Revelation Chapter 1.
Revelation 1:1-3
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show unto His servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John;
who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Revelation 1:4-6
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 that are before His throne;
and from Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood;
and He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 1:7-8
Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they that pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him. Even so, Amen.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty.
Revelation 1:9-11
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.
Revelation 1:12-16
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.
Revelation 1:17-20
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.
Revelation Chapter 21, verse 9.
Revelation 21:9-14
And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were laden with the seven last plagues; and he spake with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb.
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
having the glory of God. Her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
having a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
on the east were three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Revelation 21:15-18
And he that spake with me had for a measure a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
And the city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs: the length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal.
And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.
And the building of the wall thereof was jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto pure glass.
Revelation Chapter 21, verse 22.
Revelation 21:22-27
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof.
And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb.
And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof: and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it.
And the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night there):
and they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it:
and there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie: but only they that are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Revelation Chapter 22, verse 3.
Revelation 22:3-5
And there shall be no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and His servants shall serve Him;
and they shall see His face; and His name shall be on their foreheads.
And there shall be night no more: and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Revelation Chapter 22, verse 16.
Revelation 22:16-21
I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright, the morning star.
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come: he that will, let him take the water of life freely.
I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book:
and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.
He Who testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with the saints. Amen.
Now, this evening we come to the third and our last study on this subject: the testimony of Jesus. You will find here on the table the notes of the previous studies, entitled Why Are You at Halford House? Tonight we shall be concluding these three studies on the testimony of Jesus, and next week I hope that you will be able to have the notes of the three studies so that you can look at them yourselves.
We cannot really go over much of what we have already said, except that I will take up one thing and refresh your memory from last week. That is the phrase in Revelation 19:10, in the last part of the verse: “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
In that one sentence, you have got, as far as I can see, the most comprehensive statement in the whole Bible concerning this little phrase, “the testimony of Jesus.” It only occurs, as you know, a few times, mostly in the Book of Revelation and a few times elsewhere. It has been obscured in some of our more modern colloquial versions, but it is nevertheless a very, very important and significant phrase.
What is the testimony of Jesus? It is not merely, or in a general way, our witnessing to Him. The testimony of Jesus is the testimony that He Himself bore.
And it is not only a question of what He said, or what He taught, or the light He gave. It is much deeper than that. It is a question of what He was and is. That is the testimony of Jesus.
He is the light of the world. It is not only that He gives light, but He is the light. In that lies, really, the testimony of Jesus.
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. That is, the testimony of Jesus is prophetic in its content, or in its nature. Now, what do we mean by that?
Prophecy is not just predicting the future. It can be the interpretation of history. It can be the explanation of the present. It can be giving significance to the future. It can be actually predicting, or foretelling, what the future holds. That is prophecy.
It is a revelation—the revelation of the mind of God in a given situation to given people.
Now, the testimony of Jesus is prophetic in its content. That is, He is the very revelation and expression of the mind of God. He is the interpretation of all history. He is the explanation of the present. He is the One Who gives significance to the future, whether future time or future eternity.
He is the One through Whom, by Whom, the future makes sense. That is the testimony of Jesus.
And that testimony which He bore, which He gave, has been vested and committed to us. That is why we get the little phrase in the Book of Revelation: “holding the testimony of Jesus.”
We hold the testimony of Jesus. A very strange phrase. We hold it; we do not just give it. We hold it. It is something committed to us, something vested in us.
Now, last week we ended on the matter of the golden lampstand. You will remember that I said that, of all the symbols used in the Old Testament, of all the furniture or vessels in the tabernacle or temple, the one that supremely symbolised the testimony of Jesus was the lampstand, all of gold—not “candlestick,” as in the Authorised Version, but correctly, “lampstand.”
It was a stand. In the ancient world, especially in the ancient Jewish and Middle Eastern world, there was a stand, and lamps fitted into the stand—sometimes only one lamp. You have it in Matthew 5:15, I think it is, where the Lord Jesus says:
Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house.
You see? In other words, it is a stand specially fitted, with a moulded top into which a special little lamp, holding oil with a wick, fitted. Sometimes it held two; sometimes three; sometimes there was one.
Now, the one in the tabernacle or temple had seven branches and held seven lamps that fitted into it. It is this golden lampstand that is taken as the supreme symbol of the testimony of Jesus in the Bible. You find it all the way through.
You remember last week: we went through it. In Exodus 25, you get the first mention of it, and in Exodus 27. Then you take a great leap—apart from the fact that it was in the temple, of course—until you come to Zechariah Chapter 4.
There, at this great point of crisis in the history of God’s people, just when the house of God had to be rebuilt, just when the temple had to be restored for the coming of the Messiah, a vision is given to the prophet Zechariah. The vision is all to do with a golden lampstand and two olive trees on either side.
Only then do we discover that this golden lampstand stands for the house of God, and is actually a symbol of reconstruction, recovery, restoration, and rebuilding.
We take another great leap, and we come to Revelation Chapters 1, 2, and 3. Now, a tremendous amount has happened. The Lord Jesus has come into the world. The Messiah has been born. He suddenly came to His temple. The temple came into collision with the Messiah.
And when they excommunicated a blind man, the Messiah excommunicated the temple and said:
I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture.
They crucified Him, the Lord of glory. The Father raised Him on the third day, and then He ascended into heaven, to the right hand of God the Father. Then He obtained the promised Holy Spirit and poured Him forth. And so we come to the day of Pentecost, when a spiritual house of God came into being.
When living stones were produced by the action of the Holy Spirit, it was the golden lampstand, although it is not mentioned. We jump over to Revelation Chapters 1, 2, and 3, and we find the Lord in the midst of these golden lampstands. He is speaking, and He is speaking to seven churches. These seven golden lampstands are seven churches.
You take another leap and come down to Revelation Chapter 11, and we have that mysterious chapter. First we see the outer court of the temple, then we see the temple, then we see them in the temple. Then we hear about two witnesses, and then we hear the strange words: “These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks that stand before the Lord of the earth.”
Whatever that signifies—whether it is two prophets at the end of the dispensation, whether it is a company of the Lord’s children who will be prophetic in their being, in their corporate existence—I do not mean a particular local company, but I mean worldwide—whatever it is, we do not know.
But what we do know is that this company, or these two prophets, draw out the antagonism of this world and the fury of Satan, so that finally they are destroyed like their Master, and raised up like their Master after three days. Most remarkable. And they ascend into heaven like their Master.
Well, I leave that with you. We shall have to wait until we come to the Book of Revelation there. But this brings us back to the golden lampstands.
Then we take another leap to the end of the Bible, to Revelation Chapters 21 and 22, and we find the golden lampstand there. I am not going to say any more about that now, because we are going to look at it tonight.
Now, that is what we have come to. What is this golden lampstand, then? Well, I think we all realise that it is filled with significance.
It was pure gold. That is the pure gold of the nature, character, and life of Christ. The material out of which this golden lampstand was made was pure gold: His nature, His character, His life.
The second thing we notice is that it was beaten work. That is, the lampstand is produced out of inwrought travail and suffering. It is in the fellowship of His sufferings, in the filling up of the afflictions which have been left for us, for His Body.
Beaten work—beaten and turned. Not each branch made separately and then brazed on or soldered on, but out of one piece of gold it is beaten and hammered, and then turned, and turned, and turned, until seven branches appear out of one piece.
That speaks of the travail of our Lord, and of the inestimable privilege granted to us as children of God to enter into something of the fellowship of His sufferings.
Paul said, “My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you”—and literally it is “among you,” in you all; not just one, but in you all corporately.
Then, of course, we know that it was of one piece. We have already just said that. It is absolute unity. The whole lampstand is one piece.
We know that speaks of the absolute unity of the Lord Jesus, the oneness of Christ into which we have been born by His Spirit.
And then the oil. Very careful instructions are given to us in Exodus 27:20 concerning the oil: how the olives are to be beaten, how they are to be crushed, how they are to be sieved, as it were, so that it is the finest of the oil.
What does that say? Well, we all know that oil speaks of the Holy Spirit. It is the life, the pure oil of the Spirit of life—the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God. We know that.
So this lampstand is to contain the pure life of the Spirit of God: the risen life of Christ.
And then again, we are told in Exodus 27:20-21 that it is to burn continually throughout all your generations. Never is it to be allowed to go out: an everlasting light, through day and through night.
What does that speak of? It speaks of the light of His life. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” “He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” The Holy Spirit within us gives rise to light—His life giving rise to light.
Not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which makes us independent of God, but the kind of knowledge that comes with the tree of life, which makes us dependent upon Him.
Well, there is all that: the golden lampstand. Surely, therefore, it is of very great and real significance that the book which deals so much with the testimony of Jesus—the Book of Revelation—and the church’s holding of that testimony, should commence with the Lord in the midst of seven golden lampstands.
It is an extraordinary vision, because we are all used to it, unfortunately, so the impact of it does not come home. What an extraordinary vision for an apostle to have: to see his risen Lord, glorified, triumphant, alive for evermore, with the keys of death and Hades in His hands.
And what is He doing? He is standing in the midst of seven golden lampstands. They are in a perfect circle right around Him—seven of them.
Mark you, at first the apostle does not realise that it is churches that are symbolised. He just sees the Lord in the midst of these seven golden lampstands. That is all.
What is it really that we find represented here? It is this: the Lord is in the midst of those seven golden lampstands, representing seven local churches, or representing the church in its practical expression on earth.
And He is judging everything—everything—in those churches, in relation to their holding of this testimony. Everything is judged in the light of the testimony.
You can see it quite clearly. Again and again, the word comes as the Lord points to this that is wrong, and that that is wrong, and the other that is wrong. The word comes: “I will remove thy lampstand out of its place.”
Oh, what does He mean? He was judging everything in relation to the testimony. In other words, these little things amongst you—this Jezebel here, this problem here, this Nicolaitanism here, this erroneous teaching there—it all has bearing upon the testimony of Jesus.
“I will remove the golden lampstand out of its place.” In other words, the church seemingly will go on. They will still have their prayer meetings. They will still have their Bible studies. They will still have their evangelistic meetings. It will all seem to rumble on outwardly, but the testimony is gone.
The testimony of Jesus has been removed. In God’s sight, it is no longer the church. Now, that is terrible, but that is precisely what we see in the first three chapters of Revelation.
What is the word that comes as the Lord puts His finger on this, and that, and the other? Again and again, to every single church, whether commended or not, comes the word: “To him that overcometh.”
He is judging everything in relation to the holding of His testimony. To him that overcometh—have any of you ever been a little bewildered at what is promised to those that overcome?
“He shall eat of the tree of life.” But you say, “Surely, if we are Christians, we have eaten of the tree of life.” “He shall not be hurt of the second death.” Well, we say, “We are not going to be hurt of the second death, are we?”
Oh, but just wait. You have overlooked something. It is the testimony of Jesus. You see, the testimony of Jesus is the life of God given to us. “To him that overcometh, he shall not be hurt of the second death.” No death.
You go on and you go on, and you find He speaks about writing His new name upon him, the name of the city of His God, and the name of His God. You find this is quite, quite clear: “To him that overcometh shall I grant to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne.”
It is the testimony. Now, this means that this overcoming is all in relation to the testimony.
If you look through those first three chapters, I will just put my finger on certain verses. Revelation 2:5:
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy lampstand out of its place, except thou repent.
I think most of us have got the idea that if the lampstand were to be moved, we should immediately feel it. I say that we must be very sensitive to the Spirit of God to know where the lampstand has gone.
It is perfectly possible, and dear children of God, the whole of church history bears me out, it is perfectly possible for the lampstand to be withdrawn and for the saints not even to realise it. So dull do they become; so insensitive do they become.
If you look at Revelation 2:16, we have the same thought. We are not told about the lampstand, but it is the same thing:
Repent therefore, or else I come to thee quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.
Revelation 3:3:
Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear, and keep it, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
Surely that is in connection with the removing of the lampstand. Verse 16:
So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of My mouth.
It is the same thought all the way through.
Now, if you go back again to Revelation 2:7, we read:
To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.
Verse 11:
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Verse 17:
To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.
Verse 26:
And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations:
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of My Father:
and I will give him the morning star.
And then again, Revelation 3:5:
He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.
Verse 12:
He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and Mine own new name.
And lastly, verse 21:
He that overcometh, I will give him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne.
So you see, this Book of Revelation, which deals so much with the testimony of Jesus, begins with the Lord in the midst of seven golden lampstands, which represent the church on earth and in time; and He is judging everything in them in relation to their holding of His testimony.
Even this word, “overcoming,” is all to do with the testimony of Jesus.
The same book ends with the holy city of God, the New Jerusalem, the bride, the wife of the Lamb. What does it signify? What does it signify?
Now, when you read those last two chapters of the Bible, what do you get? You have got a most extraordinary picture. I mean, it is extraordinary. You will not find this in the notes, because it is far too long and intricate to put in the notes. You would be forever typing.
The fact is, you have got some most extraordinary things. One thing is, it is a city—but you have never heard of a city that is a woman. This city is a bride. This bride is the wife of the Lamb.
Then we go back, and we find that this city is quite extraordinary. It is as high as it is broad, as it is long. It is an absolute cube.
Now, the holiest place of all was an absolute cube. In other words, the whole thought is this: there is no temple; it is the temple.
Now, you know that in the Bible that we have in English, there is just the word “temple.” But in Greek and in Hebrew there is a different word: one word signifying the whole temple, and the other signifying the sanctuary—that is, the holiest place of all. And that was the cube, all square.
Now, what does it mean? This bride, this wife of the Lamb, this city, this New Jerusalem, is the sanctuary of God. It is the holiest place of all. It is the Holy of Holies.
But something more extraordinary: you have never heard of a city which is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles long, and just the same many miles wide, and just the same many miles high, with only one street.
It would be a most circuitous street, yet it says there is only one street in that whole city. Then again, we are told that it is precious stone, yet we are told in the same breath that it is gold, transparent as glass. In other words, you can see through this enormous city from end to end. It is crystal clear.
Now, what is it all about? What does this all signify? I tell you what it signifies: you will not find any church in it. You will not find any chapel in it. You will not find any synagogue in it. You will not find any temple in it.
What is it? It signifies the final, absolute, and gloriously eternal union between the Lord and His children. They have been fused together into an absolute unity, never to be divided.
The bride and the Lamb are one. The city is like glass. God is in it, and His light streams up through it.
Now, I have often said this: when you take an electric light bulb, and it is a clear, transparent electric light bulb, when you have not got the light on, you can see the bulb. But the moment you put the light on, the bulb is lost in a blaze of light.
That is this city. As soon as the glory of God lights it, you do not see the city. All you can see is the glory of God. All you can see is the Lord Himself. You see?
It signifies this absolute union which God, from the very beginning of time, has longed for.
Now, of course, it is not our study this evening to speculate as to what is going to happen in the future. All we know is that the Bible begins with this great desire of God to be one with us, and for us to be one with Himself—this great desire of God to incorporate us into Himself.
And that is the exact word: make us a body; to incorporate us into Himself. And it ends with the accomplished fact.
In other words, this city, this New Jerusalem, this bride, this wife of the Lamb, signifies that the eternal purpose of God and the object of our redemption in time have both been fulfilled.
But remember, God had a purpose before man fell. God’s redeeming purpose was because man fell. Therefore, in this city, we see both His purposes come together: His original purpose, His eternal purpose for us, and the object of our redemption—His saving us—together.
Now, what is it? Well, you see, to put it in another way—it may not appear to be so clear, but it is there—what have you got? This city of God, this New Jerusalem, this bride, this wife of the Lamb, this sanctuary of God—what is it?
It is one golden lampstand. That is all. And the lamp thereof is the Lamb, and the light thereof is the glory of God.
Now, you have got that if you take those two chapters. I will point it out to you. First of all, Revelation 21:10: “He showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.”
Verse 11: “Having the glory of God: her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” Now, in some of the very modern versions, I see it says, “Her brilliance,” or, “Her radiance.” Perfectly right.
The word means light-giving, light-bearer. Then if you look at verse 18, you will see, “The city was pure gold, like unto pure glass.” Verse 21, the last part: “Pure gold, as it were transparent glass.”
Now, verse 23: “And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it.” That is its light—its fire, if you like.
Now secondly: “And the lamp thereof.” There are a number of words used in Scripture for lamp. Really, one of them should always be translated “torch”—not the kind of torch you use, but the old-fashioned torch which you dipped into oil and lit, you know, the great roaring thing.
The other is the word used of a lamp: the lamp which contained oil and was specially made to go in a stand. And here you have got it: “The lamp thereof is the Lamb.”
And in the next verse, verse 24, you have got the stand: “And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof.” So you have got the stand with the lamp: the Lord Jesus, and the glory of God in the lamp, shining out and giving light to everything.
And the idea is that this whole city is like this great golden lampstand, giving light, revealing divine things, spreading the character of God, showing the heart of God, revealing the mind of God, proclaiming the word of God—giving light.
You have got it again in Revelation 22:5:
There shall be night no more; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
The Lord God shall give them light.
Well now, all that is rather wonderful. What does it mean? It means that the Book of Revelation opens and closes with the lampstand, all of gold: the testimony of Jesus.
Now, if you turn back to Revelation 1:2, we read, “And of the testimony of Jesus Christ.” We have read that a number of times in these last three weeks. Verse 9: “For the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus.”
Now turn to the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, and look at verse 16:
I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things for the churches.
It is the testimony of Jesus: to testify unto you these things for the churches—not merely to the churches. The word is literally, “over the churches,” concerning the churches, for the churches.
“I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright, the morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.”
Now, verse 18: “I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book.” Who is this testifying? It is not John the apostle; it is the Lord. It is the testimony of Jesus. How solemn. How solemn.
Everyone that hears the words of the prophecy in this book—if any man add, if any man take away. Listen again, verse 20: “He Who testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come quickly.”
So the Book of Revelation opens with the seven golden lampstands and the Lord in the midst, and it ends with the one golden lampstand: the Lord Jesus Himself, the lamp; the glory of God, the light.
It begins with the testimony of Jesus, and it ends with the testimony of Jesus.
I say that that, to me at any rate, is full of very real significance. And I will tell you why.
I find it extraordinary that we have here in verse 17 this phrase: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.” If you really sit down and think about it, it is quite extraordinary, is it not?
I mean, if we had there, “And the Lord says, Come”—but it seems extraordinary: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come.”
Now, what is this? What is it? See what He says: “I, Jesus, have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things over the churches, concerning the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David”—the explanation of the Old Testament—“the bright, the morning star.”
That is the beginning of God’s day, the day of God, as opposed to the night of man.
Now He says, what next? Before He says anything more about the testimony, here we have got it: suddenly the Spirit breaks in, and the bride. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come.”
To whom are they saying it? To the churches. To the churches.
The Spirit and the bride are saying, “Come.” Now, all this that is written in this book, take note of it. Take note of it. The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let him that heareth say, “Come.” He that is athirst, let him come. He that will, let him take the water of life freely.
Whatever holds us back, this is the testimony of Jesus. It is the Spirit and the bride that say, “Come.”
In other words, this whole matter of this golden lampstand, this whole matter of the testimony of Jesus, is all to do with the bride. And the Holy Spirit’s energies are bent on the producing, the preparation, and the equipping of that Body.
That is why we find it is the Holy Spirit who introduces the bride. If I may put it reverently, but perhaps very untheologically, it is the Holy Spirit Who is going to give the bride away.
The Holy Spirit is going to give the bride away. It is the kind of picture you have got. It is the wedding, and the Spirit says, “Do not be out of this. Do not be denied this. Do not forfeit this.”
“The Spirit and the bride say, Come. He that is athirst, let him come. He that will”—that is it, is it not?—“he that will, let him take the water of life freely.”
Oh, how we love to blame others when we are not being met. The Scripture just goes direct to the will: “He that will, let him come.”
But we cannot just stop there. We have got to say something more in concluding this matter to do with the testimony of Jesus this evening.
It is, in fact, even more revealing to note that the term “churches” is used alone throughout the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation. You will find no other term except “churches,” or “the church at.” “Write this to the church at Ephesus; write this to the church at Smyrna,” and so on.
Now, we have already said that that term “churches” signifies the church in its practical expression on earth and in time. That is what is in view: the church locally expressed.
Now, it is not without vital significance that that term “churches” never again appears in the whole Book of Revelation until it reappears in Revelation 22:16: “I, Jesus, have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things for the churches, concerning the churches.”
In other words, I think we are to understand that there is an essential link between the churches and the city of God.
There is an essential link between the churches and the city of God. Otherwise, why does the Lord come back to it? First there is so much in the first three chapters, then absolute silence, as far as this term is concerned, until we have reached the conclusion of everything; and then, in the last epilogue, we are back again to the matter of the church.
Now, what is it? The thing that the Holy Spirit tries to underline through this is the link between the church in its practical expression on earth and in time, and the eternal church, or the city of God, the bride.
If you turn, for instance, to Revelation 22:17—we have already read that—then turn back to Revelation 2. In the first chapters: “To him that overcometh”; verse 11, “He that overcometh”; verse 17, “To him that overcometh”; and so on, to all seven churches.
Now if you turn to Revelation 21:7, we read:
He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.
In other words, we find that overcoming in the context of the churches is linked to being part of the bride.
Now, of course, we all accept that possibly, I do not know. But in practice it is the hardest thing of all.
In other words, it means this: there is no fire escape. There is no way to get out when things get too hot for you. You have got to stay, and you have got to go through, providing the lampstand is there.
Now, it is extraordinary that the lampstand is there in spite of all kinds of seediness, dirt, and much else. The Lord, in His mercy and grace, keeps it there and will not remove it without severe warning.
He will not permit anyone to escape. His whole message is, “Overcome in this.” “Overcome in this.” You are not going to get away from it. If you do, you will lose your part in the Body.
And do you not agree with me that that is just the line the devil takes with us? How he inflates things, how he blows up things, how he magnifies things, with one great objective: to get us out.
We think it is all flesh and blood. We think it is all a question of people being difficult. We think it is all a question of things being wrong. Behind it all is the enemy trying to cancel our place in the city.
He that overcomes.
Now, once you see this, you realise how amazing this Book of Revelation is. It is not taking away from the majesty of the visions, or the dramatic content of the visions in the Book of Revelation, to bring it all down to a matter of the church locally. Not at all.
Indeed, I can go much further than that and say that the whole of this book, with its tremendous visions of dragons and harlots and beasts and false prophets and I do not know what, is all to do with the churches.
In other words, put it like this: against the background of colossal conflict and upheaval—you get it in the Book of Revelation all the time—seas heaving, beasts coming up out of the sea, another beast coming up out of the earth, frogs coming up, unclean demons, amazing upheavals, signs in the heavens, angels, earthquakes, a third of the earth being burnt up, a third of the living things in the sea dying, a third of the green things shrivelling up—upheaval, colossal conflict.
Against that kind of background, against a background of satanic cunning and antagonism, you see it all the way through. The hatred of Satan: that dragon waiting for that woman to give birth to the child, and trying to swallow it up.
And God outwits the devil by catching the man-child up to heaven. Then the dragon is furious and goes off to make war with the rest of the seed of the woman, and those that hold the testimony of Jesus.
It is extraordinary—satanic cunning. Why, you see this scarlet beast, and on it a beautiful lady. Oh, she is absolutely beautiful: painted, beautiful, seductive, beautifully featured. She is gilded—that is, with pure gold—and then she is all precious stone and pearl.
Oh, you think—it is satanic cunning and antagonism. She is a prostitute. She is not the virgin bride of the Lamb, but the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth.
What is this? Satanic cunning and antagonism. Well, you could say much more in this Book of Revelation, if you know it, if you read it, even if you do not understand it. There is an awful lot there that speaks of satanic cunning and antagonism all the way through.
That is the background. And against that background, there is, as it were, a worldwide Antichrist system, in which everything that has gone before in the civilisation of man, out of which particularly Western civilisation has been produced—a conglomeration of the whole thing, going right back to Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and modern democracy.
And so there emerges this iron-like Antichrist system, with trade unions that control everyone, stamped identity cards with the mark of the beast, and no one can buy or sell unless they have got that identity card. They must starve to death.
An Antichrist system—that background—and then a counterfeit church. I have spoken of her.
There are two women in the Book of Revelation. One is the bride, the wife of the Lamb; the other is a prostitute. One is New Jerusalem; the other is Babylon. One is with the Lamb; the other is with a beast—a second beast that looks like a lamb and speaks like a dragon.
It is a worldwide counterfeit church. That is the background.
Against the background of the final, ultimate climax of the long battle of the ages, going right back to when Lucifer said, “I will be like the Most High,” and fell; going right back to the Garden of Eden, to the moment when man fell; going right back to the long story from when Cain murdered Abel; right the way through the long, sordid history of mankind—a tremendous battle.
Oh, how many times Satan has tried to destroy Christ. He has tried to destroy the Messianic line. He has tried to destroy the promised seed of the woman, but he has never, ever succeeded. It is the long battle of the ages.
Think of it in the days of our Lord Jesus, when Herod, in fury, slew every male child from two years old and under in Bethlehem and all the surrounding countryside. What a battle. What sorrow. What misery.
But it was all Satan. People just thought it was some cruel despot, but it was not. Behind it was Satan trying to get at the Christ. He hates Christ because Christ is the One Who will fill the throne of God, and Satan said, “I will exalt my throne to the throne of God.”
Oh, it is right the way down. It does not matter where it is. When the Christians were murdered, persecuted, whatever has happened—the dark ages of the church—when Satan tried to destroy the light and overcome it and stamp it out, until that tremendous outburst of divine light: the lampstand was back.
Wycliffe, Hus, Luther, Calvin, and so on, and so on. Oh, you can go on.
But here in this book, you have got the final. It is the climax. It is called Jacob’s trouble.
Now, Jacob has had a lot of trouble. It seems to have been the lot of Jacob to have trouble. But it is called Jacob’s trouble—something such as has never come upon man in the whole history of this world.
The Lord Jesus Himself said, “Pray that it may not come upon you.” I do not see the Lord say that much. Daniel says it will be a time such as has never been, nor ever will be.
It is the climax of the battle of the ages. Now, against that, the whole progress and ultimate triumph of the testimony of Jesus is set.
And it begins with the most mundane, ordinary, routine local churches. Is that not extraordinary? Only God can do that.
If I was writing a book, I would say, “Well, we have to cut out places like that. I mean, we must start in some great conference. We must have a great gathering of all the Christians together, marvellous singing, wonderful times. That is where we will start, and then we will trace the whole story of the testimony of Jesus right through it all, till finally its triumph in the end.”
But not the Lord. He brings it all down to little, mundane local situations: this church here, that church there, the other church there, and so on and so forth.
What is the Lord trying to do? I will tell you exactly what the Lord is trying to do. He is putting everything into its right context at the beginning of the Book of Revelation.
The whole story of the testimony of Jesus—its progress, its ultimate triumph—is connected with the church in its practical expression, in time and on earth. That means you and me. That is it.
Now, the testimony of Jesus is intimately bound up with the churches. If they lose their true character, their true constitution, and their true function, the testimony is gravely compromised, dishonoured, and even lost.
In other words, the lampstand is removed. And then what happens? The thing which was a mighty movement of God—it was prophetic in its content—things happened. Marvellous things happened. Significant things happened.
There was a sense, in these mundane, ordinary, unworthy, insignificant lives brought together and built together, there was something—a sense of the moving of the Spirit of God, some sense of eternal destiny, some sense of purpose.
It all goes, and the thing becomes meetings, and preaching, and theology, and colleges, and degrees, and positions, and so on.
Is that not church history? Go back to the Puritans. Go into the library and see some of those books: “So-and-so, minister of the gospel in the church at so-and-so.” Just take the titles. What a moving of the Spirit of God there was. Things happened.
Take the Waldensians. Why, they sometimes hardly breathed it, that they spoke in tongues and had interpretation. That upset the Roman Catholics, you know.
The Anabaptists—much maligned, called extremists, fanatics. Maybe there were some, but there was much also that was of God. It was a moving of God.
The early Methodists—you have only got to read Wesley’s journal and see some of the things that happened. The testimony was there. People were being changed; they were being transformed. There was the most extraordinary foreordination of events.
What is it? It is the testimony of Jesus. But what happened? Look at church history. You could almost tell when—well, at least we know some twenty years after—when the lampstand has gone. That thing is just dead. It has died.
It is now a monument to what has happened. It is a kind of gravestone: “Rest in peace. Here lies the body of Quakerism, born so-and-so, dying so-and-so. Rest in peace.”
Or, “Here lies the body of” what? Something else. “Born so-and-so, died so-and-so. Rest in peace.”
What has happened? It is the lampstand that has gone. When the lampstand was there, it was vibrant with life.
This is just the situation, dear brother, dear sister, that we face today. I believe it is the supreme battle of the Spirit of God: the testimony of Jesus lost.
Now, I know people will say to me a lot about personal sanctification, and I will just say one word about that. But the situation we face today is just this: the testimony of Jesus gravely compromised, dishonoured, and lost for the majority.
Surely, the greater part of the golden lampstands have been removed. Where can you go and feel in your spirit, “The lampstand is here. The lampstand is here”?
There are places, thank God. But when you think of Christians everywhere that are Christians, where is the lampstand? What has happened?
I say this is the supreme battle. No wonder the Holy Spirit confronted that prophet Zechariah at a point when everything was in ruins, and the building had been partly started but not finished. It was all just ruins, the materials everywhere.
No wonder the Lord said to him, “See.” And what did he see? A golden lampstand. And what more did he see? Two olive trees pouring gold into it.
No wonder: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” God is seeking by His Spirit to recover that testimony.
We must never forget, however important the question of our personal spiritual character and growth is, this matter of the testimony of Jesus is more than that.
Now, I must just make myself clear on this point. I do not want to give the wrong impression. It is true—absolutely true—that the Lord is concerned vitally with our personal walk with Him.
The very way the Lord speaks to each of those churches reveals that. What does He say? “To him that overcometh,” not, “To those that overcome.” He does not speak collectively. He says, “To him. To her. To him.”
It is vital, this matter of personal walk—absolutely vital.
The Lord desires truth in the inward parts of our being, so that in each of our lives there is a consistency with the testimony that has been entrusted to us. That must be so.
Now, whatever it is—whether it is depth of spiritual character, whether it is progress in Christ personally in each one of us, whether it is fullness of devotion to Him, whether it is personal faithfulness—all of that is absolutely foundational.
It is absolutely foundational. Let no one hide in the corporate. Let no one hide in the collective in this matter. It is to him that overcomes.
But let us get this quite, quite clear: having said that, we must underline the fact that the recovery of the testimony of Jesus is very, very much a question of the recovery of the true character and organic constitution of the church.
Now, if you do not understand that, go away and ask the Lord about it. Really ask. It is essential.
People seem to think that the question of the testimony of Jesus is just a matter of our personal walk. It is not. That is essential, but it is not the point.
The point, really, in the recovery of the testimony of Jesus, is the true character of the church and its organic constitution. If that cannot be brought into being by the Spirit of God, the lampstand is not there in the first place. It is not there.
How tremendous that is. Now, all these points we have mentioned, they are all vital. In these previous studies, they are all vital to the testimony:
All these things are summed up in the testimony: absolute gold, all of God, produced out of His life—organic, not organised.
The fellowship: one beaten work, forged together, all part of Him. The one life supplies it. He is the One—His life, His character, His nature.
The local expression: where were the seven golden lampstands? Ephesus, Smyrna, Thyatira, Pergamum, and so on. That is where they were.
That is where Christ has got to be. The testimony of Jesus is brought down through mundane, ordinary terms. We talk about loving the saints; God says, “How do you get on with them where you are worshipping, where you are supposed to be gathering together?”
We talk about the unity of Christ. How are you getting on there? So it is all brought down to practical, down-to-earth terms.
And, of course, the manifested presence of Christ. That is the most essential thing of all. Without it, we are nothing.
The church is the place where the Lord is seen, where He is known, where He is expressed, where He is understood, where the world can touch Him and He can touch the world.
That is us. Or should we put it this way? That is what we should be. And by the grace of God, that is what He would like to do with us.
Dear Lord, we do pray together that Thou wouldst make real all this to us. Thou knowest our need, Lord. We are a needy people, but we praise Thee, Lord, that Thou art with us and that Thou art ready, Lord, to take us on with Thyself.
And we pray that Thou wouldst make each one of us true overcomers because of Thyself. Thou hast bidden us to come. Thou hast said, “Any that are athirst, let them come to Thee.”
O Lord, we pray that we might be those who really know what it is to come to Thee and drink of Thee. Hear us, Lord, as together we place all this into Thy hands, as we commit one another into Thy hands and into Thy keeping.
And pray, beloved Lord, that Thou wouldst make us those who really, in our hearts, understand what that testimony is, and those, Lord, who hold it.
We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.