Revelation 21A New Heaven, a New Earth and the New Jerusalem

“I saw”: this is one of 32 times John uses this exact phrase in Revelation, and there are many other variations on it. This is the language of visual communication from God: visions, pictures. God loves to show us pictures, and He will show you pictures too. Certain concepts and realities from God are better communicated in pictures, so ask God to give you pictures: dreams, visions, even trances (when you’re in the vision and the action is happening all around you). Don’t neglect this gigantic way in which God reveals Himself.

“A new heaven and a new earth”: this isn’t original language to John. He is quoting Isaiah, “new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22); it echoes Isaiah 48:18–19, and it follows suit with 2 Peter 3:13. This is the proper fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in the context of the end of time and the ultimate triumph of God and of His Messiah … Jesus. This is the proper culmination of all things! We’ve said it since the first week of this study and in every review. The new heaven and new earth will become the home of both humans and God. We will get to dwell with God!

“The first heaven and the first earth had passed away” recalls the goodness of the first creation (Genesis 1–2), before sin marred it (Genesis 3). Without sin there would never have been a need for a new heaven and earth.

Because of sin, chaos, death and imperfection entering the world, there became the need for the new heaven and the new earth. And the new one is going to be way more magnificent than this one.

“Had passed away” is past tense. The passing away happens when God sits down to judge the world at the Great White Throne: “The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them” (Revelation 20:11). This is simply a reference to what had already happened. This earth is disposable and will pass away, just like our physical bodies. That doesn’t mean we don’t steward our bodies or the earth well while we have them; it simply puts them in their proper place and perspective. This echoes Haggai 2:6, Psalm 102:25–26, Romans 8:19–22 and Hebrews 1:12; 12:27.

“No longer any sea”: the sea is obviously gone with the earth, and John didn’t really need to mention it (Isaiah doesn’t). John shares this detail because the sea represents chaos, and chaos is finished. The sea represents chaos in ancient Near Eastern literature, in other scriptural poetry, in the first-century mindset, and specifically here in Revelation (8:8–9; 10:2; 12:12; 13:1; 16:3; 20:13), in contrast with the controlled sea of glass in heaven (4:6; 15:2). Now John and the Holy Spirit are demonstrating the destruction of chaos through the destruction of the sea.

(Someone at the tables pointed out that billionaires are building giant ships like floating cities, as if they’ll get away from destruction. “Nope. Sea’s going to get hit too.”)

This points to the destruction of the chaos caused by sin, Satan and the fall of humans (Genesis 3): the tragedies that used to affect everyone indiscriminately are now done! Praise God!

So there was the original creation (Genesis 1–2), then there is uncreation (Revelation 20:11; 21:1), and now there is new creation (Revelation 21–22). The new creation will dwarf the original creation in size, magnificence and beauty, along with being perfect: a reward worthy of the people of God (and, he added, of God Himself).

“The Holy City” echoes Nehemiah 11:1, 18; Isaiah 48:2; 52:1; 62:12; and also Hebrews 11:10 and Revelation 3:12. If you want to study how the thread of the Holy City is pulled through the text, these are all great studies. Throughout history and still today, the Jewish people view Jerusalem as the holiest of cities. Jewish coins throughout many eras have had the words עִיר קֹדֶשׁ, ir qodesh, “holy city,” inscribed on them (there are still modern-day coins that do).

“The new Jerusalem” already exists in heaven (Galatians 4:26). But now it’s going to come down out of heaven, join the new earth, and we’ll live in this new place, coming and going on the new earth in and out of Jerusalem. This echoes Isaiah 65:18. Our citizenship is already in that holy city (Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 11:10).

“As a bride”: the Holy City is the place and the people living there. The church is the bride of Christ, so the city isn’t just the place John sees; it describes the people. The residents of the city are a bride to God (Revelation 19:7).

“A loud voice from the throne” (also in Revelation 16:17; 19:5) seems to be a heavenly herald announcing God’s decrees and will. It could also be a way of saying the voice of God without saying it. Throughout Revelation, John has avoided directly assigning actions, words or physical appearance to God the Father, besides “him who sits on the throne” (as in 4:9), which is also a shrouded description. It seems to be a matter of respect and honor. The actions and words of God the Father are always from the throne, or from heaven, or done by angels (implied at the command of God).

“God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.” “Dwelling place” is a reference to the Hebrew word מִשְׁכָּן, mishkan, tabernacle. It points to Moses’ tabernacle and the idea that God “tabernacled” with us (Exodus 25:8–9; 29:45; 1 Kings 6:12–13; Leviticus 26:11–12), and will tabernacle, or dwell, with us at the end (Ezekiel 37:24–28; 43:7–10; Zechariah 2:11; Jeremiah 31:33).

The concept even hits the New Testament reality of Jesus coming to earth in the flesh. He tabernacled, He dwelt, with us: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).

This echoes Isaiah 25:8 (“The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces”), 35:10, 51:11 and 65:16–19. Again, the proper culmination of all things. This is a hope-filled, hope-inducing powerhouse of a declaration! “The old order of things has passed away”: what was the old order? Pain and crying, death and mourning. All of that is gone.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes” means we will come in with sadness because of what we’ve experienced on a fallen earth, but God Himself will comfort us ultimately and completely, for the final, necessary time. This is the signal that the reunion is about to begin for all of us! Everyone we lost who was in Christ, we’ll see again. And everyone we’ve lost who didn’t know Christ, we’ll receive understanding about, and be fully comforted in that moment. That’s supernatural, and it’s what we have to look forward to.

There’s no need for mourning in heaven. Then we will see fully, face to face, and know fully as we are fully known: “then we shall see face to face … then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

The tables discussed: Who is someone you would look forward to meeting, or seeing again, in heaven? And why?

Now God Himself speaks, the one seated on the throne. This is the first time: God the Father speaks! A voice from the throne has happened three times, but now John is shifting our eyes to know that it’s Him, and so to imagine His face and even His mouth moving. That’s a shift, and it’s powerful! Buckle up; this is important.

“I am making everything new!” echoes Isaiah 43:18–19: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” This also parallels the new creation that we are in Christ (Ephesians 4:24).

Now God continues speaking … to … John personally!

Woah, okay. “It is done” is very similar phrasing to Jesus on the cross.

Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30), and on the cross He was quoting, when you trace it through the Aramaic to the Hebrew, the last words of Psalm 22 (Psalm 22:31, “He has done it!”). That’s the psalm that starts “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1; “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” in Mark 15:34). It’s a psalm of suffering, used by Jesus and probably sung in its entirety on the cross, since we see its beginning and its ending there. It was used by Jews in concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Now the phrase is reframed: reframed in light of victory, the victory of God over suffering and over death. After suffering and death are done, and done away with … it is done! Isn’t that powerful?

“The Alpha and the Omega” are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Here He follows it with “the Beginning and the End,” something He doesn’t say on the first use in Revelation 1:8. On the last use, in Revelation 22:13 (next month!), John adds “the First and the Last.” There’s a constant expansion of this title across its three uses in the text. It echoes Isaiah 41:4. There is a completion, an all-sufficiency, to this title: John is calling God all in all, all-powerful, above and outside of time. He was before time, and He’ll be around after it’s over.

“Thirsty … water without cost … spring of the water of life” echoes Jesus’ teaching in John’s own Gospel. To the woman at the well: “whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13–14). And again, when Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit (John 7:37–39). It also echoes Isaiah 35:1–2; 44:3; 55:1 and Ezekiel 47:1–12, and points forward to Revelation 22:17.

So right now our thirst is quenched by the presence of the Holy Spirit: for life-giving thoughts, life-giving spiritual energy and power, and companionship and communion with God. For eternity, the Holy Spirit, through God’s continual manifest presence, will continue to bring life in all its fullness to us.

We’ll be completely immersed in the presence of God.

“Those who are victorious” points back to the very beginning of the book, the entire setup: the seven letters to the seven churches! In all seven letters Jesus addresses the rewards that will be given to “the one who is victorious” (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). In the last of those letters Jesus says, “just as I was victorious” (3:21), showing that we can be victorious in the same way Jesus was! The theme is brought back in Revelation 15:2: victory through suffering, over the beast (the antichrist).

Whenever you don’t feel good enough, look at how God sees you. Recall these things. Whenever you feel unmotivated, look at what God wants to give you for persevering, and be encouraged. That makes it all worth it. This echoes Zechariah 8:12.

Look at the rewards He has already given you in the heavenly realm, which are going to be manifest.

The tables discussed: What is a heavenly reward that you’re looking forward to, and why? (It didn’t have to be one from the list: “it can be just something about heaven, something you don’t like about earth, whatever.”)

“I will be their God and they will be my children” is standard Old Testament covenant language, “I will be their God, and they will be my people,” and all of John’s original hearers would have instantly made that connection. We see it in Exodus 6:7; 29:45; Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 7:23; 11:4; 24:7; 30:22; 31:33; Ezekiel 11:20; 14:11; 36:28; 37:23, 27; Zechariah 8:8. So this is the new covenant, and it’s based only on the perfection of God Himself. The language of this declaration parallels Jesus’ own words about His relationship with God the Father: “my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17).

Let’s finish the statement from God the Father. This echoes Isaiah 47:12; 66:24; Ezekiel 13:18–20; 1 Corinthians 6:9–10; Galatians 5:19–21; Ephesians 5:5–7. It references the judgment at the end of the last chapter.

In order for there to be perfection in heaven (no more chaos, death, sickness, pain, crying, mourning) there must be a removal of everyone committed to evil. The reward of the righteous is not possible with the continued allowance of those committed to evil, and of the morality and ethics that specifically shake their fist at God.

The start of this revelation parallels Revelation 17:1–3, where the angel shows John the great prostitute, Babylon: he takes him in the Spirit to a place and shows him a thing, the same way in both. So there is a major contrast between Babylon and Jerusalem here. Babylon was the anti-Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is the positive and beautiful version of a city: what a city can actually be like with God at the center.

The mountain points to Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and echoes Ezekiel 40:2. In the notes on Revelation 18 he shows in detail the contrasts between the great prostitute, Babylon, and the bride of Christ.

“In the Spirit” is in Revelation 1:10; 4:2; 17:3 and here. It echoes Numbers 24:2–4 (Balaam); 1 Samuel 19:24 (Saul prophesying); Ezekiel 1:1 (open-heaven visions), 2:2 (the Spirit lifts up), 3:12, 14, 24; 8:3; 11:1, 5, 24; 37:1; 40:2; 43:5; Jeremiah 24:1; Daniel 10:8; Matthew 3:16; Luke 4:1; Acts 7:56 (Stephen’s open heaven), 10:10 (Peter’s trance), 11:5, 22:17; 2 Corinthians 12:2–4 (Paul’s trances); Ephesians 6:18 (praying).

It’s a heightened sense of spiritual awareness, where the Spirit of God envelops you and you can see into the spiritual realm. Despite all those Scriptures, it’s always a powerful event and a huge marker for people in their life and ministry!

The notes asked, How can you be “in the Spirit” more? Tips? (He skipped it on the night to stay on track.) “The bride” echoes Ephesians 5:27.

The glory of God’s brilliance is like … a very precious jewel, a jasper, clear.

Powerful imagery there.

This echoes Ezekiel 48:31–35, where the twelve tribes’ names are on the twelve gates. The gates show safety, security, and that God’s people will come and go into the city and out into the new earth.

This feels like Ephesians 2:20, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone,” although there are substantive differences. The apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church, but only the apostles are on the city wall’s foundations at the end of time. Ephesians is talking about the foundation of the church, but the parallel is striking.

So you’ve got the twelve gates with the names of the twelve tribes, and the twelve apostles’ names on the foundations: the connection of national Israel with the new covenant.

The measuring rod echoes Ezekiel 40 and Zechariah 2. In all cases they show how much greater the new Jerusalem is than any previous version of Jerusalem.

The city is a cube, like the holy of holies in the Old Testament temple (1 Kings 6:20): a parallel showing that the presence of God in the entire city is like that of the holy of holies! Ezekiel’s city was also cubed (Ezekiel 48:32–34; 45:2; 48:16, 20), and in Ezekiel 48:35 it also illustrates God’s presence: the city’s name is “the Lord is there.” The cubing means the new Jerusalem is also like no other city in the history of the universe!

12,000 stadia is about 1,400 miles: more than halfway across America, east to west. So the city’s footprint is about 60% the size of the US, in 2D, but then it goes up 1,400 miles too! Counting the vertical dimension, city on top of city on top of city, it’s about 60% of America times about 3,000. The wall is about 240 feet thick: 80% of the length of a football field … thick! The holy city is large enough to house all believers of all time, with the pasturelands and wonders of the new earth all around.

Isaiah saw walls of precious stones (Isaiah 54:12). In contrast to Babylon’s mere decorations of gold and pearls before it gets destroyed (Revelation 18:16), Jerusalem here is made of jewels and gold.

He paused here to put up a couple of artist’s renditions of the city, from a graphic-novel version of the Bible drawn by some Marvel and DC artists, to help everyone picture it.

This echoes Exodus 28 and the description of the high priest’s breastpiece, which also has twelve stones that represent the twelve tribes of Israel.

Nine of them are exactly the same. We’re not 100% certain about the other three, because you’re comparing Hebrew words with Greek words, to be honest.

“I did not see a temple”: one of the most basic hopes all through the history of Judaism (recited in daily prayer to this day, and outlined in Ezekiel 40–48) has been the restoration and renewal of the temple. So now there’s not a tiny temple; instead, the direct manifest presence of the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. Zechariah has a similar hope for the end of time (Zechariah 14:21).

The holy city and the temple, throughout human history, always pointed to the fact that God ultimately wanted to live with His people, just like He had in the Garden of Eden. Right relationship with God was constantly being together. The holy city and the temple were always directing us to that reality, and now this describes the full manifestation of that reality. God with us!

We’re going to see in chapter 22 that the Garden of Eden is restored too. It’s so fun to see these threads pulled through the entire text of the Bible, from beginning to end.

The notes asked, What is something you’d like to ask God when you get to heaven? (There wasn’t time on the night, so he sent everyone home with it.)

The glory of God being the light echoes Isaiah 60:19–20. The nations will still be around: remember … new earth! So the heavenly Jerusalem is gigantic, larger than our present world in its ability to house and sustain people. Then you have the rest of the earth, with lots of other nations bringing their glory and light to Jerusalem.

All of these nations are believers now. These are all the people of God.

The nations bringing worship and splendor into the city is echoed in Isaiah 60:3–22; 66:12; Jeremiah 3:17; Zechariah 14:15–19. The new earth will be a place for all believers: they center on Jerusalem and are doing jobs that bring glory to God and to His city. It’s like the agricultural lands around ancient cities at the time; this time the whole earth is the lands for the one city. All of God’s people will work in and out of the city for the glory of God.

The gates of cities were typically closed at night, definitely Jerusalem’s (Ezekiel 46:1). Night is where evil and sin happen, according to 1 Thessalonians 5:7, Romans 13:12–13 and Ephesians 5:8–14. So God shuts off that window of evil and just makes it day all the time. I don’t know if that means we won’t need to sleep anymore (that’d be cool!), or maybe we’ll be able to sleep in broad daylight, no problem. Who knows? Either way, no more night!

The gates of the new Jerusalem are never shut, while the ports of Babylon were permanently shut and destroyed. The people of God are called out from Babylon, never to return. The people of God come in and out freely from the new Jerusalem.

Outcast groups were most often shunned to live outside the city gates, but the people of God are always going to be welcome, always coming in and out. Since the city is the temple, there will be no more abominations in the house of God (Zechariah 14:21), and no unbelievers in Jerusalem (Joel 3:17). These are all fulfillments of prophecy.

“Nothing impure will ever enter it” is a parallel to the clean versus unclean laws in the Old Testament.

“Nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful”: they’ve all been thrown into the lake of fire, so they’re not around. Instead, all the nations are believers, and they’re all coming in and out of the city, bringing glory to God!