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True Words Baptist Church — Revelation 21:5
BOOK 66 OF 66 · PROPHECY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Revelation 21

Revelation book home•Chapter 21 of 22•27 verses
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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Revelation 21 Overview

John sees a new heaven and new earth, with the holy city, new Jerusalem, descending from God. God dwells with His people, wipes away every tear, abolishes death, sorrow, crying, and pain, and makes all things new. The city shines with divine glory, has twelve gates named for Israel’s tribes and twelve foundations named for the apostles, and needs no temple or sun because God and the Lamb are its temple and light.

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21Chapter
27Verses
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Before you read Revelation 21

Coming from

An angel binds Satan for a thousand years, during which he cannot deceive the nations as before. John sees thrones and those who were beheaded for Christ living and reigning with Him; this is called the first resurrection. After the thousand years Satan is released, deceives Gog and Magog, is finally cast into the lake of fire, and the dead stand before the great white throne for final judgment.

In this chapter

John sees a new heaven and new earth, with the holy city, new Jerusalem, descending from God. God dwells with His people, wipes away every tear, abolishes death, sorrow, crying, and pain, and makes all things new. The city shines with divine glory, has twelve gates named for Israel’s tribes and twelve foundations named for the apostles, and needs no temple or sun because God and the Lamb are its temple and light.

Leads into

Revelation closes with the river of water of life flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb, the tree of life, healing of the nations, and the removal of the curse. God’s servants see His face and reign forever. Jesus repeatedly says He comes quickly, invites the thirsty to take the water of life freely, warns against adding to or taking from the prophecy, and ends with the prayer, ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus.’

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter intentionally joins Israel and the apostles in the city’s architecture, reflecting continuity in God’s redemptive plan without erasing their distinct names.

The city’s dimensions and jewels may carry symbolic meaning, but they are presented as part of a real final dwelling of God with His people.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

God’s final goal is dwelling with His people

The tabernacle of God is with men.

The curse’s effects are reversed

Death, sorrow, crying, and pain are gone.

God makes all things new

The final state is renewal, not merely escape from creation.

The Lamb remains central forever

He is the city’s temple and light with God.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Isaiah 65:17–19

Isaiah foretells new heavens/new earth and joy in Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 48:30–35

Ezekiel’s restored city with tribal gates and ‘The LORD is there’ anticipates this vision.

2 Peter 3:13

Peter also looks for new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not reduce the new creation to disembodied heaven

John sees a renewed heaven and earth and a city descending.

Do not erase Israel because the apostles are present, or erase the apostles because Israel is present

Both are explicitly named.

Do not make the city’s beauty the main point while missing God’s presence

The greatest promise is that God dwells with His people.

Read Revelation 21 watching for…

New heaven and new earth.

The city descending.

God wiping away tears.

The gates and foundations.

The absence of a temple.

God and the Lamb as light.

TWBC REVIEW STANDARD

Plain language. Scripture first. Fact distinguished from inference. No filler. No fake certainty. Designed to help you read the Bible itself.

Chapter outline4 sections
1-8John sees a new heaven, a new earth, and new Jerusalem as God makes all things new9-14An angel shows John the bride, the holy Jerusalem, with twelve gates and twelve foundations15-21The city, wall, gates, foundations, and precious materials are measured and described22-27God and the Lamb are the city’s temple and light, and only those written in the Lamb’s book of life enter it
1

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

6

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

7

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

8

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

9

And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

10

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

11

Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

12

And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

13

On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

14

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15

And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

16

And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

17

And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

18

And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

19

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, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;

20

The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

21

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

22

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

23

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 thereof.

24

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

25

And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

26

And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

27

And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

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Revelation 21:12

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