The Apostle John was directed to write letters from Christ to each of the seven churches in Asia, the Roman province occupying a large part of what is now western Turkey. In the first of these letters, to the church in Ephesus, the Saviour speaks of walking “in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks” (Rev 2:1). No doubt we are intended to think of the candlestick, or lamp stand, in the tabernacle and of the candlesticks in the temple, whose purpose was to give light there.
John had already explained that these candlesticks represent “the seven churches”, and we may at once deduce that these churches were intended to send out light into a dark world, as is true of the whole church of God today. But the light that is to shine out must be the God-given light that comes through the Scriptures. The Psalmist understood this and sang, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Ps 119:105). He could not make his way through this world apart from the instruction he was receiving from the Word of God; but because he was listening to God’s truth, and as long as he was obedient to it, he could go on his way safely. So as long as what is proclaimed in any individual church is the pure truth of God’s Word, a clear light is shining out which makes it possible for those who hear the Word to depart from the darkness of sin and ignorance.
How much sinners need to learn that they are going on in darkness, in sin and in ignorance! Otherwise they will never turn from that way that leads on to everlasting darkness. And it is the responsibility of the Church of God to teach sin-darkened souls by faithfully proclaiming Scripture teaching about the solemn reality of sin and its consequences. Yes, Christ commissioned the Church to go “into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15), but no sinner will take the gospel seriously who has not discovered something of the seriousness of sin.
The Church has been entrusted with “the light of the glorious gospel of Christ” (2 Cor 4:4), the good news about Christ and salvation through Him – that He, the eternal Son of God, took human nature, so that He might bear the guilt of a countless multitude of sinners and bear it away. What wonderful
light the Church is able, by God’s blessing, to shine into the darkness of a sinful world when it proclaims the gospel, when it makes known that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). And when the light shines into an individual soul, it is because the Holy Spirit has put new life there, so that this soul is made able and willing to receive Scripture truth, trusting in the Saviour as He is revealed by the light of the gospel. How we should plead before God that, for Christ’s sake, this light would shine, first into our own heart so that we might believe and be saved, and then that the light of the pure gospel would spread into all parts of the world and penetrate the darkness of multitudes of individual souls!
Yet we must heed Jesus’ warning: “If . . . the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Mt 6:23). In his commentary, Matthew Henry applies these words as follows: “It is of the last importance in religion that we be right in our aims and make eternal things, not temporal, our scope”. Accordingly we may say that it is of the greatest importance for the Church to be right in its aims: to have the glory of God and the spiritual good of souls in view in all that it does. The Church, and every minister in it, must be supremely conscientious to ensure that what is proclaimed from the pulpit is consistent with Scripture, so that it is pure light that shines out from its pulpits. Otherwise listeners are in even greater danger of remaining in the darkness of spiritual ignorance, imbibing false doctrine or, at best, acquiring confused ideas about what God has revealed. In that case, how great their darkness will be! What a responsibility lies on the Church to declare clearly and faithfully the teaching of God’s Word!
Let us notice further that Christ is walking among His churches. Matthew Poole’s Commentary points out that Christ is “not an idle spectator, but present with His Church, to observe how all in it walk, and perform their several parts, and is at hand either to reward or punish them”.
Before His ascension to glory, Christ promised to be with His disciples, and therefore to be with His Church, “unto the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). Apart from this presence, the Church can never flourish; indeed it would cease to exist. But, in the light of this promise, the Church can be sure that it will never be allowed to disappear altogether. It may become weak, numerically and spiritually, but while Christ walks among the churches – which He will do while the world remains in existence – the Holy Spirit will never be totally withdrawn. He will never cease to work; sinners will always be brought to repentance and faith, however few may so be brought at particular times in the Church’s history; and they will all grow in grace until they are taken at last to the perfection of eternal glory.
The Church is never left altogether to itself. If it was, nothing effective would be done to advance God’s kingdom. It is always true that it is “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zec 4:6). The withdrawal of the Holy Spirit is the greatest punishment that can befall a church of God. Unfaithfulness in any part of a church’s witness may be followed by the Spirit working less, and less powerfully, which may result in a downward spiral into unscriptural doctrine and practice and spiritual weakness. However mighty, in human terms, a particular denomination may have once been, in numbers and influence, the absence of the Spirit will leave it weak, even in these outward aspects which every observer can recognise – numbers and influence, for example. A church that does not stand for anything very much, unless to support the ungodly ideas that dominate the society in which it exists, can never have much influence on that society. And this is what we see in so many denominations today.
If God does not work savingly, the proportion of believers in the pews and the proportion of converted ministers in pulpits will diminish; spiritual life will become weaker; biblical content in the preaching will become less. And the decline will continue – unless, in God’s wonderful kindness, the Holy Spirit will return and work powerfully. It is not the power of human learning, it is not the might of human activity, that will build up churches. It is only the presence of the King of His Church, working by the Spirit, that can do so.
Yet Christ still walks among the churches. And that fact is what should give us hope, in the midst of so much discouragement – a fact that should encourage preachers of the gospel to believe that He will yet send His Spirit to apply to sinners the truth proclaimed, on a scale that we have never seen in our generation, and even on a scale that the world has never yet seen. It should further encourage these preachers and all who know their way to the throne of grace, however weak they may feel in themselves, to plead that the Lord would “in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2) and grant an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to revive the Church through the conversion of large numbers of sinners and the spiritual growth of His children.
As Christ walks among His churches, He sees, as He did in the churches of Asia, their weakness, their needs and their faithfulness or lack of it – in whatever degree these are present. He has the power to strengthen them in their weakness, to supply their needs, to reward their faithfulness and to rebuke them for their unfaithfulness. He has the power to cause churches to make eternal things, rather than temporal, their chief aim. May the Lord indeed hear the cries of His children who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land and even in the churches. He is able to do so, and He will.