Revelation 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. "I saw the holy city." The words are allegorical of course. But they signify something in which we all believe. A city is a real thing. Not the less real if it be heavenly. "The holy city" is what we commonly call heaven. I. HEAVEN IS A STATE. It is not a place. It may or may not be connected with space: we know not. Certainly that is not its essence. Where God is, where Christ is, there is heaven. If even it have a place, that is not what makes it heaven. Even already, even in this life, we have had experience that neither place nor yet circumstance is a condition of happiness. Such glimpses of happiness as we catch below, whether in others or in ourselves, are absolutely independent of both. Heaven is a state — a state of happiness; of perfect satisfaction for the whole man, in body, soul, and spirit; the entire absence for ever of all that is painful and bitter and sorrowful, and the conscious, the pervading presence of all that is restful and delightful and blessed. II. HEAVEN IS A SOCIETY. On the one side we have had trying experiences in this world of companies and co-existences which were not delightful. The wear and tear of life, the rubs and jars of life, the annoyances and wearinesses of life, are connected in our "thoughts not with solitude but with society. But when we speak of heaven, of the Holy City, as a society, we must carefully exclude all these experiences. In heaven there will be perfect communion of mind with mind, heart with heart, spirit with spirit. 1. In his vision of the great multitude which no man could number he gives this as the history of them all (Revelation 7:14). 2. There will be this also — a unity of employment (Revelation 14:4; Revelation 22:3). There will be no monotony there — but there will be unbroken harmony; harmony not of praise only but of work. 3. This unity of memory, and this unity of employment in the holy city, will be, further, and yet more briefly, a unity of worship. (Dean Vaughan.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. |
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