His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Setting our sights on our heavenly home next on His Perfect Love.

Matt VanderVen: If you love this world, this chapter is not going to mean much to you. If you love this temporal world, this chapter is not going to mean much to you. But if you set your focus on Jesus and his kingdom, this chapter is going to minister to your heart this morning because it reminds you just how temporary and ordinary everything on this earth is.

Guest (Male): Well, you may have toured some amazing cities over the course of your life. Cape Town, Venice, New York City, Paris, Barcelona come to mind as truly incredible. But they don't hold a candle to the great and holy city we'll hear about today on His Perfect Love. It's the New Jerusalem, and we'll read all about it in Revelation chapter 21. 1,500-mile high walls, streets of gold, the glory of God shining throughout. Have I piqued your interest? Here's our tour guide and teacher, Pastor Matt VanderVen.

Matt VanderVen: Many of the cities today are squares, but a lot of them aren't. I know Manhattan was designed as a grid system, if you're familiar, by the military originally. But a cube is reminiscent of the holy place of the tabernacle, suggesting the entire city is the holy place. That's why he gave us that same idea here; he's connecting the two for us. And he says he measures the seed with a reed. The size of the New Jerusalem is enormous. It's 12,000 furlongs.

Let's just connect that. First of all, a cubit would be a furlong—let's just start there. A furlong is 660 feet. If you're taking notes, go ahead and write that down. You're going to need that because you're going to take 660 and you're going to multiply that times 12,000. Some of our math scholars in here just already did that in their head, which I'm always amazed at. 7,920,000 feet.

Now, if you take 7,920,000 feet and you divide that by a mile, because we think in miles, a mile is 5,280 feet. Therefore, if you take and you divide the 7,920,000—I did this right on the old calculator—I got 1,500 miles. That's the size of heaven: 1,500 length, 1,500 width, and 1,500 height. 1,500 miles. Let's talk about that. What does that mean?

How many of you have ever driven from Maine to Florida? From Maine to Florida, that's 1,500 miles. That's three-quarters of the entire eastern border of the United States. Do you know what that's also the equivocal square footage of, if you take the volume of that and you do length times width times height, and you get the volume of that? Do you know what that comes out to be? The size approximately of the moon.

Just think about how big your moon is. You can see it so many thousands of miles away. That's how big your moon is. It's the approximate size of this. For whatever reason, this angel gives John this incredible detail to see all of it. He's obviously just declaring its splendor, and certainly there's going to be room for us all. That's why he's asked us to go out and bring friends, to go to all the parts of the earth with the great gospel—Matthew 28:19—because he wants everybody to be invited, and all are invited to spend life in eternity with him in this New Jerusalem.

Then he says, according to the measure of man, and this is where he starts talking about some additional details here. The cubit, a measure of man according to the scripture, a cubit is 18 inches. Now he's going to talk in verse 17 about the thickness of this wall, so we needed to know it was 18 inches. You could have a royal cubit, which is about 22.6 inches, but it's very clear in scripture when it was going to use a royal cubit, they would either call it out as royal or they would draw a delineation to that type of different cubit. He says that it's a cubit like man, and then he does something very interesting: he tells us like an angel. So apparently, men and angels have similar measurements in regard to the cubit there.

So when we look at this, if we do the math here—and I'll just read this for us—"Then he measured its wall, 144 cubits according to the measure of man, that is, of an angel. The construction of its wall was like jasper, and the city was pure gold." You're going to see again these things up here. "The foundation of the wall of the city was adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, chrysolite, seventh, the eighth beryl, ninth topaz, tenth chrysoprase, 11th jacinth, 12th amethyst. The 12 gates were 12 pearls, each individual gate was one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass."

Let's just spend the rest of our time—we have a few minutes—looking through what all of this means. It's 144 cubits. So if we take 18 inches for our math scholars again, if I turn around and I take 18, which is the common cubit, 18 times 144 equals 216. I just want you to take that in for a minute. That's not the height. What was that again? The thickness of the wall. Read it again. Look at it again there. It's the thickness of the wall.

It's not for defense. I just want you to see, because when you're going to go up there and you're going to be at—well, come down because the new heavens will be coming—you're going to see a 216-foot thick wall. I can't even just imagine that again. Or if you think it's the 20.6 inches if you want to use the royal cubit, then that would even make it larger: 247.2 feet. Either way, it's a thick wall. Oh, and by the way, he says it's perfect; not a single fingerprint on it. How many of you are able to do that with the windows you have in your house? Not one of us, right? Especially if you have kids or if you had me in your house, because I inevitably...

I want you to think why he would make a 216-foot thick wall, why he would make it clear, and why he would allow these stones. And by the way, when you read this, and we read it together, notice how he does it with layers. So it's not like this; it's this. Because he starts with the foundation and builds up with each having a color. Are you letting the video play? Are you starting to see what this is going to look like? I mean, not to mention, remind me, the Shekinah glory, the brilliance of God refracting against a 216-foot thick wall, refracting off of us. His glory is going to light up that city with the most spectacular beauty.

I mean, we're going to get to the—this is the wall. This is God making a wall. I'm from upstate New York. There's something called Corning Glass. Has anybody ever heard of Corning Glass? Tons of glassmakers there, really great; I encourage everybody to take a trip there, especially if you have little ones. It's really fascinating. But they work with glass, and they still do hand-blown glass there. If you go up there, you can spend time with them, and you can watch them actually make glass right before you.

If you talk with one of their experts or master craftsmen—however you want to say that, the master glassmaker—they will tell you that there is no such thing as perfect glass on the earth, that there is imperfection in every piece of glass that you will ever see. The reason for that has to do with the forming or the making of this. Literally, even in a deep pressurized or a negative pressure envelope, even with no particles flying around—because they try to minimize that, blowing everything out, depressurize it, so minimize it or create a negative pressure—inevitably, there are still things that come in the glass.

Have you ever seen little almost looks like a bubble, like if you were to blow bubbles as a kid? Those little tiny microscopic, even looking under it, if you looked under it with a device or you X-rayed it, you would see all of these little bubbles that to our naked eye, we don't actually pick up. But they're there. This wall is perfect. If you talk to a master glassman, they will tell you it can't be done on earth. They will say it's impossible. And then to do it in layers with different colors and join them together perfectly where there's no imperfection whatsoever? And he calls it crystal clear.

And this isn't even inside of heaven. Friends, he did this for you as you walk up and look at the gates and the wall. Because God is perfect. When you want to talk about perfect, he is perfect. He does what no man can do. And he does it even before you get in the city. Just coming up to it, you're just going to—and look, I tell you, your pastor told you, right? You don't get up there and go, "Oh my gosh, it's not what I thought." Don't make me look bad. We read it. You tell them your pastor told you. Don't be up there be like, "This is really beautiful," meanwhile you're going, "This is amazing!"

He talks about it, says it's like clear glass, it's like transparent. I mean, look at the way he describes it: jasper, pure gold, kinds of precious stones. Literal representations; he doesn't say "like" or use a simile as "as." He wants us to see the fullness. I can't wait until we see it with our own eyes. But he's not trying to talk to the riches or the wealth of the city; he's talking about the value that God has placed on his people that he would turn around and make this for you and I. Jasper, sapphire, chalcedony—the presence again of these gemstones are so beautiful, unending, staggering beauty.

And then he says that the wall is pure gold, like pure—he talks about the pure gold, he talks about the pure glass. We've never seen anything like this; no human has seen pure gold. Again, it's not the impression of wealth or luxury what he's showing us is the perfection of his glory and holiness and it's in everything that he touches. Which brings me to you this morning. You're a handiwork of God. If you're a born-again believer, you've become the righteousness of God.

You may be looking in a mirror and you could say, "Oh yeah, I can see all these imperfections." Do you know that Jesus doesn't see that? Not only does he have you on his fridge, he turns around and he literally looks upon you with his holy purified eyes, and you're greater than this wall. You're more splendid and beautiful than this wall. That's why he says he only has eyes for you. How did he say that? I'm paraphrasing. What did he say exactly? "You're the apple of my eye." That's a very well-understood idiom to say you are the thing that causes me to dilate, to focus, and you're what I see. Those are his words; he used those words.

To describe how he looks upon us, we have got it so wrong with all this body image and all these things we look at. We look at it from a human's eyes, but not from the holy perfect God's eyes who says, "I have washed you and cleansed you as white as snow. I have made you holy. You once were a lost people; you have now been bought. You are now found. You are now with me, and you bring all glory and holiness to God."

You know, I even think about Exodus chapter 28, verses 15 through 21. What was the thing he had the—remember the ephod that he had the priest wear? What did he put in those as well? Gemstones. Part of the high priest's breastplate showing a radiance and magnificence of his beauty. Clearly, that was nothing compared to this wall. And then he says it's like a transparent glass. This constant mention of transparency indicates obviously that this city's going to be able to transmit all of God's glory in its fullness without any kind of hindrance. And that's what he wants us to see; the transparency speaks to no hindrance.

You know what that also speaks to? Nothing ever being able to be hidden, nor need to be hidden. Have you ever wanted to be known and to know fully? I can't think of a more depth to a relationship than when you know everything about a person—good, bad, and indifferent. I actually find that to be the sweetest place, the sweetest place, because then you know them for who they are, who they really are.

I don't think we have a word in our vocabulary to describe the beauty of the glory of God shining through this New Jerusalem, otherwise he would have used it. Again, if the dimensions and description seem confusing or impossible, maybe there's two reasons: first, we understand the ideas are communicated in details; his glory, beauty, splendor, we can't in this mind's eye truly captivate and understand what he's trying to show us. And second, we must understand that this city, whose architect is God—Hebrews 11:10 tells us that—it's going to be beyond our comprehension. It's going to be beyond something that we in this limited mind can look at.

So remember: the walls are 1,500 miles high, because he told us, remember the height and the width. It's a cube. It's 216 feet thick. The foundations are incredible; there's 12 of them. So start to picture 12 of them around this whole cube, and the apostles' names are written on them, verse 14. And having all those foundations leads us, by the way, just to the entrance. Then it talks about the layers: jasper's clear—you can still look at the stones—the second sapphire's blue, deep blue. The third is the chalcedony, it's green-blue with stripes. The fourth layer is emerald, a deep green, reminds me of the bow that he placed around heaven to remember our sin no more. He actually put it as one of the layers in this wall, reminding us that our sin, even when we get there, will never be spoken of because it doesn't exist. It's gone. It was completely removed at Calvary: past, present, and future.

And he even testifies it through a layer just to remind you and I: there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. So then we see the third layer again—sorry, fourth layer is emerald, deep. Then you look back and you see in verse 20 he goes on and he talks about the fifth layer, the sardonyx, red and white. The sixth layer, the sardius, deep ruby red. Seventh layer is chrysolite, which is sort of golden yellow. Eighth layer is beryl, which is like a blue or sea green. Ninth layer is topaz, which is goldish in color. 10th layer is this chrysoprase, sort of pale green. 11th layer is jacinth, which is a smoky blue. And this amethyst, the 12th layer, is a purple in color.

They're all beautiful precious stones. Can you imagine what this is going to look like layered up 1,500 miles? Beyond words. It's again like the first time you saw snow: beauty beyond words, pure. If you love this world, this chapter is not going to mean much to you. If you love this temporal world, this chapter is not going to mean much to you. But if you set your focus on Jesus and his kingdom, this chapter is going to minister to your heart this morning because it reminds you just how temporary and ordinary everything on this earth is.

That's why for many of us, it started to lose its salt a long time ago. When we thought we wanted to live the American dream and it was about pulling all this wealth in and doing all these things, we thought that was what our lives were supposed to be. Only to realize it never brought us happiness and contentment. It never brought us peace and true joy. It brought us anxiety because then we felt like we had to maintain it, and we were afraid of losing it. And what Jesus Christ gives us can never be lost.

He compared it to a treasure. He says, "Where do you want to invest your riches or treasure? Is it in Jesus in heaven, or is it on this earth where it's all going to rust and be destroyed, and moths are going to get into it? It's all temporal." You see, if your heaven—it's like the old saying: if you're heaven-minded, you're no earthly good. It means that the things of this earth have begun to fleet away from you, and you begin to look to the eternal because that is your citizenship, that is your home. That is where you find your peace and contentment and joy.

And that also is meant to minister to you when you go through difficult things physically, emotionally, spiritually. You're going to feel like, man, I'm beat and broken down, because if you think of this earth as the best God has for you, you're going to be depressed and sorrowful. But when you read these holy words and see that the best is yet to come, and what he has for you, just even his wall, that's as far as we got this morning, is more beautiful than anything on this earth. And yet it pales in comparison to the Shekinah glory of Jesus Christ himself.

You just got to the wall and our socks are knocked off. Wait until we get to walk with Jesus, where everything refracts off of him and our hearts are melt to his and we literally know what he's thinking, he's sharing everything. We're going to have such a peace and contentment. Everything you go through in this earth, the temporal, is going to be worth it. You're never going to look back and go, "Oh my gosh, what did I do? I gave my life to Christ and I didn't get to do all the things the evil, wicked people got to do." No, no, no. You're never going to look back on that. When you are in heaven with Jesus Christ, you're going to say that was a dot compared to the line of eternity.

Doesn't that give you a sense of peace this morning? It gives you a sense of peace. It's comfort. He wants to comfort us. And then he even tells us—and this blows my—we will close with this verse 21. Look, look at this. Just just how good it is. He says, "And oh, by the way, the magnificence of these walls, I'm going to put 12 gates with 12 pearls." This is where sometimes people you've heard say, "Oh, the pearly gates," right? Not exactly. This is in the New Jerusalem, not in the paradise that we understand in heaven today.

Now this Greek word here that's used, it talks about really, the direct translation is "pearl towers." You have the right translation in your Bible, it's good, but the idea is more than what we kind of think of when we say a pearl. It's a pearl tower because how tall are the walls again? It's more like a tower when you think about it. And by the way, the idea in the Greek is it's carved out of a single pearl. It's not like when we think of just like a pearl gate, like I might have pearl, but this is one pearl that is carved. That's a huge pearl, right?

Just think how giant these walls are and how giant these pearls are going to be. You're going to get up there and you're going to be like, "Wow!" And then he tells us and he leaves us with this, and again, we haven't even gotten into the city yet. "The street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass." There he says it again: not fingerprints, not anything. This is a city, something we're going to walk—this is a road, excuse me—a walkway. We're going to walk on this. It's not like he went into great deal to make it so smooth like this gold, and we're not even going to live on it. It's not where we're going to abide with him; it's just a way for us to traverse.

But everything he builds up there is to show the value that he has in you and I, and his love for you and I. And he goes to great extent to show us that. There's not going to be a pothole in heaven, right? You're not going to have to worry about macadam or closing down roads. Just a smooth road like glass. And you know why he made it smooth? So it's ever so easy, ever so easy for everyone and anyone to follow him for the rest of eternity. He made it that smooth and easy where we don't have to worry about tripping or falling, but just stroll, just like it was in the garden in the calm of the day, walking with him hand in hand, like it was always meant to be.

So if you're here this morning and you came in here heavy-hearted, loss of a family member, maybe anxiety, something overwhelming you, maybe it's a job, maybe different stressors in your life. Yeah, those things are here many times, and we need to be reminded that they're temporary and that we have a God that went to great detail and great length to show us an eternity. And that's what's waiting each and every one of us. And the way he describes it, remember his description of it is that it's in a moment, because that's what it's going to feel like when we spend forever with him, that this was nothing more than a moment.

If you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and what you've just heard sounds really pleasing and good to you, certainly I'm not going to ask you to get saved so you can walk on streets of gold. I'm going to ask you to accept Jesus Christ because he is your Lord and Savior, and he loves you even before you knew what love was. And he wanted to save you because the whole reason you were created was for fellowship with him, companionship, because he is a holy perfect God that had everything. But all he really wanted was you. All he really ever wanted was you. And that's why you're the apple of his eye.

Guest (Male): That is Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. We're going through Revelation at the present time, and I'll remind you that you can hear the program again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. That's hisperfectlove.org. We're also at oneplace.com, and look for us wherever you get your podcasts. We also offer a mobile app. This is a great way to take Pastor Matt's teachings with you on the go. You can learn more about the mobile app and start your download when you visit our website, hisperfectlove.org.

We can't thank you enough for your prayers for this ministry. Please pray that as God's word goes forth, that lives will be greatly impacted for the glory of God and people would grow by his grace and love or even enter into a relationship with him. And if you have a prayer request, please send that our way. You can email that to us through our website at hisperfectlove.org.

If you live in the Mechanicsburg, PA area, we hope you'll stop by for a visit. Just like you hear on the radio, Pastor Matt teaches verse by verse through the Bible here at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek gathering on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. We're located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information, and then join us next time when Pastor Matt will pick up where he left off in Revelation here on His Perfect Love. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.