REVELATION: POSTCARDS FROM PARADISE (TALK 4/5 ......For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU REVELATION: POSTCARDS FROM PARADISE (TALK 4/5: A PICTURE OF THE HEAVENLY

For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU

REVELATION: POSTCARDS FROM PARADISE (TALK 4/5: A PICTURE OF THE HEAVENLY CITY)

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS CONNECT: How can you grow in unity with your brothers and sisters in Christ?

WARM-UP Questions 1. What has been the best experience of community that you’ve ever had? 2. How does God being at the centre of Christian community radically change everything?

Read Revelation 21:9-14 3. What stands out for you in the description of the city in these verses? 4. What is meant by the wall guarding the city? Why would this have been of comfort? How would this be

of great comfort to some Christians today who are looking forward to this future? 5. How are the twelve a reference to the Apostles? Why is this so important? 6. What is the very different city referred to in chapter 18? How does this heavenly city compare? 7. How is it evident that all of the People of God (across all time) will be brought together in this city? What

do you think that will be like? What most excites you about this prospect? 8. Who we will we be unified around? Why is this the most critical part of the entire description? 9. How has your experience of a unified Christian community brought glory to God? Have you ever had an

experience of the opposite? What was the effect in terms of evangelism?

Read Revelation 21:15-21 10. What was the ‘holy of holies’? In what way is the description here analogous to the ‘holy of holies’? 11. In what way is the reality that we anticipate so much greater than the sanctuary described in the Old

Testament? How close will we be to God and how will that be possible? 12. How can this future – of being in the Glory of God – fill us with an enduring hope even amidst trouble? 13. Can you think of someone who has demonstrated this type of hope in their life? If comfortable, please

sure your example.

Read Revelation 21:22-27 14. Why is the Temple missing in the description of this heavenly city? Why is this such great news? 15. What is so exciting about the prospect of there being no barriers between us and God? 16. What is so exciting about there being no sin or evil existing in this city? Who will enter it and how? 17. How should the reality of this future shape how we live today?

APPLY (this week): How can you develop your daily time with God in anticipation of that future when there will be no barriers between us?

PRAY: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for the glorious future that we can look forward to because of all that you’ve done for us. Please help us to live today in great anticipation of that reality! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU

REVELATION: POSTCARDS FROM PARADISE (TALK 4/5: A PICTURE OF THE HEAVENLY CITY)

GOING DEEPER RESOURCES For Families • ‘Revelation 21 All things new Bible Video for Kids’ by Sharefaith

https://www.sharefaith.com/video/revelation-21-all-things-new-bible-video-for-kids.html

Sermons • ‘Home at Last: The Spectacular God at the Center” by Don Carson

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/d-a-carson-on-the-book-of-revelation/ • 26 Lectures on the Book of Revelation by Don Carson

http://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library?f%5Bbook%5D%5B%5D=Revelation&f%5Bcontributors%5D%5B%5D=Carson%2C+D.+A.&f%5Bresource_category%5D%5B%5D=Lectures

• ‘Recreation’ by Mike Paget https://www.barneys.org.au/talks/556/

• ‘Its Splendor’ by Dick Lucas http://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/media-library/src/talk/10060/title/its-splendour

• ‘A Picture of Heaven’ by Phillip Jensen https://phillipjensen.com/sermons/a-picture-of-heaven3/

• ‘When Jesus Returns Part 2’ by Matt Sparks https://mbm.org.au/bible-talks/jesus-returns-part-2/

• ‘Revelation 21-22’ by Paul Dale https://cbtb.org.au/bibletalks/revelation_21-22

• ‘Revelation 21-22: Home’ by Adam Mabry http://www.aletheia.org/bospreaching/?sapurl=LytjMDQxL21lZGlhL21pLytkem5idGhyP2JyYW5kaW5nPXRydWUmZW1iZWQ9dHJ1ZQ==

• ‘The New Jerusalem’ by Jonathan Smith http://www.holytrinitydoncaster.org.au/resources/sermons/?sermon_id=199

Other Helpful Articles and Courses • ‘The Eternal State Revelation 21:1-22:5’ by J. Hampton Keathley

https://bible.org/seriespage/28-eternal-state-rev-211-225 • ‘The New Creation’ by Ken Gentry

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/new-creation/ • ‘What will heaven be like?’ from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

https://billygraham.org/answer/what-will-heaven-be-like-2/ • ‘Does the Bible tell us what heaven is like?’ from Compelling Truth Ministries

https://www.compellingtruth.org/heaven-like.html

• Passage: Revelation 21:9-27

• Services: 7.30AM, 9.30AM St Bart’s Toowoomba

• BI: when Jesus returns, God’s people will live together in holiness and in the presence of God

• VV12-14: A UNITED city

• VV15-21: A GLORIOUS city

• VV22-27: A city of LIGHT

• “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb”

• In Revelation, John has seen some phenomenal things, some really scary things, some sad things. Now he gets a picture of an amazing, glorious thing. A city.

• Having grown up in Sydney, I wouldn’t necessarily describe a city as glorious, and especially not holy

• But this city is radically different; it’s incomparable to anything we’ve known and seen before! And while it’s impossible for us to fully grasp now, we’re given glimpses of it through this chapter, so that we can begin to imagine what it is like…

• So let’s get right into Verse 10….John is shown this city

• “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal”

• This heavenly city shines with the Glory of God. It’s brilliant, it’s precious, there are no impurities in it.

• Back in Rev 18, John is shown a different City.

• That is, the city of Babylon. Babylon in Revelation represents all the nations that were against the people of God, all that is evil, all that was persecuting the early church.

• Rev 18:2

• ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!! She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird’

• Verse 8

• “Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, morning and famine. She will be consumed by fire for mighty is the Lord God who judges her”

• Babylon, this evil city, that crawls with everything nasty, that is a house of impurity, will be judged, torn down, raised to the ground.

• But on the other hand, what is in store for the faithful followers of Christ?

• A washed, cleansed, whole and perfected Heavenly city.

• That’s the hope of the early church, to which this book was written to

• This is the same hope that we look to this Advent and Christmas.

• And this city is a:

• United City

• A Glorious City, and

• A City of Light

A UNITED city

• So now that we’ve seen the big picture, we then get to zoom in and have a closer look at this picture. A picture of a United city

• In Verse 12, John describes it as having a great high wall

• Here in Toowoomba, we are pretty safe from danger. Last time I checked, even though I’ve only been here a year, this city doesn’t really have any enemy cities. It doesn’t have any Cities that are wanting to attack us at any moment. And we aren’t expecting there to be any type of siege of any sort.

• But in the ancient times, it was quite possible that your city could be attacked or just bad people could enter the city. So what was their solution? To build a wall!

• The wall would offer security, and safety for the people inside.

• And back in the heavenly city, John describes it as having a ‘great high wall’ which would have been very appealing to those in the first century, knowing that there is high security.

• This city also has twelve gates, with twelve angels at them. The number 12 is significant in Revelation, and here the gates represent the abundance of people that can enter the city, rather than being all bottle-necked at one gate. And adding to this picture of a safe place to live, angels are acting as gatekeepers at every gate.

• But wait, there’s more!

• What is written on the gates? End of V12: “On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel”…//

• Rather than being just a nice decorative touch on the gates, the names emphasise the fact that at this time, the scattered nation of Israel, the twelve tribes, will be brought back together as a people as prophesied long ago.

• And there’s even more, in V14, “The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”

• Again, we see names being written on structures, and this time the names of the Apostles are written on the foundations.

• So there are two important things to note here:

• Firstly, the foundation are the Apostles. Some might think ‘well the Israelites came first so why aren’t they the foundation?’ Well, it’s because everything hangs on Jesus and the witness of the Apostles.

• If you take the foundations out of a building, the building will be completely unstable and fall down. IF we take the Jesus and the witness of the apostles out of our theology our out of our preaching, and out of what we believe, then it will all fall down! Our faith will have no foundation.

• Secondly, the people of God of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant will be brought together and will be united in the city.

• Imagine all the Christians in the world right now..then imagine all the Christians for the past 2000 years all being together. THEN imagine all the faithful Israelites before Jesus all being together, united on the foundation of Jesus.

• That’s what this city looks like!

• All of us here…with all of God’s people will be brought together.

• The church will be unified around the one and true King.

• And we will be united together in a glorious City

A GLORIOUS city

• …in an apparently cubed shaped holy city

• Let’s read from V15

• “The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long.”

• Now before we start getting out our lego and making a scale model of this city, we have to remember that we are reading apocalyptic literature. So we are looking at a pictures, symbols and visions of what the city will be like.

• And the symbolism here is pretty phenomenal

• There is only one other structure mentioned in the bible that is built in the shape of a cube, and that is the holy of holies in the temple built by Solomon

• 1 Kings 6:19-20

• “He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there. The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high.”

• The inner sanctuary could only be entered by the high priest once a year because that is where the ark was and where the glory of God dwelt among the Israelites.

• This was as ‘close’ to God that anyone could get (except for a few notable encounters!)

• Before he went in, he had to make a myriad of sacrifices to enter into the sanctuary

• But here in the heavenly city, the city IS the sanctuary…meaning that this city will be the place where God will reside with his people! With no barriers, fully in the presence of God.

• And this city will be massive. If we take the 12,000 stadia in length literally, this would be about 15,000 miles. But again, this would be missing the symbolism here. 12 is a complete number that represents perfection and 1,000 is, well, a really big number!

• So, this city will be both immense and perfect

• V17, the wall will, again, be a decent size but also be perfect, with it being 12 multiplied by 12 cubits either thick or tall.

• This wall was made of, or inlayed with Jasper. Now Jasper was a precious stone. And In Revelation 4:3, God is said to shine like jasper. The wall will be gloriously shining and radiating God’s beauty and glory.

• Now this all seems pretty phenomenal, amazing and you may even think a bit strange, that’s okay, but the description continues

• In V19-21 We get a list of the 12 different precious stones that the foundations of the city walls are decorated with. So what are they all about? There are two options

• Option 1:

• This list is remarkably similar to another list of 12 stones mentioned in Exodus 28:17-21. There are 4 stones that are different but this could be a translation difference in the original language.

• So what is this list in Exodus all about?

• Well after their escape from Egypt, Israel were in the desert. During this time, God gave Moses commandments about the high priest and their role. And God commands that a breastplate had to be made for them when making decisions - The breastplate of judgement.

• This was a square breastplate with 12 precious stones on it, again representing the 12 tribes of Israel and perfection, and remember, the city was also laid out like a square.

• So, what does this mean for the wall and Revelation?

• Well, this would mean that all the privileges of the High Priest, namely access to God, the glory of God and the holy of holies, will now be had by the city and all who live within its walls!

• That’s Option 1

• Option 2 is

• Don’t read too much into what the stones represent, but just realise that this city and the foundations of the wall are going to be absolutely glorious beyond compare, beyond imagination, and will be absolutely precious.

• That’s option 2.

• But what is most likely is option 3…a combination of the above.

• Life in this heavenly city will be in the presence of God and will be absolutely glorious, precious, beyond our imagination and without imperfection….//

• For the persecuted early church living with threats of extreme violence, with imprisonment, this future hope and glory would have spurred them on, to keep on going.

• And that message is the same here 2000 years later.

• In China recently, there has been a crack down on Christian Churches. This time a fortnight ago, a Pastor, his wife were put in custody for following and preaching Christ and could be facing 15 years in prison. They have an 11 year old son.

• A Facebook update from a church in China reads that:

• the wife of an Elder, who was arrested and charged with "stirring up trouble," said to her two little children: "I just asked my two kiddos, ‘Either mommy doesn’t stop going to church and gets taken away, or mommy stops going to church and doesn't get taken away. Which one would you choose? I respect your opinions.’ They said without any hesitation, ‘Don’t stop going to church.’”

• Where is their hope? Why don’t they give up in the face of persecution? Because of Jesus.

• We don’t give up, because of Jesus. Because we don’t belong to here and now but to this day and city that is to come. When we will be in the full presence of God, with no need to fear persecution, but worshipping God fully and truly.

• The best is truly yet to come..when we will all be in a United, Glorious city, which is also a City of LIGHT

A city of LIGHT

• In visions of the New Jerusalem seen in Isaiah, and Ezekiel, there is almost always one big structure in it, and that is the temple.

• However, in this picture of the Heavenly City, something is missing.

• V22 “I did not see a temple in the city” why? “because the Lord God Almighty and Lamb are its temple.”

• There’s no temple! There’s no physical place to go to worship God. Why is this? How could this be? because God will be right there with us!

• There’ll be no Ark of the Covenant

• No need for sacrifices

• No need for fasting,

• No need for priests,

• Because there will be no physical barrier between us and God.

• This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise for us

• Because Back in John 2:19

• Jesus says to the Jews, "“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body.”

• Yes, Jesus is how we now meet God, and Yes God is with us by the Holy Spirit…but when Jesus comes again, we will fully dwell with him in his presence, just like it was in the Garden of Eden. It will be brilliant!

• And because of that brilliance, there will be no need for the Sun nor the moon! Their jobs will be made redundant! Because God’s glory will shine out giving light to everyone forever. Kings and nations who repent and follow Jesus will bring their glory and lay it at Jesus feet, submitting to him as the real king. And there will be no night there.

• The great walls that we were saw before are actually not needed because there is no night. No time for evil to take its course. No shameful deeds to be done in the dark because

• V27, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”/

• Yes, there will be no sin, nothing impure, because no sinner can stand in the grandeur and glory of our Holy God.

• So how can we possibly enter into this Heavenly City then?

• What is our only hope as we look to Jesus’ coming again this advent?

• It’s in Jesus.

• It’s in the that Baby whose birth we are just about to celebrate in a few days time.

• It’s in the baby who is Immanuel, God with us.

• It’s in that baby who grew up, who showed us the right way to live, Loving God and neighbour truly,

• It’s in that baby who just 33 years later would be strung up on a Roman cross, taking our punishment, and rising to defeat death so we can truly sing:

“Mild he lays his glory by,

Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth. Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King.”

• It’s that same King whose presence we will live in in that United, Glorified, City of Light.

• It’s that same King who will end all evil, who will wipe every tear from our eyes,

• It’s That same King, that Lamb, Our heavenly father who we will be worshiping with all the faithful followers of him from the creation of the earth to the of the coming new creation for all eternity.

• that’s what we have to look forward to in certainty,

• that’s what we anticipate this Christmas,

• that’s what we can delight in today…

• Come again, Lord Jesus.