The concluding chapters of Revelation provide a vision of what it means to flourish. This vision is of a holy city, one that is built around the presence of God. There we discover the ultimate foundation of human flourishing, the meaning of all life.
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Foundations of True Flourishing
• Dan Kent
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God designed us to flourish, and God is at work bringing all things, including you, into this space of flourishing. Dan Kent guides us through the imagery found in the second half of Revelation 21 and demonstrates how the end of all things culminates in this flourishing. Ultimately, he shows us how the foundation of our flourishing is found in the simplicity of knowing God. It’s what we are made for.
Let’s consider the poetic imagery found in this passage. In verse nine, the angel promises to show John the Bride, a symbolic biblical image of the Church. But in verse ten, we do not see a bride. There is a holy city that is the New Jerusalem, so we learn that the Bride is the purified city of God. When describing this vision, the passage speaks of the number twelve repeatedly—twelve is so redundant that it screams at us. Twelve gates, twelve tribes, twelve foundations, twelve apostles. The architecture of this city is measured by this one number, tying together the Old and New Testaments. In the biblical story, this number always symbolizes completeness, divine perfection and the total people of God.
However, the description of the city itself appears to be a large box, as everything is perfectly squared. This might appear to be rather mechanical on the surface, but these dimensions harken back to the design of the Holy of Holies given in the Old Testament. This is the place where God dwelled, where the high priest entered into God’s presence. Now the Holy City of God’s people is like this Holy of Holies, as all is sacred. All is full of God’s glory. There is not a temple in the city because the Lord and the Lamb are the temple. It’s all about relationship. The point of all things is knowing God.
In the last five verses, we discover how this new reality impacts those outside of God’s covenant. We see the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it, and its gates are never shut. Even the evil kings are redeemed.
This raises a question for us: where is the justice? It does not seem fair for those who killed the martyrs to enter into the same bliss that the martyrs received. If we will all be refined and purified in the lake of fire, what is the point of becoming a Christian in this life? Dan offers us two things to consider that will help us understand what God is doing.
First, we need to consider our own hearts. God desires that all shall be saved. Why lament if God gets what God said he wants? Jesus addresses this very thing in the parable of vineyard workers in Matthew 20. Jesus challenges us to come to this question with an open mind about what true justice might look like. We do not know what true justice looks like because we have so little experience with it. Almost all of our knowledge of justice is informed by the experience of injustice.
Secondly, we are invited to consider that bliss is organic. While many that we assumed to be ungodly will enter into God’s presence, this does not say anything about what they will experience. Just as sin carries within itself the seeds of its own judgment, virtue bears its own bliss. Those who have been faithful have been shaped to receive a reward. This reward is actually Jesus himself. The goal toward which we are moving is relationship. To know God is to know life. It’s the way of flourishing. It’s how we find fulfillment. This is the culmination of the journey.
Hide Extended SummarySermon Series: The Unveiling, The End Is the Beginning
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Focus Scripture:
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Revelation 21:9-27
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
