May 17, 1998 The Perfect City Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Amen.

One of the interesting features of Revelation is how it views the same events from different angles. This can be a confusing feature if you aren't aware of it. However, through these multiple views, God grants us a fuller picture of what is to come.

In chapter 21, as we saw last week, we have the coming of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem and the dwelling of God is with His people. He will wipe away their every tear. Then God explains how He is making everything new. These are all events in the future, at the end of the world, after the judgment. These are reported as part of John's vision, where he saw what was going to happen in the future.

Then Chapter 21 continues on after the view changes. John's vision is still of the coming of God to live with His people, but he sees it from another angle.

This is sort of like a documen-tary film, which shows a set of events from one vantage point and then from a second vantage point, and so forth. Or, you may think of the football coverage from different cameras. The reason they do this is because the events are very important and seeing them from different angles can help us understand them better.

The view changes for John in chapter 21 at verse 9 where it says: "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City." John's vision which began with one view of the end of the world at Chapter 21, is interrupted when the angel appears to him. This is the angel holding the seventh bowl, where the seven bowls poured out marked off the judgment of the world. This seventh angel wants to take John to show him the bride of the Lamb.

The Lamb is, of course, Jesus Christ. Who is His bride? Other places in the New Testament speak of the Holy Christian Church, that is, all believers, as being Christ's bride. It is difficult understanding the bride here to be that same group of believers. Instead, what the chapter goes on to describe is the Holy City, the New Jerusalem.

Last week we studied the coming of the New Jerusalem, but we mostly looked at what it will mean to live in that City. Remember, how God will be living with us, and He will wipe away every tear from our eyes and take away the reasons for crying. Everything will be made new. This is what it means to live in this city. As the vision now steps back and takes another view, we see a description of what the city looks like in our text.

Thinking about this city is like imagining your dream home. What kind of house would you have if you could have any sort? Everyone probably wants more room, but the extra space must be self-cleaning, right? Low-maintenance would be nice, but it would also be good to have a fine garden. What kind of features do you imagine in your dream house?

Back before we bought our house in Herman, I pulled out an old log home catalog we have from the mid 1980s. Several of us in our family took turns browsing the catalog and dreaming of what our ideal home would be like. It is fun to browse, but reality has a way of interfering. When we found out the current prices for these homes, even the most basic one-room homes were out of our price range. Reality has a way of taking away our dreams. You have to pay for your dream home, in this life.

Isn't that the nice thing about the life to come, our eternal life? Yes,... we get it for free. It isn't that we deserve it. In fact, we have a tremendous debt that we owe and deserve to have nothing. Our sins earn us a wage of death. Our violations of God's will for our lives should put us into eternal punishment. Certainly our sins abound. Even in our little exercise of thinking about our dream homes, you probably found it hard to avoid the thoughts of greed and covetousness. Seldom are even our dreams pure. And so we don't deserve the dream home of everlasting life.

Yet, our God is a gracious god. He shows us mercy by sending Christ as our substitute on the cross. Jesus came and lived a perfect life, and died for sins He didn't commit. He died for our sins. Then He rose again. This Thursday, we will remember how He forty days later ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven.

All this our God did only out of Fatherly divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness on our part. And because of what Christ did for us, the dream house of eternal life is ours. The Holy City, the New Jerusalem will be our home.

What a home it is! The city is described as shining with the glory of God and having a brilliance like jasper or crystal. It has high walls, showing the safety of our new fortress. No evil or harm will ever reach us there. It has 12 gates representing the 12 tribes of Israel, God's chosen people. We are His chosen people, the decendants of Abraham through faith. There are 12 foundations on this city, each representing the 12 apostles of the Lamb. There are three gates for each of the compass points. This shows us that people will come to this city from all four directions, that is from the four corners of the earth. Remember that our text two weeks ago, from Revelation 7, said that the great multitude in heaven would be from every nation, people, tribe, and language. There will be gates on every side to let all who trust in Christ into the Holy City.

Our text omits verses 15-21 of Chapter 21. These verses describe in greater detail what this New Jerusalem will look like. Its shape and size will be most impressive. It will be a perfect cube, with each side being 12,000 stadia long. That comes out to about 1,400 miles. That is some city, isn't it? It should remind us of the first temple built by Solomon. That temple had a special room called the "holy of holies" which was 20 by 20 by 20 cubits. And it was covered with gold. The New Jerusalem, the bride of the Lamb is so much greater.

The walls are 200 feet thick, made of jasper and the city is made of pure gold, being so pure it looks like glass. The decorations consist of all sorts of precious stones which are listed: jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, carnelian, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase (chriso-praise), jacinth (jas-inth), and amethyst (am-e-thyst). To top off this list, each gate has 12 pearls. And, of course, the streets of the city are made of pure gold which is transparent like glass.

The final two verses of our text describe what is missing in our eternal home. What is missing is a temple. There is no separate place to go to in order to worship God and be especially in His presence. Remember, God will dwell with us. We will be with Him. We are told that the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the city's temple. The triune God resides with us in our eternal home. His glory, always expressed in brilliant light, will indeed light the city. The glory of God gives it light and the Lamb is its lamp.

I like this time of the year, when one can wake up with the sun. There is no need to turn on a light when you get up. No need to stumble in the dark. The natural light of the sun is there and provides all the light you need.

In the Holy City to come, we will not even need the light of the sun or moon, because the light of God will be enough.

Revelation is a book of encouragement and comfort. It lays before its readers the picture of certain things to come. It encourages us by giving the outcome. This way, even if the present world is a miserable place to be, we know what will be coming. As you face the difficulties of this life, the trials and persecutions, you know that the outcome is pleasant.

John was not the first to write about heaven. Even 700 years before the baby Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah was writing about this same heaven. Listen to Isaiah describe the Holy City in Chapter 65 and see how they wrote of the same place.

(Isa 65:17) "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. "Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the LORD.

St. Paul Conclusion

May you be comforted and encouraged by the Word of our Lord as you travel through this life, awaiting the life to come. Then the mercy, grace, and forgiveness of Christ will take you home to be with our Lamb, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Bethlehem Conclusion

Our Lord does certainly direct our attention to the future and the end of all things. In our short-sightedness, we can get caught up on the little milestones in our lives. We may become distracted by the events of our confirmation, perhaps, as Tara and Anne may be tempted today. On our own, we cannot keep ourselves from this temptation. Many think of confirmation as a graduation. It is the end of their Christian education, they believe. You have finally arrived. Yet our students today have learned that it is not a graduation. Rather it is another step along the road to the Holy City to come. That is the real goal. We spend our lives preparing for that goal, and by God's grace we will attain it.

We make this journey of life by constant nourishment of God's Word and Sacraments. So, our confirmands today promised to make faithful use of God's means of grace: the Word and Sacraments. They will receive the Lord's Supper in two weeks on Pentecost. They intend by the grace of God to continue to study His true Word, that is the entire Bible. Our prayer for them is that they will make diligent use of all that is provided for their growth and nurture as they travel along the path to the New Jerusalem.

Anne's verse, John 10:27-28 teaches her who to listen to as she walks this path. "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand." It also tells her what the shepherd gives her, pointing her to the target of the heaven to come.

Tara's verse, Joshua 1:9 gives her the encouragement and comfort of the Lord. "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." God promises to be with her, to calm her fears and keep her from discouragement as she walks with the Lord through this life and into everlasting life.

May you all be comforted and encouraged by the Word of our Lord as you travel through this life, awaiting the life to come. Then the mercy, grace, and forgiveness of Christ will take you home to be with our Lamb, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.