Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #23 of Revelation chapter 21 and we are going to read Revelation 21:10-11:

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

The description then continues of holy Jerusalem.  Let us begin by looking at the first part of Revelation 21:10:

And he carried me away in the spirit…

This refers to one of the seven angels and he is carrying John away in the spirit.  This is language that mostly identifies with several verses in the Book of Ezekiel and we will just look at a couple of them.  For instance, it says in Ezekiel 3:14:

So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of JEHOVAH was strong upon me.

This describes when God brought revelation to the prophet Ezekiel long ago and the revelation He is giving him had to do with the Great Tribulation, the time at the end of the world. 

It also says in Ezekiel 37:1:

The hand of JEHOVAH was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of JEHOVAH, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,

Here, the Lord is showing Ezekiel a valley of dry bones which God prophesied to and they stood upon their feet.

Let us also look at one more verse, in Ezekiel 43:5:

So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of JEHOVAH filled the house.

These are just a few of several verses in the Book of Ezekiel that are similar in nature.  God took the prophet and carried him away by His spirit, just as we see in Revelation 21:10:

And he carried me away in the spirit…

And it is also God giving divine revelation to a prophet, the Apostle John.  Then it says in Revelation 21:10:

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain…

In the Bible “mountains” can be used to typify kingdoms and in this case it is a “great and high mountain,” to typify the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God consists of the entire company of the elect that God has saved.  As the verse continues, it says in Revelation 21:10:

… and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem...

We have discussed this many times.  The city that God calls “holy Jerusalem” is a representation of everyone He has saved and whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  As God was saving His people over the course of history, He was building up His holy city.  It is a similar picture to building the “temple” or building the “wall” in the Book of Nehemiah.  It is the spiritual construction of the complete body of Christ and it is a similar picture here.

John is shown this great city, the new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.  Remember that it said at the end of the previous verse in Revelation 21:9:

… I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

Is the bride in view in verse 10?  We do not read about the bride.  God had just said, “I will shew thee the bride,” but then what He shows him is the holy city.  In fact, from verse 11 through almost the entire remainder of the chapter there will be a detailed description of the holy city Jerusalem.  Where is the bride?  We can understand this when we realize that the bride is the city.  They are one and the same.  It is not an actual bride and it is not an actual city.  Both verses teach that the elect are in view and it is not just a portion of the elect, but it is all the elect that are the finished product of God’s salvation program.  This is similar to what we read at the start of this chapter in Revelation 21, where it says 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.

The word translated as “coming down” is a translation of the same Greek word that is translated as “descending” in our verse in Revelation 21, verse 10.  So the Lord described His elect in verse 2, also.  He first showed John the city and then He spoke of that city as the “bride.”  Then in our verses in Revelation 21, verses 9 and 10, He spoke of the “bride” and then described the “city.”  It is teaching the same truth.  The city of God is the “bride of Christ.”  The same spiritual entity is in view.

It goes on to say in Revelation 21:11:

Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

Here, the Lord speaks of the holy Jerusalem or new Jerusalem, the city that God built, according to Hebrews 11:10:

For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Also, it says 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 city.  Spiritually, it is all the people God has saved.  This is the city that is in view in verse 10 and then in Revelation 21:11 it begins by saying, “Having the glory of God.”  What does it mean to have the glory of God?  Someone might say, “Obviously, it means that God is with them, so it is a glorious city.”  Yes, that is true, but it also has a particular meaning that helps us to understand the time we are living in and what God has done (when we understand what “glory” God is highlighting).  When we go back to 1Samuel, chapter 4 we read of a time in Israel’s history when they were rebellious against God.  Of course, that is nothing new because they were often rebellious, but at this particular time God was going to bring judgment upon them by allowing their enemy to defeat them in battle and capture the ark of God.  This is actually an historical parable.  One of the main reasons God permitted this to happen was in order to teach what He would do at the end of time when He would give up the corporate churches to Satan, the enemy of God, and to allow the churches to be taken captive by Satan and his forces.  That is what the Philistines capturing of the ark typified.  It says in 1Samuel 4:17:

And the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken.

At the mention of the ark being taken, Eli fell over backwards, broke his neck and died, so the bad news kept coming.  It was an indicator of being under the wrath of God.  To fall over backwards is to be under God’s wrath. 

When one of the wives of the son of Eli who was with child heard the news of the demise of her husband and father-in-law and the taking of the ark, she gave birth to a son and before she died, it says in 1Samuel 4:21-22:

And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.

The presence of God was typified by the ark and once the Philistines took the ark it was as if the glory of God had departed from Israel.  That historical event pointed to the spiritual reality when the Holy Spirit came out of the midst of the congregations, giving the churches over to Satan, at the time of the end.

But we are trying to understand what it means when our verse says that the new Jerusalem has the “glory of God.”  The glory of God is typified by the ark.  Remember the ark was placed in the temple when Solomon’s temple was completed.  It says in 2Chronicles 5:1-2

Thus all the work that Solomon made for the house of JEHOVAH was finished: and Solomon brought in all the things that David his father had dedicated; and the silver, and the gold, and all the instruments, put he among the treasures of the house of God. Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of JEHOVAH out of the city of David, which is Zion. 

This was the temple project that David had made preparation for and the foundation was laid at the death of David in the year 967 BC in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign.  Then it was completed seven and one half years later and that historical temple is a picture of God building the body of believers, just as the city of Jerusalem we are reading about in Revelation 21 is also a picture of God’s people.  When Solomon’s temple was completed it points to God having saved everyone that was to become saved.   It is spiritually teaching that all the believers have become saved and now that the house is finished, they would bring in the ark, which identifies with the glory of God.  It says in 2Chronicles 5:7-8:

And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of JEHOVAH unto his place, to the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims: For the cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims covered the ark and the staves thereof above.

They brought in the ark and they put it in place and then the statement was made that it is there unto this day because it is a spiritual reality that God will forever dwell in the midst of His people.  The temple typifies the people of God, so God enters in and is present with them forever.

Then it says in 2Chronicles 5:11:

And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place: (for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course:

It goes on to say in 2Chronicles 5:13-14:

It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking JEHOVAH; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised JEHOVAH, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of JEHOVAH; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of JEHOVAH had filled the house of God.

Again, we see the pattern.  The house is complete and the ark that represents the presence and glory of God is placed within and then the priests came out of the temple and no man could enter in.  That is the language we found in Revelation 15:6-8:

And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

The temple was filled with smoke.   What is another way of picturing smoke?  It is a cloud, just as the cloud filled the temple.  Now there is a temple in heaven, so it is the spiritual temple and it consists of everyone God has saved and out came the seven messengers (the true believers) and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, which means that God is indwelling the temple.  That means the temple is complete because the ark is not put into a half finished temple, but only into the completed temple.  Then “no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.”  In other words, there is no more salvation – the temple is complete.  Why would we need to add more stones to it if it has every stone in it and those stones were worked upon in another location and then brought to the temple?  That is how God had the physical temple built so that no sound of a workman’s “hammer” would be heard at the temple site and this pointed to the fact that the “living stones” were not built with man’s work, but Christ performed all the work.

Let us also go to Ezekiel, chapter 43, where we read a verse earlier.  It says in Ezekiel 43:1:

Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east:

This is referring to the Spirit of God that was taking Ezekiel hither, here and there, to see the revelations of God.  Then it says it says in Ezekiel 43:2-5:

And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. And the glory of JEHOVAH came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of JEHOVAH filled the house.

What had we learned earlier?  We learned that the house had to be finished before the glory would come into it.  Again, Ezekiel is not describing Solomon’s temple or Zerubbabel’s temple that were physical temples that were literally built in history.  Ezekiel’s temple was never physically built in this world.  It is a description of the spiritual temple of God – the new Jerusalem.  It describes the building up of the body of believers.  The glory of the Lord came into the house once the temple made up of living stones was finished.  Then it says in Ezekiel 43:6-7:

And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places.

The language is that of something “eternal” because it is the spiritual house, the eternal city of God.  Since we are here in Ezekiel, let us look at Ezekiel 44:1-2:

Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.

That was the same gate that the glory of God entered into and that is the prospect of the East because that is the direction that identifies with the kingdom of heaven.  And at what point did God enter in and fill the house?  It was when the spiritual house was finished, which God says in Hebrews 3: “whose house are we.”  The Spirit of God enters in and the glory fills that house of believers and the smoke fills the house and no more men are able to enter in because there is no more salvation and, therefore, the gate is shut.

Then it says in Ezekiel 44:2-3: 

Then said JEHOVAH unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because JEHOVAH, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before JEHOVAH; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.

The “prince” is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Once God enters in, He is the “last.”  He is the final one to enter into the house and then the gate is shut.  The door is shut, never to be opened for man.  It is now a gate for Christ alone.  No man is permitted to come into the house.  We read about that in 2Chronicles, chapter 5 that when the ark went into the temple, the men came out.  We read in Revelation, chapter 15 that the seven messengers came out of the temple and no man was able to enter into the temple until they had poured out the plagues.  The smoke filled the house with the glory of God.

So the teaching of the Bible is that on May 21, 2011 God completed His salvation program.  He completed the building of the city of Jerusalem and He entered in by way of the East and He shut the door of heaven and now no man is able to enter into heaven until the seven last vials full of the seven last plagues are poured out upon the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  It is the true believers (the spiritual priests) of God that are involved in the process of pouring out the plagues as they share the Bible’s information.