Will you please turn to Proverbs?
Proverbs 29:18.
Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.
Revelation 1:1.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show unto His servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass: and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John;
who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Revelation 1:9-20.
I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, What thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches: unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks;
and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
And His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire;
and His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of many waters.
And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last,
and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter;
the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks are seven churches.
May we look to the Lord.
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee, because it is Thy good pleasure to reveal Thy Son in us. Therefore, we do come to Thee, opening our hearts to Thee, and look to Thy Holy Spirit to once again reveal Thy Son in us, that He may fill us and He may be all in all to us. To Thee be the praise and glory, in Thy precious name. Amen.
Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint. In some versions it is said, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Or you may put it, when there is no vision, the people disintegrate.
It is most vital that we have vision: that we see the One who is the eternal purpose of God; that we see Christ. Not only in God’s purpose, but we see Christ in relation to us, His people, His church; that we see Christ in relation to the world; that we see Christ in relation to the Jews; that we see Christ in relation to the whole creation; that we see Christ in relation to God’s enemy, Satan, and all the powers of darkness.
How important it is that we see Him. If we do not see Him, we cast off restraint. We will be an undisciplined people. We will be going our own ways. If we do not see Him, we perish. And the word perish is a very strong word. Let us believe it: if we do not see Him, we perish.
He is our very life. It is by seeing Him that we have hope, we have faith, we have love, we have patience, we have obedience, we have purpose—we have everything. So, brothers and sisters, it is of vital importance that we have vision.
Vision is not something that we try to visualize as a product of a deranged mind. It would be just a mirage; it would make things worse. A vision is something that God reveals to us. When God reveals, we see. To God, it is a revelation given; to us, it is a vision seen.
The last book of the Bible is called the Revelation. Now, of course, we know the whole Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ. The whole Bible is the revelation of God, revealing His Son, Jesus Christ, to us.
But the last book of the Bible is especially called the Revelation. In other words, it is, in a very special way, the revelation of Jesus Christ—or, shall we put it, being the last book, the consummation of the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The first verse says, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him, to show unto His bondservants.” Now, who are His bondservants? That is, His slaves—love’s slaves. We are, we who are His redeemed people. Therefore, it is a revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave to Him to show to us. This is what the last book of the Bible is.
Now, in this last book of the Bible, the Revelation, you will see a series of visions of our Lord Jesus. And by the series of visions that John saw, we come to see the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Of course, by the grace of God, we know our Lord Jesus. We know Him as the Crucified One. We know Him as the One who died on the cross. We know Him as the One whose blood was shed for the remission of our sins, whose body was broken that we may be joined to God. We know Him as our Savior. We know what He has done for us while He was on earth. We know Him.
But, dear brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus has been raised from the dead. He has ascended up to heaven. He is now King in heaven. How much do we know Him as a risen Lord in heaven? And this is what the book of Revelation is trying to show us.
John was a person who knew the Lord very intimately. Of all the disciples of our Lord Jesus, probably there was none who was more intimate in his relationship to the Lord Jesus than the Apostle John. He would lean upon the breast of our Lord Jesus. He knew the Lord.
He knew the Lord who once walked upon the earth. He followed the Lord. He was the first of the disciples who came to the Lord. He was the only one of the disciples who lingered at the foot of the cross. He knew the Lord who walked upon the earth.
But on the island of Patmos, when he was given a vision of the risen Lord, he was smitten as dead. In other words, he could not stand that vision. It was too much for him. It was something that he had never fully known before. It had such an effect upon his life that he fell down as one dead, until he was raised up by the risen Lord.
That was the effect of the Patmos vision that John saw. Now, dear brothers and sisters, we know the Lord Jesus who walked upon the earth. We know His death, even His resurrection. We know what He had done for us, all He had accomplished on earth. But I believe that we need to receive a revelation and to see Him in a different aspect.
We need to see Him as the risen Lord in glory, because this is what He is today. Of course, our Lord Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His name is the same. He never changes. So far as His person is concerned, He is always the same.
He is the same today as He was yesterday, the same today in heaven as He was yesterday on earth. So far as His person is concerned, He never changes. But so far as His position is concerned, as His capacity is concerned, He does change. When He was on earth, He was the Crucified One. Now, in heaven, He is the Lord of glory.
Today He is the Lord in glory, and His relationship with us is a new relationship. And this is the relationship that we must see. And I believe, if we see that new relationship, we will fall down as dead. We need to be raised up into new ground.
In the book of Revelation, we find a series of visions of our Lord Jesus. The first vision is recorded in Revelation 1. We call it the Patmos vision, because John was exiled on the island of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus.
On the Lord’s Day he was in the Spirit. He heard a voice behind him saying, “Write what thou hast seen, and send it to the seven churches in Asia.” He turned back to look at the voice, and he saw. Now, what did he see?
He saw One like unto a Son of Man in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. The seven golden candlesticks represent the seven churches in Asia, because this is explained to us in the last verse of the first chapter of Revelation.
Of course, there were more than seven churches in Asia at that time. Asia is not Asia as a continent; Asia there is Asia as a Roman province—Asia Minor. There were more than seven churches at that time in Asia. At least we know, in the book of Colossians, there was the church in Colossae, and the church in Hierapolis; both were in Asia.
But here you find the Holy Spirit chose seven churches in Asia. Why? Because they represent not only the church of God at the time of the Apostle John, but they represent the church of God throughout the dispensation of grace: seven churches, seven golden candlesticks.
These seven churches are on earth, but the Lord Jesus, the One who is in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, is the Lord in heaven. Here you find the Lord in heaven with the church on earth. In other words, the first vision shows us the relationship between the risen Lord and His church on earth.
And what is that relationship? It is a dual relationship. The risen Lord is shown here, on the one hand, as the glorious Head—the Head of the body, which is the church—and, on the other hand, as a great High Priest ministering in the heavenly sanctuary.
On the one hand, we find the church is His body, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. On the other hand, we find the church is the sanctuary, the real sanctuary, in which Christ, as High Priest, ministers.
Today, the Lord Jesus to us is the glorious Head. Today, the Lord Jesus to us is the High Priest. And we need to know Him in these two aspects. And this is the Patmos vision.
I do not know how far we can go, but we will try. First of all, you find the seven golden candlesticks serve as a background. Then, in the foreground, is One like the Son of Man.
And I think this is something that we always need to remember: the church only serves as a background. In the foreground, it must be Christ. We cannot reverse that order. It is true that the church is very important in God’s heart, and yet it is a background. It is Christ who is in the foreground. We must see Him, and in seeing Him, we can see the church.
John saw One like the Son of Man. He does not say He is the Son of Man; he says He is One like the Son of Man. Why?
You know, the Son of Man is a name that our Lord Jesus used for Himself while on earth. He said, “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” For when our Lord Jesus was on earth, He was the Son of Man.
Because we are of flesh and blood, therefore He took part in flesh and blood. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth. He was the Son of Man. He was one of us. He identified Himself with us in order that He might save us. That is why He is called the Son of Man.
But here you find the Apostle John said he saw One like the Son of Man. Yes, He is the Son of Man, and yet he saw Him as One like the Son of Man. Why?
You find this very expression in the Old Testament, in Daniel 7. Daniel, in the night visions, saw One like a Son of Man coming to the Ancient of Days, and receiving from the Ancient of Days kingdom, power, and dominion. His dominion knows no end, and His kingdom is everlasting.
Of course, we know the Ancient of Days is God, and One like a Son of Man is our Lord Jesus. But when Daniel received that vision, Christ had not yet come into the world. Therefore, he saw One like a Son of Man.
But here you find John saw Him like the Son of Man again. The Lord had already come into this world. He was the Son of Man. Why is it that John saw Him like the Son of Man? It is because He had already ascended up to heaven. In other words, He is more than the Son of Man.
He is the Son of God as well as the Son of Man. His glory is a double glory: the glory that He had with the Father even before the foundation of the world, and the glory as the Son of Man. He is more than the Son of Man; therefore, He is like the Son of Man.
And you know, dear brothers and sisters, we need to see Him today as such. Some people see the Lord Jesus only as the Son of Man—One who is very approachable, One who is very near, One who is one of us, One with whom you can be very familiar. Is this right? He is the Son of Man.
But sometimes we can become so familiar with Him. As it has been said, familiarity breeds contempt. Sometimes we can be so familiar with Him that we do not have that reverence which we ought to give to Him.
Then you find other people who know Him only as the Son of God, the One who is high above, separated from us, transcendent. They only stand in fear and trembling before Him. They do not dare even to approach Him, because He is the Son of God.
And with us, dear brothers and sisters, it should be both. On the one hand, we should see Him as the Son of Man, who is one of us. We can be very near and very close with Him, have friendship with Him. Yet, on the other hand, we cannot but always stand in awe and reverence because He is the Son of God.
This is a balance that we must have today. Today, among God’s people, you find these two extremes. Some always stand in awe of Him and dare not approach Him. They are giving all the reverence that is His due. But there is the other extreme: they become so familiar with Him that there is no reverence, and because of that, they can be careless.
Today, the relationship of our Lord Jesus with the church is as the Son of Man and the Son of God. This is our relationship with Him.
Then you find John saw One clothed with a garment reaching to the feet. You know, garments in the Scripture always signify our conduct, our behavior, our manner of life. It is like a garment put upon us.
Now, of course, we have no righteousness of our own. The prophet Isaiah says our righteousness is all as filthy rags; it cannot cover our nakedness. Therefore, we cannot stand before God. But here you find the Lord Jesus, who is now the glorious Head in heaven, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet. That is to say, He is full of righteousness.
Our Lord Jesus is the Righteous One. It is because He is the Righteous One that He is able to be our substitute. The just died for the unjust. He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, how can we stand before God? Our standing before God is because we are clothed with Christ, our righteousness.
John Bunyan, the one who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, when he was a young man, from time to time was convicted of his sins, and he tried to reform himself. But he never succeeded.
Once he was walking in a field, and while he was walking in the field, he was still thinking about this matter: how could a man be justified before God? And suddenly he heard, as it were, a voice saying to him, “My righteousness is in heaven.”
He was seeking for his own righteousness, and he found that he could not find it. Then suddenly he received a revelation: “My righteousness is in heaven.” That had a tremendous effect upon him.
As Watchman Nee once said, “We may change, but our righteousness never changes.” Do we change? Certainly. From morning till evening, we do not know how many changes there are.
And because we change, does it affect our standing before God? Suppose, in the morning, when you have had a good night’s rest, you get up and feel good. You come to the Lord and feel that you have every right to approach Him, and you have a good time with the Lord.
Then you go out to work, and you begin to find some difficult people and some difficult problems. Toward the evening, you are rather beaten. When you come back home, and before you go to bed you try to pray again, does it affect your standing before God? Because you are not as fresh as in the morning, therefore your approach to God seems to be affected.
Or suppose, in a day, you lose your temper. Do you dare to pray? Do you think you must have at least five minutes to blame yourself before you dare to pray? Does your change affect your standing before God?
How do you stand before God? Do you stand before God on your own righteousness? Because you are righteous, therefore you can stand before God; because you are not that righteous, therefore you are naked and cannot stand before Him. How do you stand before God in the first place?
Brothers and sisters, you are clothed with Christ. He is your righteousness, and He is the only reason why you can stand before God. Whether you are good or bad, it does not affect our standing. If you are good, it does not add anything to your standing before God. If you are bad, it does not take away anything from your standing before God, because you are clothed with Christ, your righteousness.
That is the only standing we have before God: clothed with Christ, our righteousness. We may change, but our righteousness never changes. Whether you feel good or bad, if you see Christ, your righteousness, you are able to stand and approach God.
Well, does that mean to say that we can sin? Not at all.
In 1 John 1, we are told, “I write these things to you that you may not sin.” Then in chapter 2, he says, “But if any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.”
What is the meaning there? On the one hand, it says that we may not sin. That is what we should be. But on the other hand, if we sin, what should we do? Is it because we sin that our relationship with God is cut off—not forever, perhaps, but at least for a day or for an hour?
No. He says we have an Advocate with the Father. The word advocate is the same word translated Comforter in the Gospel of John: Paracletos. We have our Paraclete with the Father. Now, who is He? Jesus the righteous.
In other words, if we sin, let us confess our sins. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we sin, we confess, and we find Christ, our righteousness, always there. Therefore, you find our fellowship with the Father does not need to be interrupted.
Brothers and sisters, we need to see this. We need to see that we are clothed with Christ, our righteousness. This is our only standing. Even if we should fail, He has not changed. Therefore, we confess, and Jesus the righteous is there with the Father. So, on the basis of Him, our fellowship with God need not be interrupted in any way.
But our Head is full of righteousness. And because our Head is full of righteousness, He expects His body to be full of righteousness. Because the body is the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. To put it another way, what the Head is, that is what the body must be.
It is true, on the one hand, we are clothed with Christ as our righteousness; but there is more. As Christ is righteous, He expects us also to practice righteousness. He who practices righteousness is a child of God; he who practices sin is a child of the devil.
So you find here it is more than just a matter of standing before God. It is also a matter of state, or condition, before God. Our standing never changes, because it is Christ, our righteousness. But how about our state? How about our condition? Are we full of righteousness as our Head is full of righteousness?
As the Head, He demands that His body be filled with righteousness—practical righteousness.
You know, we must be clothed with two garments, not one. In Psalm 45, it is a song about the King and the Queen. The King, of course, is the Lord, and the Queen is the church. There in Psalm 45, you find the Queen is ready for the King.
And how is she ready? She is clothed with a garment of wrought gold, and over and above the garment is a raiment of embroidery. The garment of wrought gold is Christ, our righteousness.
But after we are clothed with Christ, our righteousness, then the Holy Spirit will embroider in us the beauty of the Lord. When the Holy Spirit embroiders in our lives the character of Christ into our very fibers, that becomes the raiment of embroidery.
This is what Revelation 19 calls the righteous acts of the saints. The bride hath made herself ready, and she was given bright, pure, fine linen, which is the righteous acts of the saints—just practical righteousness.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find we who are clothed with Christ, our righteousness, must also allow the Holy Spirit to sew, weave, stitch, and knit Christ into our very life, that the character of Christ may become our character.
That in our words, in our deeds, in our actions, in our looks, in our relationships, in our conduct, in our behavior, it will be Christ. And when that is true, it is called the righteousness of the saints.
Christ, as the glorious Head, is full of righteousness. Whatever He does is right in the sight of God. Whatever He says is right in the sight of God. In all His relationships with men, He is right in the sight of God. In His relationship with His family, He is right in the sight of God. In His relationship with His disciples, He is right in the sight of God. In His relationship with His enemies, He is right in the sight of God.
You find that every word, every deed, every action, every reaction, every look, every manner of our Lord Jesus is right in the sight of God. This is what it ought to be. Brothers and sisters, the Head demands nothing less than that in His church.
You know how easy it is for us to think that because we are clothed with Christ, our righteousness, He is our standing before God; therefore, we can be very negligent, very careless in our walk. We think that, after all, Christ is our righteousness.
But there is the other side: he who practices righteousness is of God, because God is righteous. Our Lord Jesus, as the glorious Head, demands righteousness in us—nothing less than what is in Him. Are we really righteous? Do we live a righteous life?
If we are under the light of God, how righteous are we in our relationships, in the work of our hands, in our manner of life, in our words, in our actions and reactions? Is it Christ, or is it us?
The glorious Head is full of righteousness, and the body is the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. No wonder, when John saw that, he fell down as one dead. Before Christ the righteous, he saw his own unrighteousness.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, we need to see that the glorious Head demands of us a righteousness that is like His. Who can stand that?
Thank God, He is not only our glorious Head, who demands a righteousness just like His in the body, but thank God He is also the great High Priest who ministers in the heavenly sanctuary.
Now, what is a high priest? What is his work? A high priest is one who ministers. In Hebrews, we are told that our Lord Jesus ever liveth, making intercession for us. He is able to save those who come to God by Him to the uttermost.
In other words, what He demands of us as Head, He supplies to us as High Priest. He knows that we have no righteousness of our own. He knows that even if we try to be righteous, if we try to practice righteousness, we cannot do it. But, oh, brothers and sisters, He is our High Priest. He is here, waiting to supply us with such righteousness.
Oh, how we need to come to Him: “Lord, I cannot do it, but You can. I cast myself upon You. You carry me through.” Then you will find you can act or react in the way that He would act and react, because it is not you; it is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Now, this is the relationship of our Lord Jesus today with His church. He wants us to be what He is, and He is available to us to make it real, if only we come to Him.
And you know, this is just the first description of our Lord Jesus: full of righteousness. We cannot go through every one of them, but I will just mention them.
You find that He has a golden girdle around His breast. It shows that He is full of divine love and compassion. And because He is full of love and compassion, He demands that His church be full of divine love.
Unless we acknowledge that we cannot love, we will not be able to love as He loves. Everything that we call love will be found wanting. How often, because of His love for us, He has to allow us to be put in a situation where our love is tested beyond measure, until we find that we just do not have love.
It is at that point that we know Him as our High Priest. He will love in and through us.
His head and His hair were white as wool—in other words, full of divine wisdom. And He demands His church to be full of wisdom.
But do we have wisdom? We think that we do. Our wisdom is from beneath, and when you have that earthly wisdom, it will bring strife and emulation. But if it is wisdom from above, it is pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated. It is not hard, harsh, or rigid.
He is not only full of wisdom, but His eyes are as a flame of fire, full of spiritual discernment. Do we have discernment? He expects us to have discernment.
Now, you know that if you grow up a little bit and have more experience in the world, and observe a little bit more, of course you have a certain amount of discernment. But that kind of discernment only makes you critical. It is spiritual discernment that enables you to minister—not to destroy, but to build.
He is full of divine discernment. His feet are like fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace—full of judgment, divine judgment. And He expects His church to be full of judgment. He does not want us to be willy-nilly and think that everything is all right.
What He has discerned, He treads upon. If it is not of Him, there needs to be judgment—full of divine judgment. And He will supply that.
His voice is as the voice of many waters, full of majesty and authority—spiritual authority. In His right hand are seven stars, full of strength, support, and responsibility. Out of His mouth goes a sword, full of power, dividing and penetrating.
His face shines as the sun in its power. You know, your face reveals your health. We always say rosy cheeks mean you are very healthy, and if you are sick, you have a pale face.
His face shines as the sun in its power. In other words, there is such divine beauty and healthiness in Him that it expresses itself. And do you know that is what He expects of His church: full of the divine beauty, the beauty of Christ. The beauty of Christ should be seen.
Oh, brothers and sisters, in every item, when you go through these items in His life, you will fall down as dead. You say, “Lord, I do not have this. I do not have that. I think I have it, but that is not it. It is a counterfeit, and it does not work.”
You have to fall down as dead, and you find, “Lord, You are the Head; we are the body; and yet what a difference there is.” Yet thank God, His hand is upon us. He will raise us up out of death into resurrection.
He says, “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living One. I became dead, and behold, I am living for ever and ever, and I have in My hand the keys of death and of Hades.” In other words, He, as the High Priest, will supply all these things to us.
This vision that John saw becomes the testimony. This vision is the light on the candlestick. We need to see; then we have the light. On the one hand, it is a tremendous privilege. On the other hand, it is a great responsibility.
And I feel that today we need to see Christ as the glorious Head. That will bring to us a sense of inadequacy. Who is competent?
Yet, on the other hand, we need to see Him as the High Priest, who ever liveth to make intercession for us, able to save us to the uttermost. And I believe this is what God wants us to see in Christ.
And if we can see this, then we have a testimony to bear in this world. May we look to the Lord in prayer.
Oh, heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee, because Thou art the One who revealest Thyself. It is Thy good pleasure to reveal Thy Son in us. Thou dost desire us to see the Patmos vision, just as Thou didst show John, Thy servant.
We pray that by Thy Holy Spirit we may see Thee, the Risen One, as the glorious Head of the church: full of righteousness, full of love, full of discernment, full of judgment, full of authority, of power, of strength, full of beauty.
Oh, that we may see Thee, Head over all things to the church, which is Thy body, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. And we do pray that we may see Thee as the High Priest, because this is Thy ministry today. Thou ministerest to us in heaven.
Oh, how effective, how real, how living, how available is Thy ministry today, that we may avail ourselves of Thy ministry and thus be brought to the place where we may bear Thy testimony. To Thee be all the glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.