"Grace be unto you, and peace, from … 5. Jesus Christ, who is the faithful Witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth."--Rev. 1:4-5.
So loftily did John in his old age come to think of his Lord. The former days of blessed nearness had not faded from his memory; rather he understood their meaning better than when he was in the midst of their sweetness. Years and experience, and the teaching of God's Spirit, had taught Him to understand what the Master meant when He said:--It is expedient for you that I go away'; for when He had departed John saw Him a great deal more clearly than ever he had done when he beheld Him with his eyes. He sees Him now invested with these lofty attributes, and, so to speak, involved in the brightness of the Throne of God. For the words of my text are not only remarkable in themselves, and in the order in which they give these three aspects of our Lord's character, but remarkable also in that they occur in an invocation in which the Apostle is calling down blessings from Heaven on the heads of his brethren. The fact that they do so occur points a question: Is it possible to conceive that the writer of these words thought of Jesus Christ as less than divine? Could he have asked for grace and peace' to come down on the Asiatic Christians from the divine Father, and an Abstraction, and a Man? A strange Trinity that would be, most certainly. Rightly or wrongly, the man that said, Grace and peace be unto you, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven Spirits which are before His Throne, and from Jesus Christ,' believed that the name of the One God was Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
But it is not so much to this as to the connection of these three clauses with one another, and to the bearing of all three on our Lord's power of giving grace and peace to men's hearts, that I want to turn your attention now. I take the words simply as they lie here; asking you to consider, first, how grace and peace come to us from the faithful Witness'; how, secondly, they come from the first begotten from the dead'; and how, lastly, they come from the Prince of the kings of the earth.'
"Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood."--Rev. 1:5.
The Revised Version rightly makes two slight but important changes in this verse, both of which are sustained by preponderating authority. For loved' it reads loveth,' and for washed' it reads loosed'; the whole standing Unto Him that loveth us, loosed us from our sins by His blood.' Now the first of these changes obviously adds much to the force and richness of the representation, for it substitutes for a past a present and timeless love. The second of them, though it seems greater, is really smaller, for it makes no change in the meaning, but only in the figure under which the meaning is represented. If we read washed,' the metaphor would be of sin as a stain; if we read loosed,' the metaphor is of sin as a chain.' Possibly the context may somewhat favour the alteration, inasmuch as there would then be the striking contrast between the condition of captives or bondsmen, and the dignity of kings and priests unto God,' into which Jesus brings those whom He has freed from the bondage. Taking, then, these changes, and noting the fact that our text is the beginning of a doxology, we have here three points, the present love of Christ, the great past act which is its outcome and proof, and the praise which should answer that great love.
"He hath made us kings and priests unto God."--Rev. 1:5.
There is an evident reference in these words to the original charter of the Jewish nation, which ran,' If ye will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then shall ye be to Me a kingdom of priests.' That reference is still more obvious if we follow the reading of our text in the Revised Version, which runs,' He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests.' Now it is unquestionable that, in the original passage, Israel is represented as being God's kingdom, the nation over which He reigned as King. But in John's use of the expression there seems to be a slight modification of meaning, as is obvious in the parallel passage to this, which occurs in a subsequent chapter, where we read in addition, They shall reign with Him for ever.' That is to say, in our text we should rather translate the word kingship' than kingdom,' for it means rather the Royal dominion of the Christian community than its subjection to the reign of God.
So the two dignities, the chief in the ancient world, which as a rule were sedulously kept apart, lest their union should produce a grinding despotism from which there was no appeal, are united in the person of the humblest Christian, and that not merely at some distant future period beyond the grave, but here and now; for my text says, not will make,' but hath made.' The coronation and the consecration are both past acts, they are the sequel, certain to follow upon the previous act: He hath loosed us from our sins in His own blood.' The timeless love of Christ, of which that loosing' was the manifestation and the outcome, is not content with emancipating the slaves; it enthrones and hallows them. He lifts the beggar from the dunghill to set him among princes.' He hath loosed us from our sins,' He hath therein made us kings and priests to God.'
"I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 11. Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. 12. And I turned to see she voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; 15. And His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. 16. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. 17. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying onto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: 18. 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. 19. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; 20. 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 which thou sawest are the seven churches."--Rev. 1:9-20.
In this passage we have the seer and his commission (Rev. 1:9-11); the vision of the glorified Christ (Rev. 1:12-16); His words of comfort, self-revelation, and command (Rev. 1:17-20).
"I John, your brother, and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus."--Rev. 1:9 (R.V.).
So does the Apostle introduce himself to his readers; with no word of pre-eminence or of apostolic authority, but with the simple claim to share with them in their Christian heritage. And this is the same man who, at an earlier stage of his Christian life, desired that he and his brother might sit on Thy right hand and on Thy left in Thy Kingdom.' What a change had passed over him! What was it that out of such timber made such a polished shaft? I think there is only one answer--the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the gift of God's good Spirit that came after it.
It almost looks as if John was thinking about his old ambitious wish, and our Lord's answer to it, when he wrote these words; for the very gist of our Lord's teaching to him on that memorable occasion is reproduced in compressed form in my text. He had been taught that fellowship in Christ's sufferings must go before participation in His throne; and so here he puts tribulation before the kingdom. He had been taught, in answer to his foolish request, that pre-eminence was not the first thing to think of, but service; and that the only principle according to which rank was determined in that kingdom was service. So here he says nothing about dignity, but calls himself simply a brother and companion. He humbly suppresses his apostolic authority, and takes his place, not by the side of the throne, apart from others, but down among them.
Now the Revised Version is distinctly an improved version in its rendering of these words. It reads partaker with you,' instead of companion,' and so emphasises the notion of participation. It reads, in the tribulation and kingdom and patience,' instead of in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience'; and so, as it were, brackets all the three nouns together under one preposition and one definite article, and thus shows more closely their connection. And instead of in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,' it reads, which are in Jesus Christ,' and so shows that the predicate, in Jesus Christ,' extends to all the three--the tribulation,' the kingdom,' and the patience,' and not only to the last of the three, as would be suggested to an ordinary reader of our English version. So that we have here a participation by all Christian men in three things, all of which are, in some sense, in Christ Jesus.' Note that participation in the kingdom' stands in the centre, buttressed, as it were, on the one side by participation in the tribulation,' and on the other side by participation in the patience.' We may, then, best bring out the connection and force of these thoughts by looking at the common royalty, the common road leading to it, and the common temper in which the road is trodden--all which things do inhere in Christ, and may be ours on condition of our union with Him.
"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."--Rev. 1:18.
If we had been in the isle which is called Patmos' when John saw the glorified Lord, and heard these majestic words from His mouth, we should probably have seen nothing but the sunlight glinting on the water, and heard only the wave breaking on the shore. The Apostle tells us that he was in the Spirit'; that is, in a state in which sense is lulled to sleep, and the inner man made aware of supersensual realities. The communication was none the less real because it was not perceived by the outward eye or ear. It was not born in, though it was perceived by, the Apostle's spirit. We must hold fast by the objective reality of the communication, which is not in the slightest degree affected by the assumption that sense had no part in it.
Further what John once saw always is; the vision was a transient revelation of a permanent reality. The snowy summits are there, behind the cloud-wrack that hides them, as truly as they were when the sunshine gleamed on their peaks. The veil has fallen again, but all behind it is as it was. So this revelation, both in regard of the magnificent symbolic image imprinted on the Apostle's consciousness, and in regard of the words which he reports to us as impressed upon him by Christ Himself, is meant for us just as it was for him, or for those to whom it was originally transmitted. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.' And as we meditate upon this proclamation by the kingly Christ Himself of His own style and titles, I think we shall best gain its full sublimity and force if we simply take the words, clause by clause, as they stand in the text.
"He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand. who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks."--Rev. 2:1.
It is one of the obligations which we owe to hostile criticism that we have been forced to recognise with great clearness the wide difference between the representation of Christ in John's Gospel and that in the Apocalypse. That there is such a contrast is unquestionable. The Prince of all the kings of the earth, going forth conquering and to conquer, strikes one at once as being unlike the Christ whom the Evangelist painted weeping at the grave of Lazarus. We can afford to recognise the fact, though we demur to the inference that both representations cannot have proceeded from one pen. Surely that is not a necessary conclusion unless the two pictures are contradictory. Does the variety amount to discordance? Unless it do, the variety casts no shadow of suspicion on the common authorship. I, for my part, see no inconsistency in them, and thankfully accept both as completing each other.
This grand vision, which forms the introduction to the whole Book of the Apocalypse, gives us indeed the Lord Jesus clothed with majesty and wielding supreme power, but it also shows us the old love and tenderness. It was the old voice which fell on John's ear, in words heard from Him before, Fear not.' It was the same hand as he had often clasped that was lovingly laid upon him to strengthen him. The assurance which He gives His Apostle declares at once the change in the circumstances of His Being, and in the functions which He discharges, and the substantial identity of His Being through all the changes: I am the first, and the last … I am the Living One, who was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore.' This vision and the whole book calls to us, Behold the Lion of the Tribe of Judah'; and when we look, Lo, in the midst of the throne, stands a Lamb as it had been slain '--the well-known meek and patient Jesus, the suffering Redeemer--the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.'
Still further, this vision is the natural introduction to all that follows, and indeed defines the main purpose of the whole book, inasmuch as it shows us Christ sustaining, directing, dwelling, in His Churches. We are thus led to expect that the remainder of the prophecy shall have the Church of Christ for its chief subject, and that the politics of the world, and the mutations of nations, shall come into view mainly in their bearing upon that.
The words of our text, then, which resumes the principal emblem of the preceding vision, are meant to set forth permanent truths in regard to Christ's Churches, His relation to them, and theirs to the world, which I desire to bring to your thoughts now. They speak to us of the Churches and their servants, of the Churches and their work, of the Churches and their Lord.
"I know thy last works… to be more than the first."--Rev. 2:19.
It is beautiful to notice that Jesus Christ, in this letter, says all He can of praise before He utters a word of blame. He is glad when His eye, which is as a flame of fire, sees in His children that which He can commend. Praise from Him is praise indeed; and it does not need that the act should be perfect in order to get His commendation. The main thing is, which way does it look? Direction, and not attainment, is what He commends. And if the deed of the present moment be better than the deed of the last, though there be still a great gap between it and absolute completeness, the commendation of my text applies, and is never grudgingly rendered. I know thy last done works to be more than the first.'
There is blame in plenty, grave, and about grave matters, following in this letter, but that is not permitted in the slightest degree to diminish the warmth and heartiness of the commendation.
"These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars.'--Rev. 3:1.
The titles by which our Lord speaks of Himself in the letters to the seven churches are chosen to correspond with the spiritual condition of the community addressed. The correspondence can usually be observed without difficulty, and in this case is very obvious. The church in Sardis, to which Christ is presented under this aspect as the possessor of the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars,' had no heresies needing correction. It had not life enough to produce even such morbid secretions. Neither weeds nor flowers grow in winter. There may be a lower depth than the condition of the when people are all thinking, and some of them thinking wrongly, about Christian truth. Better the heresies of Ephesus and Thyatira than the acquiescent deadness of Sardis.
It had no immoralities. The gross corruptions of some in Pergamum had no parallel there. Philadelphia had none, for it kept close to its Lord, and Sardis is rebuked for none, because its evil was deeper and sadder. It was not flagrantly corrupt, it was only--dead.
Of course it had no persecutions. Faithful Smyrna had tribulation unto death, hanging like a thundercloud overhead, and Philadelphia, beloved of the Lord, was drawing near its hour of trial. But Sardis had not life enough to be obnoxious. Why should the world trouble itself about a dead church? It exactly answers the world's purpose, and is really only a bit of the world under another name.
To such a church comes flaming in upon its stolid indifference this solemn and yet glad vision of the Lord of the seven Spirits of God,' and of the seven stars.'
"Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white: for they are worthy."--Rev. 3:4.
The fond fancy that the primitive Church was a better Church than to-day's is utterly blown to pieces by the facts that are obvious in Scripture. Here, in the Apostolic time, under the very eye of the fervent Apostle of Love, and so recently after the establishment of Christianity on the seaboard of Asia, was a church, a young church, with all the faults of a decrepit old one, and in which Jesus Christ Himself could find nothing to commend, and about which He could only say that it had a name to live and was dead. The church at Sardis suffered no persecution. It was much too like the world to be worth the trouble of persecuting. It had no heresy; it did not care enough about religion to breed heresies. It was simply utterly apathetic and dead. And yet there was a salt in it, or it would have been rotten as well as dead. There were a few names, even in Sardis,' which, in the midst of all the filth, had kept their skirts white. They had not defiled their garments,' and so with beautiful congruity the promise is given to there--they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.' The promise, I said. It would have been wiser to have said the promises, for there are a great many wrapped up in germ in these quiet, simple words. Nearly all that we know, and all that we need to know, about that mysterious future is contained in them. So my purpose now is, with perfectly in artificial simplicity, just to take these words and weigh them as a jeweller might weigh in his scales stones which are very small but very precious.
"Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation."--Rev. 3:10.
There are only two of the seven churches which receive no censure or rebuke from Jesus Christ; and of these two--viz., the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia the former receives but little praise though much sympathy. This church at Philadelphia stands alone in the abundance and unalloyed character of the eulogium which Christ passes upon it. He doles out His praise with a liberal hand, and nothing delights Him more than when He can commend even our imperfect work. He does not wait for our performances to reach the point of absolute sinlessness before He approves them. Do you think that a father or a mother, when its child was trying to please him or her, would be at all likely to say, Your gift is worth very little. I could buy a far better one in a shop'? And do you think that Jesus Christ's love and delight in the service of His children are less generous than ours? Surely not.
So here we are not to suppose that these good souls in Philadelphia lived angelic lives of unbroken holiness because Jesus Christ has nothing but praise for them. Rather we are to learn the great thought that, in all our poor, stained service, He recognises the central motive and main drift, and, accepting these, is glad when He can commend. Thou hast kept the word of My patience,' and, with a beautiful reciprocity, I will keep those that keep My word from' and in the hour of temptation.'
"Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."--Rev. 3:11.
The Philadelphian Church, to which these stirring words are addressed, is the only church of the seven in which there was nothing that Christ rebuked. It had no faults, or at least no recorded faults, either of morals or of doctrine. It had had no great storm of persecution beating upon it, although one was threatened. But yet, although thus free from blame and occasion for censure, it was not beyond the need of stimulating exhortation, not beyond the need of wholesome warning, not beyond the reach of danger and possible loss. That no man take thy crown'--as long as Christian men are here, so long have they to watch against the tendency of received truth to escape their hold because of its very familiarity; of things that are taken for granted to become impotent and to slip, and so for the crown to fall from the head, which is all unconscious of its discrowned shame.
We have here, then, three things: thy crown'; the possibility of losing it; the way to secure it.
"Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God. and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of My God. and the name of the city of My God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon him My new name."--Rev. 3:12.
The eyes which were as a flame of fire saw nothing to blame in the Philadelphian Church, and the lips out of which came the two-edged sword that cuts through all hypocrisy to the discerning of the thoughts and intents of the heart, spoke only eulogium--Thou hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name.' But however mature and advanced may be Christian experience, it is never lifted above the possibility of temptation; so, with praise, there came warning of an approaching hour which would try the mettle of this unblamed Church. Christ's reward for faithfulness is not immunity from, but strength in, trial and conflict. As long as we are in the world there will be forces warring against us; and we shall have to fight our worst selves and the tendencies which tempt us to prefer the visible to the unseen, and the present to the future. So the Church which had no rebuke received the solemn injunction: Hold fast that thou hast; let no man take thy crown.' There is always need of struggle, even for the most mature, if we would keep what we have. The treasure will be filched from slack hands; the crown will be stricken from a slumbering head. So it is not inappropriate that the promise to this Church should be couched in the usual terms, to him that overcometh,' and the conclusion to be drawn is the solemn and simple one that the Christian life is always a conflict, even to the end.
The promise contained in my text presents practically but a twofold aspect of that future blessedness; the one expressed in the clause, I will make him a pillar'; the other expressed in the clauses referring to the writing upon him of certain names. I need not do more than again call attention to the fact that here, as always, Jesus Christ represents Himself as not only allocating the position and determining the condition, but as shaping, and moulding, and enriching the characters of the redeemed, and ask you to ponder the question, What in Him does that assumption involve?
Passing on, then, to the consideration of these two promises more closely, let us deal with them singly. There is, first, the steadfast pillar; there is, second, the threefold inscription.
"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot… be zealous therefore, and repent."--Rev. 3:15-19.
We learn from Paul's Epistle to the Colossians that there was a very close connection between that Church and this at Laodicea. It is a probable conjecture that a certain Archippus, who is spoken of in the former Epistle, was the bishop or pastor of the Laodicean Church. And if, as seems not unlikely, the angels' of these Asiatic churches were the presiding officers of the same, then it is at least within the limits of possibility that the angel of the Church at Laodicea,' who received the letter, was Archippus.
The message that was sent to Archippus by Paul was this: Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received of the Lord, that thou fulfil it.' And if thirty years had passed, and then Archippus got this message: Thou art neither cold nor hot,' you have an example of how a little negligence in manifest duty on the part of a Christian man may gradually grow and spread, like a malignant cancer, until it has eaten all the life out of him, and left him a mere shell. The lesson is for us all.
But whether we see an individual application in these words or no, certainly the angel of the church' is spoken of in his character of a representative of the whole Church. So, then, this Laodicean community had no works. So far had declension gone that even Christ's eye could see no sign of the operation of the religious principle in it; and all that He could say about it was, thou art neither cold nor hot.'
It is very remarkable that the first and the last letters to the seven Churches deal with the same phase of religious declension, only that the one is in the germ and the other is fully developed. The Church of Ephesus had still works abundant, receiving and deserving the warm-hearted commendation of the Master, but they had left their first love.' The Churchat Laodicea had no works, and in it the disease had sadly, and all but universally, spread.
Now then, dear friends, I intend, not in the way of rebuke, God knows, but in the way of earnest remonstrance and appeal to you professing Christians, to draw some lessons from these solemn words.
"I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."--Rev. 3:18.
After the scathing exposure of the religious condition of this Laodicean Church its members might have expected something sterner than counsel.' There is a world of love and pity, with a dash of irony, in the use of that softened expression. He does not willingly threaten, and He never scolds; but He rather speaks to men's hearts and their reason, and comes to them as a friend, than addresses Himself to their fears.
Whether there be any truth or not in the old idea that these letters to the seven churches are so arranged as, when taken in sequence, to present a fore-glimpse of the successive conditions of the Church till the second coming of our Lord, it is at least a noteworthy fact that the last of them in order is the lowest in spiritual state. That church was lukewarm'; neither cold '-- untouched by the warmth of the Spirit of Christ at all--nor hot '--adequately inflamed thereby.
That is the worst sort of people to get at, and it is no want of charity to say that Laodicea is repeated in a thousand congregations, and that Laodiceans are prevalent in every congregation. All our Christian communities are hampered by a mass of loose adherents with no warmth of consecration, no glow of affection, no fervour of enthusiasm; and they bring down the temperature, as snow-covered mountains over which the wind blows make the thermometer drop on the plains. It is not for me to diagnose individual conditions, but it is for me to take note of widespread characteristics and strongly running currents; and it is for you to settle whether the characteristics are yours or not.
So I deal with Christ's advice to a lukewarm church, and I hope to do it in the spirit of the Master who counselled, and neither scolded nor threatened.
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me."--Rev. 3:20.
Many of us are familiar, I dare say, with the devoutly imaginative rendering of the first part of these wonderful words, which we owe to the genius of a living painter. In it we see the fast shut door, with rusted hinges, all overgrown with rank, poisonous weeds, which tell how long it has been closed. There stands, amid the night dews and the darkness, the patient Son of man, one hand laid on the door, the other bearing a light, which may perchance flash through some of its chinks. In His face are love repelled, and pity all but wasted; in the touch of His hand are gentleness and authority.
But the picture pauses, of course, at the beginning of my text, and its sequel is quite as wonderful as its first part. I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me.' What can surpass such words as these? I venture to take this great text, and ask you to look with me at the three things that lie in it; the suppliant for admission; the door opened; the entrance, and the feast.
"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne."--Rev. 3:21.
The Church at Laodicea touched the lowest point of Christian character. It had no heresies, but that was not because it clung to the truth, but because it had not life enough to breed even them. It had no conspicuous vices, like some of the other communities. But it had what was more fatal than many vices--a low temperature of religious life and feeling, and a high notion of itself. Put these two things together--they generally go together--and you get the most fatal condition for a Church. It is the condition of a large part of the so-called Christian world' to-day, as that very name unconsciously confesses; for world' is the substantive, and Christian' only the adjective, and there is a great deal more world' than Christian' in many so-called Churches.'
Such a Church needed, and received, the sharpest rebuke. A severe disease requires drastic treatment. But the same necessity which drew forth the sharp rebuke drew forth also the loftiest of the promises. If the condition of Laodicea was so bad, the struggle to overcome became proportionately greater, and, consequently, the reward the larger. The least worthy may rise to the highest position. It was not to the victors over persecution at Smyrna, or over heresies at Thyatira, nor even to the blameless Church of Philadelphia, but it was to the faithful in Laodicea, who had kept the fire of their own devotion well alight amidst the tepid Christianity round them, that this climax of all the seven promises is given.
In all the others Jesus Christ stands as the bestower of the gift. Here He stands, not only as the bestower, but as Himself participating in that which He bestows. The words beggar all exposition, and I have shrunk from taking them as my text. We seem to see in them, as if looking into some sun with dazzled eyes, radiant forms moving amidst the brightness, and in the midst of them one like unto the Son of man. But if my words only dilute and weaken this great promise, they may still help to keep it before your own minds for a few moments. So I ask you to look with me at the two great the that are bracketed together in our text; only I venture to reverse the order of consideration, and think of.
"A Lamb as it had been slain, having… seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth."--Rev. 5:6.
John received a double commission, to write the things which are and the things which shall be. The things which are signify, I suppose, the unseen realities which flashed upon the inward eye of the solitary seer for a moment in symbol when the door was opened in Heaven. All that is here is seeming and illusion; the only substantial existences lie within the veil. And of all those things which are,' in timeless, eternal being, this vision of the throned Lamb, as it had been slain,' is the centre.
Between the Great White Throne and the outer ring of worshippers, representing in the living creatures' the crown and glory of creatural life, and in the elders, the crown and glory of redeemed humanity, stands the Lamb slain, which is the symbolical way of declaring that for ever and ever, through Christ and for the sake of I-Ifs sacrifice, there pass to the universe all Divine gifts, and there rise from the universe all thankfulness and praise. His manhood is perpetual, the influence of His sacrifice in the Divine administration and government never ceases.
The attributes with which this verse clothes that slain Lamb are incongruous; but, perhaps, by reason of their very incongruity all the more striking and significant. The seven horns' are the familiar emblem of perfect power; the seven eyes' are interpreted by the seer himself to express the fulness of the Divine Spirit.
The eye seems a singular symbol for the Spirit, but it may be used as suggesting the swiftest and subtlest way in which the influences of a human spirit pass out into the external universe. At all events, whatever may have been the reason for the selection of the emblem, the interpretation of it lies here, in the words of our text itself. The teaching of this emblem, then, is: He, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received the promise of the Father, sheds forth this.' The whole fulness of spiritual Divine power is in the hand of Christ to impart to the world.
"Lo. a great multitude … stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands."--Rev. 7:9.
The Seer is about to disclose the floods of misery which are to fall upon the earth at the sound of the seven trumpets, like avalanches set loose by a noise. But before the crash of their descent comes there is a lull. He sees angels holding back the winds, like dogs in a leash, lest they should blow, and all destructive agencies are suspended. In the pause before the storm he sees two visions: one, that of the sealing of the servants of God, the pledge that, amidst the world-wide calamities, they shall be secure; and one, this vision of my text, the assurance that beyond the storms there waits a calm region of life and glory. The vision is meant to brace all generations for their trials, great or small, to draw faith and love upwards and forwards, to calm sorrow, to diminish the magnitude of death and the pain of parting, and to breed in us humble desires that, when our time comes, we too may go to join that great multitude.
It can never be inappropriate to look with the eyes of the Seer on that jubilant crowd. So I turn to these words and deal with them in the plainest possible fashion, just taking each clause as it lies, though, for reasons which will appear, modifying the order in which we look at them. I think that, taken together, they tell us all that we can or need know about that future.
"And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image … and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. 3. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb."--Rev. 15:2-3.
The form of this vision is moulded partly by the circumstances of the Seer, and partly by reminiscences of Old Testament history. As to the former, it can scarcely be an accident that the Book of the Revelation abounds with allusions to the sea. We are never far from the music of its waves, which broke around the rocky Patmos where it was written. And the sea of glass mingled with fire' is but a photograph of what John must have seen on many a still morning, when the sunrise came blushing over the calm surface; or on many an evening when the wind dropped at sundown, and the sunset glow dyed the watery plain with a fading splendour.--Nor is the allusion to Old Testament history less obvious. We cannot but recognise the reproduction, with modifications, of that scene when Moses and his ransomed people looked upon the ocean beneath which their oppressors lay, and lifted up their glad thanksgivings. So here, by anticipation, in the solemn pause before the judgment goes forth, there are represented the spirits that have been made wise by conquest, as gathered on the bank of that steadfast ocean, lifting up as of old a hymn of triumphant thankfulness over destructive judgments, and blending the song of Moses and of the Lamb, in testimony of the unity of spirit which runs through all the manifestations of God's character from the beginning to the end. Ever His judgments are right; ever the purpose of His most terrible things is that men may know Him, and may love Him; and ever they who see deepest into the mysteries, and understand most truly the realities of the universe will have praise springing to their lips for all that God hath done.
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away: and there was no more sea. 2. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold. the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them. and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them. and be their God. 4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow. nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5. And He that sat upon the throne said. Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me. Write: for these words are true and faithful. 6. And He said unto me. It is done. I am Alpha and Omega. the beginning the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God. and He shall be My son … 22. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 24. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. 25. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 26. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. 27. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."--Rev. 21:1-7; Rev. 21:22-27.
"And there was no more sea"--Rev. 21:1.
I John,' says the Apocalypse at its commencement, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the testimony of Jesus.' In this, the one prophetic book of the New Testament, we find the same fact that meets us in the old prophecies, that the circumstances of the prophet colour, and become the medium for, the representation of the spiritual truths that he has to speak. All through the book we hear the dash of the waves. There was a sea of fire mingled with glass before the throne.' The star Wormwood fell upon the sea.' Out of the sea the beast rises. When the great angel would declare the destruction of Babylon, be casts a mighty stone into the ocean, and says,' Thus suddenly shall Babylon be destroyed.' And when John hears the voice of praise of the redeemed, it is like the voice of many waters,' as well as like the voice of harpers harping on their harps.' And then, when there dawns at the close of the vision, the bright and the blessed time which has yet to come, the new heavens and the new earth' are revealed to him; and that sad and solitary and estranging ocean that raged around his little rock sanctuary has passed away for ever. I suppose I need not occupy your time in showing that this is a symbol; that it does not mean literal fact at all; that it is not telling us anything about the geography of a future world, but that it is the material embodiment of a great spiritual truth.
Now what is meant by this symbol is best ascertained by remembering how the sea appears in the Old Testament. The Jew was not a sailor. All the references in the Old Testament, and especially in the prophets, to the great ocean are such as a man would make who knew very little about it, except from having looked at it from the hills of Judea, and having often wondered what might be lying away out yonder at the point where sky and sea blended together. There are three main things which it shadows forth in the Old Testament. It is a symbol of mystery, of rebellious power, of perpetual unrest. And it is the promise of the cessation of these things which is set forth in that saying, There was no more sea.' There shall be no more mystery and terror. There shall be no more the floods lifting up their voice,' and the waves dashing with impotent foam against the throne of God. There shall be no more the tossing and the tumult of changing circumstances, and no more the unrest and disquiet of a sinful heart. There shall be the new heavens and the new earth.' The old humanity will be left, and the relation to God will remain, deepened and glorified and made pure. But all that is sorrowful and all that is rebellious, all that is mysterious and all that is unquiet, shall have passed away for ever.
"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2. In the midst of the street of it, anti on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: 4. And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. 5. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. 6. And He said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to shew unto His servants the things which must shortly be done. 7. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. 8. And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. 9. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. 10. And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. 11. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still."--Rev. 22:1-11.
Is the vision of the new Jerusalem to be realised in the present or in the future? Such features as the existence of nations' and kings of the earth' outside of it (Rev. 21:24), and leaves of the tree of life being for the healing of the nations,' favour the former reference, while its place in the book, after the first and second resurrections and the judgment and at the very end of the whole, seems to oblige us to hold by the latter. But the question must be answered in the light of the fact that the Christian life is one in essence in both worlds, and that the difference between the conditions of the society of the redeemed here and there is only one of degree. The city' has already come down from heaven; its perfect form waits to be manifested.
The passage is partly the close of that vision (Rev. 22:1-5), and partly the beginning of the epilogue of the whole book (Rev. 22:6-11). The closing description of the city is saturated with allusions to Old Testament prophecy. It is like the finale of some great concerto, in which the themes that have sounded throughout it are all gathered up in the last majestic, melodious crash. Here at the farthest point to which mortal eyes are allowed to pierce, the tree of life' that the first of mortal eyes had looked on waves its branches again. The end has circled round to the beginning. But now there is no more prohibition to pluck and eat, and now it grows, not in a garden, but in a city where the perfection of human society is entered into.
Here, on the last page of Scripture, the river, the music of whose ripple had been heard by Ezekiel and Zechariah bringing life to everything that it laved, and by the Psalmist making glad the city of God,' flows with a broader, fuller stream, and is fouled by no stains, but is clear as crystal.' River and tree have the same epithet, and bring the same gift to the citizens. All the blessings which Jesus gives are summed up, both in John's Gospel and in the Apocalypse, as life.' The only true life is to live as God's redeemed servants, and that life is ours here and now if we are His. It is but a stream' of the river that gladdens us here, the fruit has not yet its full flavour nor abundance. It is life, more life, for which we pant,' and the desire will be satisfied there when the river runs always full, and every month the fruit hangs ripe and ready to be dropped into happy hands from among the healing leaves.
In Rev. 22:3-4 we pass from the city to the citizens. Perfect purity clothes them all. There shall be no more anything accursed'; that is, any unclean thing drawing down necessarily the divine curse,' and therefore there shall be no separation, no film of distance between the King and the people, but' the throne of God and the Lamb shall be therein.' The seer has already beheld the Lamb close by the throne of God, but now he sees Him sharing it in indissoluble union. Perfect purity leads to perfect union with God and (or rather in) Christ, and unbroken, glad submission to His regal rule. And that perfect submission is the occupation and delight of all the citizens. They are His bond-servants,' and their fetters are golden chains of honour and ornament. They do Him service,' ministering as priests, and all their acts are begun, continued, and ended in Him.' Having been faithful over a few things, they are made rulers over many things, and are yet bond-servants, though rulers.
In that higher service the weary schism between the active and the contemplative life is closed up. Mary and Martha end their long variance, and gazing on His face does not hinder active obedience, nor does doing Him service distract from beholding His beauty. His name shall be in their foreheads,' conspicuous and unmistakable, no longer faintly traced or often concealed, but flaming on their brows. They are known to be His, because their characters are conformed to His. They bear the marks of Jesus' in complete and visible assimilation to Him.
The vision closes with an echo of Old Testament prophecy (Isaiah 60:19). No night'--perhaps the most blessed of all John's negative descriptions of the future state, indicating the removal for ever of all the evil and woe symbolised by darkness, and pointing to a state in which no artifices of ours are needed to brighten our gloom with poor, man-made candles, nor any created light, though mighty and resplendent as the sun, whose beams fade into invisibility before the immortal radiance that pours out for ever from the throne, brightening every glorified face that is turned to its lustre. Thus seeing, serving, and being like God and the Lamb,' they, as a consequence, shall reign for ever and ever,' for they are as He is, and while He lives and reigns they also live and reign.
With Rev. 22:6 begins the epilogue. An angel speaks, the same as in Rev. 1:1--is represented as signifying' the revelation' to John. He now, as it were, sets his seal on his completed roll of prophecy. To discriminate between the words of the angel and of Jesus is impossible. Jesus speaks through him. Behold, I come quickly' cannot be merely the angel's voice. As in Rev. 22:12, a deeper voice speaks through his lips. The purpose of that solemn announcement is to impress on the Asiatic churches, and through them on the whole Church through all time, the importance of keeping the words of the prophecy of this book.' Quickly'--and yet nineteen hundred years have gone since then? Yes; and during them all Jesus has been coming, and the words of this book have progressively been in process of fulfilment.
Again, the speedy coming is enforced as a reason for not sealing up the prophecy, as had been commanded in Rev. 10:4, and elsewhere in the Old Testament. And a very solemn thought closes our lesson--that there is a moment, the eve of any great day of the Lord,' when there is no more time or opportunity for change of moral or spiritual disposition. Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now.' Let us redeem the time,' buy back the opportunity while yet it is within our grasp.
"His servants shall serve Him: 4 And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads."--Rev. 22:3-4.
One may well shrink from taking words like these for a text. Their lofty music will necessarily make all words of ours seem thin and poor. The great things about which they are concerned are so high above us, and known to us by so few channels, that usually he who says least speaks most wisely about them. And yet it cannot be but wholesome if in a reverent spirit of no vain curiosity, we do try to lay upon our hearts the impressions of the great, though they be dim, truths which gleam from these words. I know that to talk about a future life is often a most sentimental, vague, unpractical form of religious contemplation, but there is no reason at all why it should be so. I wish to try now very simply to bring out the large force and wonderful meaning of the words which I have ventured to read. They give us three elements of the perfect state of man--Service, Contemplation, Likeness. These three are perfect and unbroken.
"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."--Rev. 22:14.
The Revised Version reads: Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the Tree of Life.'
That may seem a very large change to make, from keep His commandments,' to wash their robes,' but in the Greek it is only a change of three letters in one word, one in the next, and two in the third. And the two phrases, written, look so like each other, that a scribe, hasty, or for the moment careless, might very easily mistake the one for the other. There can be no doubt whatever that the reading in the Revised Version is the correct one. Not only is it sustained by a great weight of authority, but also it is far more in accordance with the whole teaching of the New Testament than that which stands in our Authorised Version.
Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life,' carries us back to the old law, and has no more hopeful a sound in it than the thunders of Sinai. If it were, indeed, amongst Christ's last words to us, it would be a most sad instance of His building again the things He had destroyed.' It is relegating us to the dreary old round of trying to earn Heaven by doing good deeds; and I might almost say it is making the Cross of Christ of none effect.' The fact that that corrupt reading came so soon into the Church and has held its ground so long, is to me a very singular proof of the difficulty which men have always had in keeping themselves up to the level of the grand central Gospel truth: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy, He saved us.'
Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the Tree of Life,' has the clear ring of the New Testament music about it, and is in full accord with the whole type of doctrine that runs through this book; and is not unworthy to be almost the last word that the lips of the Incarnate Wisdom spoke to men from Heaven. So then, taking that point of view, I wish to look with you at three things that come plainly out of these words:--First, that principle that if men are clean it is because they are cleansed; Blessed are they that wash their robes.' Secondly, It is the cleansed who have unrestrained access to the source of life. And lastly, It is the cleansed who pass into the society of the city. Now, let me deal with these three things:-
"Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."--Rev. 22:17.
The last verses of this last book of Scripture are like the final movement of some great concerto, in which we hear all the instruments of the orchestra swelling the flood of triumph. In them many voices are audible alternately. Sometimes it is the Seer who speaks, sometimes an angel, sometimes a deeper voice from the Throne, that of Christ Himself. It is often difficult, therefore, amidst these swift transitions, to tell who is the speaker; but one thing is clear that, just before the verse from which my text is taken, our Lord has been proclaiming from the Throne His royalty and His swift coming to render to every man according' to his work, and to gather His own into the city.
After that solemn utterance He is silent for the moment, and there is a great hush. Then a voice is heard saying, Come!' It is the voice of the Bride in whom the Spirit speaks. What should she say, in answer to His promise, but pour out her wish for its fulfilment? How should the Bride not long for the bridegroom? Then apparently the Seer breaks in, summoning all who have heard Christ's promise, and the Church's prayer, to swell her cry of longing. For, indeed, His coming is the Divine event to which the whole Creation moves'; and in it all the world's dreams of a golden age are fulfilled, and all the world's wounds are healed. Let him that heareth say, Come!'
But who speaks my text? Apparently Christ Himself, though its force would not be materially modified if it were the voice of John, the Seer. It is His answer to the cry of the Church. He delays His coming; for this among other reasons that all the world may hear His gracious invitation. Then there are two comings in this verse--the final coming of. Christ to the world; the invited coming of the world to Christ.
Now, it is obvious, I think, that such a way of understanding our text, with its vivid interchange of speakers and subjects, gives a far richer meaning to it than the interpretation which is so common amongst us, which recognises in all these Comes' only a reference to one and the same subject, the approach of men to Jesus Christ through faith in Him.
Let us, then, listen to this Voice from the Throne, almost the last recorded wards of the ascended Jesus, in which are gathered all His love for men and His longing to bless them.
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