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, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. (Revelation 21:9–11)

Introduction: Apocalyptic Literature

On October 30, 1938, listeners to the CBS radio network had their regular programming interrupted by a news report of strange explosions having been observed on Mars. The regular radio program resumed but was interrupted again with another news report of a strange object crashing into a farm in New Jersey. Soon after, Martians emerge from the object and start attacking with their heat-rays, and the news report is suddenly cut off.

This was, of course, a performance of War of the Worlds, the fictional novel by H.G. Wells. As the story goes (somewhat exaggerated), many listeners missed the opening announcement explaining what was going on and instead believed they were witnessing an actual alien invasion, resulting in at least some public panic.

At the end of the day, their confusion was a failure to understand the genre of the media they were hearing. It was intended as fiction but misinterpreted as a factual news report.

And this is the challenge of Revelation. It is an apocalypse, a genre of literature that was relatively well-known at the time it was written but is entirely foreign to us today. And if you’ve ever read through the book of Revelation, it can seem really odd, right? I mean just look at the first passage we read there. The angel says, “Here, let me show you the bride”, and then he actually shows John a city. Which is obviously not literal. (On the day of your wedding, guys, not a good move to mention to your bride, “Wow, you look amazing … like a huge city.” That’s just not going to go well.)

What’s going on here? Every genre of literature has certain rules that you, as the reader, are assumed to understand, in order to make sense of what the author is trying to communicate. You read historical narrative differently than you read poetry. When the book of Genesis says that a flood covered the entire surface of the earth, such that even the highest mountains were covered (Genesis 7:18–19), what it is intending to communicate there is that a flood covered the entire surface of the earth, such that even the highest mountains were covered. That’s historical narrative—it’s straightforward, like a non-fiction history book.

But when the Psalms say that,

The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back;
The mountains leaped like rams, the hills like lambs. (Psalm 114:3–4)

We are not to think that the sea grew eyeballs and legs, nor that the mountains disengaged from the ground. The poetry is using personification as a literary device to communicate to us something of the power of God in creation. And no one is confused by this; we understand this because these are the “rules” of poetry.

Proverbs are another genre. So, Proverbs can say:

Lazy hands make for poverty,
but diligent hands bring wealth. (Proverbs 10:4)

Is that generally true? Sure. Is that always true? No, we all know some people who are lazy but—through dumb luck, family connections, whatever—are doing just fine. And people who work hard and do all the right things but just can’t seem to catch a break. But those are the exceptions that prove the rule—wisdom literature presents to us generalities about the way God has ordered his creation. And again, we understand this because we understand the “rules” for proverbial literature.

We could go on about prophesy, and parables, and so on. Every genre of literature has its own rules for interpretation, and we get into real problems when we apply the wrong set of rules. For example, reading historical narrative like Genesis as metaphor, or reading an apocalypse like Revelation like a news report.

The problem is that apocalyptic literature is a genre that we simply don’t have around today, so we don’t know what the rules are. About the closest thing we have today is allegory. Like Pilgrim’s Progress, where Christian (the main character) has a giant burden on his back (which represents sin) and is travelling from the City of Destruction (the current world) to the Celestial City (which stands for heaven). Symbols stand in as metaphors for reality. The Chronicles of Narnia series would be another example.

Allegory has some similarities, except that allegories are typically trying to communicate some truth about reality through a completely fictional story. Apocalypse is different—it is a telling of real historical events using symbol-laden language.

I don’t want to spend too much more time by way of introduction, because I want to dig into the text here. It’s a really neat genre once you get your head into the right mentality—a lot of fun, actually. But if you’re not quite tuned in, it’s easy to read Revelation and come away with some really bad theology, or to create some really bad movies. (Those of you who lived through the late 90s and early 2000’s know what I’m talking about…)

Two of the most helpful things I have heard on interpreting apocalyptic literature are the following:1

  • Apocalyptic mixes its metaphors – We see this in the passage above. The reality is described as both a bride and a city, and the bride is marrying a lamb. That’s three metaphors all communicating something about the same reality, and it’s OK to let each metaphor make its own point without needing to reconcile them all together. Which leads to the second point…

  • Don’t try to paint a picture – Apocalyptic deals in word pictures, and if you start trying to draw a picture in your head (or on a medieval fresco) you get into some really incoherent and, quite frankly, ridiculous things. In chapter 19 Jesus is described as having eyes of flames of fire, with many crowns on his head, and a sword proceeding out of his mouth. And if you try to draw a picture, it’s just kind of silly: some bizarre circus act—balancing a stack of crowns with a sword in his mouth. But the point isn’t to draw a picture. Each part of the vision is intended to communicate some truth about that reality.

Two Women and Two Cities

So, finally, back to the text. Here the vision, the metaphors, are of a bride and a city. And to get the full impact of what’s going on here, we need to briefly go back to chapter 17, where we read a very similar account of a woman and a city. Here we read:

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.” Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery:

Babylon the great
the mother of prostitutes
and of the abominations of the earth. (Revelation 17:1–5)

The chapters leading up to our text communicate the final outcome of God‘s enemies, who are represented as a prostitute, and as the city of Babylon. And, as you can imagine, the outcome is pretty gruesome. Our text in chapters 21 and 22 acts as a deliberate contrast: not the unfaithful, unclean prostitute, but the radiant, pure bride. Not the idolatrous city of Babylon, but the heavenly Jerusalem from God. This vision concerns the destiny and final reality of the people of God, the church.

The lectionary reading actually skips over verses 12 through 21 of chapter 21, but I’d like us to at least skim them in your Bible. Lots of symbolic language being used—the city has 12 gates, and 12 foundations, representing the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles of Jesus. And all of these precious stones are mentioned, which also have significance that we don’t have time to get into. And then the city is measured and it is huge: 12,000 stadia on each side. 12,000 stadia is roughly 1,400 miles, which according to Google Earth is roughly the distance between here and Denver, Colorado. But—again—we miss the point if we try to convert these to English measurements. It is 12,000 (12 times 1,000) stadia in length and width—those numbers are symbolic of perfection and completion. But most interestingly, it is also 12,000 stadia in height. Which, again, if you are trying to figure out how this would work as a physical city on present-day earth, it wouldn’t. There’s no oxygen up there. That’s not the point. The point is that it is vast place, and it is a cube. And we’re going to come back to that in a minute.

Three Things that are not in the Heavenly City

For now, jump ahead to verse 22, which continues the description of the heavenly Jerusalem, and note as we read how much attention is given to what is not there.

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:22–27)

No Temple

There is no temple in the city, nor any need for the sun or moon to provide light. These both point to the same truth, which really is the central point: that in the eternal state for believers, we will enjoy the permanent, unrestricted, universal presence of God.

That’s hard for us to wrap our heads around. Think about what’s being communicated here. The temple was a symbol of the presence of God to the Israelites. But it was largely a symbol of exclusion. Most of your life was spent outside the temple grounds. And only certain people (the Levites) could serve in the temple itself, and only then by carefully obeying the regulations of worship. And only the High Priest—once a year—could enter the Most Holy Place. Access to the presence of God is restricted.

Not so in the eternal reality. There’s no need for a temple—an imperfect mediated revelation of God—because He’s directly present.

Back to that cube shape in the previous verses. A theologian that I really respect has a fascinating interpretation of that detail. There’s only one other cube in the entire Bible, and that’s the Most Holy Place inside of the temple—the most restricted place, representing the presence of God. If his interpretation is correct—and it makes a lot of sense that it is—then it’s another dramatic way of saying the same thing that verse 22 is saying: that in the heavenly city, the presence of God isn’t something isolated and exclusive, but the whole city enjoys his presence.

Which is why there is no night there. Again, the point isn’t necessarily to give details on the solar cycles of heaven. Night represents what is dangerous, dishonest, scary. The all-encompassing presence of a perfectly holy God excludes the possibility of danger. The gates never need to be shut.

Nothing impure

But the presence of a holy God necessitates something else that’s not there: nothing impure will ever enter it. Which would be really bad news for us were not for the gospel, because that would exclude everyone in this room.

The Book of Revelation powerfully communicates the relationship between God’s forgiveness in Christ and our response to that forgiveness. Throughout the book, it is the Lamb (Jesus) who overcomes, the Lamb who purifies the saints, God who protects and keeps his people from disaster. This is the good news—when verse 27 says that nothing impure will ever enter the city, we are reminded that it is not our purity that earns us a place, but the purity and righteousness of Christ that is credited to us. So, through the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, we are purified to enter.

And yet—Revelation is a call to stand firm when the going gets tough. And a huge theme of the book is that the sincerity of our belief will be revealed in those times of testing. In the apocalypse there are those who accept the mark of the beast. When the going gets tough, rather than accept the scorn for the name of Christ, they identify with the world. And their end is given in Chapter 17. They are identified as unfaithful, as the prostitute.

But those who stand firm until the end, no matter how hard things get, prove themselves to be genuine. They are the faithful, the bride.

No curse

Finally, there is no curse in the heavenly Jerusalem.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. (Revelation 22:1–3)

This passage takes us back to the very beginning of the Bible, and our eternal state is described in terms of a restoration of the Garden of Eden, before sin entered the world. You recall that when Adam and Eve sinned, they were removed from the Garden, and the specific reason was so that they would not have access to the tree of life. Here, the tree of life is freely available. It yields fruit every month—in order words, it never stops. And it receives its nourishment from the water of life, a river that flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. Again, we’re mixing our metaphors. We’re not to try to envision some intricate fountain system running just beneath the throne. No, the throne is the source of the water of life: God’s sovereign purposes are the agent of our salvation and eternal life.

And there is no more curse! Verse 4 of chapter 21 says that there will be…

  • No more death
  • No more mourning
  • No more crying
  • No more pain

I think our tendency is to think of this in terms of forces outside of us (curse on creation, like natural disasters; people who hurt us; etc.) But this applies to you and me as well. That’s awesome! Imagine … no more jealousy but having genuine happiness for the success of others. No more self-promotion, no more laziness, and so on.

What’s the Point?

So what do we do with all of this? Why was this vision given to us?

The book of Revelation opens up with letters to seven churches. And each church has its own personality. And at the risk of oversimplifying, you have good churches and bad churches. And those were real, actual churches at the time that this was written, but they are also part of the apocalypse because we’re meant to examine our own hearts and see where we identify. As a church corporately, but of course that also means us as individuals who make up the church.

So you really have two different ways of looking at this.

Some churches were lazy and compromised. They are described as “thinking they are alive, but dead” and “lukewarm” and “thinking they were rich, but were wretched and miserable and blind and naked.” Likewise, there are those of us in this room who are enamored with this world. Before we exit this building this morning, the glory of what’s just been described to us will have been replaced by the next plastic banana this world offers to us.

And so this is a call to wake up! Look at the bigger picture. The pleasures of this world are nothing in comparison to the glories that await. Don’t waste your life building your palace of comfort and security and the praise of man—live now for eternal things.

Jesus had something to say about that:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19–21)

Note what this verse does not say. The sequence here isn’t, “Focus your heart on heaven, and that will change your priorities.” That’s no doubt true to some degree, but the point here is when we invest in what matters, then our hearts will naturally follow. If we read passages of the eternal state like the one we just read in Revelation, and we’re like, “That’s nice.” And then we don’t think about it again until the next time we read it, that could be a good indication that we’re a little too enamored with the world.

In contrast to that, other churches in the beginning of the book were described as enduring through the midst of great suffering. And this serves as an incredible encouragement to persevere. There are hard times now, but an eternal reward is waiting—it will be worth it. And that’s the message many of us need to hear this morning.

My wife and I were talking a few weeks ago and we both commented that life feels really “heavy” right now. Not “heavy” as in the stress of busyness … where you have a million things to do and “How am I going to get them all done?” But heavy in the sense of just a lot of hard things going on in our lives and in the lives of people we care deeply about, and not only feeling completely powerless to change things, but coming to the recognition that you actually are completely powerless. And this is passage (really, this book) is a call to hope. Not hope in the sense of “pie-in-the-sky”, just giving up and just looking forward to everything being over, but hope in the sense that you can keep on persevering because there is a bigger story at play. Keep on doing what’s right even though it seems like it makes no difference and you feel like you are banging your head against the wall. Keep on serving and loving, and being the person God has called you to be, even when all you get in return is rejection and scorn and derision.

Because it will be worth it:

They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:4–5)

  1. I believe I first heard these insights from D.A. Carson, although I’m not positive and don’t have an exact source to attribute. ↩