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Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:1-3, 9-14, 16-23; 22:1-2
Students of the Bible realize that the last two chapters of Revelation are the conclusion of the entire Scriptures. In these two chapters we have a picture of a divine building, which is called the holy city, the New Jerusalem, as the conclusion of the entire Scriptures. This conclusion is threefold: it is the conclusion to the writings of the apostle John, which are in the line of life; it is the conclusion to the entire New Testament; and it is the conclusion to the entire Scriptures. By this we can see how important the picture of the New Jerusalem is. Furthermore, as the ultimate conclusion of the entire divine writings, the New Jerusalem is the conclusion of the divine thought.
In the previous chapters we have seen that the central thought of God is to have Christ wrought into a group of people to be life to them and to have them as a corporate expression for Christ so that God may be expressed in Christ through them. In brief, the central thought of God is Christ with a Body to express God. In the last two chapters of Revelation we have a picture that shows us God in Christ on the throne expressed through a corporate vessel — a great and high city. This city is a corporate vessel to contain God in Christ and to express God through Christ. Hence, this picture shows us the central thought of God.
In this record we are told that God at the very center of the city is the light, and the shining of the light is the glory of God (21:23a). God, who is the light and who is constantly shining, is in the lamp, who is the redeeming Christ, the redeeming Lamb (v. 23b). God is in Christ just as light is in a lamp. That the lamp shines from the center of this great city indicates that every part of the city is transparent. Therefore, the whole city is a corporate vessel to express God in Christ and through Christ.
I was born, raised, and taught in Christianity. From the time that I was a little boy, I heard many teachings about the New Jerusalem. There were different opinions, different thoughts, and different teachings about this city. When I was young, I simply accepted those teachings. However, by experiencing the Lord in the inner life and in the way of life, and through much study, reading, and deep consideration of all the Scriptures, the Lord gradually revealed to me the right, proper, and adequate explanation and definition of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is a living, corporate vessel as a container to contain God in Christ and to express God through Christ. We can conclude this because Revelation 21 says that the very God who dwells within this city is the light, and the redeeming One, the Son of God, the Lord Christ as the Lamb, is the lamp. Light shines forth in a lamp to express itself. In this picture of the New Jerusalem, God is the light in the lamp, which is Christ, shining Himself forth in Christ and through Christ. God is one with Christ; we can never separate the light from the lamp. The light is the very essence in the lamp, and it is one with the lamp. The light needs a lamp because it desires to shine forth to express itself. Moreover, the lamp is in the city, which is a corporate vessel, a corporate container. Because this corporate vessel is transparent in every respect and in every part, it is easy for it to shine forth what it contains. The New Jerusalem contains God in Christ and shines forth God through Christ. This is not a mere human thought or my explanation alone. This is the revelation of the divine thought from the divine record.
Here we must review the difference between the old creation of God and His new creation. The old creation was an empty vessel as a container to contain God. It was created by God, but it had nothing of God. The new creation, on the other hand, is the old creation transformed by God by receiving God as its content. The old creation as an empty vessel has no content of God, but the new creation as a corporate vessel is filled with God as its content. Because it is no longer empty but filled with God, it has been transformed from its old shape, form, and nature into a new one. In this way it has become new. Before you were saved, you were an empty vessel, like an empty cup or bottle. You were made by God to contain Him, but you were corrupted and ruined by Satan. Since the time you received the Lord and acknowledged Him as the Redeemer, His blood has cleansed you from all defilement and filth, and at the same time, the Lord has entered into you to fill you up and be your content. Hence, you are no more an empty vessel. Rather, you have become a vessel filled with the Lord. From that time on, due to the filling of the Lord, a change has taken place in you and is still taking place all the time. Do you realize that you are changing day by day, even moment by moment? As an empty vessel, you were the old man and you were a part of the old creation. As a filled vessel with Christ, you are a part of the new man, a part of the new creation.
After God’s work of creation, He began to do a work of building. The new creation is a building work. After God created everything, He began to build up a Body, a corporate vessel, a city, to contain Himself. In the first two chapters of the Bible God finished His work of creation, and from Genesis 3 to the end of the Scriptures what God has been doing has been a building work. God is building Himself and man to be a corporate Body to express Himself. Genesis 3 to the end of the Scriptures is a long record of stage after stage of the building.
Throughout all the Scriptures, the enemy has always tried to discover God’s plan and do something before God does. God had an intention to build up a city, but before God did this, the enemy of God did something first. Cain was the second generation of the human race, the first son of Adam. After Cain’s separation from God, he built up a city, which he called after the name of his son Enoch (Gen. 4:17). This city of Enoch, built by Cain, became the center of civilization before the flood. All the corruption during that age before the flood was centered in that city. As a sinful city full of sins, it was a container of Satan. Therefore, God destroyed that city by the flood. After the flood, God obtained a new world, but something happened again. The descendants of Noah were very much used by the enemy to build up another city, the city of Babel with the tower of Babel (11:4-9). Babel was the original name of Babylon. That was a city of Satan.
In that situation, God called out a person by the name of Abraham (12:1-3). God brought him to an elevated land, signifying the place of resurrection. God put him there and promised him that He would build a city for him. Later on, God did build a city on the elevated land, which was Jerusalem. In the Old Testament, Babylon always opposed Jerusalem. These two cities were always against one another. Eventually, Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon, and all the utensils for the worship in the temple in Jerusalem were captured and brought by the Babylonians to Babylon and put in the temples of idols there. When Daniel, a faithful servant of God, was captured and remained in Babylon, day by day he opened his windows and looked toward Jerusalem, remembering Jerusalem before God (Dan. 6:10). He never forgot Jerusalem, because he knew the divine thought of God. Later, there was the return of the captives, the recovery, and in that recovery Nehemiah built up the destroyed wall of Jerusalem, which required much fighting (Neh. 4:16-21; 6:15-16).
Earlier, when the people of Israel were enslaved in Egypt, they were forced by the Egyptians to build two cities for Pharaoh with bricks of clay and straw. They had to labor to gather straw and burn the clay into bricks for the building (Exo. 1:11, 14; 5:15-19). This is a picture, typifying that people of God have been captured, kept, and retained under the hand of Satan in the world to labor for Satan in order to build up the world as a container for him. While you are working in the world on your job, you must be careful. Do not do anything to help Pharaoh to build up his two cities as a container to contain Satan and all his corruption. The Lord delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea. Then at a certain point the Lord came to them and told them to build a tabernacle for Him, not with straw, mud, clay, or dust, but with gold, silver, and precious stones. That was the building of the tabernacle with the priesthood, full of precious stones and gold, as God’s dwelling place. There is a contrast between the building of the cities in Egypt and the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness. The cities built in Egypt were the containers of Satan with all his corruption, whereas the tabernacle built in the wilderness was a container for God with His holiness.
The foregoing history helps us to understand that the whole Old Testament is a history of building. People were either utilized by Satan, the enemy of God, to build up cities to contain Satan with all his corruption, or they were used by God to build up a city to contain God with His holiness.
Now we come to the New Testament, which is a further record of building. In Matthew 16 Peter confessed to the Lord, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16), and the Lord responded, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church” (v. 18). If we know Christ in a living way, we will realize that we are material for the building of the church. Several times in the New Testament teachings the Lord Jesus is likened to a stone. In Matthew 21:42 the Lord Jesus, quoting from Psalm 118:22-23, indicated to the Jews that He is the cornerstone for God’s building. Christ is not only the foundation stone (Isa. 28:16) and the topstone (Zech. 4:7) but also the cornerstone. In his preaching of Christ in Acts 4:11, Peter told the Jews, “This is the stone which was considered as nothing by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.” This indicates that he preached Christ not only as the Savior for sinners’ salvation but also as the stone for God’s building.
In the Epistles the apostle Paul speaks much concerning the building. We may say that the teaching of the apostle Paul is a teaching of building. In 1 Corinthians 3:9 he tells us, “We are God’s fellow workers; you are...God’s building.” In the next verse he tells us that he was a wise master builder, the head of a group of workers to build the house of God. Then in verse 12 he tells us that we should build the church with gold, silver, and precious stones. In Ephesians 2:20-21 he tells us that Christ Jesus is the cornerstone “in whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord.” In 4:12 he speaks of the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.
Peter in his first Epistle also teaches us concerning the building up of the church. He refers to the Lord as “a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious” (2:4). Then he goes on to say, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (v. 5). This indicates that we are God’s building to serve God, contain God, and express God.
Then, in the last book of the New Testament we have two great cities. Do not forget that in addition to the New Jerusalem (21:2) there is the city that is called “Mystery, Babylon the Great” (17:5). Here in the last book of the Scriptures Babylon is mentioned again, this time as something against the New Jerusalem. These two cities are two containers. One is the container of Satan to contain Satan with all his corruption, confusion, complications, and divisions. The book of Revelation shows us how much corruption, confusion, complication, and division are contained in this mysterious Babylon, the great Babylon of mystery. That is the building of Satan with humans and among humans. In, among, and with the human race as the material, Satan is building up a mysterious city as a container to contain him and express him. On the other hand, the Lord is building a holy city, the New Jerusalem, among the human race and with the human race as the material to contain God and express God. If we read Revelation, we will see these two cities: the city of Satan and the city of God, the sinful city and the holy city, the city full of Satan’s corruption and the city full of God’s holiness, the city full of satanic darkness and the city full of God’s light, the city as an incarnation of Satan and the city as an enlarged incarnation of God. What God is doing today is, on the one hand, to build up His holy city and, on the other hand, to destroy the great Babylon of mystery. One day this great city of Babylon will be fully destroyed. After the destruction of this great, sinful, satanic city, the time will come for the New Jerusalem, the holy city, to be manifested.
Do you see the picture in all the Scriptures? It is a record of building. On the one hand, it is a positive record of the divine building, and on the other hand, it is a negative record of the satanic building, the devilish building. In all the dispensations, generations, and ages, the principle is exactly the same.
Now let us see what the New Jerusalem, the divine building, the holy city, is. First, this holy city is a living composition of living persons. It is built with living persons as materials, being composed of the saints in the Old Testament time as well as the saints in the New Testament time. We know that the New Jerusalem is a composition of living persons, because the divine record tells us that the twelve gates of the city bear the names of the twelve tribes of Israel (21:12) and that the twelve foundations of this city bear the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (v. 14). The twelve tribes of Israel are the representatives of the Old Testament saints, and the twelve apostles are the representatives of all the New Testament saints. This is why we say that the New Jerusalem is a composition of all the saints in the Old Testament time as well as in the New Testament time. From now on you should never believe that in this universe God is building a material place with material things. After creating the heavens, the earth, and all things, God has not had a resting place. God will not be satisfied with a physical place as His resting place. In Isaiah 66:1 we are told that even heaven, where God’s throne is, is not God’s resting place. What is God’s resting place? According to the following verse, it is the contrite spirit of man. God wants a living dwelling place, that is, a dwelling place built with living persons.
When I was young, I sat at the feet of some older saints who taught the Bible in the way of letters. One day I heard a message saying, “The heavenly mansion, which the Lord is preparing for us, must be a wonderful place. The Lord told us that as soon as He finishes building it, He will come back to take us there. Since He has been gone for nearly two thousand years and has not come back yet, it must be that the heavenly mansion has not yet been completed. After such a long time the Lord still has not finished the building, so imagine how wonderful that mansion will be!” At that time I was so childish that I believed what I heard, and I even was excited, thinking that each of us will be given a mansion, as we sang in certain hymns. This concept concerning the New Jerusalem is altogether wrong. The Lord is after a living dwelling place with living persons as living materials.
In Christianity today Christians have a very wrong concept concerning the church. They consider that the church is a physical building. This is absolutely and seriously wrong. The church is not a physical building but a building with living persons. It is a living composition with the living believers as the living members. The church is not a physical house; the church is a living house. The same principle applies to the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is not a physical building but a living building with living members, living persons. The Lord does not want to have a physical mansion as His dwelling place. Rather, the Lord desires to have a living composition of a living group of living persons, redeemed, saved, regenerated, transformed, changed in every respect, and composed and built up together as a living dwelling place for Himself. This is the resting place of the Lord. This is the highest thought, the thought on the highest plane, concerning the dwelling place of God.
In certain places some friends asked me, “Brother Lee, would you please tell us where we Christians will be after we die?” I said, “Brothers, there is no need for you to worry about this matter. Surely you and I are precious in the Lord’s eyes. The Lord will keep us in the best place.” Brothers and sisters, we do not need to worry about where we will be in the future. Rather, the Lord is very concerned today about His spiritual, living dwelling place. He is seeking after a living habitation that is composed of, built up together with, all the redeemed, regenerated, and transformed ones.
The New Jerusalem is the bride of Christ and the wife of Christ (Rev. 21:2, 9). How can a physical mansion be a bride or a wife? When you get married, will you marry a house or a mansion? No, you will marry a living person, a person as a living composition of living members. How can a physical mansion, which is without feelings and thoughts, match you? In the same way, how can a physical mansion without a heart, a mind, a thought, and a desire be the counterpart to match the living Christ? That is ridiculous. The Lord is going to marry not a physical mansion but His redeemed ones, who are composed together as His bride, His wife.
The apostle John tells us that all the people given by God the Father to the Lord, the Son, are the bride as the increase of the Lord (John 3:29-30). The apostle Paul also says that he betrothed us as pure virgins to Christ as our Husband (2 Cor. 11:2). Then in Ephesians 5 we are told that husbands should love their wives just as the Lord loves the church (v. 25). These portions of the Word show us clearly that the bride of Christ is not a physical house but a living composition of the redeemed ones.
In Revelation we are also told that the holy city, the New Jerusalem, is the tabernacle of God (21:3). To Christ, it is a bride; to God, it is a tabernacle. God’s intention is not to have a tabernacle built with wood and gold or a temple built with wood and stones. God’s intention is to have a temple built with His living children. We are told in the Scriptures that we are the household and the house of God (Eph. 2:19; 1 Tim. 3:15), and we are the living temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22). On the one hand, we are the living bride to match Christ, and on the other hand, we are the living house, the living temple, the living tabernacle, the living habitation, to meet God’s need. We are the bride to satisfy Christ, and we are the tabernacle to give God rest.
As we have seen, the Old Testament is a record of the history of the tabernacle and the temple. The same is true of the New Testament. When the Lord Jesus was on this earth, He was the tabernacle of God (John 1:14), and His body was the temple of God, which was destroyed on the cross by the Jewish people but raised up by the Lord in His resurrection in an enlarged way (2:19-21). Thus, the church is the enlarged Body of Christ as the enlarged temple of God. Eventually, when we come to the ultimate conclusion of the entire Scriptures, we have a picture of the tabernacle and the temple. This city is the very ultimate tabernacle, with God in Christ Himself as the temple. Therefore, this picture is the conclusion of the history of the tabernacle and the temple. What is the ultimate expression, the ultimate consummation, of the tabernacle and the temple? It is the holy city, the New Jerusalem, which is a living composition of all the saints from the Old Testament time to the New Testament time, all the chosen ones, all the redeemed people. All the people saved by God in Christ through the Spirit are the members to be built up as a living corporate Body, a living corporate city, a living corporate container to contain God in Christ through the Spirit to express the Triune God.
I believe that at this point we are clear about what God is after today. He desires to have a group of people mingled with Christ, transformed into the image of Christ, and built up together as a corporate Body to contain Christ and express Christ. As we have seen before, at the beginning of the book of Revelation there are the seven lampstands as the local expressions of this Body, and at the end there is the New Jerusalem as the great, universal lampstand. It is the universal and ultimate consummation and completion of the church, having God as the light, Christ as the lamp, and the city as the stand to express God in Christ. This is the central thought of God, and this is the aim, the goal, and the direction of the work of God today.
