City from Heaven

Revelation in brief, #9

John sees a series of four visions, each initiated by the Spirit. In the Spirit on the Lord’s day (Rev 1:10), he hears a voice call him and turns to see Jesus, the high priest of the church, standing to serve among the lampstands. Jesus dictates a series of messages for John to circulate to the seven churches of Asia (Rev 2-3).

He again hears a voice, and the Spirit catches him up into heaven (Rev 4:1-2), where he sees the Lamb ascend to receive and open a scroll (Rev 4-5). A trumpet fanfare announces that the scroll will be read (Rev 6-9), and John eats and speaks the contents of the scroll (Rev 10-11). The events that will shortly take place culminate with the harvest of martyrs and the outpouring of martyr blood, which dismantles the old creation (Rev 12-16).

Again John is in Spirit (Rev 17:3), swept out into the wilderness, where Jesus unveils Babylon, the harlot city that drinks the blood of the saints. This too is a thing that will shortly take place: The beast that carries Babylon is going to turn on her and destroy her. This third vision takes us from the fall of the harlot city all the way through to the end of this phase of history, from the fall of Jerusalem-Babylon through to Final Judgment (Rev 17-20).

Three enemies of the saints have been introduced in the second half of Revelation, one by one. First there is the dragon, Satan (Rev 12:7-9); then the sea beast (13:1-10) and the land beast (13:11-18), Rome and the leaders of Judaism; finally the harlot city, Jerusalem (Rev 17:1-17).

Between 17-21, these enemies are exposed and defeated, in the reverse order to their introduction. First up is Babylon. Even before John sees the harlot, he knows that she is doomed: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great,” the second angel announces (Rev 14:8). Almost as soon as she’s unveiled in the wilderness, John sees the horns of the beasts turn against her, strip her naked, kill, burn, and eat her (17:16). Kings, merchants, and shipmasters who used engage in commerce with Babylon mourn her demise, but recognize that the Lord has judged and overthrown her (ch. 18).

While Babylon’s clients lament, heaven rejoices (Rev 19:1-6). Finally the Lord has avenged the blood of His witnesses. Finally the Lord has heard and answered the prayers of the saints underneath the altar. The city that drinks the blood of the saints has been destroyed, and the blood of all the prophets and saints has been found in her.

That joy is the joy of a wedding feast. Once the harlot city is overthrown, it’s time for the marriage supper of the Lamb to begin (Rev 19:7-10). Jesus throws down the harlot city, but He does it through His faithful witnesses. Overcomers who follow Jesus overcome the harlot.

The sea and land beast were introduced before the harlot, and they’re defeated later. The sea and land beasts are false Christs, false Lambs. The sea beast has horns, wears crowns, and is hailed as an incomparable power, like the Lamb who has horns, is crowned with glory and honor, and is celebrated by the hosts of heaven. The land beast has horns like a lamb, though he speaks like a dragon. He’s a false prophet, doing wonders to win over the people of the land. The beasts are a false king and a false prophet, a Balak and a Balaam.

If you were a Hollywood scriptwriter, you’d want to bring the drama to a climax with a one-on-one confrontation between the beasts and the Lamb, between the counterfeits and the Savior, mano a mano. You’d end the book of Revelation with a titanic action scene – the Lamb throwing the beast against the Empire State Building so hard that it crumbles to powder; the beasts nearly pinning the Lamb down, before He makes a miraculous escape and reversal.

John isn’t a Hollywood scriptwriter, and neither is the Spirit. We’re promised a battle. The sequence of bowls includes the gathering of armies for the great battle to end all battles, the battle of Armageddon (Rev 16:13-16). It doesn’t happen. We expect to see a war between the harlot and the beast, or the saints and Babylon, but the overthrow of the beasts takes place in two verses (19:20-21).

After the harlot is overthrown, Jesus appears. He becomes visibly active in the story for the first time since He was caught up to heaven as a newborn child (Rev 12). And this time, He looks ready for war. Heaven opens, and He rides out on a white horse, judging judges and waging war, a sword protruding from His mouth, and the armies of heaven following Him (19:11-16). But there’s no real opposition, no battle. Instead, it seems that the battle is already over before Jesus appears; the harlot has already been overthrown, the beasts already captured.

Revelation 19 isn’t a battle scene, but a triumphal procession. Jesus comes to celebrate a victory already won, the victory won by the witnesses and saints by the martyrs. Like the emperor He is, Jesus executes His enemies, the sea beast and the false prophet, and then distributes favors (Rev 19:20-20:6). Those who remained loyal through the battle, who have fought with courage and overcame the beasts and the harlot by faithful witness, are given thrones, and they reign for one thousand years.

The millennium concludes of the story of the martyrs. They aren’t simply vindicated or rescued, but enthroned. The thousand-year period of Revelation 20 begins with the overthrow of the harlot city, Jerusalem. From that time to the end of all things, martyrs reign. This is our own age: We live in the world the martyrs made, when they followed along with the chief martyr, Jesus Christ, the true and faithful Witness.

The harlot is overthrown; the beasts are executed; Jesus has entered into His triumph, and given thrones to the martyrs for a thousand years. One enemy remains, the chief enemy, the primordial enemy that was unveiled first in Revelation, the dragon. At the beginning of the millennium, the Lord chains the dragon in the abyss, confining him so that he cannot deceive the nations any longer. Throughout the millennial period, the dragon will be active and even powerful, but he’ll never again be able to gather all nations against the church (Rev 20:1-3). At the end of the millennium, the Lord will release the dragon for a little season (20:7-10). He’ll deceive the nations and organize one last rebellion, so that the end of history rhymes with the beginning of human history. When the dragon besieges the camp of the saints, the Lord throws fire from heaven, as at Sodom, tosses the dragon into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet are already being tormented.

Once Satan is defeated, the Lord will gather the dead to judge every one of them according to their works (Rev 20:11-15). Those who have done good works inherit the city that descends from heaven, the new Jerusalem that is the new heavens and new earth. The rest – cowards, unbelievers, the sexually immoral, liars, idolaters, and murderers – are thrown into the lake of fire, and suffer the second death, which is the lake of fire (21:1-8.

A neat conclusion. Everything’s over. Harlot, beasts, and dragon are all defeated, all tormented in the lake of fire. The saints are in the heavenly city, martyrs on thrones. Everyone’s eternal destiny has been decided. Time to roll the credits.

Yet all that takes place in the third of John’s visions. The Spirit isn’t finished unveiling things to John. There’s another vision to come. This time, the Spirit sweeps John from the wilderness up to a mountain (Rev 21:9-10), where he sees a vision of new Jerusalem, the city that has already descended from heaven. It’s descending from heaven again, only this time John sees and describes the city in more detail.

What gives? Why do we see the city descend twice? Are there two cities of God? No. It’s the same city, unveiled in two phases of its history. The first vision shows the city as it descends from heaven after the final judgment, the final new heavens and earth. It’s the final dwelling of the saints. This is the city that we still await, the city that we still look for, whose builder and maker is God.

The heavenly city of the final vision is the same city, but at a different, earlier moment of her history. In the fourth vision, there are nations walking by the city’s light, their bringing in their treasure (21:24). Here there have to be guards at the gates of the city, to prevent anything unclean from entering (21:27), which means there are still unclean things outside. We look for a better city, but, as Hebrews tells us, we’ve already come to Mount Zion, to the assembly of angels and saints, to the joyful assembly (Heb 12:18-24). The city is our future, but the city is also our present. The last part of the third vision is of the church triumphant, the eschatological church. The fourth and final vision shows us the city in time, the ecclesial city among the nations, the city of which we are already citizens.

What do we learn about the church from this vision? New Jerusalem is a cube, or perhaps a pyramid, where all the dimensions are equal (Rev 21:15-17). The Most Holy Place of the tabernacle and temple was a cube, the same height and length and width. New Jerusalem, the city we now inhabit, is a sanctuary grown up into a sanctuary city. It is, in its entirety, a place of worship, where the saints carry on the liturgy of the Lord’s day and the liturgy of daily life.

There is no temple, we’re told, and we may think that there’s no temple because the whole city is a temple (Rev 21:22). That’s not what John is told. Rather, he’s told there’s no temple because Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. A temple is a house for a god, a sanctuary where the image of a god dwells, but in this city God is a temple for something else – God is a temple for a god. What “god” dwells in the temple that is the Lord and the Lamb? The godlike image. We are the images of the Lord that dwell in the temple that is God Himself.

This city needs no sun or moon (Rev 21:23), because it’s illumined by the Lamb. It is never in the darkness because the Lord and the Lamb are its lamps. That light from the Lord and the Lamb radiates out to the nations, so that the nations can walk by that light. It’s a city of purity (2:27), with guards at each of its twelve gates (21:12). It’s not only a temple and a city but a garden. Like Eden, it contains the tree of life, with fruit and with leaves for the healing of the nations (22:1-5). Like Eden, a river flows through it, and out of it. Like Eden, it’s the place of the Lord’s presence. The final vision of the Bible is of Eden restored and glorified, Eden built up into a city.

We’ve come to the end of Revelation, but it’s not so much an ending as another new beginning. Revelation doesn’t end with “And so they lived happily ever after” or “the end.” There aren’t credits. The Bible ends with the Spirit and the Bride longing for something more, longing like the Bride of the Song of Songs for the arrival of the husband: “Come Lord Jesus” (Rev 22:20).

And the final vision isn’t a vision of the end. It’s a vision of the present, of the city that we already inhabit, the city that is the Christian church, the this sanctuary-city, this new Eden, this realm, this Paradise, this temple.

We might object, “The church doesn’t look anything like this.” Her walls are porous, with few guardians. It sheds little light on the world. It doesn’t make the world fruitful or heal nations. Too often, church conflicts spill out to intensify conflicts among nations.

That misses the point of the vision. Moses ascended the mountain to see the pattern of the tabernacle, which was to be replicated at the foot of Sinai (Exod 25:9, 40). The Lord gave David the pattern for the temple, which he passed on to Solomon to build the temple (1 Chr 28:19). While in exile, Ezekiel saw a vision of a new temple, which he passed on to Israel as a blueprint (Ezek 40-48). John is a new Moses, a new David, a new prophet. He has ascended a high mountain (cf. Ezek 40:2), from which he sees the vision of the city that is coming and is now. He records that vision and brings it to earth so we can begin to build after the pattern that John saw on the mountain, so God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. John sees an idealized city, but it’s an idealized city that we’re called to realize.

If the church doesn’t look like this bridal city, our response shouldn’t be, “This isn’t the church.” Our response should be, “We’ve got a lot to do.” We need to repent so that our good works shine with the light of the Lamb. We need to pray the Lord to raise guardians to keep the church free of pollution. We need to get in step with the liturgy of heaven, so that our worship and life make the church a sanctuary city. We need be peacemakers. The church needs to receive life from the Spirit so that she can become a source of life. We need to repent of our low expectations: God commands us to build the city of Revelation 21-22 here on earth. He’s promised to built through us. It’s happening, and will continue to happen for thousands of generations.

The Bible ends with the church longing for her Lord, but the Bible also ends with a task, a commission, with blueprints for a construction project. The final word isn’t simply, “Come Lord Jesus.” It’s a word from the Greater Cyrus, who has freed His people from their final Babel: “Go, build.”