation lost in the fall in the Garden of Eden, God has restored and elevated to a superlative level in the New Jerusalem. His faithful rule as sovereign Lord brought this about. Though we are living in the era of the not yet, the great day will come when everything is renewed, the nations will walk by the light of God’s glory, and death will no longer exist nor will sin. God’s rule over His creation will be exercised without complaint, objection, or contrary opinion. That’s the abode of eternal security!
Unlike the street where the bodies of the two witnesses lay in the midst of the great city of the world (11:8), in the New Jerusalem there is a street untouched by sin, where life flows from the throne of God, and where on either side, eternal food satisfies every desire. Security is never threatened on that holy street where the redeemed walk in the light of God’s glory.
Once again, John alludes to the nations. Though he has used that phrase, ton ethnon, negatively, as the nation or peoples of the world in rebellion against God and in alignment with the beast and the dragon, now he uses it in terms of the universal proportions of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. These are the “men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” purchased by the blood of Christ, whom He has made to be a kingdom and priests to our God (5:9-10). They are the “great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands” as they worshiped by declaring, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (7:9-10).
Some Christians seem to have a martyr-complex, as it has been called, thinking that they are the only real believers in the world. Elijah faced this complex, thinking that none were left to worship God, when the Lord told Him that He had reserved 7,000 that had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:14-18). When Christians begin to think that they are the only few left of God, then remember what the New Jerusalem promises; nations will be walking in the eternal city! The “nations,” plural, will know the healing of the tree of life. The nations will walk by the light of God’s glory; their kings will bring their glory into the holy city (21:24). The “honor of the nations,” all of the most God-pleasing tributes of human imagination and ingenuity, will be brought into the New Jerusalem (21:26). The gospel is for all men—all nations. Let this simple picture stir our own hearts to carry the gospel to the nations. Christ died to secure a people from every nation. We will walk side by side without distinction in the New Jerusalem.
I’m not sure that our generation has had a lot of healthy, biblical thought about the New Jerusalem, the new heaven and new earth. It’s not talked about as in past generations. It’s glamorized at times or morphed into some kind of movie set in the imagination. It’s thought of as a great recreation center in the sky or the place where one can laze-away the days of eternity. Personally, I’ve been intensely convicted over the past several weeks that I’ve not thought enough or preached enough on this grand subject. Here’s the great motivation in Revelation that begins with the unfolding of the Lamb of God in the sufficiency of His death and culminates in the grand application of that redemptive work in heaven. Everything is affected by it! The unbelieving are judged; corruption, destructiveness, hatred, and every effect of sin removed; the whole cosmos is renewed and reestablished as the display of the glory of God. That’s something to think upon! And especially are we to think upon this holy existence for eternity!
What’s heaven like? Or to ask the same question by a different angle, what’s it like in the New Jerusalem? Scripture constantly contrasts the world of men and the rule of God. Jealous and angry Cain killed his righteous brother Abel. Noah lived as a righteous man in the midst of a world in rebellion against God. The Lord chose Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans, separating him from idolatry and delivering him from the world. Sodom and Gomorrah perished because of their great sin while God delivered Lot. Daniel and his friends did not defile themselves with the Babylonian king’s food but lived distinctly from them as God’s children. But how do you capsule this distinct atmosphere in the New Jerusalem? Abel, Noah, Abraham, Lot, and Daniel still sinned and still lived in a sinful world.
John puts it so precisely in two phrases so that it captures the entire atmosphere of this holy place. “There will no longer be any curse…and there will no longer be any night.” In repetitive fashion, John has already used that same phrase to alert us to the distinctly different atmosphere of heaven. “And there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain.” Then he summarizes all of these things: “the first things have passed away” (21:4). “There will no longer be” (ouk estai eti) is the optimum phrase. Why will there no longer be these things? The answer lies in the cross of Christ. Death, mourning, crying (for sorrow), pain, curse, and night as a metaphor for spiritual darkness met their match at the cross. These wretched fruits from the fall were borne by the Incarnate God, Jesus Christ, as He took them out of the way by His death. Summed up by the “curse,” a term that means something that is accursed by God, the cross severed its head and crushed it in defeat. The final redemption fully applies what Jesus accomplished in removing death and destroying every work of the devil (Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:8). So ponder this: there will no longer be any curse. Listen to the nightly news, read the news reports, and then ponder, “There will no longer be any curse.” Though living in the not yet, we have the divine approbation that the day will come when every taint and trace of sin’s effects in this world are gone — gone forever!
The New Jerusalem is not about us but about “the throne of God and of the Lamb.” It’s about His presence in our midst. “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it.” That’s what makes it heaven! Remember how sad and broken the disciples were when Jesus died on the cross. They did not understand the necessity for His death and the reality of His resurrection. Pining away, they sorrowed because Christ was no longer in their midst. But what joy raced through them when news came of the resurrection! Again, they saw Him, touched Him, listened to Him, and gazed upon Him. So wondrous was all of this, that John opened his first epistle with these words: “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life” (1:1). He looked back upon that time when the Son of God walked among men. Peter humbly, yet buoyantly wrote, “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Pet. 1:16). When Paul related the gospel to the Corinthians, he spoke of Christ appearing to Cephas, the twelve, five hundred brethren at one time, to James, “and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also” (1 Cor. 15:5-9). Each of these brethren were overwhelmed by seeing, touching, and hearing Jesus Christ briefly on earth. Ahh! But that pales in comparison to the eternity of His throne in the midst of the New Jerusalem, with no darkness to hide His presence, no curse to separate us from Him! “The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s Land!” (“The Sands of Time are Sinking,” Rutherford/Cousins)
How do you describe those redeemed by Christ, gathered around His throne for eternity? First, they are joyous servants. “His bond-servants will serve Him.” A bond-servant is a willing subject to his master. None will be in heaven that has no desire to be there! The verb “will serve” translates a term that was used for the service of worship, particularly the kind of service related to worship in the temple. So, it is not just “praise,” though it includes it, that His bond-servants will be doing; rather, all that the redeemed will be engaged in doing through eternity will relate to the glory and honor of the Lord—all will be an act of worship. We have a hint of that in Romans 12:1-2 where Paul tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, in other words, all details of life are to be lived in relationship to pleasing God. He goes on to call this “your spiritual service of worship.” It’s the same word that John uses. So, the word is naturally broad in the way that John applies it. When the Lord God put Adam in the Garden to cultivate and keep it, the charge was more than just assigning him farming duties. Through his gardening Adam expressed glory to God, even worshiping Him, through obediently tending the garden. The redeemed multitude in the New Jerusalem will do no less!
Second, His bond-servants “will see His face.” What the righteous Moses could not do on earth, what Elijah on the mountain could not do, the saints for eternity will do! “They will see His face.” Dennis Johnson put it so clearly. “Seeing his face is deadly danger to us now because we are defiled by sin, but then all our shame and guilt will be a thing of the past as we stand before him beautiful, in the robe of righteousness that he has given us” [Triumph of the Lamb, 322-323]. What great news this is to our brethren suffering under the weight of oppression across the globe! They will see His face. One look will erase all of the pains of life. Third, the intimacy of relationship to the Lord is further expressed by the phrase, “His name will be on their foreheads.” In contrast to those with the mark of the beast on their foreheads, the redeemed will forever be marked by the character of the Redeemer. The name embodies the character of the person. His name on our foreheads implies that the firm stamp of His holiness will never diminish in His people.
Fourth, there’s no need for “the light of the lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them.” The redeemed will always live in the light of God’s glory. That implies both purity and knowledge without reserve. “It teaches that in the renewed world God’s people will never need to rest and sleep; they will have boundless energy to serve God and praise his name forever and ever” [S. Kistemaker, NTC: Revelation, 583]. Finally, “and they will reign forever and ever.” He does not fill in details on this reign, as to subjects, since the great emphasis is that the intimate communion between the redeemed and the Redeemer means that we will be corporately swept up in His eternal reign. There will be no division between the King and His bond-servants.
Let us live as overcomers who will one day gather around the throne where there’s no more curse and no more night.
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