The Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem
a New Church Day Family Address
by the Rev. Kenneth J. Alden
1. The Lord called together His twelve disciples who followed Him in the world; and the next day He sent them all forth throughout the whole spiritual world to preach the Gospel that THE LORD GOD JESUS CHRIST reigns, whose kingdom shall be for ages and ages, according to the prediction in Daniel (7:13, 14), and in Revelation (11:15). Also that blessed are those that come to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9). This took place on the nineteenth day of June, 1770. (True Christian Religion 791)
A. This is what we are celebrating in our New Church Day service: that he Lord God Jesus Christ reigns, and that those are blessed who come to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
2. In the part of the book of Revelation that we read this morning, these two ideas can be found, for we read about the Lord sitting on the throne with His Divine and Human nature united, and we read about those who are conjoined with the Lord.
A. But we’ll come to that later.
B. For now, let’s just observe that our reading came as part of John’s description of the Holy City, New Jerusalem that was seen coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (See Revelation 21:2)
C. It was a most beautiful vision–not only the foundations of city made of colorful gems, its gates of pearls and its streets of gold,
1 but also the beautiful state in which God would dwell with people and be their God, so that there would be no more sorrow or pain, and all things would be made new. (See Revelation 21:3-5, 19-21)
2 In the part we read about, it described a river going out from the throne of the Lord and the tree of life growing there.
3 This means that in the New Jerusalem was something a bit like the garden of Eden, where there was also the tree of life and a river flowing through the garden.
a. "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, going forth from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and of the river, on this side and on that, was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." (Revelation 22:1,2)
D. This morning we’ll talk more about the tree of life and how we can be part of that beautiful vision of the New Jerusalem.
3. The Heavenly Doctrine points out that people are often compared, in the Word, to trees, or are even called trees. (See Arcana Coelestia 885; Cor 7:1).
A. Have you ever pretended you were a tree, planting your feet in the sand, like roots and stretching your arms out like branches?
B. But the way in which the Word compares people to trees is by comparing things about your mind to the uses of various parts of the tree.
1 As we read in our lesson from Apocalypse Revealed, branches mean truths of a sensual and natural kind and leaves mean rational truths, flowers mean spiritual truths in the rational mind, fruits mean the goodness of love and charity, and the seeds mean the first and last things of a person. (See Apocalypse Revealed 936)
4. Now if a tree represents a person, what does the tree of life represent?
A. We can think of a tree of life in two ways:
1 It is a tree of life because it gives life through its fruit and its healing leaves,
2 Or it is full of life because it is situated by the river of the water of life that goes forth from the Lord’s throne.
B. In its highest sense, the tree of life represents the Lord in His Divine love. (See Apocalypse Revealed 933)
1 The Lord is Divine Human, so of course a tree represents Him in the highest sense.
C. The tree of life also represents the kind of life we have from the Lord when the Lord is our life, for the tree of life is said to represent “the Lord in His Divine love, from Whom all the goods which man does apparently as of himself, flow forth.” (See Apocalypse Revealed 933)
1 Put another way, we could think of the tree of life in a way similar to what the Lord says about Himself when He calls Himself the vine.
a. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
2 Several passages of the Heavenly Doctrine even call people “trees of life” as we read here:
a. “A tree symbolizes a person; and its fruit, goodness of life. The tree of life therefore symbolizes a person living from God, or God living in the person.” (Conjugial Love 135. See also Coronis 7:1; Apocalypse Explained 110:4.)
b. As our recitation said of the man who does not do evil but delights in the Lord’s law,
1) “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season....” (Psalm 1:3)
2) And notice that the tree of life was in the midst of the street and of the river on this side and that.
A) And notice that the river from which the tree of life drank was a river of the water of life that flowed from the throne on which the Lord sat.
1. It was described as being as bright as crystal.
2. Now if you realize that there was no night there because the Lord was giving light for the New Jerusalem, and if you realize that the river was going out from His throne, you can imagine how bright crystal would be coming from a light far brighter than the sun!
B) So all the truth for spiritual life and faith come from the Lord in His Word with a person who is pictured as a tree of life, or as a branch abiding in the Lord, who is the tree of life. (See Apocalypse Explained 71:2; Apocalypse Revealed 50; 932; Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 2:2)
C) Such a person thinks from the Word.
D) They act from its truths.
E) They are filled with life from the Lord.
5. Do you see all the different fruits in the tree?
A. Did you count all twelve of them?
B. The tree of life bore twelve kinds of fruit, but not all at once.
1 Each month it yielded a different kind of fruit.
2 And because months used to be marked off by the moon, and the moon is known for its light reflected from the sun, months stand for states of truth. (See Apocalypse Revealed 935)
a. Yielding fruit according to each month means producing good “according to every state of truth” with a person. (See Apocalypse Revealed 935)
6. What does it mean to produce good according to every state of truth?
A. Think of some of the distinctive truths revealed by the Lord at His Second Coming and what a difference those truths mean in the way you live your life.
B. Take the truth that the life of heaven is a life of use or that true charity is to shun evils as sins and do the work of your calling sincerely, justly and faithfully.
1 What a different attitude this give you toward your work!
a. You are not just punching the clock and earning a living.
b. You are participating in heavenly life on earth and preparing for heaven!
C. Take the truth that true love in marriage involves a marriage between the good of the wife and the truth of the husband.
1 What a difference this makes in thinking of the roles of husband and wife and the importance of coming together in matters of religion and each receiving good and truth from the Lord!
D. Or take the truth that the rational things are for serving and receiving spiritual things. (See Arcana Coelestia 2541; Apocalypse Revealed 936)
1 This speaks volumes about the importance of not compromising or destroying the rational mind through drunkenness.
2 It gives a much stronger reason to cherish sobriety than simply risking fatal traffic accidents or losing your job or getting kicked out of school.
E. And finally, take the teachings about repentance.
1 Everyone makes mistakes in their spiritual life.
2 How encouraging it is to know that if we repent and ask the Lord’s help, we will not simply be avoiding doing the same mistake over again.
a. The Lord will also gradually remove our desire to do that evil to the point that we loathe the thought of it.
b. As this comes about, our past sins are pushed so far to the outskirts of our lives that it is as if they were never done by us.
F. We could go on with many more examples of how good is produced according to every state of truth.
1 Because a person who is a tree of life goes on receiving new truth from the Lord all the time, bearing fruit according to each month also means a state “forever new as regards the reception of good and the consequent practice of it.” (Arcana Coelestia 3814)
7. A final thing said about the tree of life is that its leaves were for the healing of the nations.
A. Briefly, the Heavenly Doctrine tells us that it means that the rational things we are given by the Lord can lead those who are in evils and falsities to think soundly and live becomingly, even though they do not read the Word. (See Apocalypse Revealed 936)
1 The truth that the Lord has revealed at His second advent makes such rational sense that people can benefit from it even when they are not ready to understand the Word from which it comes.
2 We should make a point of sharing these truths with people with sound judgment who do not read the Word. (See Apocalypse Revealed 936)
8. We have been talking about the tree of life growing in the midst and on either side of the river of water of life flowing out from the Lord’s throne.
A. This is a picture of the Lord God Jesus Christ reigning, and of people coming to the marriage of the Lamb.
1 The tree of life pictures the Lord’s Divine love at work in people who are conjoined with Him.
2 It pictures people who so receive the Lord’s life that He is in them and they in Him.
a. It pictures people living from the Lord by doing the things said elsewhere in our lesson from Revelation chapter 22:
1) Serving the Lord
2) Casting out of our lives everything the commandments forbid
3) Having the Lord’s name written on our foreheads, that is having His quality impressed on our love
4) Having the Lord give us light.
3 We can rejoice at the opportunity we have to be such trees of life, or to be branches in the Tree of Life.
a. We can learn the truths the Lord has opened up at His Second Advent and bear fruit accordingly.
b. We can share the rational truths the Lord has taught us so that others can be healed, spiritually.
c. This is the joy that we celebrate when we think of the disciples sent through the whole spiritual world teaching that “the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns”, and “blessed are those that come to the marriage supper of the Lamb”
1) Amen.
Lessons: Genesis 2:8-17; Revelation 22:1-5, 12-15; Apocalypse Revealed 936
Apocalypse Revealed 936. And the leaves of the tree were for the medicine of the nations, signifies rational truths therefrom, by which they who are in evils and thence in falsities are led to think soundly, and to live becomingly. ...They who are in evils and thence in falsities cannot be healed by the Word, because they do not read it; but if they have sound judgment, they can be healed by rational truths....That rational truths are signified by "leaves," is because by "a tree" is signified man.... By "the branches" man's sensual and natural truths are signified; by "the leaves" his rational truths; by "the flowers" the first spiritual truths in the rational; by "the fruits" the goods of love and charity; and by "the seeds" are signified the last and the first things of man.[2] That rational truths are signified by "the leaves," is clearly manifest from the things seen in the spiritual world; for trees appear there also, with leaves and fruits; there are gardens and paradises from them. With those who are in the goods of love and at the same time in the truths of wisdom there appear fruit-bearing trees, luxuriant with beautiful leaves, but with those who are in the truths of some wisdom, and speak from reason, and are not in the goods of love, there appear trees full of leaves, but without fruits; but with those with whom there are neither goods nor the truths of wisdom, there do not appear trees, unless stripped of their leaves, as in the time of winter in the world. A man not rational is nothing else but such a tree. [3] Rational truths are those which proximately receive spiritual truths, for the rational of man is the first receptacle of spiritual truths; for the perception of truth in some form is in man's rational, which the man himself does not see in thought, as he does the things which are beneath the rational in the lower thought, which conjoins itself with the external sight. Rational truths are also signified by "leaves"....[in the Word]. But their signification is according to the species of the trees. The leaves of the olive and the vine signify rational truths from celestial and spiritual light; the leaves of the fig rational truths from natural light; and the leaves of the fir, the poplar, the oak, the pine, rational truths from sensual light....
Through The Week
Recall the Lessons
✦ Jehovah God planted a Garden in Eden with the tree of life in the midst, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
✦ A river watered the garden and became four riverheads.
✦ In the New Jerusalem is a river of water of life going from the Lord’s throne.
✦ The tree of life is in midst of the street and river bearing fruit according to each month and having leaves for healing the nations.
Reflect on the Message
✦ The Lord is the tree of life and we are also trees of life when the Lord is in us, and we bear fruit from Him.
✦ When we think from the Lord’s Word we draw water from the river of the water of life.
✦ We produce good according to the state of truth in us that is forever new as we continue to learn from the Word in all the Lord’s revelations.
✦ Rational truths that we get from the Word can help others think soundly and live becomingly and we are given the joy of sharing these with those who do not turn to the Word.
Take Action
✦ Remind yourself that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns by letting His priorities take precedence of yours by reading an extra page or minute of from His Word each day.
✦Consider how His truths affect the quality of what you do.
✦ What rational truths could you share this week?