The city situated upon a mountain will consummate in the New Jerusalem situated upon the golden mountain, shining over and enlightening the new earth with the divine light. Revelation 21:18b says, “The city was pure gold, like pure glass,” and verse 11 says, “Having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, as a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” Revelation 21:23 and 24 tell us, “The city has no need of the sun nor of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. And the nations shall walk by its light; and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it.” Here we see that the ultimate consummation of the divine revelation shows us God as the light, the Lamb as the lamp, and the New Jerusalem as the stand. Furthermore, the nations will walk by the light of the city. Under the shining of the New Jerusalem with the divine glory, the nations will not be in darkness.
We, the kingdom people, are the light of the world. As light we are like a city on a mountaintop and like a lamp shining in a house. From without and from within we shine to express God, to let God have the glory in the eyes of others. May we exercise such an influence on those around us.
In Matthew 13:43a the Lord Jesus likens the overcoming believers to the sun: “Then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Today we shine as lamps, but in the coming age we shall shine as the sun. At present, this is beyond our experience and understanding.
Those who will shine as the sun are the sons of the kingdom (Matt. 13:38) as the righteous. According to Matthew 5:20, these sons of the kingdom will have the surpassing righteousness. They will be righteous to such an extent that their entire being will shine. This righteousness is the indwelling Christ lived out of us that we may live in the reality of the kingdom today and enter into its manifestation in the future. It is impossible for our natural life to gain this surpassing righteousness; it can be produced only by the resurrection life of Christ.
In Matthew 13:43a the Lord Jesus speaks not of the kingdom of God, nor of the kingdom of Christ, nor of the kingdom of the heavens, but of the kingdom of the Father. The kingdom of the Father is the heavenly part of the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6), the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens as a reward to the overcomers. In this kingdom the righteous will shine forth as the sun. We are sons of God the Father, and God is light (1 John 1:5; 1 Tim. 6:16). The divine light, which is God Himself, is, of course, much greater than the light of the sun. When in the millennium the overcomers enjoy the Father as light, they will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
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