Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

by S. D. Gordon

A physical storm is caused by two areas of unequal temperature coming together. The storm is the process of coming together and equalizing of the atmospheric conditions. The inference here would seem to be that the time of action has come to straighten out matters on the earth. The two moral atmospheres of heaven and earth seem to be coming into contact, and a storm is resulting before clear weather comes. It suggests that our Lord Jesus is taking the next direct step in His broader plan.

God's Ideal of Creation.

But let us look a little further. In the book's picture language there are "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne." These we are plainly told "are the seven spirits of God." That is a Hebrew way of saying "the perfect spirit of God." This is of intense interest. The Holy Spirit is represented as being before the throne.

[98] John xiv.-xvi.

In the confidential talk with the inner group of disciples on the betrayal night, in John's Gospel,[98] Jesus promises that when He has ascended up to the Father He will send down the Holy Spirit to them. When the Spirit has come down to the disciples He will begin a new ministry of witnessing to the world through them.

In the Book of Acts that promise is fulfilled. The Spirit comes down with remarkable manifestations on the day of Pentecost. The distinctive thing He does is to take possession of a group of men and form them into a new witnessing body called the Church. He had dwelt in the nation of Israel as a nation, and had been withdrawn from that nation when it proved finally faithless to its mission. He had dwelt in individual men before and during and after that time.

At Pentecost He is sent down on a new mission. He is to do in men all that Jesus has done for them in His life and death and resurrection. But the distinctive thing of Pentecost is His forming this new body called the Church, through which He begins a new ministry of witnessing to the world.

[99] II Thessalonians ii. 6-7.

All through the Acts and Epistles He is constantly spoken of as here on the earth working in the Church and through it. He in the Church is a powerful restraint upon the powers of evil in the world. In Thessalonians,[99] Paul has spoken of a day coming when that restraint would be withdrawn. The Holy Spirit, the "One that restraineth now," is to be taken away.

Now here the Holy Spirit is represented as being, not in the Church, as always in the Acts and Epistles, but as being "before the throne." This is the second significant thing to note in this scene. This also would seem to suggest the beginning of a new order of things.