Our Final Destination
Revelation 21:1-6; 22:1-5

Before you embark on a journey, you need to know where you are going. You need a starting point, a final destination, and places to lodge along the way. I have not made a road trip in over a year and a half. The occasion for my last trip was my niece’s wedding on February 29, 2020. It was one week before the pandemic broke out!

Our starting point was our home; our first stop was in Huntsville, AL, where we stayed with Sarah Lillian’s in-laws. From there we traveled to Washington, D.C., where we stayed overnight in a Bed and Breakfast. The next day we did a little sightseeing, had lunch, and set off for our final destination, the city of Philadelphia, PA. We arrived safely and enjoyed the wedding very much.

It struck me that the Revelation of John can be likened to a journey. The book begins with the seven churches of Asia Minor: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The risen Christ, through the agency of the Apostle John, sends a message in the form of an apocalyptic revelation to each of the churches. These letters take up the first three chapters of the book and constitute the first leg of the journey.

The next destination is Chapters 4-18. We meet the fiery being who sits on the throne of the universe (Chapter 4). Next, we encounter the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Conquest, Violence, Hunger, and Death (Chapter 6). Last Sunday we encountered the dragon, the beast of the sea, and the beast of the land (Chapters 12 and 13). These comprise an unholy trinity.

The third part of the journey is Chapters 19 and 20. They tell of the final battle between good and evil, between God and Satan, between the followers of the Lamb and the followers of the ancient serpent. After the battle, the dead are resurrected, and each person appears before God in the Last Judgment.

The last two chapters, 21 and 22, describe our final destination. John employs two primary images to describe the endpoint of God’s great plan for the history of the universe: a city and a garden.

The choice of a city as a metaphor for the advent of the Kingdom of God is interesting because the city of Babylon the Great predominates the Book of Revelation. Babylon is the embodiment of all that is anti-God in the world. The holy city is called the New Jerusalem. It is a new city with an old name. Jerusalem herself had become a place of sin and corruption. It became the object of God’s judgment, but now God remakes the city.

Chapter 21, verse 5, is very important in this regard. The one seated on the throne says, “See, I am making all things new.” As one commentator observes, “God does not make all new things. Instead, God remakes all things.” God does not obliterate the old. God takes the old and makes it new.

The second image is that of a garden. At the center of the holy city is a renewed Garden of Eden. The river of the water of life flows through the middle of the garden just as a river flowed out of Eden in Genesis (Gen. 2:10). As in Genesis, the Tree of Life is present but now it is growing on either side of the river of life, but unlike the first Eden, the new Eden is not marred by sin. Nothing accursed will be found in the new garden. Indeed, sins and sorrows will no longer grow. Thorns will no longer infest the ground, for His blessings will flow as far as the curse is found.

So, the model is not “all new things,” but “all things new.” This is an important word of hope for us personally and for our world. This means that all of the old broken things, Babylon, Jerusalem, Eden, human civilization, and our individual lives, can be made new. God can change us for the better in a lasting, enduring manner.

A fruitful way to further understand these two images is to take note of what is present and what is absent in the holy city and the new Eden. The first thing to note is that in the renewed world, in the new heavens and new earth, “The sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). I like what Eugene Boring wrote about this. “Throughout Revelation, 'sea' has represented the chaotic power of un-creation, anti-creation, the abyss-mal depth from which the dragon arises to torment the earth, the very opposite of the creator God. Driven back at creation and held at bay during the eons of history, in the new creation 'sea' will vanish forever. Evil, even as a potential disturber of creation, will have been irrevocably overcome.” Finally! The force that resists God, the power that challenges God’s rule on earth, will be banished. The impulse in us to disobey God and to obey our own fallen will shall no longer stalk us. We shall be truly free from evil.

Tears, death, sorrow, crying, and pain will also be absent! (Rev. 21:4). These terrible realities will be relegated to the “former things” that have passed away and will never again be brought to mind. Think of all the things you regret saying or doing in this life. Think of all the loss, sorrow, grief, and tragedy you have experienced. Think of the “pageant of human suffering” we have witnessed through the ages. All of that will be part of a tragic past that will fade and become a distant and vague memory. We will be free of all the misery of the ages. Again, Boring observes, “Here the Almighty himself promises that all that now robs life of being fulfilled, joyful, and vibrant will be absent from the transcendent reality to which God is leading history.” At the end of history is abundant life that has no end.

We must also consider the things that will be present in the New Jerusalem and the new Eden. Look at Chapter 21, verse 3. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them.’” God is hidden from us now. As we sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy! though the darkness hides Thee, though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see...”

In the End, God and the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve will live together again. They will walk together again in the garden in the cool of the day. Boring again makes a profound observation. “At the End we meet not an event but a person. […] God does not merely bring the End, God is the End. […] What awaits the believer and the world at the End of all things? John’s first and last word is 'God.'"

John also describes the city as a woman, indeed, as a bride. She is beautifully adorned for her husband. This language speaks of joy, celebration, festivity, fulfillment, and the most intimate of relationships. Earl Palmer in his commentary on Revelation observed that the first thing John sees in the New Jerusalem is God’s beloved bride. Palmer likens it to visiting the estate of a very great man who, as you first enter his palatial home, proudly introduces you to his bride, children, and family. Everything else is secondary. This is how God esteems us! We are precious in His sight.

A couple of final brief observations: The city is vast. It is a fifteen-hundred-mile cube! This city has no sun or moon. “The glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:23). There is also no temple in the city because God and the Lamb are the temple (Rev. 21:22). Finally, the gates of the city are never closed. “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations” (Rev. 21:24-26). The nations that had fought against the Lamb are now allowed entrance to the city. In fact, the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2). This reminds us that God’s vision is not only for the individual soul but for the whole world. This means there is hope for healing for our nation, for Afghanistan, for Haiti, and for every other broken nation. We long for that day of wholeness in the New Jerusalem and the new Eden.

Finally, John’s vision of the End, which is not an event but a person, calls us to action. Boring concludes his commentary on this section of Revelation with these words. “John lets his picture speak for itself. His language throughout this vision is indicative: ‘This is how it will be.’ And yet as always, the indicative of biblical theology contains an implicit imperative, the gift becomes an assignment. If this is where the world, under the sovereign grace of God, is finally going, then every thought, move, deed in some other direction is out of step with reality and is finally wasted. The picture does not attempt to answer speculative questions about the future; it is offered as an orientation for life in the present.”

This is our upward call: to live in the present as future citizens of the holy city, the New Jerusalem, as members of the bride of Christ, as those who are destined to stroll with God in the new garden of Eden. So, we do all we can in the present evil age to embody the life of the age to come. We wipe tears from crying eyes, comfort people who mourn, and help people who are in physical, emotional, or spiritual pain. We work to welcome individuals from all the nations into God’s kingdom so they can be healed by the leaves of the tree of life, worship the Lamb, and reign forever.

It is good to know where we are going, to be clear about our final destination as we live out the days God has allotted us. Thanks be to God for the hope to be truly free and fully healed of sin and evil and death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord who gives us the victory. Alleluia! Amen.