Church Identity and Perpetuity Part 8

 And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. Exodus 25:22

I want to notice the opening of the book of Revelation, particularly the candlestick image. John is commanded to write a message from the Lord to seven of his churches. He turned to see the Lord and saw him in the midst of the seven candlesticks, which are the seven churches. The relevance of a candlestick is that it is a stand or platform from which light may shine. It isn’t the light, but the light dwells there. Paul refers to the church of the living God as the pillar and ground of the truth 1Ti 3:15. She isn’t the authority, but she upholds the truth she was given. I quoted Ex 25:22 because we see a mercy seat that sat in the Holiest place, and like a flame on a candlestick, God designed it for the place where he would dwell and commune with God’s people on earth.

There is one Lord but seven candlesticks here. One candlestick for each local congregation mentioned. The Lord is addressing each one independently which wouldn’t make sense if their identity was tied together as a catholic church. They are each given encouragements and commendations as appropriate and also warnings for things to change with the consequence of the Lord removing their candlestick. Removing the candlestick is something more permanent than merely removing the light. It’s conceivable that on any given day a church could be caught up in the flesh or some sin and miss the presence of the Holy Spirit for some time. That’s depressing and I wouldn’t want that at all. But removing the candlestick, means God no longer even recognizes them as a church and therefore removes the platform from which he communes with his people. God doesn’t do this unfairly or abruptly, but as he told the church of the Laodiceans, he beckons church members to repent from their own self-sufficiency. If any member will answer the knock of the Savior, he will commune with the Lord. So even a small minority dissenting from the majority and leadership of the church, carries the identity of the church forward as long they are the ones eating at the Lord’s table.