This Sunday’s passage is Revelation 21:9-22:5. It places us in the fourth and final Spirit-induced trance. John’s vision is, most notably, about the New Jerusalem. It is a New City created by God and descends from the New Heaven onto the New Earth. It is a huge city! Bigger than our minds can imagine!
And you know what? It’s not only a city, but a city with an urban garden! The river flows from God’s throne and Jesus the Lamb will be the light. The river is the life-giving river. On either side of the river, trees with leaves that heal the nations.
The thing that strikes me the most about this city with its beautiful garden is that the effects of sin-death, destruction, war, hate, lust, greed, etc.-will be banished from it. Those effects of the curse brought to us in another Garden by our first parents-Adam and Eve-have no place in this new city.
Until that day when all will be made new, let us be encouraged by these words written for a frightened people in the 1st century world. May we bring a glimpse of this New City now, through the power of the Holy Spirit. May we be fueled by the life-giving water that flows from God’s throne and may the light of Jesus shine in us as we confront the spiritual and physical forces of evil. May we be used by God, like the leaves of the trees in the New City surrounding the river, to be agents of healing, love, and peace to our broken world.
Christ’s Peace,
Pastor T. Wes