A Study of Revelation 21:1-26

1 I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth were completely gone. There was no longer any sea.

2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem. It was coming down out of heaven from God. It was prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

3 I heard a loud voice from the throne. It said, “Now God makes his home with people. He will live with them. They will be his people. And God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or sadness. There will be no more crying or pain. Things are no longer the way they used to be.”

5 He who was sitting on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down. You can trust these words. They are true.”

6 He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. I am the Beginning and the End. Anyone who is thirsty may drink from the spring of the water of life. It doesn’t cost anything! 7 Anyone who overcomes will receive all this from me. I will be his God, and he will be my child.

8 “But others will have their place in the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. Those who are afraid and those who do not believe will be there. Murderers and those who pollute themselves will join them. Those who commit sexual sins and those who practice witchcraft will go there. Those who worship statues of gods and all who tell lies will be there too. It is the second death.” (NIRV)

These verses are among the most striking and stunning in all the Bible. Countless works of art and music have been inspired by them. Some of the greatest cathedral architecture has been influenced by the imagery contained in this chapter. As Alan Johnson observed, John discloses a theology in stone and gold as pure as glass and color. J.B. Moffat once wrote of the almost overpowering emotion of the moments captured in these verses:

From the smoke and pain and heat [of the preceeding chapter] it is a relief to pass into the clear, clean atmosphere of the eternal morning where the breath of heaven is sweet and the vast city of God sparkles like a diamond in the radiance of His presence.

This picture of a world yet to come will take place after the final judgment; in fact, since the opening of the seven seals back in chapter 6, the book of Revelation has been full of nothing but tribulation and turmoil, judgment and death. But now, the old world has faded away and is replaced by the new world. Cosmic time has evolved into eternity. Separation from God by time and distance has now become intimate communion with Him. Death is no more. Wicked people are no more. The New Jerusalem is a picture of absolute perfection with respect to its dimensions, adornment,and glory. The curse of sin gone. Paradise has returned to this planet. In Paradise, before the Fall, God communed with Adam, taught him, and met all his needs (Genesis 2:15-25). On the New Earth, God dwells with His people in intimate fellowship. After they sinned, Adam and Eve hid themselves from God (Gen. 3:8); At the restoration, God lives with them forever. The Garden of Eden was a place without pain, suffering, crying, death; so is the New Creation.

1. A New Heaven and a New Earth, verses 1-8

A New Heaven and a New Earth, 1-4

Old Testament allusions lurk behind many of the things John is writing. Notice the following passages from Isaiah:

Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered,nor will they come to mind. (65:17, NIV)

As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure. (66:22, NIV)

God will not annihilate heaven and earth and then create them out of nothing; He will transform them in a process that is similar to how believers are being transformed even now:

[W]ho, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Phil. 3:21, NIV)

Just as our Lord’s body was transformed at His resurrection, so at the coming of the Lord the bodies of His people will not be annihilated but completely changed and glorified.

The word “heaven” as it appears in verse 1, does not refer to the eternal home of God, but rather the astronomical space all around our planet. The word “new” here is not neos, which describes something “which has recently come into existence,” but kainos, which stresses “quality, something that is replacing something else that is worn out…marred through age and use.” What an apt description of our world; something worn out, something that has become useless through age.

The notion that the sea will be gone is interesting, and may seem like an odd statement, given that three-quarters of our present earth is covered in water. But to the ancients, without compass or satellites, the oceans held great fear and terror. It was a place of death, and the source of the satanic Beast. For John, the sea meant separation from his home and fellow believers in Asia Minor. In the New World, there would neither death, nor fear, nor separation of any kind. The emphasis here is likely more spiritual and moral than geographical. No trace of evil in any form will be allowed in the New World.

The Holy City, the New Jerusalem, occupies the bulk of John’s vision for the remainder of the book. Nothing sets Christianity apart from other religions more than heaven. Here, heaven is pictured as a literal city, full of life, activity, interest, and people. In Hinduism, for example, their ideal of heaven is a sea into which human life returns like a raindrop to the ocean. No, for the Christian, heaven is not merely another dimension, or a kind netherworld; it is a real place, with buildings and people.

First, the Holy City is seen “coming down out of heaven from God.” John uses this phrase three times, giving us a vivid word picture of a city floating down from above. And yet, the city never seems to come all the way down; it is always seen as “descending from heaven.” The idea is that this amazing City is really a gift from God.

Second, the City is called a “bride,” (nymphe). To the ancient people of the East, nothing was so beautiful than a young bride. Describing the intimacy of God and His people, John uses the metaphor of a wedding ceremony in which the bride is prepared and adorned for her husband. The one who has prepared and adorned the bride cannot be the bride, that is, the church itself. It is Jesus Christ who has cleansed her and presented her without stain or wrinkle or blemish to Himself (Eph. 5:26-27).

Finally, God’s dwelling among His people is a fulfillment of Leviticus 26:11-13, a promise given to the old Jerusalem,but forfeited because of their apostasy. The Holy City is not only mankind’s eternal home,but it will be the city where God will place His name forever and the city in which He will dwell, forever. However, there is a subtle but significant change in the fulfillment from the promise. In the original LXX reading the Leviticus passage, the word used for people is laos. But here in Revelation, the word is laoi, which is the plural version of laos. This eternal dwelling place, promised to Israel, would now be for all people of God, Jews and Gentiles alike.

God’s presence there would literally blot out the things of this present earth. This is another allusion to a prophecy in Isaiah,

He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. (25:8, NIV)

Like a mother who bends down and tenderly wipes away the tears from the eyes of her crying child, so the Lord stoops low to dry the tear-filled eyes of His children. This is very telling portrait of God’s love for the members of His great household. Since the Fall, how many countless tears have been shed by mankind? Kistemaker suggests there have been so many shed, little wonder this world has been called “a vale of tears!” These tears are the result of sin; things like sadness, sorrow, pain, oppression, all the things that have no place in the New World.

All Things New, 5-8

For the very first time in the book, God Himself is the speaker. God tells the readers of Revelation that He is “making all things new.” This is the glorious result of God’s plan of salvation. It is said in the present tense, that is, John’s present tense. In other words, the renewal of all things is already happening, whether we see it or not. God renews human beings through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The “Alpha and Omega” is repeated from 1:8, but this time the meaning is spelled out for the reader: “the beginning and the end.” The word “end” is telos, meaning “goal.” God is the Originator and the Goal of life. This idea was stated by Paul this way:

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! (Rom. 11:36)

God, through Christ is in control of every situation, so these words must have been of tremendous comfort to the early Church.

With verse 7, the text looks at the present reality of believers living for Him in a world of sin and oppression. While we know for sure Christ has won the battle, the war is far from over. Every believer must fight daily against temptation to sin in the many forms it takes, against the Devil and against the world.

The phrase, “I will be a God to Him and he will be son to me” is actually a quote from 2 Samuel 7:14, but here John modifies it slight to fit his purpose. God’s promise given by Nathan to King David concerning Solomon as his successor to the throne prophetically pointed toward the Son of God: “I will be his father, and he will be be my son.” Notice, though, that John replaces “father” with “God,” because in Christ, God has adopted us as his sons and daughters and made us members of His great family. Kistemaker has observed that in Revelation, John never once calls God the Father of believers; yet He is the Father of Christ.

In contrast to believers, some will not become citizens of the New World for another fate awaits them: “their part is in the lake of fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” John lists a long catalog of those who have no part in God’s kingdom:

• Cowards. These are spineless, unlike the faithful who faced persecution and hardship and never forsook their faith. The coward lives life for himself; they fear danger and flee the consequences of a life dedicated to Christ.
• Unbelievers. These are similar to cowards in that they have had been faithful to God and His word, but have fallen into skepticism and agnosticism.
• Detestable people. The Greek ebdelygmenoi points to people who have been corrupted and polluted by the world. They willingly pursue a lifestyle that is in opposition to and against God’s Word. They worship the Beast, 17:4
• Murderers. In the context of Revelation, these are the ones guilty of the death of the saints.
• Immoral persons. The word is really “fornicators,” and covers a broad range of sexual sins.
• Sorcerers. The Greek term is pharmakoi, and we get our word “pharmacy” from it. The word means the use of drugs to cast spells, to create an altered state of reality for the purpose of deceiving people.
• Idolaters. These are people who practice witchcraft and worship created things.
• Liars. All people who turn the truth into a lie God condemns with the other sinners to the lake of fire and sulfur.

By their own choice, Babylon, not the New Jerusalem is their eternal home. Salvation is not universal. The invitation, however, is. Again, the words of John 3:16 come home:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

The “whoever” is limitless; it is an invitation that goes out to all people. In this world of sin, of pain, of failure, God offers people like us a chance to start over, to make life right. One decision can change everything.