Revelation 21–22:5 (Part 1)

Introduction

Every good story has an ending — the kind that makes sense of everything that came before it. You know the feeling: you’ve been turning the pages, watching the threads of the plot weave together, wondering how it will all resolve. Then, finally, you get to the last chapter, and it all comes together.

The Bible is no different. From Genesis to Revelation, it tells one grand story. But unlike so many of our human stories — which sometimes leave us disappointed — God’s story ends in a way that’s both satisfying and surprising.

John, in Revelation 21, gives us a vision of that ending. It’s not just a theological diagram or a distant, abstract hope. It’s a vivid, sensory picture of the world to come — so real you can almost hear the sounds, see the colors, smell the air.

And here’s something interesting: John doesn’t just tell us what is there in God’s future world. He spends quite a bit of time telling us what’s not there. Sometimes, absence speaks louder than presence. It’s like walking into a room and realizing the noise is gone — the silence is the most striking thing.

Today, I want us to walk through this passage in three steps. First, we’ll see how the Bible’s story ends the same way it began — with creation. Second, we’ll notice the surprise: God’s future is a city. And third, we’ll linger on the absences — the “what’s not there” — because sometimes that’s the best way to feel the goodness of what is there.

Let’s step into the last chapter of God’s story, and as we do, remember: this isn’t just about then. It’s a vision meant to shape how we live now.

1. The Bible’s Story Ends the Same Way It Began — with Creation

If you flip from the first pages of Genesis to the last pages of Revelation, you’ll notice something: the Bible is a story that begins and ends with creation.

Genesis 1–2 shows us the heavens and the earth freshly made by the word of God, everything in perfect order. The seas are in their place, the land produces life, and human beings live in unbroken fellowship with God. It’s a picture of wholeness — shalom.

But between Genesis 3 and Revelation 20, the story is full of brokenness: sin enters, relationships fracture, creation groans, and the world is not as it was meant to be. Death, sorrow, pain — all these things become part of our normal experience.

When we arrive at Revelation 21:1, John writes, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.” The wording is deliberate — it echoes Genesis 1:1. God is doing again what He did in the beginning: bringing order, life, and beauty out of chaos.

But this isn’t a brand-new creation in the sense of discarding the old one and starting over from scratch. The Bible’s language of “new” here (kainos in Greek) often means “renewed” or “made fresh.” It’s like the difference between throwing something away and restoring it so it shines again. God is not abandoning His creation — He’s redeeming it.

That matters, because it means our physical world matters to God. This is not a vision of escape from earth into some ghostly, cloud-filled heaven. This is heaven and earth united — God dwelling with His people in a renewed creation. It’s the fulfillment of the prayer Jesus taught us: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

So, from beginning to end, God’s plan hasn’t changed. He made a good world. Sin broke it. Christ redeemed it. And one day, He will restore it so fully that the first creation and the last creation will mirror each other — but the last will be even better, because it will be unbreakable.

2. The Surprise: God’s Future Is a City

If we were writing the Bible’s ending, we might expect it to return us to Eden — a garden paradise. And, in a way, it does. But there’s a twist: Eden has become a city.

John writes, “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” That’s surprising. A city? Many of us think of cities as noisy, crowded, polluted — places we sometimes escape from, not to.

But this city is different. It’s “holy” — set apart for God. It’s “new” — renewed and pure. And it’s “coming down” — not something humanity builds upward toward God, but something God graciously gives to us.

Why a city? Because cities are places of community, culture, and relationship. They’re where people live together, work together, share life together. In Eden, there were only two people. In the new Jerusalem, there will be a redeemed multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language.

In other words, God’s future is not just about individual salvation; it’s about a redeemed community. Heaven is not a private retreat; it’s a shared home. And unlike our earthly cities, this one will have no crime, no corruption, no inequality, no loneliness. It will be a place of perfect fellowship with God and one another.

So, God’s plan is not to take us back to a lonely garden, but to move us forward to a perfected city — a place where the best of human culture and creativity is purified and offered back to Him.

3. What’s Not There

Now, here’s where John slows down and gets specific. He tells us about the absences — the things that will be missing from this new world.

Think about moving into a new house. It’s not just about what’s in the house — the fresh paint, the open kitchen, the big windows — it’s also about what’s not there: no leaky pipes, no creaky floorboards, no mold in the basement, no lingering smell from the last owner’s ten cats.

In Revelation 21–22, John tells us seven things that will be absent from the New Jerusalem. And each one removes something that has plagued us in this life. Each one is like a breath of relief.

1) No Sea

Verse 1 says, “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.”

Now, if you love the ocean, don’t panic — John isn’t saying God will remove every lake, river, and ocean. The “sea” here is symbolic. In Scripture, the sea often represents chaos, danger, and the forces of evil that threaten to undo creation.

In the first century, people often pictured the forces of chaos as being tied to the wind and the waves — the unpredictable, sometimes violent waters of lakes and oceans. Psalm 93:3 says, “The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their pounding waves.” For them, the sea was a symbol of all that threatens to undo us — the deep, dark powers at work in the world that we can’t control. It was a picture of everything in life that feels out of control.

When John says the sea is gone, he’s telling us this: in God’s new creation, chaos is over.

That means no more typhoons tearing through the villages of India and leaving millions without homes. No more earthquakes toppling buildings in Turkey or Taiwan. No more hurricanes roaring through the Gulf, flooding streets, destroying roofs, and scattering families. No more long weeks of cleanup, no more fear every time a storm spins out in the Atlantic. The chaos will be gone.

“And there was no longer any sea.” That’s God’s way of saying: “In my kingdom, nothing will ever threaten you again.”

2) No Tears, Death, Mourning, Crying, or Pain

Tears, death, mourning, crying, and pain are the dominant markers of the old creation. No matter how far we advance technologically, our lives are still marked by tears, death, mourning, crying and pain. Who has not been touched by them? Whose family escapes pain and death in this creation? In the new city, these things are not there—they are no more. All of the “life robbers” are gone. Verse 4 is one of the most tender promises in all of Scripture:

“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.”

Can you imagine God Himself leaning down to wipe away your tears? That’s not poetry — that’s personal. This is the intimacy of a Father comforting His child.

Right now, tears are a normal part of life. We cry at funerals. We cry in frustration. We cry over broken relationships. We cry in quiet moments no one else sees.

But in the New Jerusalem, the reason for every tear will be gone. Death — our greatest enemy — will be banished. You will never stand beside a grave again. You will never have to whisper goodbye.

And all the pain — physical, emotional, relational — gone.

No more arthritis in the joints.

No more migraines that steal your day.

No more depression that clouds your mind.

No more sitting across from a doctor, hearing words that break you.

Here God himself promises that all that now robs life from being fulfilled, joyful, vibrant life will be absent from the transcendent reality to which he is leading history.

3) No Sinful, Corrupt Character

Verse 8 lists those who will not be in the city: “the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars.”

John’s list here starts with “the cowardly” and ends with “all liars.” That’s not random—it’s his way of putting a spotlight on those two.

In John’s day, Christians faced the Roman test of loyalty: go to the temple, burn a pinch of incense, and say “Caesar is Lord.” If you refused, you risked prison—or worse. “The cowardly” were those who gave in, and “the liars” were those who denied Jesus to save themselves.

John isn’t talking about a one-time stumble under pressure—Peter stumbled and Jesus restored him. He’s talking about a settled pattern of unfaithfulness. That kind of heart has no place in the presence of the One who is “Faithful and True” (Revelation 19:11).

Then comes the promise: “The one who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his Son” (Revelation 21:7). That echoes Psalm 2: the Messiah is God’s Son, the heir of the nations. And here’s the staggering part—God says that everyone who overcomes, male or female, will share the same royal status as Jesus Himself. We will reign with Him.

One author writes, “John’s declaration that these people will not be in the city of eschatological salvation functions as an exhortation to faithful witness in the present. John does not say, however, that anyone who has ever been guilty of these failings is prohibited from participation in the Holy City, only that no one will bring these sinful practices with him or her into the Holy City. The list serves to characterize life in the city of God, not a limitation on who will finally be there.”

In other words, in the New Jerusalem, nothing unclean will enter. No hidden agendas. No exploitation. No manipulation. No abuse. No corruption at the top.

God isn’t just removing sinful actions — He’s removing the very roots of sin from the human heart. You will never again have to wonder, “Can I trust this person?” In that city, every citizen will be pure in heart because every heart will be remade by grace.

4) No Temple

Verse 22 says, “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”

That would have shocked John’s first readers. For centuries, the temple in Jerusalem was the center of worship — the meeting place between God and His people. If you wanted to draw near to God, you went to the temple.

But here, John looks around and says, “No temple.” Not because God is absent — but because God is everywhere. The whole city is His dwelling place.

Now… look carefully at Revelation 21:16–17, where John gives us the measurements of the city. Listen to John very carefully. He speaks of the city being laid out as a square. Now, a square has two dimensions: length and width. Right? And, John gives us the measurements. But then says that its length and width and height are equal (21:16). “Wait a minute,” you might ask, “Height? I thought we were dealing with a square, which has two dimensions: length and width. And now we are talking about three dimensions. Somehow we went from a square to a cube. What is going on here?” A cube. Does that ring a bell? Though it is lost on most of us, that shape would have rung all kinds of bells for John’s first readers/hearers because they were in the Old Testament. The question: What in the Old Testament was a cube? The answer: The Holy of Holies in the Temple! The sacred place where only the High Priest could go—and only once a year— was a cube. The inner sanctuary of the temple was a cube: its length and width and height are equal. “And the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height” (1 Kgs 6:20)— and it was overlaid with pure gold.

Do you see? The new city is the new Holy of Holies. Not only is the new city the temple, the entire city is the Holy of Holies.

Think about that. Right now, God’s presence is mediated — we know Him by faith, through the Spirit, in moments and glimpses. But in the New Jerusalem, you will live every moment of forever in the very center of His glory.

5) No Need for the Sun or Moon

Verse 23 says, “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.”

Again, John isn’t saying there will be no sun or moon at all — he’s saying we won’t need them. God’s glory will be our light, and Jesus Himself will be the lamp.

No more darkness — physical or spiritual. No more shadowy corners of fear or doubt. No more “long nights” of the soul. Every place, every heart, will be lit with the warmth of Christ’s presence.

6) No Closed Gates

Verse 25 says, “Its gates will never be shut by day — and there will be no night there.”

In the ancient world, city gates were closed at night for protection. If the gates were always open, it meant you were vulnerable. But in God’s city, there are no enemies to fear, no danger lurking outside. The gates can stay wide open.

You know what else strikes me about these gates in the New Jerusalem? John says there are twelve of them, each made of a single pearl (Revelation 21:21) — that alone is mind-blowing — and on each gate is inscribed the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Revelation 21:12). That’s God’s Old Testament people. It’s as if every entrance into this city carries the reminder: “You’re here because you’re part of God’s covenant family” (Genesis 12:1–3; Exodus 19:5–6).

But here’s the thing: those gates aren’t just a monument to the past — they’re wide open to the future. Revelation tells us they will never be shut (Revelation 21:25). Never. No “Closed” sign. No iron bars locking out the night. And the reason is simple: there is no night there. There’s no danger creeping in, no enemy to fear, no thief to watch for (Zechariah 14:7; Revelation 22:5). Instead, those gates swing wide as the nations stream in, bringing their glory and honor into the presence of the King (Revelation 21:26; Isaiah 60:3, 11).

Can you see the picture here? This city is secure — not because it’s locked up tight, but because nothing unclean can enter (Revelation 21:27; Isaiah 35:8–10). And it’s welcoming — not just to one ethnic group, not just to one period of history, but to the redeemed from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Revelation 5:9; 7:9–10). The names on the gates remind us that God keeps His promises (Joshua 21:45; 2 Corinthians 1:20); the open gates remind us that His promises are bigger than we ever imagined (Isaiah 49:6; Acts 13:47).

And that means — in the New Jerusalem — there will be no prejudice, no outsiders, no “them” and “us” (Ephesians 2:14–19). There’s no immigration line, no border control, no secret handshake. Just the redeemed people of God, all gathered under the same King (Revelation 21:3), entering through the gates that bear the names of those who first heard His covenant promises, and joining the family they’ve been adopted into by grace (Romans 8:15–17; Galatians 3:26–29).

7) No Curse

Revelation 22:3 gives the last “not there”: “No longer will there be anything accursed.”

The curse began in Genesis 3 when humanity rebelled against God. It fractured our relationship with Him, with each other, and with creation itself. Work became toilsome. Childbearing became painful. The ground itself resisted us.

And we’ve been living under that curse ever since. But in the New Jerusalem, there will be no trace of it. Creation will be free. Work will be joy again. Relationships will be whole. The earth will yield its beauty and fruit without groaning.

This is what we are hoping and waiting. Because Paul affirms in Romans 8:22-23, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the redemption of our bodies.”

Romans 8:22-23 is pointing us to Revelation 21. Because John’s vision of the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21 pictures a purified and redeemed humanity and a fallen world delivered from the bondage of evil by the God whose grace transforms pious individual souls as well as all of creation, “far as the curse is found.”

You remember the old hymn?

“No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.”

Conclusion and Call to Action

When you put it all together, here’s what’s missing from the New Jerusalem: chaos, grief, sin, barriers to God’s presence, darkness, fear, and the curse.

Every one of those things has shaped life in this fallen world. But they will have no place in the world to come. My friends, God isn’t just giving us a nicer version of this life. He’s giving us a life without all the things that have ever made life hard.

The story that began in creation will end in new creation; the garden will become a city; and all the old enemies — chaos, death, mourning, pain — will be gone forever.

But here’s the thing: Revelation was written to persecuted, weary Christians to give them endurance now. If you belong to Christ, this is your inheritance. If you don’t, this is God’s invitation to you today.

So, live now in light of then. Fight sin now because you’re headed to a holy city. Endure suffering now because one day there will be no more pain. Pursue reconciliation now because you’re going to live forever with your brothers and sisters. Share the gospel now because God is building this city with people from every tribe and tongue.

And if you’re weary today — weighed down by what is here — lift your eyes to what won’t be there. Sometimes the best way to face the present is to remember the absences of the future.

One day, there will be no more goodbyes. No more brokenness. No more separation from God. Only life. Only joy. Only God’s presence forever. And that’s worth living — and dying — for.

Transition to the Lord’s Supper

As we turn now to the Lord’s Table, we’re reminded that this future city isn’t just a far-off hope — its foundations have already been laid in the death and resurrection of Jesus. This meal is a taste of that coming feast, a pledge and foretaste of the day when we will eat and drink with Him in His kingdom (Luke 22:16, 18).

When we take the bread and the cup, we remember the price He paid to make us citizens of that city. We proclaim His death until He comes, and we strengthen our hearts with the promise that one day, faith will give way to sight, and the table will never end.

So come — not because you are strong, but because you are needy. Not because you are worthy, but because He is worthy. Come with faith in the One who has made all things new, and who will one day wipe away every tear from your eyes.

Prayer (Call the elders)

Father in heaven,

We thank You for giving us a glimpse today of the home You are preparing for Your people — a place where there is no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, and no more pain. Thank You that in Christ, this is not wishful thinking but a guaranteed promise, sealed by Your Word and by the blood of Your Son.

We confess, Lord, that too often we live with our eyes fixed on what is here — on the burdens, the sorrows, and the distractions of this life — instead of on what is to come. Forgive us for when our hearts grow dull or our hope grows dim. Lift our eyes today to see what You have promised, and help us to live in light of that day.

Lord Jesus, as we come now to Your Table, we remember that this hope was purchased at a great price. We remember Your body, broken for us. We remember Your blood, poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. We remember that You are the Bread of Life, and that whoever comes to You will never be hungry, and whoever believes in You will never be thirsty.

Holy Spirit, prepare our hearts to receive this bread and this cup with faith and gratitude. Strengthen us for the journey ahead. Fill us with endurance for the trials we face. And deepen in us the longing for that great day when we will sit at the marriage supper of the Lamb, rejoicing in Your presence forever.

We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen.