KNU International English Church
Pastor Josh Broward
November 12, 2006
Question: What do you think of when you think of big cities? What are big cities like?
pollution, crime, corruption, politics, traffic, ugly
expensive, luxury entertainment, luxury cars, high fashion, success, choices
hectic, busy, high-stress jobs
homeless people, beggars, rundown inner cities, drugs
impersonal, overcrowded, high real estate prices
pawn shops, porn stores, liquor stores, shady bars, prostitutes
Question: What is heaven like? What do you think of when you think of heaven? (Get answers from church.)
Papua New Guinea’s white sandy beaches and clear water
Granddad: “The Happy Hunting Ground”
Dr. Fine: fly fishing for trout in mountain streams
One techie pastor: surrounded by fancy computers
Does anyone think heaven will be like a city? When you think of going to heaven, do you think of taking the KTX to Seoul? Anyone think of heaven and think of LA? No, New York? No? OK. Just hold on to that for a minute.
In Revelation chapters 17-18, John described Babylon the Great, the stereotypical earthly Big City, which symbolizes all of this world’s evil systems. John called that earthly Big City a prostitute. Not just any prostitute, for all big cities have prostitutes, but the Great Prostitute, the mother of all prostitutes. John saw that Babylon was selling lies. He saw that Babylon couldn’t give people life through entertainment, or joy through luxury, or peace through stronger weapons, or security through wealth, or satisfaction through immorality. John saw all of this, and he described how Babylon the Great would come to a crashing, burning, tear-filled end.
After all of this talk about how bad the Earth’s best Big City is, you would think that John is done with cities. You would think, John would describe heaven as some kind of Garden of Eden. Most of us usually picture heaven as some kind of perfect beach or mountain resort where we can rest and relax and eat without gaining any weight, a place we can swim all day. Sometimes, we just get sick of people, and we want to get away. So naturally, we think of heaven as a place where we can get away from it all, a place to get away from the Big City and all its problems. And so we go on vacation to places like this so we can experience just a little of what we hope heaven will be like.
We would like think that, and most of us do think that way most of the time. But we’re wrong! That’s not what heaven is like at all. At least, that’s not how John pictures heaven. After describing the earthly corruption of community in the Big City of Babylon, John describes the heavenly perfection of community in the Big City of the New Jerusalem. Let’s read what John says in Revelation 21:1 – 22:5.
This has a lot of symbolism, so let’s unpack this beautiful picture of the Big City of the New Jerusalem.
John sees “the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (21:2). Remember the Lamb’s Big Fat Multicultural Wedding (19:1-10)? Well, here is the Lamb’s bride: a Big City, but not just any big city. This is the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the capital city for God’s people. It was the center point of God’s activity in the world.
A voice from the throne says, “Look! The home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them” (21:3). (This is where the symbolism starts getting thick.) The heavenly city is “in the form of a cube, for its length and with and height were each 1,400 miles” (or 2,253 km) (21:16).1 A cube? Why a cube? Was John a math geek or something? There is one other place in Bible where a cube is mentioned. The inner Most Holy Place in the Temple, the place where God lived in a special concentrated way, this place was a cube – 30 feet (9 meters) on each side (1 Kings 6:20). John describes the New Jerusalem as the new Most Holy Place, the new place where God lives.
God has upgraded! “Movin’ on up, to a deluxe apartment in the sky-y!”2 The old Most Holy Place was 9 meters wide, 9 meters long, and 9 meters high – maybe roughly the size of the front of this room. God’s new Most Holy Place, the New Jerusalem is more than 2,000,000 meters on each side. That’s a city 7 times bigger than Texas and 250 times higher than Mt. Everest! Way to go, God! Heaven or the New Jerusalem will be HUGE, and it will be completely filled with the presence of God.
People will experience God directly and amazingly. There won’t be suns or moons or light bulbs, not even candles, for God’s own radiant Presence will be the light for the entire Big City (22:5). Everything everywhere will shine with the glory of God (21:11).
This city is made of amazing material, too. The 12 gates of solid pearl each have the name of one of the 12 tribes of Israel (21:12). The twelve foundation stones of the city each have the name of one of Jesus’ 12 apostles (21:14).3 When we read using the measuring units of John’s day, we start to see an amazing picture. The wall of the city is 144 (12x12) cubits (or 200 feet) thick (21:17). The city itself is 12,000 stadia on every side (21:16).
Remember any time a form of the number 12 is used in Revelation, it always refers to the people of God. This amazing city, 250 times taller than Mt. Everest, is made from top to bottom with the people of God! We are the building blocks of this amazing city. We are the building blocks for the New Jerusalem! Peter says, “And now God is building you, as living, stones into his spiritual temple” (1 Peter 2:5).
If I were God, I might be thinking I could get some better building materials than us sinful, messed up people. The 12 sons of Israel were a mess. They sold Joseph into slavery. Their family lives were as messed up as The Jerry Springer Show or any TV Drama. The 12 apostles didn’t get much better. One was a guerilla soldier, one was a cheating tax collector, several were grimy fishermen, and all of them chickened out when Jesus needed them most.
And what about us? None of us deserve to be stones in God’s temple. We’re all sinful, too. In our most honest moments, we’ll admit that we’re more fit for the trash heap than a heavenly city made of diamonds and emeralds.
But God is in the rehabilitation business. I quickly learned the Korean word for rehabilitation (JaeHwal) because many of my students are Rehabilitation majors, but one day I was very surprised to see jaehwal on a recycle bin. So, KNU is famous for its recycling major? Well, not exactly. In English we say that crushed can is recycled, but Korean is closer to the truth. That crushed can, fit for the trash, is rehabilitated. It is redeemed and remolded to be something useful again.
That’s the way it works with us, too. I grew up singing a song: “All I had to offer him was brokenness and strife, but he made something beautiful out of my life. Something beautiful, something good. All my confusion, he understood. All I had to offer him was brokenness and strife, but he made something beautiful out of my life.”4 God takes us with all of our brokenness and strife. He rehabilitates. He remakes us to be more and more like him, and he fits us into his Holy Temple. He makes us part of the very structure of heaven. He takes as lumps of coal and transforms us into diamonds.
So what does this mean? We’ll spend eternity in heaven being a pretty brick? No, the New Jerusalem is a symbolic picture of the perfect community. This Big City is the people of God in the direct presence of God and fitted together perfectly and beautifully. We are no longer hurting each other (21:8). We are no longer fighting; can you imagine a building with fighting bricks?! We are experiencing total peace with God and with each other.
As we experience this total peace, all of our diseases will be healed. Patricia, your diabetes will be gone. Stan, your low blood pressure will go up. TaeRan, your high blood pressure will go down. No one will be hungry or thirsty or lonely or sad. We will experience perfect peace and wellness and love. This is the real “Well-being life.”
This is heaven. Heaven is not the selfish grabbing and keeping and hording of the Big City of Babylon. Heaven is not even running away from each other to a quiet island. Heaven is being fitted together in total health in God’s presence.
And anyone anywhere can experience this great rehabilitation. The city has 12 gates facing in every direction (21:13), and the gates are always open (21:25). People from around the world will put their trust in the Lamb and bring everything they are and have into this beautiful city (21:24, 27).
What does this mean for us? Well, let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, there was a very rich man. Late in life, he became a Christian, but he still loved his money. He was really looking forward to going to heaven, but he just couldn’t imagine heaven without his money. One day, he prayed and asked God if he could take his money with him. Amazingly, God said, “Yes.”
The man thought for a while, and he decided that heaven probably wouldn’t take US Dollars or Euros or Won or anything like that, so he converted all of his money into gold. Then, he put all the gold in a suitcase by his bed so he could grab it when he was dying.
Soon the old man did die. He grabbed his gold and stood in line at the entrance gate of heaven. The angel stopped him and said, “Wait a minute. You know what they say: ‘You can’t take it with you.’”
The man was ready for this. He opened his suitcase and showed him the gold with a proud smile, and he said, “The Big Guy gave me special permission!”
The angel shrugged his shoulders and said, “Go on in, but I don’t know what you’re going to do with all of that concrete.”5
Heaven values different things than most people value here on earth. When we begin to think like heaven, we begin to act differently. When we rehabilitate our view of heaven, we begin to rehabilitate life on earth.
When we think like heaven, we will spend time developing our relationship with God. Then, we begin to experience heaven on earth.
When we think like heaven, we will give ourselves to God to be redeemed, healed, and rehabilitated. Then, we begin to experience heaven on earth.
When we think like heaven, we allow God to fit us together with other Christians, so that we can become a Holy Temple where we experience his presence together. Then, we begin to experience heaven on earth.
When we think like heaven, we make sure everyone has enough food and water and medicine. We become agents of God’s rehabilitation in our world. Then, we begin to experience heaven on earth.
We need to rehabilitate our view of heaven, and then we will begin to rehabilitate life on earth. Then, we will begin to experience heaven on earth.
1 See a picture of this at:
2 This is part of the theme song for The Jeffersons, a popular American TV show from the 1980’s.
3 See picture of this at:
4 Bill and Gloria Gather, “Something Beautiful,” 1971.
5 See picture of golden streets at:
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