Oh Lord, we thank You that our provision is an open heaven. By Your grace and mercy, You have opened before us all the beauty of Your Son.
We pray, as we study the Word together, that this truth will become real to us—more real to us, even in this present hour. We thank You that we can fellowship in the Word of God. It is a standard beyond us that keeps on calling us, keeps on lifting us, and opening our eyes.
We thank You for the precious Word of God. But we know we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit. If He does not speak, then all we hear are just words. So breathe upon us, O Breath of Life. Breathe upon Your Word. Breathe upon the speaking and the hearing.
Lord, we come to You in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I love to sing songs like, “Oh, How I Love Jesus.” It is so good to be together with God’s people who confess that together.
I have been circulating around for a few weeks now. I was out on the West Coast and went by to see the brethren in Memphis. Somewhere along the line, I got a cold. My wife always thinks it is on the plane that you get colds, so she has got “plane-itis.” I do not know if that is the case.
But even here this morning, as we were worshiping, I felt God lifting my cold and distress. I am very thankful that in His presence there is healing and life. Praise God for that.
Today we want to do something very beautiful in reading the whole first chapter of the book of Revelation. So let us turn to that book, please, and we will read this chapter and meditate upon some of its thoughts together.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place;
and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John,
who testified to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy,
and heed the things which are written in it;
for the time is near.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace, from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come,
and from the seven Spirits Who are before His throne,
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of the kings of the earth.To Him Who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood,
and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—
to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Behold, He is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see Him,
even those who pierced Him;
and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.
So it is to be. Amen.“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God,
“Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty.”
I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus,
was on the island called Patmos because of 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 loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying,
“Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches:
to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me.
And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;
and in the middle of the lampstands I saw One like a son of man,
clothed in a robe reaching to the feet,
and girded across His chest with a golden sash.His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow;
and His eyes were like a flame of fire.
His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace,
and His voice was like the sound of many waters.
In His right hand He held seven stars,
and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword;
and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.
And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid;
I am the first and the last, and the living One;
and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore,
and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
“Therefore write the things which you have seen,
and the things which are,
and the things which will take place after these things.“As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand,
and the seven golden lampstands:
the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches,
and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
And so begins a book of great consolation to Christians in a time of crisis. You can imagine that at the end of the first century, Christians were being severely persecuted—not only by Jews, but now by the Roman Empire itself.
This book became precious. This revelation became precious. It became consolation to many saints who were giving their lives. It is a book for those in a time of crisis.
Now, I mention the word crisis because the word crisis is literally in this book more than in any other book. There is a Greek word, krisis, which we translate “judgment.” That is what krisis is.
What crisis means in its Greek etymology is a crossroads where you are making a decision that will lead to judgment. When you look at it in that fashion, you understand that all seven churches were in crisis.
If I could make an application from that, the church is always in a crisis. That is, we are always at a crossroads where the decisions we make will judge us. We are always in a crisis.
When you look at the seven churches—and you know them all so well; I believe you have probably lived in all seven—you realize that some of them knew they were in crisis. Certainly, the church of Smyrna knew. Some of them were about to be killed for their faith.
Perhaps Thyatira also knew, where this Jezebel had taken over the situation. The people said, “Man, we are in a crisis. We need to fast and pray.”
But what do you think about Ephesus? Do you think they realized they were in crisis? They were sort of slipping away from the first things and the first love. But I wonder if they really knew they were in crisis, because they were doing very well. They were working hard, preaching the gospel, and teaching away.
I wonder if Sardis even knew it was in a crisis. Actually, they were sort of sleeping. They were the sleeping church: “You have a reputation that you are alive, but you are dead.” That is the problem. You do not even know you are dead. You are just kind of going along and saying, “Yeah, everything is cool.”
And of course, Laodicea. We might fairly imagine they did not know they were in crisis. Everything was nice and lukewarm, just the way we all like it—everything nice and worked out and smooth. They had no idea they were in a crisis.
But all of them were at a crossroads. Because of this crossroads, in a time of crisis, God has one great remedy—He has always had one great remedy or answer for crisis. Here we see it so beautifully given to us in the book of Revelation.
Sometimes we say, “We are in a crisis. We need this. We need that.” Let us put it the other way around: when we are in a time of crisis, God has a provision.
It says specifically in the very first verse of this book that we read, His provision is this: when the church comes to a time of crisis, God gives His Son a revelation of Himself to give to us.
Let me put it another way. Whenever a church is in a time of crisis—or the church is in a time of crisis, which is when? Just about all the time—the provision sent from heaven by God is a greater revelation of the greatness and glory of the Lord Jesus.
Now, that hardly seems like an answer to a crisis, but that is exactly what everybody needs. If you think back through the history of the Old Testament, before we even get to the New Testament, this was God’s consistent answer.
When Abraham was down among the idol worshipers there in Babylon, the God of glory appeared to him and lifted man into a new realm, a new freedom. In this, you always see a twofold thing: when God reveals Himself, there is a releasing, there is a deliverance; and when God reveals Himself, there is a calling.
It is consistent for Abraham, and of course for Moses. The children of Israel got so desperate in Egypt that now they were really crying out—fasting as well as praying. How did God meet them? He revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush and brought deliverance and calling to the people.
Or take a time like Joshua. Here he comes into the land, and he had been Moses’ assistant for years. Now Moses dies, and Joshua comes into the promised land. Moses says, “Now Joshua, here is the deal. Take this whole land now.” That is a frightening thing to say to this man.
However, Moses said, “Do not be frightened. Be of good courage. Do not be afraid. Meditate on the Word of God.” But you know what delivered him from his fear and enabled him to go and conquer the land? He saw a vision of the Captain of the Lord’s host before him, leading the way.
Or consider that low spiritual point when King Uzziah died and Isaiah was just about giving up the ghost himself. He was just hanging out in the temple, probably not even eating anymore, just waiting to die. Then a vision of God high and lifted up said, “It is not time to die. Who will go for Me?” Isaiah saw a whole new way forward in his life.
In the New Testament, we see the same thing happening. In the book of Acts, the church was at a time of crisis right there in Jerusalem. Here was the crisis: “Are you going to stay in Judaism, that old wineskin, or are you going to break out?”
How do you break out of the old wineskin? You are used to the old wineskin. Peter, James, and John were all used to Judaism. They were all indoctrinated in it. They were going down to the temple every day and praying. They were all going to the feasts. How were they going to break out of this?
It is impossible for man, but Jesus revealed Himself to Stephen. Stephen spoke forth a prophecy, saying that the temple of God was no longer here upon this earth; it was a living temple, not made with men’s hands.
That was a prophetic message that set the church free from remaining in Judaism. They were cut off by persecution, you see. From that day forward, when they stoned Stephen, it was clear that Judaism had rejected the Christians, and it was now up to the Christians to move away from Judaism.
What a wonderful deliverance that was. What a wonderful calling—to just be Christians. What a crisis it was.
And so on and so forth. Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus was a vision necessary, once again, to bring deliverance and to bring the church to the place where it was not only Jew, but Gentile, by a great revelation.
So you see, down through history we have these crisis moments, and the only remedy for them is for the Lord to reveal His Son in a new and more glorious way.
When you think of John himself, just think of this man. He was the one who put his head on Jesus’ breast. He knew all about Jesus. And not only that, let us give him credit: when Jesus went up into heaven in glory, John still kept in good touch with Him. He had fellowship with the Father and with the Son on a daily basis.
But whoa, when he saw what he saw in Revelation 1! This is a revelation that set our brother free and gave him a calling in a time of crisis. This is God’s way for us. This is what God wants to do for the church whenever it sees itself in a time of crisis.
This new wine is so hard to contain because our wineskins get so old so fast. All seven churches here were formed somewhere in the AD 40s and 50s, and now it is AD 90. A generation has gone by, and the wineskin is breaking down. It cannot contain the revelation of Jesus Christ.
They went so far, but they could not keep the first love. The system kind of works against it. The teachings come, and the next thing you know, people are losing sight of the original reason that they first gathered together.
What is the Father’s remedy? “I am going to have to reveal My Son in a new and more glorious way.” So let us not even put it in terms of “we have a need.” Let us put it in terms of: He will reveal His Son for those who have an ear to hear.
There are three things in this process of God—His revealing His Son in greatness—that are consistent throughout Scripture. I just want to touch on these three facets of this glorious revelation.
The first is this: when the Father reveals His Son in greater glory and greatness, it is not a new revelation. In fact, what it does is bring us back to the first things.
Now, I have been guilty, I have to admit. Being a former charismaniac myself, I have been guilty at times of sort of laughing at the way charismatics chase after the latest experience. “How can I get goosebumps this year?” Well, the latest thing is the filling of the teeth with gold, or something—the latest fad, chasing after emotional experiences.
We laugh at them, but many people are seeking a new revelation of Jesus, which means even extra-biblical revelation. There is a large Christian fellowship community that, a few years ago, said, “Now God is revealing extra-biblical revelation.” The saints were just running after it.
We can come up with all kinds of stuff—especially when you have engineers. They can come up with all kinds of strange configurations of what the wheel within the wheel really means, and all kinds of stuff. It is a danger if we get outside the Bible with some kind of extra-biblical revelation.
But if our hearts are just running after, “What kind of new revelation do you want?” then we may be running in the wrong direction. Because what we find in this wonderful book of Revelation, through twenty-two chapters, is a revealing of Jesus and a revealing of Jesus—and all it does is bring us back to the very first things.
The church of Ephesus, we know, had gone astray. It had left its first love. They had to come back to their very reason for being. They had to come back not only to their first love, but, as it says, to their first works.
There is something in the revelation of the greatness of Jesus that brings us right back to square one.
Now, John was an apostle, and John had a charge—or at least a burden—for these seven churches in Asia Minor in the latter days of his ministry. There he was, exiled on the Isle of Patmos. John knew his own shortcomings, and he saw the wineskins breaking down in these seven churches after so short a time.
He was burdened, because what could he do—yell across the water to them? He wondered, “What on earth can we do? This is such a serious situation.” He was praying for those churches. You know he was interceding. He was a great man of prayer.
But then the Lord Jesus showed up. He said, “Now, John, let us get back to the first things. John, you do not know what you are doing. Everything is in My hands.”
“Those seven churches—where are they? Right there in My hands. Do not worry about it. I am in control.”
I cannot imagine what kind of release John felt at that. He was an old man. He was ready to die. You know, when you get my age, you are ready to go. Well, not quite. But John was burdened for these churches. “What is going to happen? What is going to happen?”
Would it not be wonderful if you saw Jesus standing in the midst, saying, “You know what? Here I am. I am in control of the whole situation.” What a release John must have known.
Well, after he dropped dead and God revived him, he had a whole new calling on his life. What was his new calling? Not even to go around to the churches. He was not able to do that. “Just write to the churches. That will be sufficient. Watch what I can do,” says the Alpha and the Omega.
It is good to get back in touch with the Alpha and the Omega. He is back in the starting place now. He is not John the apostle who knows everything. No, no—he is John the beginner. “Okay, what should I do now, God?” “Write a letter.” “Okay.”
It is good to get back to those first things again.
Jesus presents Himself in this wonderful revelation, high and lifted up, with all this gold, all the eyes of fire, and the sword. To each one of the churches, He shows Himself in such a way as to bring them back to the original thing.
In Revelation 1:5-6, we read:
From Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To Him Who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood,
and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—
to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
What the Father did was bring John back to a vision of Jesus Who loved us, released us from our sins, and made us kings and priests.
When Jesus comes to the churches, He shows a different part of His glory to each church. Revelation 2:1 says to Ephesus:
These are the words of Him Who holds the seven stars in His right hand,
Who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
He shows Himself in that way to the church of Ephesus: as the One Who holds the seven stars and walks among the lampstands.
Then, in Revelation 2:8, to Smyrna:
These are the words of the first and the last,
Who was dead, and has come to life.
That is the aspect of glory He wants to show to the church of Smyrna. In Revelation 2:12, to Pergamum:
These are the words of Him Who has the sharp two-edged sword.
There is the aspect of glory that He wants to reveal to the church of Pergamum. You see, each church needs a different aspect of His glorious revelation.
To the church of Ephesus, what did they need to see? This very revelation we read in Revelation 1. Namely, they needed to see that Jesus was the glorious High Priest.
Here is the question I ask you: How can we possibly live as kings and priests unless we are before a revelation of our great Priest and King? How can we actually do that?
We can take our calling and say, “Yes, we are all kings and priests. Hallelujah, praise God, we are kings and priests.” We can talk about that all day. But in the early days, when we were not talking about being kings and priests, and we just stood before the King and the Priest—that is Jesus—we were effectively kings and priests.
You get what I am saying? It is actually seeing Him that way that makes us worshipers. If we stand around here saying, “Now look, everybody here, you are a kingdom of priests. Everybody is a priesthood of believers. Now you should be asking for a song,” that is like forced priesthood.
But what would happen if the teenager saw Jesus high and lifted up as a Priest? Man, they would be whizzing songs in as quick as they could. It is a response to Who He is. It releases us to be priests.
Otherwise, we can say we are priests, but we do not live like it. We can say we are kings, but we all live like we are in bondage. You can talk about the position, but you cannot live in it without the reality, which is this: “Who loved us and released us from our sins by His blood.”
That is the only way. Today, how much does He love you? Do you believe His blood has released you from your sins? You are a priest. It just comes right out. You do not need the office.
It would be a terrible thing if we all sewed up some priest-smocks, came in here, started wearing tunics, and, you know, putting on the Ritz—looking good. The more you do that externally, the more likely it is that internally something is missing.
So He came to the church of Ephesus and said, “You have left your first love. This is My complaint about you.” How did He come to them? As the King and High Priest.
I have a feeling that these first works are that kind of prayer that is just lost in Him; the kind of worship that is not self-conscious; and the kind of witnessing that is basically gossiping the gospel. These are the first works that need to be returned to.
How can we ever be returned there? We have got to see the King and High Priest say, “Look, I have got the whole thing in My hand.” What are you going to do about that? “Oh, we are going to go tell everybody You have everything in Your hands. Oh, we are going to worship You because You have everything in Your hands.”
You see, it is so restoring.
Think of the church of Smyrna. I do not want to make too much of a point on it, because you can follow it right through. Here is a group of people facing martyrdom. What does Jesus come to them and say?
He says, “I know you are suffering a lot. You think you are poor. But I want to tell you Who I am: I am He Who rose from the dead, and I can die no more. You stick with Me. Do not worry about that.”
Do you not think those in Smyrna who had an ear to hear, when they heard that, were released from the fear of death just like that? They were released to be witnesses for God, whether they were to die or to live.
All they needed to see was the One Who is alive forevermore. Then, whatever comes will come, but we can be faithful to the end.
Or the church in Pergamum: the sharp two-edged sword came out. Why? Because in the early days, Pergamum did not know what they were doing. This is getting back to square one. It is getting back to where everybody does not know what they are doing.
In the early days, Pergamum did not know anything except, by an anointing inside, that Jesus is here. We worship Him. We praise Him. We gather around Him. We commit ourselves one to another. It was just so simple.
But after a while, the problem with Pergamum, according to Jesus, was: “You are holding to teaching.” Frankly, He mentions two teachings, but it does not matter what teachings they were holding to. Why are you holding to a teaching?
The sharp two-edged sword comes out because there is only one thing you need to hold to, and that is Jesus. He is the One Who has the sword. He is the Teacher.
This teaching word is coming to chop up these Balaam teachings, chop up those Nicolaitan teachings. What is that stuff? Why did we hold to a teaching?
When Pergamum sees Him, they say, “What are we doing? We have got to get back to the sword.” The One Whose mouth is like a two-edged sword—wow, that is the teaching. What do you want? We hold on to Jesus.
Immediately, they let go of these Balaam fellows and the others holding to teaching over here—the club that holds to this teaching, and over here the club that holds to that teaching. Jesus says, “Here we go,” and makes the sign of the “J,” like Zorro, over the whole business. Now who is holding anything?
The whole thing is that when the revelation of the greatness of Jesus comes back, it brings us back to square one.
There is an old saying I remember from my Baptist days. I heard one fellow preach it, and I will never forget it. He said, “The church is not a hotel for saints; it is a hospital for sinners.”
Somehow we have to get back to that, do you not think? We all do not know what we are doing, but we know we love the Lamb of God. He loves us, and He released us from our sins by His blood.
I love those first things. It is so sane. It brushes away so much stuff. This is the Lord’s provision. It is not “maybe He will reveal this.” He has, for those who have ears to hear.
Let us go to the second thing. When the Father reveals His Son, He shows the greatness of the Son in relation to His full thought and purpose.
Sometimes—can I put it this way? It is hard to say this in the right way—but we sometimes attain to a revelation of Jesus that nevertheless does not see Him in the context of God’s full thought.
Look in the book of Revelation. You are all recidivists. You have been in the Revelation jail a long time. You have looked at all the beasts, and all the smoke, and the trumpets. So I am not going to go over all that stuff.
But let me put it to you this way: when you go through the book of Revelation, do you see how big Jesus is? Suddenly we are talking about thrones, eternity, angels, seraphim, and cherubim. We are seeing a great cosmic conflict between all the forces of Babylon, harlots, false prophets, beasts, and everything like that.
You see Jesus in a great cosmic conflict. You see Jesus upon a throne. You see Jesus taking the scroll. The backdrop of Jesus is not small at all. The backdrop of Jesus is not our fellowship.
Jesus is doing something humongous today. But when we see Jesus, we always see something so much beyond ourselves that we get over our little self-centeredness. Forget about it. Look how big this is.
In the book of Revelation, there are seven visions of Jesus. All of them are against the backdrop of huge cosmic, eternal scenes: marriage, the bride, the Groom, the Judge on the white throne, Babylon, and all of this. That kind of revelation puts everything in context.
Whatever we go through in our own crossroads right here, God is up to something humongous.
I am glad the Russians came by. I do not know how many of you saw the Russians when they came by here. They probably did a Cossack dance and did the whole thing. But you know something? The Lord is really doing something in Russia.
I want to declare something right now that I believe with all my heart: the Lord is doing something right here—big time, big deal, big-time important stuff—for those who have an ear to hear and eyes to see. It is not small-time potatoes. He is holding the church to His full thought.
Brothers and sisters, the more I travel and wander, the more I meet all kinds of wonderful people, all kinds of church groups and mission groups and everything. I praise God for all of God’s wonderful people. But I know something: God holds the church to the standard of His full thought.
He wants a church that corresponds—bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh—to Jesus, and He will accept nothing less. As good as any group may be, they may have one hundred and sixty buses bringing people in every Sunday and be doing great works, but Jesus is looking for something down on earth and saying, “This is bone of My bone and flesh of My flesh. This is like Me, these people.”
It is a living organism. This is a huge issue with the Lord.
We are always tempted to say, “It sure would be a lot easier just to kind of give in on one little bit of ground. It would make things a lot easier.” But if we do that, the Lord cannot stand in the midst anymore and hold up the light in our situation.
The Father is concerned to find the bride. He wants a bride without compromise. He wants a bride that follows the Lord wherever He goes. That is such a way of the cross.
Thank God, He has to break the wineskin all the time. He may have to break it a dozen times, as long as He gets what He wants out of it. There is no price to pay when you know what the end is. I want to be with Jesus.
So break the skins. Who cares about the skin?
There is an old debate among the brethren over whether a group can remain a testimony for more than one generation. Here is the problem with that question: the Lord does not look on it as forty years. The Lord looks at His people.
If He breaks down a wineskin a couple of times, it is no big deal to Him. He is looking for people who have an ear to hear, who are still willing to go wherever the Lamb leads them. Ah, now He is happy.
The Lord is going to hold the church to His full thought. Here He is before the seven churches, holding them all to the full thought. They say, “But Lord, we are good in every other way.” He even acknowledges the relative goodness of each group, does He not?
“I know your works and your deeds and your faithfulness and how you stood against those evil people.” I know. But those are relative things. That is not, in the end, what wins you stars in heaven.
Here is the one thing: will you be full of Me?
In those forty years that had transpired since these churches were born by the moving of the Holy Spirit and the apostles going out, each of these churches was like a lake. They used to be high with water, and you could basically swim across the lake with no impediments. But now the life is going out. The wineskin has holes in it.
I do not know if any of you have a pool, but I understand that one of the great tragedies is when you have a leak in your pool. It costs thousands of dollars to drain the thing, find the leak, and deal with all of that. Only Jesus would be concerned about something like that.
When the water level goes down on a lake, what do we discover? That beautiful, pristine lake is full of stumps and full of rocks. If you are down to a water level of twelve inches, and you are rowing in a boat, you are hitting every stone, every rock, every stump. You say, “Man, this is terrible navigating in this place.”
But you know what you need? The fullness of Jesus. Bring that wineskin back up with new wine, and then swim it again. It is smooth.
The fact of the matter is, here is where we get a little crazy. Sometimes we think, because of some momentary peace we have in church life, that we are just on a beautiful lake. We forget about the stumps and rocks underneath.
But the stumps and rocks—I forgot to tell you—that is you and me. They are always there in the lake. When the water level gets down far enough, the less of the testimony that goes down, the more of man that seems to come up, right?
The less of prayer goes down, the more government has to raise its head. The less worship goes down, the more we get professional musicians in to fill in the gap.
What we need is a lake full of Jesus. That is the only thing that makes our lake any kind of lake. What is it—Lake Ephesus? Lake Smyrna? That has a nice ring to it. Lake Thyatira, Lake Pergamum, Lake Philadelphia—whatever it is, it is only beautiful when it is full of Jesus.
When it gets empty, you have these stumps and rocks. Well, you have got you and me around. That is the tough part.
That is the second point: when the Father reveals His Son in greater glory, He reveals Him against the context of His full thought for the church. He will not take anything less than exactly what He wants for His bride.
But then the third and final thing I want to say—the thing that touches my heart—is this: this revelation is not given to Christians.
The revelation of Jesus Christ in this book is not given to Christians. I am making a distinction, and I know I have caught your attention. Before you throw me out and send me on the rail to New York, which I would deserve, hear me out.
The book of Revelation is not written to Christians, but it is written to bond-servants. Now that is an exclusive group. Who are these exclusive people?
Look in Revelation 1:1:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants.
Maybe we should define bond-servants. I think that is probably pretty easy. If you go down to Revelation 1:3, it does not mean the professional guys who are traveling around. No, no, no. Here it is:
Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear, and those who heed.
There you go. Who are the bond-servants who are going to see this new revelation of Jesus, who are going to be brought back to square one, refreshed by a deliverance, and propelled with a calling? It is those who read, who hear, and who heed.
Unfortunately, in each of the seven churches, the implication is, when Jesus is talking, that some of the folks are not going to hear. Some type of people will say, “You know what? I like it kind of lukewarm.”
But those who have an ear to hear will be adjusted by the revelation. There is not much you have to do when you see the revelation. You basically fall down dead, and then Jesus sets you free.
But those who do not have an ear to hear, those who do not bother reading, and those who, having heard, do not heed—well, “This is just a book of beasts and trumpets and smoke and fire.”
But this whole thing is a very wonderful revelation to the bond-servants.
Here is the point that really touches me: how personal, how intimate, is this revelation?
Each of these seven assemblies needed to be brought back. They needed to be filled up with the life of Jesus. Yet He does not go to them and say, “What you need is a corporate vision.” Actually, it is pretty personal. You need to be released. You need to see.
Young people need to see the Priest and begin to respond as priests. All of us need to discover again that, in a sense, John had to be set free of the seven churches in order to be released and then help the seven churches.
There is a corporate context which becomes an onus to us rather than an adjoining of us. Sometimes we need to be set free of this sort of corporate burden in order to be set free to join into the corporate burden. I do not know if you understand that.
In other words, it is not like one Thursday night at seven o’clock all the saints in Ephesus get set free. It is that this sister breaks through, and that brother breaks through, and that sister breaks through. The next thing you know, people are overcoming by this revelation and moving forward.
I suppose it is possible that everybody could see it all at once, maybe. But the Lord is looking for overcomers, and He puts us through testing time.
I never saw the Lord say in any of these seven churches, “You know what? You had better get out of that one.” He never said that. He said, “Watch Me raise the level up if you will stand with Me.”
This revelation brings us back to first things, but this revelation is so personal. The Lord Jesus restored John. The Lord Jesus restored those precious overcomers in Laodicea, do you believe it?
He restored those brethren in Philadelphia and Thyatira, even with Jezebel around. You know why? Because they saw Him. Nothing can stop you once you see Him.
There is no cost when you know He is what you want.
The overcomers become an important focal point of this book of Revelation. Who are the overcomers? They are just the bond-servants who read, hear, and heed.
The church is always in a state of crisis. It is only the foolish church that thinks it is not in a state of crisis. It is only the church that does not understand this crossroads, that just goes on willy-nilly and does not realize, “This is an important moment. The Lord is holding us to His standard. Now we need to be true to Him.”
When we realize we are in crisis, the provision is already there. What is the provision? The Father reveals His Son in a new and more glorious way than we have ever seen Him before.
Boy, how John must have been released. He knew the Man Who walked on earth, and he knew the Man Who ascended up to heaven, but he never had any idea how powerful Jesus really was until he saw Him enrobed in His kingly, priestly splendor before his eyes.
When he saw that, do you know what he did? I think John had the laugh of faith. He said, “You know something? I think He can handle the situation.”
That takes a revelation. This is what the Lord wants to grant to those bond-servants whom He loves so much.
Now listen to this. Here are churches in seven states of various compromise—could I put it that way?—in several states of various failure. To every one of these groups, the Lord comes very personally, one by one, and says, “How about you? Are you willing to overcome?”
“He who hears what I say and heeds the Word, I will grant to eat with Me of the tree of life.” He comes to each person. Imagine that.
We are not talking about the good churches. We are talking about compromised, failed churches—churches that have messed up, churches that have allowed compromise in their midst, whether in teaching or living or unholiness or whatever it is.
Here is what the Lord does: He comes very personally. He says, “I love you. I want to release you again from your sin and enable you to be a king and a priest and an overcomer. I want you to stand for Me in the midst of this whole jungle out there and watch how I can raise the water level.”
It is an amazing thing. You would not think He would deal with these situations. You would think He would say, “Ah, wineskin damaged. Too far gone. Just let it all dribble out.”
No, but He comes personally and says, “In the final analysis, the corporate testimony stands as individuals are overcoming in Me.” When He looks from heaven, He wants to know what is going on in your heart right now.
There is a group psychology that sometimes puts us in bondage. But you need to get free by your own revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in order that you can be one with brothers and sisters and ask the Lord to raise the level of life in the lake.
Oh, we really need that back home. Whenever I go out to a place like Russia, I come back with a yearning in my heart. I wish we could be like Russia back in Huntington. But of course, it is ridiculous. There is no way we can be.
But it gives me a real hunger, and I say, “Oh Lord, raise the level of life. Forgive us if we have come down to a standard, if we have gotten used to a certain way, if our skins have gotten hard in a tradition that needs to be busted.”
But Lord, it is Your life. Hold us together. Lord, fill us with Your life. We thank You that Your provision is Your Son and His great revelation. Oh Lord, show the Lord Jesus high and lifted up.
I thank You for these brethren here in Richmond because they have contact with saints all over the States—indeed, all over the world. We see the whole church in crisis, and out of this You are preparing a bride. This is all known to You.
You are the Lord Who is in control. You are walking among every lampstand that bears this testimony of You. So, Lord, we say, we know You are going to have Your way. We know that You are in control. We know that You are the King.
In light of the fact that You released us and cleansed us by Your blood, we want to live as kings and priests. May our life be from heaven in these days before us.
O Lord, bring us back to first things.
O Lord, bring us back to where all we know is neither how to go in nor go out, but we know the Lord Jesus.
Oh Lord, reveal Yourself to us in this magnificent way, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.