Messages to the Church Revealed (Philadelphia) ...

The sixth church out of the seven that comprised the whole of those who follow Christ, was located in the city of Philadelphia in Asia Minor.  Many people are aware of the city’s name being associated with “the love of one’s brother”.  This began historically as it was established by an ancient king who gave it to the brother he loved and would succeed him in his reign.  But throughout the message of Christ in the book John recorded in Revelations chapter 3, there is no reference to this characteristic being associated with the Christian church there.  Because “we” associate brotherly love with the name Philadelphia, we imply it to this Christian church.  But there really is no specific mention of it in Revelations that would cement this point of view.  There is also significant debate about the time period associated with the Philadelphia church.  It is generally thought that it occurs near the end of the reformation, perhaps in the middle of the 1800’s; but when it ends, or even if it ends, is still a matter of study.  Some believe it overlaps with Laodicea and extends to the return of Christ, others believe only the final church period exists at that time.  None the less, what matters is the revelation of Jesus Christ that is made clear in His message to His church which was located in Philadelphia, and what relevance that same message has to us reading it today.

John begins in verse 7 to relay what he hears … “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;”  It is important to realize the author of the coming message remains Jesus Christ.  The only one who was ever holy in our world was Jesus Christ.  The only one who remains ever true (or is truth itself) is Jesus Christ.  This message did not originate from the apostle John, or Peter, or any leader of the church.  As in the past 5 messages, Jesus begins by identifying traits about Himself that will be relevant and meaningful to the church He is about to address.  In this case, it is His holiness, and His truth.  But the introduction does not end there.  It is Christ who has “the key of David”.  It is Christ who is able to “open and no man shutteth” or Christ who alone can “shutteth and no man openeth”.  This distinction is important.  As with his other churches, Christ is asserting His leadership of His followers.  He has NOT delegated these roles to any man among us.  We have NOT been given this authority or responsibility.  Christ alone retains it.  Christ is the rock upon which His church is to be built.

There are way too many “spiritual leaders” of every sect who believe themselves to have authority in both this world and in heaven.  From the Pope, to the popular evangelist, to the leader of the megachurch on TV, to the local pastor; many believe themselves to have authority in this world and in heaven.  They believe themselves to have a special relationship, with special access, and a special role with respect to God.  But here is Christ saying that only He has the key of David.  It has not been given to men.  Christ alone has the authority, the leadership, the access to His Father – it is He alone who can open the doors to heaven, or to close them, for He alone holds the keys.  As if for clarity, John relays the message of Jesus, that we should not look to men for leadership of our salvation, but to Christ alone.  Our role will be one of servant, not one of leader, whether we serve only a few in our homes and communities, or whether we serve many through our participation in His ministry and service.  Christ alone will be our leader, He alone will hold the key to heaven, and to our salvation.

John continues in verse 8 … “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.”  This is not exactly a stunning endorsement of the success of the church of Philadelphia.  As before, Christ plainly states that He is aware of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and what works have resulted in the church of Philadelphia.  And in association with those works, He immediately reveals He has set before them, an open door that no man can shut.  Apparently what the church of Philadelphia needs most is access to Him and His Father.  We need His word to point us to Him, and we need the ability to find Him unimpeded by the distractions of men, who might otherwise close the door.  The condition of the followers of Philadelphia is that they have “a little strength” in that they have “kept my word” and have not “denied my name”. 

To keep the word of Christ is derived from the “little strength” we may have.  Perhaps we have discovered that even a partial surrender of our will to Christ, allows in our lives a small measure of His strength.  How much better we would be if we were to allow a full surrender of our will, to see a full measure of His strength within us.  To hold fast to the name of Christ, is more than a false profession, but a genuine recognition of our need of Him to save us from who we are.  It appears that while Philadelphia is not perfect, nor incredibly strong, they have at least experienced a small measure of strength in Christ.  They have not attempted to use grace as a license to sin, but rather have attempted to use grace as an escape from sin.  This is the power of the name of Christ used in our lived.  It is the basis of our salvation, and is every bit as needed today as it was when this message was penned.

John continues in verse 9 … “Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.”  This is where the key of David becomes important.  There are those who claim to have access to God, by a means outside of Jesus Christ.  They claim that Jesus is not necessary for access to God.  They have access by right of birth, through a lineage that dates back to David, or Moses, or Abraham.  Today they may claim a different lineage, one that makes Jesus nothing more than a prophet, like Muhammed, and a lineage that traces back to Abraham through Ismael, or Esau.  Those who claim access to God, either through a competing ideology such as humanism, or by right of birth through a lineage that dates back to Abraham, have disassociated themselves with Jesus Christ, and in so doing are here revealed as being part of the synagogue of Satan.  When we divorce ourselves from Jesus Christ as the author of our salvation, when we trust only to our own wisdom, we adopt the precepts of the synagogue of Satan.  Claiming a heritage of association with God does not make it so.  Because our parents were devoted followers of Christ does not make it so for us. 

One of the ideas, made popular by His enemy, is that prosperity alone is the only symbol of the favor of God.  Because the Lord so loved His Jewish people, because He loved Moses, and Abraham, and David, He richly blessed them, even in this world.  This blessing was only ever a symbol of His love for us.  It was never intended to be “the” living witness of His favor.  But we sometimes misinterpret wealth as the only sure sign of God’s blessing and favor in our lives.  We forget, He is often the author of our trials as well.  He permits trial and temptation to enter our lives, and instructs us to rely on Him when it does.  This builds our trust in Him, our reliance on Him, and can make of us gold tried in a fire.  But when the bad things happen, we sometimes interpret them as did Job of old.  “what did we do wrong?”  “Aren’t we doing what you said?”  “Why do bad things happen to good people?”.  Those who do not rightly understand salvation, who embrace false ideologies, look at our lives and laugh.  They taunt us and try our faith by pointing out that we do not have wealth and ease, and obviously are living in the disfavor of our God, if there even is a God.  This false sense of identification of worldly wealth, with the favor of God, must be broken.  And so the True author of our salvation, and of the only access to the True God, will cause these members of the synagogue of Satan to see that followers of Christ were truly loved by both Christ and our God.

When through our submission to Christ, we find the freedom that comes from seeing sins removed.  When we find the peace that comes from “wanting” to love and serve others, for the joy of it.  When we truly learn how to love, not with thoughts of what is in for us, but what can be given by us to others.  Our lives will be lives worth living.  They will stand in contrast with the selfishness in the world.  They will be a reflection of His light, His grace, and His love and favor.  To this stark contrast, those who trust only to self, will see the error of their ways.  They will be compelled to see that a true follower of Christ has found a salvation that is meaningful even in the here and now.  Perfection comes ahead of the final transformation, and the peace of living with sin departing is one the world cannot take away.  Those who do not know the truth of this will see it lived in the lives of those who do.

John continues in verse 10 … “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”  The goal of Christ is to see us redeemed.  All of us.  His mission is one of our redemption.  He delays His return, because of His stubborn love for us, and His efforts to make every attempt to save us from ourselves by the power of His so great love.  The members of Philadelphia understand that this may mean a delay in His return, but that His patience will yield a crop of souls in His Kingdom.  They do not lose heart at the delay of the coming of the Lord, for they understand His delay is for our own benefit.  He is reaching and seeking every lost soul, to try to lure them back to the gift He so longs to give them, and to us. 

Because the members of Philadelphia understand the reason for His delay, He offers them the promise of being spared from the hour of temptation which will come upon all the world to try them that dwell on the earth.  This temptation is ever as it was.  From the origination of evil being born into the universe, the only real question has ever been … do we trust God, or in our own wisdom.  Lucifer failed this test as he chose to turn away from God and believe in himself.  Evil was born as a result.  Adam broke trust with God, even in perfection, as he chose to love Eve, more than to trust in the love of God to save Eve.  You and I face the same challenge today, will we trust in our wisdom in scripture and doctrine to save us, or will we trust in Jesus Christ to remake us a new in this world.  The members of Philadelphia who understand the patience of the Lord in His delay in returning, do so, because they have already answered this question for themselves, and have embraced Jesus as the sole source of their salvation.  Therefore they are spared the hour of temptation because they already know it is Christ alone who can save us all from ourselves and our wickedness.

Jesus continues His message to us as John writes further in verse 11 … “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”  Despite what we see, or what Philadelphia sees as a delay in His return, from the point of view of Jesus, He is coming quickly.  It is faster than we may imagine.  And once again we are admonished not to allow any “man” to take our crown.  We are not to put our faith in the words of others, or in the leadership of others, but in Christ alone.  We are not to relinquish our salvation to the Pope, or Billy Graham, or Joel Osteen, or our local pastor, or our parents.  We are to keep our salvation steadfastly based alone in Jesus Christ.  It is trusting in Christ alone that will see us saved.  When we replace Christ, even when it is with those we perceive to be living a righteous life, or seem to have great spiritual enlightenment, we allow another “man” to take our crown.  We must remain steadfast in our reliance on Christ alone to see His gift of the crown of our salvation remain with us.  Crowns of victory are to be GIVEN to us by Jesus Christ.  They do not come from our fellow man.  They do not come because we earn them.  They are His gift to us.  They are His victories wrought in our lives.  We are to be the beneficiaries of His perfection remade in us.

The promise continues in verse 12 … “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”  What must be overcome then?  A trust in self, a trust in those who believe themselves to hold the Key of David instead of Christ alone, an impatience to see Christ come now so that our suffering alone can end, the idea that access to God can be achieved outside of Christ;  all these ideas must be overcome through our constant submission of our will to Christ alone.  When through our submission we find His victory, we are promised to be made “a pillar in the temple of my God”.  This idea of permanence would have been quite meaningful to a people who suffered through the effects of earthquakes in the region in which they lived.  It is equally meaningful to us, as we see we are promised a permanence in the ministry of our God, a place in the mission of redemption to which all of heaven is engaged. 

Then the promise gets extreme.  For it says … “he shall go no more out”.  Our faith, given to us by Christ, will be shaken no more.  We will not choose to leave the temple of my God.  We will see evil rise no second time within us.  For our salvation will be made complete by the working of the Holy Spirit and the gift of our Creator in our lives, to see us restored and remade completely in His image.  We will never again choose to leave the value, the principles, the government, the law, and the love of God.  We will not decide again to see it questioned in us; for we shall “go no more out”.  We, through the gift of Christ, will be cemented in the salvation He brings to our lives.  And symbolically our identity is to be changed again.  We are to have written upon us, the name of my God, the name of the city of my God (which is new Jerusalem), and my new name.  We are to be branded, to be named, to be associated with, on a very personal level – the God of the universe and His son Jesus Christ.  How we are known is to be altered by Christ Himself.  We are to lose our earthly name, and our earthly association and be known now, only as He would choose to name us.  We are to have His name, the name of His God, and His city, implanted so deep in us that it is a part of us.  Our reflection of this new identity will be complete in every part of “who” we are. 

This is perhaps the greatest promise made so far, as to see us known to be something completely different than who we are today.  It is our character, our identity itself that is to be remade by Christ alone.  This is His ultimate gift to us, that we are more closely associated with God, than anything that has defined us to date.  This is the promise of a new life, taken even a step farther.  For it is not just new in the sense of how we live it, but new in the sense of who we are.  It is the depths of our salvation that we are to be known for our close proximity to God, for our participation in His love and mission to redeem, for our unending gratitude and worship of who He is.  The remainder of the sentient universe is to come to know us differently than they know us today.  Instead of our association with the long history of sinful selfish things we have done again and again.  They are to see us remade and rebranded by the Son of God, to carry His name written upon us, and a new name that reflects the transformation and salvation He has wrought within us.  We are to be known by them forevermore as being tied to His God, His City, and Him, and named by Christ Himself that is a unique reflection of His work in us.   This is a new life that is quite beyond our comprehension, yet penned by John as the revelation of Jesus Christ to you and I.

John concludes this revelation by again quoting the words of Christ in verse 13 … “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”  This message is to be for more than just the members of the Philadelphia church who followed the true Christ.  It is to be for us, for we who have ears, and are eager to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  What must be overcome is relevant to us, but also the patience, and promises that are contained in these texts.  The fullness of our salvation is wrought by Jesus Christ and Him alone, and so we have His promise of even a new identity found in Him alone.

And the messages were not over yet …

 

Messages to the Church Revealed (Thyatira) ...

The fourth church of the seven singled out for a revelation of Jesus Christ as our God, was in the city of Thyatira.  Historically, the city was renowned for its artisans related to the making of clothing, particularly of royal clothing, dying of purples and blues.  The city itself is said to have been renamed to Thyatira upon the announcement of the birth of a daughter to the old king Seleucus while he was away in battle in the year 290 BC, though the name itself may have had more meaning to the Lydian culture of the day.  Paul and Silas encountered a woman who was actually named Lydia in Acts 16:14 who was a dyer of purple from the city of Thyatira, who became baptized and a devout Christian.  It may be that these historical and cultural references added meaning to the message the Jesus would reveal of Himself through John to this particular church.  The message begins with a focus on yet a different characteristic of how Christ looked to John during that initial encounter of Him walking among the seven candlesticks.

In revelation chapter two, in verse 18 John begins … “And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;”  The eyes of Christ are alive and brilliant and as the Son of God, they see everything.  Nothing can be hidden from our God who is able to read the desires of our hearts as well as the things we display in public.  His feet are like fine brass, they reflect the image of service and love, and inform us that He is more than human, but still walks amidst His church.  Jesus then exhorts his followers and reassures them that He is well aware of the fruits of His Spirit that have been poured out in this church community.  John continues in verse 19 … “I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.”  The works prompted by His Spirit were listed twice, with an accentuation of the latter being even more than the former.  This may have more significance if we consider its application to be over a wider time span than just the audience of the day who composed that particular church community.  If each of the seven churches were to represent the church of Christ’s followers over a corresponding period of time, the works done in the beginning of the time period in this case, might have been out-shown by the works done in the latter part of the time period.

But none-the-less as with the previous messages revealed to the other churches, Thyatira was in need of a message of redemption as John continues in verse 20 … “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”  This message may have both literal and spiritual application.  First you will notice what is under attack once again is intimacy.  Christ uses the idea of a woman, the most corrupt in Old Testament writings who was named Jezebel.  In Old Testament days Jezebel was an evil queen married to King Ahab of the northern 10 tribes who broke away worship from Jerusalem that held the true sanctuary of Israel’s God.  This woman inspired Ahab to destroy intimacy with God thru the worship of sexual promiscuity.  This would eventually degenerate into the sacrifice of the unwanted offspring of unprotected sex with temple prostitutes.  Girls would be preserved to make a new crop of temple prostitutes, boys would be slain in the fires of Molech, or Baal, and an assortment other false gods.  The first casualty of spiritual infidelity however was not the results of infidelity, it was the original intimacy between ourselves and our God.  As we begin to entertain other “loves” outside of our God, we find what we “love” most is ourselves, and our gratification, not our God, and the needs of others.

Jezebel of old was forever trying to kill the real prophet of God, Elijah.  Elijah had the message of truth for the people of God in his day.  But the queen would not allow for truth to be spoken to the people of God, lest she lose her power and control over the people.  So Jezebel was forever hunting Elijah to be killed.  And in her day, she did not do the hunting personally, a woman had no real power.  Instead she would have the power of the king (her husband), and his soldiers and army to do her bidding.  In spiritual terms this would equate to a false church using the power of the state to maintain control and power over the people, with its origins of denying access to the truth of the word of God.  Attempting to supplant the true word, with false words of her own.  Notice too, that Jezebel is not out to convert the world itself to her ideas and false doctrines, but instead is looking to “seduce my servants”.  She tempts the servants of God with the seductive ideas of power, control, and self-gratification.  The idea that we can please self while still claiming to please God, is at the core of Jezebel’s false seductive message to the church of Christ.

It may not have been lost on the members of the Thyatira community that Jezebel and many other women of a royal class wore garments of fine purple’s and blue’s and in general were used to living with the excesses that wealth provides.  Perhaps even some of the workmanship done by members in Thyatira would be used by Jezebel to make herself happy.  The literal piece of this message was very similar to the churches that preceded it.  A destruction of intimacy through sexual immorality, followed by the symptom of eating to please self without regard for the consequences or implications to those in need; were indicators that true reformation of the heart had not yet been experienced by those who purport to follow Christ.  If anything, wealth is here identified as NOT being the goal of the follower of Christ, in that the danger of using wealth on self rather than on the needs of others seems to outweigh its benefits.  Jezebel, as a queen, had wealth but used it to hold control over others, not to love and meet their needs.  That the church of Christ did not denounce Jezebel and expose her as having nothing to do with the real followers of Christ was the fact Jesus was revealing to His church that He was not happy with.  Jezebel and her teachings were wrong, and associated with the most evil woman in the scriptures, yet the church of Christ “suffered” her.  The church made no separation from her, or denunciation of her.  Instead it seemed the church embraced her as a part of it.  This was the revelation Christ was pointing out that was in error.

John continues the message of reformation to Thyatira in verse 21 … “And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.”  Even Jezebel is offered redemption through repentance.  Even the most wicked woman penned in scripture is not without hope, or opportunity, or a chance to repent and become part of the fold of Christ.  But repentance and humility cannot be forced, just as love cannot be forced.  If the church who uses the name of Christ, is unwilling to submit and have the heart of Christ created in it, what follows is the destruction that is inevitable in our choice to embrace the pain and death of sin.  This is not a choice our God takes lightly.  So He does not have us make it instantly, but instead he offers us time to consider it.  During this time, He makes every effort to reach out to us in love, and hopes to lure us back to Him, through the power of His so great love.  But for the heart that will not yield, that will not submit, that will not see its own need, He cannot force it to comply for the use of force is not His tactic, but that of His enemy.  Despite giving Jezebel herself time to consider her decisions and repent, she does not repent.

John continues in verse 22 … “Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. [verse 23] And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.”  Ouch.  The rebuke here is severe.  The punishment for her refusal to repent, is to bear the weight of her own choices and actions.  The “works” of evil that will result in pain, are to be allowed to be experienced.  We sometimes do not know the full weight of our sins, because as we repent, the Lord is generous and protects us from the pain our choices should have resulted in.  We therefore miss the full weight of our sins and choices, because of the mercy of our God.  The punishment identified here for Jezebel however, is simply a removal of that protection.  Those who embrace the ideas of self-love and self-gratification are going to be allowed to see just what pain and death accompany those choices.  The hand of mercy will be removed, and the full weight of our embrace of pain and death will be experienced … “except we repent.”  Even in our disaster, the hand of repentance remains outstretched from our God.  But while we refuse it, the results that come upon us, will reflect that God does denounce the sins we embrace, that His hand of mercy will not forever spare us from the pain of our un-repented sins.  It is not only our actions that are allowed to bear fruit, but our motives as well, both the “reins” and “hearts” are known of our God.  The weight of our sin is to be a clear message to the world and the church of where sin leads, and what it truly means, if we continue to refuse to repent.

John continues in verse 24 … “But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. [verse 25] But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.”  Here again is hope outstretched.  Notice Jesus begins by addressing “you”.  “You” who is reading this message, by virtue of reading and reaching out to God, He identified “you” as being separate from those who have refused to repent and suffer the fate of their choices.  “You” are different than them, because this message has not been lost on “you”.  He continues “and unto the rest” in Thyatira, and in the space and time associated with this period of church history.  Both “you” and “unto the rest”, and “as many as have not this doctrine”, in effect to everyone who has refused to adopt the false doctrines of control and self-gratification, there is to be a promise. 

This group which has refused to embrace the false prophecies and doctrines and teachings of Jezebel, this is a group which in so doing has not known the “depths of Satan as they speak”.  Those who would compel conscience, and put to the sword any who should disagree with them, and in the name of our God, have truly come to know the depths of Satan in what they say.  For since the war in heaven began, Satan has blamed all death on God, taking no responsibility for it himself.  Satan has forever attempted to enslave and compel the minds and hearts of men, for he does not desire the choice of love, but instead the mindless compulsion of slavery.  Satan wishes to rule the universe on pain of death.  Whereas God rules it because we choose to return the love to us He has already offered.

The promise given to those who have remained faithful to their intimacy with Christ, who have not abandoned Him through love of other gods, or of self, to them is given the promise that they shall bear none other burden but that which we already have.  This is the essence of salvation itself.  A submission of our will, a repentance born of humility, is already the “hardest” part of our salvation.  It is after all a refusal to repent that has seen Jezebel and those who would commit adultery with her bearing all the pain of their choices.  A stubborn refusal to repent is why Jezebel is being allowed to bear the weight of her sins.  If she, and we, would have repented, the mercy of our God would have kept us from seeing the full weight of the choices and sins we had embraced.  But the outstretched hand of mercy is consistently rejected, and so what comes, comes.  But “you” were not meant to suffer the fate of Jezebel.  “You” were meant to refuse her false words and instead embrace the words of Christ.  “You” were meant to know the freedom of repentance and submission, and salvation by being remade by Christ.  “You” were meant to be saved from yourself and your natural inclinations.

John continues in verse 26 … “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: [verse 27] And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. [verse 28] And I will give him the morning star.”  Now the giving is going to just get ridiculous, as usual.  The works of Christ in His ministry were works of love for others, healing for others, meeting the needs of others.  He did these works without condemnation, or judgment, but to redeem, to save, to reconcile us to Himself.  These acts of charity we are charged with keeping until the end.  Notice this is the ONLY doctrine, the doctrine of His actions of love to others, that He charges us to remain within.  For it is love alone that accomplishes our salvation, and leads others to want that same salvation with our God.  It is not our hate, or judgmentalism, or legalistic views of right and wrong that inspire salvation in others, instead it is ONLY our unconditional love for them.  What must be overcome then, is the idea that we can compel the conscience of others, that we can deny others access to the true word of God, that we can put faith in our wealth and fineries rather than in Christ alone, that we can corrupt our intimacy with God through the false doctrines of self-gratification.  These things can only be overcome as we submit our will in repentance and humility to Christ, who alone can remake and recreate us in His image.

The power that comes over nations, the iron rod that splinters the vessels of potters clay, is the steadfast love that is given unconditionally to everyone we encounter.  Think of it, Christ took no violent actions in His day, yet the entire Roman empire was brought to its knees by the fundamental doctrines of love and submission in the hearts of true believers.  Pagan Rome is a thing of the past, despite its iron grip in the time of Christ.  No dictator, including Satan, is able to maintain control over a people who embrace love of others as their primary premise.  Evil itself, will be forever removed from the universe, by the free-will choice of sentient beings in the universe, including us, because we choose to embrace love of others instead of love for self.  This is the truth that shatters evil and cannot be broken.  Love wins.  Love conquers all, including evil, and Love will see evil finally and fully defeated.  As Christ received love from His Father, so we are to receive Love from Christ who we follow and submit our will to.  Christ was forever doing the will of His Father, not of Himself.  So we are to do the will of Christ and not of our own.  And in so doing, we are further promised the “morning star”.  We are promised the gift of Christ Himself, poured out in our lives, in our families, in our churches, in our communities, and in our world.  The gift of Christ is the greatest gift God could make to us, and is the basis of our salvation from beginning to end.

Jesus concludes his message of revelation to the church of Thyatira as John writes in verse 29 … “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”  Once again the message to the church is joined by the power of His Holy Spirit.  For without the power of His Spirit, we will be unable to overcome, unable to understand, and unable to be removed from the power of our choices and sins.  But as we submit to our God, we come to know the power of His salvation to us.  This is the promise to Thyatira, and of way more importance, the promise Jesus makes to “you”.

And the messages were not over yet …

 

Messages to the Church Revealed (Ephesus) ...

The first church of the seven was identified as Ephesus.  John begins in Revelations chapter two, by immediately revealing the source of the message; its author is Christ.  Verse one states … “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;”  It is Christ who holds the seven stars, or seven angels of the seven churches in his right hand.  It is Christ that walks amidst the seven golden candlesticks or amidst HIS church.  Here again Christ asserts His ownership for His church.  John is not the owner.  The local pastor is not the owner.  Even the members do not “own” their own church body.  Christ alone does.  The message itself appears to be targeted at not only the church, but to the angel of the church.  This may imply that the message will be to the people, but that even after the people are gone, it remains a message the angel is to hold for this church in perpetuity.  But whether the message was prophetic, or immediately relevant, or both; what was clear was that it came from Christ.  It was not the opinions of John in this instance; it was the word of the Lord.

John continues relaying what he is told in verse 2 … “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: [verse 3] And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.”  To begin Christ starts by insuring His followers understand that He is fully aware, and actively engaged in His church at Ephesus.  The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the early days of the church of Jesus has borne fruit.  The people who follow Christ have labored to spread His gospel, they have been patient, and they have not stopped their efforts to spread His gospel merely because it is difficult physically on them.  In addition, they have suffered the burden of having to contend with “false” apostles.  Imagine how hard it must have been for an early Christian church with no form of mass or immediate communications to tell when a stranger comes claiming to be an apostle (who no one has ever met), from a genuine apostle (who no one has ever met).  They did not have Facebook or any way to look up the credentials of these folks.  Instead they would have to bring them into their midst, welcome them as is the Christian way, and only over time observe that self-interest, and self-motivation were the only objectives of these false messengers.  They were posing as believers, only to gain monetary advantage, taking what was shared and pocketing it much like Judas before them.  Sometimes these fakers would act as spies for the Jewish authorities to attempt to bring persecution to the true leadership of the church.

Because the mantra of the church of Jesus was to love everyone without precondition, the revelation of false apostles with hidden motives and agendas was neither easy nor immediate.  It puts the church in that contentious position of hoping for redemption, yet having to deal with the reality of refusal of that redemption from one of its own.  Here Christ acknowledges that not every person who claims to be an apostle is truly an apostle.  Claiming to follow Christ, does not make it so.  Claiming to have authority from Christ in the leadership position, such as an apostle, does not make it so.  To truly follow Christ, one must be the servant of all, not attempt to control all.  It is this difference that clearly marks those who through submission have been changed by Christ, and those who are merely claiming His name in order to gain advantage over others.  In general Christ acknowledges that the efforts of the church at Ephesus have had a positive impact.  However, that is not where the message ends.

John continues in verse 4 … “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”  Perhaps the most heartbreaking words that might come from the mouth of our God; a message that we, His followers, have “left” our first love – Him.  The love of Christ being first and foremost in our hearts is the key from which all other actions and motives flow.  When the love of Christ is made secondary in any way, what follows is a reliance on self that creeps into our Christianity and into our thinking.  We begin to take credit for the spiritual works as if they came from us, instead of flowing through us with their source in Christ alone.  We begin to see ourselves as in a better spiritual condition than we are, because we begin to compare our relatively holy lives, with those who are not nearly so spiritually mature and perfected.  To lose our first love, is to seek another to fill its place.  In a marriage it is akin to seeking another lover, another partner, someone else.  In spiritual terms, it is the supplanting of love of Christ, for love of religion, or power, or control, or self.  If Christ is not kept at the center of our thinking and our love, if we do not seek to submit ourselves fully to Him, we cut ourselves off from the mechanism of our change, and the need for it.

Christ continues His admonition in verse 5 … “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”  Remember that we are fallen because we are our own worst enemy.  It is not the devil who “makes” me sin, it is my own desire to do so, I need almost no encouragement from Satan to do what I already want to do.  If I am to stop sinning, I must seek first the only One who is able to remake my desires and cause me to change what I want, and therefore what I do.  The first “work” of our salvation is to submit our will to Christ.  It is why we repent.  When we see ourselves as we truly are, when we see the extent of our selfishness, and our literal eagerness to put Christ back on the cross so that we can have only a moment’s perceived pleasure that comes from self-gratification – we realize just how far our own selfishness will go.  We are no different than the persecuting priests, or Roman guards who tortured our Lord for their own amusement.  It is our amusement that has required His sacrifice.  And it is He alone who can change how we think, and what we love, in order that sin is no longer the temptation it once was.  It is our hearts that must change, before the works of our hands will.  This is the “first works” the church must return to.

If we do not.  We face a self-imposed removal from the presence of Christ.  Our candlestick, our symbolic representation of the perfection Christ is able to perform within His followers, will be removed by our refusal to embrace full submission to His changing and reforming power in our lives.  This is NOT the inclination, or choice, Christ wishes to make.  If it were, He would not waste time, warning us of our self-chosen fate.  This admonition, like every other from the mouth of Christ, was not meant to be a threat to us, but a wake-up-call on how to avoid the pain we so often choose.  Christ is working again for the redemption of His church, not for its condemnation.  But He is also plainly stating a truth, that when we refuse to put Him first, we are putting ourselves on the path of separation from Him, which He will be unable to stop.  Our choice, at the end of the day, rules our fate.  If we choose to forsake our love of Christ, and replace it with love of self, we cut ourselves off from our only hope of salvation.  Christ will not continue to keep an entire church at Ephesus holding a place in the golden candlesticks merely because it once did, or for history’s sake, or in a vain hope they will return.  If we forsake following, and lean on self, our vanity will see us removed and replaced with those who truly do see their need and follow, trusting in Him, and not in themselves.

As the message comes to a close, a further word of encouragement is offered.  Christ continues in verse 6 … “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”  Notice first, Christ does not advocate or endorse hatred for a person, or group of people.  He is specific to say “the deeds of”.  It is the sin Christ hates, NOT the sinners, for we ALL are sinners.  In this the church has followed His lead.  The Nicolaitans of this day, are not much different than many within most of our Christian churches of today.  They misinterpret the message of grace.  Instead of seeing grace as the means of redemption FROM sin, they see it as a vehicle TO sin freely.  They mistake the argument of Christ willingness to forgive, as His sanction that any sin or any act is OK, because right or wrong He will forgive it anyway.  This phenomenon has sometimes been referred to in our day as “cheap grace”.  The idea that nothing we do matters, because we have already been saved, and will remain so, because of the power of Christ.  And once this concept is embraced, most folks generally apply it to sex, or greed, or most other forms of self-indulgence.  The most fundamental flaw in this thinking, is a distortion of the nature of sin.  Instead of seeing sin for the pain it causes others and ourselves, we buy into the devils ideas that sin = fun.  When in fact, sin = pain.  Were we to see sin in that context, we would not seek to find more ways to embrace sin, but rather the only way we can be made free from sin and the pain it brings to others and ourselves.  Christ came to free us from our pain and our sin, not to give us a way to deepen ourselves in it.

The first message concludes in verse 7 … “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”  John now adds a message from the Spirit of Christ, the unity of the Godhead working in concert for our redemption.  He that hath an ear, is we who are believers, if we purport to be followers of Christ, we should take heed to this message.  He does not constrain the message only to those few at Ephesus, but offers a broader audience, in fact all of us, to take notice.  To him “that overcometh”, so first what is it that must be overcome.  The loss of our first love, the replacement of Christ first, for self first, the embracing of the idea that sin is OK simply because forgiveness is there – in short what must be overcome is our own will and desires.  And “how” must self be overcome?  If we are the enemy, we will not cure ourselves.  If we are diseased, it cannot be us who cures us.  Instead we must be made clean.  Instead we must have our chains of slavery to self, broken by the only One who can.  If we are to see a victory over self, it must come from beyond ourselves.  Our salvation will be His gift to us, our role will be to accept it.  We must humble ourselves to see we NEED His gift, as we will be unable to obtain it on our own.  We must submit who we are to Him, in order that He can change how we think, what we want, and therefore what we do.  This is the overcoming that is promised to us by the Spirit.  It is the overcoming that is the promised reward.  What follows is only icing on the cake, not the cake itself.

To eat from the tree of life is to live forever.  It was the tree of life that Adam and Eve were denied access to, once they had embraced sin.  To live forever in the condition of sin, is not life, it is torture.  But once sin has been removed forever from our thinking, our motives, and our deeds, then real life can begin.  Then to live forever is no longer torture but perfection and bliss.  To be in the paradise of God, is not merely to be in the city of Heaven which he has designed and built and upgraded in order that we could share it with Him.  To be in the paradise of God, is to know the absence of self-obsession, and the fullness of selfless service to others, in short to know love, is to know loving others.  Our quest to be loved has long been fulfilled, for Christ has loved us, before we even existed.  To love others is the real agenda.  It is the real paradise, the real heaven.  The purpose of the revelation of Christ to His church in Ephesus, was not to remain stagnant until the day of His returning.  It was to embrace their first love of Christ in the here and now; to see the paradise of God active and alive in their lives in the here and now.  This was possible and achievable in the here and now, but ONLY through the seeking of Christ first and foremost, only through a recognition of our need of Him, and a submission and trust in Him to work in us, what He has promised.

And the messages would continue …

 

Revelations: Church of God Revealed ...

Revelations of Jesus Christ began after his resurrection from the grave, not only in the book John would write on the topic.  To have Jesus Christ revealed to the world, and to His own church, was something both were in desperate need of, as are we today.  The book of prophecies and visions John would pen are often studied today with a focus on predicting latter day events, or for studying the history of political power in the world over time.  But these ideas, while present, are not supposed to be the key message revealed in this text.  Jesus Christ is.  The book we find most difficult to understand was first and foremost intended to be a book that revealed Jesus Christ more fully to the world.  This should be the first goal in its study, not a by-product of what is found within.  The Pharisees had already proven the point to John throughout his gospel to us, that interpretation of scripture without Christ, leads to an improper understanding that will allow those who claim to be the leaders of God’s church, to kill God Himself, in order to maintain their incorrect understandings, and their leadership over the people.  It is always Satan’s kingdom that craves power and subjugation, and God’s who wishes only the freedom to love others and find joy in the loving.

Jesus had a humble birth in this world, though He was honored as a King.  He grew up in the trade of a carpenter in a region not known for anything holy.  He ministered for three and a half years and revealed the will of God His Father on earth to show love to all He encountered.  He died and was raised from the dead.  After this, his physical appearances were limited.  The nature of Christ that was the Son of God was not something readily apparent in the life He lived upon earth.  But this nature was the more important one, and was the one which John would focus on now.  Christ was no longer in this world.  He had ascended back to the side of His Father.  He was home.  And the home He went to, was something none of us understood, or knew anything about.  The whole of the Old Testament pointed forward to His first appearing and hope of a Messiah.  There were some scattered prophesies about heaven and the ultimate restoration of God’s Kingdom past the end of time.  But the majority of the Desire of Ages was to see our hopes fulfilled in His first ministry to us, that of Messiah.  But now, Messiah had come and gone.  What was left to write in the New Testament was about the new hope and new focus of Jesus we would need to know.  It had come time, to reveal to the world, what was coming, and a new Revelation about the nature of Christ as God, not merely as the son of Man.

This effort would be even less appreciated by the remaining Jewish leadership.  It was bad enough to have to contend with the Man Jesus Christ.  But now to have to see His Divine side revealed was not an idea they relished.  In addition, John would be describing what God is like.  John would describing the Only God, the real God, this God which does exist, as opposed to all the prior deities that lived in pagan forms of worship, now revealed to be false.  In the book of Revelation, as is consistent with the entirety of scripture, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit would be discussed and revealed as working in concert for our salvation.  These three who were united and one in the mission of our redemption would be fully discussed.  There would be no mention of Diana, or Zeus, or Apollo, or Odin, or Thor, or Buddha, or Mohammed, or a Great Spirit, or Druid Nature worship, or any other form of past or present alternatives to the truth of Jesus Christ.  There were no other Gods, despite what Satan had propagated into the various forms of worship around the world.  And so in the revealing of Jesus Christ, would also come the unmasking of His enemy.  All of the false forms and false gods that have in common the worship of self; would also be revealed, in contrast to the revelation of the truth and life of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ as our God would be revealed to us.  John would in the course of this new book reveal to the best of his ability what God looked like, in the form of God, rather than merely in the form of Man.  John would write about concepts that would be hard for man to understand.  For any finite being, would find it difficult to put into words something that knows no limits.  But the messages intended for John to reveal to us had an author.  As John opens His book of Revelations, he begins with attributing where the source of these writings would originate from.  Not from his imagination as many would like to believe, not from hallucinations induced by hunger or non-ideal conditions of the Roman prison colony at Patmos where he had been banished to, after the Romans failed to kill him boiling him in oil.  No, the source of these revelations had a home as he would begin to describe in chapter one, and verse one … “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:” - Notice first, that God the Father was the author of these revelations.  God the Father gave these messages to Jesus Christ, in order that Christ could reveal them to His servants (angels and men), about what was to shortly come to pass.  In this designation of time, there is an urgency, and an immediacy that argues that this message will have relevance in the timeline of the readership.  Christ then sends the message to John via an Angel tasked to take it to him.  The progression of the message begins with God the Father, is passed to God the Son, and is delivered to John via an Angel tasked with its delivery.

John continues in verse 2 … “Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. [verse 3] Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”  John recorded the word of God, not his own inclinations, or his own ideas, or his own interpretations of what was revealed, but rather, just as it was delivered to him.  In this book to follow would be the testimony of Jesus Christ.  Everything that John saw, he would transcribe to print.  And so, John offers the reader the idea that just in the reading he will be blessed.  For again the time is at hand, the meanings contained in this book are both prophecy, and currently relevant.  They have meaning both here and now, and in the near future.  John tells us, that the same words may be interpreted in more than one way, but continued to remind us, that all meanings must be derived in the context of a revelation of Jesus Christ.

With this opening, John sets the stage of where the message comes from, and to whom it is being delivered.  He continues in verse 4 … “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;” - John opens with a message for 7 key churches, that are located in Asia.  Notice first these churches do not include the countries of Rome (Italy), or Jerusalem (Israel).  They are in Asia, or plainly stated the rest of the world.  The message or revelation of Jesus Christ is no longer just to be offered to the traditional descendants of Abraham.  The revelations of Jesus Christ as God, are to be freely available to His followers around the world.  The number seven denotes perfection in the kingdom of God, it is a form of symbolism to signify to us, a state of perfection that exists in a universe we have little understanding of.  So when John opens his greetings, He is in effect, saying He is greeting the perfect church of the real God, Jesus Christ, those who follow the Truth and the Life.  He does not include in this greeting, other churches, other gods, or even traditional descendants of Abraham.  Followers of Christ alone, can be included in the church of God.  A failure to recognize Christ, by definition excludes one from membership in the church of God the Father.

Next John reveals in this first greeting an aspect about God which finite man has a hard time understanding; that God exists outside of what we understand about space and time itself.  John uses the words … “from him which is (present tense), which was (past tense), and which is to come (future tense)”.  Christ existed before His human origin, and before our creation, and before our understandings of the big bang, and before anything we call a start of time or space.  As God, Jesus Christ exists in the present, in our reality, in the space and time we call “now”.  And as God, Jesus Christ will exist in the future, past our own deaths, past the death of this world, past any boundaries we could imagine in time or in space.  This idea makes time irrelevant where it comes to describing God.  Jesus, for our purposes, has no beginning, nor does he have any end.  He exists past both of those conventional ideas we are bound by.

Next John offers us the location that this message came from the throne of God.  He further clarifies that there are 7 spirits who are before His throne.  Seven being a symbolism for perfection, this implies that the perfection of the Holy Spirit is before His throne.  John’s use of the words “and from” state that the greetings of Grace and peace are joined by the Holy Spirit as well to the church of God the Father.  John continues in verse 5 … “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, [verse 6] And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”  John further states his greetings are joined by Jesus Christ as well.  He then begins to describe Jesus as being the faithful witness.  In this Christ was a faithful witness to the will of God, the love of God, and the law of God.  Christ was forever showing the love of God to us, and telling us that in each and every miracle, His Father’s will was fulfilled.  Jesus is further described as the “first begotten of the dead”.  In this Jesus’s resurrection offers us hope that because of His gift, we too can be raised from the dead.  Not just from our physical state but from the dead of a life of selfishness, chained to self-service, this is a state He can raise us from as well.  The leadership of Christ is to be above the kings of this world, even kings are to owe their service to Christ. 

John then states that what Christ has done for us, is to turn us from the slaves of self-service, into kings and priests unto God His Father.  We join with God in serving others, and in so doing we become kings of service, and priests of service, all for the benefit of others – just as Christ has done for us.  We are not to be glorified or worshipped, but instead our service and our love to others will be His glory.  John rightly attributed glory and dominion for ever to Christ alone.  Just in these first few verses, John inexorably ties Jesus Christ to God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit.  It is impossible to claim to worship God the Father, if one denies His Son, or His Spirit.  The 7 churches are not perfect because they commit no sin, or need no savior; instead they are perfect because they acknowledge their need of Jesus Christ as their only hope of being saved from the slavery of self.  Modern day Muslims, and Jews, still claim to serve the same Father God we Christians do – but they deny the divinity of His son – and in so doing keep themselves from being identified with the source of their salvation.  This choice of separation leaves them with no-one to break the chains of their selfishness, and offer them the life God so longs to see them live.  His door stands open, but their denial of His Son, leaves them no savior to save them from themselves.  It is not enough to worship only part of God, we must accept the whole of God if we are to see the Truth, and experience His Life.

John continues with the message of God the Father in verse 7 … “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” – Perhaps ironic that in the seventh verse is the most important point of the entire book – Jesus Christ will be returning to this earth.  Further the manner of His return is described, He will be coming with clouds, and every eye shall see Him.  The return of Christ is to be from the sky, in like manner as He ascended.  And His return is not to be a secret, but one that will be witnessed by the entire world.  It will be seen also by those who pierced Him.  This could be both spiritual (those who deny His divinity, or deny their need of Him to save them from themselves), or it could be literal if those who were responsible for His death are raised to see His triumphant return, to finally and fully know the proof of what He had told them, and what they knew in their hearts to be true, but would not accept to be true.  All kindreds of the earth shall wail, implies that in every people of every land, there are many who do not wish to see Him return.  They are more happy with their lives as they are.  They do not wish a change.  They do not wish His freedom.  To see the Truth of His returning is to recognize their lives will not be allowed to continue indefinitely in the evil they have embraced.  But even so, Amen, even so, John wishes for Christ to return.

John continues to write the message He has heard, the revelation of Jesus Christ from the Father God Himself as he continues to describe Christ  in verse 8 … “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”  First, as has been the case all along, Christ is the Alpha (or the genesis or beginning) of our salvation.  He is also the Omega (or ending, or finisher) of our salvation.  We are saved because He loved us before we knew Him.  We are drawn by this love to Him.  We are granted the freedom to decide whether to accept this love or not.  And having accepted, it is by the power of His love, that He changes us from who we were into who He intended us to be.  The Father again identifies Christ as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending of our way of salvation.  He again states that our concepts of time do not apply or constrain God, He is beyond them.  And finally, He states the Truth that all power is in the hands of God and Christ.  He is the Almighty.  There is no limit to the power within Him.  He is able to save us, from what we are powerless to save ourselves from. 

This revelation of what God is like, what Christ is like, in the form of God was stunning.  Then and now, the idea the God is beyond our ideas of time, is hard for us to grasp.  But then and now, the idea that Christ is powerful enough to save us, and is the main point in the true religion of God is consistent throughout the entire Bible.  Here John affirms it once again.  What has changed between the Old and New Testaments of Christ, is that one pointed forward to His mission as Messiah.  And the other points forward to His mission as God and Redeemer.  The church of God has been identified as belonging to the rest of the world now.  It is not constrained by the history of Judaism.  Nor is it tied to the power of the Roman empire.  It is not bound to political power, or historical bias, it belongs to those who see the need to be saved from themselves by the power of Jesus Christ. 

False gods have been eliminated.  And self too has been denounced.  In these texts of revelation of Jesus Christ, is found no reference to how we save ourselves, either on our own, or in partnership with Jesus.  We have no role in that other than to accept His gift of our salvation.  Jesus is identified as Alpha and Omega, not man, not self, not us.  This revelation was hard for former Jews to accept, it is no less difficult for us today.  Too many wish to take the reins in their own salvation, too many wish to keep some measure of control in how they are saved, and in so doing keep self at the center of their purported “Christianity”.  They leave Christ to the side, and continue to rely on self, and on their own actions to validate their salvation.  Instead of finding the true change that full submission brings.  In this, they would find actions natural, instead of labored.  They would find rest, instead of burden.  But to find it, they must join the true church of Christ, and follow Him, not themselves.

And this was only the beginning of the revelations John was to reveal …