Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

I don’t know about you, but I am not a big art fan.

I couldn’t walk around an art gallery looking at various abstract paintings and deduce anything out of them except whoever painted them was really messed up in the head to come up with that.

Some of them that are supposed to be famous paintings look to me like a little kid got his hands in the paint and just splashed them on the easel.

I can tell you for sure I am not going to stand there for 20 minutes and try to pick out what the painting means and what was going through the artist’s mind, you know to find out what he was trying to say when he painted the piece.

On the other hand, when one of my grandkids makes me a picture on a card or something I treasure that.

I might have to get them to interpret it for me, nevertheless they are important and I want to hang on to it.

That is one of those pieces I do like to look at at length and think about the one who gave it to me and thank God for them and pray for them and so on.

John has given us four such pictures to ponder, to think on, to ruminate about for a time and that is what we are going to do today.

These four pictures are of the New World that God has made new for us and prepared for us to live in for eternity.

They are a magnificent tapestry displaying the glory of God all around.

These pictures symbolize the complete satisfaction we will experience in heaven.

Everything there will be a reflection of His glory, because His glory is there.

His presence is there.

Four pictures of the New world, the new Jerusalem.

These pictures symbolize the complete satisfaction we will experience in heaven.

Everything there will be a reflection of His glory, because His glory is there.

His presence is there.

The bride

The bride

The city

The temple

The Garden

I.

The Bride of the Lamb, v.9-11a

An angel comes to John saying to him, ‘come I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb’.

the last time we saw this angel was in .

There instead of taking him to High mountain, he took him into the wilderness and showed him the judgment of the great whore.

Here instead of the great whore we see the bride.

Sinclair Ferguson told of wedding in which earlier in the day he saw the bride in T-shirt and jeans.

Now she is adorned in a beautiful gown.

She looks nothing like she did a few hours earlier.

This reminds me of what we were before we were adorned with the righteousness of Christ.

Which reflects the glory of God.

The bride reflects the glory of God.

Is that not what we see here?

That the bride is the glory of God. or at least she is adorned in the glory of God.

As I see it, the church is the bride, makes that clear to us.

But more importantly, it makes sense because as believers we are covered/clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

In other words, As God sees us He sees Christ.

That is the way it is to be that when the world sees the church they should be seeing Christ.

And because Christ is the Glory of God, and we are in Christ, when the world sees us they should be seeing the glory of God.

However, we live in the realm of which reminds us that we are still wearing tshirt, jeans and tennis shoes.

But this day, the church will be wearing the righteousness of Christ which is the glory of God.

What we see in our text is that

When you think of a wedding all eyes are on the bride.

And the bride only has eyes on the groom.

So it is here.

, sees the same city on a high mountain

When you see this city you are reminded it is not anything like the first one.

That is gone, just as sin is gone.

Any reminders of sin are gone.

Let everyone who has this hope purify himself as He is pure.

This angel is one of the seven that had the vials of the last plagues.

He said to John “Come.

I will show you the bride the wife of the Lamb.”

So he does not say he is going to show him a city, but the bride.

Then he commences to show him the city.

In short, the city is the bride.

The bride is the church and therefore the city is the church.

; What are some other verses that back this up.

II.

The City, v11-21

When you think of a wedding all eyes are on the bride.

And the bride only has eyes on the groom.

So it is here.

Then you have this second picture -the city

This is one of those hearing-vision patterns.

In John heard about a lion, but saw a lamb.

Here he hears about a bride and sees a city.

The the second interprets the first or further explains it.

, sees the same city on a high mountain

When you see this city you are reminded it is not anything like the first one.

That is gone, just as sin is gone.

Any reminders of sin are gone.

To get a look at this city the angel takes him to the highest vantage point you can get.

the top of the great and high mountain.

He can see everything from there.

And to see something this vast you must be high in order to see something that covers 1500 miles square.

You would almost have to be in space.

, tells us that the garden of Eden was on a mountain that contained the precious stones.

What do we know about this city?

First it is descending out of heaven from God.

The place where God dwells.

If you compare v.10b with v.2 they have the same phrase the holy city Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God.

In v.2 it is followed by ‘prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.’ in vs. 10 it is followed by ‘they have the glory of God, v.11.

These are not different but the same just The glory of God is the adornment of the bride.

What we see here then is that the glory of God is the presence of God with His People in all of His glory as described in this verse.

In other words, this is the description of what is meant in v.3 the communion with God.

Having the glory of God.

The true people of God symbolized by the holy city Jerusalem see the glory of God.

The temple in Israel had the temporary place of God’s glory.

But in this new creation His glory is permanent and His glory is not limited to a structure.

, His shining is the light of it.

All eyes are on the glory of God.

The glory of God is His presence.

He shines gleaming like precious stones, Jasper like crystal.

My wife calls that bling.

The city/church radiates with the glory of God.

All eyes will be drawn to that city, just as we are today when we see a bright light, gleaming.