Message Eleven

Christ as Another Angel
and the Finishing of the Mystery of God

Scripture Reading: Rev. 7:2; 8:3-5; 10:1-6; 18:1; 10:7

1. In His work in the divine administration, Christ is another Angel—7:2; 8:3; 10:1; 18:1:
   1. Christ is called “another Angel” because He stands on the position of one who has been sent by God:
      1. In the Old Testament Christ was called the Angel of the Lord—Gen. 22:11-12; Exo. 3:2-6; Judg. 6:11-24; Zech. 1:11-12; 2:8-11; 3:1-7.
      2. In the book of Revelation He is called “another Angel,” the unique, special Angel, because He is the One sent by God to carry out His economy—7:2; 8:3; 10:1, 5, 9; 18:1.
   2. As another Angel Christ takes care of God’s people, both the sons of Israel and the believers:
      1. In 7:2-8 He takes care of the chosen remnant of Israel and is unveiled as another Angel in relation to “a hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel”—v. 4.
      2. In His work as another Angel, Christ takes care of the believers, the redeemed saints of the church, preserving them throughout all the tribulations—vv. 9-17.
      3. Christ as God’s Angel controls the whole universe, directing the other angels to carry out God’s judgment upon the earth—vv. 2-3.
   3. In 8:3-5 Christ as another Angel executes God’s administration over the earth by ministering to God as the High Priest with the prayers of His saints:
      1. The incense altar (golden altar) is the executing center of God’s administration—v. 3.
      2. The golden censer signifies the prayers of the saints (5:8), and the incense signifies Christ with all His merit added to the saints’ prayers.
      3. When the prayers of the saints ascend to God with the incense of Christ, God carries out His administration—8:5:
         1. God’s administration needs the saints’ prayers, which are their response to Christ’s heavenly ministry.
         2. As we pray He administrates, and as He administrates we pray.
         3. Christ first offers our prayers to God and then pours out God’s answers.
         4. The pouring out of God’s answers to our prayers equals God’s universal administration.
   4. In 10:1-2 Christ comes as another Angel to take possession of the sea and the land:
      1. His having one foot on the sea and the other on the land signifies that He is coming to take possession of the whole earth—v. 2b.
      2. Although the earth and the sea have been usurped by God’s enemy, one day Christ will no longer tolerate this usurpation, and He will come to claim His rightful inheritance—Psa. 2:8; 24:1.
   5. In His work as another Angel Christ will come to declare God’s judgment over Babylon the Great and to appear in glory to make the whole earth the kingdom of God—18:1-2; 11:15.
2. The seventh trumpet, as the conclusion of the eternal economy of the processed Triune God, closes the present age of mystery; hence, Revelation 10:7 says, “The mystery of God is finished”:
   1. Daniel 9:24 speaks of the seventy weeks, which were apportioned to “seal up vision and prophet”:
      1. To seal up vision and prophet is to close the age of mystery (the age of the church), that is, to finish the mystery of God.
      2. The vision and prophet will be sealed because everything will be fulfilled:
         1. There will be no further need of vision and prophet.
         2. In the kingdom age, there will be kings and priests but no prophets.
   2. In the dispensations from Adam to Moses and from Moses to Christ, everything was unveiled, manifested, and there was no mystery; also in the dispensation of the millennial kingdom everything will be unveiled, and there will be no more mystery.
   3. In the dispensation from Christ to the millennial kingdom—the church age, the age of grace— everything is a mystery:
      1. The incarnation of Christ, as the beginning of the dispensation of mystery, is a mystery— 1 Tim. 3:16:
         1. Through the incarnation of Christ, the infinite God was brought into the finite man.
         2. The entire God, not God the Son only, was incarnated; hence, Christ in incarnation is the entire God manifested in the flesh.
      2. Christ is the mystery of God—Col. 2:2:
         1. God is a mystery, and Christ, as the embodiment of God to express Him, is the mystery of God.
         2. As the mystery of God, Christ is the embodiment, definition, and explanation of God; all that God intends to do is related to Christ.
         3. In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; that is, the fullness of the Triune God dwells in Christ in a bodily form—v. 9.
      3. The church is the mystery of Christ—Eph. 3:4-6:
         1. Christ is a mystery, and the church, as the Body of Christ to express Him, is the mystery of Christ.
         2. This mystery is God’s economy, which is to dispense Christ, as the embodiment of God, into God’s chosen people in order to produce a Body to be the increase of God’s embodiment in Christ, that God may have a corporate expression.
         3. Christ and the church as one spirit are the great mystery—5:32.
      4. The kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 13:11), the gospel (Eph. 6:19), the indwelling of Christ (Col. 1:27), and the resurrection and transfiguration of the saints as the ending of the dispensation of mystery are also mysteries.
      5. At the trumpeting of the seventh trumpet, all these mysteries will be completed; therefore, the mystery of God will be finished.