THE GOLDEN LAMPS AND THE LOCAL ASSEMBLIES
[p. 435] THE GOLDEN LAMPS AND THE LOCAL ASSEMBLIES
Revelation 1:4-6; Revelation 1:9-20
CAC I thought we might profitably continue the subject as brought before us in Revelation 1, for no part of Scripture gives us a more definite impression of the Lord’s concern about local assemblies. There is surely this to be gathered from this scripture as well as an extended prophetic bearing; in bringing it before us He intends to bring our thoughts and judgment and affections into correspondence with His own. This is the great gain of the first three chapters of the Revelation. The saints are viewed in this book as priests (chapter 1: 6), and the Lord would bring the whole company of priests into correspondence with His own thoughts. He would instruct us in the place which we have in His regard as ‘golden lamps’ in every locality where we are gathered together as confessing the truth of the assembly.
It conveys that the Lord would have the local assemblies to correspond in their public position with the way in which He Himself is known as the candlestick in the holy place. The public position of the tribes round the tabernacle was intended to correspond with the place they had in the breastplate; they had an inside place in the breastplate and their outside position was to correspond with it. The Lord is known as the candlestick in the holy place; He could hardly be spoken of as the candlestick when He was here, for we do not think of a candle or lamp when the sun is shining! When the Lord was here the Dayspring from on high visited men, so He spoke of His time here as “the day”. It was a measured period — “Are there not twelve hours in the day?” — but there was a brief period when the light of day shone before men in the Person of the Son of God; whether the darkness could apprehend it or not, the light of day was there. Now the Lord being absent brings in the candlestick period; the Lord Jesus Christ as the candlestick is known in the holy place. The candlestick in the tabernacle was never seen except by priestly eyes, and that is the position of the Lord as the candlestick. The Revelation views the saints as priests, “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”, and as priests we are privileged [p. 436] to go into the holy place and view the candlestick in all its beauty and purity. All spiritual light is sustained in the holy place by Christ personally, and as priests we may go in and contemplate Him in that precious character. I have often thought that what would arrest the attention of a young priest when he entered the holy place for the first time would be that beautiful candlestick of pure gold illuminated by its seven lamps, for all the lamps threw their light on the candlestick itself. As priests we can go in to a place which is entirely beyond the ken of the natural man, and we can see how the full perfection of spiritual light is maintained by Christ, and that He is Himself the great and blessed object on which all that light is concentrated in its holy purity. It is noticeable how the candlestick is spoken of more than once as “the pure candlestick”, everything about it was pure; it was of pure gold, and the oil in its lamps was pure olive oil; it represents what is perfect and undimmed in Christ. The fulness and perfection of spiritual light is sustained in the holy place by Christ Himself through the night of His absence from the world. That is inside, and as priests we are privileged to go in to see it; then in our different localities we are called to correspond outside with what we have seen inside. It is very exercising to consider that in the Lord’s regard we are “golden lamps” in the various places where we are set; the interest of Christ — His concern, His solicitude — is that we should have that character, nothing else will satisfy Him. It is no matter of indifference to Him whether the gold is bright or tarnished, or whether the light is radiant or dim.
Correspondence is brought about in the first place by accepting that according to the truth each local assembly is to have “golden lamp” character. It may be said that it was so at the beginning; the local assemblies were then golden lamps, but things are very different now! But the golden lamps show what local assemblies are according to the mind of the Lord. We may be sure that, if the local assemblies were golden lamps in His mind at the beginning, they are golden lamps in His mind at the end; He would not give up the divine thought. I believe the last chapter of this book intimates that there will be local assemblies at the end. “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”.
[p. 437] It intimates that assemblies will be found here at the end, and that things will be testified there which will awaken the bridal response, “Come!”
I believe the consciousness of the ruin has been used by the enemy to give an impression that assembly thoughts are unrealisable. Whatever the ruin, we must hold that divine thoughts remain at the end what they were at the beginning, and it is the exercise of faith and love to be in accord with them; it is impossible for them to change. Divine thoughts remain, and what we have to do is to come back to them.
It is evident that the object of the Lord in addressing the assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3 was to bring about repentance and recovery. There is no suggestion in the seven epistles to the assemblies of His executing present judgment upon them; He speaks of what He will do if there is no repentance, but He ever speaks in the present with the object of producing repentance. Whatever has come in to dim the brightness of the golden lamps — and much has come in — the Lord points out that these things are to be the subject of repentance; and true repentance would mean recovery, so that the Lord’s thought right through was recovery. I believe He is working now, in the last days, in a special way to recover not only individual saints to Himself personally, but to recover the golden lamp character in local assemblies; perhaps outwardly in a small way in a remnant, but as we have often been told, a remnant is a bit of the original, a remnant has a distinctive place as a reserved portion for the Lord.
Bearing in mind that the saints are viewed in this book as priests it might well be expected that they would have spiritual sensibilities. If a person has spiritual sensibilities, what will be the effect upon him if the Lord as Son of man says, Such and such a thing does not please me? Will he not be sure to repent? Is not this to be expected, especially if He puts His estimate of things in writing? What we see here is that the Lord is so concerned about the local assemblies that He causes His servant John to write to them. He would put His moral judgment of them in writing so as to give the opportunity of sitting down quietly and looking at it, and going over it again and again. When there is a heart to consider what He says, and, having considered, to repent, there will be recovery. I do not say how many out of the mass will repent, but those who repent and are recovered become the true remnant; they carry [p. 438] in the last days the features of the first days, and the continuity of the work of God becomes manifest.
I do not want to stress a point, the evidence of which is outside Scripture, but it is of interest to know that it is generally supposed that the apostle John spent the last years of his life, and wrote his gospel and epistles in this very district where the seven assemblies were. The general tradition is that he spent his closing years in Ephesus, right in the midst of the Asiatic assemblies. If this was so, it would confirm the thought that the Lord intended his ministry to be a corrective of all that was amiss in the local assemblies. John has been called the Lord’s reserve man, and his ministry would, through the working of God, restore the golden lamp character in local assemblies.
The Lord in Revelation 2 and 3 is communicating His moral judgment of local conditions to the assemblies; it is communicated in such a way as to exercise the heart and conscience. The Lord is saying, ‘I approve of this and disapprove of that, and if you do not repent of what I disapprove I must judge it’. It is a communication from the Lord to our hearts and consciences in order that we may be confirmed in everything that pleases Him, and corrected in everything that displeases Him; the object in view being that the golden lamp character may be preserved or restored, and the local light be undimmed.
Rem I was thinking that apart from priestly features, and going into the holy place, there will not be a right appreciation of the public position.
CAC That is very important. If we have never been in to the holy place as priests we shall not have divine light on the public position. Hence the importance of being not only washed from our sins in the blood of Christ, but of being clothed in priestly attire, and therefore suitable to go into the holy place.
This book would start us with the precious thought that each Person in the Godhead is favourable to us; each divine Person regards the local assemblies most favourably (verses 4, 5). Whether it is God as such, the One who is and was and is to come, or the seven Spirits which are before His throne, or Jesus Christ the faithful witness, etc., each divine Person is favourable to local assemblies. It is as though the Lord would give us the very greatest encouragement at the outset. He would give all the local assemblies to know how favourable [p. 439] divine Persons are to them. It is as much as to say, I am going to tell John to write some very serious things to you; yet do not be discouraged, for divine Persons are favourable to you. We begin with that, and it is something to start with, and something, the sense of which we should never give up. Even “the seven Spirits which are before his throne” — the Spirit in that burning character — are favourable to us.
Rem It is a great thing to clothe the saints in our minds with these thoughts; sometimes we have a poor idea of the local assemblies.
CAC The fact is we usually begin at the wrong end! But we never begin anything rightly until we begin with God. A soul at the beginning of his history is never really right until he begins with God. That is why so many are in the dark as to the gospel; they work from themselves to God, from their need and ruin to God, but that is the wrong way about. In the gospel everything comes from God to man, and when we get to that side there is light. Things work in the same way as to the assembly. How are we going to get right assembly thoughts? Can we work up from the poverty, ignorance, and darkness of christians to the truth? We shall never get at it that way; we must begin with the greatness of divine thoughts, and when by the work of the Spirit they get into the saints’ affections there will be something for God.
I do not know how far one can rightly apply the thought of a golden lamp to any local company that does not recognise the truth of the assembly, and seek to be in practical keeping with it. The local assemblies are seen here as having divine character; this is implied in their being golden lamps; whatever foreign element may be there dimming the light, the assemblies are still viewed as golden lamps. I believe most of us here have taken the ground locally of having separated from what is unclean and unholy because we want to minister to the pleasure of the Lord; if that is not our object I do not know why we are walking together. I take it that through grace we wish to preserve in our different localities something that is in accord with the thought of a golden lamp; having this in view, we are thankful if the Lord can tell us that some things that we do please Him. And if He makes known to us that there is that amongst us which displeases Him we are thankful for that too, because we are glad to be corrected, so that we may come more into correspondence with His mind and have [p. 440] true golden lamp character. I trust that we truly covet to be in correspondence locally with the pleasure of Christ. If we do not walk together on that footing there is not much for Him in our walking together. It is no question merely of what we hold, or of standing for particular views, but we walk together as having a sincere desire to do so in accord with the truth of the assembly, and thus to correspond with the mind of Christ in regard to the local assembly.
If there is one overcomer in a place, no one can tell what the result will be. We are apt to look at the overcomer as only acquiring something for himself, but I think the result of overcoming would be that others get the benefit. Overcoming in the Old Testament was almost invariably for the benefit of others, and it was clearly so in the case of the Lord Himself. One overcomer often becomes a deliverer to many; David and his mighty men were overcomers, but all Israel got the benefit. An overcomer in a local assembly might effect deliverance for the whole assembly. J.N.D. was a great overcomer; he met in conflict a great deal that was opposed to the interests of Christ; we might say he slew many Philistines, but the whole church benefited, and thousands in a very direct way, who would perhaps never have had the energy to fight such battles for themselves. Of course there must be exercise on the part of all, and one must be something of an overcomer oneself to take up the benefit of what an overcomer secures, but it seems to me that the Lord values the overcomer as standing in a way that is really beneficial to the whole assembly.
Rem Paul said to Timothy, “Doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and those that hear thee”.
CAC That is the principle. It could be established from many parts of Scripture that the benefit of overcoming extends, and is intended to extend, beyond the individual himself. If one brother or sister in a local assembly learns to judge something that is displeasing to the Lord, it will be brought to bear on others, and if there is any spiritual constitution locally the impression will pass from one to another until eventually everyone in the assembly will be brought to judge this particular thing. The exercise, which begins with one passes on to others, and in result, as to that particular, a feature of the golden lamp is restored; that particular thing was obscuring the light, but as it is repented of and judged, the golden lamp character is restored. All the divine Persons [p. 441] give support to that kind of exercise. We find questions arise in the assemblies as to things which have been supposed to be all right, but the Lord intimates that they have not pleased Him, and the exercise which begins with a few, perhaps with one, passes to others and gradually extends locally and generally until all the assemblies are freed from an obscuring element. That is how golden lamp character is restored, and a way is found morally out of ruin and disorder. There has to be repentance in regard of all that is contrary to the Lord’s mind, and that becomes the way of recovery.
We have to come back to what is seen in Revelation 1; the Lord as in the character of the Son of man is seen in the midst of the seven golden lamps. I have no doubt that there is a reference in this to Daniel 7:9,10; Daniel 7:13,14: “I beheld till thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did sit: his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was flames of fire, and its wheels burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him ... . I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man, and he came up even to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed”.
The consideration of this gives great force to the fact that the Lord is seen in the midst of the golden lamps in the character of the Son of man; indeed the characteristics of the Ancient of days and the Son of man seem to be blended in Him as thus seen; Daniel tells us that the Son of man reached unto the Ancient of days (chapter 7: 13, N.T. note). The Ancient of days is seen sitting in judgment; when that comes to pass we may be sure that everything will be dealt with according to the majesty of the One who sits; then the Son of man comes and is brought near as One who reaches to the Ancient of days — how wonderful! It implies that His judgment of everything is equal to that of Him who sits in judgment. None but One who was Himself a divine Person could reach to the Ancient of days; it is One who is eternally divine who now as like the Son of man stands and walks in the midst of the local assemblies.
[p. 442] That which belongs to the time when the judgment will be set and the books opened is brought into the present as regards the assemblies. The judgment of the Ancient of days and of the Son of man has begun, and goes on, amongst the assemblies. “The time of having the judgment begin from the house of God is come”, 1 Peter 4: 17. But it is judgment in a moral sense with a view to repentance; any actual dealing with evil is in every case future. The Son of man makes known His mind so that everything contrary to His pleasure may be repented of, and the assemblies may practically answer to their character of golden lamps. So that the words written to each assembly are confirmatory as well as corrective, that is, they confirm all that is spiritual while they rebuke and correct all that is carnal.
We may be sure that He does not pass over anything that is displeasing to Him; nothing can be hidden from His eyes. But why this searching scrutiny? It is because He will have His saints as to their moral judgment of things in correspondence with Himself. He is concerned to have the local assemblies in correspondence with Himself. His judgment is to be their judgment; what He commends they are to commend; what He disapproves of they are to disapprove of that is clearly what is in view in Revelation 2 and 3; the Lord would have the local assemblies in accord with Himself.
Have you noticed that in Daniel 7: 9 we read: “I beheld till thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did sit”? Ponder that! We are not told that the Ancient of days sits to judge until there are thrones set for others also. We do not see those thrones occupied in Daniel 7, but they are set, as it were, in readiness to be occupied. God intends to have men identified with His own judgment, so that when He sits to judge they will sit on thrones too. The thrones are empty in Daniel 7, but they are filled in Revelation 4 and Revelation 5; the saints are seen there in correspondence with the throne, for they are on thrones, too. But we might gather from Revelation 1 - Revelation 3 that the Lord would have that to be anticipated in all the local assemblies, so that what He approves shall be approved there, and what He condemns shall be condemned there.
There is another beautiful touch in Daniel 7: 10, “Thousand thousands ministered unto him”. I do not think this is a company of angels, but of men; men ministering to the Ancient of days as being in correspondence with His pleasure!
[p. 443] Think of the moral greatness of this. In that day of holy judgment there are seen thousand thousands who minister to the Ancient of days. Now the Lord seems to say, I want that to be anticipated in the local assemblies; nothing will satisfy Me but that; you are to minister to My pleasure by judging all that I judge, and approving all that I approve. That would be a great ministry of the local assemblies to the Lord; it needs to be worked out in one detail after another until all obscuring elements are discerned and judged, and the golden lamp is purified so as to stand in its true character locally. Practically today there may be only a little company of saints, “a very small residue”, perhaps a company of twelve in a place, accepting exercises from the Lord. Each one of them having fallen at His feet as dead, so that they realise that they can only stand in their local responsibility as taught of Himself and as drawing all from Himself. In that way something may be secured even yet that has locally the character of a golden lamp — something that corresponds publicly with the candlestick in the holy place.
I should like to say a word on the mystery in Revelation 1: 20; it is most instructive for exercised hearts. “The mystery of the seven stars which thou hast seen on my right hand, and the seven golden lamps”. It would be worth our while to think it over. There is no mystery about church failure; it is written large in a thousand books of church history; but there is a mystery in the seven stars being seen on the right hand of the Son of man. He would have us to be acquainted with that mystery. He would have us to know that there is strength in His right hand to hold every responsible element in local assemblies, so that there may be complete correspondence with Himself. Every responsible element having been brought down to death at His feet, the strength of His right hand can be experienced; then the stars will find their right place in the hand of the Son of man. If held in that mighty hand, do you not think that they will be equal to responsibility? Before they could be in the right hand of the Son of man every one of them has learned that as to himself he must fall as dead at the feet of the Son of man. He has had to learn that all strength, support, and sufficiency flows out from Christ, all comes from there. So that strength for local assembly responsibilities is derived directly from the right hand of Christ; it is there for us, however little we may believe it,
[p. 444] or avail ourselves of it. As we draw from the fulness and sufficiency of Christ the golden lamp character can be restored in local assemblies; outwardly it may be in a very feeble kind of way, but there is nothing more precious to God than the thought of things being recovered in remnant character. To have things thus recovered at the end of a dispensation has a value that is perhaps greater in God’s account than what was secured at the beginning of the dispensation. That God’s precious original thoughts should be found at the end of the dispensation recovered in spiritual power in the face of departure and hostility of every kind, is a particular pleasure to His heart. It is open to us to minister to Him in according Him that pleasure, through the grace and power that are available for us.