Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #34 of Revelation chapter 21 and we are going to read Revelation 21:22-23:

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

I will stop reading there.  We have seen as we are going, verse by verse, through this chapter that God has been speaking of a spiritual city that He built upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the foundation.  Christ is the Saviour, the one that has put the city together and has tempered the mortar through His faith, placing one “living stone” upon another.

God has spoken of the gates, the walls and the city itself and now He is speaking of the temple, saying, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”  This is a little surprising to us even though God uses the figure of a temple elsewhere in the Bible and it is a similar picture of the body of believers.  For example, Solomon’s temple was a historical parable of God building His spiritual house of the believers and then He indwells them.  So why does God say that there is no temple in holy Jerusalem?  On the one hand, He says there is no temple and, on the other hand, there is a temple, but it is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb that are that temple.

First of all, let us take a look at something God says in regard to those He has saved, in 1Corinthians 3:16-17:

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

It does not say “you are,” but it says “ye are” and the word “ye” is an Old English translation of a plural Greek word, meaning not just one individual but all those God has saved.  They are the temple of God.  The “temple” is the same as the “house of God,” as God tells us in Hebrews 3:4-6:

For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.  

Everyone the Lord has saved (the entire company of the elect) have come together to form this spiritual building, so we are the “temple,” and, yet, in our verse the Apostle John sees “no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”  This is what Jesus said in John, chapter 2 when He spoke of destroying “this temple.”  It says in John 2:19-21:

Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. 

Christ was referring to Himself and they were looking outwardly at the earthly temple and that is what the natural-minded man tends to do when Christ speaks.  Christ had a deeper spiritual meaning in view, but man looks at it in a physical, literal way and is wrong.  That is what often happens to people when they come to the Bible - they look at a literal meaning and not a spiritual meaning.

So Jesus says He is the “temple” and the Bible also tells us that we are the “temple.”  It says in Ephesians 2:20-22:

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. 

However, the way Revelation 21, verse 22 sounds, it is as if God is the temple and the elect are the ones inhabiting that temple, but Ephesians 2 declares that it is the body of believers that is the temple and they are a habitation for God.  On the one hand, God is saying He is the temple and we dwell in Him.  On the other hand, He is saying we are the temple and He dwells in us.  We can understand this because of what it says in John 17:21:

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

There is a unity that Christ speaks of concerning the Father and Him.  It says in John, chapter 10, “I and my Father are one.”  But with this statement, Jesus is also bringing all those He has saved into this arena of “oneness” with the Father and Him.  We are “one” in Him and He is “one” in us because we are the body of Christ.  Therefore, God can say, as it does in our verse: “And I saw no temple therein.” 

This could actually be a reference to the earthly temple in the Old Testament or the New Testament churches and congregations typified by the “temple.”  In other words, there is no more need for God to have the “type” of the temple which always pointed to the spiritual reality.  There is no more need for the “type and figure,” so there is “no temple therein.”  There is no earthly temple, but there is the spiritual reality that it typified.  The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the “temple” of it and we are His “temple” and we are in perfect unity in the new heaven and new earth.

It goes on to say in Revelation 21:23:

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

This is actually following along with verse 22, in that the city had no need of a temple and now God says there is no need of the sun or the moon.  What does the “sun” typify in the Bible?  The sun typifies God, as it says in Psalm 84:11:

For JEHOVAH God is a sun and shield: JEHOVAH will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

JEHOVAH God is a “sun.”  In Psalm 19 God makes a similar connection when He speaks of the heaven above, in Psalm 19:4-5:

Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. 

Who does the Bible say is the bridegroom?  Christ is the bridegroom.  John the Baptist identified Jesus as the bridegroom and all those that are saved are the bride of Christ.  Here, the link is made between the “sun” and the bridegroom, just as Psalm 84, verse 11, makes the link between the “sun” and JEHOVAH God.  It is why Jesus is called the “Light of the world.”

What does the moon typify?  In Revelation, chapter 12, God gives a picture of the “woman” who will bring forth the man child (Jesus) and it says in Revelation 12:1:

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

The moon reflects the light of the “sun” and the “sun” is God.  The Word of God identifies with the “sun” and the “moon” reflects that light of God, the Bible.  That is really what the Bible is and the written Word of God is that which has come forth from God to deliver to us the Word from the mouth of God.  It reflects the glory of God.  The Law of God is under the feet of the woman because if God’s Law were above her, she would be condemned, but God has satisfied the Law’s demand through Christ’s sacrifice and the Law has nothing to say against the woman, the body of believers.  It finds no fault in her and, therefore, the Law is under her feet as typified by the moon.

Then how can we understand why it says, “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it”?    If the sun typifies God and the moon typifies the Law of God, the Bible, then we must be wrong regarding the spiritual understanding of the sun and moon.  Obviously, this heavenly Jerusalem that is made up of everyone God has saved must have God there, so is not the “sun” there and if the Word of God is there, is not the “moon” there?  Well, here we have an interesting thing going on in verse 22 and verse 23.  The “temple” that is not in the new heavenly Jerusalem is the actual temple that is in the world.  Likewise, there is no physical sun or moon to shine in the new heaven and new earth and in this heavenly city.  There is no need for the physical celestial bodies that God placed in our skies.  They served their purpose well as they declared the glory of God during earth’s existence.  The heavens showed forth His handiwork and it is a “figure” of that great Light, Christ the Lord God Almighty.  JEHOVAH God is that “sun and shield.” 

When this world is passed away, the “types and figures” are passed away and that is the point God is making in these verses.  There is no temple and the city had no need of the sun or moon to shine in it.  God no longer has need to use “types and figures” and parables to paint pictures of spiritual truths.  He does not need to use illustrations from this creation.  He has done a great deal of that kind of thing in the Bible.  For example, a tree can represent a man or Christ and the mountains can represent kingdoms and the sun represents God, and so on.  The creation was used to point to deeper, spiritual truths, but in the new heaven the spiritual truths have come to pass.  God is with His people and the earth and heavens are passed away and the Lord has created that new heaven and new earth and He will dwell with His people for evermore. 

Christ gives one of the reasons that He spoke in parables: “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”  Now there are no more strangers or uncircumcised people in the kingdom of heaven; there are no more unsaved people.  There are only the elect children of God that have been adopted into the royal family and God has formed a new creation.  All is perfect, once again.  All is good.  The people of God have received their new resurrected bodies and they have a love for God and a perfect desire to obey Him and a perfect ability to carry out that desire and it will always be so.  So God is speaking with His people, face to face and plainly.  He is not speaking in parables or using allegories or riddles.  He is speaking plainly and the light is God and the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the one that is lighting the new wondrous heaven and earth and this holy city Jerusalem.