There has been a lot in the news lately about Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is being pressure to have a seize fire… He is a man of conviction and yes even biblical conviction’s. On September 27, 2012, He addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations. He opened his speech with these remarks, “3000 year ago King David reigned over the Jewish state in our eternal capital Jerusalem. I say that to all those who proclaim that the Jewish state has no roots in our region and that it will soon disappear. Throughout our history, the Jewish people have overcome all the tyrants who have sought our destruction. It’s their ideologies that have been discarded by history. The people of Israel live on. We say in Hebrew Am Yisrael Chai, and the Jewish state will live forever”.

As students of this book of revelation we have seen the future prediction of an Eternal city of Jerusalem not just as the capital of the Jewish state but of the whole new heaven and earth. We left off last time looking at the distinctions of this celestial city and this morning we want to examine with John the…

II. The Dimensions of the City (21:15-17) ///// The Distinction of the City (21:9-14)

1. John sees an angel come and measured the New Jerusalem with a golden reed, he measures the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof (21:15). The city is foursquare (verse 16), meaning it is equal on all sides, this signifying its balance symmetry and perfection.
Remember the Bible measurements, a reed (as unit of measure is 6 cubits and one cubit is about 18 inches. 6×18 =108inches or 9 feet. So a 9 ft. measuring rod.

Dr. C.I. Scofield has recorded in his scholarly notes that a reed is a unit of measurement employed by the Israelites in O.T. times and that the furlong is distinctly a Greek unit. So we have a mixture of two cultures here.

2. The measurement of the city is twelve thousand furlongs, or about 1,400 miles on each side. A furlong is a space or distance of about 600 to 660 feet. This is equal to about three-fourths the size of the United States, roughly 1,960,000 square miles. Since the length and the breadth and the height of it is equal (verse 16), this city is a 1,500-mile cube that could have hundreds of tiers, each having 1,960,000 square miles. It is incredible to even image.
Henry Morris, guessing that there will have been 100 billion people in the human race through history, and that 20% of them will be saved, calculated that each person would have a “block” with about 75 acres on each face to call their own. This is highly speculative, but illustrates the point that there is plenty of room in the New Jerusalem.

3. The angel measured the wall at a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is of the angel (Revelation 21:17 by man’s measurement, which the angel was using. So, 144 cubits would be approximately 216 feet. Since the height of the city has already been given, it would seem this may refer to the thickness of the wall, while the height of the wall would be the same as that of the city.
we have looked at the distinction & dimensions of the New Jerusalem, let’s consider…
III. The Description of the City (21:18-21)

1. To describe the magnificence and beauty of the New Jerusalem, John compares the materials to the most precious minerals on earth. He says in verse 18, and the building of the wall of it was of jasper. Note the walls he said they were like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. The city itself was pure gold, like unto clear glass (verse 18). The light of God’s glory will shine through the city and its walls, making it a huge Holy of Holies that radiates the presence of God.

2. Verse 19 says the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. These precious stones listed in verses 19-20 correspond in a reverse order with the stones on the breastplate of the high priest as describe in Exodus 28:15-20.

3. The identity of some of these stones is uncertain, but we can be sure their beauty is indescribable. Our God is a God of beauty, for it is He who painted the butterfly’s wings and made all the colors of the rainbow. God made everything that is beautiful, and the most gorgeous of all His creation will be the New Jerusalem. So the city is like one massive perfect diamond gem, flashing the reflection of God’s glory in infinite light–the ultimate light show.

4. Each of the massive gates was of one pearl (21:21). Our earth knows of no pearls of such size, just as we know of no precious stones the size of the foundations. When we speak of “pearly gates,” we don’t mean a gate with several small pearls on it. Rather, these gates will each be made out of a single pearl. Though the scripture does not say so, it could extend upward to the height of the great wall, permitting access to all levels of the holy city.
Isaiah 60:19-22;
Application:
These pearls are like nothing ever produced by an oyster. Each one of the gates is a single pearl, a 14-15-mile-high pearl…1500-mile-high pearl. There’s some marvelous spiritual symbolism there. John Phillips writes this, “How appropriate. All other precious gems are metals or stones, but a pearl is a gem formed within the oyster. It is the only one formed by living flesh”.

The formation of a natural pearl begins inside an oyster when a foreign substance slips into the oyster between the mantle and the shell. This irritates the mantle. It’s kind of like the oyster getting a splinter. The oyster’s natural reaction is to cover up that irritant by encapsulating the intruder, consequently protecting it. The mantle covers the irritant with layers of the same nacre substance that is used to create the shell, and these concentric layers of nacre eventually form a pearl.

The symbolism is not meant to give the impression of wealth and luxury, but to point to the glory and holiness of God.”

Conclusion:

This new glorious land is God’s answer in Christ to the wicked men who crucified heaven’s beloved and put Him to open shame. How like God it is to make the gates of the New Jerusalem pearls. The saints as they come and go will forever be reminded as they pass the gates of glory that access to God’s home is only because of Calvary…