The Sword Room

Now we come to the Lord’s address to the church at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13). The name Philadelphia means brotherly love in Greek. Again, this church does not represent the faithful church of the last days, inasmuch as there is no internal evidence in the Apocalypse that would even suggest that the seven churches represent successive stages of church history.

In this address, unlike the previous ones, Jesus is not described using imagery from His appearance to John in ch. 1. He is called the faithful, the true, the one having the key of David, who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens. This description clearly speaks of the Lord’s right to rule and to delegate his power to whom He wills. The expression Key of David comes from Isaiah 22:22: And the key of the house of David I will lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open and no one shall shut; and he shall shut and no one shall open.

After the conquest of Canaan the Israelites were ruled by a series of Judges, the last of which being the prophet Samuel. When Samuel was old and ready to pass on, the Jews did not want his two godless sons to rule them, so they asked for a king. The first king of Israel was Saul, but he was replaced by David of Bethlehem, the son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah. From that point on until Zedekiah, the last of the Old Testament kings, was taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar about 600 BC, all the kings of Israel were direct descendants of David. After Zedekiah the next and final Davidic king would be the Messiah, as predicted in the Isaiah passage. Jesus description in Revelation 3:7 speaks of His right to rule over Israel as the predicted Messiah.

Don’t you wonder why the Lord would use this Old Testament designation to describe Himself to an audience that is primarily gentile? Isaiah 22:22 speaks of Christ as the king of Israel. But in 3:9 esus refers to the Jews in Philadelphia as the synagogue of Satan. In fact He says their claim to be Jews is in name only, and that they are not really Jews but liars. Then He predicts that they will one day come and bow before the gentile believers. We might be able to dismiss these words, except that the Lord uses nearly identical language in 2:9 to describe the Jews in Smyrna. Add to that the fact that John had referred to the gentile recipients of the Apocalypse as kings and priests (1:6). What are we to make of this?

If you have been raised in a typical evangelical church in America you have likely been taught that God has two peoples: a heavenly people (the church) and an earthly people (Israel). God’s plans for these two peoples is distinct–they do not overlap. According to this view Jesus came to earth and offered Israel an earthly kingdom, which they rejected. When they did this the prophetic time clock for Israel stopped at the end of the 69th week of Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks (Daniel 9:24-27). The present church age is a parenthesis in God’s program for Israel. God is presently saving people and bringing them into the body of Christ, but eventually the the present church age will conclude with the secret pretribulational rapture of the church, and then the suspended program for Israel will resume during the 70th week, the great tribulation. The prophetic time clock which stopped over 2,000 years ago, will start ticking again and God will be dealing with the Jews as a nation. They will rebuild their temple and the sacrificial system will resume straight through into the 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth (millennium).

But the New Testament does not teach that God has two separate peoples. First, Paul tells us that they are not all Israel who are of Israel (Romans 9:6). In other words, physical birth into a nation does not make a person one of God’s people, but rather spiritual birth, or regeneration. Within the nation was a remnant of saved sinners, and these were the true Israel. They were saved by their trust in the anticipated Messiah and His mediatorial work. They were looking forward to the cross through the sacrifices of the Levitical system. When the nation rejected Christ God continued to save a people for His name, only now they were looking back at the completed work of Christ. When His own kinsmen rejected Him He saved as many as received Him by believing in His name (John 1:12-13). Right after Pentecost mostly Jews were saved, but eventually the gentile believers were grafted in–not to a separate tree, but to the same one as the Jewish believers of the Old Testament!

Now you can see why Jesus told the Jews of Smyrna and Philadelphia that they were not really Jews. They are the synagogue of Satan because they have rejected Christ. The church is the true circumcision (Philippians 3:3), the true Israel of God (Galatians 6:16). Jesus now rules through His church. The church is now God’s holy nation, royal priesthood, and special people (1 Peter 2:9-10). This was the view of the post-apostolic and Reformation churches. The Jews rejected Christ and their house was left to them desolate with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Has anything changed since then with respect to Israel’s acceptance of Christ? What has changed is that in 1830 the two-people-of God system known as dispensationalism came into being. But as you can see, Jesus is not a dispy.

Does this mean there is no future for the nation Israel? The New Testament does predict that one day all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26). But when this happens it will happen just like it does for the elect of any other ethnicity–they will trust Jesus and become members of the body of Christ or be lost! They will be grafted into the same tree spiritually as you and me. They will not be saved in some different way or be Old Testament saints (whatever that means). They might build a new temple in Jerusalem, but if they do it will not be because God has commanded them to do so or because scripture predicts it. Nor will God instruct them to re-institute the Levitical sacrifices when the book of Hebrews tells us they have been forever abolished by Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice on the cross (Hebrews 10:10-14).

What then should our attitude be as believers toward Israel? We need to respect Israel for the noble role she has played in redemption history. Personally I would like to see our government protect them from the persecution they suffer from the Arab nations. But we must bear in mind that even when God was working through them exclusively (which He is not now) and the Mosaic Covenant was in effect (which it is not now), Israel was not entitled to possession of the Land when they were disobedient to the Lord. This means that since they are in rebellion against Christ they have no more claim to the borders of Israel than the Palestinians. Personally I hope they can gain possession of it, but not if it causes them to continue in their stiff-necked rejection of the Lord.

We as members of Christ’s body can take encouragement in the fact that He is King of Kings now. He need not wait until some mythological future Jewish millennium. He reigns through His chosen people the church. He tells the believers at Philadelphia that He has placed before them an open door that no one can close (v. 8). This is the door of opportunity to submit to Christ’s rule through us in this world. No human form of rule or authority, not even the emperor of Rome or the persecuting Jews, could thwart the rule of Christ through His people. Ours is the privilege of serving as His ambassadors in this world. I am sad to say that I have not availed myself of this great opportunity as I could or should.

These promises are given to the Philadelphian believers with the assurance that Christ will protect them in the midst of trial and persecution: Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of testing which is about to come upon the inhabited world, to test those who dwell upon the earth (3:10). I have heard many say that this verse is the clearest evidence of a pretribulational rapture to be found in scripture. All I can say is that if this is the best you’ve got you are on thin ice.

The argument goes like this. The church at Philadelphia represents the faithful church of the last days. The hour of trial mentioned is the Great Tribulation, or the 70th week of Daniel yet future. Jesus promises the church at Philadelphia that He will keep them from this hour of trial. What clearer evidence for a pre-trib rapture could there be?

First, the concept of Philadelphia as the faithful church of the last days is without support. Second, there is no mention of Daniel’s 70th week or reference to the so-called Great Tribulation. Third, there is no reference whatever to a resurrection or rapture in the text. When Jesus promises to keep them from the hour of trial he uses the same Greek words (tereo ek) as in His prayer in John 17:15: I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from (tereo ek) the evil one.So the idea in both places is not of spatial removal from the world but protection in the midst of trial. Jesus said that in the world we will have tribulation. Paul said that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

I find this to be very encouraging. God promised the believers in Philadelphia that His reign in and through them was like an open door that no amount of affliction or persecution could close. They might suffer physical harm but through it all He would keep them in His hand. On the other hand I truly fear for those believers who have become comfortable in the pew and are banking on Jesus to rapture them out before they suffer the smallest scratch. A time of genuine persecution and affliction may well leave many believers disillusioned, and some might apostatize from the faith under the pressure, having been spoon-fed the pabulum of Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey.

Notice in v. 11 Jesus says He is coming quickly. This is the same word John used in 1:1 to describe things that would shortly take place. Whatever the meaning here it cannot refer to something two thousand years in the future from the perspective of the first recipients. As I said in an earlier entry, not every coming of Jesus mentioned in the word of God is a reference to his bodily second coming. Here it could mean a visitation of judgment of some kind. In any event the Lord encourages them to stand fast and make sure no one robs them of their crown. Here as before the reference is to the victor’s garland given to those who faithfully persevere in time of trial.

Being made a pillar in the temple of God and having the name of the New Jerusalem engraved on one’s person (v. 12) speaks of permanency. He shall not go out again. In case you hadn’t noticed, very little in this world is certain or lasting. The grass withers and the flower fades, but He who does the will of God abides forever. I hope you are encouraged and motivated by these truths. We are God’s chosen people. We are His holy nation, His royal priesthood. We share in His reign now. Tribulation will come, but the forces of hell cannot shut what He opens. What a great blessing to be a part of His sovereign plan through our union with Christ.

In the message to the church at Sardis Jesus is described as having the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. He is ever-present and all-powerful. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to reveal and glorify Him, and the angels assist the churches at His direction.

Jesus starts off with an indictment reminiscent of His rebuke of the Pharisees decades earlier: You have a name that you are alive, and you are dead. Sardis was known as a peaceful friendly town that prided itself in having a clean appearance. It was also a center of a host of the mystery religions. These religions were similar to Mormonism and Freemasonry in that only initiates were privy to their secret truths and rituals. Members were not allowed to divulge insider information to those on the outside. These religions had a gnostic flavor in that they boasted of an esoteric elitist level of knowledge, and they involved the worship of false deities. The patron goddess of Sardiswas Cybele, who was similar to the mother goddess, Diana of the Ephesians. History tells us that within a few decades of the warnings of Christ in the Apocalypse, many of the professing believers of Sardis had gone back to the mystery religions they had grown up in.

They are described as dead, but what does this mean? In our entertainment-driven view of worship we think of a church as alive where the singing is lively and the preaching enthusiastic; and we commonly say a church is dead if the tone is more subdued. Many times I have heard Pentecostals say that the Baptists are dead because they do not possess the fullness of the Spirit–i.e., they do not shout, moan, weep, and speak in tongues. But I am inclined to think what Jesus means is that most of the members of the church in Sardis are spiritually dead, that is, unregenerate.

When he tells them to wake up and strengthen what is left and about to die, He is addressing the remnant of truly born again members who had become nominal through the toxic effect of the unsaved majority who have brought in their spiritual baggage. Here is an interesting paradox. Apparently the entrance requirements to the mystery religions were more stringent that those of the local church! Is this not so in our own day? One cannot be a Mormon, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Jehovah’s witness unless they ascribe to the doctrine and conduct requirements of those religions. Many so-called Christian churches, on the other hand, open the fellowship to anyone who in some vague way has gushy feelings about Jesus or has made some kind of “decision for Christ.”

The Lord told Abraham He would spare Sodom if He found just ten true believers there. Of course deductive logic demands the conclusion that there were less than ten righteous in Sodom, since the Lord destroyed it. In the church at Sardis the few believers left are commanded to remember what they have heard and keep it and repent. Such a wake up call is really a blessing, for the Lord is giving them a chance at revival.

Jesus warns them that if they do not repent He will come to them as a thief at a time they do not expect. Most believers assume this is a reference to the second coming, but there is no good reason for this conclusion. This is a warning directed specifically to the remnant of true believers in the church at Sardis. What is being described here, in my view, is a judgment coming of Christ in which some form of discipline will be administered. Could be persecution or some kind of pestilence.

We should take notice of these warnings. We cannot simply skate by in the Christian life and think there will be no consequences. It sometimes seems like God lets us get away with our folly for years. But whom the Lord loves he chastens and disciplines every son whom He receives. I know professing believers who have gone years without praying, cracking a Bible, or fellowshipping with other Christians. They claim to be saved–and maybe they are–but they must not be deceived (nor should we) into thinking we will not reap what we sow in terms of natural consequences for indulging our flesh. God is not an enabler, and living in denial will not work forever. Jesus is telling you and me to wake up, remember, repent, and keep His word. If not you may find yourself like Esau seeking repentance when it is too late to undue the damage wrought by your folly.

Christ promises those who do not soil their garments that they will walk with Him in white, for they are worthy (v. 4). Worthy? I thought we were clothed in the righteousness of Christ despite the fact that we are completely unworthy. How can it be said of the remnant of faithful saints in Sardis that they are worthy? My only theory here is that the metaphor of white robes is used in Scripture both of justification and sanctification. Of course we are not worthy to be pronounced righteous, so that Jesus must here be referring to some kind of reward for faithful service–namely keeping oneself unstained by participation in the mystery religions. It is a strong word from the Lord here that tells us that personal holiness is very important, both doctrinally and morally.

Lastly, the overcomers are promised that their names will not be erased from the book of life (v. 5). When I was a very young Christian I went to a Charismatic Renewal meeting where the speaker used this verse to prove that it is possible for a true child of God to lose his salvation. I was pretty shaken up by that, and I am grateful to Pastor George Gulian of Seattle, Washington, for setting me straight. The text nowhere says any one’s name can or will be erased from the book of life. In fact the text says just the opposite. The overcomer will not have his name erased. Every true believer is an overcomer ultimately, so that there is no possibility of a loss of salvation taught in this verse.

What this passage does teach is that even though you might not lose your salvation, if you continually compromise Jesus sees beneath the squeaky clean exterior to your heart. I know from experience that He will lovingly pursue His wayward child and inflict him with stripes to bring him back onto the path of godliness. If you are reading this today and God’s Spirit is convicting you of sin, why don’t you repent of it right now and ask Him to restore you? Do not harden your heart because it will only make things more painful for you. If you are really born again Jesus will not stop pursuing you and your sin will find you out.

Write to me using the contact link if you would like prayer or to discuss things. May God bless you.

Christ’s address to the church of Thyatira is the longest and Jesus commends them for more things (five–their works, love, faith, service, and patience).  than any of the other seven churches.

The Lord is described as the Son of God, with flaming eyes and shining brazen feet. Son of God denotes His deity. Of course Jesus was described earlier as the Son of Man, and I will not repeat the explanation of that title given in an earlier entry.

I am encouraged that in verse 19 Jesus tells them that their last works are greater than the first. In other words there is progress, improvement. As I get older it becomes more important to me to finish strong, and such a word from Jesus would be a real encouragement to me. Many have made a good start of the Christian life, but sadly it has happened to them according to the true proverb. The true child of God perseveres in the faith to the end, and it is my desire for you, my brothers, that you make it your ambition to put off the sin which so easily entangles you, and run with endurance the race that is before you, looking to Jesus standing at the finish line (Hebrews 12:1-2). I pray the meager offerings presented here will pique your appetite for Jesus and His Word.

In verse 20 Jesus mentions a false prophetess named Jezebel. She is called that because she was like Jezebel, the daughter of a Sidonian king and wife of wicked King Ahab mentioned in 1 Kings 16. She vigorously promoted Baal worship in Israel. This ancient false religion celebrated fertility and erected phallic images for worship. Baal worship involved temple prostitution–male and female prostitutes engaging in hetero and homo sex. Apparently there was a woman who had infiltrated the church at Thyatira and taught and deceived Christ’s bond-servants to engage in pagan worship similar to Baal-ism, including the eating of idol food and engaging in illicit sex. Jezebel’s first sin was assuming an authoritative teaching position in the church, a practice strictly forbidden in 1 Timothy 2:11-13. Worse yet the was teaching error of the most flagrant kind. Spiritually, if not physically, she was a whore.

Jesus has given her ample opportunity to repent, but she does not want to repent of her fornication. She is addicted to it and the power she gets from it. So Jesus threatens to throw her and her fellow adulterers onto a bed of great affliction and even death. In verse 20 Jesus had rebuked the church at Thyatira for tolerating her presence in the church, and now it is as if He is saying that if they will not confront her He will. As a result of His judgment on Jezebel, all the churches will know that it is Jesus who searches the hearts and minds (literally hearts and kidneys) and renders to each according to their deeds. To those who have not been drawn into the so-called deep things of Satan Jesus encourages them to continue steadfast in the faith.

I can’t think of anything so obviously idolatrous and perverted in the churches today. But pagan religion is tolerated in other forms. For example the big rave in mental health is the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness technique is presented in a way that makes the unsuspecting sap think it is a simple form of clearing the mind of distraction and learning to focus. Now we are starting to see Christian mindfulness instruction offered in the churches. However mindfulness theory is really a Buddhist philosophy that denies a transcendent creator and teaches you to focus on yourself. It involves the use of visualization and guided imagery in meditation, and often the chanting of a mantra. The idea is to get in touch with yourself instead of God, and to rid yourself of all desire and free yourself from this world of Maya (illusion) and attain to the state of Nirvana, or nothingness. Strip the sugar coating away and you will see mindfulness for the occultic mysticism it is.

I might also mention the blasphemous caricature of the triune God presented in books like The Shack or the universalist idiocy of Rob Bell’s recent piece of crap titled Love Wins. The point is that Jesus hates this stuff and wants His people to stop abiding it and instead grow gonads and throw the heretics out on their ear.

Jesus promises the overcomers that they will share in His rule. He also promises them the bright morning star. This name is ascribed to Christ in 2 Peter 1:19 and Revelation 22:16. Most scholars of the Apocalypse conclude that this is a promise that the overcomers will gain Christ Himself. This is not hard to grasp given the fact that in Philippians 3:8 Paul tells us it is his utmost desire to gain Christ. When one gains Christ He gains all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm. And in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I’d rather have Jesus…………………..

Right after I was saved in 1971 I heard someone say: You sure wouldn’t want to get caught with a beer in your hand when Jesus comes back. In the years that followed I have thought many times about what it will be like to stand before the Lord when He returns or right after I pass from this life. We are all familiar with the verse which tells us we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10). Then there is that confusing passage (1 Corinthians 3:13-15) that speaks of rewards being given for service at the Bema of Christ. I say it is confusing, at least to me, because when I look at my own life I cannot imagine anything I have done that would be worthy of reward. Far from anticipating a big awards banquet in the sky, I can more often identify with these words of scripture: And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming (1 John 2:28).

The fact is we don’t know what it will be like to stand before Him. The closest thing we have in scripture to that day is what we see in the messages to the seven churches of the Apocalypse. First, it is the glorified Christ speaking, and second, He is speaking to believers. We have the benefit of seeing just what he had to say to each group of believers.

The Lord’s words to the churches are a mixture of positive and negative, which causes me to believe He would give most believers credit for doing some things well and other things not so well. One thing I think many will find surprising in the messages to the churches is that Jesus praises His people for their intolerance of false teachers who have entered the churches and led believers astray:

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 (2:2).

On the other hand, we see Jesus criticizing them for tolerating heresy:

But I have a few things against you, because you have those there 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. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate (2:14-15).

It is no stretch for us to imagine Jesus commending the believers for keeping the faith under persecution or criticizing them for leaving their first love. But to praise them for their intolerance and rebuke them for their tolerance is mildly surprising (and encouraging) to me.

When we come to Christ’s address to the church at Pergamos we see that the Lord Himself is quite intolerant by today’s standards. He speaks of Pergamos as the place where Satan’s throne is and where Satan dwells. This is a reference to the temple of Zeus which stood on the high point of the city and had a throne-like shape. Zeus was the chief of the Greek gods, and for Jesus to equate him with the devil would be an offense to a First Century pagan. I believe that were He here today He would say the same thing about Allah, Krishna, or any other false god. How un-Christ-like!

Jesus warns the believers of Pergamos to repent or he will come and do battle with the heretics. This can only mean that He is telling them to fight them with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Fighting them means challenging their error and throwing them out. Again, how intolerant. So much for meek, mild, milk-toast, namby-pamby Jesus.

In so many churches today anything goes. There is no formal membership in many churches, and in the mega churches there are no checks and balances. No attempt is made to maintain sound doctrine, and to many anything beyond John 3:16 is too deep and divisive to deserve our attention.

This post will be shorter than most. I want you to know I am encouraged by Jesus’ words. For the first time in my life I believe Jesus would actually commend me for clinging fast to His word and being diligent to show myself approved to Him as an unashamed workman, accurately handling the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

One final thing. Actually two. In 2:17 the overcomer is promised the hidden manna, which is a symbolic reference to the manna that was kept in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. When we stand fast upon the truth of God’s Word in the face of persecution and wage war with the enemy, He sends provision and sustenance when it seems there is none–even as He sent the ravens to feed Elijah when he was alone in the wilderness after the confrontation on Mount Carmel with the 450 false prophets of Baal.

The white stone speaks of admission into the kingdom of God. In the Roman world of New Testament times when you went to a special athletic or theatrical event you got a small round white stone instead of a paper ticket. On the stone there might be a seat number or something about the event. Overcomers who show full proof of their calling and election are promised a white stone with a new name on it which will correspond to the name found in the Book of Life.

I hope this message today has encouraged you as it has me to stay the course and stand firm in the faith in a world that hates Jesus.

Christ’s message to the church at Smyrna is the shortest and contains no criticisms. This congregation is mentioned nowhere else in the New Testament, but historical material on the city of Smyrna in biblical times is plentiful. Smyrna, like Miletus and Ephesus, was a bustling port city on the eastern Aegean Sea. The history of this city goes back centuries before the time of the Apocalypse. In about 300 BC Alexander the Great rebuilt and made Smyrna over into a Greek cultural center which boasted of its own Acropolis. In the Roman Era Smyrna enjoyed an affluence and civic pride which put it in competition with Ephesus as the first city of Asia. There was also a sizable and influential Jewish presence. We do not know for certain how the gospel was introduced to this city.

As in all the addresses to the seven churches, this one begins with the phrase, Thus says…, which reminds me of the familiar Old Testament prophetic formula, Thus says the Lord… When Christ speaks it is with divine authority. Even during His earthly ministry he prefaced many of His sayings with, Truly, truly I say to you, and You have heard it said…but I say to you… You will notice also that all that is said to the seven churches is written in red letters in your Bible, which indicates the words of Christ. Of course this does not mean the red-letter portions are more inspired or carry more authority, for All Scripture is God-breathed…(2 Timothy 3:16). Still, there seems to be a more personal element here with Jesus speaking directly to His people.

Jesus is described as the first and the last, or more accurately the first and the final (eschatos). All things came into being through Him and in the end all things will be brought under his power and authority. In terms of our salvation He is the author and finisher (Hebrews 12:2), which is why Paul could tell the Philippians he was confident that He who had begun the good work in them would see it through to completion (1:6).

Jesus is also described in v. 8 as having died and come back to life. As we will see, these believers faced a real threat of physical death for their allegiance to Christ. Knowing that the Lord had conquered the grave would be a great comfort to them, as it ought to be to us.

In each address given to a church Jesus says, I know…, followed by a commendation, criticism, or as here a bit of information about their situation followed by an exhortation. Jesus identifies three things He knows about the plight of the church in Smyrna: their tribulation, their poverty, and the blasphemy directed against them and their Lord.

Tribulation here means pressure from without and must be precisely defined by context. The Greek noun comes from a verb meaning to press in upon or crush. This verb was used to describe the multitudes crowding Jesus (Mark 5:24). Life can be a pressure cooker, and we all face tribulation of various form and intensity–physical, emotional, economic, spiritual. These believers were suffering affliction related to their faith: they were being persecuted as Christians by the Jews and Romans.

Jesus describes them as poor. In our culture we have no real appreciation for poverty because we consider people to be poor who refuse to work and are rewarded for their sloth with apartments furnished with all the necessary utilities, furniture, appliances, and electronic gadgets. These poor people do not want for food, transportation, and medical treatment. In Bible times there was no so-called safety net, so that being poor meant being just this side of destitute or completely without pot or window. Some of the truly poorest folks in America are unskilled people who want to work and are trying to make a go of it without going on the dole. It would be hard enough to struggle like this if pretty much everyone was in the same boat, as during the Depression or in a third-world country; but when you stand elbow-to-elbow with people who want for nothing you begin to feel like a second-class citizen. Making and keeping people poor is an effective psychological tool.

The believers in Smyrna were poor and yet they lived in a very upscale and affluent city. One way in which the Roman State kept subversive groups in check was through the confiscation of property. It seems as if the recipients of the epistle to the Hebrews had suffered in this way: For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven (Hebrews 10:34). Those who refused to worship the state, as personified and deified in the emperor, risked the loss of homes, personal property, and life.

Scripture presupposes property rights and ownership. The commandment Thou shalt not steal assumes that what you are taking belongs to me–it’s mine. Our government is becoming more statist and socialist, which means everything belongs to everyone–and that is the same as saying it belongs to no one (except the state). When the federal government gets it’s centralized hooks into everything from education to health-care to banking to fighting obesity, religion will be next. Once this happens the state becomes God, whether the president ascribes deity to himself or not. It was not that long ago when Christians were imprisoned and lost everything in communist countries because in worshipping Jesus they were looked upon as traitors with divided loyalties.

Jesus tells the impoverished Christians at Smyrna that they are rich in what matters most. Reminds me of His warning in Luke 12:21: So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. These believers are in good company:

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty (1 Corinthians 1:26-27).

And again:

Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? (James 2:5)

The blasphemy mentioned in v. 9 was slander by the Jews, who Christ says are really not Jews but liars. In rejecting Christ and fighting against Him they have become a base of operations for Satan himself. Going clear back to the trial of Christ before Pilate we see the Jews playing the politics card: If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar (John 19:12). A few years later the Jews of Thessalonica used the same strategy against Paul: And these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus (Acts 17:7).

The believers at Smyrna are commanded by the Lord not to fear–literally to stop fearing. Even in the face of death these believers are told to overcome, so we know the persecution was very intense. Perhaps these believers were familiar through John’s teaching with the words of Jesus found in Matthew 10:28:

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Actually, Jesus would not make a very good therapist, and he would rub many a feminist psychobabbler the wrong way. It is a cardinal sin in today’s touchy-feely world to tell anyone how to feel or not feel. If someone is afraid the last thing you want to do is tell them to stop feeling that way. You are supposed to validate their feelings. But instead of allowing the believers to wallow in fear Christ offers them assurance in the form of three promises. First, the devil (through the agency of the Jews and Romans) will indeed throw them into prison, but their tribulation will last but ten days. Most likely this is not a literal figure since numbers are used symbolically in apocalyptic literature. Whereas seven is the number of divine perfection, ten is the number of completeness. The persecuted believers are told that their imprisonment will be brief and will end when the time appointed by God is complete.

They are also promised the victor’s crown for faithfulness unto death. Romans were executed by beheading with the sword. Nothing made one look more shameful and defeated than public execution. But when death comes in the form of martyrdom for the sake of Jesus it is a victory. The crown here is actually a wreath-like string of olive leaves given to champions in the ancient Olympic games. Paul uses this word in the context of athletics in 1 Corinthians 9:25. Jesus calls it the crown of life, a construction in Greek called a genitive of apposition, which means that the crown is life itself.

The overcomer is promised he will not be harmed by the second death. I understand this to mean spiritual death, or separation from God for eternity in the lake of fire. When I was a young Christian there was a little Bible book store on Pacific Highway in Riverton Heights right next door to an Assemblies of God church. It was a tiny place called the Book Nook and was run by a sweet old lady named Gussie. This was back when they actually sold Bibles in such stores. Even though in those days there were not the Chinese-made trinkets and Taiwanese junk so common in today’s Christian bookstores, Gussie did have a few cool book-markers, bumper stickers, and buttons. Once when I was in there with Mark, the guy who led me to the Lord, we saw this button that said: Born once, die twice; born twice, die once. When someone asked you what it meant you were supposed to explain that if you are born once physically and not a second time spiritually you will die twice–once physically and once spiritually. But if you get born again you will die physically, but spiritually you will not experience death. I picked up one of the buttons and I think it was a guy named Ron Lohman who I tried to use it on, but he cussed me out like he always did when people tried to tell him about the Lord.

Honestly, in over forty years as a Christian I have suffered nothing more serious than profanity for my testimony. Never anything where my physical safety was threatened. About the closest I came was when I had been saved just a few months and my friend Gary Hackworth was putting tracts on car widshields and he threw a tract in an open window. It hit a guy in the face who was sleeping in the car. He got out and punched Gary in the mouth, but I’m not even sure it was official persecution because the guy never even looked at the tract before he smacked Gary. He was just mad someone disturbed his beauty sleep.

Seriously though, we Christians  in America have been really blessed thus far compared to what the believers in the seven churches must have endured. But believers elsewhere in the world face danger daily. Christians in Sudan are being killed and sold into slavery. A pastor in Iran was recently arrested and sentenced to death. A pastor in Sweden was jailed for six months for stating the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior. As pagan religions like Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism gain ground in this country, along with secular humanistic statism, the day may well come in our lifetime when being a true Christian will be looked upon as high treason. We ought not think electing a Republican to every office from dog catcher to president will somehow insulate us from harm.

The bottom line is that it starts with each one of us as individuals. We are no better or worse than believers of any other era. Keep your eyes on Jesus, brothers; stay in the word; continue in steadfast prayer; keep your conduct pure; maintain tight fellowship with likeminded believers; warn your unsaved loved ones of the wrath to come. May God give us the grace we need to stand firm in the faith. Our redemption is closer now than when we believed.

Today we will cover the first seven verses of Chapter Three, or the message to the church of Ephesus. Why the message is directed toward the angel of the church is beyond me, and I will not even offer a theory because as you read on you will see that the whole congregation is addressed. Jesus is holding the seven stars in His right hand and is standing amid the seven golden lampstands. He is present among His people and He alone protects them and controls their destiny.

We know a little about the Ephesian church from the account in Acts of Paul’s time there during his second and third missionary journeys. In Acts 18:19-21 we read that the apostle stopped over briefly in Ephesus on his way to Jerusalem and reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews. Paul returned later (Acts 19) and spent three months teaching in the synagogue before leaving and teaching for two years in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. Many people were converted and God miraculously confirmed the gospel message with signs and wonders, to where so many were turning from the pagan Diana worship of that region to Jesus that the idol making industry suffered a major financial blow.

Paul never returned to Ephesus but on his final trip to Jerusalem he stopped in nearby Miletus and summoned the Ephesian elders. When they arrived Paul gave them a solemn charge:

For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everone night and day with tears (Acts 20:27-31).

No doubt some of the elders addressed above were still alive and serving in the Ephesian church at the time of the apocalypse. Jesus commends the Ephesian believers for their hard exhausting work and perseverance in promoting and maintaining sound doctrine and their intolerance and hatred of wicked false teachers and their deceptive teachings. We know that Diana worship as well as the Nicolaus cult involved idol worship and fornication, and the Ephesians had heeded well the final words of Paul years earlier, a charge which echoed the warnings of the Lord about wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing (i.e. false prophets, Matthew 7:15-20).

Jesus genuinely commends the Ephesian believers for the doctrinal battles they had waged. It is not easy to stand for truth day-in and day-out in a pagan world that hates Jesus Christ and does all it can to lampoon and attack the faith once delivered from without and to infiltrate and pollute it from within. Doctrinal purity comes at the price of exhausting labor and even severed relationships. Moreover, these believers lived with the possibility that standing strong in the faith might lead to imprisonment and death. In this day of easy-believe-ism and decisional regeneration, where  so-called tolerance and celebration of diversity have infiltrated the church and professing believers know more about psychobabble than scripture, and where any and every immoral practice is endured as long as one remembers to recycle their plastic, we would do well to follow the example of the Ephesians.

On the other hand we see that there can be dangerous results if a church stresses doctrinal purity so much that they circle the wagons and become ingrown. The result is a kind of spiritual McCarthy-ism that suspects everyone of being a heretic. Outreach goes by the wayside and the church becomes ingrown and turns upon itself. I have seen it with my own eyes, and trust me: it ain’t pretty.

Once things reach this stage the church goes from promoting sound doctrine to embellishing their theology with human traditions elevated to the level of divine command. My first pastorate was in a church which was part of a denomination that started as a schism of a larger denomination that went liberal during the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy. The early fundamentalists adhered to a set of five core beliefs, or fundamentals: The virgin birth, substitutionary death, resurrection, and visible bodily return of Christ, and the inspiration and inerrancy of scripture. Very admirable distinctives for sure.

Well, I had not been in the new church long when people began to warn me about a fifty-ish lady named “Sally.” Sally was supposedly haywire or off base and for this reason was never allowed to join the church, although she attended regularly, put money into the plate, and hosted a great college-career Bible study in her home. The reason she could not join the church was that she smoked cigarettes; and the church by-laws stated that to be a member one must abstain from the use of alcohol and tobacco. Now while she was a chain smoker who I don’t think I ever saw without a cancer stick between her lips, she was and is one of the most gracious believers I have ever met. These kinds of extra-biblical prohibitions were to be found in the by-laws of many of the churches in that particular denomination. Some stipulated that in addition to alcohol and tobacco one must also refrain from playing cards, going to movie theaters, and swimming with members of the opposite sex. Nor could you join one of these churches if you did not hold to the doctrine of a secret pretribulational rapture.

Last Sunday Connie and I attended a church where the preaching is excellent. I noticed the communion trays up front as we came in, and I was anticipating partaking of the elements. We sat down and then I read in the bulliten that in order to take communion there one must be a member of that particular church or a member in good standing in a church of like beliefs with a board of functioning elders. Needless to say, we respected their policy and did not partake because we do not have formal membership in any church at this time.

And I understand their policy to some degree. Just a few miles away is a huge seeker church with no doctrinal distinctives, membership, or communion policy other than y’all come. It is not uncommon in such churches for unbelievers ignorant of the gospel, same-sex couples, and shack-ups to freely partake of the elements. In the early church it was required that you at least recite and affirm the Apostles Creed before you were allowed to partake of the Lord’s supper. In 1 Corinthians in the case of the man publicly flaunting his affair with his married step-mother, Paul makes it clear that he should be disfellowshipped until he repents.

But even in churches where you do not have such flagrant unrepentant sin in full view and the congregants profess faith in the gospel, there will always be those present with besetting sins known only to themselves and the Lord. Why is sound doctrine so vital? Because sin in itself will not bar you from heaven; but disbelief of the gospel will. Therefore, as much as I enjoy theology, it seems to me that beyond faith in the basic core tenets of the gospel we ought not make peripheral doctrines and extra-biblical traditions tests of orthodoxy or fellowship. Once we start down that road our love for Jesus and His sheep can begin to wane.

Such seems to have been the case with the Ephesians: But I have this against you, that you have lost your first love (2:4). The meaning here is that they had lost their former or earlier love–both for the Lord and one another. In other words there was a time when they were characterized by Christian love; but the bitter doctrinal battles had left them hardened and cold. It might have been the case that when heretics arose from within, fellowship was broken and close friendships severed for the sake of truth. People walk away from these situations with scars, and they do not want to trust people again. They become self-protective and loveless. I know many who were joyful believers radiating joy back during the Jesus Movement; and over time they have morphed into the very frozen chozen they vowed never to become. How sad.

Jesus warns the Ephesians to remember whence they have fallen, repent, and engage in the labors of love that were once a part of daily life (v. 5). Repentance is a concept that we have clouded with ideas of weeping and feeling sorry about sin. While these things might accompany repentance, they are not at the core of its meaning. In scripture repentance is roughly the opposite of denial, like an aha! moment. It is what we see when the prodigal son comes to his senses  and clearly realizes what a fool he has been. This kind of repentance always results in action that moves us closer to reconciliation with the Father, which in turn rekindles our love for Him and others.

Jesus warns the Ephesians that if they do not repent he will remove their lampstand (v. 5), and he promises them life if they overcome (v. 7). It looks as though the continued presence of Jesus and promise of eternal life is conditioned upon our performance. All I would say here is that the position of the Bible on the relationship between saving faith and good works after salvation can be summed up by the words of Luther: Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.

In closing I want to mention one last thing. Those of us who have a penchant for accurate exegesis and sound theology are the ones most at risk of becoming cold, clinical, and loveless. There are other believers who approach their daily walk differently from me and really do not care a whit about doctrine beyond the basic gospel message. For these believers love is what gets them excited, and it almost seems like they are hardwired differently from your more bookish believers. As we will see, for these saints there is another problem–love at the expense of truth. Both extremes are lethal. We need balance, which is why God has placed the warriors in the same body with the lovers, and the peacemakers to referee the other two.

Hmm…now that I’m done writing it’s still early. You know something, dear old Sally is in her eighties now, and she lives only three miles from me out in the country. I haven’t seen her in years, and I could use a nice drive on this sunny afternoon. I’ll bet if I drop in unannounced she will have coffee on and a cigarette burning. Later brothers, I’m outa’ here.

John is living in exile on a bleak desolate Island. He has no money, no freedom, and no ability to minister in the churches. One thing he has a lot of is time. Time to think and remember. He was one of the first disciples called by Jesus and he was there from day one. He saw the Lord baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist. He saw the Holy Spirit descending on Christ in the form of a dove, and he heard the voice of the Father from heaven. He remembers the day he and his brother James walked away from the fishing business they shared with their dad Zebedee, along with fellow fishermen Andrew and Simon Peter. He heard Jesus teach by the Sea of Galilee. He watched as Jesus healed sick and lame people, cast demons out of madmen, and raised Lazarus from the dead. He remembers those intimate times in the garden and in the upper room of the home of his friend John Mark. He remembers how it felt to recline on Christ’s shoulder and ask who it was that would betray Him. He followed the mob into the court of the high priest after the arrest of Jesus when all the others except Peter had fled. He was at the cross with the mother of the Lord, and he was most likely present when Nicodemus and Joseph laid Him in the tomb. On resurrection day John was the first person to actually enter the empty tomb and see that Jesus was not there. In the days that followed He saw the risen Lord on several occasions, until the day He was taken up to heaven in a cloud.

At least forty years have gone by (and maybe even more if you opt for a late date of the writing of the Apocalypse). John is now probably sixty-ish or older. He has not seen Jesus in many years. So much has changed. He is so far from his home town of Capernaum in Galilee. Some of his fellow disciples have lost their lives on account of their faith in and testimony of Jesus. Jerusalem is either under siege and about to be destroyed, or has already been laid waste. The world as John had come to know it has come to an end. Imagine the United States was invaded by Muslims who wiped out Christians and razed all the churches and you have a bit of an idea how John might have felt.

He was no superhuman, and I am sure he had times of doubt and questioning. Even John the Baptist, whom Jesus referred to as the greatest of all the prophets, sent inquiry from Herod’s dungeon as to whether Jesus was really the Christ. There is no doubt that the disciple whom Jesus loved longed to have just a few moments with the Lord as he had enjoyed in what must have seemed like a distant lifetime. After all, Jesus had predicted that, the days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it (Luke 17:22).

John’s desire to see Jesus was realized in the Patmos vision. But Jesus was different. During the days of His flesh Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man, but His appearance was nothing like the person described in Daniel’s prophecy. He looked like a normal carpenter who ate, slept, bled, wept, and died. Now he looked how we would expect the Son of Man to look–hair as white as snow, eyes burning bright orange, a long robe and golden sash, feet like polished brass, a voice like the sound of crashing waves. John does not recline into His breast now, but instead falls at His feet drained of all strength.

Imagine the glory of Christ if you can. I used to be a welder many years ago. I was always amazed to see the radiance produced by eighty amps of current arcing from a 1/8th inch welding rod to a piece of mild steel. It would literally light up a dark room like the brightest sunlight, and if you looked directly at it you would be blinded. That brightness would pale compared to the glory of Christ. It is no wonder John fell at His feet as a dead man. Then John feels the touch of a familiar hand on his shoulder and words that brought back fond memories from decades earlier: Do not be afraid (literally, Stop fearing).

Now let me tell you what all this means to me. I was saved over forty years ago, on October 23, 1971. Like John I was a young man (one month shy of my 19th birthday). I can still remember the day Jesus encountered me like it was yesterday. It was an experience that human language cannot capture; it was unlike anything I have ever experienced before or since that day. I was young and foolish, and had been dabbling around with drugs and alcohol. God knew I needed a fresh real touch from Christ, and He met me right where I was. I know some of you reading were saved during the Jesus Movement era and had similar conversion experiences.

Fast forward through four decades of schooling, marriage, career, kids, bills, home maintenence, and well, a lot of stupid sinful choices and time frittered away on misplaced priorities. Through it all God has been faithful to me as He has to you. I have lost count of the times that I, like John, have longed to go back as it were and fellowship with Jesus in that pure genuine way again. I have cried out in agony many times for this experience, and for reasons known only to God He has not granted my request.

You know what I think the problem might be? I think we might be stuck in the past. We want Jesus to make Himself real to us, but we have a preconceived idea as to how He should do it. In John’s case Jesus appeared to him in a way totally unlike what he had known and what he probably would have expected. I think back to my experience and that is the measure of my expectation. But if I could be transported to heaven right now (or if God took me home) I would see Jesus in the same way John did.

I am not an apostle, so I doubt Jesus will appear to me this side of glory as the Son of Man in visible form. All I am saying is that for those of us who really long for intimate disclosure of Christ and genuine fellowship with Him, we should probably not have any preconceived notions of how it should be, thus dictating to Him the terms and conditions. Let us fondly remember those early experiences with Christ but at the same time remember that times have changed and so have we. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but He can disclose Himself to us when and however He chooses.

As for me, I’ll take as much of Jesus as I can get, and in any way available. Can I get a witness?

I mentioned in the first part of this series that the opening phrase of the Apocalypse, the revelation of Jesus Christ, means not that the purpose of the book is to reveal Jesus, but that Jesus is the revealer of the message given to Him by the Father. But that is not to say that Jesus Christ is not graphically depicted in Revelation. In fact in the opening chapter we see a detailed description of the Lord as He appeared to John on Patmos.

In v. 5 we see a three-fold desciption of the Lord: and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Through his sinless life, teachings, miracles, and mediatorial work Christ bore a witness that is faithful or trustworthy and can be banked on come hell or high water. He is the first born from the dead ones through His bodily resurrection. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. The believers in the seven churches would have been comforted by this description of Christ because their faith was being severely challenged and the temptation to compromise was great. They were under the thumb of the Roman emperor, who demanded that all citizens pay homage to him as a god. Those who refused lost their property, families, freedom, and even their lives. They needed their faith reinforced. They needed the assurance that the object of their faith was faithful and true, that should they go the way of the sword  death would not be the end but a graduation to glory, and that Caesar, like Pilate, would have no power at all were it not granted from on high. In short, Christ is in total control of all which comes to pass.

Closely related to this description is the title the Son of Man. Verses 12-13 read: And I turned to see the sound which was speaking with me; and when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lamstands one like the Son of Man. In the verses that follow is a glorious depiction of the glorified Lord and Savior.

Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man repeatedly in the gospels. Just thumb through Matthew and you will see it almost on every page. When Jesus used this title with reference to Himself the Jews of His day knew exactly what he was saying, although most Christians today do not. Many believe that Son of God denotes the deity of Christ, while Son of Man points to His humanity. However this explanation completely misses the point of the expression.

When Jesus described Himself as the Son of Man He was identifying Himself as the One predicted centuries earlier in the book of Daniel.

And I was watching in the night visions, and behold One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion was an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed (7:13-14).

In Daniel’s day as in John’s, the Jews were under the yoke of a pagan nation. In the visions given to Daniel in the Sixth Century B.C. four successive world empires were revealed–the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman. Daniel 2:44 predicts that in the days of the fourth empire God would set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. That brings us right into the time frame of the Apocalypse. Nowhere in the Word of God do we see evidence that after a hiatus of thousands of years there will be a revived Roman Empire. The Son of Man would receive His kingdom in the days of the fourth empire.

Notice the allusion to the Son of Man coming on the clouds in Revelation 1:7: Lo, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him. Surely this is a reference to the Second Coming of Christ.

Not so quick. Take a closer look at Daniel 7:13-14. It tells us there that when the Son of Man comes on the clouds He comes up to the throne of the Ancient of Days (God the Father), not to earth. That passage speaks not of the Second Coming of Christ at a future date, but of His ascension and enthronement in the First Century A.D. In other words, what Daniel is describing was fulfilled during the days of the fourth empire of his prophecies–the Roman Empire. Christ has been ruling from heaven for over 2,000 years, and He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet (1 Corinthians 15:25). At present He is reigning through His Body, the Church. At His Second Coming He will once and for all defeat His enemies.

When you understand the significance of Christ as the Son of Man, many confusing verses become more clear:

In response to the High Priest’s question as to whether He was the Son of God: It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:6). How could the high priest living at the time of Christ see these things unless they were to happen in his lifetime?

And of the predictions of Christ concerning the judgment and destruction of Jerusalem: Assuredly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation (Matthew 23:36); and, Assuredly I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away until all these things take place (24:34). I believe that when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman general Titus at the end of the Jewish War in 70 A.D. Matthew 24:30 was fulfilled:

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

This too might explain how Christ could predict that there were some alive in His day that would not taste death until they had seen the Son of God coming in His kingdom, or that they should see His kingdom come in great power (Matthew 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27).

I am sure when you see this kind of exegesis that you have questions, and my purpose is not to bog down in a fruitless study of eschatology. Here is the comforting and practical application. Jesus is the Ruler of the kings of the earth NOW. He is the Son of Man seated with the Ancient of Days on the clouds of glory NOW. To the first readers of the Apocalypse things seemed hopeless, as though Satan working through the Emperor had won the day. Not so, is the message to the seven churches.

We are in the middle of an election cycle. People are backing this or that man, as though he is really in a position to control our destiny. We are paying higher taxes and making less money. Gasoline costs are going through the roof. The enemies of the gospel are waxing bolder than ever. How tempting it is to become hopeless and doubt one’s faith. How tempting too to forget that earthly appearances can be deceiving. Jesus is in control. He is reigning now. Every day that you submit to His Lordship and seek to make glorifying Him your chief end He reigns through you.

You are on Team Jesus–the winning team!

A word of information as we begin today. My plan over the next few weeks is to go through the book of Revelation a little at a time. Each day I will study a small section in the morning, meditate and pray on it throughout the day, and then write the blog in the evening. Lord willing there will be a new entry every day.

Today we will cover four points: (1) the author, (2) the recipients, and (3) the purpose, and (4) the blessing.

God is the ultimate divine author of this book, as He is of all 66 books in the canon of scripture. The Triune Godhead is in view in the salutation of v. 4: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven spirits before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness.

The human author is John the youngest of the twelve original disciples, and the author of the gospel and three epistles bearing his name. The intermediary agent is an angel, as mentioned in the latter part of v. 1. The writer is in exile on a small  remote island in the Mediterranean Sea because of the testimony of Jesus Christ. Of the original apostles, he was the only one to die of natural causes and not martyrdom. He is part of a small community of exiles in a minimum security prison camp setting. He was considered an enemy of the Roman state because through his preaching and leadership, many were refusing to bow the knee to Caesar and were instead worshipping Christ as their Lord and King. Martyring John would have proven counterproductive. Exiling him would leave the possibility open that he would be broken and recant his faith. John is to write what he sees and send it by means of a messenger to the recipients.

The recipients are identified in v. 11: the seven churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Piladelphia, and Laodicea. If you have read any of the pop literature on “Bible prophecy” you have no doubt heard that these seven churches represent seven successive stages of church history, with the Philadelphia church representing the faithful church of the end times and the Laodicean church depicting the apostate church of the Great Tribulation. But in fact Revelation says nothing about this, and such a notion must be smuggled into the text. The reason for the churches being listed in this order will be obvious to anyone who looks at the maps in the back of his Bible: the letter carrier would enter at the seaport of Ephesus and follow the overland loop in a rough horseshoe pattern to each of the cities along the route in the order listed in Revelation 1:11. That’s pretty much it. These were seven real congregations in seven real cities in the First Century Roman Empire. They do not represent seven successive stages of church history.

More specifically the recipients (as well as the author) are described as bond-servants (v. 1). We do not live in a culture where slavery is legal, but in biblical times it was commonplace. In fact there would undoubtedly be slaves and masters in all the seven churches. A bond-servant was property, owned by and under the absolute authority of the master. No rights or privileges but those afforded by the master. None of the freedom and individuality we take for granted. As bondslaves of Christ we ought to keep in mind the words of Paul: For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:20).

The immediate context describes believers as a kingdom and priests, which tells us that as His slaves we also (paradoxically) enjoy the privilege of reigning with Him spiritually and enjoying direct access to God through His shed blood. But I wonder how my thoughts and behaviors would be different if I really thought of myself as a slave to Jesus, as one who is bought and owned and whose bodily members are not to be yielded to as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but as tools of righteousness to God (Romans 6:13). How flippantly we presume upon not only the grace of God, but upon the authority of Christ as well!

The purpose of the Apocalypse is to show His bond-servants the things which must shortly take place. The Revelation was written during a period of rapid growth of the gospel amid terrible persecution and martyrdom. The Christians were looked upon as subversive traitors against the state because they refused to burn incense to the emperor and instead gave their allegiance to Christ. The Revelation is in the apocalyptic genre of literature. This style of writing was used to provide insider information for a select group. The idea was to couch the content in symbolic imagery known only to the recipients. This way if the material fell into the hands of the Romans they would not be able to decipher its meaning. One unfortunate aspect of this for us is that whereas the symbolic images were recognizable to the believers in the seven churches, they are largely unfamiliar to us. Hence all the attempts to match the stuff of Revelation with events straight out of today’s newspaper–black-hawk helicopters, nerve gas, nuclear holocaust, embedded computer chips, etc. Exciting speculation, but totally irrelevant and on par with Elvis and UFO sightings and stories about Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster. If you want to understand Revelation look for things which were in the contemporary time frame of the original readers. I hate to hammer away on that point, but it is essential to your understanding of this book.

Finally, and this is the real food for the soul for me today, there is the blessing of v. 3: Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things written in it, for the time is near. A closer look at this verse presupposes that this letter was to be read publicly: blessed is he (singular) who reads and those (plural) who hear…In New Testament times believers didn’t have Bibles on the shelf, nightstand, or coffee table. The scriptures were mostly letters written on scrolls of papyrus and circulated through the churches. Copies were eventually written out by scribes, and because writing materials were not plentiful and the printing press had not yet been invented, the sacred writings were read aloud in the assembly and then expounded upon, as in the Jewish synagogues. This means that to have exposure to the written word of God one had to go to church. If you did not go to church you would not hear the reading of the words of the prophecy; and if you did not hear the words of the prophecy you could not keep them. In that event the blessing promised was not available to you.

Sometimes I wonder if technology is really all it’s cracked up to be. All the information we supposedly need is piped into our homes through cable TV and the blogs, whereas in the old days people went to town meetings and actually had contact with other living kicking human beings. In this day and age of online Bibles and teaching videos, Bible software and cyber church, are we really any better off? Could it be that in going the Lone Ranger Christian route we have sacrificed the blessing of genuine fellowship and blessing? I am becoming more convicted about this as I delve into Revelation.

But there is more. Jesus is depicted as standing amid seven individual lampstands with seven stars in His right hand (vv. 12-15). These lamps were vessels containing scented olive oil and wicks which when lit gave off light similar to the light produced by the flame of a kerosene lamp. In the Hebrew scriptures lamps like these symbolize the presence of God. Jesus is seen standing in the midst of the lamps.

In verse 20 we are told that the seven lampstands are the seven churches and the seven stars are the angels of the churches. In Revelation angels are mentioned frequently, and it looks here like each church had an angel specifically assigned to it. What I see implied here is that being in one of the seven churches afforded the believers the presence of Christ as well as angelic protection and help not available outside the corporate body.

Again I am convicted when I think of my own take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward the body of Christ. Matthew 18:20 promises that Jesus will be present among the gathered brethren in a special way not experienced when we fly solo. Nor is angelic protection a given outside fellowship in the body.

We  modern evangelicals are spoiled. We have the luxury of thinking we do not need other believers. 1 Corinthians chs. 12-14 tells us that the body is a whole made up of many parts, and all the parts need one another. When one member suffers all suffer, and when one rejoices all share the joy. Do we really believe this? If so, why do we so often turn up our noses at corporate fellowship? These believers to whom the Apocalypse was written knew they had to pull together and depend on one another and the Lord. Sometimes I cannot help but wonder if we are really better off than them.

Deep down I think not

When I first got saved in 1971 I became intrigued with the book of Revelation, not so much because of the book itself as the interpretations given in Hal Lindsey’s best seller, The Late Great Planet Earth. Once I came to realize Scofield Dispensationalism was not the only prophetic scheme around (In fact it did not appear until 1830.), I attempted in dead earnest to understand the Apocalypse. I bought all the major commentaries I could find–twenty-two in all–and read them cover to cover. At the end of it all I was more confused than ever. Futurism, Preterism, Historicism, Idealism, Recapitulationism–who was right and who was wrong? Or were they all wrong?

I put it aside for a few years, and then read it and re-read it in my Greek testament. I still don’t know what much of it means, and I have concluded that God does not want us to have it hardwired. That said, today I begin a series of blogs of indefinite number. The plan is to get through the letters to the seven churches, but chapter one alone might keep me busy for weeks. Anyway, today I would like to jump right in

The first word of the first verse of the first chapter is the word apocalypse. This word literally means an unveiling or uncovering of something that is hidden. It is closely related to the Greek word mystery. In New Testament times a mystery was nothing like the ones we see in old Alfred Hitchcock re-runs or read about in Agatha Christie novels. You know, pay attention to all the clues and you will figure it out. A biblical mystery is something completely hidden from the human consciousness–there are no clues. The only way it can be known is if God chooses to uncover or unveil it.

Next we see that this is a revelation of Jesus Christ. Many believers jump to the faulty conclusion here that this phrase indicates the primary purpose of the book of Revelation is to reveal Jesus. While it is unboubtedly true that Jesus is revealed in the apocalypse in many ways, this is not what John is saying. Let me explain it simply with an example. Suppose I talk to you about the killing of Bin Laden. Of course you understand this to mean that Bin Laden was the one killed. But what if I spoke of the killing or killings of Jack the Ripper. You would see I am referring to Jack, not as the one being killed, but rather as the one doing the killing. Your background knowledge of Bin Laden and Jack (context) is what informs your understanding of these phrases.

In Revelation 1:1 we have solid proof that Jesus is here depicted, not as the thing revealed (object), but as the revealer (subject): The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His bondservants the things which must take place shortly.

Here we see what the mystery to be unveiled by Christ is: The things which must take place shortly. This little phrase forever changed the way I read the book of Revelation. That and the end of verse three: For the time is near. Normally when we approach a book of the New Testament, say Philippians, we ask questions like, “Who is the writer?” “Who are the readers?” “When and where did they live?” “Why is the author writing to them?” We understand that a real person at a real point in history wrote to real people about real issues going on in their lives at the time of the writing. Before we ask what this or that verse in Philippians means to us we need to determine what it meant to the first recipients. Interpretation before application. This is really just common sense.

But when we come to the Apocalypse we throw common sense out the window and ignore the first recipients and their situation. Instead we try to match up what we find with the latest newspaper headlines. We see things that did not exist in the world of the seven churches of Asia–blackhawk helicopters, nerve gas, nuclear holocaust, computer chips embedded under the skin, etc. Such speculative “study” might wow crowds, fill buildings, and sell books; but I am convinced it only leads us away from the true message of Revelation.

Things which must shortly take place…..the time is near. Sounds pretty straightforward: these beleaguered persecuted Christians living in the First Century Roman Empire are about to receive an unveiling of events happening in their time frame–not millennia in the future. I once heard a commentator say the word shortly really means quickly, suddenly. In other words, the fulfillment of the events of Revelation might occur in the distant future from the perspective of the first readers, but when they do happen it will be suddenly.

Well, first of all the Greek word translated suddenly means really soon. Paul uses this same adverb in 2 Timothy 4:9 where he tells his young understudy to be diligent to come to me quickly. It is not as though he meant to say–Hey Timothy, when you get some free time come to see me. Any time in the next two-thousand years will be fine; just make sure when you come you do it quickly, suddenly. Of course Paul wanted Timothy to come to him in prison with the cloak and parchments immediately.

I promise that if you keep these things in mind as you read and study Revelation you will find challenging and comforting truth. Are you discouraged? Persecuted? Ready to throw in the towel? Have you lost your first love for the Savior and His sheep? Are you overwhelmed by nagging temptations and habits of the flesh? Have you prostituted the truth of God’s word for false teaching? Are you in a complacent comfort zone of lukewarmness? Forget trying to pin the tail on the Antichrist, and instead try to crawl into the skin of the first readers of Revelation.

This is going to be a blast. I hope today’s entry was not heady or technical sounding. I am trying to lay a foundation for further study.