Welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. This will be study #38 of Revelation, chapter 1, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 1:13:

And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

And that is the end of that verse. We have already looked at the seven candlesticks. We were discussing that in the last couple of studies.

But now we want to look at the first part of this verse where it says, "in the midst of the seven candlesticks." We know this is referring to Jesus; He is the "Son of man." He is the one that was speaking with a great voice that John heard behind him, and when the Apostle John turned, he saw these seven golden candlesticks, "and in the midst of the seven candlesticks *one* like unto the Son of man." That can only be the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

As we also saw, the seven candlesticks are a picture of the churches themselves. Verse 20 of this same chapter tells us, at the end of the verse, in Revelation 1:20:

...and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

So, therefore, this is telling us directly that Jesus, the Son of man, was in the midst of the seven churches, and that is very important because, just as God was with His people Israel, and the candlesticks were in the temple and in the tabernacle before that, as God gave light to the people of Israel, so, too, the Lord is revealing that He will be the light in the church---He will be "in the midst of the candlesticks."

We also saw how the two olive trees typified the two witnesses, and how that identified with the candlesticks, also.

But in tonight's study, we want to take a look at this word *midst*: that the Lord Jesus was "in the midst of the seven candlesticks," or the seven churches. The Greek word translated as *midst* is Strong's #3319, and we could pronounce it as *mes'-os*, and this word is translated into a few different English words.

One word it is translated as is *among*. It is also translated as *way*, and it is translated as *midst* (as we have here), and it is translated as *mid*, when used with the words *day* or *night*, for instance, *midday* and *midnight*. It would be used in conjunction with the Greek words for *day* and *night*, and when it is used this way, it is to indicate that it is the middle of the day or the middle of the night. And that is really what this word is pointing to, something "in the midst;" or directly in the middle, would be a good way of looking at it.

Let us look at how this word is used in a few places. We read in Luke of the twelve-year-old Jesus who is in Jerusalem when his parents continue traveling, and then they realized he was not in their party, and they sought him, sorrowing, and when they found him, it says in Luke 2:45:

And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.

We can picture this pretty vividly. There is the young boy, the Lord Jesus, and He is sitting with the doctors of the law in the temple, sitting "in the midst" of them, and that is the same word we have in Revelation, chapter 1.

It is translated as *among* further on in the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus is sending out the seventy, two by two, and it says in Luke 10:3:

Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.

This is the same word we are looking at. The English word *among* is a translation of *mesos* and it means, "I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves." The word *among* carries the same idea.

Now another word it is tranlated as is *way*, and we find this in a very significant place in 2Thessalonians, chapter 2, and I am going to read a few verses in order to establish the context, and we can see how God is using this word, and how it really relates to what we are reading in Revelation 1, because there in the first century A.D. when God has just established the churches, He wanted all to know that He Himself (Christ) is "in the midst" of the churches, just as God was "in the midst" of the temple or "in the midst of" Israel, and they were His people. So, too, He is "in the midst" of the candlesticks, which are the "seven churches." God is letting all know, "These are my people. The New Testament churches and congregations are the representatives of my Kingdom to all the people of the earth." And that continued on for almost 2,000 years, but God reveals to us in 2Thessalonians 2:3-6:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

This revealing is referring to the "man of sin," Satan himself, who enters into the churches at the end of the church age, when he is loosed by God to be a means of bringing the wrath of God on the congregations.

It goes on to say in 2Thessalonians 2:7:

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

Now, here, the personal pronoun *he* is correct. It is referring to the Person of God, the Holy Spirit, God Himself---His Spirit is the one "who now letteth," that is, *restrains*. That is why it is referring to the "mystery of iniquity" that was already in operation (already working); only He, the Holy Spirit, "who now letteth," that is, who holds back and restrains sin, will continue to do that until, it says, "he be taken out of the way." Again, the personal pronoun, the masculine form, *he,* is referring to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, that the restraints of God within the congregations on sin would be there, to some degree (to the degree God wanted to restrain sin), until He be "taken out of the way." The word *way* is a translation of the Greek word *mesos,* or "until he be taken out of the midst." It is our same word that we have in Revelation 1:13.

God took the Holy Spirit out of the midst of the churches, that is, out of the midst of the "seven golden candlesticks," which are the seven churches, and those seven churches represent all churches throughout the New Testament age, as God is going to continue on to address a letter to each one of them in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3; and what He says to the churches will have application to all the churches, and we will see that, as God makes that refrain after each address.

Here, He is telling us that what we are reading in Revelation 1 about the Lord Jesus, the Son of man, "in the midst of the seven candlesticks," or in the midst of the churches, is not permanent---it is not something that is eternal---but it will have an end, and 2Thessalonians 2 is referring to the end of time, to the day of Christ, to the time when Satan is loosed and revealed as the man of sin. In other words, it is referring to our day when we have lived through the period of the great tribulation, the end of the church age, and now we have entered into the day of judgment itself, as God made the transition from judging the churches, exclusively, to include judgment on all the world; the whole earth, including the churches, are under the judgment of God for their sins.

So, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, restrained sin in the midst of the churches, because the church has always had unsaved individuals in them, and there were always tares amongst the wheat, and the tares always outnumbered the wheat; so it really is a mystery that the churches maintained the degree of faithfulness they did maintain for centuries and centuries.

Yes, we know a denomination would fall away, here or there, and individual churches would fall way, here or there. But, for the most part, God kept them and maintained their faithfulness in many areas throughout the hundreds and hundreds of years of the church age. And that is the mystery, that the Lord was holding back the forces of Satan and his emissaries (the tares that Satan had sown when men were sleeping during the period of the church age), and He would only restrain sin until He would be taken "out of the midst." And then the Lord Jesus would come out, just as He had entered in, and was "in the midst," He would leave the churches, as He left national Israel. This is something that we want to be sure that we understand properly.

For instance, let us go back to the Book of Isaiah, chapter 1, and we will see a statement that God makes in this chapter that is very important and explanatory. It lets us know how it is possible that we can say, definitively and absolutely, that the church age is over, that God is not in any church in the world.

Did you ever wonder about that? How can we say that? How can se way that God is not in a church in India, or a church in China, or a church in Africa? We have never been there. We have heard of certain churches, and we have experienced certain churches, and we can talk about those that we have had personal experience with, or that we have heard from others, but there are so many churches in the world (the number of professed Christians is around two billion), and, so, it is an enormous number of churches, and no one could investigate them all, and no one can know by personal experience whether they are teaching faithfully, or not, or of what standard their faithfulness is.

That is correct, and we do not say the church age is over, based upon personal experience. It is based on what God has revealed, as He has revealed the timeline of history; and the end of the church age fits into that timeline perfectly.

More than that, God has revealed the "man of sin," and the "falling away" has come, and all things are in place. But, in order for us to say that the Holy Spirit, or Christ, has departed out of the midst of all the churches, there is only one way we can say that, and it is explained in Isaiah 1:21:

How is the faithful city become an harlot...

Now, the first question we would ask is, "How could the churches and congregations of the world (which always had high places; they always had doctrinal errors, and some of these were built into their confessions and creeds, into the things that the churches believed absolutely, and God was never pleased with that), be considered *faithful*, to be called the *faithful city*?" That is the first question and, of course, the answer is that it was because Jesus was "in the midst" of them, and He is faithful; He is absolutely faithful. Since He was there, then the churches could be considered *faithful*, those churches that the Lord had not given up; as He says further on in Revelation 2, that if a church would not keep their first love, then He might come even during the church age and take away their candlestick, the light of the Gospel. And that is why churches throughout history had occasion to fall, and God gave them up, and there was no light of the Gospel in them. But, for those that maintained their relationship with God, the Lord Jesus kept them faithful by His very presence, by His being "in the midst" of them. That is the only reason they could be called "the faithful city," to begin with.

Here, in Isaiah 21, the Lord is asking the question, "How is the faithful city become an harlot..." How is it, then, that the church, which God considered to be a *faithful city*, became *Babylon*? And, yes, the church did become a part of Babylon, the kingdom of Satan, when God loosed Satan and Satan entered in as the man of sin, and took his seat in the temple; Satan ruled over the churches of the world, and they became a part of his kingdom, just as when king Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, took Judah in battle, and was victorious over them. Then Judah became part of the kingdom of Babylon, and a province of Babylon and under their rule. Well, how did the faithful city become a harlot? God goes on to explain in Isaiah 1:21:

...it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Now that is a very telling statement: "righteousness lodged in it." That is letting us know a great deal, because it says in 1Corinthians 1:30:

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness...

Christ is *righteousness*. He is the essence of it. *Righteousness* is Christ, and we are saved by the righteousness of one, the Bible says; we are made righteous by His righteousness, and when Jesus was in the midst of the churches, "righteousness lodged in it." He was there and, therefore, when God viewed the churches, He would see their sins, their transgressions, their high places; yes, but He also saw righteousness lodged within, and He saw a *faithful city*, as a result of that, and He would not bring judgment upon them, but gave space for them to repent of these sins, a space that would include 1,955 years of the church age.

But, you see, the implication is, in Isaiah 1:21, that the faithful city becomes a harlot, that it *was* full of judgment and full of righteousness---it *was*, and that means that it was something that was true in the past, but the implication is that it is not true now, as it goes on to say, "righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers." No righteousness is lodging in it now. It is not full of judgment, which would point to Christ, as the word of God is likened to judgments, and the Lord Jesus is also the Word. "But now murderers!" Christ has left. The *faithful city* instantaneously---immediately, and without delay---has been changed (translated, in a sense) from that *faithful city* to the harlot of Babylon. She has become a part of Babylon.

Now God sees the sins He has always seen; He sees their confessions and creeds; He sees the errors of the church in teaching on marriage and divorce, and teaching on salvation, and teaching in this area and another area. But now He does not see any righteousness---He does not see Christ, in order to avert His wrath and to turn His fury away. So, immediately, God brings judgment on the churches and congregations of the world, all over the earth. There is no delay. There is nothing to stop it. There is none to turn it from them. This is what the Lord means when He says in

Jeremiah 5:1:

Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.

That is, now God is inspecting the church world. He sees all the congregations at once, and He is looking here and there, and searching, "if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth," that is, "Where is Christ? Where is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of man, who was in the midst of the seven candlesticks? I do not see Him any longer. If I saw Him, I would pardon the churches, as I have for centuries. But now when I look, all I see are the failures, and the sins, and the transgressions of the church that I commanded them to repent from, that I ordered them to turn from. But they did not repent. They did not turn from these things. They used up the space that was given them of 1,955 years, and now it is time for judgment to begin at the house of God."

This is what God is saying in the Book of Lamentations, and Lamentations goes hand-in-hand with the Book of Jeremiah, as God used Jeremiah to also write Lamentations. It is a Book that basically is describing the wrath of God upon the churches, and it is as if the churches are speaking of God's wrath upon them, when it says in Lamentations 1:15:

The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed. Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her...

Who is the Comforter? The Bible calls the Holy Spirit the Comforter and, here, you see, Judah is exclaiming with extreme sorrow; there are tears and weeping: "mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me."

Then God goes on to reemphasize by saying, "there is none to comfort her." The Comforter is gone! The Holy Spirit is come out of the midst. The Son of man, which was in the midst of the churches, has departed from them, leaving them to the enemy, to the adversary, to the kingdom of Satan and darkness.

The churches and congregations of the world immediately are darkened, as the Lord Jesus, the Light of the world, the Light of the Gospel (He is the Gospel Light Himself) departs from the church, and darkness descends upon it, a deep darkness, that travels across denominations, from Presbyterians to Episcopalians, to Catholics, to Lutherans, and to all denominations, and to all independent churches and house churches all over the earth. The darkness descends upon the world of churches and congregations. There is no more light anywhere in any church, when the Spirit of Christ leaves it.