November 25, 2020
There's No Place Like Home
Revelation 21:9-27
Lucina Thompson
Central Truth
If you've trusted Jesus alone for salvation from your sin, then God has a forever home for YOU in eternity with Him. And it is beyond ANYTHING you can imagine.
Key Verse | Revelation 21:9b-11
. . . "Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
Revelation 21:9-27
The New Jerusalem
9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. 1 21:16 About 1,380 miles; a stadion was about 607 feet or 185 meters Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits 2 21:17 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Dive Deeper | Revelation 21:9-27
Home. It's sweet; it's where your heart is; it's what you make it. When Dorothy clicked her red heels together in The Wizard of Oz and whispered, "There's no place like home," we could relate. No matter where I've been in the world, it's always good to come home. While I love my home, this passage is about our heavenly home, and nothing here compares.
John paints a vivid picture of our eternal home. He describes the New Jerusalem as "the bride, the wife of the Lamb" (Revelation 21:9). In Scripture, God uses the image of a bride to describe the church (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-27). This bride is made up of redeemed people who are bound to Him forever by unbreakable bonds. Sounds heavenly, doesn't it? Well, it is! John writes that the New Jerusalem "comes down out of heaven." I'd always thought we went up to heaven, but I was wrong. This city comes down to the new earth and is filled with God's glory, which is exactly what believers should be—filled with His glory.
Our heavenly home puts to shame what's seen on earth—everything here is a cheap imitation of this BIG, BIG house. It is radiant, rare, and bedazzled by precious jewels. It's a brilliant rainbow of color and shines with the clarity of a perfectly cut diamond. We say, "not all that glitters is gold," but in our forever home, it sure will be. Gold will be so ordinary that our streets will be paved with it.
Even more stunning than how our eternal home looks is what it contains (or doesn't). The New Jerusalem has no temple (no place of worship), no sun, no moon, no night. And nothing unclean will be there. Nothing. Why? Because God is its temple and His glory is its light. Everything good, and nothing bad. I can't quite wrap my mind around this, but I know THIS is where I want be.
I need to be reminded regularly that this world is NOT my home. The New Jerusalem IS—and there's no place like it.
Discussion Questions
1. What did you think your eternal home would look like? After reading this passage, how has that picture changed and why?
2. Believers are called to display God's glory to a watching world—we are His light in the darkness. Would others who know you well describe you as such? If not, name one way that you can more accurately reflect God's glory to a watching world today.
3. God wants to be with YOU forever in a heavenly home. Do you know for certain you will be with Him forever? If not, read these verses and trust His perfect plan of salvation (Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:23, 10:9).
4. If you've never thought much about your eternal home before, what are some tangible ways you can begin to live today with heaven in mind (Luke 12:16-21)?