Summary of passage: John is carried away by an angel to see the bride, wife of the Lamb.
Questions:
3) He’s carried away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high to see the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
4a) Revelation 1:10-11: John was told to write what he sees and send it to the 7 churches. Obviously important as Jesus has a message for the churches and the body of Christ.
Revelation 4:2: John saw the throne in heaven. Important to see God reigning on the throne of heaven and what heaven is like.
Revelation 17:3: John sees the woman sitting on a beast covered in blasphemous names with 7 heads and 10 horns. Important to see God’s enemies and what happens to unbelievers and His enemies.
Revelation 21:9-10: John’s carried away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high to see the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Important to see the future world, of what Christians have to look forward to, and how God wins.
b) In Revelation 17, we see what happens to sinners and unbelievers and in Revelation 21 we see believers’ reward: eternal life in the Holy City. 17 is a warning. 21 is a promise.
5) Personal Question. My answer: I didn’t know there were so many ways to ask the same question (Similar questions in Lesson 22 Day 2 & Day 3, Lesson 23 Day 2. I know this world is temporary and what I have to look forward to is infinitely better than what is here.
Conclusions: Nice review of when John was “in the Spirit”. Question 5 was a repeat.
End Notes: Passages like this give scholars reason to suggest the Holy City is just a symbol. However, it is not. This is the place where all of God’s people are gathered. It is beautiful like a bride. We saw this in Revelation 21:2 as well–almost the same words and images.
This is another vision. John is taken to watch God’s Holy City descend from heaven. Revelation 19:7-8 says the marriage of the Lamb has come and the bride is ready. The bride is the saints, God’s holy people, and the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. So we have God’s people and now we see where God’s people shall dwell.
We’ll see more details of the New Jerusalem in the rest of this chapter.
