Gooding, David: 1 - The Things That Are

The Apocalypse is frankly a difficult book. It is perhaps the most difficult of all the New Testament writings to understand, and it, in consequence, has given rise to many conflicting and sometimes bizarre interpretations. The difficulties are many. Partly they are inherent in the subject matter. Indeed, some of the subject matter may have been made deliberately obscure when it was first written, because it was written to Christians suffering persecution and contained remarks that the political persecuting authorities might have construed as being anti-government. Then again, a good deal of the information here given refers to the future and probably will only become fully intelligible to the people who are living in that future day. Moreover, the book expresses its meaning largely through symbols, and sometimes the symbols which are supposed to convey that meaning create their own difficulties of interpretation. On the other hand, there is no point in exaggerating the difficulties. Sometimes people speak as if the use of apocalyptic and symbolic language implied that the book dealt with mystical and poetic ac- abstractions which cannot be defined. But we have in the Bible other examples of apocalyptic language, notably in the book of Daniel. Here there is a wide use of vision and symbol, and yet the things symbolized represent very definite historical personages and events. For instance, Daniel, Daniel's multi-metaled image in chapter two of that prophecy, or his vision of the four beasts in chapter seven. These refer to very real political kingdoms, and therefore the use of apocalyptic language and symbol does not necessarily mean that we are dealing with such spiritual abstractions that we cannot tie down their meaning with more or less certainty. That said, let me at once confess that it is not my aim to give a definitive exposition of the book. What I hope to do is to demonstrate that, in spite of the complexity of detail and the obscurity of the subject matter, the book of the Apocalypse as a whole has an eminently simple literary structure which communicates the broad outlines of its basic message with comparative ease. And if I succeed, though I shall leave untouched the great mass of detail that is vital to precision, eh, of any exposition, yet I shall have shown that difficulty of detail is no ground for adopting a hopeless, still less a cynical attitude. The book of the whole, the book as a whole has a twofold division. In the introduction in chapter one nineteen, where John is told to record his visions, the phrases used are these: Write the things which thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter. By this we are led to expect that some of John's descriptions will apply to the present. He is to describe things contemporary with himself. And some of his visions will refer to the future. And this is exactly what we find. Chapters one to three present a vision of Christ walking amidst seven of his churches, actual churches existent in John's day. To them, through John, Christ dictates seven letters of encouragement and correction aimed at meeting their contemporary need. This part, obviously then, uh, is uh, brought under the heading of the things that are. Chapters four to twenty two, on the other hand, describe things that are plainly future. There is, uh, there are three series of sevenfold judgments leading to the climax, the great day of God's wrath, the coming of Christ, the setting up of his kingdom, the final rebellion, the passing away of heaven and earth, and the final judgment, followed at last by the dawn of eternity, the new heavens and the new earth linked by the city of New Jerusalem. These chapters, then, four to twenty two, quite clearly fulfill the second phrase used in the introduction. These are the things which shall be after these, the future things. Now, part one is the easiest part of the book to understand, for it deals with a situation familiar to us, because in all its essentials it is similar to our own. It, it shows us Christ amidst seven churches, actual churches. In all probability, we are meant to see that these seven particular churches were representative of all the other Christian churches then in existence. And in all probability, likewise, we are meant to, uh, to infer that these seven churches are representative of all the churches of Christ that ever have been down this Christian age and are still at this present time. The message of this vision, likewise, is easy to grasp. It was given at a time of, uh, incipient persecution of the church, and it proclaims the secret of the maintenance, the correction, and the renewal of the churches. The secret is an open one, again, easily grasped. The secret of the maintenance of the churches is Christ himself, risen and glorified, but here seen not sitting on some exalted throne in a distant heaven, but walking among his churches down here, very much on earth. In being present thus with his people, he is fulfilling his promise given before his departure, behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. He is here amongst his churches to exercise his supreme pastoral care of his people, and that care is seen in a number of particulars. First of all, uh, his letters, which he dictates to the seven churches, show us his detailed knowledge of each group of Christians. It is very impressive to listen to his seven times repeated, I know. To the let- to the church in Ephesus, I know your works, chapter two verse two. To the church in Smyrna, I know your tribulation and your poverty, chapter two verse nine. To the church in Pergamum, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. You hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith, chapter two verse thirteen. To the church in Thyatira, I know your works, your faith, your love and service, and your patience, chapter two verse nineteen. To the church in Sardis, I know your works, you have a name of being alive and are dead, chapter three verse one. To the church in Philadelphia, I know your works. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name, chapter three verse eight. And finally, to the church in Laodicea, I know your works, you are neither cold nor hot. So our Lord indicates his intimate knowledge of each individual church, knowledge of their virtues, knowledge of their faults. And then his care is seen in his resources that he offers to correct and to maintain his churches. In the introductory vision, we are given in symbol a composite picture of our Lord. John sees a man, one like unto a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden girdle around his breast. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. And this figure John saw walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Now, as Christ comes to address each particular church, it is noticeable that he takes one or two of these features and holds them out as the particular encouragement that this particular church needs. For instance, when he comes to minister to the church at Ephesus, he presents himself in these terms: the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden candlesticks. Or again, when he ministers to the, um, church in Pergamos, he says, the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. In writing to the church at Thyatira, he represents himself as the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. And the picture we get are that the resources necessary to maintain and renew the churches are found in Christ, that in the whole Christ there are enough resources for all the variegated need of all the churches, but that not all the churches have the same needs all the time, so that each particular church in its particular need will find particular resource in our Lord. Then you may notice that the fulcrum of renewal is, on each occasion, Christ's call to the individual church for a response to himself. He commends their virtues, he rebukes their faults, he calls upon them to repent, he reminds them of the chastening, uh, that will be necessary if they do not repent. And then, without exception, he issues a call to overcome. Now, this idea of overcoming is exceedingly interesting. It is a peculiarly Johannine idea. We find it in the Fourth Gospel, we find it in the Epistles by John, and we find it here in the Apocalypse. In the gospel, our Lord is represented as using the term, saying to his own, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. All those forces that Satan has combined together to draw away a man's heart from God, to thrust in a wedge, so to speak, between man and his creator. All these forces, of course, were leveled against Christ our Lord in his humanity here on earth. And at the end of his life, he was able to say, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Then when we move on to the Johannine Epistles, we find a predicated of all believers in Christ that they likewise overcome the world. Here, let me quote from the first epistle of John chapter five: For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? In these verses, we get the secret of our overcoming. Overcoming is achieved by those who have this vigorous, vital, personal faith in Christ, along which is communicated to this overcomer the very life of Christ, which ensures that whosoever is born of God does overcome the world. The secret, then, is not struggling so much as it is faith, believing. If we may take an illustration of this same idea presented under other form in the synoptic gospels, we could quote the parable our Lord told of the sower who went forth to sow. He told of some seed that fell on rocky ground, grew up, but had no root. When the sun came and the storm, it simply caused this, this seed to wither away. But he told of others the, where the corn was sown in good soil, and there it sprung up. And the same sun and wind that caused the rootless seed to wither away, well, uh, merely served to develop the good seed. And so here, when faith is rooted in Christ, rooted and grounded in him, the storms of life's experience, the assailments of tem- temptation do but serve to mature the good seed until it finally comes to perfection, uh, the good seed, so to speak, overcome. So here too, in the book of the Apocalypse, our Lord represents himself to his churches in their time of stress and strain and their manifold needs. He calls upon them to overcome, and the fulcrum, the secret of their overcoming is their personal response to him, their believing in him, by which means Christ imparts to them and maintains in them his own divine life, and that divine life, because of its inherent qualities and characteristics, is able to overcome. It may be worth our while looking for a moment longer at the seven churches, this time to concentrate on our attention on the individual churches themselves. Here, the striking thing is the individuality of each church. As we listen to Christ's, uh, descriptions of them, we discover that no two churches have the same virtues, no two churches have the same faults. There is a difference of development, a difference of emphasis. The church at Ephesus, for instance, has a healthy hate. It is commended by Christ for hating the things that he also hates. On the other hand, this church has let go its first love, and by developing altogether in one extreme and not being balanced in the other, it has fallen from its pristine state of glory. In vivid contrast, the church at Thyatira is commended not for its hate, but for its love. This must have been a very warm-hearted church. At the same time, it seems that the church at Thyatira, in learning to be full of charity, had forgotten to hate the things which Christ hates. Here, love is not balanced by a healthy hate, and consequently, the Christians at Thyatira had been allowing all sorts of evil to creep in unrebuked and unrestrained. At Laodicea, the last of the seven churches, on the other hand, we find that their fault is that they are not extreme at all. There is one area in which we ought to be extreme, that is in our zeal. Our zeal for Christ ought to know no limits. And Christ's complaint to the church at Laodicea is that they're neither hot nor cold. He wishes that they would be one extreme or the other. So then, uh, the churches show their individuality in their virtues and in their vices. Their individuality is stressed likewise in their responsibility and their response. While each church is bidden to listen to what Christ is saying to all the others, each is addressed individually by Christ. And even within each individual church, the call to renewal goes out not to that particular church as a whole, so much as to the individual within the church. The phrase regularly repeated is, he that overcomes, reminding us that renewal of the whole church depends on the renewal of the individual. And indeed, when we have a church as Laodicea was, in which renewal for the whole church seemed virtually impossible, our Lord still holds out hope for the renewal of the individual within the church, as he says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. We have spoken then of the individuality of these churches. On the other hand, it would seem quite reasonable to regard these churches, these seven churches, as representative of others. Seven, in the language of symbolism, is normally the language, the the symbol of completeness. We may presume that in ministering to the needs of these seven representative churches, Christ indicates his ability to minister to to the needs of all his churches, both existent then and all those who have since existed and are still existing. There is also an interesting possibility which I throw out by way of suggestion. Some theologians have thought that these seven churches are chosen in order to give a prophetic panorama of history, of church history throughout the church age. For instance, in the first church, we have a church beginning very well, but losing its first love. And when we remember, uh, the pastoral epistles that Paul wrote towards the end of his ministry, we find there a picture of churches who had once been exceedingly zealous, cooling off and, uh, becoming cold of heart, losing their first Christian zeal. In the second church which Christ addresses, uh, we find a church that is suffering, or about to suffer, grievous persecution. And we know that s- in the ap- sub-apostolic age, persecution, uh, very violent indeed, overtook the church. There is another strand of evidence that suggests that these letters to the seven churches may be chosen to give some sort of prophetic panorama of church history. That is, in many of these letters you will find allusions to Old Testament history. And, uh, if you, uh, m- mark them carefully, you'll notice that the first allusion that occurs in the first church is a reference to the book of Genesis. We have mentioned the tree of life. We have mentioned a fall. We have mentioned of a lampstand being removed from its place, as Adam and Eve were removed from the garden. A reference, I say, to the history of the book of Genesis. In the third church, the Old Testament allusion is to Balaam and Balak, figures who, uh, took, uh, uh, their activity in the time when the Israelites were journeying through the wilderness. Their history is recorded in the book of Numbers. In the fourth church, we've moved on a bit further with our Old Testament allusion, and we read of Jezebel, that, uh, colorful figure who exercised her baneful influence during the period of the kingdom. So these allusions form a progression of Old Testament history, and they suggest, if they do no more than suggest, that the e- experience of the seven churches to whom our Lord was, uh, uh, writing, uh, would prove to be a prophetic progression of experience of all the churches down this Christian age. I throw it out merely as a suggestion. I wouldn't stake my life o- on its truth, but an interesting area for investigation. Finally, we should notice the rewards that Christ holds out, or perhaps I ought to say not rewards, but inherent consequences for those who respond to him and overcome. Presumably, the consequences of blessedness that Christ holds out to the overcomer between them sum up all the blessedness that is available through Christ and in Christ and through his redemptive work. To Ephesus there is the tree of life, surely a reference to Christ himself, holding himself before us as the source of eternal life, open to those who learn to believe. It stands in contrast to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Somehow or other, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil has an overwhelming fascination for us, and in pursuit of it, we sometimes fail to lay hold of that tree which is perhaps more important, that is the tree of life. In the second church, Christians suffering the threat of persecution are encouraged by being reminded that those who trust Christ and through him overcome shall not be hurt of the second death. In the third church, people that were being tempted on all sides with the corrupting influences of a sinful pagan world are encouraged by, uh, being reminded that in Christ there is a hidden manna. That is to say, uh, Christ ministers by his intimate and affectionate, uh, companionship and fellowship of spiritual food that will more than compensate for the resistance to all those, uh, illicit temptations that the world around can offer a Christian. In the fourth church, the overcomer is reminded that in the coming day he will be given authority over the nations and share with Christ in his rule of the world. It is held out as an encouragement so that those who trust him shall not fall to the temptation of compromising with Christ's enemies in this present world in order to attain to temporary power here. In the fifth world, a church full of people who profess to have life and yet have no spiritual life at all, um, to this church is held out the promise that those who believe in Christ and by his power overcome, they shall know the exhilaration of walking with Christ in a spiritual experience that progressively grows. They also shall know his intimate companionship and his, uh, uh, confessing of them in that spiritual world to come. The sixth church is a church that was marked by very weak strength in its days of experience on earth. It is promised that in the day to come, God will perfect that weakness until it becomes such strength as they will be pillars in the temple of God. Life's experience under Christ will have prepared them to become veritable pillars in the worshipful community that shall adorn God's presence in eternity. And finally, the church-led seer, marked by such lack of zeal, such lukewarmness, is reminded that if by personal faith in Christ they learn to overcome. They shall have the joy of sharing in Christ's own triumph and victory. You shall sit on my throne. This is the continuation of Dr. Gooding's introduction to the Apocalypse, part One. Here then, for the moment, let's leave our study. Just let's gather up its main point. As I have said, an easy message. It shows us the secret of the maintenance of Christ's many, many churches. It is his presence with them here on earth, his supreme pastoral care ministered to them through his word and apostles, his intimate and personal and individual knowledge of each church, his infinite resource, uh, to meet their needs, and finally, the secret of renewal on our side is our personal response to the challenge of the Savior, who so presents himself to us that we are encouraged to let our faith root itself ever more deeply in him and in his eternal resources. And as we do so, we shall find his life so surging up within us that we are able to resist all the storms and temptations of life and bring forth fruit in maturity, fruit that shall last not only for this life, but for the great harvest which God is to reap for eternity.