Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return: 33. A Sight of Jesus

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Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return: 33. A Sight of Jesus



TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 33. A Sight of Jesus

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A Sight of Jesus

We have become familiar, in all the utterances thus far in the New Testament, with a certain intensity of expectation of our Lord's speedy return. This seems, if possible, made still more intense here. There is a sort of thrill of expectancy, as if now it—He—is just coming. The opening sentences speak of it five times, [Note: Rev_1:1, Rev_1:3-4, Rev_1:7, Rev_1:8.] and the messages to the Churches, four times in the two short chapters. [Note: Rev_2:16, Rev_2:25; Rev_3:3, Rev_3:11.] In the heart of the book, right in the midst of a passage about demons at work in the coming awful time of crisis, [Note: Rev_16:12-16.] as unexpectedly as the Coming itself, there breaks in a voice, as if one standing just in the background, eagerly interrupts with an earnest plea which in His intensity and love He can no longer restrain,—"Behold I come as a thief, blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." In the nineteenth chapter and the twentieth, there are shouts of exultation; He has come! At last He has come! The enemy is put away! Christ is reigning on the earth with His own!

And in the concluding personal talk with John, thrice the Master Himself speaks out again,—"Behold, I come quickly." [Note: Rev_22:7, Rev_22:12, Rev_22:20.] And John fervently breathes out the prayer of his own full heart, "Amen: come, Lord Jesus." So the very last word of the whole Bible is a prayer for His return. This is the atmosphere with which the book is a-thrill, as well as being the special subject of its teaching.

The broad outline of the book is simple. After the introductory bit, there is first a vision of the glorified Jesus; [Note: Rev_1:9-20.] then His message to the group of His followers on the earth; [Note: Revelation 2, Revelation 3.] then the group of coming events fills up the bulk of the book; [Note: Rev_4:1 to Rev_22:5.]and then come the closing personal paragraphs. [Note: Rev_22:6-21.]

The sight of the Lord Jesus, in that dazzling glory which is a bit of His natural self, is John's preparation for what is to follow. The sight of Jesus was the thing that gripped John early on that river road to Bethsaida; [Note: Joh_1:35-51.] it filled his vision on the Transfiguration Mount; it flooded his eyes, and coloured his ink, as he penned the Gospel. [Note: Joh_1:1-18.]He is like the child who has been gazing intently at the brightly shining sun, and then turns away to find that sun everywhere, tingeing everything with its halo. So this look at the glorified Jesus, aye! at the glorified Jesus Himself, takes possession of his heart and faculties and pen and tongue.

This is an immensely suggestive fact for us who want to understand this book, and, beyond that, those plans of our Lord which He is so eager to have us understand. There needs to be a vision of the glorified Jesus, a fresh vision, a continual vision, that utterly transforms life, and activity, and the hold upon us of wealth, of inheritance, of old, honoured traditions of family and Church and social class, even as with the startled man on the Damascus road. This will give the open eye to see, and the hot heart to receive impressions, the cool, steady purpose to follow, and the will that scorns opposition and hindrance alike.

Following the vision comes the sevenfold message of our Lord to His group of followers. Was it this chiefly that makes Him break the silence and come back to plead with them? It looks not unlikely. The boy sent on the errand has forgotten the errand, and is loitering with evil companions, and the father is earnestly calling out after him. The messenger sent out to tell the world of the crucified Jesus is being wheedled over by the world. Instead of taking the Saviour to the world he is being swung away from the Saviour, and so being untrue to His last command. It is not wholly so, but largely so. The candlestick would be moved out of its place, simply because it had already itself moved away from the light, and so was useless as a candlestick. The message to the Church is an intense, yearning plea for overcomers. They were in the midst of the very sort of time His Olivet Talk spoke of. They must either overcome or be overcome. The forces of evil were making a tremendous effort to overcome them. His coming is intimately connected with their overcoming.

It is a tremendous plea, mingling sternness with great tenderness, even as of a loving father to his son who is beginning to yield to the world's down-tug. It is an intense plea to His followers today to be overcomers in the midst of evil overcomers, and those being overcome. So His coming will be influenced and hastened.