The Heavenly City – Rev. 21:9-22:5

SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

I want to ask you, would you say offhand you might be slightly interested in going to heaven? It’s amazing to me how people in this generation continue to ignore the truth about heaven. They think it’s the imaginations of religious folks that are deluding themselves and trying to comfort and encourage their own hearts in difficult times by trying to believe that there’s a heaven.

SPEAKER 1 : 0:45

Thank you.

SPEAKER 04 : 0:53

When David asked the question, would you say you’re even slightly interested in going to heaven? It hits you, doesn’t it? Because he’s right. Our generation has a habit of shrugging off heaven and treating it like it’s a religious daydream rather than a real destiny. But you know, something ignoring heaven doesn’t make it any less real. And in Revelation 21, God doesn’t hide it. He unveils it. He lets us actually see the city he has prepared, the glory that awaits, the future built not on imagination, but on his word. This is Hope for Today with Bible teacher David Hawking. And this is day three of his message, The Heavenly City. Our text, Revelation chapter 21, verse 9 through chapter 22, verse 5. And we’ll go back to the passage in just a moment. Stay tuned. First, Matt, just before we came on the air, you told me about a letter we received from 12-year-old Liam. He’s in Missouri. This is such an extraordinary letter. A 12-year-old young man. And I didn’t even share that.

SPEAKER 03 : 2:05

I didn’t even let you read it either yet. No, no, you haven’t told me. Tell me what it is. I hope I don’t embarrass him, but it’s so awesome. He’s 12 years old. First of all, Jim, he starts off with a graphic that says, the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible. Nice. Wow. And he colors it in, and on the back side, he has a picture of the Israeli flag. On the back. And it says, Dear Mr. Hawking, Thank you for teaching the Word of God. We listen to your sermons every Sunday. My family doesn’t have a church to go to, so you are our pastor. Right now we’re in Ephesians, and it is very interesting. Recently, we did one on how to pray and not give God quick and fast prayers. That really helped me and made me feel guilty. Thank you for all you do in the Lord. And then he puts down Numbers 6, 24 to 26. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. He writes it again, Numbers 6, 24 to 26. And he bottom puts KJV. Yeah. Wow, wow. From Liam, age 12. And I just was, my heart was blessed by this gem.

SPEAKER 04 : 3:10

Liam, I just want you to know that David was 13 years old when he preached his first message. That’s right. And we believe that God is going to use you, Liam, in powerful ways to spread the gospel, to encourage other believers in their walk with the Lord. God bless you, and thank you for getting in touch with us. Your message has meant so much to me, to Matt, and to David as well. Yes. And my friend, if you want to get in touch with Hope for Today, I’ll tell you just about later how to do that. Now here’s David with day three of his message, The Heavenly City, taken from Revelation chapter 21, verse 9, through chapter 22, verse 5.

SPEAKER 02 : 3:48

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 sardunce, 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. 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. Verse 22, the Lord God is there, and the Lamb of God is there, and that’s all we need. A second thing I would mention in verse 23 as to an ingredient that makes this city so wonderful is 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. A third thing that makes this city so wonderful is that the purpose of God for all nations in the world, the nations he designed, he created, set the limits of, the purpose of God for all these nations will finally be fulfilled. Look at verse 24. The nations of them who are saved shall walk in the light of it. The kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. That’s why I believe the city will set on the earth. 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. Psalm 66.4 says, All the earth shall worship you. The Bible speaks even in the millennial reign of the Messiah that the nations will come from all over the earth to worship the Lord of Jerusalem. It’s amazing. Just walking through that, let me just suggest the following points. According to verse 24, there will be nations and kings on the earth who are saved. Secondly, the nations and kings on the earth are coming into the city. So apparently the city was designed for somebody other than them. So you say, well, who are these people? And if I’m following the word right, in Matthew 25, they would be the sheep nations, those nations that do treat Israel properly and do put their faith in the Messiah, the sheep nations who will populate the earth during the millennium, over which the believers and resurrected bodies will reign. These are the nations that will be on the earth and have access to the city. Access to the city, according to verse 25, is provided for all. And you can check Isaiah 60, verse 11, which we’re going to look at here in a moment. And another thing I notice is that all the glory and honor which the kings and nations have received is now to be brought into the city. Now turn to Isaiah chapter 60. Isaiah chapter 60. And look at verse 11. And it speaks about that messianic day. Verse 3 says that the nations, the Gentiles, shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising. When you look down at verse 11, it says, You know, it’s interesting. These verses are what Revelation is using to describe that eternal state. It takes the messianic passages of the Old Testament prophets and applies it to what we read in the book of Revelation about the heavenly city. Because of that, some people believe the heavenly city will come down to the earth during the millennium. There are people who believe that. And I think it’s very possible. Some people, because of the order of revelation, they see the millennium in chapter 20, believe that chapter 21, with its opening remark about heaven and earth passing away and no more sea, that somehow it does not reflect an earlier stage of things, but refers to the end of the millennium, so that we don’t have the heavenly city coming down from God until after the thousand-year reign of the Messiah. But I just warn us all about that. That’s very difficult to prove. We do know from 2 Peter 3 that we have a cataclysmic catastrophe as the world and the elements of the earth are dissolved. It’s blown sky high. How? We’re not told. But nuclear terms are used there. And we’re told that there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. It’s very possible that at the beginning of the millennium is when we have the heavenly city on the earth and all these sheep nations having access into it. We do know that the kingdom of the Messiah will be forever and ever. It’ll even be greater than a thousand years. So it’s possible that the heavenly city is on the earth during the millennium. It is the bride’s home, according to this passage. Let’s come back to Revelation chapter 21. We’ve mentioned that the place of worship will be the Lord himself. The presence of the Lord eliminates the need for any other sources of energy and light. And the purpose of God for all the nations is fulfilled. Another point would be that the protection of this city will eliminate all evil. Verse 27 says, there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither he that worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they are written in the Lamb’s book of life. There will be no evil in this city. A fifth thing I would mention is from chapter 22, verse 1 and 2. And that is the picture of eternal life is portrayed here, watch this carefully, by a river and by a tree. The picture of eternal life being forever with the Lord is portrayed by a tree and a river. Let’s look at the verses again. He showed me a pure river, chapter 22, verse 1, 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 12 kinds of fruits and yielded a fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Now, there are a lot of things about this. The purity of the river, it says a pure river. And apparently what we have intended here is a lot what we read over in chapter 22, verse 17. The spirit and the bride said, come and let him that hear us say come and let him that is a thirst come and whoever will let him take the water of life freely. Pure river because of the fact that it comes from the Lord, the fact that it contains eternal life. We do know the river proceeds out of the throne of God. That’s what it says in verse 1 of chapter 22. Kind of reminds me of Psalm 46. It’s interesting how many passages in the Old Testament are in the book of Revelation. In Psalm 46. We read these beautiful words in verse 4. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. Is there a river in this new city? Yes. The Old Testament spoke of it. So does the New. A wonderful river representing the water of life, representing eternal life. Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4, the water that I shall give you, you will never thirst again. It’s the water of everlasting life. Same thing is said in John 7, that Jesus would give us the water. It would be like an artesian well springing up unto everlasting life. It’s interesting the position of the river and the tree. I don’t know if you tried to map this out. And if you haven’t, I suggest you try. In the midst of the street of it, follow that? So apparently the river is going down the street in the middle of it. And on either side of the river is the tree of life. Is everybody with me? Watch this carefully. Verse 2. In the midst of the street of it and on either side of the river was the tree of life. Just one big tree. It also bears 12 kinds of fruit, fruit for every month, and its leaves are the healing of the nations. You say, what in the world? Turn to Ezekiel chapter 47. Ezekiel chapter 47. reading various rabbinical commentaries on this portion of Ezekiel, they didn’t know much about it any more than you and I trying to study it. It’s a very difficult passage. The last nine chapters of Ezekiel describe a temple and the city of Jerusalem unlike anything we have ever seen. And in chapter 47, verse 12, it says, Concerning this new temple and city that will be on the earth during the reign of the Messiah, it says, verse 12, “…by the river upon its bank on this side and on that side shall grow all trees, all trees for meat, food, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall its fruit be consumed.” It’s a symbol. It shall bring forth new fruit according to its months because their water is issued out of the sanctuary and its fruit shall be for meat and its leaf for medicine. What did it say in Revelation 22? It’s quoting this exact verse. The tree of life is going to bear 12 kinds of fruits coming every month and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. In other words, The tree of life, which was in the Garden of Eden, representing eternal life, that tree of life is also going to be in the heavenly city as God’s great symbol of everlasting life. A river and a tree representing God’s healing. and God giving us everlasting life. We are dependent totally upon God to nourish and sustain us with the fruit of the tree and with the water that we drink, and they are symbols of everlasting life. The two most basic functions of survival, drinking and eating, and God describes it in the sense of sustaining us forever and ever. We’re going to live forever. And one last thing about the involvement of believers. Look at verses 3 to 5. This is so wonderful. First, do you know that we shall struggle no more? I like this, verse 3, no more curse. We’re talking no more curse. No struggle anymore. Number two, we’re going to serve him. We’re just getting prepared for eternity. We’re going to serve the Lord forever and ever. Number three, don’t you love this? We shall see his face. Can you imagine? Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3, 2. Fanny Crosby, who was born blind and wrote hundreds and hundreds of hymns, penned these words when she read that. It was read to her, rather. She didn’t read it. She’s blind. But she used to have the Bible read to her over and over again. She had a phenomenal memory, apparently, and could grasp everything that she heard. And she would repeat it back. She wrote many, many wonderful songs based on the Scripture text that she had literally memorized by people reading it to her. When she heard, “‘They shall see his face.'” Boy, did she write a beautiful song. One day we’re going to see his face. And we’re also going to see without the lamp or the sun, which we mentioned earlier, but verse 5 repeats it, there’ll be no night there. We don’t need light of the sun, any kind of light, because the Lord God gives us light. And we’re also going to reign forever and ever with the Lord. It’ll never stop. Paul wrote, if only in this life we have hope, we are of all men most miserable. Aren’t you glad that we have a real hope? We got a heaven. It’s important to realize that when you go, whether by death or the rapture, you will not be returning to your home to check your MasterCard. You will not be picking up any of your belongings. You brought nothing into this world. It’s certain you’re not going to take anything out. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes unto the Father but by me. There is no other way than through the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER 04 : 19:32

That’s Bible teacher David Hawking, and this is Hope for Today. David will be back in just a bit to close out our time. But first, here’s his son, Matt. And together, we’re going to tell you about this month’s special home Bible study resource, perfect for the holiday.

SPEAKER 03 : 19:49

Matt. John tells us that the infinite, all-powerful God who made the universe became a man. God himself became flesh and lived for a while among us.

SPEAKER 04 : 19:57

Most of the world, though, refuses to believe that he is God. And even some who call themselves Christians are struggling with that. You may have heard a preacher proclaiming that Jesus is a sinner and needs to be saved. Yeah, and your dad in his book, Jesus Christ, The Reason, he recalls another example of one preacher stating that Jesus needs to be born again. He’s claiming that that is in scripture.

SPEAKER 03 : 20:18

And of course it’s not. And there is a not so subtle undermining in this country right now and in our Christian culture of the basic tenet of the gospel that Jesus is God.

SPEAKER 04 : 20:28

And the divinity of Jesus Christ is central to the true meaning of Christmas. Emmanuel. God with us. Yeah. Yeah. Foretold in the book of Isaiah and fulfilled in the gospel of Matthew.

SPEAKER 03 : 20:39

Well, bring the Christ of Christmas, Emmanuel, the greatest gift of all time, powerfully into your holiday this season with the Hope for Today Christmas Package.

SPEAKER 04 : 20:46

The Hope for Today Christmas Package includes David’s 87-page booklet, Jesus Christ, the Reason, plus a three-message miniseries by David that also carries that title, Jesus Christ, the Reason. And with this package, David will take you into God’s Word to discover afresh the wonder of our Savior, whose birth brought the greatest gift of all time to our lost world. Order the Hope for Today Christmas package for just $20. And prayerfully consider adding a donation to help us finish the year strong and ready for the new year. And please do pray for us whenever you hear Hope for Today. To get your copy of our special 2025 Christmas package from Hope for Today, we’re calling this the Jesus Christ the Reason Christmas Study Package, including David’s booklet, Jesus Christ the Reason, and three audio messages, a special mini-series also titled Jesus Christ the Reason, and the complete package, just $20. Call us at 875-BIBLE, that’s in the U.S., or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada, and Bible by the numbers… 242-53. You can also get the package on our website, davidhocking.org. That’s davidhocking.org. And just before David returns to close out our study time today, listen, if God has used this daily broadcast in your life, your year-end gift can help us continue teaching His Word clearly and without compromise as we enter 2026. We don’t want to be dramatic, but the truth is that your support right now really does make a difference in what we’re going to be doing in 2026, hopefully prayerfully reaching even more people with the truth of God’s Word and the truly life-changing message of the gospel. Thank you for joining us. Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO7OAKS, Abbotsford, B.C., V2SHP1. You can also donate by phone at 875-BIBLE, 888-75-BIBLE in Canada, and Bible again by the numbers 24253. And again, our website, davidhawking.org. Well, as promised, here’s David to close out our study.

SPEAKER 01 : 23:35

Thanks for listening today as we’ve been wrapping up the heavenly city. And I want to remind you that its foundations are incredible. Twelve gates are all one pearl, twelve pearls. And the street is pure gold, transparent glass. There’s no need for any moon, sun, or stars because it tells us in verse 23 that the glory of God. did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. Nations which are saved will walk in the light of it. Kings will bring their glory to it. The gates will never be shut. There’ll be no night there. And wow, nothing that is wicked or evil or works abomination or makes a lie, nothing like that will be in this city. Only ones in this city are those that are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Is your name written there? I know some of you listen, and you’re not really sure of your own relationship to the Lord. Listen, make sure. We’re running out of time. And I believe soon and very soon the Lord is going to return, and we’re going to spend eternity with Him. and you want to be a part of this heavenly city. I know you do. And the only way you can be, the only way you can enter the kingdom of God is by being born again of the Spirit of God, putting your faith and trust in the Messiah of Israel, our only hope. Stay with us because we’re going right into Revelation 22 in our next broadcast. God bless you.

SPEAKER 04 : 25:17

Well, thank you, David. And friend, if you missed any part of today’s program or perhaps a recent broadcast and you’d like to catch up, just go to our website, DavidHawking.org and click on the radio tab. You’ll find the last several broadcasts waiting there for you for a limited time. And by the way, while you’re at the website, be sure to take a look at all of the amazing Bible study resources from David that we have, video and audio teachings, downloadable books, and many free study resources, as well as books and booklets that you can purchase and help the Ministry of Hope for today. Well, next time on the program, it’s the final chapter of the Bible with day one of David’s message. Behold, I come quickly from Revelation 22, 6 to 21. The last words of scripture, well, they’re not whispers, are they? They’re a declaration, a declaration from the Lord Jesus himself, a promise, a warning, and a hope. Don’t miss this powerful time in God’s wonderful word right here on Hope for Today.