Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:2, 9-11, 18; 22:1
Ⅰ
To live and serve God according to the vision of the age in the ministry of the age is to live out and work out the New Jerusalem: "And the building work of its wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass"—Rev. 21:18; Acts 26:19; 22:15; Rev. 21:2, 9-11:
A
The city being pure gold, like clear glass, signifies our need of purification with God in His holy nature and of enlightenment through education by applying the Bible teachings to our mind for the renewing and enlightenment of our mind to make us clear with the thoughts, considerations, and ways of God—cf. Matt. 5:8; Eph. 4:23; John 17:17.
B
"The building work" is God's unique work for our reconstitution with the Triune God so that we may be rebuilt with Him and minister Him into others for Him to build Himself into their being to make them beings in the New Jerusalem—1 Cor. 3:9, 12; Eph. 3:16-19; Rev. 3:12; S. S. 6:4; Heb. 11:10.
C
The city with its wall signifies the New Jerusalem as the eternal kingdom of God under the headship of God for the separation of God's people and the protection of God's interests—Neh. 4:17; Eph. 5:26.
D
The wall of the city being jasper (God's life in its richness) and the city being gold (God's divine nature) reveals that God's eternal economy is to make us the same as He is in life and in nature but not in the Godhead for His unique expression—Gen. 1:26; John 10:10b; 2 Pet. 1:4; Rev. 4:3; 21:10-11, 18.
Ⅱ
To live and serve in the intrinsic significance of Ezra's ministry and Nehemiah's leadership is to live out and work out the New Jerusalem:
A
We need to stay in the process of being purified from all mixture, taking the Lord and the interests of His eternal economy as our unique goal—Ezra 9:2; Matt. 5:8; 1 Tim. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:4a, 6; Luke 9:54-55; Heb. 4:12; 1 Kings 8:48:
１
We can be purified through the process of God's enlightenment, exposure, and judgment, through the termination and elimination of the cross, through the cleansing and washing of the blood, and through the flowing and saturating of the Spirit—Psa. 139:23-24; 51:7, 10; Rev. 22:1.
２
We can be purified through the washing process of the water of life in God's pure word—Psa. 119:9, 140; Eph. 5:26; Isa. 55:8-11.
３
God wants everything to be after its kind, without any kind of mixture—Rev. 17:3-6; Lev. 19:19; Deut. 22:5, 9-11; cf. Gen. 1:11, 21, 24-26; 2:7-9.
B
We need to be educated to educate others with the truth for God's testimony, His corporate expression—2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; 6:3:
１
The twelve foundations of the stones of the New Jerusalem bear the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, indicating that the New Jerusalem is built according to the apostles' teaching, the healthy teaching of God's economy—Rev. 21:14; Acts 2:42; 2 Tim. 1:15; Titus 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:2.
２
Ezra was skilled in the law of God, which is linked to God's economy; the law is a type of Christ as God's Word, God's testimony, God's portrait, God's expression— Exo. 16:34; 34:28; cf. Rev. 1:2.
３
By coming to Christ as the living Word in the written Word, He can become the applied word for us to be infused with Him to become the testimony of Jesus— John 1:1; Rev. 19:13; John 5:39-40; 6:63; Rev. 1:2, 10-11.
４
By remaining in the unique ministry of the teaching of God's economy, we can apprehend the Word's intrinsic significance to be filled with the light of life— Neh. 8:8, 13; Matt. 4:12-16; John 1:4-5.
５
We must learn to use the new language, "the language of Judah," in the new culture, the God-man culture of the new man—Neh. 13:23-24.
C
We need to be reconstituted with grace, which is the processed Triune God becoming life and everything to us—1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Cor. 13:14; Heb. 10:29:
１
The twelve apostles represent the grace of the New Testament, signifying that grace is the source, the element, and the means for producing the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:14.
２
We need to be constituted with grace, labor by grace, dispense grace, and minister the word of grace—1 Cor. 15:10; 1 Pet. 4:10; Acts 20:32.
D
We need to be fully separated unto God to be fully saturated with God, living a holy life for the church life to make us the holy city—Rev. 21:2; 2 Pet. 1:4:
１
The renewing of the mind and the resulting transformation separate and save us from our nature and living that are soaked with the element of the world—Rev. 21:12a; Rom. 8:5-6; 12:2, 5-11; Eph. 4:23.
２
By living in our spirit and eating Christ as the hidden manna, we can overcome the world to become God's building—1 John 5:4, 18-19, 21; Rev. 2:12-17; cf. John 14:30.
E
We need to build up the wall to protect the church as the house of God:
１
We can build up the wall through the overcoming blood of the Lamb, applied to us through our repenting, confessing our sins, and asking God for His purging— Rev. 12:11; Psa. 51:18.
２
We must shepherd the flock of God by sounding the one trumpet of the unique New Testament ministry, declaring to them all the counsel of God to complete the word of God with the Lord's protective warning and healthy teaching, so that they may be full-grown in Christ—1 Cor. 14:8; Eph. 4:11; Acts 20:26-35; Ezek. 33:1-11; 34:25; Col. 1:24-29.
F
We need to magnify Christ to build up the church as the expression of God—Exo. 40:34-35; 1 Kings 8:1-11; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; Phil. 1:20; Rev. 21:3, 22, 10-11:
１
Today in His recovery the Lord is working to restore the normal condition of Christ within the proper church as His expression—Eph. 3:16-21; Rev. 4:3; 21:11, 18-19.
２
In order to express God, we need to live in the blending life of the entire Body of Christ and be daily sanctified and renewed by the washing of the water in the word to be presented to Christ, our Bridegroom, as His pure, glorious, God-expressing bride—1 Cor. 12:24; Eph. 5:26-27.