Acts (Session 16) Revelation, Chapters 2-3

i think it's probably a good caution for all of us to be careful here because this may be very familiar material and there's a danger in very familiar materials that you think you already have it the only assurance against truth is the presumption you already have it anything else will yield you see and uh i find myself doing that too sometimes i'll encounter it as a session of scripture that i've been over so many times i've attended to just skim a little big mistake because the word of god is inexhaustible so it's in that spirit i suggest we just pause set aside uh some of our presuppositions and let's just see what the lord jesus christ penned in these seven epistles and so we're going to just jump right in here the revelation of jesus christ this is really the closure if you will on the church the church is not an organization when we use that term we usually refer to an organization or even a building biblically the church is an organism it's an organism it grows and it has it has issues and so the book of acts really is a portrayal of the approximately the first 30 years of the church from acts chapter 2 onwards focusing on three people say the acts of the people say it's the acts of the apostles i always amused by that because two of the three people featured there are apostles one was a deacon but the point is philip peter and paul are the three that are featured and uh that's fine but it isn't some people say it's the acts of the holy spirit people who say that strike me as being a little superficial because the holy spirit works very hard to be invisible he's he never speaks of himself jesus tells us in john 16 and when he's in a time when he's in a metaphor he's always the unnamed servant and uh so it's it it's i just even in genesis 24 he's unnamed even though he can tell his name by going back to chapter 17 that his name is eliezer which means comforter and so forth anyway the point is the book of acts on every page in every sermon is centered on the lord jesus christ and his resurrection not only is it christ centered every every episode every sermon in the book of acts is centered on the person of jesus christ and the and specifically makes reference to his resurrection and i mention that because the book of acts underscores that on every page and yet it's probably hard to find a pulpit in which the resurrection of jesus christ is the centerpiece except maybe on easter sunday or something anyway the first 30 years book of acts the next two thousand are summarized in seven letters that were drafted by none other than the lord himself and so that's what we're going to explore those those letters and it's the revelation notice it's singular not plural when i see somebody speak of revelations plural i know he hasn't read the book it's not a collection of revelations it's a single revelation it's the unveiling of jesus christ the word apocalypse means the unveiling it's singular a single unveiling of what of jesus and uh it represents the consummation of all things they all started in genesis they're all consumed consummated in the last book it's a very audacious book because it's the only book in the bible that promises you a special blessing if you read it no other book of the bible has the audacity to do that many places they read the bible study the word of god as some kind of collective sure this book promises you a special blessing and so you can claim that tonight no matter how much i butcher this or mess this up and so forth i know you'll get a blessing not for me but from the lord because he's promised it here so i'm very comfortable tonight because it's my trust that he's in charge now there are 404 verses in this book but believe it or not it contains over 800 illusions from the old testament that's a lot now the reason i emphasize that is the reason it sounds so strange to our ears typically is because we haven't done our homework in the old testament and it's a real eye-opener for a serious new testament reader to jump into this that really started me on my quest as a kid i attended a lecture by a brilliant teacher and he made the statement that the book of revelation is entirely in code but every code is un unraveled elsewhere in the scripture and i thought wow i didn't know that and that began a treasure hunt that's been going on for about 65 years for me and uh if you really study this book book of revelation and track down each of the idioms or metaphors whatever there are figures of speech in the book there's in fact there's quite a few different kinds in fact there's 200 different kinds of rhetorical devices in the book and they've been cataloged and all that but the main point is to recognize that all these illusions are typically from the old testament some from the new but they all point obviously to aspects of the lord jesus christ and it's of course the epitome the climax of god's plan for mankind and the question is to whom is this given i know it's amazing how many people don't pay attention to the very first sentence it's the revelation of jesus christ good so far revelation of jesus christ which god gave unto him who was it given to jesus christ wow no wonder it's high level stuff why did was it shown to him gave to him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it but rendered it into signs by his angel and to his servant john who bear record of the word of god and of the testimony of jesus christ of and of all things that he saw he was writing down what he saw okay all right now you get to verse 3 and here it hits you right in the eyes what i said earlier blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things ah there's the footnote keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand right now this is an interesting verse yet to verse 19 of this book it's a book that has its own outline it's outlined for you in verse 19 it divides the book into three parts write the things which thou hast seen the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter this is verse 19 so by the time you've gotten to the 19th verse john has seen a vision of jesus christ and that occupies verses 1 through 18 up to verse 18. then jesus instructs him write the things which you have seen that's chapter one he's just seen this vision and the things which are that exist today and that's gonna turn out to be chapter two and three and the things which shall be metatata after these things or here uh hereafter so the first that chapter one is the vision of christ chapters two and three are the seven churches and uh chapters four through 22 follows after the churches you with me okay so we're going to focus on chapters two and three and i'm going to call these the ultimate report card and uh so the last verse of chapter one i want to put right in front of us as an example of the statement i made earlier because in chapter one we saw earlier seven stars he says the mystery of the seven stars which thou sauced in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands these are two idioms or metaphors that were used earlier in this chapter he's here he closed before the chapter closes he's going to explain what they are the mystery of the seven stars which thou sauce in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands the seven stars are the angels or messengers of the seven churches the seven lampstands which thou saw us are the seven churches what everybody misses is these lampstands are in chapter one on the earth when we get to chapter four or i should say when you get to we're not going to go in there today but when you go to chapter four it opens up with the lamp stands being in heaven what are the lampstands the churches so the churches are focused on chapters two and three many people a lot of good scholars with different views but that's one that many miss that whole issue now we're going to explore seven epistles seven letters that are all dictated by jesus christ when we study those seven letters we'll discover that each of the letters is composed of seven elements they have a pattern a style an order they're all identical with a couple of exchanges each one starts with the name of the church and we're going to discover the very name of the church is a clue to the key message in that church each church has a unique set of situations the name typifies that jesus selects a title of himself as the sender it's recognizable as jesus of course but he picks a title that emphasizes the message he's getting across to that particular church we discover that every it is in my intensive study not just of this book but especially this book i'm convinced that their every detail in the scripture is there deliberately the rabbis have a very colorful way of summarizing they say we really won't understand the scripture until the messiah comes but when the messiah comes he'll not only interpret the passages he'll interpret the very words in fact he'll interpret the very letters in fact he'll even interpret the spaces between the letters and when i first heard that i smiled i thought that's a very colorful exaggeration i'm not convinced now it's an exaggeration at all i think maybe much more precise than maybe even that rabbi fully appreciated then there is it's a report card so there's a commendation here's what you've done well here's what you haven't done so i'm concerned about and there's excitation i want you to notice those three middle items there's a here's the good news here's the bad news and here's what you need to do about it the commendation hey you did this and this and this great good for you boy hear the messiah applaud what he's doing there but then he'll say some concern nevertheless and he'll have some concerns typically and on the basis of those concerns there'll be an exhortation now because of those concerns i want you to do this this this this get the picture it's it's it's a performance review okay it's followed by a promise to the overcomer each of the seven letters has a specific promise to the one that's going to be a medical and a partaker of christ there is a phrase that closes each letter each letter has this little catchphrase he that hath an ear hear what the spirit says to the churches that little phrase is tagged on each of the seven letters but there's something subtle and different about that that i'll highlight as we go as we go now the seven that seven churches are the things that are remember he wrote he gave you the outline in chapter one verse 19 write the things which thou has seen that's the the the vision of christ in chapter one that vision of christ by the way introduces 24 uh descriptives about christ and those 24 will be littered all through the book they're like a programmer's definition if you will okay now the question we want to start by asking ourselves why did jesus pick these seven they're a very strange group of seven and uh we uh uh he that have an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches see why these seven we're gonna get into ephesus several of those you you know from your bible most of them you haven't ever heard of before this book the the hurt churches that you think would be the biggest ones the church in jerusalem is not mentioned the base for the gentile outreach in the early church was the church at antioch it's not here you can go through all kinds of churches that were bigger the church at rome none of those are here these seven yb7 we're going to discover these seven have a very strange mystical property that we'll explore as we go but each one of these have this peculiar phrase attached to them he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches and upon study we discover there's at least four different purposes of these letters uh the first one is they were local churches sir william ramsey and others have researched that period and it turns out there are justifiable illusions in these letters to those churches literally there there are linkages of of of that literal church that there's these are made up these are real churches but jesus chosen these because by commenting on this he's going to accomplish several things and so it has a local they were literal literal places but there's another thing it says he that happened here let him hear what the spirit says to the church says that means we all should listen to look at all the letters the letters aren't written only to ephesus smyrna and so forth all the letters apply some way to all the churches with me so far once you discover the real theme of each letter you can profile any church you've been in good or bad and different in terms of those seven characteristics so the point is they're they're a way of calibrating where the churches are strong or weak follow me so far so they're admonitory they involve admonitions if you will but we also discovered that he that after how many of you have an earlobe can i see a show of hands then this was written to you too personally so there's a personal or homiletic thing okay he didn't he that half an ear let him hear that's her out that's a him and mr misses him okay all right so the point is there's a personal application and that may be your most important one today to see how that might fit you but here's the ups up up until now it's very comfortable sure okay i get all that let me tell you the corkscrew the real surprise the boomerang here they're prophetic these seven letters lay out a history in advance of the church as a body and that's if they were in any other order this wouldn't be true this is not a coincidence not an accident this is a designed characteristic so let's just jump in here now the church is of course the church at ephesus smyrna pergamus thyatira sardis philadelphia and laodicea and they the so the the the the letters have a name is used for the church a title that jesus selects of himself and then he's got these four elements commendation concerns exhortation and a promise of the overcomer and then that closing phrase with me so far okay so let's just talk about the names briefly i'm not going to elaborate each one in detail just to give you flavor the word ephesus really means the desired one darling and you'll see why when we read the letter smyrna was a term for murr which was an embalming ointment and it speaks of death pergamus bigamy monogamy gammy means marriage pergamy is a false marriage a perverted marriage is the way the church marries the world in effect thyatira is a little more complicated we'll get to that sardis uh we will take each one each one describes is descriptive of the main theme of each letter as we'll see that as we go i don't want to do it twice in each case we'll notice that jesus selects an appropriate title of himself which helps color the point that he's trying to make so let's take a look at the letter ephesus unto the angel of the church of ephesus right and then we have the title that christ selects of himself these things saith he that hold of the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands that was those are idioms from chapter one because that's the way john saw him there when he first confronts him there in chapter one and uh seven stars in his right hand and he's in the midst of the golden lamp stands it's very interesting the stars they're both idioms of the church on the one hand we're right in his hand he has the seven stars in his right hand at the same time he walks among us see both thoughts sound contradictory in a sense metaphorically though they both speak of attributes of his presence here okay so he opens up with a commendation ephesus is getting the report guard jesus i know thy works that's quite a thing to realize he knows what we're doing he has a running a tally of exactly where we stand whoever we are i know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars and as we hear that we're reminded just a few a few sessions ago when paul arranges to drop by mellitus and has the episode the elders of ephesus come meet him at mellitus and he gives him his in chapter 20 of this heartfelt farewell address to the ephesian elders and he warned them that they're going to have false teachers emerge among them and from this we gather they were on their toes you see thou cast not bear them with your evil and thou hast tried them which say the apostles and not found them liars that's the good news they watched they found out they wouldn't tolerate that you know wrong teaching and so forth they're getting commended for that follow me so far okay and that echoes exactly what paul warned about in chapter 20. and jesus continues and has born and has patience for my name's sake and has labored and is not fainted and right about now if you're in ephesian you're feeling pretty good wow okay we done done good huh then we get to that disturbing word nevertheless up till now you've been feeling good and when the boss says nevertheless oops nevertheless i have someone against thee what's that because thou has left thy first love they apparently were so busy on the business of the king they had no time for the king so they're strong in doctrine strong on doctrine but not diligent in their devotional life their devotional life and that's where you grow in your devotional life you grow in knowledge by studying the word but you grow spiritually in your devotional life so from this jesus gives them a specific excitation remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else i will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy lampstand out of his place except thou repent so they've got to make a change if they don't make a change will they be unsaved of course not but they may lose their witness where's the lampstand of ephesus today oh but this thou hast another final little good news here that thou hatest the deeds of the nicolaitans which i also hate this strange term is going to come up a couple of times in these letters nicoletans who are they there are people that have tracked back cult groups that they believe are alluded to by the nicolet that's one possibility it's on pretty thin ice from the things i've seen it's a conjecture in other words there is was this a first century sect abusing the liberty in christ some scholars say so or is it simply an untranslated word that's my meaning personally the word nikkei o in the greek is the word for overcoming conquering ruling the cano and the kenneke i mean and laos is the term for people we're going to see laodicea the word laos there will show up in the last letter too the people this is the people ruling or ruling over the people in other words most the scholars that i lean on believe this is an allusion to the emergence of the clergy the idea of clergy versus laity jesus gave us his organization chart when he washed the feet he told us how he you know that he that would he he's looking for people with a servant's heart not a ruling heart and so and so the the using their clergical stature or position to rule over the laity emerges there and that's something that goes totally against the grain of what jesus was trying to get across in the upper room when he washed their feet if you recall so then he says he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches and there's a footnote here or a ps to him that overcometh will i give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of god. now i want you to notice a subtlety here that's not true of all the letters you'll notice that the promise to the overcomer is appended to the letter it's not in the letter it's a it's like a a ps just a subtlety but i've come to conclude from my studies that none of these things are by accident because we're going to discover that's true of three the first three letters and not true of the last four we'll talk about that when we get there but he that happened here there's this this closing phrase if you will okay we now the next church is smyrna under the angel of the church in smyrna right these things say at the first and the last which was dead and is alive smyrna suggests myrrh which is metaphorically alluding to embalming or death and this is the church that apparently was under brutal persecution so jesus the title he chooses himself is the first and the last which was dead and is alive that's a a title of christ that they would take comfort in and we need to remember that that we do not serve a dead christ we serve a living christ he's alive and but jesus continues i know thy works in thy tribulation and poverty parenthesis but thou art rich and i know the blasphemy of them that say they are jews and are not but are the synagogue of satan so this is the commendation that you know i know thy works there's that phrase again and uh they think they're poor but they're actually rich the the other comment i'm going to anticipate here a little bit you'll notice that probably each recipient of these letters was surprised those that thought they were doing well really weren't those that didn't think they were doing well were doing better than they thought so that's that in itself should sober us a little bit it means that our own assessment probably is not on the mark and this should help us get things on the mark now we have an illusion here in verse 9 we're going to see the same kind of illusion in chapter 3 verse 9 about those the blasphemy of those that say they are jews and are not but are the synagogue of satan who on earth could these be and i'm going to suggest to you several possibilities but i suggest that the key to all of this and i won't take the time to fully develop it tonight but i believe they're the you may remember esau and jacob they started fighting before while they're still in the womb and you know the story the the birthright fell upon jacob well actually esau sold his birthright to jacob and then regretted it and the writer to the epistle of the hebrews makes a big point of all of that but you really understand this you need to understand the subsequent history of the when esau could not get a blessing from jacob he deliberately married into the ishmaelites to to upset his parents and he then becomes the primary leader of the uh people who are adverse to to israel and uh when the babylonians later on are taking them captive to babylon the are on the perimeter cheering the babylonians on and telling them crush the skulls of the kids against the rocks and all the stuff when you find that phrase in the psalm it's a jew echoing what they had yelled at him when he was going made captive the uh are you're but you're a victim of the maps in your bible which probably show edom southeast of the dead sea where they were originally a little further east with the nabataeans the nabataeans drive them westward and through those valleys into more fertile ground actually and they set up their kingdom on the west side of the dead sea just south of jerusalem they make hebron their capital and if you look on the ancient roman maps of the first century before and after christ you'll see idiomaya which is a great way of saying edomite as a country what am i getting at why am i going through all this well as you may know um that when antiochus epiphanes was in charge for the greek seleucid empire he got so abusive that it precipitated the maccabean revolt and the maccabees actually threw off the yoke of the greek empire and set up their own government that ushered in a period of history called the hazmonians from about roughly 140 bc through about 63 bc but the point is during the reign of the hasmoneans john herconus the leader forced the to become jews that's an inversion you already hear stories where jews are forced to become christians in spain and certain places well this was the way around that the leadership the judean leadership forced the among them to become jews or die so now i want you to put yourself in the mentality of the romans after pompeii they conquer the area they're running things now to the roman mind this tension between esau and jacob that's a family squabble that's just a family squad to a to a roman mind and edomite is a kind of jew okay in fact they were forced to become jews for a while you need to understand that when the romans appointed herod the anedomite they thought they were appointing a kind of jew they didn't fully appreciate probably that he was the one that was hated by the true jews you see so you get through the whole you know herod the great and and you go right through the herods as you study your new testament each one of them the first one tries to kill the babes in bethlehem the other one kills john the baptist another one kills james later and so it goes so the point is um as time goes on then um boy um i'm pausing because there's so much background here that's useful to you i'll just point you to study the the commentary of obadiah which is a commentary a small little book aimed primarily against the against the now just to give you another piece of the puzzle here as i traveled with some of the rabbis i discovered that when they talk about a globalist these people that are aspiring to a global government they call them and i thought they're just using a metaphor i said why you call them because many of them say they are jews and are not they may not even realize they're not really jewish they're any man okay and if you study the the whole history of the rothschilds not rothschild that's mispronounced it's red shield in german and there's a whole back there's a whole background here that you i'll let you go on your own it's a it's a possibility at least that the illusion here are to the traditional enemies of israel the who today are in positions of substantial financial power and just be aware of that they say they are jews not but they are of what the synagogue of satan that's pretty strong language used by the lord himself let's move on so the exhortation is fear none of these things now he's here he this letter he's comforting this the church of smyrna fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried and shall have tribulation ten days or ten periods be thou faithful unto death and i will give thee a crown of life he that afternoon let him hear what the spirit says unto the churches he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death yet this this whole encouragement are to those that have are going to die persecuted for christ and he's comforting him and he's not saying they're not going to die he's saying that he's going to give them life ultimately so that's a and again i want you to notice the promise to the overcomer is outside the body of the letter it's again a post script and we'll make something out of that when you see the whole picture here there's an illusion of 10 days or 10 periods and we generally if you study the persecution of the church there was of course nero 54 to 68 then domitian that's where john was exiled and then trajan and marcus aurelius and septimus severus and maximus xminus and decius valerian and aurelian and diocletian and uh so and and uh these there are 10 distinct periods and some people suspect that maybe that's the 10 days it might be just a metaphor it might be very specific it does seem to fit for whatever reason but we'll move on here the next letter is to pergamus the word means a perverted marriage actually unto the angel of the church in pergamum is right these things saith he that hath the sharp sword with two edges what's the sharp sword with two edges anyone the word of god right on it's the word of god that is the need of this situation here again jesus i know thy works and where thou dwellest even where satan's seat is and thou hold as fast at my name and hast not denied my faith even in those days where an antipas it was my faithful martyr who was slain among you where satan dwelleth and but i have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of balaam who taught balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication so to really understand the flavor of the indictment here you've got to do a little study of who is this character called balaam he was a prophet strangely enough out of mesopotamia and balak was the king that was adverse to israel and he he he counseled the king on how to defeat israel by casting a stumbling block before them to have this his most attractive young girls camp around the periphery and get get israel to sin and then god would judge them and that was the council that balaam used to to get them to stumble but jesus says thou so hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the nicolaitans which they had here's a second allusion to this nicolaitan thing what's his exhortation repent or else i'll come unto thee quickly and we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth so the okay now the prophet balaam there you in the scripture you'll find the doctrine of balaam which is mentioned here that's spiritual unchastity marriage with the world the way of balaam is to be a hireling making a market for his gift the error of balaam was sacrificing eternal riches for temporal gain because jude makes a reference to the error of balaam ii peter 2 makes a reference to the way of balaam they're all really alluding to this prophet who sold himself and counseled israel's enemies and there's much more to the story to study to spend some time on that one but here he says he that hath nearly hear what the spirit says under the churches to him that overcometh will i give to eat of the hidden manna and would give him a white stone and a stone with a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it so that's the promise to the overcomer you notice it follows again the he that hath the near phrase so we get to thyatira and by the way just to give you a quick running the the pergamus period seems to be the time when the church marries the world the the first era we'll go we'll go through the eras here a little bit i'll leave it till we get there thyatira let's say the angel of the church the thyatira right these things saith the son of god who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass and it was the title that jesus uses is he's a son of god he's not the mother of god he's not it's a it's you'll discover it this thing is a very it's the longest of the letters and it's very very pointed but it starts out by saying i know thy works and charity and service and faith unto thy patience and thy works and the last to be more than the first notwithstanding oh boy i have a few things against thee because thou suffers that woman jezebel which called herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols i gave her space to repent for of her of her fornication and she repented not behold i will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation except they repent of their deeds that's pretty wild at that state last last statement is really disturbing because she has promised great tribulation unless she repent which means if she repents she won't get the tribulation okay now this the idioms here echo the story of jezebel in first kings 21. there's an episode there that i believe is very revealing that the lord is making illusions through here at that time queen jezebel is married to king ahab and king ahab is very rich king but there's a guy by the naboth that has a real neat little vineyard that's right near where he has his where and he wants that vineyard and he goes to naboth and they both does not want to sell it's my vineyard i like the vineyard don't bother me and the king is in a pout he's really upset because he the more nabath wouldn't sell the more sure he that then he knew he wanted it right the queen says to the ahab don't sweat it let me handle this for you so the queen sets out she arranges an inquisition she gets some people to make some false statements against him which causes him to be murdered and when he's murdered she gets the lens and gives it to ahab guess what look what i set up for you buddy false witnesses condemnation execution and naboth's vineyard is seized for the king does this metaphorically describe a period of history in the church but you think about that yourself and i will kill her children with death and all the churches that shall know that i am he that searcheth the reigns of the hearts i will give unto every one of you according to your works but i say but unto you i say and unto the rest of thyatira as many as have not this doctrine and which have not known the depths of satan as they speak i will put upon you none other burden but that which ye have already hold fast till i come see finishing well is the name of the game now there's a promise to the over here that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him will i give power over the nations that was purely apparently an ambition of thyatira to have power over the nations he that overcometh keepeth my works unto the end unto the end to him will i give power of the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a potter shall be broken into shivers so even as i receive to my father and i will give him the morning star and this time strangely we have the promise to the overcomer in the body of the letter he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit says unto the churches okay now as you probably may gather the protestant commentators have had a field day have had a field day with the apparent identity of thyatira with a vatican it's not just that but there clearly is that aspect to it all especially with the inquisition and all that stuff well if thyatira is the catholic church sardis would speak of the reformation that's what's followed right let's let's see what it says here under the angel of the church and sardis right these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of god and seven stars that's apparently what they're missing okay jesus says i know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead whoa this is one of the most severe letters that we come across that yet you're in in name only this speaks of denominationalism be watchful and strengthen things which remain that are ready to die for i have not found thy works perfect or complete before god remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent if therefore thou shalt not watch i will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what our i will come upon thee now this echoes first thessalonians 5 where paul reminds if you are children of the day it will not surprise you the lord comes as a thief of the night to the children of the night but you are not of the night year of the day that's the emphasis of the fifth chapter first thessalonians and jesus echoes that here too if thou shalt not watch i will come upon me as a thief that's if you're not watching and thou shalt not know what hour i will come upon thee that implies that if you are watching you won't be surprised you may not they said don't misunderstand me but you won't be surprised if you're watching thou hast a few names even in sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy but they're the exception apparently then there's a promise to the overcomer he that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment i will not i will not blot out his name out of the book of life but i will confess his name before my father and before his angels he's not promising to blot anyone's out he's just promising he won't block them out get more questions about that strange thing he that happened here let me hear what the spirit says the churches okay now we come to the good everybody of course is the philadelphian if you know these letters you know this oh this is us the church that left philadelphia right these things saith he was holy he that is true he that hath the key of david he that opened it and no man shouteth and shutteth and no man openeth this is the missionary church i know thy works behold i have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it for thou hast a little strength and kept and has kept my word and has not denied my name behold i will make them of the synagogue of satan which say they are jews and or not but do i behold i will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that i have loved thee so again there's that echo this strange allusion to those that say they are jews and or not whoever they are because thou has kept the word of my patience i also keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth revelation chapter 3 verse 10 is one of the most exciting promises in the scripture the church at philadelphia says he says to them because thou has kept the word of my patience i also will keep thee from the hour of temptation not from temptation from the time the the concept of the time of the tribulation which shall come upon all the world you're not going to be here when that happens that's coming up on all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth the book of revelation speaks of the earth dwellers in contrast to those that are saved we are not earth dwellers we don't dwell and we may be pilgrims here but this isn't our home shall come to try to to come and all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth behold i come quickly hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown wow you mean someone can take your crown yes absolutely you have inheritance set aside for you but you can blow it not your salvation jesus paid for that 100 percent on the cross 2000 years ago done deal he did it all you can't add to what he'd done he's done already that's blasphemy to even try but you can forfeit the inheritance that's set aside for you he that overcometh will i make a pillar of the temple of my god and he shall go no more out and i will write upon him the name of my god in the name of the city of my god which is the new jerusalem which cometh down out of the heaven from my god and i will write upon him my new name he that have an ear let him hear the spirit says to the churches okay we come to the last one and to the laodiceans these things saith the amen the faithful and the true witness the beginning of the creation of god i know thy works thou art neither cold nor hot i would that were cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold or hot i will spew thee out of my mouth i love the introduction that dr william welty provided for the book my wife and i published called the kingdom of power and the glory and is in his very colorful forward to the not the introduction but the forward to the book he says john must certainly have been puzzled he's on the island of patmos about to receive the most fantastic uh revelation of the lord jesus himself and yet we find him john john must have been public puzzled because jesus is sick he's so sick he's about to throw up and of course he's alluding to this here this whole i will spew the out of my body he's about to vomit this is probably the strongest language of all the letters because thou sayest i am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knows not that thou art wretched miserable poor blind and naked william likes to point out that these preachers that are on television with their rolex watches and their and you know the lord wants you to be rich kind of message the you know the the name it and claim it and grab it guys he always likes to say that's scriptural what they're saying is scriptural really yeah gotta look at verse 17 chapter three now says i am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing there it is it's scriptural but jesus says you know not that you're wretched miserable poor blind and naked and of course he's being facetious or sarcastic when he says it that's scriptural jesus said i counseled you to buy of me gold right in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with i sab that thou mayest see as many as i love i rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent now the next verse if you take it alone is one of the most used verses in evangelism and you've all seen this behold i stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door i will come into him and sup with him and he with me how many have heard that before you all heard evangelists use that as a closing verse and that's fine don't misunderstand me that's fine however that's taken out of context where this verse sits is the most scathing indictment of all against the laodicean church first of all where is jesus outside knocking to get in and the promise he has isn't to the group it's to the individual that'll be the exception people i stand for nor knock if any man one of you maybe somebody if any man will hear my voice and open the door i will come into him and sup with him and he with me it's a glorious promise but in the context it's a scathing indictment of the laodicean church jesus outside knocking to get in to him that overcometh will i grant to sit with me in my throne even as i also overcame and am sat down with my father in his throne he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches and that closes it out now if we take all these letters absolute smyrna pergamos thiotyra started in philadelphia we'll notice that on the commendations there are two letters that had nothing good said about them sardis and laodicea had no accommodation there wasn't something well you did this that or the other thing well it didn't say any of that there isn't any commendation given to sardis sardis is the one that has a name only but is actually dead treat that as dead denominationalism laodicea same thing there's nothing positive said about them there's a positive promise to the exception essentially there are two letters that have nothing good said about them there are two letters that have nothing bad said about them and that is smyrna because they're facing death i'll give you nothing else but just to hang in there is what he says and of course philadelphia they're the two that come out great in this report card you're with me so far two that really blew it sardis and laodicea two that are in solid shape smyrna and philadelphia now something else we noticed we have this strange closing phrase called um by they all have an exhortation of course uh he that happened in a lab spirit says the promise to the overcomer is outside the letter for the first three brought inside the letter for the last four and what i've told you up till now you can probably find in any conservative commentary on the book this is something that i've yet to really see anyone else develop so be cautious i may be very wrong by my perspective here i'll just show you what i think it is implied here as we because we'll discover there are other attributes that distinguish the first three from the last four i believe the holy spirit intentionally clustered these in two groups and if we take a look at these letters as historical periods ephesus smyrna pergamus thyatira sardis ephesus seems to speak validly of the apostolic church very strict in doctrine fell away devotionally for a while smyrna is the persecuted church speaks that period when to be a christian was to suffer death pergamus is the married church get to the third century in the state where constantine makes christianity legal the second guy after him makes it the state religion big mistake you now have unregenerate people in positions of leadership it's a state organization there's no holy spirit ordaining leadership and so forth that's when the church married the world big mistake what satan couldn't uh uh gain by persecution he found a better way i'll just have it i'll just marry it have the the world marry the church caused more damage than the person persecution had the church grow worldwide strangely of course after the married church we come to the medieval church and i'll use the vatican only as one of many idioms there where the church becomes very powerful and abusive in many ways and but again if the protestant commentators taking a field day you'll find lots of writing about thyatira in the vatican and probably one of the most illuminating books you can lay your hands on is by david hunt called the woman rides the beast which deals with don't confuse the woman who rides the beast with the beast they're two different things and he really documents it very well a real expose i have some slightly different points of view but that's not important it's a great book it's a must read for any serious christian okay after the medieval church though we now come to the denominational church that are in name only but spiritually dead and of course after that you get to the missionary church that's the big winner and you get to the final one which is the apostate church and uh you can come to your own conclusions at what period you think we are in but occasionally add you can probably find elements of all seven in every church to different degrees two two teaspoons of this and four tablespoons of that or whatever but you can formulate these seven the seven-fold uh decision space into those parameters but we said that we noticed that these first three um letters had the promises to the overcomer postscripted i don't know why but they clearly are distinctive from that point of view the last four the promises are in the body of the letter from which i'm convinced the holy spirit wants to call our attention to a distinction between these two groups in fact if we examine the last four a little more closely we'll discover they each and only these contain explicit references to the second coming well that's kind of exciting now we do know that one of these four in fact the first of the four thyatira has promised that if they don't change their ways they're going to be in the great tribulation if that's the case that implies that if they do change their ways they won't be in the great tribulation the third of these last four the missionary church is promised to be removed before the tribulation now that leaves these other two sardis and laodicea are problematic that's a possibility i believe it's probably justifiably descriptive but i leave it to you to make your own study and come to your own conclusions but i hope that illumination you find useful seminal to at some level now it's interesting in revelation two and three we have these seven churches ephesus smyrna pergamus thy tyra sardis philadelphia and laodicea in matthew 13 we have seven kingdom parables so are the four soils the tariffs and the wheat the mustard seed the woman eleven treasure of the field pearl of great price and the dragnet now it's kind of provocative here and i won't try to go through all seven i'll just pick a couple if you look at the mustard seed the mustard seed parable is often misunderstood that's where you see a little mustard seed that grows to a although it's very small seed it grows to a tree that the birds inhabit the branches a lot of people say well gee that's wonderful no it isn't if you visit israel you know mustard seeds grow to a bush that's about two and a half feet high all those yellow flowers in the spring are mustard seed bushes have you seen birds nest in a three foot high bush not very often what's suggested in this mustard seed has become a monstrosity it's become a tree so large the birds of the air that lay in its branches well who are these birds when you study matthew 13 and this the four soils the birds are made are identified as satan's ministers you mean this thing grows so big that it's even the home of satan's ministers that's that is a very possible suggestion the other one that's followed by the woman and the leaven kingdom of heaven is like a woman who put uh 11 in three measures of meal now if you're jewish you gasp in horror you're not supposed to put 11 in three minutes three measures of meal is the fellowship offering putting leaven in there is to contaminate it it's not a good thing leaven in the old testament and the new is always an evil thing jesus says beware the leaven of the pharisees speaking of hypocrisy and so on well the the leonardo da thyatira spoke of the woman jezebel and the false doctrine and so forth you begin if you study the seven letters and you study these seven parables i'm going to suggest you're going to discover some surprising parallelism of each one to say that shouldn't surprise us because the same guy that gave the seven parables is the same guy that wrote the seven letters so any parallelism uh is probably not accidental but the one that i like the best is philadelphia because the king of heaven's like like the pearl of a great price the merchant who finds a pearl and it sells everything he has to get it and so forth well what makes that so strange again you got to think jewish pearls are not kosher it's a gentile gem it's the only occasion where the jewel is a response to irritation and it grows by accretion and it's removed from its place of growth to become an item of adornment what an elegant metaphor for the church a church that's raptured which of the seven letters speaks of the rapture church interesting just a coincidence of course seven churches what about paul i wouldn't call paul a mystic but he wrote these seven he wrote did you know that he wrote seven churches he wrote 14 epistles right three word of pastors he had and you got two that gives you ten two of those were three of those were duplicates excuse me first and second first thing whatever so you've got paul actually addressed seven different churches really did he well ephesus is an easy one he wrote ephesus right smyrna did he write one of his epistles to celebrate joy through suffering a letter that could be easily addressed to smyrna philippians absolutely for me to live is christ but to die is gain did he write a letter to the married church the worldly church first and second californians right the word corinth became synonymous with adulterer or fornicate fornicated if you're a fornicator you are a corinthian so i always when i teach first corinthians i like to call it first and second californians okay fire tyra i'm going to suggest the remedy for thyatira is the epistle to the galatians sardis oh boy name only dead paul's gospel to the uh the gospel according to paul epistle of the romans philadelphia is there a epistle that paul wrote that has to do with the uh rapture two of them the first one about the rapture itself and the second one why it had to be before the tribulation thessalonians and that leaves when left colossians which you discover if you do some homework is virtually a suburb of laodicea they're about one mile apart and they were instructed to exchange letters if you read the letter to colossians they're instructed to exchange so i think that's kind of interesting there seems to be a pattern now in the case of paul if there is a pattern that's the fingerprint of the holy spirit because paul was not a mystic following a model i don't believe okay write the things which thou has seen the things which are things which shall be hereafter that was the outline we were looking at the first chapter being the vision of christ the second and third chapters beating the seven churches and then the things which shall be metatarta is the greek phrase the things that shall be hereafter after these things when you get to chapter three end of chapter three you get to chapter four verse one and the first greek term is metatauta meaning after these things so that's the rapture on a lot of good scholars have different views about the details from chapter uh four or five especially from six to 19. but that's that's we get to chapter five john says i saw on the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written within and on the backside sealed with seven seals and i saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who was worthy to open the scroll or to loose the seals thereof and no man in heaven nor in earth neither under the earth was able to open the scroll and either look their own and i sobbed convulsively because no man was found worthy to open and read the scroll neither to look thereon it's interesting the emphasis here had to be a man not an angel we're looking for a kinsmen redeemer a kinsmen of adam who blew it they need a man no man in heaven earth neither under was able to open the scroll neither look one that's the first that's the first cut here and john understand you and i don't understand but he does i what much i stopped because no man was found worthy to open school but that's premature judgment one of the elders saith unto me we'd not behold the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals the seven seals thereof and i beheld and low in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood the lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes and the seven spirits of god sent forth into all the earth again metaphors from chapter one the lion of the tribe of judah the lamb as it had been slain and uh so we just skimmed through i want to encourage you to take to do springboard from this on your own into the apocalypse the unveiling and understand the catastrophic increase in crisis of the present age and you're going to see the spectacular reappearance of the king of kings in his global empire you'll see the internment of satan not the eliminating of him yet he'll be in turn for in the abuser for a thousand years why believe man without excuse and even without satan out there we still blow it and we we'll have the millennial earth reign of christ and which most cheats nine out of ten churches don't believe you decide yourself by reading your bible and we'll see a final insurrection in the abolition of sin and a new heaven and new earth it's not just you and i that are redeemed heaven and earth are redeemed that says a lot the old testament is the account of a nation the new testament the account of a man we're not about a religion we're about a person the creator became a man that's staggering his appearance is a central event of all history everything in the universe is going to be measured by that event on that wooden cross in judea 2000 years ago he died to purchase us and he is alive now there's nothing that can touch you he is greater is he that's in you than he that's in the in the world and uh you need to avail yourself of that you need to understand who he is the more you know about him the more you'll love him and the more you love him the more you'll want to know more yet it's a it's a courtship it's a lifetime deal it's not a decision walking down the sawdust you know we we have a tendency in our modern culture to celebrate someone coming to christ like some kind of victory and i'm not demeaning it it is a victory for of his but we need to not see it as a victory or if it's not a finishing line it's a starting gun how many of you are saved in here why why were you saved why did god say god has ordained a miracle and it started before the foundation the word god had you on his mind before the foundation of the world ephesians 1 4. so why did he save you there's a collective reason an aggregated reason to magnify his name and there's a number of good answers for that if you're going to take an essay quiz or something but there's a personal reason god had a specific personal reason to arrange the miracle that he arranged to have you sitting here right now and the great adventure in life is to discover what that reason was or is to discover what it is he's called you for there is something that he saved you for and i suspect it's different for every one of us how many of you discovered your calling i won't okay we got you know what maybe 10 20 here that's at least a good honest answer there are a lot of heads that aren't up you're looking at me sort of surprised okay that's okay you're saved praise god for that have you discovered your calling yet because it's my presumption that he has given you a supernatural gift and when you discover what that is you'll discover what has called you to do and every one of us in this room has a different calling than everybody else we're not all called to be evangelists we're not all called to lead bible studies there's a whole list of things that we may very well fall on that list but the point is discovering what it is is your grand adventure so i encourage you your most exalted privilege is to know him and that's what the bible the word of god is all about as you know just to tie this off most of you know that our entire motivation in our peculiar ministry is based on two discoveries that this these 66 books are separate books penned over a period of almost 2 000 years by over 40 authors who didn't even know each other and yet we by studying we discover it's a design package it's what as information scientists would call an integrated message system every idiom every detail bears evidence of being designed exactly a certain way and designed that way it makes a tapestry when you stand back you realize the whole thing is designed now once you discover that you're confronted with another discovery you gotta embrace that the origin of this message had to originate outside time outside space time to be more precise and that's staggering you say can't prove the bible yes you can you can prove its integrity and from that you can prove its origin from outside time and once you discover that you'll discover it presents on every page details about a specific person the person of jesus christ the kinsmen redeemer the one who is able to step forward and open that seven seal book and redeem the world there are over 8 000 predictive verses in the bible and almost 2 000 predictions on 700 different matters that's just according to one form of cataloging by j barton payne our challenge is to realize that you and i are being plunged into a period of time now about which the bible says more than it does about any other period of time in history and uh that includes the gospel period when jesus walked the shores of galilee climbed the mountain in judea what have you there's more said in the bible about the period we're moving into than it does even about the gospel period that's an outrageous statement and i want to challenge you to not accept if you accept that statement you flunk i want you to challenge it by doing two things find out what the bible really says yourself don't delegate that find out what it says and secondly find out what's really going on and you won't in our environment which is the age of deceit wall street and our capital city both washington dc are aggressively lying through their teeth and most informed investors understand that but you know you find that find out that all by yourself and find out how you can find out what's really what's really going on so that's the challenge i want to leave you with and uh so you and i are in possession of a message or extraterrestrial origin which tells us we are in a warfare we are in a warfare and we'll be talking about that in some subsequent sessions the kind we're moving into what some experts are calling the age of hybrids what on earth is that all about you mean nephilim probably you're talking about ufos maybe you're talking about transhumanism what's that all about well we'll talk about that but there is a war there is a cosmic war going on around us and your eternal destiny depends on your relationship with the ultimate victor in that conflict you need to understand what's going on you need to understand what's forthcoming the question is where do you stand not with the church organization not where you spend sunday morning that isn't the issue i'm not disparaging any of that you need to know where you stand with respect to the person who is alive today that once hung on that cross where do you stand with respect to him so with that let you and i stand for a closing word of prayer this concludes our series on the church the book of acts in the book of revelation chapters 2 and 3. i encourage you to pray through what your next book should be but certainly pick one and dig into it and continue your path here

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Length: 70min 30sec (4230 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020