"The Revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things
which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and
signified it by His angel unto His servant John" (Rev.
1:1).
Yes, we are in the Book of the Revelation,
the most controversial book in the Bible. This book has
set up more schools of interpretation than any other. It
would not be profitable even to name these schools. Of
them all, no two are in agreement, and each one is
uncertain of the rightness of the others. The only safe
and profitable way is to find what is certain. This is
the Bible's way of solving and answering its problems and
questions. That is, interpretation and application by
spiritual principles. In passing, we do point this out as
a really valuable and satisfying method of approach.
Apply it to the first chapters of Genesis and there will
be a very great deal of rest from the weariness of mental
wrestling with questions and problems there. The same is
even more true with 'Revelation'. This is what we shall
do in this message. We begin with reference to
The Apocalyptic Method
It is essential to accept the fact
that, whatever actuality and literalness there is behind
the record here (and of course there is such; it is not a
book of myths) it is all presented to us in symbols,
figures, resemblances, similitudes, and representations,
and not in real and actual things. Dragons, and Beasts,
and Bowls, and A Lamb, etc., are not actually such. We
ask: why this method?
Well, at least part of the answer relates
to the time and condition of the writing. It was a time
of terrible and fierce persecution of the Christian
Church. The focal point of that persecution was the
Christian testimony to the Lordship of Jesus Christ; what
the book calls "The testimony of Jesus". That
testimony came into direct and immediate collision with
Roman Emperor-worship. Caesar took the title of God, and
claimed worship as such. The Christians both refused to
acknowledge this, and preached Jesus Christ as Lord.
This set
up a situation in which it was dangerous to speak in
plain terms, names, and definitions. So, in writing to
the Church and Christians for their instruction, counsel,
comfort, correction, and warning, their spiritual
discernment and perception was called into use, and they
had to - as we say - 'read between the lines'. No
Caesar's name is mentioned, but a representation of him
is there. No system is named explicitly, but its
character is delineated; and so on.
But the
method applies to much more than the immediate historic
background, or the prophetic horizon: it is applied to
almost everything in the book. That has to do with the NATURE
of the book. Now we proceed to the question - Why the
book? In another place we are occupied with the last
chapters of this book. Here it is with the first
chapters, and mainly with chapter one. In this part we
are met with
A Challenge to Christians
Asia is
the venue of the vari-sided message, or - if you like -
the seven messages. Asia was representative of first
century Christianity: that is, Asia had received all the
primary and essential apostolic teaching. Paul called it
"the whole counsel of God". But some thirty or
more years had passed since Paul wrote his great circular
letter to Asia and so soon after completed his ministry.
In that period - only about thirty years - serious
decline had set in in the majority of the churches. The
character had changed. Divergence had taken place. The
standard had lowered. Measure had been forfeited. The
churches were living on a past. The fine gold had become
dim. Form had taken the place of life, and works went on
without the primary love. It is painful to have to accept
the fact that, in even the fullness of the apostolic
times, such a change could take place in a comparatively
short time. It surely says that, to have had so much is
no guarantee of final consistency. This is an age-long
peril; the peril besetting the path of anything which had
a great and wonderful beginning under the hand of God! It
is not difficult to find all over the world the dead
shells of what once was a mighty testimony to the
sovereign movement of God; a "candlestick of pure
gold". We do not dwell on this aspect for the
moment, but move on with the positive method of the Lord
to meet it.
So we
are brought back to the introduction: "THE
UNVEILING OF JESUS CHRIST, which God gave Him to shew
unto His servants" (1:1). While the whole statement
as to the 'shewing' is immediately related to "the
things which must shortly come to pass", it is
essential to note that this WHOLE unveiling is
based upon, and issues from, an unveiling and
presentation of the Person of God's Son, Jesus Christ.
All that follows in the whole book is intimately
connected with the personal presentation. The phrase:
"to show unto His servants" comes to relate -
at least in the first place - to the churches in Asia,
and, of course, to John. This full-length presentation of
Jesus Christ will occupy us in this present
consideration. Note carefully that the Person - in His
full and meticulous delineation - is so closely linked
with the churches as to 'hold them in His right hand'
(1:16,20), and also "walketh in the midst..."
(2:1).
The
point here is
The Intimate Association of Christ with
Conditions
It is
not a contradiction or confusion to see Christ in Heaven
and at the right hand of God, as Paul and Stephen speak
of Him, and then to hear John say that He is imminent and
immediate in the churches on earth. And this is shown to
be so even when the churches - the true churches - are in
a poor and bad condition. It may come to be that because
of certain conditions, as in the case of Laodicea, where
Christ is represented as on the outside of the door;
nevertheless, He has not deserted and abandoned. We shall
see that the real force of this first section is the deep
and pained concern for His Church in her state of
declension.
At this
point we should sit back and allow ourselves to register
the forceful impact of a serious fact. Taking not one
whit from the Lord's command and commission to evangelize
the whole world, it was after the world that then was had
been evangelized that practically the entire New
Testament was written to Christians who had responded.
After 'Acts' there is not one book of the subsequent
twenty-six comprising the New Testament which was written
to the unevangelized and unsaved. This surely is forceful
enough (apart from the contents of the books) to convince
us that the Lord is - at least - as much concerned with
the 'follow-up', the saved, as He is to evangelize! The
law of God, both in nature and in grace, is "full
growth", and anything less than that is either
abortion or stultification; it is subnormal, or
un-normal, and it speaks of defeat and frustration of
purpose and design. God is not like that, and Himself
suffers in any such condition. We shall come on this
again later, but it MUST be from THIS consciousness
that we begin. If that has impressed us sufficiently, and
only if so, we can proceed, and in doing so we shall at
once be confronted with
God's Ultimate Standard
This is set before the Church, the
churches, and individual believers ("HE that
overcometh", "Unto HIM will I
give..." etc.) in the full stature and
characterization of Christ. John says, inclusively,
"One like unto the Son of Man" (verse 13). The
title, used some eighty-two times of Christ in the New
Testament, has a double significance. (a) It means
representation; and (b) it means identification. Not to
be too detailed and ponderous, we do not include a study
of these two aspects, but those who are following closely
will at once see how true they are in this final
presentation. Here, "Jesus Christ" represents
Man as God intends him to be, and as he will be through
grace, in Christ. And here "Son of Man" means
the most intimate organic identification with His
redeemed, so that He stands to lose something of Himself
if they fail.
When the Ultimate Standard has been
presented, we are very soon led on to see that THE
LORD IS NOT WILLING TO ACCEPT COMPARATIVE STANDARDS. In
the majority of the messages to the churches the
comparative is noted. Good things are tabulated, such as
'works', 'labours', sincerity, zeal, hatred of falsehood
and hypocrisy, orthodoxy, etc., but when all this is
allowed for, warning, rebuke, severity, and entreaty are
administered. The "garment down to the foot"
(1:13), is not sleeveless, half-length, or even
three-quarter length. It is full length, and
all-covering. It is the "seamless robe" of John
19:23. It is of one piece and complete. Garments in the
Bible speak of the measure and the character of the
wearer. But here it is the garment of authority, the
Judge. By it standards are judged, and criteria are
fixed.
With God in Christ there are no
substitutes for Divine fullness and no alternatives to
the Person. This comes so clear in the confrontation of
the churches. When all is taken into account the judgment
is gathered into one word: "But".
This could be very disconcerting,
discouraging, disheartening, but we must remember that
the Lord puts His finger upon causes and reasons, and
shows what can be done to make good the defects. Among
the multitude of 'overcomers' doubtless there are many
who were in the poorest state described in these
Messages.
Let us go on, for about this 'seamless
robe', the perfect wholeness, there is a girdle of gold
about the breasts. It is oriental symbolism, but it is
eloquent. The breasts speak of the affections; here, the
affections of Christ. Gold is ever the Divine nature. And
the girdle, the symbol of strength and action. To His
Church, His people, in their weakness, their decline,
their failure, even in their apostasy, He comes in the
energy, the strength, the activity of Divine love and
affection to recover, to restore, to be faithful, to lift
up. It is in love that He rebukes: "As many as I
love, I rebuke" (3:19). This Divine love is not mere
sentimentalism. It is very faithful love. It is parental
love which for the child's GOOD may slap, but in
so doing feels the regret as much as the child.
"Christ loved the church and gave Himself for
it."
I think that perhaps we have something
here to learn and to which to adjust. We criticize and
harshly judge the Church. We take a very adverse attitude
to what we deem to be the faults, weakness, deflections,
and even evils in the Church. We must search our hearts
to see why we do so. Is it really our suffering love and
sorrow for the Lord that motivates our spirit and
demeanour? Is it REDEEMING love?
Now, seeing that this is not a whole book,
we must sum up thus far. What comes out as governing this
contemplation is this: whichever school of interpretation
may be ours - historicist, futurist, literalist,
spiritual, or none of them - one thing governs the whole
section (chapters one to three). It is that, whenever
things have departed from the pristine glory, fullness,
and power, and a decline to a lesser and lower spiritual
measure and level has taken place, the Divine method of
recovery is a fresh presentation and unveiling of Christ
in His fullness and true character. Before there can be
any hopeful dealing with the details of the situations
which are wrong; that is, before taking a negative course
of condemnation, judgment, warning, etc., the Lord
presents, or re-presents the positive standard of His
Son. This has always been the principle on which God has
acted, as we could show from many instances. Unless we
have a POSITIVE BETTER to present, we have no
ground for being negative in judgment, criticism, or
attitude. There must be a Divine criterion by which all
things are measured. People will only see the wrong and
be ashamed if the right is set before them. "Show
the house to the house of Israel that they may be
ashamed" was the command of God to Ezekiel. The Lord
would, in our time, have His prophets who can - like John
- bring the fullness and significance of Christ before
His people. So the whole book of the
"Revelation" is governed by the initial
unveiling and presenting of Jesus Christ in full stature
and detailed character.