Adult Class
March-June 2006
Revelation 21-22
Lesson 13
With the completion of Revelation 20, the persecutor of Christians has been completely overthrown and the devil himself has come under final judgment. This signals that the end of time has come and the end of the earth as we know it has arrived. It is time for humanity to obtain its final reward-heaven for the righteous and hell for the wicked. Few words are spent describing the fate of the wicked, but God grants us a beautiful picture of the end of the righteous in heaven.
John is granted a vision of a new heaven and a new earth. This is not a place that is new in time or reconstructed out of the former elements of creation. This is a unique heavens and earth that are not subject to the forces of corruption and degeneration that plague our world (Romans 8:20-21). And John sees the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, a symbol for spiritual heaven, the city of God.
At this point, God announces that the full and final consummation of His plan for humanity is in place: God will dwell with man and live with them, and He will be their God and they will be His people. This ideal fellowship is the goal of God’s redemption of humanity and the greatest promise to be fulfilled for mankind. This was one of the earliest promises of God, given to Abraham in Genesis 17:8. It was repeated to the suffering exiles in Jeremiah (24:7; 31:33; 32:38) and Ezekiel (11:20; 14:11; 34:24; 37:23, 27). This is the overriding desire of God, and it will come to pass. None of the things that make our lives bad and difficult will be present then. The first things are gone and everything will be new. This is a definite, certain word from God.
John has the city displayed for him and he shows us that it is perfect in every way. It is a perfect cube in dimension (12,000 stadia in each direction), it has 12 gates, each with an angel, and 12 foundations. The walls are 144 cubits thick. None of these numbers is to be taken literally; they are symbolic in nature. The number 12 symbolizes God and man in perfect harmony, and that number is the root of all the dimensions of heaven. In that city the gates will never be shut and nothing impure will intrude. The only people there are those whose names are written in the book of life.
A river flows from the throne (Psalm 46:4) and there is found the water of life. The tree of life grows, yielding its fruit each month and the leaves of the tree are for healing. Here there is no longer any curse, something that has been a feature of our deteriorating world since Genesis 3. Here the servants of God will see Him face to face and they will reign forever and ever.
The description of the holy city is a description of the perfection for which we all seek and which can never be attained on this earth:
Beginning in Revelation 22:6 the focus shifts from a description of the heavenly city to concluding matters for the Christians suffering persecution from the Roman Empire and its allies. First, the certainty of the revelation is repeated. The purpose of the book is repeated and the certainty of Christ’s coming is repeated. Then John adds his own endorsement, along with a matter of some embarrassment—he offered to worship an angel, who prevented it.
Then the message of the book is summarized: the time is at hand for God’s judgment upon the persecutor of Christians. Those who persist in their way of life will reap the appropriate reward. Ultimately, those who devote themselves to Christ will be rewarded in heaven while those who rejected the Lord and His will for their lives will be punished with the devil in hell.
Finally, the invitation is extended to all who will bind themselves to Christ. And everybody who is aware of the situation invites the participation of everyone who will hear and obey. The Lord invites, the Holy Spirit invites, the church itself invites everyone who wishes to come and experience the eternal life offered by God.
The book ends with a strong warning to keep the contents intact and unaltered. And it finishes with a conventional closing by John. The final impact leads us all to consider our souls’ condition and determine whether we are turned toward heaven or hell in the end. No matter what our situation may be on this earth, there is a better life awaiting those who bind themselves to Christ.
The book of Revelation has confused and frightened many over the centuries and that is very sad. It is not the most difficult book in the New Testament and its message is rather straightforward once we realize that it is simply a different kind of literature that has its own rules. The story of the book is that of persecution of the early Christians by the Roman Empire, and the later judgment and destruction of the Roman Empire by God’s forces. The persecutor of God’s people will be destroyed. Even the accuser of God’s people will gain his final destruction in hell. And the people of God will be transformed and lifted to live in the presence of God for all eternity. The message is true and trustworthy and we have seen the major portion of this book play out across the pages of world history. We only wait for the final destruction of our enemies, death and the devil, and the inauguration of our own eternity in the perfect presence of our God and Father and His heavenly multitude.