Peter Barnes: Revelation 21:9-27 NO AUDIO
(1 July 2018)
SERMON NOTES : THE BRIDE, THE CITY AND THE TEMPLE (Revelation 21:9-27)
– 21:9-10, 15-16. The bride is New Jerusalem which is also identified with the Holy of Holies in the temple. The city is a cube, as was the Holy of Holies – 1 Kings 6:20.
– C. S. Lewis’ The Last Battle says:
The things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures at Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth had read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
1. All will be fulfilled.
12,000 stadia (2,221 kms) would extend from London to Athens, or Darwin to Adelaide. That does not seem to be literal.
The city is pure gold (21:18) and adorned with precious stones (21:19-21). See the temple – 1 Kings 6:20-22; and the garment of the high priest – Exodus 28:15-21.
– no temple in the New Jerusalem – see Heb.9:23-24.
– a new creation – 21:23-27; see Isa.60:3, 11, 19-20.
2. All is splendid and holy, free and secure, perfect and complete.
(a) all will be splendid. 21:11, 15-21, 23.
(b) all will be holy. 21:27. Sin is not the spice of life.
(c) all will be free. 21:25. There will be nothing to threaten.
(d) all will be secure. All is free but all is secure – 21:12a.
(e) all will be perfect. Jer.3:16-17.
(f) all will be complete. 21:12-14, from both Testaments. 1 Cor.2:9.