According to Revelation 3:1, Christ is the One “who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars.” This verse implies that the seven Spirits are for the seven stars. The seven Spirits of God correspond to the seven stars. A star is a messenger of a church, a leading one in a local church. Such a messenger should be one with the seven Spirits of God.
The seven Spirits of God enable the church to be intensely living, and the seven stars enable her to be intensely shining. To the church in Sardis, the Lord was the One who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. The church, which the Lord considered dead, needed the living Spirits and shining stars, that is, the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God and the shining leaders. The sevenfold intensified Spirit is living and can never be replaced by the dead letters of knowledge (2 Cor. 3:6).
The One who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars spoke to the church in Sardis (Rev. 3:1). The stars are the messengers; this means that the messengers should shine as the stars. In order to shine, they must be full of the intensified Spirit, the seven Spirits. Christ has the seven stars, and He has the seven Spirits as the supply to the stars so that the stars can shine. The seven Spirits are one with the seven stars, and the seven stars are one with the seven Spirits. If we have the living word as the morning star rising within us and if we are one with the seven Spirits, eventually we will become the stars. We not only have the star shining within us but also become the stars by looking to Christ as the star and by following in the Spirit.
Daniel 12:3 says, “Those who have insight will shine like the shining of the heavenly expanse, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars, forever and ever.” The stars are those who shine in darkness and turn people from the wrong way to the right way. The present church age is the time of night; hence, we need the shining of the stars, the believers who shine. It is by the shining that in today’s darkness people receive the guidance and are turned from the wrong way to the right way. Anything that is wrong is unrighteousness; anything that is right is righteousness. Those who turn many to righteousness are the stars that shine forever and ever.
In the beginning of the New Testament there was only one star in the heavens that led the magi to the place where Christ was. But at the end of the New Testament there are seven stars in seven local churches. Furthermore, immediately after Revelation 22:16, which says that the Lord Jesus is the morning star, the following verse says, “The Spirit and the bride say.” This implies that, as the morning star, the Lord Jesus is linked to the Spirit and to the church, which is the bride. Revelation 3:1 says that the Lord Jesus has the seven Spirits and the seven stars, and Revelation 1:20 says that the seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches. These verses show that the stars are linked not only to the Spirit but also to the churches. If we would have the living star or the living stars, we need the Spirit and the church.
Revelation 3:3 says, “If therefore you will not watch, I will come as a thief, and you shall by no means know at what hour I will come upon you.” This verse indicates that Christ is the One who will come as a thief to steal away His treasures, His precious seekers. A thief comes to steal precious things at an unknown time. Since many believers are spiritually dead, they will be unaware of the Lord’s coming as a thief in His secret appearing to His seekers. Hence, there is the need of watchfulness.
The revelation in the New Testament regarding the Lord’s second coming is not according to our natural understanding. According to our natural thought, the Lord will suddenly descend from the throne in the heavens to the earth. According to the pure Word of God, however, the Lord’s coming back is a process. His coming back will begin from the throne and will pass through a process until He descends to fight the battle at Armageddon. The Lord will descend from the throne to the air where He will accomplish many things: the rapture of the majority of the saints, the judgment at the judgment seat, and the wedding of the Lamb. After all this has been accomplished in the air, the Lord will descend to the earth. The rapture of the early overcomers, including the man-child (ch. 12) and the firstfruits (ch. 14), will occur at the start of the process of the Lord’s coming back. In other words, when they are raptured, the process of the Lord’s coming back begins.
Christ will come back secretly as a thief (3:3b; 16:15). No thief tells you in advance the time of his arrival. In His secret coming as a thief, Christ will come to steal the precious things. No thief steals things that are without value. Thieves come to steal only what is valuable. We need to be a treasure in the eyes of the Lord. We need to be precious by being mature so that He will come and take us secretly. Only those who are matured in life and transformed in their soul will be precious enough for the Lord to steal. As long as we are untransformed, we can be assured that the Thief will never come to visit us. The time of His secret coming is unknown. We all must ask ourselves if we are precious and if we are worthy of being stolen by Christ in His secret coming.
Suddenly, some of the believers who are the early overcomers will be taken away by the Lord coming as a thief (Matt. 24:43). No one knows the time of the beginning of the process of the Lord’s coming back and of the rapture of the early overcomers. When it comes, there will be no time for us to prepare ourselves. We must be thoroughly prepared before that time. Therefore, we must be ready and watchful.
In Matthew 24:40 and 41, the Lord spoke of His secret coming, saying, “At that time two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left.” The Lord Jesus was very wise, using two brothers in the field and two sisters grinding at the mill as illustrations. Apparently the two brothers are the same and the two sisters are the same. But suddenly one of the brothers and one of the sisters are taken. After giving this illustration, the Lord said, “Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord comes. But know this, that if the householder had known in which watch the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you also be ready, because at an hour when you do not expect it, the Son of Man is coming” (vv. 42-44). As we are working, having no consciousness that Christ is coming, some of us will be raptured. Since He is coming as a thief, we must be watchful.