Revelation 21

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 21



Revelation 21:1
I (John) SAW A NEW HEAVEN (a new sky) AND A NEW EARTH (a new world): FOR THE FIRST HEAVEN (the present sky) AND THE FIRST EARTH (the present world) HAD PASSED AWAY (ceased to exist – as reported in Revelation 20:11), AND THE SEA (a symbol for the constantly changing nations throughout the world – the restless “ocean” of humanity as it exists apart from trust in God) WAS NO MORE. After his vision of the final judgment, John saw this vision of a completely new universe, in which there will be only one “nation” – the Kingdom of God – and its people will live on a new world underneath a new sky.

Revelation 21:2
I (John) SAW THE HOLY CITY, NEW JERUSALEM (the equivalent, in the new world, of what the present Jerusalem is in the present world – namely, the capital city of the Kingdom of God), COMING DOWN OUT OF (the new) HEAVEN (the new sky) FROM GOD, MADE READY LIKE A BRIDE ADORNED FOR HER HUSBAND. Just as a bride, to be adorned for her husband, must be made ready (prepared), so the New Jerusalem, before coming down out of the new sky from God, must be made ready (prepared). In John 14:2, Jesus is recorded as having told His disciples that His purpose in going to Heaven was “to prepare a place for you” – the New Jerusalem is that “place” that He is presently engaged in preparing. This verse is actually a “preview” of the vision that John will explain in more detail beginning in Revelation 21:9.

Revelation 21:3
I (John) HEARD A LOUD VOICE OUT OF HEAVEN (the voice of Jesus, the “Lamb” who was sitting on the throne), SAYING, “BEHOLD (‘Look!’), GOD’S DWELLING (place) IS WITH PEOPLE (this is what people have missed – what they have longed for – ever since the time when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and were expelled from it), AND HE (God) WILL DWELL WITH THEM (on the new earth), AND THEY WILL BE HIS (God’s) PEOPLE, AND GOD HIMSELF WITH BE WITH THEM (His people) AS THEIR GOD.

Revelation 21:4
HE (God) WILL WIPE AWAY FROM THEM (His people) EVERY TEAR FROM THEIR EYES. DEATH WILL BE NO MORE; NEITHER WILL THERE BE MOURNING (the elimination of death will eliminate the primary cause of human mourning), NOR CRYING, NOR PAIN, ANY MORE. THE FIRST THINGS (including such things as death, mourning, crying and pain) HAVE PASSED AWAY (ceased to exist).”

Revelation 21:5
HE (Jesus) WHO SITS ON THE THRONE SAID, “BEHOLD (‘Look!’), I AM MAKING ALL THINGS NEW.” No sooner will the present world cease to exist, than the new world will be created. In some sense of the word (I think), the new world will contain the “same” things, but without their negative connotations – our bodies, for example, will be the “same” bodies, but without their present weaknesses. HE (the angel who was “guiding” John through these visions) SAID, “WRITE (a description of what you’re seeing), FOR THESE WORDS OF GOD (that you are hearing) ARE FAITHFUL (trustworthy) AND TRUE (reliable).” John was assured that all of this is real, not just an imaginary “dream” of what “might” be. Someday, this vision will be literally fulfilled.

Revelation 21:6
HE (Jesus) SAID TO ME, “IT IS (as good as) DONE (the things that God says will be done in the future can be spoken of as if they were already done now, because His knowledge of the future is 100% certain and infallible)! I AM THE ALPHA (the first letter of the Greek alphabet) AND THE OMEGA (the last letter of the Greek alphabet), THE BEGINNING AND THE END (see my comments on Revelation 1:8). I WILL GIVE FREELY TO HIM (anyone) WHO IS THIRSTY (the right to drink) FROM THE SPRING OF THE WATER OF LIFE. In order to be saved, one has to want to be saved. God isn’t going to save anybody against their will. To be saved, you have to trust Jesus to save you. Everything else about the Christian life comes after you are saved and as a result of your having been saved.

Revelation 21:7
HE (anyone) WHO OVERCOMES (the temptation to refuse to be saved by refusing to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior), I (Jesus) WILL GIVE HIM THESE THINGS (the ‘things’ described in the preceding and following verses). I WILL BE HIS GOD, AND HE WILL BE MY SON (it’s all about having a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus).

Revelation 21:8
BUT (on the other hand) FOR THE COWARDLY (those whose lives are dominated by fear as opposed to faith), UNBELIEVING (those who refuse to trust God), SINNERS (those who habitually violate God’s laws), ABOMINABLE (those who do those things that God regards as especially ‘heinous’), MURDERERS (those who hate and kill other people), SEXUALLY IMMORAL (those who refuse to live by God’s standards for sexual behavior), SORCERERS (literally, the Greek word translated ‘sorcerers’ means ‘those who abuse drugs’), IDOLATERS (those who worship false gods as opposed to worshipping the true God), AND ALL LIARS (those who habitually refuse to speak the truth), THEIR PART (and the part of all other kinds of unsaved people – those who make a ‘lifestyle’ out of their sin and refuse to accept God’s forgiveness because they refuse to trust Jesus for salvation) IS IN THE LAKE THAT BURNS WITH FIRE AND SULFUR, WHICH IS THE SECOND DEATH (as explained in Revelation 19:20, 20:10, 20:14 and 20:15).” This verse reminds us that the beauty and glory of eternal life in the new world is not promised to everyone, but is only promised to those who (in the present life) establish a life-changing relationship with God through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The destiny of the unsaved is to be excluded from that new world and destroyed.

Revelation 21:9
ONE OF THE SEVEN ANGELS WHO HAD THE SEVEN BOWLS, WHICH WERE LOADED WITH THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES (see Revelation 15:1), CAME, AND HE SPOKE WITH ME (John), SAYING, “COME HERE. I WILL SHOW YOU THE BRIDE, THE WIFE OF THE LAMB (Jesus).” This symbol (the Bride) is obviously intended to be the opposite of the symbol that we read about in Revelation 17 (the Great Prostitute). The “prostitute” (a loose, immoral woman) was an appropriate symbol for that antichrist organization (the Papacy) which, as we saw, really worshipped Satan (the Devil) rather than worshipping God (as it claimed to do). The “bride” (assumed to be a pure virgin) is thus an appropriate symbol for the true Church – that organization that really worships God and was persecuted by the antichristian Papacy during the time when it had the power to do such persecuting. The angel promised to show John a visionary description of the true Church.

Revelation 21:10
HE (the angel that was mentioned in Revelation 21:9) CARRIED ME (John) AWAY IN THE SPIRIT (notice that this happened in a vision, not in “reality” – John was actually still on the island of Patmos, where he had been all along, as he had these visions) TO A GREAT AND HIGH MOUNTAIN (a good vantage point from which to see something very large – so we notice, right away, that the true Church is not, as it often perceives itself to be, a small, isolated group, but is, in fact, a very large body of people), AND SHOWED ME THE HOLY CITY, (New) JERUSALEM (which, therefore, must be the place where the “bride” – the true Church, composed of all the true believers that have ever lived, or ever will live – will live after the “wedding”), COMING DOWN OUT OF (the new) HEAVEN (the new sky) FROM GOD (see my comments on Revelation 21:2),

Revelation 21:11
HAVING THE GLORY OF GOD (just as the Tabernacle in the wilderness – and, later, the Temple in Jerusalem – had the “Shekinah” glory [the “cloud” that represented God’s presence] in it). HER (the Bride’s) LIGHT (the bright light that was shining from her face, just as a bright light shone from Moses’ face after he had spent time with God on Mt. Sinai – see Exodus 34:29-35) WAS LIKE (the bright light reflecting off) A MOST PRECIOUS STONE, AS IF IT WERE A JASPER STONE, CLEAR AS CRYSTAL;

Revelation 21:12
HAVING A GREAT (thick) AND HIGH WALL (representing the fact that God protects His people from all dangers, both physical and spiritual – just as the walls of ancient cities protected their people from the dangers of invading armies); HAVING TWELVE GATES (representing the many different kinds of life experiences that can lead a person to come to trust in Jesus Christ for salvation), AND AT THE (twelve) GATES TWELVE ANGELS (whose “job” is to make sure that all those – and only those – who believe in Christ enter the city); AND (twelve) NAMES WRITTEN ON THEM (the twelve gates), WHICH ARE THE NAMES OF THE TWELVE TRIBES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL (this is a way of saying that it is only God’s chosen people who enter the city; once again, as we have seen before, the Jews are here being used as a symbol to represent what must literally be understood as the true believers in Christ of all nations).

Revelation 21:13
ON THE EAST (side of the city) WERE THREE GATES; AND ON THE NORTH (side of the city were) THREE GATES; AND ON THE SOUTH (side of the city were) THREE GATES; AND ON THE WEST (side of the city were) THREE GATES. This “picture” is based on the way that the people of Israel camped around the Tabernacle during their years of wandering in the wilderness – three of the twelve tribes camping on each of the four sides of the Tabernacle, which was set up facing the four primary compass directions (see Numbers 2:1-24). It means that people from every country in the world will have access to the New Jerusalem, because the Church consists of Christian believers from every country in the world.

Revelation 21:14
THE WALL OF THE CITY HAD TWELVE FOUNDATIONS, AND ON THEM (were inscribed the) TWELVE NAMES OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES OF THE LAMB (Jesus). This “picture” shows us that the Church was literally “built on” the work of Jesus’ twelve original apostles. Every person who comes to faith in Christ is led to that faith by someone who was led to that faith by someone in a long chain that eventually leads up to one of the twelve apostles.

Revelation 21:15
HE (the angel) WHO SPOKE WITH ME (John) HAD (in his hand) FOR A MEASURE (a measuring stick), A GOLDEN REED (yardstick), TO MEASURE THE CITY, ITS GATES, AND ITS WALLS. The purpose of this measurement is to demonstrate that God knows the exact extent of the Church – He knows how many saved people there are, and how many there ever will be – and He is capable of providing sufficient space for all of them to live in. The Church is big enough to include everybody who wants to be included and is willing to come to faith in Christ. As an old song puts it, “Though millions have come, there’s still room for one; yes, there’s room at the cross for you.”

Revelation 21:16
THE CITY LIES FOURSQUARE (it’s three-dimensional – a cube – the point, I think, being that it’s perfect; there are no odd edges; everything is right; it’s exactly the way it’s supposed to be, the way that God wants it to be – and it’s different from this world, which is a sphere), AND ITS LENGTH IS AS GREAT AS ITS BREADTH (that, of course, is the definition of a “square”). HE (the angel) MEASURED THE CITY WITH THE (golden) REED (that he had, as mentioned in Revelation 21:15), (and it was) TWELVE THOUSAND STADIA (long, wide and high). ITS LENGTH, BREADTH, AND HEIGHT ARE EQUAL (12,000 stadia each – again, its shape is that of a cube). A stadion is a Greek unit of measurement equivalent to 606 feet 9 inches. 12,000 stadia equals 7,281,000 feet, or about 1,379 miles. So the city had a land area of 53,012,961,000,000 square feet, or about 1,901,578 square miles (about half the land area of the United States of America) – and it was also 7,281,000 feet (about 1,379 miles) high, giving it a total volume of over 385,987,737,000,000,000,000 cubic feet, or about 2,622,235,000 cubic miles (about half the total volume of the moon). I have written a rather extensive explanation of how big that really is (and how many people could have a “mansion” in such a city) in my e-tract, “My Father’s House.” I’ll be happy to send you a copy by email (free, of course) if you ask me to.

Revelation 21:17
ITS WALL IS ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR CUBITS (thick), BY THE MEASURE OF A MAN, THAT IS, OF AN ANGEL. A cubit is a Hebrew unit of measurement defined as the distance from a man’s elbow to the tip of his middle finger. Of course, that varies from person to person; in my case, it’s about 18 inches, so 144 of my cubits would be about 216 feet. But we have no idea how big that angel was, so we really don’t know how thick the wall was. What this verse tells us is that the wall is solid; no opposition can break it down or break through it. God’s people are absolutely safe inside the city.

Revelation 21:18
THE CONSTRUCTION OF ITS WALL WAS JASPER. THE CITY WAS (made of) PURE GOLD, LIKE (that is, the gold was as pure as) PURE GLASS.

Revelation 21:19
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CITY’S WALL (which, as we saw in Revelation 21:14, represented the twelve apostles) WERE ADORNED WITH ALL KINDS OF PRECIOUS STONES. Probably each of the stones had a symbolic meaning that in some way represented the character (or the ministry style) of one of the twelve apostles, and those meanings were probably well known to the people of John’s time; but, unfortunately, that information has been lost to us, and I know of no way to reconstruct it. THE FIRST FOUNDATION WAS JASPER; THE SECOND, SAPPHIRE; THE THIRD, CHALCEDONY; THE FOURTH, EMERALD;

Revelation 21:20
THE FIFTH, SARDONYX; THE SIXTH, SARDIUS; THE SEVENTH, CHRYSOLITE; THE EIGHTH, BERYL; THE NINTH, TOPAZ; THE TENTH, CHRYSOPRASUS; THE ELEVENTH, JACINTH; AND THE TWELFTH, AMETHYST. Those are the same twelve precious stones that were worn on the breastplate of the High Priest in Old Testament times, and there they represented the twelve tribes of Israel. Again, the Old Testament chosen people (the nation of Israel) is used in Revelation as a symbol for the New Testament chosen people (the Church).

Revelation 21:21
THE TWELVE GATES (in the wall of the city) WERE (made of) TWELVE PEARLS. EACH ONE OF THE GATES WAS MADE OF ONE PEARL (this where the expression “the Pearly Gates” comes from). I’ve sometimes (jokingly) said that if a city gate (for a city this big) could be made from a single pearl, it would certainly be amazing to imagine the oyster that could make such a pearl. But God can just as easily create a pearl Himself as create an oyster big enough to make it. THE (main) STREET OF THE CITY WAS PURE GOLD, LIKE (that is, the gold was as pure as) TRANSPARENT GLASS (see Revelation 21:18). This is where the expression “streets of gold” comes from – although, technically, this verse only mentions one street, even though a city of this size would need to have millions of streets. Since the entire city is described as being made of gold (in Revelation 21:18), it makes sense to think of all of the streets as being made of gold, not just the single street that is mentioned in Revelation 21:21 (and again in Revelation 22:2, as we will see when we get there), which I think refers to what we would call the “main” street.

Revelation 21:22
I SAW NO TEMPLE IN IT, FOR THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, AND THE LAMB (Jesus), ARE ITS TEMPLE. I think that this is a very important point. In the ancient world, every city had a temple (a literal building) in which the god of the city was thought to live, and which was used for worshipping that god. Even Jerusalem had a magnificent Temple, in which the Jews thought of God as living, and which was used for worshipping Him. But the Church does not have any such temple! Our church buildings are not temples in the sense that we should think of God as living in them, and we are not restricted to those buildings as places in which to worship Him. We, ourselves, are God’s temple (see 1 Corinthians 6:19), and we worship God wherever we are, not just when we go to church buildings for worship services. In the New Jerusalem, there is no special place where we should think of God as living, and where we go to worship Him. He lives equally in every part of the city, and we worship Him in whatever part of the city we are in at the time.

Revelation 21:23
THE CITY HAS NO NEED FOR THE (light of the) SUN, NEITHER (the light) OF THE MOON, TO SHINE (on it), FOR THE VERY GLORY OF GOD (the “Shekinah”) ILLUMINATED IT, AND ITS LAMP IS THE LAMB (Jesus). I don’t know if this means that there won’t be any sun, or any moon, in the new sky; our emphasis in reading these words should be on the word “need.” Because the Church has the Light of the World (Jesus) – I’m referring to John 9:5 – mere physical lights are unimportant. We can do with, or without, them.

Revelation 21:24
THE NATIONS WILL WALK IN ITS LIGHT. The Church holds forth the “light” of the Gospel to the people of the world. Without that “light,” the people of the world live in the “darkness” of sin and in ignorance of God. THE KINGS OF THE EARTH BRING THE GLORY AND HONOR OF THE NATIONS (it is the people of the nations who are the “glory” and “honor” of the nations) INTO IT. Many great leaders, throughout history, have themselves “bowed the knee” and become followers of Christ and have then used their positions of power and influence to enhance and empower the work of the Church, establishing the policies that make the Church’s work easier and – in some cases – even financially supporting specific missionary endeavors.

Revelation 21:25
ITS GATES WILL IN NO WAY BE SHUT (excluding people from the opportunity to accept Jesus and be saved) BY DAY (FOR THERE WILL BE NO NIGHT THERE [because the Light of the World – Jesus – is always shining]),

Revelation 21:26
AND THEY (not just “the kings of the earth” – as mentioned in Revelation 21:24 – but all of the saved people of the world) SHALL BRING THE GLORY AND THE HONOR OF THE NATIONS INTO IT SO THAT THEY (the people of all nations – who are, themselves, the “glory” and “honor” of those nations) MAY ENTER. Verses 21-24 again remind us that the opportunity to be saved is extended to anyone who wants to be saved and is willing to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Revelation 21:27
(But) THERE WILL IN NO WAY ENTER INTO IT (the city, which is a symbol for the true Church) ANYTHING PROFANE (unholy), OR (any) ONE WHO CAUSES AN ABOMINATION (something that God regards as especially “heinous”) OR A LIE (anything that is untrue), BUT ONLY THOSE (people) WHO (whose names) ARE WRITTEN IN THE LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE. The true Church is composed entirely (and only) of the true Christians. People who aren’t actually saved can join humanly-organized churches, but their ability to do that can’t fool God into thinking that they are actually saved. He knows who is and who isn’t.