LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Lights in the World (1)
What is the testimony of Christians in the world?
Christian Chen
"So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absenace, work out your slvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining or disputing so that you will become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to rejoice because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain" (Philippians 2: 14-16).
Now I want to emphasize especially the last sentence of verse fifteen: ‘You shine as lights in the world’. According to the Greek original the lights here should be translated as ‘luminaries’ and some translations translate it this way: ‘you shine as stars in the universe’. The lights here are not lights but ‘light-bearers’, the heavenly bodies which bear the light. The theme for this conference is ‘The Recovery of the Lord’s Testimony’ and I would like to approach this theme from one angle referring especially to the above verses from Philippians chapter two.
Paul told us, ‘…that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.’ I think we all agree that today we live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. However, we are the children of God ‘without fault’ in the midst of this generation. Paul prays for us that we may become blameless and harmless and he then continues, ‘among whom you shine as lights in the world’. The word ‘lights’ here only occurs twice in the New Testament and as we said the translation is actually ‘luminaries’ or ‘light-bearers’ - heavenly bodies that give out light. There is the light and there is the ‘light-bearer’. God is light but we are the bearer of the light, so we shine as ‘light-bearers’ in the world or as ‘stars’in the universe.
The illustration here is not light from a candle or a lamp. We belong to a heavenly realm and we are heavenly people. We are the light-bearers because we are in the heavenly places which is why we shine as stars in the universe. This is our testimony. When we talk about the Lord’s testimony, we need to remember that God is light and we are light-bearers. We are like the stars or the moon in the universe.
To recover the Lord’s testimony, we want to get to the root of the issue. The word ‘testimony’ can refer to God’s testimony, Christ’s testimony or our own testimony. Now what is our testimony? That we are the light-bearers.
The example from Creation
To help us understand this important thought, we have to go back to Genesis chapter one and look at this word ‘light-bearer’. When God created the heavens and the earth, He created light-bearers in this universe. He used them as a wonderful illustration to tell us how we can be the testimony for Christ. In Genesis one we find the origin of the universe and the origin of mankind; the origin of everything. There is something to do with God’s eternal will here, something that was already in His mind from eternity past. In verse one it says: ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’
This is the only verse in Genesis one which tells of the original creation of the universe. When God created the heavens, He created the sun, the moon and the stars or ‘light-bearers’. All the heavenly bodies. When we say that God created the heavens, it means that God created the ‘light-bearers’ and he then created the earth, so the whole universe. We don’t need to wait until the fourth day for God to create the sun and the moon since this forms part of Chapter one verse one. When we come to verse two, the camera of the Holy Spirit focuses on the earth and starting from verse two until the end of the chapter, we are told the story of this earth.
Something happened to this earth and we read in verse two ‘the earth was without form and void’. According to other places in the bible, when God created the earth, it was adequate for the habitation of human beings. God never intended to create the earth so that it would become without form or void. The earth in verse one was a perfect earth, beautiful and harmonious according to God’s design. It showed that God was a great engineer and mathematician. However in verse two something happened and the verb ‘was’ has two possible translations here. You can translate it as ‘was’ or you can translate it as ‘became’. This is the same word that is used to describe the wife of Lot. Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt. If we take the same translation here then, ‘the earth became without form and void’. From the context and the biblical record, we can be sure that it should be translated here as became. In it’s original condition, the earth wasn’t without form and void, but something happened and we know what it was.
According to the bible, one day in the past, there was an archangel who wanted to be equal with God. He became the Satan that we know about and there was a great rebellion in the universe with Satan at the head of it. One third of the angels followed in the footsteps of Satan and rebelled against God. Because of that, Satan and his followers were driven from the presence of God all the way to our planet. Our planet and our solar system or galaxy were now occupied by Satan and his followers and the judgement of God came upon this earth. It became without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep.
Satan was the author of the darkness, but God is the author of light. God is light and when Jesus was on the earth he said ‘I am the light of the world, anyone who follows me will no longer be in darkness’. What was the origin of this darkness? It was as a result of that great rebellion in the universe. That’s why it says that darkness was over the face of the deep. The Hebrew word for ‘The deep’ here refers to the depth of the ocean. So it’s not just that our planet was covered with water, but that ocean became so deep that you couldn’t find the depth of it. That’s why the bible uses the word ‘abyss’; it was deep to the point that you can’t measure it. Our whole planet was wrapped by these very deep waters.
For many years scientists have tried to find the reason why we have oceans on our planet. If you look at the rest of the solar system, there is no way that you can explain the oceans on our planet. But according to the scientific data that we have available today, scientists believe that they have the answer. The tails of comets have been studied by scientists and they have found that these contain a large quantity of frozen sea-water. The results of chemical analysis have shown that the components are the same as our sea-water. Therefore scientists have begun to understand that a long time ago, a group of comets bombarded our planet and deposited all the sea-water. This is the reason for our oceans and it’s quite a recent discovery.
According to the word of God, Satan was also ‘Lucifer’, the star of the morning and one third of the angels followed him. The bible also tells us that one third of the stars fell down to our planet, so we understand that Satan and his followers were driven from the presence of God to our planet. The angels were of course spirits but there was also a manifestation in the physical realm and what could be seen was the bright morning star and one third of the stars bombarding into our planet. Then darkness was over the face of the deep and our earth was wrapped by ocean.
Next the bible tells us that ‘the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters’. The waters were so deep that even though the sun and the moon were created, their light was not able to penetrate onto our planet. There was darkness everywhere and this was the consequence of the judgement of God. All this happened many many years ago until one day, God said ‘let there be light’ and there was light! What happened? When God judged this planet, the temperature of our planet became very high and He therefore let the planet cool down. As our planet cooled, the water molecules began to evaporate and the layer of water became thinner and thinner. So when God said ‘let there be light’ the light from the sun and the moon began to penetrate onto our planet. On the second day, the water above and the water below began to separate. The water wasn’t only getting thinner but there was now water above and water below. The water above was invisible and the water below visible, with the firmament of the air between the two waters. So on the second day it was much easier for the sun and the moon to shine onto our planet.
On the fourth day, things became clearer and clearer. Just like a newly born baby, when it opens it’s eyes in the first few hours, only sees light and darkness. Gradually however, his whole environment becomes much clearer and one or two days later a beautiful face begins to appear to him. In the beginning it was only a vague impression but as his eyes begin to focus, the resolution of his environment gets better and he sees the face of his mother. From that moment on he grows up before that wonderful face.
On the first day therefore, there was only light and darkness but when we get to the fourth day, we find lights in the firmament for signs and the seasons and years. The resolution is now much better allowing all of these to be distinguished. God was restoring a damaged earth. When there was darkness everywhere on this earth, God said ‘let there be light’ and there was light and God saw that the light was good and separated the light from the darkness. How did God do that? On the one hand because the light was now able to penetrate but now our planet began to function. Formerly, because of the judgement of God, the rotation of the earth had been influenced just like in the tsunami last year which also influenced the rotation of the planet. After that judgement of God, the earth was not rotating normally but when it came back to it’s normal rotation, then God divided the light from the darkness, calling the light ‘day’ and the darkness ‘night’. There was always light there, regardless of whether it was day or night and that’s God’s desire.
God is light and it doesn’t matter whether it is day or night, whether we are experiencing joy or suffering, whether the north wind blows or the south wind. God is light and he never makes mistakes, that is His glory. When God said let there be light, that means that the light is always there. When it is day the light is there and when it is night the light is still there and that is God’s purpose. Through His creation and the restoration of our planet, He wants to communicate an important lesson; what is testimony? God is light and we see the light during the day and during the night.
The bible tells us that there was evening and there was morning, one day. So the first day started with evening and finished with morning and the second day started with evening and finished with morning. So we not only have night but we also have day. If you study the story of the six days, you will see that every day starts with evening and then has morning. And so we begin our life and we can write our diary: the first evening and then morning, the second evening then morning, the third evening then morning. After we are saved, we can begin to write our spiritual diaries.
Every one of us was born at midnight. How do we know that we were born at midnight? If you remember the story of the Passover, that night was called ‘The night of Jehovah’ when the Passover lamb was slain. This represented what happened when the Lord Jesus Christ died for us on the cross. When our Lord died for us on the cross, he said ‘my God, my God why have you forsaken me?’.Remember that our Lord Jesus was always in the bosom of His Father and they had a wonderful fellowship from eternity past that will last for the eternal future. There is no dark cloud between the Father and the Son. For your sake and my sake, Jesus took your sin and my sin upon Himself and when God saw your sin and my sin upon His Son, imagine how dark that picture was - when God the Father saw the sin of the whole world on His Son and He turned His face away from His Son. It was all because of you and me since that was the work of the Lord Jesus for our salvation. The cost of that work, for less than one second, was that God turned His face away from His Son. No wonder that the Son cried out ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’.
So brothers, when God turned His face away from His Son, that moment was the dark night of Jehovah. For God had never known the sorrow of separation. Sometimes because of our sin, we have to say goodbye to our friends, our parents or our sweethearts but in the Godhead, never for one second had there been separation. However, two thousand years ago, when our Lord Jesus cried out ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me’, that was the night of Jehovah. When we receive Jesus as our saviour, when we apply the blood of the lamb on our doorposts and lintels, then the wrath of God will pass over and we are saved. Remember, we were all born at midnight.
No wonder that when you begin to write your diary, you will find evening then morning; death then resurrection. This is the Christian life. Brothers and sisters, how do we live a Christian life? This is the Christian life; life out of death. The life beginning with death and resurrection. It begins with the evening and then comes the morning.
What is the meaning of the first and second day? On the first day, the light is there. On the second day the light is there and on the third day the light is still there. Yes, you have evening, you have night - perhaps a long and dark night but you will see the light. According to God’s will, even through the night you will see the light.
God must have an important purpose behind it. When you read on, you have the six days. On the first day you have the light and on the fourth day you have the light-bearers. We can split the six days into the first three and the second three before we arrive at the seventh day. The first three and the second three days are in parallel. In the first three, everything was abstract while in the second three days everything becomes more concrete and clear.
On the first day we have the separation of light from darkness. On the second day, the separation of the things above from the things below and on the third day, the separation of life from death. Then, on the second three days, God repeats it again and the same story happens. On the first three days it is all very abstract. How can you grasp something abstract? Eternity is a concept which is very abstract. How can a boy or girl learn the concept of eternity? In order to teach your kids a very abstract concept, you need a special lesson. So you hide their toys under a blanket and when they lift it, they see the toys there. Then the same thing the next day, when he or she lifts up the blanket, they will see the toys there. First day, second day, third day, fourth day, the tenth day and the toys are always there - the situation never changes. Gradually the child learns that some things never change. God is an eternal God. How do we know that He is eternal? It’s an abstract concept. But God always turns something abstract into something that’s more concrete so you will feel something that’s very real.
Now let’s compare these two sets of three days. On the first day of the first set it says ‘let there be light’ and there was light. On the first day of the second three days (day four), ‘let there be light in the firmament and in the heavens’. Again we have light but it’s different here. When God said ‘let there be light’, it was light in general. But when we come to the fourth day, and the second set of three days, ‘let there be light in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and seasons, days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament to give light on earth.’ The lights in the firmament, the lights in the skies. Here we find the heavenly bodies that shine. Not just light but now we find light-bearers, some bodies that carry the light. Now we can more easily grasp the light and understand what light is. That’s what happened on the fourth day. The heavenly bodies all shine in the skies. Only our planet is not shining but anything belonging to the heavenly realm is made to shine by God. If it is heavenly, it is definitely shining. It’s impossible to say that something is heavenly but it isn’t shining.
Brothers and sisters, remember that on the first day God said ‘let there be light’ and on the fourth day ‘let there be lights in the firmament’. Now people will have a distinct idea about what light actually is. Through these light-bearers, we can discover the story of the light and understand all the different aspects of it.
When chemists discover a new element, such as when they discovered the important element helium, it wasn’t discovered when they were doing experiments in their lab. When did they find helium? When they watched the sun shining. That’s when they knew that in the universe there was an element called helium. They discovered helium in the sun. Thirty years later, they found it in a lab on this earth. How do we know everything about the sun? When the sun is shining, and that light-bearer is giving out it’s light, then we can understand every aspect of the light.
When we come to the fourth day, when God created the light-bearers, it says in verse seventeen, ‘God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth and to rule over the day and the night and divide the light from the darkness and God said that it was good’. Previously in verse sixteen it says ‘Then God made two great lights’. Now in this universe the two great lights are very important, they are the light-bearers. When they shine they are testifying, they are giving out their testimony. There were two lights:
‘He made the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.’ What are the luminaries in the sky? There are two great lights and there are also the stars. In God’s mind, here you find the light-bearers in the sky: the stars, the moon and the sun. Through the sun, the moon and the stars, we begin to discover every aspect of the light.
God is light and Christ is the Sun of righteousness. When we see Christ, we see God, because Christ is the light-bearer for God. So Christ is one of the two great lights. When the Word became flesh and Jesus walked on this earth, He was a light-bearer and through Christ we can begin to discover the Father. This is testimony brothers, the testimony of Christ. Christ wants to tell the world, to present to the world that God is light. So He is the great light, Christ the Son, the Sun of Righteousness.
As well as the sun we also have the moon and the stars and we need the word of God to tell us about these. According to Philippians chapter two, ‘We shine as luminaries in the universe’. Christ is the Sun of Righteousness and we are the luminaries in the universe. So which luminaries are we? We must either be the stars or the moon. When we talk about individuals, when we talk about individual Christians, we shine as stars but when we talk about Christians in a collective sense, when we talk about the church as the body of Christ, we shine as the moon in the universe.
So from the word of God, it is clear that the sun typifies Christ, the moon typifies the church and all the stars typify the saints.
Abraham had two classes of descendants; heavenly descendants and earthly descendants. If you remember, the heavenly descendants were to be as many as the stars and the earthly descendants, as many as the sands. We belong to the heavenly descendants. We are heavenly and we have a heavenly calling, therefore each one of us should shine like the stars and that’s our testimony. This is why our Lord Jesus said, ‘You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world’.
So brothers, what is our mission? Thank God, that after we are saved, we all have a Christian life to live and this Christian life will grow. Our mission is this: we should be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. For this reason, let us shine as stars individually but let’s also shine together as the moon.
Remember that the moon in the bible always refers to the church. From Philippians chapter two therefore, we now know who we are: that we are the children of God, that we are without fault in the midst of this crooked and perverted generation, among whom we shine as stars in the universe individually, but we shine as the moon collectively. This is what Paul was trying to teach us, that we are the luminaries in the universe and this is our mission.
As far as the mission is concerned, how do you describe the church? We are told in the book of Revelation, ‘The seven lamp stands are seven churches’. So the Holy Spirit compares the church to lamp stands. What is a lamp stand? A lamp stand is for giving out light, but the lamp stand itself has no light. The light comes through the lamps on the lamp stand since the oil is in the lamps. That’s how the light shines. When the Holy Spirit compares the church to the lamp stands in Revelation chapter one, it tells us how we can become the testimony for Christ and for God. In ourselves, we have no light, we are only the lamp stand to bear the light. Whether as individuals or as the church, we are only light-bearers and we have no light in ourselves. All that we can do is bear the light and that’s our testimony.
The example from Revelation
When we talk about the recovery of the Lord’s testimony, the church is compared to the lamp stand and as far as our mission is concerned,we are lamp stands. However, we need the word of God to explain this to us. There are only two places in the New Testament where we find the word ‘light-bearers’ or ‘luminaries’. One is in Philippians two and we’re now going to turn to the other one in Revelation chapter twenty-one, verse ten,
‘And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, as a jasper stone of clear crystal.’
Now the word for ‘her light’ here is the same Greek word as we find in Philippians chapter two. It means luminary here and this luminary was like a very precious stone. The whole new Jerusalem is like a luminary, like a star or the moon in the universe. This new Jerusalem is the heavenly Jerusalem. We are told that, having the glory of God, the whole city is just like a luminary.
Today, a jasper stone is a semi-precious stone. It is not a precious stone. It is also semi-transparent, not as clear as crystal. So in the new heavens and the new earth, the earth and heaven will be glorified and the jasper stone will become a precious stone, clear as crystal. In other words, the whole city of Jerusalem will be like a diamond. This is what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach us.
What is a diamond? We see the fire in a diamond because a diamond is always cut in such a way that when the light enters, because of total refraction, that light can never come out. It goes from one face to another face, to another and the light is trapped in the diamond. If you have a diamond in your hands, you can tell yourself that the light has been trapped in the diamond.
When I see the light inside, I can see the rainbow and when I see the rainbow, I see the glory. Light is something that’s very abstract; who can grasp the light? Who can make it concrete? The diamond can make the light concrete. The diamond has no light, it’s just like any other stone. When you turn off the light, then the diamond is just like any other stone. How do you try to figure out the light? It is almost impossible because light is invisible. How can you make it visible? How can you see the beauty and the glory of the light? You need to look at diamonds. However, the diamond is just a light-bearer, to tell people the story of light. This is the new Jerusalem, the whole city is just like that diamond.
The light is abstract, but somehow in that diamond, everything becomes clear. That’s why in the bible when it says ‘her light’ it means luminary, like a precious stone, like a jasper clear as crystal. This is the new Jerusalem. In other words, when you come to the twenty-first chapter of Revelation, we find the great and only lamp stand in this universe. Lampstand means light-bearer. It’s like a diamond here. If the new Jerusalem is nothing but a huge lamp stand and in the first chapters of Revelation there are seven churches, which are the seven lamp stands, when we are in time, there are seven lamp stands but when we are in eternity, there is only one lamp stand. The seven lamp stands are the manifestation of the one great lamp stand.
Who is the lamp brothers? When you come to chapter twenty-one verse twenty-three, you find there is no need for the sun or the moon to shine on the city. The bible begins with the sun and the moon in the first chapter of Genesis and ends with the sun and the moon in Revelation chapter twenty-one. In Genesis one, you need the sun and the moon but in the new Jerusalem you don’t need either. The sun and the moon are nothing but shadows. Now the reality has come. Who is the lamp? If we read the last phrase it says, ‘the Lamb is it’s lamp’. We have no light, only Christ has the light. Who is the light? If we read verse twenty-three, ‘the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it for the glory of God has illumined it’. God is light, Christ is the lamp and the church is the lamp stand.
In eternity, you will see the whole body of Christ, from the first born-again Christian through to the last one, a great body of Christ. The head is in heaven and the body is on earth. There is only one universal body but also, there is only one testimony: the new Jerusalem. So the new Jerusalem in Revelation is simply typifying the universal church. Today, we are the children of God in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation among whom we shine as luminaries in the universe. Now we understand what is the meaning of the Lord’s testimony. Thank God that our life is a heavenly life, because when we were born again, we were born from above. Thank God, we are all ‘para-troopers’ coming down from heaven. Since we are heavenly bodies, we are meant to shine.
One day, when the millennial kingdom comes, and you look at the heavenly compartment, you will find many stars that shine, many righteous who shine like the sun. Why? Because they have been transformed into the image of Christ. That’s the meaning of the millennial kingdom. However, when we come to eternity, the whole new Jerusalem represents the end product of God’s work where the will of God has finally been carried out. Look at the final chapter of the universe; what do you see? The new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, having the glory of God. Her luminary is like a most precious stone, a great heavenly lamp stand. In itself there is no light, the light is always with the lamp -Christ- and God is the light. I think we should now be clearer about the Lord’s testimony.
The moon reflects the glory of the sun
Why do we talk about the recovery of the Lord’s testimony? Remember that the moon itself has no light; every time that you see moonlight, it’s actually sunlight. When the moon opens it’s face towards the sun, it absorbs the sunlight. In the same way, the church in itself has no light. The church is nothing but a lamp stand, nothing but the moon. From the very beginning, no matter how you labour, no matter how you work, no matter how you fast, no matter what you do, you will never create an inch of light, not even candle light. This is the nature of the moon and concerning the Lord’s testimony, we are only the moon. In ourselves there is no light, but when we observe the sun with an open face and absorb the light, then we begin to reflect the light. When we reflect the light, then the world will see the sunlight.
At night, when the whole world is full of darkness, God’s will is: ‘let there be light’, both during the day and during the night. During the day, Christ is the sun of righteousness. However, two thousand years ago, He went up into heaven. So according to John, that was the night. From that moment, there began a long and dark night. No wonder that when we have the Lord’s table, we sometimes refer to it as the Lord’s supper. For two thousand years, the church only has the Lord’s supper and never has the Lord’s breakfast. It’s because the day hasn’t dawned. Brothers and sisters, since our Lord ascended to heaven from the mount of Olives, it has ushered in a long and dark night.
When Jesus was on earth, He was the light of the world. That light was shining during the day. However, God’s will is this: no matter whether it’s night or day, the world should see the light. So brothers, since our Lord ascended to heaven, that mission has been given to the church. The world cannot afford to walk in darkness. Who is going to rise and shine? We are not able to do anything, but only when we absorb the sunlight and reflect it, then people will begin to see the moonlight. Remember that if they have any scientific knowledge, they will know that it’s not moonlight but it’s actually sunlight.
When people see the church, they should not only see the church but they should see Christ in the church. How do we know that we are successful in the testimony of God? You say ‘We have two thousand people, we are just like one of the ‘mega-churches’’. Brothers and sisters, you may have many people, you may have a wonderful building and people when they look at the moon, they see the moon but where is Christ? What is the testimony of the moon? The testimony of the moon is this: ‘no longer I but the Sun who shed the light’. That’s the testimony of the church. We can’t rise and shine but thank God, Christ rises and shines. However, He has already returned to the Father and ascended to heaven bringing in the long, dark night.
Only when the church is faithful therefore, even though it’s night people can discover the sun; they can see Christ in the church. This is the only mission of the church. It is the only way in which the church can be useful. When the church stops functioning as the church, or in other words, when the church stops functioning as a lamp stand, do you know what the Lord will do? He will remove the lamp stand. Remember, it is by His grace that we should rise up and shine to let the world see no one but Christ. That’s the reason why we are here.
When we talk about the recovery of the Lord’s testimony, do we mean the return of church order? Are we thinking about reformers? Let’s say you want to be one of the reformers. When you look around, everybody is wrong and you want to be right - is this the recovery of the Lord’s testimony? Even though it’s a long and dark night, the world should see the light. Where is the moonlight? We may have thousands of people, we may own wonderful buildings. Or people may see the mega-churches and prosperity gospel churches, they may see you and see me. But brothers, if you let the moon testify for the sun, he will say ‘I rise and set for one purpose only: during the absence of our beloved Lord, the world will be able to see the sunlight’. This is our testimony.
The phases of the moon
In theory, when you look at the sun and you reflect the sun, you give out moonlight (which is actually sunlight). So people see the sun even during the night because the light is always there. Now, are we faithful to the Lord’s testimony?
When you are in Temuco, what do the people in Temuco see? Do they just see four to six hundred Christians there? Or hear that they sing so beautifully? Or observe that they love the Lord so much and are so active? Or morally speaking that they set such a wonderful example to society? Is that all? Is that all that they can write about the church in Temuco? What is the mission of the church in Temuco? Even when it’s night, the people can say ‘I’ve discovered the sun - when I saw the moonlight, I knew that every inch of that light belongs to the sun’. They see noone but Christ.
Brothers and sisters, this is the lamp stand in Temuco. This is the lamp stand in Santiago. This is the lamp stand in Ephesus. This is the lamp stand in Laodicea. We are to be the light-bearers. We know that the more we are in the Lord’s presence, the more that we behold Him with our open face, we will absorb the glory of God, from glory to glory, and we will shine. When we shine, then people we see Christ. Thank God, that is how we fulfil our mission.
Don’t forget, we are the people who have been redeemed by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus. We know our origin; we were all sinners. We are all sinners and yet we receive grace. But because the presence of sin is still with us, because we are still in our flesh, the problem lies with you and me.
Our testimony will depend on how you locate the moon. What is the position of the moon? The moon is supposed to give light to our planet but this will depend on the position of the moon. If the moon is just between the sun and the earth, then the earth will not be able to see any of the moonlight. So God has to do something with the moon and when he changes the position of the moon, gradually, people begin to see the moonlight, they begin to see the crescent. Not the full moon at first, but that moonlight will grow and grow and after fifteen days, the earth will be between the sun and the moon and the moon is no longer a hindrance to that reflection.
When the moon is between the sun and the earth, then people can’t see the light. They know that the sun and the moon are there, but they’re in darkness. Gradually however, when you get to the fourth day, you discover the crescent of the moon and when you get to the fifteenth day, it becomes the full moon. This is why we sometimes have a new moon, sometimes a full moon and sometimes in between the two.
The new moon is as if there’s no moon and the whole world is in darkness. The moon is still there, the church is there - remember the dark ages of church history? We know that the church was in Europe, that the church was upon this earth but why was there a dark age? Yes the church had most of the property in Europe and half of the land belonged to the church and we could easily see the church - especially if you went to Rome. But why was the whole world in darkness? The church was there but the moon never shined. Why? Because the church put itself in such a position and became so powerful that it became the hindrance of the reflection.
No wonder there was no light but thank God in the sixteenth century, when God raised Martin Luther and Zwingli and John Calvin, people began to see the moon in the crescent shape. People now had an open bible and began to understand justification by faith. Therefore we can see how the moonlight began to increase. Brothers and sisters, that is what the Lord is doing - from the sixteenth century, seventeenth century, twentieth century, twenty-first century, the moon becomes fuller and fuller and the desire of God is the full moon.
Remember that with the crescent, you see the sunlight but in a partial way. All individuals should be the light of the world and all the church is supposed to be the testimony for Christ. No one can say that it is his exclusive right to be the testimony for Christ but the problem is this: what type of testimony do you have? If it’s the new moon, no one will see Christ. You are one hundred percent Christian, the church is one hundred percent church and everyone is saved, but where is the testimony?
For that reason, thank God for Martin Luther and John Calvin, that in the sixteenth century the world began to see some light. This is the recovery of the Lord’s testimony. But when we talk about the recovery of the testimony we are referring to the fullness of the Lord’s testimony. When the moon is a crescent, there is testimony but not the fullness of the Lord’s testimony. The crescent is part of the restoration - from no testimony to some testimony, from no light to some light. However, when we talk about the recovery of the Lord’s testimony we always refer to the eternal will of God since God will never be satisfied until He sees the full moon.
It’s interesting that the moon rises but it also sets. When there is a new moon, as the sun rises, the new moon also rises. When the sun sets, the new moon also sets. Then you know that the church is in the dark age. Here you find presumptions and pretensions, someone saying that they are able to represent Christ here on earth - that’s the new moon. When you reach the full moon however, when the sun sets, that’s the beginning of the rising of the moon. When the moon sets, that’s the beginning of the sunrise. What does this mean? When the sun sets after governing the whole day, then the moon begins to rise and to govern the night with exactly the same pattern. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west and then in the evening the full moon rises from the east and also sets in the west, so the moon is exactly like the sun. So if you translate the full moon into spiritual language, it means being transformed into the image of Christ. When the church is matured, during the day you will see the sun rise and set and during the night you will see the moon rising and setting. It’s almost the same pattern. Therefore the moon is the representative of the sun. The moon is able to portray everything about the sun and that’s the Lord’s testimony.
To repeat once again - when we talk about the recovery of the Lord’s testimony, we mean the full moon. Anything less than the full moon will never satisfy God’s heart. Brothers and sisters, we need help from the Lord to be able to see the recovery of the Lord’s testimony. Starting with the new moon, the Lord is gradually doing something and finally, you should be able to see the full moon. This will mean that the church has truly reached it’s maturity, which is what the Lord wants.
So, is the restoration of the Lord’s testimony only the the restoration of church order according to the bible? That now the church should be like this or like that? You may put everything into church order but how about the light? That light is derived from life and unless that life reaches maturity, our moon will always be like a crescent and sometimes just like the new moon. Even if you are the best reformers and help the church to become a little more than just a crescent, God’s desire is for the full moon.
Brothers, we have no light - no goodness in our selves but thank God, we are not only like stars in the universe but we shine as the moon in the universe. Are you satisfied brothers? When you see the church being recovered, when you see everything according to the bible? Remember however, God can only be satisfied when He sees the Son in His church, when the church is being transformed into the image of Christ.
Going back to Genesis, in the sky, God only recognised two great lights - the sun and the moon, Christ and His church. Christ and His church is the total sum of the word of God and they represent the eternal will of God. Thank God, when we talk about individuals, we are like stars. However, may we be the children of God without fault in the midst of a perverted and crooked generation among whom we shine as luminaries in the universe - be it like stars individually or like the moon collectively. This is our testimony, but what testimony do you have? Brothers and sisters, all God wants is the full moon.
That night, when the Lord went to Gethsemane, from the upper room all the way through the Kidron valley, that night was the night of the full moon. Why? Because through that night, Christ presented Himself for the will of God. Finally, He died for us on the cross and that represents God’s will. Through that wonderful work on the cross, our flesh, our self, will be dealt with. Then God will keep us in position so that the light of Christ will be totally reflected and when that is accomplished, that is the full moon.
Brothers and sisters, those who consider themselves reformers, think for a moment; are we able to reach that goal? You can be a reformer and represent some sort of constitution or charter for the church but you will never get the church matured.
May the Lord be merciful to us and let us all surrender before God. Let the life of Christ take over and when we behold Him with open face, from glory to glory, at the same time accepting the working of the cross, then He will bring us to the proper position and people will see the full moon, even in the dark night. It will be almost like the daytime, they will see and enjoy the presence of the sun all the night. Even if it is a long and dark night, we will be satisfied because Christ is here, wiping away all of our tears. This ought to be our testimony.
Before the Lord’s return, remember that He is working in this direction. The Reformation was wonderful and we owe so much to Calvin and Luther, but what God wants is not only more light than the new moon. Thank God that We are no longer in the dark ages but remember that God is still continuing to work in our midst and He wants us to reach the goal because only the full moon will satisfy His heart. Only when God is satisfied, then we also will be satisfied. So may the Lord really speak to our hearts.
Abridged version of a message shared during the 2nd International Conference
Santiago (Chile), September 2005.