The Hurl Of Great Price (Revelation 3:14-22)

Two words you never want to hear: Induce vomiting.

When I was a young warthog… “Induce vomiting” was a common suggestion on labels for things you shouldn’t have swallowed.

We always had in the medicine cabinet an emergency bottle of Ipecac Syrup. It was right next to the Mercurochrome, which was right next to the Iodine.

If you had those three miracle products, you had a good chance of surviving childhood.

Ipecac Syrup is no longer recommended. Research proved it not only ineffective but dangerous. If you want some, I’m pretty sure the bottle in my childhood home is still in the medicine cabinet. Along with Witch Hazel, Geritol, and Brioschi.

Throwing-up ¹ can make things worse. That doesn’t stop well-meaning folks from posting on the world-wide inter-web the best natural home remedies to induce up-chucking:²

✎ Drink Coca-Cola that has run out of its bubbles. Drink it every hour, which will make you sick and want to heave³. After you drink your Coca-Cola, drink mineral water as a follow-up to trigger regurgitation⁴︎. 
✎ Gargle with egg whites.
✎ Expose yourself to disgusting smells.
(I hope you’re not one of those who get nauseous just thinking about it. If so, today might be rough).

Best barfing⁵︎ in a movie, you ask? The Exorcist. Honorable Mention goes to Tom Hardy in Venom.

The church of the Laodiceans made Jesus want to vomit them.
🤢 🤮

“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (v16).

The Lord’s nausea was triggered by their spiritual temperature. They were “lukewarm.”

Jesus had not yet spewed⁶︎. He was hoping He wouldn’t have to. He suggested a remedy for His nausea was for them to “be zealous and repent” (v19).

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Jesus Takes Your Spiritual Temperature, and #2 You Can Tweak Your Spiritual Temperature.

#1 – Jesus Takes Your Spiritual Temperature (v14-17)

We’ve become familiar with someone taking our temperature before being allowed to proceed.

Jesus takes our spiritual temperature when we gather in His name.

Rev 3:14  “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:

The “angel of the church” is its pastor. He was the most likely individual read aloud to those gathered.

There is a subtle difference in this greeting from the previous six letters. Instead of saying “the church in Laodicea,” Jesus calls them “the church of the Laodiceans.”

It might be an Easter egg. Not the Cadbury kind, but the kind that is a hidden clue in a movie. The word “Laodicea” roughly translates into English as self-rule.

The Lord addressed them as their own masters rather than as His bondservants.

Jesus was going to give an eye-opening testimony about the spiritual condition of the people in this church. He was going to expose their hearts. Before doing so, He established Himself as an expert witness capable of such pronouncements.

You’ve seen movies and TV shows where they call upon expert witnesses. Sometimes the experts contradict one another. I just learned, for example, that bite marks are junk science.

No one could contradict the Lord. There is no junk science in His spiritual evaluations.

✎ Jesus’ testimony was from “the Amen.” Think of it as having the final, authoritative word. Whatever Jesus says, it is “Word.”
✎ Jesus’ testimony was from “the Faithful and True Witness.” As “Witness,” He sees everything, including the heart of man. His assessment of what He witnesses is “Faithful and True.”

The “Beginning of the creation of God” cannot mean Jesus was created because elsewhere we learn He is Creator. Colosse was a city in the same region. In his letter to them, the apostle Paul said, “For by [Jesus] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him (1:16).

“Beginning of the creation” means that Jesus is the origin of Creation.

Is this a not-so-subtle clue as to false teaching in Laodicea? Had they begun to teach that Jesus was not very-God of very-God, but a created being? Can’t say for sure. It fits with self-rule.

Rev 3:15  “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.

We can’t comment on hot, cold, and lukewarm without some enlightening background. This is going to blow your mind, but it is true.

Laodicea had almost no water sources of its own
According to one document, I read “No other city in the Lycus Valley was as dependent on external water supplies as Laodicea.” They purchased water from Hierapolis and Colosse:

✎ Hierapolis, about six miles away, was known for its natural hot spring water. The baths of Hierapolis attracted citizens from all over the Roman Empire.
✎ Colosse was known for its cold water. Located about eleven miles from Laodicea, it was situated at the foot of Mount Cadmus, which peaked at 9000 feet. Ice-cold snow-fed streams rushed down the mountain.

One water was naturally hot 🥵 at its source; one water was naturally cold 🥶 at its source. By the time either arrived in Laodicea, it was lukewarm.

We normally think that being “hot” is something good, and to be desired, and being “cold” is something bad, and to be avoided. “Cold” can be a good thing. It was a special treat to drink icy-cold water 💦 at a time before there were any means of refrigeration.

The bigger picture that Jesus was drawing for them was that of a banquet. He will famously say He is at the door, knocking, to share supper. (v20).

Jesus was talking temperature in the context of sharing supper with them.

Rev 3:16  So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

Lukewarm food can be deadly.
☠️

If hot food, or cold food, sits out too long at room temperature, it can allow bacteria to grow to dangerous levels that can cause severe illness.

Think how much worse this was in ancient times. Just ask Alexander the Great. He died in Babylon at 33yrs of age. Doctors at the University of Maryland studied historical accounts of Alexander’s symptoms and death. They say he died from typhoid fever caused by Salmonella typhi. It can be found in “raw or undercooked eggs, raw milk, contaminated water, and raw or undercooked meats.”

The US Department of Agriculture calls it “the Danger Zone.” It’s the range of temperatures (40° – 140° Fahrenheit) in which cooked food sits out for longer than two hours. During that period, bacteria can grow rapidly.

I made a delicious Avocado Egg Salad last week. Properly stored, egg salad will last for three to five days in the refrigerator. Egg salad should be discarded if left out for more than two hours at room temperature.

Other foods must be heated to a certain temperature to kill existing bacteria. Meats, for example.

I believe that this is what Jesus had in mind when He said they were neither hot, nor cold, but had become lukewarm.

The Laodiceans had assumed a toxic lukewarm temperature by preferring to be out in the world.

This might be a good time to address the issue of whether the folks in the church of the Laodiceans were saved.

In Laodicea, we’d say that the majority were unsaved. It shouldn’t shock you. Many so-called churches are led by, and attended by, nonbelievers.

The minority who were saved in Laodicea could also be addressed this way on account of their preferences for the things of this world. Commentators talk about what they call “Nominal Christians,” who take on the characteristics and habits and pursuits of the world, so much so that it is hard to distinguish them from the average nonbeliever. They might not be doing anything sinful, but their heart is in the world.

We too quickly interpret ourselves out of a verse. If this letter were only directed toward nonbelievers, we could ignore it. We’ll see at its end that, like all six previous letters, it is for everyone who has “ears to hear.”

Room temperature food that has been out too long; and food not thoroughly cooked; makes you blow chunks⁷︎. Jesus wanted to sup with them, but He might ralph⁸︎ on account of the lukewarmness in Laodicea.

We see them too long out in the world in v17:

Rev 3:17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked –

✎︎ “Rich” means rich. They had plenty of money. Too much money.
✎︎ “Have become wealthy” is better translated as increased with goods. They used their too much money to buy more-and-more of this world’s goods. They invested heavily in the world, not in Heaven.

Rich people who surround themselves with the comforts of this world trust in the external rather than the eternal. It’s easy to begin to think you have need of nothing.

Maybe we’re not rich or wealthy or increased with goods. We can still want to be. The love of those things, the love of the world, will just as quickly ‘lukewarm’ us as actually having riches, wealth, and goods.

You’re familiar with eating-disorder sufferers who look in the mirror and, even though they are dangerously thin, see themselves as overweight. Jesus held up His mirror to the church of the Laodiceans to show them they were “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” They saw themselves otherwise, but spiritually they were blind beggars so wretched and miserable that they didn’t even have clothes to wear.

Jesus is the only expert witness on the condition of the human heart. His Word is the mirror we look into to be shown, and to hear, His testimony. It isn’t to find us guilty. It’s to lead us to grace.

#2 – You Can Tweak Your Spiritual Temperature (v18-22)

The church of the Laodiceans made a classic blunder, the most famous of which is… “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.”

Their classic spiritual blunder was thinking that worldly success, wealth, and comfort signify God’s favor. It too often leads us away from Him.

The Lord meets us where we are at. We should love Him for His condescension to us. Jesus spoke to the rich church of Laodicea like a financial adviser.

Rev 3:18  I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

He counseled them to “buy.” Trouble was, the things Jesus listed could not be purchased.

There are three more things that you need to know about the city of Laodicea:

It was noted for its many banks.
They manufactured a medicinal eye ointment.
They bred and raised sheep with unusual black wool and were noted for the garments made with it.

They deposited gold into the many banks. Maybe you follow the stock market. Me, not so much. I do own one share in Disney. My dividend last year was $0.98.
Jesus is a gold-broker. He can store up your rewards in Heaven where they are safe from theft and corruption.

He says here it is “gold refined in the fire.” Jesus can make gold out of your trials. He’s talking about what we might call Job-gold. Job said, “But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (23:10).

Jesus next said, “buy from Me… white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed.”

Laodicea, with its black wool, was a garment district. I’m sure the Laodiceans were clothed in the finest apparel. They could afford to visit their tailors, and have custom-made outfits suitable for every occasion.

None of their earthly garments, however, would stand a chance in Heaven. They’d all be disintegrated – leaving them naked.

The Bible uses clothing to illustrate your salvation.

When you get saved, Jesus takes upon Himself your filthy and inappropriate garments. He gives you, instead, His robe of righteousness. It’s the only garment that is Heaven-approved.

Jesus next said, “… and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” A popular eye ointment known as Phrygian Powder was produced in Laodicea.

No amount of Phrygian powder would restore sight to the blind. But Jesus does – especially to the spiritually blind.

Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

This sounds like family discipline, does it not? There were believers in the church. They should be “zealous” to repent – eager to, and wholeheartedly, turning to God and from the world.

Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

Haters like to say that this verse should not be used for evangelism since Jesus was addressing a church. But the church was nearly all unsaved. It is an appropriate verse for anyone, nonbeliever or believer, in whatever spiritual state you find yourself.

If you are not a Christian, the sinless, risen, ascended, Son of God sends His Holy Spirit to knock on your heart, by grace freeing your will to open it to Jesus.

He’s “knock, knock, knockin’ on your heart’s door” – and that means you are being enabled to answer the knocking. Open the door to Him. Don’t be one who says, “I hear you knockin’ but you can’t come in.”
✊ 🚪

As for His knocking on a believer’s heart… I have no problem thinking of Jesus knocking on my heart’s metaphorical door. His knocking can shock me into the realization I have kicked Him out, at least temporarily, while I self-rule.

Jesus knocks, and He will keep knocking. Knock… knock… knock… knock… knock.

Louder at times, too. Each knock is intended to capture your spiritual attention.

Today we surveil our doors with cameras. In those days, a knock on the door would be accompanied by the knocker identifying himself. Knock-knock… “It’s Jesus. Thought I’d do a pop-in to let you know you’re blowing it, and unless you repent, I’m going to retch⁹︎.”

Jesus wants to “dine” with you. There are a present and a future application of this dining experience:

✎︎ In the present, Jesus wants to have a relationship with you that can be likened to friends sitting down and conversing over a meal.
✎︎ In the future, at His Second Coming, Jesus will dine with you as His bride in what is called later in this book, the Marriage Supper.

Rev 3:21  To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

It is the Christian who overcomes, not the overcomer who becomes a Christian.
You overcome the world by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Jesus was raised from the dead ascended into Heaven, and rewarded with a seat at the Father’s right hand, from which He will return to rule the universe.

In Colossians 3:1 we learn that we “have been raised with Christ.” We already share in His life, in His power. Our position is with Him, on His throne.

We will be physically raised from the dead or raptured, then rule with Jesus in the Kingdom on earth.

These self-ruling, self-sufficient, miserable, poor, wretched, naked, blind people are nevertheless promised they can rule with Jesus.

Not just that they might barely make it into Heaven; but that they will share a seat of honor.

You didn’t see that coming.

Rev 3:22  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Did they listen to Jesus? According to the Biblical Archaeology Society,

The church at Laodicea… became the seat of a Christian bishop, and a Christian council was held there in the fourth century AD. Archaeologists have discovered about 20 ancient Christian chapels and churches at the site. The largest church at Laodicea [called Calvary Chapel of Laodicea] took up an entire city block and dates to the beginning of the fourth century.

That is the way to repent.

Laodicea started as the church in Laodicea, but the pull of the world led them to be the church of the Laodiceans. They repented and returned to their original foundation.

Without sounding in any way puffed-up, we are a church in, not a church of. Let’s remain that way by continuing in the Spirit, and by resisting the downward spiral of the world.

This quote attributed to Voddie Baucham might stir you as a believer: “No matter how good things get in this world, it’s all Egypt! There will never be enough gold chains, fine linen… or anything else to satisfy the yearning [for Him] that God has placed in us.”

If you are not a believer… Not saved… Jesus is knocking, and saying to you, “Let My love open the door.”

O Key Door Key (Revelation 3:7-13)

When our daughter was moving out of our home, I asked her to turn in her house key. It seemed appropriate to me; and by “me,” I mean only me.

Both she and Pam disagreed with my request. Like Ricky Ricardo, I asked them “splain it to me.”

They were more than happy to oblige.

Jesus presented Himself to the church in Philadelphia as “He who has the Key of David.”

“David,” of course, is King David of Israel. God promised him a descendant who would establish the Kingdom of God and rule it forever.

Jesus’ possession of the Key of David is proof that Jesus is the descendant of David who will establish the Kingdom of God and rule over it forever.

The Lord’s comments to the faithful believers in Philadelphia assured them of their future entrance into the forever Kingdom. Since Jesus’ comments to the churches in the Revelation are to all churches for all time, He is likewise assuring those of us who are in Christ that we, too, are assured our future entrance into the forever Kingdom.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 No Great Tribulation For You, and #2 New Jerusalem Awaits You.

#1 – No Great Tribulation For You (v7-10)

Monsters Inc is my favorite Pixar film. The explanation of the monster under your bed, or in your closet, is pure genius.

To enter the human world, the monsters had to go through a door. That sequence at the end, the door chase, is classic. You never know where the next door is going to take them.

We know where our “door” is taking us.

Rev 3:7  “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “HE WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, HE WHO OPENS AND NO ONE SHUTS, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS”:

“The angel of the church” is referring to its pastor in his role of delivering God’s message to the church.

Even though all seven churches in the Revelation were contemporary, and geographically near one another, Jesus had a separate, unique message for each of them.
We should expect God the Holy Spirit to have a unique message for our church, and for each of us, every time we come together to worship the Lord.

Jesus revealed Himself to Philadelphia as “He who is holy, He who is true.”

✎ “Holy” is a title for the Messiah (e.g., Mark 1:24).
✎ “True” means genuine or real.

If you are on twitter you’ve noticed famous people use the preface “@TheReal” to designate that it is really them. When I get famous, I’ll be @TheRealGenePensiero.

“Holy” and “True” means Jesus is @TheRealMessiah.

“HE WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, HE WHO OPENS AND NO ONE SHUTS, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS.”

In your employment, some of you are Key Holders. You open and shut your place of business.

Jesus is a Key Holder.

✎ In Matthew 16:19, He tells Peter “And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.”
✎ In Revelation 1:18 Jesus said, “I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”
✎ In our verses, He has “the key of David.”

🗝 A couple of chapters after Jesus said that He would give the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter, He makes it clear that He will give them to every believer in the Church Age (Matthew 18).

Peter becomes an example for us of a believer using the key to the Kingdom:

✎ On the Day of Pentecost, he presented the Gospel, and three thousand Jews were saved (Acts 2:41).
✎ Later in the Book of Acts, Peter and John are instrumental in the conversion of the Samaritans (Acts 8:14).
✎ Then Peter is the one sent to give the Gospel to the Gentiles as he visits Cornelius (Acts 10).

When a Christian shares the Gospel with nonbelievers, we are using the key in the sense that we have authority on earth to declare that their sins can be forgiven by believing in Jesus. They can be saved; or they will perish.

🗝 The Keys of Hades and Death open two terrible doors to those who die having rejected the Gospel:

✎ Hades is a temporary holding cell, a place of torment for souls awaiting final judgment.
✎ “Death” is what the Bible calls the Second Death. It is resurrection to eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire.

🗝 The Key of David looks forward to the future Kingdom on earth. In Second Samuel God said to David, “Thus says the LORD of hosts… I will appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more… Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish His Kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever… And your house and your Kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (Ch 7).

(Theologians call the unconditional promises that God made to him the Davidic Covenant).

By “Kingdom” we mean that Jesus will return in His Second Coming and establish a Kingdom on the earth that lasts one-thousand years. When that Millennial Kingdom ends, Jesus will reign over the new heavens and the new earth forever and ever.

In the five previous letters, Jesus used a description of Himself borrowed from John’s vision of the Lord recorded in chapter one. Regarding “keys,” in chapter one Jesus said, “I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (v18). Why, then, does He say He has the Key of David?

Rather than focus on which key he pulls from His key back, the important thing is to see that Jesus is the Key Holder.

He has the power and authority to save you, then to consign you to Hades and Death or to welcome you into the Kingdom.

Rev 3:8  “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.

They had commendable “works,” so “little strength” cannot be referring to spiritual strength. It most likely refers to their small size in comparison to the other churches.

I have no problems with mega churches. The church started as a mega church. In the Book of Acts, “three thousand souls” were added on the first day. Not long after at least another five thousand were saved – and that number might not include biological women.

Truth is, the majority of churches are mini-churches. In the US, that means under 100 saints.

It’s more important that a church have a testimony of how the Holy Spirit led them to be established. After that it’s up to the Lord how little or large it will be.

Among their “works,” Jesus said they had “kept [His] word, and [had] not denied [His] name.” There was some pressure to deny the Lord. They were enabled to instead [keep] His word.”

The “Key of David” has entirely to do with the future Kingdom of God:

✎ In v7 the topic was the future Kingdom.
✎ In v9, where we will read, “worship before your feet,” we will see it refers to the future Kingdom.
✎ v12 is entirely about our life in the future Kingdom.

The “door” that this key “OPENS AND NO ONE SHUTS, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS” is our guaranteed entrance to the Kingdom of God.

@TheRealMessiah was guaranteeing Philadelphia’s finest that He would open the door for them to the Kingdom. They could therefore have assurance of their salvation.

Rev 3:9  Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie – indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.

They were Jews, physically. They were “not” Jews because of their unbelief.

Satan had taken over their synagogue. They were especially called-out by Jesus for lying – probably lying to the authorities about the Christians.

Churches can be the Church of Satan.

I just read about a self-described “progressive Christian” church in Nashville that declared the Bible is not the Word of God.

They say it is “a living and dynamic” “multi-vocal library of texts” that is “a product of community” as “a human response to God.” Huh??

The article said, “Though receiving pushback from Christians, they did receive applause for their criticism of Scripture from popular atheist commentators.”
Expect a lot more of this apostasy nonsense as, tragically, churches rush to seem woke.

Jesus said, “I will make them come and worship before your feet…” We can rule-out that Jews, or anyone for that matter, will “worship” us. In terms of the future Kingdom on earth, we know that every knee shall bow to Jesus. When the people of the earth worship Him in the Kingdom, we will be present as He is worshipped.

“I will make them… know that I have loved you.” It won’t be hard for people to see that the Lord loved the church. We will return with Him having been resurrected or raptured. Every eye will see us, too. We will have glorified physical bodies that are similar to our Lord’s resurrection body. We will be holy and unblemished. We will be perfect. Transformed by His love.

Rev 3:10  Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

The Philadelphians were promised 100% they would be “[kept] from the hour of trial.” The “hour of trial” is the seven-year Great Tribulation that will be meticulously described in chapters 6-19.

There is no Great Tribulation for the church.

First, the words “keep you from” literally translate to “keep you out of.”
Second, the church will be kept out of the entire period of time – not somehow be kept safe through it.
Third, when Jesus said they “kept [His] command to persevere,” He wasn’t exhorting them to persevere during the Great Tribulation. It is past tense. They had already persevered in their walk and work and witness, and they would be delivered from the Great Tribulation entirely.

Since the church is not going to be on the earth during the Great Tribulation, it presupposes that the Lord will return to resurrect the dead in Christ, and to rapture living believers, before the Great Tribulation.

The Great Tribulation will “test those who dwell on the earth.”
“Those who dwell on the earth are nonbelievers. In Revelation 17:8 you read, “those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life…”

God gives them opportunity to repent. It’s why we call this series in the Revelation, The Grace of Wrath. God will be pouring out His wrath, yet still offering salvation by grace to sinners. In His wrath God remembers mercy and calls out, through many means, to every human being on the planet, urging them to repent and receive the forgiveness of their sins, and eternal life.

The Great Tribulation is not to prove or purify the church. Jesus does that a different way:

Eph 5:25 …Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
Eph 5:26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

Jesus is not going to purify His church by leaving us on the earth to suffer the wrath of God.

“No Great Tribulation for you!”

#2 – New Jerusalem Awaits You (v11-13)

Have you seen somewhere online, Hilarious Misspelled Tattoos? There are several examples of where they were going for No Regrets, but the finished tattoo reads, No Regerts. Then there are these:

You Only Life Once
Never Don’t Give Up
It’s Get Better
No Pen, No Gain
Thunder Only Happens When Its Raisin

An honorable mention goes to one full back piece, that gets three points of the compass wrong.

I mention tattoos because there is a chance you might be inked in Heaven. (Hold that thought).

Rev 3:11  Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.

“Quickly” doesn’t mean soon. It’s that word from which we get our word tachometer. When you put the pedal to the metal in your car, the tach redlines all at once.

Jesus is coming “quickly,” and before the Great Tribulation. It is the Doctrine of Imminence.

The Bible mentions different “crowns” as potential rewards for believers. For example, every believer gets the crown of life as a result of salvation; but only those who die for Jesus get the martyr’s crown.

Coupled with His command to “hold fast,” I think Jesus meant to motivate us to go for it serving Him now so that we can earn even more crowns, even more rewards.

The word translated “hold fast” means to seize. Remember the popularity of the phrase, Carpe diem, “Seize the day?” “Crown” in Latin is corona. “Seize the crown” would be, Carpe corona. Alas, thanks to the corona virus, another great slogan bites the dust.

“That no one may take your crown” can’t mean your crown can be stolen. It’s in Heaven, where we are told no thief can enter in and steal.

Let’s say God has a work for you, but you refuse to perform it. God will raise up someone else to do it. They will take the crown you could have received.

Rev 3:12  He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.

Are you an overcomer? If you are a believer, you are. The apostle John wrote elsewhere, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (First John 5:4-5).

It is the Christian who overcomes,
not the overcomer who becomes a Christian

Jesus promised them, and us, that we all are going to be “pillars” in Heaven. You’re familiar with calling someone a “pillar in the community.” Every one of us will be “pillars” in the community of saints.

“He shall go out no more.” One of the songs we sing, Golden City, captures the sense of this:

Soon your trials will be over
Offered up by mercy’s hand
A better view than where you’re standing
A doorway to another land
We will meet in the Golden City in the New Jerusalem
All our pain and all our tears will be no more

Rev 3:12 … I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.

We will see the New Jerusalem at the end of the Revelation. It isn’t Jerusalem, in the Middle East, rebuilt. It is a city being built, that comes down out of Heaven and is in orbit above the earth.

It’s the brilliant, pearl-gated jeweled city whose streets are made of gold, where our mansions are being prepared for us by Jesus.

If you have a problem now with tattoos, you’re really gonna have trouble in Heaven. Jesus is going to ink you. You’re going to get at least three lettering tattoos:

“The Name of My God.”
“The name if the city of My God, the New Jerusalem.”
“My [i.e., Jesus’] new name.”

I’m having some fun with this idea of being tattooed. But there are other passages in which believers are said to be marked:

✎ In Ezekiel 9:4 we read, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”
✎ In Revelation 7:3-4 we read, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed…

You won’t have any regerts. You might want to think about fonts and colors.

Rev 3:13  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

This is the common closing to these letters. We should always approach God’s Word expecting Him to speak to us through it.

The United States is the one country in the world that has historically been the place everyone wants to live.

“A shining city on a hill.” Ronald Reagan loved the phrase. He used it over and over again to describe his vision for America.

No one talks about living the French dream, or the Cuban dream. It’s the American dream that motivates people to risk everything to get here.

Taking nothing away from the Great Communicator, or from the American dream…

Achieving the American dream can make the future Kingdom of God seem less urgent to us.

Those more in need… Who are oppressed… Persecuted… You who are weary… Weak… Grieving… Sick… Dying. The Kingdom of God is their city.

We are not home. We therefore ought to be constantly homesick. It is the sick who appreciate the physician. And that includes being homesick.

A.W. Tozer said it better: “In nature, everything moves towards the direction of its hungers. In the spiritual world it is not otherwise. We gravitate toward our inward longing, provided of course that those longings are strong enough.”

Things To Do In Sardis When You’re Dead (Revelation 3:1-6)

What if you opened up the morning paper and read your own obituary? (You’d probably do it online nowadays… But you get the idea).

You might paraphrase Mark Twain and say, “Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

It wasn’t exactly fake news, but April 16, 2003 was a bad day for CNN. A technical glitch made some obituaries they’d prepared for several famous but not-yet-dead persons accessible to the general public. They announced the deaths of Dick Cheney, Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope, Fidel Castro, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, and Gerald Ford.

Tony Stark produced not one but two video obituaries in Avengers Endgame. I’ve thought about filming something for my memorial. So far I’m the only person in my family who doesn’t think it’s creepy.

Jesus’ letter to the church in Sardis reads like a premature obituary.

As their pastor read aloud the scroll of the Revelation to the church, they heard Jesus say to them, “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (v1).

The Lord’s comments to Sardis didn’t get much better. But, if heeded, there was a chance that the Lord would retract their obituary.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Check To See If You Are Dead, and #2 Continue To Show Signs Of Life.

#1 – Check To See If You Are Dead (v1-3)

“Well it just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Now mostly dead is slightly alive. All dead – well, with all dead, there’s only usually one thing that you can do. Go through his clothes and look for loose change” (Miracle Max).

Jesus told the church in Sardis they were dead. It was, however, a ‘dead’ that they could recover from. Thus Jesus could also say to them that they were “ready to die” (v2).

There were a few in Sardis with life. Look at verse four:

Rev 3:4  You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.

Jesus contrasted the mostly dead majority with a remnant who were “worthy.” The one difference between the two was that the worthies had “not defiled their garments.”

We start with the mostly dead, defiled majority.

Rev 3:1  “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

“Angel” is a word meaning messenger. The pastor was the most likely person to read aloud the message.

The human author of the Revelation, the apostle John, recorded a vision of the risen Lord in chapter one. Each description from chapter one is applied to one of the seven churches. The description chosen is perfect to minister to the church in its particular circumstances.

To Sardis Jesus used that weird phrase, “He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars.” A Jew, or anyone familiar with the Old Testament, would understand that it refers us to chapter four in the Book of Zechariah.

Zec 4:6 For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see The plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the LORD, Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth…

Later in the Revelation we will be told that, “… The seven eyes [are] the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” (5:6). The passages are saying the same thing.

Zechariah wrote about completing the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Jews returned from their captivity in Babylon. He assured the returnees that they could complete the work, but it must not be by “might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord” (4:6). God’s people would complete God’s work if they depended upon God’s Spirit.

Like all churches, the church in Sardis was the temple of God on the earth. It had become more a mausoleum. God’s people could complete God’s work if they returned to depending upon God the Holy Spirit.

Sardis would need to rediscover the dynamic empowering of God the Holy Spirit in order to, rebuild His spiritual temple on earth.

Jesus also mentioned the “seven stars.” These were said to be “the angels of the seven churches” (1:20). Why mention them? Because it was the blessed obligation of the pastor-teachers to build on the foundation of the church. The quickest way for a church to quit depending upon the Holy Spirit is for the pastor and the leadership to introduce thinking from the world. It’s likely that is what happened in Sardis.

“I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” You wouldn’t know it to look at them that they were “dead.” I am infamous at LPD, among the veterans who were around at the time, for almost introducing myself to a dead person during a Chaplain call-out. He looked so alive.
I should have noticed he wasn’t moving… Blinking… Or breathing.

Sardis had “works,” but their works were neither endorsed nor energized by God the Holy Spirit.

Similar to the churches in the region of Galatia, Sardis had begun in the Spirit, but they were trying to continue in their own natural, human energy.

This group of walking-dead saints was distinguished by “defiled” garments. Immediately we think “defiled” indicates the kind of misbehaviors we saw in Thyatira, e.g., eating meat sacrificed to idols, and committing sexual and spiritual adultery.

If they were committing adultery, would they have a good “name?” Of course not.

Their defilement must be something else. Could it be that trying to do the “works” of God in your own energy rather than by the empowering of the indwelling Holy Spirit is the defilement? It makes sense in the context. Independence from God is way worse than we think.

Rev 3:2  Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.

We don’t know precisely how the church in Sardis was founded.
Like all the first century churches, it was “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). They had begun in the Spirit.

There was time to “strengthen” what remained of that foundation and cornerstone. Thus they could be described as “dead” and as “ready to die.” They might yet “perfect” the “works” God intended for them.

The next verse seems to confirm what we are suggesting:

Rev 3:3  Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

How had they “received and heard?” By the power of God the Holy Spirit. They must “remember” how they started.

In the Book of Acts you can read the stories of how some of the churches were founded.

The narratives are amazing, recounting the supernatural leading of men like the apostle Paul to exactly the person in the precise location God intended. They were all begun in the Spirit. No one sat down and strategized. Church planting was entirely supernatural.

Church planting strategies abound. One that I have trouble with is setting a financial goal as the indicator of when to plant the church. A website will be created for the church plant letting folks know that they can start as soon as they have $250,000.00 (or more) as their foundation.

The mostly dead saints in Sardis should do at least three things:

✏ “Hold fast” to the original foundation.
✏ “Repent” of their building on it in their own energy with wood, hay, and stubble.
✏ “Watch,” meaning be on guard, lest they continue to adopt the methods of the world.

How do we drift into depending on our own efforts and energy?

The Lord’s wisdom often presents itself as absolute foolishness. Our decision in 1983 to engage in full-time ministry; then our deciding to come to Hanford in 1985. Absolutely foolish. I know that it was because everyone told us it was.

When we reject God’s wisdom because it seems foolish, it is the beginning of an illness that leads to being mostly dead; then dead.

Dead – as in we forfeit our salvation? No, of course not. Listen to what Jesus said, keeping in mind the context within which it is set: “If you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.”

Several passages describe Jesus’ coming as a thief in the night as the Day of the Lord. It catches people unaware. But it doesn’t mean that here. These are believers and, as such, not subject to the wrath of God.

Is this the first time that the Lord said He might take something from a church? Jesus said to the church in Ephesus, “I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place – unless you repent” (2:5). He didn’t call Himself a thief, but He was going to act like one.

✏ In Ephesus, Jesus was coming quickly to remove their lampstand.
✏ In Sardis, Jesus was coming as a thief, and it makes sense it was to remove their lampstand.

The “lampstand” symbolizes the local church, specifically its testimony of the Gospel. Since Christians are expected to be lights in the world, to have our lampstand removed or taken is to have our witness go dark. That darkness is the death Jesus was taking about.

Alan Redpath was the first person I heard say, “If the Holy Spirit was removed from many churches, 95% of their works would continue.”

In Sardis, they were using elbow grease instead of the super abundant anointing of God the Holy Spirit.

These seven letters are for all churches throughout all the Church Age. Any church could substitute its name in place of these seven.

We could read this, “And to the angel of CalvaryHanford write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.”

I do not think our church is mostly dead. I love our church, and see it to be vibrant with spiritual life. Nevertheless it is true that no church, and no Christian, is perfect. We all individually, and corporately, have areas where we are continuing in our own energy – with elbow grease – rather than by God’s Spirit.

As children growing up, we learn greater and greater independence from our parents. There is a sense in which as we grow spiritually we must learn greater and greater dependence on our Father in Heaven.

#2 – Continue To Show Signs Of Life (v4-6)

Before the COVID-Apocalypse closed Disneyland, it was our happy place. In that vast sea of line-waiting, turkey leg-eating humanity, one group of people always stood out. They were Buddhist monks, and I knew they were because they wore distinctive saffron colored robes.

The inhabitants of the supernatural realm know you are in Christ because you wear a distinctive white robe.

Here are two passages that talk about your salvation as if it were a robe given to you by God:

✏ Isa 61:10  “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”

✏ Rev 19:7  “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.
Rev 19:8  And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright…”

Why do you need this robe? In your natural state, you are wearing what the Bible calls filthy rags:

Isa 64:6  But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;

There’s a scene in Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves, the Kevin Costner version, involving filthy rags.

A master of disguise, Robin Hood robed himself with the torn and tattered outer garment of a beggar in order to avoid being detected while visiting Maid Marian in the church.

To make it even more believable, he picked-up dung from the road, and rubbed it all over his robe. He was filthy.

Like it or not, this is how every human being is robed. None of us are righteous. We all fall short of the glory of God. We are all sinners. It is what we look like to God and all angels and creatures in the supernatural realm.

You receive your spiritual white robe the moment you are saved. It is given to you in exchange for the filthy garments of your natural birth.

Like any white garment, it will pick up stains as we walk in a world whose god is the devil. Not to worry: The precious blood of Jesus bleaches it white as snow as we remain in fellowship with Him.

Rev 3:4  You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.

A bride, just before she makes her appearance, is a buzz of activity. She’s got bridesmaids and moms fixing her train, adjusting her veil, getting her bouquet in order, checking her for stains or lint, making sure that she has some thing old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

The church is the bride of Jesus. He likewise sees to it we are kept ready to make our appearance with Him.

We are told in the book of Ephesians, “that He might sanctify and cleanse [His bride] with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (5:26-27).

C.S. Lewis wrote, “The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”

Some in Sardis were said to be “worthy.” In the Strongs Concordance, one possible translation of “worthy” is due a reward. In a couple of places, our rewards are likened to adornments to our white robes:

✏ At the end of the Isaiah passage about the robe, we read, “And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
✏ Later on in the Revelation we are told that believers adorn their white robes with rewards given them for their works (19:8).

This minority in Sardis were going to be “due a reward” at the Reward Seat of Jesus; and those rewards will adorn their robes.

Rev 3:5  He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

I may be way out on a limb here…But I wonder if this is an altar call?

This letter was read aloud in a public gathering. Nonbelievers were almost certainly in the crowd.

The saints in Sardis knew that a special event was taking place – the reading of inspired Scripture from John that included a personal letter to them.
I could see the believers inviting their unsaved friends and relatives.

Listen to this point-by-point:

✏ “He who overcomes…” We’ve seen in previous studies that an “overcomer” is synonymous with a born-again believer. Jesus was telling them they required a new birth, a spiritual birth.

✏ “… shall be clothed in white garments…” When you believe and are born-again, the white garment is given to you as a gift. Jesus takes upon Himself your filthy rags. You are thereby fit for Heaven, meeting its strict dress code.

✏ “… and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life.” If you are born-again, your name remains permanently in this book. You will stand before Jesus at His Reward Seat, not with the wicked at the Great White Throne judgment.

✏ “… but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” You will be received into Heaven – into eternal life – with joy and rejoicing.

If this wasn’t an altar call, it sure makes a good one.

Let’s get into being blotted-out of the book. Language scholars say that the words mean that names can and will be blotted out. Any explanation we give must account for the removal of names.

Here is a verse that I think will help us understand the blotting:

1 Tim 4:10  … we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

✏ Jesus is the “Savior of all men” means that His death on the Cross was and is sufficient to save anyone. We can therefore say that initially everyone’s name is written in the Book of Life.
✏ “Especially of those who believe” means that Jesus’ death on the Cross only saves those who believe in Him.

If a person passes into eternity having rejected God’s salvation, his or her name is removed from the Book of Life. Blotted-out, as it were. It will not be there when they stand before the Lord to be cast alive into conscious, eternal torment.

Rev 3:6  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ‘

These words are part of the template for each letter. Whatever church you attend, in whatever time period, the Lord is writing to you, and to us.

Did Alfred Nobel decide to start giving his famous prizes after reading his obituary in a French newspaper? It may be an exaggeration; but some historians say it is likely.

As the story goes… Ludvig Nobel died. Several papers published obituaries naming his considerably more famous brother Alfred.

Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite. The obituaries were cruel, with the headline, The Merchant of Death is Dead.

Alfred took stock of his life and decided he’d rather be remembered for something good. When he did die, the bulk of his estate went to setting up the prizes that still bear his name.

Reading his own premature obituary changed his life.

Reading our own premature obituary ought to change us.

Ask the Lord: “Where am I dead and ready to die?”

WooHoo Witchy Woman She Got The Saints In Her Sights (Revelation 2:18-29)

A judge in New Zealand granted a young girl’s request that she be made a ward of the court so that she could legally change the name her parents gave her. What was her name, you ask?

Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.

One reader left this comment on the article: “My unusual name hasn’t affected me at all; in fact, it has helped me make friends and improve my confidence, especially since leaving school.” It was signed Russell Sprout.

We all remember the boy who had to fight his way through life on account of his deadbeat, absent father naming him Sue.

There are a few names that have become notorious and are commonly used as insults:

✏ Judas and Benedict Arnold are used to describe a backstabbing, double-crossing traitor.
✏ Scrooge describes a penny-pinching, cheapskate miser.
✏ Nimrod, used by Bugs Bunny to describe an idiot.

One woman’s name stands out as the most notorious. Two days after Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice-president a pastor took to twitter with this:

“I can’t imagine any truly God-fearing Israelite who would’ve wanted their daughters to view Jezebel as an inspirational role model because she was a woman in power.”

✏ The Bible identifies Jezebel as a harlot who practiced witchcraft (Second Kings 9:22).
✏ The dictionary says the name denotes “a wicked, shameless woman.”
✏ The synonyms listed in the thesaurus… Well, I don’t feel comfortable mentioning them in church.

Jesus boldly called a woman who was attending church in Thyatira ‘Jezebel.’

That would have certainly got Jesus banned from all social media.

Jesus’ bride, the church, was being seduced and like the jealous Bridegroom He is, the Lord was taking action.

The seduction of Christians is a constant strategy of the devil. ‘Jezebel’s’ of various kinds are to be expected and strongly resisted.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Jezebel Is In Church To Seduce You, and #2 Jesus Is In Church To Secure You.

#1 – Jezebel Is In Church To Seduce You (v18-23)

Jesus used language that pictured a betrothed bride being seduced. He thereby urged Thyatira, as a Bridegroom would His bride, to remain pure for their wedding.

Rev 2:18  “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:

“Angel” means one who brings a message. In this case, the message to be read was Scripture. The apostle Paul instructed Pastor Timothy to “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture” (First Timothy 4:13). The “angel” is therefore most likely referring to the pastor.

The apostle John was the inspired human author of the Revelation. In chapter one he saw Jesus and described Him. Jesus introduced Himself to each church using one or more of those descriptions.

The description(s) He chose spoke directly to the circumstances of each church. To Thyatira He was “the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass.”

Read commentaries and you’ll encounter dozens of suggested meanings for “eyes like torches of fire” and “feet like solid brass.” Which is correct?

We need to take a broader view. It turns out that there is a verse in the Old Testament Book of Daniel that introduces a Person with fiery eyes and brass feet:

Daniel 10:6  His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color…”

(Note: Other Bible versions translate “fine brass” in Revelation 2:18 as “burnished bronze” (e.g, ESV.)

Daniel saw the Lord in a pre-incarnate appearance.

Jesus described Himself to Thyatira in a way that referred them back to this passage.

Whatever else flaming eyes and brass feet might suggest, their primary purpose here in the Revelation is to identify Jesus as the Glorious Man Daniel saw.

How did this description of “the Son of God” address the situation in Thyatira?

✏ After he saw Jesus, Daniel gets an earful of prophecy regarding the Second Coming.
✏ In the second section of this letter, the Second Coming is prominent.

The saints in Thyatira likely knew that Jesus would be returning with His bride, the church, at His Second Coming. If they did not know, they would when the reading got to chapter nineteen.

Whoever this woman in the church was, they were to think of her as a seductress leading the pure, precious bride of Jesus into both physical and spiritual adultery.

A betrothed bride ought to recognize and decisively reject seduction.

Rev 2:19  “I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.

I absolutely did not expect this commendation to a church that was allowing a Jezebel to operate in its midst. It tells me that there were many genuine believers who had not been seduced by her.

✏ Their “love” is agape. It is the self-sacrificing love that is produced in the heart of a believer by the presence of God in his or her life.
✏ “Service” is the word from which we get the word deacon. It was used of waiters who would wait tables and be attentive to every need while remaining almost invisible.
✏ They had “faith.” Here it indicates faith working, or we would say, “faithfulness.”
✏ “Patience” is a word that indicates a hopeful waiting.

Rev 2:20  Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

In order to form an alliance with the pagan Sidonians, King Ahab of Israel took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal. Queen Jezebel introduced the worship of her gods, Ashera and Baal, to Israel.

Fast forward about a thousand years to the church in Thyatira. Their Jezebel was claiming to be a “prophetess,” but her prophecies were satanic, and were seducing the saints “to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.”

In Thyatira, you could not work if you did not belong to a trade guild.
Each guild was dedicated to, and worshipped, a pagan god or goddess. Each year it was mandatory for you to attend a feast to the god or goddess of your guild.

✏ At that feast, the food you were served was first openly offered as a sacrifice to the idol of the god in a pagan religious ceremony.
✏ At that feast, the god or goddess was honored by rituals that involved the guild members having sex with the temple priestesses.

Those guild meetings were TripleX-rated orgies complete with temple prostitutes. Christians had trouble with this. How far could or should they go as mandatory members of the trade guilds?

A woman in the church claimed to receive prophecies that encouraged them that it was alright to attend the guild meeting and to partake in the pagan practices.

The church’s leaders “allow[ed]” her prophecies to go unchallenged.
Footnote: The Holy Spirit isn’t quenched by church leaders disallowing certain teachings or behaviors. In fact, it is necessary for the spiritual safety of the church.

Rev 2:21  And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.

Our gracious God is longsuffering with sinners, withholding judgment, not willing that they perish, ,but receive eternal life.

The literal wording of “time to repent” is “she does not wish to repent.” It was her conscious, free-will decision.

If you are not yet a believer in Jesus Christ, His grace is operating on your heart to free your will so you can repent, and be saved.

You can repent…Do you wish to?

Rev 2:22  Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.
Rev 2:23  I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

Jesus explained His use of ‘great tribulation’ as a “sickbed,” and by saying, “I will kill her children with death.” He was not going to consign her and her followers to the Great Tribulation. He was about to make them sick and kill them.

In the Old Testament story, first her children, and then Jezebel, were “killed with death.” Jezebel was thrown out a tower window, stomped, then eaten by wild dogs until “they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands” (Second Kings 9:30ff).

There are references in the New Testament to individuals being “kill[ed] with death”:

✏ Ananias and Sapphira sold their land and then lied about the amount of the proceeds they donated to the church. They were “kill[ed] with death,” one after the other.
✏ In the church in Corinth some of the believers were misbehaving at the pot-luck that preceded the Lord’s Supper. They were hoarding their food and getting drunk. Some of them were being disciplined by God with sickness; some were “kill[ed] with death.”

Caution: While sickness and death can be God’s discipline, it is rare. If you are sick or dying, it is not discipline for sin, unless you are a Jezebel, or are committing particularly heinous sins that endanger the church.

Jesus said, “All the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts.” His dealings with the children of Jezebel would become a matter of public knowledge among the churches. It reminds us of the killing of Ananias and Sapphira bringing fear upon the church.

“And I will give to each one of you according to your works.” His gifts to us for eternity, for our “works,” far surpass the temporary sinful indulgences of this world.

There were Nicolaitans in Ephesus. There were Nicolaitans and Balaamites in Pergamos. Jezebel attended in Thyatira.

Attending church has proven to be a successful strategy for the devil.

Having the devil in church creates a hostile “works” environment.

#2 – Jesus Is In Church To Secure You (v24-29)

Jesus also attends church.

In chapter one, He compared the churches to lampstands, and said that He was “in the midst of the seven lampstands” (v13).

A Bridegroom and a harlot walked into a church…

✏ One has secured you by giving you the indwelling Holy Spirit as an engagement gift of His abiding love.
✏ The other seduces by appealing to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Who are you going home with?

Rev 2:24  “Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden.

Jezebel’s “doctrine” was to encourage sexual immorality and participation in the sacrifices to idols.

What were “the depths of Satan?” And who are “they” in “as they say?” Language scholars conclude that “they” means Jezebel and her followers. They openly claimed to have tapped into the same deep spiritual power source as Satan. The power was neutral, they said, and could be used for good or for evil.

It’s an old satanic teaching. Essentially, it was the Force, but without the cuteness of Grogu. What Christian would believe such nonsense?

✏ Some time ago, one of the prominent churches in Hanford was strongly promoting a book by Paul Yonggi Cho, titled The Fourth Dimension. Cho claimed that there is a fourth spiritual dimension we can, and should, tap into, just as other supernatural beings do – to do good or evil. AKA, “The depths of Satan.”
✏ When so-called ‘Christian’ psychology first made its assault on the church in the 1980’s, its adherents compared it to the children of Israel “spoiling the Egyptians” by taking their riches on the Exodus. The principles and practices of modern psychology were said to be the valuable “spoil,” a veritable treasure for us. Never mind that one of the most renowned secular psychologists whose “spoil” we were to use is Carl Jung. He openly admitted he had dialog with a spirit being he named Philemon. AKA, “The depths of Satan.”

Jesus had no “other burden” to put on them. One commentator explains it this way:

The “burden” upon the faithful was that of resisting the pressure of Jezebel and her group. Choosing to abstain from her evil practices doubtless resulted in trouble. Jesus promised to place upon them no burden other than continuing to stand against her.

Rev 2:25  But hold fast what you have till I come.

They were victorious, still “hold[ing] fast,” and they both could and should continue to “hold fast.”

I emphasize they absolutely could “hold fast.” It was a choice to be empowered by God the Holy Spirit.

If you are a believer, you know that you can have victory over seduction because you’ve experienced it.

I got saved and immediately sin was unattractive to me. I didn’t need to try to quit sinning. I was transformed into a new creation.

Ah, but as time goes on… Satan has his strategies to seduce us. He knows what buttons to push.

Rev 2:26  And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations –

✏ Overcomer is more-or-less synonymous with being born-again.
✏ “My works” is in contrast to keeping Jezebel’s works. We “keep” by walking in the Spirit rather than in the flesh.

My simple paraphrase: “Keep on following Jesus being led along by the Spirit rather then being led astray by a Jezebel.”

Rev 2:27  ‘HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON; THEY SHALL BE DASHED TO PIECES LIKE THE POTTER’S VESSELS’ – as I also have received from My Father;

“Power over the nations” (in v26) is defined by quoting Psalm Two (in v27). That supremely Messianic psalm proclaims the Second Coming of Jesus to rule over the nations of the world.

Rev 2:28  and I will give him the morning star.

Pages and pages have been written about “the morning star.” It is especially controversial because the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, in chapter fourteen of his book, identifies Satan using the phrase. But then Jesus calls Himself “the Morning Star” in Revelation 22:16.

What’s up? A large part of the confusion comes from the translation in the KJV & NKJV of “morning star” in Isaiah 14:12 as “Lucifer.” It makes “morning star” sound like a name rather than a description.

Morning star is not a proper name; It is a description.

Apologist Don Stewart explains:

The reason Lucifer has been understood to be a proper name of the Devil has to do with the Latin translation of the Hebrew term Helel. This word was understood… to be a proper name for the king of Babylon. It means “light bearer,” or Lucifero in Latin. The Latin title became a popular name for this evil figure. When the King James translators rendered the Hebrew term into English, they kept the popular term “Lucifer” for the Devil.

Listen to this commentary on Isaiah’s use of the phrase:

The first reference of “morning star” [in Isaiah 14] is not to the devil but to the human king of Babylon.

The whole section is directed to the king of Babylon, who is clearly depicted as a human ruler. Other kings of the earth address him; he is called “the man”; and he possesses a physical body. At the same time, Isaiah 14:12-15 seems to go beyond a description of a mortal king. A double-fulfillment prophecy is thus probably in view.

The facts are these:

✏ Isaiah uses “morning star” as a description of a human king.
✏ Isaiah also uses “morning star” as a description of the devil.
✏ Jesus uses “morning star” of Himself in His Second Coming as the rightful King of kings.

“Morning star” was, and it is, a description for someone, human or supernatural, who aspires to rule over the nations of the earth.

✏ In Revelation 2:26 we read, “I will give [you] power over the nations.”
✏ Jesus said, in verse 28, “I will give [you] the morning star.”

They are two ways of saying the same thing; “Power over” the nations and “morning star” are interchangeable.

Jesus is coming in “power” to rule over the nations.

When He does, we will be ruling with Him. He will give us the “morning star,” means that He will share with us His authority over the nations of the earth.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Jesus’ words to each church are for all the churches, both then and now.

Sexual immorality leading as it does to spiritual adultery is a prevalent strategy being employed against the church right now.

I don’t think it is necessary to point out any of the multitude of examples, both internationally and local.

It will be getting much worse. We can nonetheless hear the Lord say, “I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.”

Please Don’t You Be My Neighbor (Revelation 2:12-17)

I’ll name the neighbors… You name the show:

Fred & Ethyl Mertz (I Love Lucy)
Ed & Trixie Norton (The Honeymooners)
Barney & Betty Rubble (The Flintstones)
Lenny & Squiggy (Laverne & Shirley)
Ned Flanders (The Simpsons)
Wilson W. Wilson, Jr. (Home Improvement)

One more to show that I’m on the cutting edge: Agnes (WandaVision).

While the majority of television neighbors are rather likable, movie neighbors can be your worst nightmare. You can probably think of a film in which the neighbor turned out to be anything but Fred Rogers. I submit Lars Thorwald in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, with an Honorable Mention going to the Klopek’s in The Burbs.

The believers in the church in Pergamos had a supremely undesirable neighbor.

Who was their neighbor? As the Church Lady would say, “Satan!”

Jesus said, in verse thirteen, “Where you dwell… Satan dwells.” The devil had his “throne” there. It was not a good day in the neighborhood with Satan going about singing, “Won’t you be mine?”

Satan wasn’t only living in their city. He was attending their church.

Not personally, but through certain false teachers he had equipped. In verses fourteen and fifteen, Jesus said, “You have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam… You also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans…” The Lord wanted the believers to take action against them.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Hold Fast And You Reveal Jesus Enthroned, and #2 Hold Loosely And You Reveal Satan Enthroned.

#1 – Hold Fast And You Reveal Jesus Enthroned (v12-13)

There are two symbols that are used to represent medicine:

The Caduceus is a symbol with a short staff entwined by two serpents.
The Rod of Asclepius is the one with a single serpent.

Isn’t it weird? Why serpents? It reaches back through the centuries to mythology.

Pergamos was especially known for its temple to Asclepius, the god of medicine. People from all over the world traveled to Pergamos hoping to be healed. The method for healing was unorthodox. William Barclay writes:

Sufferers were allowed to spend the night in the darkness of the temple. In the temple there were tame snakes. In the night the sufferer might be touched by one of these tame and harmless snakes as it glided over the ground on which he lay. The touch of the snake was held to be the touch of the god himself, and the touch was held to bring health and healing.

Satan was similarly slithering around the church seeking to ‘touch’ the believers – not for healing but for havoc and for harm.

Rev 2:12  “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword:

The Revelation that John wrote out on a scroll was carried from church-to-church in the region we know today as Turkey.
It would be read aloud by the “angel” of the church. “Angel” means messenger. Strong’s Concordance comments that it “implies the pastor.”

John gave a detailed description of Jesus in chapter one. We read that, “Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword” (1:16). That observation is now edited by the Holy Spirit to read, “He who has the sharp two-edged sword.”

You’ve probably seen a representation of Jesus with a “two-edged sword” coming out of His mouth. Are we to take this literally? I mean, we are the literalists, aren’t we?

We’ve mentioned how dependent the Revelation is on Old Testament references; and we’ve said that Jews would understand references that we miss for lack of Old Testament familiarity. A Jew, upon hearing about a sharp sword coming out of the mouth, would remember Isaiah writing, “And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword…” (49:2).

Other translations include, “He made my words like a sharp sword,” and “He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate.”

If you read the entire Isaiah passage, you see that it is describing God’s Suffering Servant – the Messiah who would save Israel. It’s a prophecy about Jesus.

So, no, Jesus doesn’t have a sword coming out of His mouth. It is a well-known expression for the power of His speech.

It’s the perfect attribute of Jesus for Pergamos because the words of these false teachers needed to be dealt with by the sword of the Word.

Rev 2:13  “I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

The words “your works” do not appear in the best manuscripts. The emphasis was on knowing where they dwelt. Not just the city; that’s obvious. Jesus let the saints know that their city was Ground Zero for the devil. Pergamos was “Satan’s throne.”

It seems that the nations of the world have angels, both good and fallen, assigned to them:

In the Book of Daniel, a mighty fallen angel called the Prince of Persia detained the angel Gabriel from coming to Daniel.
Also in Daniel we read that the Archangel Michael is “The great prince who stands watch over [Israel].”

Satan is called the “god of this world,” and as such it is logical that he would have a headquarters.

“You hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you.” The Bible tells us nothing more about Antipas. He was an impressive one-verse wonder.

Faced with the pressure to deny Jesus or die a violent death, Antipas chose to die a martyr, and the believers stood with him, willing to become martyrs themselves.

Martyrdom seems a triumph for evil. Looking back on church history, we see that it is, in fact, a victory for the Lord, every time.

You probably know that the word “martyr” means witness. We who are in Christ are all witnesses who by holding fast to Jesus could become martyrs.

You might think martyrdom is the ultimate witness.

It can be harder to live for Jesus than to die for Him.

I freely admit that I am not the most qualified Christian to say that. Sadhu Sundar Singh is. He is credited as the first missionary to cross the Himalayan Mountains to take the gospel to Nepal and Tibet. One source said, “He was known as, ‘the apostle with the bleeding feet’ for he walked far and long.” At thirty-six-years-of-age he made his last trip over the mountains. He never returned and is assumed by some to have been a martyr for Jesus.

In his diary he had written, “It is easy to die for Christ. It is hard to live for Him. Dying takes only a few minutes – or at worst an hour or two – but to live for Christ means to die daily to myself.”

Beloved, in our daily lives we have opportunities to show the world that Jesus is on the throne, so to speak. All we need to do is die to self.

Where do you need to die to yourself and thereby reveal Jesus enthroned?

#2 – Hold Loosely And You Reveal Satan Enthroned (v14-17)

Sauron was defeated largely because of Gandalf’s hidden strategy to destroy the one ring of power. With the good guys coming at the bad guys head on, the Great Eye of Barad-dûr was kept distracted until it was too late.

Satan was employing a similar strategy. As the bad guy, he came at the believers head-on. He killed Antipas. But while the saints were faithfully enduring a direct assault, the serpent had secretly slithered in to their midst.

Satan is always playing the long-game.

You don’t know what it is. But you can be prepared for it.

That’s one reason it is so important to continue in doctrine, in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

Rev 2:14  But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

They were “there,” not just in the city, but in the meetings of the church.

Balaam’s story is recorded in chapters twenty-two through twenty-four of the Old Testament Book of Numbers. The nation of Israel was marching from Egypt to the Promised Land. No Gentile nation could withstand them on their journey as they walked with God through the wilderness. They seemed invincible.

King Balak of Moab was terrified of them. He sent for a Gentile seer named Balaam, to employ him to curse the nation of Israel. Three times Balaam tried to curse them but each time God overcame him and the words he spoke blessed them instead.

Unable to curse them, but still desiring the money that Balak had offered him, Balaam counseled Balak on how he might yet stop the march of the Jews.

Balaam understood that the only way to defeat them was to entice them to sin against God. Then God would step in to discipline them Himself.

Balaam told Balak to send the temple priestesses into the camp of Israel to seduce the Jewish men into celebrating their pagan feast of Baal-Peor. The feast involved idolatry and sexual immorality.

The plan worked. The Israelite men worshipped idols, and had sex with the priestesses.

Their sin had devastating results. God sent a plague into the camp of the Israelites, as a discipline, that killed twenty-four thousand of them.

Jewish men were sinning openly…God was killing people…And no one was doing a thing about it!

Then this happened:

Num 25:6  And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
Num 25:7  Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand;
Num 25:8  and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.

These folks in Pergamos did not call themselves Balaamites. Jesus exposed them by using the story from Numbers. They were little Balaams.

What were the Pergamos Balaamites promoting?

“To eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.” A portion of the meat served in the various temples was first offered in sacrifice to the god of that temple. The worship of the gods involved sexually immoral practices.

The influence of the Balaamites was to tell the saints it was fine – even mature – to visit the pagan temples. Go ahead, eat the sacrificed meat. And, ultimately, engage in the immoral sexual practices there.

The problem was compounded because food was served all the time in the temples, not just in religious rituals. There were food booths and restaurants.

In those days, you didn’t go to McDonalds; you went to McDionysus… Or to Bacchus King… Poseidon Hut… Cronos Junior… Little Caesars… Taco Baal.

The temple food was superb. But it was food that had been offered to an idol, leading to idolatry and sexual sin.

Is the church today under assault from within by Balaamites? Let me preface my remarks by quoting from Genesis:

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (1:47).
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (2:24)

There are two genders: Male and female. Marriage is one biological male and one biological female in an exclusive heterosexual, monogamous covenant of companionship for as long as they both shall live.

A quick look at Wikipedia identifies twenty-two denominations in North America (Protestant and Catholic) that affirm the LGBTQ agenda. They no longer acknowledge that homosexuality or transgender identity are sexual sins.

It didn’t occur overnight. Balaamites slithered in to the North American denominations. Unlike the snakes in the temple of Asclepius, these snakes are deadly poisonous.

In related news: The Australian province of Victoria has criminalized prayer that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation.
The offense is punishable by imprisonment for up to ten years. UK activists are lobbying for similar legislation. It will be coming our way soon.

Rev 2:15  Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

Pages-and-pages have been written on these guys to no avail in solving exactly what they believed and taught. It’s a good thing we don’t know more about them. If we did, we’d concentrate on their particular teachings. Instead we can see them as a placeholder for any and all false teachings.

Here is a quote on the subject of tolerance:

The original definition of tolerance and the way in which the word is used now are quite different. Originally, tolerance meant to acknowledge that others have differing beliefs and accept that it is their right to do so. In this way, Christians are to absolutely be tolerant. Recently, tolerance has come to mean accepting that those other beliefs are true – something Christians absolutely cannot do.

Rev 2:16  Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.

The saints were tolerating sin in their church. Up until then, there was no Phinehas to wield God’s Word against them.

There is a very strong distinction between “you” – the believers – and “them” – the false teachers. The believers should do something about “them” or else the Lord would come and deal with it.

You might think, “That’s great! Let the Lord handle it.” That isn’t how we ought to think.

The apostle Paul urged the factious believers in Corinth to set things in order before he arrived.

He put it this way: “What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?” (First Corinthians 4:21).

The saints in Pergamos ought to “repent” by immediately doing something about the problem. Otherwise the Lord would, but it probably would also involve a “rod” of discipline.
Rev 2:17  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”

“He who has an ear” means the things in these letters are for any believer at any time.
“What the Spirit says to the churches” (plural) means that the things in each letter are for any church at any time.

“Him who overcomes” is not a super-saint. In one of his letters in the New Testament, John says a born-again believer in Jesus is an overcomer.

The average, everyday believer in Jesus Christ can count on some things in the future.

He or she can expect some of “the hidden manna to eat.” Manna was the bread that fell from Heaven which fed the children of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. The “hidden manna” refers to the manna that was put in the Ark of the Covenant that was covered by the Mercy Seat within the Holy of Holies of the wilderness Tabernacle.

To eat some of the hidden manna you would need to be in the Holy of Holies in God’s Temple.

Any moment, the church could be in Heaven, in God’s Temple. Why get so insistent about indulging our flesh at the ‘temples’ of the world when we will one day be in Heaven?

The wilderness-wandering Jews grew tired of eating only manna. So can we. In our case, the manna is God’s Word. We want to add to it ingredients from the world.

I was thumbing through an old recipe book when I came across one recipe that called for ammonia. You probably already knew that there is a kind of ammonia used in baking – ammonium carbonate. I didn’t. (Don’t worry; I didn’t kill anyone).

The world that Satan is god over urges you to add its ingredients. You are prone to add something deadly. Christian con carnal is not good.

“And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”’
Apparently it was common to use stones the way we use tickets. Think of it like having a wristband or a hand stamp that allows you access to an event.

The ultimate invitation… The capital “E” coupon… Is our invitation to the future Marriage Supper of Jesus that believers are going to attend as His bride.

My mom used to tell me junk food would ruin my appetite for dinner. The junk food of the world system Satan heads can ruin our spiritual appetites.

“And on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”

It’s pretty common for believers to be renamed:

In the Old Testament, Abram was renamed Abraham, Sarai was renamed Sarah, and Jacob was renamed Israel.
In the New Testament, Jesus told Simon that he would be called Peter.

Do you have endearing, pet names for those you love? A name that no one else is really allowed to use? That’s the idea here.

Satan was not only their nemesis, trying to kill more believers like he did Antipas. He was their neighbor. He was in church with them.

I don’t know where Satan’s throne is today. It’s probably not where we’d guess. It doesn’t matter anyway; we’re not told to try to discover it. Or to do anything to assail it. Our warfare is right in front of us.

If you are in Christ, you desire to reveal Jesus enthroned. Remember the words of Sundar Singh:

“Dying takes only a few minutes – or at worst an hour or two – but to live for Christ means to die daily to myself.”

Scent Of A Witness (Revelation 2:8-11)

Residents of Pawley’s Island off the Carolina coast tell the legend of the Gray Man.

In the early 1800’s, a young man was going to visit his love to ask for her hand in marriage.  Along the way, his horse stumbled and he was thrown.  He landed in quicksand which slowly pulled him under. 

When she learned of his fate, the young woman was devastated.  She took to walking the beach alone. 

One night while on her walk, she came upon a man dressed in gray staring at the ocean.  When the figure turned to her, she recognized her true love.  He told her the island was not safe and to leave.

Her family evacuated to the mainland.  That very day, a hurricane swept over Pawley’s. When they returned to the island, everything was in shambles.

Everything, that is, but one thing: Their family home was untouched.

Residents say that the Gray Man has appeared several times over the years right before a major storm.  Those who heed the warning survive, as do their homes.

As early warning systems go, the Gray Man is pretty lame. He doesn’t always appear. Maybe he is too busy hanging out with the Moth Man. The National Hurricane Center gives everyone 36hrs notice. I’d go with them.

Jesus issued a warning to the saints in the church of Smyrna.

It’s in verse ten: “The devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days…”

It would seem wise to get out of Dodge.

But this was not an evacuation notice.

Jesus advised them to “be faithful until death.”

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 God Released The Fragrance Of Eternal Life As Jesus Was Crushed For You, and #2 You Release The Fragrance Of Eternal Life As You Are Crushed For Jesus.

#1 – God Released The Fragrance Of Eternal Life As Jesus Was Crushed For You (v8)

You don’t need to be a linguist to see the word myrrh in Smyrna. Myrrh is a gum resin taken from a tree that was an important ingredient in several fragrances. The resin would be collected from the tree by making an incision in the outer bark. Then it would be allowed to harden. It released its fragrance only when crushed.

Myrrh was especially associated with the suffering of Jesus:

✏ The magi brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh as gifts for Jesus. Myrrh was significant in that it was used as an embalming agent. Their gift of myrrh indicated that Jesus was born to die.
✏ As He hung on the cross, Jesus was offered wine mingled with myrrh to drink. Myrrh in this form was an anesthetic. Jesus refused it; He refused to dull His suffering on the Cross.
✏ At His burial, Jesus was anointed with myrrh according to the burial customs of the time.

In Isaiah 53:10 (ESV), prophesying of Jesus, we read, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him.”

The apostle Paul was alluding to Jesus being crushed when he wrote, “Christ … loved us and [gave] Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Ephesians 5:2).

The crushing of Jesus to obtain salvation for all who believe is the context in which the Lord will tell the saints in Smyrna to endure to the end.

Rev 2:8  “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, ‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life:

The “angel of the church at Smyrna” is a reference to its pastor. He would be the most likely individual to read aloud the scroll, and thereby present the message, as it was carried from church-to-church.

Each of the seven letters opens with a description of Jesus from John’s vision of the risen Lord in chapter one.
Each time Jesus described Himself, His description was also the comfort or the correction to the dangers or difficulties that particular church was facing. Here Jesus identifies Himself as “the First and the Last.”

“First and Last” is a title for Almighty God in the Old Testament.

Notice what He couples together with this description of Himself: “Who was dead and came to life.”

When Jesus says He was dead, it means that He “became dead.”

✏ Jesus came as God in human flesh and was crucified on the Cross at Calvary.
✏ Jesus rose from the dead three days after His crucifixion.

Some of them were going to “become dead.” But, like Jesus, they would rise from the dead. It was and is the perfect word, is it not, for someone facing death?

Death stinks… Literally. One of my favorite lines in the Bible was uttered by Martha. Jesus ordered them to “take away the stone” from the tomb of her recently deceased brother, Lazarus. “Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39).

In my support of law enforcement as Chaplain I’ve smelled the stench of death. Sometimes the cops light-up cigars to keep from being overwhelmed.

Jesus changed all that for believers. The crushing of Jesus released the sweetest spiritual fragrance the world has ever, or will ever, know. It is the fragrance of eternal life.

#2 – You Release The Fragrance Of Eternal Life As You Are Crushed For Jesus (v9-11)

Would you knowingly go to an unlicensed doctor?

Under Domitian, emperor worship was made compulsory.

Each year every citizen had to burn incense on Caesar’s altar while saying, “Caesar is Lord.” They would then be issued a certificate attesting to their loyalty.

Think of the certificate the way we do licenses.

Christians could not, in good conscience, burn incense and declare that Domitian was god. Thus in verse nine,

Rev 2:9  “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

The majority of Bible scholars say the word “works” is not in the best surviving Bible manuscripts. The three difficulties the Smyrnaean believers faced were tribulation, poverty, and blasphemy.

✏ Why poverty? You’re a believer. You can’t offer incense to Caesar. But you don’t want to disobey the government, and you can’t work without a license.
✏ Why tribulation? Maybe you take the position that you are going to remain working without a license. When the authorities find out, you’re in deep, deep trouble.

How were the authorities finding out? Jews – who, by the way, were exempted from emperor worship – would rat you out on account of their hatred for Jesus and His followers. They “blasphemed” you to the authorities.

“Those who say they are Jews and are not” is a description that has garnered lots of speculation from commentators. End of the day, Jesus was referring to the physical descendants of Abraham who faithfully attended synagogue. Jews. They were “not” Jews to Jesus because of their unbelief.

Once when He was on the earth, in a tense confrontation with Jesus, the Jews accused Him of being Mary’s illegitimate son. Jesus replied, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do” (John 8:44).

Regardless their claim to be descended from Abraham, Satan had taken over their synagogue, and they were doing his bidding in blaspheming all those who were in Christ.

Jesus said of the mistreated believers, “but you are rich.” They were rich in the spiritual currencies of Heaven.

You are wealthy beyond your wildest imagination.

Nowhere was life more dangerous for a Christian. If I’m in Smyrna, I’m looking to evacuate before things get any worse. Seems like I’d be safer in any of the other six cities. I have to think some of the believers had already fled. Maybe to Arkansas. (That’s the new Eden for Californians relocating, BTW).

Rev 2:10  Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

As of the writing of the Revelation, no one had been imprisoned or martyred. Not yet.

Notice these key phrases: things which you are about to suffer, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, you will have tribulation.

Read verse ten carefully and you realize that Jesus was telling them to stay put…to submit to imprisonment…to submit to “death” as His martyrs.

Jesus understood evacuation. When just a child, Joseph and Mary were told to flee to Egypt with Him to avoid His being murdered by King Herod.

But Jesus also knew blasphemy, false imprisoning, and death for His testimony.

Jesus got very specific. He told them they would have “tribulation ten days.” There are all kinds of interesting theories about what “ten days” means, e.g., it means a long but definite period of time; or it refers to ten successive future periods of persecution through the centuries.

It most likely means ten days…ten 24hr days

Limited periods of persecution are common in biblical history. For example:

✏ Genesis 7:4  “… I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.”
✏ Numbers 14:33  “And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years…”
✏ Jeremiah 29:10  “For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.”

How long is the future Great Tribulation going to last? Seven years; no more, no less.

Then there was that time in Persia… Wicked Haman lobbied the King to pass a law saying it was legal “to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions” (Esther 3:13).

That potential one-day of infamy was the time Queen Esther stepped-up to save the Jews in Persia from annihilation. Haman’s plot backfired big time.

No reason to take the ten days as anything but literal days exists.

Jesus said, “that you may be tested.” Listen to this quote:

“The same word refers to the demonic attacks destined to befall unbelievers on earth during the future hour of trial, but here its sense is that of testing by persecution. It does not mean a trial for the purpose of proving them, but a trial by way of enticing them to fall away. The prominent thing is the declared role of Satan in soliciting Christians to sin by renouncing their faith.”

This wasn’t a trial from God; this was an assault by the devil. We trip all over ourselves theologically trying to understand or explain why God permits such things.

It’s not really that unusual. Maybe this illustration will help. Let’s say it’s a time of war. To achieve the greater good, you and your fellow soldiers are commanded to hold your position at all costs. Your valor will save thousands of lives; but it will most likely cost yours, and your men’s.

We see that as heroic. We honor those men with medals.

We are in a war – a cosmic, spiritual war – and there will be casualties.

Why do we think an earthly military war requires the ultimate sacrifice, but that the cosmic struggle for souls should not?

We are soldiers. We are not privy to understand all of the Lord’s strategies in the war. The Smyrnaean believers were told to stay put and endure the test, even unto death.

Not everyone in the church would die as a martyr, but each one should be willing to.

Literally Jesus said, “Stop being afraid.”

Johnny Fontane was denied the lead role in a movie. Talking about it to his godfather, he began to weep. Don Corleone rose to his feet, grabbed him by the hands, and shouted, “You can act like a man!” Then he slapped him, saying “What’s the matter with you?” He went on to mock his crying.

While I don’t recommend the Godfather’s methods, his message was spot-on.

We need to quit whining and act like believers.

John had appointed Polycarp bishop in Smyrna. Polycarp was burned at the stake and pierced with a spear for refusing to burn incense. Church history has it that on the day of his martyrdom, Polycarp said, “Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior? You threaten me with a fire that burns for a season, and after a little while is quenched; but you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment that is prepared for the wicked.”

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs records the smell of the burning, “not as burning flesh, but as gold and silver refining in the furnace. We received also in our nostrils such a fragrance as proceeds from… precious perfume.”

Some of the sources I searched say it is likely Polycarp was in the meeting when the Revelation was read. Do the math:

✏ Polycarp was born in 69AD and he died in 155AD at age 86.
✏ The revelation was written somewhere around 95AD. Polycarp would have been in his late 20’s, or early 30’s, at the time of its circulation.
✏ The apostle John, who wrote the Revelation, died around 100AD.

If, as church historians hold, John appointed Polycarp bishop in Smyrna, he was likely there to hear the letter. In fact, he may have been the “angel” who read it aloud.

The various pagan temples scattered around Smyrna were called “the crown of Smyrna.”

It was similar to the volcanoes scattered around our region that we call “the ring of fire.” In a play on words, Jesus promised them the crown of life.

This is the type of crown given to those who were victorious in an athletic competition. It is more what we would call a garland or a wreath.

There are various other crowns available to us. You can look them up. Yes, we will toss our crowns at Jesus’ feet in heaven (Revelation 4:10). But that only makes me want them all the more. Their use as an object to honor the Lord increases rather than decreases their value.

When you graduate from high school or college or an academy you toss your cap up into the air. It represents the achievement, but also the joy of its completion. You’re gonna want a crown or two in Heaven.

Rev 2:11  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” ‘

✏ “He who has an ear” makes everything in these letters applicable to any Christian anywhere at anytime.
✏ “To the churches” makes everything in each letter applicable to any church anywhere at any time.

The “second death” is explained later in Revelation, in verses eleven through fifteen of chapter twenty.

The second death is the judgment of all nonbelievers from all of time. Having rejected eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, they are cast alive into the Lake of Fire – into Hell – to suffer for eternity.

Christians need have no fear of death, especially of the second death. Death for the believer is a departure for home. They will never stand before the terror of the Great White Throne. Instead they will stand before their Lord at His reward seat.

✏ Christians die once – or maybe not at all
✏ Nonbelievers die twice

We talked previously at some length about what it means to be an “overcomer.”
It doesn’t only apply to super-Christians. It is synonymous with being saved. If you are born of God, born again, you are an overcomer.

Satan has his strategies. No one is better at counter-strategy than is Almighty God.

My strategy in Smyrna would be to have all the Christians evacuate. At that moment in history, the Lord determined that his troop of saints could do the best witnessing by dying as martyrs.

We need reminding that while what God permits may make no sense to us, it is wisdom in the warfare.

No Bible study about the believers spiritual fragrance would be complete without referencing Second Corinthians 2:14-16,

2Co 2:14  Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
2Co 2:15  For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
2Co 2:16  To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?

I’d say the chances are pretty good none of us will die as martyrs. But according to the apostle Paul, we are nonetheless diffusers of the fragrance of eternal life in our daily witness.

Let’s go out into the stench of the world with the scent of a witness.

You’ve Left That First Love Feelin’ (Revelation 2:1-7)

It was a 120mi round-trip from San Bernardino, where I lived, to Santa Ana, where Pam lived. I’d leave, every weeknight, just a few minutes after work. Gasoline – leaded, I might add – was $0.50 a gallon. (That was a lot back then. Minimum wage was $2.00hr).

Even though my red 1974 Datsun pick-up got great gas mileage, it was costing me $2.40 per day.

I’d stay later-and-later, getting home so early the next morning that I was sleeping less-and-less.

I ended-up in the ER of (I think) St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange.

Diagnosis: Exhaustion.

It is a 33’ 6” round-trip from my couch to the refrigerator. Pam will sometimes ask me to get her a Diet Coke. A dread comes over me as I run through the steps involved: Get up… Get her stainless steel mug… Add ice… Grab the can from the fridge… Pop the top… Pour… Wait for the foam to settle… Secure the top of the mug… Deliver the drink… Try not to trip on the cats who think I got up to give them treats.

Not done yet. The can goes into a pail in the garage for recycling. That’s another 20’ each way at least.

It doesn’t really mess with going to bed because I’m mostly asleep on the couch already.

Diagnosis: Selfishness. What happened to that first love?

First love was on Jesus’ mind when He wrote to the believers in Ephesus. “I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (v4). Leaving your first love for Jesus is something that can happen to any church, to any believer.

How do we get back? I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Works Don’t Require Your First Love, and #2 Repentance Revives Your First Love.

#1 – Works Don’t Require Your First Love (v1-4)

“First love” is difficult to nail down. Commentators disagree on what it is, exactly.

Since Jesus gave no indication, first love must be something the Ephesians would have understood without need of explanation.

It would be like me mentioning Triple H to you. If you’ve been around a while, you know what I’m talking about; it needs no explanation.
Paul had written a letter to the church in Ephesus. In it we discover what first love is. Paul conspicuously depicted Jesus as their Bridegroom, and the church as His bride.

First love was the love of their engagement to Jesus.

Here are a few things to back that assertion.

✎︎ In Ephesians 1:14 Paul wrote that God the Holy Spirit “is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Commenting on this, Warren Wiersbe writes,

The word translated guarantee… means “engagement ring.” In Greece today you would find this word being used that way. Our relationship to God through Jesus is a personal experience of love. He is the Bridegroom and His church is the bride.

✎︎ Listen for the mentions of the heavenly Bridegroom and His earthly bride as Paul wrote about husbands and wives in the fifth chapter of Ephesians:

Eph 5:22  Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
Eph 5:23  For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.
Eph 5:24  Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
Eph 5:26  that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28  So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.
Eph 5:29  For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
Eph 5:30  For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
Eph 5:31  “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.”
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

✎︎ The word “Ephesus” can mean desirable or darling. These are terms of romantic love.

✎︎ Paul taught the Ephesians that our time on earth anticipating the coming of Jesus to resurrect and rapture the church is like an engagement that will consummate in a wedding. The Bridegroom could come at any moment – heightening the excitement.

✎︎ Elsewhere in a letter Paul likened himself to a matchmaker, who not only introduced the saints to Jesus, but who also felt it his duty to preserve their purity as the bride of Christ. He wrote, “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (Second Corinthians 11:2).

Believers in the church in Ephesus would understand first love to be the vibrant, expectant, romantic, sacrificial love of their engagement.

Rev 2:1  “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:

We established in chapter one that the Revelation scroll John wrote was taken from church-to-church and read by its “angel” – most likely a reference to the pastor.

Jesus greeted each church using an image of Himself from chapter one. We saw Him in chapter one “in the midst of the seven lampstands,” having “in His right hand seven stars.” Jesus told John that, “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches” (1:20).

In verse five Jesus will say, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place – unless you repent.”

A “lampstand” was the perfect word for the believers in Ephesus. I believe God always has a perfect word for us, too, in our walk. Many such words, of course.

Being “in His right hand” speaks of intimacy. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father, and we are, spiritually, there, too, being held in His right hand.

A local church is a “lampstand” meant to burn brilliantly in the present darkness of this world.

How were they doing in first century Ephesus?

Rev 2:2  “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;

The Ephesian believers had “works” in over-abundance. Their works were characterized by “labor” and “patience:”

“Labor” describes strenuous, exhausting work. Not in a negative way – but in that way you feel when, although exhausted, it was totally worth it, because you enjoyed it.

They had “patience” as they worked. Although they faced fierce local opposition from nonbelievers, they pressed on for the Lord.

Jesus noted that “you cannot bear those who are evil.” In one of the most emotional moments of the Book of Acts, Paul met with the elders from Ephesus to warn them that false teachers would try to infiltrate the church, to destroy it with their false teachings. The Ephesians took this seriously, and would not tolerate these false “apostles,” calling them “liars.”

Rev 2:3  and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.

Their tribulation was producing “patience.”

The more they “persevered” against opposition, the more trouble they attracted, and the more patient they became. They were not becoming “weary” in well-doing.

They must have been feeling pretty good about their evaluation.

Then it happened.

Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Did they gasp? Did someone say, “What?” Did some begin to weep?

Did the pastor reading the letter out loud pause?

Were there those who disagreed? Or who immediately thought of others that were guilty of this – but certainly not them?

Was there clamor, or calm?

They couldn’t point to their works as evidence that they loved Jesus. He had acknowledged their works; but it turns out works don’t require love.

Paul wrote, “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (First Corinthians 13:3).

The Ephesians had a love in 62AD (when Paul wrote to them) that they had left by 95AD (when Jesus wrote to them).

This is where it gets hard. What we are talking about has to do with motives, and our motives can be really difficult for us to discern.

I can “bestow all my goods to feed the poor” on account of my love for Jesus, or I can do it as a work that has nothing to do with love for Him.

Fortunately for us, “The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

If you do a simple search in Strong’s Concordance, you’ll see that the “two-edged sword” is a dirk.

Do a Google search for “dirk,” and once you get past Dirk Nowitzki, you’ll discover it is a long bladed thrusting dagger. Historically, it was a personal weapon of officers engaged in naval hand-to-hand combat.

It calls to mind the phrase, “Cut to the heart.” I happened to come across this factoid: The first use, in English, of the expression “cut to the heart” traces back to the Bible – specifically the second chapter of the Book of Acts. It was the Day of Pentecost, and the apostle Peter was sharing the Gospel with the crowds at the Temple.

Hearing about Jesus, we read, “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (v37).

They repented. They believed and were saved.

If you’ve left your first love, you need to be cut to the heart. It isn’t a surgical cut. It’s an instantaneous spiritual thrust into your heart that ignites repentance. It may sound violent, but it is an act of love.

#2 – Repentance Revives Your First Love (v5-7)

We’ve just come through the Christmas season.

Chances are, you watched It’s a Wonderful Life, and one or more versions of A Christmas Carol. They have in common that the protagonist in each was shown something that completely, immediately, changed them:

George Bailey was thinking about ending it all until he was shown what his town would have looked like if it hadn’t been for all his good deeds over the years.
Ebenezer Scrooge was shown his past, present, and future to the effect that he became a generous philanthropist.

When Jesus discerns the thoughts and intents of your heart, and shows you them, you will completely, immediately change.

Put simply: The very realization that you have left your first love ignites your repentance.

Rev 2:5  Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place – unless you repent.

If you were saved later in life, you can easily relate to “first works.” You received Jesus as your Savior, and you experienced the forgiveness of your sins. God the Holy Spirit came to indwell you, and you were transformed into a new creation in Christ. You knew love for the very first time.

Your first works weren’t “works” at all, not in the traditional sense.

Your first works were simply responses to the love of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus said, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works,” He was saying that as soon as you really realize that you’ve left your first love, you will repent and return to love as your motive.

“Or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place – unless you repent.” The churches on the earth are lampstands.

They are the only spiritual light in the darkness of a realm whose ruler is “the god of this world,” (Second Corinthians 4:4) whose allies include “the rulers of the darkness of this age” (Ephesians 6:12).

Jesus’ gift of God the Holy Spirit is our source of oil for our lampstand; and Jesus is the one who trims the wick – keeping us burning brightly.

Unless we leave our first love.

Why would Jesus remove you from a place of witness if you leave your first love?

Because your witness is not an accurate portrayal of the love relationship He desires from you as His darling, espoused bride.

In describing a local church we might say it has a certain personality, based on who or what it emphasizes. The personality of the first century church in Ephesus was work, or you might say, work ethic. If they were on the internet, they’d have a long drop-down menu of ministries you could click on. It wasn’t a place you could be a part of without being involved in ministry. Happily, I might add.

But the work was not motivated by first love for Jesus and therefore it gave the wrong impression.

A church can go on for a long time, doing works that are loveless. “Quickly” is the Greek word from which we get tachometer. It didn’t mean soon; it meant that once He decided to remove their lampstand it would happen suddenly.

Rev 2:6  But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

A mystery surrounds the identity of the Nicolaitans. There are three major suggestions:

First, an early church figure, Irenaeus, said they were followers of Nicolaus of Antioch, one of the seven original deacons (Acts 6:5). He is said to have apostatized.

Second, it is suggested that the sect began through a misinterpretation of a statement by Nicolaus, based upon which they lived a life which indulged in the sinful pleasures of the flesh.

Third, there are those who point out that the word Nicolaitan comes from the Greek compound word meaning conqueror of the people. They say they were forerunners of the clerical hierarchy that puts distance between God and regular lay people.

Nicolaitans are mentioned again in the letter to the church at Pergamos in connection with the Old Testament character Balaam. We don’t know anything more about Nicolaitans; not for sure.

Jesus’ use of “hate” shouldn’t upset you. It is in keeping with the romantic tone of this letter.

Lovers grow together as one. They learn to love what each other loves, and to hate what each other hates.

Rev 2:7  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”

Everyone is invited to “hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Every Christian in every church throughout the Church Age.

“Him who overcomes” is a phrase found in each of the seven letters. It seems to describe true believers within the larger body of each church, composed of both true and professing Christians. One commentary put it this way:

Almost all the references to overcoming mention a promise for all believers, promises that accompany salvation. It would seem strange to think of only some believers eating of the tree of life, or not being hurt by the second death, or not being clothed in white garments.

John himself wrote, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (First John 5:4-5).

Do you believe that Jesus is the son of God? Have you been born again? Then you are an overcomer.

At the very end of the Revelation, once we are in the new creation, all believers will partake of the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God. “On either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month” (22:2).

I don’t know if you’re ready for this, but I’m pretty sure we will be fruitarians in eternity. There will be no more death – and that includes animals and plants. It was, after all, our original diet.

Every source I sought out suggests things you can, should, or must do to repent and return to your first love. Here is just a sampling:

Get your priorities back in order.

Talk about Jesus constantly.

Do the first works of worship, prayer, Bible study, giving, fasting, and serving others.

Cut-out distractions to make more time to spend with Jesus.

Here’s my problem: When I got saved, these things just happened, through grace, on account of Jesus’ love for me. I don’t think it works the other way.
I don’t think that, for example, reorganizing my priorities is going to overwhelm me with first love.

First love is a lot about re-realizing Jesus’ love for me.

Realizing His love for me is what ignited the flame in my heart for Him. I did nothing; He did everything. As John would point out elsewhere, “We love Him because He first loved us” (First John 4:19).

When I re-realize that Jesus first loved me… How can I not keep falling in love with Him over and over again?

I was cut to the heart when I was saved. I’ll need to experience another dirk-daggering to return to my first love.

“O, how He loves you & me.”

Drop Dead Glorious (Revelation 1:9-20)

I suppose it was inevitable… And I am relieved that I don’t need to hide it anymore. It feels like a weight has been lifted.

Pam caught me online looking at…Pinterest.

Pinterest tends to be, let’s say… feminine:

More than ⅔︎ of Pinterest’s base are women.
More than 80% of women in the US ages 18-64 with children are pinners.

Among the top Pinterest searches are DIY Crafts, Home Decor, and Hair & Beauty.

I came to the hard realization that less than 10% of my followers on Pinterest are male.

My Boards are somewhat manly:

• Coffee Pics
• Pool-to-Pond Conversion
• Tattoos
• Let’s Try Vegan
• Punch Recipes

So there I was scrolling on Pinterest when a suggested pin appeared: Repurposed oil lamps

How could I resist?

There amongst oil lamps being used as candy jars and vases and candle holders was something sublime: DIY plans for wiring oil lamps to plug into an outlet. (I’ll let you know how it goes after I first try the sure-fire home remedy for keeping cats out of your yard).

Oil lamps figure prominently in our verses

John sees “seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man” (v12-13).

This entire passage is about light, brilliance, and shining.

When He was on the earth, Jesus said that He was the “light of the world” (John 8:12).

The Lord said to us, “You are the light of the world… Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14 & 16).

I’ll organize my comments around two points:

#1 Let Your Light Shine And You Will Be Buffeted By Tribulation, and #2 Let Your Light Shine And You Will Be Brightened By Trimming.

#1 – Let Your Light Shine And You Will Be Buffeted By Tribulation (v9)

Late in the first century, the apostle John was still burning brightly for the Lord. It landed him in hot oil – literally. In what he called The Second Persecution Under [Roman Emperor] Domitian, John Foxe (author of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs) wrote,

Among the numerous martyrs that suffered during this persecution was… St. John, who was boiled in oil, and afterward banished to Patmos.

Tertullian, an early church figure, in his The Prescription Against Heretics, wrote,

How happy is its church, on which apostles poured forth all their doctrine along with their blood… where the Apostle John was first plunged, unhurt, into boiling oil, and thence remitted to his island-exile.

John’s light for Jesus had attracted trouble for him. But in his trouble, he shone all the more brightly.

Rev 1:9  I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

“Patmos” is some fifty miles off the coast of Ephesus in the Aegean Sea. It has the shape of an hourglass and is small, about 13mi² in area. (By way of comparison, the City of Hanford is approximately 16mi²).

I’ve heard it said that John was forced to work either mining salt or quarrying marble. Did I mention he was 90-something?

It is equally possible that John was under house arrest. Patmos was not a penal colony like Rura Penthe. It had a harbor, a town, a temple to Artemis, a temple to Apollo, perhaps a temple to Dionysus, a temple to Aphrodite, a gymnasium, and a stadium.

They couldn’t boil him, so they banished him. Little did the Romans know that God would use John’s time on Patmos as a working sabbatical to receive and write the Revelation.

Ships could find safe harbor from storms there. We can think of John’s banishment as a safe harbor for him during the storms of persecution.

John’s crime, the nefarious activity he was sent away for, was “the Word of God and… the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

John was boiled and banished for being a Christian.

He was sharing the Gospel and the “testimony” that Jesus was God come in human flesh to die on the Cross; and that He rose from the dead; and that there was salvation only in Him.

John was one of the originals. More than that, he had been invited into the inner circle along with Peter and James. He several times refers to himself as “the disciple Jesus loved.” He was an apostle.

Yet, for all that, he calls himself their “brother and companion.” He was content to identify with every other Christian as a “brother.” No more; no less.

Only among Christians is there a true equality.

We might even say, in Christ, “all men are recreated equal” in their new birth. I might have a different office, or function, or talent, or gifting. We are complementarian. But we are on absolutely equal ground when it comes to the love of God that is ours through Jesus Christ.

They were accompanying one another as “companions” on the road to Heaven. It’s a road marked with suffering, requiring the sharing burdens.

John described our time on earth journeying heavenward as “the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.” Here is what I think that trio of phrases might mean:

Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). I know that this isn’t referring to the Great Tribulation because, a little later in this book, Jesus promises us that the church we will not go through it. This tribulation John spoke about refers to the oppression and persecution during the Church Age targeting believers.

At the same time that we are promised tribulation, we are assured of “the kingdom.” Jesus will return for us to then return with us to establish the literal kingdom of God on the earth.

The time of waiting for the kingdom is to be characterized by “the patience of Jesus Christ.” This isn’t a big dose of patience we get by asking. In the Bible, we are told that “tribulation produces patience” (Romans 5:3). You might not want to pray for patience.

Light attracts. In John’s case, his light attracted tribulation. If we shine as the light of the world, distinctly Christian trouble will come our way, too.

#2 – Let Your Light Shine And You Will Be Brightened By Trimming (v10-20)

Oil lamps are simple. The oil in a reservoir produces light when a cloth wick is lit.

The wick fails to burn away because it is constantly absorbing fuel, which burns instead of the cloth.

Oil lamps need tending – someone to supply the oil, and to keep the wick trimmed. Jesus presents Himself to John as being in the midst of seven lampstands, tending to them.

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,

“In the Spirit” indicates an enhanced spiritual state in which John received the Revelation.

Is “the Lord’s Day” a reference to Sunday? Or is it signifying the Day of the Lord, the day of God’s judgment upon the earth, that is prophesied in the Old Testament, and described in this book?

Either John was having an exceptional Sunday “in the Spirit..,” or he was transported forward in time by God the Holy Spirit to somehow witness the events of the Day of the Lord.

It doesn’t matter if the Lord’s Day is Sunday… Or the Day of the Lord… Or something else entirely.

What matters is that what John saw was written down as Scripture under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit.

“I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet.” It wasn’t a trumpet. It functioned as a trumpet. Trumpets were sounded to gather the people of God, and to provide instruction for their movements.

Describing Jesus’ voice like a trumpet in conjunction with the mention of the seven churches in the next indicates that He was gathering the churches to instruct them.

Rev 1:11  saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

Once again we’re told that Jesus is God’s entire alphabet, and every word He wants to say to mankind.

He was the “first” in that He created all things.

He is the “last” in that He will bring all things to their prophesied consummation.

John was to write one book to these seven churches. Even though there are individual letters to each of these churches, everything in the Revelation was for all of them. And it’s for all of us.

He would have written on a scroll, and by the time he was finished, it would have been approximately 15ft long unrolled.

Rev 1:12  Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m stunned by something John doesn’t see.

He doesn’t see Jesus – not at first.

He sees the lampstands, then he sees Jesus. Even though in verse sixteen we’re told “His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength,” John saw the lampstands first.

As we will see, the lampstands represent the churches on the earth. It is a strong reminder that Jesus is seen – He is unveiled to the world – as He lights-up His church.

The “seven golden lampstands” are reminiscent of the one Menorah in the Holy Place in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. It was a particularly beautiful oil lamp, with seven bowls for oil.

The Menorah and these lampstands suggest the same thing: God’s people were then, and we are now, to bear witness to nonbelievers. They were, and we are, to be God’s spiritual light in the present darkness of the world.

Rev 1:13  and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

Jesus in the midst of the church, tending to our light, is a powerful invitation to Christians to regularly meet with Him in a local fellowship

Jesus is referred to as the “Son of Man” 88 times in the New Testament. “Son of Man” is as a reference to the prophecy of Daniel 7:13, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of Heaven.” It is a Messianic title.

“Son of man” is also used of humans. When Jesus used this title of Himself, He was claiming to be a son of man – human – Who was the unique Son of Man in Daniel.

Jesus’ attire was similar to that of a priest. Just like the Temple priests would tend to the lamp in the Temple, so Jesus tends to His lampstands, who are His temple.

Rev 1:14  His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;
Rev 1:15  His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;

Notice John keeps using the word “like,” or “as.” Jesus does not have “brass” feet.

Rev 1:16  He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

Wait a minute, Gene…You’re skipping over these descriptive phrases!

I am, and here is why: When we get to the seven letters to the seven churches, we will see that each of the ways Jesus was described here in chapter one will be a way He introduces Himself to a particular church. Listen for them as I read the opening to each of the seven letters:

Rev 2:1  “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:
Rev 2:8  “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, ‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life:
Rev 2:12  “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword:
Rev 2:18  “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:
Rev 3:1  “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars…
Rev 3:7  “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “HE WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, HE WHO OPENS AND NO ONE SHUTS, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS”:
Rev 3:14  “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:

We should wait to try to define and understand these images until we see what Jesus intended them to mean as He applies them to His council to each of the churches.

Overall, John said “His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.” True solar power.

Rev 1:17  And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.
Rev 1:18  I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

John “Fell at His feet as dead.” This wasn’t the first time John had fallen before Jesus’ glory. He did so when he saw Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. One commentator said,

On that occasion more than sixty-five years earlier Christ’s face had “shone like the sun” (Matthew 17:2) as John and two other apostles had witnessed an anticipatory glimpse of the glory to be witnessed in full at Christ’s second coming to earth. On this occasion the aged apostle is distinguished as being the only one to be given a second foreview of that glory.

“But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid.” Jesus always wants to alleviate fear in His followers. It’s on us to receive His ‘touch’ – usually through the Word, but also through fellowship with His people.

Rev 1:19  Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.

This gets the “Most Valuable Verse” award.

This is Jesus Christ’s own commentary on the Revelation. He gives us the outline for studying, and understanding, the entire book.

“Write the things which you have seen.” What John had seen was the vision of the risen Lord walking in the midst of the seven candlesticks with seven stars in His right hand. Chapter one is the record of the things John had seen.

Chapters two and three will contain the second division, “the things which are.” The seven churches, representing the entire Church Age, are the things which are.
Then from chapters four through the end of the book we read about “the things which will take place after this.” We’ll see the church resurrected and raptured into Heaven; the seven years of the Great Tribulation; the Battle of Armageddon; the Second Coming of Jesus; the one-thousand year reign of Jesus on the earth (called the Millennium); the final judgment of Satan, the fallen angels, and nonbelieving humanity; the destruction of this universe; the creation of a new universe; and we’ll get a glimpse at our lives in eternity with God.

Rev 1:20  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, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.

A “mystery,” in the Bible, is something previously concealed that is now revealed. Jesus revealed exactly what He meant by this imagery.

The word for “angels” is messengers. They can be either angelic or human. Each of the seven letters to the churches will be addressed, “To the angel of the church” in that town.

It’s doubtful, for many reasons, that they are angelic beings. But if men, who are they?

C.I. Scofield noted that, “The natural explanation of the ‘messengers’ is that they were men sent by the seven churches to ascertain the state of the aged apostle.”
Other commentators see them as the pastors of each individual church.

There is an interesting verse near the end of the Book of Daniel. Talking about the End Times, Daniel wrote, “Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever” (12:3).

The “stars” Daniel spoke of were human beings. It’s perfectly biblical, therefore, to identify the angel-star of each church as its pastor.

To call any believer a “star” sounds strange to us. We have our own connotation of the word “star,” and no pastor ought to be one. But if you can get beyond the common usage, it makes more sense that Jesus was addressing the pastor in his function on behalf of the congregation, to read to them the entire scroll. (I get correspondence all the time, addressed to me, but intended for the church).

In the earthly Temple, the Jewish priest would refill the bowl of the lampstand with oil, and trim the wicks.

In the Church Age, your body is the temple of God on the earth today – the temple of the Holy Spirit; AND the church, the body of Jesus Christ, is His temple on the earth. You are to shine brightly, brilliantly. Nonbelievers see your light, then Jesus comes into view, in His glory.

The oil lamp is a reservoir with a supply of oil and a wick in order to give light, tended by a priest.

Jesus is our Great High Priest. We are His lampstands on the earth. He wants to light us up to unveil Him, to reveal Him, to sinners – even to those who, in their own way, want to boil or banish us.

The oil? God the Holy Spirit. The trimming? Our tribulations.

One final thought: If Jesus is tending our lamp, and God the Holy Spirit is the oil… Is it possible for the wick to suffer from burn-out?

Hey (hey), You (you), Gaze Up at My Clouds (Revelation 1:4-8)

When there was a Disneyland in Anaheim, the Fantasyland Teacups were a blast to ride. An original opening day attraction, they provided one-and-one-half minutes of intense, non-stop, nausea-inducing whirling.

My secret for not getting dizzy: Stare directly into the eyes of the person across from you the entire time. Let your gaze stray even a little, and the whirling background will overwhelm you.

In a world that seems to be spinning out of control, you need to focus your gaze on a Person who won’t look away.

Don’t take your eyes off of Jesus; not in life; not in this book.

Along those lines, I want you to ‘see’ something in these verses that I think is pretty endearing:

In verse four, Jesus mentioned the churches. While in context He was talking about seven particular first century gatherings, we’ll see that Jesus’ letters to them are for all churches throughout the Church Age – us included.

In verse five, we’re told He “loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”

In verse six we learn Jesus “has made us kings and priests to His God and Father.”

Jesus doesn’t take His eyes off of us.

It would be enough to thrill us to know that the Lord is ever watching us. I’m saying He has locked eyes on us. Two people locking eyes in a crowded room is a staple of romantic cinema. O, how He loves you and me!

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Jesus Is Preparing You For His Return With Clouds, and #2 Jesus Will Place You At His Return With Clouds.

#1 – Jesus Is Preparing You For His Return With Clouds (v4-6)

Let me summarize how these verses include us: Between His first and second comings to earth, Jesus is gathering His church, comprised of those who have been washed of their sins. Once saved, He works in you to prepare you for ministry as kings and priests in the future Kingdom of God on earth when He comes with clouds.

Rev 1:4  John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

“Seven” is a prominent number in the Revelation. Or I should say, groups of sevens are prominent. A group or series of sevens is called a heptad. In all there are at least fifty-two heptads in the book. Here are just some of them:

Seven Churches
Seven Spirits
Seven Lampstands
Seven Stars (and that’s just in chapter one)
Seven Seals
Seven Trumpets
Seven Bowls
Seven Lamps
Seven Promises to the Overcomer
Seven Horns
Seven Eyes
Seven Angels
Seven Thunders
Seven Heads
Seven Crowns
Seven Plagues
Seven Mountains, and
Seven Kings

There are seven blessings, or beatitudes (1:3, 14:13, 16:15, 19:9, 20:6, 22:7, & 22:14).

Jesus makes seven I AM statements (1:8, 1:11, 1:17, 1:18; 21:6; 22:13, & 22:16).

Here is a quote from an article on the Hebrew use of seven:

The number seven is especially prominent in Scripture, appearing over 700 times. From the seven days of Creation to the many “sevens” in Revelation, the number seven connotes such concepts as completion and perfection, exoneration and healing, and the fulfillment of promises and oaths.

“To the seven churches which are in Asia.” These seven churches were all in the region we know as Western Turkey. If you look at a map, you’ll see that they are in geographical order with regard to a messenger delivering the Revelation to each of them one-by-one.

The seven letters to the seven churches have at least three applications:

They originally had a provincial application: These seven were actual churches existing in John’s day to which Jesus wrote for correction and/or commendation.

The letters always have a present application: At the end of each letter is the exhortation to hear what the Spirit says to the churches, plural. Each letter is written to a church, and each is written to all the churches for the entire Church Age.

The letters always have personal application to every Christian in every age. They each say, “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Do you have an “ear?” You do; and that means what Jesus said to the churches He said to you

It’s also popular to suggest that the letters have a prophetic application. By that is meant the letters represent seven successive periods of church history, from the apostolic church up to the end of the Church Age. As appealing as that sounds, there is one big problem with the prophetic application.

If the church had to go through these seven periods, the rapture could not have been imminent until the last era.

“Grace to you and peace” was so common a greeting we may not think about how remarkable it is to be able to say it; or how much practical help is contained in it.

“Grace to you” should take me back to the understanding that I am totally undeserving of salvation. I am a sinner by nature and by choice. God has saved me by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

“Peace” is what I can therefore experience as a human being. I am at peace with God and I can have the supernatural peace of God.

Remember that lyric, “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love?”

What the world needs now is grace, saving grace, and the peace that accompanies it

I can think of no truth more mind-changing in a time of extreme turmoil and stress than to know I am at peace with God, and that I can therefore be at peace in my spirit in the whirling world.

“Him who is and who was and who is to come” sounds like it is describing Jesus, but a Jew would immediately and correctly understand this to refer to YHWH. Plus you’re told in the next phrase that this Person is seated on His throne. The Father sits on His throne and Jesus sits at His right hand.

Next we are greeted by “the seven spirits who are before His throne.” If you’re going to keep track of weird descriptions in the Revelation, this is a worthy inclusion.

A popular solution is that this refers to a verse in Isaiah that seems to describe God the Holy Spirit seven ways. It reads, “The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD” (11:2).

Language scholars point out, however, that while in English we may be able to count seven descriptors, in Hebrew there are really only six.

John will say something similar in the fifth chapter of the Revelation. There we read, “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth” (v6).

If we were Jews, familiar with the Old Testament, and we heard “seven eyes” you wouldn’t think of Isaiah.

You would think of chapter four in the Book of Zechariah.

Zechariah spoke of “the eyes of the LORD” being “seven” (4:10). He spoke this way while discussing the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

Because Zechariah used this imagery to describe the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, we know that John was using it that way also.

Why use these phrases instead of simply saying God the Holy Spirit?

One commentator pointed out, “The book of Revelation is immediately using images from Old Testament prophecies to show that this book is interacting with those symbols. Revelation uses language that is found in previous prophecies so that the readers can connect the message of Revelation to the prophecy in the Old Testament.”

These references are signs that direct us to Zechariah. An angel was showing him things. I’ll read it:

Zec 4:2  And he said to me, “What do you see?” So I said, “I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps.
Zec 4:3  Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.”

We will encounter seven lampstands later in the first chapter of the Revelation (v13 & 20).

The angel revealed the “two olive trees” as, “The two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth” (v14). Later in the Revelation, two anointed witnesses have a prominent role in the Great Tribulation.

One more thing about not naming God the Holy Spirit directly. He has the ministry of showing the world Jesus. He is the Promise of the Father, given by the Son. He keeps a low profile. Descriptions of His ministry compliment His determination not to call attention to Himself.

Charles Spurgeon said, “It is the chief office of the Holy Spirit to glorify Christ. He does many things, but this is what He aims at in all of them, to glorify Christ.”

Rev 1:5  and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

These same three phrases are found in Psalm 89 as a description of the Messiah Who would rule on David’s throne from Jerusalem. By using the references in the Revelation, it is beyond doubt that Jesus is the son of David Who will rule on the throne from Jerusalem over the much promised Kingdom.

These phrases also present, to His church, Jesus in His past, present, and future ministries:

“Faithful witness” looks to Jesus’ past. “Witness” is martyr. Jesus came and was faithful to accomplish His witness on the Cross for the human race.

“Firstborn” is a word of preeminence. It means Jesus rose from the dead as the first and preeminent Person to never die again. It means others will follow and rise as a result of His resurrection. We live presently in the power of His resurrection as we await our resurrection or the rapture.

In the future the Lord Jesus will be installed as the “ruler over the kings of the earth.”

“To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood…”

Jesus “loved us,” and thereby we know that He loves us:

He loved you while you were yet a sinner and He proved His love on the Cross by dying for you.

That is why I can say, Jesus loves you. His love does not depend upon your behavior and it can never change.

He “washed us from our sins in His own blood.” “Washed” can be translated loosed or released and is better understood that way:

We are released once-for-all from the penalty of sin.

We are loosed from the power of sin.

Yes, of course, we still sin; but there is a very strong sense in which we don’t have to.

Revelation 1:6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

This is in a prophetic tense. It is understood to be presently true because it will surely come to pass. In His Second Coming, we return with Jesus and in some sense share in His rule over the earth.

To Him will be “glory” when He is fully revealed at His Second Coming. Then He will have “dominion forever and ever” from that time forward.

How do we understand that Jesus does not have “dominion” now? Theologian Roger Olsen describes the church age like this:

We are living in “enemy occupied territory.” For whatever reason and by whatever means the kingdoms of this world, the political systems that people have created, are not yet ruled over by God except in the sense that they are subject to God’s ultimate control. God can limit their destructive power, but He has relinquished, as it were, complete control and is waiting and depending (until the end of this age) on us – God’s people – to resist God’s enemy who is occupying His territory (“the kingdoms of this world”).

If you think that gives the devil too much authority, consider the following:

The apostle John, in his Gospel, calls the devil “the ruler of this world” three times (12:31, 14:30, & 16:11).

The apostle Paul calls the devil “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2).

When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he “took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me” (Mathew 4:8-9). Jesus did not dispute the devil’s right to offer Him those kingdoms.

It is therefore with joy unspeakable we read that Jesus is “coming with clouds” (v7) to be “the ruler over the kings of the earth” (v5).

The devil’s temporary authority will topple and the rightful ruler will be installed.

I frequently use as an illustration the D-Day invasion of Normandy in World War 2. It effectively ended the war in Europe. But fierce fighting continued for eleven more months before victory was declared. From D-Day June 6th until August 21st, when Paris was liberated, 72,911 Allied service members were killed or listed missing and 153,475 were wounded.

Jesus defeated Satan on the Cross, but the kingdoms of this world are still under Satan’s dominion until the Second Coming

Let your heart delight in the knowledge that Jesus is keeping His eyes locked on you:

He saw you from the Cross, we might say, when He washed you from your sins in His own blood.
He called you out into His Church.
You are His kingdom of priests, being prepared for your future ministry in the Kingdom, at His Second Coming.

#2 – Jesus Will Place You At His Return With Clouds (v7-8)

Michael W. Smith sang,

Need your light to help me find
My place in this world
My place in this world

Once you receive the Lord, you do find your place in this world. You do it the old fashioned way: Pray, read your Bible, gather together with believers serving in a local church, and share your love for the Lord with others.

You are a member of the body of Jesus on the earth. Serve Him, stay humble, be led by the Holy Spirit, and you will discover what member you are in that body.
You are a living stone in the Temple of God on the earth. Allow the Lord to place you where He wants, when He wants.

In the future, you’ll be coming back with Jesus to rule alongside Him.

Rev 1:7  Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

This verse is absolutely full of the Old Testament. It borrows “cloud” imagery from Daniel 7:13 & 14, Jeremiah 4:13, Ezekiel 30:3, Zephaniah 1:15, and Zechariah 12:10-13:1. Those passages all mention His “coming in the clouds.”

Is “clouds” symbolic? Probably not – not here, anyway. It means that clouds of some sort will accompany Jesus at His Second Coming.

You might remember at His ascension into Heaven in the Book of Acts we read, “Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (1:9-11).

“They who pierced Him” refers to the nation of Israel in their official rejection of Jesus in His first coming. In Zechariah 12:10 it says that at the Second Coming, “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him.”

“Every eye will see Him” means everyone on the earth who is not a Jew.

“And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him.” This “mourning” speaks of repentance.

At His Second Coming, all Israel on the earth will be saved.

“Even so, Amen.” This is the second “Amen” in this passage. (There are no “Awoman’s,” BTW).

Rev 1:8  “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

“Alpha” and “Omega” are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. It’s like our expression, Everything from A to Z. As if that wasn’t inclusive enough, Jesus said He was the Beginning and the End.

With the Revelation of Jesus Christ completing the Bible, you and I have God’s entire alphabet, and every word He wants to say to us.

Jesus described Himself is terms equal to God the Father when He said “who is and who was and who is to come.”

“Almighty” is used ten times in the New Testament and nine of those uses are in the Revelation.

It means something like the one who had his hand on everything. It’s a word of oversight.

Although Satan is still wreaking havoc, God limits the authority of the ruler of this world, and God works through providence to push His plan forward to its ultimate and inevitable end.

Once again we note that Jesus spoke of us prominently. We will serve with Him, next to Him, as kings and priests: or as some translate it, as a kingdom of priests.

Our world can seem to be spinning out of control. That includes the world at large and our own personal “worlds.”

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

I want to share a quote from Charles Spurgeon. It isn’t about our study so much as it is about every Bible study. He said,

I have talked with you as well as I could upon this sublime theme, and if I did not know that the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ, I should go home miserable, for I have not been able to glorify my Lord as I would; but I know that the Holy Spirit can take what I have said out of my very heart, and can put it into your hearts, and he can add to it whatever I have omitted.

Go ye who love the Lord, and glorify Him. Try to do it by your lips and by your lives.

Go ye, and preach Him, preach more of Him, and preach Him up higher and higher, and higher.

Are We Near Yet? (Revelation 1:1-3)

I found this travel advice on a parenting website:

When my husband and I buckle in our eight-year-old daughter for a long drive, we make sure she’s got lots of movies loaded up on the iPhone or iPad, a nice set of headphones, books, stuffed animals, a pillow and blanket, a notebook and colored pencils, and some snacks and water. Another activity to add to the roster is playing the app Toca Life: City. Created by using suggestions from kids around the world, players have 3 million ways to personalize 29 characters and direct them in a digital doll house, or really doll town, navigating through rooms, customizing hairstyles, selecting their wardrobe, going grocery shopping, and visiting the pet store.

Are you kidding me??

Not in my day. I’ve twice told you my sad story. How my oldest brother, at the strong behest of my irritated father, threw out the window of our ‘57 Plymouth my Jack-in-the-Box during our trip from Connecticut to California.

I had that one toy to play with for 2,793 miles while traveling unbuckled in the back of the station wagon surrounded by luggage.

That, my friends, is old school, boy-named-Sue parenting that will prepare you for real life.

The article I read was titled, “How to Avoid Hearing, ‘Are We There Yet?’”

People more-and-more are asking, “Are we near yet?”

Scott McConnel, director of Lifeway Research, writes, “The current global pandemic will create interest among churchgoers and nonreligious people about what the Bible says about plagues, disasters, and the End Times. The urgency… is less about stockpiling toilet paper and more about helping people be ready for Christ’s return.”

“Are we near yet?” Check-out verse three: “For the time is near.”

We have the answers people need… And many of them are in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You Are The Servant To Whom Jesus Is Unveiled, and #2 You Are The Servant By Whom Jesus Is Unveiled.

#1 – You Are The Servant To Whom Jesus Is Unveiled (v1)

Tesla revealed its CyberTruck in November 2019. It was behind a curtain they raised, surrounded by smoke. They drove it out on-stage with fanfare and a light show. It was going great until Elon Musk demonstrated the unbreakable glass by tossing a baseball at it. It shattered. Twice. No matter that they previously hit the body with a sledgehammer doing no damage. It’s now considered one of the great unveiling fails of all time.

The Second Coming of Jesus is considered by most nonbelievers as a great unveiling fail

“Where is the promise of His coming?” ask the scoffers.

It’s “near.” This book gives details about the unveiling of Jesus Christ.

Rev 1:1  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants – things which must shortly take place…

“Revelation” is the word apokalypsis – the taking away of a covering. It’s really too bad that this word has come to be synonymous with chaos or catastrophe. The apocalypse isn’t the end of the world, but rather the restoration of it.

In His first coming Jesus was veiled:

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel

The apostle Paul put it like this: “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8).

His glory was veiled so He could accomplish the work of substituting Himself for our sins.

The apocalypse pulls the cover off, revealing Jesus as He is today, and as He will be at His Second Coming, and in eternity.

In the Lord of the Rings universe, the one true king, Aragorn, has many names and titles. He is Strider, Elessar, Isildur’s heir, Thorongil, Estel, and the Dúnedain. We come to know him more completely through each of these.

Jesus will be made more known by the many names and titles given Him in this book. Going chapter-by-chapter, He is: “The faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth” (1:5), “The Almighty One” (1:8), “The Alpha and the Omega” (1:8; 21:6), “The Son of Man” (1:13), “The Beginning and the End” (1:8; 21:6), “The Son of God” (2:18), “The One Who is holy and true” (3:7), “The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness” (3:14), “The Beginning of the Creation of God” (3:14), “The Lion of the tribe of Judah” (5:5), “The Heir to King David’s throne” (5:5), “The Word of God” (19:13), “The King of kings and Lord of lords” (19:16), and “The Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star” (22:16).

He is called “the Lamb of God”
no less than twenty-eight times

Warren Wiersbe says of Jesus’ unveiling,

In Revelation 4-5, He is seen in heaven as the glorified Lamb of God, reigning on the throne.
In Revelation 6-18, Christ is the Judge of all the earth; and
In Revelation 19:1-21, He returns to earth as the conquering King of kings.
The book closes (chapter 22) with the heavenly Bridegroom ushering His bride, the church, into the glorious heavenly city.

These “things which must shortly take place…” This is often misunderstood to mean that all the prophecies of the book were to be fulfilled ‘soon’ after they were given, as in “I’ll be with you shortly.”

What if I told you the word “shortly” is en tachei and that our English word “tachometer” comes from it?

When you floor your accelerator pedal the tachometer redlines. In the context of the Revelation it means that once the events describe begin, it will be pedal-to-the-metal.

“His servants…” That’s you & I

I can see the Lord choosing to give His beloved disciple, John, the Revelation. But me? You?

Nevertheless, He has given it to us through John, on these pages.

The Lord wants us to see Him, as He is now in Heaven, and as He will be at His Second Coming.

It’s a good reminder to really ‘see’ Jesus in these odd times we are experiencing.

Where am I looking for hope? For strength? For truth? For clarity?

It should be not just “to” Jesus, but at Him unveiled to us in His power and beauty, poised to return.

#2 – You Are The Servant By Whom Jesus Is Unveiled (v2-3)

It’s been a White House tradition for decades: A first-term president hosts a ceremony in the East Room for the unveiling of the official portrait of his immediate predecessor that will hang in the halls of the White House for posterity.

Odds are that’s not gonna happen this year.

We will be privileged to see many ‘portraits’ of our Savior in this wonderful book. We’ll want to show them to others who have an inaccurate, or incomplete, portrait of the Lord.

Rev 1:1  … And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,

John is the person who received the Revelation and penned the scroll. He is the apostle John, author of the Gospel bearing his name and three letters. He id’s himself four times in the Revelation (1:1,4, & 9; 22:8).

He left us a kind of secret signature. John is the only writer who calls Jesus the Lamb, and he does it in his Gospel and in the Revelation.

He identified himself as a “servant.” He used the word for a voluntary bond slave – someone who chose slavery out of love for his Master.

This word “signified” is so important. It can be understood as sign-i-fied, meaning through signs or symbols.

I’ve heard people say that the Revelation cannot really be understood because it’s full of signs. Stop and think for a moment.

Do we use signs to be confusing, or to make something clear?

When you see a sign with a blue square overlaid in white with a stylized image of a person in a wheelchair, what do you think? Do you think it means free rides? Meals on wheels?

Signs reveal rather than conceal. Signs and symbols are better than language in that they are universal and therefore not subject to individual interpretation.

Biblical symbols are consistent throughout the Bible. The signs and symbols in the Revelation will either be defined for us; or we can easily find them defined by their use elsewhere in the Bible.
So, Yes, there are some extremely weird images in the Revelation. But we have their explanations. One commentator noted,

The Book of Revelation is rooted in the Old Testament. It contains more than 500 allusions to the Old Testament, and 278 of the 404 verses in Revelation (that is almost 70%) make some reference to the Old Testament.

A first century Jew would immediately understand without need of any explanation the signs we find fantastic

Sometimes Jesus conveyed information Himself to John (1:10); sometimes it was through an “elder” (7:13); and sometimes a “voice from Heaven” told John what to say and do (10:4). Mostly Jesus communicated the Revelation through an “angel.”

Rev 1:2  who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.

John knew that what he was writing was inspired Scripture.
He faithfully recorded the “testimony of Jesus,” the things Jesus said to him through the angel. He also “saw” the things he wrote about.

(Commentators debate about whether or not John received visions while on the earth, or was in some manner transported to the future to see the actual events. In the end, it doesn’t matter. What he saw is what matters).

The Revelation is the Word of God… Testified to by Jesus… Delivered by an angel… Given in universal sign language… Visually witnessed by John… And recorded by inspiration. This is iron-clad future stuff.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

I am being “blessed” right before your very eyes. Today, I am “he who reads… the words of this prophecy.”

You are being “blessed” right before my very eyes. Today you are “those who hear the word of this prophecy.”

(BTW: This is the first of seven beatitudes in the Revelation – 1:3, 14:13, 16:15, 19:9, 20:6, 22:7 & 14).

What is the blessing? We’re not told. Always leave it up to Jesus to determine how to best bless you. But, yes, a blessing is promised – and that is exciting.

We need to read, and hear, the Revelation more, not less. I’m not suggesting it is more important than any other Scripture. I am suggesting too many are ignoring it, or worse – teaching it as already fulfilled – and that’s not good.

“He who reads” and “those who hear” refers first to the original audience for the Revelation – the seven churches of Asia in chapters two & three. If you look at them in order on a map, they form a route from one city to the next. This entire book was read to, and heard by, all of them. One commentator pointed out,

“Because writing materials were expensive and scarce, so were copies of the books that were parts of the biblical canon.

As a rule, one copy per Christian assembly was the best that could be hoped for. Public reading was the only means that rank-and-file Christians had for becoming familiar with the contents of these books.”

You’re to “keep the things that are in it.” Prophecy is practical. We don’t study it because we are curious about the future. When we get to the letters to the seven churches, for example, Jesus will give much in the way of practical obedience.

The original recipients were suffering extreme persecution from Roman emperor Domitian. It was going to go from bad to worse to martyrdom. The believers would find great hope in the knowledge of the return of Jesus to establish the kingdom.

It has become popular to categorize the book as “apocalyptic literature.” That sounds right at first, since it calls itself apokalypsis. After all, if the Apocalypse isn’t apocalyptic, what is?

Apocalyptic literature is a category of writing – what scholars call a genre – like prose and poetry are categories of writing.

One of many reasons the Revelation is not in the category of apocalyptic literature is that the first three chapters are very much literal.
Another reason is that apocalyptic literature doesn’t promise you a blessing from Heaven for reading it.
Yet another reason is that apocalyptic literature is pseudonymous (so͞oˈdänəməs). Big word that means written under a false name. Definitely not the case here.

But there is a better argument: The Revelation characterizes itself as prophecy

We see that here in verse three, and later, in chapter 22:18-19.

The proper approach to the Revelation is to “assume a literal interpretation of each symbolic representation unless a particular factor in the text indicates it should be interpreted figuratively.”

If you’ve ever heard or read a teaching by someone who treats the Revelation as apocalyptic literature, you noted that they ignore the signs as they are defined in the book in favor of their own allegories.
In chapter seven we will read, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed” (7:3-4).

The chapter continues by going tribe-by-tribe saying that 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel were sealed. They were set aside for special ministry.

Who do you think they are?

The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that exactly 144,000 faithful Christians from Pentecost 33AD until the present day will be resurrected to Heaven as immortal spirit beings to spend eternity with God and Christ. They believe that these people are “anointed” by God to become part of the spiritual “Israel of God.”
Mormons believe that the sealing of the 144,000 relates to the high priests, ordained unto the holy order of God.

It’s not only the cults that contribute to confusion:

Hank Hanegraaff, the Bible Answer Man, says, “The 144,000 and the great multitude are not two different peoples but two different ways of describing the same purified bride.  From one vantage point the purified bride is numbered; from another, she is innumerable – a great multitude that no one can count.”
Kevin DeYoung, writing for The Gospel Coalition, says, “The 144,000 are not an ethnic Jewish remnant. The 144,000 represent the entire community of the redeemed.”

There is nothing anywhere to suggest 144,000 is a figurative number, or that these aren’t exactly the Jews who John says they are

One more reason we are futurists who read prophecy literally.

Whenever someone in the Bible interpreted prophecy he did so literally

Daniel, for instance, was reading the prophecy of Jeremiah.

He came to the place where Jeremiah indicated that the captivity of the Jews in Babylon would last a period of seventy years. Daniel believed it to be literal. He realized that the time was almost through and set himself to being ready to return to Jerusalem.

“For the time is near.” “Time” here means a certain period of time. We might call it an “age.” The certain period of time is the Kingdom of God on earth for a thousand years.

Consider the following biblical factoids:

For every prophecy of the first coming of Jesus there are eight prophecies of His Second Coming.
There are over one-thousand eight hundred and forty-five verses in the Old Testament that refer to Jesus Christ ruling over a kingdom on the earth.
Seventeen Old Testament books feature His rule on the earth as a prominent event.
There are at least three hundred eighteen references to Jesus Christ’s Second Coming in the New Testament.
His return is mentioned in twenty-three of the twenty-seven books that comprise the New Testament.

The kingdom age was the constant expectation of the Jews. We see it among Jesus’ disciples:

Before the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, we read in Mark 10:37, James and John “said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.”
As Jesus was about to ascend into Heaven, the disciples asked Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:7).

How is it “near?” Jesus is in Heaven, poised to return. He’s coming. We think it is delayed; but it is “near.”

Consider this: When the apostle Peter talked about the End Times, he reminded us that, “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (Second Peter 3:8). It isn’t meant as a mathematical equivalent, but to say that, from a heavenly perspective, hardly any time has past since the Lord first started dealing with humans in the Garden of Eden. If you only live 70 or so years, several thousand years seems an eternity. If you are eternal, it’s a twinkle of the eye.

You likely received many picture cards this Christmas. It’s always interesting to see how folks are changing and aging – especially if you haven’t seen them for a while. Every now and then, you might not recognize someone. Or they have completely changed their look.

The last time His disciples saw Jesus, He was in His glorified body, ascending into Heaven. Right out of the gate, in verses twelve through sixteen, we are going to see Him very differently portrayed.

I’m hoping we will see Jesus in ways we haven’t thought of in a while… And maybe in ways we’ve never thought of before.