“FEAR NOT”
We spoke on Lord’s day about the way in which the Lord is supporting believers at the present time. John wrote about what he saw: “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness”. That is a wonderful description and reminds us of the kind of man that God was looking for, which was seen in Jesus in perfect manhood. God expressed His delight in Him even before He began His public service. It also shows us that a believer who is here for the will of God in dependence and obedience, as Christ was perfectly, is to be a faithful witness. That is important for us to lay hold of. Are we faithful witnesses? The Lord is looking for faithfulness – that which is pleasing to Him. We know full well that this is a “day of small things” (Zech.4:10), but the Lord is looking for quality. He is looking for what the Spirit of God would form in the souls of believers.
John calls Jesus “the firstborn from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth”, a description of what Christ is, and then he writes, “To him who loves us …”. That is a wonderful thing, and that is why we gather for the Supper, and indeed why we gather at any time. “To him who loves us …”: the Lord Jesus did love us on the cross and He loved us in resurrection, and He loves us still. The matters that our brother has spoken about, as to His name being Wonderful, are brought out in the Revelation as well. “To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood”, and then the service of God is alluded to, “priests to his God and Father: to him be the glory”. The service of God proceeds, and as we have a right appreciation of Christ, we can have our part in it.
Then from verse 17, John speaks of what so impressed him as to the appearance of this Person. We did not read the intervening verses, “the Son of man, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle” and with “eyes as a flame of fire” (vv.13,14). He is seen there in relation to things that have gone wrong in local assemblies, as we know from the addresses to the churches in chapters 2 and 3, but John is impressed with the appearance of this Person. But why would he fear? John writes, “And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead; and he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not”. I think that is a word for us at the present time. The Lord is prepared to lay His right hand upon us, that is, He has the power – the right hand speaks of His power. He is at the right hand of the Father, and Scripture always suggests that it is a place of power. The Lord has the power to intervene and bring the saints into reassurance and indeed restfulness, because reconciliation involves complacency. Reconciliation brings us into the presence of God in complacency. The Lord’s words to John; “Fear not”, and then, “I am the first and the last, and the living one” – who can say anything against that? The Lord Jesus is the great “I AM”, “the first and the last, and the living one”. But then the glory of His manhood comes out: “I became dead”, not ‘I died’; it is what He did Himself, His own voluntary action. “I became dead”: how wonderful that is.
I think, beloved brethren, that we should all be reassured by the Lord’s words to His own; “Fear not”. We know the Lord has power because of who He is, and then there is also the Father’s power. John 10 says, “My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father” (v.29). So there are elements around us of which our brother has spoken; what is in the religious world, in the political world, in the social world and in the business world, and Satan is using it all against what is of Christ in believers. But the work of God is inviolate. It cannot be destroyed because it is God’s work, and we are encouraged to let it