SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2015
10:29 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Capital
of the New Heaven and the New Earth
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
21:2
Message of the
verses: “2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming
down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.”
What we are going to be looking at is what the “focus”
has identified and that is the capital of the new heaven and the new earth
which is the New Jerusalem. The New
Jerusalem is not heaven, but heavens capital.
John MacArthur writes “It is not synonymous with heaven, because its
dimensions are given in 21:16. It will
be the third city named Jerusalem in redemptive history. The first is the historic Jerusalem, the City
of David, which currently exists in Palestine.
Scripture repeatedly calls it ‘the holy city’ (11:2; Neh. 11:1; Isa.
52:1; Dan. 9:24; Matt. 4:5; 27:53) because it was set apart for God’s
purposes. The second Jerusalem will be
the restored Jerusalem where Christ will rule during the millennial kingdom.”
The New Jerusalem that is described in this chapter and
it was also mentioned in chapter three does not belong to the first creation so
we cannot compare it either the one that is there now or the one that Christ
will rule from during the millennial kingdom.
John calls this Jerusalem the “holy city” and everyone who will be in
this city will be holy for all of the creation that we now see will go out of
existence and all the unbelievers are now in the lake of fire so no sinfulness
will be a part of this city at all. John
wrote in Revelation 20:6 “blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the
first resurrection,” and this shows that all who are a part of the first
resurrection will be holy and these are the ones who will dwell in the New
Jerusalem with God.
In John’s vision
he sees the holy city “coming down out of heaven from God” and this means that
it was created by God as we read in Hebrews 11:10 “for he was looking for the
city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Chapter eleven of Hebrews is the faith
chapter as the author lists different people from the OT who demonstrated great
faith and verse eleven is speaking of Moses and what Moses was looking for. John MacArthur writes of this holy city “The
implication is that it already exists, a truth reinforced by Hebrews 12:22-23: ‘22
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of
the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to
the spirits of the righteous made perfect.’ All of heaven is currently contained in the
new Jerusalem; it is separate from the present universe, which is tainted by
sin. Believers who die go to the ‘heavenly
Jerusalem,’ where Jesus has gone before them to prepare a place for them (John
14:1-3). But when God creates the new
heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem will descend into the midst of the
holy new universe (21:10), and serve as the dwelling place of the redeemed for
all eternity. Since the throne of God
will be in the new Jerusalem, which will come down to the new earth, that city
will be the bond between the new earth and the new heaven.” We will look at a description of this city
later on in our study.
Now as I was listening to the sermon from John MacArthur
on this section I was very interested in how this next phrase has great
meaning: “made ready as a bride adorned
for her husband.” What we are seeing in
this phrase is how marriage was done in the OT times and so I think it best to
let MacArthur explain this. “The city is
pictured as a bride because it contains the bride and takes on her
character. The imagery is drawn from a
Jewish wedding, which typically had three parts. First was the betrothal, which was like a
modern engagement, but more legally binding.
The betrothal of the Lord’s bride took place in eternity past when God
pledged to His Son a redeemed people.
The next stage was the presentation, a time of celebration and feasting
leading up to the actual wedding ceremony.
The presentation of the bride took place following the Rapture of the
church, when believers are taken to heaven.
The third stage was the ceremony, which for the Lord’s bride began at
the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:7-9) and stretched through the millennial
kingdom. The final stage was the
consummation, which corresponds to the eternal state. John saw the bride adorned for her husband
because it was time for the consummation. Adorned is from the verb kosmos (‘to order,’ or ‘to arrange’); the related noun kosmos (translated ‘adornment’ in 1
Peter. 3:3) is the root of the English word ‘cosmetics.’ The bride has become appropriately ordered in
all her beauty. By this point in
Revelation, the bride concept expands to include not only the church (as it has
since Acts 2), but also all the rest of the redeemed from all the ages who live
forever in the eternal city. This is the
moment described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:28: ‘When all things are subjected
to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected
all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Although being of
the male gender I don’t completely understand all of this as it relates to
being a bride, I nevertheless believe what the Scripture teaches and truly look
forward to that day when I see the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven as
described in this verse we are looking at today.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
It is my desire that my prayer life be
more meaningful, that it can become a picture like what I see in the 17th
chapter of John’s gospel.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Eve” (Genesis 3:13).
Today’s Bible
question: “Where did the nobleman live,
whose son Jesus healed?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/26/2015 11:08 AM
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