Search
Scripture Reading: Rev. 1:2, 4-5a, 9-13, 17-18, 20; 2:7, 11, 17, 26-29; 3:5-6, 12-13, 21-22; 19:10b
In our fellowship in this chapter, we have come to the final book of the New Testament — Revelation. In the four Gospels we see the Son with the Father by the Spirit. In the twenty-two books from Acts through Jude we see the Spirit as the Son with the Father. This Spirit is the all-inclusive, compound, processed, life-giving Spirit. In the book of Revelation the all-inclusive, compound, processed, life-giving Spirit is now intensified seven times. He is the sevenfold intensified Spirit. The life-giving Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God is seven times intensified. In John 20:22 we see the Spirit as the breath, the essential Spirit. In Acts 2 and 10 we see the economical Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12 we see the manifestation of the Spirit. Finally, in Revelation we see the life-giving Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God, seven times intensified. The seven Spirits are the seven lamps of the lampstand (4:5) and the seven eyes of the Lamb (5:6).
Essentially, the Spirit is only one, but economically, He is seven. In God’s economy and in His function, He becomes the sevenfold intensified Spirit. In Revelation it is not a matter of the essence but a matter of the function, of the economy. Economically speaking, the Spirit is intensified sevenfold. In substance and existence God’s Spirit is one; in the intensified function and work of God’s operation, God’s Spirit is sevenfold.
Economically speaking, the Spirit of God in God’s administration is the eyes of the administrating Son, the seven Spirits. This is for function, not for existence. In order for us to do anything, we need our eyes. In the divine administration Christ needs the Spirit to be His eyes. Without the seven Spirits, Christ does not have the eyes. Christ is the very focal Executor of God’s economy, yet He needs the seven Spirits as His eyes to carry out God’s economy.
The Nicene Creed, which was formulated in A.D. 325, is not complete because it does not say anything concerning the seven Spirits. This creed talks about the Godhead of the Triune God, the Divine Trinity, in a general way, but it does not cover anything in Revelation. When the Nicene Creed was made in A.D. 325, there was still disagreement as to whether or not Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, and Revelation should be included in the Bible. Thus, this creed was made apart from the truth contained in the book of Revelation. It was not until A.D. 397 at the council held in Carthage in the northern part of Africa that Revelation, along with the other six books, was recognized as a part of the New Testament. The Nicene Creed is not complete because it does not cover the book of Revelation, which is the ultimate consummation of the divine revelation.
By the Lord’s mercy, we have seen that in the book of Revelation there is the sevenfold Spirit for the testimony of Jesus. The testimony of Jesus (1:2, 9; 20:4) is an all-inclusive expression. This all-inclusive term is not so easy to define. The testimony of Jesus is the testimony of the Son coming with the Father by the Spirit to live on this earth for thirty-three and a half years and to die on the cross to clear up the universe, to release the divine life, and to resurrect from the dead to become a life-giving Spirit; the life-giving Spirit comes as the Son with the Father compounded with divinity, humanity, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, including all the divine attributes and all the human virtues. Such a compound testimony is the testimony of Jesus. This testimony has a symbol — the golden lampstand. The golden lampstand is the testimony of Jesus.
As the testimony of Jesus, the golden lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God. In the golden lampstand there are three main factors. First, the entire lampstand is gold. It is not only golden but gold itself. In typology in the Bible, gold always signifies God the Father’s divine nature. Furthermore, the golden lampstand is not a lump of gold but a piece of gold in a definite form and a purposeful shape. This signifies the embodiment of the Godhead, the embodiment of the Father’s nature, and this embodiment is the Son, Christ (Col. 2:9). Christ is the embodiment of God. The third factor is the seven lamps, which are shining for God’s expression. These seven lamps are the seven Spirits of God. Thus, with the lampstand are the nature, the embodiment, and the expression. Based upon these items, we can say that the golden lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God.
Revelation 4:5 tells us that the seven lamps are the seven Spirits. Since the seven lamps are the seven Spirits, the essence and the shape of the lampstand must also be something of the Triune God. Thus, the golden essence signifies God the Father, and the shape, the form, the appearance, of the lampstand signifies God the Son. In the lampstand we see the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, so the golden lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God. God the Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is expressed through the Spirit — this is the testimony of Jesus.
According to Revelation 1, the golden lampstands are the churches (vv. 11-12). Every local church is a golden lampstand, and the golden lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God as the testimony of Jesus. Thus, the local churches are the multiplied embodiment of the Triune God. This definition is too high, too profound. The apostle Paul does not say anything about this high, deep, and profound aspect of the church. In Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, the church is revealed as the Body of Christ (1:22-23), the new man (2:15), the kingdom of God, the household of God (v. 19), the temple, the dwelling place of God (vv. 21-22), the fullness of the unlimited God (3:19), the bride (5:25-27), and the warrior (6:10-20). But Paul never tells us that the churches are the lampstands.
As the lampstand, the church must be purely and wholly of God’s divine nature. It has to be golden in essence. It also must bear the image of Christ, the appearance of Christ. It must be in the form, in the shape, of Christ. Furthermore, the seven lamps, which are the seven Spirits of God, must be its expression. This is the local church. Are the local churches that you see like golden lampstands? When you look at a local church, do you see a lampstand as the embodiment of the Triune God with the Father’s divine nature, in the Son’s shape and image, and through the Spirit’s expression? The vision of the churches as the lampstands is in Revelation 1, but in actuality, in practicality, the local churches are in Revelation 2 and 3, where we see the church in Ephesus, the church in Smyrna, the church in Pergamos, the church in Thyatira, the church in Sardis, the church in Philadelphia, and the church in Laodicea. The vision is one matter, and the actuality, the practicality, is another matter. If we say that we have seen a golden lampstand in our locality, we have to realize these two aspects of the vision and the actuality, the practicality. What is there as the churches in actuality is not the same as the vision of the churches, but God is working to make what is there in actuality the reality of the vision. Eventually, the churches in actuality will be according to the reality of the vision of the churches as the golden lampstands.
In Revelation 1, John saw the vision of the seven golden lampstands representing or signifying the seven local churches. John also saw the Son of Man, Jesus, in the midst of the lampstands (v. 13). In John’s Gospel we can see that John was very close to the Lord Jesus (13:23; 19:26). After the Lord’s ascension John saw Him again. This time the Lord Jesus appeared as a High Priest in the midst of the churches. He is “clothed with a garment reaching to the feet” (Rev. 1:13), which is the priestly robe (Exo. 28:33-35), and He is walking in the midst of the lampstands (Rev. 2:1). He is like the priest in the Old Testament coming to the Holy Place to dress the lamps (Exo. 27:20-21; Lev. 24:1-4). To dress the lamps, the priest first had to snuff the burned-out wick. The wick in the lamps burned with oil to give the light. When the wick burned out, it became black, so the priest had to come to cut off the black part of the wick. This is what it means to snuff the wick, that is, to cleanse the lamp that the lamp may shine better. At the same time, to dress the lamps the priest had to add more oil.
The Lord Jesus appears in Revelation as the High Priest walking among the lampstands to snuff the burned-out wicks and to add more oil. The burned-out wick signifies something that is not according to God’s purpose. This may be something worldly, sinful, fleshly, or even satanic. The burned-out wick is something that is absolutely not good. These things have to be snuffed, have to be cut off. The churches also need more oil. Oil typifies the Spirit (Isa. 61:1), and in Revelation the oil is the sevenfold Spirit. The Lord Jesus desires to add more oil into the lampstands. In Revelation 2 and 3 the Lord was there as the High Priest snuffing the wicks and adding more oil to the lampstands. In nearly every epistle to the seven churches, the Lord Jesus snuffed some bad things, and at the same time the Lord added more oil, which means that He added more Spirit into the church. He is snuffing the wicks of the lampstands and adding more oil to make all the golden lampstands pure and shining.
In every local church, time after time there are some burned-out wicks. The lampstand may not shine so well. Rather, there are black, burned-out wicks. Then there is the need for the Lord to come in to cut off, to snuff, the burned-out, black wicks. Quite often, a local church will also be short of oil, short of the Spirit, so the Lord has to come in to fill the local church with the oil. Then the local church will be cleansed from the burned-out wick and will be filled with more Spirit to shine more brightly as the testimony of Jesus. It is by this way that a local church is built up bit by bit and more and more until it becomes a golden lampstand in reality. According to the vision, a local church is a golden lampstand, but in our locality, the actuality, the practicality, of the church may not look exactly like what we see in the vision. But we have to believe that the day will come when the churches of the Lord will be golden lampstands in reality.
We may realize that the church in our locality is not yet according to the vision in Revelation 1 of a golden lampstand. But when we say “not yet,” this indicates that there is hope that the time will come when all the churches will be golden in reality. In the Lord’s heavenly ministry His intention is to snuff all the burned-out wicks of the local churches, to cut off the unnecessary, negative things. No doubt, there are some negative things in the local churches, but we must be careful not to focus on these things and talk about them with a critical spirit. If we are critical, then we become a part of the burned-out wick. We do believe that in the church meetings and in the ministry meetings the Lord’s snuffing and the Lord’s filling up the lampstands with oil are going on.
Year after year, the local churches are being brought more and more into the reality of the golden lampstands. More of the Father’s nature as the gold is being added to the churches, and the churches are being more and more shaped into the form of the Son, into the image of Christ. Furthermore, as the oil is being added to the lampstands, the churches are becoming more shining. Year after year, we can see more light in the local churches. This means that the Lord as the Priest is cleansing the lamps by snuffing the burned-out wicks and filling the lampstands with the oil so that they are increasing in the Father’s nature, increasing in the Son’s image, and increasing in the Spirit’s expression. As we dive into the Word with the help of the footnotes of the Recovery Version and the Life-study messages, we partake of more of the Father’s golden nature (2 Pet. 1:4), and this gives the Lord a way to shape us more and more into the image of Christ and to add more of the oil of the Spirit into us so that the lampstand will shine more brightly. Every local church needs to be an embodiment of the Triune God shining in its locality.
When I was young, I was taught that the churches should not be the same. These teachers said that the seven churches are different based upon the seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3. But according to the biblical revelation, all seven churches on the positive side should be the same because the churches signified by the seven golden lampstands are exactly the same in their essence, in their appearance, and in their expression. The lampstands are identical as the multiplied embodiment of the Triune God. In the positive sense, all the local churches should be identical. The church in São Paulo should be the same as the church in New York City, and the church in New York City should be identical to the church in Hong Kong, to the church in Tokyo, to the church in Paris, to the church in London, and to the church in Stuttgart.
In the seven epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the churches are different in the negative sense. All seven epistles are different from one another, but they are different in negative things. The particular characteristic of the church in Ephesus was the loss of the first love (2:4). The church in Pergamos became worldly; worldliness was their particular characteristic (v. 13). The specific, particular characteristics of the apostate church in Thyatira were Jezebel, idol worship, fornication, and adultery (vv. 20-22). The characteristic of the church in Sardis was deadness (3:1), and the characteristic of the church in Laodicea was lukewarmness (v. 16). The churches are different from one another in negative things, but the lampstands in Revelation 1, among whom Christ as the Head was walking, are altogether identical. In the positive sense as the testimony of Jesus, the lampstands should not be different. Jesus does not have different testimonies. He only has one testimony, that is, the embodiment of the Triune God. Thus, all the local churches, not only in the cities of one nation but also in all the cities of all the nations, should be exactly the same.
In 1968 a group of American saints visited the churches in Taiwan. After visiting the churches, one particular saint told me that he was very disappointed. He said that everywhere we went on the island of Taiwan, the local churches were exactly the same. When he told me this, I felt that this was wonderful. If you see one local church, you have seen all the local churches. Suppose that you visited all the local churches throughout the earth and you realized that they were exactly the same. This would be wonderful!
Because of human pride, we do not like to be the same as others. The British do not like to be the same as the French, and the French do not want to be the same as the Americans. The British brothers may be proud of the fact that they are full of patience and may look down on the American brothers who do not have much patience. A local church in England may be a church full of patience, whereas a local church in America may be a quick church with no patience. Human pride always likes to make the self different from others. You may speak one thing, but I would never speak what you speak because of my pride. I want to speak something different from what you speak, something new and something better. This is the self, and this is fleshly pride. We all have to learn how to follow the other churches, how to be one with the churches, and how to be the same as the churches.
We may not want to be the same as the other churches because of our pride, but according to the divine economy, the more that we are the same, the more glorious we are. It is glorious to imitate others, to follow others, and to be one with others in the spirit. We must learn from one another, be adjusted by one another, and receive grace from one another. The church in São Paulo helps the church in Los Angeles, and the church in Los Angeles receives help from the church in Stuttgart. If we all receive the divine help from one another, we will be shaped into the same kind of image, the same appearance. The image we bear as the lampstand should not be one of national characteristics. The churches in Germany should not bear an image of German characteristics, nor should the churches in the United States bear an image of United States characteristics. The churches throughout the earth should not have different flavors. All the churches should bear one unique flavor — the flavor of the Triune God. All the local churches should only bear one characteristic — the characteristic of the Son with the Father by the Spirit.
I hope that we all would see this vision. Vision controls. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.” The Berkeley Version says that “the people run wild.” We are not wild, because we are under the regulation, under the control, of the heavenly vision. According to the heavenly vision, we see that all the churches are golden lampstands, that they are the same in essence, in appearance, and in expression. All the golden lampstands bear the same appearance and testify the same person — the all-inclusive person of Christ. The Lord is working and moving in His heavenly ministry to bring in such a glorious situation of the churches being the golden lampstands in reality according to their actual situation.
