E. The Eternal State--21:1--22:21, Part 3
1. The new Jerusalem--21:1-22:5 (cont.)
c. The new Jerusalem itself--21:9-22:5 (cont.)
(IV) Its blessedness--21:22-22:5
(A) Life in the city
(1) Fellowship with the Lord
(a) John 14:3
(b) 1 Corinthians 13:12
(c) 1 John 3:2
(d) Revelation 22:4
(e) These verses imply rather than actually state that fellowship
(2) Rest--Revelation 14:13
(3) Full knowledge--1 Corinthians 13:12
(4) Holiness--Revelation 21:27
(5) Joy--Revelation 21:4
(6) Service--Revelation 22:3
(7) Abundant life--Revelation 21:6
(8) Glory
(a) 1 Corinthians 4:17
(b) Colossians 3: 4
(9) Worship of the Lord
(a) Revelation 19: 1
(b) Revelation 7:9-12
(B) The Lord is the temple of the city.
(1) This has been seen before, but this is a reminder.
(2) As the temple, the Lord is the place as well as the Person of worship.
(a) Revelation 21:22
(b) Revelation 22:3, 9b
(C) The Lord is the Light of the city.
(1) No more darkness, for the the Lord is the Light
(2) This signifies that God's glory will show forth so much that it will light the city even as Christ was
seen shining on the mount of transfiguration.
(3) Cf. Revelation 21:25; 22:5
(D) The nations bring their glory and honor into the city.
(1) Revelation 21:24, 26
(2) The word into in these verses is eis, and although it can be rendered. "unto," its root meaning is
within, or in composition into. As Dana and Mantey, op. cit., 103, point out, "it was derived from
en and gradually took over its functions, so much so that in Modern Greek en does not occur." En
definitely has the meaning of within in the sense of "inside." Eis, on the other hand, implies, in
from the outside.
(E) The marvelous access to the city
(1) The nations have access--Revelation 21:24, 26
(2) The kings of earth have access--Revelation 21:24
(3) The gates are always open--Revelation 21:25
(4) Only the saved enter or have access to the city.
(a) Revelation 21:27
(b) That which defiles or works abomination, or makes a lie is now in the lake of fire, and can not
have access because of the great gulf that is fixed between eternal death and eternal life.
(F) The health of the nations
(1) The water of life
(a) Flows out from the throne of God and of the Lamb
(b) Is pure, as clear as crystal--no need of filtration plants, chlorine, or any other means of making
the water healthful
(c) The street of Revelation 22:2 is probably the same street as Revelation 21:21b.
((I)) Thus, the river of the water of life probably flows down the middle of the street
((II)) The river is not the street, for the street is of transparent gold.
(2) The Tree of Life
(a) Bares twelve fruits
(b) Bares fruit every month
((I)) Possible that it means every one of the trees yields every month
((II)) The Greek, however, seems to indicate that each fruit comes to fruition in its own month,
that is, one fruit each month.
(c) The leaves
((I)) For the healing of the nations
((II)) The Greek word is therapeian from which we get "therapeutics." The word actually
means service, which is rendered by any one to another. Medically, it does mean to cure,
or to heal.
((III)) The meaning is dependent on.whether this is a noun or a participle.
((A)) There is no dispute at to which it is, but rather whether a participle form in the English is
correct rendering.
((B)) The word is a feminine noun. That being the case some say it is not right to render it as
a participle in English.
((C)) Therefore, the word service, or its equivalent medical term , health, is considered to
be a much better rendering.
((D)) Health does not have the implication that healing does. One can maintain health without
need of healing.
((E)) Nevertheless, this is a quibbling over words which have virtually the same idea.
((IV)) Another factor here is that the preposition is the word eis. This word, as was seen
earlier, has the basic meaning of "within."
((A)) That this meaning is not meant here is obvious.
((B)) Some derived meanings are unto, to, for--which are the most common; and upon,
against, with respect to, as, because of, for the purpose of.
((C)) If the word therapeian is rendered health, then eis could be right1y rendered for, or
for the purpose of.
((D)) In any event these leaves apparently are used to maintain the health of the nations, the
peoples of God.
((V)) The question that is generally raised, particularly by those who say this passage pictures
the Millennium, is why --if the nations are saved and have eternal life--do they need this
provision for health?
((A)) Admittedly, this is not an easy question to answer for the passage in question gives
none. Therefore, any answer is only suggestive and speculative.
((B)) The answer may lie partly in realizing that because a person has eternal life does not
mean that he does not have a physical body that needs constant sustaining.
((C)) Based on this supposition, and it is a supposition, the fruit, and the leaves will serve as
sustenance for the peoples of the new earth.
((VI)) A valuable spiritual lesson is here presented. (NOTE: This is not allegorizing, but applying
the passage to our present time.)
((A)) We daily need to drink of the Water of Life to quench our thirsty souls; of course,
Jesus is the Giver of that water of life. Therefore, we need daily to come to Him.
((B)) The fruit and leaves of the Word of God we need daily to feed upon to sustain our
spiritual well-being.
((C)) A lack of such sustenance would soon make us spiritually emaciated.
(G) NO MORE CURSE
(1) The.Record of this curse is clear.
(a) Cf. Genesis 3:17
(b) Under Law--Deuteronomy 27:15-26
(c) Malachi 3:11-15--Notice that the last word of the Old Testament is curse.
(d) Christ is the Remover of the curse--Galatians 3:11-13
(e) THIS VERSE
((I)) Almost the last word of the New Testament
((II)) The New Testament ends in grace.
(2) No more curse because the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and God's throne can
not be where any cursed thing is.
(a) The word is katathema, a common shortened form of katanathema, which seems to mean a
thing set down and up; thus the derived meaning of a person or thing doomed to
destruction.
(b) No longer is anything or any person set aside for destruction.
(c) NOTICE CAREFULLY WHAT THIS VERSE DOES NOT SAY.
((I)) It does not say that there is no longer a place where things and persons set aside for
destruction are.
((II)) It is stated in connection with the city.
((III)) It literally says, "katathema shall be no longer." However, this writer repeats that it is
said in regards to the city and its environs. NOTHING IN THIS VERSE ELIMINATES
THE LAKE OF FIRE.
(H) The service of the "God's servants"
(1) The word for "serve" is latreusousin, a future tense of latreuo, basically meaning "to serve for
hire." In the New Testament, it frequently means to render homage or to worship. This derived
meaning is probably meant here, but the basic meaning of "to render service to" is equally valid.
(2) The servants of Him
(a) Who is the Him?
((I)) Has to be either the Lord God Almighty, i. e., the Father, or else the Lamb, i. e., the Son.
((II)) If one takes the former, then the church as well as other saints would be included.
((III)) However, according to grammatical rules, the antecedent of a pronoun is the nearest
noun, unless there is good reason for taking some other.
((IV)) In view of the fact that there is no reason--except possibly theological bias--for not
taking the nearest noun, then the Him (His in the Authorized Version) refers to "the Lamb."
(b) The servants
((I)) If these are the servants of Him, the Lamb, then they cannot be the church saints, for the
church is the Bride, not servants.
((II)) The word servants is the usual doulos (in plural form, of course) which signifies a
"bondslave."
((III)) Now Paul did call himself a doulos of Christ, but Paul is not the human author here.
Furthermore, when Paul used that term, he used it of himself in his earthly ministry; but when
he spoke of his eternal position, he spoke of it as a reign and that with Christ.
((IV)) It seems to this writer that these servants are the nations, the peoples who belong to
God, but serve the Lamb, and by virtue of the fact that the Lamb's consort is by His
side, they serve the Bride, the Wife, the Church. Oh, the glorious position of the
believers of this present age!
(c) There is the remote possibility that the autou, of him, could refer to the word throne which is
of masculine gender; in this case the word "servants" could refer to all saints of whatever age.
This writer's chief objections, however, are that the rules of grammar would have to be
Christ--be in connection with Christ's service.
(d) This writer's construction here is furthered by the n ext verse.
(3) Servants see the Lamb and have His name.
(a) Again the antecedent of his, according to the rules of grammar, must be the Lamb.
(b) THEY in turn must refer to the servants.
(c) They shall see His face--that is, they shall see it when He, the Lamb is it--the new, holy
Jerusalem. This precludes the church which shall see Him: 1) when the individual saint dies
(absent from the body is present with the Lord--2 Corinthians 5:8); 2) when the remaining of
living church saints are raptured (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). Thus after the rapture, the church
will see Him immediately and through the tribulation, on through the Millennium, and thus
forever. That forever, begins with the rapture, not with the new heavens and new earth.
(4) The servants are branded.
(a) Often happened in the past that a slave was actually branded with the name of the owner.
(b) These servants have the Lamb's name in their foreheads; this is in contrast to those who had the
name of the beast in their foreheads.
(c) This thought, too, seems to preclude the church; servants may be branded, but never the Bride,
the wife. Granted that Revelation 3:12 speaks of Christ writing the name of God and His own
name on the overcomer. Revelation 3:12, however, does not say it is written in his
forehead, and that verse speaks of more being written than the name. On the other hand,
Revelation 14:1 speaks of the 144,000 having the name of the Father in their foreheads. This
seems to this writer to be conclusive in that the ones here in Revelation 22:4 are related to the
tribulation and perhaps are Jewish saints.
(I) The eternal light
(1) Revelation 22:5
(2) No night there; neither candle, nor the light of the sun
(3) The Lord God is the Light and gives the light to them--His servants.
(J) The eternal.reign
(1) Revelation 22:5
(2) Primarily refers to the servants, and not to the church
(3) From other Scripture we know we have an eternal reign, so it is applicable to us.