A Commentary in Simple English on Revelation

CHAPTER 21

John now tells us about the City of God, the New Jerusalem. This is from 21:9 to 22:6. Verses 1-8 of Chapter 21 form part of what John said in Chapter 20.

They also get us ready for what he will say about the City of God. So they are like a bridge between these two parts of the book.

Verses 1-8 All things made new

John tells us (verse 1) that the sky and the earth which we know now have gone away (Isaiah 51:6). In their place he sees the new earth and the new sky which God has promised [21.1] (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22). Then he says that there was no longer any sea. This could mean one of several different things. These are some of them.

a) The Aegean Sea came between John and the churches in Asia, which he knew and loved. If there was no sea, there would be nothing to stop him from going to the churches. John would then mean: - 'There was no more any Aegean Sea'.

b) Smyrna was the only one of the seven cities that stood on the coast. As you sailed up the Gulf of Smyrna, the city would seem to rise out of the sea. Walls, hills, towers, palaces and temples would come into sight. Smyrna was so beautiful that it was often said to be like a bride. Perhaps John says here: - 'Smyrna is like a bride. But I want you to think about another city. This is God's city. It does not appear above the sea. It comes down from Heaven. It really is beautiful like a bride dressed to please her new husband'.

c) Some people think that John means the sea of glass (4:6 and 15:2). This once came between God and His own people. But the sea has gone now, and there is nothing between God and His people.

d) In Scripture the sea is sometimes used as a picture of the nations. (See, for example, Isaiah 59:20.) The sea cannot rest. The nations are like that. They are full of sin. They do not enjoy peace. So some people think that John means that the nations will no longer be without rest and peace because of sin.

e) And then again, in 13: 1 the 'first wild animal' came up out of the sea. The sea was a dark place. It was wild and stormy. It was full of dangers. Some people in the ancient world made good use of the sea. The Greeks and Romans did. But the Jews were never a people who liked the sea. So the picture may be of the end of something which is dark and full of danger. And never again will a 'wild animal' come up out of the sea. (The sea 'died' in 16:3.)

Enough has been said to show you how difficult it can be to know exactly what John means in this book. Anyone who says that he is quite sure is certain to be wrong! But the new creation will be real. It will not be made up of shadows or dreams. It will be solid. It will be better than the old creation.

In verse 2, John sees the Church of Christ in its glory. (See Isaiah 61:10.) Men on earth will never build the ‘Holy City’: it must come from God. The voice from 'the throne' (verse 3) must surely be the voice of God Himself. In John 1:14, John had written that the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, became flesh and 'lived in a tent' for a while among us. The tent there was the human body, which He took when He came into the world. But now, the voice says, 'The Tent in which God will live is with men. God will live in His Tent with them'.

Moses set up the Tent or 'Tabernacle' for the worship of God. God told him to do this; we can read about it in Exodus. But it was only a picture of the real 'Tent' in heaven. (See 15:5.) The Jerusalem Temple later took the place of the Tent, which Moses had made. The Romans destroyed the Temple in AD. 70. But now God will not just live in a Temple or 'Tent'. He will live with His people. The great promise in the last part of the verse is like Ezekiel 37:27. He will be 'Emmanuel'. That means ' God with us'. God in His great grace has been with His people in this life as they work, sorrow and suffer. Much more He will be with them when He shares His glory with them.

The start of verse 4 is like Isaiah 25:8 and 7:17. Sometimes when we remember past sorrows it brings tears to our eyes. But there will be no new sorrow. There are four words again - 'death, mourning, crying, pain' - to set out what people will no longer have to experience in God's new creation.

Even if God Himself did not speak in verses 3 and 4, it is clear that it is God who speaks from verse 5 on to at least verse 7, and probably in verse 8 as well. He is the one (verse 5) who sits on the 'throne'. And He makes everything new. The Greeks and Romans built new cities and new temples. But God makes new men. (2 Corinthians 5:17). He makes a new way so that sinners can come to Him (Hebrews 10:20). He gives us a new song to sing (5:9 and Psalm 40:3). He gives us a new law, which is the law of love (John 13:34). He gives to us the New Jerusalem. He gives to His people new names of honour (2:17). He gives the 'new wine' of His Spirit. He gives a new birth (1 Peter 1:3) and a New Agreement (or Covenant) (Luke 22:20) and new life (Acts 5:20).

Verse 6 begins with one great Greek word. It should be: - 'They are done'! The same word was there in 16:17. There God was about to do away with His old creation. This was to make room for the new creation. [21.2] Now His work in the new creation is complete, so we hear the same word again.

We spoke about 'Alpha' and 'Omega' at 1:8. Not only is God first and last; He fills all that comes in between. And He will be great at last. God is the Beginning. He is the One from whom all things come. And He is the End. He is the End to which all things will go.

Then there is a great promise. We were thirsty for God. We were thirsty to be forgiven and to know Him (Isaiah 55:1). Jesus told us to come to Him and to drink (John 4:14; 7:37). We 'drank' God's grace. We had enough so that we were no longer thirsty. In the life to come if we are thirsty, we shall be able to drink in God's glory and life. And this will be a gift to us as well as an honour.

When someone dies, the things that they own are passed on to other people. They may be shared out among them. The people who have a share are the dead man's 'heirs'. They inherit what he had. But every Christian who wins the war with sin will 'inherit all things', although God never dies! We shall not have to share it out; we shall have it all. The last part of the verse is like 2 Corinthians 6:16-18. Then verse 8 gives us a list of the kinds of people who do what is wrong. There will be no place for them in the City of God. Their place is in the Lake of Fire.

Verses 9-21: John looks at The Holy City

John wants us to know just how wonderful the city of God will be. This is why much of what he says is rather difficult. There is one thing that will help us. This is to remember that in Chapters 2 and 3, John wrote about the seven churches in the seven cities. Now, he writes about the one Church in the one City. So the pictures he uses come from six of the seven cites in Asia. (He seems to leave Thyatira out!) Everything is bigger and better in the City of God than it was in Asia. You could take the best from the cities of this world and put it all together. It would still not be nearly as good as the City of God. [21.3]

In verse 9 it is one of the seven 'bowl angels' of Chapter 16 who comes to John. He is to be John's guide. It was one of these seven angels who was his guide before. (17:1). Then the 'bowl angel' took John to a lonely place. This was to see 'Great Babylon'. Now one of these angels takes John 'in the Spirit' to a mountain to see the City of God. The city has four names - the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb, and in verse 10, the Holy City, and Jerusalem. It is great. It is a well-built city. It is God who is its Builder. It is well lit. It is well watered. Its people have plenty of everything that they need. Angels watch at the gates to keep the city safe. Its government could not be better: God rules the city. It is holy, full of glory and 'blessed'.

Once again (as in verse 2) John sees the city coming from God in heaven down to the earth. The hard work of men on earth will never build it. In the Old Testament, the cloud of God's glory or 'Shekinah' rested on the Tent or Tabernacle, and on the Temple. But later it went away. What John says here is that the glory of God shines out from the New Jerusalem. And it will never go away. It will never grow less or 'fade'. (See 2 Corinthians 3:13-18.) For 'jasper' see 4:3.

Verse 12 tells us about the city wall. The city wall was important. In past times, the law was different inside the city wall from the law outside the wall. John says more about the wall and the gates later. But here he adds that there was an angel at each gate. When Adam and Eve sinned, God placed angels in their way so that they could not go to the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:24). But now, the Tree of Life grows inside the City of God (22:2). The gates into the City will never be shut (21:25). And all God's people have the right to go into the City to the Tree of Life (22:14). The angels are not there to stop God's people when they want to go in. They are there to add to the honour of the gates.

John knew the gates of the cities in Asia. Most of the cities would have four gates. We think that the people of Laodicea had finished great new city gates in about AD 90. This was only a few years before John wrote. Perhaps the City of God has twelve gates to show how much better it is than any earthly city. But the Roman city gate usually had three arches, side by side. And if you can find a picture of a Roman arch or city gate, you will see that there are words cut into the stone above the arches. So this is the picture which John uses. (And see Ezekiel 48:30-35.)

You will find that John does not use the number 'seven' in this part of Revelation. Seven, of course, is three plus four. Three times four is twelve. There are threes, fours, twelves and also tens among the numbers that John uses here.

Already we can see (verse 13) that the walls of the city and its gates face north, south, east and west. These are the four points of the 'compass'. John calls these 'the four corners of the earth' ( 7:1). People from every direction can come to the City of God. (See Matthew 8:11 and Luke 13:29). [21.4] John says more about the gates in verse 21. 'East' and 'west' are 'sunset' and 'sunrise'. (In 7:2, an angel came up from the sunrise).

Then in verse 14, John begins to talk about the city wall. The 'foundations' of a wall cannot be seen. They are buried under the ground. This is not what John means here. He wants to tell us about something that we shall be able to see. A better word would be 'bastions'. John means the part of the wall between the gates. There are twelve gates, so that there are twelve 'bastions' between them. And it seems that the name of one of the twelve apostles is written on each one (Ephesians 2:20 and Hebrews 11:10).

When we take verses 12 and 14 together they teach us that both Israel and the church have a place in the Holy City. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel are there. So are the names of the twelve apostles of the New Testament church. They all have a place of honour. So it seems that in God's purposes, Israel will believe in Jesus and will join with the church. [21.5].

When we come to verse 15, we think about 11:1. There an angel gave John a stick. The angel told John to measure only the temple and the altar. Now it is 'the one who talked to John' who has the stick to measure with. John does not say that it is the angel, although it must be. The stick now is made of gold. And there is no temple (verse 22) and no altar, so the angel will measure the whole city with its walls and gates. God's holiness has spread out from the Temple, and now fills the whole of the city. John says nothing more about the size of the gates.

We should now perhaps think of the city in the middle of gardens, like a temple with its gardens all round it. And round the gardens is a wall (verse 17). But in verse 16, John says that the city itself was a square. Old Babylon seems to have been the first city that was laid out in this way. We think that some of the temples in John's time stood in great gardens, which were square in shape. There would be a wall all round the outside. The city of Philadelphia was laid out in a square, but this may just have been done later than John's time. [21.6]

Then John gives the size of the city. It was about 2,200 Km long and wide and the same height. [21.7] This distance probably does not help us to understand what John says here. The figure that John gives does have meaning. We should not turn the figure into a distance. Three times four is twelve; then ten times ten times ten gives a thousand. It was as high as it was wide and long, so it was a 'cube'. People in those times thought that a cube was the perfect shape. A cube has twelve edges. It was the shape of the Most Holy Place in the Jerusalem Temples, and before that in the Tabernacle or Tent for worship, which Moses made. So John may mean that the city is now the Most Holy Place. But I think that John may have had in mind the great rock on which the upper city of Sardis stood. It was 500 metres above the lower city, and in John's day this might have also been its length and breadth, although large parts of the upper city fell down later.

In verse 17, the angel measures the wall. Again, it is not the distance that matters. A cubit is about half a metre. The measure of 144 cubits is about 65 metres. We are not even sure whether this is how high the wall is, or how thick it is. But the number is twelve times twelve. Nor do we know what the last part of the verse means. Perhaps it means that angels and men will work together and live together in the city of God.

In verse 18, we leave the measuring behind. The city wall (verse 11) is built of jasper, and the city is built of gold. This may mean that the street on which people walk is made from gold (verse 21). Or it may mean that the buildings, which stand on each side of the street, are made from gold. There is no silver. Only gold, the material of highest value, is used in this city. Nothing but the very best will do.

This gold (verse 21 again), was so pure that it was like glass. You could see through it. People of those days probably thought that if you could make gold quite pure, then it would be like glass. But John says something very important here. In the City of God, no one has anything to hide. No one has anything to be ashamed of. We do not always like our neighbour to see what we do in our home. We do not always want our neighbour to know when we watch them from our home. But in the City of God there are none of those feelings. And the church of Christ should be like that now. Often there are things in our lives that we hide from other Christians. It ought not to be like that. After all, we cannot hide anything at all from God.

Then in verses 19 and 20 John gives us a list of the stones of high value from which the wall is built. (See verse 14). These are not the great blocks of stone that are used in building. These are the tiny 'gems' or 'precious stones': the best known of these today is the diamond. These stones have beautiful colours and shine and reflect the light. We do not know exactly which stones John means by some of the words that he uses. [21.8]. But these stones all have to be found by mining. Job 28:1-11 tells us about mining in the ancient world. Work underground was full of danger. It was dark. It was lonely. It was hard work. The tools were often made from animal bones. Yet men did this work. They worked to produce copper, silver, gold and 'gem' stones. This was because these things were of such great worth. And 'gems' when they are found in a mine are rough, ugly and dark. They all have to be cut and polished to find their real beauty. This is work which not many people know how to do.

There is a great truth here for the people of God.

a) God has to find His people at great cost. They are in a dark world. Just as the miner goes through much hard work and danger to find 'gems', so Jesus had to die in order to find us!

b) When God finds us, we are dark and ugly, like those 'gems'.

c) God knows how to work on people, so that they will shine for Him, and so that their beauty will be seen. He may have to 'cut away' some things from our lives. He has to 'polish us'. To polish us may mean that we have to be rubbed away in some part of our lives. And this 'rub' may go on for a long time and it may not please us.

d) God's people are of great value. They are 'precious' to Him. He wants us to 'shine' for Him in the world.

e) Then God's people are not all alike. All these different 'gems' find a place in the wall of the City of God. The twelve 'apostles' of Jesus were different from one another. We must always remember that there is room in the City of God for other people who are not at all like us.

Some people think that these gems are placed in 'rows' or layers which go all the way round the city. They would then be one above each other. But when we look at the next verse, we can see that it is more likely that one great 'gemstone' forms each 'bastion', the part of the wall between two gates.

So in verse 21, John moves on to speak about the twelve gates. We have already seen that these face in all directions - north, south, east and west. Now John tells us that each gate is made from a single pearl.

Pearls are different from 'gems'. Pearls do not come from the earth. Pearls form in the 'oyster'. The oyster is a small shellfish. To get pearls from the 'oyster' men had to dive down into the sea to bring the 'oyster' shells up. When they opened the shell there might be a pearl there. Now there is another way in which pearls are different from 'gems'. Pearls are perfect when they are found in the oyster. They cannot be made more beautiful if we polish them. And if you cut a pearl, you only destroy it.

Jesus told a story about a pearl (Matthew 13:45). The pearl is a picture of the Good News. So here we have plenty of teaching again.

a) There is only one way into the City of God, through the 'gates', that is the Good News about Jesus.

b) We cannot make the Good News better. We cannot 'cut' or 'polish' it. It comes to us from God, and it is perfect. All we can do to it is to spoil it!

c) Men come to the City of God from north, south, east and west. But where they come from does not matter. The Good News about Jesus is always the same. There is no better way for the rich. There is no humbler way for the poor. [21.9].

We should probably think of a great street going from each gate into the city.

Verses 22-27 (and Chapter 22 verses 1-6): John goes into the City

First John went through the wall into the gardens round the city.

So far, John has looked at the city from the outside. Now he goes in. And he tells us about some of the things that he did not see. In verse 22 he tells us that he did not see a temple. [21.10]. This city did not need a temple. John says: 'The Lord God, the Ruler of all, is its Temple and the Lamb'.

John's first readers would be very pleased when they read this. In most of the cities, the temples of the false 'gods' would be the biggest buildings. They would be the best buildings too. You could not miss them. Sometimes they were just outside the city gate. (See Acts 14:13.) The great temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus was like that. Or they might stand on the edge of the open square or 'agora' in the city centre. John had a good look in the Holy City! There was no temple there!

There were three reasons at least why John's readers would be so pleased.

1 So much that was quite wrong went on in the worship in the heathen temples.

2 The temples of 'Roma' and Caesar were the centres of the worship of the Empire. Christians could not join in that and so they had to suffer and even die for their faith in Jesus.

3 Some temples were places when criminals could go and be 'saved'. No one could punish them. So the gardens around the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus became a place where criminals met. There they could even plan fresh crimes. Christians did not want temples like that in the Holy City.

Of course, the Romans had destroyed the old Temple in Jerusalem some years before John wrote this book.

Then in verse 13, John says that this city could do without the light of the sun and moon. 'There the wise virgins no longer need their lamps' (Matthew 25:1-12). God Himself and the Lamb give all the light that the city needs (Isaiah 60:19). We notice that John calls our Lord Jesus Christ 'the Lamb' here and in verse 22. It is not just that He is the Son of God. It is not just that He is the one man who did not sin, and who did all God's will. These things are true. But also He is 'the lamp‘, which gives light, just because He is the Lamb who died to get rid of our sins. The light that shines from the city will be enough for the nations of the world. (See Isaiah 2:1-4.) This means that God's law and His truth will go out from the City. All the nations will know them. To 'walk' here just means to live one's life. The nations will obey God's will.

Then John says (as in verse 26) that the 'kings of the earth' will bring their treasure into the city. The people who lived in the cities of Asia knew what the Romans did. They were the 'kings of the earth' in those times. They took what they wanted, and sent it away to Rome. In the city of God, it will be the other way about.

(Verse 25) In those times, the gates of a city were shut when there was danger from enemies. They were shut at night, too, to keep the people in the city safe. But this city has complete peace. It is in no danger. God will fight for it. No enemy can hurt it. So the gates will never be shut (Isaiah 60:11). Remember that these gates are a picture of the Good News about Jesus. On any day, men and women and children too, can come to Jesus Christ and be saved. We do not have to wait for some special day. And at any time of the day or night we can come to Him and be saved. No one ever wants to go out of this city. So (verse 26) there is a place in the city for everything which is good and pure. All that is best has a place in it. But, (verse 27) anything that is not pure can ever come in. Nor can anyone come in if his way of life is wrong, or if he tells lies. This is the first of three things that have no place in the city. The second is the curse (22:3) and the third is night (verse 25 and 22:5).

Then John says three things about life. In this verse he speaks about those whose names God has written down as 'citizens'. These people have a right to live in the City. It is 'the Lamb's book of life'. It is the book that lists the names of those to whom God will give life. But it is 'the Lamb's book'. The Lamb is Jesus. He died so that we may live. 'By His death we have life'. If you look at 22: 1, you will see that there is a river full of the water that gives life. And then in the next verse there is the Tree of Life. So there are three things about 'life' here.