ASPECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHURCH LIFE SEEN IN THE NEW JERUSALEM
Message Two
The City and the Bride
Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:2; 1:4, 6; 19:7-8; 22:16a
I. "I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem"—Rev. 21:2a:
A. The New Jerusalem is a city representing the kingdom of God—v. 10:
1. According to the scriptural meaning, a city is a center for the exercise of authority; therefore, the city symbolizes the kingdom—Psa. 46:4; 48:1-2.
2. As the house, the church is God's home, the place of His dwelling; as the city, the church is God's kingdom, the place of His ruling—Eph. 2:19, 21-22.
3. The house is mainly with Christ as life, and the city is mainly with Christ as the Head—Col. 3:4; 1:18; 2:19.
4. When we realize that Christ is not only our life but also our Head, the church will be not only the house but also the city—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:15.
B. The Bible first presents the kingdom and thereafter presents the church; the presence of the kingdom produces the church—Matt. 4:23; 16:18-19:
1. The life of God is the kingdom of God; the divine life is the kingdom, and this life produces the church—John 3:3, 5; Matt. 7:14, 21; 19:17, 29; 25:46.
2. The gospel of the kingdom brings forth the church because the kingdom is the life itself, and the church is the issue of life—4:23; Acts 8:12.
C. The kingdom is the reality of the church; therefore, apart from the kingdom life, we cannot live the church life—Matt. 5:3; 16:18-19; Rev. 1:4-6, 9:
1. The reality of the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 5—7) is the content of the church life; without the reality of the kingdom, the church life is empty.
2. The kingdom life issues in the church life; as we live corporately in the kingdom life, we spontaneously live the church life—Rom. 14:17.
3. Without the kingdom as the reality of the church, the church cannot be built up—Matt. 16:18-19:
a. The keys of the kingdom are given to make the building of the church possible—v. 19; 18:18; cf. John 20:23.
b. When the kingdom of the heavens is able to assert its authority over a company of believers, those believers can be built up into the church— Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:15-16.
D. The genuine church is the kingdom of God in this age; today the believers live the kingdom life in the church—Matt. 16:18-19; 18:17-18; 13:44-46; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 4:20; Eph. 2:19; Col. 4:11; Rev. 1:4, 6:
1. The term fellow citizens in Ephesians 2:19 indicates the kingdom of God, the sphere wherein God exercises His authority.
2. The word kingdom in Revelation 1:6 reveals that where the church is, there the kingdom of God is; the church represents the kingdom.
3. Although the church today is God's kingdom, we are in the kingdom in reality only when we live, walk, and have our being in the spirit, not in our natural man—Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 25.
4. We need to live a kingdom life in the church, growing and developing in the divine life until we reach maturity—2 Cor. 13:14; 2 Pet. 1:5-11.
5. The church today must be a miniature of the holy city, the New Jerusalem, a center where God may exercise His authority—Rev. 1:11; 21:2, 10; 22:16a.
II. "I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem…prepared as a bride"—21:2:
A. The Lord's recovery is for the preparation of the bride of Christ—19:7-9.
B. The bride must be mature in the divine life—vv. 7-9; Eph. 4:13-15:
1. The readiness of the corporate bride depends on the maturity in life of the overcomers—Rev. 19:7; Heb. 6:1; Phil. 3:12-15; Eph. 4:13.
2. We need to continue to grow until we are matured in the divine life to become a full-grown man, arriving at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ—v. 13.
3. A mature believer knows and cares for the Body of Christ, being Body-conscious and Body-centered—1 Cor. 12:16, 18-19, 21, 24.
C. The bride is a corporate person; for this, building is necessary—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:15-16; 5:23, 27:
1. The central and divine thought of the Scriptures is that God is seeking a building as the mingling of Himself with humanity—Gen. 2:22-23; Rev. 21:2, 9-11.
2. The goal of the Lord's recovery is to recover Christ as life and everything to us so that we may be built up—Eph. 3:8; 4:16.
3. To be built up with fellow believers is the Lord's supreme and highest requirement of His faithful seekers—vv. 15-16.
4. Being built up with the fellow partakers of the divine life is the highest virtue of one who pursues Christ in God's eternal economy—1 Tim. 1:4.
D. Revelation 19:7-8 unveils the righteousness of the bride—Matt. 5:20; 22:11-13:
1. As our objective righteousness, Christ is the One in whom we are justified by God—Rom. 3:24, 28; 5:1, 9; 4:25; 5:16, 18.
2. As our subjective righteousness, Christ is the One dwelling in us to live for us a life that can be justified by God and that is always acceptable to God— Matt. 5:6, 20.
3. The righteousness in Philippians 3:9 signifies a daily living that is right with God and man; this righteousness is of God and actually is God Himself.
4. The living that is right with both God and man must be God as our expression in our daily living—2 Cor. 3:9; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10.
5. Christ lived out of the saints as their subjective righteousness becomes their wedding garment—Rev. 19:8; Phil. 3:9; Matt. 5:20; 22:11-13.
E. As the bride, the church needs beauty; the beauty in Ephesians 5:27 is for the presentation of the bride—cf. S. S. 4:7; 6:4a, 10a; 7:6:
1. Ephesians 5:27 reveals the beauty of the bride, saying that Christ will "present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish."
2. The beauty of the bride comes from the Christ who is wrought into the church and who is then expressed through the church; our only beauty is the shining out of Christ from within us—3:17a; S. S. 4:7.