THE HOLY CITY JERUSALEM
[p. 147] THE HOLY CITY JERUSALEM
Revelation 3: 7-13; Revelation 21: 9-27
On previous occasions we have had the opportunity of looking at the church as presented to us in three aspects in Scripture, namely, as the body of Christ, as God’s temple, and as God’s house. We began with the body, and then we saw something of the truth of the temple, as a spiritual house composed of living stones; and then we had the thought of the house of God as formed of Christian profession. The house so viewed evidently does not go on beyond the present dispensation. When once the body of Christ is taken away, and the Spirit leaves the scene, the house is like the temple at Jerusalem, “Your house is left unto you desolate”; it is no more owned of God; Christian profession is no longer regarded in that light; it is apostate and disowned. But when you come to the close of the Revelation, though you do not get exactly a new phase of the church, for that is not the idea, yet you get the church in its aspect earthwards as the seat of heavenly light and rule. In the passage I read from Revelation 21, you must pre-suppose that the church has been caught up to heaven: because the point in that chapter is that the city comes [p. 148] down from God out of heaven, and therefore it must have been put before God in heaven. And that is where, properly speaking, the ministry of Paul put the church; that was the end and effect of his ministry, to put the saints, those who compose the church, in their true place before God in heaven. John brings the church from God out of heaven, and shows to us its bearing outwards. He does not show us what the church is in the sense in which Paul speaks of it, nor the relation of the church to Christ, which is Paul’s ministry; but he shows us the church as the great city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, and what marks it when it comes. It is not a new revelation of the church, but its aspect earthwards.
Before speaking about the detail, which comes out in this chapter, I want to say a word about the relative places of John and Paul in regard to the church. John had no distinctive church ministry. Peter had, and Paul had: the commission to Peter was to feed and shepherd the lambs and sheep of Christ, and Peter was to pass off the scene; the Lord revealed to him by what death he would glorify God. Paul’s commission is conveyed in what he says, “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ”. John laboured in testimony in common with the twelve; but had no distinctive mission — I lay stress upon the word ‘distinctive’ — because when you come to the twelve foundations of the heavenly city the twelve apostles of the Lamb are all included there. In the beginning of the Revelation, what is revealed to John is the ruin and decay of what Paul had laboured to build, especially at Ephesus. You cannot study the Acts of the Apostles without seeing that Ephesus is the climax of Paul’s work. When the seven churches of Asia are passed under review as representative, and the Lord reveals to John by them the state of the church, he begins with Ephesus, because the point of departure is seen there. What it means is this; the church had fallen away from the truth of its espousal; as to the state of the affections it had left its first love, it had left the point where Paul had placed it. But it was, so to say, Paul’s church, built especially upon the foundation of his testimony.
Now what comes to pass is this, that John is shown what Paul never saw. You do not find in Paul’s writings the idea of revival in the church here. In his second epistle to Timothy Paul gives instruction as to what one is to do when the church has become “a great house”, that a man has to purge himself from vessels to dishonour and to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”; but he does not give the idea at all of any revival of the truth of the church in souls. But in John, though the Lord shows to him the departure, the truth comes out in the latter part of the addresses to the seven churches of a certain degree of revival. It is that which made me read the address to the church in Philadelphia; because undoubtedly you have there a revival of the truth, not only as truth, but in the apprehension and practice of it. Philadelphia does not describe to us a company characterised by holding certain truths, but it stands representatively before the Lord in the truth of the church. It might be reduced to very narrow limits; it might be a very diminutive company; but the whole value of Philadelphia is that it stands in the truth of the church; and the Lord speaks not of something peculiar to Philadelphia, but of what is proper to the church. The position of Philadelphia was this: “Thou hast ... kept my word, and hast not denied my name”. That was characteristic. Then He says, speaking of those of the synagogue of Satan, “I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee”. I do not think that means Philadelphia simply, but states what is true of the church. “Christ ... loved the church”. Then He says, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience” — here again I think Philadelphia is looked upon as representative — “I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation”. The Lord is really speaking in spirit to the church. I decline altogether the idea of attaching any peculiar value to a particular company because that company holds something distinctive. The only value of any company in the present dispensation is that they return to what was from the outset; that is that they represent morally the church as before Christ. Then the Lord can speak to them; and I think that is the [p. 150] position of Philadelphia. It comprehends those who are morally in the truth of the church’s position before Christ.
I would add that I have no doubt it is the special line of truth which is opened to us in John’s writings that really brings about the position of Philadelphia. So that John does not set aside Paul, but comes in his own particular line to make effective the truth of Paul. For my conviction is that in the present day it is the special line of truth which John opens up as to the revelation of the Father and the Son, and the gift of eternal life and the Holy Spirit, which brings souls into the truth of Philadelphia; and when you have got there you have really returned to the point of departure, to the truth of the church.
If you read the addresses to the last three churches, you will find that neither Sardis nor Laodicea has got back to Christ; the Lord is distant in both of them; but in Philadelphia He is the holy and the true, and they keep His word and do not deny His name. It is of great importance to see how John’s ministry substantiates Paul’s. You have to remember that although John was the latest writer in Scripture, as is supposed, yet it was given to Paul to complete the word of God; so that you cannot have any further dispensation brought out beyond Paul. The Lord revealed to John the decay and ruin of the church of which Paul had laid the foundation; but at the same time there is, as we have seen, at the close a certain measure of revival of the truth, which Paul did not foresee. The Lord showed to John the whole history of the church in a sense, under the description of “the things that are”, and made known the end of “the things that are” in order to make way for “the things that are about to be after these”; for the two cannot overlap. When “the things that are” have come to a close, then “the things that are about to be after these” come to pass. Then the twenty-four elders are seen in heaven, and [p. 151] the seven Spirits are before the throne; the church is no longer here, nor is the Spirit of God; and the things about to come to pass are the judgments which are premonitory to the coming of the Lord; because John’s great point is to bring Christ in glory into the scene from which He has been rejected. John claims the world for God.
But it was given of the Lord that as the revelation to Paul had placed the church in heaven, so John should see the church coming down from God out of heaven. That will take us to chapter 21, where he says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away”. These verses should be read in conjunction with the previous chapter, because they follow on quite in the line of it. John had been led on to see the final resurrection and judgment, every moral question settled; and then as a close he sees the holy city coming down from God out of heaven, and the tabernacle of God is with men. That is where we get the holy city connected with the eternal state; it is not a new subject, but what I may call the proper issue. As I understand it, the kingdom, what we commonly speak of as the millennium, is the means to an end. The kingdom is in view of the eternal state; after the repression of all evil, and the final dealing with it, the kingdom is delivered up, and God is all in all, and then it is that you get the holy [p. 152] city coming down. And the import of it is that “the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them”, and will be their God, and they shall be His people; former things are passed away, and there is no more death. All that state of things is at an end; all things are new, the tabernacle of God is not with Israel, but with men; there is no distinction between races. Those few verses are much more properly attached to the preceding chapter; I touch on them because they give the proper sequence. The truth that is revealed to the apostle John leads on to the eternal state, and what comes to pass there. What I have said proves this much, that John is shown the church in its outward aspect as the place of God’s tabernacle among men. We get the same idea in Leviticus 16. On the day of atonement, beside the sin-offering for Aaron and his house, which was connected with approach to God, the blood of the goat, the sin-offering of the people, was necessary, because the tabernacle of God remained among the children of Israel in spite of their uncleanness.
All that closes up in verse 6, and in verse 9 you come to a kind of supplementary detail: “There came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife”. In the beginning of chapter 17 it says, “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters”. “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness”. I refer to that only to show the connection; it was one of the seven angels that had the seven last plagues that showed John the harlot, the great whore, the false apostate church, and it is one of the same seven angels that talked with John, saying, “Come hither; I will shew thee the bride,
the Lamb’s wife”. He was carried away into the wilderness to be shown the whore. Now he is not taken into the wilderness, but to “a great and high mountain”. That means that you must get very much above the earth if you are to understand anything at all about the bride, the Lamb’s wife. You can understand the great whore in the wilderness; but you must, like John, get to a mountain great and high if you want to know anything about the bride, the Lamb’s wife. But notice this, John does not see the bride, the Lamb’s wife, in her relations to the bridegroom, but in the character of a city. It is the same city, I suppose, which had been spoken of previously in the chapter as “a bride adorned for her husband”; here it is the bride, the Lamb’s wife. “He shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God”. The great whore could not rise above the wilderness; there was nothing heavenly about her; but the bride, the Lamb’s wife, comes down from God out of heaven. She must have been taken there in the first instance, and this was the power of the ministry of Paul; John sees her coming from God out of heaven, having the glory of God. It is a wonderful result, and particularly to one like John, to whom the ruin of the church had been revealed, the decay of everything down here, all ending really in Thyatira and Laodicea.
I will very briefly notice the details which are given to us as distinctive of the heavenly city; though I do not attempt to interpret details or symbols, but only just to give three or four leading ideas in connection with them, for it is of the very deepest interest to us to see the features which distinguish the city as coming down from God out of heaven. The city is the heavenly metropolis, and the first point about her is that she has “the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high, and [p. 154] had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel”. “And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb”. So far you get, I think, the marks of identification: the first is the glory of God, the expression of His infinite satisfaction, the second is the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the third is the twelve apostles of the Lamb. They are the links with what is past, and the marks of identification by which the city is known.
The first is the glory of God. Ever since sin came into the world, what has been in view has been the glory of God. What I understand by the glory of God is the complete and perfect satisfaction of the divine attributes in the accomplishment of God’s counsels of grace. The God of glory appeared to Abraham; there you get the first idea of counsel in the way of promise. Stephen saw the glory of God in the presence of Jesus. And in Paul there shone forth “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. In the church is seen the complete and perfect satisfaction of the divine attributes in the accomplishment of God’s counsels of grace. And this is what characterises the heavenly metropolis, “Jerusalem above”. Her shining is like unto a stone most precious, and she is resplendent with the glory of God.
The second mark is the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. That conveys to me the thought that in the church you cannot ignore the twelve tribes of Israel; they have their place in the counsel of God, and salvation came out from them to the Gentiles. We have become partakers of their spiritual things. The twelve tribes are represented in the city, and a correspondence exists between them and the gates.
Then the third mark is that, looked at in the aspect in which it is here presented, as the city, the church is founded on the work of the twelve apostles; in the [p. 155] foundations are the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. You do not get any allusion here to Paul, for the reason that the church is not presented in its relations Christward, but in its outward aspect, as the heavenly city, where the glory of God is and presents itself to men. The names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb complete the three marks of identification.
The next point is the measure of the city: “And the city lieth four-square, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel”. That is the measure of it. It has often been pointed out that it is a cube, the breadth, and the length and the height of it are equal; it is all measured, all taken into account. You get the idea of measuring also in chapter 11, the temple of God, and the worshippers, and the altar, were to be measured. What does the measuring mean? I believe it is the demonstration that every demand of divine righteousness is answered; it is really the fulfilment and display of what is spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5: “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”. In the church all is equal and exact; there is no adjustment wanted; the length and breadth and height of it are all equal. There are two ways in which righteousness is presented to us in Scripture; one as the ground of our justification as here upon earth, and the other in the ministry of reconciliation that, as the result of Christ having been made sin for us, we have boldness to enter into the holiest. Here you get the whole thing completed and displayed; that is the measure of the city.
Now we come to the next point, the preciousness of what is there. “And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear [p. 156] glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones” — I need not enumerate them — “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass”. The idea which that conveys to me is that it is the precious result of the formative work of God individually in the saints. The light is refracted in the precious stones. No precious stone gives light, but refracts light, it throws off light. And that is the preciousness of the church in that sense. But then each is the fruit and result of the work of the lapidary, everything that would obstruct light has been removed. The idea of preciousness in each individual part is carried on to the gates. The foundation was the beginning, and the gates the completion. “Every several gate” is of one pearl; each was unique of its kind. It all conveys, I think, the idea of the work of the Spirit of God in the saints; the practical result of which is that every saint is bright in the light which comes from Christ. That is what ought to be here, every one of us should reflect some trait of the perfectness of Christ. That is the preciousness.
Now I pass on to the fourth point, to what I may call the characteristics of the city. It says, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life”. These are the distinctive marks. The first is, there is no temple. I doubt if there ever was before a city without a temple, but the heavenly city has no temple, because the city itself is really the church, and is composed entirely of living stones, profession has no place; and hence there is no temple — “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it”. You could not have a temple in the heavenly city, where God dwells and is approached without a veil, a temple would be out of place. You can have and do have a temple here upon earth, for in the present dispensation, saints, living stones, are the temple in the midst of profession, and the city is not yet. In heaven there is no temple. Those who constitute the city were the temple down here. That is the first characteristic.
The second is, that there is no need of natural light; they have no need of the sun nor of the moon; the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. It is enlightened by what is displayed of God in what God has secured for Himself for His own glory, for the display of His own attributes; and all made known in the Lamb; it is that which is the light of the temple, and they do not need natural light. A man who is a great natural light is no good as such in the temple of God. The Corinthians were looking for natural light, cultivated men, men of parts. And that is where Christendom is at the present time; but what is suited for the temple is the spiritual man; and as to the city, the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof, the lamp-bearer. What they are enlightened by in the heavenly city is all the good of God; divine attributes in their display and satisfaction, all shine out there. That is the second great characteristic.
The third is, that the nations get the good of it. Just as in regard to the temple the Lord could say, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”, that is, the nations were to get the good of [p. 158] what was established in Israel, so when you come to the heavenly city, the nations are to walk in the light of it; that is, all the light which comes out in the church is good for the nations. The revelation of God and of what God is, which is centred in the church, holds good in blessing for the nations down here; and how it is effectual is in the sense, that if God could make known in the church “the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus”, how good God must be! That will hold good for the nations here upon earth, they will walk in the light of the city.
And then there is one more point, the gates of it are not shut. The reason is that there is no night there; the very power of good and light excludes the entrance of anything that is of darkness; there is the opposite element to darkness, and when this is so then no darkness gains entrance, there is no night there. That is the last characteristic of the heavenly city.
I have touched upon four: the first is, there is no temple in that blessed scene, there is nothing into which God retreats. Then they have no need of natural light, neither sun nor moon, the greatest natural light is all out of place there. Then it is good for the nations; the nations walk in the light of it. Finally, there is no night there, and therefore the gates are not shut by day; evil and darkness are kept out by the power of good.
I do not doubt, beloved friends, that all these characteristics ought to be seen in the church on earth; that what will come out in the heavenly city ought in principle to have marked the temple of God down here. The church ought to have known its own privilege, that Jew and Gentile by one Spirit had access to the Father; there was no temple in that sense; and that the greatest natural lights were entirely out of place where the Spirit of God was; that what was wanted was the spiritual man. Then [p. 159] again, the nations ought to have got the good, because the church was to be in the place of supplication and prayer and intercession and giving of thanks for all men. Then again, evil ought to have been excluded by the very power of the good and light in the temple; there should not have been any night there. Night and darkness came in by the work of the enemy, affinity existed, and thus it was that things became corrupted.
It is wonderful that God has been pleased to show to us not only what the temple will be — “all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord” — but how the church will come out in its public, outward aspect as the city, and all the features and characteristics which will mark it when it does come down from God out of heaven. It is worthy the name of a great city, the true metropolis. May God give us grace that faith may lay hold of it. I do not think you can take in the truth of it without its having some present effect upon you. The features which will come out perfectly then, ought to mark those who, through grace, have really returned to the first principles of the church. It is a great thing that God should have brought us back to it; and my conviction is this, that it is really the truth which God has been pleased to give us in a special way through John, that has brought us back in some little degree to the apprehension of what God gave originally through Paul, the truth of the church in its relations to Christ. And depend upon it, the more we enter into the truth of the church’s place in relation to Christ, the more we shall enjoy the thought of the wonderful display which God is going to make in the heavenly city. May God give us to understand it spiritually. What is made known to us is but the completion of what exists; I could not say it is the completion of the word of God, because the revelation of the church as the body is that; but it is the completion in glory of that which is formed here.