THE REVELATION

Revelation 1:9-20; 3:1-6; 22:16,17,20,21

My reason for venturing to speak from this book is simple. It is because after the meeting yesterday, we were informally enquiring a little as to what the character of this book is. John says, “Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written in it”, Rev 1:3. I am encouraged by that first statement, “Blessed is he that reads”. While that is true of the whole Bible, that statement is specifically said of the book of Revelation. I remember it being said that the book of Genesis is the seed plot or seed bed of the Bible, where many subsequently expanded divine thoughts are planted as seed: what we might speak of as the beginning of many strands of God’s ways. Then I found help when I heard someone suggest that the book of the Revelation is the book of divine conclusions – not now seeds, or initial ideas or concepts, but everything brought to its conclusion according to God. We are very privileged to have this book. It is not for nothing that it is called the Revelation, for divine Persons have seen fit to reveal so much to us. Some translations call it the Apocalypse, meaning the end of the world; we do not quarrel with that, but there is something very precious about the way the opening verse is taken for the title; “Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to shew to his bondmen what must shortly take place”. It would be a privilege to be counted amongst God’s bondmen. And then it would be a privilege to have some living sense of what is contained in this book.

In verse 5, John is writing his introduction, “To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood”. I have often appreciated that – how it highlights the thought of the person being retained. “To him who loves us” is in the present tense, then “and has washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”. I think there is a key in that. It was suggested last night that, in the main part of the book – which from the start of chapter 4 describes the scene after the church has gone – we find the Lord Jesus claiming the earth for God. Early in the book, John says, “To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”. Later in the book we find those who are priests of God (Rev.20:6) and they will serve men on God’s behalf, but what a privilege it is – one of these fundamental features – to be counted among those who are a kingdom of priests to His God and Father.

The section we have read is the vision which John saw and it forms the first part of the book; he was told “Write therefore what thou has seen”. It is helpful to reflect that this man who wrote the book was the John who leaned on the bosom of Jesus, “who also leaned at supper on his breast”, John 21:20. I do not know how many years later John saw this vision, but it could only be the same One. John says that he heard a voice; “and having turned, I saw seven golden lamps, and in the midst of the seven lamps one like the Son of man”. The Lord Jesus is before John, and what is so prominent is the thought of discrimination and discernment, “girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle”, somewhat restrained in the expression of His affection. Something had come in – not between John personally and the Lord – and the Lord was not finding all as He would wish. Let us remember that this is preceded by that ascription of John; “To him who loves us”, but something had come in. Then we find “his eyes as a flame of fire”; these are the same eyes that looked at Peter and recovered him. Then “his feet like fine brass, as burning in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters; and having in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword going forth; and his countenance as the sun shines in its power”. This vision is very different from what John would recall. Nothing is hidden from this One; He is presented as walking in the midst of the seven golden lamps. The interpretation of this is that the Lord Jesus is viewing everything in the assembly and assessing it according to His own mind. It would be equally true to say that He is assessing it according to the mind of God. We read in verse 17, “And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead”. This was the John who had been so close to the Lord Jesus, and between the Lord and himself there was no distance, but as appreciating something of the immensity of this, he says “I fell at his feet as dead”.

But then “he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not”. What a comfort these words have been to the Lord’s people for centuries. John was not discouraged from taking in the enormity of what he had seen, what he had experienced; he was not discouraged from taking that in. We, in our day, should not turn away from the sober recognition that all in the assembly is not as the Lord Jesus would have it. We would not make light of that. We would seek to have His assessment of everything and count it as a privilege – count it as part of our responsibility – to recognise His assessment, of ourselves first of all. Then what words these are: “Fear not; I am the first and the last”. What a wonderful description that is, what attributes these are, what attributes of glory; “I am the first and the last”. It is the divinity of the Lord Jesus; he said, “I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages”. How John would be relieved to hear these words – that this was the same Jesus that he had known and loved and he loved Him still, the One who has “the keys of death and of hades”. That was the vision which John saw and the effect on him was recorded by the Lord’s grace; He had chosen John personally to describe what we have just read. Then “he laid his right hand upon me”. We were hearing on Saturday about the kingdom of God come in power: that is what the right hand is – the power to revive this man and give him confidence. That is the first part of the book.

The second part consists of the addresses to the seven assemblies, which literally existed. We should keep in mind that these are actual places in what is now part of modern Turkey. Ephesus is the same Ephesus to which Paul wrote the epistle and Smyrna is on the map today, called Izmir. Laodicea is not far from Colosse; these are, or are near to, places where Paul ministered. We do not have a record in the Acts of his visits to all of them but we do for some of them. In Mr Darby’s writings we are taught that they represent epochs in church history. The first of these addresses is to Ephesus, and there was a lot to commend in Ephesus. Remember it is the same assembly, the same company to which Paul wrote the epistle, and here is something that would give us a clue as to when it was written. You remember that Paul wrote to Timothy and told him that “all who are in Asia … have turned away from me”, 2 Tim.1:15. It does not say that they turned away from Christ, but they had turned away from Paul. In the way the Lord writes here to the assembly in Ephesus, He commends them for many things but He says, “but I have against thee, that thou hast left thy first love”, Rev.2:4. What a sad thing! Perhaps there is a connection with what Paul said to Timothy.

Then we read the next address to Smyrna and that is one of the two assemblies in which the Lord has nothing to correct. It represents the poor, suffering, persecuted early church. What that must have been for all those hundreds of years when the characteristic feature of Christianity was persecution! Then comes Pergamos, which is identifiable too, and Thyatira which is also identifiable, and then we come to Sardis. I have read from Sardis because publicly that is where we are. Men and women might say, ‘these brethren are part of the Protestant religion’ and we would not be able to contradict that. God used faithful men like Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon and Ulric Zwingli to revive in the souls of men and women and boys and girls the truth of justification by faith, which in its day, and especially in the days of those reformers, was a powerful and wonderful thing, and still is. One of the results of the labours of such men – especially in Britain – was the availability of the Scriptures in the native language. But the Lord says, “I have not found thy works complete”. Now that is something for me to take account of. He also says “thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”; that too is a word for me. But there is comfort when the Lord says, “But thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, because they are worthy”; we should always keep that scripture in mind when we think of all believers. But when I think of myself, I am challenged by this word, “thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”.

What follows is the address to Philadelphia and there is something very precious there because the Lord says, among other things, “thou hast kept the word of my patience” and “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try them that dwell upon the earth”. We would not want to be among those who dwell upon the earth, to have our hopes here and spend our energies on that. No. It is to this assembly that the Lord Jesus says, “I come quickly”. The Lord does not say ‘I come soon’, He says, “I come quickly”, and when He comes we know that it will be in an instant (1 Cor.15:52) “in the twinkling of an eye” and that is what we are looking for. And the Lord says that they “shall know that I have loved thee”. I think that if you had asked this assembly what they most valued in this message, they might have said that was it this: “and shall know that I have loved thee”.

Then Laodicea – we know what this represents. Perhaps this is my greatest danger, because these people had a lot to say about themselves and one of these things was that they had grown rich. Now that is not simply money, or other means of having influence on earth. It could be priding myself on knowing the truth intellectually – what a tragic thing that would be. Why would I take the view that I was rich in the knowledge of the terms of the truth? How awful that would be. These passages are very challenging to me, because I know that the “heart is deceitful above all things”, Jer.17:9.

I would like to occupy the brethren with the last part of the book where we have some of the very rare scriptures which speak of the eternal day. What lies between where we read first and this passage is the longest part of this book, largely occupied with what we speak of as the day of the Lord and the day of Jesus Christ, but mainly the day of the Lord where the working out of God’s ways in relation to the earth and His judgments are unfolded. The figure that is first used is a book with seven seals. Thank God that book is sealed; it will be opened by the only One who will be found worthy, and that is the One who we know as the Lamb; those seals will be opened by Him one by one. Certain other figures are used; the third part of the earth is referred to which we have been helped to see probably refers to the extent of the Roman empire and especially where there has been extensive Christian testimony. But there are other figures used which would seem to point to that part of the world which Alexander conquered. We know how far he went and that extent includes countries which are very much occupying world leaders at the present time. Then we find God’s testimony about the world to come, the holy city coming down in all its influence, and the reign of Christ, but first, we have a reference to eternity, one of very few scriptures which speaks of it.

But I wanted to close with this passage at the end: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. I have been very much influenced by this over the past forty years, because I remember it being said, when I was in my early twenties, and it was expressed as quite a strong opinion, that there was nothing collective left and that there was only an individual path for us as individual believers. But this passage – let us weigh it today – says, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. This is in the present tense and that is a very precious thing to observe; do we believe that the actuality of this is about to happen; “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”? So the bride in John’s view is identifiable as an entity. That helped me. This is recovery, as we would say, of a Philadelphian character. I do not think that Paul saw it, and neither did Peter, but John saw it and here it is. This is a collective voice that can, in unison with another divine Person, say “Come” to Jesus. It is a most profound matter as to assembly privilege. The Spirit and the bride saying “Come” is upward, and then immediately it says, “And let him that hears say, Come”. That is outward in direction and may be the response of an individual who perhaps is not aware that they belong to the assembly, perhaps a Christian who does not even realise that there is such a thing as the bride, but they are hearing this – and who can say it cannot be so? The Lord works, as we have recalled, in the twinkling of an eye, because this vessel here says “Come”. That is upward again. And then “And let him that is athirst come”; that is an outward, horizontal view.. So there is no need to choose between assembly truth and assembly life on the one hand, and evangelical truth and evangelical life on the other. They are not presented as alternatives, they are joined, they are presented here together in normality. That is, if my heart is set to say “Come” to Jesus, I appreciate assembly truth, and there is nothing between that and “let him that is athirst come”. It was in Mr Coates’ ministry that I read this, that “let him that is athirst come” refers to someone who is thirsty in their soul ². But Mr Coates said that it then goes even wider than that; “he that will” – perhaps someone who did not even feel thirsty, but let him come, “let him take the water of life freely”. Then the answer in verse 20 is, “He that testifies these things”: that is the Lord Jesus, who gave this revelation to John, and His answer is, “Yea, I come quickly”. That is the Lord’s promise and as I have said, He will come quickly when He comes. Then the response is “Amen; come Lord Jesus”.

What has maintained the Lord’s people through all these hundreds of years? What will maintain the Lord’s people? What we have been hearing about is part of this, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints”. I trust the Lord may bless these words to us, for His name’s sake.

Word in a meeting for ministry, Malvern

17 September 2019

G John Richards