Shining from Matthew to Revelation (2)
Jesus came to the people of Galilee as “a great light.” He came that we may have life (John 10:10b) and when we believe into Him this life brings the heavenly, divine light into us.
The Bible concludes with New Jerusalem, which is not a gathering of God’s individual people, but a spiritual city built together. When Jesus comes into us as life, He comes to shine and to dispel all the negatives, all the darkness which is in us. The positive aspect of His living, growing, and working in us is to build us together with other believers.
By this building action we become local churches like the seven presented in Revelation 1–3. (A church is not a physical building; it is believers built together in life, as in Ephesians 2:20-22.) In Revelation these churches are “golden lampstands” (1:12, 20). They are golden because they have the divine nature and they are lampstands because they contain and uphold Christ as the Light.
There are seven lampstands because seven is the number used in the Bible to signify completion in this age. These seven represent all the churches, which together are “the church, which is His Body” (Eph. 1:22-23). Eventually they all become the one unique, perfect, eternal golden lampstand, New Jerusalem.
Photo courtesy of NASA.
Posted by Don on July 21, 2025
https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2025/07/21/shining-from-matthew-to-revelation-2/
