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This morning we considered the preface to the book of the Revelation, and then the greeting given us by John and the grace pronounced upon us by the Holy Trinity themselves. Now we must come to the major vision that fills the greater part of the first section of the book. It is the vision given to John of the Son of Man in his resurrection glory, surrounded by the seven golden lampstands, symbolic of seven of his churches. And I suppose the first question that will come to our mind is this: what has this vision got to do with the rest of the book?
The rest of the book seems at first sight to be so very different in its subject matter. It is concerned with great series of judgments that are to fall upon this world at the end of the age. Why then preface it all with this particular vision, the vision of the Lord among these seven churches. The first answer that we could give to such a question is a straightforward and simple one, namely this, that the whole of the book was written and directed to these seven churches. It is not merely that John was asked to take down in dictation certain messages that the blessed Lord dictated to these seven churches.
He was to write in the scroll that he sent to them all that the Lord Jesus gave him throughout the whole of this book. And when we come to the end of the book of the Revelation, the Lord Jesus makes sure that we have understood that point. He says at chapter twenty two verse uh sixteen, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for the churches. The whole of the book, those long and terrible descriptions of the judgments that must come, as well as our Lord's individual messages to his individual churches, all these things were written for the churches themselves and for their edification.
It may be that sometimes we are drawn particularly to the seven letters to the churches because in them we recognize our own situations and feel that the Lord is speaking to us and that the whole subject matter is very practical. We might be inclined to dismiss or neglect the rest of the book because it seems to be way and beyond our experience and to have little practical relevance. If we are so tempted, we must this, we must resist that temptation because, I repeat, and the Lord Jesus emphasizes it, it is he that decided the contents of this book. He knows what is best for us, what our spiritual diet is for our good, and he himself had John write the whole of this book for the benefit of the church.
We could, of course, give a second answer to the question we have asked. Why do- does this vision stand here at the beginning of the book? The second answer would also be a fairly simple one. The book of the Revelation is explicitly concerned, so it tells us itself, and it tells us that in chapter one verse nineteen, with the things which are, that is in the present, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter. And that description of the contents of this book was given to John, of course, as our Lord told him, write therefore the things which thou sawest, the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter.
Roughly two divisions then. In the description of the churches as given by our Lord to John, John had a description of things, of the things that are, that is, they were then, for all seven churches were contemporary with the apostle himself who received these things and could rightly come under the title, the things which are. After that, there are many things, the majority of which can be summed up in the second part of our Lord's description, the things which shall come to pass hereafter. And it is but logical that the things that were contemporary with John should be dealt with first, and the things that lay still in the future should be put second.
But of course, when we have given those two straightforward and sim- simple answers to our question, why does this vision come here, and why does it stand in this particular book? There is a deeper and perhaps more important answer to be given. The rest of the book, as I say, is largely taken up with long and serious and solemn series of judgments that fall upon this world as the Lamb opens the seals of a scroll, as seven angels sound their trumpet blasts upon seven trumpets, and as seven other angels complete the wrath of God by pouring out the bowls of his wrath on this apostate and wicked world.
But if we are going to consider the judgments of God, then we could well remember a general principle of the judgment of God, as is enunciated by Peter in his first epistle, chapter four and seventeen and eighteen, where Peter says as follows: For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins first at us, what shall be the end of those who obey not the gospel of God? Here then a declared principle of God's judgment.
God begins first at his house. It is stated in the Old Testament, it is repeated here in the New. Judgment begins with the house of God. And if in the later chapters, from chapter four onward, we have a description of God's judgment poured out upon the wicked world, by God's own deliberate principle, we begin with a description of the living Lord and his judgment of his churches. Mark with me now, if you will, how that point is made by the symmetry of the symbolism and by the very structure of the book of the Revelation.
Come, will you, to the first set of notes I gave you, page one. And we return to the fact that the book of the Revelation is composed of six sections. In the first of those sections, there is this glorious vision of the Son of Man standing amidst the seven lampstands that are his seven churches. In section six, there is another vision of this selfsame person as he comes out of the opened heaven riding a white horse, coming to execute the judgments of God on this evil world.
And here I've listed for you one of the details of the description that is given of our blessed Lord in chapter nineteen. He has coming out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword, that with it he should smite the nations. We are left in no doubt as to the function of the sword. Its very nature warns us what will be its employment, but we are explicitly told. When now the figure comes out on a white horse with a steel of sword proceeding vigorously from his mouth, it is that he may smite the nations and thus execute the judgments of God on this evil world.
I'd look back to the description that is given of him here in section one as he stands among the seven golden lampstands that are his churches. Verse sixteen tells us, and he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. And if in chapter nineteen the sword indicates the judgment of the, of the coming Lord, so here it does in section one.
It reminds us, of course, what Holy Scripture elsewhere says. Talking to believers in the epistle written, uh, to the Hebrews, the writer says that the word of God is living and sharper than any two-edged sword. We stand under the judgment of our Lord. We ought perhaps, therefore, to pause for a moment and consider the nature of Christ's judgment of the church.
Evangelicals in general have emphasized, and have emphasized rightly, the great assurance of our blessed Lord Jesus, given us in the Gospel of John chapter five and verse twenty four: He who hears my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has already passed over from death to life. I say evangelicals have emphasized that verse, and rightly emphasize it, because it is true, and it is a statement from him who will be the judge in the final day.
The Father judges no man, he explains. He has given all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. It is the one who shall one day be judged, who stands before us with his tremendous and comforting word, he who hears my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment. And other scriptures, of course, back home, that assurance given us. For instance, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter ten and verse seventeen, The Holy Spirit himself bears witness to this very thing.
In the course of explaining that the sacrifice of Christ never needs to be repeated, and that he, uh, repeated or supplemented by any other sacrifice, the Holy Spirit gives us the reason for that. He points us to the terms of the new covenant that Christ has inaugurated, in which God says, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now, says the Holy Spirit, where forgiveness of these is, where God has so solemnly promised and guaranteed that he will not remember our sins and iniquities anymore.
When you have such forgiveness given you of God and guaranteed by the blood-sealed new covenant that Christ himself has inaugurated, then, of course, you don't need to offer any other sacrifice for sin. Where forgiveness of these is, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. These are magnificent statements, first of the blessed Lord Jesus, and then of the Holy Spirit, to comfort and buttress our hearts. And Paul likewise says, does he not, in the Epistle to the Romans in chapter eight, that there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
We should, of course, at this stage make sure that we have understood what God means when he promises he will not remember our sins and iniquities anymore. Some people have gained the impression that God will somehow forget that we have been sinners, and that we shall also likewise, praise the Lord, forget that we have ever been sinners. That is not what the verb means, is it? As you could think for a moment, the choirs of heaven shall sing and sing eternally, worthy is the Lamb, for he was slain.
And we shall not find ourselves nudging one another in the course of the choir's performance, shall we? And saying, can you tell me please, why was the lamb slain? I can't think why. I seem to have forgotten. God the Father, as he looks upon the wounds of his glorified son, shall never find himself saying, I can't think now why my son bears those wounds. Neither God nor we, for all eternity, will forget that we have been sinners.
It shall not re- uh, detract from the joys of heaven. It shall add to their depth and the wonder of them. No cheap heaven this. No imitation jewels adorn the walls of that heavenly city, but costly jewels crystallized in the very fires of Calvary. We shall sing, even then, worthy is the Lamb that was slain and redeemed us to God by his blood out of every kindred, tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
But when we have remembered those scriptures that tell us that we who have trusted Christ shall not come into judgment, we must also bear in mind those other scriptures that tell us quite plainly that God does judge his people. Let me quote to you one Peter chapter one and verses seventeen and eighteen where Peter says, if you call on him who judges each man according to his works, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear, knowing that you were redeemed not with corruptible things, with silver or gold from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with the precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.
Here Peter asserts the solemn fact that the Father is exceedingly critical of the way we spend what Peter here describes as the time of our sojourning. I may point out he's been waiting for it a long time. The Lamb was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, says Peter. Why wasn't he revealed forthwith at the foundation of the world then, or forthwith when Adam sinned? Why in this last time was he revealed? What the answer that Peter gives to that question is that he was revealed in this last time for you.
God has been waiting a long time for you. And what is more, God has given, says Peter, the blood of his son. How precious was that blood, and how empty was your way of life before Christ redeemed you. And now Christ, God has redeemed you and bought your life at the cost of his son's blood. Pray be careful how you spend your life. For you're redeemed life has cost God so dear that he will not lightly look upon men and women who take redeemed lives and squander their hours and minutes and days and years on empty living, when the cost of redeeming them has been so great.
And other passages are of scripture likewise make it clear, do they not, that Christ the Lord judges his people. Here in the letter to Laodicea, Christ reminds them, as many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. There is one passage, particularly above all others in the New Testament, that discusses at some length that present judgment of Christ upon us, his people. And that is the passage one Corinthians eleven, where Paul is discussing the behavior of God's people at the Lord's Supper.
He reminds us first that when we take the cup of wine at the Lord's Supper, it is the covenant, the new covenant in Christ's blood. That, therefore, is exceedingly significant. Whatever else we do and say when we meet together and remember the Lord Jesus in the way he appointed for us. And he himself hands us the cup saying, this is the new covenant in my blood. We should remember, surely. What are the terms of that covenant? They are these. I will write my laws on your heart, and on your mind will I inscribe them.
That same prom- that same covenant that promises your sins and iniquities I will remember no more. Says first, but I will write my laws on your hearts and on your minds, inscribe them, so that you shall do them. When we come on that glad but solemn occasion, we take the cup of the Lord. We are saying yes, are we not? Lord, I stand to this covenant. Please continue and write your laws on my heart.
If I am serious, therefore, in attending the Lord's Supper, I shall see to it that I come prepared in view of what the purpose of that cup is. Says Paul, we are to examine ourselves, to discern ourselves, to judge ourselves. Where we have sinned, to judge it and confess it and seek the Lord's pardon. More than that, says Paul, if we discern ourselves.
I surely must have the sense to know, even as I stand before you here, that all is not well with me. There lurk within me many a twist, many a false, and many an unclean thing. Do I not know it, and do you not know it even more, who know me best? I'm not yet where Christ would have me. And I'm called upon to discern myself in line with what the blessed Lord covenants to do in his new covenant.
To take his word, to ask him to search my heart and see if there be any wicked way in me, that I might confess it and repent of it, and by his grace learn to overcome it. And says Paul, if we judged ourselves like that, we should not be judged. But what happens if I come carelessly, frivolously, Failing perhaps to remember the purpose of that sacred occasion.
Then says the Holy Ghost, if any man drinks unworthily, he shall be guilty of the body and blood of Christ. If he lives in a way that continues without repentance to do the very thing that cry- cost Christ his blood to pay for, then we shall be judged, and we shall be chastened by the Lord. Even there, the holy apostle reminds us the purpose of that judgment, that we shall not be condemned with the world.
The world goes on to face the judgment of God at the final judgment. We, his people, are judged now, so that we shall not be condemned with the world? And what happens if I just don't come at all to the Lord's Supper? I was in a church, and it is hundreds and thousands of miles from here, and you won't know it so I may speak, and I do not wish to appear to be telling tales out of school.
I was invited to go along and preach of a Sunday morning, and along I went. They explained they had two services. The one I discovered, the first one, was the Lord's Supper. The second one was what I thought a general preaching meeting, and wasn't surprised to see that the second one was much, uh, had much bigger attendance than the first one. At the end of the day, two of the elders in charge of that church asked me bluntly, what did you think of our church today? Being polite and an Englishman, I suppose, I hummed and I hard, and I said all the good things I could think of.
Ah, but they said, what did you really think of it? I said, there was one thing, uh, that puzzled me. Uh, did I catch you saying that the majority of the people at the second meeting were members of your church? I think I've misunderstood you. I think they must have been largely composed of unconverted people that weren't members of your church. No, no, he said, you've got it right. Most of them were members of the church. I said, but they weren't at the Lord's Supper, they weren't at the breaking of bread. Oh, I know, he says, that's a problem we have with our people. They don't come, you know. Um, he says, you know, there's nothing we can do to make them come, really.
They don't seem to care for the Lord's Supper. I said, and they're believers? Oh yes, he said, they're believers. I said, that's very odd. And I fell to preaching him a little sermonette. That's a fault I have from time to time, you'll say with my friends, based on the Acts of the Apostles in chapter two, Where the great crowd comes to throng around, uh, Peter. They have just been made aware by the Holy Spirit that the Jesus whom they recently crucified was indeed the Christ of God, the Son of God himself, and in awe and consternation they come to Peter and they said, what on earth shall we do, Peter?
We now see that the Jesus we crucified is, as you say, the very Messiah of God. What shall we do? And Peter said, what, uh, what you'll do is this, you'll repent, and then you'll be baptized in the name of Jesus. You say, why did Peter demand of them baptism? Well, because of the situation. They already believed, as you see, that Jesus was the Messiah, hence their consternation that they crucified him. But now God called upon them to repent, and what is more, God is not prepared to take people's say so necessarily, just because they say they've repented.
You'll show by your works that you have repented, says Peter. You crucified Jesus Christ publicly, didn't you? Now you say you've, uh, you you repent of it. Well then, now you will show your repentance by publicly being baptized in the name of Jesus. I can imagine a young Jewish gentleman coming to Peter. Could I have a word with you when the people have gone? You know, I've been deeply impressed by what you've said this morning, sir, and I do in my heart believe that we have made a tragic mistake among the Jews, do you see? Ah, and I, I, I really in my heart am a Christian, but, um, you know, I, I, I, a problem.
I couldn't be baptized, not, not, not publicly, I couldn't, you'll see. My father is on the Sanhedrin. And you see, it would be a letting down of the family's reputation in society if I got baptized, you'll see. I can't do it, but I can be a Christian, can't I? What do you suppose Peter would have said? He would have said, young man, you can't stand with the murderers of Christ still and say you have repented of his murderer, murder. Save yourself from this untoward generation. Get clear of the murderers.
Stand with Christ and his people. And if your repentance is genuine, you crucified him publicly, didn't you? Now you will just as publicly be baptized in his name. And if you're not prepared to do it, God is not prepared to take your say so that you have repented. That's stern old stuff, isn't it? It's the kind of stuff that John the Baptist preached. When he saw the Pharisees coming to his baptism, he said, goodness me, look here, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come, you generation of vipers? You'll see, ladies and gentlemen, if you would light, if you should light a bonfire in your garden and you see a whole lot of vipers scurrying away from the flames as hard as they go, you shouldn't conclude that they have repented of being vipers.
They intend to go on being vipers. All they're doing is escaping the flame. We must be careful, mustn't we, of urging people to flee from the wrath to come and leaving it there. They do need to flee from the wrath to come, but they need to repent of being sinners. And you know, those people on the day of Pentecost, they did some other things as well. And they didn't do them merely after they repented, they did them because they had repented. And what did they do? They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine.
Well, of course they did. You cannot accept Jesus as Lord and Messiah and then reject his official apostles, can you? That doesn't make sense. And they continued in the fellowship. Why, of course, you come to realize that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, and God in him is offering you fellowship with the Father and with his Son and with all the people of God. Well, if you believe that, you turn up to the fellowship, don't you? And they continued in the breaking of bread. And they did it because they had repented.
When the blessed king himself says, come, come. I have business to deal with you. I am proposing to write my laws ever more deeply on your heart. If the king says, come. You don't say no, but I don't find it pleasant. I don't find it agreeable. I don't find it entertaining. I find it rather gloomy, so I stay away. But then you have repented. You have, you have accepted the king. Why, if we come to the Lord's Supper without judging ourselves, we shall be judged and chastened of the Lord.
It's no escape not to turn up. Christ then is our judge. What then is the point and purpose of his judgment. Let's look back, shall we? This time to sheet, sheet number two of our notes. And on sheet number two, I have laid out what I have called strategic themes.
Let's observe, let's observe once more that there are se- six main subjects in the book of the Revelation, so that when we come to section four, we are beginning the second half of the book, judged as a literary whole. And it opens with a tremendous vision of the woman clothed with the sun, a crown of twelve stars, and a moon under her feet. When you have seen that vision that opens section four, you will then notice that it is women that dominate the second half of the book of the Revelation. For in section five, there is the false woman, Babylon, and she is destroyed by the Scarlet Beast and the ten kings.
But at the end, there is mention made of the Lamb's wife. She has made herself ready. And then, of course, in the final section, section six, we'll have the warrior king coming out to put down his enemies and then to take and enjoy his bride. And the final part of that section of the book is given over to a description of the bride, the Lamb's wife. How that she has made herself ready, and here she is in all her glory. That being so, shall we not remember that the church is going to be a part of that.
And so, as we come to these letters dictated by the risen Lord to these seven churches, we shall find him appraising his churches, praising what he can praise, criticizing what he has to criticize, calling his people to repentance, saying, now, my dear ones, this, this is good, this is lovely, that pleases me. This is poor, this is shoddy, this is bad. You'll have to repent of that, you'll have to overcome it. And what's he doing? He is preparing his bride for the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Let me try to demonstrate that to you by asking you to refer now to sheet three of the notes. On sheet three, I have tried to put out the four major sections, the four major parts of section one, and therefore, in the fourth paragraph on page three have listed the pattern of our Lord's remarks to the church. In each one of them, he calls upon his people to overcome. And as he does so, he holds out the bright reward for overcoming. And most of these rewards, as you'll see, are references to things that are later on referred to and noticed in the final description of the bride of the Lamb.
Ephesus, says our Lord, to him that overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. When at last we come to the description of the eternal city, the bride of the Lamb at twenty two two, John says, I saw in the midst of the city the water, the river of life, and on its banks the tree of life. Similarly, Smyrna is promised that those that overcome shall be given a crown of life, and they shall not be hurt by the second death. And the reference, of course, is to chapter twenty and verse fourteen, where God again is describing the last thing.
So it is with Thyatira, they there that overcome are given to rule the nations with a rod of iron. And what that promise means is later on explained, not least in chapter nineteen and fifteen and in chapter twenty and six. Similarly, it is with the Book of Life, obviously so with the name of the city, the New Jerusalem, written on the foreheads of those that overcome in Philadelphia. So also it is with the promise given to Laodicea, him that overcomes will I give to sit down with me on my throne, as I have sat down on my father's throne.
Here is our blessed Lord Jesus, tending his churches, refining them, purifying them, beautifying them, and preparing them for the day of his glory. None loves the church as he loves. None therefore criticizes the churches so acutely and pressingly that he criticizes them, not out of hostility, but because he loves them, and he looks to the day when he will present the church to himself, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she shall be a church all glorious.
In these final moments, therefore, of our first part of our session this afternoon, let us now sit back and survey him, who even as we sit here, stands among us, loving us, but judging us. A sharp sword coming from his mouth. What is he like? If the blessed Lord Jesus gave us to see him now, as he gave John to see him.
What should we see? As we take these words from a page, may God's Holy Spirit fill them as he only can, so that our dull minds and dull imaginations may catch at least a glimpse of the wonder, the glory of the one who stands to judge us. What John saw in that split second before the brightness of our Lord's countenance shining like the sun in its strength, laid him prostrate to the ground, was so magnificent that when John grasps for similes that he can use to convey the wonder of what he saw, he has to search earth and sea and sky and heaven to find enough similes to give us even the faint idea of what the blessed risen Lord is like.
The great waters of the ocean, with their booming voice, must be called into service to give us some idea. Sun and the stars in outer space must be coerced to come and help us understand the wonder of the Lord. Soft wool, gentle to the touch, and the hard steel of a sword must combine to give us a balanced view of our glorious Lord. The wetness of water and the irrepressible flame of fire.
Join in him. As we listen to John's description, we might at first be wondering why it is in such a peculiar order. It starts, you'll see, with his garment down to the foot, proceeds to his breasts and tells us that they are girded with a golden girdle, then goes upwards to his head and his hair, which were white as wool, as white as snow, descends once more to his eyes and tells us they were as a flame of fire, and with that drops to his feet, which we're told were like unto burnished copper, as if they glowed in a furnace.
But from his feet it ascends to his mouth once more, and to his voice, his voice as the sound of many waters. And from his vo- voice out to his right hand. He had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. And so from his right hand back to his mouth. And then finally to his countenance. What are we to make of the description? Is it perhaps simply an impressionistic view, calculated to have an effect upon us like music has an effect on us, and we can't quite describe it, how the music has the effect, but it has it, and you can't analyze it too far, uh, intellectually.
Is the description given to us like that, or is there some order and logic in it? I submit to you that perhaps one way of looking at it would be to observe that the first things deal with our Lord's purity, and the later things deal with his power. He has a garment, and the Greek emphasizes its length. It is down to the very foot. It comes not a centimeter short. It is an official garment, of course. It's the garment of the judge.
Look at his affections. The word that is used of his breasts is a word that more frequently would be used of a woman's breasts. For his affections are infinitely tender, but they're not profligate. They're girt. He has love, but not indiscriminate love. His love is not like that of that evil woman, Babylon, who compromised her loyalty in the name of love and became a harlot. His tender affections are pure, uncompromised, girded.
His head and his hair, watch the purity of them, like the very driven snow, like wool. And these are symbols that were once used by Daniel to describe the very God himself, the Almighty God, who sat upon a throne. And now John sees our blessed Lord with hair as white as wool, like the Ancient of Days himself, for in truth, this Jesus Christ is God incarnate. And the whiteness of his hair betokens not merely that he is the everlasting God.
It betokens, doesn't it, the purity of his wisdom. There are two kinds of wisdom, says Jane. There's the wisdom from above that is first pure and then peaceable. There is a wisdom from below that is devilish, clever, but devilish. See then the purity of his wisdom. Look now into his eyes. They are ablaze with fire. What a wonder. John had once seen those eyes as our blessed Lord Jesus stood over Jerusalem and had seen the teardrops streaming from those eyes, saying, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered your chicks under my wings as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings?
You would not. Weeping over the judgments that must come upon his mother city. And here his eyes are not wet with tears. He comes as judge. His eyes are as a flame of fire. They see through us. And as they see through us, nothing is hid from their searching penetration. And where they see evil, they leap to destroy it.
His eyes, not only his eyes ablaze with fire, but his feet like unto copper, as if they still glowed in the furnace. And truth to tell, those holy feet had trod a furnace recently, hadn't they? Well, what a furnace they had trodden. When our blessed Lord Jesus on Calvary walked into the furnace of God's wrath on account of our sin. His feet glow So still. Wherever those holy feet come, evil must be trampled un- down underneath them.
And from his purity, the vision turns to his power. Says John, he had the voice as the sound of many waters, the volume, the irresistibility of the sound of the booming of great waters. Just imagine standing there, can you? And hearing the voice as of many waters booming. Thou hast things in your church that I hate. His voice was the sound of many waters.
And in his right hand, not a scepter, as the monarchs of this world hold, but if you please, seven stars. And John at the moment didn't know what they were. It was all the more impressive, perhaps, if he'd have known they represented the elders of any of the churches that he knew, perhaps he wouldn't have been quite so impressed. But for the moment, they were stars, you see. And in his right hand, he controlled the very stars of heaven. And out of his mouth, proceeding, for the mouth was open, was this sharp two-edged sword.
Oh, John had been present in the high priest's court, hadn't he? In those moments, his eyes had been fastened on the mouth of our blessed Lord Jesus. As the high priest put the question to him, what about you and your teaching, and who are your disciples here? The Lord had kept his mouth shut and hadn't said a word about his disciples. He wouldn't involve them against their will in the death he must die. And oh, how I had wondered when they had seen him led as a lamb to the slaughter and nailed to a tree, and he opened not his mouth.
And they who passed by said, that proves it, doesn't it? He has nothing to say for himself, you see. The man is a ghastly sinner, and even God has abandoned him. With a word or two, he could have told them the truth, couldn't he? He could have said, but I'll have you know it's not my sin that I die for. It's not for my sin that God abandons me. It's for that wretch Gooding that I suffer. And for that coward Peter. But his mouth was shut. And he bore our sin in his body on the tree and died for our wretched sinners by keeping his mouth shut and taking our place.
But now, as he surveys us, his mouth is shut no longer. The mouth is open. And from it there comes a sharp two-edged sword. But he's a right to use it, hasn't he? And from him there's no hiding. For the word that he speaks is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, and it divides the very thoughts and intents of the heart, and all things are naked and open to view. And not only so, but in that brief moment, John caught sight of his countenance, and he fell at his feet as dead.
The man who in the upper room had leaned on his bosom, now prostrate at the Lord's feet as though he were dead. I don't know about you, my brethren. It seems to me that in this modern cheap world, we have lost a little of the sense of the wonder and holiness of the risen Lord. We talk of him as though he were merely our next door neighbor or something. Yes, we mustn't despise his tender shepherdhood and lie down at night and say, the Lord is my shepherd.
We need to remember he has a public office. He is the Lord and head of the church and the judge of his people, and our churches will never be healthy, as healthy they should be, until they recapture the vision of the public glory, the purity, and the power of the risen Lord who stands among the candlesticks. But it won't do, will it, for John to remain on the floor, overwhelmed by the holiness and power of the risen Lord.
What use would that be? The man has got to stand and hear what the Lord has to say. He's got to stand and and face the criticisms of the Lord Jesus, and face those criticisms for himself and for the churches in which he has ministered during the long years of his life. And the Christians to whom he writes, they too must learn how to stand and face the Lord and face his criticisms. You see, unless we stand and face them, we shall not learn what they are, will we?
Not learning what they are, we shall not repent of them, and then we can't be delivered from them. What is the secret of learning to stand before the risen Lord? How shall we find courage to face his criticism? John now tells us how he personally found the courage to get up and stand, and the strength. He said, that same one in whose right hand there were stars came and laid his right hand upon me and said those lovely words, fear not, John, fear not. Oh, how good it be to stand in the blaze of his glory and the wonder of his holiness and stand there unafraid.
That's the wonder of our Lord's criticism. We'll say one sometimes when your brothers and sisters criticize you, they make you feel so small, and you feel so threatened that you want to shut up and run away, don't you? They make you feel afraid. The Lord wants to come and free us from fear so that we dare stand. He laid his right hand on me and said, fear not, John, I am the first and the last and the living one, and I became dead, and lo, I am alive again forevermore, and I have the keys. Can you hear them, John? Dangling and changling at my girdle.
I've got the keys, John, of death and Hades. Fancy shouting that in the ears of a man who's lying almost dead on the ground. I've got the keys of death and Hades, John. Ah, but you see, not the keys to open the door and let people in, but the keys to open the door and let people out. That's a glorious thing, isn't it? I'm the resurrection, he says, and the life. Yes, John, by your desserts, you ought to be in the grave itself. But for your sake I became dead, and I have conquered death, and you may rise in the power of your resurrection life and stand before me without fear.
Now you begin to see how the two things combine, don't you? You'll see if we hadn't the absolute certainty of salvation and acceptance with Christ, then when he began to criticize, we should fear, shouldn't we? It is because, by his grace, we have standing before him without fear, we find the courage to open our hearts, and indeed to invite his criticism. And thus... to be released from our faults and failings.
Write therefore, says the risen Christ, because you have found the secret of standing in my presence. Write therefore. My message to the churches. So at this juncture, I'm going to give us a rest that these things might sink into our hearts, and then I shall use the remaining a quarter of an hour to say one or two more things about this passage. The so-called letters to the seven churches that fill chapters two and three of the book of the Revelation are perhaps the best known chapters of all the book.
Their meaning is comparatively straightforward compared with many of the other chapters in the Book of the Revelation. They are of obviously obvious and immediate practical application, and they have been preached on by many preachers. I do not propose to expound each one of them in the course of these lectures. To expound them properly would have demanded that a whole series of the week should have been devoted to them and to them only. Since it is impossible, therefore, on any, uh, programming to cover them in detail and the rest of the book at least in outline, I choose this afternoon, because it is a well-known passage, simply to comment on certain basic principles exhibited in these letters that may guide us in following days.
First of all, the symbols that are used to represent the churches. They were lampstands, and they convey their obvious message that the function of the churches as here defined is that they should bear a testimony and a light. And since those lampstands were arranged around the Lord Jesus himself, it reminds us of the prime duty that we shall be a witness to the Lord Jesus himself. Our Lord said that when the Holy Spirit came, he would witness. He would witness to the world and vindicate the Lord himself, and he would glorify the Savior in the eyes of his people.
Not only should the Holy Spirit perform this witness, but you too, said the Lord Jesus, shall be my witnesses. And here we see the function of the churches as witnesses to the Lord Jesus. The stars are interpreted as the angels of the seven churches. Perhaps the majority view is that those angels represent the leaderhood of the churches. The fact that there was one star per church, of course, does not of itself imply that in each church there is just one man who is supreme over all the others.
For each lampstand was a collective, wasn't it? The one lampstand represented the whole body of the believers. The one star would more likely represent, at this time in history, the body of the elderhood. But the figure of a star, if it is meant to describe the elderhood, is exceedingly illuminating, isn't it? For stars, according to Genesis chapter one, were given for guidance, and with the ancient world, that was far more used than we use it nowadays, who have calendars and weather forecasts. The ancients had to know the stars, to know the seasons when it was right to plow and sow, and where they, how they could guide themselves across the sea when they attempted to cross it in their boats.
The stars were for signs and for seasons, and they, uh, were able thus to function because they didn't stay in the same place all the time. They were progressing over the sky, as the ancients very soon realized, and they charted their risings, and they charted their settings, and they knew what constellations appeared in winter and what constellations appeared in spring. And there was a continuity about it, that there was forever movement. Nothing is ever still out in space, is it? Oh, what a delightful figure of speech it is, if that's what it is to, uh, uh, indicate the elders of a church.
They are those to whom all others must look up for guidance, aren't they? And the secret of their guidance is they're on the move. Not erratically on the move, like wandering stars. Wandering stars is the image used of heretics and false teachers in the church that may blaze a meteoric trail across the public notice, but their end is eternal darkness. Not wandering stars, fixed stars, as the ancients called them, but moving. And that is important, my brother, my sis- uh, my sister, isn't it?
Paul saw the importance of it is as in down to earth daily language, he advised Timothy, Timothy, give yourself to study, arduous and difficult as it may be, be head over heels in it, that your progress may appear to all. Yes, that is a good motive. If the elders in the church are going to guide a church, the church will have to see that their elders are still moving. They are making progress. They need to hear it, my brother, my elder brother, if I might address you.
As at the Lord's Supper, you get up to worship the Lord. You're not just saying the same old phrases as you ever said since you were a boy of fourteen, are you? They can see that your appreciation of God has grown. They can see your excitement as you discover new riches in his word. They can see the maturity, your maturing character, your progressive holiness. They see you on the move. And they get from you that sense of drive and purpose, and they follow. Stars that stand still could become fallen stars, couldn't they?
And then the churches themselves, what a lovely bunch they are, aren't they? For they're all different, you know. Their virtues are different. Ephesus is praised for its hate, if you please, Thyatira for its love. And if you go through it, you will find that each church has virtues peculiar to itself, except some who seem to have very few virtues at all. Their circumstances are different. Smyrna is told that they're going to be shut up in prison and the clanging door closed upon them. Philadelphia is told that the Lord is going to set before them an open door.
The circumstances of the churches were different, and we find it so in life and in history, don't we? Some parts of the Church of God under persecution and literal imprisonment, and others enjoying spectacular open opportunities. And then their faults were different. Oh, I thank the Lord for that. We should be, we should be a boring lot, shouldn't we, if our faults were all the same. Yeah, even variety in faults. The Lord had to find fault with Ephesus because it had let go its love.
With Thyatira because it didn't hate. Whatever the needs of the church, we notice how the Lord proposes to deal with it. He presents himself. And John and our Lord draws on all those details that John had seen in the vision, those glorious details of his own character, and adds thereto, at the beginning of each letter, pointing out this or that facet in his character that is calculated to be the very thing that a particular church needs.
It is, my brothers, the Lord that we need. Let's have all our organization and all else, but the thing that will maintain us and correct us when we need it is the living Lord himself. Happy a church who not only is formed of people that as individuals have had the experience of the Lord. Happy a church that as a church has an ongoing experience of the Lord. People have argued, haven't they, about the order in which these churches are named.
And all sorts of explanations have been given. One scholar thought that the churches are named in the order in which the postman would have delivered the letters, starting at Ephesus and going north, and then going east and coming round in a rough circle and ending up where he started, you'll see. And indeed, if you chart the names and the geographical positions of the churches on a map, you will find they do follow such a circle, you'll see. They weren't the only churches in Asia Minor. These perhaps were central churches with many daughter churches around them, and a postman, for all I know, would have started at Ephesus. It was the most important city, or thought it was, and uh, uh, it will say it would have started there and gone round in a circle.
That would be a sensible thing to do, wouldn't it, and come round full circle in the end, delivering the letters at the prominent churches and letting them do postman work for the subsidiary daughter churches around. But there's more to it than that, isn't, isn't there? And I ask you, if you would now, just briefly, to look at sheet number four, where I have listed, on the second part of sheet number four, features of the seven churches. And you will find this interesting thing that Ephesus is commended for its hate, blamed for letting go their first love.
If now you come to the middle church, which is Thyatira, they are commended for their love, blamed for allowing the woman Jezebel to teach and to seduce Christ's servants to commit fornication. From which we learn an interesting and practical point, that many of our troubles are caused by an imbalance, by stressing one thing and neglecting its opposite. So it was with Ephesus.
They hated. Alas, they didn't love. It wasn't that their hate was wrong. Please note their hate wasn't wrong. Thou hast there the deeds of the Nicolaitans, he says, which I also hate. Their hate was a reflection of the hate of the Lord Jesus, who hated these evil. They are to be commended for their hate. But they had so concentrated on their hate that they had let go their love. And we can find excuse for them, can't we? This is the church which Paul addressed for the last time, maybe, as he called for the elders of the church of Ephesus to come down and meet him in Miletus, and delivered to them the solemn charge to take heed to themselves and the Church of God in which the Holy Spirit had appointed them overseers, to guard the church which God has bought with the blood of his own dear son.
For I'm telling you now, he says, that after I'm gone, wolves will come in from the outside and destroy the flock if you let them, and men from your cells will arise, teaching perverse things to draw the disciples away after them. Two grievous dangers to any church. Attack from the outside, men that come in sheep's clothing may be, but are wolves to bring in destructive heresies that will destroy the church. And the other danger from the inside, men arising up who may purport to teach scripture, but their aim is to draw away the disciples after themselves, and so start creeks in the church and divisions in the church over doctrines that are not necessarily fundamental doctrines at all.
And it's not truth they're concerned with, but their own egoism and leadership and power. Nobody could have listened to the impassioned plea of the Apostle Paul without going home determined that that's not going to happen in this church. And they went to their job right willingly, didn't they? Rooting out any evil teacher. They had a nose that would send out evil teachers a mile off, you'll say. And you tried those that say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars. Well done, A hundred percent marks on that side of the ledger. Hate. Healthy hate.
But in the process, they had let go, the word is. They didn't do it deliberately. They had let go their first love. And what is your first love? Well, my brother, my sister, what was the love that you felt for the Lord, and why did you feel it when you first came to love the Lord? You say, I loved him because he loved me. Oh yes, he loved you, did he really? And you, because you were so sparkling, fresh, and holy, and glorious, and uh, without fault, uh, and all your doctrines were absolutely correct. No, no, you say, that was the glory of his love.
He loved me while I was yet a sinner, ungodly, weak, defiled, a perverted character, and he loved me then. And that is a love I should never get over, please God. A God that was prepared for Christ's sake to accept me as I was. All the wonder of that love that first filled your heart. Sometimes when we have to be so concerned with heresy hunting in the church, and trying evil men and dealing with sin, it could happen that we became unbalanced, couldn't it? And became hard and censorious and critical, with little left of the compassion of Christ for those that wander and are out of the way.
If ever it should happen to us to come so unbalanced, our orthodoxy won't save us, will it? Or to be all hate and very little love is such a travesty and perversion of the gospel, so misrepresents the character of Christ, that if you don't repent of that, says Christ, I'll come and remove your candlestick. You can no longer be a true testimony to me. Ephesus was at one extreme, wasn't it? Thyatira, the middle church, was at the other.
The only church in the whole lot that is commended for her love. Be careful what you say about Thyatira. From some points of view, she's lurid in her sins and unfaithfulness, you'll say, but she did have love, warm-hearted love. Oh, you would have been welcomed in the church at Thyatira, my boy. Nobody would have asked many questions. Oh, they had a heart for everybody. What loving people they were down at Thyatira. You would have found the atmosphere a bit warmer than you found it in Ephesus. I'm sure you would. And our blessed Lord notices it and commends them for their love. Ephesus could have done with a lot more of it. It wasn't enough.
And in their anxiety and determination to be oh so loving, they had gone to the other extreme, and they had let that woman go and have a complete free reign in the church, that old woman Jezebel that taught, teaches my servants to commit adultery, uh, commit fornication and offer things, offer, eat things offered to idols. Meaning what? Perhaps this, that in those ancient cities, businessmen, if they were, for instance, silversmiths, in order to carry on their trade, would have to belong to a guild of silversmiths. If you belong to a guild of silversmiths, there would come the guild dinners from time to time.
And of course, to prosper in business, you better go along, hadn't you? You need to be known amongst the circle of silversmiths in town, what ho. And when you got there, of course, there would be a banquet, but first of all, the food would be offered to the patron deity of the guild. Could you eat it? Without compromising your li- allegiance to the Lord. At the dinner party, there would be women aplenty, but they wouldn't be the businessmen's wives, not in Greece they wouldn't. They would be women brought in for the occasion.
Should you go? Jezebel, whoever she was, says it was okay. Go. Ah, there've been Jezebels since in the church, haven't there? Jezebel is notorious in the Old Testament. She was Ahab's wife. Being Assi- Assyrian herself, she brought into Israel the worship of Baal. And I remind you that in the West, at least, over many long years now, professing churches have been filled sometimes, and certainly infiltrated on others, by men who belong to secret business societies.
And behind their closed doors, they worship the old pagan gods of the ancient world, such as Jezebel worshipped and the Egyptians worshipped, and they join it all in one unholy mixture with the name of Jesus Christ. Bishops in the church belong to it, and ordinary private individuals belong to it. That is not love nor divine charity that permits it. I have this against you, says Christ. Whereas you ought to have hated everything that compromises allegiance to me, you have permitted this kind of thing to go on in the church.
Imbalance again, isn't it? Ephesus all hate and no love, and Thyatira all love and not enough hate. And what should we say at the last church that was Laodicea? Well, it was neither one extreme nor the other, was it? Right bang in the middle. It was neither hot nor cold. You say that's good. No, it isn't. That's desperate bad. For if in all other things you must be balanced, there is one area where you mustn't be balanced, you must be absolutely extreme. That is in the area of zeal.
Because you are lukewarm, you are neither hot nor cold, I'll spew you out of my mouth. Alas for the person who professing to be a Christian says, well, yes, I'm not against the Lord, of course. I can't claim I'm madly in love with him, you know, but I'm a, you know, an ordinary Christian. I don't get too excited about the Bible or prayer meetings and things. I'm not against the Lord. Well, you're not. You wouldn't say you're madly keen. What about a, a, a man who is proposing to marry a woman, and someone comes to the young gentleman and says, what do you really think of this girl you're proposing to marry?
And he says, well, you know, it's not right to get carried off one's feet about things. Ah, I, I, I'm not against the girl, you know, uh, really, but on the other hand, I'm not madly keen on the girl, We'll you see. And the question answers itself. When it's our relationship with the Lord who says, you shall love me with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength till there's no reserve. To be in the middle and not extreme is perhaps the biggest insult that you could offer to divine love.
The other churches in that series stand, the one opposite the other, in a symmetry, and the very symmetry of the arrangement preaches a message. In Smyrna, a door that's shut. In Philadelphia, a door that's open. In Pergamum, men that are prepared to lose their physical lives for Christ and die. And in Sardis, people who have a name that they live spiritually, but are in fact spiritually dead. But finally, I want to call your attention to a feature of these churches that I have listed for you at the top of page four of your notes.
It is the fact, of course, that the book of the Revelation is everywhere full of allusions to the Old Testament. But when we come to these letters to the seven churches and we examine their prominent allusions to the Old Testament, we shall find that, starting with Ephesus, those allusions to the Old Testament follow in the order of the Old Testament itself, and they follow the order of the Old Testament from the Garden of Eden to the exile of Israel to Babylon. In Ephesus, the promises, eh, the th- the the uh warning is given, I will remove your lampstand out of its place, but to him who overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
All you need to know to solve this reference, to decide what allusion it is, is the fact that in the Greek translation of Genesis, the Garden of Eden is translated by the Greek word paradise. There was the tree of life. There was the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve got fascinated by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and they fell. And they were removed out of the garden, that is paradise, and were no longer able to eat of the tree of life. And the church at Ephesus had got so fascinated with discerning between good and evil.
Now they were liable to have their lampstand removed. Remember where you've fallen from and repent. And if you overcome, I will give you to eat of the tree of life, that is in the paradise of God. It is an illusion, then, backwards to the Garden of Eden and onwards to the eternal paradise. Smyrna is warned that they are going to be imprisoned and have affliction ten days. And if from Genesis one, two, and three you come to Genesis fifteen, you have passed over many centuries, and here God is making prediction to Abraham of what will happen to his descendants.
And they too, he says, are going to be afflicted in a land that is not theirs, and they shall be afflicted for a hundred years, and afterwards they will come out. So that when they entered the affliction, they know that the time had been fixed by God, and it would last no longer than he allowed. And so this church is told. Similarly, they are to be afflicted, but the time is shortened. Pergamon and its allusion takes us now on to the book of Numbers, to the time when Israel were in the desert, and refers us to Balak and Balaam, who cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel. In Thyatira, we have moved on to the period of the kings, to Jezebel, wife of Ahab.
In Sardis, we have moved on still further, as you'll see, and the allusion picks up what God said about Israel in the time of Jeroboam II. I will not blot his name out of the book of life spoken to the church at Sardis, recalls the words that the Lord said in his day. He said he he not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam II. In Philadelphia, we've moved on in history further still, to the time when Hezekiah was on the throne and the great Assyrians were at the gates of Jerusalem. And Hezekiah stood for God, and for a while the steward Eliakim, was given these marvelous promises and duties in the house of David.
The final message is to Laodicea that if they do not repent, the risen Lord will spew them out of his mouth. And the words recall the warnings that God give- gave to Israel as they entered the land of Canaan. Those warnings said, don't you do after the manner of the Canaanites, for because of their perversions, their blood shedding, and their immoralities, the very land spews them out. And said God to his people Israel, if you go and commit the same things, the land will spew you out as well. They went and behaved like the Canaanites, and they brought upon themselves the exile to Babylon, and the very land of Canaan spewed Israel out.
What do we make of it? I make one thing out of it, as I read those warnings of ancient history, I seem to hear the Apostle Paul talking in Romans eleven and talking to us Gentile Christians. He says, you know, you should not be high-minded, you should fear. Israel was once the great, uh, olive tree that carried testimony for God in the world, and they slithered and slipped into unbelief, and God broke off the natural branches and inserted you Gentiles. And since those days, it has been Gentiles in the world, the Christian churches mainly, that have carried witness for God in the earth.
But don't you be high-minded, but fear. They stood not. Why didn't they remain in the vi- in the olive tree? Because of their unbelief. And if you as churches lapse into unbelief, you too shall be broken off. God will graft back again the natural branches. We have lived to an age peculiar in all the centuries that have gone by. The medieval Christendom was full of its idolatries and its abominable immoralities, but they still profess to believe Holy Scripture.
They still profess to believe the deity of Christ and the virgin birth and the resurrection and the second coming. We have lived to an advanced age to see Christendom riddled from end to end with downright unbelief. And at the theological colleges, many of them, or over the national television, theologians are to be heard denying the inspiration of Holy Scripture, denying the pre-existence of Jesus, denying the virgin birth, denying his resurrection, denying his second coming, all be not high-minded, but fear, says the risen Lord through his apostle Paul to Christendom.
For if you take that path of unbelief and apostasy, the risen Lord will spew an apostate Christendom out of his mouth. And it has been a long and heavy study, isn't it? And you prove your humanity by being very tired and very hard put to sit any longer patiently upon the seats. Forgive me. But I trust that here and there I have said some things and put them into the pool of your thinking that may a little bit enrich your studies of this part of God's word in days to come.
Shall we pray? Lord, by this long and arduous study, thou hast shown us again glimpses of thy glory. The fact that we have caught sight of them once more, Lord, let it remain with us, that in the days to come it might lead us to open the window more widely, that we may seek quiet and retirement as is possible, to gaze upon thee, our risen and holy Lord and judge. We have read, Lord, thy criticisms of these ancient churches that were our brothers and sisters, and one day we shall meet in glory.
It does not induce in us any feeling of superiority. Lord, if thou should speak to us and write thine account of us upon the page of history, how we must hide our faces in shame. And yet, Lord, we ask thy grace that we may profit from hearing these criticisms of others, that we may take them to our own heart, by thy grace determined to avoid these faults, or if need be, overcome them, that when we see thee, we may see thee with joy and not be ashamed before thee at thy coming, for thy name's sake.
Amen.
