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Scripture Reading: Rev. 1:9, 11-12
God’s New Testament economy consummates in the golden lampstands and in the New Jerusalem. In this chapter we want to see that the searching and infusing by the seven Spirits as the seven eyes of the redeeming Lamb issue in this age in the golden lampstands (Rev. 1:11-12). As we have seen, the book of Revelation is the conclusion of the entire Scripture. In this book we see things both new and old. Some things revealed in this book are altogether new, and other things were already revealed in the Old Testament. Genesis is a field where the seeds of nearly all the divine truths were sown. All these seeds grow in the following books until we reach the last book of the Bible, Revelation. In this book there is the reaping, the harvest, of all the divine truths that were sown as seeds in the book of Genesis.
The first issue of God’s New Testament economy is the golden lampstands, which are signs or symbols of the churches. The lampstand is not a new item, because in Exodus 25 we see the lampstand in the Holy Place of the tabernacle (vv. 31-40). In Exodus 25 we see that in the tabernacle, which was God’s dwelling place on this earth, there was neither light made by God from the heavens nor light made by man in a secular way. There is no natural light, but a particular light was there shining and enlightening the entire Holy Place. That light was the light of the lampstand. The lampstand in Exodus 25 is a type of Christ being the light from God to us. The second instance of the lampstand in the Scriptures was in the building of the temple in 1 Kings 7:49. The third instance had very much to do with the rebuilding of God’s temple in Zechariah 4:2-10. The lampstand in Zechariah 4 does not signify Christ, but it symbolizes the children of Israel. The children of Israel should be a lampstand shining out God.
In the book of Revelation we see that the lampstand is repeated again, but this time the lampstands are plural (1:11-12) because these seven lampstands are the figures, the signs, the symbols, of seven local churches. This shows that in the eyes of God every local church is a lampstand, and by this we can see that a local church is a reproduction, or a duplication, of Christ. When all the lampstands, or local churches, are added together, they are a multiplication of Christ. In Exodus 25 Christ was the unique lampstand, but in Revelation this lampstand has been reproduced, duplicated, and thus multiplied. Actually, there were more than seven local churches on the earth at the time of Revelation, so the number seven is a representative number. Every lampstand is a reproduction of the lampstand revealed in Exodus 25. The lampstand is an old item, yet it bears a number of new characteristics. In Exodus there was only one lampstand, but in Revelation there are seven. The lampstand was there in Exodus, but the sevenfold aspect of the lampstand was not there. The new aspect of the lampstand is its multiplication.
One of the great teachers in the Bible concerning the church was the apostle Paul. In the book of Ephesians, which is on the church, he tells us that the church is the Body of Christ (1:22-23), the fullness of the One who fills all in all (v. 23), the new man to fulfill God’s purpose on this earth (2:15), the kingdom of God, God’s household, which is God’s family (v. 19), God’s dwelling place in our spirit (v. 22), the wife, the bride, to satisfy Christ (5:23-32), and finally, the warrior fighting the battle for God’s kingdom (6:10-20). Seven items are clearly revealed in this great teacher’s Epistle on the church. When John spoke concerning the church, he brought in something new, which Paul never touched, and this new item is the lampstand. Paul unveiled seven wonderful items of the church in Ephesians, but in my opinion John exceeded Paul with his revelation of the church as a lampstand.
The most mysterious aspect of the church that Paul gives us is the Body as the fullness of the One who fills all in all. In Ephesians 1 the fullness is the fullness of Christ as the One who fills all in all, but the same fullness in chapter 3 of Ephesians is the fullness of the infinite God (v. 19). In Ephesians 3 Paul prays that Christ may make His home in our hearts so that we may know His dimensions — the breadth, length, height, and depth — that we may be filled unto the fullness of the infinite God. The fullness is first of the unlimited Christ, the very Christ who fills all in all, and then of the infinite God. This fullness is a mystery that has been wrongly interpreted by many teachers as the riches of Christ. Fullness, however, in the book of Ephesians is not the riches but the issue of our enjoyment of the riches of Christ. Our enjoyment of the riches of Christ issues in this mysterious fullness.
The church as the fullness is mysterious and abstract, but the lampstands are very concrete. A lampstand is not mysterious but very solid. When you pray much and get into this item in the holy Word, you will realize that the sign, the symbol, of the lampstand is not mysterious, but its significance is far beyond our understanding. From my youth I have paid much attention to this item in the New Testament. I read a certain spiritual paper published in London, and the front cover always had a picture of a lampstand on it. As I was reading that paper, I always wondered what the lampstand was. The writer of this paper gave a number of messages on the pure, golden lampstand, and he mostly stressed one point — the pureness of the gold of the lampstand. This was very helpful in the spiritual life, but I still did not know what the main significance of the lampstand was. Later, I received some help to see that the lampstand is for shining in the night, to enlighten in the dark age. In the dark night there is the need of the light, and the churches are the lampstands holding the lamps to shine and enlighten. Although this is a correct understanding, I still felt that this was too superficial. Even little children know that a lampstand is for enlightening. I still wanted to see why it was a golden lampstand. Why are the lampstands not made of glass or some other material?
The lampstands, as signs signifying the churches, are made of pure gold. When reading this, some of the saints may feel that they have never seen a church so golden. They may feel that the churches they have seen are “muddy” or at best “wooden.” Is the church in your locality muddy, wooden, or golden? On the night of a glorious meeting of the church, you may feel that the church is golden, but the next day something will happen to make you feel that the church is altogether muddy. We must realize that we have our perspective of the church, and God has His. We think that our perspective is very smart, sharp, and to the point, but God’s perspective is absolutely different from ours.
I still remember an incident that happened in a prayer meeting in Shanghai nearly forty years ago. A very elderly sister prayed in a very genuine way, crying to the Lord. Her prayer was long, earnest, and you may say that it was even powerful. She was lamenting the fact that the church was so weak with many shortcomings. According to her prayer, the church in Shanghai was muddy. Immediately after her prayer, Brother Nee prayed with praise for the church. He praised the Lord for the fact that His church was wonderful, and he quoted Balaam’s prayer concerning Israel in Numbers 23, where Balaam said that God “has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, / Nor has He seen trouble in Israel” (v. 21). Balaam also went on to say concerning Israel, “Blessed is everyone who blesses you, / And cursed is everyone who curses you” (24:9). This incident shocked all the saints. There were two kinds of prayers. One prayer described the church there as being weak, and another prayer uplifted the church to the heavens. Of these two prayers, which would you say was right? Actually, one prayer was right from the human perspective, and the other prayer was right from the heavenly angle. I was told that the elderly sister who prayed her prayer went back home weeping for and regretting her natural concept concerning the church.
Many times my feeling concerning myself was that I was worse than muddy. When Moses was called by God, he told the Lord that the Egyptians would not believe that the Lord had appeared to him (Exo. 4:1). One of the signs that the Lord gave Moses to perform is in Exodus 4:6-7. The Lord told Moses to put his hand into his bosom. Moses did this, and when he took his hand out, it was leprous. When Moses put his hand back into his bosom again and took it out, his hand became as it once was. Moses discovered through this sign that his inward nature was leprous. How could a leprous person be called by God? In God’s heavenly perspective, however, Moses was a great vessel for God’s use. God had already given Moses a vision of a flame of fire burning in a thornbush, and yet the thornbush was not consumed (3:2). God does not use what we have as the burning fuel. God Himself is the fuel, the fire, burning within us. We should not look at ourselves since we are not worth looking at. If any brothers were to stay with one another for approximately one week, they would discover that none of them are “golden brothers.” On the other hand, we all need to realize that because we have received the Lord, we have something golden in us. We all need to praise the Lord that we do have some amount of gold in us.
Many of us have been in the church life for years, and we do not have much realization that we have grown that much. According to our human perspective, there is too much waste of time. We must remember that to the Lord one thousand years are like one day (2 Pet. 3:8). According to God’s perspective, even fifty years are not such a long time. None of us should be disappointed concerning our growth in life.
I am not encouraging you not to grow, but your growth in life is not up to you. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.” Last night in the meeting you all may have shouted that the church in your locality is golden. The next morning, however, a phone call may have been made that was full of gossip, discrediting the church. Of course, we all should hate gossip in the church life, but sometimes matters such as this may be of the Lord’s sovereignty. I do not encourage people to gossip, but we must realize that the Lord is sovereign over everything that happens in the church life.
We must realize that even during Paul’s time there was not a church which was that good. I once heard a sermon many years ago telling the people in the congregation that the church in Philippi was the best church. When I studied the book of Philippians, however, I discovered that even the church in Philippi was not good, because among them there were dissenting ones (4:2; 2:2). No church, humanly speaking, is not muddy. Also, from the human point of view, no church is golden. God, however, knows that in you and in me there is an amount of gold (2 Cor. 4:7).
After many years of study I came to the realization that in Exodus the golden lampstand is not only a type of Christ as the light from God to man but that the lampstand is also the embodiment of the Triune God. This corresponds with Colossians 2:9, which says, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” As the embodiment of God, the lampstand has three crucial aspects. First, the substance of the lampstand is gold. Second, this gold is not merely a lump of gold, but it has a shape, a form. Third, the lampstand has seven lamps shining. Three crucial aspects of the lampstand are the element, the shape, and the expression. When I considered these three aspects of the lampstand, I began to realize that this is a picture of the embodiment of the Triune God. The golden element according to typology always typifies the divine nature of God the Father. The shape of the lampstand signifies Christ as the embodiment of the invisible God. The form of the lampstand undoubtedly signifies God the Son as the very embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). The seven lamps of the lampstand signify the seven Spirits shining in the dark age. Therefore, the expression is God the Spirit. The element refers to God the Father, the shape signifies God the Son, and the expression is God the Spirit. The lampstand, which typifies Christ, is also the embodiment of the Triune God.
This embodiment, which was unique in Exodus 25, has been multiplied by the local churches, which are composed of all the believers. All the believers are also the multiplication of Christ. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus indicated that He was as a grain of wheat falling into the ground to die and that when He died, He would bear much fruit. When the Lord died on the cross, many grains were produced in His resurrection, and the many grains are the multiplication of that one grain. Also, Paul says in Philippians 1:21a, “To me, to live is Christ.” This is another indication of the multiplication of Christ. Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 12:12 tells us that Christ is not only the Head but also the Body. In Exodus the lampstand was Christ, and in Revelation the lampstands are the churches. This indicates that not only Christ Himself is a lampstand, but every local church is also a lampstand; therefore, the lampstands as the local churches are the multiplication of that unique lampstand.
We have mentioned already that all of us have some amount of gold in us, and gold signifies God in His nature. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received God into us (1 John 4:15). All the believers have been begotten of God (John 1:13). This matter of being begotten indicates that something substantial of God enters into the children whom He begets. When a father begets a child, something of the father is imparted into that child. As those who have been begotten of God, we have to believe and realize that the divine substance has been born into our being.
In John 4:24 the Lord told us that God is Spirit. This means that God is Spirit in substance. To say that a table is wood means that the table’s substance is wood. The Lord also went on to say that since God is Spirit, those who worship Him must worship Him in their spirit. Many of us think that to worship means to kneel down or bow down to God. However, the entire context of John 4 does not give us this kind of concept. Rather, in John 4 to worship is to drink (vv. 13-14). When we drink the Lord as the living water, this is our real worship to God. To worship God is to contact God in our spirit. The very God whom we worship in John 4 is the living water. It would not be logical to contact the living water by kneeling down to it. The living water is here for us to drink, and our drinking of the living water is a real worship to God who is the living water. When we drink the living water, we receive something as a kind of element into us. Furthermore, in John 6 the Lord told us that He is the bread of life (v. 35). Life is very abstract, but bread is solid. When we eat bread, surely some element gets into our being. The New Testament shows that we believers have received something of God substantially into our being, and after believing, we should drink of Him and eat of Him, continually receiving some substance of Him into our being.
When I was young, I was taught and encouraged to pray every day and to tell God what I needed and wanted. Eventually, however, I learned that the first thing in prayer is not to ask for what you want. To pray is to drink of God and to eat of God (v. 57). The more you pray, the more you eat and the more you drink, and the more you drink and eat, the more of God you will substantially receive. Paul says that he planted and Apollos watered but that God is the One who causes the growth. Growth comes out of something substantial. If plants are not fertilized, they will not grow that much. If your children are not fed, they will not grow. Many of the American children grow substantially because of eating the rich food of America. After eating the riches of America and being constituted with them, they become “the fullness of America.” We can grow in Christ only by receiving the divine substance additionally and continually into our being. The divine nature of which we partake (2 Pet. 1:4) is typified by gold. As believers, we need to eat (John 6:57), drink (7:37; 1 Cor. 12:13), and breathe the Lord (John 20:22; Lam. 3:55-56). When we do this, we are drinking “golden” water, eating “golden” bread, and breathing “golden” breath. Whatever we are drinking, eating, or breathing is gold because it is divine.
Although, humanly speaking, I can see many weaknesses in the church, I must testify that I see the increase of God in all the saints. Undoubtedly, our growth is very slow in the same way that our physical growth is also slow. From day to day the parents notice little growth in their children. After five years, however, a noticeable amount of growth has actually taken place. After twenty-two years some children may grow up to be taller than their parents. After planting, watering, and fertilizing the plants, we can go home to rest because God gives the growth. This also applies to our growth in life, in Christ. All the churches are growing in the Lord.
While we are growing with the divine element, we are being shaped. Life always has the life essence, the life power, and the life shape. We do not need to worry about an apple tree producing bananas. There is no need to make a mold so that the fruit on the apple tree will take the shape of an apple. The apple life has the apple shape in the same way that the divine life has its divine shape. The divine shape is Christ. Christ is the mold, the form, and the likeness, and the New Testament tells us that as His many brothers, we will be conformed to His image (Rom. 8:29). In Philippians 3:10 Paul also tells us that as we experience Christ, we are being conformed to His death. The more we grow, the more we are in the shape of Christ. According to my experience, the shape of Christ is mainly in the mold of His death and resurrection. The more we grow in the divine life, the more we do not live the natural life. We do not move, act, or work in the natural life, but we move, act, and live in the resurrection life. People can see that in our daily life we do not live the natural life, because the natural life is under the cross. We live another life, the resurrection life. As a result, in our daily life there is a form, a shape, of Christ’s death and resurrection. All the saints in the churches are being shaped into the image of Christ, so all the churches are being molded into a form. When I was a young man studying the Bible, I was taught by some teachers that in the church life there should be no disorder. This teaching is right, but actually, it is not a matter of order but a matter of shape. We all have to be shaped by the divine life into its form, and the form of the divine life is Christ. We all need to let Christ be formed in us (Gal. 4:19).
The golden lampstands are also filled with God the Spirit as the seven shining Spirits — the full expression of the Triune God. In the New Testament we are told to be filled in spirit (Eph. 5:18), to walk according the spirit (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16), and to bear the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). In our service and in our ministry we need to have the manifestation of the Spirit, so in our daily life we need to have the fruit of the Spirit as our expression. In our church service we can only have the manifestation of the Spirit as our expression by praying in our spirit (Eph. 6:18). We all need to pray unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17) so that we may be filled in our spirit. Ephesians 5:18 charges us not to be filled with wine in our body but to be filled with the divine element and riches in our spirit. As a result, the Spirit will spontaneously shine out of us. In our daily life we will have the fruit of the Spirit. In our work, service, and ministry, the Spirit will be the manifestation. The fruit of the Spirit and the manifestation of the Spirit are both the expression, the shining, of the lampstands.
Eventually, the church should be the lampstand with God the Father’s nature as the element, with God the Son’s mold as the shape, and with God the Spirit’s expression as the shining. This shining is just the testimony of Jesus. This is the church life, and this is what the Lord is after in His recovery today. God’s New Testament economy, which is focused on one wonderful person who has passed through all the processes, issues in this age in the golden lampstand to shine forth the testimony of Jesus. Eventually, in the coming eternity the issue will be the New Jerusalem, and that issue will be much richer than the golden lampstand.
