"The New Heaven and New Earth" with Don Stewart Revelation 21:9-27

thank you morning everybody it is so nice to be here at calvary chapel beaumont always loved coming to texas oh wait a minute that's right this is california isn't it i was telling people i'm speaking in beaumont this uh week and think oh really going all the way to texas no no no i'm going to the real beaumont here in california anyway uh nice uh nice to be here again uh it's always a pleasure and uh i'm not pastor henry he's much taller than i am you can't confuse the two of us but anyway um anyway it it's very very nice to thank you some of the jokes work both times some of them don't we try them but anyway um you know it's always nice to come back here henry's one of my favorite people i've known him for years and i know you love him you're really blessed to have him you know that please and um a really great man of god and uh doing a fabulous work here and like i said i'm glad i've got a sunday free to be able to come and speak to you guys a couple things first of all it's um i want to give thanks and really thank you from the bottom of my heart those of you that prayed for me if uh if you don't know what i'm talking about i'll a little briefly yeah well um on december 2nd of this last year of 2020 i was doing my daily program on his channel i was doing six tv programs a week one radio program speaking every sunday at one time there was 23 straight days had to get up and go somewhere and speak and anyway it was a wednesday and i'm feeling really lousy and i'm thinking wow what's going on here you know well i thought you know because i kind of run myself from the ground that i do everything full on i don't cut back and anyway i was i just felt bad and then it started getting worse and worse like someone pulled the plug and let all the air out of me and i thought well you know i'm just tired and wiped out and then but where i really knew something was wrong i started having hallucinations now i haven't had a hallucination since no seriously since i went to the jimi hendrix concert and uh at the hollywood bowl in 1968 now there were probably other factors at that time why i hallucinated but we won't get into that now because i wasn't a christian at the time but anyway and so i got to i had these hallucinations so a couple days later i told my wife i got to go to the er something wrong with me anyway um went there waited five hours before i could see the uh the physician uh the day before they said it was an 11 hour wait there was so many people in the waiting room anyway i finally got there got all these tests and the doctor comes in and says sir you have the chinese communist party coronavirus and um and so really and now i probably shouldn't tell the story but i'd spoken the week before at a church which basically i won't mention where it is and it was basically cleared out because there was a big outbreak of the virus at that church that week and i spoke you know the crowd was basically minimal and then a few days later i started anyway bottom line is um i you know went home and you know they gave me some drugs this and i didn't get any better so five days later i went to the hospital again the er again and they put me in the hospital for four days and we didn't realize in fact there's a lot of amazing things that have happened literally miraculous things that took place that um until we got done you know after the hospital i'm on oxygen for you know day and night for about two and a half weeks afterwards totally on it the whole time and we're reading the notes of the doctor this one i'm home and basically to put it in medical language i had one foot on one foot in the grave and the other on the banana peel i mean literally um to talk about organ failure sepsis all this stuff we're reading about earlier now i understand why that guy called me want to know if i wanted a dnr do not resuscitate i i didn't know why he would ask me that i was sort of mad at him i won't tell you how i responded to him uh but uh i wasn't real thrilled but anyway i'm here and the lord has um uh you know allowed me to survive but i was out for fifty five zero days fifty days i couldn't do anything and literally my voice has only been back since about the eighth of february i've spoken the last eight sundays but uh that was like the first sunday my voice had come back and it was really quite an experience now what's interesting about it is the lord used it to change the direction of my ministry when you're when you go through something like that you have to ask the question why god i'm looking out the window for i can't do it i can't even talk in fact i would tell i was telling some people up until about the first of february this is you know two months after i got it i couldn't even pray in a prayer for my food i would cough because i could even say that and so the lord has restored i've got back the voice is back you know the marbles are still there so that's all i need for now right um so i keep telling people as long as i got my marbles and my voice i'm okay but anyway um the i decided that this is the time i'm gonna do something i've always wanted to do and so i told dennis at his channel i'm going to not do the tv program anymore i'm not going to do breaking news i'm going to spend the rest of my time kind of like in full-time mission field and i'm going to do something i've been wanting to do and that is record now all the books that i've written on our website educatingourworld.com we have 61 books that are there i actually wrote two of them during the time i was laid out there with coven but 61 books that are there and they're free for free download go to and not now if you're watching don't go right now wait till the service is over at educatingourworld.com and it says you know download books they're all free if you print them out they'll be about 14 000 pages worth of material i've now recorded four of them i'm more than halfway through of the fifth one and um so i'm doing that so a lot of people like to have audio to learn that way so i've got the written books you can buy like 32 of them are in print but 61 of them are there you can download them for free print them out if you want then listen to the audio and i'm on in the process of doing that so i'm really enjoying doing that but i am actually coming back to his channel not on a regular well not live i'm going to do a half hour program per week i'm actually this wednesday i'm going to film them and they're going to do three at once so i have to come back every three weeks and do it so i will be doing something again we're doing uh many of you know we've got a radio program called countdown to eternity with james kades that's going really really really well by the way it's the lord's blessing a lot of great things are happening but i'm very thankful so when henry asked me to come and speak on the new jerusalem the holy city in the book of revelation well i was ready for that believe me in more ways than one so if you have your bibles would you tour with me to the 21st chapter of the book of revelation chapter 9 verse 9 21-9 and just as as we're getting there something he would have concluded with last week he it where it talks about the lake of fire and the second death uh those that have a second death will not and going to the lake of fire will not see the holy city the the book i'm recording right now is the first of a five book series i've written on the afterlife called um uh death dying in the what's called living in the light of eternity an introduction to death dying in the afterlife and it's funny i just got through recording something about the second death yesterday the day before yesterday about the second death is eternal death and we explain you know physical death separation the body from the spirit spiritual death how we're all born spiritually separated from god and eternal death or the second death is if we die in a state of uh rejection of christ that's the second death now so that's one you really want to take advantage of and also too here's the really good news on on this what i'm doing today i've never given well except for first service i've never given this talk before but the good news is in my book on heaven which of course is a free download in the appendix i've got a verse by verse commentary of chapters 20 to 22 in the book of revelation so i've already written everything on it so this is nice he asked me to do it now i get to you know everything's already there in fact it's going to be tough getting through it all but we'll do our best so anyway earlier in the book of revelation the focus was on babylon the great it shifted from the woman to the great city babylon revelation 18 10. the evil city was eventually destroyed as we've read we've studied with henry because of great sin in a similar manner now we're going to have another shift here to another woman the bride of jesus christ the church and we're going to shift from the great city babylon to the holy city jerusalem the new jerusalem in contrast to the destroyed babylon this city will last forever revelation 21 9 then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls of the seven last plagues came and said to me come i will show you the bride the wife of the lamb all right this is this angel showed up before he was involved in the bold judgments he's an unnamed angel word angel of course in the bible just means messenger um messenger it could be a human messenger it could be a supernatural being six times in the new testament the word greek word angel refers to human messengers the angels of john the baptist were sent to jesus john the baptist didn't have a group of angels hanging around him as a group of messengers so anyway but this is an angelic messenger all right he's one of the angels that basically had talked with john before and now he's he was involved in the bowl judgments he shows up again and in revelation 17 1 it says one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said come and i will show you the punishment of the great prostitute who sits by many waters well now he shows up again in contrast don't miss this the same angel shows up again to show not the evil city of babylon but the holy city of jerusalem so this the angels helped john understand these two cities first it was the mystery of the city of babylon now in sharp contrast the holy city the new jerusalem all right when he tells john to come he's not in he's not he's commanding him he's not inviting him he's commanding him here he's commanded to come with the angel because john is now going to view the holy city from interesting a distinct viewpoint um it's it's called the bride uh the holy city the bride or the wife of the lamb and that's usually meant to refer to the inhabitants they're not the physical city itself it's it's the believers and the god of the bible from all all history from adam and eve until the end of the end of the millennial period so it's equated with the new jerusalem because it's the inhabitants they're speaking of some people make it in the mistake of saying uh you know the bride of christ the church is the new jerusalem no it's not a physical city it's speaking of the inhabitants of the city and so the marriage has already taken place we are his bride we're the wife of the lamb and now we're there in the holy city but we note something here the emphasis on the lamb seven times in the book of revelation we are told about the the lamb of god there jesus there and his title is emphasized but given a new explanation of eternal truths one of the books i finished in fact we're getting it this week available for print through popular demand people wanted that in print it's called my favorite 25 messages my 25 favorite messages that i give and one of the ones i love giving is abraham and isaac on mount moriah where abraham you know it takes his son up isaac to the mountain and he says god's going to provide a lamb to isaac because i hey dad we got the fire here we got the wood where's the lamb you know where's the sacrifice and abraham says god's going to provide well god did provide but not that day he provided a ram instead of isaac and you can look through the entire old testament you won't find the lamb of god anywhere provided you have to go to john 1 29 when john the baptist sees jesus coming and says behold the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world now this is very apropos because this is holy week this palm sunday starting this week and we're starting today and we've got the holy week with the events that the only reason we're here is what happened two thousand years ago on this particular week but anyway um john sees jesus coming behold the lamb of god who is taking away the sin of the world and that's what it's all about that's why we're here that's why we do what we do so anyway in verse 10 john says he carried me away by the spirit to a mountain that was great and high and he showed me the holy city jerusalem coming down from god out of heaven okay now john's transport john's transport a lot of different places he's now at a high mountain where he can see the holy cities he's taken to this vantage point now one of the things we always emphasize when you read the bible check out what's there but what check out what's missing in this explanation of the holy city the word new is not there it's the holy city jerusalem so for some reason john didn't mention it the new jerusalem in this context but anyway the transportation of john through the spirit reminds us of an event in the life of jesus christ remember what it was in his temptation with the devil he's been baptized by john the baptist in the jordan river cast out in the wilderness for 40 days and the tempter comes to him okay jesus is hungry he hadn't eaten for 40 days and among the temptations satan somehow shows him again the bible says all the kingdoms of the world and their grandeur matthew 4 8 and says okay all these have belonged to you if you just worship me all the sinful kingdoms of the world and jesus of course said no no way i'm not going to do it and in contrast to that john now is seeing the holy city of jerusalem and its grandeur um the promise that is for you and i for some day in the future so uh john in another place john the the evangelist who wrote revelation was in the wilderness where he saw the city of babylon he was taken by the spirit revelation 17 3 to the wilderness where he saw the woman sitting on the scarlet beast so here now john is moved in contrast now this is the contrast is right before ice we got the sinful pagan world system babylon at the time of before the coming of the lord and now john is taken into the future beyond the millennial the thousand-year reign of christ into the eternal realm where there is this holy city the holy city the new jerusalem that has come down from heaven okay comes out of heaven now whether it comes down all the way to the earth as a matter of debate if you read the section i've written on that i'll give you the arguments pro and con whether i think it does i think it comes to the new heaven and new earth it's actually there and the main reason is because it talks about as 12 foundations and it'd be hard for me to see foundations up in the sky i think it's it's there on terra firma the new heaven and new earth anyway verse 11 is you're going to learn something really interesting here having the glory of god its brilliance was like a precious stone like jasper clear as crystal now this is interesting here the description of the holy city is that of a light giver a light giver it does not reflect like light like the moon nor does it generate light in the same way as the sun instead the light originates from the city in other words it's the source of god's life now here's what's really fascinating it's compared to a jasper stone in the ancient world the jasper stone was a designation for any type of opaque precious stone so it come in various colors it could be green it could be red it could be brown blue yellow or white it's not what we see today what we call a jasper stone it's not the same thing today not limited so the fact now and as commentators look at this that the stone is transparent and gleaming has caused a number of commentators to believe it's referring to a diamond now if that's the case we cannot be certain but if it's true what do we have the golden city the diamond in a gold molding in other words the city is a wedding ring that's something so you got the diamond in the midst of the golden city if that's the case whatever type of precious stone it is we do know it looked magnificent now john's going to describe it let me just say when we look at the description here we're going to do the best we can in our terms to try and visualize this it's something that's again probably beyond our comprehension but it's going to give us an idea how wonderful it is it had a great high wall with 12 gates and 12 angels at the gates and the names and the names of the 12 tribes of the children of israel were inscribed on the gates okay first we're told there's a high wall that's surrounding the city now in the ancient world all the cities the cities had very high walls they would close the gates at night to keep the enemies from the outside from coming in it spoke of security but the high walls now are not obviously for defensive purposes because there's no one to defend against there's no evil angels there's no evil human beings that can come in no one's allowed to come into the holy city except believers so it's certainly not there for any type of defense because nobody to defend against the enemies of the lord have been forever banished the gates are never shut we're going to find out revelation 21 25 and so it's there basically to indicate to the reader or the listener this is a place that is very secure very safe now here we see the threefold repetition of the number 12 12 gates 12 angels 12 tribes the 12 tribes of israel on the gates would immediately remind those of ezekiel's description of the millennial temple ezekiel 48 30-35 now real briefly let's go over the temples that have been that have been built and the ones that are going to be built there are basically two temples that have been built in the past history of israel there was solomon's temple it was actually david's temple the only temple solomon had was in his forehead david collect all all the material but he wasn't allowed to build it because he was a man of war so solomon builds the temple you know named after him was magnificent structure uh it's destroyed in 586 587 bc by the babylonians after the uh jews come back from the babylonian captivity they built a second temple all right a much smaller version led by a man named zerubbabel and others who put the temple together a much smaller version about 20 years before the birth of christ king herod aaron the great convened a national assembly and says look we need to expand this temple we need to make it a magnificent building so they spent years and years they doubled the size of the temple mount uh he built you know the elaborate temple that was built was the one that jesus came to in fact on some lists it was listed as one of the eight wonders of the ancient world in fact one traveler said if you've never been to jerusalem and never seen the temple you've really never seen a beautiful building that's how magnificent was that was destroyed 80 70 by the romans in fact if we read this week of the events and holy week jesus pronounced the destruction of the second temple predicted and it came to pass a third temple will be built and unbelief of jesus during the time of the great tribulation period before the second coming of christ which will not be a temple honoring the lord okay that will be destroyed sometime before the lord's coming i've written a whole book on that the jews jerusalem and the coming temple if you're interested in that subject when christ comes back there'll be a fourth temple that is going to be built on the earth a millennial temple described in ezekiel 40 to 48. now what's interesting that's the last temple because as we're going to see in heaven there is no temple and no need for one but the city has great high walls and the names of the 12 tribes are described on the gates now there was one angel stationed at each of the 12 gate gates so 12 angel stations now we don't know why they're positioned there not for protection because no one to protect us from but they are there and the 12 tribes of israel for their part uh have been their part now in the new jerusalem so here's the fact the fact that their names are inscribed on the wall there in the on the of the holy city means the city there is for all believers in the god of the bible from the time of adam to the time of the you know the end of the millennium the thousand-year reign of christ so all the believers from all time are there and particularly mentioned the nation of israel the 12 tribes now one of the questions that often comes up is the tribe of dan one of the twelve tribes that's there and say why do you say that well in revelation chapter seven earlier it talks about the twelve tribes of israel and those who are going to be evangelizing 12 000 from each of the 12 tribes but conspicuous by its absence is the tribe of dan they're not there and people say wait a minute why did is there a misprint of misspelling no dan the word fact the word dan means judge some reason dan is not there we are not told why but what is very fascinating uh dan is the um first tribe that went into idolatry if you remember the story they were given a plot of land in the holy land down in philistine country they didn't like it they moved all the way up north and um you know we're the first tribe to go into idolatry they're up north and bring all sorts of terrible things on the people of israel what's fascinating if you ever get a chance to go to israel when they start opening the land up again one of the places you go is the dan nature reserve and to me that's one of the highlights of the trip because in the dan nature reserve and we'll put it in context in the area of dan there was a temple built during the time when the kingdom split from north to south by a man named jeroboam a temple not a temple of the lord but an alternative temple the one in jerusalem a temple where they worship idols baal and the various you know pagan gods you go to the dan nature reserve and the ruins of that temple still exist it's like god give you an object lesson okay this is what this is what what the end of this is you know nothing it's kind of like uh when i lead you know i've got about a dozen tours to israel i when we go around the sea of galilee i take the people to the city of korazin i said you're going to really like this one so everybody gets out they start i can take pictures and there's a bunch of ruins there just a bunch of stones go why are we taking a picture this just wait i said we're taking pictures of this because this is one of the three cities that jesus pronounced judgment upon this is what's left of it you just saw capernaum there's nothing there but the ugliest church has ever been built in the history of humanity but there's nobody living there the city is not inhabited corazine bethsaida and capernaum bethsaida we don't even know where that is to this day because it's been totally lost in history and just like here with the destruction that's going on with dan in the northern part of israel the destruction of that temple it shows things that are built by human beings just do not last if they're built in opposition to god now what's interesting john's gospel talks about a fourth city around the sea of galilee at the time of jesus the city of tiberias no judgment is mentioned against them tiberius has been a city that's been there consistently since the time of jesus till today and it's still standing and i thank god he didn't pronounce judgment against tiberius otherwise we'd have no place to stay on the sea of galilee when we do our tours but he didn't so three cities he pronounces judgment against ruins ruins and that's it we don't know where it is that ruins one city he doesn't tiberius still standing coincidence i don't think so anyway and so we got the judgment of dan i always like to bring it up when we talk about dan all right now verse 13 on the east side three gates on the north side three gates on the south side three gates and on the west side three gates now the description of the gates is consistent with the dimensions of the city an equal number of gates on each side of the four side the city is a cube however it's really an unusual way of doing the directions east north south and west a very unusual order it's the same order we find in ezekiel's description of the gates in chapter 42 verses 16 to 19 of this millennial temple now why why we don't know of course people love to speculate why they why it's this way we don't know again let me emphasize first corinthians 4 6 paul says do not go beyond that which is written if it isn't written if it isn't explained to us the answer is we don't know so please any speculation is merely that but it is fascinating uh just like in the millennium um the way they they the listing of the gates is not in it's not north south east and west you know that's what you think so it's uh east north south and west okay for whatever reason now here's what's uh verse 14 and the wall of the city had 12 foundations and the name of the 12 apostles of the lamb are upon them all right the number 12 again is prominent 12 foundations of the wall bearer is the name of the 12 apostles maybe a reference to those remember the apostles and prophets according to ephesians 2 20 were the foundation of the church with saul as the chief cornerstone so then always if you if once you bring up that here comes the big question the name of the 12 apostles was saul of tarsus who became the apostle paul the 12th apostle or is it matthias who was chosen according to acts chapter 1 to replace the late judas iscariot so i'm not going to get into it i got a four page thing on it uh if you want interested you you know you can read it the arguments pro and con uh bottom line is yeah matthias is definitely the 12th it wasn't paul paul always keeps himself distinct from the 12. he uh he talked about jesus smack first corinthians 15. jesus appeared to the twelve then he appeared to me and so he's he never sees himself as the twelfth and there's a variety of reasons why that wouldn't work anyway um so it's not paul's name isn't on there okay so verse 15 now and the one speaking with me had a measuring rod of gold in order that he might measure the city and its gates now this is interesting john now is going to measure the city and its gates with a gold measuring rod all right uh that well he's going to measure it the other the angel's going to measure it in revelation 11 john was told to measure the city and the temple with a normal measuring rod this one is gold because you had a corrupt you know city of jerusalem at that time and now you've got the holy city so again the emphasis on the golden city of jerusalem a gold measuring rod and so he's going to measure now the city the temple and its gates so the old jerusalem the previous earth was measured with a regular one now we're dealing with a golden measuring rod because this is the new jerusalem verse 16 and the city was laid out as a square its length was the same as its width and he measured the city with his measuring rod it had 12 000 stadia or 1400 miles its length width and height are equal hmm this is no small city gang like the holy of holies in the tabernacle and later the temple we've got a square here but this is a perfect cube basically about 1400 miles length with height are equal okay the greek word translated square here is only found here in the new testament and the idea of building with four sides and four right angles and some translation use the archaic word four square the city lies four square its length the same of its width revelation 21 16. um the four square just doesn't there's you know it's a protestant denomination four square but it doesn't really mean anything to people they rather are cake but anyway the city was approximately twelve thousand of ishtarias which again would be approximately fourteen hundred uh miles fourteen fifteen hundred miles okay so the entire city um that's 2200 kilometers in its length width and height okay it's not only greater than size and i want to try and picture this greater than size in the old city of jerusalem it actually is larger than the borders god originally said abraham and his descendants would inherit originally promised so this is huge now now we got something else very interesting and he measured its wall 144 cubits according to human measurement which is also the angels meaning this is also the way angels measure it's not like angels have a different measurement but the idea is the wall was 144 cubits according to human measurement all right a cubit is the the distance between your elbow here and to the tip of your you know middle finger here so it's usually anywhere from 18 to 24 inches depending on the size now i would be of one of the smaller qubits obviously the guys in the nba would be bigger and then some and so anywhere from 18 to 24 inches from the elbow here to the tip of the middle finger is a cubit and so what's interesting about this is that we've got the measurement here and the number 144 comes up why is that interesting 144 000 in revelation chapter 7 evangelist 12 000 from each tribe of israel you know preached the gospel of christ during this final seven year tribulation period 70th week of daniel before the lord returns interestingly and this is what's really fascinating the temple mount you know the the temple mounts where the dome of the rock shrine stands the al-aqsa mosque stands there in the city of jerusalem where the first and second temple stood where the third and fourth temple will stand someday the size of that mountain the temple mount is a hundred and forty four thousand square meters but that's interesting 144 just keeps coming up all the time i thought just fascinating anyway so one of the one of the questions here is this the height of the wall or the thickness of the wall and it could mean either in fact the new living translation translate this as a 216 feet thick wall according to human standards the walls so i think okay if you've got a 216 foot thick wall you've got a pretty good sized wall the point it's mentioning this is huge and again to the ancients what this would mean this is security god is looking after the people in there now again no need to protect them against angels and and the bad guys because they're not there but the bottom line was it is something that is really something magnificent here now verse 18 the material of the wall was jasper and the city was pure gold uh like clear or transparent glass all right the greek word here translated material is very rare it's the only time it's found in the entire new testament and the city and was made out of jasper or not merely like jasper not having some jasper built into it now again if it's referring to a diamond what we have uh is you know a diamond in the midst of gold in this whole holy city the brilliance and the the magnificence of it is beyond our comprehension now like i said the beginning what we're trying to do the best we can with the description we have to visualize in our own cell this huge huge city the new jerusalem the holy city that's there that god has placed for you and i and the descriptions are only going to get better and better as we go now some people ask the question how can gold be like clear glass gold isn't it's you know it's um it's not clear it's opaque in one sense is it like clear glass and there's been a number of suggestions but the idea is it's it's extremely valuable uh costly it's gold and diamonds of course are the most valuable um and still even today uh elements in the ancient world and so the holy city was built at least at that time in the most costly elements known to humanity so it gives the feeling if you think about it indescribable brilliance absolute brilliance here the holy city beauty beyond your imagination and mine and then we go further the foundations of the walls of the city were adorned with every kind of precious stone and they list them here the jasper the sapphire the calcidani the emerald onyx carmillion chrysolite beryl topaz christophers hyacinth and the 12th is amethyst all right 12 different stones are mentioned now i'm not going to go over each one of them because many of we don't even know what they were like we have no comprehension what they were like either difficult or impossible to identify but the bottom line and we explain what they might be in and you can you know download all that read about this the the bottom line is it's magnificent it probably reflected these stones the uh the hype the breastplate of the high priest there's been a wacky doctrine that's gone around where some people have argued the stones are correlated with the signs of the zodiac um believe me that is a popular misconception but it is a misconception john is not uh you know speaking out against that at this time at all and again we talk about that uh in the um in the book there so you can read it there now here we come 2121 the pearly gates you want to know where we get the pearly gates from and the 12 gates were 12 pearls each one of the gates was made from one pearl and the main street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass all right here we got the golden streets and the pearly gates it's easy to remember where to find it revelation 21 21 okay so anybody ask you in the future oh yes revelation 21 21 pearly gates golden streets that's what we have now immediately when we read this we would think of jesus parable of the pearl of great price remember that one he gave in matthew where there's this merchant man a shop owner who's looking for fine pearls he finds a valuable one goes and sells everything in order to buy that pearl well jesus is the merchant man the shop owner he obtains the pearl of great price which is you which is me and that pearl those pearly gates would remind us that he died on our behalf we're going to be celebrating this week so we can live in his presence forever and ever and ever in that great i mean peter says for you know you were not redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your fathers with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of christ like that of a lamb without defect or blemish and so um pray i mean what can you say these 12 gates are going to be serving a constant reminder to you and i of the sacrifice of christ the pearl of great price that he went out and bought bought with his own blood that's us he thought it was we were so valuable to him that he gave his life on behalf of us took the penalty of the sins of the world upon himself so we don't have to suffer as paul would later write to the corinthians he who knew no sin second corinthians 5 became a sin offering on our behalf taking the penalty of the sins of the world upon himself pure gold golden streets like transparent glass in other words no flaw in it whatsoever verse 22 and i saw no temple in it for the lord god the almighty and the lamb are its temple now we've got certain things missing here from the holy city from the very beginning of life on earth there's always been a place where human beings could meet god a tabernacle or a temple before adam and eve sinned there was no need of one because god would march with them in the in the garden god would be there but once sin happened there had to be a place of confession sacrifice first the tabernacle then the temple then the coming of christ 2000 years ago there's no temple in the holy city no need of one because he is going to be dwelling with us he is going to be there the lord god almighty the what henry taught you last week is one of my favorite passages in the entire scripture the first few verses of revelation chapter 21. i gave a talk on it once and actually 412 over here in san jacinto and i remember reading the first five verses and i thought i think i just need to close the bible right now what more can you say i mean here the new jerusalem comes down it says god will dwell with us we will be his people he will be our god no more tears crying pain suffering i mean how do you top that you can't you just i literally felt like closing the book it was that powerful but this is why we have the temple missing we don't need a temple we have the lord god himself literally god the son the lamb and now he's called the lamb of god here remember reminding us he died for us we're never going to forget that and and again he's not going to be confined to a temple instead his presence will be everywhere in the holy city that's why it frames the first first book of first verse of revelation frames it for us this is the revelation of jesus christ it's from him and it's about him okay verse 23. at the outset i'm gonna have to ask i'm gonna have to apologize to you because this verse has a meaning for me probably like no other verse in the rest of the bible let me kind of put it in perspective and uh please bear with me there are probably certain songs that you've heard that you know of that touch you in such a way it's so deep and so meaning it just maybe brings tears to your eyes hallelujah chorus for one of other ones well for me it's the um it's it's excuse me pardon me the song the holy city and in 2002 i was um living in australia at that time families in australia and on the um they had a um they have a thing called carrots in the domain on christmas eve there in sydney and a man named david hobson sang the song the holy city and it's a great thing even one of google i know i don't think anyone's even touched it come as close to him and particularly the one in 2002 they haven't seen it every year but 2002 and at that particular time i knew my mother only had a few months to live and when i heard the song it always reminds me of that time about the promise that's there for each of us someday to be with one another like paul says in first thessalonians 4 18 comfort one another with these words this great reunion that's going to be there and so we read these words again forgive me the city had no need of the sun neither the moon in order that it might illuminate it for the glory of god gives its light and its light is the lamb no need of moon or stars by night or sun to shine by day this is the new jerusalem that will not pass away this is the new jerusalem that will not pass away it's the light of god is going to be there someday so no temple necessary no sun no moon nothing the lord himself will provide the light god the father god the son will be there they're equated and their place there where we can have fellowship with them i mean can you even begin to comprehend this where we're in this holy city it's perfect it's secure we're with the lord the whole time and um he's there with us and we're with him no sin no crying no pain no suffering you know you hear things that sound too good to be true well this is true i mean it may sound too it is true and this is the promise you and i have because of what jesus did 2000 years ago this week starting with palm sunday when he offered himself for the first time as the messiah to the inhabitants of the city of jerusalem to the last supper to the betrayal in the garden of gethsemane by judas iscariot to the trials there to the appearing before pilate to the crucifixion on good friday and then the resurrection on easter sunday it's all because of this week that we're going to be in this holy city someday and we're going to have this fellowship of god where there's no need for sun or moon or stars god will provide the light yeah jerusalem jerusalem sing for the night as war hosanna in the highest hosanna forevermore amen and amen amen to them and great anyway one other thing should be mentioned the tabernacle in the wilderness had a golden lamp stand and that is a picture the tabernacle remembers a picture of christ of christ illuminating everything he's going to be the light that illumines the place of worship and then we're told in verse 24 and the nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor into it all right this is now the nations of the gentiles who already saw the foundation stones were there you know with the the names of the 12 tribes now it shows the gentiles the non-jews will be there too and so they're going to come from all over the world uh for wherever they're at and going to enter the holy city um like the the the high priest would later enter the holy of holies in the tabernacle then the temple with the various blood of the sacrifices the priest did but there's no sacrifice now need to be made because the lamb's there we will enter there and we will enter from all over the world to dwell with them in this place of worship so this next verse is again talk about another mind-boggling one and its gates will never ever be closed during the day for there will be no night there i remember one description i love it this is the land of faithless day there is no night we're there forever in the brilliance of the lord he is there you know god isn't limited to one place god is omnipresent everywhere present but in some sense the unique presence of god the father and god the son will be there in the holy city when we're there and so i'm sure there's going to be a receiving line of line wait you know lined up to talk to him or whatever um good news is we've got all eternity right and it didn't get to be night so it's not like you're gonna you have to go it's getting late we won't have to worry about that but what's interesting here again the holy city perfect security perfect freedom of access the no needs to close the gates because all who would might enter and those only believers of course contrast that with the old city of jerusalem and all the ancient cities at night they would close the gates not let anyone in because outside the city gates you had thieves robbers wild animals you've got sorcerers doing their magic spells demonic activity the inside the city was safe inside the holy city it's safe there's no attacking armies no aggressive people only peace prosperity and security and verse 26 says in the glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it so in in the previous verse we're told about kings bringing glory and honor to the city now we're informed that the nations will likewise bring their glory and honor to the holy city now the question is and we don't know the answer where we where whether we will live there and enter there and come back and forth or live outside the city or inside it's ambiguous we don't know but we will have access i don't want to say 24 7. there's no 24s and this is eternity right there's no night or day but i don't know how else to explain it but constant access there now when you stop and start thinking about all these things your head starts exploding doesn't it when you think how wonderful it is how tremendous it is but these are the promises of god for us and finally verse 27 and nothing unclean shall never ever enter into it nor anyone doing any despicable any detestable or practice false anything detestable or practice falsehood but only those whose names have been written in the book of life of the lamb so it's only believers there can you imagine no detestable thing no sin no pain no suffering no worry no no no nothing bad no need for a temple the lord is there the earthly temple has been defiled you and i have been made clean at this particular time where we're able to live there were made perfect by the work of jesus christ on calvary's cross some 2 000 years ago so gang from verse 9 here into verse 27 in revelation chapter 21 this is your future this is my future pretty good huh i think so consequently we okay let's put this into perspective there's only one thing we can do here on earth that we can't do in heaven and that's evangelize tell people about jesus there's no preaching the gospel in heaven everybody's a believer so our job here now while we're here is to be salt and light to be the people who bring the message of jesus the hope that people have because let me tell you if there was ever a time this world needed hope it's right now there the darkness is so overwhelming as we know i'm not telling you anything you don't know it's unimaginable and it's only going to get worse but here's the good news here's where we're going to end up we've seen the end of the movie we know the end of the story how it's going to turn out and we're going to end up in the holy city with the lord with god the father god the son now we know what god the holy spirit's doing we're not told but he'll be there somewhere but we'll be there with the lord for all eternity the land of fateless day no need for sun or moon or stars by night or sun to shine by day you know we've got got the lord lighting it up and we're totally secure totally comfortable totally with only believers and totally where we belong because this world is not our home our home is there in the holy city with the living god who will dwell among us that's our hope so our job now while we're still here and while we still have breath is to be that salt and light to light up this world with the light of jesus christ to show that there's there are answers to the problems of this world there is a meaning to life there are answers to three basic questions who am i why am i here and what's going to happen to me when i die and the bible gives the answer through the person of christ and it's all about what's going to happen this week so as henry would probably say we'll see you friday for a good friday service see you bright and early maybe on easter sunday morning to acknowledge the fact that christ died and that the lord is risen indeed all right let's pray heavenly father thank you thank you for a glimpse of our future home now we do our best to comprehend it it is literally unimaginable on so many levels but we know it's true and we know we're going to be there someday we know it's secure we know you're there we know there's no fear the gates are always open wide that all who may will may enter that you are there to light up not only everything for eternity but to light up our own lives through what christ has done for us lord you don't ask a whole lot out of us except believing and once we believe to be your witnesses to the world to be your ambassador so help us lord as we rethink our christian lives as we rethink the events of holy week this week as we're celebrating what jesus christ did for us 2000 years ago let us reflect on the fact that this is our destiny but until that time we have a job to do we have a purpose in this life give us the grace to fulfill that purpose as long as we are here to take every day one day at a time and to be faithful to you in the calling you've called each of us to do lord we thank you and praise you for what you've done for us and for giving us a glimpse of our future home it's in jesus precious name we pray amen all right bless you guys

Channel: Calvary Chapel Beaumont

Views: 42,923

Keywords: Calvary Chapel Beaumont, CCBeaumont, Beaumont California, Calvary Chapel, Pastor Henry Lundy, Henry Lundy, Pastor Henry, Pastor Man, Word of God, Hope, Bible Study, Study, Bible, New Testament, Old Testament, Beaumont, Through the Bible, Jesus Saves, Don Stewart

Id: 9Ab5vWwsBz4

Length: 48min 45sec (2925 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 29 2021