THE LORD JESUS STANDING
[p. 275] THE LORD JESUS STANDING
Revelation 5: 6; Revelation 3: 20; Revelation 8: 4, 5; Revelation 10: 5 - 7; Revelation 14: 1
All these scriptures contemplate the Lord Jesus standing, an attitude contemplating readiness for action; and the sections of the book plainly enough indicate that action from God is needed. There is a time of action. The present is a time of great activity, most of it man’s activity; but God is not without those through whom He can act, and they are not all inactive.
This book, although not wholly dealing directly with the assembly, is addressed to the assemblies. It is called the “Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to chew to his bondmen what must shortly take place; and he signified it, sending by his angel, to his bondman John, who testified the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, all things that he saw”, chapter 1: 1, 2. The Lord Jesus appeared to John in the isle called Patmos and told him what to write. “Write therefore what thou hast seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to be after these”. He did it very well, too, as it is written, “who testified the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, all things that he saw”. And immediately he speaks to the assemblies as much as to say, You are in all this. “John to the seven assemblies which are in Asia”, speaking to them in a very holy and affectionate way, so as to bring them intelligently and feelingly into what he was testifying to them.
So he said to them, “Grace to you and peace from him who is, and who was, and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the prince of the kings of [p. 276] the earth. 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: to him be the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen”, chapter 1: 4 - 6. That is how John brings us, dear brethren — that is, the seven assemblies symbolical of all — into what he was testifying to them. Every minister always seeks to have the brethren with him in whatever work he is entrusted with, and John brings, or would bring, the seven assemblies into what he was entrusted with in a very feeling way. The Lord Jesus confirms this at the end of the book saying, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies”, chapter 22: 16. So that the assembly or assemblies are brought into it at the beginning and at the end; and in the body of the book the Lord speaks of Himself in a variety of postures or attitudes.
The Lord regards Himself in the Apocalypse in a secondary position. It is His apocalypse which God gave Him but then He is one of the great characters in the scenes depicted. The first is chapter 5, where He pictures Himself as a Lamb standing in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, “as slain”. There are clear indications that He had been slain, as is said of Him later, “because thou hast been slain, and hast redeemed to God”, chapter 5: 9. He is not actually dead in this scene any more than He is actually dead in His supper. There is indeed a link between this passage and the Lord’s supper. We do not remember a dead Christ; we remember a living Christ, who has been dead. The bread and the cup denote that He has actually been in death, and in dying He finished a condition which He had taken up, namely flesh and blood, which He will never taken again. But the bread and the cup denote that He has been in that condition and has died; the blood is separated from the body. It is a dead Christ as a testimony before [p. 277] our eyes, but it is a memorial of a living Christ. So here He is a living Christ, but He has been dead and is standing, as it says, “a Lamb standing, as slain, having seven horns and seven eyes”. That is no evidence of death, but of life: seven horns and seven eyes. These horns are to be active, these eyes are to be active.
I bring this particular verse forward, dear brethren, so that we might see how it bears on ourselves, and especially on the Lord’s supper, which is initial as to christian experience or christian worship and service Godward. He appears here as One needed. John felt the need of the Lord Jesus as seen here. It is as we feel the need that God comes in. John wept, he said, because “no one had been found worthy to open the book nor to regard it” (verse 4). It is as we feel things, and, oh, how much there is to be felt now! But the question is how we feel. Do we feel the pressure as something unending, something not to be terminated, or do we feel it as something for a moment, to be finished for ever? It is the latter. All pressures that come on the people of God have that character. They are not permanent. But the secret of their termination lies in this Person, this Person who is seen in the midst of the throne; that is to say, where governmental authority is, and in the midst of the “living beasts”, representative of creation, a living creation. It is a living state of things. The Lord Jesus is not in any other. He is not in a dead circle, or in an impotent throne. He is standing where there is power and authority. He is standing, too, in the midst of experienced men, the elders. He has seven horns and seven eyes, and He is “as slain”; the testimony, dear brethren, to His love, the foundation of everything, as He says, “I am ... the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades”, chapter 1: 18. Where is there [p. 278] any room in the presence of such a scene for distress or discouragement? There may be sufferings. This precious Lamb knew that experimentally. The word for ‘Lamb’ here is diminutive, meaning that He did not defend Himself; He went down into death; He experienced it really at the hands of others, as we read, “by the hand of lawless men, ... crucified and slain” (Acts 2: 23), but now He is alive for evermore and He has seven horns, complete power, infinite power, all power in heaven and on earth. And He has seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, as we are told, “which are sent into all the earth”. Is anything invisible to Him? Is anything happening unknown to Him? Not one thing! He is not yet interfering in power, but He is assuring us that not one thing is happening without His perfect knowledge; nothing is by accident.
This is a very great view, and I want the brethren to ponder it. It is a scene, the need of which was felt by a man who knew love, by a man who knew the Lord Jesus perhaps better than most. John says, “And I wept much because no one had been found worthy to open the book nor to regard it”. He felt it keenly and wept much. Heaven takes notice of that. This scene is the answering one, and the elders who knew things acquainted John at once with it. Who is this Person? “Behold, the lion which is of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book, and its seven seals”. That is the first thing and I want every brother and sister, old and young, to ponder a little what is involved in this; that this is our Christ, this is our Jesus, this is the Son of God, this is He whom we meet on the Lord’s day, His day. He has singled out a day out of all the days, that we call His own; and He has a Supper and we partake of it. It is our Christ and Lord that is before us here. Then He is worshipped and praised. How beautiful it is, as the Lord is known in this way;
[p. 279] with seven horns and seven eyes, and standing ready to do what is to be done! There is much to be done that He is not yet doing. He is not yet taking up the government of the world; that is the Father’s matter now, Acts 1: 7. The Lord Jesus is about to take it up and when He does, the thing will be done. In the meantime He is standing here to do something and it is going to be done. The books are to be opened, the seals are to be broken, and He is ready to do it. When He takes the book, that is when He begins to do the thing, then the worship comes out. Let us watch for the doings of Christ, dear brethren, however little they may seem to be. “And when it took the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, having each a harp and golden bowls full of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints” (verse 8). The Lord Jesus loves that. Every minister of Christ loves to have the saints with him, and the saints love to see your service done well. Every saint becomes more loved as he does things that are needed and does them well. So the Lord Jesus takes the book, and there is movement on the part of the four beasts and the twenty-four elders; they “fell before the Lamb, having each a harp and golden bowls full of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints”. How suitable they are! What an assembly to surround this glorious Person! But, mark you, it is not that He is attracted to the book, but He takes the book. He does the thing that is to be done, and He does it well; and as He takes the book they worship Him. I connect it, as I said, with the Lord’s supper. It is a Christ who has died and is risen; and then an active Christ who has seven horns and seven eyes. How restful, how assured we are in the presence of such a Person!
The next point is that He is standing at the door, somebody’s door here tonight, maybe — such a One as this! He is not seen here as ruling the world, or [p. 280] creating the world. He has created the world, and He will rule it. But now He is standing at some door — the Lord is knocking at your door. Think of the grace of that! “If any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”, chapter 3: 20. Let us not shut our ears to His voice. Something has happened. Let us open the door. He is waiting — such a One as this! See what people the Lord surrounds Himself with — the living creatures and the elders. Can you afford to be elsewhere than in that circle? These are symbolical numbers: four living creatures and twenty-four elders. Plenty of life and plenty of intelligence and experience. You cannot afford to be outside of that circle; you will perish if you elect that. The Lord says, “Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking; if any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me” — such a Person as that! What an appeal it is!
In chapter 8 the priestly angel is standing at the altar, having a golden censer. Sometimes we speak about Gabriel as the priestly angel. Michael is the military angel. But here it is Christ. It is neither Michael nor Gabriel; it is a Person to be known by what He is doing. There is no one in the universe that can answer to this but Christ. He is standing by the golden altar, where God can be approached, where God can be solicited, where God can be spoken to. How well-off we christians are! The Lord says, I am going to take charge of all your affairs up there. When you go up there you will find everything as it should be. That is what I expect. My place will be assured and it will just suit me. I have been in eternal counsels; it has been thought of before all time, and when I enter into it all will be in every way suitable. The Lord Jesus says, “for I go to prepare you a place”, John 14: 2. But here He is [p. 281] standing at the golden altar and He has a censer. He is fully equipped, and, as we read, “and much incense was given to him, that he might give efficacy to the prayers of all saints at the golden altar which was before the throne”, chapter 8: 3. The Lord takes that place on our side; because it is as Priest He is on our side. “And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints, out of the hand of the angel before God”. Let us admit this thought into our souls. There is One that takes care of us above, who makes intercession for us. Romans 8 is full of this thought. The Spirit makes intercession for us; in our groans the Spirit takes part, our righteous groans. But then the Lord Jesus, too, is at the right-hand of God also to make intercession for us. He is taking care of our affairs above. I have been saying that, but then He is taking care of our affairs below.
What are these affairs? Our prayers surely. Every need, not only of mine, but of the whole assembly, should have a place in my prayers. The Lord would enlarge our prayers. Here it is “the prayers of the saints”. The Lord is in the midst of all this, taking charge of affairs. I often wonder why God makes so much of prayer. Why cannot He do things without prayer? He can, of course. He did things before there were any persons to pray. He made the universe. Why does He need prayers? It is well worth thinking about. I believe that, as a prayer issues from one’s mouth, or even from the heart alone (remember Abraham’s servant, a very spiritual type, who prayed in his heart and God heard him), as it issues forth there is power. It is God’s way. It is mysterious that there is power in prayer as it goes out of your mouth. Think of the volume of prayer.
I think of it every Saturday. The service of God beginning away in the south-east, in New Zealand, then Australia, then in South Africa, then right around in Europe and America, beginning Saturday [p. 282] and continuing on until Monday night, extending on to the Pacific, when we are sleeping; up until two a.m. this is going on. I often say to God, Let there be a volume of prayer. There is power as soon as it begins and God acts with it. So here, there is One in the very centre of the moral universe looking after these prayers all the time. For that is what it says “And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints, out of the hand of the angel before God” — all passing through this priestly Angel. As the youngest child prays before he retires to bed at night, or in the morning, or in the wakeful hours, this glorious Person is looking after this department of prayer. It is so important. It is power in which God would have us to have part; and all made efficacious through the much incense that is given to this glorious Angel-priest.
The passage goes on to show that the effect is seen in this way. “And the angel took the censer, and filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast it on the earth: and there were voices, and thunders and lightnings, and an earthquake” (verse 5). Of course, these are strictly punitive things but I connect them with the Tuesday. God would have us to be real christians, living by the week; living by the day, of course, by the hour, by the minute, by the breath, by the beat of the heart, but living by the week. The week opens up a way for divine services, and I connect this verse with Tuesday. God comes in, and I want to be available to Him, because the answers really require the saints. The saints pray, but then God says, I will require you, too, for the answers to your prayers; that you may be utilised in the service, in the answers that the prayers require.
I come to chapter 10, where we see another angel. It is none other than the Lord Jesus. “And I saw another strong angel coming down out of the heaven, clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow upon his head,
[p. 283] and his countenance as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire”. Nobody needs to tell you who this is. There is only one Person in the universe that answers to this; it is the Lord Jesus. He is standing upon the earth; His right foot is upon the sea and His left foot is upon the earth. Who can remove Him? No power in heaven or on earth can remove this Person whose feet are, one on the sea, and the other on the earth. What is He saying? What is He thinking of? What am I to learn from Him? He is here to be learned from. This is His own revelation from God, and we may learn from Him. What does it mean? In the first chapter of Genesis we are told there was only sea to be seen, nothing but water. The Spirit of God brooded over the darkness, over the face of the waters. The deep was the water. It was one of the creatures of God, but for the moment it engulfed the earth.
But on the third day God said, “Let the waters ... be gathered together to one place”. That is to say, God would limit His creatures. No creature is to be unlimited. The waters are to be gathered into one place and the earth is to appear. What pleasure God had in the third day! Think of all that God saw as the earth came up out of the depths. What history God read in it all! Some of us may have noticed that God brought the land animals to Adam to be named, but He did not bring the heavens and the earth and the seas to Adam to be named. He named them Himself. The first three days speak of things that God made and named Himself, so that He called the waters seas, and the land earth. That is the position up to the present time. The flood, of course, in Noah’s time altered it a little, but it was momentary. The original thought is still here, earth and seas. There are the continents and the oceans and the seas, but the seas are all under one Head. He made it all. It is the Jesus we are talking about here, that [p. 284] is standing on the earth now in this character as an Angel. He is the One that did the very things that I have been speaking about in Genesis 1. He separated those waters. He caused the earth to come up; He caused the grass to grow. Now He says, I have come down to take charge. They have got out of hand. This man and that man are claiming their portion of it. Presently there will be a man coming up who will claim all.
The Lord Jesus comes down in a covenant garb, “clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow upon his head”. The reference really is more to Noah’s time, the rainbow. There is nothing about a rainbow before Noah. So that it is the world subsequent to Noah that we are dealing with here, the world in which government has had its place, where great history has occurred. Now in the end of the days, a Person comes down and puts His right foot on the sea. I believe He is indicating that the sea is the important item. The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep. The waters were a great item with God. Now they are under control. They are gathered into seas, named by God, and the Lord says, They belong to Me, and I am going to use them — and also the earth. He is saying, Do not allow yourself to be overwhelmed by circumstances. He is presented to us in this way in power, with a token of the covenant, and He is saying to us, Do not be overwhelmed “the days of thy mourning shall be ended”, Isaiah 60:20. There is plenty of mourning. What large bottles God must have, dear brethren, at the present time, speaking figuratively. The Psalmist says, “put my tears into thy bottle”, Psalm 56: 8. What bottles of tears there are! But “the days of thy mourning shall be ended”. God is saying that to His people. There are limitations to the greatest sorrows. The greater the sorrow the shorter the time limit, as the Lord says, “and if those days had not been cut short,
[p. 285] no flesh had been saved; but on account of the elect those days shall be cut short”, Matthew 24: 22. So here the Spirit of God says, “And the angel ... swore by him that lives to the ages of ages, who created the heavens and the things that are in it, and the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be no longer delay”. That means no longer delay in the needed action. “But in the days ... of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound the trumpet, the mystery of God also shall be completed, as he has made known the glad tidings to his own bondmen the prophets”. That, beloved, is what this great Person is saying to us, standing with His right foot on the sea, and His left on the earth. Things are about to be completed. What is needed, therefore, is patience. As a great servant of His says, “Ye also have patience ... for the coming of the Lord is drawn nigh”, James 5: 8. It is to stabilise us in patience.
The final word is in chapter 14. “And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing upon mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having his name and the name of his Father written upon their foreheads”. He is standing now on the mount Zion which He loves. It is the place where divine love is expressed. He is not standing there alone; He has a complete administrative number with Him, one hundred and forty-four thousand. The succeeding verses show what a suitable company they are. I have been speaking of the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders, who represent a living state of things and an intelligent, experienced state of things. I cannot afford to be outside of it, it would be destruction. But now it is a hundred and forty-four thousand — they are living people and they have learned the heavenly song. They are an earthly people, it is true, the Jewish remnant, whose place is on the earth according to divine counsels, but they [p. 286] not despising what is in heaven. They are learning the heavenly song. It is not their song; it is sung by others, but they can learn it. Is there any here who is content just with the little he knows, the little he can sing? These one hundred and forty-four thousand would say to you, Do not be content with what you have; if there is something more, aspire to it and acquire it. They are privileged people, but they are aspiring and they can learn that song. They are the only ones that are so privileged, as it says, “And I heard a voice out of the heaven as a voice of many waters, and as a voice of great thunder. And the voice which I heard was as of harp-singers harping with their harps; and they sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song save the hundred and forty-four thousand who were bought from the earth”.