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Scripture Reading: John 3:29; Rev. 21:2-3, 9-10; 19:7-9; Heb. 11:9-10, 13-16, 39-40; 12:18-19, 22-24
The last passage in the Scripture Reading above, Hebrews 12:22-24, was poorly translated in the Chinese Union Version. A more appropriate translation should be, “You have come forward to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to myriads of angels, to the universal gathering; and to the church of the firstborn, who have been enrolled in the heavens; and to God, the Judge of all; and to the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant; and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks something better than that of Abel.” Eight items are mentioned here, joined by the same conjunction. First, there is Mount Zion; second, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; third, the myriads of angels, the universal gathering; fourth, the church of the firstborn, who have been enrolled in the heavens; fifth, God, the Judge of all; sixth, the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect; seventh, Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant; and eighth, His sprinkled blood. These eight items are joined by seven ands.
Let me explain a little about these eight items. The first item is Mount Zion. We know that this Mount Zion does not denote the Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem on earth. Rather, it denotes the Mount Zion in the heavens. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews was saying, “You have come forward to Mount Zion in the heavens.” Please consider: Where were the recipients of this Epistle — on earth or in heaven? Obviously, they were still on earth. However, the writer of the Epistle was saying, “Although you are on the earth now, you have come forward to Mount Zion in the heavens.” This passage of Scripture does not say that believers will go to heaven in the future. If this passage spoke about the believers’ going to heaven, then they had already gone to heaven before they died, since the writer of the Epistle said, “You have come forward to Mount Zion.” He was referring not to the Hebrew saints who were dead but to the saints who were alive and were reading this Epistle. Therefore, we are clear that this passage does not concern the believers’ going to heaven after their death.
Then what is the meaning of Mount Zion here? We know that the book of Hebrews was written at that time to the Hebrew believers, the Jews. The background of the Jews was the Old Testament. One day, when Moses led the children of Israel to Mount Sinai, God descended upon it. The mountain was set on fire, and there were darkness, gloom, a whirlwind, the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words. None of the children of Israel could bear that dreadful situation (Exo. 19:11-18). Today, however, in the New Testament age we are no longer under the condemnation of the law but under the grace of the new covenant. Therefore, the author of the book of Hebrews seemed to be saying, “Today because you believe in the Lord, you have not come to such a place as Mount Sinai to inherit the law, but you have come to Mount Zion in the new covenant to receive grace.”
The second item is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. In addition, there are the myriads of angels, the universal gathering, and the church of the firstborn. These firstborn ones have not gone up to the heavens, but they have already been enrolled in the heavens. These are the New Testament saints. Besides these, there are God Himself and the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect. The righteous men who have been made perfect obviously were the saved ones in the Old Testament. However, these saved ones did not belong to the old covenant but to the new covenant. Why is this? It is because, although they lived in the Old Testament age, they still belonged to God’s eternal covenant, the covenant God made with Abraham. The covenant God made with Abraham was a covenant of grace and an eternal covenant. Later, because the children of Israel did not know the covenant and rejected that covenant, God enacted on Mount Sinai another covenant, the covenant of law, which is the old covenant. Under this covenant there is only Mount Sinai with thunder, lightning, fire, the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of the words of God. Under this covenant no one can be saved.
The old covenant we often speak of denotes not only the old covenant under the law; sometimes it also denotes the entire age of the Old Testament. According to the old covenant of the law, there were certainly no saved ones, but according to the entire age of the Old Testament, there were still many saved ones. For example, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all people in the age of the Old Testament, but they were all saved. However, they were not saved under the old covenant of the law. They did not belong to the old covenant of the law but to the eternal covenant God made with Abraham.
Please remember that the new covenant is the continuation of the covenant God made with Abraham. This matter is clearly explained in Galatians 3 and 4. Originally, there was the covenant of Abraham. Then the covenant of law was added, and following this, the new covenant. The covenant of law inserted in between was temporary. In time God recovered the covenant of Abraham, which became the new covenant. Therefore, there are saved ones only under the covenant of Abraham and the new covenant; there are no saved ones under the covenant of law. Under the covenant of law what men saw was Mount Sinai. This mountain had fire, darkness, gloom, a whirlwind, the sound of a trumpet, and a terrible voice. Yet in the covenant of grace, including the covenant of Abraham and the new covenant, there are Mount Zion in the heavens, the city of the living God, the angels, the church, the God who judges all, the spirits of those who were saved under the covenant of Abraham in the Old Testament age, Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and His sprinkled blood. These are all matters of the new covenant.
The author of the book of Hebrews mentions these eight items here for us to see that today we have not come to Mount Sinai of the old covenant law, but we have come to Mount Zion of the new covenant grace. He is not talking about going to heaven at all. Therefore, it is incorrect to suppose that this passage concerns the believers’ going to heaven. I say again that if this refers to going to heaven, then those who read the Epistle had already left the earth and gone up to heaven before they died. I believe these words are clear enough.
This is a little bit of biblical exposition. I hope that you would not see expounding the Bible as something simple. Gradually, you will see that expounding the Bible is a great matter, not simple at all.
In this chapter we will make a great turn. We have just turned from the covenant of Abraham to the covenant of law, and again from the covenant of law to the new covenant, showing that the new covenant is the continuation of the covenant of Abraham. That was only a small turn. Now we will make a great turn. I would like to make it as simple as possible, so I will speak on it point by point.
The first point is that the Lord became flesh and tabernacled among us. The Lord in the flesh was a tabernacle. From God’s point of view the Lord’s incarnation was His coming to the earth to set up a tabernacle for Him to have a dwelling place.
Second, for what purpose did the incarnated Lord come to the earth? The Bible says that He came to be the Bridegroom to marry His bride. The Gospel of John shows that when John the Baptist was on earth, his disciples saw that many who were following him turned to follow the Lord Jesus, so they became resentful and went and told him. He then said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom” (3:29a). His meaning was, “I am not the bridegroom. I do not have the bride. He has the bride. It is right for people to follow Him; they should not follow me. I am just the friend of the bridegroom. I stand here, and seeing Him, I rejoice” (vv. 26-29). We know that John the Baptist testified twice for the Lord Jesus. One time he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29). The other time he said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom.” The Lord became flesh and tabernacled among us, and this One was the Bridegroom who came for the bride.
Who is the bride, and when will the Lord marry the bride? For this we need to go to Revelation. John wrote not only the Gospel of John and the Epistles of John; he also wrote Revelation. If you cannot find the answers after you have read his Gospel and his Epistles, you can still read his Revelation. You find a little hint when you come to Revelation 19. Here we find the declaration: “The marriage of the Lamb has come” (v. 7). This is a story of marriage —the Lamb is getting married. In the beginning of his Gospel, John speaks of the Lamb and the Bridegroom, and now in Revelation he says that the marriage of the Lamb has come. This means that the Lamb as the Bridegroom is marrying the bride.
Whom is He marrying? Revelation 19 says that the bride is clothed in fine linen, bright and clean, which is the righteousnesses of the saints (v. 8). From this you can understand that the bride He is marrying is composed of the saints redeemed by God. This is still not clear enough. When you come to chapter 21, you see that it says, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (v. 2). Then it says that the city which came down out of heaven is the tabernacle of God with men (v. 3). So you see that the bride, the wife, of the Lamb is a city. The New Jerusalem is the bride, the wife, of the Lamb.
Brothers and sisters, who is the bride? On the one hand, since the bride is a city, she is a corporate person composed of all the saved ones, the saints. On the other hand, this bride is also the tabernacle God built among men, which in principle is the same as the tabernacle God pitched in His incarnation. Please pay attention to the turn here. It is not merely a turn but a circular three-hundred-sixty-degree turn, from pitching a tabernacle to pitching a tabernacle. God became a man and tabernacled among men. This tabernacling God is the Bridegroom, and the bride He is marrying is a composition of the saved ones. This bride is also a city, and this city is the tabernacle God pitched among men.
Since it is a city coming down out of heaven, the city of New Jerusalem, the bride, is heavenly. Hebrews 11 and 12 also speak of this city. Chapter 11 says that in the Old Testament times, those to whom the promise was made, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all longed after this city (v. 16). Why did they long after this city? It is because they felt that they were strangers on the earth, wanderers without a home. Even though in his lifetime Abraham did have a place to live on the earth, and so did Isaac and Jacob, according to their feeling, they were only strangers and sojourners on the earth; the earth was not their own country. Therefore, they eagerly waited for the city which has the foundations. I do not know whether Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob realized what that city was, but the Holy Spirit made them feel that they had no dwelling place on earth and that the earth was not their own country. They were strangers on the earth, so they longed after a heavenly country, which is the city whose Architect and Builder is God.
Now I would like to ask you brothers and sisters, “What exactly is the city that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob longed after?” At their time they might not have been clear. They simply felt that the earth was not their dwelling place but merely a place where they wandered and sojourned. Therefore, they longed after an eternal country, a heavenly one, whose Architect and Builder is God. However, today we are the saints of the New Testament age, and we have been instructed. Therefore, we should be much clearer than they were. Today we know that the city they longed after is the city of New Jerusalem.
What then is the city of New Jerusalem? It is the bride, the wife, of the Lamb. What is the bride, the wife, of the Lamb? She is a group of people redeemed by the Lord, a group of people who are mingled with God as one to become God’s tabernacle. What is this tabernacle? It is the very God who tabernacled among men by putting on humanity, entering into humanity, and being mingled with humanity. This is the country that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob longed after, which is also their eternal dwelling place. In one sense, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have not entered into it, because Hebrews 11 clearly says, “These all, having obtained a good testimony through their faith, did not obtain the promise, because God has provided something better for us [that is, for those who are saved in the New Testament age], so that apart from us they [that is, those who were saved in the Old Testament age] would not be made perfect” (vv. 39-40). These are all descriptions of a spiritual mystery that we cannot fully comprehend with our mind at this time.
The end of Revelation says that the time has come; that is, the bride, the holy city, has come. The bride includes all those who were saved in the Old Testament and all those who are saved in the New Testament. This is indicated by the gates and walls of the New Jerusalem being inscribed with the names of the twelve New Testament apostles, which represent those who are saved in the New Testament age, and the names of the twelve tribes, which represent those who were saved in the Old Testament age (21:12, 14). Therefore, this city is a composition of those who are saved in the two ages — the Old Testament age and the New Testament age. This city is the bride, the wife, of the Lamb. Even today God still has not yet completed this city; He is still building it.
We have made a great turn here. I hope that you brothers and sisters remember this great turn. This great turn links the entire Gospel of John, Revelation, and Hebrews 11 and 12.
Now we would raise another question. God first created, and after creation He builds. We now understand a little about what God wants to build. The Bible seems to present two aspects concerning the building of God. On the one hand, God is building the church. The Lord Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). The apostle Paul says that today God is building the Body of Christ, which is the church. Peter says that we come to the Lord as living stones, being built up as a spiritual house. They all speak about God building the church. On the other hand, the Bible says that God is building a city. The city Abraham longed after is promised by God, and it is also designed and built by God.
Let me ask you a question: Does this mean that God has two buildings in the universe? Does it mean that God is building the church on earth, on the one hand, and building the holy city in the heavens, on the other? Bible expositors throughout the ages all seem to have this view, including Darby. They say that Matthew 16 is on the building of the church, and Ephesians 2 and 4 are also on the building of the church. First Corinthians 3 says, “You are...God’s building” (v. 9); this also concerns the building of the church. First Peter 2 contains words referring to the building of the church. Even 1 Corinthians 14 frequently refers to the building of the church. On the other hand, the expositors say that Hebrews 11 speaks about God’s building of the holy city and that John 14, in which the Lord said, “I go and prepare a place for you” (v. 2), also refers to His building of the holy city. Therefore, it seems that the Bible expositors throughout the ages have divided God’s work of building into two — one that He is building the church on the earth and the other that He is building the holy city in the heavens.
Brothers and sisters, do you think there are two buildings or one? If there were two, then there would be many problems. If today God is building the church on the earth and at the same time He is building the holy city in the heavens, then at the end when both are finished, which one will God want? Can it be that in eternity there will be a holy city as well as a church? We know that there will be only one holy city in eternity. Therefore, we can boldly conclude that today God does not have two buildings; He has only one. God’s building of the holy city is His building of the church, and God’s building of the church is His building of the holy city.
This is very clear in the Bible because when we read to the end of the Bible, we see that the holy city includes the church. It says there that in the holy city are the names of the twelve apostles, who represent the church. It also says that the holy city is the tabernacle of God with men. The tabernacle is the precursor to the temple, and the church is the temple of God. Therefore, when the holy city is manifested, there is no temple in it, for the city is the very temple; it is the enlargement of the temple. These all show that God has only one building in the universe. He does not have two buildings. It is not as some Bible expositors say, that God, on the one hand, is building the church in the believers through His life, and on the other hand, He is building a city in the heavens with gold, pearl, and precious stones. The Bible never says this.
I would like for all the brothers and sisters to see that God does not have a second building. In the entire universe, God has only one building. This building work of God is His building Himself into man and building man into Himself. This is His mingling together with man to become the mutual habitation of God and man. From Genesis 2, after God completed His creation, He placed Himself before man to be man’s bread of life for man to take in. Since then God has been doing a building work on man and in man. Although later Satan came in to interfere, God never abandoned this goal.
Therefore, in the Old Testament you also see many instances where God came to man to be joined to man. He charged the Israelites to build a tabernacle for Him. Then when the Israelites entered Canaan, He told them to build a temple. These signify that He wants to dwell among His people, having His people as His dwelling place. I have said again and again that all the stories of the Old Testament, from the beginning to the end, are stories of the tabernacle and the temple. The entire Old Testament is centered on the tabernacle and the temple. Even when the temple was destroyed, the central subject of the subsequent prophecies was still to have the children of Israel return and rebuild the temple.
What was the story of the temple? The story of the temple was God’s mingling together with those who were saved in the Old Testament age to become a house, the dwelling place of God and also the abode of those who belonged to God.
In the New Testament God became flesh and entered into humanity. The Bible says that this was God’s tabernacling among men. It also says that the flesh the Lord became was a temple. Those who know the Bible understand that this is an extension to the Old Testament story. The flesh the Lord put on was signified by the tabernacle among the Israelites in the Old Testament and also the temple in the land of Canaan. The Lord said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). We all know that this refers to the Lord’s resurrection. Therefore, the Lord’s incarnation was for the building of the temple, and the Lord’s death and resurrection were also for the building of the temple.
For this reason in Matthew 16 the Lord said, “Upon this rock I will build My church” (v. 18). This rock refers to the resurrected Christ. It is written in the Bible that from the time of the Lord’s resurrection, He has been doing this building work as the Spirit. He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as shepherds and teachers, and their work is for the building of the church (Eph. 4:11-12). Therefore, the goal of the apostles’ work is not merely to save sinners or to edify the saints but to save sinners as materials for the building of the dwelling place of God and to edify and perfect the saints with the purpose that the saints might be built into this building of God. All their work, be it preaching the gospel or edifying the saints, takes the building of this spiritual house as the goal.
This is different from the work of many who preach the word today. Some of them take saving sinners as their aim, and some take edifying saints as their goal. The apostles, however, were not like this. While they did save sinners, saving sinners was not their purpose. While they did edify saints, they did not consider that as their goal. All their work took the building of God’s spiritual house as the purpose and the building of God’s dwelling place as the goal. The apostle Paul says that as a wise master builder he had laid a foundation — Jesus Christ — and another built upon it, but that each man ought to take heed how he builds upon it — with gold, silver, and precious stones or with wood, grass, and stubble (1 Cor. 3:10-12). He says that the Corinthians were God’s building and that they, the apostles, were God’s fellow workers who were building up the Corinthians (v. 9). He also says, “If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him” (v. 17). Here the temple refers to the church, not man’s body. If anyone destroys the temple of God, which is the church, God will destroy him, because this is the temple that He has been building throughout the generations. Brothers and sisters, we also are God’s fellow workers, and our goal also should be the building of God.
The church today is God’s temple, God’s house, and when it is built, it becomes the city. The city is the enlargement of the house. This city includes the house in the Old Testament and also the house in the New Testament. The story of the Old Testament is the temple, and the story of the New Testament is the church. The work God did in the Old Testament was to build His people, the Israelites, so that they might become the house of God. Every work God does in the New Testament is still to build the saints so that they may be the house of God. The house in the Old Testament is the temple, whereas the house in the New Testament is the church. The entire Old Testament is centered on the temple; the entire New Testament is centered on the church. When both are completed, the work that God has been doing throughout the ages will be aggregated to become a city. That is why both the names of the twelve tribes and the names of the twelve apostles are in the city. The names of the twelve apostles represent the church, the house in the New Testament, whereas the names of the twelve tribes represent the Israelites, the house of Israel in the Old Testament. The two houses of the Old Testament and New Testament join together to become a city. This city is the eternal abode of God and His redeemed people. It is also the bride that God as the Bridegroom marries. God wants to be fully united, to become one, with her. Hence, this city is the tabernacle He built among men as His eternal dwelling place and also as the eternal abode of all of us who are saved.
Brothers and sisters, we need to see that the work that God has been doing among His people throughout the generations is this building work. We who are saved are the materials in this building. The edification we receive after we are saved is not for us to become items for exhibition but to become materials for building. In the past you were natural and wild and could not be coordinated and built together with others. But now due to the work of grace in you, you have been dealt with, broken, perfected, and made fit for God’s building. Brothers and sisters, this is the work God wants to do among us today. Only this can bring in God’s blessing. Only by this can we touch the presence of God and satisfy God’s heart’s desire.
We should not hope to be built up in the future. We should believe that God is doing this building work in us today. For six thousand years this building work is what God has been doing, and it is also what Satan has been undermining. As Satan damaged and destroyed the temple in the Old Testament, in the same way he is using various stratagems to damage and destroy the church in the New Testament. The work of Satan is to damage and destroy the building of God. We can almost say that Satan would allow people to do any kind of work, but he would never allow people to build the church. Whenever you bring up the matter of the building of the church, you encounter Satan’s opposition, attack, and damage. This is because the one thing Satan hates the most is God’s building work, God’s central work, in the universe.
