All posts tagged Revelation 1–4

Topics in these chapters related to New Jerusalem.

From Golden Churches to the Golden City

The first lampstand described in the Bible is in Exodus 25, for the tabernacle. The second is in 1 Kings 7, for the temple. The third is in Zechariah 4, related to the rebuilding of the temple after the return from Babylon. Fourth are the seven golden lampstands in Revelation 1:12, 20. The ultimate lampstand is New Jerusalem shining eternally “with the glory of God.”

In Zech. 4 the emphasis is on the Spirit (Zech. 4:6) as seven lamps shining, these seven lamps being the seven eyes of God (Zech. 4:2, 10). The seven eyes of God are the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 5:6) for God’s intensified move. This indicates that…the lampstands in Revelation are the reproduction of the lampstand in Zechariah….The shining Spirit is the reality of the shining Christ, and the shining churches are the reproduction and expression of the shining Spirit to accomplish God’s eternal purpose that the New Jerusalem as the shining city may be consummated.*

New JerusalemIn Revelation 1:12 John tells us, “I saw seven golden lampstands.” In verse 1:20 “the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” The churches are golden because their inner reality is the divine nature, portrayed by the gold. The shortages in Revelation 2–3 are in the human element, but that does not detract from the inward divine nature.

For New Jerusalem as God’s goal to be reached, the “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” (Rev. 4:5) burn for our purification. Eventually all the fallen human element will be in the lake of fire and God’s fully transformed and glorified people will be with Him in the golden and shining New Jerusalem.
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* This is an excerpt from footnote 3 on Revelation 1:12 in the Recovery Version Bible, published and © by Living Stream Ministry. A New Testament of this Bible, with 9000 footnotes, is a available in multiple languages for free from Bibles for America, Bibles for Canada, Bibles for Europe.

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by Don on April 24, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 24, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/04/24/from-golden-churches-to-the-golden-city/

In Spirit to See the Lord, His Throne, and New Jerusalem

New JerusalemIn Revelation 1:10 John tells us, “I was in spirit on the Lord’s Day.” He heard a voice, turned to see the voice, saw seven golden lampstands and the Son of Man in their midst (1:10-13).

In Revelation 4:1 a heavenly voice called to John. In verse 2 he says, “Immediately I was in spirit” and he saw a throne in heaven and One sitting on the throne.

In Revelation 21:9 an angel called John to come so that he could be shown the bride, the wife of the Lamb. Then the angel carried John away in spirit and he saw holy Jerusalem with the glory of God (21:10-11).

All three times it was not only the Holy Spirit moving. It was the Holy Spirit mingled with John’s human spirit. The two spirits are united into one as 1 Corinthians 6:17 declares. Because John was experienced in living in spirit, the Spirit could move in him.

Through this he saw the Lord among the golden lampstands, the forerunner of New Jerusalem as the eternal lampstand. He also saw God on the throne and he saw New Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth. It is only by being “in spirit” that we can have these heavenly visions.

May we all learn to live in spirit and all have a vision of the Lord, His throne, and the city.

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by Don on March 4, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on March 4, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/03/04/in-spirit-to-see-the-lord-his-throne-and-new-jerusalem/

No Levitical Service in New Jerusalem

In Exodus and Leviticus both the priestly service and the Levitical service were established. The first was for ministering directly to God, the second for practical support.

New JerusalemIn the New Testament a local church has both elders and deacons (1 Timothy 3:1-7, 8-13). The elders oversee and guide the church; they also minister the Word of God (as do others who are not elders). The deacons help with practical service (e.g. Acts 6:1-3).

In New Jerusalem, everyone of God’s people will be priests, ministering directly to God and being directly supplied by Him. Revelation 22:3b says, “His slaves will serve Him.” The Greek word translated serve means to serve as a priest. In eternity there will be no need for practical service by Levites or deacons.

But don’t wait for New Jerusalem. Revelation 1:5-6 and 5:9-10 both say clearly that all who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb are a kingdom and “priests to our God.” We are all priests to worship God, sing and speak praises to Him, proclaim His worth and accomplishments, and release thanksgivings to Him.

First Peter 2:5 says we all (even babes in Christ, v. 2) “are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices.” Verse 9 adds that we are a royal priesthood to “tell out the virtues of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

The priesthood today is our foretaste of and our preparation for New Jerusalem. Let’s all participate!

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by Don on February 16, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on February 16, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/02/16/no-levitical-service-in-new-jerusalem/

Partakers of the Divine Nature for New Jerusalem

New Jerusalem is a heavenly city with a divine constitution. It “comes down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2). The city is not merely a thing from God but it comes out of God Himself. God gave us divine life in Christ Jesus. The gospel of John says much about this.

God has also made us partakers of His divine nature. Second Peter 1:3 ends saying God “has called us by His own glory and virtue” and verse 4 continues “through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might New Jerusalembecome partakers of the divine nature.”

Gold in the Bible signifies God the Father. New Jerusalem is golden because it is of God and filled with God. We will participate in this golden city by partaking of the divine nature now. Our current partaking brings forth the churches as golden lampstands in many cities (Rev. 1:11-12).

These lampstands become the unique eternal golden lampstand, New Jerusalem, because then we will no longer be separated by time or location. This eternal golden lampstand shines with the glory of God.

 

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by Don on February 5, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on February 5, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/02/05/partakers-of-the-divine-nature-for-new-jerusalem/

New Jerusalem Has the Appearance of God

Revelation 4:3 tells us that John saw “He who was sitting [on the throne in heaven] was like a jasper stone.” Verse 21:11 says that New Jerusalem’s “light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal.”

The whole city has the appearance of God because God is constituted into the whole city. God, not any physical material, is the primary element of New Jerusalem.

“Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Christ is our assurance that we will be part of New Jerusalem.

Photo courtesy of pixabay.com.

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by Don on January 19, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on January 19, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/01/19/new-jerusalem-has-the-appearance-of-god/

Revelation is a Book of Eternal Life

Revelation is a book of life, the eternal life. In Revelation 1:17-18 the Lord Jesus proclaims, “I am the First and the Last and the living One; and I became dead, and behold, I am living forever and ever.” Chapters 4, 10, and 15 show “Him who lives forever and ever.”

New JerusalemIn chapter 2 is the tree of life and the crown of life. In chapters 3, 17, 20, 21 is the book of life, in chapter 7 are the living God and the water of life, and in chapter 11 the Spirit of life. In chapter 20 the overcomers are living and reigning. In chapter 22 are the river of water of life twice and the tree of life three times.

This is the life which is Christ, who has become our life. To experience Christ as our life is to experience the life of New Jerusalem. We have received Him as our life and now daily we have Him as our life supply. This supply is the Spirit, portrayed by the river of water of life in New Jerusalem.

The Spirit is somewhat abstract but the Lord told us in John 6:63 that the words He speaks to us are Spirit and are life. We come to the written word and open to the Lord, praying something like this: Lord, speak to me through these verses with words that are Spirit and life. I desire to experience You as my life today and thus have a foretaste of New Jerusalem.

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by Don on December 11, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on December 11, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/12/11/revelation-is-a-book-of-life-not-gnte/

Live Christ Today and in New Jerusalem

New JerusalemGalatians 2:20 describes the proper Christian, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

I, as on old man in Adam, fallen from God, lived apart from God. I, as a person in Christ and with Christ living in me, live as a new person one with Him. And I live not by my own effort but by the faith He has infused into me.

We also need to be those living with the Son as the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). When you have the Father, you have the Son, and when you have the Son, you have the Father. The Son as the embodiment of God is life (Col. 3:4).…We live with the Father as the fountain, and we live with the Son as life and as the life supply, the tree of life (Rev. 22:2; 2:7). Even today in the church life, as indicated by Revelation 2:7, we can eat the tree of life.*

To live one with Christ, we need the proper nourishment. The New Testament presents the spiritual bread of life (John 6:32-33, 35) and the spiritual flesh for us to eat (John 6:53-57), the milk of the Word (1 Peter 2:2-3), and the tree of life (Rev. 2:7). This is today’s nourishment and also what will come to us in New Jerusalem.

* From chapter 42, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986

Photo courtesy of US National Park Service.

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by Don on October 13, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on October 13, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/10/13/live-christ-today-and-in-new-jerusalem-42-2-3/

New Jerusalem is Perfect and Complete

Revelation 21:16, “The city lies square, and its length is as great as the breadth. And he [an angel] measured the city with the reed to a length of twelve thousand stadia; the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

New JerusalemRevelation 21:16 tells us that the length, breadth, and height of the city are twelve thousand stadia….Ten is a number of completion in the Scriptures, but it is not as complete as a hundred or even one thousand. The psalmist tells us that a day in the Lord’s courts is better than a thousand (Psa. 84:10). The number one thousand is a complete unit, and in God’s eyes one thousand years are equal to one day (2 Pet. 3:8). This indicates that one thousand is the ultimate completion in God’s figuration. Since twelve signifies absolute perfection and eternal completion in God’s administration, twelve thousand signifies a thousand times this.*

Revelation is a book of spiritual signs, including these dimensions. Verse 1:1 says, “The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him…He made it known by signs, sending it by His angel to His slave John.” Many items in Revelation are not to be understood physically, such as the Lamb on the throne and the pearl gates as our entrance into New Jerusalem.

The dimensions of the city show its perfection and completeness. This matches God’s attributes and character. What God purposes and accomplishes could never be inferior to His person; rather New Jerusalem is His expression, matching Him in so many ways.

* From chapter 37, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

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by Don on April 14, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 14, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/04/14/new-jerusalem-is-perfect-and-complete/

The Whole City is the Expression of God

Revelation 4:2 presents One sitting on the throne in heaven and verse 3 says “He who was sitting was like a jasper stone.” Revelation 21’s description of New Jerusalem includes “the building work of its wall was jasper” (v. 18) and “the first foundation [of the wall] was jasper” (v. 19).

New JerusalemRevelation 21:18a tells us that the wall was built with jasper, signifying the appearance of God (4:3a) for His expression. God sitting on His throne looks like jasper, and the entire wall, a great and high wall, is built with jasper. Also, the first foundation of the wall is jasper. Jasper, according to Revelation 21:11, is “a most precious stone…clear as crystal.”….God’s appearance being like jasper means that His very appearance is life in its richness. Jasper is the appearance of God, which will also be the appearance of the holy city, New Jerusalem (v. 11). The entire city, in appearance, looks the same as God.*

New Jerusalem, as the expression of God, is the fulfillment of God’s purpose for creating man in His image (Gen. 1:26) so that man could express God. Man fell from God and His purpose in Genesis 3 but sin, death, the Devil, and every negative thing has been negated when New Jerusalem appears.

What remains is a new creation with New Jerusalem brought forth, grown, and built solely with God’s life imparted into man. It is a city of precious jasper, clear as crystal, with God on the throne at its center.

* From chapter 36, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

Photo courtesy of unsplash.com.

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by Don on March 22, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on March 22, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/03/22/the-whole-city-is-the-expression-of-god/

Transformation into the Glory of the Lord

“He who was sitting [upon the throne in heaven] was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance” (Rev. 4:3). “Her [New Jerusalem’s] light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal.” (Rev. 21:11)

The Spirit’s transforming work is with His bountiful supply of the divine element (Phil. 1:19) for the building up of God’s building (Gen. 2:12b; 1 Cor. 3:12a; 1 Pet. 2:4-5). Consummately, the transforming work of the Spirit issues in the New Jerusalem, which bears the image of God for His expression. God appears like a jasper stone in Revelation 4:3, and the New Jerusalem, having the glory of God, shines like a jasper stone (21:11)….Since jasper signifies God expressed in His communicable glory (4:3), the main function of the holy city is to express God in bearing His glory.*

New JerusalemTo express God we must be transformed into His image and radiate His glory. This is a gradual process, “from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). The glory of the Lord is the glory of New Jerusalem which shines out from the city. The Lord shines through because the city is “pure gold, like clear glass” (Rev. 21:18).

In ourselves we are dark, opaque because of sin and death (Rom. 5:12). But transformation by the Spirit changes our nature so it also changes our appearance. The apostle John assures us, “We know that if He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is” (1 John 3:2). We will be like Him and corporately as New Jerusalem we will express Him.

* From chapter 34, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

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by Don on February 20, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on February 20, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/02/20/transformation-into-the-glory-of-the-lord/

The Universal and Heavenly Woman

New Jerusalem is the eternal wife of Jesus Christ the Lamb. She is composed of both God’s Old Testament and His New Testament people and is previewed in Revelation 12, which begins, “And a great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon underneath her feet, New Jerusalemand on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

This universal and heavenly woman is the total composition of God’s people on the earth. The sun signifies God’s people in the New Testament age (Luke 1:78), the moon signifies God’s people in the Old Testament time, and the stars signify the patriarchs (Gen. 37:9).…We also see that the rest of the woman’s seed are those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus (v. 17). Those who keep the commandments of God are the Jews, and those who have the testimony of Jesus are the New Testament believers.*

“The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). This is the word of an angel to John. The “spirit of the prophecy” is the focus, the essence of the entire book of Revelation (v. 1:2, 9). To be the testimony is to display, to live out, to shine what Jesus Christ is (Phil. 1:20-21; 2:15); this is much more than to merely hold doctrines about Him.

Eventually New Jerusalem will be the eternal testimony brightly shining with the glory of God.

* From chapter 28, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

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by Don on December 9, 2022  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on December 9, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/12/09/the-universal-and-heavenly-woman/

The River of Life and the Tree of Life

New JerusalemRevelation 22 is closely connected to every-thing about New Jerusalem in chapter 21, as shown by its first word, And. “And 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, producing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month” (22:1-2a).

Revelation 2:7 also mentions the tree of life. “The tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.”

The tree of life is planted in the Paradise of God. Since the tree of life is in the city, this tells us that the New Jerusalem is the Paradise of God.

The New Jerusalem is the wife of the Lamb and is also the Paradise of God. In Genesis 2 there were three entities—Adam, Eve, and the garden. But in Revelation 21 and 22 there are only two—the Lamb and the city. The city is the bride and also the Paradise; the woman and the Paradise have become one.*

Both Genesis 2 and Revelation 22 include the river of life and the tree of life. In Genesis 3 the serpent came in, deceived Eve, Adam ate from the wrong tree, and Satan imparted sin and death to all men (Rom. 5:12). This sequence began because Eve was independent of God.

But in Revelation 21–22 the bride is one with God, and Satan is in the lake of fire forever, so there is no possibility in New Jerusalem of deception, no chance for repetition of Genesis 3.

* From chapter 5 of The Glorious Church by Watchman Nee, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, available at www.ministrybooks.org/ and www.livingstream.com/en/the-church/8012401-glorious-church-the.html.

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by Don on August 12, 2022  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on August 12, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/08/12/the-river-of-life-and-the-tree-of-life/

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