THE LORD SPEAKING OF HIMSELF
Revelation 1: 17-19; 3: 20; 22: 16,17, 20
In these passages the Lord Jesus is speaking directly of Himself. Largely, apart from in the gospels, it is others who are speaking about Him, but in these passages He is speaking about Himself. That would give a peculiar appeal to these verses. He is saying things, too, about Himself that perhaps others could hardly say. For example, Peter speaks about Christ as “the morning star” (2 Pet 1: 19), but when He is speaking about Himself, He says He is “the bright and morning star”. He adds touches that others could not add. In these passages He is presenting Himself to His saints in the circumstances in which they are in the first passage, circumstances that were almost overwhelming for John. It may be that we pass through circumstances at times that are almost overwhelming and there is comfort in the Scriptures, comfort in the brethren, but the Lord would give His own touch of comfort as He presents Himself. So He speaks here in the midst of what John sees that overwhelms Him. John says he “fell at his feet as dead”, but the Lord gives His own touch. He says, “Fear not; I am the first and the last”. Whatever the circumstances may be, He was before them and He is after them, “the first and the last, the living one” and, as if to appeal to our affections, He says, “and I became dead”. What a touch of His love He would give us in circumstances that may be overwhelming. Death could not hold Him. The greatest force that works among men is the power of death. Whatever heights men may rise to or whatever power they may acquire, all are terminated by death; but there is One who “became dead”, and He says, “I am living to the ages of ages”; the power of death has been broken. It is as if He would say to us, if I have broken that power, what will I not do for you? The “living one”: it means He is active. He lay in death three days and three nights, He became dead. What that meant for Him, no heart could fathom. It was not laid on Him. He went that way, in love, of His own accord. He says elsewhere, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again”, John 10: 18. At the beginning of this book I believe He would give that impression that all the happenings that are going to come in—and the book covers a great range of time—whatever they are, He has acquired the power to deal with them all, in that He became dead and He is living to the ages of ages. What comfort for our souls in the exercises that we may face. And what comfort too as we think of what the testimony is going through, what the testimony has gone through and will yet go through in the great forces and powers of evil and darkness that are against the saints. Here is one who is in charge of it all, the Living One, who became dead and is living to the ages of ages.
Then He says He has the keys. That means He has control, control of circumstances, in government, but control, too, dear brethren, of circumstances in our lives. He says “I ... have the keys of death and of hades”. He uses them in His own power, and there He holds them. He does not give them to anyone else. He holds them. So He encourages John to lay these things on record for us that whatever the circumstances and whatever the times that we may pass through in His ways, there He is in control of the whole matter. What a comfort it must have been for John in what he was about to see. You think of him reflecting on this verse as he saw these powers that were being unleashed to execute God’s government and judgment on the world, that there was One there who was in perfect control! May it encourage our hearts that He is in control of the circumstances in our lives.
In the next section He says He is knocking. He speaks, earlier in the section I read, of Himself as a counsellor. He is speaking here of the circumstances of indifference and coldness that are in the public profession, but too He is speaking of coldness that may arise in our hearts and He is speaking as a counsellor—“I counsel thee”. He feels the coldness more than we do. He feels when something has come in that hinders the joy that He would have in our hearts and the communion that He would have between us and Himself. He feels it first. And here He is speaking to a state, to a locality indeed, but He is speaking to a state that marks Christendom but may mark any one of us. None of us, I believe, would have been without some of these experiences, some coldness, some distance that has come in, and the Lord draws near, draws near as a counsellor—a very fine thing to have someone who can not only point to what has come in but can point to the remedy, and He says He has it, not here meeting our sins as He did in the first instance when we were lost, but here exercising our hearts as to the way back, and the way back to the very best things. “I counsel thee to buy of me gold purified by fire, that thou mayest be rich”. There were those in Laodicea that thought they were rich, and that is the deceit of the devil when coldness comes into our affections. We become independent. We think we are rich, but here is a way to true riches, a way to be clothed and to have the eyes anointed “that thou mayest see”.
If dullness has come in, there is the Lord as a counsellor, but then here He is speaking, knocking at the door. He is outside. Someone has put up a barrier between the Lord and themselves and He says, “I stand at the door”. Why should He be outside? It reminds you of those verses in the Canticles when He was outside: He looked through the window. He could not get in. He could not draw near, but it says here that He was knocking at the door, and then it says, “if any one hear my voice and open the door”. It is left on our responsibility. It is left for us to trace the way back, to taste those movements of His love in revival that we may know what it is to open the door. He says, “I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”. May we listen to His voice, dear brethren! May our hearts not be attuned to another voice but, as He speaks elsewhere of the sheep, they hear My voice. So He knocks, but He says, “if any one hear my voice”—it may be in the ministry—then there is His own voice, His own way that He has of drawing near. May there be an answer to His appeal to open the door, to come into normal circumstances and “sup with him, and he with me”. How blessed and sweet as communion is restored. How much is in these words, that He would be alongside of us in supping. He would listen to what we have to say. As the father heard the younger son going over some of the things that were in his heart, he did not get it all out, but he says so much. That is like the Lord says, “I will sup with him”. The father listens so far and then he says, that is enough; now I will tell you something: you sup with me. He then was ready to bring him into the great joys that were in his house. How ready the Lord is to respond as the door is opened!
Then finally He gives that precious touch, “I Jesus”, His own personal name. I think He uses His voice and He uses His name to appeal to us in a way that is more than the scripture would do. Scripture is so blessed and ministry too, but the Lord says, “I Jesus”. He sent His angel to testify but He says Himself, “I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star”. He calls to our minds not only who He is in His Deity, but what He is in His manhood, in all His grace, “the bright and morning star” shining there amidst all the darkness that has come into the world, shining there as the great harbinger of another day in all His lustre—undimmed by all that has happened on the earth—the morning star, still shining, and the answer is that “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. These are the persons who have heard His voice, and there is this great host brought into it: “And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely”. What an answer there is going to be! May it be vibrant in our hearts today, the answer to the appeal of His own voice, “the root and offspring of David”, the One who holds the great matters of God and the service of God in His hand, ready to lead us into it, and the great answer is that there are those who say, “Come”.
And then He says in answer to it, “I come quickly”. Not only is He coming, but He is already on the way. The fact that He speaks the way He does would show that He is on the way. He says, “I come quickly”. “Amen; come Lord Jesus”.
KIRKCALDY
13th October 1998