There is nothing more important than a Bible-proclaiming church. It is golden in the sight of God. It is a far more important message than you will get from the university, even things that are sound and necessary. It is far more important. It is spiritual and eternal light and understanding. It is Christ and salvation. This is a golden lampstand. There is no greater entity on earth than the Bible believing church.
John had to turn to see who spoke. To hear Christ speak to us, we must always turn from the direction we are facing to see the Lord. It was appropriate then that the voice came from behind. Even the best of us must turn for we are carnal and God is holy. His thoughts are high above our thoughts, and even the apostle John who, humanly speaking, knew him better than any other man, had to turn to see him.
There are hundreds and thousands of individual local churches, and each one is represented by a lampstand. Jesus Christ is seen moving among the lampstands. We do not need a denomination. We do not need a national church, and bishops and archbishops, and, for Rome, even a pope. We do not need all that, because in the New Testament each church is its own light bearing lampstand. Christ moves among each one, and deals with each one directly, and governs each one through his word.
In the temple there was one seven branched lampstand which represented the whole light and revelation and message of God. The testimony to the word of God was to go forth from the temple, from the Jewish church. But you see the Jewish church has come to an end. Although many individual Jews will continue to be saved throughout the Christian era, the Jewish church as organised in the Old Testament has come to an end. And the one lampstand with seven branches has now become seven individual lampstands. Each one represents a local church. Our unity is no longer visible, but is a spiritual unity which comes from having Christ in the midst of us. That is the New Testament order.