For many people, the Christmas season stirs up powerful feelings. Psychologists have identified five main elements of the “Christmas spirit”. They include a sense of joy and well-being, freedom from negative emotions like sadness or annoyance, a carefree attitude, love for traditions and customs, and enjoyment of the shopping and gift-giving experience. Christmas triggers such strong nostalgia. The lights, the music, the gatherings, they all point toward something we feel we’ve lost or never quite had. Even people who’ve abandoned Christianity can’t shake the sense that life should feel more meaningful, peaceful, and connected than it does on any other ordinary day.
But for many others, Christmas is the most depressing time of year. The gap between the cultural ideal, perfect families, joyful celebrations, and their actual reality is too painful. Broken relationships, financial stress, grief, loneliness in a season designed for togetherness gets magnified in December. When everyone around you seems merry and you feel miserable, the isolation cuts deep.
Both the nostalgia and the depression tell us something true about ourselves. We were made for something better than this broken world offers, and we’re not there yet.
This morning, we are not turning to a sentimental Christmas passage, but to the closing vision of Scripture itself. The Book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible. Through vivid visions it reveals the risen Christ ruling history and exposing the deep corruption of evil. It shows Him strengthening His church and defeating every power that rises against His rule. Worldly kingdoms collapse, judgment is certain, and God’s saving purpose moves unstoppably toward final restoration. By the final vision every tear is wiped away, and death, mourning, and pain are gone. In verses 22 through 27, John is shown the final form of the city where God dwells with His people. It’s a city where light never fades, where gates never close, and where holiness is finally secure.
This passage shows where every true Christmas longing is heading and why Christ truly had to come. The baby who lays in the Bethlehem manger is the Lamb, Jesus Christ, who opens the city of God. The Light who entered the darkness is the Light of Heaven, by whom the nations will walk forever. We’re going to see how the Christmas story connects to eternity. Continuing his description of the heavenly city, the Apostle John writes…
Revelation 21:22 NASB I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
God Dwells With Us Directly (v. 22)
Throughout history people have built temples, sacred places where heaven meets earth and we try to come near to God. The Jerusalem temple was not just another religious building. It was the one place God Himself chose to dwell among His people. It was the center of worship and the place of sacrifice. It was the meeting point of forgiveness and fellowship, where God’s presence and glory were uniquely revealed. But John looks at the eternal city and sees something shocking. There is no temple, because when God dwells there with His people without barriers, no building is needed.
The old temple had courts and walls that kept people at different distances from God. Gentiles, non-Jews, were kept farthest away. Women could come closer. Jewish men closer still. Only priests could enter certain areas. And only the high priest could enter the innermost room called the Holy of Holies, and only once a year. All of those layers of restriction and barriers existed because sinful people cannot approach a holy God without dying.
But verse 22 tells us that in the eternal city, God and the Lamb are the temple. There are no barriers, no restricted access, and no walls to keep people out. The redeemed, those who’ve been saved, stand directly in God’s presence without fear. This has always been God’s ultimate purpose. The world Christ came to make is a world where nothing separates us anymore, and…
God is always near.
This is what began at Christmas.
John 1:14 NASB And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
That word “dwelt” literally means “pitched His tent” or “tabernacled.” God wasn’t entering a building, He was moving into human flesh. When Jesus walked the earth, wherever He was, God was present. Even Jesus, Himself talked about His body as the temple, God dwelling with humanity.
John 2:19 NASB Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
The baby born at Christmas was God closing the distance. And His work, living the perfect life we couldn’t live, dying the death we deserved, rising victorious over sin and death, removed every barrier that kept us away from God. The Christmas story was the first step toward Revelation 21:22, where we don’t need a building because we have Him.
Revelation 21:23 NASB And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
God’s Glory Is the Light and the Lamb Is the Lamp (v. 23)
This is not poetry, it is reality. The new creation will have no need of a sun or moon because God’s glory itself will provide all the light needed. We instinctively imagine light as coming from a bulb, a fire, or the stars. But light does not only exist when it comes from a visible source. Even when we call it dark, light is still being emitted all around us, beyond what our eyes can perceive. Genesis says God created light first, and only later appointed the sun and moon to govern it and mark time. These luminaries were never the source of light itself but merely servants of light. And Scripture teaches that God Himself is light.
1 John 1:5 NASB This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
Not just that He has light or gives light, He is light in His very nature. Notice the precise wording in Revelation 21:23: “the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” The glory belongs to God. But the Lamb, Jesus, is the lamp that displays that glory. He’s like a lampstand that holds and shows the light. In His humanity, Jesus makes God’s invisible glory visible to us. At Christmas, John 1:14 says, “We saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.” The incarnation, God becoming human, means that God did not merely send light into the world. He stepped into it Himself, wrapping His glory in human flesh so that sinners could look upon Him and live. Which is why Jesus said,
John 8:12 NASB "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."
In Heaven there is no sun and no moon, yet no shadow and no fear, because there is a Light that never goes out. The world Christ came to make is a world where the…
The light never fades.
This is why we string lights everywhere at Christmas, even if we don’t realize why. When we illuminate our homes against the winter darkness, we are expressing a deep longing. Often unconsciously, we are longing for the Light that never goes out. Every Christmas light is pointing, however dimly, toward a greater reality. One day we will see the city that needs no sun because God’s glory fills it completely. The angels announced when Jesus was born:
Luke 2:14 NASB "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
That glory born in Bethlehem will one day fill the eternal city so completely that no other light source will ever be needed. What began at Christmas, God entering our darkness as the Light of the world, will one day be completed. It will become perfect, endless day where night never falls again.
The Nations Walk by the Lamb’s Light (v. 24)
Revelation 21:24 NASB The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
Throughout the book of Revelation, “the nations” have been rebels against God. They rage, follow evil, and make war against Christ. But here they’re walking peacefully in His light, bringing their treasures and achievements as gifts to Him. What happened? The nations that persisted in rebellion were judged and sentenced to eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire. But there will be people who once belonged these nations that were washed, forgiven, and transferred into Christ kingdom.
The phrase “walk by its light” means more than just physically moving around. It means they’re submitting to His authority, following His leadership, orienting their entire lives around Him. These nations that once walked in spiritual darkness now walk in Christ’s light under His rule. Because the world Christ came to make is a world where…
Human culture is not discarded but purified.
This is why Christmas and peace are so connected. The angels sang, “Peace on earth.” Our Christmas carols echo it. Even people who don’t believe in God sense that Christmas should involve peace, goodwill, reconciliation. But the hard truth we have to face is that world peace will not happen until the nations submit to Christ.
All conflict, between individuals, between groups, between nations, ultimately flows from sin. Sin is rebellion against God, and that rebellion creates chaos everywhere. You can’t have genuine, lasting peace among people who are at war with God. Every attempt to build peace without dealing with sin fails eventually, because we’re treating symptoms instead of the disease.
The baby born at Christmas came to die, to “make peace through the blood of His cross,” as Colossians 1:20 says. First, peace with God. Then, because we have peace with God, peace becomes possible between people. Ephesians 2:14-15 says Jesus broke down the dividing wall between groups that hated each other and made them “one new man.”
What started at Christmas was God’s mission to reconcile rebellious nations to Himself. It is completed in Revelation 21:24, where they finally walk in His light. Verse 26 adds that they bring “the glory and the honor of the nations into it.” This suggests that art, music, technology, and human achievements are not wasted. Your work matters eternally when you do it for Christ. They’ll be purified and presented to Him because the gates will never be closed.
The Gates Never Close (v. 25)
Revelation 21:25 NASB In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed;
In the ancient world, cities closed their gates at night to protect themselves from enemies. Closed gates meant danger and uncertainty, but open gates meant peace and safety. Yet this city’s gates never close, because every enemy has been defeated. Satan is gone, death is destroyed, and evil is confined forever. This is perfect security. But open gates do more than promise safety; they also declare a permanent welcome. If your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life, you never have to fear arriving too late or finding the entrance shut. You can be confident because the world Christ came to make is a world where…
The gates stand open because nothing hostile remains.
When God created the first man and woman they lived in perfect harmony with God and creation. God gave them everything and asked only for trust and obedience in one command, reminding them that He was God and they were His creatures. When they chose to rebel against God’s one command sin entered the world, and innocence vanished. Guilt, shame, and fear replaced peace and joy. Fellowship with God could no longer remain open and unguarded. Sin closed the gates of paradise. Genesis 3:24 says God “stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.” The gates of Eden were shut and guarded.
God’s mission at Christmas was to reopen those gates by Christ becoming one of us. Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved” (John 10:9). At Christmas, the Door entered our world. At Easter, the Door opened through His death and resurrection. At the end of history, those who entered through Him find gates that never close behind them.
But we must remember: the gates are open now, but they won’t stay open forever. Death closes them for individuals. Christ’s return will close them for all humanity. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “Now is the day of salvation.” Today, the invitation stands, but tomorrow may be too late. The Bible never speaks of another opportunity after death or hints at a spiritual “do-over.” Instead, it repeatedly stresses urgency. Hebrews 9:27 tells us that “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” Jesus described a “great chasm fixed” after death that no one can cross (Luke 16:26). In Matthew 25, when the Son of Man returns, destinies are already set, eternal life or eternal punishment. Revelation 20 shows no appeals, no reversals, no second probation, only final judgment. In every judgment scene in Scripture, decision belongs to this life, not after it.
And because that is true, the Bible speaks the way it does. Paul says “Now is the day.” Hebrews pleads, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.” Isaiah urges, “Seek the Lord while He may be found.” The New Testament urgency exists because there are no second chances beyond death. God has been unbelievably patient with you. Every breath you’ve taken has been mercy. Every sermon you’ve heard has been grace. Every stirring of your conscience has been kindness drawing you. But kindness rejected eventually becomes judgment.
Christmas means the gates have opened. God has come near. The Light has entered the darkness and the invitation is real. But Christmas also reminds us that history is moving forward. The Child in the manger is the Judge on the throne ensuring that nothing unclean enters His new world.
Nothing Unclean Enters (v. 26-27)
Revelation 21:26-27 NASB and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
The tone shifts dramatically here, reminding us that God’s standard has not changed. The word “unclean” means defiled, contaminated by sin. In the Old Testament, unclean things couldn’t enter God’s temple or approach His presence. The same principle applies here: nothing corrupted by sin can enter where God dwells in His full glory. “Abomination” refers to what is disgusting to God, idolatry, sexual immorality, injustice, religious hypocrisy. “Lying” isn’t just telling falsehoods but living a lie, pretending to be righteous while harboring unrepentant sin.
Notice carefully: “no one who practices abomination and lying.” The grammar here indicates continuous, habitual action. This isn’t talking about Christians who stumble and sin and then repent. It’s talking about people whose lives are defined by settled patterns of sin without genuine repentance or sorrow.
Many people have a vague hope that God will accept them because they’re “basically good” or they “tried their best.” But God’s standard isn’t improvement or sincerity, it’s perfection. The world Christ came to make is a world where…
Evil will never return
Heaven is not heaven if sin still follows us there. If sin comes with us, then pain comes with us. Betrayal comes with us. Abuse, hypocrisy, pride, lust, manipulation, shame , all of it would still be there. And nobody calls that heaven. God’s promise is not only that we will be with Him, but that everything that ruins love, destroys trust, and wounds hearts will be gone forever.
Imagine a husband who has loved his wife faithfully, working, providing, and holding his family life together. He has been loyal, stayed when it was hard, and carried burdens she will never know about. Then one day he discovers she has been giving her time, affection, and heart to another man, and using his money to do it. She laughs, shrugging it off, saying, “Relax. I still love you. I just love him too.” Every husband in this room feels that heat in his chest. That is not a “complicated relationship.” It is betrayal of the worst kind, the kind of wound that makes you sick to your stomach, because something sacred has been spit on.
Now multiply that by infinity. Because the God who made you, sustains you, protects you, and gives you every breath watches people He loves hand their devotion to money, sex, pleasure, ego, comfort, and self , and still say, “Relax, God.” Idolatry is not harmless spirituality. It is adultery against a faithful God, and He is not neutral toward it. Would you be neutral towards your husband or wife whose heart is divided between you and their lover? Not if you loved them.
Some of us are here today because someone loves us enough to drag us here. And you may not care. You may think Christianity is sentimental… soft… optional. You work hard, carry responsibility, fix problems, and you are not weak. But listen , strength that never bows to God is not strength, it is pride. And pride damns good husbands and good providers just as surely as addiction destroys addicts. No soldier sleeps through warning sirens. No firefighter ignores the alarm. No sane man shrugs when a doctor walks in and says, “This is terminal unless we act now.” So why would any thinking man shrug when the God who made you says eternity is real, judgment is certain, and you are not ready? You will not be tough when you die. You will not be strong at your judgment. You will not be sleeping in Hell. And I am not saying this to insult you. I am saying it because I care about your soul. If God does not judge your sin, He isn’t a God worthy of respect.
Here is perfectly holy God whose justice demands that sin be punished. Every man in this room knows that justice is not optional. If a husband discovered that kind of betrayal and simply laughed it off, we would not call him loving. We would call him weak, broken, and morally twisted. Do you really think that the God who gave you those moral instincts is less offended than you would be? On the contrary “He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed” (Acts 17:30-31). And “you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Romans 2:5).
But here is our problem: no sinner survives Judgment Day. Revelation has already shown us what happens when sinners stand before a holy God on their own record. There is only wrath, only justice, only eternal punishment. And that punishment is not symbolic. It is conscious, deserved, unending judgment. A finite sin against an infinite God carries infinite consequence because it is an assault against infinite worth. If you think eternal punishment is too severe, it is because you still underestimate the seriousness of sin and the greatness of God.
So how could we ever enter a world where nothing unclean enters? How could we stand before a God who will not bend His justice one inch? How could we hope to walk through gates that never close when our lives prove we deserve to be shut out?
How the Incarnation Solved the Impossible Problem
That is why Christmas matters. The incarnation, God becoming a man, was not sentimental. It was the first step in God’s rescue plan. God Himself took on human flesh so that humanity could finally have a righteous representative. Scripture tells us we all fell in Adam because he represented the whole human race before God. His sin became our ruin.
Picture a leader who stands up and calls his people to revolt against their rightful king. He shouts, “We don’t want him ruling us!” And the crowd cheers, follows, throws rocks, storms the palace, tears down banners, and claims independence. When judgment comes, it is not just on the man who led the revolt. It falls on the crowd who joined him, agreed with him, and participated in his rebellion. Adam raised the first shout of rebellion. But every time we sin, we are not victims of his moment, we are volunteers in his revolution. We prove we agree with our representative.
But in grace, God sent a second Adam, a new representative. Where Adam disobeyed, Jesus obeyed. Where Adam fell, Jesus stood. Where Adam brought condemnation, Jesus brings justification. God declares guilty sinners righteous because of Jesus. Jesus lived the life we should have lived, perfectly righteous in human flesh. Then He took our place under judgment and died the death we deserved to die. The cross was not a tragic accident. It was penal substitution. Jesus took the penalty we deserved so we could receive the mercy we didn’t deserve. God poured His wrath on Christ instead of pouring it on us. Justice was not ignored; it was satisfied. Sin was not excused; it was punished in full. God remained perfectly holy while opening mercy to sinners.
And Jesus did not stay dead. The resurrection declared the payment accepted. The ascension declared His authority established. Jesus didn’t just rise, He rose to rule. Jesus is not a soft-spoken life coach asking the world to try harder. He is not a gentle mascot for tolerance, wearing a dress and flashing a peace sign. The risen Christ is a King who conquered death, disarmed Hell, and now rules history with a rod of iron. The same Jesus who was laid in a manger is the Jesus Revelation shows with eyes like fire, a voice like thunder, and a sword coming from His mouth. That is not hippie imagery. That is war imagery. He now reigns as the Lamb who was slain, the Judge who saves, and the King who welcomes sinners home. So how does anyone enter this holy city? John tells us plainly:
Revelation 21:27 NASB and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Only those whom the Lamb has claimed as His own. And here is the good news: if you come to Christ, your name is not written in pencil. It is written in blood and never erased. No one sneaks into Heaven or gets lost along the way. Every name written is a soul secured.
But if you hear this good news and walk away unchanged, do not comfort yourself. Scripture says you are not neutral. You are storing up wrath. Every gospel refusal is another shovelful of dirt on your own grave. You’re not postponing judgment, you’re piling it on yourself. And when that avalanche of holy rage finally breaks loose, you won’t be buried under it, you’ll be crushed by it.
God humbled Himself to enter the world He created. He bore flesh. He bore mockery. He bore nails. He bled out on Roman wood for sins He didn’t commit. And to look at that, at the God of the universe naked, gasping, dying in your place, and shrug? That’s not merely unbelief. That is insult of the highest order against the God who came near to save you.
The gates are open now and the invitation is real. Christ stands ready to cleanse, forgive, and write your name where it can never be removed. But the open gates of grace will not always remain open. Death will close them for you. Christ’s return will close them for everyone. So come to Christ while mercy still speaks. Trust Him, run to Him, bow to Him. Because the only people who walk the streets of that city forever are those covered by His blood and claimed by His love.
