10. The Spirit in the Book of Revelation
The Spirit in the Book of Revelation
Finally, there are five different aspects in Revelation under which the Holy Spirit is mentioned. Owing to the prophetic character of this book, the revelations about the Spirit are closer to the Old Testament than the New. The Spirit is not seen essentially as dwelling in the assembly or in the believer, the voucher of our place in Christ before God. He is more presented in His operations in the world. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19:10).
(10) Revelations to John (Revelation 1:10;Revelation 4:2) The Spirit acts sovereignly in favour of the apostle John, while isolated in the Patmos isle, to introduce him into a spiritual scene or entrust him with a new revelation:
"I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day" (Revelation 1:10). Here, John contemplates the glorious Son of Man, and receives the revelation of the prophetic history of the assembly on earth.
"And immediately, I was in the Spirit" (Revelation 4:2). After these things (the completion of this story of the assembly), John is taken by the power of the Spirit to witness the heavenly scene, which opens the prophecies about the world.
(11) The Seven Spirits In four occasions, the Spirit appears as invested with the fulness - "the seven Spirits" - of His attributes of wisdom, power and light, much in line of the character of the Old Testament. This does not contradict His inscrutable unity as revealed in the New Testament: "There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling" (Ephesians 4:4).
(1) "Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ" (Revelation 1:4). John’s salutations to the seven churches in Asia is on behalf of the three divine Persons: the eternal God (the "I AM THAT I AM"; Exodus 3:14), the Spirit and Jesus Christ. Here, the Spirit is the direct agent of God’s power in the sevenfold perfection of His action: He stands before God’s throne.
(2) "And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars" (Revelation 3:1). The Lord presents Himself to the church in Sardis with having:
(a) the seven Spirits, the fulness of the perfection in which He governs the universe, and, (b) the seven stars (the angels of the seven churches), because He retains the supreme authority over the assembly, in spite of the pretensions of an unfaithful church who had a name to live but was dead. The next two mentions of the seven Spirits are connected to the two aspects of the heavenly scene John is invited to contemplate (chapters 4 and 5).
(3) "And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God" (Revelation 4:5). The Lord is seen as the Creator, and the seven Spirits are likened to seven lamps, the emblem of God’s attributes in His judicial action to bring light in the world. The heavenly saints have royal crowns like kings and cast them before the throne in adoration and submission to the King of Kings.
(4) "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth" (Revelation 5:6). The Lord is now seen as the Redeemeer. As Lamb of God, He has seven horns, the fulness of God’s power over the earth. The seven Spirits are likened now to seven eyes (and no more to seven lamps) an emblem of the fulness of God’s government. It was already revealed during the times of Israel: "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him" (2 Chronicles 16:9). The heavenly saints, in their priestly office, are now given golden vials (of prayers) and harps. They sing the new song to the glory of the Lamb, the Redeemer.
These four mentions of the seven Spirits confirm beautifully Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the Messiah: "And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall be fruitful; and the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah." (Isaiah 11:1-2). In the tabernacle, the golden candlestick (symbol of God’s light in the world) had six branches coming out of the centre stem, three on either side; seven in all (Exodus 25:31-37). Likewise, in the Lord Jesus - true light of the world (John 8:12; John 9:5) - there is the fulness of the seven Spirits of God, but one Spirit.
(12) A message of rest to the martyrs (Revelation 14:13).
Chapter 14 presents seven successive scenes; the fifth scene, where the Spirit of God is mentioned, is a very comforting one. A voice coming from heaven pronounces a blessing upon those who die in the Lord (Revelation 14:13).They have reached the end of their life on earth, most probably through martyrdom, in the period between the rapture of the church and the millennial kingdom of Christ. The Spirit gives those martyrs the assurance of rest after their labours. Furthermore, their works will follow them: in any dispensation, the Lord Jesus will never forget anything done for Him. This in confirmed by the apostle Paul: while writing to the Corinthians about the first resurrection and the Lord’s coming, he concludes by exhorting all Christians to abound in the work of the Lord, knowing that their labour is not vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58).
(13) A sevenfold message to the Assembly (Revelation 2:1-29;Revelation 3:1-22)
Seven times, the Spirit addresses a call to the hearing ear. Unlike Paul’s epistles, the book of Revelation does not consider the Spirit as abiding in the church or in the believers, the divine instrument of spiritual blessings, but rather outside the church, speaking to her and pronouncing a judgment of value upon her moral state. Then, the Lord will judge the church, as responsible to carry His testimony in the world. Seven times (for each one of the seven messages to the seven churches) this solemn call is repeated: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches". A similar call was addressed by the Lord Jesus in relation to the seven parables of the Kingdom of heaven: "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Matthew 13:9; Matthew 13:43). The two parallel histories of the Kingdom and of the Church deserve our utmost attention! In each message to the angel of the assembly, the call to hear is associated with a promise to the overcomer; and this call is addressed personally to an individual, not to the assembly; likewise, the promise to the overcomer is also made individually. Moreover, the seven messages form a whole and they contain what the Spirit says to the seven assemblies. Obviously each assembly, as such, has also the responsibility to listen, because the angel of the assembly (to whom the message is addressed) is the mystic representative of the entire assembly. However, there remains that the call is individual and that the seven messages form a indivisible whole. The first four churches (chapter 2) present prophetically the history of the church as founded by the apostles, which goes to the end, the Lord’s return. Then, the last three churches (chapter 3) describe the history of Protestantism after the Reformation. Thyatira is the centre church: last of the first four churches, it is the foundation and root of the last three. And for Thyatira, precisely, there is a change in the relative order of the call to hear and the promise to the overcomer. To the first three churches (Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamos), the call to hear precedes the promise to the overcomer. To Thyatira and thereafter (Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea), the order is reversed: the call to hear follows the promise to the overcomer. For the first time, a remnant is distinguished from the assembly seen as a whole, and a special message is delivered to that remnant. In fact, Thyatira is the church whose history is the longest (fourteen centuries up to now), and most significant. In spite of the sad corruption prevailing in her midst, she carried in herself alone, all through the middle ages, God’s testimony in the world. The judgment of the ecclesiastical system (Romanism) as such - identified with Jezebel (Revelation 2:20-23) - is already pronounced, although it is not yet carried out. But, for the joy of His heart, the Lord has maintained a rest (or remnant) in Thyatira, to the end (Revelation 2:24). Against the gates of hades, the very power of the devil (Matthew 16:18), and through fierce persecutions, faithful witnesses insured the perennity of the assembly on earth, at the cost of their comfort and even of their own lives. And Christ keeps in His book of remembrance the names and the works of those faithful ones who are so precious to Him.
We should take heed in particular to one aspect of the Spirit’s messages as it predicts the constant decline of affections of the believers and of the church for the Lord Jesus. First, Ephesus left its first love (Revelation 2:4); then, the Lord Jesus allowed Smyrna to go through ten successive persecutions from the Roman Empire to regain the church’s heart for Him; in a large measure, this discipline of love produced its effect: the Lord has nothing to say against Smyrna, but rather encourages her not to fear and be of good courage. However, the leaven of wrong doctrines had started to infiltrate the assembly in the Smyrma period and produced later its sad effects. Pergamos loved the world rather than Christ and set herself as a religious power; moreover, even Satan’s throne was in the assembly. This moral state was far worse than leaving the first love like Ephesus. Finally, Thyatira replaced Pergamos, to be declared guilty of fornication, the utmost in unfaithfulness. Sadly, this constant decline of affections for Christ repeated in the history of Protestantism: Sardis, full of pretensions, has the name to live, but represents globally a dead system. although there were some in Sardis that had not stained their robes. There is no question of Philadelphia loving the world, but rather that the Lord loves Philadelphia. Is there something more precious than to know that we are the objects of the Lord’s love ? Finally there is a complete lack of love in Laodicea, the worst evil. The book of Revelation does not finish on this sad note, although we should commit our hearts to listen intently to the call of the Holy Spirit speaking to the assembly.
(15) The Spirit and the bride say: Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:16-17;Revelation 22:20-21) The last mention of the Holy Spirit is found in the conclusion of the book. After a series of major events leading the eternal state (Revelation 21:1-8), there follows a retrospect on the church in the millennial times (Revelation 21:1-27; Revelation 22:1-5). Then, a quick epilogue (Revelation 22:6-15), before the conclusion of the book (Revelation 22:16-21). In the beginning of the book of Revelation, the chain of transmission of the divine message is remarkable (Revelation 1:1): God, the Lord Jesus, the angel, the apostle John (Christ’s servant) and finally, us. Now, when the revelation in complete, the Lord Jesus comes personally into the scene: "I Jesus" (Revelation 22:16). Assuming the Name of His humiliation - Jesus - He presents Himself as the root and offspring of David (for His earthly people of Israel) and like the bright and morning star (for His church). When the Pharisees had come to the Lord in Jerusalem to embarrass Him, He reduced them to silence by asking them a question about Himself nobody could answer: "If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?" (Matthew 22:45). God alone fathoms this mystery about the Person of Christ, because: "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father" (Matthew 11:27). However, in adoration, we see Jesus, as Son of God and Creator, to be the root of David, and as Son of Man to be his offspring. It is as bearing His title of Son of David that the Lord Jesus came into the world to receive His glory as King of Israel. And it was rendered Him for a very brief moment, during His only public appearance in Jerusalem the week before His final rejection and death, in the fulfilment of the prophetic promise (John 12:13; Zechariah 9:9). A few days earlier, Lazarus’s sickness and death had declared the glory of Jesus as Son of God (John 11:4). Finally, His glory as Son of Man was rendered Him when the Greeks came to Jerusalem for the feast; And, such glory was solemnly confirmed the night when He was betrayed immediately after Judas had gone into the night (John 12:23; John 13:31-32). Only John records these three glories as Son of God, Son of Man and Son of David (King of Israel) (). How awful to realize that these three glorious attributes of our adorable Saviour were used by His enemies (both Jews and from the Nations) against Him to mock Him and to justify their crime:
"He ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God" (John 19:7); "If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross" (Matthew 27:40).
"Behold the man ! "(John 19:5) and, "Hail, King of the Jews !... Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews (John 19:3; John 19:19). The time was not come for God’s answer to man’s insults against His Son. Judgment will surely come at the appropriate moment when it will return unto righteousness (Psalms 94:15). On the cross, Jesus was the Saviour, not the Judge !
While the Lord Jesus is for Israel - and particularly for the repentant remnant among the nation - the root and offspring of David, He presents Himself to His church as the bright and morning star. This title is mentioned only three times in Scripture:
(1) In connection with the prophetic light shining in a dark place (2 Peter 1:19);
(2) As a promise to the overcomer in Thyatira (Revelation 2:28), a precious emblem of Christ’s joy in heaven;
(3) and finally, here, to announce the coming of the everlasting day, the time of the Lord’s return. The introduction of the book of Revelation contained a salutation from the three divine Persons (Revelation 1:4-5), and the simple mention of Jesus Christ’s Name had arisen in the Church a song of worship: "Unto him that loved us...". Similarly, after all revelations are closed and when the Lord Jesus calls Himself "the bright and morning star", the Church recognizes His voice and answers immediately: "Come". This movement of the heart in the Church is by the Holy Spirit: "The Spirit and the bride say, Come" (Revelation 22:17); and such is the last and marvellous mention of the Holy Spirit in all of John’s writings. Further, those in the church who are cognisant of the soon coming of the Lord Jesus are naturally thinking of the believers who might have lost sight of His coming, and add: "Let him that heareth say, Come". Finally, the church turns to the world to address a final appeal: "And let him that is athirst come. Whosoever will, let him take the water of live freely". It is the same moral order as found in the teachings of John 3:1-36; John 4:1-54; John 7:1-53. Knowing that the Lord is coming soon and that the door of grace will then be closed forever, the immediate movement of the believers’ hearts should be in testimony to the lost world. The beginning of the book had shown the glory of Christ as Son of Man, and now the closing message presents Him as the Church’s Bridegroom. The Lord Jesus completes His own testimony by saying for the third time: "I come quickly" (Revelation 22:7; Revelation 22:12; Revelation 22:20), and the church answers finally: "Even so, Come, Lord Jesus." May the Lord keep our hearts and affections true to Him in the enjoyment of His grace and the expectation of His soon return.
"The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen." (Revelation 22:21).
Jean Muller