Eternity is in Our Heart: Session 8 – The New Jerusalem

Notes:

The New Jerusalem    See Session Slides Here

‘Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband’ (Rev.21:1-2). We will be taken to the New Jerusalem before the destruction of this present creation and be brought into the new Creation. John saw this.

Earth is our home; heaven is God’s. Jesus, the God-man, will unite both in one ‘…that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him’ (Eph.1:10). Heaven and earth will be merged. For God to be one with us:

  • He had to remake us, spirit and body. ‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption’ (1 Cor.15:50). The first body suited for earth. The new suited for heaven.
  • God had to prepare heaven for us. ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also’ (Jn.14:2-3).

God’s people have always wanted a holy city, because this world is not our home. We are citizens of heaven. ‘…for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God’ (Heb.11:10). ‘…you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem’ (Heb.12:22).

  • It has foundations. ‘Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb’ (Rev.21:14).
  • It has gates. We will leave and enter the city as angels do. We have work to do; a universe to traverse. People will also enter (Rev. 21:24-25; 22:2). The gates will never be shut because there is perfect security.
  • It is shaped as a cube. ‘The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal’ (Rev.21:16). The holy of holies was also a cube. The New Jerusalem is the holy of holies for eternity.
  • At the same time it is the Bride of Christ (Rev. 21:9-10). This is the personality of the city. A city is not just physical features but its people. It is where God will show us off to the whole of creation His masterpiece.
  • It is a tabernacle. ‘And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God”’ (Rev.21:3). Throughout Revelation we see angels around the throne. But then it’s the redeemed.
  • The glory of God is the main feature of heaven. ‘…showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God’ (Rev.21:10-11). ‘The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light’ (Rev.21:23). The light is not from any material combustion where fuel constantly needs to be supplied. ‘There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light’ (Rev.22:5).
  • ‘They shall see His face…’ (Rev.22:4). Seeing God is the climax of our hope…without climax! Mt.5:8. ‘One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple’ (Psa.27:4). ‘For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!’ (Job.19:25-27). ‘As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness’ (Psa.17:15).
  • This is eternal life ‘And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent’ (Jn.17:3). This is what Christ redeemed us for. Seeing God will be like seeing for the first time. Because we will see everything else thereafter through the lens of His glory. We will no longer question His wisdom or goodness. We will see it and experience it forever. If heaven isn’t about God is a false heaven. It will be joy unspeakable, 1 Jn.3:2. Wherever we go in heaven we will be in the immediate presence of the full glory of God. We will never have had enough of God.