No More Night

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. 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. 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. Rev 21: 3-5

​And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 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. Rev. 21:22-23

“A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH”

​Here is a vision of the new creation. This is the “restitution of all things” to which Peter refers in Act_3:21, and the deliverance of creation from the bondage of corruption which Paul anticipates in Rom_8:21. No words can portray in positive description what that universe will be, and even the inspired writer has to confine himself to negatives. All he does is to name various elements of terror and dread, saying: This shall not be there, nor that, nor the other, all of which are the fell brood of human sin. The one great positive blessing will be that which was given to Israel in type, but then will be the perpetual experience of the human family.

Compare Rev_21:3 and Exo_25:8.
Exo 25:8  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
Rev 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.

Let us see to it that here and now the Lord Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the A and Z of our life. If so, we may even in this mortal life begin to experience the life of the redeemed. We may now inherit all these things, and know the intimacy of Rev_21:7. But we must overcome. Note that the fearful, that is, the cowardly, who draw back in the face of opposition, are classed with the abominable and murderers.
[F.B. Meyer]
​Rev 21:7  He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

All Things Made New
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. Rev 21:5

And he that sat upon the throne said - Not to St. John only. From the first mention of "him that sat upon the throne," Rev 4:2, this is the first speech which is expressly ascribed to him. And he - The angel. Saith to me Write - As follows. These sayings are faithful and true - This includes all that went before. The apostle seems again to have ceased writing, being overcome with ecstasy at the voice of him that spake.  [John Wesley]

"A new heaven and new earth Rev_21:1, and an order of things to correspond with that new creation.
Rev 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. 
The former state of things when sin and death reigned will be changed, and the change consequent on this must extend to everything.
And he said unto me, Write - Make a record of these things, for they are founded in truth, and they are adapted to bless a suffering world. Rev_14:13. See also Rev_1:19.
Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
Rev 1:19  Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.
For these words are true and faithful - They are founded in truth, and they are worthy to be believed."  Rev_19:9.   [Albert Barnes]
​Rev 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

Victory of the Overcomer
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Rev 21:7

This chapter speaks of the winding up of God’s dealings with the world, and of the final outcome of that process of trial and discipline which has been going on throughout the long ages of human history. Consider--
I. The promise: "He that overcometh shall inherit all things." Those who long for the knowledge of God and for the enjoyment of God, those who consider God the highest good, to be obtained at all risks and at any cost, will be of necessity involved in a contest with the forces of this world. Their longing makes them warriors; their determination to find their way into their proper spiritual element, which is God, compels them to encounter and to overcome the intervening obstacles which lie between them and the object of their desire. Self wishes to be lord, and forbids Christ to be Lord. We have to resist self. We have conflict, too, with the outer world, with the society in which we move; conflict with the devil, with many a misgiving about God, with many a perverted thought about the Gospel, with many a dark surmising, all of which have their origination with the father of lies.
II. But it is not enough to be engaged in this conflict: we must be victorious in it. The promises are to him that overcomes. We must not fight and be beaten; we must fight and overcome. Our thirsting for God must make God everything to us. To serve Him, to please Him, to be like Him, must be our paramount desire, overriding every other feeling and carrying us triumphantly through all the opposition that stands in the way. It is something to find at last, when all is over, when the life-task is completed, that we have achieved a success. Such is the statement of the passage. We have not missed our aim; we have not made a great miscalculation. There is a result, and a great and magnificent one, to the course upon which we have entered. We have aimed at the possession of God, and have gained it. "I will be his God, and he shall be My son."
III. We pass on now to consider the opposite side of the picture. Look at those who lead the van of this black company. In the forefront we notice persons whom perhaps we should not have expected to find there: the "fearful" and the "unbelieving." The saved are the men of courage. They have feared nothing but God, and displeasing God. The fearful are the moral cowards, who have shrunk from what is displeasing to flesh and blood, and who have not been willing to take up the cross to follow Christ. The one class were athirst for God; they longed for God, for the possession and enjoyment of God, and this strong, irrepressible longing led them into conflict with the forces of evil, and in the end brought them triumphantly through. But the others cared nothing about the possession of God. The world, in some shape or other, was what they really were anxious to secure, and so they had no more strength to sustain them in the controversy with evil; and hence, instead of overcoming, they were overcome: instead of being courageous on the side of God, they were fearful, and fell under the power of evil. And notice into what fearful companionship their moral cowardice has brought them. They are linked with the bloodthirsty, and unclean, and impure, and false, and cast with them into the pool which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
[G. Calthrop, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 987]

No More Night
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 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. Rev. 21:22-23

And I saw no temple therein. John saw no temple in the city, such as at Jerusalem. It was all temple. God and the Lamb were present in it everywhere and every spot was holy. Wherever the knee was bowed the Lord was present to see and hear. The whole of the New Jerusalem will be an abode of praise.

And the city had no need of the sun. Night never settles down to shut out its splendor, and eternal light, springing from the brightness of God and the Lamb, precludes the need of a sun or moon.

And the nations . . . walk in the light of it. The redeemed of all nations enjoy the light of the city.

The kings. The idea is that all who have earthly dignities and honors shall make them offerings to the New Jerusalem.

And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day. The gates were never shut. This implies, first, that the city has no fear of any foes. These have all been conquered and subdued. The struggles have been ended forever and no enemies remain to invade its happy precincts. It implies, in the second place, that "the nations of the saved" can always enter. There is always admittance freely to those "who have the right to enter in through the gate into the city."

They shall bring the glory and the honor. All nations are represented as contributing to increase its glory, as the nations pay tribute to an earthly capital.

There shall in no wise enter. Nothing sinful or unclean shall ever enter, "neither whatever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they that are written in the Lamb's book of life." [B.W. Johnson]

"​​The “new Jerusalem” is the redeemed Church united with her Lord in the act of governing the whole world. A city is obviously the seat of imperial rule. In that blessed condition the saints will rule the earth as the powers of darkness rule it now. We shall enjoy the fellowship of the good and great of every age. In a literal sense we shall be fellow-citizens with the saints. All ages and dispensations will blend there. Angels at the gates; the names of the twelve tribes and twelve Apostles engraved in imperishable characters to indicate the blending of the dispensations; the differing stones, representing variety of character and function but all blending in the light of the Lamb on the throne.
​
The happy throngs pour through the gates with never-ending rapture. Those gates, facing every quarter, stand always open; but none desire to go forth, except commissioned on some errand by the King. All the glory and honor of the world are gathered within those walls, because Jesus will be king over every department of human life. There will be room for all beauty, art, and culture in the city of eternal light and love."  [F.B. Meyer]

Glen Campbell - No More Night (1989)
https://youtu.be/n0Gb6j1ceKo?si=I_rMZD4HYhEmKIl9