If you will turn with me to the book of Revelation, I would like to read a number of verses from this book.
Revelation 1:2
John, who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw.
Revelation 1:9
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.
Revelation 12:17
And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, that keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus.
Revelation 19:10
And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Revelation 20:4
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Revelation 22:20
He who testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus.
Shall we just unite together in a word of prayer?
Father, as we come to this evening time, we are so conscious, Lord, that we need You. We just want, Lord, very simply, to recognize that need. We want to recognize it publicly. We want to recognize it before those principalities and powers that watch on: that apart from the Lord Jesus, we can do nothing.
And, O Lord, as we come to this matter this evening, how we need that ability to communicate the burden on Your heart. How much we need that revelation and illumination which is alone the work of Your Holy Spirit.
Therefore, Lord, as we come to You for this evening, we ask, Lord, tabernacle upon the whole of this time. O Lord, gather us up, as it were, into Yourself. We would together, by faith, stand into that anointing which You have specifically provided for this time, both for speaker and for hearer.
We want to know You, Lord. We want to meet with You, Lord, in Your Word. We want to receive from You, Lord. And to that end, Lord, we commit ourselves to You. We shall give You all the praise and all the glory, Lord, and we want to just thank You.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I doubt that there is anybody here who does not know that we have been considering the theme of the unfolding of God’s recovery work in the church. I am not going to go again this evening over what I have sought to say, by His grace, in these last few evenings.
What I want to say straight away is that what I have on my heart is not easy. It is, in my estimation, one of the most complex subjects, in one sense, in the Bible. Yet it goes to the very heart of this whole matter of the recovery work of God in the church.
It is this little phrase: the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
There can be no recovery in any shape or form without the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. You cannot even begin to think about recovery of anything unless it is directly related, in some way or another, to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Anything or anyone who devalues the word of God, or devalues the testimony of Jesus, must of necessity put himself, or themselves, outside of any recovery work of God’s Holy Spirit.
It is interesting that this seems to have been the feature of all recovery in the last four hundred years. Every single major and minor recovery can be explained in terms of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Now, it is a most interesting fact that this phrase only really appears in the last book of the Bible. Is this not interesting? Jesus introduced Himself by unique titles in this book: “I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega.” He introduced Himself, as in no other place, as “the Amen.”
And now we discover that this phrase is unique to the book of Revelation: the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. We find it everywhere, from the beginning to the end of the Revelation of John.
Right in the very first verses, we find that John bears witness “of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus.” Then he tells us that he was imprisoned by the powers of darkness. He did not look upon it as flesh and blood, but the powers of darkness had bound him and imprisoned him in a kind of forced-labour camp on Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
As we look through the book, we find, for instance, in Revelation 6, a whole number of martyrs there because of the testimony. Then we find the woman who gave birth to the man-child. The man-child is caught up to heaven, but the rest of her seed flee away.
The dragon is so angry, with violent and ferocious anger, at anything to do with her that he goes after her seed—those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.
Then we find, almost at the end of the book, when everything is coming to its glorious, triumphant conclusion, that John is so excited that he falls down at the feet of the angel, almost to worship him. The angel says, as it were pulling him up, “Do not do it. I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren. Worship God.”
“I am also one of those who, with you, hold the testimony of Jesus.” Now that is very interesting. Evidently the angel is specifically guarding the testimony of Jesus.
And he goes on to make a most remarkable statement, I believe utterly significant: “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
In the next chapter, we find it again. We see all those who had been martyred—beheaded, liquidated—raised up to reign with Christ a thousand years, however we understand that. We are told that these were those who were martyred for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Almost in the very last verse of the book, as in the beginning, Jesus says, “He who testifieth these things saith, I come quickly.” And with that, the Bible is concluded.
Now, I want just to look a little at this phrase, “the testimony of Jesus.” I am trusting the Lord—and I hope you are—that the Lord will help us to be simple and direct. Above all, however complex or simple I may be, the Holy Spirit can give you revelation. That is the only trust one has in this foolishness of creature this evening.
The word of God, I think, is clear. I do not think we need to explain it at great length. I shall say something about the word of God a little further on, but I imagine everybody in this place knows that the word of God is this Book, and that Jesus is the exemplification of this Book.
I believe in the authority and infallibility of God’s Word. I do not believe it is only God’s Word when it lives to you. That is the modern twentieth-century idea of inspiration: if Genesis lives to you, it is the Word of God; if it does not live to you, it is not the Word of God. I think that is rubbish.
God has either spoken or He has not spoken. It has nothing to do with what you feel. That puts man at the centre. God has spoken, and, in my estimation, there is a beginning to what God has said and an end to what God has said, and we have it within this Book.
The very way the Book opens and the way the Book ends, to me, reveals a theme right the way through it that could only have been authored by the Holy Spirit.
But the testimony of Jesus—I wonder how many of us really understand what that is. What is the meaning of this phrase?
The word actually means testimony, or witness, or evidence. We could translate it “the witness of Jesus.” We could translate it “the evidence of Jesus.” But the word testimony is by far the most comprehensive way in which we could convey the idea behind it: the testimony of Jesus, the evidence that Jesus sets before us.
What is this evidence? What is this testimony?
It is very important that we should get clear of one or two of the more modern colloquial versions that translate this as our witnessing to Jesus—those that witness to Jesus.
You remember how John put it: “John, who bare witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus.” He was not merely saying, “John, who bare witness to Jesus.” He was John who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus.
Furthermore, consider the verbs used with it again and again: those who hold the testimony of Jesus, those who have the testimony of Jesus, those who bear the testimony of Jesus. It is more than merely witnessing. Witnessing is very important, but this phrase in the book of Revelation has far greater significance than merely witnessing to others.
John, interestingly, uses the same Greek word translated “testimony” in Revelation in his Gospel. If we look at it, we begin, I think, to understand a little about the testimony of Jesus.
John 3:31-33
He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is of the earth, and of the earth he speaketh: He that cometh from heaven is above all.
What He hath seen and heard, of that He beareth witness.
He that hath received His witness hath set his seal to this, that God is true.
We could put it this way: “What He has seen and heard, of that He bears testimony.” It is the same word. He who has received His testimony—who holds it—has set his seal to this, that God is true.
Again, in John 8:12-18, Jesus says:
I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The Pharisees said unto Him, “Thou bearest witness of Thyself; Thy witness is not true.” It is the word testimony. Jesus answered that even if He bore witness of Himself, His testimony was true, for He knew whence He came and whither He went.
Then He says:
I am He that beareth witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me.
Here again is the word testimony.
In John 18:37, Pilate asks Jesus, “Art Thou a king then?” Jesus answers:
Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.
That is, “I should bear testimony unto the truth.”
Now, I do not know whether that helps any of you in understanding what the testimony of Jesus is, but turn right back to the beginning, to John 1:14:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us—and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father—full of grace and truth.
And verse 18:
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
Does that bring you any nearer to the testimony of Jesus? The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory—glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared Him. He has revealed Him. He has shown Him. He has manifested Him.
Let us have another look at it from another angle. The Gospel of John is a very, very interesting Gospel because it is not a Synoptic Gospel. That is, it is not merely a history. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are three histories written from different standpoints as to the person of Jesus.
But John’s Gospel is an interpretation. It is absolutely correct historically, but it is not merely a history. It is an interpretation of the Lord Jesus, and it is built around eight claims.
You all know them as the “I am” sayings. John 6:35: “I am the bread of life.”
I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.
Now, it was Campbell Morgan, years ago, who said in his amazing studies on the Gospel of John—one of the most helpful expositions I have found—that he could not get away from the fact that this Gospel was originally addressed to Jews, and that Jesus was using the unmentionable name of the Lord: “I AM THAT I AM.”
When God said to Moses, “Who shall I say sent me?” He said, “Tell them, I AM hath sent you.” And Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”
Then, in John 8:12, we read:
I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.
In every one of these claims, you have miracles and signs that lead up to them or come out of them. It is so interesting, the way John has written this Gospel.
Then look at John 8:58:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was born, I am.
They nearly stoned Him. Those who heard Him knew very well that He was taking the unmentionable name of God upon His lips and saying, “I am.” Before Abraham was, “I am.”
Then, in John 10:7, He says, “I am the door of the sheep.” In verse 11, “I am the good shepherd.” In John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
He that believeth on Me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die.
Then, in John 14:6:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
Here are seven “I am” statements. They cover the whole span of human life, and indeed the whole span of history, in one sense: “Before Abraham was, I am.”
Then we have the last one, and, in my estimation, perhaps the most remarkable of all. In John 15:1:
I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
This must have been the biggest shock of all. When He first said, “I am the bread of life,” that caused many of the disciples no longer to walk with Him. They felt the claim was too extreme and too mysterious. They could not take it.
But “I am the true vine” must have been the most remarkable of all in its impact upon them. Of course, it was said only to the disciples. It was said at the conclusion of the Last Supper, probably on the way from the house where they had eaten to the Garden of Gethsemane.
I have walked that route many times. At that time of year, there would have been vines all around, pruned vines, with bundles of dead twigs waiting to be burned. Somewhere along there, Jesus probably stopped and, with all these vines around Him, said, “I am the true vine; My Father is the husbandman.”
Every disciple knew that the vine was a symbol, not of personal life, but of corporate life. They knew that the vine was a symbol of the Jewish people. On coins minted in the time of Jesus, there were vine leaves on one side of the coin.
One of the great wonders of the world in the time of Herod the Great, according to Josephus, was the golden filigree vine on the porch of the temple. The children of Israel could look up from the place of sacrifice and see this vine with its leaves, tendrils, and bunches, all in solid gold.
Josephus says that when the sun rose in the morning, the whole thing blazed with light. It was one of the most amazing sights.
When Jesus said, “I am the true vine,” what He was saying was this: “I am the nation. I am the covenant people. You could say, I am the church. My Father is the husbandman.”
Then He explains it: “I am the vine; ye are the branches.” Most people here have the kind of vine that has a long trunk and then grows upward. But where I come from, vines grow in a heap on the ground. There is very little trunk and a lot of branches.
If Jesus were saying, as many Christians imagine, “I am the trunk and you are the branches,” He would be saying, “I am the least part of the whole, and you are the greater part of the whole. I occupy a strategic place between the roots and the branches.”
But Jesus never said that. He did not say, “I am the trunk,” or “the stem,” or “the stock.” He said, “I am the vine. I am the true vine, and you are in Me, branches. I am bigger than you. I am greater than you. You are in Me, and you become branches in Me.”
He said, “I am the true vine. I am the vine; ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me beareth much fruit.”
If we take these claims of Jesus, beginning with the bread of life—that is, life from above—and going all the way through, we have something comprehensive in its scope.
Now I go back to John 1:14:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.
And:
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
This word dwelt is wonderful, in my estimation, because it is the word tabernacled. “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” It is almost as if John were saying that Jesus is the tabernacle of God.
Do you remember how Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”? He was speaking of Himself as the tabernacle of God, speaking of Himself as the temple of God.
Let us look at the Old Testament. We make a most remarkable discovery, a most significant discovery.
I was looking in the Old Testament and came across the word testimony. The more I looked at it, the more interested I became. In Hebrew, this word is eduth. Then I wondered, how did the Septuagint translators—the translators of the Old Testament into Greek three hundred years before Christ—translate this word?
The early church, for the most part, used the Greek Bible—the Greek Old Testament. So I looked it up in the Septuagint, and I found it exciting: it was exactly the same word as “the testimony of Jesus.”
Look at Exodus 31:18:
And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Keep that in mind. Now turn back to Exodus 25:16:
And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.
This testimony is now to be in the ark of the covenant. Then, in Exodus 25:22:
And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony.
The testimony is placed in the ark of the covenant, and the ark is called the ark of the testimony.
Then, in Exodus 38:21:
This is the sum of the things for the tabernacle, even the tabernacle of the testimony.
So we have the two tables of stone, the tables of the testimony; we have the ark of the testimony; and we have the tabernacle of the testimony.
Think for a moment. What was the tabernacle? It was a pattern of things heavenly. What was the tabernacle? It was the house of God. What was the tabernacle? It was the place where God dwelt among His people.
What happened when they set up the tabernacle? The glory of God filled it so that no one could stand up and minister. It was the first time the glory of God actually touched the earth and remained there, as recorded in Scripture.
The same thing happened later when the temple was built by Solomon. The glory of the Lord came down and filled the whole temple, so that everyone had to bow down with their heads to the ground, and nobody could stand up to minister.
I do not know whether this helps you, but it certainly helps me, because I see Jesus as the ark of the testimony. This is the testimony of Jesus.
What is the testimony of Jesus? That within Him—written in His heart, in His very nature, in His very life, in His very being—is the Word of God. He is the Word of God made flesh. He is the law of God written in flesh and blood: Jesus, the testimony of Jesus.
What else was in the ark of the covenant? Can you remember? A golden pot of manna.
“I am the bread of life.” Jesus is the bread of life. There is no other bread of life. Moses was not the bread of life. David was not the bread of life. John the Baptist was not the bread of life, nor was Paul, or John, or Peter. Jesus—only Jesus—is the bread of life.
What else was in the ark of the testimony? Aaron’s rod that budded. Do you remember when they rebelled against Aaron and said, “Why should you rule over us?”
After there had been argument, murmuring, and rebellion, the Lord said to Moses, “Tell every one of them to bring a rod, an almond rod, and lay it up before Me in the tabernacle.” They did so, and the next morning eleven rods were still old sticks. Nothing had happened.
But the most extraordinary thing had happened to Aaron’s rod: it had gone through all four seasons in one night. It had leafed, blossomed, and fruited all in one night.
What was this a sign of? Authority. Authority is never a matter of position; it is always a matter of life. Only those who have the life of God in them can exercise authority. It is a matter of union with God.
That is why we have so much problem over authority in the house of God, because many men—and, for that matter, women—are exercising authority apart from the Lord Jesus. It becomes a positional thing, a status thing, rather than a matter of spiritual life.
But in that ark of the testimony was Aaron’s rod that budded. What does this mean? Jesus has divine authority. He is the King, if you like. He is Lord of all. He is the Head.
Every time you see Jesus, you see the authority of God. One word, and the storm is immediately still. See Him with the wild beasts in the wilderness. Apparently He could be with them without fear. Like Adam, the first Adam, there was no fear.
One word, and the leper was clean. One touch, and a person was healed. Authority.
But it is more than that. Not only is He the ark of the covenant; within the very being of Jesus we have the Word of God fulfilled. We see the law of God expressed. Never at any time did Jesus break the law of God. It was written in the table of His heart.
There we see Jesus. Now we see the tabernacle of the testimony, as if Jesus wants to bring all of us into a household of faith, to build us up into a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Suddenly we discover what Jesus means: “I am the true vine; My Father is the husbandman. I am the vine; ye are the branches.” We are the tent of meeting. In Numbers it actually says “the tent of the testimony.”
Here we are as God’s tabernacle. Here we are as God’s temple, being builded together as a temple in the Lord, fitly framed, and so on; in Christ, being builded together as a home of God, a habitation of God in the Spirit.
The testimony of Jesus is not merely that He is unique, but that He wants to bring many sons unto glory. This is the testimony of Jesus.
Let us go further. If we have managed to give any kind of introduction to this matter, let us now ask: in the light of all this, what can we say is the testimony of Jesus?
Because of time, I am not going to go into it fully. It is nearly a conference in itself just to take these things.
If we take these seven matters, we have comprehended a great deal.
Jesus is the testimony to the being of God. Jesus said again and again, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” He was the heart of God revealed.
In Jesus we see the unseeable. In Jesus we know the unknowable. How can any created, finite—infinitely finite—human being know God? How can you and I understand God when He has neither beginning nor end, nor shape, if you understand what I mean?
He is unseeable, unknowable, incomprehensible; but in Jesus we see the face of God. In Jesus we see the being of God. In Jesus, God is brought into focus in a way that, as human beings, we can understand.
The testimony of Jesus is the character of God. In Jesus we see the faithfulness of God. In Jesus we see the love of God. In Jesus we see the compassion of God. In Jesus we see the righteousness of God. In Jesus we see the truth of God.
All these things are the testimony of Jesus.
How can you ever get to know the Bible? By getting to know Jesus, because Jesus is the Word of God. When He opened up their understanding, He showed them how all the Scriptures spoke of Him from the beginning to the end.
Jesus is the testimony to the rights of God. Why was it that the whole of hell came out against Jesus almost before He came? Herod had planned to wipe out every child under two years of age in the whole region.
It was as if hell came out into the open over the coming of Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is the testimony to the rights of God. Jesus, here on earth, was the claim of God to the earth and its fullness, to the world and those that dwell therein.
It was as if God were saying, “The prince of this world has usurped My authority. He has taken what is not his.” The rights of God.
Do I have to say that Jesus is the testimony to the salvation of God? I can put it in one word:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
There is no salvation in baptism. There is no salvation in confirmation. There is no salvation in church membership. There is no salvation in taking the bread and wine at the Lord’s table. All this is religion.
As if water can do anything to you. As if human hands, sweaty or otherwise, laid upon you, will do anything to you.
It was Zwingli, I remember—I have loved these biographies. Years ago, I was excited when I read a message by Zwingli. Very few people know much about Ulrich Zwingli, one of the Reformers, but no wonder they got angry with him.
In the minster in Zurich, he preached a message in which he said, “Why do you put the oil of extreme unction on the dying? What does it do to them?” He said, “Better keep it for your salad dressing.”
This was Zwingli. We think of the Reformers as austere and remote, as though they would never say anything like that.
The practice was, when anyone was dying, to rush to them with oil. If they got the oil on the head, plus the bread and wine—at least the bread—they would get through purgatory much more quickly, possibly bypassing it altogether. He said, “Better keep the oil for your salad dressing.”
My dear friends, the only salvation in this universe is in the work and person of our Lord Jesus.
Neither is there salvation in any other: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.
Only the work of Jesus, only through the person of Jesus, can you and I be saved. This is the testimony of Jesus. The law of Moses cannot actually save you. It can prepare you, but it cannot save you.
What about this matter of the life of God? Here is something so exciting. Jesus again and again spoke about life, and John particularly takes it up.
And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.
It is very interesting to me that the phrase we use everywhere, all the time in our circles and in conferences, is not necessarily wrong, but it is a totally unbiblical phrase: the Christian life.
The phrase does not appear once in the whole Bible. But what we do get is eternal life—eternal life, eternal life, eternal life.
I wrestled over this. I tried to make myself such a good Christian for so many years, and I got more and more miserable about the whole thing, because by nature I am not a Christian. I found it very hard—very hard—to smile like the Christians, to be sweet like the Christians, to sing like the Christians, to pray like the Christians, and to do all the other things that the Christians around me apparently did.
I found out later that I was not the black sheep. I thought I was the only black sheep in the whole place. Years later, talking to the pastor, I found out that they were all black sheep. He preached those victory messages, he said, by faith.
I did not know that when I was first saved, so I thought I was the odd one out all the time. Oh, how I was.
But listen to this: “God gave unto us the Christian life, and this Christian life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the Christian life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not the Christian life.” Got it? It is eternal life.
The testimony of Jesus is so simple. The testimony of Jesus is this: “I have not come to give you a religious life. I have not come to give you a set of regulations, as Moses did. I have not come to give you a whole lot of ordinances and ceremonies. I have come to give you the life of God: eternal life.”
I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die.
Oh, dear friends, life! Where else do you find this? What else can give us such life? What else can bring us into a union with God which is spelt out in terms of eternal, endless, incorruptible, spiritual, heavenly life?
This is the testimony of Jesus.
Do I have to say anything about the glory of God? Jesus is the testimony to the glory of God.
When Jesus was transfigured, it was the most marvellous thing that had happened in the long history of mankind. Never before had a man been transfigured in glory, because all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
When Jesus went up the Mount of Transfiguration, it was not—as many people imagine—that a spotlight of divine glory shone down from heaven around Jesus, and He glistened while the others looked on in amazement. No, it was far more significant than that.
It was as if a billion billion volts of electricity were turned on inside of Him, and a glorious light shone out of Him that transfigured not only His flesh, but His very clothing. That is glory.
Glory is not pomp and splendour in the Victorian sense—bands playing “Land of Hope and Glory,” or whatever you would play over here, and then the queen or another person pinning a medal on your chest while you feel very proud.
This is glory: “Look at me—glory.” People have got that idea of glory, and I am very sad that in the Revised Standard Version it was translated by the much more devalued term splendour.
Glory is the manifested presence of God—from inside, the very presence of God shining out. That is what you were destined for. That is why God created you. That is what He has called you to: His glory.
The God of all grace, Who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall Himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.
The testimony of Jesus is to the glory of God: not only that He was the kind of man who could be glorified, not only that He was the kind of man who could go through, but that His saving work on the cross could bring many sons to glory.
You and I will one day share the same glory as He. We shall have resurrection bodies. We shall be freed from sin in our members. In that day, the glory of God will shine out from everyone who is redeemed.
The more of Christ, the more glory; and the less of Christ, the less of glory. This is the testimony of Jesus.
Now, my dear friends, time has gone, and here I am. In Jesus—listen carefully—we see God.
At the same time, in Jesus we see the man God intended us to be. This is the testimony of Jesus.
We see God in a way that no prophet, no patriarch, and none of the kings could ever reveal Him. We see God as He is in the person of Jesus.
At the same time, we see in Jesus the kind of man that God wants you and me to be—the kind of man God intended Adam and Eve to be.
Thus, the testimony of Jesus, if I may say it on this level, is that He is the new man, Head and Body.
The testimony of Jesus is not only to the being of God and all that God is. The testimony of Jesus is to the new man, the second man, the last Adam. It is to the new man, Head and Body.
Consider this. Dr. Luke, by the Holy Spirit’s enabling power, wrote two books: the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.
These two works, written by the same human hand from the human standpoint, are incredible, and they are joined by this little word. In Acts 1:1, Luke writes:
The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.
Did you get that? Began both to do and to teach.
The Acts of the Apostles is the risen Jesus, as Head of His Body, continuing to do and to teach. That is the book of Acts. That is the story of the early church.
It is not merely the new man, Jesus Himself, but the new man, the Body of the Lord Jesus. It is the church of God. It is those who have been redeemed, brought into oneness with Him, and to whom the testimony of Jesus has been entrusted.
When you look at the book of Acts, you find the most amazing parallelism. Again and again, the things that Jesus did in the Gospel of Luke, we find the church doing in Acts.
Luke is saying, “Look here: Head and Body. The Head is in heaven; the Body is down here on earth, but the Head is still directing.”
Oh, dear folks, if we could only get hold of this, it would transform our whole attitude to this matter.
I have always loved history. I know most of you find it utterly boring, but I have always loved history. I have to tell you, I believe we make so many mistakes in the Lord’s work because we do not understand our own history.
The value of this kind of time is this: first, we realize that we are in a true apostolic succession.
Never, from the time Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build My church,” until today, has the world been without an expression—however weak—of the Body of the Lord Jesus.
In every generation, all through the dark years and the Dark Ages, through the Reformation, and throughout the last four hundred years of recovery, there has been an expression of the church. Thank God, it has grown stronger and stronger and stronger.
I can remember thirty years ago, if you talked about the Body of Jesus—the church as the Body of Jesus—people’s mouths dropped open. “What are you talking about?”
I remember someone getting hold of me after a meeting and saying, “What in the world did you spend a whole time speaking about the Body of Jesus? If it is so important, how come we have never heard about it before?”
Now, whatever you may feel, the situation is at least different today. It may be that we speak about the Body of the Lord Jesus in a somewhat superficial and, at times, erroneous manner, but the fact is that all over the world believers of all kinds of denominations, and outside denominations, speak about the church as the Body of Jesus.
Some things happen. Just as justification has become a household word and is accepted by all, so now we accept the church as the Body of Jesus.
Now let us say, for a few moments, something about holding this testimony of Jesus.
The church holds the testimony of Jesus just as the lampstand holds the lamps. If I may put it rather crudely, just like your body holds your head.
We hold the testimony of Jesus. This is our supreme calling. It is to reveal Jesus. It is to manifest Jesus. It is to declare Jesus. It is to bring Jesus into view all the time to this poor world.
The world does not want to see Christendom. It does not want to see churchianity. It does not want merely to see doctrine. The world is in desperate need of seeing the same Jesus who walked on this earth.
That is our calling, dear brother and sister. This is the testimony of Jesus.
Now let me come to that extraordinary phrase: “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
I have never felt able to accept the explanation that this phrase refers only to the way all the prophets testified to Him. Of course, it must include that, but I feel it has something much more than that.
It seems to me that what the angel was saying to John was this: the testimony of Jesus is, in its very constitution, prophetic.
In other words, it is not some dead teaching. It is the speaking of God into a contemporary situation, in which He reveals the person of Jesus in a totally contemporary way.
Prophecy is the forth-telling of the mind and heart of God. It can have to do with the past, the present, and the future.
The testimony of Jesus is prophetic in its nature, in this sense: no one can hold the testimony of Jesus who is not walking with Him. No one can hold the testimony of Jesus who is not living in Him.
Nobody can hold the testimony of Jesus who has not only been made alive to God through Him, but is being made alive to God through Him. It is prophetic.
There is a sense in which teaching can be static. You can take principles—you need an anointing to do it livingly—but you can take principles and give the same thing again and again and again.
You can never give a prophecy the same way twice. It always has to be burning in your heart. It always has to be born of the Spirit of God for a particular situation and a particular people.
This is an area in which we, as the people of God, have dismally failed. We have thought that all we have to do is say a creed, teach a creed, or somehow put over something static.
My dear friends, what the world needs to see is a people joined to a living Head. They need to see a people in whom Jesus is living by the Spirit of God, through whom the world can still be turned upside down.
That is the testimony of Jesus.
Consider every recovery movement. Every recovery movement has been like Jesus walking on this earth.
The whole power of darkness has come out to liquidate it at the beginning and has been unable to do so. The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it—at least not in the first and second generation.
We see the most amazing things in all these recovery movements. We see something contemporary. The people did not dress in centuries-old dress, with centuries-old administration and centuries-old ritual. They lived like the people around them and spoke like the people around them.
It was the Lord Jesus. Just like Jesus when He walked on this earth, the world was turned upside down.
Only the Lord knows what the Reformers did to Europe. Only the Lord knows what the Puritans did, particularly in Britain and here in the beginning.
Only the Lord knows how the Quakers changed the whole of British society. They were responsible for hospitals, for orphanages in a new way, for schools for the poor, and for turning the whole prison system inside out and upside down.
Wherever you look, it is commonly accepted by historians that the first great Evangelical Awakening, in which the Wesleys and Whitefield were the pioneers and leaders, saved Britain from the French Revolution.
It was Jesus walking again on the earth—not just in a pious way, not just in a theological way, but in a way so related to the society of the day and to its needs that thousands upon thousands of people came to know the Lord and entered into a new dimension. They found themselves in union with God through the Lord Jesus.
This prophetic nature of the testimony of Jesus is, I have no doubt in my own heart and bones, the greatest need of the people of God in our day and generation.
We are seeing something happening in our educational system that is diabolical. It is not merely a new idea. It is diabolical because it is aimed at the destruction of the Word of God in human society. It is aimed at the heart of the testimony of Jesus. Tear it out and destroy it—that is what Satan has said.
We are seeing the same thing happening in the medical world and in the scientific world. Take just the matter of genetic engineering. Have you any idea where this is going to lead us?
Can you imagine some of the monstrous possibilities that may come when this thing is unleashed?
My dear friend, we cannot live in the past. We do not know how long we have to go before the Lord comes, but until He comes, we have a job: it is to hold the testimony of Jesus.
If I am right, thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of young people will become disillusioned as time goes on—not knowing what to believe, not finding any answer to their own lives, not finding any answer in churchianity, not finding any answer in religion, not knowing where to turn.
Wherever people hold the testimony of Jesus, Jesus will be seen in a contemporary way.
It is entirely wrong to believe that in the last phase of world history nobody will be saved. For Joel says:
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
Dear friends, if we want to see the testimony of Jesus worked out in terms we can understand, then we look at the early church.
What do we hear concerning them?
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
When it comes down to the most mundane, if I may so speak, it is a matter of teaching.
If it is a matter of teaching, then somewhere in the life of our little companies there has to be a place for Bible study. There has to be a place for teaching by those whom God has raised up.
Somewhere in the life of our little companies, however small and insignificant they are, fellowship has to be expressed. Fellowship is not merely talking about spiritual things. Fellowship is belonging to one another, sharing one life.
It means that when someone is sick or in need, we go to see them. My dear friends, do not think of fellowship merely as sitting in a circle or in rows and somehow doing something special.
No, fellowship is: we belong. We belong. We love one another. We care for one another. We maintain the unity of the Spirit. We contribute to one another. Fellowship.
It says of the early church that none of them said that what they possessed was their own, but they held it for others, and some sold all that they had.
Now, I am not saying that we should necessarily do this. I have often pointed out that afterwards the church in Jerusalem was so poor that Paul had to go round collecting money for them.
So I am not always sure that it is the best thing simply to sell everything. But the principle is right. What you own, you see yourself as a steward of, and you hold it in trust for the Lord and for the work of God. Fellowship.
Then, breaking bread. This is not merely remembering the heart of the whole matter—the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus—but it is a time of glorious worship, an expression of our corporate devotion.
In all our little companies, however small and however insignificant, somewhere and somehow a place ought to be given to this matter of worship.
Some people think they should only have it on Sunday. The early church had it every day in Jerusalem. In Troas, they had it evidently on the first day of the week. It does not really matter when you have it.
Somewhere in the life of each company of God’s children represented here, there should be a place for the breaking of bread, and that time should never, ever be devalued or made familiar.
It should be a time of reverence, a time of true awe, and above all a time of worship.
And in prayers. I find it very sad when I find that the people of God are unable really to exercise prayer. By prayer, I mean not merely petitions, but when they do not know how really to intercede.
The church of God is the intercessor in this world. Jesus is the Intercessor at the right hand of the Father, and the two—Head and Body—joined together in a ministry of intercession for the fulfilment of God’s purpose and the completion of the work of God.
Prayer. The testimony of Jesus.
My dear friends, I do hope God will reveal this matter to you. If you do not understand, ask the Lord to show you what this means.
It seems to me that it has to be of tremendous importance and significance that the last book of the Bible uses this phrase, “the word of God and the testimony of Jesus,” again and again and again.
May God help you and me to hold that testimony of Jesus. May He help us to be faithful to the Word of God.
Shall we pray?
Heavenly Father, this is a matter that may, for some of us, seem so enormous and mysterious. But Lord, we pray together that Your Holy Spirit will reveal this matter to us.
Lord, we need that kind of spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Yourself. Do hear us.
We are moving—we do not know how fast—into the last phase of world history. We do not know how long it will last.
We pray that we may be enabled to hold the testimony of Jesus. Hear us, Lord, in this matter, and enable us to be faithful, whatever the cost.
We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.