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In this message we will continue to consider the experience and enjoyment of Christ as the Alpha and Omega.
In Revelation 22:16 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the Root and the Offspring of David.” In His divinity, Christ is the Root, the source, of David; in His humanity, Christ is the Offspring, the issue, of David. Hence, He is the Lord as the Root of David, and He is also the son, the shoot, of David as the Offspring of David (Matt. 22:42-45; Rom. 1:3; Jer. 23:5). Just as the Offspring of David denotes that the Lord is man and that He came out of David, so also the Root of David denotes that He is God and that David came out of Him. This reveals the two natures of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, in Revelation 22:16 Christ Himself acknowledged that He is man as well as God.
The Bible clearly reveals to us that our Lord is God as well as man, the true God and the true man, the perfect God and the perfect man. He is nothing less than God and nothing less than man, having complete divinity and complete humanity. He is God with the divine nature, and He is also man with a human nature. The Gospel of John continually shows us these two aspects of Him. He is God who knows everything and sees everything (1:47-48), who is omnipresent, and who descended out of heaven yet is still in heaven (3:13). He is a man who can become weary and thirsty (4:6-7). He can also weep (11:35). Both God and man are complete in Him. This is really mysterious. It is no wonder that His name is called “Wonderful” (Isa. 9:6).
In Revelation 22:16 the Lord declared that He is “the bright morning star.” At His coming back, Christ will be the rising sun to His people generally (Mal. 4:2) but the morning star to His watching lovers particularly. The latter will be a reward to the overcomers (Rev. 2:28). Christ as the Root and Offspring of David is related to Israel and the kingdom, whereas His being the bright morning star is related to the church and the rapture. The morning star appears before the darkest hour, prior to the dawn. The great tribulation will be this darkest time, after which the day of the kingdom will dawn. In the kingdom the Lord will appear publicly to His people as the sun, but before the great tribulation He will appear privately to His overcomers as the morning star to rapture them. The bright morning star will appear only to the watchful ones. The slumbering believers will not see the morning star; they will see Christ only as the sun in a general way.
In Revelation 22:12 the Lord Jesus said, “Behold, I come quickly.” In verse 20 the Lord also said, “Yes, I come quickly.” Our loving response should be, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (22:20; 2 Tim. 4:8). We may express our desire for the Lord’s return in the way of a prayer to Him, saying, “Come, Lord Jesus!” We should always call for His coming. This becomes our response to His return. Since we know that the Lord’s second coming is so precious, we should love the Lord’s appearing. We must tell the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I love You, and I love Your appearing. Because I love You, I love Your appearing.”
From the record in the New Testament, it is not difficult to discover that in their hearts the apostles firmly believed that the Lord would come quickly and that they also lived a life in preparation for the Lord’s second coming. This is like the situation in which some long-separated relatives are soon to return. The entire family is prepared to welcome them. It is also like a girl waiting to be married, who knows of the wedding day and who is waiting wholeheartedly for that day to arrive. Paul was one who had such an attitude. The life he lived was a life of waiting for the Lord’s return. We can see this by reading 1 Thessalonians. This book has five chapters, each of which concludes with the Lord’s coming back. This indicates that Paul was one who loved the Lord’s appearing (2 Tim. 4:8). Taking Paul as our pattern, we should love the Lord’s appearing.
Since we love the Lord’s appearing, we should earnestly wait for His coming (Phil. 3:20; 1 Thes. 1:10). Hence, our future is with Him. Our living should indicate that we have no other hope on earth. Our hope is in the coming Lord. He is our eternal destiny. In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul says, “Brothers, the time is shortened. Henceforth both those who have wives should be as though they had none, and those who weep as though they did not weep, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use the world as though they did not abuse it; for the fashion of this world is passing away” (vv. 29-31). Christ is our real hope.
While waiting for the Lord’s return, we should learn to fear Him. In Luke 12 the Lord gave a parable concerning a rich man who endeavored to lay up wealth for himself so that his soul might enjoy itself and be merry. But God said to him, “Foolish one, this night they are requiring your soul from you” (v. 20). Every “today” that we have is truly the Lord’s grace. Therefore, as long as we have today, as long as we still have breath, we should love the Lord and His appearing, await the Lord’s coming (Phil. 3:20), and always take His coming as an encouragement.
In 2 Timothy 4:1 Paul says to Timothy, “I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom.” This is an exhortation from Paul immediately before his martyrdom. He says that he had fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith, and that at the judgment seat he would be awarded the crown of righteousness, which would be awarded to all those who have loved His appearing (vv. 6-8). He reminded Timothy that by the Lord’s judgment and kingdom we should have a living that loves the Lord’s appearing. This is also a reminder to us, and this will cause us not to be discouraged, not to backslide, and not to become weak but to remain faithful to the end.
At the end of the first century, the Lord said, “Behold, I come quickly,” (Rev. 22:12) so that we would consider His reward to be rendered at His coming back. This is the Lord’s warning. If we take heed to this warning, we will be blessed; otherwise, we will forfeit the blessing. We should not think that because the Lord has been tolerating the situation for more than nineteen centuries, He is slow to come back. We need to look at the world situation today. We do not know what will happen within the next few days. In this age things happen very quickly. Therefore, we must pray and be watchful. We must also be prepared in spirit and in our daily life. May the Lord cover us so that we may be a watchful, praying, and prepared people.
The Lord has still not come, because He does not yet have what He desires. He is after a Body to express Him and a dear bride to satisfy His heart. When the Lord said that He would come soon, He spoke according to His sense of time, not according to ours. The point here is that God is working slowly to dispense Himself into us. We need to see that the quicker our life matures, the sooner the Lord will return. If we require a longer time to mature in life, the Lord will return later.
When the Lord Jesus comes back, He will not only judge the negative things but also receive His bride. This means that He will come both as the Judge and as the Bridegroom. Hence, in order for the Lord to come as the Bridegroom, the bride must be prepared for Him. Is the bride ready for the Bridegroom’s coming? Is it possible for the Lord to come today as the Bridegroom? Because the bride is not yet ready, we may say that it is possible that the Lord’s coming will not be as soon as some expect.
The principle here is that the higher the life is, the slower it grows. For example, mushrooms and mosquitoes, being rather low forms of life, grow quickly. But it takes at least twenty-one years for a human being to reach maturity. The bride must be prepared for the Bridegroom, and this preparation is through the growth in life, a growth that requires time. Instead of blaming the Lord for delaying His coming, we should be diligent to prepare ourselves to meet Him. We should also minister life to others so that they may grow and be prepared. This is the only way to hasten the Lord’s coming back.
Only the lazy, idle servant says, “My master delays” (Matt. 24:48b). The Lord, however, is hastening His coming, and it will not be long before the church age is ended. We must see that the church is the Body of Christ. Unless there is a substantial expression of the Body, the Lord Jesus will not return. The Lord has not yet returned, because the Body has not yet been manifested on the earth.
The reality of living in the Body of Christ is the divine fellowship. The Lord has been frustrated throughout the centuries because of the lack of fellowship. The Lord has not come back because the believers are individualistic, independent, opinionated, and divisive. The Roman Catholic Church controlled people by its organization, but those who broke away from Catholicism brought in division after division. The believers are like unbridled horses. Today nothing seems to control them. Actually, the divine fellowship should control the believers. The one thing that should rule us is the divine fellowship. We should be restricted in this fellowship. By being restricted in this fellowship, the Body of Christ is kept in oneness, and the work of the ministry continues to advance. The Lord has not returned because it will be a shame for Him to come back without having a real building. There must be a remnant that will respond to the Lord’s heart and be willing to lose their individualism in order to be built up together as one Body.
In Revelation 22:12 the Lord says, “My reward is with Me to render to each one as his work is.” The Greek word translated “reward” in this verse means “wages.” At the Lord’s coming, this reward will be rendered to each one of the believers after their rapture at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 4:5; Rom. 14:10; Matt. 16:27).
When He comes again to possess the kingdom, the Lord will reward or punish all those who belong to Him. Some will receive His punishment because the Lord’s word “My reward is with Me” implies that there is not only reward but also punishment. In keeping with this, in Revelation 22:7 the Lord declared, “I come quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this scroll.” He who keeps the words of the prophecy of Revelation is blessed because he will be rewarded. The reward we receive on that day has much to do with our attitude today. First Corinthians 3:8 says that we will be rewarded according to our labor. In Matthew 16:27 the Lord Jesus said that at His coming back He will reward us according to our doings. Eternal salvation has nothing to do with our works, but the kingdom reward will be altogether according to our works that we have done by the Lord’s life after being saved.
Every saved one will be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive the things done through the body according to what he has practiced, whether good or bad; those who practice good will receive a reward, and those who practice evil will receive punishment (2 Cor. 5:10). We will stand before the judgment seat and give the Lord an account concerning all of our past living, walk, and conduct. It is because of this that even the apostle Paul says that he dared not examine himself, but He who examined him was the Lord (1 Cor. 4:3-4). He says, “Do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then there will be praise to each from God” (v. 5).
As we live on earth, it is not sufficient for us to merely have a conscience without offense; the Lord must still judge the way we serve Him. According to Matthew 25, we may not have received two talents or five, but we have all received at least one talent, at least one spiritual gift, from the Lord. We cannot say that we are not saved, that we do not have the Lord’s life, or that we do not have the Holy Spirit. We have all these things. As a result of our having received these things, we have at least one talent, and we must use this talent properly and gain a profit for the Lord (vv. 14-30).
The Bible shows that after the one who received five talents gained another five talents, the master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful slave...Enter into the joy of your master” (v. 23). The one who received two talents likewise gained another two talents. They both served the master faithfully and used their gifts to the fullest extent. In the same way, when we use the life, the Holy Spirit, and the talent we have received from the Lord, there will be a full result.
We should never think that once we are saved, we will have no problems. We should not think that as long as we do not do anything contrary to our conscience, we will be void of offense toward both God and man, nor should we think that as long as our conduct is perfect, we will have no problems. Actually, the way we serve and work for the Lord after we are saved is a great matter. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul says, “Let each man take heed how he builds” (v. 10b). This means that we must all take heed concerning our work. We may build with gold, silver, and precious stones or with wood, grass, and stubble. One day the nature of our work in our service to the Lord will be tested by fire. If we have built with wood, grass, and stubble, our work will immediately be consumed when it passes through the fire. Only the work that is of gold, silver, and precious stones will remain. Hence, Paul says, “If anyone’s work which he has built upon the foundation remains, he will receive a reward” (v. 14). Apart from salvation, there is also the matter of reward. Therefore, it is not that if we work well, we are saved. The matter of salvation has already been resolved, but the matter of reward is an issue that has not yet been resolved. It depends on how we serve the Lord after we are saved.
If our work for the Lord is of gold, silver, and precious stones, we will receive a reward; if it is of wood, grass, and stubble, we will suffer loss (v. 15a). Some think that to suffer loss is to lose one’s salvation, that is, to perish. The truth, however, is that we will still be saved, “yet so as through fire” (v. 15b). Hence, we must not think that once we are saved, we will have no problems. After we are saved, there are still great issues to take care of. Our conduct is an issue, and our work also is an issue. When the Lord comes back, there will be a judgment. In that judgment He will determine whether we will receive a reward or punishment.
This reward will be decided by the judgment seat of Christ. Second Corinthians 5:10 says, “We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done through the body according to what he has practiced, whether good or bad.” The judgment seat of Christ will be set up at His coming back. The unbelievers will be judged at the great white throne a thousand years later (Rev. 20:11-15), but the Lord Jesus will judge all His believers at the judgment seat. There, the decision will be made regarding what reward they will receive — the enjoyment in the coming kingdom or some punishment.
Revelation 22:21 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.” After seeing all the visions and hearing all the prophecies in Revelation, we still need the Lord’s grace. Only the grace of the Lord Jesus can enable us to live and walk according to these visions and prophecies. Not only this book but also the entire Bible closes with this grace, the grace that enables us to experience the all-inclusive Christ and participate in the Triune God that we may become His eternal corporate expression for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose, that He and we may enjoy absolute satisfaction and complete rest mutually for eternity.
Many Bible readers know and can recite the first sentence of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). But not many know the concluding word of the Bible. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth is objective to us. But the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints is subjective to us. We need to pray-read this concluding verse of the Bible. The grace of the Lord must be with each one of us in every aspect of our daily life because we are saints. The New Jerusalem is the base upon which the grace of the Lord Jesus is with all the saints for the accomplishment of the eternal economy of God. The Lord’s grace being with us is based upon all the particular aspects of the New Jerusalem. With the New Jerusalem as the base, the grace of the Lord Jesus is always with all the saints from the age of grace through the age of the kingdom to eternity for the accomplishment of the eternal economy of God. This grace consummates in the New Jerusalem as the consummation of God’s good pleasure in joining and mingling Himself with man for His glorious enlargement and eternal expression.
