[0:00] Good morning. We are blessed indeed to be here this morning gathered in the Lord's house.
[0:11] It's been a full morning already and I kind of felt that much has been said already. But I do plan to share a little bit out of Revelations 21.
[0:24] So, since we've been sitting for 45 minutes already, why don't we just rise, stretch, and maybe greet our neighbor and then we'll have a short message.
[0:54] Thank you.
[1:24] Thank you. Is it not great to have church family?
[1:42] It is a blessing of the Lord. In the Advent reading this morning on peace, last Sunday it was hope and peace.
[1:57] Two aspects of Christmas or that Christ brings to us. And just thought I'd focus a little bit on peace.
[2:12] What makes for our peace? What brings peace to your heart?
[2:27] Forgiveness of sin. Okay. So that removes the penalty, right?
[2:42] Anyone else? What makes for peace? God's love. God's love. God's love. God's love. God's love. God's love. God's love.
[2:53] God's love. Okay. Our relationship is restored with God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Forgiveness. Forgiveness. Rest. Resting in God.
[3:10] Seizing to struggle in our own efforts. Peace. Are you at peace this morning?
[3:21] Is your heart at peace? And it's only that true peace can come is through a relationship with Jesus Christ, which is also the forgiveness of sins, all of that, together in a bundle.
[3:51] We talk about peace. Just this week on the world scene, the country of Syria has been turned upside down this week and taken over by rebels, and the government has been put down.
[4:15] An entire country was overturned basically in a week's time. And the Assad regime, which has been in power for roughly 60 years, a power that was heavy-handed, keeping their people in poverty, and very cruel, they're dethroned.
[4:38] A lot of events happening that led up to it, and yet we see we have peace because of the Lord, but many don't have peace.
[4:56] Many don't have peace. And so it's very good for us to be reminded that we don't take that for granted, that we have peace with our Lord.
[5:12] I believe it fits in well with our Scriptures, and thank you, Courtney, for reading. The passage I want to elaborate on is starting in verse 9 in Revelations.
[5:29] And we had covered the first part of that chapter a few weeks back, where John sees a new heavens, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem.
[5:41] And he talks about the presence of God, and so on. Then, verse 9, So I've titled the message, Mansions in Heaven.
[6:25] Mansions in Heaven. One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, or the seven last judgments.
[6:37] So this is going back to the tribulation period, way a thousand years prior. Now, that much later, one of those seven came and talked with John and took him up to show him the bride, the lamb's wife.
[7:02] Now, who is the bride? Believers, here it talks about the wife.
[7:14] At this point, we're married to Jesus. The church has been married, and we talked about that, that that would happen in Heaven. And when we came back down to earth to reign with Him, we would be married to Christ.
[7:29] And so, I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife. But what is John shown here? And in verse 10, He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem.
[7:54] Descending out of Heaven from God. Now, is the bride a city? Is the wife of Jesus a city?
[8:10] Because if you isolate these two verses, then it would appear that way. And yet, that would conflict the rest of the Scriptures.
[8:23] And as the angel says, come, I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife. And then he sees the city coming down out of the heavens. By the way, there are new heavens.
[8:36] And so, we come to the conclusion that the city houses the bride, the wife of Christ.
[8:47] Come, I will show you the bride. It's inclusive part of this city that comes down out of Heaven. And so, it's our eternal dwelling place where we will live with Jesus and with the Father forever and ever.
[9:08] Coming down out of Heaven. The new heavens and the new earth were created.
[9:22] As we had in the end of chapter 20. But here, in 21, there's no mention that God created a heavenly Jerusalem at this point in time.
[9:40] We're given the picture. This city already exists. It's out there. And John now sees it being revealed. Coming down.
[9:53] Now, according to his reading, in his translation, it gave the measurements. Your Scripture probably says, what's the, 12,000 furlongs is what the New King James says.
[10:10] It's equal to close to 1,400 miles. That way. That way. And that way. And that way.
[10:22] Cubed. And so, he sees this magnificent city coming down out of the heavens. The bride of Christ.
[10:34] It's going to be our dwelling place. Would this city fit in the current Jerusalem? It would not even fit in Israel.
[10:47] Not even close. But we're talking about a new heavens and a new earth. And we are not given size.
[10:59] Scripture is silent on how big will this new universe be. We have no idea. Except this city is huge.
[11:10] And so, that is what John sees and he introduces it that way. So, we're going to talk about the city a little bit.
[11:22] Now, where is heaven? Up. Up. And where is up? It's that way, right?
[11:41] But how about if you live in China? Which way is up? Maybe down for us. And yet, John sees coming out of the heavens.
[11:56] The Lord will return out of the heavens just as he went up. It's a perspective that we don't know for sure how that works.
[12:10] Because even at the rapture, all over the globe, in every direction, we're going to go up. And so, we let go of that.
[12:24] It's quite possible that the Lord will introduce us to new dimensions that we've never known here on earth. You know, we're one and two and three dimensional as we see our physical earth.
[12:41] But it's quite possible we will experience more in eternity. And so, and by the way, in chapter 20, the earth and the heavens fled from God's sight.
[13:00] And then there was the great white throne judgment. In perspective, where is it? It's out there.
[13:12] It's in God's universe. See, we as humans, everything is based off of planet earth. We measure the stars are out there from planet earth.
[13:26] The sun comes up over there and it sets over there. And so on. Everything is relative to planet earth. But that's going to be gone. And so, we're going to go into God's dimensions at this point.
[13:43] And so, it's going to stretch our minds to think way beyond what we've ever thought and experienced. As the Lord has prepared something so glorious that we've never seen it before.
[14:03] Now, we talk about hope. That is our hope. That is our hope. That in the Lord, we're going to experience this.
[14:15] And with that, hope brings peace. And next Sunday, we have love and joy. The next two Sundays.
[14:28] You know, all those feed off of each other. So, as we have this city seen by John, he now attempts to describe it.
[14:41] And I'm going to spend a few minutes going through that. And George has a picture of a jasper.
[15:06] He's going to put up for us. Now, he looked on the internet to see what kind of pictures of crystal he could find.
[15:24] Or of jasper, sorry. Clear as crystal. And here is a sample of that from a perspective of what humans know today.
[15:36] Now, is that going to be what this city is going to look like? By the way, this doesn't look as glamorous as they would in real. But thank you, George.
[15:50] I decided to put that up to get us thinking. Now, this city is described as a precious stone, like a jasper stone.
[16:01] And clear as crystal. Transparent. And so, this is this huge, huge city, like a jasper stone.
[16:17] Use your imagination how beautiful it will be. If our jasper stones today are glamorous and glittering, it will be even more so in heaven.
[16:31] Or the city itself. And so, that's the description. So, John, the Apostle John, as an old man, we believe he's well in his 90s when he has this vision.
[16:47] And he attempts to describe what he sees. And so, having the glory of God. How do we describe the glory of God?
[17:03] Can we attempt to describe God's glory? Exodus 34. Exodus 34. The glory that filled the temple.
[17:20] Okay. He revealed his glory. Okay. So, that's a glimpse, perhaps, of it.
[17:30] Okay. Okay. Okay. And it says as well that the Lord would meet them behind the curtain. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
[17:41] So, they had to stop ministering. We have descriptions here that the glory of the Lord lit up the new heavens or the new city.
[17:53] And that there's no need for the sun or the moon. So, the glory of the Lord is something we, too, cannot describe in detail. But it's going to be glorious beyond what we can imagine.
[18:08] Okay. So, this city is further described. Verse 12. Also, she had a great and high wall with 12 gates and 12 angels at the gates and names written on them, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel.
[18:27] Three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb.
[18:42] So, as he sees the city coming down, he says it's surrounded by a great wall. And this wall is a great and high wall.
[18:56] And verse 17 talks about 144 cubits, which is over 200 feet high. Now, our walls here, I think, are 14 feet in this building.
[19:12] City walls. In the Bible times, a high city wall was 40 feet. This wall is going to have 200 and some feet tall, as it's described.
[19:29] And it will have the 12 gates in the wall, three gates on each side. So, again, it's a square with a city in the middle.
[19:43] Now, this reminds us of the tabernacle set up in the wilderness where they had that too. They had the temple of God.
[19:55] They had the outer wall around it. And they had the gates. And they had three tribes of Israel camped on each side of the temple.
[20:05] So, we have a similar picture here of eternity. Of 12 gates, three on each side. And on each gate was written one of the names of the 12 tribes of Israel.
[20:22] So, what does that tell us about eternity? What do we learn?
[20:40] Israel is going to be there. The 12 tribes of Israel will be present here. Now, 12 tribes, I don't mean exclusive, as in every Jew born, but every Jew born again.
[20:57] And every tribe will be represented. They will be here. Did you know that the church age is a glimpse of unity?
[21:13] As Jew and Gentile alike, by faith, are the bride of Christ. In this scenario, in eternity, all believing Jews from all times and all believing Gentiles will be in the city together.
[21:37] No more separation. All of God's children, Jew and Gentile. So, we have that picture here illustrated in the city in the walls.
[21:52] Now, the wall had 12 foundations, and on them were the names of the 12 apostles. So, what does that tell us? The church is going to be there.
[22:06] So, it's all ages. And so, God bringing them together to dwell in these mansions. The apostles of the Lamb are going to be there.
[22:21] Now, I'm assuming that Judas Iscariot's name won't be there, but that it will be Matthias, the one that replaced him. And there's no mention of the Apostle Paul.
[22:35] Whether his name will be there. But it's not that important. The message here is the church and Israel will reside together in the heavenly city.
[22:56] Okay, and then we have a very deep description of the city itself. Verse 16 or 15. And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city.
[23:11] Excuse me. Its gates, its wall. The city is laid out as a square. Its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed. 12,000 furlongs.
[23:22] Its length, breadth, and height are equal. And again, 1,400 miles. How far is that?
[23:33] From here to Denver. From here to Denver. Okay. I've never measured it, but it's far. Yeah.
[23:45] Yeah, that's... I think Alberta is 800 miles long. If I'm correct. So, yeah. That would be... That's a long, long ways.
[23:56] That's how high the city will be as well. The... Verse 18. The construction of its wall was of jasper.
[24:08] We have jasper again. And the city was pure gold like clear glass. Now, have you ever seen gold?
[24:21] Anyone have gold? Is it clear? Our gold isn't see-through, is it? And here, gold is described as pure, clear glass.
[24:37] It's transparent. Now, 1,500 miles every way, all of gold.
[24:51] There will be enough to go around for all of us. And so, I'm... As we read this passage, I'm just reminded, if we're tempted to gather wealth here on earth, compare it to this.
[25:16] And see the folly of that. Here, it's all going to be there for us. We won't have to fight for it. To work for it, God is going to provide it.
[25:31] And the description that follow of the twelve foundations adorned with precious stones of jasper, sapphire, chelcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysophrae, jacinth, jacinth, and amethyst.
[25:58] I do not... I don't know what most of these stones look like. And how John came up with all these names, all these precious stones. And so, these twelve foundations, which the wall is built on, are just glittering with this kind of beauty.
[26:22] And so, God has an imagination that is bigger than yours. He is the creator of all things.
[26:37] And when Jesus said that, I go to prepare a mansion for you, He meant just that. And it is waiting for every believer to be revealed in that time.
[26:59] Skipping down to verse 21. The twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each gate is a pearl. How big is a pearl?
[27:10] saying about that big? That would be a small gate to go through, right?
[27:23] We're going to have, it says, each gate was a pearl. They're going to be huge as only God can do. And, yeah, that's the description.
[27:37] Each individual gate was one pearl. And the streets of the city were pure gold like transparent glass. See through.
[27:53] But I saw no temple in it for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And we're going to be in God's presence.
[28:07] the Father will be there. There's no need for a physical temple to worship someone who is far away. He's going to be right there.
[28:19] And so we'll be worshiping in the city for the Lord, God, and the Lamb will be the temple. And we'll be in their midst worshiping.
[28:30] The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God illuminated it.
[28:42] The Lamb is its light. It's in all our life we have depended on the sun and a night on the moon for light.
[28:54] Now, we're introduced to the Lamb of God as the light of the world. in John 1. But here, literally, the Lamb will be the light.
[29:06] And there will be no need for external lights. His brightness will light up the city. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light and the kings of the earth bring in their glory and honor into it.
[29:25] The gates shall not be shut at all by day and there shall be no night there. So, perhaps we can assume we won't need to sleep either as we will be perfected into our eternal bodies.
[29:42] Be no night there. By the way, night represents darkness. And the works of the night are evil. And there will be no night.
[29:56] God's going to do away with that. Everything is going to be light. And by the way, last Wednesday in our course here, we discussed of the religious trial that Jesus faced was at night.
[30:13] as they falsely condemned him and brought accusations, it was all done at night. Works of darkness. Here, it is abolished.
[30:27] No more works of darkness. There's not going to be any night. sin is done in the book of life.
[30:51] This is my favorite verse. Here, sin is done away with.
[31:02] The presence of sin forever and ever and ever. There is not going to be any room for anything that is not pure and holy.
[31:14] Their place is in the lake of fire. And we're going to enjoy an eternity free of sin. Hallelujah!
[31:27] This is the Father's plan for His children. To glory with Him. And so, the only people who are going to be there are those written in the Lamb's book of life.
[31:42] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. In John 14, the first few verses, as we sum up this morning, Jesus says to His disciples, let not your heart be troubled.
[32:09] You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
[32:26] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
[32:37] For three years, Jesus had been the security of the disciples. For three years. And now, the night before he dies, he says, let not your heart be troubled. I am going to leave you.
[33:15] I'm going to leave you. And the prospect of having their security shattered, Jesus leaving physically, troubled them. And we have this teaching that I am, I need to leave, but you're going to be okay.
[33:38] I'm going to send my spirit to guide you. But while I'm gone, I'm going to prepare mansions, an eternal dwelling place for you, that you may be there where I am.
[33:56] Now this morning, as we live here in the physical as well, is there anything that would like to trouble you?
[34:13] Is there something in your life that's weighing? Maybe a bit different than the disciples experienced?
[34:33] You know, we talk about hope and peace, but life circumstances are often heavy. In fact, at this time of year, there is more sadness and depression than at any other time of year.
[34:57] And it's Christmas season. And so, so as we, as we look at real life, what is, what makes for my peace?
[35:17] The things that are tempting to trouble me, can I let go of it? You know, we have, we have a number of people in our midst here that recently said goodbye to loved ones.
[35:38] And it hurts. It's painful. as there's a physical parting. And yet, that's what Jesus is talking about here.
[35:55] We are not without hope. We know our loved ones, if they're in the Lord, they have mansions waiting for them.
[36:06] just like we do. And so, what makes for our peace? Our joy?
[36:19] It's not, it's not the Christmas presents on Christmas Day, even though that is enjoyable. And it's fun to, to do some of that as we, as we look at the ultimate gift.
[36:36] And that is, salvation, forgiveness of sins, and the peace of God, which leads to mansions in heaven.
[36:54] I often think I underestimate my God. I underestimate His ability.
[37:19] We're going to close with that. I would, I would, I would encourage each one of us, if, if there are things troubling our hearts, ultimately, turn to the Lord.
[37:40] Share it with a brother or sister. And together, bring it before the Lord. we are the family of God.
[37:51] And that's why we, we are blessed to be together. And so, the Lord meant for us to, to move forward with peace.
[38:01] peace. And as we recognize many parts of the world, many people don't have peace. We keep praying and we keep sharing the gospel to those that God brings in our path.
[38:17] Let's close. Father, what a beautiful, beautiful picture. Glorious. peace. Far beyond our imagination.
[38:33] And all of this, Lord, you have gone to prepare for us. And yet, Lord, we recognize that we live in the here and now on planet Earth.
[38:49] The very place that you came to dwell as well to die for us. And your prayer was, Father, I don't pray to remove them, but that you be with them.
[39:03] And so, Lord, this morning we praise you that you are here in our midst. That you are in my heart. And that you will never leave me nor forsake me.
[39:17] Nonetheless, Lord, as each one of us looks forward to eternity, may you give us that hope and excitement looking forward to what you have for us.
[39:31] And, Father, indeed, it will be glorious. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.