In this message we will continue to consider Christ as the Priest who trims the lampstands, the churches.
Revelation 3:7 presents Christ as “the Holy One, the true One, the One who has the key of David, the One who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens.” To the church in Philadelphia, the church of brotherly love, the Lord is “the Holy One, the true One” by whom and with whom the church can be holy, separated from the world, and true, faithful, to God. In order to dispense life to others, He must be holy and He must be true. If we are not holy or true, we can never dispense life to others. When we enter into the Bible and see all the items of Christ’s being, we can see that they are for the divine dispensing.
To the church in Philadelphia, the Lord is also the One who has “the key of David” (v. 7), the key of the kingdom, with authority to open and to shut. Here we need to consider the meaning of the term the key of David. According to Genesis 1, when God created man, He gave him dominion over all creatures. This indicates that in God’s intention man is to be the power representing God on earth. Due to the fall, however, man lost this power and has never fully recovered it. Man has not regained dominion on earth to represent God. In the lives of Adam, Abel, Enosh, Enoch, and Noah we do not see this power. Neither do we see it in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We do not see this power until God’s chosen people, the children of Israel, entered into the good land and built the temple. Apparently, the temple was built by Solomon; actually, it was built by David, for he was behind the building of the temple. In Genesis 1:26 God made man in His own image that he might express Him and with His dominion that he might represent Him. The temple is related to God’s image because, being God’s house, it is His expression. The temple was built in the city. The temple signifies God’s expression, and the city signifies God’s dominion. The image and dominion revealed in Genesis 1 are, at least to some extent, fulfilled in the temple and the city. In the temple we have God’s presence for His expression, and in the city we have God’s dominion. God’s king is in the city representing Him as he rules on earth.
This is a necessary background for understanding what the key of David is. The key held by David is the key of God’s entire dominion. God’s dominion includes the whole universe, particularly mankind. This dominion has a key which is possessed by the person who fought the battle for the kingdom and who made preparations for the temple. The name of this person is David. David represents God in establishing God’s kingdom on earth. Hence, he has the key of God’s dominion in the universe. David, however, is just a type, not the reality. The real David is Christ, the greater David (Matt. 12:1-8). He is the One who built God’s temple, the church, and established God’s kingdom (16:18-19). Therefore, in the church today, which is both a house and a kingdom, we have God’s expression and representation. As the greater David, Christ has built up the house of God, the real temple, and He has set up the kingdom of God, the dominion in which He exercises full authority to represent God. Thus, He holds the key of David, that which represents God and opens the whole universe for God. It signifies that Christ is the center of God’s economy. He is the One who expresses and represents God, holding the key to open everything in God’s dominion.
Revelation 3:7 also says that Christ is the One who “opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens.” He opens and shuts because the universal key, the key of God’s economy, is in His hand. The Lord uses this key to deal with the church.
Isaiah 22:22-24 is a prophecy concerning Christ as the One who holds the key of David. The crucial subject in Isaiah 22 is the house of God. In this chapter it is prophesied that Christ would be not only the One holding the key of David but also a peg. If we consider the context of Isaiah 22 and read the context of the word regarding Christ as the One holding the key of David in Revelation 3, we will realize that Christ’s holding the key of David is for God’s house, God’s building.
The epistle to the church in Philadelphia goes on to speak of the New Jerusalem (v. 12). The overcomers in Philadelphia will be pillars in the temple of God, and the temple of God will ultimately be enlarged into the New Jerusalem. According to Revelation 21:22, there is no temple in the New Jerusalem, for in eternity the temple will be enlarged into a city, which, having three equal dimensions (v. 16), will be the enlargement of the Holy of Holies. This is the ultimate consummation of God’s house. Christ’s holding the key of David, fighting the battle for God, building the temple, and establishing the kingdom of God are all for God’s building.
Christ, holding the key of David, opens and shuts, not that we might be holy or spiritual but that we might be built up. Both holiness and spirituality are to enable us to be pillars in the temple of God. Eventually, we will bear the name of the New Jerusalem. In 3:12 the Lord said, “I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” God’s purpose is to make us part of the New Jerusalem. God desires a builded church. He wants today’s Bethel, the house of God, that will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
Isaiah 22:22-24 records Jehovah’s words regarding Eliakim, who typifies Christ: “I will set the key of the house of David upon his shoulder— / When he opens, no one will shut; / When he shuts, no one will open. / And I will drive him as a peg into a sure place, / And he will become a throne of glory for his father’s house. / And they will hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, / the offspring and the issue, all the smallest vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.” The all-inclusive Christ, as typified by Eliakim, is the One upon whose shoulder the key of (the treasury of—39:2) the house of God (typified by the house of David for the building up of the kingdom of God—2 Sam. 7:16) is set (Rev. 3:7). The church is both God’s house (1 Tim. 3:15) and God’s kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17). The key set on Christ’s shoulder is the key for the keeping of all the treasures of the house of God, which are all the riches of Christ for our enjoyment. Christ is the One who can open and shut the door to the treasury of God’s riches, which are embodied in Him (Col. 2:9). Christ has been driven by God as a peg, or nail, into a sure place (Isa. 22:23a), which typifies the third heaven (cf. 2 Cor. 12:2b), where Christ was exalted by God after His resurrection (Acts 2:33; 5:31). Because the Father is in the third heaven (Matt. 6:9), to be exalted to the third heaven is to be exalted to God the Father (cf. Luke 15:18). Christ today is in the heavens as a peg driven into God.
In Isaiah 22:24 glory is in apposition with both the offspring and the issue and vessels. Thus, the glory of the Father’s house that hangs on Christ as the peg is the children of God as the offspring and the issue (descendants) of God, and these children of God are the vessels of Christ, who hang on Him as the peg, the holder, in order to contain Him and to minister Him to others. The children of God as the offspring and the issue are glory in the house of God, and they are also the vessels. The Speaker to the church in Philadelphia holds the key of David to deal with us so that we might be transformed and built up. Once we have been built up, He will become a peg to us, and we will be the vessels hanging on Him.
First, Christ holds the key of David, and eventually He holds us. Christ used the key to open the door of our prison. Before we came into the church life, we were all imprisoned. But Christ, the One who holds the key of David, opened our prison and released us. According to our experience, all the doors opened for us by Christ are prison doors. Although the opposers are trying their best to imprison us, we are released by the key held in the hand of Christ. As today’s David, He has the key to open whatever God desires to open. Once He opens the door and we are released, we enter into the house of God where we become the household with many vessels held by Christ as the peg. Christ is the peg in God’s house, and by this peg, we all are held up from the earth.
First, Christ uses the key to release us from prison. After we have been released and have entered into the house of God, He becomes the peg holding us off the ground. The purpose of His doing this is so that we might be transformed into a pillar in God’s house. Eventually, we, the pillars, will become parts of the New Jerusalem. Christ’s writing the name of the New Jerusalem upon us means that we have been transformed into a part of the New Jerusalem. This is the church life, and this is the temple of God. Within this temple our Christ is a great peg holding us off the ground for God’s building.
As the One who has the key of David and who opens what no one will shut, the Lord has given the recovered church an opened door, which no one can shut. Through the years, the Lord’s recovery has experienced the Lord as such a One. Since the recovery of the proper church life began in the early part of the nineteenth century, a door has always been opened wide to the Lord’s recovery. From the beginning of the recovery of the proper church life, Satan, the enemy of God, tried his best to shut the door. The more organized Christianity tries to shut the door, the wider it is opened. In spite of much opposition, today the door is open worldwide. The key is in the hand of the Head of the church; it is not in the hand of the opposers. No matter how much opposition there is to His recovery, the doors are increasingly open to the recovery, and the key is in His hand. As long as we are in His recovery, the door will always be open to us. Although many opposers rose up against His recovery and tried their best to shut the door, Christ nevertheless is the One who has the key of David. What He opens no one will shut, and what He shuts no one will open. Today we should praise the Lord for the door open worldwide.
Philadelphia means “brotherly love.” In the local churches we need the Philadelphia; we need the love for one another. We love one another because we love the Lord. We need the brotherly love, for in this love we have the open door. In a prevailing local church the door is always wide open, because the brothers love one another. As long as the brothers and sisters love one another, the door can never be shut. The more we love one another, the more the door will be open. If we invite others to come to the church meetings, we simply need to let them see the love with oneness and harmony that we have. This alone will convince them. The way to open the door is to love one another. The open door is set before Philadelphia. If we would have an open door, we must love one another. This will convince the world.