Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #4 of Revelation chapter 21 and we are going to read Revelation 21:2-3:

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

I will stop reading there.  In our last study we looked at verse 2 and the language of the “holy city” of new Jerusalem and we saw that the Bible tells us that God is holy.  And because God is holy, God commands His people: “Be ye holy, for I am holy.”  

We also saw in Romans 7:12 that the Law is holy and the commandment is holy, so the Word of God, the Bible, is “holy.”  It is correctly called the holy Bible.  As a result of God being holy and His Word being holy, it meant that those that had identification with God were also holy.  So Israel of old became known as the “holy people” and the city of Jerusalem was the “holy city” and the temple was the “holy place.” 

God also used those figures to identify with the New Testament churches and congregations.  That is why in Matthew 24:15 the Lord speaks of the Great Tribulation that comes at the end of time (when Israel was no longer the holy land and the Jews were no longer the holy people and the temple was no longer the holy place) and He speaks of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place and He commands, “Let those that are in Judea flee to the mountains.”   That should be a clue to us and we should remember that at the time of the cross when the veil of the temple was rent in twain, Israel ceased to be the holy people of God and the temple ceased to be holy, and so forth.  But the churches had been formed in 33AD and in the church they had the holy Word of God.  They had the Oracles of God, as Israel was no longer the caretaker of God’s holy Word.   God had begun the New Testament churches to maintain and care for His Word and Christ dwelt in the midst of these congregations, making them “holy,” just as God in the Old Testament dwelt in the temple, making the temple, the city and the people “holy.”  Then the churches through association with God and His Word became the “holy place” in the New Testament era up until the end of the church age in 1988. 

Then God spoke in Revelation, chapter 11 of the “holy city” being tread under foot and the abomination being in the “holy place.”  They are similar statements that speak of the time of Satan’s loosing when he would enter into the churches and take his seat as the man of sin.  The Holy Spirit came out of the midst.  The Book of Daniel speaks of this time as the placing of the abomination of desolation and the taking away of the “daily” or the Light of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit.  Immediately, the churches were no longer “holy,” but they lost God’s presence.  However, God could uses that language of “holy city” because it was still the “holy city” until it was tread under foot by Satan.

We read in Revelation 21:2:

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

This “holy city” is made up exclusively of God’s elect and it is the “holy city” we read of in Matthew 27:50-51:

Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom…

I have referred to the veil of the temple being rent in twain a few times.  What did that indicate?  Remember, that was the “Holy of holies,” as God called it.  The Ark of the Covenant was kept inside the “Holy of holies,” indicating the presence of God in the temple and in the city of Jerusalem and in Israel.  But, God rent the veil of the temple.  Man did not do it, but God did it at this point in history when Jesus yielded up the ghost on the cross.  The “divorce” of Israel was final and they ceased to be the “holy people” and the temple ceased to be “holy” and the “Holy of holies” ceased to be the “Holy of holies,” and the Jews ceased to be the “holy people.”

It goes on to say in Matthew 27:51-53:

And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

Of course, all kinds of people read this and they automatically think of the historical city of Jerusalem.  It would seem to make sense because Christ was crucified right outside that city and it was the “holy city” up until that time.  But we read that the “veil of the temple was rent in twain,” and it stopped being the “holy city” immediately.  It says that the “bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection.”  It did not happen at the cross, but it happened on that Sunday after Christ’s resurrection.  When it says that they arose and went into the “holy city, and appeared unto many,” we know it cannot be speaking of the earthly Jerusalem, but it is speaking of heavenly Jerusalem, the “holy city” that is above.  This Jerusalem was being formed where God dwells in Heaven and as God saved His people, they would become part of that city and that is why we read that it is “coming down” from God from above in Revelation, chapter 21.  It was being constructed.  All the preparation had been made by the Lord Jesus from the foundation of the world and all through time God would save “this one” and “that one” and His city was being built.  It is the city God speaks of in Hebrews 11:16:

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

This is the same city that was mentioned earlier in Hebrews 11:9-10:

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

This is the heavenly Jerusalem spoken of in Galatians, chapter 4, as God spoke of Abraham’s two wives and the sons that came from each.  There was Agar, which corresponded to the “Jerusalem which is,” or the Jerusalem of this earth and there was Sarah, which corresponded to “Jerusalem above.”  God says these things are an allegory because He is opening the veil to reveal spiritual truth of some earthly pictures: there is an earthly Jerusalem and there is a heavenly Jerusalem.  It says in Hebrews 12:22-23:

But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Here is heavenly Jerusalem.  It is the glorious body of believers that have come together through salvation that God has wrought.  God has done all the work and He has prepared the bride and done the work of saving her.  He has built the city and the “builder and maker is God.”  He has created the “bride of Christ.”  He has created the “new Jerusalem” and it is all based upon salvation. 

We read in Isaiah 52:1:

Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

You see, the problem with Jerusalem below is that you could have unsaved people that entered into that city.  Historically, there have always been many unsaved people in Jerusalem, whether good kings reigned or bad kings reigned.  There were always the unsaved and the vast majority of people were unsaved.  Then when God used the New Testament churches as the figure of Jerusalem throughout the church age, there was the same problem.  There were always the wheat and the tares, saved and unsaved, and there was no way of keeping the tares out.  God said to allow them to grow together until the harvest or else you might root up the wheat with the tares.  So, earthly Jerusalem has always consisted of the saved and unsaved, alike, dwelling together.

But heavenly Jerusalem is different.  None of the unsaved can find their way there.  It was a “city” built upon the true foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It was a city of “living stones” of each of God’s elect and they were the ones built together by God to form His beautiful city.  In Isaiah, chapter 65, God joins together the creation of the new heaven and new earth with “Jerusalem.”  It says in Isaiah 65:17-19:

For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

God did the same thing in Revelation, chapter 21.  He creates the new heaven and new earth and the next thing we read is of Jerusalem coming down from God from heaven.  Is this saying that Jerusalem is the new earth?  No, it does not, but God is saying that He creates a new heaven a and new earth and a “new” people to inhabit the new earth.  He joins these ideas together.  Just as He creates a new world, He creates a “new creature” individually of all those He has saved and, collectively, He has created a new “race” or a new people that are fashioned after the “second Adam,” the Lord Jesus Christ.  They are no longer are of the first fallen Adam.  All those that were not saved have died in their sins and been destroyed; the earth that was corrupt and cursed has been destroyed.  The heavens that were contaminated through the corrupt earth have been destroyed. 

Now God creates a new heaven and a new earth and a new people.  It is an entirely wonderful creation that replaces this creation and “all things are made new.”  The former things will no longer be remembered or come into mind.  We will not waste a single second (if we could use a time reference in eternity) in looking back to this sin-cursed world in any way.  If we could, what would we remember but sin?  Everything has been affected and contaminated and perverted by sin, so how could we have any memories without remembering sin?  Necessarily, it must be removed from all memory – it must be gone forever and completely destroyed.  The focus of God and the people of God in our new creation will be “forward looking” into eternity future and not to the past.

Let us go back to our verse, where it says in Revelation 22:2:

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The Greek word translated as “prepared” is Strong’s #2090 and it is also found in Revelation, chapter 19 in a similar kind of statement.  It says in Revelation 19:7:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

The words translated as “made ready” is the same Greek word translated as “prepared,” so it could read, “his wife hath prepared herself,” just as it says in Revelation 22:2, where it says “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” 

It goes on to say in Revelation 19:8-9:

And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

We spent a lot of time going over these verses and we saw that the “bride” was complete when God saved the last of His elect, at which time Judgment Day came and the door of heaven was shut and Revelation 19 goes into some detail to describe Judgment Day.  There is the “bride” and there is the “army in heaven,” also clothed in white, following the Lord Jesus Christ.  We saw that the bride had made herself ready through salvation.  As the believers carried forth the Word of God to others that were elect and God blessed His Word to save them also, they were added to the “bride.”  In that process it could be said that the bride “made herself ready,” because God used His own people to bring the “bride” together as one body of Christ.  The language of being “arrayed in fine linen, clean and white” is explained to be the “righteousness of saints.”  It is the righteousness of Christ that God accounts to everyone that He saved.  Jesus paid for their sins and His righteousness became their righteousness, so all are pure and holy and white and that is the glorious bridal gown of all of God’s people.

Again, it is the elect that are the bride of Christ and that are made ready through salvation and the same picture applies in Revelation, chapter 21, where it says, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”  The “adorning” of the bride is her covering, the salvation that God has adorned her with and her “husband,” the Lamb, has adorned her with salvation. 

We find an interesting verse back in Isaiah, chapter 61, where God speaks of a bride and adornment.  It says in Isaiah 61:10:

I will greatly rejoice in JEHOVAH, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation…

This is exactly what the fine linen represents.  It represents the “garments of salvation.”  It goes on to say in Isaiah 61:10:

… he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

Do you see the beautiful picture God is painting?  Salvation is as a bride decking herself with jewels in order to look very beautiful on her wedding day.  What makes the “bride of Christ” beautiful in God’s sight?  It is her pure garment, her righteousness.  It is the “garment of salvation” because God sees no sin.  He sees His bride all dressed in white and it is a lovely picture because all her sins are gone; they have been removed as far as the east is from the west; they are cast into the depths of the sea, to be remembered no more.  Her pardon is complete: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”  This is all language the Bible applies to the blessed people of God, those that God has saved and it is all based upon His good pleasure and has nothing to do with anything they have done – it not by works or merit and they did not deserve it.  It is all according to the grace of God that the bride is adorned properly for her husband.