​The New Jerusalem
Revelation 21 and 22
 
 
The final pages of the Bible offer a picture of the age to come as the ‘new Jerusalem’ a spectacular city in which God dwells with His people.
 
The writers of the New Testament were familiar with the old Jerusalem which was a precious city but vulnerable.  It had been destroyed some six centuries before by the Babylonians and now again by the Romans.  Some of the apostles had been to Rome which was a marvellously sophisticated city in art and architecture but hideously immoral and cruel in its culture.
 
The new Jerusalem will not only be glorious and beautiful, it will be safe and secure forever.
 
Developing images from Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, the risen Lord Jesus gives His Apostle John a vision of a shining paradise garden city whose inhabitants are refreshed by a river of life and nourished by the tree of life. 
 
The painful imperfections of our present cities and countries will be no more for the old way of living and suffering and dying will itself be dead.  The new Jerusalem will be the home of resurrection and eternal life in which God comforts His children and makes everything new.
 
This is just a brief glimpse.  Elsewhere the New Testament says no eye has fully seen what God has prepared for His people but there is more than enough here to whet our appetite!  Let’s note some things there are and some things there are not in the coming kingdom.
 
Firstly there will be life in all fulness.  A river of life flows from the throne to refresh and invigorate the inhabitants of this city.  The tree of life which was in the garden of Eden back at the beginning in Genesis now reappears, yielding fruit every month and bearing leaves with healing properties.
 
In this present earth farmers take a ‘first cut’ from the fields and perhaps later in a good year a ‘second cut’ before harvest.  In New Jerusalem the harvest is unending!  The city will blossom and flourish perpetually.
 
The implications are wonderful.  No one goes hungry in the kingdom of God and the Lamb.  Everyone receives in abundance.  And there is healing for the nations.  No more corona virus!  No more cancer or disability or depression or dementia!  Think of the foretaste Jesus gave while here on earth – when God makes all things new the lame will walk and run in His service, the blind will see His face!  We will rejoice as we enjoy everlasting wholeness in bodies raised incorruptible like His.  No more curse so nature is restored to paradise.  And no more funerals or heartbreak, just life!
 
Secondly let’s consider how the culture will be different.  There is no more evil or sin, therefore no more darkness or fear.  God’s love has redeemed us and driven out fear so the dominant aspects of heavenly culture are reverence and grateful celebration.  The city is described in idealised terms as dazzlingly beautiful and of exquisite quality.  We read ‘the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it’ and ‘the glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it’.
 
Think of all the gifted art and design and enterprise of every place and people on earth, not obliterated but enhanced and surrendered to honour God and Jesus.  No longer will we build towers of Babel to glorify ourselves or march in defiant human pride.  Rather we shall bring all our talents and resources together in thankful, joyous, colourful celebration of the Lord and His grace!
 
And there’s a third thing, a wonderful new society.  Here will be true inclusivity and diversity!  People from every nation living together without racial tension.  People from widely different backgrounds living together without any confusion or frustration! 
 
No more greedy abuse, no more jealousy, resentment or bitter conflict.  No more ruthless competition but positive cooperation for the common good as pleases our King will be the order of this new day.
 
Again what fabulous wealth and variety there will be as people of every nation and skin colour and tribe and tongue are united in harmonious community, united in our loyalty to the one Lord and Master Jesus.  We get a small taste of this now as we share together in online worship and fellowship on social media. 
 
I love how even now I have friends who are my spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ from Nigeria and South Africa, Portugal, Ukraine, Italy and the US, England, Scotland, Ireland North and South and we are promised to share as God’s family together in this new Jerusalem.
 
And that’s a fourth thing to consider.  Wherever we come from, whatever our present location or accommodation on earth, New Jerusalem is our true home.  Just as a compass points north our hearts as God’s people, reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit are already directing us to Him.
 
How lovely that the closing pages of the Bible describe our destiny not just as a gloriously beautiful garden city of wonderfully renewed life and culture and society but as home, the ‘dwelling’ of God with His people. 
 
Picture yourself arriving at your house or apartment on a dark night.  The first thing you do when you enter is to switch on the light.  No need to in New Jerusalem where the Lord lives.  The comforting light of His love is constantly shining there.  We shall live with God and He will wipe every tear from our eyes!
 
The gates of the city stay open for there is no night, no threat of crime.  And it’s important to note the words of caution given here that no sin at all is tolerated.  Nothing is allowed to spoil or corrupt.  Those described here as ‘impure, cowardly, unbelieving, vile, murderers, sexually immoral, those who practise witchcraft, idolaters and liars’ are firmly excluded, indeed punished with eternal death.
 
Are we practising deceit or malice?  Are we idolising other things before God or ignoring His commands regarding sex?  Are we involved in occult, in manipulation or simply spreading doubt in place of God’s truth?  We need to stop.  We need to ask His help to change our ways.  We need to humble ourselves and trust if we want a part in the new heaven and earth and new Jerusalem.
 
Because these things may come upon us more quickly than we expect.  Three times in these pages Jesus says, ‘I am coming soon.’  The Lord is coming and He will bring all this to pass.  Is your name in His book of life?  Are you waiting in eager expectation?  Are you living to serve Him and praying with all your heart, ‘Come Lord Jesus’?
 
‘Like a thief in the night He will come,
There will be nowhere anyone can run.
You can fall with the night
Or you can rise…’ with the Son of God, the bright morning Star, Whose coming brings the dawn of this wonderful new age we’ve been reading about.
 
Don’t fall, you don’t have to.
 
Trust Him now so that when He comes, we’ll be ready to rise!
 
Amen
 
 
 

​  Jesus’ Teaching about His Return
Matthew 24
 
 
Some people steer clear of a passage like Matthew 24 because they find the ideas alarming or difficult to understand.  This is sad and unwise for there are important truths here Christians need to know and take to heart.
 
As always the context gives important clues.  This is Passover Week in Jerusalem where Jesus will be crucified in a couple of days.  God the Son has come to His own people with prophetic warning and the offer of grace but been officially rejected.  So in chs 21-23 He has with deep sorrow pronounced righteous judgement on the city and its people.
 
The disciples meanwhile are distracted by the magnificent Temple buildings.  Jesus solemnly declares they will be flattened.  When?  - they naturally want to know.  They assume this will tie in with His being revealed to the world in glory and the end of things as we’ve known them.  How will we know when it’s time?
 
Well it wouldn’t be one time but two.
 
As we read Jesus’ response to their questions it helps to remember He’s talking about two occasions, the destruction of Jerusalem which we know happened in AD70 and His return in glory to bring this present age to its end which hasn’t happened yet.
 
That being understood, let’s see what we can learn from these dramatic words of our Lord in Matthew 24.  Let’s actually note three things He foretells, one which has happened, one which is happening currently and one which is still to happen.
 
Jerusalem fell under judgement.  They rejected their Messiah even though He warned them with tears.  In this chapter we see His compassion for the vulnerable such as nursing mothers and young children having to flee the war zone.  But, the Chief Priests, Pharisees and Teachers of the Law, those who should have known best, steadfastly refused to accept, welcome or follow Christ.  They refused to repent of their selfish pride and corrupt, fruitless religion.  Like a withered fig tree, it was time for Israel to be uprooted and set aside.
 
This speaks to us of God’s holiness.  When our religion becomes a hypocritical charade to mask our actual conceit and disobedience, we’re inviting His displeasure and judgement!
 
But note secondly that God is true to His whole nature.  While His holiness demands humbling discipline for traditional Israel, His grace extends wider than ever as Gentiles from every other nation upon earth trust in Jesus and are welcomed into God’s family.  We don’t have to be Jews to be God’s people now, just followers of Jesus. 
 
And this second part of Jesus’ prophecy is still happening as the Church takes His message in word and action to every people group on earth.  While these days sadly Christianity in the West seems to be cold and formal and even dying in some places, in Asia and Africa and Latin America it is expanding rapidly!  And when this great commission is finally complete we shall see the third part come to pass when our Lord returns in glory.
 
Jesus quotes from the OT prophet Daniel here, making it clear that His second appearing to His creation will be very different from the first.  No humble birth in a stable this time or modest upbringing in an out of the way place like Nazareth.  He will appear somehow to all peoples at once in clouds of heavenly majesty at the head of an angelic army.  There’ll be no missing or mistaking what’s going on and nowhere to run or hide from His searching gaze. 
 
His coming will be sudden and its consequences irreversible.  Many throughout the world’s nations will mourn when they see Him, for the time of their judgement will obviously have come, but His faithful servants will be so glad for this will also be the time when we are gathered safely home to Him.
 
So, judgement on Israel and Jerusalem (happened), the evangelising of all nations (happening) and His return in glory to reign visibly over all (still to happen).  If these are three major things Jesus predicts in this chapter and two out of three are wholly or substantially fulfilled, are there other lessons for us to see here?  What sort of things does Jesus tell His followers to expect in between His first and second coming to earth?
 
Firstly let’s note that Jesus predicts wars, famines and earthquakes.  Human conflicts and natural disasters, no shortage of troubles, distressing and confusing.  At times it may feel like the end of the world but the real climax is still to come!  People should take calamities as warnings of what is still to come and humble themselves before God while we still can!
 
Next we see real opposition to Jesus and His followers.  Christians should not be surprised by persecution.  Our Master tells us here what to expect.  The enemy knows his time is limited so he uses all kinds of terror and subterfuge to distract, coerce and deceive and keep people away from Jesus and His redeeming love. 
 
Again quoting from Daniel, Jesus speaks of an ‘abomination that causes desolation’ standing in the Holy Place.  In the first instance this seems to refer to the Roman forces desecrating the Temple but it’s something we see repeated throughout history in many ways, the sacred things of God being treated with contempt.  While idolatry and immorality are encouraged, church buildings are vandalised, Christians are ridiculed, slandered as phobic bigots, put out of work, kidnapped, beaten, even murdered.  Until our Lord returns it will always be risky to come out and be identified as a genuine disciple of Jesus.
 
One of the most unsettling things I think Jesus says in this chapter is that right up to the day and hour He returns it will be for many folk ‘business as usual’!  People will be partying, enjoying fine food and drink with no loss of appetite, falling in love and planning weddings, paying no heed to the seriousness of the situation or Jesus’ words.  Popular tradition says the Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned in AD64 and perhaps our generation is at times like that, ceaselessly celebrating pleasure while failing to address a looming crisis!
 
So Jesus ends what He says here with a picture of the Church as servants who must be constantly alert and responsible.  Of course we may enjoy weddings and many other good things with gratitude in this present life but we must be careful not to make such things the ‘be all and end all’ of our lives. 
 
Instead we must very consciously have and keep this as our top priority - to be found pleasing to our Lord when He comes, actively spreading His Gospel and building His Church.
 
We don’t know when exactly Jesus will return.  It might very well be in our lifetime.  Each day brings that day closer.  We must not live as though ignorant of these things for Jesus has made sure we are informed by having His words recorded and preserved for us in the NT.
 
We must live as those who know what is coming and concern ourselves each day about our Master’s business.
 
For His glory, until He comes!
 
Amen