Revelation 21

the revelation of jesus christ

John the Apostle · c. 95 AD

Chapter the Twenty-first

Behold, I Make All Things New: Thread 6's Eternal Union

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;

The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Chuck Smith on Revelation 21

Verse by verse, the C2000 series. Permission granted by The Word For Today.

Verses 1-27

I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away ( Revelation 21:1 );

Now, we are beyond the thousand years. The first heaven is passed away. Peter tells us it passes away with a great noise with a fervent heat as the elements are dissolved. Now, God spoke the universe into existence. And in speaking it into existence, He spoke into existence a scientific puzzle. For in speaking matter into existence, He brought the protons and electrons and assembled them together. And in creating the atoms, and bringing into the heart of the atom, the protons tightly knit together in the nucleus of the atom, He violated the law of electricity, Collins Law, which speaks of the repelling force of positive charges. Positive poles repel. Try to put them together and they will fight each other. There is a repelling force of positive charges, tremendously powerful repelling force. The atom bomb illustrates to us the true nature of an atom. For what is happening is the nucleus of an atom is bombarded with slow moving neutrons that upset the delicate balance of the protons in the heart of the atom and it releases them. As it releases them, you have this tremendous release of energy and power and you see the tremendous power released when protons within an atom are set free. It is an equivalent power that holds them together. It takes an equivalent power to hold the nucleus of an atom together that is released when the nucleus is unbalanced. Now, God who holds together the universe by the word of His power, and we are told this in the scripture; He created it by the word of His power and by Him all things are held together. All He is going to do is relax and let it go, and the whole material universe will go up in one gigantic puff. The elements will be dissolved and melted with a fervent heat. The heavens will be on fire. The whole material universe following the natural laws with the protons repelling each other, and this whole material universe will go out of existence in a moment's time. And then God said, "Behold, I create all things new," Isaiah sixty-six. There will be a new heaven and a new earth and the former will not be remembered or brought into mind. We are not going to sit around after that age and say, "Remember down on earth we used to". God is just going to excise from our brain all those DNA molecules that hold those memory stores and banks and it will be gone, not be remembered or brought into mind.

the first earth and the first heaven passed away; no more sea ( Revelation 21:1 ).

To bad surfers, but I am sure God will have something quite superior.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband ( Revelation 21:2 ).

Now, this new earth will be orbited by the New Jerusalem. I believe the New Jerusalem will actually be an orbit around the new earth. It will be approximately the size of the moon. It will be cubed however rather than round and it will be fourteen hundred miles cubed. Now, if we lived dimensionally at that time, you know we live on the surface of the earth, but if you had a cube and we lived dimensionally, it is interesting to get out your pencil and notepad and figure how many square miles you could get in a cube that was fourteen hundred miles in each direction. You would be amazed what fourteen hundred cubed becomes. Needless to say, you could all have a square mile and if we need more space what you do is just move your ceiling down to a half-mile and you double again the capacity.

And I heard the great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, [God is now going to dwell in the midst among His people.] they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. He will wipe away all their tears; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away ( Revelation 21:3-4 ).

No physical infirmities, no weaknesses, no tiredness, and no weariness.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful ( Revelation 21:5 ).

It sounds like a dream, doesn't it? It sounds like a fairy tale. It sounds too good to be true. And because it is really just so good, that it is hard for us to conceive it so the Lord puts this special little "write these things because these sayings are faithful and true." God attests now to the truth of what He is declaring. You can believe it. You can trust it.

And he said unto me, It is finished. I am Alpha and Omega ( Revelation 21:6 ),

Jesus is called the author and the finisher of our faith, the beginning and the end.

I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of water of life freely ( Revelation 21:6 ).

Jesus, that day on the temple mount, cried, "If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink." To the woman at the well He said, "If you drink of this water, you will thirst again, if you drink of the water that I give you will never thirst again"( John 4:13-14 ). And once again the invitation for those that are thirsty, "He will give the fountains of living water freely."

He that overcometh shall inherit all things ( Revelation 21:7 )

"Come ye blessed of the Father inherit," Jesus said, "the things that were prepared for you from the foundations of the earth"( Matthew 25:34 ). We are told about the glorious inheritance of the saints in light. That inheritance that has- "If we are sons of God then we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ"( Romans 8:17 ). We are going to inherit the whole new universe that God creates. It is all ours to enjoy to the fullest with Him.

And I will be his God, and he will be my son ( Revelation 21:7 ).

Beloved now are we the sons of God. What a privilege and what a blessing.

But outside the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, the drug abusers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. [We've already looked at that] And there came unto me one of the seven angels ( Revelation 21:8-9 )

Now, these are the angels that had those seven final vials. One of them showed him the destruction of the religious Babylon system in chapter seventeen. Now again one of the seven angels,

which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, came and talked with me, saying, Come over here, and I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And so he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal ( Revelation 21:9-11 );

So you see how light refracts in a crystal and the brilliance or in a diamond the refraction of light, the glorious colors that are coming forth from the new Jerusalem as it descends out of heaven to take its place of orbit around the new earth.

And had a wall great and high, twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel ( Revelation 21:12 ):

Commentary on Revelation 21

Whosoever Will · the Seven Threads Commentary

Revelation 21:1

A new heaven and a new earth. The first have passed away. There is no more sea, the sea that in OT imagery represented the chaos and restlessness of the nations (Isaiah 57:20; Revelation 17:15) is absent from the new creation. What replaces it is not emptiness but the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven: prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. The holy city descends. It does not ascend. The new creation is not the saints going up to a spiritual heaven. It is the heavenly city coming down to the renewed earth. The direction matters: the dwelling of God is brought to humanity's realm, not humanity evacuated to God's realm. The garden-to-city arc that T.D. Alexander traced across the canon arrives: what began as a garden becomes a city, and the city comes down. Behold the tabernacle of God is with men: hē skēnē tou theou meta tōn anthrōpōn. Thread 6 reaches its permanent destination in this phrase. The whole Tabernacle thread: Exodus 25:8 (let them make me a sanctuary that I may shakan among them), Numbers 9 (the cloud resting on the Mishkan), the glory filling the Temple (1 Kings 8:10-11), the glory departing in Ezekiel 10-11, the glory returning in Ezekiel 43, the Word becoming flesh and eskēnōsen in John 1:14, the Spirit indwelling believers (1 Corinthians 3:16), Christ in you (Colossians 1:27), all of it terminates here. God will tabernacle, skēnōsei, the same verb as John 1:14, permanently with men. Not temporarily. Not partially. Permanently. He will wipe away every tear. Not most tears. Every. From their eyes. The action is personal, God's own hand wiping each tear. Death no more. Mourning no more. Crying no more. Pain no more. The former things have passed away. Behold, I make all things new. Kaina poiō panta: not all new things but all things new. The same creation that groaned (Romans 8:22) is renewed, not discarded. The resurrection body is not a different body but the same body transformed. The new earth is not a different planet but the same earth renewed by the one who sits on the throne. Then the throne-voice extends the invitation one final time before chapter 22's own invitation: I will give to the one who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life without cost. Thread 7 in the new creation: even at the establishment of the eternal state, the invitation language is the hoy kol-tsame of Isaiah 55, freely, to the thirsty, without cost. Thread 1 is in the wiping of tears: the God who cannot stop reaching will personally dry the eyes of every person who is there.

The tabernacle of God is with men, hē skēnē tou theou meta tōn anthrōpōn, the Tabernacle thread that ran from Exodus 25 through John 1:14 arrives at its permanent destination; and the throne-voice says I make all things new.

ἰδοὺ ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ σκηνώσει μετ᾽ αὐτῶν (idou hē skēnē tou theou meta tōn anthrōpōn kai skēnōsei met' autōn): behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them: hē skēnē (the tabernacle, the same root as eskēnōsen in John 1:14; this is the word that carries the entire Tabernacle thread; the Mishkan word in Greek); meta tōn anthrōpōn (with men, not above, not near, not among as a visitor; the preposition meta denotes genuine accompaniment and fellowship); skēnōsei (he will tabernacle, future active; the same verb as John 1:14; the dwelling is the permanent arrival of what John 1:14 was the inauguration of) · ἰδοὺ καινὰ ποιῶ πάντα (idou kaina poiō panta): behold I make all things new: kaina (new in quality, kainos, not neos; not brand-new replacement but renewed, transformed, made fresh; the same creation renewed, not discarded and replaced); panta (all things, ta panta, the comprehensive scope; not some things, not spiritual things only, but all things including the physical creation that groaned in Romans 8:22)

threads t1 · t5 · t6 · t7 · see Exodus 25:8 · John 1:14 · Romans 8:22

Revelation 21:2

threads t1 · t5 · t6 · t7 · see Exodus 25:8 · John 1:14 · Romans 8:22

Revelation 21:3

threads t1 · t5 · t6 · t7 · see Exodus 25:8 · John 1:14 · Romans 8:22

Revelation 21:4

threads t1 · t5 · t6 · t7 · see Exodus 25:8 · John 1:14 · Romans 8:22

Revelation 21:5

threads t1 · t5 · t6 · t7 · see Exodus 25:8 · John 1:14 · Romans 8:22

Revelation 21:6

threads t1 · t5 · t6 · t7 · see Exodus 25:8 · John 1:14 · Romans 8:22

Revelation 21:7

threads t1 · t5 · t6 · t7 · see Exodus 25:8 · John 1:14 · Romans 8:22

Revelation 21:8

threads t1 · t5 · t6 · t7 · see Exodus 25:8 · John 1:14 · Romans 8:22

Revelation 21:9

One of the bowl-angel escorts John to a great high mountain to see the bride, the wife of the Lamb. What he sees is the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. The bride and the city are the same: the corporate people of God, the covenant community of Thread 2, is described architecturally as the city of God. The city's architecture is a statement of canonical theology. Twelve gates, the entry points into the city, named for the twelve tribes of Israel. The dispensationalist insistence on the distinction between Israel and the Church is honored in the architecture of the eternal state: Israel is named at the gates and the twelve apostles at the foundations. Neither is erased. Neither replaces the other. Both are permanent features of the city where God dwells. Thread 5 is the dispensational integrity: the city does not collapse Israel into the Church or the Church into Israel. It honors both with their own structure. The twelve tribes and the twelve apostles are both in the new Jerusalem, named at their respective architectural features. The nations walk in its light. The kings of the earth bring their glory into it. The gates are never shut. There is no night requiring them to close. Everything that has happened in redemptive history, every nation that was reached by the gospel, every thread that ran from Genesis to Revelation: all of it flows into the city whose gates never close.

Twelve gates named for the twelve tribes of Israel and twelve foundations named for the twelve apostles: the new Jerusalem is built on the continuity of both testaments; Israel and the Church are not merged but both honored in the architecture of the eternal city.

οἱ πυλῶνες δώδεκα καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς πυλῶσιν ὀνόματα ἐπιγεγραμμένα ἅ ἐστιν τῶν δώδεκα φυλῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ (hoi pulōnes dōdeka kai epi tois pulōsin onomata epigegrammena ha estin tōn dōdeka phulōn huiōn Israēl): twelve gates with names written thereon which are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel: the twelve gates are the entry points into the city; the entry points are named for the twelve tribes; this is the canonical integrity of Israel's covenant identity: in the eternal city the twelve tribes are not erased or absorbed but named at every gate as the entry points of humanity into the dwelling of God