Sermon Tone Analysis

The Lamb’s Wife

Revelation 21:9-27 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs.

The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.

The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Introduction

In the previous section, we were introduced, through the eyes of John, to the New Heaven and the New Earth.

· There was no more sea (Re 21:1)

· The New Jerusalem was “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Re 21:2)

· God will be with His people (Re 21:3)

· God will wipe away all tears from our eyes (Re 21:4)

· There will be no death, sorrow, crying, or pain (Re 21:4)

· God declares, “Behold, I make all things new” (Re 21:5)

· God commanded John to write about the New Heaven and the New Earth (Re 21:5)

· God declares “It is Done.”

(Re 21:6)

· All believers will inherit all things (Re 21:7)

· Unbelievers will not inherit (Re 21:8)

I Will Shew Thee The Bride

Revelation 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

We are not told why this particular angel is sent to make this announcement to John.

We don't have any other information concerning his identity; or which of the seven last plagues he was associated with.

“... and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife…”

The angel is tasked with showing the Apostle John the bride of Christ or the Lamb's wife.

The number of people who think that Jesus was married during His earthly ministry consistently floors me.

Liberal theologians take certain scraps of parchment, strain the facts, and introduce fiction.

They cram into the bible their own theology and believe they have found a basis for their argument.

The biggest of these is the idea that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were lovers and probably married.

A recent survey on the website, Beliefnet, identify 19% of the respondents believe that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married.

This idea had almost died in mainstream Christianity until the making of Dan Brown's blockbuster book and movie, "the Da Vinci Code."

The premise of the book is that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and that they had children which continues the blood-line of Christ today.

While all of this keeps the bloggers writing and debating, I stand on the side that Jesus surely would not be a polygamist.

He would not be married to Mary Magdalene and engaged to the Church.

Revelation 21: 10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

The angel carried John to a high mountain so that John coud see the Bride of the Lamb, not physically, but in the spirit to a great and high mountain so John could have a clear and unobstructed view.

We will later find that this would not have been necessary, as the New Jerusalem is gigantic ... unless the world's topography had changed so much that mountain ranges soared miles in the air.

“…shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem…”

The “holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven” in verse two is now going to be looked at with detail.

John has described two “great cities” in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

The first was the world’s city, Babylon (11:8) and the second is the New Jerusalem.

The former was the center of the apostate church and world system.

The second is the city witch God sends from heaven.

We discussed earlier that some think that the New Jerusalem is a physical city, while others interpret it as the “the bride of Christ, the Lamb’s wife”, symbolically described as the type of life in heaven and earth that awaits the redeemed.

Some take this as a literal description of this new city; others understand it as a complex symbol for the life in heaven of the Lamb’s redeemed people.[1]

Wiersbe writes:

The eternal city is not only the home of the bride; it is the bride!

A city is not buildings; it is people.

The city John saw was holy and heavenly; in fact, it descended to earth from heaven, where it was prepared.

John’s description staggers the imagination, even accepting the fact that a great deal of symbolism is involved.

Heaven is a real place of glory and beauty, the perfect home for the Lamb’s bride.[2]

The city is great for several reasons.

· It is immense in size (21:16)

· it is the tabernacle of God

· and it will house the children of God, both Jew and Gentile.

Note: The question of when the saints will take up residence on the earth seems to be at this time.

If the New Jerusalem is the Bride of Christ, then this is the point where the saints from heaven now reside on the New Earth.

If the New Jerusalem is a physical place prepared for the Bride of Christ, then it is at this time that they take up residence in the place prepared for them by the Lamb.

Revelation 21:11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

The city will reflect the splendor of God.

If this is the physical city, then it is the reflection the “shekinah” glory of the father, much like the Tabernacle in the wilderness was filled with the glory of God when He was present and dwelling among the children of Israel.

If the city is the Bride of the Lamb, then the church will reflect all the characteristics of God.

She is perfect, as God intended.

McGee writes:

Two wonderful facts make this city the manifestation of the fullness of God’s glory.

(1) The presence of God makes the city the source of glory for the universe.

Every blessing radiates from the city.

(2) The presence of the saints does not forbid the manifestation of the glory of God.

Sin caused God to remove His glory from man’s presence, but in this city all that is past.

Redeemed man dwelling with God in a city “having the glory of God” is the grand goal which is worthy of God.

This city reveals the high purpose of God in the church, which is to bring “many sons unto glory” (see Heb. 2:10).[3]

“…and her light was like unto a stone most precious even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal…”

An interesting translation of the word “light” in the Greek.

It means “that which gives light.”

Therefore, the city does not reflect the light as the moon reflects the light of the sun; the city is the light.

In the fourth chapter, the apostle John describes the one who is sitting on the throne as “like a jasper and sardine stone” (4:3).

Three times in this chapter, the jasper refers to the glory of God, the foundation and walls of New Jerusalem (21:11, 18, 19).

Jasper, a precious stone found in various colors, mostly reddish, sometimes green, brown, blue, yellow, and white.

In antiquity the name was not limited to the variety of quartz now called jasper, but could designate any opaque precious stone.[4]

The jasper stone is a described as precious stone, because they are costly and durable.

Later we will see that the Jasper is the first of twelve stones identified as the foundation of the New Jerusalem (21:9).

It must be observed that the stone that we call Jasper today, is not the stone identified in the Bible.

📷The first time the word Jasper is identified in the Bible is in the book of Exodus.

It refers to the third stone, which is the last stone inserted on the fourth row of the High Priests ephod.

(Ex.

28:20; 39:13)

The ephod contained 12 stones representing each of the tribes and had the name of the tribe inscribed on the stone.

Which tribe name associated with which gemstone is impossible to identify although I found several different ideas on the World Wide Web.

The breastplate, represented here has the four rows of three stones.[5]