Revelation 21:9-27

Exegetical. There is no temple because God dwells with His people.

Homiletical. Christ gathers our scatteredness

Revelation 21:22–26 (ESV): 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

Christ is the light we see by and the gathering of every scattered hope

The temple has, all the way throughout Scripture, represented the place where humanity meets with God.

The temple has always been the dwelling place of God.

The early temple. The tabernacle, was the center of the life of the wandering Isrealites.

Then the temple was built in the center of city life in Jerusalem to show the centrality of God’s dwelling with His people

Jesus tabernacled with His people.

The church, at Pentecost, became the temple, the dwelling place of God.

All the way throughout the Bible there has been a temple. A place where people would know to meet with God.

But now there is no temple

For, John says. The Temple is the Lord.

Now God takes that place. He is the temple. Because God dwells with humanity who knows Him and who lives with Him.

There is no place to go. There is no intermediary place. He is the temple.

Exegetical. there is no sun, God’s glory is sufficient

Homiletical. Christ lights our darkness

There is no need to duplicate or attempt to bring light when the glory of the Lord is the light. He is more than sufficient to bring enough light to see by

Zechariah, John the Baptist’s dad speaks of the Advent as:

Luke 1:76-79

**[^76 ]** And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

**[^77 ]** to give knowledge of salvation to his people

in the forgiveness of their sins,

**[^78 ]** because of the tender mercy of our God,

whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

**[^79 ]** to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Zechariah gives us the image of God as the sunrise. The one who will give light to those who sit in darkness. And it is He who will guide us.

Christ has fulfilled it all.

Advent reminds us to wait. Revelation shows us what it is we are waiting for.

SO when we, this evening, struck by the darkness set against the candlelight. Struck by the King of Kings who will ultimately light the new creation by His glory, but is brought to the earth as a baby.

We can trust that He will bring change, He will transform whatever it is He is near.

There is no need for fear.

Or anger

No need for frantic gain.

Just like He is the light of the sun,

He satisfies every area we have need in.

He ultimately fulfills all of them by becoming them. He is the meeting place, He is the light by which we see.

When we meet Christ at Advent, each part of that is promised.

He comes to us, He meets with us.

Christ enters in to break up our darkness, to gather our scatterdness.

End with Augustine’s prayer:

Because your mercy is better than many a life91 I confess that my life is no more than anxious distraction; but in my Lord, the Son of Man, your right hand upholds me. 92 He stands as mediator between you, the one God, and us, the many, 93 who are pulled many ways by multifarious distractions. In him your right hand holds me fast, so that I may grasp that for which I have been grasped myself, and may be gathered in from dispersion in my stale days to pursue the One, forgetting the past and stretching undistracted not to future things doomed to pass away, but to my eternal goal.”