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.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
Dear Lord, we do want to thank Thee for inviting us to Thy table. We thank Thee for the blood that was shed for the remission of our sins. We thank Thee for the body that was broken, that we might be united as one body.
Oh, how we praise and thank Thee for the privilege of such communion, that we may commune with Thee and with one another. Lord, what can we say but to bow down and worship Thee?
And we do thank Thee that Thou dost gather us again to hear Thy word. Speak, Thy servants hear. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
By the grace of God, we have been meeting for these days. As we mentioned before, we focus our whole attention on just one thing, and that is this matter of vision: the heavenly vision.
You will notice that the word vision that we use is singular in number. Of course, in Scripture you can find many visions, and yet there is one vision that is all-inclusive. That is the vision that every believer must see.
It is a vision that was given to the apostles—to Peter, to Paul, and to John. Even though they received this vision as different individuals, and what they saw seems to differ, yet we find that these are but developments, parts, of the one vision.
As a matter of fact, it is just one heavenly vision. It is a vision that controls our whole spiritual life, a vision that gives us direction and gives us the way to walk toward that direction. It gives us the strength to go forward.
It is the vision of Christ and the church. This is the mystery of the gospel.
To Peter, we find the vision is given as a preparation. To Paul, we find that it is being developed. And to John, we find that it has reached its consummation. But the vision is just one.
We need to see Christ. We need to see Who He is, what He is to God and to us. Oftentimes, our understanding of Jesus is too limited. We need to see Him as God sees Him. We need to have a wide horizon of our Lord Jesus.
And we need also to see what really the church is, that it may not be just a theory to us, but become something that is very real to our life. A deeper understanding of Christ and of His church is essential to us.
Now, in the past, we shared together on the vision given to Peter and also the vision given to Paul. This morning, God willing, we would like to share together on the vision given to John the apostle. It is called the Patmos vision.
John, as we know, was among the first disciples who followed the Lord Jesus. Among the twelve apostles, he was the last who remained on earth.
The Bible says that, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus, he was exiled to the island called Patmos. Probably “the word of God,” as you read the Book of Revelation, refers to the Old Testament, because at that time they did not have the New Testament that we have today.
The Old Testament is the word of God: the five books of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. The word of God testifies to one Person: Jesus. Jesus is the fulfilment of all that was written in the word of God.
As you read the Book of Acts, you will find that the message to the world is this: whatever was written in the books of Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets is fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
Because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, John was exiled to the island called Patmos. During the reign of Domitian, he was exiled to Patmos, a little rocky island in the Aegean. Probably he was exiled there for slave labour, to work in the mines.
While he was there, on the Lord’s day, probably he was sitting on a rock and looking toward the east. If it was a clear day, he could see the outline of the coast of Asia Minor.
Before he was exiled, he was labouring for the Lord in Asia Minor—the Roman province of Asia, not the continent of Asia. Paul, used by the Lord, started the churches there in Asia. You remember he was in Ephesus for three years. Following that, there were a number of churches in different cities.
Paul and Peter were martyred in the sixties, and evidently God sent John to Asia to continue the work there. Before John was exiled, he was labouring in these cities in Asia. He was like a shepherd to the flock.
But now he was exiled. Without doubt, on the Lord’s day, he must have been thinking about the brothers and sisters in Asia—how he longed to see them again, how he longed to continue to minister to them. He must have wondered what had happened to these churches.
As he was thinking about them, suddenly he heard a voice behind him saying, “Write to the seven churches in Asia.” He turned to see the voice, and the Bible tells us that he saw seven golden lampstands. In the midst of the seven lampstands there was One like a son of man.
This is what we call the Patmos vision. These seven lampstands represent the seven churches in Asia, because this was explained to John. At the end of the first chapter, he was told that the mystery of the seven lampstands is the seven churches.
The seven churches were in Asia, but in the sight of God, or before God, they were seven golden lampstands.
If you remember, in the Old Testament tabernacle, there in the holy place was a golden lampstand with seven branches. In typology, that speaks of the unity of the church. But here you find seven golden lampstands, and each lampstand represents a local church.
This speaks of the responsibility of each church to the testimony of Jesus. Now, brothers and sisters, whatever you may see on earth about the churches, let us remember that before God, a church is a golden lampstand.
What is a lampstand? A lampstand is a stand that holds and lifts up light. You remember in Matthew 5, the Lord Jesus said that you do not light a lamp and put it under a bushel. When you light the lamp, you put it on the lampstand, and all in the house see the light.
In Mark 4, you find that you do not put a lamp under a couch, but you put it on a lampstand. In Luke 11, you find that you do not put a lamp in a secret place or hide it, but put it on a lampstand.
What does it mean when you put a lamp under a bushel? A bushel is a measure. It signifies that you hide the light under the cares of life—the anxiety of your living: “What shall I eat? What shall I drink? What shall I be clothed with?” If we are occupied with all these things, the light will be hidden.
Or, you do not put a lamp under a couch. The couch speaks of the comforts of life—how we need to live a very comfortable, easy life. By doing that, the light is hidden. The light must be put on the lampstand.
Brothers and sisters, the church is a lampstand. The church is not the light. The light is our Lord Jesus. He is the Light of the world. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The church is the light-holder.
We do not preach ourselves. We preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. We do not preach the church. The church is not an end; it is but a means to an end.
It is unfortunate when people’s emphasis is on the church instead of on Christ, because the church is for Christ. It is a light-holder; it is not the light itself. Therefore, it is our responsibility to lift up Christ.
We are not to lift up the church, because if we do that, we lift up ourselves. But the lampstand is important. The light needs the lampstand, because without the lampstand, the light cannot shine bright and wide. The testimony of Jesus is not able to spread out.
The church is the vessel for the testimony of Jesus. In order to be that vessel, there must be a suitability to the testimony. Therefore, you find that the lampstand is made of pure gold.
If you read the Book of Exodus, you will find that all the vessels in the tabernacle, aside from the brazen altar, are made of wood but covered with gold. We know that wood in Scripture signifies human nature, and gold represents the nature of God.
Very strangely, you find all the vessels in the holy place and the holy of holies made of wood and overlaid with gold. But there is one vessel made of pure gold only, and that is the golden lampstand.
The table of showbread is made of wood but overlaid with gold. The altar is made of wood overlaid with gold. Even the ark in the holy of holies is made of wood but overlaid and inlaid with gold. But the lampstand has no wood in it, only pure gold.
Now, when you think of the church, what is the church? You will say the church is made up of people; it should be filled with wood. We know the church is not a building. The church is people—those whom the Lord has called out of the world and gathered together unto the name of the Lord Jesus.
You would think that, of all the vessels in the tabernacle, surely the lampstand should be made of wood, perhaps overlaid with gold, but mainly wood. But strangely, you find that the Spirit of God tells us that the lampstand, which represents the church before God, is made of pure gold.
You remember that verse in Scripture which says, concerning the church, that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither barbarian nor Scythian, neither bondman nor freeman; but Christ is all and in all.
How is it possible? We say the church is made up of Jews and Gentiles. On the day of Pentecost, the Jews were baptised into one body. In the house of Cornelius, the Gentiles were also baptised into that one body. So the church is composed of Jews and Gentiles; yet Scripture says that in the church there is no Jew and no Gentile.
When a Jew comes into the church, there is no more Jew. You cannot call yourself a Hebrew Christian. When a Gentile comes to the church, there is no more American or Chinese. Isn’t that a wonderful thing? The Jew is gone. The Gentile is gone. Circumcision is gone. Uncircumcision is gone.
The barbarians are gone, and the Scythians, who were considered the most barbarous people, are gone. In the sight of God, there are no civilised people. We are all barbarians—more or less barbarians. There is no bondman or freeman.
When you come into the church, you cannot bring the human side into the church. Whether it is culture, whether it is language, whether it is status, whether it is human nature—everything, when you come into the church, has been eliminated by the cross of our Lord Jesus.
What do you see in the church? You do not see a Chinese. You do not see an American. You do not see a Mexican. All you see is Christ. It is gold. It is pure gold. Nothing but Christ. That is the church in the sight of God.
As you read Exodus 37, you find that the whole lampstand is made of one talent of gold. This talent of gold is beaten into the form of a lampstand. So far as the nature of the church is concerned, it is pure gold. It is Christ Himself. It is one piece.
Yet, for it to become the form of the golden lampstand, it is not moulded. You do not melt the gold and pour it into a mould, so that out comes the golden lampstand. That is the way the golden calf was made, but that is not the way the golden lampstand is made.
The golden lampstand is to be beaten into the form of a lampstand. Just think of it: a talent of gold, beaten and beaten and beaten until it finally takes the shape of a lampstand. How much beating that gold must suffer!
We would think that if it is wood or stone, then you need to cut and grind and smooth. But if it is gold, if it represents Christ, of course He does not need any more beating. He is perfect, pure gold.
But strangely, you find that for Christ to really form the lampstand, it takes much beating. Even with the life of Christ in us, we need to go through together much beating in order to take the form of a lampstand.
It is the patient work of the Holy Spirit. It is the care of our Lord Jesus until, finally, His life in us is beaten together into a church, a golden lampstand.
That golden lampstand is a beautiful lampstand. You find that it has a base, a shaft, cups, knobs, and flowers. Even though it is the work of beating, yet it is so exquisite and so beautiful.
Our God is a God of beauty, and yet our God is a very practical God. The lampstand is not for ornament. Today you may put a lampstand as a kind of decoration, but our God is too economical; He never wastes anything.
It is beautiful, but it is functional. The lampstand is not for decoration; it is for a purpose. That is to uplift the light, to reflect the light, to magnify the light.
You have a base and a shaft. You remember in 1 Timothy 3:15, it says that the church is the church of the living God; it is the pillar and ground of the truth. That is what the church is. It is the base and the pillar of truth. It testifies to the truth.
On each branch, you find the cup, the knob, and the flower. In Scripture, everything has a spiritual significance. The cup represents our portion.
You remember Psalm 16:5:
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup:
Thou maintainest my lot.
The cup represents our inheritance. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, and we are complete in Him. Oh, how we praise the Lord that the church is like a cup, and it is filled with Christ Himself. David said, “My cup runneth over.”
Then you have the knob about the cup. The knob is the concentration of life. The life is concentrated into a knob. It tells of all the fullness of the life of Christ. Out of that knob come flowers. It is the beauty of the Lord; it is the fruit of the Spirit, as you find in Galatians 5.
The church itself is very beautiful. It is the fullness of Him Who filleth all in all, and it displays the beauty of the Lord. That is what the church really is. This is the church in the eyes of God. This is the church that God desires.
No matter what kind of church you see on earth, even when you read Revelation 2 and 3, you find that they are not very beautiful, and the Lord calls five of them to repent. Yet, before God, they stand as golden lampstands.
This is the kind of vision that we must see. Without such vision, we will be disappointed. We will feel hopeless. But thank God, before Him the church is a golden lampstand.
John saw that in the midst of the seven golden lampstands there was One like a son of man. Brothers and sisters, we need to see this. The seven golden lampstands serve as a background; in the foreground, you see the Son of Man.
The church is always in the background. Do not make the church the centre of everything. It is for the purpose of magnifying Christ Jesus. In the midst of the seven golden lampstands, and in the foreground, you see One like a son of man.
Why does it say, “like a son of man”? We know He is the Son of Man. The same expression is used in the Book of Daniel. In Daniel 7, Daniel saw in a night vision One like a son of man coming to the Ancient of Days.
He came to the Ancient of Days—that is, to God—and received from God dominion over all the earth. Of course, this is prophecy. In prophetic vision, what Daniel saw was like a son of man, because the Son of Man had not yet come into the world.
But when our Lord Jesus came into this world, do you know what He called Himself? The Son of Man. He is the Man that God had in His mind when He first created man, because man was created in His image, after His likeness.
Throughout history, man has not behaved as man. Man was never the man God intended in His creative purpose. Therefore, God sent His Son to the earth to be a man. He is the Man of God’s heart, so He called Himself the Son of Man.
When He was the Son of Man, He was humble, humiliated, rejected, and crucified. This is the Man that John knew very well, because John even leaned upon the breast of our Lord Jesus.
But now, in the vision, he saw One like a son of man. In the original, there is no article, the; it just says, “like a son of man.” It means that the emphasis is on the character: the character of the Son of Man.
Why? Because the Son of Man is now in glory. He is no longer the Son of Man in humiliation with Whom John was familiar. He seems to be very different because He is in glory, and yet He is the very same One.
Here you find that in heaven our Lord Jesus is the royal High Priest. He is King. He was before God, not sitting there.
In the Bible, you find it very interesting: as our Lord Jesus was risen and ascended, He sat at the right hand of God. Why does He sit? Because the work is done. So far as the work of redemption and atonement is concerned, it is finished.
And yet, in that vision, He was standing there. Not only standing there, but He was working. He was labouring there. He was ministering to the seven golden lampstands. He was looking at the lampstands, searching their condition, using the golden snuffers to snuff off whatever needed to be taken away, so that the light might shine bright.
This is the present work of our Lord Jesus. The work of our Lord Jesus when He was on earth was to finish the work of redemption, and it is eternal redemption. It is finished. He does not need to go to the cross a second time. Once and for all, it is finished.
So far as that is concerned, He sits. But He is not dozing. We find that there is another aspect of our Lord Jesus: today in heaven, He is our great High Priest.
We tend to think of Him as our High Priest only personally and individually. As a matter of fact, most believers do not even know what it means that Christ is a High Priest. We know Christ as our Redeemer; we do not know Him as our High Priest.
If you do not know Him as a High Priest, how can you live your Christian life? Because He ever liveth to make intercession for us, that He may save us to the uttermost. Our Christian life, our daily Christian life, depends upon His high priesthood.
But, brothers and sisters, you find that He is the royal High Priest more than to each individual. He is a royal High Priest ministering to the churches.
We know He is the High Priest by the description given. When John saw One like a son of man, His garment came down even to His feet. That is the robe of the High Priest.
A robe or garment in Scripture represents righteousness. Our righteousness is all as filthy rags. It cannot cover our nakedness. Like the aprons made by Adam and Eve, when the wind blows, it is all gone.
That is our righteousness. We are like the prodigal son. When we came back, we were in rags. But you remember the father clothed him with the best robe: Christ, our righteousness. Christ is the Righteous One.
In 1 John 2, you find that we have One Advocate, the Righteous One, before the Father. He is the Righteous One. He is full of righteousness.
Then you find that He is girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle. Usually, you put a girdle around your waist, because in Oriental countries they wear flowing robes. Whenever you are going to work, you have to gird them up.
Yet, strangely, you find that this girdle is over His breast, and the breast represents love. He loves us with a divine love.
Then you find His head and His hair white as white wool, as snow. If you read Daniel, you will find that white hair means wisdom. Unfortunately, I have some white hair, but I am very foolish! But in Scripture, white hair represents wisdom.
He is full of righteousness. He is full of love. He is full of wisdom. His eyes are as a flame of fire. In other words, He is full of light, full of discernment. His eyes look at you, and His eyes look through you.
His feet are like burnished brass, as burning in a furnace. Brass in Scripture represents judgment. What He sees, He will judge. When He sees something in the church, He will judge it.
His voice is as the voice of many waters. It speaks of power, majestic power. Then you find Him having in His right hand seven stars. The seven stars represent the seven angels of the churches.
I personally feel that these are not celestial angels; they are terrestrial angels, because the word angel means messenger. They are those who are spiritually responsible for these churches. The Lord holds them in His hand. In other words, He is full of support. He will support them that they may fulfil their responsibility.
Out of His mouth is a sharp two-edged sword going forth. He is full of authority, because when our Lord speaks, He speaks like One Who has authority. His countenance shines as the sun shines in its power. It means that He is full of beauty. His beauty diffuses out of Him.
Brothers and sisters, this is our Lord Jesus in glory, and this is our High Priest. How sympathetic He is, how able He is, how faithful He is, how He is able to restore us to God’s original purpose.
We are not able, but He is well able to present us as blameless and perfect, that God may be glorified. Here you find the Patmos vision: the seven churches in the background and the Son of Man in the foreground. The Lord in heaven today is ministering to His churches.
John was not able to minister to the seven churches anymore. But who was taking care of them? We find that our Lord, as the great High Priest, was looking after them.
When John saw that vision, he fell down as one dead. The one who had leaned upon the breast of the Lord Jesus, when he saw the Lord in glory, fell down as one dead.
Why? Because he realised how weak, how sinful, and how corrupt he was. He realised how weak and corrupt were all the churches to which he had ministered, in spite of the fact that he had done his very best.
When you see the glory of the Lord, and when you see the glory of the church, you have to fall down as one dead. But the Lord touched him and said, “Fear not. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One. Once I died, but I live for ever. I hold in My hands the keys of death.”
In other words, the Lord said, “You cannot, but I can.”
When we read the Book of Acts, especially the first few chapters, when the church began on this earth, you really see a glorious church. Those who believed in the Lord Jesus were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles. They broke bread and prayed.
When they prayed, the house shook, and they were filled with boldness to testify for the Lord. Nobody said, “This is mine.” They were completely delivered from the instinct of self-possessiveness. They loved one another. They shared with one another. They were all really one. What a glorious sight it was!
But through the centuries, we find that gradually the church began to deteriorate. Today, what do we see? We see that God’s people are divided and scattered in pieces. God’s people are so spiritually poor. We are wretched, naked, and blind, just like what is described in the church in Laodicea.
As a matter of fact, you do not need to have the eyesight of our Lord Jesus to see these things. Even with our blinded eyes, we can see these things. How we are disappointed—not only disappointed at our brothers and sisters, disappointed at what we see in the church; we are disappointed in ourselves.
Probably, brothers and sisters, we ask a question: Is there any hope? Is there any hope for me, if I am ever to be conformed to the image of God’s Son? Is there any hope that the church will be a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing? Will the bride of our Lord Jesus ever be ready?
The more you look at the church today, the more you think it is impossible. I wonder if we have such a feeling.
That is the reason why, once when our dear brother Watchman Nee was with Brother Sparks, he asked one question: “What is the most difficult portion of Scripture to you?” That is to say, what is more difficult to be fulfilled?
Our brother’s answer was Ephesians 4:
Until we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
Do you ever wonder when God will have His glorious church? Do you ever wonder when the bride of Christ will be ready? Why is it that our Lord Jesus has not come yet?
In the first century, the believers waited for the Lord’s return. They were not wrong; they were right to have such an attitude. But we are now at the end of the twentieth century, and the Bridegroom is still being delayed.
Is there any bridegroom who is not anxious for his bride? Usually, you find the bride is already ready, but the bridegroom is delayed. But here the Bridegroom is ready, and the bride is not ready yet.
Sometimes we think that we are waiting for His return, but as a matter of fact, He is waiting for us. Our Lord is ever ready, but the problem is that we are not ready.
When you think of these things, it really makes you faint. You think it is a hopeless case. You give up.
But here in the Book of Revelation, the Lord knows exactly what the condition of the churches is. The Lord knows how they have failed in their responsibility. He knows that the testimony of Jesus has suffered much in the hands of these churches. He knows the church more than we know.
Yet He never gives up. Our great High Priest never gives up. He is still working and working and working. Then you find that He calls for overcomers: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”
The Spirit of God is speaking to the churches. Do we have an ear to hear what He says? If we hear Him, and we repent and respond, then that overcomes.
So far as the general condition of the church is concerned, probably you will find it getting worse and worse and worse. Even in the Bible, in 2 Thessalonians, we are told that there will be a general falling away. The church, as we see today, will enter into apostasy.
But does that mean that God has failed? Does that mean that God will never have His glorious church, that He will never have His bride? No. Out of all the chaos, all the ruin, He is calling the overcomers.
The overcomers are those in the church. They are not super-Christians, but they are normal Christians. Christians today are subnormal and abnormal. But those who respond to Christ, when Christ reveals Himself to us, respond to His revelation.
When He says, “I am the First,” we respond and say, “You are the First.” It is true: in the past, He was not first; we were first. He may not even have been second. But we repent, and we say, “Lord, You are the First.”
When He reveals Himself as the Last, we say, “Lord, You are the Last. You have the last word, and You have all the glory.” If He says, “I am the Living One,” we say, “Lord, You are my life. I live, yet no longer I; it is Christ Who lives in me.”
Yes, You died; I died with You. I am crucified with Christ. But You say, “I live for evermore.” It is You Who lives in me for ever. I live by faith—not my faith, but the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Yes, it is true: I was often defeated. I was often overwhelmed. But You have the keys of death and Hades. You are able. You are able to make me an overcomer.
Brothers and sisters, it is by His grace, not by ourselves. We are no better than anybody else. We are as weak as any others—maybe even weaker. But when we are weak, we are strong, because He said, “My grace is sufficient.”
We depend upon our great High Priest. Let Him support us. Let Him come to our help. We depend on Him, and we repent and respond.
Through the overcomers, He will have His bride ready. The overcomers in the church are the firstfruits.
When you plant a field, always in some small part of that field the wheat is ripe earlier. They seem to receive more light, because they are ripe first. When you have the firstfruits, usually the firstfruits are cut first.
According to Old Testament times, the firstfruits were presented to God in the tabernacle. Whenever you have the firstfruits, the firstfruits guarantee the harvest. If you have the firstfruits, it means that one day there will be a harvest.
So the overcomers represent the church. What God has done in the overcomers guarantees that one day the same thing will be done to the whole church.
We know that the ministry of John is the ministry of recovery. Here you find that the church will be recovered to be the golden lampstand, when the light of Christ shines bright and wide.
Thank God, He will get what He purposed even before the foundation of the world.
But today, we need to be faithful. We need to be faithful to the vision that God has given us. We should not be content with our present condition. We shall press on to be what He wants us to be.
We are unable, but with God all things are possible. It is grace, all of grace. Just as Paul said, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” Let us boast in our Lord Jesus, that He is the Victor.
Dear Lord, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou dost never give us up. Thou dost never give Thy church up. How we praise and thank Thee that no matter how we are, Thou art able to bring us to where we are to be.
Thou wilt have a glorious church. Thou wilt have Thy bride. And the glory of the Lord shall fill this earth. We worship Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus.