A KINGDOM NOT ONLY IN NAME …
Revelation 1 - 2:7
I. THE WASHING OF THE WITNESS 1:5
Clothes need
washing machines very often; hearts need washing but not by machine, rather by
God, nor yet merely in principle, but in a practice so pure and perfect, that
nothing less than an eternal redemption (Heb.
In Numbers 8, you
see that even the Levites serving in the temple had to be sprinkled with water,
to assign the sense of washing: themselves first, but also of consecration to
the priesthood work. In Leviticus 14, you see the disease which typifies sin,
leprosy which eats INTO life and removes PARTS of life, till it desolates
entirely. Here CLEANSING is required, and in this chapter we find no less than
16 references to clean or cleansing in 32 verses! The clothes have to be
washed, when the disease is gone, but the sacrificial cover is symbolised with the sprinkling of oil, and the touching
with blood on thumb.
Cleansing cost the sacrifice its life, and it costs the one cleansed the dignity of being non-delightful, indeed vile. It is only when one sees the depth of sin in the human heart and repents accordingly that one is really ready for salvation. Hence the Holy Spirit convicts of SIN and RIGHTEOUSNESS (ours and His respectively) and judgment (John 16).
HE washed us, replacing all animal sacrifice, with HIS OWN BLOOD! That is the cost of sin, the measure for our abhorrence from it now, on the part of all actual Christians.
2. THE WORD OF THE WITNESS 1:8,11-17
John, friend of
Christ, is persecuted and exiled to the
A voice
identifies Christ Himself as the First and the Last (Isaiah 44:6, that is God).
He is to write to the churches which ARE (at that time) in
Eternal life IS knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and it presents an actual awareness of God (John 17:1-3), a love of His commands and an assured faith in His gift of righteousness (His) and of life that nothing can sever (by the Father's power, John 10).
Jehovah's Witnesses of course deny this identification, and so are enemies of Christ as are all those who dare to use HIS name for THEIR philosophies. Yet there are more, for all who reject His voice and His purity, His sacrifice and His revelation are still aliens from His kingdom, without hope except they repent (cf. Luke 13:1-3, and that below, Ephesians 2:12):
" ...at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."
The way in is by
the door, not by trying to take it off its hinges: that has already been tried
and failed.
3. THE WORK OF THE WITNESS 1:5-6, 17-18
Christ's work had
many aspects. He is the FAITHFUL WITNESS (ensure that you follow Him who is the
truth, in attesting HIM), the FIRSTBORN FROM THE DEAD (as if death were a womb
for destruction, but HE was born from it, being incapable of being held in it –
Acts
John falls at His
feet, but is told not to fear, for this is the ONE who was dead and is alive
for evermore, and the keys of death and hell are His. Hence you need not fear
the UN, or the Pope or the words of men. It is the infinite God who has the
keys, and you CANNOT get there except HE allows it. As to His sheep, HE gives
them eternal life (John
4. THE WAY OF THE WITNESS 2:1-7
This first church
is commended for its patient perseverance, its testing of false prophets, its
steadfast stand. Yet it is condemned in one point, its having LOST ITS FIRST
LOVE! The first blush of delight, the first awareness of the majesty of God,
the first desire to serve Him unswervingly ... these things, with the total
personal consecration, dedication and endeavour for
sanctification, they have past.
Now remember that this is not an individual person, but a church. Nevertheless, so VITAL is a real love to the God WHO IS LOVE, that except that church body should repent of its coldness, it would lose entirely its place in HIS kingdom! (v. 5). Its darkened life would no longer need a lamp-stand, for these are for LIGHTS! GOD's people are to be like LIGHTS, shining in the midst of a perverse and crooked world, not inconspicuous because so very like it. There IS a challenge (cf. Phil. 2:15).
The good side of
this battered picture is this, that to the one who overcomes, there is to be a
gift of the tree of eternal life in the midst of
THIS, it is a
kingdom not only in name, but in power, for the KING RULES!