The New Jerusalem Has Already Come Down

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” [Rev. 21:1-3]


John kicks off this chapter by declaring that the New Jerusalem – which is the Bride of Christ – has come down from heaven in fulfillment of the promise that “The dwelling place of God” would be “with man” and that God “will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” [Rev. 21:3]

I know that many are tempted to read this passage – and certainly this entire epistle of John – as if it were entirely futuristic. But there are some problems with that, I think. Especially when it comes to the New Covenant, which the prophet Jeremiah foreshadowed and Jesus proclaimed as being inaugurated on the night before his crucifixion at the final Passover supper with his disciples.

“This cup is the New Covenant in my blood,” Jesus said. That New Covenant is simply this:

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” [Hebrews 8:10]

Keep in mind, the old city of Jerusalem which existed at the time of Christ, and before John wrote Revelation, was destroyed in AD 70. Its destruction was the “End of the Age” and when it was destroyed, so was the Old Covenant system.

Out of the ashes of that temporal city arose the new spiritual Jerusalem, and with the destruction of that Old Covenant Temple there was constructed a new, living Temple of the New Covenant, which is the Church.

Later in the chapter, John says:

“Then came one of the seven angels who…spoke to me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God…” [Rev. 21:9-11]

The Church is the Bride of Christ, and as John tells us in Revelation, the New Jerusalem has already come down from Heaven [by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit] and now grows to cover the entire earth.

Then John goes on to say:

“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And they city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and her gates will never be shut by day – and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” [Rev. 21:22-27]

Within the Church – or the New Jerusalem – there is no temple other than Jesus Himself. He abides within us, and we abide within Him. We are the living Temple of the Holy Spirit where Christ lives, and Christ is the living Temple where all of us “live and move and have our being.”

Christ is our light, and because of this, we are the light of the world.

"You are the light of the world--like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.” – Jesus [Matt. 5:14]

The Bride of Christ is here now. We are the Incarnation of Christ in the world now. He is our Head, and we are His Body.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” [Rev. 21:3]

Has God not made His dwelling among men? Isn't this what Jesus, and Stephen, and the other Apostles proclaimed over and over again?

The New Jerusalem has already been planted like a seed on the earth. Now it continues to grow daily, and the Lord is adding to Her number daily, as His Kingdom advances and His rule and reign expands.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” [Isaiah 9:6-7]


[Image Credit: Moebius]

BUSINESS AS USUAL?

*NOTE: This post originally appeared on the [Subversive Underground] e-newsletter.


Business As Usual?

I recently received an email from someone who had a question for me regarding the mounting debt issues at their church.

The email read: 

"Our church is in debt. We owe the bank thousands. We now need the debt to function. We have become dependent on it. My spouse challenged the finance person, in private, about this and got no where. We suggested we stop doing stuff and paying so many people to run the church. These suggestions feel on deaf ears."

Now, my perspective may be different than most in this situation, but since the question has been asked, and since I believe that many other Churches will soon find themselves in the same boat very soon, I wanted to respond here.

For a bit of background on my personal situation, let me make it clear that my wife and I have fairly radical views when it comes to the Church, and especially when it comes to church finances, offerings and tithes. For our family, it is our conviction that the offering belongs to the poor and not to the Church to spend on herself and her own comforts. This is why, about 7  years ago, we left our on-staff, paid pastoral positions and started a house church where 100% of all offerings could go to the poor in our community. I do not take a salary. We use every penny received in our basket to buy groceries for needy families and to help people in need.

However, many churches, if not most, do not operate in this way. Most churches in America today are operating as a business. Because of this, these churches, like every single other business, are suffering financially and facing economic hardships that force many to make difficult decisions about staff, expenses and programs.

Like every other business, Churches around the nation are laying off workers, cutting back on programs and down-sizing to make it through these uncertain economic times.

Could it be that God might be allowing the Church as we know it to go out of business so that she can realize that He has never intended her to operate as a business in the first place?

Most Christians today cannot imagine Church without a paid professional clergy, a large building, a state-of-the-art sound system, and programs for youth and children. However, the historical evidence is that people have been operating without these things for literal centuries. These churches have been making disciples and preaching the Gospel and serving the poor and worshipping Jesus just fine, thank you. All without a building, a paid professional clergy, or programs or a thousand dollar sound system. Seriously.

Furthermore, the New Testament tells us that Jesus refers to His Church as a Family, a Body, an Organism and a Bride. He never treats her as a business and, in my opinion, the Scriptures reveal a very different DNA for Church than we've adopted here in the West.

One pastor friend recently shared that he had approached his board of directors at his church about not continuing to take a salary for his services. He wanted to take a job in the real world and not be a burden to the Body financially. This, I thought, was a wonderful idea. However, they wouldn't allow him to work for free or to take his salary elsewhere. This response puzzles me in many ways, but sadly, most cannot conceive of running the Church in any other way than as a business.

Over the last few years I have met three different pastors, here in California, who have found it necessary to let go of their church building and their paid staff due to financial hardships. In each case, these pastors made the decision to re-organize as a series of house churches. All of them have since discovered the joy and the freedom of "Being the Church" rather than asking their people to attend one. None of them would ever go back. None of them would have taken the step towards House Church if their bank accounts were bursting either.

Now that they have made the leap towards organic forms of "being Church" these three pastors have also discovered that, instead of shrinking in size, they are growing, in maturity and in numbers. Instead of hurting for money they cannot help but generate money, because they have little to no expenses. Instead of spending thousands of dollars a month on utilities and bills, they now spend hundreds of hours in community and in fellowship with one another and have discovered what it means to really be the Family of God.

Our house church, The Mission, has been together for just over 7 years now. I have been very blessed to grow alongside others who share our passion for living outward-focused lives of love. My family has been blessed to open our home and discover true Koinonia fellowship and community with people who have a sincere desire to follow Jesus. We've all been blessed to encourage one another in our faith and to spur one another on to do good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do.

We've been blessed to share our finances with one another, and with those we encounter in the community, who are in need. We've been amazed to connect every dollar we give with actual people whose lives are blesssed because of what we share.

Of course, this is no way to run a business, and that's the whole point. Our passionate desire is to live our faith and share what we have been given without allowing profits or corporate strategy or ROI to muddy the waters.

Perhaps God has other reasons for allowing financial pressures to put the Church out of business? Perhaps our economy will rebound soon and all of this will go away? Who knows?

I just cannot help to see God at work in all of this, especially when I hear joyful reports of pastors who are seeing growth and maturity in their church as the walls come down and the people discover what it means to be the Church they were always meant to be. 

My hope and prayer is that the people of God here in America would really begin to fully understand what it means to operate as a family, and to share what they have, and to embrace one another, and the poor, no matter what the cost.