Christ Among the Churches
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We enter in this marvelously descriptive chapter, centering our thoughts upon the appearance of Christ as He walks among His Churches.
1. The general description of Christ. The Lord Jesus in Revelation 1:8 is heard saying, "I am Alpha and Omega." This expression is indeed descriptive of the eternity of our Lord. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last. It would he as though Christ had said, "I am the A and Z." That is, "I am before all things, and I am after all things."
We love to think of it this way: Jesus Christ is the ever-present Christ. With Him there is no past. He was always there, and He is there now. With Him there is no future. He is in the future the same as He is in the past. Jesus Christ lives in one eternal now. However, He reaches back to the beginning, and on to the end.
There is in Revelation 1:8 a statement which is not found in Revelation 1:4. It is the expression, "the Almighty." This is one of the great Names of God. It was the Name that was used to Abraham when Jehovah said unto him, "I am the Almighty God." The word means, as commonly accepted, the God who is enough.
The last time this wonderful Name of Christ is used is in Revelation 19:1-21 as the Lord Jesus is described as treading out the wine press. Here is the expression: "He treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." We will find that the One who walks in the midst of the Churches is indeed the God who is enough.
2. A description of John in tribulation. In his address the Apostle said, "I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." John goes on to say how he was exiled to the isle that is called Patmos because of his fidelity to the Word of God, and because of his testimony to the Word of Jesus Christ.
The suggestion is the verification of the words of our Lord: "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." It still calls us to follow Christ fully.
3. Does Christ have a right to walk in the midst of the Churches and to speak with all authority? We answer unequivocably, He has. Christ loved the Church, and bought it. He has the same authority over the Church, as the head has over the members of the body. The Church should accept this Headship of the Lord Jesus, remembering that One is Master, even Christ, and all we be brethren.
I. CHRIST IS DESCRIBED AS BEING CLOTHED WITH A GARMENT DOWN TO THE FOOT, AND BEING GIRT WITH A GOLDEN GIRDLE (Revelation 1:13)
Revelation 1:12 tells us that John heard a voice speaking unto him, and being turned he saw seven golden candlesticks.
1. The seven golden candlesticks are designated in Revelation 1:20 as the Seven Churches. Jesus Christ is described in our key verse as in the midst of His Churches, Christ in the midst of His Churches brings to our memory several statements of Scripture:
(1) Christ was in the midst of the crosses on Calvary.
(2) After His resurrection Christ was in the midst of the disciples as they were gathered in the upper room.
(3) Christ says, "Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst."
(4) Christ will be in the midst during the wonderful Millennial period. This is the statement of Zephaniah 3:14-17
(5) Christ will be in the midst of the throne in Heaven.
All of this informs us of the fact that Christ is the center of all things, and pre-eminently the central figure in the Church.
2. Christ clothed with a garment down to the foot. The picture here is that of the high priestly work of Christ. He is clothed with the robe of service. Not. only that, but He is in the act of service because His robes are girt about with a golden girdle. Our mind goes back to the time when Christ girded Himself and took a bason of water and a towel, and began to wash His disciples' feet. He did this that He might establish forever that He is in the midst of us as one who serves.
3. He was girded about with a golden girdle. "Girdle." in the Word of God, stands, for royalty in service. He is serving, but He is serving as a king serves his people. Surely if He serves us we ought to serve one another. He is the High Priest; we ought to be the tinder-priests.
II. CHRIST IS DESCRIBED AS HAVING HIS HEAD AND HIS HAIRS WHITE LIKE WOOL (Revelation 1:14, f.c.)
1. We think first of Christ's eternity. Whiteness, particularly white hair, expresses old age or maturity in thought and deed. The Lord Jesus is not old in the sense of being worn out, but He is old in the sense of time. That is, He is from eternity unto eternity.
The white hairs of our Christ, however, by no means suggest that He is aged in the sense of being worn and wrinkled or decrepit, with His power spent and His energy wasted. Psalms 110:1-19 describes Christ's coming back to the earth to reign on David's throne, and it says, "From the womb of the morning: Thou hast the dew of Thy youth." Christ is not coming out of the gloom and the shadows of the gloom and the shadows of the eventide. He is coming as the sun, burning forth at the breaking of the day. He is coming in freshness, in power, with the dew of youth upon Him.
2. His white hairs tell of His purity. Jesus Christ is the only One who ever walked among men as the sinless One. The angel, Gabriel, said unto Mary as he announced the birth of Christ, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Jesus Christ was holy, and by virtue of His holiness He made us holy, and now, robed in raiment of purity and whiteness He walks in the midst of His Churches. God grant that we may be worthy of One so fair, so pure, and so wonderful.
III. CHRIST IS DESCRIBED WITH EYES AS A FLAME OF FIRE (Revelation 1:14, l.c.)
1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the all-seeing Christ. There is nothing that is covered to Him. In Hebrews 4:13 we read, "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."
We may deceive the minister, or the minister may deceive the people, but neither the one or the other can deceive Christ. It is written of old that He stood over against the treasury and observed how people cast in their offerings. He always stands over against the treasury.
More than that He stands over every pew. He observes everything that is going on. He notes everything in the service; the singing, the preaching, the invitation. There is not anything that is not open to His eyes. He even looks into the heart, and He reads its thoughts and meditations.
2. Jesus Christ is the all-helping Christ. When we think of His eyes, we think of His omniscience, but we should add to this thought a further consideration. The Prophet said, "The eyes of the Lord ran to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him."
The Lord does not look upon the Churches only to condemn and to seek the wrong. He looks to aid, comfort, and assist. Let us not be afraid because Christ's eyes are as fire. Let us be comforted thereby and encouraged to know that there is One looking down from above in order that He may bless.
IV. CHRIST IS DESCRIBED AS HAVING FEET LIKE UNTO FINE BRASS (Revelation 1:15)
1. We see Christ now in His stately steppings. He is walking in the midst of His Churches in order that He may be wisdom and power unto them His feet are like unto fine brass, because He is the strength of men. Do we not remember how the Lord said before He went away, "All power is given unto Me In Heaven and in earth, Go, * * lo, I am with you?"
Jesus Christ Is our Samson who can break every cord, and take hold of the pillars of all opposition, casting them down. He is our David who can go forth and conquer Goliath. He is our Jonathan who can move against the Philistines and rout them.
He met the principalities and powers of darkness, and overcame them utterly, dispelling and vanquishing them. Such an One is walking in the midst of the Churches.
2. His voice is as the sound of many waters. In this verse we have not only His stately stoppings described in the feet, as in a furnace refined; we have also His authority. When the Lord Jesus speaks it is time for men to hold their peace. He said, "He that hath My Commandments, and keepeth them (that is, obeyeth them), he it is that loveth Me."
There is no authority in the Church of Jesus Christ which can supersede, or lift its head above the Lord Jesus. There may be many voices in the world, but above them all rings the clear, clarion call of the Son of God. "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it."
V. CHRIST IS DESCRIBED AS WITH A SHARP TWO-EDGED SWORD PROCEEDING OUT OF HIS MOUTH (Revelation 1:16)
We have no difficulty in catching the meaning of this symbolism. The sharp two-edged sword is the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12 says that "the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword." Ephesians 6:17 says, "And take the helmet of salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." These two verses suffice.
When Christ comes again He comes with a sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth. Thus, as He walks in the midst of the Churches, that same sword is seen and it is His Word. The minister has but one mission and that is to preach the Word.
What else should be preached? If we preach words of our own we will utterly fail. If we preach the Word of God we will preach the power of God unto salvation.
God says, "He that hath My Word, let him. speak My Word faithfully." "What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord, Is not My Word like the fire? and like the hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"
VI. CHRIST IS DESCRIBED IN HIS COUNTENANCE AS THE SUN SHINING IN HIS STRENGTH (Revelation 1:16, l.c.)
Here is, perhaps, the most beautiful of the whole description of our Lord, We remember how Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road was stricken down at noonday by the shining of a light brighter than the noonday sun.
We remember how the Bible describes the beautiful, new Jerusalem, the city of gold, as needing no light of the sun, or of the moon, or of the stars, "for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof."
It was on the Mount of Transfiguration that the raiment of Jesus Christ was white and glistening, but His face "did shine as the sun." Beloved, this is He who walks in the midst of the. Churches.
1. The light of His countenance will direct us in the way that we should go. We need not err in guidance, for the Lord God giveth us light.
2. The light of His countenance will illumine the dark things and make them plain. The intricacies of His Word, the deeper meanings of His grace, the higher visions of His glory will all be made manifest in the brightness of His countenance,
3. The light of His countenance stands for fellowship. "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another." The light of His countenance stands for the exclusion of darkness and of sin. "Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil."
4. The light of His countenance is a wonderful place in which to hide. We usually think of hiding in some dark cupboard, but the Psalmist says, "I will hide in the light of His countenance," The reason is that the security of light lies in the fact that God dwells in light that is unapproachable which no man can approach unto "whom no man hath seen, nor can see."
VII. CHRIST IN THE MIDST OF THE CHURCHES SPEAKING (Revelation 1:18)
1. The effect upon John as he saw this vision of the Seven Churches and Christ in the midst of them was more than magic. We read, "And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead." When Peter, in that miraculous draught of fishes, beheld the power and the glory of the Lord, he fell down before Him and said, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
This, however, should not be the effect it should have on us. John, no doubt, was startled and astonished at his vision, but we should walk with the Lord so closely and intimately that we will not be overwhelmed at the vision of His glory. However, we are still in the flesh. Isaiah was a good man and yet, when he saw the Lord high and lifted up, His glory filling the Temple, and he heard the seraphim saying, "Holy, holy, holy," he cried, "I am a man of unclean lips."
2. Christ's assuring words. First of all, Christ told John that He was the First and the Last, then He gave in addition these words, "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Jesus Christ stood before John restating that wonderful climactic glory of His death, burial, and resurrection. He stood before John acclaiming, not only that He was a Victor on the Cross, but a Victor when He descended into hades, because He brought back the keys of death and of hell.
Still further He acclaimed the feet that He was not only a Victor on the Cross, and a Victor when He descended into hell, but that He was a Victor when He came forth from the grave.
To each one of us there comes, therefore, this assurance that we need not fear life because Christ lived and met its issues; we need not fear death because Christ died and look away its sting. We need not fear the life to come because Christ is alive forever-more, and He has met all of its future possibilities.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Christ "in the churches" is the secret of their power.
CHRIST WITHIN
Imagine one without genius and devoid of the artist's training, sitting down before Raphael's famous picture of the Transfiguration and attempting to reproduce it, How crude and mechanical and lifeless his work would be! But if such a thing were possible that the spirit of Raphael should enter into the man and obtain mastery of his mind and eye and hand, it would be entirely possible that he should paint this masterpiece; for it would simply be Raphael reproducing Raphael, And this in a mystery is what is true of the disciple filled with the Holy Spirit Christ by the Spirit dwells within him as a Divine life, and Christ is able to image forth Christ from the interior life of the outward example. A. J. Gordon.