Second Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5

To see an explanation of what this "pass" is about, go to the first pass here.]

Verse-by-Verse Comments:
10And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.
(1) Most commentators say that the phrase "in the spirit," which is used frequently by John in this book, isn't a trance-like state. Instead, it refers to worship. While in worship, maybe with other believers exiled to the island of Patmos, John saw the visions revealed to him by the risen, ascended Jesus.

(2) Mountains were always places of worship in the Near East. Of course, it was on a mountain that God revealed his glory during the prophet Elijah's contest with the prophets of the false deity, Baal. It was on a mountain that God revealed the Ten Commandments to Moses. On a mountain, three of Jesus' disciples saw His deity revealed in the Transfiguration.

(3) This passage continues a theme of last week's lesson, which says that the new reality that belongs to all who have followed--worshiped--God and the Lamb supplants the first creation, the first heaven and earth and the first Jerusalem. Here we see the fulfillment of Isaiah's words, written seven centuries before Jesus' birth:

I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19)

Paul says that followers of Christ begin to experience this new reality even in this world:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

22I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
(1) The New Interpreter's Bible notes:

"If a temple marks a discrete place of divine presence in the midst of a world, here the divine is immediately present and all-pervasive..."

23And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
(1) The notion of God's radiance fills the Old Testament. His bright holiness was deemed so great that no one could hope to look at Him face-to-face in His full deity and live. The reason for this is that God is, as theologians put it, "wholly other," completely perfect and infinitely holy. Although God wants fellowship with us, the fact is that we are completely unworthy to be in His presence. (See here.)

24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
(1) Up to this point in Revelation, the world's kings have been under the spell of the beast (17:2; 18:3) Here though, they surrender any claim to personal glory and yield it to the true King.

25Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
(1) With only the limited light provided by torches, sundown brought danger and fear to the ancient world in which John lived. Cities were the safest places to be, bound as they were by walls and hemmed in by gates that were shut when the sun went down. The gates were shut in times of particular danger, when armies threatened attack. But the new Jerusalem is here described as a place of safety in which fear has been banished and all live in the bright, protective light of God.

26People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
(1) Just like the kings, now the people of nations will bring the glory and honor of nations. Here, we see Babel reversed. You remember Babel. It was the ancient city that decided to build a tower they believed would make them greater than God. To save themselves from their own hubris, God caused the residents to speak many different languages. Misunderstanding and quarreling ensued, making completion of the project impossible. At that, the people dispersed, settling in many different places, each with their own languages and customs...and very quickly, their own brands of hubris.

In the new Jerusalem, all speak the same language and each are united by one thing: their adoration of and submission to God. They do so because they know that in Him is life. (See here.)

27But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
(1) The new Jerusalem is pure. Throughout history, various well-meaning, but misinformed, Bible-readers have tried to establish new Jerusalems here. There's certainly nothing wrong with trying to create positive communities. But two things need to be pointed out:

a. The new Jerusalem in Revelation comes at God's instigation.
b. It's God's will that as long as the first earth, heaven, and Jerusalem exist, the possibility of evil exists. The new Jerusalem will only come when God is ready to bring down the curtain on the first things. Until then, we followers of Chrst are on a mission to be His witnesses, telling others the Good News that they too can live with God forever.

22:1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
(1) Jesus is the living water. (John 4)

(2) This is a really productive tree! And I believe that it's the same tree found in Genesis, the tree which Adam and Eve were prevented from getting near, for fear that in their rebellious state, they would eat its fruit and be lost to God forever.

3Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
(1) Based on what's written above, the meaning of these verses should be clear.