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The meaning of Rev. 21 and Rev. 22 has been hidden from Christians for centuries. Many have understood these chapters in a very natural way and have considered them a description of a material city. When we were young, we heard gospel songs about the golden city and the golden street.
The first verse of the book of Revelation says that the revelation of Jesus Christ is made known by signs. If we would understand this book, we must know the meaning of all the signs. For example, the seven golden lampstands in chapter one and the universal bright woman in chapter twelve are signs. Furthermore, in this book Christ is called the Lion and the Lamb, terms which also are signs. In like manner, the entire city of New Jerusalem is a sign.
Throughout the centuries, what Christians have spoken about the church has come out of their mistaken concept of what the church is. When some talk about going to church, they refer to a bungalow with a high tower and a bell. In their concept, a certain kind of building is the church. Even some diagrams of the dispensations use the figure of a building with a steeple to represent the church. Although such a thing may be a chapel, it certainly is not the church.
The Brethren, who were raised up in the last century, have an improved understanding of the church. To them, the church is not a building; it is the gathering of the called ones. When believers meet together, their gathering is the church. Although this understanding is correct, it is rather shallow. The church is much deeper than this. Suppose a thousand regenerated Christians meet together; yet they quarrel, fight, criticize one another, and live in the flesh. Is that the church? No, it is neither the church nor a gathering of the saints; in the eyes of God it is a gathering of the flesh. In one meeting of a certain church board, one member of the board even threw a Bible at another. Such a gathering certainly is not a meeting of the church.
In the last book of the Bible the church is signified by a bright, pure, shining golden lampstand. The Lord uses a lampstand to symbolize the church because the church is deep and mysterious and cannot adequately be described in human language. Thus, the Lord was forced to use a sign, a symbol, to represent it. When you see that the church is a golden lampstand, you will know what the church is. However, if you are asked to define the church, you still may not be able to do it. The church is mysterious, divine, and pure, and human words cannot define it adequately. For this reason, nowhere in the New Testament do we find a full definition of the church. Eph. 1:22-23 say that the church is Christ’s Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. But what does the word “fullness” mean, and what does it mean to “fill all in all”? It is difficult to understand the term church, much less the terms “Body,” “fullness,” and “all in all.” Therefore, in the book of Revelation, the ultimate conclusion of the Bible, many signs are used to convey spiritual realities.
When we say that the church is a golden lampstand, we do not mean that the church is actually a stand with seven lamps. It is a mistake to understand the matter this way. It is the same with the description of Christ as the Lamb. Certainly our Lord is not literally a lamb with four legs and a tail. How wrong to understand biblical symbols in this way! The Lamb is a sign indicating something concerning the Lord. Therefore, when the book of Revelation pictures the church as the golden lampstand, it means that the church is divine and pure; the church also has a light that shines in the darkness. This is the significance and the true meaning of the church being a golden lampstand.
The city of New Jerusalem is also a sign, an all-inclusive sign. In order to understand this sign, our mind must be completely renewed and enlightened. We must not understand the New Jerusalem according to our natural concept. Some argue that New Jerusalem is actually a square, material city. If we have this kind of natural concept, we shall not be able to understand the New Jerusalem as a sign. The New Jerusalem is a sign signifying God’s eternal building as His dwelling place. To be sure, God’s eternal building is not a physical place; rather it is something living. Instead of being a material city, it is an entity constituted with His divine life. This is so mysterious, deep, and profound that human language cannot adequately describe it. Therefore, in His wisdom, God uses a picture, a sign, to reveal it to us. With this principle in mind, let us now consider the various details and aspects of the city of New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem is a living composition of all God’s redeemed. The fact that it is such a composition means that it is a living building. The thought that God’s people are a living building is not first found in the book of Revelation. In the Old Testament we see that God’s people were considered material to be built together as His dwelling place.
The Bible covers two main thing — God’s creation and God’s building. In the beginning of the Bible we have creation, and at the end we have the building. Between these two ends we have God’s building work. In creation God produced the building materials. As He carries on His building work, He fits all these materials together into one unit, which is His building.
In Genesis 2 we have a garden created, and in Revelation 21, a city constructed. A garden is something natural created by God, and a city is something built up by Him. The New Jerusalem is not a natural garden; it is a built-up city. In the garden in Genesis 2 there is the tree of life, and near the tree of life there is a river flowing in four directions (Gen. 2:8-10). By the flow of this river we have gold, bdellium, and onyx, a precious stone. Bdellium here is a resin secreted by a tree that hardens to form a pearl-like substance. The first mention of stone in the Bible is not of ordinary, common stone, but of onyx, a type of precious stone.
What were the three precious materials in Genesis 2, gold, bdellium and onyx stone, used for? In order to answer this question we must read through the whole Bible.
In the breastplate of the high priest were set twelve precious stones (Exo. 28:15-21), the first of which was sardius and the last, jasper. Included among these twelve stones was an onyx. This indicates that the breastplate of the high priest is related to both Genesis 2 and Revelation 21, for in Genesis 2 we have onyx and in Revelation 21 we have jasper. In the description of the breastplate of the high priest and of the two onyx stones engraved with the names of the children of Israel (Exo. 28:9-12), we see a miniature of God’s building. The precious stones of both the breastplate and the shoulder plates bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. This signifies that the redeemed Israelites are for God’s building. The twelve precious stones on the breastplate were set in gold. The gold base held all the precious stones. Certainly this is a picture of God’s building. This breastplate was a building that expressed God.
Upon the breastplate were also put the urim and thummim (Exo. 28:30). In Hebrew urim means light and thummim means perfection or completion. Many years ago I read an article by a Hebrew writer saying that thummim is a precious stone with four letters of the Hebrew alphabet carved upon it. Upon the breastplate of the high priest were the names of the twelve tribes of Israel engraved upon twelve stones. The names of these tribes contained only eighteen of the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Therefore, upon the breastplate of the high priest there was a shortage of these four letters. However, these letters were carved upon the thummim, and when this stone was put into the breastplate, there was completion and perfection. There were the full twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The urim was a stone put into the breastplate to give light. The writer of this article went on to say that when the high priest went before the Lord, certain stones upon the breastplate with their respective letters would shine, and at other times other stones with their letters would shine. The high priest took down all the letters from the various stones as they shone, and in so doing he formed words and sentences. Eventually he received a complete message or judgment from the Lord. Therefore, through the shining upon the breastplate, God expressed His thought, His mind, and His feeling, and the high priest could know God’s mind in this way. This is a miniature of God’s building today. Today we know God’s will through the building, the church.
According to the record of Genesis 28, Jacob, a supplanter, had a divine dream in which he saw a ladder set up on earth and reaching to heaven. When he awoke from sleep, he called the name of that place the house of God (Gen. 28:17). Then he took the stone he had used for a pillow, set it up as a pillar, anointed it with oil, and called it the house of God (Gen. 28:18-19, 22).
The stone is also mentioned in the book of Zechariah. Zechariah 4:7 speaks of the headstone, and 3:9, the stone with seven eyes. The stone in Zechariah is neither the foundation stone nor the cornerstone; it is the topstone with seven eyes. These seven eyes appear again in the book of Revelation as the seven eyes of the Lamb (5:6). Thus, the seven eyes relate the stone to the Lamb, who is also the Lion (5:5). For this reason, we speak of the Lion-Lamb-stone.
When Peter first met the Lord Jesus, the Lord changed his name from Simon to Cephas, which means a stone (John 1:42). After Peter received the revelation that the Lord was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said, “And I also say to you that you are a stone, and on this rock I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18, lit.). In this one verse we have the stone and the rock. Later, in his first Epistle, Peter said, “To whom coming, a living stone, having been rejected by men, but with God chosen, held in honor, you yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:4-5). Therefore, the concept that the believers are stones to be built up for God’s habitation is not new in the book of Revelation. It is found elsewhere in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
Paul had the same concept in 1 Corinthians chapter three, where he said that the church was God’s farm and God’s building and that he was a wise masterbuilder (vv. 9-10). In this portion of the Word Paul also warned us to be careful about the materials we use in our building work. We should not build with wood, hay, and stubble, but with gold, pearl, and precious stones (vv. 10, 12).
If we put together all the portions of the Word concerning the stone, we shall see that precious stones signify God’s redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people. All the stones with which the New Jerusalem is built are God’s redeemed, regenerated, and transformed saints. The apostle Peter has told us clearly that we are living stones. Now we are in the process of transformation and of being built into God’s building. Firstly, God transforms us; then He builds us. Therefore, Jerusalem is not a pile of material; it is a composition of material that has been built up. The entire city of New Jerusalem is God’s building, the living composition of all God’s redeemed, regenerated, and transformed saints.
The New Jerusalem is composed firstly of the Old Testament saints. This is proved by 21:12, which says that the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel are inscribed on the gates of the city. Every gate bears the name of one tribe. This is also a sign signifying that the gates of the city are living people. We have seen that the significance of the church as a golden lampstand is that it shines for enlightening. We need to know the true meaning and significance of these gates.
The gates firstly function as the means of propagation for the city and then as the entrance into the city. Before anything can enter in through the gates, something must first go out of them. What goes out of them will then bring something back in through them. Therefore, the gates first function as the way of propagation and then as entrances.
Please remember that the gospel was firstly preached and propagated by Jews. For example, both Peter and Paul were Jews. For this reason, the Lord told the Samaritan woman that salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22). In other words, the gospel, the glad tidings, came out of the Jewish people. Therefore, the Old Testament saints, the children of Israel, are the gates for the preaching and the spreading. All the Old Testament prophets, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and the minor prophets, were preachers. Isaiah preached a great deal, even proclaiming the unique gospel message recorded in Isaiah 53. And John the Baptist and the apostles were all descendants of the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus, the twelve tribes of Israel are the gates through which the riches of the New Jerusalem are supplied to mankind.
The supply that has come out of these gates has had an issue, and this issue is that people have been brought in through the preaching of the gospel. We all have entered into the New Jerusalem through the Jewish gates. Although some may not appreciate this term, I certainly do. I did not enter through a Gentile gate; I entered through a gate that bears the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. We should never say that we came in through a gate that bears a British name, a German name, or any Gentile name. There are no such names in the New Jerusalem. As far as the gates are concerned, there are only the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. They are the gates for propagation and for entrance. As we have seen, these names signify that the Old Testament saints are the constituents of that city.
Verse 14 says, “And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” The fact that the names of the twelve apostles are on the twelve foundations of the wall indicates that New Jerusalem is not only composed of the Old Testament saints, represented by Israel, but also of the New Testament saints, represented by the apostles. The New Testament believers are not for the gates; they are for the wall. The gates are for propagation and entrance, but the wall is for separation and protection. In another message we shall cover the gates and the wall in detail.
The city of New Jerusalem is built with treasures. It is built with three kinds of precious materials, signifying the building by the Triune God. Firstly, the city proper with its street is of gold (vv. 18, 21). Gold, the symbol of the divine nature of God, signifies the Father as the source, producing the element for the substantial existence of the city. Secondly, the twelve gates of the city are pearls, which signify the Son’s overcoming death and life-imparting resurrection, through which entrance to the city is gained. Thirdly, the wall of the city and its foundation are built of precious stones. This signifies the Spirit’s work of transforming the redeemed and regenerated saints into precious stones for the building of God’s eternal habitation that they may express God corporately in His permeating glory. In the garden of Eden these three kinds of treasures were merely materials (Gen. 2:11-12), whereas in the city of New Jerusalem these precious materials are built up for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, His corporate expression.
The New Jerusalem is a mountain of gold. As a golden mountain, New Jerusalem is the ultimate, unique, and eternal golden lampstand. In typology gold signifies the divine nature. Therefore, this city is absolutely composed of God’s divine nature. This gold is pure and transparent. If we see the vision of the New Jerusalem built with God’s divine nature, we shall renounce everything that does not belong to God’s nature and reject anything that does not match it. The church today must also be built with God’s nature, not with brick, clay, or wood.
In verses 19 and 20 we see that the foundations of the wall of the city are adorned with precious stones. This indicates that the twelve apostles have been transformed into precious stones to be the twelve layers of the foundation of the city.
Verse 18 says, “And the building material of its wall was jasper.” Jasper is the appearance of God (4:3). Hence, the jasper wall signifies that the whole city, as the corporate expression of God in eternity, bears the appearance of God. When we are in New Jerusalem, we shall marvel to see that the whole city has the same appearance, the appearance of jasper. This means that we all must speak the same thing, express the same thing, and have the same appearance. Today’s Christianity, however, is much different, for there everyone has his own color and his own opinion and speaks his own mind. But New Jerusalem has one appearance, one expression, and one color.
Verse 21 says, “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl.” Thus, even the gates of the city are built with treasures.
