The Church Of Christ In Revelation
Please turn your Bibles to Revelation chapter 1, Revelation chapter 1. I’ll just read a few selected verses. Revelation Chapter 1, we’ll read verse 12, 13 and 20.
Revelation 1, reading from verse 12,
“Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.” (Revelation 1:12-13)
Then we read in verse 20,
“Concerning the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.” (Revelation 1:20)
Yesterday, I drew your attention to the vision of Christ which is something of a preamble, indeed the preamble, the messages that our Lord sends to the churches. We noted that, at the time, when the church was going through a difficult time and going persecution and perhaps feeling discouraged, even as they lived under the weight of that suffering and witnessed the death of many of their brethren, they needed to see something that would encourage them and lift them and propel them forward. They needed to see a true vision of the glorified Christ.
And we saw various things about Christ; things meant to benefit them, to prepare them for this journey in a wilderness that would present many an overwhelming trial to them.
I want us now to come and reflect on the church of Christ – that’s our subject for this morning – the church of Christ as portrayed in this Revelation to the churches, which the Lord brought via John the Apostle. And there are four things I want us to reflect on as we think about the church.
The Church Is Cast In The Mold Of Golden Lampstands
First, you will note that she is cast in the mold of golden lampstands. She is cast in the mold of golden lampstands. John tells us, “I turned to see the voice that spoke to me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.” (Revelation 1:20)
A lampstand is a holder with a socket for a lamp. Sometimes the word is translated as “candlestick,” that is to say, an object with a small hole in the middle for holding a candle. It is an appropriate symbol for the church because the church exists to hold out the light of the Gospel. In first Timothy Chapter 3, the Apostle Paul refers to the church as “the pillar and ground of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:14-15)
The church is about the truth: she preserves the truth, she defends the truth and she propagates the truth, she preaches the truth. The church exists to hold out this truth, to hold out the light of the Gospel. Richard Brooks, in his little commentary on Revelation writes, and I quote, “It’s not the church’s business to make truth or alter truth or improve truth, but rather to receive it, to stand firm upon it, to contend earnestly for it, to preach it.” End of quote. So the church is rightly called a lampstand and these churches in Asia Minor, seven of them, were all lampstands.
The lampstands you will notice are golden. They are the golden lampstands and they are golden to indicate that they are highly precious, highly valuable. They are precious because they are made of gold. There are a number of minerals which are categorized as being precious. They include gemstones like ruby, sapphire, emerald, diamond. Many of us will be familiar with gold.
They are all referred to as precious or immensely valuable because of the numerous striking physical and metaphysical attributes they contain; attributes such as colour, beautiful colour, shine. They have fewer, perhaps even no impurities. And then, they are rare. They are therefore highly prized. They cost an awful lot.
The churches in Asia Minor referred to, metaphorically, as golden lampstands are precious – that’s the point being made. They are precious to Christ. He is the one who refers to them as golden lampstands. They are precious to him.
The church was given to him by the Father in eternity. Then, before the world was created, before ever any of us saw the light of day, the Father said to the Son, “Ask of me and I will give you a heritage among the nations.” (Psalm 2:8)
And when you fast forward to John 6:37 and 39, the Father has, at that stage, given to the Son this heritage, this bride. She was given to him by the Father in eternity and he paid a dear price for her.
Many of you who have grown up in Western cultural setups, you probably will never appreciate this. If you are a man, I wonder how many of you paid a bride price? None, I would guess. But in African cultural setups, it is common to pay a bride price, sometimes a very huge bride price.
Well, the Lord Jesus Christ had to pay a dear price, a very dear price for his bride and it came in the form of his own blood. He shed blood for her. He bought her with his own blood and the Holy Spirit lives in her. And he lives in her to free her completely of remaining sin and to conform her completely to the image of Christ. He is working in her to change her, to transform her from one degree of glory to the next. You can then begin to see and understand how precious she is to him.
Now the combination of gold, the golden lampstand on the one hand, and the light of the Gospel on the other, would seem to suggest that the church must be of a high quality. The church must be pure in order to be an effective instrument in the hand of God. It’s not enough that we have the truth. It’s not enough that we preserve the truth and defend the truth. It’s not even enough that we preach the truth.
That truth must be preached, must be defended by a holy church, a church given to God, a church submissive to God, a fit instrument able to demonstrate in her own life the truth that she stands upon, and the truth that she preaches. She is cast in the mold of golden lampstands.
The Church Has A Lord Who Walks In Her Midst
Secondly, she has a Lord who walks in her midst. She has a Lord who walks in her midst. She doesn’t walk alone. The Lord walks with her and in the midst of the seven lampstands, we read in verse 13, “One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.” (Revelation 1:13)
This one walks among the churches, walks in her midst. She’s not alone. She might have felt that she was alone. She might have felt that the Lord had abandoned her and left her at the mercy of the cruel Romans. She might have felt that she would die on her own – hungry, powerless, unable to defend herself against the dragon and his helpers, the beasts. She might have felt that way.
She might have felt a little bit of what the Old Testament church felt. God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey. He gave that promise to their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but then here they are in Egypt and in slavery. And they were to be in that condition for many years and life wasn’t getting better. Is this the land flowing with milk and honey? Is slavery equal to the prosperity you promised our forefathers?
They cried. They complained. Indeed, it felt that the God of their fathers had abandoned them. But you know what happened. God saw their condition, God heard their cries and God came down to them. God sent Moses to them, to go and assure them that the I am that I am still cares for them. He is still committed to the covenant he made with their fathers and he will lift them out of that situation and indeed bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey.
And he would walk that path with them. He would be there with them even as they stand before the Red Sea, wondering whether they can ever cross over to the other side. He would be there with them in the wilderness, a place without food, a place without water, possibly a place full of enemies; enemy tribes, enemy nations. He would be there with them and he would eventually bring them to the land flowing with milk and honey.
Well, here is the church again in the wilderness of this world feeling somewhat abandoned, somewhat neglected, somewhat alone and he comes through John to remind them that indeed, they are not alone. He walks with them. He will walk with them. She has a Lord, a king who walks with them.
And there are two things mentioned about this Lord who walks in their midst: first, he holds the Seven Stars in his right hand. We read that here in verse 2 of chapter 2, “These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand…” (Revelation 2:1)
The stars are the angels, he tells us. And these are not heavenly angels. The word “angelos” which is translated as “angels” means “messengers.” And the messengers here are the pastors, the elders, the bishops. They are in his right hand because they are his ministers. They’re his under-shepherds. The Lord is the ruler over his church. He is the head over his church. He is the king over his church and he rules through these pastors, these shepherds.
It is therefore not their business to legislate what the church must be or what the church must do. It is their business to execute the law of the master, the law of the king, the law of the head of the church. Their function is ministerial. It is pastoral. They are in his right hand and there to serve him, to serve the church.
And then, he walks in their midst. He walks among the churches. He walks, “peripateo,” that’s the Greek word and I mention it deliberately here. It’s a little bit like how Socrates might have done his work as he taught. He wasn’t a Christian but he conversed with his students and as he did that, he walked around asking them questions, prompting them, trying to get them to think. And the Lord Jesus Christ walks around, he walks about.
This speaks of the fact that the Living Lord of the church is present in the church, interested in every member of…