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Scripture Reading: Rev. 1:11-13, 16-18, 20; 2:1; 3:1, 21; 5:1-10; 7:2-3; 8:3-5; 10:1-2; 18:1; 20:4, 6; 22:1, 3
In the previous chapters we have seen that Christ is now exercising His rulership for the spread of the gospel so that His people might be brought in; He is exercising His headship to cause us to grow and function so that His Body might be built up; He is exercising His priesthood to intercede for us; He is executing the new testament for us; and He is ministering the life supply to us. We are well taken care of. As far as we are concerned, there is no shortage. But how about the universe? How about God’s whole purpose? For this, we need to consider one further aspect of the Lord’s ministry in the heavens.
This final aspect — Christ’s universal administration in the heavens — is unfolded for us in the book of Revelation. The whole universe, both the heavens and the earth, is under His authority. He is the universal Administrator.
In Revelation we first see that Christ, God’s anointed One, is now caring for His church. He is caring for it in an administrative way. The churches are God’s lampstands shining forth His testimony. They need Christ’s administration. Sometimes troubles and difficulties arise, requiring His administrative attention. In the ancient time the high priest took care of the lampstand, seeing that all the lamps were trimmed so that they would keep shining brightly. Our High Priest today is doing this very same work as He walks in the midst of the lampstands (Rev. 1:11-13).
He is further caring for the churches by holding all the responsible ones in His hand. The leading ones in the churches are likened to stars, shining in the heavens during the darkness of the night (vv. 16, 20). We who are the serving ones need to be aware that we are not in our own hands but His. He administrates the lampstands and holds the stars. The view given in Revelation 1 shows us how the local churches in this age can go on. The situation among Christians is surely disappointing and discouraging. We must turn away from the earthly view and look to Christ. He is the First and the Last. He is the living One, even living forever. He is able, and He is now holding “the seven stars in His right hand” and walking “in the midst of the seven golden lampstands” (2:1). He “opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens” (3:7). By looking away to Him we shall be encouraged. The local churches will never fail because of this Administrator walking among us, holding the leading ones.
Such is Christ’s administration in the churches.
The book of Revelation also tells us that Christ is the Administrator taking care of all peoples. There are the Jews, God’s elect; the heathen, the nations; and those in Christendom. We need to be aware that even Christendom and how it will progress are under Christ’s administration. When all these categories of people have been dealt with according to Christ’s rule, there will be the millennium, the kingdom of God on this earth. Afterward there will be a new age, eternity, with the New Jerusalem and the new heaven and the new earth. Christ is the Administrator of these peoples and ages.
This is what is unfolded to us, beginning in Revelation 4. The scene changes from Christ’s tending of the lampstands (chapters 1 through 3) to “a door opened in heaven,” and we are shown “the things that must take place after these things” (4:1). Christ is presented as the redeeming Lamb who is the Victor, qualified to take up the new testament, open it, and execute it. Such is the meaning of the sealed scroll in the right hand of the One on the throne (5:1). When a strong angel calls out, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?” (v. 2), only this worthy Lion-Lamb is able to come and take the scroll (vv. 5-7). He is qualified to take the new testament, open it, and execute it.
The new testament in the Epistles of Paul is mainly for our enjoyment of the riches of Christ, which have been bequeathed to us. There is, however, another aspect to the new testament. God deals with the universe according to His testament. How He deals with the Jews, the nations, and Christendom will all be according to His testament. In this testament are bequests for us as believers to enjoy. In this testament are also the matters of God’s dealing with different peoples and even with the heavens and the earth. This new testament the Redeemer of the whole universe is qualified to take, open, and execute.
Eventually, everything in the universe will be headed up in Christ. The Jews, the heathen nations, and Christendom will all be dealt with, and God’s kingdom ushered in on this earth. When all things are headed up in Christ, there will be the fullness of the times. The heavens will be new and so will the earth and everything in it. The whole universe will be in order. There will be no more division, confusion, darkness, death, night, or tears.
When people ask us how we are, we usually reply, “Fine.” Actually, everything is not fine. Things are mixed up, confused, dark, and under death. There is reason to shed tears. Even the men should shed tears for the pitiful state of things. To say that we are fine or that things are fine is not true. No one is fine. No family is fine. No society is fine.
A day will come, however, when there will be a new heaven and a new earth. All things will be headed up in Christ. Everything will be in order. Then everything will be fine. Who is worthy to administrate this new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem? Only Christ is worthy. He is the One who died to redeem the whole universe. He is the One who conquered Satan through His death. He is the One who consummated the covenant with His redeeming blood. He is the One who bequeathed the new testament to us.
How qualified He is! He is worthy to take up the scroll of the new testament, open it up, execute all that is written therein, provide us with every bequest, carry out every item contained in it, and bring everything in the universe into order. This is Christ’s ultimate heavenly ministry, the carrying out of all that God designed.
In Revelation Christ is first presented as the High Priest for the churches. He walks in their midst, taking care of their shining and holding all the leading ones in His hand so that the churches may go on, even in the dark night of a degraded situation.
Christ is next portrayed as the overcoming Lamb, the Lion-Lamb qualified to execute the new testament.
Then in chapters 7, 8, 10, and 18, He is referred to as “another Angel.” That this title another Angel refers to Christ is clear from the context. God has sent forth many angels, but Christ as God’s sent One is extraordinary. In this role He is called another Angel.
In chapter 7 Christ as God’s Angel controls the whole universe, directing the other angels to carry out God’s judgment upon the earth (vv. 2-3).
In chapter 8 Christ is again depicted as another Angel, offering the prayers of the saints to God (vv. 3-5). For His administration He needs our prayers. Our prayers are the response to His heavenly ministry. As we pray, He administrates. As He administrates, we are praying. These prayers He offers to God, then pours out God’s answers to them on this earth. This is the meaning of verse 5: “The Angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it to the earth; and there were thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake.” The pouring out of God’s answers to our prayers is equivalent to His universal administration. This Administrator is qualified in every way, yet He needs our prayers. We may say that Christ is administrating this whole universe through our prayers.
In chapter 10 another strong Angel is seen “coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon His head, and His face was like the sun, and His feet like pillars of fire...And He placed His right foot on the sea and the left on the land” (vv. 1-2). Here Christ as another Angel has left the throne in the heavens and is on the way back to earth. That He is clothed with a cloud indicates that at this stage His coming is secret. He is secretly on His way back to earth to possess it in its entirety. His right foot on the sea and the left on the land symbolizes His taking possession. The earth is the Lord’s. It must all be His inheritance. He will come in power to take possession of it.
In 18:1 we are told, “After these things I saw another Angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was illumined with His glory.” No longer is He enveloped by a cloud. He is out in the open and very close to earth. He comes to exercise His authority over Christendom, Babylon the Great. After thoroughly judging this evil religion, He will overcome Satan and establish the millennial kingdom on earth.
In that kingdom He will rule, with all His overcomers as co-kings (3:21; 20:4, 6). He will be the head Administrator of the kingdom. After those thousand years there will be the New Jerusalem, with the throne of God and of the Lamb as its center (22:1, 3). There the redeeming Lamb will be the Ruler for eternity. Even for eternity He is the Administrator. This universal administration is a great part of Christ’s heavenly ministry.
Without Paul’s completing ministry, Christ has no way to carry out His heavenly ministry. The two correspond to each other. One is in the heavens, the other, among the saints on this earth. Today we are under these two ministries. Even now Christ is ministering in the heavens, and Paul’s completing ministry is being carried out here among us.
This completing ministry is carrying out God’s economy to prepare a Body for Christ. The Head needs a Body. Consider what you could accomplish if you had only a head but no body. You could do nothing. Without the church, His Body, Christ can do nothing. The completing ministry, then, is to bring forth the Body so that the Head can carry out God’s administration on earth.
Paul’s completing ministry focuses upon Christ as the center of God’s economy and the circumference of God’s purpose. These messages are presented in The Completing Ministry of Paul. This Christ must live in us, and we must live Him. He is the all-inclusive One.
Then there is the wonderful church life. God has passed through a process to become the life-giving Spirit and to enter into our spirit. These two spirits become one when we are regenerated. From this point on, this all-inclusive Spirit would spread from within our spirit into our soul so that it might be saturated with the Triune God. This spreading of God within us is called transformation and the growth in life. By means of this growth, we are fitted together to be one Body. This Body is built up, not by teaching or arranging or going through formalities but by the transformation of our soul. Then we grow together, not only as the Body but also as the universal new man. Christ has His Body, and God has a new man. Then Christ can act, and God can carry out His eternal purpose.
This is the way in which Paul’s completing ministry carries out Christ’s heavenly ministry. After the series of messages on the completing ministry of Paul, we shall continue with the mending ministry of John (see The Mending Ministry of John). With these three ministries the Bible is consummated, and the new heaven and earth with the New Jerusalem are brought in.
