We'll see that later on in Revelation. They'll lose their lives in the tribulation. The picture painted by Revelation has pretty much no gentile believers making it through the tribulation. Those who are Gentile believers before the tribulation are going to be removed before the tribulation begins. And it's going to be fascinating to see how God is going to do that. Take a look at Verses 8- 10 again. You know, it's a fascinating thing that in the original Greek, the phrase the whole world means the whole world.
Even during the two world wars, the whole world was not affected. There were tribes in jungles that had no idea anything was going on. Jesus uses that phrase very specifically because he wants us to understand that this coming hour of trial is going to be unlike anything the world has ever seen before. Suffice it to say, Jesus cannot be referring to events that have already taken place in history because nothing, like he's describing, has ever taken place in history. Make a note of this.
Jesus promises to keep them from the tribulation. He promises to keep them from the tribulation. You might recall Paul reassuring the Thessalonians believers by telling them this, but you brethren are not in darkness so this day should overtake you as a thief. Believers are supposed to recognize the hour when these events are about to unfold. Then just a few verses later, Paul reminds them, for God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, the world is going to enter into the tribulation.
However, the church believers are not. If you're a believer, you will never experience the wrath of God in that good news. So what criticism does Jesus have for the Philadelphia church? Write this down. None. None. No criticism, they're keeping his word and sharing the gospel, and because they're doing that, Jesus has nothing critical to say, just as he had nothing critical to say about Smyrna, the church that was dying for him. So so this is important.
Jesus has no criticism for the church that is suffering for him or the church that is proclaiming him. As far as an exhortation goes, Jesus says this in verses and behold, I am coming quickly, underline that I am coming quickly, and then underline these two words. Hold fast to what you have so that no one may take your crown. Just a quick reminder, Crown speaks of rewards, not salvation. The believer's salvation is a settled, finished issue among the seven letters crowns are only mentioned here and in the letter to Smyrna, the only two churches that, as we said, also received no criticism from Jesus.
Look at verse 11 again. When do we receive our crown? The text clearly implies that believers have their crown now because no one can take something from them that's not already in their possession. That means even though believers may not know it or may not be able to sense it, many are walking around with crowns already. Jesus is already handing them out, and I can't help wondering how differently we would view each other and our sufferings if we could see those crowns right now.
Our future with Jesus is so certain, its future history, it's as certain as the events of yesterday that have already happened, we're already there, but not yet. This glorious, yet hard-to-fathom reality is what Paul was speaking of when he told us that we've been seeded with Christ in heavenly places, present tense. Write this down. The exhortation is holding fast, hold fast. Jesus says you're doing great. Keep going. Don't let anyone take the crown I've already placed upon your head.
It's because of the righteous works that he has opened this door for them. When the Lord finds believers who are faithful to what they have, he loves to give them more. We see this principle at work when takes over from Shobna and in James 5/16 when we're told that the effect of fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Even in the age of grace that we're living in, there is still a connection between living righteously and having access to the King's resources.
I would encourage you to meditate on and study that principle further. Jesus says. I have set before you, the Philadelphia church, specifically an open door in First Corinthians nine 16. The Apostle Paul writes for a great and effective door has opened to me. And when you read the context around that verse, it's obvious that Paul is referring to an opportunity that had opened for him to take the gospel to a new region because of how the phrase an open door is used in the Bible in relation to Christians on the Earth.
Most scholars agree that it refers to an opportunity to do what you and I would call missionary work, taking the gospel to places and people that have not yet heard it. Now take a quick look ahead to the very last line of verse nine. Jesus says, To know that I have loved you, to know that I have loved you. Whatever this church is doing, Jesus loves it. He loves it. And he declares that nobody is going to be able to shut the door, that he is open for them.
And yet what we're seeing take place across the world right now seems to be the closing of that missionary door. It's increasingly difficult to send missionaries around the world as religious governments refuse to allow Christian missionaries to cross their borders and communist or secular countries put up open door closed doors. I'm sorry as well. We're seeing incredible indigenous moves of God in places like Iran, Ethiopia, and China. But the missionary door for the Philadelphia church seems to be in our time rapidly closing.
Jesus said, I've set before you an open door and no one can shut it. That means only Jesus can open or close this door. So what's going on? Well, before Jesus closes that door, he's going to open another door in Revelation for one. He's going to come back for his church and he's going to come soon. Jesus told them, for you have a little strength instead of strength. Some Bible translations more accurately use the word power.
It's the Greek word dunamis. And I know you've heard it. It's where we get our word dynamite from. What a wonderful compliment, though, to get from Jesus. He says you got a little bit of dynamite in you. Their church may have been small, but it was full of the Holy Spirit's power and Christians who loved each other held to the word of God and faithfully proclaimed the gospel prophetically. This seems to imply that at the time of the Rapture, a small minority of churches will hold to biblical standards of holiness and truth.
And then Jesus says, You've kept my word. This church places an emphasis on keeping God's word by obeying, honoring, and loving the scriptures. They keep the Bible central and they honor it as authoritative over their lives. So write that down. This is a commendation for them. They kept God's word. They kept his word. The New Testament lists the two identifying marks of a disciple of Christ. In other words, if you love God internally, these are the two external characteristics that will be evident in your life.
When Jesus was praying to his Father for his disciples, he said, I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. And then in John thirteen thirty-five, Jesus famously said, By this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have a love for one another.
Rather, he's seeing it as an encouragement. One of the things revelation does, and I hope you've started to pick up on this it is drop little breadcrumbs that are designed to take your mind somewhere else in the scriptures for an explanation or for greater detail. And when I was thinking about Jesus encouraging this church by reminding them that he is wholly my mind, went to First Peter Chapter One where the apostle Peter quotes the Old Testament and reminds his readers that God has commanded us to be holy, for I am holy.
You see, Jesus is Holy in the sense that he is other, but he calls us to be holy in the sense that we are to be set apart, consecrated, and reserved exclusively for Him and His purposes. Our lives are to belong completely to Jesus. That's how we are to be holy. And that's how Jesus is encouraging this church. He's saying keep on living lives that are set apart for me. Keep on holding on to that which is true.
And then Jesus calls himself mysteriously he who has the key of David who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. The key of David is an Old Testament reference that we're not typically familiar with. It's from an obscure part of the Book of Isaiah, where a man named Aliah Kim is replacing a corrupt man named Shobna as governor, or we would say national treasurer of the Palace of King Ezekiel. If you read Isaiah 22 starting around verse 15, you'll find that even though it's talking about Likeme, it has a second layer, a Remez, a mysterious layer of application that is a messianic prophecy, meaning the text when it's speaking about a lie.
Kim is also speaking prophetically of Jesus as the king, Hezekiah sat and ruled from the literal throne of David. David was the second king in Israel's history and all the kings who came after him sat on his throne. It's a real object that is always referred to in scripture as the throne of David. The governor of the King's palace would be given an object called the key of David. It was a real physical object that symbolized incredible power. Some scholars describe it as a type of ring, while others describe it as a large object worn over the shoulder.
Either way, this key granted its bearer access to all the resources of the kingdom and the Treasury. Additionally, it gave one the authority to grant others access to the king. If you wanted to get to King Hezekiah, you had to go through Shobna and then later through like him. While that whole story is worth studying, because there's a lot there that we don't have time to touch on. All you really need to know for now is that the key of David represents access to the king and the king's resources.
Here's the bottom line. Make a note of this. The titles Jesus gives himself in this letter are intended to encourage believers to remain holy and focused on the truth of his word, knowing they will be rewarded by him, knowing they will be rewarded by him. Now, here's the commendation. Jesus writes for Philadelphia's report card. Verse 8 says, I know your works if you're living for Jesus. His knowing your works is a good thing because he turns our earthly works for him into eternal rewards that will be waiting for us in heaven.
Now, Jesus, the one who holds the keys to the kingdom when He. When something nobody can shut it, when He closes something, nobody can open it. That Jesus tells this church what He has done for them with those keys, He says, see, I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it for you, have a little strength and have kept my word and have not denied my name. Compared to most of the other seven churches, Philadelphia is receiving an exceptional commendation here from Jesus, don't miss the connection that Jesus is making here between their works and this open door.
It's because of the righteous works that he has opened this door for them.
Each of these letters speaks on four different letter levels. Each letter speaks to a local literal church around 96 A.D.. When John is recording this, each letter speaks to all churches at all times. Each letter speaks to all believers at all times, and each letter speaks to prophesy. Each church prophesies a portion of the last two thousand years of church history in precise chronological order. Regarding the prophetic application of the churches, we've studied Ephesus, the Apostolic Church.
Smyrna, the suffering church polygamists, the compromising church fire, Tirah, the Catholic Church, Sardis, and the Reformation Church, which began around 1400 A.D. And today we are studying the sixth church in Philadelphia. In our previous study, we learned that the church at Sardi's prophetically represented the time period of the Reformation and the emergence of the most famous mainline denominations. Jesus told them that while they had a name, an ornament in Greek, a famous history, a great church founder, and a rich heritage, they were in reality dead.
They had reached the point where they had moved away from the word of God and from his spirit for the most part, and so for the most part, his spirit had left the building. We've learned about two of the four churches that continue to exist to the present day fire, Tyrer, the Catholic Church, and Sardis, the Reformation or denominational church. Let's dig into the third church that exists up to the present day, Philadelphia. Philadelphia was a beautiful and prosperous city built on the hillside of Mount Tomalis on a main road between Rome and Troas in the province of Asia Minor.
It was founded in 189 B.C. by the king of polygamous humanists. The second, is his younger brother, a Tallis. The second traveled with him to establish the city. And you so appreciated this that he named many of the new buildings and roadways after his brother. In fact, they were so close that a coin was minted in Philadelphia that bore the image of Yemeni's, the second on one side and his brother Atlus on the other. When Yemeni's died, he left the city to his brother, who responded by naming even more roads and buildings after his beloved brother than his brother had named after him.
Their legendary relationship was the reason the city came to be known as Philadelphia Greek for the city of him, who loves his brother. The Romans used Philadelphia as a regional headquarters for the promotion of Hellenism, which is Greek culture, including the Greek language to the eastern part of the empire, which had been resistant to Hellenism. It was, for all intents and purposes, a cultural missionary city. Today, Philadelphia is in Turkey and is named Alasdair, which means the city of God in Arabic.
It's still a real city today. Looking at Philadelphia on the prophetic level, we reached the time in history when the effects of the Reformation had run out of momentum. Sardis, the great mainline Protestant denomination, was spiritually dead and we talked about that in our previous study. Philadelphia ushered in the next phase of church history, which began around 1793 A.D. And prophetically, this is your first fill in. We can call her the missionary church, the missionary church, and we'll discover that she will cease to exist after the rapture.
Why? Stay tuned. Jesus told his disciples to take the gospel into all the world. And if we're honest, the church has been wildly inconsistent over the centuries. At following Jesus's instructions, as we discussed in previous messages, the church was established around 32 A.D. but stayed huddled in Jerusalem until persecution radically intensified under Caesar Nero beginning around 54 A.D.. This forced the Jerusalem believers to scatter across the empire in 313 ad Constantine and, like Linnaeus, issued the edict of Millán, which officially ended the empire's persecution of Christians after around 250 years of persecution.
Philadelphia is the church that every Christian should want to be identified with. In this study, we'll learn why Jesus loves this particular church so much, and how we too can bless Him by living the same way.
You know, it's amazing how long some things last, for example, the false rumor that the Book of Revelation is hard to understand, but chicanery says we for you see, the word revelation means that something has been revealed. And the first words of this book tell us exactly who it is that's being revealed. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. And God wanted us to read this book so much that he promised those who take the time to read and respond to it a special blessing.
And that blessing is found in Revelation three. It says Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. But God knew they would still be. Those who would claim revelation is hard to understand. So to make this book easy to understand, he also included an easy to follow outline. And that's found in Revelation 119, where Jesus gives John these instructions.
Write the things which you have seen. And up to that point, John had seen the resurrected and glorified Jesus in Chapter One. Then Jesus tells John to also write the things which are that refer to the church age, which began in 32 A.D., continues to the present day and is prophesied in chapters two and three, which we are studying today. And then finally, Jesus tells John to write the things which will take place. After this, John is told to write about future events that will take place after the church age ends, and that third act begins in Revelation for one.
Let me read it to you. John says, After these things, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard, which was the voice of Jesus in Chapter One, was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. And despite appearing over 20 times in the first three chapters of Revelation, guess what word never again appears in the narrative after revelation.
For one, it's the word church, and we're going to learn. That's because the church will no longer be on the earth after revelation. For one, the church like John will go up. And when the church goes up, what comes down? The wrath of God. And we find that in Revelation six 16, where the time period known as the Tribulation begins. And we're told the response of those who are still on the earth at that time, they said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne.
That's God, the Father. And from the wrath of the lamb, the lamb is who it's Jesus. It goes on in verse 17 of chapter six and says that the people will cry out for the great day of his wrath has come. And who is able to stand? We're going to travel through 2000 years of church history in chapters two and three. Then the church will go up in Revelation for one and Ralph will come down in chapter six, verse sixteen.
There will be seven years of tribulation continuing all the way up to Chapter nineteen when Jesus will return to the Earth with his church in the event known as the second coming. And there will be even more revealed later in our study through this incredible book. But here's what we know. If you love Jesus, then your story will end with the words and they lived happily ever after. Where in Revelation Chapter Three, studying the second act of the book, which Jesus described to John as the things which are today we will be studying the sixth of seven letters written by Jesus to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia.
And so, Lord, help us any time we try to substitute a checklist for a real relationship with you. And I pray right now by the power of Your Spirit, because, Jesus, You are the one who has the spirit. You are one with the Spirit. And so I pray by the power of Your Spirit that You will just right now supply whatever is needed for each one of us, Lord, be it Joy, be at peace, be it hope be at rest.
Be it faith, be it perseverance. Lord, may each of us just experience right now? The sense that You are filling us up with what we need because You are everything we need, we love You, Jesus, we bless You, and we're so thankful for Your work. And with genuine gratitude, we declare a solid day of glory. Glory to God alone. We love You. It's in Your name. We pray. Amen.
Get ready to make a note of this by introducing your self with this title. Jesus is reminding the church at Sardi's that He is the one who holds the leadership of the church in one hand and the Holy Spirit in the other. Jesus is the one who holds the leadership of the church on one hand and the Holy Spirit in the other.
Do you know that the Holy Spirit has an agenda for the church? It's laid out across the pages of the New Testament and it's a tragedy when a church stops looking to Jesus and his word and instead begins looking to the world to find their mandate, vision, and methodology. When that happens, for all intents and purposes, the Holy Spirit has left the building, and unless they repent, that church will soon be spiritually dead. This can happen in any kind of church, any kind of denomination, and it's what happened to the church at Sardi's and prophetically is still happening to the denominational church.
In the countries where many of us live, we've seen this firsthand, haven't we? We've seen the formerly great mainline denominations reduced to almost entirely secular community centers, increasingly departing from biblical orthodoxy in desperate attempts to gain the approval of the culture. In First Corinthians 12, Paul wrote, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. In other words, you can be ignorant about a lot of things, but as Christians, you cannot afford to be ignorant about how the gifts of the Holy Spirit work.
Sadly, the modern church is still wrestling with much confusion regarding the Holy Spirit, generally, there's a widespread lack of knowledge and understanding, while heresies and misrepresentations seem to abound. Right at the beginning of his letter to Sardis, Jesus reminds the church that He and the Holy Spirit are a package deal. Let's get into the smartasses report card, beginning with our commendation, I know your works that you have a name underline that you have a name that you are alive and then underline this.
But you're dead, but you are dead. And no, you didn't miss something. There is no commendation for the church at Sardi's, none. Why Jesus tells us it's because they're dead, it's because they're dead. Let's not miss the gravity of what Jesus says there. He doesn't say that they're merely sick or unhealthy. He says you claim to be alive, but the truth is you're dead. And that's the first criticism, write that down, they think they are alive.
But they're dead, they're dead. Now, I had you underline I have a name because there's something interesting here in the original Greek, the word used for my name is Anamur Anamur. It means to be covered by a name or to put it more simply, to have a label. It's the root of our word denomination, denomination, which was invented around the 15th century, according to Jesus. The big problem with Sardis is that they think they're alive, but they're dead.
They're still proudly pointing to their great name, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc. They're still pointing to their lineage, their rich history, their liturgies, their beautiful buildings, their social welfare programs, their founders, the reformers. But Jesus says you're dead. You are dead, the spirit has left the body, and there's only a corpse left. There was a time in history, and sadly, this is still true in some places when people would identify themselves by their denomination rather than as a Christian, you'd ask someone, what religion are you?
And they'd say, I'm a Lutheran or I'm a Baptist instead of I'm a Christian or I follow Jesus because to them their denominational affiliation was of greater importance than even their allegiance to Jesus. Only the name of Jesus brings life. The church at Sardis had forgotten that along with the rise of denominations, the Catholic Church also spawned directly or indirectly many other state churches,
And following his death, they rebelled against their Catholic rulers and defeated five consecutive papal military crusades that were intended to slaughter them.
Those battles go down in history as the Verse 8 wars, this sort of thing went on for a while and more. Priest began to say, you know, something is really wrong with the church, a groundswell of discontent within the Roman Catholic Church was stirring just beneath the surface all across Europe in fourteen fifty five in Germany, the Gutenberg Bible became the first mass publication produced by the famous Gutenberg Press, which revolutionized publishing with its movable type. Almost overnight, Bibles and books were being published in a common language for the common man, sparking a renaissance of learning among the populace as people began expanding their knowledge through literature.
All these things set the table for what followed in the 16th century, and it's fascinating to see how God caused all these things to come together at the same time, at the right place, and at the right time. Fast forwarding to the 1400s. Our focus remains on Germany, the greatest papal stronghold outside of Italy. At the time, the clergy was in a particularly bad state. They were uneducated and often impoverished, a combination certain to breed corruption when a position of power is added to the mix.
While the Vatican had long forbidden priests from taking wives, these men still had needs, shall we say, to get around that problem. Local bishops would allow their clergy a live-in concubine in exchange for a moderate annual fine. But as people began to read the Bible for themselves and became more educated, they couldn't help but notice just how messed up these kinds of things were. It was an increasingly combustible situation across Europe that only needed a spark, and God had plans to introduce just such a spark in the German church on November 10th.
Fourteen eighty three in Saxony, Germany. Martin Luther was born the son of a poor coal miner. He grew up observing his father's poverty and it motivated him to become wealthy. So he pursued a career as a lawyer in 50 when he entered the University of Erfurt. And in fifty-four, near the end of his studies, he was caught in a lightning storm so severe it caused him to rashly pray and promise God he would become a monk if he lived through the storm, which he did.
True to his word. Luthor withdrew from law school and in 15- 05 entered St. Augustine's Monastery, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in theology. He continued to study and earned his doctorate in theology. He began ministering in the German city of Wittenburg and soon rose to become a professor at the seminary. Despite all his accomplishments. Luther was unable to escape feelings of spiritual inadequacy and became obsessed with trying to earn God's favor and forgiveness. He would whip himself until he bled, he would crawl for miles on his knees, spend hours in prayer, sleep outside in freezing weather with no blanket, he would fast for weeks at a time, make distant pilgrimages to supposedly sacred sites and make frequent confessions, all to show his devotion and atone for his sins in the hopes of earning God's blessings.
So frequent, were Luther's visits to confession, his Abbott is reported to have told him either commit a sin worth confessing or stop bothering him. And yet for Luthor, nothing worked. Nothing worked. He later described this period of his life this way. I had lost touch with Christ the Savior and comforter and made of him the jailer and hangman of my poor soul. In 15 09, Luther made a pilgrimage to Rome, hoping to find the peace that had so stubbornly eluded him.
His journey on foot included crossing the Alps, which almost killed him, forced to halt his journey and recover his health.
You said it so well and I totally agree with you. Ever watched blacks go to church? Beautiful to see all of them dressed up. They say; Hey we dress up for a party so can we do less for the Lord?........
At this event, the owner of the property is to be singled out and falsely accused by two men. Other translations call them worthless Amen for committing blasphemy. Notice that there's to be no trial and no investigation to establish the validity of the charges or the witnesses. It's a riot court and the sentences are to be served immediately. The target of this operation doesn't stand a chance verse 8 11, so the men of his city, the elders and nobles who were inhabitants of his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, and it was written in the letters which she had sent to them.
They proclaimed a fast and seeded Narberth with high honor among the people and two men. Scoundrels came in and sat before him and the scoundrels witnessed against him against Narberth in the presence of the people saying Narberth has blasphemed God and the King. Then they took him outside the city and stoned him with stones so that he died. Then they sent to Jezebel's, saying Narberth has been stoned and is dead. With Narberth out the way, Jezebel takes possession of his vineyard, mission accomplished.
Second, King's nine 26 tells us that they also killed all of Namath's heirs so that there was nobody alive who could claim the vineyard. The bottom line, make a note of this neighborhood was killed for honoring God's word. Narberth was killed for honoring God's word. And out of all the sins of Jezebel, the Bible could have documented them in detail. Killing profits, we get a few lines about that, but we get all this detail about her acquiring property through false accusation.
That's interesting to me. While King Ahab may have been wearing the crown, it's obvious that Jezebel was the one calling the shots. She was the one truly in charge of the kingdom. She was the power behind the throne. Jesus's big issue with this church is that they allowed Jezebel to run the show instead of him. Why that whole sidebar to talk about Jezebel and Sabbath's Vinyard? Remember, of all the stories in the Bible that Jesus could have referenced in his letter to Thyer Tyra, he chose that one and he did that on purpose because there are connections that I believe he wants us to make.
Let's talk about them. After centuries of unbelievably corrupt people's rule, the Catholic Church had developed a seemingly insatiable appetite for wealth and power, and its true nature was on full display in the historical event known as the Inquisition. It was perpetrated from around 12 08 A.D. all the way up to the eighteen thirties across and around Europe. And it was a means to accomplish two of the Vatican's highest priorities, eliminating those who were opposed to its rule and acquiring vast amounts of property and wealth.
How did they do it? While they didn't technically rule Europe, they did hold massive influence over Europe. So the Catholic Church partnered with kings and sovereign powers in a campaign that worked something like this. If you were discovered to oppose the Catholic Church in word, deed, or thought someone would be arranged or bribed to bring an accusation of heresy or blasphemy against you to get to the truth, you would be tortured until you confessed. That confession would then be used in a sham trial where additional false witnesses would show up and testify against you.
Your sentence would then be immediately applied to jail for the rest of your life or more commonly. Being burned at the stake. This tactic was not only employed against those who oppose the Vatican, but also against those who simply had the misfortune of owning wealth or property that the church decided it wanted, the Catholic Church would conduct the investigation and the trial and render the verdict, but the local authorities would execute the sentence in exchange for their cooperation. The local rulers would get to split the person's wealth and or property with the church.
The church of Pergamos,............................... Revelations
After enduring horrific persecution the church at Pergamos is forced to contend with the temptation to compromise and spilt their devotion between Jesus and the Word.
Regarding the prophetic layer of the application, the first church, Ephesus, covered the Apostolic Church from around 32 A.D. to 100 A.D. The second church that we studied last time. Smyrna covered the suffering church from around 54 A.D. to around 313 A.D. and today will be studying the third church pajamas. When John recorded Revelation, Ephesus was the intellectual center of the province of Asia. Smyrna was its most beautiful city. But if you continued following the road system for about a hundred miles, you would reach Pergamos, Asia's most important city.
It was the capital of the province, the region's political and religious hub, famed for being the epicenter of Zeus worship. Zeus is the Greek version of Almighty God, the big dog in the pantheon of gods. It was believed that Zeus was born in Pergamos, and for that reason, the city boasted a great altar and temple where sacrifices were offered to him. The structure was 115 feet wide, one hundred and ten feet deep, and fifty feet high, surrounded by colonnades.
It was the largest altar in the world. I recall from our previous study that at the time you could worship any God you wanted in exchange for an annual offering of a pinch of incense and a two-word verbal acknowledgment of Caesar's deity, Kaiser Kuriakose in pajamas. You would do this at the Temple of Zeus, which the Caesar's loved, because the pinch offering looked spectacular as this long line of people formed and wound their way up the 60-foot-wide stairs of the massive structure.
And where Caesar's love to hang out, the upper class loves to hang out. And that's why Pergament was renowned for its wealth and fashion. It was the Paris or Milan of its day. Like almost every other church in the region at the time, the church in Pergament was under intense persecution. People were being tortured, imprisoned and murdered for following Jesus. And while the pinch offering would create an annual flare up of persecution for churches because they would refuse to participate, the continual presence of the imperial cult in pajamas created a daily danger of persecution for believers.
But as in Smyrna, faithful believers in pajamas refused to acquiesce to the demands of Rome, and many were martyred for their stand in this pressured environment. Cavemen, men preaching a seductive doctrine of compromise. They claim to appeal to reason, assuring believers that God wanted them to live in peace with the authorities. He didn't want them to suffer. Their appeal was to give the pinch, offering God understands. And, when facing the prospect of death by lions or fire.
It's an attractive message. As we've mentioned, prophetically speaking, the age of Smyrna came to an end around 313 A.D., and that's right around where Pajamas picks things up in the prophetic scheme of the church age. And sadly, polygamists will be best known for the season of history when the church marries the state. We're going to find that, though. It sounds wonderful, but the reality is catastrophic. And for this reason, she'll be known as the compromising church and spanned the years from 313 A.D. to around 600 A.D.
But before we get into the story of polygamists, we need to remember the big picture of church history thus far. The church was birthed around 30 A.D. in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. And it was amazing. But there was this little issue of the great commission. Jesus had commanded his disciples to go and make more disciples. But for the first couple of decades, the church remained relatively contained within Israel.
Their fellowship was just so sweet. Nobody wanted to leave. Nobody wanted to go on a mission trip.
And while not every Christian will die a martyr, every Christian is called to live as a martyr every single day. The world can change really fast, the freedoms that we currently enjoy cannot be assumed, and they are not guaranteed. Sooner or later, persecution will come and we would be wise to settle the issue of our commitment to Jesus long before it ever does.
This letter is in the Bible that we might know what it means to be faithful. It means putting Jesus first and laying down your life for Him. No matter what it costs you. Lastly, let me say this as we read earlier. Revelation 20, says, blessed and Holy is he who has a part in the first resurrection over such the second death has no power. If you're listening to this or if you're watching this. And you've never given your life to Jesus, Then right now, you are on course to experience the second death. To experience eternity separated from God, the only source of everything, an eternity in the lake of fire. An eternal death. It will be worse than anything that can be imagined. Jesus died for you, he took the wrath for your sins, for everything you've done wrong.
So that you could be born again right now so that you could receive His Spirit in your life. He could become your God, your Lord, your Savior so that you could follow Him and experience eternal life. And if you want to do that, I'm going to pray for you in just a moment and I'm going to ask you to agree with that.
Let's pray together. Would you bend your head and close your eyes. Jesus. Thank you for this letter to this precious church in Smyrna.
And Lord, first of all, we pray for all our brothers and sisters who make up the persecuted church today. God be gracious to them. God, strengthen them, sustain them.
Thank you that You will give them what is needed, You will empower them, You will give them Your grace. And Father, we pray that they would be protected, that they would be encouraged, that they would be sustained, Lord, and that the example they set would inspire others to stand strong for you. Lord, bless your church around the world, especially those who are undergoing persecution. And Lord, for all of us right now, for anyone listening or watching, may it be a settled issue for us that we're ready to die for you, but not only die for you as a one time event, we're ready to die for you today and then again tomorrow and the day after that as we lay down our lives for you day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, until You decide it's time for us to come home.
And thank you that the home you've prepared for us is more wonderful than anything we could imagine. And then, Father, I pray right now for anyone who is saying, yeah, I want to be born again, I want to receive Jesus as my Savior and as my lord. Thank you, that you promise your Spirit is coming into them right now and they are being born again. They are being adopted into the family of God. Sons and daughters of the Father, brothers, and Sisters of Jesus, thank you that you're doing that, Lord, for anyone doing that, would you strengthen them and encourage them and connect them, Lord God, with a good church Lord and a place where they can continue to grow in their relationship with You.
We're so thankful for you, Jesus, and we're so thankful for your word. We love you. It's in your name. We pray. Amen.
Jesus writes an encouraging letter to strengthen a church enduring intense persecution, and in the process encourages, challenges, and focuses us on what it means to be truly faithful to the Lord.
Have you heard there's a rumor going around town, there are those who are saying that the Book of Revelation is hard to understand, but no worries, say we for you see, the word revelation means that something has been revealed. That's right. If God wanted this to be hidden, he would have called it the consolation, not the revelation. What is God revealing? Well, revelation one begins the book with the words The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
This book is a revelation of Jesus. And God wanted us to read this book so much that he promised those who would take the time to read and respond to it a special blessing. And that blessing is found in Revelation three where it says, Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. Now, could you imagine God saying, I want you to hear the words that are written in this book?
I want you to understand them, and then I want you to respond to them. And if you do that, I'll bless you. But here's the catch. You will never understand this book wouldn't make any sense to believe that God would do that, but God knew there would be those who would say that revelation is hard to understand. So to make this book easy to understand, he included in it an easy to follow outline. And that outline is found in Revelation, chapter one, verse 19, where Jesus gives John these instructions.
Write the things which you have seen. What is John seen up to this point? In Chapter One, he saw the resurrected and glorified Jesus. Then Jesus tells John to also write the things which are that pertain to what we call the church age, which is laid out in chapters two and three, which we're studying today. And in these two chapters, Jesus dictates seven letters to seven churches, and in their order, they prophesy around two thousand years of church history, the entire church age with incredible precision.
Then finally, Jesus tells John to write the things which will take place after this. After what things? After the events of chapters two and three. After the church age in the original Greek. The words used after this are the Greek words matter. Tuta that phrase next appears in Revelation Chapter four, verse one, where it marks the beginning of the third act in the Book of Revelation. Let me read Revelation for one to you after these things.
Metta Taruta. So after the events of chapters two and three after the church age, John writes, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I heard in Chapter One, was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. Or in Greek. Mata Taruta, the Holy Spirit, wanted to ensure we do not miss where that third act in the Book of Revelation begins.
So he begins revelation for one with meditator and he ends revelation for one with matter. Talita. And despite appearing over 20 times in the first three chapters of Revelation, what word never again appears in the narrative after Revelation. For one, it's the word church, and we're going to learn. That's because the church is no longer on the earth after revelation. For one, the church like John will go up and when the church goes up, what comes down?
The wrath of God. We find that in Revelation six sixteen. It's the opening volley in the time period known as the Tribulation. And we're told the response of those who are on the Earth at that time. It says they said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne.
but where we're just going through the motions and we're so busy with the work of the kingdom that we're missing out on the king.
Lord, we repent and we ask that you would help us to return to you in a simple, simple and pure way where we just enjoy being with you, we just enjoy talking to you. There's no program we have to accomplish or or list. We have to check off. We just love you. We love being with you. We love talking about you. We love knowing you. Lord, get us back there if we need to. And then, Lord, I pray for our churches as well.
I pray for our church, especially, Lord, that as we seek to know you more through your word, that we would never forget that it's you we want to know through your word. That we might love you more deeply and see you more clearly, help us not to just add knowledge, Lord, but to grow in our love for you and out of our love for you, growing our love for each other and for those who don't know you, for this world that you love so much and lay down your life for.
So Lord, speak to us right now through your word and just let us know what part of this letter you want us to especially have our attention drawn to and then help us to respond however you need us to. Lord, we love you. We bless you, Jesus. It's in your precious name.
When you read the Bible, it becomes clear that there are certain characteristics that define a Christian, but there's one characteristic that stands above all.
A Christian loves God, a Christian loves God, then one of them, a lawyer, asked Jesus a question testing him and saying Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law. Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the great commandment for Matthew, 22. And when Peter came face to face with the resurrected Jesus for the first time since denying all knowledge of him three times, Jesus had only one question for Peter.
Do you love me? Do you love me? So would you write this down? The defining characteristic of a Christian. Is their love for God, it's their love for God.
Are you in love with Jesus and I mean that seriously, I'm not asking if you love Jesus, like you love your country, or like you love your favorite food. I'm asking if you're in love with Jesus because those two things are vastly different questions.
And what cuts me so deeply about this is the realization that I can do all the Christian stuff. I can study the Bible, pray, serve a church, tithe, evangelize, and practice random acts of kindness, all without being in love with Jesus, my life can be packed full of God stuff. And yet I can still miss Jesus. Imagine a husband who comes home from work with flowers for his wife and she gushes and she says, Oh, I love that you were thinking about me today.
And he says that's not really what happened. I put an appointment in my calendar to buy you flowers on the third Thursday of every month because flowers represent affection. And today is Flower Day, hence the flowers. Listen, the action is commendable, the intention and the discipline are commendable. But the problem is that that's somewhere along the way the husband lost his passion for his wife and now he's just going through the motions of affection without any real affection involved. It's become a ritual. He loves her, and if you asked him, he would tell you that he wants her to feel love, but he's not in love with her.
We're not talking about about a salvation issue here, nowhere in the Sleater does Jesus imply that these people aren't saved. He wants them to know that they're missing the point of everything which is loving and knowing him.
None of our good works or sacrifices blessed Jesus if they're divorced from genuine affection for him. The driving force of our lives is to be our love for Jesus, not our love for theology.
Our love for the church or even the Bible. And I can sense some of you being uncomfortable with some of those statements, especially that last one because maybe you're like me and that you love the Bible, and if that's you, then you likely believe something along the lines of, hey, listen, as long as believers are focused on the word and in the word, then everything else will take care of itself. The problem is that Jesus, Jesus's letter to the Ephesians tells us that's not true.
The most glaring example is the religious leaders of Jesus's day after almost 400 years of silence from God between the Old and New Testaments, it was the Pharisees who called Israel to repent and return to the scriptures, which was a great thing. But it wasn't long before they started loving the scriptures more than the God they were written to reveal. And despite being Amen of the word, despite being immersed in the scriptures daily, despite having the Old Testament memorized, despite talking about it all day, they missed their Messiah Jesus when he was standing literally right in front of them.
We're going to discover elements of ourselves individually present in each of these churches will be encouraged, convicted, and like some of the churches realize that God is calling us to make some changes.
And then the final and fourth level of application in each of these letters is prophetic. It's the level of prophecy. As we've mentioned, these seven letters lay out two thousand years of church history, the whole church age in advance with mind blowing precision and detail. One of the surprises is that the churches Jesus writes to are not all the obvious choices. There will be no sign of the prominent and influential megachurches of Rome, Antioch, or Jerusalem. Why?
I believe it's because the prophetic pattern that is going to emerge across these seven letters would only work with these specific churches in this specific order. The Book of Acts covers the first 30 years of the church, and chapters two and three of Revelation cover the next 2000 years of the church.
And this prophetic perspective is a fairly recent discovery, primarily because most of the church age had to have passed in order for the pattern to emerge and become noticeable. We also needed to live in an age when historical knowledge was easily accessible so that the appropriate research could be done. For us, the church age is almost entirely history, but John was recording it prophetically, likely unbeknownst to him as he was living in the first church of the church age. Here are a few other common traits that we're going to find in each letter.
Every letter is going to start with the phrase to the Angel of the Church of Blank.
In our previous study, I mentioned that the Greek word used there for Angel is Aguilar's, which means messenger, and it could be angelic or human. And so some scholars think that Jesus is referring to specific angels, sort of guardian angels that were assigned to each of these churches while others hold that Jesus is writing to the pastors of these churches. I shared that I lean toward the latter because I do not imagine that Jesus was communicating with his angels using the Roman postal system.
But I also hold that view because angels were not leading these churches. So, there wouldn't have been much point in Jesus telling them what changes needed to be made. We'll also see that the name of each church will reveal something about its identity. From God's perspective, the title Jesus uses for himself will tell us something that each church needs to be reminded of. Each letter will serve as a report card of sorts, with each church receiving a commendation - "I love that you're doing this." - a criticism - "Stop doing this." - and an exhortation - "Start doing this" or "Keep doing this." Four churches will have something missing from their report card. Two will receive no commendation - that's Sardis and Laodicea. And two churches will receive no criticism - Smyrna and Philadelphia. The ones who think they're doing well are going to find out that they're not. And the ones who think they aren't doing well are going to find that they're doing better than they think. Finally, each letter will include an exhortation to the reader - that's you and I - to be an overcomer of the issues raised by Jesus in that letter.
All seven churches were located in the Roman region of Asia, in a region that is today part of the country of Turkey.
And thanks to the Roman Empire, they were all connected by well-built roads. Ephesus was one of the largest, wealthiest, and most important cities in the Empire and held the title of Supreme Metropolis of Asia. Founded around fourteen hundred B.C., it had a population of between a quarter and half a million people, which was massive at the time. The city boasted a magnificent theater that could see 24000, good road and river systems, and a seaport at the mouth of the Kastor River.
Introduction to the 7 Churches / The Church at Ephesus Date:7/4/21
Series: Revelation
Passage: Revelation 2:1-7
Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation contain letters written by Jesus to 7 churches. Each letter has multiple levels of application and addresses different aspects of the Christian life. In this first letter, we learn just how much Jesus values relationships over religion.
There is a rumor going around town, in fact, it's not only going around our town, it's also going around the church at large. There are those who are saying that the Book of Revelation is hard to understand, but nonsense, say we. For you see, the word revelation means that something has been revealed. If God wanted this to be hidden, he would have called it the consolation and not the revelation. What is God revealing? Well, in Revelation one one, we find the whole book beginning with the words The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
This is going to be a revelation of Jesus. The four gospels revealed Jesus as he was when he was on the Earth in his humble human state. The Book of Revelation reveals that same Jesus as he is now in his fully glorified, fully powerful, fully God state. God wanted us to read this book so much that he promised to bless those who take the time to read and respond to it. And God included the special blessing in Revelation one three.
It says, Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. Now, can you imagine God saying, I want you to hear the words that are written in this book. I want you to understand them, and then I want you to respond to them. And if you do those things, I'll bless you. But here's the thing. You will never understand this book.
It wouldn't make much sense to believe that God would do that. But God knew there would be those who would say that the Book of Revelation is hard to understand.
So in order to make this book easy to understand, he gave it its own special outline that's found in Revelation 119, where Jesus gives John these instructions. Write the things which you have seen. What has John seen up to this point? Well, in verse thirteen, John writes that he saw one like the son of man. And who's that? It's the resurrected and glorified Jesus. We talked about that last week in Chapter one. Then Jesus tells John to also write the things which are that pertains to what we call the church age, which is laid out in chapters two and three, which will begin studying today.
And in those two chapters, Jesus will dictate seven letters to seven churches in their order, they will prophesy around 2000 years of church history, the entire church age with incredible precision. If you were to reverse the order, switch any of the two churches around or remove any one of the seven churches, it would not make sense. But in their order and only in their order, the prophecy aligns perfectly. And then finally, Jesus tells John to write the things which will take place after this.
After what will after the events of chapters two and three, after the church age, Jesus tells John to write down the things he's going to show him, which will take place after the church age in the original Greek. The words used for the phrase after this are Meta Taruta. That phrase next appears in Revelation Chapter four, verse one, where it marks the beginning of the third act in the Book of Revelation. Let me read it to you.
Revelation, for one says, After these things, what are the Greek words there? Meditator. So after the events of chapters two and three, after the church age, after those things, John writes, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. And guess what?
So the Father shared this revelation with Jesus so that Jesus could share it with his servants.
That means that if you serve Jesus, this is for you, things which must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant, John. As you study Bible prophecy, you'll discover that one of the ways God shows affection to those he loves is by sharing his plans with them. And that's what we see here in verse one, where God tells us that he is sharing this revelation because he wants those who serve Jesus to know what he has planned.
And the more we see God's plans, the more we see God's character. That is why, even though this book seems to be largely about future events, the Lord describes it as the Revelation of Jesus Christ. So make a note of this. God shares this Revelation because he wants those who love him to know his plans. God shares this Revelation because he wants those who love him to know his plans. Now, before we go any further, I just need to clear something up.
It is a total rookie move to ever refer to this book as Revelations, plural. Don't do it if you're guilty of doing that. It is time to repent or risk one day hearing me yell around a corner Revelation singular, and I wouldn't do that simply because I'm a little crazy. It actually matters because this book is a single cohesive Revelation. It mostly consists of one big flowing timeline and plan that all work together. It's a Revelation, not multiple unrelated Revelations.
The book is called Revelation. Now, there's just a few more things you need to know about verse one. And then I promise the rest of this chapter is going to go much faster in the phrase things which must shortly take place. The original Greek words translated shortly are Antiochus and Taco's. They are the root of our word tachometer that Gaige in our vehicle, which displays the RPM's the refs per minute of an engine. And the idea behind Antiochus is not something getting closer in a linear or consistent manner, but rather something approaching that is accelerating exponentially.
If you've ever driven a vehicle with standard or stick shift, then you've experienced Antiochus. When you floor the gas pedal, the needle on the tachometer moves up with increasing speed and then it just takes off as you approach the red line and your vehicle begins rapidly accelerating, exponentially accelerating. The best example of Antiochus was given by Jesus himself, who described the end times as a woman in labor. In Matthew 24h, Jesus said. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs when a woman having her first child has her first contractions.
It's alarming, it's intense. And then a pattern emerges, prompting the woman to call the hospital and say, I'm having contractions. The baby is coming. The nurse asks, how far apart are your contractions? The woman replies, 15 minutes. And the jaded nurse says, sweetheart, I've got bad news for you, you're just getting started. Things are going to get a whole lot more intense before your baby's born. And they do. That last hour before the baby is born is not the same as the hour that occurred 72 hours earlier, it's completely different in terms of intensity and frequency.
That's the idea behind Antiochus and what we're meant to have in mind when John refers to things that must shortly take place. Notice as well. Write this down. This revelation will be given in signs. It will be given in signs. Let's look at verse one again, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants things that must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by his angel to a servant, John.
In the original Greek, the word signified literally means sign a five, signify it. It's the word, say Mineau, which means a sign to give a sign communication. Now, why would God choose to communicate much of this revelation in science? Well, there are a few possible explanations I can think of.
I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me.
So chapters two and three are the second act. Jesus described the third act to John as the things which will take place after this. The original Greek words behind the phrase after this are Metta Taruta, Metta Taruta. And here's the neat thing. The next place those same Greek words appear is in the opening of Chapter four, which begins with the phrase, After these things in the outline given in Revelation one 19, Jesus identified the third act of revelation by the phrase Metta Taruta.
And to make sure we could easily find that third act, God had it begin at the very next place that same phrase appears, which is a Revelation for one. Let's take a quick look at all of the Revelation for one. John writes, After these things, Meta Taruta, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place.
And then what phrase do we see next? After this? After this. Guess which Greek words are showing up there again? Metta Tatta. And that's important because when the Bible seems to be repetitive with a word or a phrase, it generally means that the Holy Spirit is trying to draw our attention to something. Revelation, for one, begins with meditator and ends with Metta Tatta. Apparently, the Holy Spirit really wants us to understand exactly where the church age ends and the next act begins.
So he marked the spot in Scripture with two Matya toutes to serve as a giant X.. The things which are the church age is the second act. And as the church age ends with Jesus knocking on the door in Revelation three twenty, Chapter four opens with John seeing a door open in heaven, hearing the voice of Jesus, which sounds like a trumpet and hearing that voice call him to come up here. When we reach that point in our study, we'll learn that this is when the church leaves the earth and heads up there to the presence of Jesus.
And it's interesting that although the word church appears over 20 times in the first three chapters of Revelation, it will not appear again in the narrative of revelation after revelation four one just disappears. And we'll find that's because the church has been removed from the earth at that time. Write this down after revelation. For one, the word church never again appears in the revelation narrative after revelation. For one, the word church never again appears in the revelation narrative.
So what have we learned so far? This book is a revelation. It's in the business of revealing, not concealing. There's a special blessing that comes with reading and responding to it. And God even gaze of gave us an easy to understand outline for the whole book. Our story begins likely around 95 A.D., more than 60 years after Jesus rose from the dead, more than 60 years after Jesus returned to heaven at the end of his earthly ministry.
John the Apostle has been exiled to the island of Patmos and has been there for around a decade. He was sent there as punishment for refusing to acknowledge Caesar Domitian as being divine. He wouldn't acknowledge that Caesar was a God like he was supposed to. Patmos is essentially a big rock that rises out of the ocean. It's six miles wide, it's ten miles long, and it's where Jesus visits John and gives him this revelation. John writes it down and it finds its way back to the church and eventually across the centuries to you and me.
You're going to want to have your Bible open now to Revelation one one, ideally, you're going to have a pen in your hand with your outline. You might even have a notebook as well to jot down anything that the Lord brings to your attention. And with that, let's get into the text revelation, one, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants.
Most churches avoid revelation the way they avoid Leviticus or the back half of Daniel. Revelation consistently ranks among the least taught books of the Bible in the church and is avoided like the plague by most pastors.
Perhaps you've heard some of these reasons why, oh, it's all about things in the distant future and we need to be focused on things that are happening here and now or, you know, it's scary and we don't want to scare people in church. Or there's so much weird stuff in here and we just don't want our first time guests to think our church is weird. Or there are so many different interpretations of revelation, I mean, who knows which one is right?
And yet the book begins by telling us that this is the Revelation of who Jesus Christ, the Lord promises to bless us if we read this, he desires that we respond to the Book of Revelation. And that's because, first and foremost, this is not a book about the end of the world. It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ and it is intended for all believers. Now, whether we realize it or not, when we ignore Revelation in our churches, we withhold a special blessing and we withhold greater Revelation of Jesus from our congregations.
That's why I'm so glad you're here. I know that you're going to be blessed not because of me, but because God has promised it. In His word. Revelation has another special feature that is unique among the scriptures to help make this book easier to understand God included in it, a simple and clear outline that allows us to understand the major sequence of events. So write this down. Revelation is the only book in the Bible that comes with its own outline.
It's the only book in the Bible that comes with its own outline. And we find this outline in Revelation, chapter one, verse 19. Take a look at it. This is where Jesus instructs John to write the things which you have seen, underline that and the things which are underlying that and the things which will and then underline the rest of it take place after this. Right. The things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after this.
This outline reveals to us the three acts of the Book of Revelation Act one, the things which John has seen act to the things which are Act three, the things which will take place after this. The first act, the things which you have seen refers to what John has seen up to this point, and what John has seen up to and including Revelation 119 is the resurrected and glorified Jesus, the second act, the things which are refers to chapters two and three in which Jesus himself will dictate seven letters to seven churches that existed at the time that John wrote Revelation.
Those letters are going to speak to churches in John's day, but they're also going to speak to churches at all times and to all believers. And then when we get there, will find that there is another mystical layer to these letters, because in their order, they prophesy around two thousand years of church history from around 32 A.D. up to the present day with incredible detail and precision. And yes, it's going to be mind blowing when we get there.
And to make a note of this, chapters two and three refer to the church age, chapters two and three refer to the church age. And then Jesus tells John to write about the things which will take place after this. After what? After the events of chapters two and Chapter three, the church age. When we reach that point in our study, we'll learn that a supernatural global event is going to take place at the end of the church age after this.
This will kick off the third act, so there's going to be this special event taking place at the end of the church age, and that's going to kick off this third act, the things which will take place after this chapters two and three, which describe the church age. And with Jesus saying this in Revelation three twenty behold, I stand at the door and knock.
Series Books of the Bible Month Preacher "The Star of the Show" ......Date:6/27/21
Series: Revelation Passage: Revelation 1:1-20
Speaker: Jeff Thompson
John's incredible visions begin with an encounter with the King of Kings, Jesus. We'll learn how Jesus is at the centre of the Book of Revelation, how we can be blessed by studying it, and how the Old Testament is the key to understanding it.
As we prepared to dig into Revelation Chapter one this week, let me just say this, we are only going to be able to scratch the surface of this chapter. There's so much more here than we have time to dig into. And even though we'll only be focusing on the most critical things, you may still need to go back and listen to this message again. Watch this message again, because there's just going to be so much good stuff here. My goal is to give you the best information I can in the time that we have together.
And sometimes all I'm going to be able to do is just drop some breadcrumbs that you can follow in your own time as you study in the coming days and weeks. In our previous study, we joked about how the Book of Revelation is widely perceived as being difficult to understand. And I did my best to encourage you that in reality, the exact opposite is true. I'm going to begin this week by encouraging you again with the knowledge that the title of this book is Revelation.
It's the Greek word apocalypses, which means and uncovering a revealing this book's very title. Tells us that it is written to reveal something, not to conceal something, a revelation is what takes place when something previously obscured or hidden is suddenly seen clearly. And one of the primary purposes of the Book of Revelation is to bring clarity to subjects that have previously been hidden, obscured or confusing. In fact, the first words of this amazing book, if you look in your Bible, tell us that it is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Would you underline the word Revelation? It's the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And this is going to be your first fill in. The word Revelation simply means that something has been Revealed. The word Revelation means something has been Revealed and it gets better because God also promises a special blessing to anyone who reads and responds to the contents of Revelation, something he does for no other book of the Bible. The Lord does this because he wants us to understand, listen, this book, it's really special and he wants us to read it.
We find this promise in Revelation one three. Take a look at it. It says, Blessed is he who reads underline that. Blessed is he who reads. And those who hear the word here can also be translated. Understand? Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. Revelation is the only book in the Bible that promises a special blessing to those who read and respond to it.
So think about this for a moment. The book is literally titled Revelation, referring to something that was obscured being made clear. The book opens by telling us that it is a Revelation and God promises a special blessing to the one who reads and responds to the contents of this book. So how then would it make sense to believe that after opening the book this way, God made the rest of the book impossible to understand? And an indecipherable collection of codes and metaphors wouldn't make any sense to believe that.
What would make sense is to believe that if God wants us to understand and respond to this book, then he has made it understandable. If you've ever attended a church that has studied all the way through Revelation, your church is an exception to the norm.
And we thank you that as we look out our window and see a world descending into chaos, the truth is really that everything is coming together and everything is on schedule and everything is unfolding according to your plans. And it's your desire to share those plans with us because you love us, because you've chosen to call us friends. We love you for it and we can't wait to learn about all that you have in store. Jesus, we bless you in your precious name, we pray Amen.
And hopefully we can agree that beginning with a literal approach to the text is the most logical approach, because that's what we're going to do. We're going to start with a literal approach, depart from it when there is good reason to do so. And then we're going to see where that gets us. Your homework this week is to get a journal, to get a notebook. That's just a good thing to have as a Christian anyway. And I want to challenge you to write down any questions that you have about the end times, anything that you would really like to grow in your understanding of that.
You would love the Lord to show you, write down all those questions and then begin praying into that. Ask the Lord to give you eyes to see, ears to hear and to open your understanding of his word. And then let's just see how faithful God is going to be as we study through the scriptures to begin to answer all those questions for you. If you'll do that, I think you'll find that your faith is going to be really deeply built up through this series.
So that's your homework. Last Sunday, our church heard testimonies from six different people whose lives have been forever changed by Jesus. And then we experience the joy of watching them be baptized. You know, for me, baptisms are like attending a wedding because they take my mind back to the time when I went through that same ritual. I remember where I was, who was there and how it happened. I was baptized in Cape Town, South Africa, in a poorer pool in a church, which is a little portable pool that has like wire mesh around the outside.
And the pool was heated with bare metal rods connected to electricity. So if anyone to touch the water while they were heating it, they probably would have died. But it worked. And that's the situation that I was baptized in. And it was it was wonderful. I remember it vividly. And last Sunday, I was thinking about what I would say to the 11 year old me if I could go back in time to the day that I was baptized.
And and I realized that what I would say is, listen, Jeff, as wonderful and as good and as loving and as kind and as gracious as you think God is right now. I want to let you know that he's even more of those things than you could ever possibly imagine, and you are going to experience his goodness in the years to come over and over and over again in ways that will move you to tears. And as we get ready to undertake this study of the Book of Revelation, the one thing I would say to you is that however good you think God's plans are for those who love him.
The truth is they're even better. He's even better, and so we're going to close with these precious words from Jesus to his disciples in John Chapter 14. I love these verse is so much. They're all in your outline. Jesus says let your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also. And where I go, you know. And the way you know. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going and how can we know the way Jesus said to him. I am the way the truth. And the life. Did you buy your head and close your eyes and pray with me?
Jesus, thank you for the good plans that you have in store for your church. Thank you. That they are more glorious than we could possibly wrap our heads around. And, Lord, as we embark on the study of the Book of Revelation, I thank you for the way that you were going to build our faith, the way that we are going to be blessed as we encounter and receive new and fresh, glorious revelation of who you are and what your plans are for our world.
I'm still working a lot of stuff out. There are a lot of theological areas where I want to read more, I want to study more. I want to have more conversations because I'm not satisfied with the current understanding that I have. And that's OK. That's OK. But we need to be honest and realistic about where we are in our views. And if you're only 10 percent sure of your views of the end times, it's a good thing to know that you're only 10 percent sure, because if you think you're 100 percent sure, then you're really not going to be open to hearing anything else.
I'm not trying to pick a fight with anybody. I'm just trying to provoke us into asking good questions about our current beliefs. And I want to propose another test for any eschatological view. And I suggest to you that that this test will allow you to conclude which view of the end times is most accurate. In fact, this is a test, an approach that will help you evaluate any area of theological study, any belief system related to the Bible.
If you're trying to evaluate different views on soteriology, the theology of salvation, new mythology, the theology of the Holy Spirit, or in this instance, eschatology, the theology of the end times, this test will help you evaluate the different belief systems in those areas of theology. Here's the simple test. Does the view, does the doctrine, does the position, does that perspective work everywhere in the Bible? Does it work everywhere? You see, one's eschatology has to be affirmed, not contradicted by the rest of scripture.
In other words, if a doctrine is true, it will make sense everywhere that it shows up in the Bible. It won't work only in the New Testament, but not in the Old Testament. It won't work well with the writings of Paul, but not so well with the writings of Jesus. If it's true, it'll work everywhere in the Bible. And I'd like to emphasize that it will work well, because sometimes there are some positions where people will say, well, there's there's not a direct contradiction here between my view and this verse, but there is what I would call textual contortionists.
And these are explanations and perspectives where you're looking at a verse in the Bible, but you're really having to stretch its meaning, you're having to twist it. You're having to contort and manipulate the text and put it through some elaborate machinations in order to make it harmonize with the doctrine that you hold. So when you're evaluating these different theological views, that's good to ask. Which view works better across the whole text of the Bible? But then also, which view allows for the plainest reading of scripture?
Which view requires the least textual contortion, the least twisting and stretching of scriptures, which one just makes the most sense and works best everywhere in the Bible, the subject shows up. While there are end times, prophecies all over the Bible, there are four super texts. I call them super texts that any serious student of Bible prophecy must study. That's right. When we're done revelation, you've begun your journey to understanding the end times, but there's more work to do if you want to be a serious student of Bible prophecy.
Your starting point is studying the Book of Revelation, the epistles of First and Second Thessalonians. The Olivet Discourse, which was taught by Jesus in Matthew 24 to 25, Mark 13 and Luke 21, and then you also need to study the back half of the book of Daniel. And so the most accurate eschatological view is going to be the one that best harmonizes all of those texts that works best in all of those places in scripture. Hopefully you're still with me.
In other words, you're going to view much of the Bible, especially Bible prophecy, as being word pictures and metaphors and things like that. And you're almost going to start with that assumption, whereas a firm hermeneutical approach is going to cause you to dig into the scriptures, starting with the assumption that the Bible is speaking literally.
And so if you look at that chart on your outline, you can see that if you favor and allegorical approach to Bible prophecy, then you're probably going to hold an all millennial eschatology. You're probably not going to believe in a rapture. If you favor a literal approach to reading the Bible, you're probably going to hold a pre millennial eschatology and you're probably going to believe in a rapture. You're hermeneutics have a massive impact on your theology, but especially your eschatology.
So just. To be up front with you about where we're going in this study, we will be employing a firm hermeneutic which is going to lead us to conclude a pre millennial pre tribulation eschatology. And if that's not currently your view, let me just ask you to stick with us so that you can see how I reach that conclusion. And then once you've seen and heard the evidence, you can evaluate whether my conclusion is reasonable. You can come to your own conclusion.
So why start with a firm hermeneutic, though? Why why would we begin by assuming that the Bible is speaking literally? Firstly, because conveying specific literal meaning is the primary reason words and language exist. It's the reason we invented languages is because we wanted to convey things with specific meaning that was represented by specific words. And if you think about it. We start by taking all text and conversation literally, unless there is a compelling reason not to. Here's what I mean.
If you come up to me and say, Jeff, do you know where I can get a cup of coffee? None of us begin by assuming the other person is speaking metaphorically. I would be crazy to begin by assuming that by cup of coffee you meant something else, like the meaning of life or purpose. Any reasonable person begins with the assumption that the other person is speaking literally, not metaphorically or allegorically. And so it only makes sense to approach the Bible with the same rationale.
We begin by assuming the Bible is speaking literally, unless there is good evidence, a good reason to suggest that the text is speaking with some type of visual language. For example, when Jesus is telling his audience something that is described as a parable, we know that it's a fabricated story. We know this because the Bible tells us that it is a parable. That's a good reason to not take Jesus's words literally in that instance. And there are many other good reasons to not take a text literally, but beginning with an assumption of literalism.
Both these words, until contrary evidence appears, is always the most logical approach to any text or conversation. Secondly, we know that in the Old Testament there are over 300 prophecies that speak of Jesus's first coming the incarnation. We know that the overwhelming percentage of them are literal. We know because Jesus fulfilled them literally in his first coming. The Bible contains significantly more prophecies relating to Jesus's second coming. Now, if the prophecies relating to Jesus's first coming were fulfilled, primarily, literally, why in the world would we not expect the prophecies that speak of a second coming to also be fulfilled?
Literally, what justification do we have for completely changing our hermeneutical approach to Bible prophecy when it comes to the prophecies regarding Jesus's first coming and the prophecies regarding his second coming? What's our justification for taking the first set?
My dear friends and readers. I truly pray that you are enjoying the teachings of this pastor about the Revelations. I enjoy his no-nonsense teachings. He seems to be able to see into our minds when we don't understand something and he then goes on to explain it to us in an easier to understand way. I like it when this pastor tells us the beliefs of others and then is able to show us where they are wrong and why. It will be a long trip he is taken us through, right now we are still in the introductions, but I believe that in the end, we will be able to understand the Revelations like we were never able to do before............................
They really don't have a choice. They have to allegories Israel and in order to allegories Israel, they have to allegories, pretty much all eschatology. So anyone who holds to replacement theology, I really want you to understand this. Anyone who holds to replacement theology. You cannot evaluate end times Bible prophecy objectively because they are pretty committed to viewing it allegorically, they have no choice or they create a contradiction with their own theology. Let's talk about the second divergence of eschatological views which are centered on the rapture of the church. The rapture is the term given to a literal future event when Jesus will remove all those who are collectively known as the church from the Earth, meet them in the clouds and take them to be with him in an instant.
And all this will happen in the blink of an eye. The most well-known verse is on the Rapture are found in First Thessalonians four, beginning in verse 16. I'll read it to you. Paul writes this for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an angel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus we shall always be with the Lord. So there are three main views on the Rapture, and they all fall under the view of pre-millennialism. The Millennialist and the Post millennialist do not believe in any type of rapture. If you believe in a rapture, this might be news to you. Most Christians do not believe in any type of rapture. Only those who hold to a pre millennial eschatology believe in any type of rapture. And so under Premal in any millennialism, there are these three different views on the rapture, and they all have to do with the issue of the timing of the rapture.
That's where they get their names from, specifically where the Rapture falls in relation to the seven-year tribulation period described in Revelation Chapter six through Revelation Chapter nineteen. All your questions will be answered when we get there in our study. For now, let's just be content to understand the tribulation, to be all the bad stuff that happens in Revelation. So these different views of the Rapture have to do with where does the Rapture happen in relation to the seven year time period where all this bad stuff is happening.
If you look at your notes, your outline, you'll see the three suppositions, sub positions and what each of them believes. Firstly, we have a post tribulation view or poster view. This is the view that the church will be raptured after the tribulation period. So at the end of those seven years, the second view is the tribulation view or mid trip view. This is the view that the church will be raptured, you guessed it, at the halfway point of the tribulation, the middle point, three and a half years into those seven years.
And then finally, we have the pre tribulation view, the pre trip view that the church will be raptured before the tribulation begins. So there's a simple chart on your outline that helps us understand these different eschatological positions regarding the bottom of the diagram, where you see this weird word that you might not know how to pronounce the word is pronounced hermeneutics. And it's the technical term for how we approach the task of interpreting scripture, how we approach the task of interpreting the Bible.
And so you can have a very allegorical or soft hermeneutic or you can have a very literal or very firm hermeneutic. Generally, a soft hermeneutical approach is going to lead you to take the scriptures, especially prophecy, with the assumption that it's allegorical or idiomatic or mystical or something like that.
In the rare instances when I would come across a church or a pastor teaching from the Book of Revelation, they would very selectively pull out the few verse is they did understand and then sweep away the rest of the book with a comment along the lines of, Listen, Jesus wins in the end.
And that's really all that matters. Over the years, I gleaned a few snippets of information from books and low budget Christian movies and the odd sermon. But after walking with Jesus for years, my understanding of revelation still sounded something like I'm pretty sure Jesus comes back at some point in the future. I think there's a rapture in there somewhere. There's an Antichrist, a battle of Armageddon, something to do with 666 and lots of bad, scary stuff that's going to happen.
My knowledge of what the Bible says about the end times was scattered and lacking any semblance of cohesive understanding. I felt like I had seven pieces of a 100 piece puzzle I. Couldn't see the big picture, and I had no idea how the few pieces I did have fit in with the rest of the puzzle. Perhaps you can relate then at the age of 23, I took a position at the church that would change my life and my and my understanding of the Bible.
When I joined that church, the pastor was about halfway through a message series on the Book of Revelation. And when I found that out, I remember I asked someone, Oh, you mean the parts we can understand? And they said, well, no, actually, the whole thing we're going through the whole book, verse by verse. I was floored. I couldn't believe it. As an employee of the church, I tried not to look completely confused.
So I politely nodded while I thought, I don't understand. How is that? How is that possible? I listened attentively through the rest of the series and then went back and listened to the first half of the message series, the messages I had missed. And by the time I reached the end of the series, I couldn't believe it. I actually understood it. I understood the Book of Revelation. I understood every chapter and pretty much every verse, and it changed my life.
Let me tell you how the first word that we need to learn is eschatology. Eschatology. That's a good, smart sounding word to add to your vocabulary. It's the term for the theological study of Bible prophecies related to the end of the world, the end times, the last days. So if you're studying eschatology, you're studying end times, Bible prophecies, which is what we're going to be doing in this message series within Christianity, there's a frequently repeated critique of those who love to dig into eschatology.
And the critique goes something like this. If you're too heavenly minded, you'll be no earthly good. I remember opening a prominent Christian music magazine and reading their review of a concept album that a well-known Christian artist had just released. All the songs were focused on heaven and the coming of Jesus for his church, and it was and is a brilliant album. But this review felt the need to accuse the album of, quote, suffering from our Flyaway syndrome and quote.
Both critiques that I mentioned are rooted in the belief that Christians who are focused on the heaven will neglect all the things they should be doing for Jesus on the earth here and now. Those who make this critique believe that Christians who are focused on heaven will live useless lives as they waste away their days longingly gazing toward the heavens when they should be sharing the gospel and occupying themselves with the work of the kingdom on the Earth. My testimony and the testimony of countless others is that Eschatology has the complete opposite effect on a person because the reality is that you won't be any earthly good until your heavenly minded.
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What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
We'll see that later on in Revelation. They'll lose their lives in the tribulation. The picture painted by Revelation has pretty much no gentile believers making it through the tribulation. Those who are Gentile believers before the tribulation are going to be removed before the tribulation begins. And it's going to be fascinating to see how God is going to do that. Take a look at Verses 8- 10 again. You know, it's a fascinating thing that in the original Greek, the phrase the whole world means the whole world.Even during the two world wars, the whole world was not affected. There were tribes in jungles that had no idea anything was going on. Jesus uses that phrase very specifically because he wants us to understand that this coming hour of trial is going to be unlike anything the world has ever seen before. Suffice it to say, Jesus cannot be referring to events that have already taken place in history because nothing, like he's describing, has ever taken place in history. Make a note of this.
Jesus promises to keep them from the tribulation. He promises to keep them from the tribulation. You might recall Paul reassuring the Thessalonians believers by telling them this, but you brethren are not in darkness so this day should overtake you as a thief. Believers are supposed to recognize the hour when these events are about to unfold. Then just a few verses later, Paul reminds them, for God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, the world is going to enter into the tribulation.
However, the church believers are not. If you're a believer, you will never experience the wrath of God in that good news. So what criticism does Jesus have for the Philadelphia church? Write this down. None. None. No criticism, they're keeping his word and sharing the gospel, and because they're doing that, Jesus has nothing critical to say, just as he had nothing critical to say about Smyrna, the church that was dying for him. So so this is important.
Jesus has no criticism for the church that is suffering for him or the church that is proclaiming him. As far as an exhortation goes, Jesus says this in verses and behold, I am coming quickly, underline that I am coming quickly, and then underline these two words. Hold fast to what you have so that no one may take your crown. Just a quick reminder, Crown speaks of rewards, not salvation. The believer's salvation is a settled, finished issue among the seven letters crowns are only mentioned here and in the letter to Smyrna, the only two churches that, as we said, also received no criticism from Jesus.
Look at verse 11 again. When do we receive our crown? The text clearly implies that believers have their crown now because no one can take something from them that's not already in their possession. That means even though believers may not know it or may not be able to sense it, many are walking around with crowns already. Jesus is already handing them out, and I can't help wondering how differently we would view each other and our sufferings if we could see those crowns right now.
Our future with Jesus is so certain, its future history, it's as certain as the events of yesterday that have already happened, we're already there, but not yet. This glorious, yet hard-to-fathom reality is what Paul was speaking of when he told us that we've been seeded with Christ in heavenly places, present tense. Write this down. The exhortation is holding fast, hold fast. Jesus says you're doing great. Keep going. Don't let anyone take the crown I've already placed upon your head.