ASPECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHURCH LIFE SEEN IN THE NEW JERUSALEM
Message Six
The Lamb as the Lamp with God as the Light
Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:1-2, 23; 22:5; 1 John 1:5, 7; Eph. 5:8
I. In the New Jerusalem Christ, the Lamb, is the lamp with God as the light in Him—Rev. 21:1-2, 23:
A. Because the divine light shines through the Redeemer, this light has become lovable and touchable—v. 23.
B. Through the Lamb, the redeeming One, God's light becomes an enjoyable shining for His dispensing—22:1-2, 5; cf. 1 Tim. 6:16.
II. God as the light is in the Lamb as the lamp—Rev. 21:23; 1 John 1:5:
A. The city of New Jerusalem will have a particular kind of light—the redeeming and shining God; the redeeming God shines as the radiant God—Rev. 22:1, 5.
B. The illuminating glory of God is the light within Christ, and the redeeming Christ is the lamp containing the light—21:23:
1. God's glory is the light of the city, and God as the content is contained by Christ and shines out through Christ—v. 11; John 1:4-5, 14.
2. God in Christ will be the shining light as an enjoyment to the entire city; the first enjoyment in the New Jerusalem is God as our light—Rev. 21:23.
3. In the New Jerusalem there will be no night, because in the holy city God Himself will be the "sun" that will never go down—22:5.
4. This may be our experience in the church life today also; when we open our entire being to the Lord, we are in the light, and the light is God Himself to be enjoyed by us in our daily life—21:2, 10-11; 22:16a; 1 John 1:5, 7; Col. 1:12-13.
III. Because we have the redeeming and shining God as the unique light, there is no need for natural or artificial light—Rev. 22:5; Isa. 50:10-11:
A. The light of the New Jerusalem is the unique, eternal, divine light in which the redeemed elect live and move within the holy city—Rev. 21:23, 25:
1. We have the real light, which is the source of all light; the light is God Him-self who shines in Christ; this is the intrinsic essence of the New Jerusalem—v. 23; 22:5.
2. The entire New Jerusalem will be the Holy of Holies, and the light in the Holy of Holies is God Himself in His eternal glory—21:16, 11.
B. According to the principle of the new creation, we Christians have God in us as light, and we should never try to generate our own light—2 Cor. 5:17; 4:4, 6; Isa. 50:10-11.
C. For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to live under the shining of the radiant redeeming God as light through the word of God—Eph. 4:16; 5:8; Psa. 119:130.
IV. Light is a ruling power that causes all things to be in oneness and harmony—Rev. 22:5; Eph. 1:10:
A. Light is a ruling power; it rules when it shines—Rev. 22:5:
1. Where there is darkness, there is chaos, but when light shines with its ruling and governing, there is order—Gen. 1:3.
2. Where God is, there is light shining, and where light shines, there is ruling power.
3. If in the church life as a miniature of the New Jerusalem we have God in Christ as the center, we will have light, and the first thing that light does is to rule and keep everything in order—vv. 14-18; John 8:12; Eph. 1:10.
4. When we have God as light in Christ, we first have order and then life— 2Cor. 4:6:
a. When light shines, it also generates; life comes from light—John 1:4-5, 7-13.
b. When the light of God shines into us, the life of God comes into us; light always brings life to us—8:12; 12:36, 46.
B. God in Christ as the shining light is the ruling center of the New Jerusalem— Rev. 22:1-2; 21:23:
1. From this light come all the riches of life—John 8:12; 10:10b; 11:25.
2. God is light, and from Him f lows the river of water of life; in this living water grows the tree of life—1 John 1:5; Rev. 22:1-2.
C. Where there is the light of God, there are the ruling power and order, and when there are the ruling power and order, there is the generating power, the yielding of life; this is a picture of the New Jerusalem—Gen. 1:3-26; Rev. 21:10-11, 23; 22:1-2, 5.
V. In the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center, all things will be headed up in Christ; this will be the complete fulfillment of Ephesians 1:10—Rev. 21:2-3, 23-25; 22:1-2a:
A. In the New Jerusalem everything will be saturated with life and will be under light—v. 1; 21:23.
B. In Revelation 21 we see the Head, the Body surrounding the Head, and all the nations walking in the light of the city; the whole universe will be headed up in the light shown through the transparent city—v. 18.
C. The heading up in the church life as a miniature of the New Jerusalem is by life and light—John 1:4; 8:12:
1. God's way of recovery is Christ versus Satan, life versus death, light versus darkness, and order versus confusion.
2. The collapse comes from the factor of death; the heading up comes from the factor of life—Ezek. 34:4-10.
3. God's way to recover the oneness among His creation is to impart Himself into us as life—Rom. 8:6, 10-11, 19-21.
4. If we try to be headed up without growing in life, we will fall into organization.
5. In order to be delivered from the heap of collapse in a practical way, we need to grow in life; the more we grow in life, the more we will be headed up and rescued from the universal collapse—Eph. 4:15; Col. 2:19.
6. When God comes into us as life, the light of life shines within us—John 1:4; Eph. 5:8-9:
a. This life swallows death, and this light dispels the darkness—John 8:12.
b. If we are in the life and under the light, we will be delivered out of confusion and brought into order, harmony, and oneness—Eph. 1:10.
c. When we are full of Christ as life, we are under the light and are con-trolled by the power of light—Rev. 22:5; John 1:4; 1 John 1:1-2, 5, 7.
7. As God is light, so we, the children of God, are children of light, and we are even light itself because we are one with God in the Lord—v. 5; John 12:36; Eph. 5:8; Matt. 5:14.