A Walk In The Light

this morning and let's turn to the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 21. Does it seem like we've been in this book for a long time? Can I tell you something? If I had preached every single Sunday without a break in the book of Revelation, we would be five Sundays over one year. See?

So it hasn't been that long. Even though it's taken us two years or longer. But you know what? I am glad we're in I am so glad we're in these chapters. And that's why I've slowed down considerably because I want us to just delight in these last two chapters of this book as we have read all the way through the description of the age in which we live the wicked Babylonian prostitute the city in which we live and we've seen the judgments of God poured out and the people of God as they have stood and died together and have withstood the allurements of Babylon.

And now we come to the great promise, the most detailed picture of the end. And it's so good to just savor this picture. So we are going to look this morning at verses 22-27 of Revelation 21. Hear the word of God. And I saw no temple in the city, for the temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it and its gates will never be shut by day Indeed there will be no night there They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Father, please open our eyes again to the marvelous, glorious truths that you have given us here that we would be a people of hope. Bring that about, we pray, for your glory, for our good.

I pray, Father, that this would just truly penetrate our hearts, that we would be those who live in hope. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Our journey to the celestial city described in this chapter of the Apocalypse It's been a delightful one. It began as off in the distance we saw the new Jerusalem descend upon the new earth and heard the voice of God declaring that he had made all things new.

We started toward that city and as we did, we saw a city with its great walls and gates shining like a jewel with the glory of God. We stood outside the walls while an angel measured the city and shouted the measurements to us. And from that vantage point, we looked around and took a closer look and noticed the material of the city's construction. As we stood outside the city, we saw jewels for foundation stones.

We saw pearls for gates. We saw gold for the buildings in the streets of that city. today we join in the procession of people that are going through the gates into the city it's as if we stand in the gate peering for a moment into the city and watching as the procession goes by into the city now again we have to remind ourselves that this is an apocalyptic vision which means that God is revealing truth to us by means of symbols not photographs You have to write that at the very beginning of the book. These are symbols, not photographs.

That is to say, that even if this is not a real city, The symbol of it promises a glory and a rest that far exceeds our imaginations. These symbols give us a taste of the glorious rest that awaits us at the end. What God has symbolized for us in a gold city is far better than a gold city. So, if we look at this and say, well, God isn't telling us there's going to be this gold city.

He's telling us this represents something. Please understand, it's representing something that we can't even imagine. It's representing something that is so far beyond what we can imagine, but it's using these symbols to give us a taste of the glory that awaits us on the new earth. Now, God gives John this vision of a marvelous city because he wants us, above all, to have hope. remember that this is a letter written to churches facing the pressure of persecution and the alluring seduction of ease and compromise we must understand that if we're going to understand this book and with hope in the certainty of glory our congregation will be able to withstand the pressure and the pressures and the seductions of this age this vision of the new earth with this glorious city is not intended.

It was never intended to satisfy our curiosity. It was intended to motivate us by hope to live for Christ and to remain loyal to Him. That's why this is here. That's why this is here. And from now on, whenever you come to these two chapters, you've got not to be thinking about just then out there what's going to happen, the certainty of God's promise, but you must remember what God wants you to do now in light of that hope.

So today let go stand in the gate of that beautiful city and see what happens to our hope Here what we see in verses 22 and 23 Hope grows with a vision of unending glory Hope grows with an unending vision of glory. Peering into the city from the gate, you might be surprised, maybe even as John was, you might be surprised that you don't see a temple there. you don't see a physical temple inside this new jerusalem now why would that surprise you because god had set his name on the former jerusalem god has set his name on the old jerusalem and when he says in the old testament you remember as the people were just before they entered the land god said there will be one place where i will set my name and later as the as the story unfolds of the people of God, we see that he sets his name on this one city that was called Jerusalem. And he set his name there by having a temple built there, for that would be the representative dwelling place of God.

So he set his name there and that meant he built a temple there. And after Jerusalem's destruction, God's people pined. they just had this longing for a new temple where God would reveal His glory again. But subsequent temples never, ever had that brilliant glory of God resident in them. You remember the book of Haggai? We went through the book of Haggai a few years ago.

Remember, Haggai was there to encourage the people to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed as the Babylonians had swept in and made a rubble of Jerusalem and absolutely destroyed the temple, Haggai was there to tell them, keep building, build, rebuild the temple. And you remember the people were sad. Why? Because the temple was smaller and because it did not shine with the glory of God like Solomon's temple.

And every temple, the other temple of Herod that followed after that, never had the glory of God revealed in it. And yet, Haggai himself said that a temple was coming that would outshine the glory of Solomon's temple. And so here's the new Jerusalem. Here's the new Jerusalem. You would expect that God's glory would be shining in a temple. You look through the gate and there's physical temple.

Where is this temple? Well, what does John say? He says this, and I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. On closer examination, you see that the Lamb and the Almighty God constitute the temple now. Of course, the Lamb has been our temple since his resurrection. You remember that?

Look over at the Gospel of John. Same writer telling us something. The Gospel of John chapter 2. This is John's recounting of the first time that Jesus cleansed the temple. And here's what he says. After he cleansed the temple and drove all those people out.

In verse 18 of John chapter 2. So the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? What kind of authority do you have? Jesus answered them. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it's taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days?

But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. Jesus actually says, my body is going to be the temple. The temple, the meeting place between God and man, that's going to be me. I am the temple.

And he has been our temple ever since that day. But now we see that temple in all his glory. See, we don't see the temple even now with Jesus as the temple. We don't quite see all the glory of that temple. Now here at this new Jerusalem, we see the glory of his temple and sharing that glory with his father, our almighty God. Now this is new and radical.

Yet this is new and radical. You see, the earthly temple served a dual purpose. Did you know that? It served a dual purpose. First of all, it provided intimacy with God. It provided intimacy with God, at least to those who could enter, which was only the high priest once a year who could go into the Holy of Holies.

It was there to provide intimacy with God But you know what You know what else it did It also provided insulation from God Sinful Israel needed the walls and curtains of the sanctuary to provide a buffer and a heat shield from the consuming fire that would most certainly have destroyed them. so not only was to provide intimacy with God it was to provide insulation from God and his holiness and the fact that he would destroy them if they ever came through those curtains but you know what when we look at this what this vision is telling us that we no longer need protection from God's glory because uncleanness no longer exists there's no longer any uncleanness surrounding that would surround the temple thus no need for the temple God's glory is available to everyone because God's people have been purified they have been purified from the guilt of sin God's word stands as an accusation Accusation against all people. And says you have sinned. And you deserve to die.

Because you have not met the righteous standards of God. You don't deserve. To stand before God because you're guilty. But in Jesus what's happened? We've been purified from the guilt. There's no longer guilt.

I'm not talking about feelings here. Listen. We no longer have the law of God. accusing us and saying, you're guilty. If you have trusted in Jesus, He has purified you from guilt. The law cannot make an accusation against you any longer. Because Jesus has wiped the slate clean.

The law cannot point at you and accuse you because in Christ you are not guilty in the eyes of God. He has purified us from sin's stain because we have been sanctified in Christ. If you've trusted in Jesus, He sanctifies you. In 1 Corinthians 1, what is Jesus called? He is called our righteousness, our holiness our redemption Jesus is our holiness We no longer have the stain of sin When God looks at you through Christ if you in Christ what You don't have a stain on you.

You don't have any stain on you. You know, I have this terrible habit. I have this terrible habit of... I almost feel like on Sunday mornings I've got to wear a different shirt at breakfast because invariably I'm going to spill my coffee. Or something. Right?

And I'm going to stain my shirt. And when I do that, I know what the protocol is. When I stain my shirt with something, or with grease, you know what? I've got to go down in the basement where the washing machine is and grab that bottle of Resolve. That's my job, by the way. It's not my wife's job.

I'm the one responsible for shooting the Resolve on that grease stain. All right? And you know what? if it wasn't for that, the stain doesn't come out. The washing doesn't do it good enough. The resolve takes care of that. Right?

The holiness of Christ removes all the stain of sin. When God looks at you in Christ, you're no longer stained by sin. Not only that, but we've been purified from sin's corruption because we've been, at this point, of this vision, we are glorified in Christ. That is to say, all remaining sin is gone. In fact, all the sin around us is gone. It is pure glory.

That's what I can't imagine. Imagine never ever arguing with yourself about your indwelling sin. Can you imagine living for eternity without your conscience ever saying to you, uh-oh, that was wrong. Shouldn't have done that. Let that sink in for a moment. Can you imagine that?

That's what it's going to be like. So you see, because there is no uncleanness, and now the Lamb and the Lord are the temple, we enjoy His unhindered, unfettered, unending glory as it shines throughout the city. There's no need for insulation. The glory of God now is just... Because everything has been purified And it an undimmed glory It a glory that doesn vary It's not real bright one day and not as bright the next day.

It's an undimmed glory according to verse 23. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. When you think of this, it says, this glory is so undimmed, it shines so brightly, that it's as if the sun and the moon disappear. We don't need it anymore. It's as if the sun and the moon disappear.

It's so bright. Can you imagine this? The symbol here is that the glory of God is so bright that you can't even see the sun. That's how bright it is. You know, like during the day, most of the time you can't see the moon. Right?

Because it's too bright. You can't see the moon. Well, we'll only be able to see the sun. It'll be so bright. And the glory will seem so bright that it won't be less at night. It will wipe out the moon and the sun.

And when you think of glory, this is what you need to think. You need to think of beauty. When you see this description of glory, think of beauty. Now, as you read these verses, as I read these verses, I hope that you heard echoing over and over and over again Isaiah 60, the passage that Josh read. Did you keep hearing the things in Isaiah 60? It talks about what?

The kings and the nations coming to Jerusalem. It talks about the sun and the moon not needing to shine. It talks about the glory of God rising in the city. All right? So this, if you read this carefully, if you read this, it echoes over and over Isaiah 60. And here's the thing.

Isaiah said in verse 19 of that chapter the sun shall be no more your light by day nor for brightness shall the moon give you light but the Lord will be your everlasting light and your God will be your beauty your God will be your beauty God's complete presence among his people will beautify them and satisfy their every need have you ever been so enraptured by beauty that your breath has been taken away Have you ever caught your breath because of something so beautiful? Alright? The beauty of your wife on the day you were married, if she came down the aisle.

Right? Takes your breath away. The beauty, I think of a place in Virginia right now. When we go down to Master's Mission to teach in the summertime. I think of this one place where we're going through the mountains in Virginia. And you look out and it is an unbelievable scene of these woods and meadows and even some farms. it's really high you look down and you see this unbelieving unbelievable beautiful vista just takes your breath away you ever stood in the presence of a masterpiece with its with its shading of color and and light and all those things and it's just like wow that's what you need to think of when you see here this this undimmed glory of god you've got to think beauty And notice this.

Did you notice this? All that beauty comes through the person of Jesus. See, the glory of God lights it. The Lamb is the lamp through which the light comes. Isn't that interesting? The light of the glory of God comes through the lamp of the Lamb.

That's always been the relationship of the Father and the Son. That's always been the way it is. When you look, for example, in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says this about his message, for example. He says that his message is, the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. You hear that? The gospel that we have is the gospel of the glory of Christ in the image of God.

And he goes on to say that God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. If you want to see the glory of God, you look at Jesus. And the beauty of God will always shine in the face of our Savior. And it will be that way throughout eternity. Throughout eternity we will be awed by the beauty of God who has revealed Himself in Christ.

And we will see the beauty of God in the face of Christ throughout all eternity. We will constantly be reminded of the beauty of what God has accomplished in Jesus to save us To take us out of the grip of sin. To take us out of the guilt, the grip, and the very presence of sin will be the light that lights glory throughout eternity. So you will resist the seductions and the persecutions of this age when you build your hope on this all-satisfying beauty of God.

Right? Now he goes on. And he says, hope grows with a vision of an unending procession. Verses 24 through 26. By its light, what light? The beauty of God revealed in Christ. by its light will the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it and its gates will never be shut by day.

Indeed, there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. Now here especially we're reminded that this is apocalyptic literature. This is symbolic. This is the communication of truth through symbolic pictures. I don't think literally there's going to be this unending process of people walking into the gate.

And the reason is because there's going to be a finite number of people there unless they walk in a circle. This is a symbol. This is a symbol. Here's one that always, this is one that always puzzled me as a kid. Are there going to be kings and nations on the new earth? Oh, wait a minute.

We're all the people of God, aren't we? and isn't the gospel about the fact that in Christ there is no barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, Greek? All those distinctions are eradicated. They're eradicated now. Won't they be eradicated then? Well, this is a symbol. The kings and the nations represent all of God's people from all the nations.

What John is doing is drawing from Isaiah 60, because Isaiah saw in this vision that Jerusalem now is no longer an object of conquest, but a beacon of worship and the glory of God attracts all nations So he adopts that And he symbolically says this is the glory of God that will just draw. It's an attractive thing. It will draw them in. And besides that, you also have to realize that those who walk by the city's light are also the city.

Right? So wait a minute. This is a symbol. Now that shouldn't surprise us. I don't know if you've ever noticed this. It shouldn't surprise us because earlier in the book at the marriage supper of the Lamb, who's the bride at the marriage supper of the Lamb?

Who's the bride? We are. Who are the guests? We are. See? But in symbolic literature, you can have that overlap of identity.

It's trying to draw a picture for us so that we get this truth that ought to just remind us of that. That ought to just stick in our minds. Most of us have this marriage supper of the Lamb in our minds. And we know we're the bride, we know we're the guest. But we haven't really given it much thought, have we? Have you?

But yet, you think about that. That picture is in your head. And sometimes you think of yourself as the guest. Sometimes you think of yourself as the bride. But you have in your mind this idea this is going to be a great celebration. It's going to be a feast.

It's going to be better than Sunday afternoon at the Rue Baptist Church, right? It's going to be really incredible. That's what you want to see. Alright, so let's go on. What do these symbols mean then? What does it mean?

Here's the first. The beauty of that city will possess an irresistible attractiveness. An irresistible attractiveness. Remember now, Isaiah 60 is the soil from which this vision comes. And you saw in that chapter how the kings and the nations come to the city of Jerusalem because they want to. They are attracted to it.

They don't come to conquer. They now come to worship. And they're attracted there. They can't help but come. They want to come. In other words, you will want to be there. it be this irresistibly attractive glory and beauty that you will just want to be there and feast on the beauty of God revealed in the face of Christ you will want to be there You say of course I want to be there Well let me ask you have you ever thought about this Why do you want to be there?

Why do you want to be there? You know, for a lot of people, you know why they want to be there? It's better than hell. Right? Well, it sure is better than hell. I want to be there.

But how many people think it's better than hell even though it's just going to be as boring as everything. Come on now. I see some recognition out there. I've thought that. Okay, wow. We're going to sit around.

We're going to play our harps. It's just going to be this brightness all over the place and we're going to do that for eternity. How boring is that? But the picture he's drawing is that this will be a place of unbelievable, irresistible attractiveness. You want to be there. You just desperately want to be there because it is so beautiful.

Okay? Now, if you've noticed, I sat alone up here today. It isn't because Becca's sick. It isn't because she's in the nursery. It's because she's in Iowa. All right?

And she's coming home tomorrow. I want to tell you something right now. I am anxiously awaiting tomorrow. Okay? That woman is irresistibly attractive to me. In other words, it doesn't matter what happens tomorrow.

Nothing's going to get in the way of me seeing my wife tomorrow night. Lord willing, of course. But on a human level, you know, I hope it doesn't snow between here and there. But you see, there's this sense. I can remember when she would go out to Iowa a week ahead of me with the kids, and then I would follow. I can still remember.

I'm driving. I'm only as far as the Tumwa. I've got three hours to go. And man, that car just can't go fast enough. Okay? And then I get to Osceola.

I'm 30 miles away. That is the longest strip of highway in the world. why because that woman is so attractive to me I just can't wait that's the picture you're supposed to get here it's not yeah I want to be there it's better than hell it's no I want to be there because, man, it'll be so beautiful. I will love the beauty of that place. I will love the beauty of the glory of God.

What delight that will be. You see? So that's the first thing. This is the place of irresistible attraction of God's glory. Here's the other thing. All of God's people will have unfettered access to the beauty of God's glory in Christ.

The gates remain open at all times. The gates remain open. Indeed, he says, there will be no night there. The opening of the gates and the fact that there's no night go together. The gates are open all the time because there's no night. That is to say, in those ancient cities, the gates would be open all during the day.

But when the sun started to go down, the gates of a walled city would be closed. Why? To keep unwanted intruders out. You ever notice when you watch those war movies that commandos don't operate during the day? Right? It comes in cover of darkness.

It never hasn't changed, even in the ancient world. You didn't try to infiltrate a city in the middle of the day. You did it at night. So they would close the gates at night to keep unwanted intruders out because they were afraid of what they would do. And so what this is a picture of, the gates are open all the time because the glory of God shines all the time, which means that we will have access to this great beauty of God all the time.

There will never be a time where we'll be shut out. We'll be able to enjoy the marvelous glory of God without obstacle and without fear. Now we don't have that yet. We enjoy God. We enjoy Him, but there are obstacles in the way right now, aren't there? Our weaknesses, our sin, all those things.

And sometimes fear. But then, no fear, no obstacles, unfettered access to this irresistible, glorious beauty of God. Now notice this as well. As we enter those gates, we will bring with us gifts of honor and glory. Now that includes a number of different things. First of all it includes the praise of worship We will have the joy of praising God And the reason why I say that is because those terms honor and glory are used in chapter 4 Chapter 4 verse 9 and whenever the living creatures give what?

Glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive what? Glory and honor and power, for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created.

So glory and honor certainly means praise to God. Chapter 5, verses 11 and 12. Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

And so it's kind of a shorthanded way of talking about the praise of worship. Now you may think, well, how wonderful is that? You know, there's really something about being in a group of people singing that's just satisfying. There really is. When I was in college, I would, and that's, in fact, that's how I really got to know Becca, was in a singing group.

And we would tour churches and sing, and that was just marvelous. Now, some of you are saying, well, I don't know that because I can't carry a tune in a bucket. Well, you will know the joy of praising God then. You kind of know it now, and you're singing your hearts out, even though you... And by the way, don't get me wrong, don't wait till heaven to start singing.

Even if you can't carry a tune, you sing as loud as you can. Alright? Because God's worth it. Right? He's worth your praise even if the rest of us don't think it's that great. Alright?

But on that day, because all of us are going to have perfect pitch, that is, we're going to be able to sing without ever going flat or sharp. And we will know the joy of praising God. You know what else it means? It includes the joy of giving. It includes the joy of giving. You remember earlier what we saw?

Babylon extorts the glory and honor the wealth of the nations They have to pay Babylon all right But those weren gifts Those were items extorted for the purpose of consumption or they were treasures spent on self-indulgence. Is there a difference to you? Do you sense a difference between paying your taxes and giving gifts to your sweetheart? that's not a trick question by the way there's a world of difference isn't there between paying taxes and giving gifts to your sweetheart you know what there's also a world of difference between taking my resources and spending them on me and taking those same resources and spending them on gifts for my children and watching them enjoy it, right?

Well, that's kind of what he's saying here. We're going to have this joy of giving. We will know the joy of God's smile as we bring to Him what we offer. You ever think about that? God's smile. He doesn't need it.

He doesn't need anything we bring. He never will. He never did. But He will love the fact that we bring Him these gifts. And lastly, I believe it's the work of our hands. The glory and honor of the kings of the nation are the work of our hands.

You've heard me say it. I'm going to say it again. Throughout all eternity, we are going to be working and learning, composing, building. Whatever we do as human beings, we're going to be doing throughout eternity, but without the taint of sin, all for the glory of God. and we will offer those things to God and He will absolutely love it. This is not going to be a boring eternity.

That's what we'll be bringing in to our God who sits on the throne. The works of our hands as gifts to God. We're doing that now. Do you, right? Aren't you working as a press operator? As worship to God?

Are you welding? Are you building cars as gifts to God? You should be That what the Bible tells us to do On that day though throughout eternity it won be toil We will love it You might not be building cars. One of you said to me, oh, I hope throughout eternity I'm not building cars. Well, I don't know what's going to happen. But we're going to be producing, composing all kinds of things and offering that to God.

So as we enter the gates, we bring honor and glory to God. And lastly, notice that this endless procession of delight will be an untainted delight. There will be nothing there to spoil our delight in God. Why? Verse 25 or 27. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

God will bar all that are unclean and detestable and false. Now those words have been used before in this book. It's about those who have defiled themselves through the abomination of idolatry and unfaithfulness to God. Remember, this is written to churches. It is written to those in the church who have forgotten the promises of God in the midst of persecution and they are disloyal.

They will not be there. This is written to those who have forgotten the delight of God and have succumbed to the pleasures of Babylon. That's who this is written to. They will not be there. And because they're not there, there'll be nothing at all that will ever hinder or taint the delight that we have in God because all uncleanness will be gone. You say, oh man, what hope is there?

Because then he goes on to say, those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Please, dear people, look at this. Take warning. Take warning. But don't forget the last part. Those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

What did we see before? It was written before the foundation of the world. It was written so that you would understand that you possess the security of the Lamb's death. For the Lamb, by dying, has purchased you from the Lamb. of sin, of the dragon, of the beasts, so that you will never, ever, ever fall prey to their deceptions or their pressures. It's the protection.

Actually, it's the protection of eternal life. This is from the Lamb's Book of Life. The Book of Life. That's source. That means it's the source of this eternal life. That means because you have eternal life, you will never fall.

It's not talking about the fact that because you're written in the Lamb's book of life you're just going to exist endlessly. It means that you possess a certain kind of life and that life is what you have right now that's going to protect you. Okay? Those whom the Lamb has recorded in His book will find protection from the evils and deceptions of this age which threaten to suppress their trust in the Lamb. if your name is written there if you have entrusted yourself to Christ your trust will continue Don't lose hope.

Take warning, but don't lose hope. We will have untainted delight because all that which is unclean, all those who are unclean, will not be there. Build your hope on the vision of this unending procession of joy. So, where do you find hope? Sadly? Sadly, we are too often gotten off the track with our hope.

You know what we do? We put our hope in the next election. we put our hope in a better job we put our hope in the fulfillment of our plans you see we put our hope in things like money and entertainment And God says, put your hope in the future. Live now in hope. You will stand against persecution. You will resist the allurements of Babylon if your hope is firmly grounded in this unending beauty and unending procession of joy.

That's where you need to be anchored. Then you will stand. Father, thank you for your word. Lord God, just enrapture us with a picture of your beauty. Oh God do that We thank you for this vision of what is yet to be revealed and even though it is not here it is certain and Father that picture is as certain as the reality that's outside these doors so Lord God help us to anchor our hope in the future to anchor our hope in the beauty of God in the face of Christ that is yet to be revealed.

Help us to anchor our hope in the joy that will be ours in the future. Help us to do that that we might live differently now. Thank you, Father, for all that you have done for us in Jesus. we anticipate what is yet to come with great joy we pray this in the name of our Savior Amen