The vision and experience of christ in his resurrection and ascension
Message Nine
The New Jerusalem— the Consummation of the Central Vision of God's Economy and of the High Peak of the Divine Revelation through the Overcomers, Who Return to the Orthodoxy of the Church
Scripture Reading: Acts 26:19; Col. 2:2; 3:4; Eph. 3:4; 4:16; Rev. 3:12; 21:2, 9-11
I. The central vision of God's economy is the experience of Christ as life for the producing and building up of the church as the Body of Christ—Acts 26:19; Eph. 3:10; 1 Tim. 1:4; Col. 3:4; Eph. 1:22-23:
A. We need to see a vision of the central matter in the Lord's recovery today, the vision in Paul's completing ministry—vv. 17-18a; Acts 26:19; Col. 1:25-26:
1. The central vision of Paul's completing ministry is God in us as our contents, Christ as the mystery of God, and the church as the mystery of Christ—Rom. 9:23-24; 2 Cor. 4:7; Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4.
2. The center of the Lord's recovery is Christ and the church: Christ as the embodiment of God—the mystery of God—and the church as the expression of Christ—the mystery of Christ—Col. 2:9; Eph. 3:19b; 1 Tim. 3:15-16.
B. The governing vision of the Bible is the Triune God working Himself into His chosen and redeemed people in order to saturate their entire being with the Divine Trinity for the producing and building up of the church as the Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem—Eph. 4:4-6; Rev. 21:2, 9-10.
II. The high peak of the divine revelation is that God became man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce and build up the organic Body of Christ for the fulfillment of God's economy to close this age and bring Christ back to set up His kingdom—John 1:12-14; 1 John 3:1-2; Rom. 8:3; 12:4-5; Rev. 11:15:
A. God's economy is His intention to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people to be their life and nature so that they may be the same as He is for His corporate expression—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:3-23.
B. God's economy is that God became man to make us God in life, nature, and expression so that we may have a God-man living and become the Body of Christ—Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; 8:4, 14, 29; 12:4-5.
C. God redeemed us for the purpose of making us God in life and nature so that He can have the Body of Christ, which consummates in the New Jerusalem as God's enlargement and expression for eternity—Eph. 1:7; 4:16; Rev. 21:2.
D. It is only by God's becoming man to make man God that the Body of Christ can be produced and built up; this is the high peak of the divine revelation given to us by God—Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; 8:14, 16, 29; 12:4-5.
III. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of the central vision of God's economy and of the high peak of the divine revelation—Rev. 21:2, 9-11:
A. The New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of the Bible, involves God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead—v. 2; 3:12:
1. In Christ God has become man to make man God in His life and in His nature so that the redeeming God and the redeemed man can be mingled, constituted, together to be one entity—the New Jerusalem—21:3, 22.
2. Eventually, the triune, eternal God becomes the New Jerusalem incorporated with all of us, and we also become the New Jerusalem through the process of God's organic salvation—Rom. 5:10; Rev. 3:12.
B. The New Jerusalem is the corporate God-man—the enlargement, expansion, and expression of God—the corporate God—Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10-12; Rev. 4:3; 21:10-11:
1. The New Jerusalem is a composition of divinity and humanity blended and mingled together as one entity; all the components have the same life, nature, and constitution and thus are a corporate person—vv. 2, 10-21.
2. The New Jerusalem is the expansion and expression of the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, built-up, conformed, and glorified people—vv. 10-11.
3. The New Jerusalem is God's enlargement and expansion, God's expression in eternity, which is the corporate God—Gen. 1:1; John 1:1, 14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 22:17.
C. The New Jerusalem is the real and consummate Shulammite—a corporate Shulammite, including all of God's chosen and redeemed people—S. S. 6:13; Rev. 21:2, 9-10; 22:17:
1. The wonderful Shulammite, the duplication of Solomon, is the greatest and ultimate figure of the New Jerusalem as the counterpart of Christ—S. S. 6:13; Rev. 21:2, 9-10.
2. As Solomon's counterpart, the Shulammite became the same as Solomon in life, nature, and image, as Eve to Adam—Gen. 2:20-23:
a. This signifies that the lover of Christ becomes the same as He is in life, nature, and image to match Him for their marriage—2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29; Rev. 19:7; 21:2.
b. The many lovers of Christ eventually will become duplications of God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead; this is the fulfillment of God becoming man so that man may become God, which is the high peak of the divine revelation.
3. The wife of Christ and Christ will be joined together to be the New Jerusalem for God's expression; this is the consummated Shulammite—22:17.
D. The New Jerusalem is the universal golden lampstand, the ultimate consummation of the lampstands in the Scriptures—1:12, 20; 21:18b, 23-24a; Exo. 25:31-37; 1 Kings 7:49; Zech. 4:2:
1. The churches as golden lampstands will be consummated in the New Jerusalem, the aggregate of all the lampstands—Rev. 1:20; 21:18b, 23.
2. The New Jerusalem, a mountain of gold, is the universal golden lampstand holding the Lamb as the lamp shining out God as the light—vv. 18, 23; 22:1, 5.
3. The New Jerusalem, the aggregate of all the lampstands, the totality of today's lampstands, is a consummate, universal golden lampstand to shine forth God's glory in the new heaven and new earth for eternity—21:24.
4. The golden lampstand signifies the Triune God embodied and expressed, and the more we experience the aspects of the Triune God depicted in the lampstand, the more we will be in reality the golden lampstand as the embodiment and expression of the Triune God and thus become the New Jerusalem as the universal golden lampstand—1:12, 20; 21:18.
IV. In His ministry in the stage of intensification, Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit produces the overcomers, who return to the orthodoxy of the church, overcome the degradation of the church, build up the Body of Christ, and consummate the New Jerusalem—1:4; 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21:
A. Because of the degradation of the church, Christ as the life-giving Spirit has been intensified sevenfold to become the seven Spirits—the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit—to produce the overcomers—1:4; 4:5; 5:6; 3:13.
B. In overcoming the degradation of the churches, the overcomers return to the orthodoxy of the church and overcome satanic Judaism, demonic Catholicism, and dead and Christless Protestantism—2:9-10, 24-28; 3:1-5, 20-21.
C. The overcomers overcome anything that is against Christ or that replaces Christ—1 John 2:18, 22; Phil. 3:7-11.
D. The overcomers are for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—Eph. 4:12, 16; Rev. 2:7b; 3:12, 21:
1. Without the overcomers the Body of Christ cannot be built up, and unless the Body of Christ is built up, Christ cannot come back for His bride—19:7-9.
2. The building up of the Body of Christ is by the overcomers produced by Christ as the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit—1:4; 4:5; 5:6; 3:1, 12.
3. The building up of the Body of Christ by the overcomers in this age is for the initial consummation of the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age and eventually for the full consummation of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth—2:7; 3:12; 21:2.
E. "I will write upon him [the overcomer] the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name"—3:12b:
1. That the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the name of the Lord are written on the overcomer indicates that what God is, the nature of the New Jerusalem, and the person of the Lord have all been wrought into the overcomer.
2. The mentioning of the New Jerusalem as a prize to the overcomer indicates that this promise will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom; the New Jerusalem in the millennium will be a prize only to the overcomers.