Greetings! We began looking at the new Jerusalem, our abode in the eternal state in Revelation 21 last time. We are excited about looking at this. There are details that the Lord gives us about this place that we will live that we will look at for the next several times. There is nothing quite like this in the rest of Scripture. We have pictures of the Millennial Kingdom in much of the Old Testament that tells us what life is like in the Old Testament in the Kingdom Age to come, but that precedes the eternal state. We have very little about this, so we are excited about looking into it. What we are going to look at today is the beauty of the new Jerusalem. That seems to be the attention being given here in Revelation 21.
In Revelation 21:10, it says, “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.” We are getting a lot of likes here. You will see the word, like over and over. We take this to be a comparison of sorts of something we know with something we cannot probably understand. So, we are not necessarily saying these features of the new Jerusalem are crystal-clear jasper, but it’s like it. It is the best that the writers of the New Testament writing to the minds of human beings can come up with. So, keep that in mind as we go through. What we do see featured is the beauty of the new Jerusalem.
Also, as we go back, we find that in Revelation 21:10, we are at the fourth major vision of the book of Revelation, each starting with this phrase, “in the Spirit.” So, I want to travel back and look at the other three quickly this time. Look at Revelation 1:10, we find the very first time this is used when it says this, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet.” So, that is the first major vision given to John. He is going to see some wonderful things of the glories of Christ, and he is going to also hear the message that Jesus gives to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3. That is the first vision that he is given. The next one is found in Revelation 4:2, it says, “Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne.” . . .
