In Revelation 3:20 we have one of the most famous pictures of Jesus in the whole New Testament. Revelation 3:10, KJV: 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. ( Luke 6:26). Persistent faithfulness and devotedness still characterised them at Ephesus. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna." In A.D. 17 it was destroyed by an earthquake which devasted the area. [3.] Now, dear child of God, as I have said before, you may have but very little strength, you may often be tempted and tried, and cast down; but if you believe the word, there is more for the pleasing of God in a childlike faith than there is in the most glittering profession or in the most showy deeds. (b) In John's gospel Jesus' statements often begin: "Truly, truly, I say to you" (e.g. "I know thy works, and thy love, and faith, and service, and patience, and thy last works (to be) more than the first." If men would take away from us certain dainties which are sweet but which are not needful, we might be content to let them spoil us of such superfluities; but if they come to take away bread and water from the poor and needy, then we cannot have it. Secondly, he gives him a word of prospect. At the same time, if we do not start with the Old Testament revelations of Babylon or Jerusalem, or the instruction derived from the prophets generally, we are not prepared for appreciating or even understanding the Apocalypse as a whole. The insistence on the Son's part in creation was due to the heretics who explained sin and disease by saying that the world had been created by a false and inferior god. Churches with few men of learning or eloquence in them may yet be greatly approved of the Lord, who cares more for grace than learning, more for faith than talent. It was significant, I think, that the voice was behind him. It is blessedly true that even out of failure a man can redeem himself--but only if he casts himself upon the grace of Jesus Christ. Do not be afraid. Nevertheless it is God's word and Christ's testimony, though as a whole composed of visions. "He is the faithful witness, the first-begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth;" the last displayed when He comes from heaven to earth, as He stands in resurrection the first-begotten of the dead. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire." Loyalty has its sure reward. So too the witness of grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ was, in His mind, if not in man's, the most suited medium for revealing the coming judgments of God. It is eternal and in them the Spirit still speaks to us. He that chastiseth his son shall have profit of him and shall glory of him among his acquaintances" (Ecc 30:1). If you will now begin to talk to others about that which you love so well, you will be astonished to find how gladly they will receive it from you. In the writing to the angel of the church in Smyrna, a totally different state of things meets us. It is not now to bring them whether or not servants out of that position or even worse, and entitling them to take the place of children of God. Peter warns his people that they will give account for their deeds to him who comes to judge the living and the dead ( 1 Peter 4:5). Revelation 3 KJV. At the same time it is manifestly He who is God and Father instructing, comforting, and admonishing His own. 1:10 + ). When in A.D. 17 a terrible earthquake devastated their city and Tiberius, the Emperor, dealt kindly with them, remitting taxation and making a generous gift to rebuild it, they in their gratitude, called the city Neocaesarea, the New City of Caesar, and later when Vespasian was kind to them, they called it Flavia, for that was the family name of Vespasian. The name of God, in whose cause he engaged, whom he served, and for whom he suffered in this warfare; and the name of the city of God, the church of God, the new Jerusalem, which came down from heaven. At first all addressed the people in His name. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy ( Revelation 3:4 ). It is the promise of the Risen Christ that he who keeps will be kept. It is not to make known what was in Christ before all worlds, but to disclose the great facts in which God was about to maintain the glory of the First-begotten, when He introduced Him into the world. As God bears testimony in his word to his own dear Son, believe that testimony; accept the Saviour whom he has given, and find immediate salvation: find it to-night. Who then but uninstructed minds can doubt that the Lord meant more than the actual assemblies that were addressed in the province of Asia? Wicked men envy the people of God their door of liberty, and would be glad to shut it against them. Many understand by the hour of temptation the persecution under Trajan, which was greater and more extensive than the preceding ones under Nero and Domitian. Those men of old time whose influence upon their own age seemed so little, nevertheless prepared the way for those braver spirits who, by-and-by, shone forth like the stars of the morning. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev 19:10) and a prophetic perspective promotes purpose. . In the sentence, "You have kept my word, and have not denied my name," both the verbs are in the aorist tense, which describes one definite act in past time; and the implication is that there had been some time of trial out of which the Philadelphian Church had emerged triumphantly true. We have met with instances where they wrote out part of the word of God, and hid it away in a wall; and afterwards, when the wall was pulled down, the priceless record was discovered and used. In the ancient world to be stripped naked was the worst humiliation. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Every letter finishes with the words: "Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches." Philadelphia had a great characteristic which has left its mark upon this letter. It was founded by colonists from Pergamum under the reign of Attalus the Second, who ruled in Pergamum from 159 to 138 B.C. The Christians were dazzled by the world's power and glory, which was put forth doubtless in protecting, not themselves only, but the public faith of Christendom in that day. Thyatira, I have no doubt, contains within it the mystic representative of Romanism. It mass-produced cheap outer garments. (ii) Swete thinks that the white garments stand for the profession a man made at baptism; and that the phrase described the man who had not broken his baptismal vows. It is a false principle therefore that we can only be profited by that which concerns ourselves, and supposes us to be in the actual circumstances described. Revelation 1:1; Revelation 1:7; Revelation 2:16; Revelation 22:7; Revelation 22:12; Revelation 22:20; 2 Peter 3:8). The names of Paul's fellow-labourers for God are written in the book of life ( Php_4:3 ). They wanted everything that was precious: "gold" or divine righteousness in Christ "white raiment," that is to say, the righteousnesses of saints; "that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." He "ought himself also so to walk even as he (Christ) walked." At the same time they fatally compromised Christ by alliance with the world, and there followed the practical return to the world out of which grace had taken the church in order to union with Christ in glory. The hour of temptation A time of sore and peculiar trial which might have proved too much for their strength. "And I will give him the morning star." Where are they to be found? This seems to be one reason why it pleased God to give the visions of this book on the Lord's day. 1:18), they will belong permanently to God, to the heavenly city and to their Saviour (12-13). 288, 289. By whom this letter was signed; even by the same Jesus who is alone the universal head of all the churches; and here observe by what title he chooses to represent himself to this church: He that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, c. You have his personal character: He that is holy and he that is true, holy in his nature, and therefore he cannot but be true to his word, for he hath spoken in his holiness and you have also his political character: He hath the key of David, he openeth, and no man shutteth; he hath the key of the house of David, the key of government and authority in and over the church. Trench makes a list of people in the Bible who lost their place to someone else because they had shown that they were not fit to hold it. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock ( Revelation 3:20 ): Actually the church has put Christ on the outside. If we have but little strength, we mean to let the times and the spirits go where they like, we shall keep to the Holy Spirit and to his eternal teachings. In other words, will only faithful or watchful Christians experience the Rapture (the partial rapture position)? (iii) As the Revised Standard Version has it, he is the beginning of God's creation. In short, as the book itself afterwards shows that the church will be on high outside the scene of its varied troubles and inflicted judgments, so the motive assigned in the preface is of a strikingly holy nature, adapted to those who walk by faith, not by sight, and free from all selfish considerations "for the time is at hand." But for all that the voice of the Christian is at once heard and so much the more remarkably, because it is one of the few exceptional ripples which cross the ordinary current of the book at the end as well as at the beginning. For a year Antiochus besieged him; then a soldier called Lagoras repeated the exploit of Hyeroeades. '"[47] This view of the passage harmonizes with the great high-priestly prayer of Jesus who did not pray that the Father would take his disciples "out of the world" (John 17:15), but that they would be faithful in the world. Their subjection to the church is described: They shall worship at thy feet; not pay a religious and divine honour to the church itself, nor to the ministry of it, but shall be convinced that they have been in the wrong, that this church is in the right and is beloved of Christ, and they shall desire to be taken into communion with her and that they may worship the same God after the same manner. 159.] According to Ezekiel the name of the re-created city of God was to be The Lord is there ( Ezekiel 48:35). "Because this period of tribulation will immediately precede the coming of the Lord to earth in power and great glory (cf. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3 and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. Here, perhaps, all that is implied is, that the trial would be very extensive or general - so much so as to embrace the world, as the word was understood by those to whom the epistle was addressed. There the king of Lydia ruled over his empire in oriental splendour. He took counsel of the famous oracle at Delphi and was told: "If you cross the River Halys, you will destroy a great empire. "So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." Let them abide in the place of patience, even though there be tribulation, as there must be if they are content to endure for Christ's sake now. The Lord no longer dealt so when this kind of footing vanished for the responsibility of man. If you only help to strengthen one solitary Christian woman, who knows what may come to pass by her means? This means that in the district there were at least 7,500 male Jews. So in the next words our Lord really says, "And I have the keys of death and of hades." "And I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet." Individuals there were before, but this is much more. They had also little strength in the direction of talent. But it assumes a somewhat different shape when it becomes a question of assemblies which had not been, so far as we know, sending messengers at all. Does it not strike you as being reasonable that, if God has spoken, his creatures ought to believe what he has spoken that after he has laid down the law there should remain no room for questioning? To get rid of him, Christian said to Hopeful, "Now we will talk a little about experimental godliness and when they began to speak about what they had tasted and handled of divine truth, Mr. Chatterbox dropped behind. Christ is revealed now, not only in the all-discerning power of moral judgment, but also judicially prepared to act against evil "His feet like fine brass." It is a sweeping intimation of the very same way in which the Lord threatens to come on the world. (iii) He is he who has the key of David, who opens and no man will shut, who shuts and no man opens. Amen is the word which is often put at the end of a solemn statement in order to guarantee its truth. It is very possible, when the epistles were sent out in the days of John, that no particular emphasis would be laid on "the things that are;" but inasmuch as these things have been going on from that day to the present, we can see the immense force such a phrase thereby acquires. We may safely strike out the word "and," if we respect the best authorities. 1-888-672-6657. Observe, (1.) palliated most by those who owe their professional status to this frightfully corrupt and corrupting influence. Verse Revelation 3:10. The once great Sardians were soft, and twice they had lost their city because they were too lazy to watch. Hence, evidently, there is a comprehensive term employed with divine wisdom, "to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass." Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and those that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I turned to see the voice which was speaking with me. God is holy because he is different from men; he has that quality of being which belongs to him alone. It is dark. "[46] "The thrust of the verse is against this interpretation. In A.D. 17 there came a great earthquake which destroyed Sardis and ten other cities. But there must first be a retrospective notice, in which the Lord would pronounce His judgment of that which bore the name of Christendom here below. . It was under his authority, and indeed by his call, that the famous council sat at Nicea, and the faith of the Trinity was publicly established. Only this nearness of the Lords coming to reward the faithful provides an effective motive to be tenacious (Alford; Moffatt)." Shocks were an everyday occurrence. Galatians 2:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:4-10). Do not imagine that there is anything like arbitrary innovation in this. I. (a) They had received and heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was founded for a special purpose. If you have little talent, it is a pity you have not more; but still it is for your praise if you quit yourselves like men, and stand fast in the faith. The call to hear begins to follow the promise, instead of being before it. It is plain that it is here as ever the first departure the most general symptom of declension. [48] Edward A. McDowell, The Meaning and Message of the Book of Revelation (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1951), p. 58. "For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. "It is exemption from the period of time that is promised. (i) It has been taken as a warning that the end is near, and that the Coming of Christ is at hand. There the Holy Ghost was the only one competent to minister and effectuate such grace according to the counsels of God, and in the ordering of His love. We call our opponents heterodox, and our zeal for orthodoxy comes to the front; and yet, after all, it may be that we have never exercised a personel faith about those doctrines, so as to think them out for ourselves. He is a "miserable conqueror.". For justification this is manifest; for a rule of life it is not so apparent, but it is just as real a denial of the gospel. (a) There may be a heathen background. 101.] Two of them were called Zeuxis and Alexander Philalethes. But what an affecting change took place at length! When Paul was writing to the neighbouring Church of Colossae, he says sternly: "Say to Archippus, See that you fulfil the ministry which you have received in the Lord" ( Colossians 4:17). The word that cometh out of Christ's mouth is the daily manna of our heavenly life, and it behoves every Christian, however feeble or however strong, to keep the word of God with all his might against all comers, since it is his life. This saying does two things. "Even so, Amen.". But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their garments and they will walk with me in white raiment, because they are worthy. Christ is to be acknowledged as the author of all the liberty and opportunity his churches enjoy. 1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Remember, then, how you received and heard the gospel, and keep it, and repent. How comes this remarkable introduction of God to Jesus, then from Him through an angel to one servant, who sends to other servants? if Christ be the rule of life for the Christian, and the law be the rule of death for a Jew, it is evident that for a Christian to abandon that for this tends to apostacy. But when they have observed how you stand to the truth, how solid, and how steadfast you are, they will give over disputing with you, and come to inquire what your views really are. God therefore writes for our comfort, admonition, and general blessing in whatever way it may be wanted; He takes for granted that we are interested in whatever He has to say to us. All must be and was measured according to God's own mind, and the place in which He set the assemblies. Clarke's Commentary. Above all, if we have but little strength of any kind, let us keep God's word. What is taught in Holy Scripture is sure truth to us, and every other statement must bow to it. "What I say to you, I say to all: watch" ( Matthew 24:42-43; Mark 13:37). The mind of man sends forth pure water and impure, and it is hard to discern between the two; but from the heart of God there wells up, undiluted and unmingled, a stream of living truth which is more for man's benefit than all else out of heaven. (i) In the heathen world no worshipper was allowed to approach a temple of the gods with soiled clothes. Then John describes himself in a manner adapted to the testimony he is called to render. If a man accepts the invitations of sin for long enough, the time comes when he cannot accept anything else. But the Lord will compel the recognition of His own testimony. We are told afterwards what those meant. In the ancient world there were at least six cities called Laodicea and this one was called Laodicea on the Lycus to distinguish it from the others. So says he "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." Heresy is always the product of the searching mind; it is, in fact, the sign of a Church that is alive. Here we have to remark that Christ is seen in a judicial point of view. He sees you at your Bible-reading, he marks you in your endeavours to get at the meaning of his word, he notes you when you sit down and meditate upon his divine thoughts, and he takes pleasure in your eagerness to know what the will of the Lord is. Thank God we have a little strength. Regard the new teachers no more than you would the wise men of Gotham, for those who oppose themselves to God's word are fools. All is here limited to what he saw. God as such is then introduced in Old Testament style and character, but at the same time applied to New Testament subjects; the Holy Ghost also is similarly brought before us. The Philadelphian church was not great, but it was good: it was not powerful, but it was faithful. The first epistle, the message to the angel of the church in Ephesus, looks at the state of the Christian testimony on the earth in its most comprehensive form, and, as I suppose, from the days of the apostle John himself. To those who have been faithful comes the threefold promise. Hyeroeades knew that there must be a crack in the rock there by means of which an agile man could climb up. It is said of the righteous that "they will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father" ( Matthew 13:43); and it is said of God that he covers himself with light as with a garment ( Psalms 104:2). . I may be a fool, and an old-fashioned bigot, but I am not a turncoat, and I cannot quit the word of the Lord. In each letter the Lord addresses "the angel." He is man; but the man seen then and thus is a divine person, the eternal God Himself. It means that their message was not confined to the people in the seven Churches nineteen hundred years ago, but that through them the Spirit is speaking to every man in every generation. He would give them grace to bear up under trials with a Christian spirit, and in such a manner that their salvation should not be endangered. The word for beginning is arche ( G746) . They have thought out what they believe; their theology is made out of their own substance, as spiders spin their webs out of their own bowels. Beyond this point lay a broad valley where Lydia, Phrygia and Caria met. So often we listen to a message which comes through a preacher and apply it to everyone but ourselves. I hope for that day. He is going therefore to show unto His "bondmen" a term that would suit not only Christians now, but those who might be in another relationship after we have been taken away from the world. 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In A.D. 17 it was not powerful, but this is much more general of...
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