Crystallization-Study Outlines

ZECHARIAH

Message Eight

Christ as the Stone with the Seven Eyes of Jehovah

for God’s Building

Scripture Reading: Zech. 3:9; 4:7-10; Rev. 5:6; Matt. 16:18

I.       God’s building is the mingling of God with man, the corporate expression of the Triune God, and the enlargement of God; the building of God is the Triune God as life being wrought into us so that we may become His corporate expression, the enlargement and expansion of God—John 3:29a, 30a; 14:20; 17:22; 1 John 4:15; Eph. 3:17a, 19b, 21; 1 Tim. 3:15-16.

II.     In God’s building Christ is everything—Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:4; 1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:20:

A.     In God’s building Christ is the rock, the Rock of Ages—Matt. 16:18:

1.      This rock is Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God and as the consummation of the Triune God after the steps of His process—Col. 2:9; John 1:14; 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b.

2.      The rock for the building of the temple of God is the processed Triune God—Matt. 16:18; 28:19.

B.     Christ is the living stone for God’s building—1 Pet. 2:4:

1.      A living stone is one that not only possesses life but also grows in life; this is Christ for God’s building—vv. 4-5; Col. 2:19.

2.      After receiving Christ as the seed of life, we need to grow in order to experience Him as the stone living in us; in this way He makes us living stones, transformed with His stone nature so that we may be built together with others as a spiritual house—1 Pet. 1:23; 2:2-5; Eph. 2:22.

C.     As the Christ and the Son of the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the all-inclusive One, is the unique foundation laid by God for His building; He is the unique One to be the unique foundation of the divine building—Matt. 16:16; 1 Cor. 3:11; Isa. 28:16.

D.     In God’s building Christ is the cornerstone—Eph. 2:20:

1.      As the cornerstone, Christ joins together the two walls, one wall being the Jewish believers, and the other, the Gentile believers—vv. 11-14.

2.      Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, we have been saved in order to be joined in Christ for God’s building—vv. 21-22.

III.    For God’s building, the temple, Christ is the stone with seven eyes—Zech. 3:9; 4:7-10; Eph. 2:21; 1 Cor. 3:16-17:

A.     The stone set before Joshua in Zechariah 3:9 typifies Christ as the stone for God’s building—Psa. 118:22; Matt. 21:42.

B.     Jehovah’s engraving of the stone indicates that God will work on Christ as the stone for the accomplishing of God’s redemption, salvation, and building—Zech. 3:9:

1.      To engrave is to cut; when Christ was dying on the cross, He was engraved, cut, by God.

2.      This indicates that the Christ on whom God has worked will remove the sin of the land of Israel in one day, the day of His crucifixion; through His death on the cross, Christ, the Lamb of God, took away the sin of the world—1 Pet. 2:24; John 1:29.

C.     The seven eyes of the stone (Christ) are the seven eyes of Jehovah and the seven eyes of the Lamb, Christ, which are the seven Spirits of God, the sevenfold intensified Spirit—Zech. 4:10; Rev. 5:6:

1.      “These seven” in Zechariah 4:10, which are the seven eyes on the stone in 3:9, are the seven eyes of Jehovah and also the seven eyes of the Lamb—Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 5:6.

2.      The stone, Jehovah, and the Lamb are one:

a.      Christ is the redeeming Lamb and the building stone, and He is also Jehovah; Christ is the Lamb-stone—the Lamb for redemption and the stone for building—John 1:29; Matt. 21:42; Zech. 2:8, 11.

b.      The seven eyes of Christ are the seven Spirits of God, indicating that Christ and the Holy Spirit, although distinct, are not separate; the Holy Spirit is essentially one with Christ—Rev. 5:6; Rom. 8:9-10; 2 Cor. 3:17.

c.      The seven eyes combine Jehovah, the Lamb, and the stone; the Lamb is the stone, and the stone is Jehovah—Zech. 3:9; 4:10; Rev. 5:6.

3.      The fact that Christ, the Lamb of God, is the building stone with seven eyes reveals that the seven eyes of Christ are for God’s building—John 1:29; Zech. 3:9; Rev. 5:6.

4.      Christ is the building stone with seven eyes, with the seven Spirits to transfuse Himself into us in order to transform us into precious materials for God’s building—Zech. 3:9; 1 Cor. 3:12a; Rev. 3:1:

a.      The seven eyes of Christ as the Lamb and as the stone, which are the seven Spirits of God, are Christ’s expression in God’s move for God’s building—1:4; 3:1.

b.      As the Lord looks at us, His seven eyes transfuse Himself into us; He transmits His inner being into us through His eyes—5:6.

IV.    For the completion of God’s building Christ is the topstone of grace—Zech. 4:7:

A.     In God’s building Christ is the foundation stone to uphold the building, the cornerstone to join together the Gentile and Jewish members of His Body, and the topstone to consummate everything in God’s building—Isa. 28:16; 1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6; Zech. 4:7.

B.     The topstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it” signifies Christ, who is the grace as the stone, upon which are the seven eyes of Jehovah, for the completion of the rebuilding of God’s temple—3:9; 4:7-10; Rev. 5:6:

1.      To bring forth the topstone is to complete the building; this topstone is a type of Christ—Zech. 4:7.

2.      The shouts of “Grace, grace to it” indicate that the topstone itself is grace; the topstone is grace from God to us, and this grace is Christ—v. 7; John 1:14, 16; 2 Cor. 13:14.

3.      The topstone is the Christ who is grace from God to us to be the covering of God’s building—Zech. 4:7.

V.     Through the transfusing of the sevenfold intensified Spirit, the seven eyes of Christ as the engraved stone, we become the same as Christ in life, nature, and expression for God’s building—Eph. 3:19b, 21:

A.     The high peak of the divine revelation is that God became man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce and build up the organic Body of Christ as the corporate expression of the Triune God—John 1:12-14; 1 John 3:1-2; Rom. 8:3; 12:4-5.

B.     The Scriptures reveal that God’s intention is to make His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people the reproduction of Christ for the temple of God—the Body of Christ—as the corporate expression of the Triune God—John 1:12-14; 12:24; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:3, 29; 12:4-5:

1.      In Song of Songs we see that, as the reproduction of Christ, the loving seekers of the Lord become the sanctuary of God and a corporate Shulammite—6:4, 13.

2.      According to the Gospel of John, Christ has a reproduction for God’s building—12:24; 2:19-22; 14:2:

a.      As a grain of wheat, the Lord Jesus fell into the ground and died in order to produce many grains in resurrection as His reproduction—12:24; Eph. 2:6.

b.      In Christ’s resurrection we are His reproduction; in His resurrection He imparted the divine life into us, making us the same as He is in life and nature to be His reproduction for God’s building, the temple of God—John 2:19-22; 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3; 1 Cor. 3:16-17.

3.      The deep thought in Romans is that God became man so that, in God’s complete salvation, sinners may be redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified to become the sons of God, who are the same as God in life and nature, to be the members of the Body of Christ—8:3; 1:3-4; 3:24; 5:10; 8:14, 29-30; 12:4-5.

4.      The book of Hebrews reveals that through the function of the law of life, we become the reproduction of Christ as the firstborn Son of God to be the church, which is a living composition of the many sons of God—1:6; 2:10-12.

5.      In Revelation the living person of Jesus is the expression and testimony of God, and the church is the testimony of Jesus, the corporate expression of Christ; as such, the church, the enlarged Christ, is the reproduction of the testimony and expression of God in Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate and consummate corporate expression of the Triune God in the new heaven and new earth—1:2, 5, 9, 12, 20; 21:2, 10-11.