3501. The Feast of the Lord

A Sermon Published On Thursday, March 2, 1916.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord’s death until he comes. {1Co 11:26}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2307, “Greatest Exhibition of the Age, The” 2308}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2595, “What the Lord’s Supper Sees and Says” 2596}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2638, “Right Observance of the Lord’s Supper, The” 2639}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2872, “Lord’s Supper, The” 2873}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2942, “Object of the Lord’s Supper, The” 2943}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3151, “Lord’s Supper, Simple But Sublime, The” 3152}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3338, “Witness of the Lord’s Supper, The” 3340}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3501, “Feast of the Lord, The” 3503}

   Exposition on 1Co 11:17-34 Lu 22:14-24 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2638, “Right Observance of the Lord’s Supper, The” 2639 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Mt 26:17-30 1Co 11:18-34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2865, “Fencing the Table” 2866 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Mt 26:17-30 1Co 11:20-34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2595, “What the Lord’s Supper Sees and Says” 2596 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Mt 26:17-39 1Co 11:20-34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2699, “Examination Before Communion” 2700 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Mt 26:26-30 1Co 11:20-34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2268, “Question for Communicants, A” 2269 @@ "Exposition"}

1. I do not think we can too often explain the meaning of the two great Christian ordinances—baptism and the Supper of the Lord; for it is essential to our profiting by them that we understand them. If we do not know what they mean, they certainly cannot convey to us any blessing whatever. They are not mere channels of grace in themselves, apart from our understanding being exercised, and our hearts being moved by them. Very soon the best ordinance in the world will become a mere form, and will even degenerate into superstitious practice, unless it is understood; and we must not always take it for granted that the meaning of the simplest emblem is understood. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little, must still be the motto of the Christian minister. We must explain, explain, and explain again, or else men will satisfy themselves with the outward form, and not reach to the teaching which the forms were intended to convey. Our text deals with the supper of our Lord, and we will read it again. “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord’s death until he comes.”

2. The first point of the text is what we do—we “show.” Then, what do we show, and how? And then, who shows it—“you show the Lord’s death.” And then, when?—“as often”—“until he comes.”

3. I. First, then, when we come to the Lord’s table:—WHAT WE DO.

4. We “show.” That word has two or three meanings. They all melt into one, but we shall understand it better by dividing it. It is meant here by showing Christ’s death that we declare it. When the emblems are placed on the table—bread and wine—and we gather around it, we declare our firm belief that Jesus, the Son of God, descended into this world and died as a sacrifice for sin on the cross. It has been found that if a great event is to be kept in mind in succeeding ages, there must be some memorial of it. Men by degrees forget it, and even come to be dubious concerning whether such an event did occur. Sometimes a stone has been set up—a monument—but this has not always been most effective. God, when he would have the children of Israel remember that he brought them out of Egypt with a high hand and an outstretched arm, did not tell them to set up a monument, but he ordained a ceremony which was to be practised on a certain day. It was called “The Passover,” and the slaughter of the lamb and the eating of it became a yearly declaration by the people of Israel that they believed that God brought their forefathers up out of the house of bondage. So effective has this been that men have often used the same device. When the Jewish people escaped from the plot which was laid by Haman, through the wisdom of Mordecai and Esther, they ordained the keeping of the feast of Purim, so that they might have in perpetual memory the goodness of God towards his people.

5. And you know how, in our own English history and in the history of other countries, certain rites and ceremonies have been ordained in order that there might be a perpetual memorial, a declaration made that such and such a thing did occur. Now that almost two millennia ago Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, died on Calvary by crucifixion, we affirm and declare here. We present again to a world that is sceptical and denies the fact which is its brightest hope—we present our confident belief that it was so; and as long as this ordinance shall be celebrated, there shall be a standing proof in the world that that was the case.

6. But to show means more than to declare. It means, in the next place to represent. There is in the Lord’s Supper a representation of the death of Christ. Men, when they have found an event to be interesting and remarkable, have often devised ways of representing it to the people so that they might understand it.

7. With regard to our Lord’s death, there are some who hang up pictures on the wall; they think the use of the crucifix and so on to be proper. I find no teaching of that kind in the Word of God. I do find that too often such things lead to idolatry. And what shall we say of these miracle-plays which, even in these modern times, have been carried out, in which the death of our Lord Jesus Christ is travestied? They seem to be shocking to the Christian mind. But here, in a very simple manner, you have God’s own appointed way of representing to ourselves and to onlookers the death of our Lord. This is the Christian’s “show”—we show the death of Christ here by a divine appointment. I shall, further on, show how it is so, and that the breaking of bread and the pouring out of wine—the use of those two emblems—is a most telling, most suggestive, most instructive method of representing the death of Christ. There are two other ways of representing it—the one is the pencil of the evangelist which has drawn the death of Christ in the Word of God; the other is the preaching of the gospel. It is the preacher’s business to present Christ crucified—clearly crucified among you. The three ways that God has ordained of representing the death of Christ are the Word read, the Word preached, and this blessed ordinance of the Supper of the Lord.

8. To “show.” This means to declare, to testify; and it means also to represent. But it has a third meaning: it means also to hold out, to reveal, to proclaim, to call attention to. Now it has been a matter of fact that when the Jesuit missionaries went to China and converted a great many to what they called the Christian faith, they never mentioned the fact that Christ died. For years they concealed it, lest the people should be shocked. Now we, on the other hand, put that first and foremost. We have no other Christianity than this, that Christ died and rose again, and we cannot come to the Lord’s table without showing it. The Jesuit could not, because it would puzzle the wisest man to see the death of Christ in the Mass. He might sit and look at a hundred Masses before he knew what it meant. But the moment we gather around this table and break bread, and pour out wine, whoever asks us, “What do you mean by this ordinance?” the answer is prompt—the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err in this—“We show to you that Jesus died.” “God forbid that we should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We are not ashamed of a crucified Saviour. We have heard of some in these days who are always preaching a glorified Christ. We wish them such success as their ministry is likely to bring; but for us we preach a crucified Christ—“Christ and him crucified”; for it is here, after all, that the salvation of the sinner lies. Christ glorified is precious enough—oh! how unspeakably precious to a soul that is saved!—but first and foremost to a dying world it is Christ on the cross that we have to declare. And, therefore, when we come to the Communion table we do three things. We assert the fact that Jesus died; we represent that fact in emblem, and then by this we press it upon the attention of men. We desire them to observe it; we ask them to note it; we tell them that this is the sum and substance of all the gospel that we were sent to preach, “God has presented Christ to be a propitiation for our sins.”

9. So I have explained the meaning of the word to “show.” This is what we do.

10. II. Now the second point is, my brethren:—WHAT WE SHOW, AND HOW.

11. It is said in the text, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord’s death.” How do we show it? What do we show? Well, first of all, we show that God has presented Christ for men. The table is spread; there is bread on it; there is the cup on it. What for? Not for beasts. Here is the food of men. It is set there for men. It is intended that the bread should be eaten, that the wine should be drunk. Everyone who sees a table spread knows at once that there are preparations for a meal or a festival. Now God has presented Christ for men. There is in Christ what man needs. As bread satisfies his hunger, as the cup satisfies his thirst, so Christ satisfies all the spiritual needs of mankind. And the soul that would live, and the soul that would rejoice, must come to God’s provision for his living and his rejoicing, and that provision is to be found in Jesus Christ crucified. God presented Christ of old. Even in the garden, he presented him in the first promise. He continued to present him by all the prophets, and in this last day every veil has been taken away by an open Bible inviting all comers. God has presented the bread of life to the sons of men. And you tonight will show that fact. When you see that table uncovered, you have a representation. God has made a feast of fat things for the sons of men in the person of Jesus Christ. The feast consists of bread and wine. Now in this we represent Christ’s human person, Christ’s humanity. That he is no myth, but real flesh, is taught by the bread being on the table—that he was no phantom, but that real blood coursed through his veins as through ours—that the Lord of life and glory was, like ourselves, a real man, in humanity in all respects like ourselves, sin alone excepted. There shall be no phantom feast on the table, and the materialism that is there is meant to show that he was a man, a real man:—

   Who once on Calvary died,

      When streams of blood and water ran

   Down from his wounded side.

12. But the next thing we show is his death. We have his person; then we have his death—observe how. According to the Roman Catholic Church, most of the people are only to participate in the bread—the wafer. Now such people never show Christ’s death at all, for the text says, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show Christ’s death.” It is only by the two that you show his death at all. The bread represents the body, but the cup must represent the blood, or else you have no sign of his suffering—no emblem of his death. Cannot the two be mixed together? No, for if the blood and flesh are together, you have the living man. When the blood flows—when the life-blood ebbs from the body, and the body is bloodless, then you have the wine as a sign of death; and the separation of the two—the use of the two emblems—is absolutely necessary to represent death. The more you think of this the more you see in it. The emblem is the simplest in the world, but yet the most instructive. Take either one of the elements—the bread, how it typifies Christ’s suffering! Here was the grain bruised beneath the thresher’s flail; then it was cast into the ground. It sprang up and ripened, and had to be cut down with the sickle; then it had to be threshed; then ground in the mill; then it was baked in the oven. It had to pass through a whole series of sufferings, if I may use the term, before it became proper food for us. And so must our Saviour pass through innumerable sufferings before he could become food for our souls, and redeemer of our spirits. As for what is in the cup, it was trodden beneath the foot in the wine-press—its juice was pressed out. So in the wine-press of Jehovah’s wrath was Christ pressed before he could become the wine that makes glad both God and man. Both emblems represent suffering, each one separately, but put together they bring out the idea of death, “and as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord’s death.”

13. But more than this; we show that God presented Christ; we show his person as a real man; we show his sufferings and his death; but next we show our participation in the same, for it is not “as often as you look at this bread,” or “as you gaze on this cup,” but “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup.” Christ does not save us until we receive him by an act of faith. The bread satisfies no hunger while it rests on the table, and a draught from the cup quenches no thirst until it really is drunk. So the precious blood of Jesus Christ our Saviour must be received by our faith. We must believe in him to the saving of our souls. Now how simple a matter is eating! It does not matter, unless a man is dead—he requires little teaching to know how to eat. It is as simple as a natural act—he puts food into his mouth. It is just so here. There is the Saviour, and I take him—that is all. It seems to me to be even a more complex act to eat than simply to trust in Jesus, yet it is a very simple thing. The idiot can eat. No matter how guilty a man, he can eat; no matter how dark and despairing his fears, he can eat; and oh poor soul, whoever you may be, there shall be no lack of wit or merit that shall keep you back from Christ. If you are willing to have him, you may have him. The act of trusting Christ makes Christ as much your own as the eating of the bread. Suppose some difficulty were raised about whether a piece of bread was mine. Well, the legal question would take a long time to decide. I cannot produce the document, nor find the witnesses to prove it is mine. But there is one little fact, I think, which will settle it—I have eaten it. So if the devil himself were to say that Christ is not mine, I have believed in him; and if I have believed in him, he is mine just as surely as when I have eaten a piece of bread there can be no question about its being mine. Now we present tonight, by eating bread and drinking from the cup, the fact that Jesus Christ is our Saviour, and we take him by simple faith to be our all in all.

14. But there is still more teaching. The bread and wine, are being eaten and drunk, are assimilated into the system; they minister strength to bone, sinew, muscle; they build up the man. And herein is teaching. Christ believed in is one with us—“Christ in us the hope of glory.” We have heard people talk of believers falling from grace and losing Christ. No, sir, a man has eaten bread—he ate it yesterday. Will you separate that bread from the man? Will you trace the drops that came from the cup, and fetch them out of the man’s system? You shall more easily do that than you shall take Christ away from the soul that has once fed on him. “Who shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?” He is in us a well of water springing up into everlasting life. See then how large a letter Christ has written to us with these pens—how in this bread and this wine, eaten and drunk, he has taught us wonderful mysteries—in fact, the whole Christian faith is, in brief, summed up here on this table.

15. And now we must remark on what it is we show, and how we do it. We do this very simply. Certain churches must go about this business in a very mysterious manner—a great deal of machinery is required—a plate becomes a paten, and a cup becomes a chalice, and a table, ah! that has vanished and turned into an altar. The whole thing is turned topsy-turvy until it is very questionable in the Church of Rome whether there is any supper at all; for if you introduce the altar, you have put away the table and done away with the whole thing. It is another ordinance, and not the ordinance which Christ established. One would suppose that when the apostles first went out to preach, if the religion of the Roman Catholic Church to be that of the Scripture, each of them would have needed a wagon to carry with them the various paraphernalia necessary for the celebration of their services. But here, wherever there is a piece of bread, and wherever there is a cup, we have the plain, but instructive emblems which our Saviour told us to use. “He took bread and broke it.” He drank from the cup, and passed it to his disciples, and said, “Drink all of it.”

16. Let us keep this ordinance in its pure simplicity. Let us never add anything to it by our own devising by way of imagining that we are honouring God by garnishing his table. Let us plainly show Christ’s death, and as we do it plainly we should also do it festively. Is it not delightful to reflect that our Lord has not ordained a mournful ceremony in which to celebrate his death: it is a feast. You would suppose by the way that some come that it is a funeral, but it is a feast, and joy becomes a feast; and when, according to the example of Christ, we recline at our ease in the nearest approach to the posture in which the oriental lay along at the table, and when we come with joyful heart, blessing the Lord Jesus that though our sins put him to death, yet his death has put to death our sins, it is then that we celebrate his death as he would have us celebrate it—not as an awful tragedy, in which we try to provoke our indignation against the Romans or the Jews, but as a hallowed festival, in which the King himself comes to the table, and his spikenard exudes a sweet fragrance, and our spirit is refreshed.

17. And once more, this way of showing Christ’s death is one of communion. Now one person cannot do it; many must come together. You must eat and drink together to celebrate this, your Lord’s death. And is this not delightful, for in this cup we have fellowship with him and with each other? We, being many, have one bread; we, being many, have one cup—one family at one table with one common head, the Lord Jesus, who is all in all to us. Oh! I bless his name that whereas he might have ordained a way of our showing his death which would have been mournful, or a way which would have been solitary, he has selected what is joyful, and what is full of good fellowship, so that saints below and himself can meet together in the festival of love and show his death until he comes, in the breaking of bread and the pouring out of wine. So I have tried to show what it is we show, and how we show it.

18. III. Now thirdly:—WHO ARE TO SHOW IT?

19. Who show it? “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord’s death.” The “you,” then, includes all the saints of God—all who come to the table, who eat this bread and drink this cup; and truly a very pleasing thought arises from this. Here is a way of showing Christ’s death in which all who love Christ have a share. You cannot all show it from the pulpit; gifts are not equally distributed; but you all equally share in this showing of his death—in this special way, which he himself celebrated for our example, and which he delivered to his servant Paul, expressly that it might stand on record. Now if Paul himself were here, he could not show Christ’s death alone at the Lord’s Supper. He must ask some of his poorer brethren to come with him. If the minister of a church should be full of the Holy Spirit, yet he could not show Christ’s death here in this special way. He must say to his brethren, “Come, brothers and sisters; it says ‘you,’ as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup.” Here we are tonight, as we sit here, all brought into a blessed equality in the act of using the same outward sign, and of performing the Master’s will in the same way.

20. “But,” one says “does every man who comes to the table, and eats and drinks, show Christ’s death?” Notice how the verse which follows my text puts a bar to that. “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat this bread.” It must be taken for granted that the man has examined himself—that he comes there as a true believer in Jesus—that he comes there with the full intent to show Christ’s death; and if he does that, such a man is showing Christ’s death. I am very earnest, dear brothers and sisters, as it has been a long time since I have met with you—having been kept away for so long by sickness, though I have been with my brethren downstairs—I am anxious that we should indeed show Christ’s death tonight. Let us show it to ourselves. I find that the text may either be read in the indicative or in the imperative mood. It is either “you show Christ’s death,” as our version has it, or it may be “show Christ’s death”—it is an exhortation. Oh! let us take care that we show it to ourselves. “Show it to ourselves?” one says. Yes, it is meant for you. This is a primary meaning of the text. When you take that bread, do not think of the bread, and stay there, but say to your own soul, “My soul, think of Jesus. My heart, go away now to Gethsemane. Come, you stray thoughts; come, you passing vanities, begone! I must be away to where my Saviour bled and died.

   Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,

   Which, before his cross, I spend.”

21. I have come here to show his death; let me see him. I will ask him to permit me in spirit to put my finger into the print of the nails, and to put my hand into his side. Oh! do not go from this table satisfied with the outward emblem; press into the inner court—pray the Master to reveal himself to you as he does not do to the world. For here is the main business—show his death to your own heart until your heart bleeds for sin; show it to your own faith until your faith feels it is all-sufficient—show it to others. You will be sure to show it to others if you show it to yourself, for as others look on and notice your reverent behaviour; if they cannot enter into your joy, they will be reminded of what they have forgotten for so long. Oh! brothers and sisters, let me urge each one of you that no one should be content without sharing this honour. I feel we all have an honour to participate in in showing the death of Christ. Let us not, in sharing the honour, bring condemnation on ourselves. But I must hasten on.

22. IV. The fourth point is:—WHEN ARE WE TO DO IT?

23. The text says “often”—“as often as you eat this bread.” The Holy Spirit might have used the words “when you eat,” but he did not. He teaches us by implication that we ought to do it often. I do not think there is any positive law about it, but it looks to me as if the first Christians broke bread almost every day—“breaking bread from house to house.” I am not sure that that refers to Communion, but in all probability it does. This much is certain, that in the early Church the custom was to break bread in memory of Christ’s passion on the first day of every week, and it was always a part of the Sabbath’s service when they came together to remember their Lord in this way. How it can be thought right to leave the celebrating of this ordinance to once a year or once a quarter I cannot understand, and it seems to me that if brethren knew the great joy there is in often showing Christ’s death they would not be content with even once a month. But I leave that.

24. The other mark of time in the text is “until he comes.” Then this service is to end. There will be no more Lord’s Suppers when Christ appears, because they will be needless. Put out the candle—the sun has risen. Put away the emblem—here comes Christ himself. But until he does come, this will always be a most fitting ordinance. I pleased myself with a thought I had the other day. Our Lord Jesus Christ sat at the table and ate with his disciples, and he took the cup and he sipped it, and he passed it around. It is still being passed around. It has not gone around the table yet, it is being passed on. For almost two millennia it has been passed from hand to hand. They have not all drunk yet; and you remember he said, “Drink all of it”—all of you. Did he speak to all his elect that were to be born—to all the countless companies yet to come? I think he did, and it is going around, and eventually, when all the people of God have participated in Christ, it will cease. The cup will never be emptied until then.

   Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood

      Shall never lose its power,

   Till all the ransomed Church of God

      Be saved, to sin no more.

25. When the last one has drunk of it, what then? It will come back into the Master’s hands, and then will be fulfilled that word of his, “I say to you I will not from now on drink of the juice of the vine until I drink it new in my heavenly Father’s kingdom.” And it is going around, brethren—that cup of glorious Christian fellowship of love for Christ, the cup that is filled with Jesus’ blood—it is passing around, and when it has reached his hand then we shall need the outward ordinance no more. But until then it is clear from the text that it is to be kept up. And I have a little dispute with some of you present here. You love the Lord, but you have never been baptized; you love Jesus, but you have never come to his table. Now let me say you are in opposition to Christ. He says, “Do this until I come”; you do not do it. “Oh! but I am only one,” you say. To your measure of ability you have helped to make the Lord’s Supper obsolete. Can you see that? If you have a right to neglect it, so have I—if I, so have all my brethren. Then there is an end to it. My dear brother, you are doing the best you can to make Christ forgotten in the world. Please by his own dying example and his express command, “Do this in remembrance of me”—if you have believed him, keep this, his commandment. If you have not believed in him, then do not come! You have no right to take it. But if you have believed, I beseech you do not stand back for shame or fear, but eat and drink at his table until he comes.

26. Time has gone too fast for me, and I must close. There is one lesson, however, that I cannot leave out. Until Christ comes. We are taught our interim employment—what is to occupy us until Jesus comes. Beloved brethren, until Jesus comes we have nothing left but to think of him. Until Jesus comes the main thing we have to do is to think of and present him as a crucified Saviour. There is no food for the Church but Jesus; there is no testimony to the world but Jesus crucified. They have sometimes told us that in this enlightened age we may expect to have developed a higher form of Christianity. Well, they shall have it who like it; but Christ himself has left us nothing but just this, “Show my death until I come.” The preacher is to go on preaching a dying Saviour; the saint is to go on trusting that dying Saviour, feeding on him and letting his soul be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. There is nothing left to ourselves to occupy our thoughts, or to be the subject of our joy, as our dear dying Lord. Oh! let us feed on him. Each one, personally, as a believer—let him feed on his Saviour. If he has come once, come again. Keep on coming until Christ himself shall appear. As long as the invitation stands let us not slight it, but constantly come to Christ himself and feed on him.

27. In conclusion, let every ungodly person here know that he has no part nor lot in this matter. Your first business, sinner, is with Christ himself. Go and put your trust in him. Oh! go tonight. You may never have another night to go in. And then when you have believed, then obey his command in baptism, and then also come to his table and show his death until he comes. May the Lord bless you for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Re 1}

1, 2. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show to his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John: who bore record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

John was one who was of the same spirit as his Master. He lived in very intimate communion with his Lord, and, therefore, to him the choicest revelations were made. The Lord does not reveal his secrets to unsympathetic minds. He who will do his will shall know of the doctrine, and he shall know all secret things. Oh! if we lived nearer to God, if we walked more in the love of Christ, how much more we might know and see; or, if we saw no visions, yet there are inward perceptions to the heart which God would grant us if we lived more in the light of his countenance.

3. Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep these things which are written in it, for the time is at hand.

It is not a book to be put on the shelf. There is practical teaching in it. It is not intended to lead us into vagaries of speculation, but it is meant for practical purposes. We are to keep those things which are written in it, for the time is at hand.

4, 5. John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be to you, and peace, from him who is, and who was, and who is to come: and from the seven spirits which are before his throne: And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.

Think, dear friends, how this benediction may be fulfilled. “Grace be to you,” he says, “and peace.” And what are to be the fountains and springs of this peace? It is to come from God first, from him who is. All that God is, is a fountain of peace and grace to us. And from him who was—all that he has ever been, the eternal past, the changeless purposes, the divine predestination of the Infinite. There are springs of peace and grace here. And from him who is to come. All that God will ever be, all the displays of his power, his justice, his love, which the ages are yet to see—all these are wells of grace and peace to God’s own people. I want you to think of this. And when your minds are disturbed, and you have need of peace, and when your heart is sinking and you have need of grace, come to God for both of these things, regarding him as him who is, who was, and who is to come. And there are seven spirits which are before his throne. The Holy Spirit, in whatever way he operates in any of his divine works—in all these he is the Comforter, the source of grace and peace to us. You need not be afraid of the Holy Spirit, even though he is the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning, for he will burn up nothing in us but what ought to be consumed, and will judge nothing but what ought to be judged and to be condemned; so that peace may come to us from the seven spirits which are before the throne; but especially grace and peace from Jesus Christ as the Faithful Witness. Whatever he bears witness to, it is full of grace and peace to believers, and he himself is the first begotten from the dead. Oh! his resurrection! what a wonderful fountain of grace and peace that is to us! And then his divine sovereignty—his rule over all providence and nature, the Prince of the kings of the earth—what grace and peace may every one of you who love him find there! At the thought of this, the divine writer turns from his benediction to a doxology.

5, 6. To him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood. And has made us kings and priests to God and his Father: to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Brethren, the very best work which we ever do on earth is to adore. You are blessed in prayer, but you are seven times blessed in praise. When you get to the doxology, it is the benediction made more sublime. The benediction takes wings and mounts into a celestial atmosphere, when you begin to adore and magnify him who loved you, and washed you from your sins. There is one thing that adoration does: it helps us to see; and when you close your eyes in adoration, you see more than when you have them open in any other way. I am sure of this, for the next line is:—

7. Behold he comes with clouds;

John sees him. He adored, him.

   Strong Son of God, Immortal love,

   Whom though we have not seen thy face,

   Unceasing we adore.

In that adoration we behold you. “Behold he comes with clouds.”

7. And every eye shall see him, and those also who pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so. Amen.

What is more, adoration helps us to hear as well as to see. It supplies us with new senses. John hears this voice.

8. “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,” says the Lord, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Happy man who in reverent worship hears God speaking to him in answer to his voice to God.

9. I John, who also am your brother,

How sweetly this sounds. This is a man who has seen and heard God. This is a man who is full of visions, who has beheld the broken seals and the poured out vials; the man who is familiar with the Infinite. “I, John, who also am your brother.”

9. And companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

That is a wonderful linking, is it not, in this verse?—“the kingdom and patience.” You must have the cross and the crown together. We get the kingdom of Christ, but not without the passion of Christ. There is the cross marked on all the treasure trove that we find in Christ. It is not genuine if it is not marked with the cross. “The kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.”

10, 11. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet. Saying, “I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last”:

What evidence we have here of the divinity of Christ, for we shall see, as we read on, that it is Christ who is speaking here; and just now it was the Father who in much the same words said, “I am Alpha and Omega.” We cannot always draw the line between the voice of God and the voice of the God-man, Christ Jesus, and we need not wish to do so, for Holy Scripture does not always paint it in black and white, but it would have us believe it, all the same for that. Yet it is always accurate, always true, where it has shades of definition; for, after all, Christ is so truly God that whether it speaks of him absolutely as God, or of him as God and man, Mediator, it matters little to us.

11, 12. And, “What you see, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia; to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me.

It is so natural in us to want to see the place from which the voice proceeds.

12-16. And being turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt around the chest with a golden band. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like fine bronze, as if they burned in a furnace: and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his month went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shines in its strength.

I will not stop to explain those details. The picture is too sacred. Let it stand before you in its glory, and listen to these words.

17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

Oh! how the “I” dies when Christ is revealed! How we sink! And yet our joys shall rise unutterably, immeasurably high. I fell at his feet as dead.

17. And he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not fear; I am the First and the Last:

This is the place where your comfort comes from—not from what you are, but from what he is. You are the last, but he—here is the point—he is the First and the Last.

18, 19. I am he who lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which you have seen,

Come, lay aside your fears. Your fears disqualify you from holding the pen. You have scarcely dared to look. I am sure you will not dare to write until I strengthen you.

19, 20. And the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches:

The messengers, the ministers of the seven churches.

20. And the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.”

May God bless our reading to our rich instruction.