We thank the Lord for bringing us through this series of messages. May the Lord bestow His grace upon us and give us the best conclusion to this subject. May He cause us to not only understand His revelation and see His vision but also to allow Him to take a real step among us to accomplish the work that He wishes to accomplish. In this message we will cover some specific matters that are closely related to the practice of the church.
The Bible may be divided into three sections. The first section, comprising the two ends of the Bible, shows us two corresponding pictures. The picture at the beginning reveals the building materials that God wants to have, and the picture at the end reveals how God builds these precious materials into a tabernacle to be His dwelling place in the universe.
The second section shows us that the Old Testament, from beginning to end, is centered on the tabernacle and the temple, both of which are types indicating that God will build all of His redeemed people into His habitation on the earth for the expression of His glory.
The third section shows us that when the Lord Jesus came to the earth in the New Testament, He was God entering into man, putting on humanity, and living among men. It was at this time that God pitched a living tabernacle among men. This living tabernacle was His body, the temple where He dwelt. One day the Jews killed and tore down the body of the Lord Jesus, but on the third day His body was resurrected. His resurrected body denotes not only Himself alone but also the thousands and thousands of people whom He regenerated in His resurrection. These regenerated ones have His life, and they also have Him living in them. Corporately, they are the church, which is the enlarged Body of the Lord, the tabernacle and the temple where God dwells. At the end of the Bible, the work of God throughout the ages is completed, and the completed New Jerusalem, the glorious city, appears as God’s habitation in which God may dwell and through which God may be expressed. This is the picture that we have seen in the entire Bible.
In the previous message, we went through the entire New Testament in a concise way and considered it from the view of the matter of building to see how marvelous God’s arrangement is. The New Testament begins by telling us that God became flesh and enlarged Himself among men to become the church and to be joined with the church. Subsequently, we see the churches being built up in various localities and the lampstands appearing in locality after locality so that Christ as the lamp can shine forth God as the light through the lampstands. Finally, at the end of the ages, the holy city New Jerusalem appears as a great lampstand. With a height of twelve thousand stadia (a stadium equals approximately six hundred feet), the New Jerusalem is quite high. Therefore, the holy city is like a tall lampstand. Christ is the lamp set upon the holy city, and God Himself is the light inside the lamp, shining Himself out through the lamp and the lampstand. The nations around shall walk in this light. This is the picture of the building in the Scriptures. It is a story of three layers—God being in Christ and Christ being in the church, which is typified by the Ten Commandments being in the Ark and the Ark being in the tabernacle. I believe that you all should be quite clear about this picture and this vision.
Now we will go on to see how we, the saved ones, can become the builded church. We will especially focus on the practical aspect. However, in many places we will still have to go back to touch the matter of the vision.