September 27, 2012

  • A Message From Heaven, Part One

    The Lord Jesus Christ sent a message to the church from heaven.   It is found in the book called The Revelation of Jesus Christ, or The Apocalypse, the last book in the New Testament of The Holy Bible.  The word apocalypse literally means the unveiling, the removal of the veil.  The Apocalypse is made up of several distinct scenes, visions or acts. The first gives us the Apocalypse of Christ in his relation to his Churches on earth, and his judgment of them. The second gives us the Apocalypse of Christ in his relation to the Church in heaven, or his glorified Church, and the scenes into which the saints are introduced after they are caught up from the earth. The third gives us the Apocalypse of Christ in his relation to the unbelieving world, and his administrations of retribution to the nations. And so on, till we see everything settled in the excellencies of the new heavens and the new earth. We have to do now only with the first of the scenes (or visions) recorded by the Apostle John, and particularly the first three chapters which contain Christ’s message to the church.

    The instant John turned to "see the voice that spake with" him, he "saw seven golden candlesticks (or lampstands), and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like to the Son of man."  The Son of Man is a name Jesus Christ called Himself.  And these "seven candlesticks are seven Churches." In all languages, truth and knowledge are likened to light. The Psalmist speaks of God's word as a lamp to his feet and a light unto his path. And so the Churches are the lampstands, or lightbearers. They have no light in themselves, but they hold forth and diffuse the light which they have from the oil of grace and the fire of the Spirit. Each Christian is a lighted candle. And all God's children are described as "lights in the world, holding forth the word of life." It is therefore a most significant image by which the communities of saints are here set forth. They are as so many lampstands of God's light and truth in a world of darkness; and as such Christ deals with them.

    These lampstands are gold—composed of the costliest, the most precious, the most glorious, the royal, the sacred metal.  From Jesus’ point of view, a saint is an excellent, a glorious, a royal, in some sense a sacred being; and a congregation of Christians is altogether the most precious thing on earth. It is the pure gold of the world.  Seven is the number of completeness. It here designates the whole Christian body, of all times and all places.

    And here Jesus Christ reveals Himself as much more than a Priest. We here have to do with the Lord and Judge of the Churches. As Judge of the world, more is to be revealed later; but here He appears as Judge of the Churches. He is a Priest invested with royal prerogatives, and come forth to pronounce judgment upon the candlesticks which he attends. This vision and the letters within it are for the entire Church from the days of the Apostle John on to the resurrection, grasped in a single view; so it is Christ's whole relation to that Church, with special reference to his judgment of it.  And that is my point for today.  If anyone would desire to know if Christ regards him or her as His at His coming and worthy to escape the horrors of His judgements, this is the passage of scripture to study and understand!