Revelation | May 14, 2026

Start your day with a short, Scripture-centered devotional from Paul Michael. In about seven minutes, you will hear the Word, reflect on its truth, and be encouraged to live it out in everyday life.

Revelation | The New Jerusalem, Part 2

👉 For updates and resources check out pmvministries.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Your Daily Devotional with Me, PMB. Well, we are down to our last three teachings through the book of Revelation. And as this series ends, I plan to take a break from the daily devotionals and do one each Monday, so one a week for a little while, while we reset and look at approaching this teaching ministry a little differently. My desire is to get more content out in the future, but we want to make sure we're doing it in the most efficient way that helps reach the most people. Okay, with that in mind, now on to the book of Revelation. Last time we began to look at the New Jerusalem. Do you remember how it was described in Revelation 21, verses 10 and 11? It is a great city. It is holy. It comes from heaven, from God. It has the glory of God. It is lit up by the glory of God, like light hitting a crystal. Now let's read Revelation 21, verses 12 through 14, to see how else it is described. Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. Three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, three gates on the west. Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were names of the twelve apostles, were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Okay, so here we see a bringing together of the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The gates of the city represent the twelve tribes of Israel, and the foundations represent the twelve apostles. Since calling Abraham to leave his father's house and to follow him, God has had a plan for the Jewish people. But God's plan for the Jewish people is that they would be a light unto the world. So God's plan for the Jews was really a plan for the world, to make himself known to the world through a people he had called to himself. The New Jerusalem will finally pull all of this together, the old and the new, all of the people of God. And how do we become the people of God? By faith in Jesus Christ. Because Israel makes up the twelve gates and the foundation of the wall are all made up by the apostles. Some believe that the new Jerusalem represents the people of God themselves. That is, we are the new Jerusalem, and God dwells in our midst. Whatever the case, the most important part of this, whether you believe there's actually going to be a city or not, is that God is in our midst. That's again, as we said last time, what makes it heaven. Okay, let's look at verses 15 through 20 now. And he who talked with me had a great gold reed to measure the city, its gates and its wall. The city is laid out as a square, its length is as a is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. Then he measured its wall, one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. The construction of its wall was of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second, sapphire, the third, Chalcinidi, the fourth, emerald, the fifth, Sardix, the sixth, Sardis, the seventh, Chrysalite, the eighth, Beryl, the ninth, Topaz, the tenth, Chrysophase, the eleventh, Jesynth, and the twelfth, Amherst. I should have probably gone back and practiced those names. Some people take this as a literal description of a new Jerusalem. And others take the measurements and the materials that it's constructed by to symbolically represent its greatness and its glory. If you take it literally, the modern measurements would be equivalent to 1,380 miles squared plus the height. So this is a massive city that would be able to house all those who believe in Jesus. To put that in perspective, New York City, who has a population of 8 million people, is only 302 square miles. Again, whether you take the measurements literally or symbolically, there will be plenty of room for all of God's children. Next, verse 21 is where we get the idea of the pearly gates and the streets of gold. Verse 21 reads, The twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each individual gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. The point is that the glory of the New Jerusalem will simply surpass anything that you've ever seen before. Now, the remainder of our passage today really gets to the meat of the New Jerusalem. Verse 22 reads, But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The Old Testament temple, the Old Testament temple had a purpose for the people of God back then. But Jesus came as the fulfillment of the temple. In fact, when Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn. The thing that separated God's presence, symbolically and at times physically, was torn. The thing that separated God's presence from everything else was removed. And so what we see is the new Jerusalem has no temple. The entire city is God dwelling in the midst of his people. There's no more need for sacrifices. Jesus has died and risen again. There's no more need for a priest to stand between the people and God. Jesus is our high priest forever. God will be with us. We will be with him in unhindered fellowship. Now, next, verse 23 reads: The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. I wonder how that will work. No sun or moon, only the glory of God. I mean, honestly, this sounds amazing. Think about it. How beautiful is a sunrise? How beautiful is a sunset? How beautiful is a full moon, a sky that is filled with stars. None of that will compare to the glory of Jesus. That's hard to imagine, but it's what God promises. Next, verse 24 reads, And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Okay, so commentators debate on what it means for the kings of the earth to bring their glory into the new Jerusalem. But I think it simply means that God's creation, this new creation, we will each be seen in our respective glory unhindered by sin. We were made in God's image. We were made glorious. One day we will be seen as we were truly made to be. I think you will see this in verse 26. I think verse 26 points to it. We'll get there in just a moment. Verse 25 reads, Its gates shall not be shut all day. There shall be no night there. No more night. Well, we know in Scripture night symbolizes often darkness, sin, and evil. So this will all be done away with, and the glory of God is what will remain. Okay, so now verse 26, and they shall bring their glory, the glory and the honor of the nations into it. Again, like what we saw in verse 24, it's good to note that we are not going to lose our identity in heaven. They're bringing the glory of the nations into it. Notice the nations. And so what's interesting is that we will still maintain some sort of distinctiveness in heaven, but it will be in a glorified form that does not cause any harm. Revelation 21, verse 27 through 225 really sums up everything that we've been looking at the last few days. In a plot line, this is the resolution or the conclusion that I talked about before. This is where God has made it all right. So let me just read this to you. Revelation 21, verse 27 through 225. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations, and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there. They need no lamp, nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. Okay, I want to close today by looking at the promises of God contained in these verses that really sum up much of what heaven will be like. So we're going to move through this quickly. First, from verse 27, heaven will be completely free from sin and anything harmful to God's perfect creation. First truth, heaven will be free from sin. I can't wait. No more messing up, no more rebellion, no more hurt, just God's perfect plan fulfilled. Second thing from chapter 22, verse 1, heaven will be eternal life that comes from God. Heaven will be eternal life that comes from God. It will be eternal and it will be life as opposed to death. But this life does not originate with us. It is from God. God gives life and he will sustain our life through all eternity. Three, from verses two and three, we see that heaven is where every hurt and sickness will be healed and end. Heaven is where every hurt and sickness will be healed and end. You'll never have to worry about a bad doctor report in heaven. You'll not have your back go out in heaven. You won't be emotionally scarred in heaven. You won't be mentally ill in heaven. You will be healed. Fourth, from verse 3, heaven will be a place of service and work that will be fulfilling beyond anything this earth can offer. Heaven will be a place of service and work that will be fulfilling. It's beyond anything we understand now. Look, God created man and woman, he created them to work in the garden. He gave them purpose. Before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve had a purpose to work the ground and to have children and to multiply and to fill the earth. Work itself was good and fulfilling apart from sin. It was given by God to give us a purpose in being here. But sin has messed up work. Now, now, this side of the fall, work is hard. It is toilsome. At times it even seems futile. But in heaven, we will have assignments from God, and they will be the most fulfilling things that you could ever imagine doing. Now, obviously, here and now, a big part of our work is to glorify God. But God has a way for us to do that that is in serving him. It is in work, it is in assignments that he will give us. The fifth thing about heaven is in verse 4. We will see the face of God in heaven. We'll see the face of God in heaven. Now we know that God is spirit, and to see someone's face means to know them intimately. Jesus has a face because he has a resurrected body. So we know we will see Jesus. But this verse seems to indicate we'll see God the Father face to face. Do you remember when Moses asked to see God's glory? God essentially told him, Look, you can't handle it. But in heaven, we will see God's face. Finally, in verse five, we see the theme of no more night repeated. That kind of goes with the theme of nothing harmful being in heaven, but look at the last part of verse five. It says, and they shall reign forever and ever. Well, who is the they in this verse? It's us, those who are believers. We somehow share in God's rule over the new heaven and the new earth. And that's the final promise about heaven that we'll close with today. Promise six. We will reign over the new heaven and earth with God. What God intended in the Garden of Eden will be fully realized. Again, the story began with creation and fall. God sent Jesus to redeem, and finally, we will be restored to a place of authority in God's new heaven and earth. Thank you for joining me today. I hope this picture and these promises of heaven are an encouragement to you. For more information, go to pnvministries.org. As always, I hope you have a great day.