Revelation Survey Part 2

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Introduction

1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

Greeting to the Seven Churches

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Vision of the Son of Man

9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

Last week we began our survey of John’s Apocalypse, and we started by driving home two very important points that I want to continue building upon today. The first point was that in the minds of Christ’s disciples, and ultimately the early church, was an expectation that within their own generation Jerusalem would be surrounded by armies and that the Temple would be destroyed. This expectation was created by both Jesus’ own prophecies recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 in his Olivet Discourse, but also by his condemnation of Jerusalem’s religious leaders. That they would fill up the measure of their fathers who had murdered the prophets before them. That Jesus would send his own prophets and wise men and scribes only to be flogged in their synagogues, persecuted from town to town, and some of whom they would even kill and crucify. Therefore all the blood of the prophets would come down upon their generation.
Jesus gave them scathing parables of condemnation, that indicated he would put them to death and burn their city. That because of these wicked servants the kingdom of God would be taken away from them and given to a people producing its fruits. And it’s this approaching expectation of judgement against Jerusalem that coincides with Revelation 1:7 which reads,

7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.

That one of the primary motifs of John’s Apocalypse is God’s imminent judgement against apostate Israel, that Jesus himself would soon come to avenge the blood of his prophets and saints.
This is what’s portrayed in Revelation 5-6 when Johns sees in a vision God seated on a throne with a scroll in his hand sealed with 7 seals. The scroll represents God’s judgments against apostate Israel, however, there is great concern in heaven because, at first, no one is found worthy to open the scroll and break its seals, to execute those judgments. And so we read that the Apostle John wept loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll. John wept because there was no one worthy to execute justice upon the earth, no one to avenge the blood of the saints. However, an elder approaches John and says to him, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” Then we read that all of heaven rejoiced.
Then in chapter 6 when Jesus opened the 7 seals we see the judgments intended to befall Israel, and when the fifth seal is opened we read this,

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

Then, later, in Revelation 18-19 when Jerusalem, the Harlot Babylon, is finally destroyed, we read this,

20  Rejoice over her, O heaven,

and you saints and apostles and prophets,

for God has given judgment for you against her!”

“So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence,

and will be found no more;

24  And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints,

and of all who have been slain on earth.”

19 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,

“Hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,

2  for his judgments are true and just;

for he has judged the great prostitute

who corrupted the earth with her immorality,

and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

So, again, one of the primary motifs of John’s Apocalypse is God’s imminent judgement against apostate Israel, that Jesus himself would soon come to avenge the blood of his prophets and saints.

Redemptive historical expectation

Now, the other point I made last week was that Revelation was meant to carry forward redemptive history, by both prophesying and explaining redemptive history’s transition from the old covenant to the new covenant. That the judgement against Jerusalem served, not only to bring justice, and to avenge the blood of God’s prophets, but to carry forward redemptive history. To bring a determined end to the old covenant and it’s practices, to sever the new covenant church from it.

Christianity & Judaism are distinct

This is evident even today in Rabbinic Judaism, a form of Judaism that arose after the Temple’s destruction, and because of the Jew’s inability to carry out Temple worship, and that the Christian Church has, for almost all of that time, remained distinct from Judaism. And this is significant because in that first century until the Jewish Roman War and the Temple’s destruction Christians were seen as a sect within Judaism by the Roman Empire, not distinct from it. This is also why the Christians weren’t, at first, persecuted by Rome, since the Jews benefited from Rome’s official toleration of their religion.
Now, I think we tend to take Christianity’s distinction from Judaism for granted, we tend to assume that this is how it’s always been, but we have to remember that the Christians in the first century continued to worship within their synagogues and to meet frequently within the Temple walls. Not that the church was any longer making sacrifices, but there wasn’t yet a complete separation from Temple Judaism. These were the places they met together, worshipped and evangelized, at least until they were persecuted and excommunicated by their congregations. If you survey the Book of Acts, for instance, you’ll notice that the Apostle Paul spent most of his time in synagogues seeking to convince his peers that Jesus was the Christ.

Cut loose from the types and shadows

So, when Jesus destroys the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD, God, as a result, was bringing a very determined end to the old covenant and its practices, he was cutting the new covenant church loose from the old covenant types and shadows, along with those who still clung to them. Because, as I said previously, the coming of Christ was a direct fulfillment of the old covenant types and shadows, therefore it would have been inappropriate if they continued in them.

Jerusalem and the Temple were merely copies

In fact, to participate in them would be a direct affront to Christ himself and his work, which Hebrews describes as a better covenant with better promises. In fact, the entire Book of Hebrews is fundamentally about how Christ is better in every way, that he is a better priest, a better mediator and a better sacrifice. That the Temple, and everything in it, from the sacrifices to the mercy seat, were all copies of the heavenly things, this is why we read in Hebrews 8:5-7 that they served as,

a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

and then again in Hebrews 9:24-26,

24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And, so, there’s tangible, redemptive significance associated with the judgement against Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish Temple since Christ and his new covenant had come. As Hebrews 8:13 puts it,

13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

New Jerusalem

And more than that, while we’re meant to see the removal of Jerusalem portrayed in John’s Apocalypse, this is ultimately so that we might see the the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. The one is intended to give way to the other, and the heavenly Jerusalem is described as the bride of Christ. And this chaste bride is meant to stand in contrast to the harlot we saw earlier in chapters 17-19.
Now, if you would, turn with me to Revelation 21, starting in verse 1,

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

then in verse 9,

9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Dawning of the new covenant church

Now, I submit to you that John’s vision here is not intended to describe a literal city, but rather the bride of Christ, coming down out of heaven (as it says there in verse 9). This vision portrays the dawning of the new covenant church. Not its consummation, not its end, but its arrival, its beginning. To John’s audience they were experiencing both the end of the old covenant and the dawning of the new, the arrival of the church, which is portrayed here in Revelation 21. Therefore, the descriptions of this city are not meant to be taken as literal dimensions or descriptions of an earthly city built upon the earth at some future time, but that the descriptions listed here are meant to communicate the nature of this new covenant church. These descriptions are symbolic of Christ’s bride and what she is like.

The Church is the Temple

For example, notice how the heavenly city is 12,000 stadia in length, width, and height, a footprint that’s nearly 2 million square miles, essentially equivalent to drawing a line from Vancouver, Canada, to the Great Lakes, to the Gulf of Mexico, to the Pacific Ocean, and back to Vancouver. The city is also almost 1,400 miles high, and to give you some perspective, the International Space Station orbits at approximately 250 miles above the earth, and Starlink’s low earth orbiting satellites are no more than 621 miles above the earth. If John’s vision were portraying a literal city then it’s bottom half would be knocking satellites out of the sky.
John’s descriptions are not intended to describe a literal city, but to be descriptive of the bride of Christ, coming down out of heaven. Christ’s Church is the culmination and fulfillment of everything that the earthly Jerusalem was meant to shadow. The earthly Jerusalem and its Temple were copies of the heavenly things. These measurements of the city, using round and biblical numbers are intended to portray the Church rather than to give the reader a description of a literal city.

Holy of holies

For instance, this is why the new Jerusalem is cube shaped, like the holies of holies described in 1 Kings 6:20, and like the most holy place in Ezekiel’s vision of the new Temple in Ezekiel 41:4. And here in Revelation 21 the new covenant church is likened to the holy of holies, the very Temple of God itself, the place in which God dwells, for the Church has become the Temple of God. As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17,

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

This is why we read in Revelation 21, verse 3,

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

The Church had become the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and this is how God made his dwelling place with man. 1 Peter 2:4-5 describes it like this,

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

and then again in Ephesians 2:20-22,

20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The writer of Hebrews also refers to this heavenly Jerusalem in Hebrews 12:22, we he says to the church,

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

And in Galatians 4:26 the Apostle Paul refers to “the Jerusalem [that is] above [as] free; and [that] she is our mother.”

New creation language

Again, John’s vision in Revelation 21 is meant to portray the dawning of the new covenant church, the bride of Christ. This is also why John uses new creation language there in verses 1-2,

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

This new creation language refers to the spiritual dawning of the new covenant church. The Apostle Paul uses similar language in 2 Cor. 5:16-17 when he says,

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

And, here in Revelation 21, the same is true of the the bride of Christ. However, this isn’t to say that “the ultimate, consummate, eternal new creation [isn’t] implied in these verses.” (Gentry, K. (2010). Navigating the Book of Revelation.) If you recall our series on amillennialism you may remember that we spent an entire sermon looking at the spiritual overlap between this age and the age to come. That we are redeemed, yet looking forward to our redemption, adopted, yet eagerly awaiting our adoption, sanctified, yet being sanctified, saved, yet being saved, that we have eternal life, yet we still look to inherit it. In the same way, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away, and the new has come. This already, but not yet tension is all throughout the Bible, and I believe that’s what we see here in Revelation 21:1-2. That, in a very real sense the bride of Christ is coming down out of heaven, beginning in John’s day, and is even now, yet a day of consummation still lies in the future.

Application

And it was this reality that would have brought great comfort to the church in John’s day, especially considering the immense suffering they faced in that first century. When we suffer, it can become easy to question our convictions, and to despair. However, the visions here in John’s Apocalypse were meant, to a great degree, to comfort the church. To unveil the spiritual realities behind their immediate earthly circumstances. In this case, the churches are reminded that God intends to judge their persecutors, to avenge the blood of the martyrs and to bring justice. They’re also meant to see that though they suffer, their suffering will not be in vain, that they are “suffering for a glorious faith with long-term implications.” (Gentry, K. (2010). Navigating the Book of Revelation.) That the church in their day is only the tip of the iceberg.

Conclusion

Now, as we wrap up, I want to remind you of the two themes we’ve surveyed thus far. First, that John’s Apocalypse chronicles and explains God’s imminent judgement against apostate Israel, that Jesus himself would soon come to avenge the blood of his prophets and saints. And second, that Revelation was meant to carry forward redemptive history, by both prophesying and explaining redemptive history’s transition from the old covenant to the new covenant. The putting away of earthly Jerusalem, and the arrival of the heavenly Jerusalem. Then, going forward, we’ll look at least two additional themes found in John’s Apocalypse that are essential to its storyline. First, we’ll look at how the Dragon of Revelation 12 made war against the saints, or how Satan empowered two beasts to persecute the church. And finally, we’ll look at how Christ conquered the Dragon and now reigns for a 1,000 years.

Prayer

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