John looks with the greatest interest at the layout of the city. Though it has such immense proportions, in the vision he is able to see every part of it from where he is positioned; we have already been told that its materials are transparent.
We live now in the age when we worship Lord ‘neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem’ (John 4:21). The way into the Holiest of All is now made manifest and through Christ we ‘have access by one Spirit to the Father’ (Ephesians 2:18). This freedom of access which believers have by faith on earth (Ephesians 3:12), they will have by sight in heaven. Consequently the temple can no longer be a secluded area within the New Jerusalem. They whole city is the temple for the church is itself ‘the temple of God’ (1 Corinthians 3:16). Worship of God will no longer be something intermittent, but the constant activity of the saints in eternity. We shall have entered into his rest when every day will be a Sabbath day. No new sacrifices will be offered up in that city except the continual offering of thanks to God. The one great sacrifice of the Lamb of God will be in the past but will be the grounds of everlasting worship to God.