Will you please turn to the letter to the Ephesians—Ephesians chapter 3. We will read from verse 8.
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given,
to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery
which from all ages hath been hid in God who created all things;
to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places
might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God,
according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let us also turn to Revelation chapter 1, verse 20.
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.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, our hearts are full of thanksgiving. We do want to thank Thee for loving us so much. Among all the people in the world, we are so privileged that we may gather together as one before Thee.
We do want to thank Thee that it is Thy grace toward us. We pray that we may not miss Thy grace. We want to open our hearts to Thee this morning. We want to turn our hearts to Thee, and we pray that Thou wouldst shine Thy light upon us.
Bring us out of darkness and bring us into Thy light, that in Thy light we may see light, that we may really be transformed and conformed to Thy image, to the praise of Thy glory.
Lord, we do commit this time into Thy hands. Without Thee, we can do nothing, but with Thee all things are possible. So our confidence is in Thee. We trust Thy Holy Spirit to do Thy work this morning.
We pray that Thou wouldst release Thy word. We pray that Thy word will enter into our hearts and bear fruit a hundredfold unto Thy glory. In the name of our dear Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
We do want to thank God for gathering us together again this morning. I really feel that every time we are privileged to gather together, it is the special grace of God. We do look to the Lord that He will give us special grace.
Yesterday morning, we shared together on our testimony. Our testimony is not concerning ourselves. As a matter of fact, there is nothing to speak of ourselves. Under the light of God, we know who we are. We are really but dust.
But praise and thank God, there is much we can talk about. It is not about ourselves, but it is about our Lord Jesus. So our testimony is our Lord Jesus. Our testimony is the testimony of God.
We do testify that God is God. We also testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is the Heir of all things. He is the First and the Last. He is the living One. He became dead, but He has been raised from the dead, and He lives forevermore. In His hands, He holds the keys of death and of Hades.
We do testify that Jesus is Lord. This is our testimony. Our testimony is a glorious one, and it is something that never changes. It stands forever. It is the reality in the universe. It is yesterday, today, and forever the same.
We also mentioned yesterday morning that, even though our testimony is so certain and strong, oftentimes when we testify, it is not that strong. It is not because there is anything wrong with the testimony; there is something wrong with us. This is where we really need to repent.
May God give us special grace, that our witness will be as strong as our testimony.
Now this morning, we would like to go a little step further. Knowing what our testimony is, we now want to share together on the church as the vessel of the testimony of Jesus—how God entrusts the testimony of Jesus to the church.
In order to understand this, I think probably we will need to go over the whole Bible. Of course, we have only an hour or so, but we will go over it very quickly in order to see how God entrusts His testimony to the church today.
Now we know that in the book of Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth. But evidently, something happened.
When you read Genesis 1:1, it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” When God creates, it must be perfect, because our God is a perfect God. He will not do anything unfinished. What He creates must be beautiful.
In other words, it does not mean that when God creates, He creates something unfinished. So we believe that in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the heavens and the earth were perfect.
In that creation, the highest of the created beings were the angels. But unfortunately, we do not know how long it was before something seemed to happen in this heaven and earth.
When you read the second verse of Genesis 1, it says that the earth became void and empty. That is to say, something had happened to this earth. Of course, in Genesis God did not explain it to us, but we can find it in some other places in Scripture.
Evidently, one of the angels—the archangel Lucifer—had been put by God in a very high place. God graced him with beauty and talents, and God placed him in a high position. He was supposed to lead all the angels to worship God.
Instead of that, pride came into his mind. He began to think of himself. He was supposed to think only of God, only of his Creator, and give all the glory to Him. But somehow, he began to think of himself.
You know, brothers and sisters, that principle is always true. We should think of our God. We should focus our attention upon our Lord Jesus. This is the safest place.
But whenever we turn upon ourselves, whenever we look into ourselves, something will happen. So this archangel began to think of himself. He thought of his beauty. He thought of his power. He thought of his position. And pride began to rise in him.
He was not satisfied with what God had given him. He wanted to be equal with God. He wanted to compete with the Son of God. Because of this, he was driven out of the paradise in heaven.
When he was driven out, evidently our universe at that time was under his control. So when he was judged, punished, and cast out from heaven, that which was under his control also entered into judgment.
So we find that the earth became void and empty. It lost its meaning. It lost its purpose. It was ruined. It was covered with water, and an ice age came upon this earth.
We do not know how long it lasted, but God is love. Therefore, we find that the Spirit of God brooded over the earth. It was like a mother hen brooding over her little chicks, that something might be brought out.
In six days, God repaired this earth to make it habitable. On the last day, He created man.
When you read Genesis 1:26-27, you find God saying, “Let us make man.” It seems as if there was a council among the Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They held a council, and they decided what they should do next.
They said, “Let us make man.” Dear brothers and sisters, we men are created very differently from the other creation because we are created in God’s own image and according to His likeness.
Even when God created the angels, He did not create angels in His image and according to His likeness. Only with man did He create us in His image and according to His likeness.
We would like to ask this question: Why is it that God should take a counsel? It must be something very significant. Why was their decision to make man in their own image and according to His own likeness?
You know, that is something tremendous. It is something almost unthinkable. Why should God decide to do such a thing, and why should He make man in such a manner? It cannot be without some special reason. It cannot be without some special purpose.
From the word of God, we know today that the reason why God created man in His own image is because God wants to use man. God wants man to represent Him on earth.
God gave man dominion in order that man might rule the earth for God. Man was supposed to maintain the testimony of God on earth, because the testimony of God on earth was destroyed through the fall of the archangel.
Now God raised up man and gave him dominion that he might maintain the testimony of God in this universe. This is the purpose for which God created man in such a special way.
So God put man in the garden of Eden and made all the trees that man might enjoy their fruit. But in the midst of the garden there was the tree of life, and beside it, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God said to man, “Of all the trees in the field, you may freely eat.” You know, in the beginning, the food of man was fruit. I often think how good it would be if we needed to eat nothing but fruit. That was in the very beginning.
God said, “You may eat all the fruits in the garden.” There was only one tree from which they could not eat: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Why was it that God said they could not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Because, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
By that very word, you can see that the reason God forbade them to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was out of love. Sometimes we think that any prohibition is not love, but here you find that behind that prohibition there is the love of God.
Why? Because God wanted man to know who he was. Even though God put him above all things, he needed to know that he was under One. He was still under God.
That was the problem with the archangel. God put him in such a high place, but he began to think that he was above all, that he was not under God anymore. He did not know his place.
So God made that prohibition to remind man that he is over all, but below One. This is our position. As long as we maintain that position, we are safe.
Furthermore, God knows that unless we have His own life in us, the knowledge of good and evil will put us to death.
Now, I do not know how you feel, but to me, I feel that in the garden of Eden all the trees were good. God would never put anything evil in it. The apple tree is good for our body, and I personally think the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is food to our souls.
Our soul desires knowledge, and the highest knowledge is knowing good and evil. It is higher than even scientific knowledge, because the knowledge of good and evil is the highest knowledge. This is the food of our soul.
But the tree of life is the food of our spirit. It is the will of God that He put the tree of life in the midst of the garden. He did not prohibit man from eating it.
If there is something in the center, it will catch your attention. In a sense, God said, “I put it before your eyes. Take it.” This is what God wanted man to do.
Man was created in God’s image. Now he needed to take God’s life into him, and by that he would be able to fulfill his life purpose.
But unfortunately, man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil before he took of the tree of life. In other words, man rejected God.
He did not want to be dependent upon God. He did not want to live by the life of God. He wanted to develop his own soul life.
Being tempted by the enemy, he was told that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would know good and evil. He would not need God anymore. He could live an independent life.
Brothers and sisters, that means death. God said, “In the day that thou eatest of this forbidden tree, thou shalt die.”
Because of this, man was driven out of the garden of Eden. God’s purpose for man was that he might bear the testimony of God on earth, bringing all things back to God and leading all creation to worship God.
Man could accomplish that only with the life of God in him, by depending upon God. But unfortunately, he failed in his mission, and he was driven out of the garden of Eden.
But the testimony of God must be maintained, in spite of the failure of our forefather Adam. When you read the book of Genesis, you will find that God’s testimony on earth was maintained by the patriarchs, by the fathers.
You find that even though Cain was evil, God raised up Abel. When Cain was born, his parents thought that they had the seed of the woman. God had promised that the seed of the woman would come and bruise the head of the serpent.
So when Cain was born, his parents thought that he was the man. But unfortunately, he was not. Afterwards, Abel was born, and they called Abel “a breath.” In other words, they began to realize something.
But thank God, through Abel the testimony of God was maintained. What was that testimony? Abel testified to the love of God.
God is love. That is His very being. This is the testimony that Abel maintained on earth. Abel believed that out of the love of God, even though man had sinned, God had prepared a substitute. He prepared a lamb, that through the shed blood of the lamb, man might be cleansed.
So you find that Abel believed in God’s love. He believed in the salvation that God had prepared for man. When he approached God, he did not approach God on his own.
It was not like his brother Cain. Cain approached God by offering the produce of his field—the work of his own hands. He thought that God should accept his offering because it was the best he had.
He depended on himself to approach God. He did not accept the love of God or the lamb as his substitute. So he was rejected.
But Abel humbled himself before God, acknowledging that he was a sinner. The only way we can be accepted by God is through the blood of the Lamb. We need to accept the love of God.
Through Abel, the love of God—the testimony of God—was maintained.
Then you find Enoch. Enoch lived until he was sixty-five years old just as other people in the world lived. But when he was sixty-five years old, he begot a son, Methuselah.
Evidently, he received a revelation from God. He realized that because of the sin of this world, God would judge the world. When Methuselah died, the judgment would arrive.
So he began to be moved. He began to walk with God, and the Bible says he walked with God for three hundred years.
You know, brothers and sisters, God wants us to walk with Him, but we want God to walk with us. To walk with God, on the one hand, is the most glorious thing; yet on the other hand, it is the most difficult thing.
That is why the name Enoch means discipline. He had to be disciplined in order to walk with God. God is holy, and if we want to walk with God, we have to be holy. We have to be under discipline.
Those three hundred years, so far as man is concerned, were very difficult. Yet, on the other hand, it was a glorious walk. He walked with God, walked and walked, until he was taken.
In the days when people might live hundreds of years, they all died. But Enoch was the only one who walked with God and was taken by God.
What was the testimony of God that he maintained? He testified to the holiness of God. In a world full of sin and death, there was a man who testified that God is different.
He is uncommon. He is separated. He is unique and the only One. Enoch walked with God, and he maintained the testimony of God in his generation.
Then you find Noah. In Noah’s days, God wanted to judge the world because the world was full of violence and sin. But Noah received grace from God. He feared God, and God revealed to him how to make an ark.
Through the ark, God would save people. For one hundred and twenty years, Noah preached the gospel. He told people that judgment would come, and he asked people to come into the ark. But nobody believed—only Noah and his family.
It is very interesting: if you read the Chinese character for a boat, it is a picture. On one hand, it is a canoe; on the other hand, it is eight mouths. Eight people—Noah and his family—were saved from destruction through the ark.
What testimony did Noah maintain of God? He maintained the testimony that God is righteous. God is a righteous God.
Again, the testimony of God was maintained in spite of the rebellion of the world.
Then you think of Abraham. We know that Abraham lived in Ur of the Chaldees, and it was a city of idols. Tradition tells us that Abraham’s father, Terah, was an idol maker.
There is a tradition—not in the Bible, so do not believe it simply because it is tradition—that one day when Abraham’s father left home, he told Abraham to take care of the idols.
After his father left, Abraham began to beat the idols. Some heads were off, some arms were off, and he threw them all over the room. When his father came back and saw the situation, he asked, “Why did you do that?”
Abraham said, “I thought that after you left, these idols began to fight against one another. That is what happened.” His father said, “Nonsense. They could not do that.” So Abraham said, “Then why do you worship them?”
That is a legend. But the truth is this: one day the God of glory appeared to Abraham. God knew his heart. The God of glory appeared to him and called him: “Leave this city. Leave your father’s house. Leave your kindred, and go to the place where I call you.”
By faith, Abraham obeyed God. He became a stranger and a sojourner in the promised land. He lived in tents, and he built altars to worship God.
He did not return to his own home. He could have done that if he had wanted to, but he did not. Why? Because he saw a city with foundations, whose Builder is God.
He looked for that city, and that enabled him to be a stranger and a sojourner. He saw the glory of God. He saw what the glorious God had provided for His own. He saw the glorious city, and it attracted him.
It enabled him to reject all the things in this world and seek for that heavenly heritage. Through Abraham, the glory of God—the testimony of God—was maintained.
He maintained the testimony that God is glorious, that the glorious God wants to lead us into glory. So he despised the things of this world.
Through the patriarchs, God maintained His testimony on this earth. So far as the world was concerned, they rebelled against God, yet God still left His testimony on earth through some individuals.
Each individual testified to one part of the testimony of God, because the testimony of God is so vast, so full, and so rich. No one person can bear the whole testimony. Each individual may play a part of it.
But God’s purpose for the vessel of His testimony is corporate. That is God’s purpose. Because of this, we find that God is leading gradually in that direction.
Out of Abraham came the twelve tribes, and through the twelve tribes came the nation of Israel. Gradually, God began to lead from individual witnesses into a corporate witness, that His testimony might be full and complete.
Here you find the nation of Israel. God took them out of Egypt. In Exodus 19, when they came to Mount Sinai, God began to reveal His purpose to them.
Why did God deliver them out of Egypt? Why did He deliver them out of slavery? Was it just that God wanted to free them so that they could live in any way they wished? No. God delivered them out with a purpose.
At Mount Sinai, God began to reveal His mind to them. God said, “I brought you as on eagles’ wings unto Myself. Now, if you keep My covenant, I will take you out of all the peoples in the world to be My people. I will be your God, and you will be a nation of priests to serve Me.”
Brothers and sisters, here you find that God wanted a corporate vessel—a people who belonged to Him. God gave them the Ten Commandments. God committed His testimony to the nation of Israel.
God said, “Now you are My people, and you have a mission: to bear My testimony on earth. The whole nations are worshipping idols, but you are the only nation that worships one God. You are to bear My testimony on this earth.”
“You are great, not because you are many, nor because of what you are. You are great because you have received My statutes and My ordinances.”
“In the whole world, there is no nation that has such wisdom and such understanding. Of all the nations in the world, there is no other nation whose God appears to them and answers them. That makes you great.”
“Therefore, you have to keep My commandments, and you have to tell your sons, your sons’ sons, and their sons, that they may be the vessel of My testimony.”
Our brother has already mentioned how God dwelt in their midst through the tabernacle. The tabernacle is called the tabernacle of the testimony.
God asked them to make an ark, and the ark is the ark of the testimony. In the ark they put the Ten Commandments, and the Ten Commandments are the testimony. The glory of God rested upon the ark.
Brothers and sisters, do you see the picture? The testimony of God was entrusted to that nation. What a glorious thing it was.
The Lord was in their midst, and the shout of a King was in their midst. This is what happened to the nation of Israel. What a privilege—and what a responsibility.
As you read the history of the nation of Israel, you find that gradually they failed the testimony. In the beginning, they began to rebel against God. When God gave them the promised land and they became fat, they forgot God.
They began to learn from the nations, and they began to worship idols, which was an abomination to God.
You find in Samuel that the ark was captured by the Philistines. At that time, their faith had become superstition. The ark had led them into the promised land, but now they considered the ark as a thing of superstition.
They did not worship God anymore. When they were defeated by the Philistines, they thought, “Bring the ark out here. The ark will fight for us.” But God did not fight for them. God would rather allow His ark to be captured by the Philistines.
The children of Israel could not take care of the ark of God. They were supposed to maintain the testimony of God, but because of their sin, the ark was captured by the Philistines.
Thank God, the ark knew how to protect itself. After six months, the ark returned. But they did not care about it. It was hidden in a hilly place. Even in the days of Saul, he never inquired before God.
That was the condition of the children of Israel. Even though there was a revival under David, David had a heart toward God. He searched for the ark. He loved the ark. He would not allow himself to sleep because he wanted to find a resting place for the ark.
Then Solomon built a temple. But unfortunately, the people of Israel continued to rebel against God.
Even though God sent prophets to them to warn them and call them back to God, they would not return. The love of God was still extended to them. He sent prophets early in the morning to call them back, but they would not.
Finally, the temple was destroyed. Jerusalem was destroyed. The people were taken into captivity.
During those seventy years, God was never called the God of the heavens and the earth. God was called only the God of the heavens. Why? Because on earth there was no testimony. No one maintained the testimony on earth. That is the failure of the children of Israel.
How sad it was.
But did God leave no testimony on earth? No. It is true that corporately there was failure. The children of Israel were in Babylonian captivity, yet there were still some individuals who, in the land of captivity, maintained the testimony of God.
Think of Daniel. Daniel was a captive, and yet he maintained the testimony of God. Even though at the time he was a teenager and a hostage, he would not defile himself with the wine and food of the king.
He wanted to keep himself pure for God. Throughout his long life, he served two empires. He was a prime minister, and yet three times a day he opened his window toward Jerusalem and prayed.
He stood for God. He was thrown into the lions’ den, and yet God shut the mouths of the lions. His testimony to the kings was that God is a living God.
He testified to Nebuchadnezzar, “The heavens do rule.” It is not you who rule. It is God who put you there. God rules over the whole earth. What a testimony!
Then you find Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a priest in captivity, and there he maintained the testimony of God. He told the people, “It is true that the glory of God had left Jerusalem, and yet one day the glory of God will return.”
Through these individuals, God still maintained His testimony on earth, in spite of the failure of the nation.
Then, seventy years later, according to God’s word, Cyrus the Persian king allowed the children of Israel to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
But unfortunately, most of the people in captivity remained in the land of captivity. Why? Because during those seventy years, they were allowed to build their own houses and establish their own businesses.
Even in the land of captivity, they lived a very comfortable life. Why should they go back to Jerusalem, which was in ruins and surrounded by enemies? There was no temple there. They could not offer sacrifices.
What did they do? They began to form synagogues. Because they could not go back to Jerusalem and there was no temple, they wanted to worship God.
They had worshipped idols, so God allowed them to go to Babylon, an idol-worshipping country, to cure them of their desire to worship idols. This is what mothers sometimes do. If a child loves ice cream too much, let him eat all he wants until he is tired of it.
That is what God did with the children of Israel. “All right, you want to worship idols? Go there, where it is full of idols.” Fortunately, they were cured. They wanted to worship God.
They were very clever. If there were ten men, they could form a synagogue. They did not need to walk very far. If there was somebody they did not like, they could get some friends and organize another synagogue.
In the synagogue they read the Torah. They also read the prophets. They sang songs, prayed, and exhorted one another. Very free, very good. It satisfied their longing.
The only thing they could not do was sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Even though they were without redemption, somehow their conscience was at peace.
They lived such a comfortable life. Why should they go to Jerusalem, a ruin surrounded by enemies? Why should they build a temple? Was not the synagogue enough?
No, no, brothers and sisters. When they thought of themselves, it was enough. But if they thought of the testimony of God, that was not enough.
Thank God, He touched the spirit of some. Fifty thousand of them were willing to leave everything behind. They were willing to brave the dangers. They wanted to go back to Jerusalem, a place of ruin, for one reason only: to rebuild the temple.
In other words, they wanted to maintain the testimony of God, because the temple was where the name of God rested. They lived for the testimony of God. They did not live for themselves.
Here you find how God began to raise up a corporate vessel. Even though it was not the whole nation, it was a corporate vessel to maintain the testimony of God at that time.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, we have been on the type too long. The children of Israel are a type of the church today. The children of Israel were God’s earthly people, and we are God’s heavenly people.
They are a shadow, and we are the reality. So when you come to the New Testament, our Lord Jesus came into this earth, and the testimony of God rested in Him.
When He came, outwardly the temple was there, but we know there was no ark in the holiest of all. There was no glory of God. There was no fire coming down from heaven to burn the sacrifice. There was no priest with Urim and Thummim.
Outwardly, everything seemed to be there, but actually the most important thing was missing: the presence of God was not there.
But when our Lord Jesus came to this earth, He was the real temple. He was the ark. He said, “Lo, I am come to do Thy will. Thou hast given Me a body, and Thy law is written upon My heart.”
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus maintained the testimony of God throughout His life. To Him, there was only one thing: His Father’s will.
If it was His Father’s will for Him to go to the cross, to eat the flesh and drink the cup, He would do it. He maintained the testimony of God in spite of all the falsehood and hypocrisy of the nation.
He bore a good confession. He accomplished the work of salvation. He ascended upon high.
But before He left, in Matthew 16, He said, “Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
What is the rock? It is not Peter. Peter shook very quickly. The rock is Peter’s confession: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus Christ is the Rock of Ages, and upon Him He will build His own church.
That church is to be the vessel of His testimony, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
In Matthew 18:20, the Lord said, “Where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Then, when He was ascending to heaven, in Matthew 28, He said, “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
After the ascension of our Lord Jesus, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down upon one hundred and twenty believers. In one Spirit, they were baptized into one body. That was when the church began on earth.
What is the church? The church is the vessel of the testimony of Jesus. The Lord entrusted His testimony to the church because the church is the body of Christ, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all.
It was the will of God, even before the foundation of the world. God had already purposed in His heart that one day the church would be that vessel. Even the principalities and authorities would learn from the church the manifold wisdom of God.
What a glorious thing! God raised up His church on earth—His own redeemed people, redeemed by Himself—to bear witness to Him that Jesus is Lord.
When you read the first few chapters of the book of Acts, what a glorious beginning you find. On the day of Pentecost, three thousand came to the Lord.
They all continued in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. How they loved one another! How they were together! How they met in the temple! How they enjoyed their meals together!
How they remembered the Lord every day, and how they helped each other. No one said, “This is mine.” Everybody shared whatever he had.
Because of this testimony, the Lord began to add daily to them.
When you come to Acts 4, you find that they were of one mind and one soul. They loved one another. How they manifested Christ!
People looked at them and said, “See how they love one another.” They did not belong to the Jews, and they did not belong to the Gentiles.
They no longer followed the way of the Jews, nor did they live according to the manner of the Gentiles. They lived differently. In spite of being Jews and Gentiles, there was a special manner of life among them.
It was a way of love. The world did not know who they were. Then one day people said, “We know who they are. They are Christians. They are Christ-men.”
When they gathered, they gathered in the name of Jesus. When they prayed, they prayed in the name of Jesus. When they sang, they sang to Jesus. When they opened their mouths, they spoke of Jesus. When they lived, they lived out Jesus.
What a testimony—the vessel of the testimony of Jesus.
But unfortunately, gradually things began to change. The enemy tried every way to kill that testimony.
He used persecution. He used the people. But it did not work. Then he used deception.
Gradually, you find heretical things coming into the church. Gradually, you find corruption coming into the church. Gradually, you find the church beginning to drift away from that living faith into tradition.
When you came to the Dark Ages, the Bible was chained. People did not even know the first thing in salvation. They did not know grace. They thought they had to be saved by their merits. Everything was full of superstition.
The testimony of Jesus was in ruin.
But thank God, throughout church history, God raised up some people. You find a certain minority, persecuted, and yet they maintained the testimony.
Even at the end of the first century, when John the apostle was in Patmos—exiled to the island of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus—there he received revelation.
He saw a vision. He saw seven golden lampstands, and One like a Son of Man walking among them. The seven lampstands represent the seven churches in Asia.
When you read Exodus concerning the golden lampstand—