Search
Scripture Reading: Rev. 12:5, 10-11; 14:3-4, 14; 19:7-9; 21:2-3, 10-14, 22; 22:1-2, 14, 17
The book of Revelation is a wonderful and all-inclusive book. It is the consummation of all the Bible. Nearly all the points and subjects in the Bible are consummated in this book. Without it, there is no consummation. At the beginning of Revelation, we see the local churches with Christ walking in their midst. Then at the end of this book, there is the holy city, New Jerusalem, God’s habitation for eternity. In the beginning there are the churches, and at the end there is the New Jerusalem. The local churches and the New Jerusalem are two aspects of one thing. The local churches will eventually issue in the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the local churches. We all must see this.
Between the local churches and the New Jerusalem there are many things. The things we are interested in depend upon what kind of Christian we are. When I was young, I was with a group of Christians who were often in this book. They always talked about the beasts, the ten horns, the seven eyes, or sometimes the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. Many times they taught me concerning the three and a half years, forty-two months, and twelve hundred and sixty days. Their mathematics in this book were exact. As a young man I had the desire to know all these things, and they did not disappoint me. However, after I had learned these things, I became dead. It took the Lord much grace to make me alive.
Some may wonder why these things would deaden me. Are these not things that are in the book of Revelation? Are these not scriptural matters? Yes they are. But when you eat peanuts, what part do you eat? Do you pick up the peanut, break it, drop the kernel, and eat the shell? Never. But do not the shells belong to the peanut? Without the shells the kernel could never grow. Yet no one would be so foolish as to drop the kernel and eat the shell. However, among all Christians, everyone seems to be so foolish when coming to the Bible. We neglect the kernel and choose the shell. We even use many ways to grind the shell into powder and make bread with the shell powder. But even then it is not tasteful. I was forced to feed on these shells for over seven years, and thus I became so dead.
Praise the Lord that in these last forty years, when I come to the book of Revelation, I forget about the beast, the ten horns, and the seven heads! I was with that poor beast long enough. In these past years I have begun to see the Christ in this book. In chapter 1 He is the wonderful Son of Man. His head is white, His eyes are flaming, and His face is shining. His robe covers His whole being, and His golden girdle is on His breast. He is caring so much for all the churches. This is what we must see in this book. This wonderful One is so much more precious than the ugly beast. His seven eyes are more marvelous than the seven heads.
In these days I do not like to study the seven trumpets and the seven bowls. I would much rather deal with the seven lampstands, the seven Spirits, the seven stars, and the seven churches. Many have chosen the wrong set of sevens. They only know the seven trumpets, the seven bowls, and the seven heads. Praise the Lord for another set of sevens! Seven lampstands, seven Spirits, seven stars, and seven churches! I would never trade this set of sevens for the other. There are too many wonderful things in the book of Revelation for us to pay so much attention to the shell.
In Revelation 12 we see a wonderful woman. She is clothed with the sun, and under her feet is the moon. Upon her head is a crown of twelve stars. Is not this much better than the beast? We need the shell for the sake of the kernel, but we should always realize which is the most important. Undoubtedly, this wonderful woman is part of the kernel, and the ugly beast is but a part of the empty shell.
Then in Revelation 14 we read of one hundred forty-four thousand followers of the Lamb: “I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads...These are they who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He may go. These were purchased from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb” (vv. 1, 4). Eventually, these followers of the Lamb will be the firstfruits. Who are they? They are not a special kind of people. They are just like you and me. They are the redeemed of this earth. They are not angels. They will be the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. At this time the Lamb is not on earth but on Mount Zion. This is the heavenly mountain where God is.
In typology, the firstfruits were brought into the temple to present to the Lord. God Himself enjoyed the freshness of the firstfruits. When the harvest time comes, the harvest will not be brought into the temple but to the air, which is between the heavenly temple and the earth (vv. 14-16). In any type of farming, there is the farm, the barn, and the farmer’s home. The barn is always between the farm and the home. It is halfway. The farmer does not take the firstfruits into the barn but into the home for his own enjoyment. Then, later, the harvest is brought into the barn. Our Father’s home is the temple on the heavenly Mount Zion. Therefore, the firstfruits of His farm will not be brought into the “barn” in the air but to the temple, which is on Mount Zion in the heavens. Then the harvest will be brought into the “barn.” This is really wonderful.
I love to study the wonderful Son of Man. I love to study the seven local churches, the seven lampstands, the seven stars, and the seven Spirits. I also love this wonderful woman and this wonderful crop with the firstfruits and the harvest. But as we read on, we come to a horrible scene. It is the great Babylon, the great harlot, the mother of harlots. She is in Revelation 17 and 18. We do not need to spend much time here. We only need to know that she is fallen, and the Lord calls all His people to come out of her (18:2, 4).
In chapter 19 the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His bride has made herself ready with fine linen (vv. 7-8). This is really good, but it is not good enough. We must read on until we come to chapters 21 and 22. Here we see that the bride is the holy city. Now she is not only ready but adorned. She is not just a bride but a city. She has become a city-bride. She is God’s tabernacle, the holy city, New Jerusalem.
I really like the sight of this New Jerusalem. I have traveled through almost forty countries, and I have seen many great cities. However, by the time I came to this country, I lost my interest in seeing big cities. I have seen the holy city, so I do not need to see any other city. The holy city, the New Jerusalem, is the bride of Christ and the tabernacle of God.
Now we have seen at least five aspects concerning the church. There are the seven lampstands, the wonderful woman with the man-child, the crop with the firstfruits and the harvest, the bride prepared for a wedding, and the New Jerusalem, the adorned bride. When we come to the book of Revelation, we must spend most of our time with these five aspects as well as all the revelation regarding Christ. We should forget about the Antichrist, the ugly beast, the ten horns, and the wrong set of sevens, and spend our time with Christ and the church.
In this book the church is a wonderful thing. First, we see that the church in this dark age is God’s shining testimony, so the church must be the lampstand. As God’s shining testimony, all the local churches must be the lampstands. Of course, as the lampstands only, they could not shine. The stand must hold the lamp. And we have seen that the lamps in this age are the seven Spirits, the intensified Spirit. The testimony of Jesus is the speaking Spirit, and this is the lamp. Seven times this book says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). The speaking Spirit is the testimony of Jesus. Revelation 19:10 says, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophecy.” This is the speaking Spirit. Prophecy is not just to predict but to speak. It is to speak something of Jesus, something concerning Jesus, and something for Jesus. The Spirit of this kind of speaking is the testimony of Jesus. This is the real lamp. The church must hold this shining lamp in this dark age.
The church is also the greater part of this wonderful woman in Revelation 12. God’s people in His eyes are never a male but a female. In the whole universe God is the unique male. He is the Husband. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea all tell us that Israel was God’s wife (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 3:14; Ezek. 16:32; Hosea 2:19-20). God is the Husband, and His people are His wife. The church, we know, is the wife of Christ. Since God’s people are a woman, God’s enemy from the very beginning has tried to damage this woman. To understand the woman in Revelation 12, we must go back to Eve in Genesis 3. The serpent sought to damage her. God told the serpent that He would put enmity between him and the woman (v. 15). This means that there is enmity between Satan and God’s people. It is the same in Revelation 12. The woman is God’s people, and the dragon seeking to devour her child is the old serpent, the devil. We have seen by this woman that God’s people are composed of three sections: the patriarchs, the people of Israel under the law, and the church under grace. The church is symbolized by being clothed with the sun. Israel under the law is symbolized by the moon under her feet. This indicates that this part is not respected so much as the other parts. Yet the patriarchs were a crown on her head, because the principle with the patriarchs was the same as that with the church: it was the principle of grace, not the principle of law.
Since the woman is the weaker vessel, she needs a stronger part. The stronger part of the woman in Revelation 12 is the man-child within her: “She brought forth a son, a man-child, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne” (v. 5). The man-child is not Christ but a corporate person consisting of the overcomers. In Revelation 12:10 the man-child is called the brothers. This proves that this man-child is not individual but corporate. It is this man-child that defeats Satan and casts him down from the heavens: “I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ, for the accuser of our brothers has been cast down, who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their soul-life even unto death” (vv. 10-11). This woman’s child is the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy in Genesis 3:15: “He will bruise you on the head.” The individual seed of the woman on the cross bruised the serpent’s head, and the corporate seed of the corporate woman eventually casts down Satan from the heavens. The corporate man-child is raptured to the heavens and casts down the old serpent, the devil. Because of this, the salvation and the kingdom of God with the authority of His Christ are come. Praise the Lord that the brothers overcame him! This is the corporate man-child.
The church as the people of God needs to conceive a stronger part. The present part of this man-child should be in the local churches. I do not mean that every member of the local churches is a part of that man-child. But I do mean that today in the local churches there are a number of stronger ones who are the strong part of the church. The gentler part of the church is the woman, and the strong part of the church is the man-child. This is for the purpose of defeating God’s enemy and casting him down.
The third aspect is that the church is God’s cultivated land. This is what the apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:9. “We are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.” Christ came and sowed Himself as a seed into the human field. Now this seed is growing up, and God has a crop. But this crop could never be harvested as long as it is green. There is the need of maturity so that the crop will ripen. With any crop there is the principle that part of it ripens early, and another part later. The early ripened ones are the firstfruits, and the rest become the harvest. Regardless of whether we are the firstfruits or the harvest, we all must be ripened. Then God will reap us either into the temple as the firstfruits or into the “barn” in the air as the harvest.
The church is not only the lampstand, the woman that produces the man-child to defeat the enemy, and the ripened crop, but also Christ’s bride. This is why the church must make herself ready for the marriage of the Lamb. “Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints” (Rev. 19:7-8).
Eventually, the church must become God’s eternal habitation, the tabernacle of God. This is the New Jerusalem, the holy city. Now she is not only made ready but also adorned. As the bride, not yet as God’s habitation, a white raiment to clothe her is sufficient. But for God’s habitation she needs to be built up with transformed precious stones. There is the great high wall, the gates of pearl, and the city proper, which is golden. This is not merely something made ready but something adorned. She is adorned with gold, pearl, and precious stones (not merely a piece of clothing) for God’s eternal habitation. This is wonderful!
Have you seen these five aspects of the church in the book of Revelation? I have seen every aspect, and it is marvelous! From now on, we must never tell others that the book of Revelation is a book of the ugly beast, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. We must share how it is a book of seven golden lampstands, a wonderful woman, God’s crop, a prepared bride, and God’s eternal tabernacle adorned with gold, pearl, and precious stones. Revelation is also a book of the seven Spirits, as well as of the wonderful person of Christ. When He comes in Revelation 18:1, the whole earth will be lightened by His glory. This is His being the light of the world in a complete and full sense. No other book is so wonderful as this book of Revelation!
Now let me ask a question. How could the wonderful woman in Revelation 12 conceive the man-child? All expectant mothers know that the child within them grows according to what they eat. If they eat properly, the child within them grows properly. If they eat adequately, the child grows adequately. If an expectant mother does not eat and drink, it is the baby that will die first. Whatever the mother eats is mainly for her child within. The man-child grows by the woman’s eating and drinking. Even after the man-child has been raptured to the throne, the woman still needs to be nourished: “To the woman there were given the two wings of the great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent” (v. 14).
It is the same with the ripening of the crop. How could the crop reach maturity? It is only by eating and drinking. The eating is the proper fertilizing, and the drinking is the watering. The crop must always be fertilized and watered. In this way the crop eats and drinks and grows. The best way to be one of the firstfruits is to be faithful in eating Jesus.
How then does the bride in Revelation 19 prepare herself? Today a girl who is getting married may go to a store to buy material to make a dress. But this bride is clothed with fine linen, bright and pure. This could never be bought in any store, for it is the righteousnesses of the saints. This is Christ growing up and living out of us. When we live out Christ by letting Him grow in us, He will be our living. This is the preparation. The only way that Christ can grow in us and live out of us is by our eating and drinking Him all the time.
It is not different with the New Jerusalem. The picture shows us clearly how the holy city is adorned with gold, pearl, and precious stones. There is the river of water of life for drinking, and there is the tree of life for eating: “He showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life” (22:1-2a). It is altogether by eating and drinking that this city is adorned with the precious materials. The center of the New Jerusalem is God’s throne, and upon this throne is God within the Lamb. God is now the redeeming God. This is shown in Revelation 4:3, where John said that the One sitting upon the throne looked like a jasper stone and a sardius. Jasper is green, and sardius is red. Green signifies life, and red signifies redemption. Green signifies God’s divinity, and red signifies the redeeming Lamb. This is the Lamb-God, sitting on the throne in the center of the New Jerusalem.
Out from the throne flows the river of water of life. This living water flows out of the Lamb-God. It is clear that this is the Spirit. In typology, the water of life flowed out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6). Jesus told us that if we are thirsty, we should come to Him and drink, and out of our innermost being will flow rivers of living water (John 7:37-38). John then tells us that Jesus was speaking of the Spirit (v. 39). Here we have a picture of the Triune God. God is in the Lamb, and out of this Lamb-God flows the Spirit. In the river of water of life grows the tree of life. The tree of life signifies Christ as our life supply. This means that the Triune God flows out to water and supply the whole city. Then this city will be transformed into precious materials and built up together. This depends upon the whole city feeding on Jesus as the tree of life and drinking of the Spirit. It is altogether a matter of eating and drinking.
Have you noticed that the book of Revelation closes with a promise and a call? The promise is in Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.” The call is in Revelation 22:17: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely.” The promise is to eat the tree of life, and the call is to drink of the water of life. By eating Jesus as the tree of life and by drinking the Spirit we will be strong to deal with the enemy of God. By eating Jesus and drinking of the Spirit we will grow to reach maturity. By eating Jesus and drinking of the Spirit we will prepare ourselves as the bride dressed in fine linen. It is also by eating Jesus and drinking of the Spirit that we will be adorned with the precious materials of gold, pearl, and precious stones so that we might be built up together as the tabernacle of God. This is really wonderful! Hallelujah for such a promise and call!
Now we must see something more about the New Jerusalem. We have already seen that it is the total mingling of divinity with humanity. The New Jerusalem’s number is twelve. Twelve is composed by multiplying three times four. There are four walls with four sides, and three gates on each side. This is three times four. It is multiplication, not addition. Multiplication is really a mingling. Four is the number signifying God’s creatures. There are four living creatures before the throne of God (4:6). Three is the number that signifies the Triune God. By multiplying three times four we get twelve. The creature mingled with the Triune God makes the New Jerusalem. This is a total mingling of divinity with humanity. In the beginning of the book of Revelation, the number of the church is seven. Seven is composed of three plus four. This is addition, not multiplication. In the beginning, God is only added to us, but eventually we will be fully mingled with Him. Before we were saved, we were just number four. Then at the time we were saved, the number three was added unto us. We then became number seven. This is the beginning. But God wants to mingle Himself with us more and more until we become number twelve. Fifty years ago my number was seven, but today my number is twelve. Hallelujah! At the beginning I was in addition, but now I am in multiplication. Originally, it was God added to me, but now God is multiplied with me. This is the mingling. The height of the wall is one hundred forty-four cubits. This number is composed of twelve multiplied by twelve. This is the mingling multiplied by the mingling.
Why are there three gates on each side in the New Jerusalem? This is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In Luke 15 there are three parables. There is a shepherd who lost one of his sheep. There is a woman who lost a coin. Finally, there is a father whose son left home. The father is the Father, the shepherd is the Son, and the woman is the Spirit. These are the three gates to bring people in. Ephesians 2:18 says, “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” Through the Son we have access in the one Spirit unto the Father. These are the three gates to the New Jerusalem. The Triune God is our entry, our entrance. If there were only God the Father, there would be no entrance. It must be God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
At the center of the city is God in the Lamb, sitting on the throne. We have seen that now God is not merely God but the Lamb-God. Out of the Lamb-God flows the river of water of life. This flow is not in a straight line but in a spiral course. The New Jerusalem is a mountain with the throne at the top. The flow of living water within the one street starts at the top and spirals downward around the mountain until the final spiral at the bottom covers all twelve gates. In this way, the flow reaches every gate.
In this city there is only one flow and one street. We can never get lost. Regardless from what gate we enter—America, China, Europe, or Canada—we are in the flow. There is only one street, and the flow is in the midst of the street: “In the middle of its street” (Rev. 22:1). The one street is on the two sides of the river of life, and the tree of life is growing in the river. This means that on the two sides of the street, the tree of life is growing. Here the tree of life is not a tall tree but a vine, stretching all the way down the street in the flow of living water. Where there is the street, there is the river; and where the river is, the tree of life is growing. Once we enter the gate, we have three things before us: a unique street to walk on, a unique river to drink of, and a unique tree to eat of. Hallelujah!
This entire New Jerusalem is a picture of the proper church life. The church life is just like this. Once we get in, we are in the flow, and we will never be lost. There is only one street or one way. Where the street is, there is the flow for our drinking. In the flow there is the tree of life for our eating. By following this one street, we will be brought upward to God on the throne. At the same time we will be nourished to grow in order that we might be strong to deal with God’s enemy. This is the way to be ripened, to be ready as the bride, and to be adorned as the New Jerusalem. There is no need for any mere teachings or regulations. What we need is the proper eating and drinking that comes in the flow in the one street that leads to the throne of God. This produces the gold, pearl, and precious stones for the building up of God’s eternal habitation.
