THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The Mingling of Divinity with Humanity
Message Five
Living Out and Working Out the New Jerusalem
by the Experience of the Mingling of God with Man
Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:15-16; Col. 2:19; Psa. 36:8-9; Rev. 2:7; 19:7-9; 21:18-23; 22:1-5
I. The New Jerusalem is the totality of the overcomers; a remnant of the Lord’s believers, the earlier overcomers, will be the bride of Christ for one thousand years; then they will join the rest of the Lord’s believers, the later overcomers, to be the wife of Christ for eternity—19:7-9; 20:4, 6; 21:2-3, 7: (2006 ST, msg. 12)
A. The earlier overcomers, as the reality of Zion within Jerusalem, the reality of the Body of Christ within the church, have highways to Zion in their heart; they take the way of the church internally by being incorporated into God as their dwelling place through the crucified Christ, typified by the bronze altar as their nest for their refuge, and through the resurrected Christ in ascension, typified by the incense altar as their home for their rest—Psa. 48:2; 84:3-5; cf. Prov. 27:8. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
B. To overcome means that we love the Lord more than our self, more than our soul-life; an overcomer knows and loves only Christ for the Body of Christ—Phil. 3:10; 4:12; Rev. 2:4, 7; 12:11. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
C. The Lord is waiting for a group of overcomers to live out the reality of the Body of Christ in resurrection to become the bride of Christ to bring Him back and to usher in His kingdom age; for this we need to pray, “Lord, may I receive Your mercy and grace to be one of Your overcomers.” (2006 ST, msg. 12)
II. To live out the New Jerusalem is to grow up “into the Head” by the mingling of God with man, and to work out the New Jerusalem is to function “out from the Head” for the oneness of the Body of Christ—Lev. 2:4-5; John 6:57; 7:37; 17:21, 23; Eph. 4:3-4a, 11-16; Col. 2:19; 1 Cor. 3:6-12a; 10:3 -4, 17; 12:12-13; Rev. 2:7; 21:9-11; 22:14, 17: (2006 ST, msg. 12)
A. God’s desire is to gain the New Jerusalem through the precursor of the organic Body of Christ produced in the local churches—2:7; 12:5; 14:1-4. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
B. Eventually, the local churches will be over; only the Body of Christ will remain forever as the unique mutual abode of God and man so that God and man are married together, mingled and incorporated together, to be one entity, a great corporate God-man—l:11-12; 21:2-3, 22; 22:17a. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
III. Whatever is ascribed to the New Jerusalem should be both our personal and corporate experience for us to become the New Jerusalem and build the New Jerusalem by the mingling of God with man for the oneness of the Body of Christ to fulfill the eternal purpose of God—Rev. 21:3, 22: (2006 ST, msg. 12)
A. To live out and work out the New Jerusalem as the reality of the Body of Christ, we must hold on to this principle: God’s presence is the criterion for every matter—21:22; 22:4; Exo. 25:30; Psa. 27:4-5, 8; 31:20; 91:1: (2006 ST, msg. 12)
1. The New Testament commences with the individual Christ as the God-man, “God with us”, and ends with the New Jerusalem as the corporate Christ, as the great God-man, “Jehovah is There”—Matt. 1:23; Ezek. 48:35. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
2. The Spirit is the presence of Christ with our spirit; we must live and act in the person of Christ, in the presence of Christ, according to the index of His whole person, expressed in His eyes—2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; 2:10, 13; Exo. 33:11a, 14-17; 1 Cor. 14:24-25; cf. Rev. 5:6. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
B. To live out and work out the New Jerusalem as the reality of the Body of Christ, we must be under the throne of God, the ruling of God—22:1, 3: (2006 ST, msg. 12)
1. Sin is lawlessness, a dethronement of God; we need to dethrone ourselves, humble ourselves, to live in our spirit, coordinate with the saints for God’s move, and maintain a “clear sky” in our Christian life and church life in order to be filled with God’s ruling presence of reigning grace—1 John 3:4; Ezek. 1:13-16, 22, 26; Rom. 5:21; Rev. 4:1-3; 22:1; cf. 1 Kings 10:18. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
2. To reach this point means that in everything we allow God to have the Preeminence and are completely submissive to His authority and administration so that He can fulfill His eternal purpose in us, through us, and with us—Rom. 5:17; Matt. 8:9; Rom. 14:17; cf. Num. 17:8. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
C. To live out and work out the New Jerusalem as the reality of the Body of Christ, we must have the flow and supply of life—Rev. 22:1-2: (2006 ST, msg. 12)
1. The flowing river of life and the edible tree of life should be the outstanding features of our Christian life and church life for the enjoyment of God as our real Eden, our pleasure, entertainment, and joy—Hymn, #509; Gen. 2:8-10; Psa. 36:8-9; 43:4a; Neh. 8:10. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
2. To drink one Spirit is to be mingled with the Spirit as the oneness of the one Body, this requires us to call on the Lord continually and draw water with joy from Him as the fountain of living water—1 Cor. 12:12-13; Eph. 4:3-4a; Isa. 12:3-4; Jer. 2:13; John 4:10, 14; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:17. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
3. To eat the tree of life, that is, to enjoy Christ as our life supply, should be the primary matter in the church life, to enjoy Christ requires us to love Him with the first love, loving the Lord, enjoying the Lord, and being the testimony of the Lord go together—2:4, 7; 22:14. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
D. To live out and work out the New Jerusalem as the reality of the Body of Christ, we reality must be full of the light of life—21:11, 23; 22:5; Luke 11:33-36: (2006 ST, msg. 12)
1. The light of the New Jerusalem is God as the illuminating glory shining out through Christ the Redeemer as the lamp, and the entire holy city is the diffuser of the divine light; today this diffuser to spread the divine light is the Body of Christ—Rev. 21:23-24a; 22:1, 5; 21:11; Eph. 5:8-9. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
2. Light is the presence of God; we enjoy Christ as our God-allotted portion in the light to deliver us from the authority of darkness, the kingdom of Satan, and to transfer us into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love—Col. 1:12-13; Acts 26:18; Rom. 13:11-14; cf. Mark 9:2-8. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
3. The light of God is in the sanctuary, God’s dwelling place, which is our spirit and the church; in our spirit and in the church we receive divine revelation and obtain the explanation to all our problems—Eph. 2:22; 1 Tim. 3:15; Psa. 73:16-17, 22-26. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
E. To live out and work out the New Jerusalem as the reality of the Body of Christ, we must partake of God the Father in His divine nature, typified by the gold as the base of the city—2 Pet. 1:4; Rev. 21:21b: (2006 ST, msg. 12)
1. The one street of pure gold signifies that when we live and work according to the divine life flowing in the divine nature, we never “get lost”, and we are pure, simple, and uncomplicated—22:1; 2 Cor. 11:2-3. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
2. The divine nature is what God is; we must exercise our spirit to enjoy God as Spirit(the nature of God’s person), and we must remain in the divine fellowship to enjoy God as love (the nature of God’s essence) and as light (the nature of God’s expression)—John 4:24; 1 John 4:8; 1:5, 3. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
F. To live out and work out the New Jerusalem as the reality of the Body of Christ, we must experience God the Son in His death and resurrection, typified by the pearl gates—Rev. 21:21a: (2006 ST, msg. 12)
1. Pearls signify the issue of Christ’s secretion in two aspects: His redeeming and life-releasing death and His life-dispensing resurrection—John 12:24; 19:34; cf. Zech. 13:1; Jer. 2:13. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
2. We must experience the death of Christ by the power of Christ’s resurrection so that we may be conformed to His death and to the image of the firstborn Son of God—Phil. 3:10; 1:19; Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 4:7-13. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
G. To live out and work out the New Jerusalem as the reality of the Body of Christ, we must experience God the Spirit in His transforming work, typified by the jasper wall with its foundations of precious stones—Rev. 21:18-20: (2006 ST, msg. 12)
1. By our growth in the divine life in Christ as the living stone, we are transformed into precious stones to have the same appearance as God—1 Pet. 2:4; 1 Cor. 3:12a; Rev. 21:10-11; 4:3; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2. (2006 ST, msg. 12)
2. The wall functions to separate, to sanctify, the city unto God from all things other than God, thus making the city the holy city; the wall also functions to protect the interest of the riches of God’s divinity on the earth and the attainments of His consummation—Rev. 21:2a, 10b; cf. John 17:17. (2006 ST, msg. 12)