In this episode, we delve into the awe-inspiring vision of the Heavenly City as depicted in the Book of Revelation. David Hawking guides us through the scriptures, revealing the city’s magnificent construction, illuminated by the Shekinah glory of God. As we explore its twelve foundations and gates, each inscribed with the names of the apostles and tribal leaders, we understand the profound significance of this divine architecture. The Heavenly City requires no sun or moon because God Himself is its light, exemplifying the ultimate place of worship where the presence of God reigns supreme.
You know, when we come to worship in buildings that man has designed, even with the specifications given to him by God, they all are designed to be a dwelling place for the Lord, what we call the Shekinah glory, a presence of God dwelling there. But my friends, there’s no need for any temple, no need for any symbolism there. The Lord God is there, and the Lamb of God is there, and that’s all we need. The place of worship will be the Lord himself. Good reminder to all of us. about what worship is all about.
SPEAKER 01 :
1 Corinthians 2 verse 9 says, We often quote this and we dream about it, but in Revelation 21 verse 9 through 22 verse 5, God actively pulls back the veil. John not only sees an idea of heaven, but the city itself. prepared as a bride, radiant, massive, perfectly designed by God’s own hand. There’s no need for the sun, no need for the moon. The glory of God is its light. Today, David Hawking takes us deeper into his message, The Heavenly City. This is Hope for Today, and our time in the Word begins in just a moment.
SPEAKER 03 :
First, here’s David with a special word. We, of course, depend upon God’s people and God’s people alone. We have no organization, no church, nothing else behind us, only the people of God. And we are trusting God’s people to supply all of our need.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, thank you, David. And friends, with the year coming to a rapid close, your generous donation is especially helpful and encouraging right now. To give, call 800-75-BIBLE in the U.S. or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. And Bible is 242-53. You can also give online securely at DavidHawking.org. That’s DavidHawking.org. Let’s go ahead and turn to Revelation chapter 21, verse 9, through chapter 22, verse 5. We’ll get back into passage now for day two of David’s message, the heavenly city.
SPEAKER 04 :
There came unto me one of the seven angels who had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come here, I will show thee the bride, the lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and her light was like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written on the gates, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city and the gates of it and its wall. And the city lieth four square, and the length is as large as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall of it, 144 cubits, according to the measure of a man that is of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold like clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardunx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprasus, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst, and the twelve gates were twelve pearls.” Each one of the gates was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light of it. And the nations of them who are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither he that worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bore twelve kinds of fruits and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face.” and his name shall be in their foreheads, and there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. Now let’s take a look at the impact of this city upon John, and I just want to point out four things to you. One is the shining of light. Look at chapter 21, verse 11 again. Watch this very carefully. It says the city has the glory of God, and her light was like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. There’s a lot of arguments about what the jasper is, but many, many gemologists who have studied this and examined the Greek word, which is the word eospis, believe that it represents what is similar to our diamond. Now, if you know what happens to a diamond when you put light through it, it’s a spectrum and it shoots out light in all directions. Now, according to the Bible, this city that has the glory of God, the light of that city is like a stone, like a jasper, clear as crystal. So the brilliance of that spectrum of light coming out of the city, one can only imagine what that is like. The structure of the city also had a great impact upon John. Verses 12 to 14, he records at least three things, the wall, the gates, and the foundations. Now the Bible tells us that in the gates, the names are written of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. You didn’t think that God had forgotten Israel, did you? Paul said, has God cast away his people? No way. No way. And what a reminder to come to the last book of the New Testament written by a Jewish man who was in love with a Jewish Messiah. What interesting words these are when he presents to us the gates and says, the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel are in those gates. What a tremendous reminder that God has never forgotten his people. We’re also told that the apostles have their names in the foundations. And so God has prepared this city for believing Israel as well as the believing church. The apostles, what names are they? There are several lists. But in Acts chapter 1, verse 13, we are told that the apostles, after the death of Jesus and the suicide of Judas… met together to select somebody to replace Judas. And a passage in the Old Testament was quoted, they believed they were fulfilling prophecy. In verse 13, it lists them, Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, Simon, the zealot, and Judas, the son of James, but not Iscariot. And then Peter tells them they need to replace Judas, that this was a prophecy in God’s word. and it needs to be fulfilled. They select two men who have been witness of the resurrection along with them. One, verse 23, is named Joseph, called Barsabbas, surnamed Justice, and another man named Matthias. Now, according to the Bible, they prayed and asked God to show which of these two he had chosen. and the lot fell upon Matthias, and the end of verse 26 says he was numbered with the 11 apostles. Now, I don’t know how many people believe this, but I hear a lot of folks who say the 12th apostle is Paul, that his name will be in the foundations. No, it’s not. It’s Matthias. God never made Paul a member of the 12. As a matter of fact, he already indicates in his Bible here that he is numbered with the 11 apostles. To prove that point, look at Peter’s message in chapter 2, And verse 14, Peter standing up with the 11. Paul isn’t even a Christian yet. And the Holy Spirit has already indicated that this is the 12. And Matthias is already chosen and already included. So I expect Matthias’ name to be in the foundations. Now, the size of the city also was really attractive to John. Verse 15 to 17, it says that it’s 12,000 furlongs on each side. But how long is 12,000 furlongs? Well, that’s about 1,500 miles. We’re talking a pretty big city here. And if it’s a cube, the entire population of the world, including pre-flood population and everybody who’s ever existed, could easily fit into it. Well, there’ll be plenty of room. Can you imagine a cube and then the statement about the wall? The wall is 144 cubits. Now the average cube, it’s 18 inches. That means it’s 216 feet. Now it’s amazing to me how people have pictured this. They see a city with a wall 216 feet high and then kind of a pyramid with the throne of God at the top. But I don’t believe that’s what’s being pictured. I think what we have is a cube and all around it, all the sides of the cube is 216 feet thick. Now follow this please. According to verse 18, the building of the wall was of jasper. Going back to verse 11, a stone most precious like jasper stone clear as crystal. Let’s suppose for a minute that the wall is in fact made of a diamond. 216 feet thick, 1500 miles on each side of a cube. I submitted all of these things to a gemologist, a professional gemologist who actually teaches gemology in Los Angeles in a university. And I submitted my ideas to him about this just following the text. And I asked him to evaluate it and to give me a report. And he did, and it was very thrilling. But he came back and he said to me, if what you say is true, This is going to be the most spectacular sight that the human eye has ever seen. And in fact, I doubt seriously without a radical change of the human eye that we could possibly stand the sight of it. When we come to the foundations, we have another problem. There are many, many people who are looking at the foundation of this city. Remember, it’s 1,500 miles on a side. They know there’s three gates on a side. It’s sort of set up like the encampment spoken of in the Old Testament of the children of Israel. Many people, when they look at that, they see a foundation around the city with three sections to it on each side. That is, under each gate, there is a foundation 500 miles long. And then next to it is another one, next to it another one. So there’s three of them on each side, a total of 12 foundation stones. And that would be beautiful, let’s face it, with all those gorgeous stones around it. But I don’t think so. I think what we have is 12 foundations, 1,500 miles on a side, each one of them all stacked on top of each other, all underneath this cube with the light of God. Each one of them, a stone, mentioned here in the Scriptures, 1,500 miles on each side. Literally a 1,500-mile square. You multiply 1,500 times 1,500 and you get the mass area of this one stone. And there’s 12 of those foundational stones. I mean, my mind is going wild. This is going to be really something. Can you imagine it? And as I look at the stones, I notice not only the beauty of them, but I look at how they’re placed together. I do not understand this, but this gemologist came back and told me that all of these are placed in a way that is almost perfect in terms of color. Absolutely perfect. I mean, you couldn’t have placed these if they were side by side anymore in a better way to have the beauty of this to be seen and understood. He just says it blew his mind looking at it. If this is really to be taken literally, he said, this is spectacular beyond belief. Well, you know, the Lord Jesus said it in my father’s house. There are many Mansions. Now some of you have a new American standard, a new international, that says dwelling places, because the Greek word means dwelling place. Bernard of Cluny, Middle Ages, read this passage. And he seemed to be far in advance of his time. But he wrote these beautiful words about what he saw. He could not help it. He said it was like the Holy Spirit grabbed his arm and his hand and his pen started writing and he couldn’t hardly believe what came out. He said, Jerusalem, the golden, with milk and honey blessed, beneath thy contemplation sink heart and voice oppressed. You’ve got to think about that. I know not, oh, I know not what joys await me there, what radiance of glory, what bliss beyond compare. They stand, those walls of Zion, all jubilant with song and bright with many an angel and all the martyr throng. The prince is ever in them. The daylight is serene. The pastures of the blessed are decked in glorious sheen. O sweet and blessed country, shall I e’er see thy face? O sweet and blessed country, shall I e’er win thy grace? Exalt, O dust and ashes. The Lord shall be thy part. His only, his forever, thou shalt be and thou art. Man, I say praise the Lord. He had a heart for God and he knew that this, what the old country songwriter wrote when he wrote, this world is not my home, I’m just passing through. Well, come back again in verse 22 and take a look at some of the ingredients that make this city so wonderful. I think first of all, we’d have to list the place of worship because it will be the Lord himself. Look at verse 22. I saw no temple in it for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. It is the Lord himself about which the temple and the tabernacle speak. The Bible tells us that the priests at the time of the dedication of the temple that Solomon built could not even minister because the cloud of the glory of God came into that place and was so thick they couldn’t even move. When Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord in Isaiah 6 at a very critical time when good King Uzziah had died, He said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. His train filled the temple, and it was filled with smoke, and the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried. It was God’s presence that was the feature. The Jewish people in the times of the wilderness wanderings and the tabernacle worship would come to their tents and observe this cloud of the presence and glory of God just continuing over that tabernacle, that structure that they carried around with them. And the majesty of it was so phenomenal. They would fall on their faces and worship the living God. We come to a building that man’s hands have designed. But the Bible says the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. The real issue is God himself. There’s no need for any temple, no need for any symbolism there, no need for any utensils, no sacrifices anymore. The Lord God is there, and the Lamb of God is there, and that’s all we need. The place of worship will be the Lord himself. Good reminder to all of us, about what worship is all about. A second thing I would mention in verse 23 as to an ingredient that makes this city so wonderful is not only that the place of worship will be the Lord himself, but the presence of the Lord will eliminate the need for the sun and the moon. We won’t need it anymore. Verse 23, the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the lamb is the light of it. We won’t need it anymore. And by the way, that’s what the Bible told us too in Isaiah 60, verse 19. The Bible even says that God is light and in him dwelleth no darkness at all. Jesus even said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness. A lot of interesting things. It’s a moral truth, but it’s also a literal truth in the heavenly city. God is the light. And the brilliance of God’s majesty and glory will eliminate the need for all of the electric companies that we have. We won’t need them anymore. Won’t need the sun or the moon either.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s Bible teacher David Hawking, and this is Hope for Today. David’s back in just a moment, but first, Matt’s here. And Matt, let’s tell folks about the Hope for Today Christmas package for 2025, because this is really, really special.
SPEAKER 02 :
What evidence does the Bible give us that Jesus is, in fact, the Almighty God?
SPEAKER 01 :
David Hawking takes readers to that evidence with his concise, encouraging, and hope-filled compact book, Jesus Christ the Reason. And Matt, this book really broadens and deepens our appreciation for Christmas.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, Isaiah 9-6 says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Jesus. Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER 01 :
And when we dive deep into the scriptures to study our Savior, Christmas becomes brighter, more vibrant, overflowing with hope and healing. And that’s just what Jesus Christ, the reason, brings to readers.
SPEAKER 02 :
Which is exactly why we’re offering it as part of a special Christmas 2025 Hope for Today Christmas package for our listening family. The 2025 Christmas package also contains a three-message audio miniseries taught by my dad that also carries the title Jesus Christ, The Reason. And the complete package is just $20.
SPEAKER 01 :
Your purchase today will make the holidays that much more meaningful and special for years to come, and it will help the ministry of Hope for Today. We are a listener-sponsored radio and online ministry. And as you consider year-end giving, please prayerfully consider Hope for Today. as the Bible teaching here ministers to you. Help others to hear the same with a generous year-end donation. And please continue praying for hope for today. Well, and as you reach out to let us know you’re praying for us, can I ask you to consider something? If these teachings have helped you grow stronger in your faith, if you’re hearing the Word of God taught clearly each day and it’s impacting your life, Would it make sense to you that others might need to hear that same encouragement as well in the year ahead? What if your gift right now is what God uses to keep these messages on the air for the very people who need them the most? If that rings true in your heart, donate today by calling 800-75-BIBLE in the United States. or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. You can also give securely online at our website, davidhawking.org. Or write to Hope for Today, Box 3927, Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO7OAKS, Abbotsford, B.C., V2S 8P1. Your prayers and partnership make all the difference as we close this year and prepare to continue proclaiming God’s Word through David’s Bible teaching here on Hope for Today in the next year. Well, let’s get back to David.
SPEAKER 03 :
David Thanks for listening to Hope for Today and for sharing the excitement of my own heart teaching the heavenly city. Wow, what a place it’s going to be. Twelve foundations, the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Wow! This is amazing, folks. And we’re told that the foundations of the wall of the city— Has all manner of precious stones. First foundation, jasper. Second, sapphire. Third, chalcedony. The fourth, an emerald. The fifth, sardunx. The sixth, sardius. The seventh, chrysolite. The eighth, beryl. The ninth, topaz. The tenth, chrysophrasis. And the eleventh, adjacent. And the twelfth, an amethyst. Can you believe it? The twelve gates have twelve pearls. Every gate is just one pearl. So you won’t be able to get it around your neck. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
SPEAKER 1 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, it’s going to be someday, and it’s coming. A heavenly city. That’s where our home’s going to be. It’s going to come down to the earth. We will be on the earth, ruling and reigning with our Lord. There’s no temple in it, by the way, because verse 22 of chapter 21 says, The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. The city doesn’t need the sun or moon, any of that. Why? Because the glory of God will lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, thank you, David. If you want to make sure that you’re ready for that day, we’d love to send you David’s booklet, What Is Christianity?, and a Bible study by mail absolutely free. These resources are for new believers and for those who aren’t yet Christians but want to know more about what it means to have that personal relationship with Jesus Christ according to God’s Word, the Bible. So reach out today by calling 800-75-BIBLE in the United States, 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. You can also request them at DavidHawking.org. Use the contact form again at DavidHawking.org. Well, next time on the program, David wraps up his look at the heavenly city. He’s going to take us beyond the details of the golden streets and the radiant walls into the real heart of heaven, the presence of God himself. Wow. We’ll discover why what awaits believers is so much greater than anything we have ever seen, heard, or ever imagined, and why that promise should affect humanity. how we live right now. So be sure to invite a friend to listen along with you as we bring you the Bible, the whole Bible and nothing but the Bible right here on Hope for Today.
