,, Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."”
Rev.21: 2-8
Last time we started talking about the new heaven and the new earth and we only mentioned a few things and now we have a text that talks about what John saw, so it says:
"And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."
John was probably very excited when he saw the heavenly Jerusalem because he compares it to a bride who beautifies and adorns herself as best she can to be in the most beautiful splendor when her future husband sees her.
An illustration is used here which is very important and valuable to the bride and husband but we should say that at the time of Revelation this was far more significant and valuable than today. Today the act of marriage, bride and husband almost lost value and importance because more of what was then. What is happening today is probably just a "pale picture" of what is described here because there are no marriages and weddings as there used to be because young people live together even before the official marriage, so today's wedding is just a ceremony "to be done.
At the time of writing, the two young men may have seen each other only a few times before the wedding and talked briefly, so the act of the wedding and the decorated bride was a truly glorious moment eagerly awaited by the newlyweds.
For this reason, John takes this description of "a bride adorned with her husband." Because it was probably the most glorious event in the lives of those young people until then who were eagerly waiting to see each other. the bride's appearance was taken care of by several persons very close to the bride who tried to make the bride look in the best light and to amaze the groom when he saw her.
So this is the background of this illustration that John uses, and then we can only imagine what the heavenly Jerusalem looks like. There are more verses about this heavenly new Jerusalem, so we will study it in more detail.
"And I heard a great voice from heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God among men, and they shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and death. there will be no more, no more crying, no more shouting, no more sickness; for he that sitteth upon the throne saith, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
Today we can say what is written in Acts:
,, Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool.”
Acts 7.49
But we see that the time is coming when that will change, so it says:
"Behold the tabernacle of God among men, and they shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be their God with them."
this means that there is no more sin and no more temptation in the new earth and we see that God will dwell with his people in the new earth.
When Solomon built the "temple of God," he wondered:
,, "But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You; how much less this temple which I have built!”
2 Chr.6: 18
Of course, Solomon's temple will not be there in the new earth, because nothing from this world of ours will be there today except faithful people, but there will be a new Jerusalem on that new earth, which will be adorned as a bride, country among his people.
So God will be among His people and now below John describes what will not be there:
"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death, no more crying, no crying, no more sickness; because it passes first. "
We can freely say that throughout human history, faithful and unfaithful people have "shed" many tears for sin, for sinners, persecution, for death, but also for many other reasons. And now we see that it will no longer be like that. neither cries nor shouts, "which are closely connected with what we have said and also with what is still written.
But "there will be no more death," which rages from the fall of the first people into sin, and will rage until eternity begins, and also with exceptions during the Millennial Empire. Man has always fought in his own way against death people failed to win and so it will continue but there is one Victor and that is the Lord Jesus Christ who overcame death, and his merits are the death of victory and His merits are what we can read;
"and there will be no more death,"
as well as :
,, So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory.O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?"
1 Cor.15: 54-55
Finally, Jovan mentions another big problem, and that is diseases that also cause big problems here on earth, but that problem will be solved because he writes:
,, there will be no more diseases; because it passes first. "
And after all these blessings we read:
"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is finished. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End "
After all that has been written, one would say that these are unbelievable things and simply unimaginable to our mind and senses, but without thinking about it, it clearly says:
"And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful."
.I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End "here the Lord Jesus is described as the creator and sustainer of all He is the First and the Last He is the eternal God.In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is written: that God the Father speaks to the Son:
,, And: "You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands;”
Hebrews 1:10
The Lord Jesus is the beginning, the source, the cause of the first creation but its end, He ended His intercessory ministry:
"It's over. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End "
and there will also be the Beginning and the new creation of the new heaven and the new earth we are talking about.
"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new."
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give the thirsty from the fountain of living water for free. "
And now here we have a break in describing the new heaven and the new earth and we see that the Lord Jesus is calling out to all who have not yet been born again to obey Him and turn to Him and He will give them
"Sources of water live for nothing."
This means that everyone who wants eternal life must receive it only from the Lord Jesus Christ, and for nothing money or good deeds or anything else is needed, it is only necessary to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and He will give the "water of life" and he will only see a new heaven and a new earth.
And then it says:
"He that overcometh shall receive all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son."
Everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is a victor, and this is confirmed by the following verses:
,, For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
1 Job 5: 4-5
Of course, true faith is a constant struggle, but victory is certain because the struggle is actually led by the Lord Jesus Christ because he writes that he lives in a believer:
,,… I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
2 Cor.6: 16
And after all these kind calls and guarantees of victory, there is a terrible warning for the unbelievers:
"And to the fearful and unbelieving and to the Gentiles and to the executioners, and to the whores, and to the sorcerers, and to the idolaters, and to all the lies, there is a part of them in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; which is the death of another. "
We talked about the new heaven and the new earth and we saw who will be there and now the Lord warns the unbelievers and simply gives another chance to all who still have time to convince the Lord not to be among those on the list because their end is in the Lake of Fire.
Based on this list, we should all reconsider to be careful not to be among them, and for those of us who still live on the old earth, there are still chances, but we do not know how much more time we will have because the time is very close. is the best time:
,, Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
2 Cor.6: 2