21:1

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.

Read Isaiah 65:17 to 66:24 and who do you think gets the earth in this new set-up? In case you are challenged make note of how Deuteronomy 4:19 makes you wonder. Now, as some Bible teachers have taught, Zhodiates, for example, is this merely a remaking of the quality or is it literally something more drastic, as in new being new? Read 2 Peter 3:1-13. It’s going to be a lot different than anything we know, that I believe. The reference to “no more sea” is peculiar as is the reference in Job 26:5 to “dead” things being “formed” under the waters. If the sea is a reference to the oceans or the Mediterranean Sea or as some have insisted a reference to the sea of outer space, I don’t know, as in “The face of the deep is frozen” Job 38:30. Another reference is the “sea of glass” in Revelation 4:6 and 15:2 perhaps separating the third heaven, the dwelling place of God, (see 2 Corinthians 12:2) from the earth, the first heaven where the birds fly, and the second heaven of space. But, whatever it is, it shall be no more.

21:2

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

See Galatians 4:26 & Hebrews 12:22 as possible references to this. Galatians 4:26 and this verse might show us where the church, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ will live for eternity. Read Revelation 21:10. Remember, this is after the wedding feast in Revelation 19 and the return of Christ to earth with his bride to enact judgment in the same chapter. Note how he refers to his bride in the Song of Solomon as “terrible as an army with banners” twice, in 6:4 and in 6:10. Notice how this heavenly army that we are a part of operates in Joel 2:1-11 when God assembles the nations together for his vengeance as in Zephaniah 3:8 and his judgment of the nations in Joel 3:9-17 and Matthew 25:31-46. 

21:3

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.

Read Isaiah 60:19,20. Hebrews 8:5 with reference to how what God showed Moses perhaps was a representation of what is in heaven. Read 1 Corinthians 2:9.Read 2 Corinthians 12:1-4. It just makes me wonder about a new earth for the Jew, a new heavens for the gentile and a new Jerusalem for the church, the same three divisions of mankind referenced in 1 Corinthians 10:32. Note right now, that we, in this flesh, have no part of the heavens according to God; Psalm 115:16, and the heavens that exist at this point are not even said to be good like the rest of creation if you notice that the phrase “and God saw that it was good” is missing from the second day of creation in Genesis 1:8 and Job says that the stars are not pure in his sight in Job 25:5.

21:4

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.

God wipes away all tears destroys death. Remember, Satan, who has power over death in Hebrews 2:14, death itself and hell, are cast into the lake of fire in Revelation 20:13-14. You know that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who has the keys of hell and death in Revelation 1:18 and He came to destroy the works of the devil as in 1 John 3:8.. Read Isaiah 25:7-8.

2

Revelation 7:17. Neither sorrow. Psalm 90:10. Nor crying.

Psalm 69:3. No more pain. Psalm 25:18. They’re gone. We always have had that promise of former things being passed away as in 2 Corinthians 5:17.

21:5

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.

“Faithful and True” is His name in Revelation 19:11 as we return with Him to the earth. He is the “faithful and true witness” in Revelation 3:14.

21:6

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.

Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Alpha comes from Aleph in Hebrew which originally was a pictogram of a Bull, it’s original meaning before God demanded in the second commandment that no graven image or likeness of anything was to be made and by that order ordained the alphabet according to Marc-Alain Ouaknin in his “Mysteries of the Alphabet” (which, being a scholar and not a believer he attributes to Moses alone). It is now believed that the alphabet began with the Hebrews and was simply spread by the Phoenicians. The Phoencians used to get credit for it.  Remember, one of the things that God commanded the Hebrews to destroy in Canaan was the Canaanites’ “pictures” in Numbers 33:52. This letter in Hebrew had an original meaning of “primal energy” and a derivative meaning of “strength”, “possibility”, and, of course, “beginning” and an acquired meaning in Hebrew of “prince” and “champion”. Omega, the last Greek letter corresponds to the Hebrew letter Ayin, which originally derived from the pictogram of an eye.  Notice He is the first and the last in Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; 48:12; Revelation 1:8; & 22:13.

21:7

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

Who is he that “overcometh”? We read about this in Revelation 2:7,11, 17, 26; 3:5,12,21 but the answer is found in 1 John 5:4,5. This is the condition for inheriting all things and being God’s child. Read John 1:12. Remember in Psalm 37:11 and Matthew 5:5 when it says “the meek shall inherit the earth” and in Numbers 12:3 we are told that Moses, a man who led a nation and started out after killing an Egyptian and right after fought off some shepherds who were harassing some women in Exodus 2, “..very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth”, would indicate to us that the Biblical quality of meekness doesn’t refer as much to being weak before men as it does being obedient, willing to obey and trust in, God, as in Psalm 25:9. And remember also what Jesus called doing the work of God in John 6:28,29.

21:22

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

Right now, the body of every believer is the temple of the God the spirit as in 1 Corinthians 6:19. We don’t now have a physical temple of stone and wood as Jesus made note of in this dialogue with the woman at the well in John 4:19-26.

21:23

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.

3

Read Isaiah 60:19-20 again. A word study on “light” in relation to Christ in the gospels is very revealing.

21:24

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.

As we can see there will be people living on the earth in eternity who will honor God in the New Jerusalem.

21:25

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

There can be no night when God is present. Read Romans 13:12, and 1 John 1:5.

21:26

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

Notice what the 24 elders do around the throne in heaven in Revelation 4:10, 11 where you find out why you and all things were created.

21:27

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.

The things that can’t enter the New Jerusalem are the essence of what Satan and his rebellion with us against God is about as in John 8:44. While James 2:10 tells us that to violate one point of God’s law is to violate all of them, the Bible does refer to things called “abominations”. There are certain creatures under the law that are an abomination as in Leviticus, chapter 11. There are sexual behaviors that are an abomination such as homosexuality in 18:22 and 20:13 of Leviticus. Graven images are an abomination in Deuteronomy 7:25. Witchcraft, astrology, using divination, seances, and fortunetellers are an abomination in Deuteronomy 18:10-14. By association in Leviticus 18, beastiality and all incestuous acts are abominations. In the New Testament the category of what is an abomination in God’s eyes is much, much broader. Read Luke 16:15.

The book of life can be found in Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; 13:8;17:8; 20:12,15.. Also note this reference; Exodus 32:31-33.