Christ as the Priest trims the lampstands, the churches, by His speaking (Rev. 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14; 1:16b). In Revelation 2 and 3 the most striking point is the speaking of this all-inclusive, excellent, marvelous, mysterious, and wonderful One. He spoke seven times, to each of the seven churches. At the beginning of each of these seven epistles the Lord told us what kind of person He is, according to the condition of the church revealed in that particular epistle. Based upon the claim of what He was, He spoke something. As He walks among the churches, He speaks to each one according to what the church is. His speaking is both practical and equipping. Revelation 2 and 3 are composed of seven epistles and are the Lord’s last words written to His churches. These chapters reveal the speaking One’s status and what He promises to the overcomers. We need to see all the main points of this person and His promises. In Revelation 2 and 3 the all-inclusive Christ as the Head of the church, walking in the midst of the churches and searching and infusing the churches, speaks to the churches in order to purify them and call forth the overcomers to enjoy Him so that they would overcome the deformed churches to bring in His kingdom.
Revelation 1 clearly depicts Christ as our High Priest, wearing the priestly garment, which signifies that He is ministering Himself and the divine life and nature into us. Chapters 2 and 3 cover His priestly service in His dealing with the seven churches; they reveal how He ministers the priestly service to us. This ministry of the priestly service is accomplished mainly by His speaking. Christ’s heavenly priesthood is a speaking ministry; He is a speaking High Priest. As the High Priest, He speaks to God to intercede for us, and He speaks to us to minister the priestly service. He is carrying on His twofold speaking, a “Godward” speaking and an “usward” speaking. Besides His speaking Godward to intercede, He has a speaking which is usward. Christ’s speaking to us surely follows His speaking to God the Father. In other words, first His intercession takes place; then by His speaking to us He continues to accomplish that for which He has interceded before the Father. What Christ intercedes for, He speaks to us. Then after He speaks to us, He again speaks to the Father. In Revelation 2 and 3 He has much to say to the seven churches; correspondingly, He has much to say to the Father for the carrying out of what He has spoken in the seven epistles. This speaking goes back and forth: first to the Father, then to us, then back to the Father again.
If our speaking is genuine and proper, it is also a part of the Lord’s speaking. In our ministry of the word we should have a twofold speaking: while we speak to the saints, our inner being should be speaking to the heavenly One. Prior to our speaking, there is Christ’s intercession before the throne for the ministry of the word. After our speaking, the intercession goes on again. All of this is part of the proper speaking.
The nature of Christ’s priestly speaking to the churches, the lampstands, is trimming and infilling. In Revelation 2 and 3 Christ as the Priest was trimming away those things that were not needed and that frustrated the shining; simultaneously, He was supplying the oil, which was needed and which would make the lampstands burn brightly. As we have seen, the oil is actually the flow of the gold, which is the sevenfold Spirit as the divine element. The seven lampstands were receiving His trimming and His infilling.
Of all the things He trimmed away, the most striking is the synagogue of Satan (2:9). That the Lord spoke of Judaism in such a way indicates that by the time of the church age, Judaism had become satanic. A Jewish believer may still be for Judaism subconsciously. When he hears that it has become satanic, he may want to protest. Nonetheless, this is the word of our heavenly High Priest. In fact, He used the term a second time in 3:9. A synagogue is the symbol of Judaism, just as a building with a steeple is a symbol of Christianity. Judaism is utilized by Satan in rebellion against God’s New Testament economy. Today Judaism is in rebellion against God. It was neither Pilate nor Herod who sentenced the Son of God to death; rather, the high priest and the Jews called for His death (John 18:13-14; 19:14-15; Matt. 27:20). Judaism must take the responsibility for His crucifixion. This indicates that our old religious concepts are against God’s economy and need to be trimmed away. These concepts are “black” and “charred”; they hinder the shining of the local churches as the lampstands. Thus, we need our High Priest to step in and trim them away.
Another thing that chars the wick is worldliness. Our heavenly High Priest cannot tolerate worldliness, which is seen in the case of the church in Pergamos, the church married to the world (Rev. 2:12-17). All our worldliness must be trimmed away. When the Lord came to the church in Thyatira, He condemned her for tolerating the woman Jezebel, whom the Lord described as one “who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and leads My slaves astray to commit fornication and to eat idol sacrifices” (v. 20). This evil represents the apostate Roman Catholic Church, which is full of evil. All that Jezebel represents must be trimmed away.
In the last epistle, to the church in Laodicea, the Lord spoke of her lukewarmness: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spew you out of My mouth” (3:15-16). We ourselves may be lukewarm. We may come to the church meetings, yet we may be somewhat indifferent. We may be proud of being moderate or mild, thinking that it is good to be neither too zealous nor too apathetic. Many Christian meetings are in this category. Their church service is neither too hot nor too cold; it is just right for the indifferent audience who attends the service. Yet according to the Lord’s word, we must be hot, and we need to burn others. Lukewarmness, along with religion, worldliness, and the evils of Jezebel, must be trimmed away.
The Lord’s promise to the overcomers in the church in Ephesus, Pergamos, and Laodicea—eating of the tree of life, partaking of the hidden manna, and dining with Christ, respectively—refer to the refilling of the oil into the lampstands. By Christ’s high priestly service, all the dark things of religion, worldliness, evil, and lukewarmness are trimmed away, and the heavenly, divine element of the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the heavenly feast is ministered to us.
The effect of this heavenly ministry is a metabolic transformation through which the old things will be discharged and replaced with something new, heavenly, and divine. We will be transformed into precious stones for the building of God’s dwelling place. We are transformed because our High Priest in the heavens is doing His priestly service, walking among us, speaking to us, and interceding for us. The heavenly High Priest has kept us in the church, and day and night He has been taking care of everything that concerns us. When we are under the proper ministry that is under the heavenly priesthood of Christ, such a ministry seeks to trim the churches and supply them with oil so that all the saints in the churches might be metabolically and organically transformed.
All of Christ’s service and care have the aim of making us overcomers. Religion, worldliness, evil things, and lukewarmness are not part of the golden lampstand. But when we eat the tree of life, partake of the hidden manna, and enjoy the heavenly feast, this nourishment will become the divine element with which the lampstand is constituted. Consequently, every local church will be a lampstand, and in every local church there will be overcomers. These overcomers will constitute the lampstand. With them religion, worldliness, evil, and lukewarmness will have been trimmed away, and the heavenly element will have been supplied to them as the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the heavenly feast. What they will have is the Triune God Himself, who will become their constituent. With such a golden constitution there will be the lampstand. A lampstand eventually is the overcomers in a local church.
According to 1:16, the words that proceed out of Christ’s mouth are like a sharp two-edged sword. In the Gospel of John the words that proceeded out of His mouth may be considered words of love. Then in Acts and the Epistles the words that come out of the speaking Christ may be regarded as words of grace. But in the last book of the New Testament the words that come out of the mouth of Christ are portrayed as a sword to judge and destroy for dealing with negative persons and things.
According to the church in Pergamos, a fallen and worldly church, Christ, the speaking One, has a sharp two-edged sword (2:12) proceeding out of His mouth. Such a worldly church is qualified to receive the Lord’s judgment in His sharp word. The sword out of the Lord’s mouth is to cut, to judge, to discern, to kill, and to slay. To the degraded and worldly church He is the One who has such a slaying and judging tongue. If we know Him as such a One, we cannot be worldly.
Revelation 2:1 says that Christ “walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.” This indicates that Christ, the all-inclusive One, is now walking among the churches, the golden shining lampstands, to care for them. If we desire to touch Him, enjoy Him, and partake of Him, we need to be in the churches. We also need to see that Christ is speaking and walking in every church meeting.
Christ’s priestly service includes His walking in the midst of the churches, by which He gets to know the condition of each church. He could write the seven epistles to the seven churches because He visited all those churches. He traveled through Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Such a tour made Him thoroughly familiar with the situation of every church. After seeing their situation, He spoke to the churches.
Today our High Priest in His heavenly ministry is walking among the churches to look into the condition of each one. Then according to what He sees, He speaks to us. This is the Lord’s priestly service. His speaking is His serving, His ministering. Therefore, His speaking is not doctrinal but priestly.
For every local church to be an embodiment of the Triune God as the lampstand, Christ’s heavenly priesthood is needed. His walking in the midst of the churches is His functioning as the heavenly High Priest. By ministering His priesthood to us, He purifies and transforms us, and we become white stones and are built into the temple as pillars. The outcome of our High Priest’s ministering in the churches is that a number of overcomers are brought forth. In the local churches the Lord has the full ground and a full entrance to come in and purify His seeking ones, supply His lovers, and transform them into stones for His building and pillars for His temple.