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Scripture Reading: Rev. 1:1; 21:1-3, 10-21
The book of Revelation is hard to understand. This is why God in His wisdom uses signs to make it known to us. Revelation 1:1 says that God gave the revelation of Jesus Christ to Him to show to His slaves; “and He made it known by signs.” Signs are pictures. In teaching little children we make things known to them by pictures. Sometimes when I speak, I make things known by diagrams. John received a revelation concerning things so divine, so mysterious, so profound, that no human words could explain it adequately. Thus, the revelation was made known by signs.
Not only the book of Revelation but John’s Gospel also is a book of signs. In our life-study of that Gospel I pointed out that the word miracle is not used. (Where the King James Version has miracle, the proper rendering is “sign.”) The Lord’s changing water into wine was a miracle, but John calls it a sign (2:11), indicating that it has a meaning. The Lord’s changing water into wine signifies His changing death into life. Lazarus’s resurrection was a miracle, but John calls it a sign (11:47).
John 1:14 speaks of the Word becoming flesh and tabernacling among us. Tabernacled is a verb. This sign gives us the key to understand how the Lord Jesus lived on this earth. He lived here as God’s tabernacle. To fully understand the tabernacle, we must go back to Exodus, where several chapters describe the tabernacle. God’s tabernacle among His people was not only where He dwelt but also where His serving ones entered to dwell with Him. This is Jesus! While Jesus was on this earth, He was tabernacling. God abode in Him, and all God’s serving ones, Jesus’ lovers, could enter into Him to stay with God. This one word as a sign describes what no plain word could express.
Also in John the Lord Jesus said, “I am the door” (10:7). Do you believe that the Lord is a door with a lintel and a post? A door is a sign, meaning that He is the very opening for people to enter in and for them to come out.
We must emphasize the very first verse of Revelation, which says that the divine revelation was given to Jesus Christ and that He made it known by signs. This is the key to open up the entire book. Without this key, the book of Revelation is closed to us. To understand the real meaning of this book, we must understand these signs.
The first sign in Revelation that the apostle John saw is the lampstands. In chapter 1 we are told that John, on the Lord’s Day, on the island of Patmos, saw seven golden lampstands. The seven lampstands are the seven churches (v. 20). To describe what the church is in its spiritual significance would take a thousand books. But just one sign, one picture, is better than a thousand words.
What is the church? What should the church be? Look at the lampstand. The church must be golden. Gold signifies God’s essence, God’s nature. This means that the church must have God’s essence as its substance. This gold must be in the shape of a lampstand, a lampstand shining with a sevenfold intensity. Some lamps have a three-way switch; but have you ever seen a seven-way lamp? The lampstand has a sevenfold shining. The golden nature signifies God’s essence, the shape signifies Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, and the seven lamps are the seven Spirits (4:5).
The Trinity is here: the Spirit is shining forth, Christ is the embodiment, and God is the very essence. What is the church? The church is a composition, a constitution, of the Triune God, shining forth God’s virtues and attributes in the dark night so that all can see the light. We need message upon message to describe what the church is, but God’s wisdom is to show us a lampstand. Saints, this is the church. Look at the church. The lampstand is the church. The church is not muddy but golden. It is of the divine nature of God. It is not without form but shaped. It is not dark but shining. This is the church.
The second sign is the seven stars, which accompany the lampstands. The seven stars are the messengers, or angels, of the churches (1:20). In every church there are some brothers who are stars in spirituality. They are shining stars. Daniel 12:3 says that those who turn many to righteousness will shine like stars. In Matthew 13:43 the Lord said that the righteous will shine forth in the coming kingdom like the sun. But the church messengers do not need to wait until the coming age to shine. They are shining right now. I hope that all the elders in the churches are shining stars. When people go to them, they should come into light. A star shines, enlightens, in a time of darkness. By looking at the stars we can learn what kind of persons the leaders in the church should be.
After John saw the lampstands and the shining stars, he saw a throne in heaven and One sitting on the throne. That One was like a jasper stone in appearance (Rev. 4:2-3). John saw God in the appearance of jasper. Jasper is a beautiful greenish color, signifying fullness of life. The fullness of life is God’s appearance. Jasper is also the appearance of the New Jerusalem (21:11), and its entire wall is built of jasper (v. 18). This indicates that the entire city bears the appearance of God, because it is constituted of those who have been transformed into His image.
We should read Revelation 21:11 with 2 Corinthians 3:18: “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” Revelation 21:11 describes the New Jerusalem as “having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal.” The whole city bears God’s glory and shines like jasper; this is because the entire composition of the New Jerusalem has been transformed into God’s image. The One sitting on the throne, who is God, looks like jasper, and the entire city looks like jasper. This means that Genesis 1:26 has been fulfilled: “Let Us make man in Our image.” Man was to be God’s expression, and this is fulfilled in the New Jerusalem. The entire New Jerusalem is an image, an expression, of God. God’s appearance can be described by one sign, the sign of jasper.
In Revelation 5:5 Jesus Christ is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. This title signifies Christ as the triumphant King. All living creatures are under Him. None can subdue Him; rather, He subdues everything. The first time I saw a lion in a zoo, I was afraid that the fence was not strong enough to restrict that bold, triumphant creature. Nothing and no one can subdue our Christ.
Christ is not only a Lion but also a Lamb (v. 6). To Satan and all the enemies Christ is a Lion, but to us, the redeemed ones, He is a Lamb. Are you afraid of a lamb? You may be afraid of a lion, but you would feel loving toward a lamb. To us the Lord Jesus is a Lamb, a redeeming Lamb. To think that in eternity on God’s throne there will literally be a lamb with four feet and a tail is not the proper way to understand the Bible. I remind you again: Revelation is a book of signs.
The universal woman in Revelation 12 is clothed with the sun. On her head there is a crown of twelve stars, and under her feet is the moon (v. 1). Who is this woman? Most fundamental expositors follow the Brethren teaching, which says that this woman signifies Israel, and her man-child signifies Christ. However, after much studying of the Word, we realized from chapter 12 that this woman is composed of two peoples: those who keep the commandments of God and those who bear the testimony of Jesus (v. 17). The people who keep the law are the Jews, Israel. The people who bear the testimony of Jesus are the New Testament believers. Therefore, to say that this woman signifies Israel is only partially true; it leaves aside the New Testament believers.
To say that the man-child born of this woman is Jesus Christ is erroneous. After this man-child is raptured to the throne of God, three and a half years follow. The thousand two hundred and sixty days in 12:6 are three and a half years, which all agree is the period of the great tribulation. Did the great tribulation come right after the Lord’s ascension? It has not come yet. This indicates strongly that the man-child here is not the Lord Jesus.
The woman wears a crown of twelve stars on her head. She is clothed with the sun, and the moon is underneath her feet. These indicate three categories among God’s redeemed people: the patriarchs, Israel, and the New Testament believers. The patriarchs are represented by the stars, Israel by the moon, and the New Testament believers by the sun. This woman is therefore a composition of all God’s redeemed people, including the patriarchs, the other Old Testament believers, and all the New Testament saints.
The man-child is composed of the overcomers of all generations. Through the centuries, among God’s people a small number have been martyred. These were the faithful ones. Right before the great tribulation these martyred saints will be resurrected and raptured to the throne of God.
The great red dragon signifies the devil, Satan (vv. 3-4). At the beginning of the next chapter there is a beast coming up out of the sea, the Mediterranean (13:1-2). This is Antichrist. Actually, he is the coming Caesar, the last Caesar of the revived Roman Empire.
On this earth God has a harvest. This harvest signifies all the saints of the New Testament age living on earth near the time of the Lord’s return (14:15). From among these living believers will come the firstfruits. There will be some overcomers living among the believers who ripen earlier and become the firstfruits.
Babylon the Great signifies the Roman Church. She is called the great harlot (17:1, 5) because of her sinful relationships with the rulers of the earth for her profit.
The wife of the Lamb, the bride in Revelation 19:7, will be all the overcomers throughout the generations, including those in the Old Testament times, that is, the dead and resurrected overcomers plus the living overcomers (the firstfruits). They will be His bride in the thousand years (20:4-6). That one day will be the wedding day. A thousand years to the Lord is one day (2 Pet. 3:8). The entire millennium will be a wedding day. On the wedding day the wife is a bride, but after that day she becomes a wife. After the millennium in eternity the bride will be the wife. All the overcomers among God’s redeemed people will be His bride.
Now we come to the last sign, the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the aggregate of all the lampstands. At the beginning of Revelation there are seven lampstands, local lampstands in this age. At the end of Revelation there is an aggregate, a composite lampstand, not the local ones but the eternal one, the universal one. Revelation begins with the lampstands and ends with the lampstand. The lampstands are signs of the churches; the New Jerusalem is also a lampstand, the sign of God’s dwelling place.
All these signs are the main scenes on this divine television screen of Revelation. The telecast begins with seven lampstands, signifying the churches; then follow seven shining stars, signifying the messengers of all the churches; then there is a jasper stone, signifying God’s appearance; then a lion and a lamb, both signifying Christ; then a universal woman with twelve stars on her head, the sun clothing her, and the moon underneath her feet; then a red dragon ready to swallow her child; then a man-child brought forth by her and raptured to the throne of God; then a beast coming up out of the Mediterranean Sea; then a harvest on this earth, and out of the harvest the firstfruits; then a great harlot, the great Babylon, terrible, ugly, abhorred; but then, Hallelujah, a beautiful wife, the bride; then finally, something brighter, something greater, the New Jerusalem, which is God’s tabernacle just as Jesus was God’s tabernacle when He was on earth.
This New Jerusalem is not only a tabernacle to God but also a wife to God’s Son, Jesus Christ. God will have a tabernacle, and Christ will have a wife. Both the tabernacle and the wife are the same: the New Jerusalem.
This is the book of Revelation, containing all these crucial signs. If you understand them, you understand the entire book of Revelation. With such a clear and accurate view, do you believe that the New Jerusalem will be a physical city built by God throughout all the centuries? Revelation is a book of signs. Every main item is a sign. Signs should not be interpreted literally. Do you think the church is an actual stand with seven lamps shining? This is a wrong understanding. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is a real lamb? This is ridiculous. Do you believe that the coming Caesar of the Roman Empire will be a real beast that comes up out of the Mediterranean Sea and jumps onto the shore? Do you believe that the wife of the Lamb in Revelation 19 will be a woman adorned with a long wedding gown? Again, it makes no sense to understand it this way.
Then how about the New Jerusalem? In the same principle, it does not make sense to think of the coming New Jerusalem as a physical city. Just because this book uses the lion as a sign of Christ as the triumphant King, we should not think that Christ is like a lion in the zoo. The lion is not a real lion — it is a sign of Christ as the triumphant King. The lamb is not a real lamb — it is a sign of Christ as the Redeemer. In the same way, the New Jerusalem is a sign; it signifies something spiritual.
A principle in interpreting the Bible is to be consistent. Since we do not take the other signs literally, we may be sure that the New Jerusalem is not a physical city for us to live in. Such an interpretation is altogether natural. If you do not interpret Christ as a lion with four legs and a tail, why would you think that the New Jerusalem is an actual city? The lion is a sign, and the city is also a sign.
Revelation 1:1 is the key verse to the entire book. Just this one key can open all the doors. We have the master key. We can go to any door and open it. We must pick up 1:1 as the master key. The key point is “by signs.” All the pictures in this book are signs.
Fundamental teachers would surely agree that Christ as a lamb does not have four legs and a little tail. They would not make such a ridiculous interpretation. But what about the New Jerusalem? When I was young, I also believed that the New Jerusalem was a heavenly mansion. I was happy in the belief that one day we would be in a mansion. As part of our gospel preaching, we had a song about how we would enter the pearly gates and walk on the golden street. Gradually, however, as I studied the Bible, I found out that the New Jerusalem is a wife. Who would marry a literal city? Even if that city had twelve gates of pearl and a golden street, would anyone marry it?
In studying and understanding the holy Word, Christians often bring in their natural thought. In the new heaven and new earth we will dwell in the New Jerusalem. But we must not think of the New Jerusalem as a physical city. It is God who will be our abode. When I was young, I heard some Bible teachers discussing what we would eat and where the restroom would be in the “heavenly mansion.” How poor it is to bring in our natural thought!
Today I asked some saints if they are in the church. When they answered yes, I asked them to show me the church. The New Testament tells us that the church is God’s house, and that God is abiding in His house; but where is the church? The church as God’s house and as our home is not a physical building but a composition of living believers (1 Pet. 2:5). It is not a physical, lifeless entity but an organic composition of living persons. It exists wherever the believers come together. The church as God’s house today is a composition of living persons; it is a corporate person. This is true in this age, and it will be true in eternity.
The thought of God’s house is also in the Old Testament. Moses says in Psalm 90:1, “O Lord, You have been our dwelling place / In all generations.”
The Lord Jesus said that if anyone loves Him, His Father and He will come to him and make an abode with him (John 14:23). We will be His abode, and He will be our abode. In John 15 the Lord said, “Abide in Me and I in you” (v. 4). First John 3:24 and 4:16 say that we abide in God and God abides in us.
In this church age we are abiding in God, and God is abiding in us. Do you believe that when we enter into the new heaven and new earth we will get out of God and God will get out of us? If in this age we can dwell in God, taking Him as our dwelling place, and can give God a place in us, it is not logical to think that in eternity we will no longer have Him as our dwelling place but rather live in a golden city as our dwelling place.
We must believe that our abiding in the Lord and His abiding in us will be intensified, enlarged, and uplifted to the uttermost. This is why John says he saw that the city had no temple in it, “for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev. 21:22). This is a strong indication that the city is not a physical place. In this city the temple is a person. This person is God and the Lamb. The very Triune God will be the temple. If the temple within the city is a person, do you believe the city could be something lifeless?
Since the temple is a divine person, the Triune God Himself, the city must be composed of persons also. Actually, the entire city is the Holy of Holies with three equal dimensions (1 Kings 6:20; Rev. 21:16). Since the Triune God will be the temple and the entire city will be the Holy of Holies, the city cannot be something physical. It must be an organic composition.
In New Testament times God’s dwelling on this earth was first an individual person, Jesus Christ. He was God’s tabernacle. Then following Him, the church is God’s temple (Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Cor. 3:16). Jesus, an individual person, was God’s tabernacle, His dwelling place. Then the church as a corporate person became the temple of God, God’s dwelling. This is the New Testament. After the New Testament age, when we get into eternity, God’s dwelling will not change from living persons to a lifeless, physical city. We must believe that these persons built together as God’s dwelling place will be enlarged and intensified. In the coming age there will be an enlargement of these living persons as God’s dwelling place.
If the New Jerusalem were an actual city made of gold, pearls, and precious stones, it would mean that a physical city is the conclusion of the entire divine revelation. This is not logical. God has been working throughout the ages. First He created the universe; then He created man. Afterward, He became incarnate to redeem man. He lived on this earth, was crucified, and then resurrected, ascended, and poured Himself out as the Spirit upon His disciples. The disciples then went out to preach the gospel. Many have been saved and added to the church; they are being built up as a Body to express Christ. Do you believe the final outcome will be that God gains merely a physical city? Do you think that this is God’s intention?
If this were the case, God would be a poor architect. Through His creation, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, through His building up of the churches and the perfecting of the saints in generation after generation, God is preparing something far greater than a big literal city. God has already created something more splendid than a city — the universe. The solar system is beautiful, but God is not satisfied with that. How could He be satisfied with a city, even a city that is half the size of the United States? To interpret such a vision, such a sign, in a natural way is wrong.
The church today is our home. When we come to the church, we come home. The church is in God. The church life with God is everywhere. There are churches in Dallas, Houston, Hong Kong, and all over the earth. Hallelujah! Wherever we go, our home is there. Our home is the church. Why worry about whether we will have a house in the New Jerusalem? We do not need to worry about this. God is not interested in these physical things. This physical thought has to go.
What God cares about is a living composition of His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. All these will be built together to express God for eternity. This will satisfy God forever. Satan will be in the lake of fire. God will be in His living dwelling place. All those He created, chose, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed will be glorified into His image. He will be living in them, and they will be living in Him. No one can adequately explain such a profound concept. Marvelous! This will be God’s dwelling and the wife of His dear Son, Christ. No physical building can be a wife. A wife is something organic — a living person.
The New Jerusalem signifies God’s dwelling in the new heaven and new earth. In the New Testament God’s dwelling place on earth was first an individual man, Jesus Christ, signified by the tabernacle (John 1:14), and then a corporate man, the church, signified by the temple (1 Cor. 3:16). In the new heaven and new earth, God’s dwelling, as the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 21:9-10), is also a living composition of His redeemed people, composed of both the Old Testament saints, represented by the twelve tribes, and the New Testament saints, represented by the twelve apostles (vv. 12, 14).
These people, built together to be God’s dwelling, first experienced regeneration through Christ’s death and resurrection. This is signified by the pearl gates, their entrance into the city. A pearl is produced by an oyster, a living creature in the death waters. When a grain of sand wounds the oyster, it secretes a substance around the sand, which makes the sand become a pearl. The wound of the oyster signifies death, and the secretion of life-juice around the grain of sand signifies the resurrection life. Jesus’ death and resurrection make us pearls through regeneration. No one can enter into the kingdom of God except by regeneration (John 3:5).
In the holy city God’s nature, or God’s essence, becomes our basic element, signified by gold (Rev. 21:18b, 21b); the city proper is gold, and the street is gold. The essence of all believers is just God Himself.
By the Spirit’s work we will be transformed into the image of God, signified by jasper. The Father’s nature (gold), the Son’s redemption and our regeneration (pearl), and the Spirit’s transforming work (precious stones) produce all the components that comprise this eternal dwelling of God. God’s dwelling is also our dwelling. We will also be built together to be God’s Holy of Holies, expressing Him in glory.
I hope that we will all be impressed with the proper interpretation and understanding of this last and greatest sign in the entire Bible. Of all sixty-six books of the Bible, the New Jerusalem is the last and greatest sign. The last word is the deciding word. God, through creation, incarnation, redemption, resurrection, ascension, and all His transforming, building work through all these Christian centuries, will get a living composition of His redeemed people to be His dwelling and His counterpart to fully satisfy Him. We will join Him because we will be His counterpart.
The Lord Jesus told the Sadducees in Matthew 22:30 that in the resurrection there will be no marriage but that we will all be like the angels. The Bible does not tell us about physical matters or relationships in eternity. What it reveals is high and profound. We must be delivered from our human, natural mentality in considering the New Jerusalem as a physical abode. We must realize what is on God’s heart. He needs an eternal dwelling, composed of billions of transformed and glorified living persons, to be His living dwelling place and His dear wife, His counterpart. This ultimate consummation makes it worthwhile for Him to bring creation into existence, to be incarnated, to die on the cross, to be resurrected, and to spend so many centuries to build the churches.
If the New Jerusalem were a literal city, it would be only half the size of the United States (cf. Rev. 21:16). The United States today has a population of about a quarter billion people. Through the generations, though, God will have saved billions of people. How could billions of people live in a city half the size of the United States? We should not follow the natural teachings but rather exercise our sober mind to see what God desires.
The Word is the truth. Thank God He has given us this book. We have something solid in human language that we can study again and again. The Lord Jesus told Peter that He would build His church upon this rock (Matt. 16:18). Peter tells us that we all as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). Paul says that he laid the foundation, but we must all be careful how we build: we must build with gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:10-12). The thought of God’s building is throughout the entire New Testament right to the end. This is why we say that the New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of God’s building work through all the generations.
