Thru the Bible

Guest (Male): Who doesn't like a fresh start? In just a few minutes, our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, is going to tell us about the glorious prospect of all things made new as we study the book of Revelation, chapter 21.

Steve Schwetz: Welcome to Thru the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz, your host on this five-year journey through God's Word, and I'm so glad that you've joined us as our travels through Revelation are quickly coming to a close. If you're new to the Bible Bus, don't worry. As we finish Revelation, you can look forward to a fresh start in God's Word as our journey through all 66 books in five years begins again. So, I hope that you're going to stick around. Now, before we open to Revelation 21, Greg Harris and I want to invite you to do something that we can only do once every five years.

Greg Harris: That's right, Steve. This is a huge milestone for many of us. Even those of us that have been through it once before, just think of how unusual it is for any Christian to have studied the Bible cover to cover in a five-year period.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, it's so significant. I think about the number of saints that are going to write in through email or letter and tell us how many trips they've been on the Bible Bus. Each year, those Founders' Day bus riders gets shorter and shorter as we start our 12th trip and our 56th year going through the Bible. God has been so faithful in all of it.

Greg Harris: Yeah, and what really strikes me is a couple of things. One is just the faithfulness of God, the faithfulness of his people. You can't do anything for 56 years if you don't have people praying for you, supporting you. But the other thing that strikes me is the impact continues.

After all, some people would say, "When are you going to stop airing that thing? You're going for 12. Wasn't 11 enough?" And yet, we have a story of a station somewhere in North America that took Dr. McGee off because he felt he was a little old. And boy, he had an uprising, and the listeners called and he put it right back on. So, this is amazing, and I hope that you personally feel the significance of this moment.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, and the freedom that we have just being a part of this ministry to just continue to go on faithfully as God so faithfully provides. David Jeremiah is quoted as saying that he was friends with Dr. McGee, and Dr. McGee told him two things. He said, number one, he just said, "Play the tapes till the money runs out." That was one thing. And then he said Thru the Bible will be taught in the Millennium. And maybe we'll be an instrument of God leading people to Christ, probably will be, even though we'll be with him.

God has just been so faithful in this ministry. In large part, it's—yeah, we can sit and reflect on the five years, but we also want to turn our attention to you, those who have listened faithfully to the program. Not just listened, but faithfully prayed for the ministry by joining our World Prayer Team. If you have been praying and maybe you're not getting that daily email Monday through Friday, it's super easy. Just go to ttb.org/pray and get that in your email. It takes just a few minutes. It's a great way to connect with the ministry and to be praying on a regular basis for us. We would so appreciate that.

Greg Harris: And we cannot overemphasize that if you pray, if you're able to financially support, even if you just share the ministry of Thru the Bible, you are literally a stakeholder in this. One of the things we like to do is remind ourselves and all of us that the impact stories that we read, we're going to meet these people in heaven. We're going to meet them, and that person is going to say to you, "Thank you for the part you played in getting God's Word to me." This is real. This is not some abstraction. And of course, we've been studying the book of Revelation, so we're kind of on heavenly-minded things, and I hope that you feel the significance of your involvement in this ministry. We do want to say thank you.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, and as we continue to try to get—our byline for Thru the Bible is "The whole Word for the whole world." We would certainly appreciate your prayers in that, that you would give us wisdom and discernment on how to allocate the still limited resources that we have, and that God would open doors.

We've talked about this before where we don't have planning sessions in the classical sense of the corporate world, like, this is the expansion and the growth we're going to have. Sometimes it's us buckling in on a seat and just going, "Okay, Lord, where are you going to take us?" New opportunities get presented to us all the time, and it's a choice between better and best and maybe bad idea. We try all of those, and we pull back where it doesn't work, and we go forward when the Lord opens the door. He does it in such significant, tangible ways, and we know that's because so many of you are praying faithfully for this ministry. Thank you for that.

Greg Harris: And I would say not sometimes, I'd say most of the time, Steve. Quite honestly, I've been in vocational ministry for 35, almost 40 years really, and I've never been around a ministry like Thru the Bible where God just flings open doors. It has to be because we have such faithful prayer warriors. So, thank you for that. Greg, why don't you pray for us as we begin our final program?

Father, we feel this is a sacred moment as we celebrate the completion of studying your Word from cover to cover. Thank you for this amazing opportunity that you've given to us. Thank you that you have allowed us to continue to freely extend this opportunity to people here in North America and around the world in 300 languages. Father, we praise you and thank you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Steve Schwetz: Here's Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Revelation 21 on Thru the Bible.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now friends, I'm coming back to the 21st chapter of Revelation, and I'll begin reading it verse 5 again and then move on through verse 7, and I'm reading from my translation. "And he that sitteth on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And he saith, 'Write, for these words are faithful and true.' And he said unto me, 'They are come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these things, and I will be God unto him, and he shall be the son to me.'"

Now, this is a very important section here as we saw in the first part last time, that the glorious prospect of all things made new. We can start over, and there will never be an end to our growth. You remember it says of the increase of his kingdom, there is no end. There is a constant growth and development, and just think of the prospect of that for the future.

Now he says, "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." That identifies the speaker as the Lord Jesus Christ as he was identified like that in the first chapter of this book. Now, believers in their new bodies will thirst after God and the things of God, and they'll be satisfied here. We're told he'll give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life. You remember he had said in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."

All believers are overcomers by faith. He that overcometh shall inherit these things. Well, all believers are overcomers because of faith. In 1 John 5:4, I read, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." All the sons of God became sons through faith in Christ. "But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." John 1:12.

They inherit all things because this was promised to the sons of God. In Romans 8:16 and 17, I read, "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." And then here is an interesting expression, "I will be God unto him, and he shall be the son to me."

Now, "the son to me" is in the Greek, *moi ho huios*, a very unusual expression. In fact, Vincent calls attention to the fact that this is the only place in John's writing where a believer is said to be a son, a *huios*, that is, in relationship with God, and God says it. Here, he says it. Believers in the church are one of the peoples of God, but they are *moi*. They are the sons of God in a unique and glorious fashion.

As we've seen before, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Now, I read verse 8: "But for the fearful and unbelieving and defiled with abominations and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

Now, there are several amazing features about this verse here. First of all, the creation of the new heavens and a new earth did not affect or change the status of the lake of fire and of the lost. They are going into eternity just that way. In the second place, there's no possibility of sin which made man become fearful, unbelieving, and liars and murderers and all the rest ever breaking over the barrier into the new heavens and the new earth. Sin and its potential are forever shut out of the new creation.

Finally, the lake of fire is eternal, for it's the second death, and there is no third resurrection. It's eternal separation from God that we have here, and there's nothing as fearful and frightening as that. Now will you notice, I come to verse 9, and I'm going to turn to a message that I have in the back of the second volume on the shape of things to come because we are now given a physical description of the New Jerusalem. We are told here in verse 9, "Come hither, and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife."

Now, the appearance of this city is the quintessence of beauty, refined loveliness, and uncontrolled joy. Lofty language describes her merits, and descriptive vocabulary is exhausted in painting her portrait. The contemplation of her coming glory is a spiritual tonic for those who grow weary on the pilgrim journey down here. The New Jerusalem is really a post-millennial city, and that sounds strange coming from me, I'm sure. For she does not come into view until the end of the Millennium and the beginning of eternity.

Now, this city was evidently in the mind of Christ when he said, "I go to prepare a place for you." But the curtain does not rise upon the scene of the heavenly city until earth's drama has reached a satisfactory conclusion. Earth's story is not hushed until the endless ages begin. Now, the New Jerusalem will be to eternity what the earthly Jerusalem is to the Millennium. The earthly Jerusalem does not pass away, but it takes second place in eternity. Righteousness reigns in Jerusalem. It will dwell in the New Jerusalem.

Imperfection and rebellion exist even in the millennial Jerusalem. Perfection and the absence of sin will identify the heavenly city. Just as a king's queen is of more importance than the place of his government, thus the New Jerusalem transcends the city of earth. This will cast no reflection on the earthly city, nor will it cause her inward pain. She can say in the spirit of John the Baptist, "She that hath the bridegroom is the bride."

Now, will you notice here, the New Jerusalem is the eternal abode of the church. The New Jerusalem is the home of the church. It's the hometown of the church. This is a city toward which the church is journeying as she pitches her tent in that direction. Now we are to look at this home, and we're given the architect's blueprint here in this 21st chapter. "Come hither," he says, "I'll show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife."

Now, what follows is a description of the city. We have seen the psychological or the spiritual aspects of it that are wonderful, and to me, more wonderful than these physical, but believe me, these are worth contemplating. Now we must pause here to consider the relationship of the city to the citizens: the city proper to the church. Certainly, we're not to infer that the empty city without the citizens is the bride. The citizens are identified with a city in the next chapter. We're told about the citizens that are there. Those outside are identified here in chapter 21, verse 8, as disenfranchised.

Although a distinction between the bride and the city needs to be maintained, it's the intent of the writer to consider them together. Now, this passage is a description of the adornments which reveal something of the love and worth that the bridegroom has conferred upon his bride. Now we read in verse 10, "That great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God." Now, certainly this city has no counterpart among earth's cities. They're built upon an earthly foundation, and they come up from the bottom.

This city comes down out of heaven. She originates in heaven, and God is her architect, that is the Lord Jesus, and he's the builder. Although the city comes down out of heaven, there's no suggestion that she comes down to the earth. The earthly city never goes to heaven, and the heavenly city never comes to earth. Just how far down the city descends is a matter of speculation. Now, this has led to extreme views in interpreting the New Jerusalem.

At the very beginning, Ebionism, one of the first heresies, went to the extreme in applying this whole passage concerning the New Jerusalem to the earthly Jerusalem. Now, the Gnostics, another early heresy, they went to the other extremity in spiritualizing the passage to make it refer to heaven. Now, many modernisms apply the New Jerusalem to themselves and set it up on earth at the geographic location of their choice. Now, liberal theologians and Amillennialists have left the city in heaven in spite of the scriptural statement that it comes down out of heaven.

Two facts are evident from this passage. It comes down out of heaven, and it is not stated that it comes to the earth. Now, the passage of scripture leaves the city hanging in mid-air. Now, that's the dilemma that many seek to avoid, but why not leave the city in mid-air? Is anything incongruous about a civilization out yonder in space on a new planet? The New Jerusalem will either become another satellite to the earth or, what's more probable and I think is true, the earth will become a satellite to the New Jerusalem as well as the rest of the new creation.

This chapter indicates that the city will be the center of all things. All activity and glory revolve about this city. God will be there. It'll be his headquarters, and his universe is theocentric, that is, God-centered. The New Jerusalem is therefore worthy to merit such a preeminent position for eternity. Now let me read verse 11: "Having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone clear as crystal."

Now, Paul instructs the believer to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:2. Now, this hope will be realized in the holy city. Man in sin has never witnessed the revelation of the glory of God. Now, the experience of Israel in the wilderness taught them that each time there was rebellion in the camp, the glory of God appeared in judgment. But the manifestation of God's glory strikes terror to a sinful heart. But what glorious anticipation to be able to behold his glory when standing clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Two wonderful facts make this city the manifestation of the fullness of God's glory. The presence of God makes the city the source of glory for the universe. Every blessing radiates from this city. And second, the presence of the saints do not forbid the manifestation of the glory of God. Sin caused God to remove his glory from man's presence. In this city, all that's passed. Redeemed man dwelling with God in a city having the glory of God is the grand goal which is worthy of God. This city reveals the high purpose of God in the church, which is to bring many sons to glory.

Now, the word translated light here, *phoster*, is the word for source of light. The city is a light giver. It does not reflect light as the moon, nor does it generate light by physical combustion like the sun, but it originates light and is the source of light, for the presence of God and Christ give explanation to this as he declared, "I am the light. I'm the light of the world," and God is light. The whole city is like a precious gem.

This gem is likened unto a jasper stone. Now, the modern jasper is multi-colored quartz stone, and the stone referred to here cannot be that, for this stone is not opaque. Jasper is a transliteration of the word *iaspis*, which is of Semitic origin, and Moffatt suggests that *iaspis* could mean the modern opal, diamond, or topaz. And the stone is transparent and gleaming, which suggests one of these stones most likely is the diamond.

The diamond seems to fit the description better than any other stone known to man. And the similarity of the Hebrew word for crystal in Ezekiel 1:22 to the Hebrew word for ice helps to strengthen the view. The New Jerusalem is a diamond in a gold mounting. This city is the engagement ring of the bride. In fact, it's the wedding ring. It's the symbol of the betrothal and wedding of the church to Christ.

Now, the wall and the gates. Notice here, I'm reading, the wall of a city is for protection. And I probably ought to go back and read for you verses 12 through 16. "And it had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: on the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal."

Now, we're coming to this physical description, and of course, I'm not going to have the opportunity to get into all of the details today. But the wall of the city is for protection. A walled city is a safe city. Now, the New Jerusalem is safe, and those who dwell therein dwell in safety. The heavenly Salem will enjoy the fruits of safety and peace, made up of those who found peace with God on earth. And she will experience the fullness of peace throughout eternity.

The walls are a sign that this city has achieved the full meaning of her name: peace. The walls are 144 cubits in height, or about 216 feet. Herodotus gives the estimation for the walls of ancient Babylon as 50 cubits high and 200 cubits high. Now, these walls were built to make the city impregnable. The great height of the walls of the New Jerusalem are but commensurate with the great size of the city. Beauty rather than protection is the motive in design.

It is a wall with jasper built into it, and is generally designated a jasper wall. The hardest of substances and the most beautiful gem constitute the exterior of this city. Now, there are 12 gates to this city, three gates on each side. On each gate is the name of one of the tribes of Israel. Now, this is very striking and suggests immediately the order of the children of Israel about the Tabernacle. The tribe of Levi as the priesthood served in the Tabernacle proper.

Now, the New Jerusalem is a temple or tabernacle in one sense, for God is there with man. The church constitutes the priesthood who serve him constantly. They serve as such in the city and dwell there as Levi did about the Tabernacle. Everything in eternity will face in toward this city, for God is there. The children of Israel on earth will enjoy the same relationship to the city that they did toward the wilderness Tabernacle and later the city temple.

This city will be a tabernacle to Israel. The children of Israel will be among the multitudes who come into this city to worship in eternity. They will come from the earth to bring their worship and glory. They'll not dwell in the city any more than they dwelt in the Tabernacle of old. Those who actually dwell there will be the priests, who are the church. The church occupies the closest place to God in eternity, and the bride, like John in the upper room, reclines upon his breast. Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? asks the Song of Solomon. Well, she's the bride, and she's come up from the wilderness, which is this present world.

But the twelve tribes of Israel will come up to the celestial city to worship, three tribes coming up on each of the four sides. And then they will return back to the earth after a period of worship. But the church will dwell in the New Jerusalem. Now, we'll go on with that next time, and until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: If we can help you find a resource by Dr. McGee that deepens your study of God's Word, just visit ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE. That's 1-800-652-4253. Well, I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'm so grateful to have you aboard the Bible Bus with us and for your commitment to studying God's Word. We're grateful for our committed listening family who faithfully pray and invest in Thru the Bible as we together take the whole Word to the whole world.