Message Nine

The New Jerusalem—the Eternal Mount Zion

Scripture Reading: Rev. 14:1; 21:1-3, 16; Heb. 12:22;
Eph. 4:16; Rev. 3:12

1. The entire New Jerusalem is Zion, the Holy of Holies, the place where God is—Rev. 14:1-5; 21:16:
   1. Among the Old Testament types, there is God’s holy city, Jerusalem, and within this city there is a high peak called Zion, on which the temple was built—Psa. 2:6; 125:1.
   2. Jerusalem typifies the church, and Zion typifies the overcomers in the church:
      1. Zion is the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, and the reality of the church—20:2; 48:2, 11-12; 53:6a; 87:2.
      2. Zion is the highlight of Jerusalem, the beauty of the holy city—48:2; 50:2.
      3. The hill of Zion is absolutely open to the Lord and is absolutely possessed by Him—24:1, 3, 7-10.
   3. In the church age, the God-men who have been perfected and matured are Zion, the overcomers—Rev. 14:1:
      1. The church is the heavenly Jerusalem, and the overcomers are Zion as the high peak and the highlight—Heb. 12:22; Rev. 14:1.
      2. The church life is today’s Jerusalem, and in the church there must be a group of overcomers; these overcomers are today’s Zion.
      3. The overcomers are for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—Rom. 12:4-5; Eph. 4:16; Rev. 3:12.
   4. In the new heaven and new earth, the entire New Jerusalem will become Zion—Rev. 21:1-2, 16:
      1. All the unqualified saints eventually will be qualified to be Zion.
      2. The New Jerusalem, the eternal Zion, will be the Holy of Holies, the place where God is—vv. 16, 22; cf. Ezek. 48:35b.
2. The Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion—Rev. 14:1; Eph. 4:16; Rev. 21:2:
   1. Zion is the reality of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem, and in the Lord’s recovery today we must endeavor to reach this high peak.
   2. The reality of the Body of Christ (Zion) is the corporate living of the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but live by the life of the processed and consummated Triune God, whose attributes are expressed through their virtues—Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10; 1:19-21a.
   3. The reality of the Body of Christ is a mingling living in the eternal union of the regenerated and transformed tripartite God-men with the Triune God in the resurrection life of Christ; this mingling living will consummate in the New Jerusalem—Eph. 4:16; Rev. 21:2.
   4. We should pay more attention to the Body of Christ than to the local churches—1 Cor. 12:12-13; 1:2; Rom. 12:4-5; 16:1, 4-5:
      1. The local churches are not God’s goal but a procedure God takes to reach His goal.
      2. The local churches usher us into the reality of the Body of Christ.
      3. The highest peak of the Lord’s recovery that can carry out God’s economy is for God to produce not many local churches in a physical way but an organic Body to be His organism—1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 4:16.
   5. Because of the lack of the reality of the Body of Christ, there is a desperate need of blending—1 Cor. 12:24-25:
      1. Blending is an organic building of God-men, who have been made God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead and who live the divine life by the life of the Triune God within them.
      2. Blending is for the building up of the universal Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem as the final goal of God’s economy according to His good pleasure—Eph. 1:5; Rev. 4:11; 21:2.
3. Abraham offered Isaac on Mount Moriah, which is another name for Mount Zion; in our spiritual experience Mount Moriah eventually becomes Mount Zion—Gen. 22:1-2, 14; Heb. 11:17-19; 2 Chron. 3:1:
   1. As believers in Christ, we are repeating the life and history of Abraham—Gal. 3:6-7, 9, 29; Rom. 4:12, 15-24:
      1. At Beer-sheba Abraham planted a tamarisk tree and called upon the name of Jehovah, the Eternal God—Gen. 21:25-33:
         1. The tamarisk tree signifies the tree of life experienced and expressed.
         2. The Eternal God is the secret, mysterious One, who is our eternal life.
      2. The life at Beer-sheba produced a burnt offering (Isaac) that was offered to God on Mount Moriah— 22:1-18:
         1. After Isaac was offered, he was returned in resurrection for the fulfillment of God’s purpose— vv. 16-19; Heb. 11:17-19; Rom. 4:17.
         2. Mount Moriah eventually became Mount Zion, the place where the temple was built—2 Chron. 3:1.
         3. Abraham was the first to worship God on Mount Zion, and eventually we will join him on the eternal Mount Zion, worshipping God.
      3. Having been offered back to God by Abraham, Isaac was multiplied into the New Jerusalem—Gen. 22:16-18; Rom. 8:29; Rev. 21:2, 7.
   2. Abraham, a stranger and a sojourner, “eagerly waited for the city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God”—Heb. 11:9-10, 13:
      1. The excellent and lovely New Jerusalem is the dear expectation of God’s elect and the destination, the goal, of the heavenly pilgrims—vv. 13-16.
      2. Today we are sojourners, journeying on a rugged road toward our eternal goal—the New Jerusalem— 1 Pet. 1:1, 17; 2:11.
   3. Abraham’s tent was a miniature of the New Jerusalem, the ultimate tent—Gen. 12:8; 13:3; Heb. 11:9; Rev. 21:2-3:
      1. The overcomers live in tents, looking forward to the New Jerusalem, the eternal tabernacle and the real feast of tabernacles—Lev. 23:39-43.
      2. The New Jerusalem will be a tabernacle for the remembrance of how the overcomers, before the consummation of the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age, lived in tents as they were journeying toward the New Jerusalem—the eternal Mount Zion.