I invite you to turn in the Pew Bible to Psalm 4, the fourth Psalm. And if you're able to stand as you read, I invite you to read along with me, to stand and read along with me. Beginning with verse one, let's begin. Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress. Be merciful to me and hear my prayer. How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods? Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call to him. In your anger do not sin. When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord. Many are asking, who can show us any good? Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when the grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Lord, we are often in distress. And we cry out to you. Lord, we ask you to show your mercy upon us and hear our prayers. And we hear the cry that comes from you. How long, oh men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love your delusions and seek after false gods? Lord, we look forward to the time when we will see you set apart and we will see the people that belong to you set apart to you and there will be no others there. And so, Lord, as we look at what's going on around us, whether in our home, in our community, in our state, in our nation, in this world, Lord, we get frustrated, we get angry sometimes. Help us, Lord, in our anger not to sin. Help us to remember that you love these people far more than we can be angry. And that just as you showed your mercy upon us and saved us from what was due to us, you desire to show mercy upon the rest of the world, too. And so, Lord, help us not to get in the way with our anger. Help us not to frustrate your plans through our frustration. Help us, Lord, instead to yield even our emotions and our thoughts to you. so that your thoughts might be ours. So that when we come and offer the sacrifice of praise to you, it might be offered from a pure heart, a heart that trusts in you. And we might find that joy, that greater joy than even when those things that make us happy abound. Our joy in you would be greater And Lord, help us to remember always that it isn't our government that allows us and makes us able to sleep peacefully. It isn't our military. It isn't our financial status or position or savings or pensions or whatever we have that makes us be able to sleep in peace. It isn't having weapons of self-defense in our homes that helps us to be able to sleep in peace and safety. It is your spirit. It is your hand upon us. And Lord, we look forward to that time when even the gates of the city will never again need to be closed because we will dwell in safety forever and ever. In Jesus' name, we look forward to this time. Amen. You may be seated. We are in this section in Revelation where the city, the New Jerusalem, is being explained and seen and measured and the new conditions are being explained for us. And John is visualizing, actually he's not visualizing, he is being given a vision of this city and the glories of the city. In the section that we're in today, the angel takes him into the city. Up to this time, he's been looking from the outside in and seeing the glories. This picture tries to give us some semblance of it, and it does a great job of fulfilling our imagination. But as we remember that if we can imagine it, it's still greater than that. Now the angel has taken him from looking at the city top and outside, and he's moving him to the inside. And the key statement is that the Lord is in his temple. First, he gets to look at the streets. No doubt you've all heard the story, the joke about the guy who wanted to take his wealth with him. And so as he was preparing for death, he converted all of his assets into gold and had them put into a huge, huge container and buried the container with him so that when he got to heaven, he'd have his gold with him. And when he got to the gate, the gatekeeper said, ah, more paving stones. Okay, send them so they can be cleaned up so we can actually use them. The streets of the city are the purest of gold that we cannot and have not ever seen here. Translucent, transparent. The light of the glory of God just shines right through. There's going to be no temple there. The scripture tells us, in fact, let's just let's go ahead and read this versus starting at verse 21 of Chapter 21. I'm sorry, 22, I saw no temple in it for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple and the city has no need of sun or of the moon to shine on it for the glory of God has illumined it and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime, for there will never be any night there, its gates will never be closed. And they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it, and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. No temple there because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. There will never again be a need to go anywhere to gather with the body to worship, because we will all be there. In answer to the woman's question in Samaria, Lord, our tradition says that we need to worship on this mountain. Your tradition says to worship in Jerusalem, which is it? And at this point, It doesn't matter anymore because we will be with the Lord. The glory of the Lord is there. His temple is no longer needed because He is present with His people in undiluted glory. Remember in the tabernacle, It had layer upon layer upon layer over the roof of the holy place and the most holy place. And it had a cloth fence around the grounds so that there were these barriers to keep people from being able to see into what was going on and to protect the people from the glory of the Lord in the most holy place. They could see a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. And when it would rise up, they'd pack up. When it would move, they'd move. When it would settle down, they'd unpack. They'd set up their tents, their dwelling places. But they saw the glory in a muffled sense. In the glory of the most holy place, no person could enter into there except the high priest, and he could only enter in once per year, and he could only enter with blood to be sprinkled for the sins of the people. There will be no need to go to the tabernacle. There will be no need to go to the temple. There will be no need to go to church. the temple of the Lord will be there because he is there. No need for sun or moon. Interesting, our conception is that we depend upon the light of the sun and moon. And there's a very real sense in which we do. But remember, light was made before the sun. And then the sun was hung in place so that it would serve the earth by giving us the distinction between night and day. And the moon was put in place so that it could pull the tides, so it would keep the waters of the earth circulating. No need for those. No need for the reflection of light by the moon at night. that the universe is going to be so different. We don't know how to even conceive of this. We look at the sun and think, oh, it gives us warmth. It helps what we're seeing now. Instead of snow on the ground, we're seeing things starting to grow. I've seen two people this week mowing their lawns and looking at my backyard thinking I need to get out there and mow. No more need for the sun to give warmth. No more need for the moon to cause the tides or to give light in the night. No more sea there, so there's nothing that needs to be circulated that way. And then God himself has illumined it, and its lamp is the one who is life. and the light of the world who came into the world so that we might see the glory of God. The Father and the Son will share authority. And you might remember back to chapter 3, verse 21, where Jesus says to him who overcomes, I will grant to sit on my throne with me as I have finished my work and sat on the Father's throne. That's not quite how he says it. That's a loose, let me read it exactly here. He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. We will rule with him forever. And what about the nations and the kings? Is this just another description of the millennial kingdom? No. No, there is this phrase, kaidon, that keeps happening over and over again in Revelation, and then. It denotes a chronological progression of events. Kai Adon, and then they bring their glory in. The nations literally is a translation of ethnos, which is usually in the Bible translated as Gentiles. I don't believe it's describing the nations continuing to exist and the nations coming in and bringing their glory in so that their glory might be seen. I think this is a way of telling us that all of the glory of the nations is going to be consumed, overwhelmed, replaced by the glory of God and the salvation He's given to all of the people groups who are represented there. They all come together and they are all equal all of their glory is, I can't think of the word I'm looking for, it's absorbed into the glory of God and it's seen in its true amount of glory, which is nothing compared to the glory of God that's been shining through the walls, shining through the blocks, shining through the city, shining through the rocks. I think it describes here a laying down of the differences. Ephesians 4 says there is only one body. Galatians 3.11 and 3.28 says that in that body there is now neither Jew, nor Greek, nor slave, nor Scythian, nor free. All of those ethnicities and stati, statuses, all of those things, the social, Tears are all wiped away. All are one in Christ. Romans 10, 12 says there is no distinction between peoples because Christ is Lord of all. Kings, it says, will bring their glory into it. Again, remember what happens when people come into the presence of God? What do they do with their crowns? Take them off and throw them at his feet. A verification, there's no distinction here. And, or, I should say there are three interpretations to this. One is what I've just shared with you. There's no distinctions between classes. And, or, all who are given entry surrender their glory to the glorious one. And, or, Those believers who are alive at the end of the millennium, before the creation of the new universe, the glory that they had in the millennial kingdoms, they bring it in and they submit it to God. Any, all of those, even more, I don't know. Everlasting daytime, the gates will never be closed. No invaders, no marauders, no miscreants to fear, no burglars, no rioters, No one who enjoys the dark because their deeds are sinful. None will be able to enter because they will not be there and the city is thus eternally and completely secure. And we'll be able to rest from our labors. We'll be able to rest from our labors and the glory and the honor of the nations will be brought into it. The crowns will be cast before the Lamb's throne. No unclean will ever enter. The only ones who get entry are those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Then he comes on into the city even further and he comes down to the main pathway, main street, so to speak. The word here that is used is the wide passageway, the wide walkway, pathway. And in this pathway, in the middle of it is the river of the water of life. And that brings up a whole nother set of questions. If there's no sea, where does the river go to? Is it water or is it symbolizing something else? Water is used in scripture to symbolize the springs of salvation, Isaiah 12, 3. In John 4, 13, and 14, it's used to show a well of water springing up within us to eternal life when we believe in Jesus. In John 7, 38, it says, from the one who loves Jesus shall flow rivers of living water. I believe, and again, there are things that are unclear because it's so great and massive that we get to see glimpses of it, but it's beyond our ability to understand, and yet it's given to us as an example, and God said, blessed is the one who reads this book. What we do know for sure is that it's flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, And it never stops. Many people now think that we have found the rock that was split open in the wilderness out of which enough water flowed to take care of the needs of between one and three million people and all of their sheep. and goats, and cattle, and donkeys, and camels, and any other animals that they had. But that rock, the water has stopped flowing. This throne, the water will continue to flow, never ending, never polluted, never obstructed, showing an illustration, the waters of the river of life, illustrating the never-ending salvation of God, showing that life will last forever in Him. Through the middle of this wide street of the city, on either side, that's where it flows, and on either side of that is the tree of life, And it reminds us back to Genesis 2.9, where God put two trees in the middle of the garden, the one, the tree of life, and the second, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. No command about the tree of life. It was available, but don't eat of the other one. Now that one is gone forever. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil we will not need its temptation because in our glorified bodies and being in the presence of God, we will be untemptable to sin. And instead, replacing it is just the tree of life. In Genesis 3, 22 through 24, access to the tree of life was cut off because of our sin. In the New Jerusalem, There won't just be one. It lines the streets of Jerusalem, of the new Jerusalem. All are given access to it now who are in Christ, whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. It's restored forever. In the church of Smyrna, in Revelation 2, God didn't have any condemnation for that church. He just said, when you overcome, you get to eat of the tree of life. It's yours. For all of us who are believers, access will be granted forever. Forever. Bearing 12 kinds of fruit each in its month, Well, if there's no sun and moon to tell us when day and night and when weeks and months and new moon and old moon and half moon and quarter moon and waning moon and blue moon and red moon and all of the other kinds of moons that we have, what does it mean when it says dwelling or bearing its fruit every month? I think it's mainly just telling us you're gonna be so blessed that there's always something new going on with the food. The variety of food that is available will be astounding. The provision we will never hunger. With the river we will never thirst. Everything we need is provided. And it says it's there for the healing of the nations. Well, if there's no sickness and no pain and no death, then why do we need to have trees for the healing of the nations? Well, the word there is therapeia, where we get the word therapy or therapeutic. And it can also be translated as life-giving, health-giving, care-giving. Whatever it is, he's telling us that there will never be any injury, and even if there were, it would be taken care of. But it will be there for our lives. And the leaves of the tree, will we eat them? The text doesn't say. In Rwanda, there was a program that came in, there's a certain kind of tree that the leaves were very healthy to eat. They'd eat them like salad, they can cook them like spinach, they could do all kinds of things with it, grind them up and use them in different things. And so one of the things that the Evangelical Friends missions did was, get seeds to plant more and more of these trees and give these seeds to people so that they could have a food source and also the ability to sell food to others in need or give them others in need. The text doesn't tell us, are we going to need to eat these leaves like they did in Rwanda? Or will they be like some kind of vitamin We know that the angels can eat and will be like the angels. We know that they can eat because we saw them eat with Abraham and Sarah in Genesis. And we know that Jesus can eat because he cooked and ate breakfast with his disciples after the resurrection. And in fact, he even made them a promise, I will not eat of the fruit of the vine until we enjoy it in the kingdom together. And so there's this promise that there will be food and wine in the kingdom. Will we eat out of enjoyment instead of necessity? Because we know we have eternal life, we know the river of life is there, the trees of life are there. We know that we have glorified bodies there that are designed to last forever. We know that there is nothing in the new heaven and new earth that is defiled, nothing that is impure. It's a question we don't know how to answer other than to speculate from the data that we're given that we will be able to eat and it will be wonderful, but that our life will not be dependent upon how many meals you've missed. By the way, you know why this saying came about having three squares a day, three square meals a day? In 16th century England, the plates were square. And if you got to have three squares a day, that meant you were eating well. You had your plate filled three times a day. We won't need that in heaven. It doesn't give us the information we need to be able to describe everything that we will do regarding food. But it does tell us, we see in the Bible, that it will be wonderful. and health giving. So then let's look into chapter 22. I'll go ahead and read one through five here and pick up the scriptures that we missed. Then he showed me a river of the water of life clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the lamb. In the middle of its street on either side of the river was a tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the lamb will be in it. And his bond servants will serve him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no longer any night. They will have no need of a light or of a lamp or the light of the sun because the Lord God will illumine them. And they will reign forever and ever. No longer any curse. Complete reversal from Genesis 2.17. Complete reversal, that which we gave up through Adam, God restores through Jesus. The consequence of the first sin is completely undone, Romans 5, 12 through 17 tells us, in Christ, the second Adam, the last Adam. The throne of God and the throne of the Lamb will be in it. Again, it just keeps emphasizing this point over and over and over again. And the reason I think is because we need to understand, especially in our culture, we don't have that sense of awe of coming into a throne room. Charles Colson did say it this way. He said something to the effect of, I saw more true worship in the anteroom to the Oval Office than I ever saw in a church. People so nervous about coming into the office of the President of the United States that multi-billion dollar corporate executives would tremble as they were waiting to go into the corporate office. this emphasis upon the presence of the Lamb just keeps coming up over and over and over. How many of you have ever wondered or thought something like this? I wish that I could be with Jesus like the disciples were. Anyone else? You know, there is that longing in us to be with the Lord Jesus. And that's part of why he said to his disciples, I am not going to leave you as orphans, but when I go, I will send another who is just like me. And when He comes, He will fill you with the power to live the life that I told you to live, that I've taught you to live. And even in that sense of we have His Spirit here with us, but there's still a yearning, a desire for something even more intimate, a hand to hold. a person to hug, a voice to talk to us as we're walking and or working, a presence that we can see. As I was watching the mid-year board meetings yesterday, everything was done on Zoom this year, and it was neat to see seven or eight faces. Because it was done in a webinar format, the only ones I could see are the ones who were going to be presenting something. Even if it had been opened up so that we could see everybody, like when we do our Quaker Cove board meetings, we open it up so that you can see all the participants. You can scroll through the different pictures and you can see the faces. But there's something different that is lost because all you can do is see and hear the voice. When I traveled with our college singing group, Day Spring, we put in about 20,000 miles of travel in over two years. And all that time I was away from Judy, my fiancee. And so I had her picture with me. And there was something comforting about being able to see her picture or pictures. I had several. But there was something missing. I could call her on a phone. I could write letters to her. She could write letters to me. But there was still something missing. I think God is emphasizing the presence of the throne of God and of the Lamb of God being there. He's emphasizing it so that we will begin to yearn even more. The pictures and the letters piled up in my suitcase The yearning to see my fiance grew. So then, now, how strange would it be if when we got back and we settled back at school and in our dorms and everything, and Judy said, John, do you want to go out for lunch today? And I'd say, no, thank you. I'm enjoying your letters and your picture too much. Jesse thinks, what a weirdo. I just enjoy this so much. It's almost as if you're right here with me. And it's such a comforting thing to know that you're right here with me. I think as we look into this last couple chapters of Revelation, we're seeing over and over again Jesus saying, I am going to be with you. No more need for any assistance to see me. No more need to try to understand what I'm like as you read and study because you will be like me, John said, because we will see him as he is. We will be made like him. I just, in a sense there was a, Lord, why are you just emphasizing this so much? Because we will be there with Him. He says his bondservants, that's eons in essence, that's we together, the body of Christ, will serve him forever. And in Luke 12, Jesus said, I will gird myself and serve you too. So we will see the one who is mightiest, who deserves to be on the throne with God the Father, lowering himself still to serve those whom he saved. And we will truly see that the greatest in the kingdom of God is the one who serves. And then he says, they will see his face. In Matthew 5, 8, it says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God And guess what? All of us will be of pure heart. All of us will see God. In Exodus 33, the Israelites were warned that they would be consumed by God's glory. Warned not to look upon his face, even when Moses, God, I want to see your face. God said, okay, I'm gonna put you in a cleft in the rock, and I'm gonna cover you with my hand as I pass by, so that you will only be able to see my back, otherwise you could not live. We will get to see his face. John 1.18, none of us have seen God yet, except Jesus, the one who came from God. Also in 6.46 in 1 John 4.12, First Timothy 6.16, we sang about early, he dwells now in unapproachable light. And there, not only we'll be able to approach him in the light, we'll be able to penetrate into the light to see him face to face. And his name will be on their foreheads. You know, and today we have times where we hear someone, that person's a Christian and someone else will say, are you sure? If that's what a Christian is, I don't want to know Christ. And sometimes that criticism is deserved. Sometimes it's projected because I didn't get what I want. And so there's another reason why we need to remember that there are always two sides at least to every story. I've had people who were greatly offended at me because I would not break the rule for them. And my reputation then was solely because they said I'm an uncaring, uncompassionate individual. or a goody two-shoe or something else. But there are times where we deserve that criticism. We break our word to somebody. We do something that offends them rightly. And so the question is always there as we look around at each other and we look at the world around us and we hear different people named and the reputation for positive or for negative, are they Christian, are they not? There will never be any more doubt. God's name will be written on the forehead of everyone who belongs to him. No more doubt. When you look at somebody, and Isaiah said the former things will be done away with, we won't even remember them. But now we look at somebody, and even if we know their character, and yet we know somebody else who slanders them, whether rightly or wrongly, we don't know. My hope, all I can see, I had one person ask me, you don't think I'm a Christian, do I? And I said, you know, All the evidence I see is that you are, but you're not going to be able to pass your faith onto your children because of the great compromises that you have given. I can't tell for sure. All the evidence I see says yes. Your statements of your belief, and it was specifically, the question was, do you have to believe Genesis 1 through 11 to be a Christian? My answer was, I don't think you do, but it's gonna be awful hard to pass your faith onto your children if you tell them that the foundation upon which your faith is built is a lie. It's gonna be awful tough to pass it on. No doubt here, his name will be written on our foreheads. We will be his personal possession And there will no longer be night, nor need for a lamp, nor for the sun, because God will illumine them, and they will reign with him forever and ever. Paul told Timothy, if we endure with Jesus, we will also reign with Jesus. And the fulfillment of the promise in chapter three, verse 21 of Revelation, to him who overcomes, all of those promises will be fulfilled at this time. So, the wonder of it all. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the one I love, no more. No more. Lord, I have moments where I see just a glimpse of your glory, and I wish I could see more. His beauty will be obstructed no more. No more clouds that get in the way of the sun or the moon or the stars. No more clouds in our faith that get between us and the one who is the light of the world. And Lord, I wish I could just get over this struggle, these besetting sins that I have. No more. No more will we have to ask about that because they will be gone. Our desire for intimacy with the Lord. Lord, I wish I had, I wish I had not just what tells me about you, but I wish I had you face to face with me. Is ours forever. Forever. As we're reading this book, Providence from John Piper, it keeps talking about how when we truly can see God for who he is, God's desire to work in us is so that we will have our greatest joy as we see him most clearly. And that will be where we are. will have that sense in us that is constant. I remember winning a district title. Yes! And the next morning, waking up and thinking, huh, where's the glory? If you watch in any news thing, big event that's been building for a long time, and you get there and the big event happens, oftentimes, even the next day, the whole news cycle has shifted from what it was building up this anticipation for to now, what's the next anticipation to look forward to? And all of the glory of that event that we were looking forward to is gone. Then, and then the joy that goes with each of those enjoyments is gone. But then, the glory of God's grace and our enjoyment of his providence will never fade away. Never fade away. No night time to go to sleep and wake up the next morning and wonder, what was all that about? Where's the glory? Was it just a dream? No, it's all there forever and ever and ever. Amen. And next week we turn another corner in Revelation. And we start to get to what's the point of the book? Why did God reveal all of this stuff to John? Was it just so that we would have this esoteric pleasure of, wow, that's gonna be great? Maybe, someday, I'll probably never see it. Will I wake up to see it on the other? No more of that. There's a point to the book. The reason for the building up of saying, blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, is to motivate us to look forward to when Jesus says, behold, I come quickly. Our answer is, yes, Lord, come. Father, work that anticipation into our spirit so that it drives us. Let the promise of being able to be in the presence of our most loved one motivate us to live in such a way that we prepare ourselves to rejoice in your presence instead of be ashamed as we come before you saying something like, I wish I had known what glories awaited. I would have given up far, far more. I would have restrained my appetites far more fiercely. I would have dealt with the sin in my thoughts and in my heart far more harshly, if only I had known how great is the one that I love. Work it into our spirit, Lord, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen.