Behind the Scenes of History- The Book of Revelation

[Garland-Green]

**A tip to anyone planing on reading the book of Revelation, is to read the book of Daniel first.**

Read the Scripture: Revelation 1:1-20

Ray Stedman - November 5, 1989

We have just come through the earthquake of October 17, and can give thanks that most of us survived without serious damage. There is one thing that can be said about an earthquake -- it is a great priority adjuster! When the World Series was being held it was regarded in its beginning games as one of the greatest events taking place on this planet at the time. Almost everybody thought it was tremendously important which team would win. But at 5:04 p.m. on October 17, there was a remarkable and visible change. At 5:05 all priorities were suddenly different.

An earthquake is admittedly a scary event as is also, of course, a great hurricane, such as the East Coast recently went through. The reason these natural disasters frighten us is because they are entirely out of our control. We have nothing to say about them. They come when they want to; they do what they want to; and there is nothing we can do about it. Many people learned that during this recent quake. It awakened much fear among the people, and fear makes us often change our minds about what is important in life.

That is also the attitude often produced by the book of Revelation. It is the scariest book in the Bible. It contains fearsome revelations of plagues and earthquakes, wars, and frightening invasions of strange creatures upon the face of the earth. It makes us all wonder whether we would be able to survive the judgments depicted there. Dr. Earl Palmer, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, has said in his fine exposition of this book, "Revelation is hard to understand, but it is impossible to forget." And so it is!

It is not an accident that this is the last book of the Bible. It gathers themes from the whole Bible and brings them into focus in its pages. Someone has well said that the book of Genesis and the book of Revelation are like two book ends that hold the Bible together. In Genesis you have the story of the beginning of human sin; in Revelation you have the end of it recounted. In Genesis there is the beginning of civilization and of history; in Revelation we learn the end of both. In Genesis you learn of the beginning of the judgments of God upon mankind; in Revelation you see the end of them. These two books belong together.

Many of the great themes of Scripture are brought into final focus in the book of Revelation. It is, therefore, a most important book to read and understand. It has been likened to being at a major airport when planes are landing. Go down to SFO and watch the people get off the planes. You may see a crowd of people who have well-tanned faces and warm smiles and are wearing leis around their necks. You know immediately where they came from -- from Hawaii! Watch another group and they have raincoats over their arms, are carrying umbrellas, and their faces are wreathed in gloom. They are obviously from Seattle! Another crowd may have a murky pall of smoke and grime on their faces. They are obviously from Los Angeles! So also as we go through this book you will recognize many of the great themes of the Bible and will know from what Old Testament book they originate. Let us let the book introduce itself in the three verse prologue, or preface, with which it begins:

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw -- that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. (Revelation 1:1-3 NIV)
There are two words in this paragraph that tell us the nature of the book. The very first word, "The revelation," is the Greek word apocalypse which means "an unveiling," a taking away of that which obscures. Apocalypses have to do with mysteries -- and their meaning. So, throughout this book we will find many mysteries made clear. The mystery of evil is unveiled. Why does it persist on the earth and what is its ultimate end. That is revealed to us, unveiled in this book. The mystery of godliness is made clear. How can one live a godly, righteous life in the midst of a broken and evil world. That is unveiled. Many other mysteries are unveiled. That is why the book begins with that term.

A little later in that same paragraph we read, "Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy." This book is not only an unveiling, it is also a prediction. It deals with persons and events which are yet to come, as the prologue tells us; "What must soon take place." We will learn what personalities are yet to appear on the stage of history in the last days, and what great events will unfold as history rolls on to its final consummation. This book will make that clear.

Now, the process by which all this comes to us is stated. The second sentence of the preface states, "He [i.e., Jesus] made it known by sending his angel to his servant John." In those words "made it known" there is a hidden meaning. It is actually one Greek word which in English should be translated signified, or, if you want to pronounce it more accurately "sign-i-fied," i.e., made known by signs or symbols. He symbolized it to his servant John. That is one of the first things we need to know about this book. It is a book largely of symbols. Symbols are important. They are ways of understanding things which you cannot draw a picture of. Something that is rather abstruse or difficult to understand can be made known by symbols.

I once heard of a boy who was trying to explain to a younger boy what a radio was like. He said to him, "You know that a telegraph is a long wire that runs between two cities. It is like having a big dog with his tail in Los Angeles and his head in San Francisco. If you step on his tail in Los Angeles he barks in San Francisco. Now a radio is the same thing only you don't have no dog!" That is a wonderful way of making clear what is difficult by the use of symbols! The book of Revelation is like that. It has strange beasts and fearful scorpions and many other weird persons and animals that appear, but they are symbols of something real and literal. We will need, therefore, to carefully interpret them.

We will be guided by the fact that almost all the symbols of Revelation are given to us before in the Bible. That is why it is wrong to read the book of Revelation without reading first the whole Bible. If you start with the book of Revelation you will soon be terribly confused, but if you read through the Bible, when you come to Revelation you will understand many of the symbols immediately. So let that fact guide you as you read this book through on your own.

The author is not John the Apostle, as many suppose, though John is certainly involved in giving us this book. The author is God himself! Notice the words, "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him." This book began among the Godhead, and God, the Father, is its author. He revealed the book to his Son. It all began in the mind of the Father and then was revealed to Jesus, his Son. Remember that in Matthew 24:36 Jesus said that though he understood many of the events of the last days, he did not know the time when it would all happen. He said that knowledge belonged only to the Father. Now, of course, risen and glorified, he knows all these things, but at that time he did not know. It had not yet been revealed to him when these events would occur. But now Jesus is given this revelation and he passes it on to an angel who in turn makes known by symbols to John the Apostle what is in the mind of God, and eventually it comes to us. This means this book is unique in the Bible. No other book was given in quite this way. It comes from the mind of God the Father, through the agency of the Son of God, to an angel of God, and thus to the apostle of God, John the writer of this book.

Notice also the blessing that is promised. I do not want to miss that. "Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take it to heart." The word blessed is probably based on a Hebrew word which is not the usual word for blessing: The usual term is Barak, which means "to bow down," but the word Esher, which means "to guide," is more likely in the thought of John. That is what is being promised to us. If we pay attention to the book of Revelation, and keep it, take it to heart, we shall be guided through the morass of ideas and conflicting philosophies which abound in the world today. We will find the right pathway through all the confusing pathways that exist around us. That is the special blessing conferred by the book of Revelation.

Now, in the next section, beginning with Verse 4 through 8, we are introduced to the Dramatis Personae, i.e., the people, the personalities, who will appear in the book. First, of course, is John as he states in Verse 4:

John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia. (Revelation 1:4a NIV)
That is all we are told about the author at this point, his name alone. We know from comparison with other Scriptures, and from the tradition of the early church, that this was very likely John the Apostle, the brother of James, and son of Zebedee. There is some question about that, however. Some raise the possibility that another John (called John the Presbyter) wrote this, but there is so much evidence that links this writing with the Gospel of John and the three letters of John in our Bibles that it seems difficult to view this as coming from any other hand than the apostle's. He wrote this toward the end of his life; probably he was in his eighties when this vision was given to him. The usual dating of the book is around 94-96 A. D. It comes to us, as he says, as a letter written to a series of seven selected churches located in the Roman province of Asia. These churches are named for us later and we will spend time with them as we go on in this series. The province of Asia is modern Turkey today.

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come... (Revelation 1:4b NIV)
That describes God the Father, the Eternal One. His name in Hebrew, Yahweh, means "I Am," and this statement is a parsing of that verb. "I am he who is, and he who was, and he who is to come," thus he is the eternally Existing One.

...and from the seven spirits before his throne, (Revelation 1:4c NIV)
This is the first of a series of sevens that are mentioned in the book of Revelation. Seven is the key number of this book. When you find seven of anything in this book, it is a symbol of completeness, of perfection or plenitude. This is the Spirit of God in the plenitude of his being. This is confirmed to us by a verse in the prophecy of Isaiah. In Chapter 11, Verse 2, the prophet speaks of The Spirit coming upon the Messiah, and he says:

The Spirit of the Lord[number one] will rest on him --
the Spirit of wisdom[number two] and of understanding[three],
the Spirit of counsel[four] and of power[five],
the Spirit of knowledge[six] and of the fear of the Lord[seven] -- (Isaiah 11:2 NIV)
So the seven spirits are the Holy Spirit in his fulness. It is he who gives us this book, the Spirit of God in the plenitude of his being, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

Our Lord Jesus is the central figure of the book, as we will note often as we go through it, but here he is introduced to us for the first time, in a threefold manner. He is the "faithful witness," i.e., what he says is true. You can count on it. He utters absolute basic reality. I do not think anything means more to me in reading the Bible than to understand that here is the revelation of things as they really are. This is a confusing world in which we live. We are bombarded by conflicting philosophies, many ideas are widely different, many value systems are wholly antagonistic to others, and we must often ask ourselves, "Which is right?" Well, here is the word from the Faithful Witness, the one who tells us the truth. He is also called "the firstborn from the dead." That is a reference to his resurrection. He is the first one to rise in glory from having once been dead. All others who were raised from the dead in the Bible returned to the same earthly life they had before, but not Jesus. When he was raised, he was glorified, and it is that glorified life which he gives to those who believe in him. He is the life giver. Third, he is introduced as "the ruler of the kings of the earth." Is that not encouraging? All these powerful leaders which we have today claim to be sovereign and able to work their will, and yet here is one who appears as the "ruler of the kings of the earth." He sets the limits in which the others must live. Thus he is the great law maker, king over all other kings.

So he is introduced here, as the truth teller, the life giver, and the law maker. The text goes on to tell us what he does, in Verse 5:

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father -- to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. (Revelation 1:5b-6 NIV)
This is the first doxology of the book. A paean of praise that recognizes the greatness of our Lord. Notice the threefold division: First, he loves us. That is in the present tense. It is not past tense. It is true that he loved us. He loved the whole world for "God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son," John 3:16). But Jesus loves us now. That is the point John makes. Everything in the life of a believer ought to be based upon the love of the Lord Jesus. It is the most amazing thing, that we who know in our hearts that we are faithless and foolish and often arrogantly sinful and selfish, still he loves us. What a difference it makes when one begins to believe that.

Years ago, when I was traveling with Dr. H. A. Ironside, we were in the state of Virginia, and there met a man who was Rector of an Episcopal church. He told us the story of his conversion. I have never read this story anywhere, but I have never forgotten his amazing story. He said that he was a student at Cambridge University when D. L. Moody was invited to speak to the students there. He was one of a group of students who were very angry that an invitation would ever be given to a backwoods American preacher like Moody, who murdered the king's English (He was said to be the only man who could ever pronounce Jerusalem in one syllable!). When these young men knew that he was coming to what they regarded as the center of culture of the world, they determined that they would upset the meetings by mocking and jeering at him. When the meeting began, the young men were right on the front row ready to call out names, and upset the meeting. But before Moody spoke, Ira B. Sankey, his great gospel singer, stood and sang. His voice quieted the crowd and immediately when he finished, without a word of introduction, D. L. Moody stepped to the platform, pointed his finger at the young men in the front row and said, "Young gentlemen, don't ever think God don't love you, for he do." They were so stunned by this ungrammatical beginning, that they listened quietly to Moody. He came back to his theme a little later and said it again, "Young gentlemen, don't think God don't love you, for he do." This man said that Moody went on to speak of the love of Jesus for a lost race, and he told us, "I began to see myself in a different light, and by the end of the meeting I gave my heart to Christ."

That is what John is seeking to emphasize here. He dedicates the book to "Him who loves us" and, in addition, "has freed us from our sins by his blood." He breaks the shackles of evil habits in our lives. He sets us free from the dependencies that we have allowed to harass us, shackle us, and limit us. Some of you here, I am sure, have struggled with drug dependency or alcohol dependency and you know what a horrible grip they can get upon your life. But here is one who frees from our sins! We are all sinfully dependent people. We have all been shackled by evil of one sort or another: Selfish attitudes and hot tempers, or lustful passions, or angry self-centered talk, etc. We are as much victims of evil as any alcoholic or drug addict may be, but here is one who has freed us by the sacrifice of his own life.

"He breaks the power of canceled sin,
And sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean;
His blood availed for me!"
But more than that he "has made us a kingdom of priests to serve the Lord our God." A priest's work was to heal the sense of alienation which people felt with God. Sinners feel estranged from God. They cut themselves off by their behavior from a God of holiness and justice. But they are to be brought near by priests. In the Old Testament, the priests explained the meaning of the sacrifices and thus brought people near. That is the work of believers today. We are to help people in their agony and their injury, their darkness and lostness, to realize that God is longing to draw them to himself and to heal their alienation. For this work Jesus has made us "a kingdom of priests." Do you ever think of yourself as a priest? That is what God has sent you to do and sent me to do as well. So our Lord is introduced to us not only as to who he is and what he does, but also what he will do in the future.

Look, he is coming with the clouds... (Revelation 1:7a NIV)
This is the focal point of history. This is "that one far off, divine event, toward which the whole creation moves." One of these days he will break through the skies, as he once left this earth, and come again in glory. His coming will have universal impact. First,

...every eye will see him... (Revelation 1:7b NIV)
Jesus himself tells us this. If you have read the 24th chapter of Matthew, you know that he himself describes this event.

At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:30 NIV)
No one will miss it. You will not need a television set to see him come. He will appear everywhere in that uniqueness of Deity that can be visible to everybody around the earth at once. So when he comes he will be visible to all. Paul calls this event, "the splendor of his coming" (2 Thessalonians 2:8b NIV), literally, "the outshining of his parousia." Then, even the Jews will recognize him. John tell us:

...even those who pierced him. (Revelation 1:7c NIV)
This is a reference to a prophecy in Zechariah, the 12th chapter, where we are told that when he appears those who pierced him shall look upon him and shall mourn for him with a great mourning. They shall ask him "What are these wounds in your hands," and he will say, "Those which I received in the house of my friends..." (Zechariah 13:6 KJV).

I was with a number of rabbis some years ago in Los Angeles, and we were discussing the differences between Christianity and Judaism. One of them said to me, "You know," he said, "when the Messiah does come, the Jews will say, 'Welcome' but you Christians will say, 'Welcome back,'" And I said, "But what will the Messiah say?" He said, "I think he will say, 'No comment'." One of the puzzles of history has been why the Jewish people have so resolutely turned their backs on the evidence that Jesus is their promised Messiah. It is the "blinding in part" (Romans 11:7, 2 Corinthians 3:14), that Paul says will happen to the nation because of long standing unbelief. But it will not be forever. The day will come when Israel will recognize their Messiah. Prophecy predicts it, and Jesus here confirms it; "even those who pierced him" (Zechariah 12:10), shall see him in that day. The third result is:

...and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. (Revelation 1:7d NIV)

I believe this is a reference to that great event that is described in Philippians, the second chapter. There we are told that, "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father," (Philippians 2:10-11 NIV). At last men will realize, in the appearance of the Lord himself, where they have stood in relationship to him. They will mourn because they will see how terribly they have treated him and his work for them upon the cross. Now we get, in Verse 8, a most impressive thing. It is as though God takes a pen, and with his own hand, signs this book with his own name:

I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God,[Alpha and Omega are the first and last characters of the Greek alphabet] who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty[One]. (Revelation 1:8 NIV)
In no other book of the Bible do we have this wonderful imprimatur of God. God has signed this book with his own name, and has identified himself for us. When we read this book we are reading a copy autographed by the author! Finally, in Verses 9-20, which we will conclude with, we get the history of this encounter with Jesus.

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea."
I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man," dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a short double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. (Revelation 1:9-16 NIV)

Even this early in the book of Revelation we begin to get truth imparted to us by symbols. This is not what Jesus will look like when you see him in glory. It is not the way he will look when he appears. These are symbols that tell us what role he is fulfilling at the moment, not what he looks like but what he is like, his character, or some aspect of it that he particularly wishes to stress.

John tells us that all this happened to him one Sunday morning when he was on the island of Patmos, a tiny island only 4 miles wide and 6 miles long, just off the coast of Turkey in the Aegean Sea. There the Roman Empire maintained certain mines and quarries, and John, apparently, was banished to this island because of his testimony and preaching of Jesus. He was a prisoner on Patmos. But one Sunday morning, (that is what is meant by "the Lord's Day," for the early Christians began immediately to meet, not on Saturday as the Jews did, but on Sunday, the first day of the week, the day of resurrection), John was "in the Spirit." What that means is that he was worshipping. It does not mean he was in a state of high ecstasy. It meant that he was honoring God, thinking about him, paying tribute to his majesty, his greatness and his power, worshipping God.

Remember Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4, "The time is come," he said, "when they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth," (John 4:23). John was "in the Spirit" on this Lord's day when he heard a voice behind him like a great trumpet blasting out. The voice said, "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches." John did what you and I would have done, he turned around to see who it was that sounded so powerful, and what he saw was the Lord standing among seven golden lampstands, holding seven stars in his hand. There is the second series of seven in this book. He was dressed in priestly garments, revealing his role as the Great High Priest.

This vision is given to help us see that our High Priest is still ministering among his churches. His ministry is characterized by what is revealed here. He had on, first of all, a long robe reaching down to his feet with a golden sash about his chest. Gold speaks of deity in Scripture. So it indicates Jesus is a priest who is himself God. His head and his hair were white. These symbols are used in the book of Daniel to speak of wisdom and of purity. Here is one who is characterized by these virtues. His eyes were like blazing fire, from which nothing could be hid. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace and his voice like the sound of rushing waters. His face was like the sun shining in its strength. Fire speaks of judgment and his face was lighted with unbearable brilliance, symbolizing the intensity of truth.

I wonder if John was not taken back in memory to that scene in the north of Israel when he and James his brother, along with Peter were led up a high mountain by Jesus and there, as they prayed, suddenly Jesus was transfigured before them. His garments began to shine with a whiteness that nothing on earth could equal, and his face shone like the sun. Undoubtedly that scene would have flashed into John's mind when he saw Jesus here. Peter tells us in his second letter that that experience on the mountain was a preview of the coming of Jesus. This, perhaps, explains why at the close of the Gospel of John we are told that Jesus was asked by the other disciples, "What do you want this man to do?" referring to John. Jesus answered with a strange word. He said, "If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?" (John 21:22-23). The word went out among the disciples that John was never to die because Jesus had suggested that he would remain until he came. But here in this book of Revelation is the explanation. John did remain alive till he saw the coming of Jesus in this vision given to him. Though he died at the age of 90-some years, and was buried in Ephesus, as tradition tells us, yet he did see the coming of the Lord.

The voice he heard was like the sound of the surf as it dashes on the rocks, the sound of many waters, a great roaring voice. The two-edged sword is clearly a symbol of the Word of God. These symbols tell us what he will be doing in this book. He is the Great High Priest ministering to his own in a scene of desolation and judgment, yet he is in charge of all the events and in the midst is revealing truth by the Word of God. Now, throughout the book, Jesus also appears in other capacities: He is a Lamb in Chapter 5. He appears also as a lion there. He is a rider on a great white horse, in Chapter 19. He is a Bridegroom, coming for his Bride in Chapter 21. So various symbols are employed as descriptions of the various ministries of our Lord as he seeks to minister to his people. In Verses 17-18 we learn John's reaction to this remarkable vision.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said,
"Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One;
I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later." (Revelation 1:17-19 NIV)

This is John's commission to write this book, and his reaction is one frequently seen whenever a man encounters the glorious God. He "fell at his feet as though dead," struck dumb by the awesomeness of the character of God. Isaiah does the same when he sees the Lord high and lifted up with his train filling the temple. Job does this also when to him is revealed the wisdom and wonder of God. Throughout the Bible it is the only place to be when God appears -- fall on your face as though dead. But the reaction of Jesus is typical, very characteristic of him. Notice that he does three things. First, he touched him! He laid his right hand upon him. Read the Gospels and Jesus is always touching people. When he healed a leper he touched him. When he opened the eyes of the blind he put his hands upon their eyes. So here, he touched him. And, then, he reassured him. "Fear not," he said. "Don't be afraid. I am not your enemy. I am your friend. I am the First and the Last. [i.e., I set the boundaries of time and history. Everybody must live within the limits that I have determined]. I am the Living One [I am always available.] I am alive forevermore, for ever and ever. [There will never be a moment when you need me that I will not be there, available to you.] And I hold the keys of death and Hades [death, the enemy of the physical life]; Hades [or Hell], the enemy of the spiritual life. [I am in charge of both places, both forces.] So you need not fear." Then he commissioned John: "Write!" And he told him what to write -- in three divisions. "Write what you have seen," That covers what we are looking today in Chapter 1. And write "what is now," i.e., Chapters 2 and 3 of this book, the letters to the seven churches. And write, "what will take place later." This would be Chapters 4-22, the rest of the book of Revelation. So Jesus himself gives us the divisions of this book, and if we follow them carefully we will be able to understand what he is saying.

Now, in Verse 20, which really belongs with the next chapter, he explains the two symbols that John has seen: the seven golden lampstands and the seven stars. Jesus says:

The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. (Revelation 1:20 RSV)

That will introduce us to our study next Sunday. We will explain more of these symbols when we come to that. But the point of this first chapter is to focus our attention upon Jesus. He is the central figure of the book, as he is the central figure of all history. No life can ever be lived realistically without reference to him. Christians are called to live as seeing him who is invisible. Everyday this ought to affect us. Here is the One who goes with you to work tomorrow. This is the One who rides beside you as you drive your car. This is the One who watches as you sleep. This is the One who selects the circumstances of your life. He is ready to impart, at any time you need it, courage, peace, forgiveness, wisdom, and help in time of need. So John fulfills the purpose that he was given: to elevate and focus our attention upon the figure of Jesus that we might know him, who he is, and understand what he is willing to do.

Prayer

Thank you our Lord Jesus for this revelation. Thank you that it does unveil to us and predict for us great events that will affect every human being upon the planet. We pray, Lord, that you will help us to understand these things and more than that, to take seriously what is written, to keep these revelations and let them adjust our lives to what they reveal. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Source  

[Garland-Green]

The Church that Lost its Love

Read the Scripture: Revelation 1:19 - 2:7


What a wonderful week this has been! The whole world has been caught by surprise at the developments in Eastern Europe. New doors of freedom have opened there; even the barrier of the Berlin Wall has been set aside. It has been fascinating to watch. What struck me most was the universal reaction of people to this dramatic change. No one ever expected it to happen! Over and over as people were interviewed they said, "I never believed this would happen in my day." It was not only the common man who was surprised but statesmen, politicians, national leaders and even the military; everyone was wholly taken by wonder at this dramatic breakthrough.

That is highly significant. It indicates that this was not a man-made, planned event. It all happened spontaneously. No one sat down and decided to move, through politics or by the inner counsels of the mighty, to bring this about. It is indicative that a change was made in the councils of God. Somewhere in the invisible realms, where the cosmic battle of the ages is being fought, a blow was struck for liberty! As a result we have a political earthquake which is shaking Europe to its foundations. The interesting thing to me is that it is this invisible war which we are studying in the book of Revelation. This is the book that unveils it for us. And here, at the very beginning of this book, the church is in the forefront -- in the front-line trenches. Let me read again the words of Jesus to John as the apostle saw him in the powerful vision that opens this book:

"Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches." (Revelation 1:19-20 NIV)

Then, in Chapter 2 through Chapter 3, we have these remarkable letters to the seven churches. I find many people would like to skip these letters and get on into the juicier sections of Revelation where the great upheavals of the last days are depicted. But it is a great mistake to do that. Our Lord set his church in the midst of the world. It is his instrument to control and determine human history. Jesus calls the church "the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14), and "the salt of the earth," (Matthew 5:13). The Apostle Paul calls it "the pillar and ground of the truth," (1 Timothy 3:15 KJV). That is the mystery and mission of the church. It is expected to exert tremendous influence in the world's affairs. It is a mistake, therefore, to pass these letters over. Here we see our Lord correcting things within the church, encouraging and teaching it how to live influentially in the day in which it is called to live.

As we come to these letters we must ask ourselves: "Why are there only seven churches, and why these particular seven?" The only satisfactory answer is that these are representative churches. They are carefully selected churches. There were many other churches in the province of Asia at the time John wrote this letter. Others of them could have been selected, but only these seven were chosen. They were not even the best known churches in Asia, but they were chosen by the Lord because they represent conditions that will obtain throughout the whole period of church history from its beginning to its end. In other words, there are only seven types of churches that exist at any one given period of time. Every church that truly knows Jesus as Lord can be recognized as one of these seven at some particular moment of its history. By repentance or disobedience it may change its classification to another of these seven types, but it will always be found to fit somewhere in this seven-fold pattern.

But beyond that, as many commentators have pointed out, these letters are a kind of preview of the entire history of the church from its beginning to its consummation. In other words they represents even stages or periods of church history. The key that suggests this is the word (in 1:3) that calls this whole book a "prophecy." This prophecy includes Chapters 2 and 3, as well as the rest of the book. Seven, as we have already seen in Chapter 1, is the number of completeness. These letters, then, is our Lord's preview of the entire church throughout its history as it moves through various stages of development.

We must never forget that all of Revelation was written for these seven churches. Each is expected to know and understand the whole book. It is not just Chapters 2 and 3 that concern the churches; their concern is the entire vision that was given to John. As we go through these letters we will try to trace (though in very brief space) the different periods of the history of the church, and also take careful note of what the Lord says to each historic individual church. Somewhere in this listing of churches we will find Peninsula Bible Church as well.

One further preliminary before we turn to the text. These churches are here called "lampstands," i.e., they are light-bearers. They are not the light themselves, but they hold or bear the light. The light, of course, is the truth as it is in Jesus, that truth which God wants the human race to know. There are many truths that are unknown to man in his natural state. No university, great or mighty or important as it may be, has knowledge of the truth which the church is given to tell the world. That is the moral and redemptive "light" which the church is called to reflect to a dark world. It is the business of the church to tell truth to the world. We must never forget that. We are not simply to make our way through this difficult world as best we can, coming together in little holy huddles to survive until the coming of the Lord. We have an influence to exercise, and these letters to the seven churches marvelously reflect that fact.

Notice also that each letter is addressed to the angel of the church. Many commentators struggle over this. What is meant by "the angel of the church"? It is true, as some have pointed out, that this word can be translated "messenger," and in other parts of the New Testament it does have that meaning. But it does not have that meaning elsewhere in Revelation! The word "angel" appears many times in the book outside these seven letters, and in every case it refers to a heavenly being -- what we normally think of as an angel. It is suggestive here that each church has a heavenly being responsible for guiding the human leadership of each.

Some have seen this is as a reference to the pastor, or human leader of the church. That is not likely since in all the churches of the New Testament you never find a single human leader. Leadership is always in the plural -- elders and pastors of churches. It is men who have made that change in the centuries since our Lord began the church. Dr. H. A. Ironside once told me of his experience when he was asked to preach every Sunday in the Brethren Assembly, on 42nd Street in Oakland, many years ago. A certain individual in the church would write him a letter every Monday morning, and he always knew how he had done by the way the letter started. If he had pleased this individual, and had said the things the man agreed with, the letter always began, "To the angel of the church at Oakland, greetings." But if he had displeased him, or said something he did not agree with, the letter would invariably begin, "To Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among us" -- a phrase taken from Third John 1:9.

But here we have no human leader addressed. It is sent to the angel of the church, the one responsible to help the human leaders of the church to know the mind of the Lord. Remember that in Hebrews we are told that angels are "ministering spirits, sent forth to serve the heirs of salvation" (Hebrews 1:14 KJV), i.e., Christians. It seems very likely therefore that in those invisible realms, which are very real but which we cannot see, there are angels assigned to each church to help the leaders and the congregation to know what is on the heart of its Lord. Now let us come to the church at Ephesus in the opening verses of Chapter 2:

"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
"These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary." (Revelation 2:1-3 NIV)

The first thing the Lord wished to impress upon this church at Ephesus was that he was the Lord of all the churches. He was in their midst, observing among the lampstands. He was also in direct control of the angels of the churches and therefore had full access to the leadership of each church.

This church at Ephesus had been begun by the Apostle Paul. You can read the account of it in the 19th chapter of Acts. When Paul came to Ephesus he found a number of disciples who had been led to some knowledge of truth by Apollos, the great orator of the early church. But they knew nothing but the ministry of John the Baptist. When Paul asked them whether they had received the Holy Spirit they confessed that they did not know that the Holy Spirit had been given. So Paul preached Jesus to them, they believed and were baptized by the Spirit and so the church in Ephesus came into existence. Some time later Paul himself labored there for over two years, and many years later he sent Timothy to this church. (The two letters to Timothy are addressed to him while he is working there). Tradition tells us that after John had written the book of Revelation he also went to Ephesus and spent the closing years of his life there.

Ephesus was not the capital of the Roman province of Asia, but it was the most important city in it. It was a center of great commercial life and a crossroads of the empire. The city was known throughout the Roman world as the center for the worship of the goddess Artemis, and the great temple of Artemis (or Diana, as it is called in the King James Version) was located there. This great temple was larger than two football fields in length, and was one of the seven wonders of the world. Its ruins are still visible today. The city therefore had great influence in the Roman world. As you read the account, you can see much of the same atmosphere of worldly power and influence as in the Bay Area or the city of San Francisco today.

Each of these letters consists of a searching appraisal, of both good and bad, which our Lord makes of the condition of that church; and also an appeal for repentance on the part of those who had fallen away and plea for a return to faith, with a spiritual promise to those who hold fast. The Lord sees three commendable things about this church.

First, he says they were hard, committed workers: "I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance." These Christians were activists. They were not couch potatoes. They took their faith seriously and they put it to work. They witnessed; they labored; they ministered to human needs. They helped the downcast and ministered to the homeless and outcasts of society. They were busy people, continually working, and our Lord commends them for that. Second, their doctrine was orthodox. Jesus commends them highly for this: "I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles, but are not, and have found them false." Their faith was well defined and well defended. They did not run after every theological fad that came along. They examined them as to whether or not they were true. They checked up on what was being taught and they strongly opposed some of the teaching that was being presented by some of the itinerant speakers of that day. In his last visit with the elders of the church at Ephesus the Apostle Paul had warned them that they would have trouble in this area. In the 20th chapter of Acts we find him summoning the elders of Ephesus to come down to him at the city of Miletus. There he delivered to them a farewell message of moving impact because he thought he would never see them again. In the course of it, he said to them, in Verse 29:

"I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears." (Acts 20:29-31 NIV)

So Paul understood the problem that would confront this church. Here, the Lord Jesus recognizes how well they had followed the apostle's advice. They had checked up on speakers, and had refused the teaching of many. They had tested those who claimed to be apostles and found them to be false.

Last week I received a manuscript of a new book that will be published soon by Moody Press. It is a collection of articles written by some of the outstanding evangelical leaders of our day examining the teaching of certain televangelists who are occupying much time and space on our television sets these days. It is a searching, but objective, examination of whether such teaching is in line with the Scriptures. Paul had shown these elders in Ephesus how to test doctrine. He gives it in that same passage, in Verse 32:

"Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified." (Acts 20:32 NIV)

What is the ground of testing? It is whether a teaching agrees with the Scriptures, with the "word of God's grace," as he calls it there. If this were more widely practiced today we would probably have been spared much of the terrible, shameful scandals that have occupied the front pages of our papers and other media. Think, for instance, what would have happened here in the Bay Area if some church had analyzed the teaching of Jim Jones and had warned people of his errors. How many of the thousand that he led to their deaths would still be living today if the churches had had the courage and wisdom to analyze his teaching and challenge it! Our Lord commends the Ephesians for doing this. He does not charge them with being judgmental, or say, as many do today, that churches have no right to judge. He points out that this was part of the teaching they had received, and he commends them for it.

The third thing he commends them for is found in Verse 3: "You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary." They had persisted in their teaching and their work despite much discouragement and hardship. They were not quitters. They were sturdy, determined disciples, faithfully working and witnessing and not deviating from the truth they had received. Up to this point in the letter they were getting a grade of A+. But -- that is not the whole story. Our Lord goes on:

"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." (Revelation 2:4-6 RSV)

Now we can see that this is a church in serious trouble. Despite all the commendable things, there is something seriously wrong. Our Lord puts it in one brief phrase, "You have abandoned your first love." That is the problem. So serious is that that he says, "If you do not correct it, I will remove your lampstand." This indicates this is a very serious matter. The removal of the lampstand does not mean that the individual members of the church would be lost or condemned to hell. What it means is the church would lose its ability to shed the light of truth. The light from this church would stop shining. They would become a church with no influence or impact spiritually upon the community around. They would be busy doing religious, but entirely irrelevant, things. They would still be working, still orthodox , but inconsequential, with no light, no impact.

Sadly, we have to say that there are thousands of churches like this in our country today. There are churches where congregations are still meeting year after year, Sunday after Sunday, doing religious things -- singing hymns, reciting the Apostles' Creed, perhaps doing some good works in the neighborhood -- but having no spiritual impact, seeing no change in people's lives, no releasing of them from their sins, no changes in the morals or outlooks of a whole community. Their light has failed.

What causes that condition? Our Lord says it is because they left their first love. They abandoned it. When we ask, "What is first love?" the answer is almost obvious. It is the love you felt for Jesus when you first came to know him. It is that wonderful sense of discovery that he loved you, and had delivered you, and freed you from your sins. Your heart went out to him in gratitude and thanksgiving; you had eyes for no one but him. Watch a couple who have fallen in love. Note how they have eyes only for each other. How spacy they are! Talk to them, and they do not even hear you. They are only thinking of the wonder of each other. So it is with a Christian when he first comes to Christ. His heart is filled with gratitude. What an amazing thing it is to him that he has been forgiven! He can hardly believe it. This is why new Christians often break into tears when they give their testimony. I have seen strong men break down completely and are unable to tell their story because it means so much that Jesus has come into their heart. Their home, their family is different. They are forgiven of their sins. The love of Christ seems almost incredible to them. Earlier we heard recited the poem of John Newton,

In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Until a new object met my sight,
And stopped my wild career.

He saw that Jesus had forgiven him. He could not believe it. It seemed too wonderful to him.

Amazing love, how can it be
That Thou My God should die for me!

That is first love. Under the impact of it, the new Christian eagerly takes on various ministries. It is a delight to serve, to sing, to help, to reach out to others. It seems the least he can do for such a wonderful Lord. That is first love. But gradually there comes an almost imperceptible shift of focus. We get busy, and what we do for Christ begins to loom more and more unimportant to us. Gradually our position, our status, the longing for approval by others, begins to take first place. We go on doing the same things but not from the same drive or motive. We drift into the loss of first love.

There are always symptoms, signs, of this happening. Here are three of them: The first one, visible at first only to the individual, is the loss of the joy and glow of Christian life. It soon becomes humdrum and routine. You begin to feel like you have heard it all already. Even the church service loses its impact. It seems mechanical, routine, dull and drab. That is a sign you are beginning to lose your first love. Second, you lose your ability to love others. One of the great revelations of the Scripture is that the reason we love others is because we have first been loved ourselves. When we lose that consciousness of the wonder of Jesus' love we also lose our awareness of others and find our love for them fading. It is difficult to love. We become critical, censorious, complaining. We begin to choose our friends more closely and only associate with those we like. We lose the compassion that reached out to everyone at first. Then, third, we lose a healthy perspective of ourselves. We become more and more important in our thinking. Instead of what the Lord wants and what will please him we begin to think of what we want and what will please us. Gradually, we become sensitive and touchy, unable to bear criticism. This begins to make divisions and often schisms in a congregation. Individuals in the church are no longer interested in evangelism. They are no longer concerned about those around them without Christ, but are focused on themselves, their own comfort, their own pleasure. Self-centeredness sets in.

Those are the marks of the loss of first love, and this is what was happening at Ephesus. I am fully aware that we have all done this at times. I have. You have. We have all felt the debilitating symptoms of a loss of first love. When a whole congregation begins to reflect that atmosphere it soon loses its influence. Its light goes out. Its lampstand has been removed.

What do you do when that happens? How do you recover from this? Our Lord gives three clear, specific steps to take: Remember, repent, and return! There it is. "Remember the height from which you have fallen." Look back. Remember what it was like when you first came to Jesus. Remember the joy you had in the Lord. Remember the closeness you felt to him and him to you. Remember the inner support you leaned upon in times of pressure and trouble. Remember the ease with which you prayed. Remember the delight you took in other Christians, in the reading of the Word and in the hearing of it. Remember how you could hardly bear to miss a service because you were learning so much of the truth about life. Remember that? Look back. Think back. Our Lord says, "Remember the height from which you have fallen." And then, repent! Change your mind. That is what repentance means. Change your mind about what has taken the place of Jesus in your life. Renounce that ambition, that pride of position, that longing for approval that has become all-important to you and is motivating your work. Give up your critical spirit, your complaining attitude, your reliance on your knowledge or your training to make an impact in life. Put the Lord back in the center and focus of all your endeavors. Repent. Change your mind. And then, return! I will never forget some years ago being at Mt. Hermon with a group of pastors at a pastors' conference. Dr. Bob Munger, who for years was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, stood up before the pastors one day and drew a great circle on the blackboard. He put an "X" in the middle of it, and said, "As I look back on my pastoral ministry there were many years in which I felt I was right in the center of where God wanted me to be. The Lord Jesus was real and vital and important to me. But in these last few years as I look at my life, I find I have drifted." He put an "X" on the periphery of the circle, and said, "I have drifted over to this point. I want to tell you men I am praying, and I ask you to pray for me, that God will lead me back to the center again." I can testify that God did that with Bob Munger and he went on to many years of fruitful service for the Lord. It was a moving thing to hear him do what the Lord tells us to do: repent and return to where you were before. "Do the things you did at first," Jesus says.

What are those things? Well, you read your Bible with eager eyes. You could not get enough of it. You longed to find out what the Word of God said. And you prayed about everything -- even finding a parking place! You responded to the hurts and the needs around you with compassion and with love, and you did not count it an imposition. Above all, you praised God from your heart. You loved to sing praises to his name and to think about his grace to you. Now, do that again, Jesus says. Start there.

At this point, Jesus says a rather strange thing: "But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate," (Verse 6). Why did he not mention that in the things he commended earlier? The answer is that here was where the Ephesians were to begin. There is much controversy as to who these Nicolaitans were. They appear again in the letter to the church at Pergamum, and we will say more about them there. But the Lord links this with the steps to recovery for this Ephesian church because this is where they are to start. Their passion is not all gone yet. In one thing they still retain something of their first love: They hated the practices of the Nicolaitans.

As best we can tell from the early church fathers and the references of Scripture, this was a group that linked Christian faith with loose sexual practices. They believed you could be Christian but your sex life could still reflect that of the world. They tied that in with a false religious piety. They laid claim to special position and power with God, but they lived like the devil. Jesus is saying to these Ephesian Christians, "Retain your hatred of such practices. That is a vestige of your first love still remaining. You hate them because I hate them. Start there. Continue to abhor such practices, but then go back and do the rest of the things again."

When we look at this letter from the standpoint of church history, we see this loss of first love becoming widespread in the churches after the apostles had passed away. This first period of church history covers the years from 70 A. D., when the temple was destroyed, to about 160 A. D., the middle of the 2nd century. During that time the churches were drifting away from a warm, loving, compassion-filled ministry to the world and becoming involved in doctrinal controversies and theological discussions, pounding out the teaching of the church on the anvil of controversy. They were moral, but increasingly formal and perfunctory. This kind of condition is still with us today in many churches. The dominant atmosphere of that first period of church history was a drifting away from loving fellowship with Jesus into a critical and somewhat contentious attitude where human endeavors were of chief importance. Verse 7, which we will take very briefly, contains our Lord's appeal to this church and the promise he makes to it:

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." (Revelation 2:7 NIV)

"To him who has an ear," i.e., to the one who is willing to listen to the voice of the Lord. Do you have an ear to hear what Jesus says? Do you respond with sympathy and obedience to the word that he gives us? Do you have an opened ear? Then, this is what he says: "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."

The tree of life, you will remember, was in the Garden of Eden at the beginning. It was the tree that Adam and Eve were free to partake of until they sinned. After that, they were excluded from the Garden, lest they should eat of the tree of life. It appears again in the book of Revelation, in the 22nd chapter. There we see the new heaven and the new earth, and the tree of life is in the midst of the city. Its twelve fruits, one for each month, is the food of the people of the city. It is the Fruit of the Month Club, if you like!

Our Lord is himself that tree of life. This is a symbol of Jesus. If we think of him much and draw strength from him, praying to him, and taking from him that strength he offers, we will find ourselves internally strengthened to meet the pressures and the battles we face today. That is what he is saying. Feed upon the tree of life. Listen to what Jesus says, and obey it, and you will soon find your spiritual life flourishing. You will grow strong in the pressures and struggles that come your way. That is the tree of life.

As we come to the communion table this morning, it is most appropriate that we should observe this reminder of our Lord's life and death. What we feed upon, of course, is the bread, which is another symbol of him. We are to gain strength by feeding upon the life of Jesus, taking from him that which we need to motivate us to be all that he wants us to be.

As we come to this Lord's Supper, ask yourself the question, "Do I still love Jesus? Do I still feel about him as I did at the beginning? Is he richer and deeper and clearer than he ever was before?" Perhaps we should often sing that Gaither chorus,

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
There is just something about that name.
Master, Savior, Jesus,
Like the fragrance after the rain.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
Let all heaven and earth proclaim.
Kings and kingdoms will all pass away
But there's something about that name.

Though the heavens and earth may pass away, still that name remains, and is to be a fragrance in our hearts whenever we think of him.

Source  

[Garland-Green]

Smyrna and Pergamum -- The Pressured Church

Read the Scripture: Revelation 2:8-17


It has been often said, with much truth, that Christians ought to live with the newspaper in one hand and a Bible in the other. It takes one to understand the other. The newspaper records the visible events that are taking place upon the earth at the present hour, but the Bible looks beyond to the invisible realm where the councils of God determine what will take place on earth. You cannot really understand life until you see both realms.

It is especially the province of the book of Revelation to open that invisible realm to us. As we look at this great book, we will learn much about what is to happen on earth, as well as what is happening right now. The latter is covered by the letters to the seven churches. The entire church age is brought before us in the purview of these letters. To fit these seven letters into the assigned time period that I have it is necessary for me to take two of them today. So, forgive me as we move quickly through two letters: The letter to the church at Smyrna and the letter to the church at Pergamum.

The first is to the angel of the church at Smyrna. Smyrna was a beautiful city located on the coast about 40 miles north of Ephesus. It was one of the most prosperous cities of Asia. With typical Chamber of Commerce humility the city fathers called it "the pride of Asia." It sounds like San Francisco, does it not? There was a hill named the Pagos back of the city, and around the crest of that hill a number of pagan temples, forming a rough circle, had been erected. Because it looked like a crown, Smyrna was also called "the Crown of Asia." That will explain a reference we find later in this letter.

The city was one of the major centers of emperor worship. As early as 26 A. D., during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, a temple had been erected to the emperor, and thus the Christians of Smyrna were confronted with the need annually to choose between saying, "Jesus is Lord," or, "Caesar is Lord." That was the test the Romans applied to all their citizens. It meant that a great deal of pressure and persecution came upon this church because of their unwillingness to say "Caesar is Lord." There was also a large community of Jews within the city who were hostile to the Christian faith, as we will see. To the church in this city of Smyrna, then, the Lord Jesus addressed these words:

"These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions and your poverty -- yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life." (Revelation 2:8b-10 NIV)

That is our Lord's appraisal of this church. It is obviously a church in trouble. The name Smyrna means "myrrh." It is a very fitting name because myrrh is a perfume, the fragrance of which is released by crushing. Here was a church that was being crushed through persecution. It was tough to be a Christian in Smyrna because they had to live constantly between two extremes. There was within the church a rich and loving fellowship which must have greatly warmed their hearts and strengthened their faith, but outside, in the city, they faced continuous cruel and persistent hostility. Thus, the Christians of Smyrna lived within these two extremes.

But notice how the Lord reveals himself to them. He says, "I am the First and the Last. I am the one who died and who lives." Those are extremes: First and last; death and life. Jesus presents himself as the Lord of the extremes. He encompasses all the forces and events between these two extremes. Remember that at the giving of the Great Commission he said to his disciples, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given unto me," (Matthew 28:18 KJV).

He is Lord of all heavenly and earthly forces. It must have been a great encouragement to the Christians at Smyrna to receive this word from their Lord.

There is an ascending scale of troubles harassing the church. The first thing the Lord says is, "I know your afflictions." The Greek word means distresses. It is a picture of crushing, unending pressure upon them. We can best understand what that would be like if we remember what we have read about the Holocaust in Germany, and the continual pressures that the Jews faced daily under the Nazi regime. Every day they were hounded and harassed on every side. They were humiliated and attacked without mercy. It is the kind of distress these Christians in Smyrna were enduring. Perhaps we could update it a bit by likening it to the suffering of the churches of Eastern Europe under the hard-line Communist regime.

The second thing Jesus says is, I know your poverty: "I know your afflictions and your poverty -- yet you are rich." We do not know exactly what made them poor. Smyrna was a prosperous city, but it may have been that this poverty was caused by the persecutions they were experiencing. Their homes perhaps had been pillaged; their possessions taken away. This was common in the early church in times of persecution. Perhaps they had to resort to menial work, and to eat cheap food to get by. Yet the Lord says their fellowship within the congregation and their families was rich indeed.

I well recall in the Great Depression, when I was a high school boy, that we did not have much to eat. We had no luxuries. We could not afford to buy anything but the most basics; even clothing came with great difficulty. But we had a wonderful time together without any special entertainment. We did not have television; we had radio, but where I lived radios were battery operated and used sparingly. Yet we had a wonderfully rich time. I look back on it as one of the richest periods of my life, because we enjoyed each other. We learned again the simple joys of relationships and of family fellowship. Someone has captured the thought of this in a poem I ran across:

I counted dollars while God counted crosses.
I counted gain while He counted losses.
I counted my worth by the things gained in store,
But he sized me up by the scars that I bore.
I coveted honors, and sought for degrees.
He wept as he counted the hours on my knees.
I never knew till one day by a grave,
How vain are the things that we spend life to save.
I did not yet know, 'til a Friend from above,
Said, richest is he who is rich in God's love!

There is a program on television called "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." On it, there is paraded before us the wealth and luxury seemingly enjoyed by the rich. But if you investigate more closely the lives of those presented, you discover that it is very rare to find a happy person among them. Riches do not make one happy. Fame does not make one happy. A continual testimony to that fact is borne by the tragedy of these people taking their own lives out of sheer wretchedness and misery. But our Lord says the true riches are those that come from within, where the heart is filled with the grace and love of God. There is an experience of close relationships with other people; they become dear and precious to us. That was the experience of the church at Smyrna.

Thirdly, Jesus says, "I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan." There was a smear campaign going on against these Christians. Lies were being told about them. We know from early literature that, because the Christians talked about eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ, they were accused of being cannibals. People thought of them with horror as cannibals, eating one another. You can imagine the reaction that brought upon them. Also, because they refused to visit the pagan temples, or to acknowledge the gods of the pagans, they were called atheists. Consequently they were treated with scorn in this world given over to idolatry. Christians talked often about being members one of another and of loving one another, and so they were accused of sexual orgies. Lies were spread about them that when they met together it was to indulge in licentious and lascivious practices. This slander is what produced much of the persecution of the early Christians. It came, we are told here, from false Jews. These were physical descendants of Abraham and they had a synagogue there in Smyrna, but, like the Pharisees who harassed and hounded Jesus, they persecuted these believers, proving they did not have the spiritual insights of Abraham. They were, in effect, "a synagogue of Satan" and were far removed from being true children of Abraham. It is hard to bear up under slander. I watched recently an interview with Dr. Everett Koop, the former Surgeon General of the United States, and also an interview with Judge Bork who was denied a seat on the Supreme Court. Both of these men testified to the difficulty and pain they suffered from the lies and slanders that were told about them. They were vilified in the public press. They were accused of things they had nothing to do with, and this was hard for them to bear. That is what these Christians were facing.

I read once about a Christian who was going through a time of great misunderstanding and attack, and he could not do much to defend himself. One day a friend of his came up and took him by the hand and told him how much he sympathized with him for what he was going through. But, looking him in the eye, he said, "Remember, they have not spit in your face yet." It was a reference, of course, to Jesus. They did spit in his face. They smote him. They plucked the hair from his beard. They beat him on the back with rods. They lied about him. So Christians who endure mistreatment and misjudgment must remember that the Lord knows what it is like.

But the worst is yet to come. Jesus says, "Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you." This, by the way, is the first mention of the devil in the book of Revelation. The Lord acknowledges that he who is the First and the Last is going to allow this to happen. The devil will put some of them in prison. Those Roman prisons were terrible places where prisoners were faced with the threat of execution at any moment. But our Lord says three very encouraging things. If you ever have to face this kind of persecution here are three things to strengthen you:

First, "You are going to be put into prison to test you." The emphasis ought to be upon the word you. Many read this as though it is God who is the one who is going to learn something by this test. But that cannot be, since God already knows our hearts. He knows what you can take before you ever have to endure it. He does not learn anything new from your testing. But you do! It is to test you that this hardship is given. It is to show you how much you have grown. It is to strip off the superficial supports that you have been leaning on and to show you how much you have truly learned to rely upon the grace and the strength of God. Then, second, he says it will be only for a limited time. He is going to test you "ten days." We do not know when or how this took place though it undoubtedly did occur to this church at Smyrna, but the encouraging thing is that the Lord determined the limits. The test cannot go beyond it. No force or power on earth could make this last eleven days! It was ten days that he had determined. Third, he says, "Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life." Surely that is intended to be a contrast to the Crown of Asia, the pagan temple buildings that were built on the hill of Pagos. That was an earthly crown, a recognition of earthly status, and a source of great pride to this city. But our Lord says that he will give something much better -- a Crown of Life, of eternal life. What a much greater thing that is! The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans that "the sufferings of this present moment are not to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us," ( Romans 8:18.). In another place he says, "This light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us to produce an eternal weight of glory," (2 Corinthians 4:17). We are constantly encouraged by the fact that these trials and testings and pressures are doing something valuable to us.

Prophetically viewed, this church is a picture of the period in history from about 160 A. D. to 320 A. D., the rise of Constantine, the first so-called Christian emperor. The whole period has been termed the "Age of the Martyrs." It was not the only time Christians have been martyred. (I have often pointed out that the greatest number of Christians put to death for their faith was not in the 1st century but in the 20th! That is rather startling, is it not?) But, in this first period, they were persecuted in ways almost beyond belief. Their bodies were torn apart on racks. Their fingernails were pulled off. They were hung by their thumbs, oftentimes for days. They were wrapped in animal skins and thrown out for bulls to gore and to pitch around. They were covered with tar and set alight in the gardens to light the festivities of the pagans. If you want the gruesome details get a copy of Fox's Book of Martyrs and read what some of the early Christians went through.

One of the first was a man named Polycarp who was the bishop of this very church at Smyrna. In 155 A. D., at the age of 86, he was sentenced to death by being burnt at the stake for his faith. He had refused to say, "Caesar is Lord." When he died he gave an eloquent testimony to his love for Christ. The account of it has been preserved for us in Fox's Book of Martyrs. In his teens he had known personally the Apostle John, and had probably heard from his lips the truth recorded here in Revelation.

During this period of time there were ten separate edicts of persecution from the Roman emperors. It is predicted in this phrase that the Christians would "suffer persecution for ten days." Historically, there were ten separate persecutions, beginning with the Emperor Domitian in 96 A. D., and continuing to Diocletian, the last emperor before Constantine. This is prophetically portrayed for us here in this remarkable preview of the church age. Now, in Verse 11, our Lord appeals to the individuals in this church:

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.[Notice in all of these letters what is said to all the churches is to be heeded in each.] He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death." (Revelation 2:11 NIV)

If you look up in your concordance what "the second death" refers to, you will find in Chapters 20 and 21 of this book of Revelation three references to the "second death." There we are told plainly what it is: It is the terrible lake of fire, the symbol of the final judgment of the impenitent, those who refuse the gospel of the grace of God. It is prepared for the devil and his angels, but it will be shared by those who choose the devil's way. They will be separated forever from God, tormented in spirit and soul, pictured by the torment that fire gives to the physical body. It is what they have asked for all their life! People who say, "I don't what anything to do with God, I don't want him in my life," eventually are given their way. For the rest of eternity they are separated from the grace, mercy, and love of God. It is the most horrendous torment the human spirit can bear. It is vividly symbolized by the burning lake of fire called "the second death."

Jesus is here simply saying, "If you listen to what this letter is saying to you, if you trust me in times of pressure and persecution, I will give you the gift of eternal life and you will have nothing to fear from the judgment of God." You will be kept safe forever from the second death. It is what Paul rejoices in in Romans 8, "Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord," (Romans 8:38b-39 NIV).

By the way, all Christians are called to be faithful unto death. Did you know that? We are all called to be faithful unto death no matter when or how that death comes. This may sound startling to you, but I have always thought the best way to die as a Christian is to be beheaded! If I were to choose my style of dying it would either be by a sudden heart attack or by being beheaded. It is quick! It is sure! And I believe it would be virtually painless! There is nothing to fear. So Jesus reassures those who prove the reality of their faith by remaining faithful unto death. Now the church at Pergamum:

"To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
"These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. I know where you live -- where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city -- where Satan lives.

"Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth." (Revelation 2:12-16 NIV)

This church is in sharp contrast to the church at Smyrna. Smyrna was enduring persecution; this church was faced with enticement and corruption. The devil has only two ways of approach. If he cannot make you knuckle under with hostility and persecution he will begin to entice you and lure you into something dangerous. It is either intimidation or enticement. It is either the violence of a roaring lion or the corruption of an angel of light. Pergamum is the church that is being undermined by corrupt practices and corrupt teaching.

Our Lord identifies himself to it as the one having "the sharp, doubled-edged sword." As we have already seen, that is the symbol of the Word of God coming from his lips. It is double-edged; it cuts two ways. I believe that refers to the fact that the Word can cleave the skull to get to the mind, and it can pierce the heart to touch the emotions. It can awaken us to reality. By the Word of God our minds begin to learn truth that we never saw before. We see things the way they are, and it motivates us to action. It can also pierce the heart. Remember that on the Day of Pentecost, when Peter had finished his message, the people were cut to the heart, according to the book of Acts. They cried, "Men and brethren, what must we do?" (Acts 2:37 KJV). That is the power of the Word. It touches both the reason and the conscience.

Pergamum was the Roman capital of the province of Asia. Located about 50 miles north of Smyrna. It was a center of pagan worship and there was a temple to Caesar there as well. It is called here, "where Satan has his throne," i.e. the place where Satan rules. And it is also referred to as the city "where Satan lives," i.e., where he has his headquarters. Many scholars think that refers to the great altar of Zeus which was on the hillside overlooking the city. It was a great chair, or throne, forty feet high, and any citizen could look up there at any time and see what Jesus calls "Satan's throne." This was such a center of pagan worship it seemed to be the very center of evil. There is a fascinating footnote of history in connection with this. In the 1880's, about 100 years ago, a German archaeologist working in the city of Pergamum removed that throne, that Satanic seat, from the hillside and took it to Europe. Today it is visible yet in the Pergamum Museum in the city -- get this -- of East Berlin! For 100 years Satan's throne has been in East Berlin. If that has any connection with the rise of Hitler, and the Nazis, I leave to you to judge. But East Berlin is also where Hitler's headquarters were located.

In his appraisal, our Lord assesses the strengths of this church: He says, first, "You remain true to my name." They had refused to budge on their view of his person. They held to the truth about Jesus. They saw him as the God-man, combining in one person two natures, both of God and man. That is orthodox doctrine. That is the teaching of the church from its very beginning, and clearly evident in the Scripture. Against all the corrupting influences around them, these people had held to that truth. Almost all heresies today flow out of a denial of the deity of Jesus. But we must not also deny the humanity of Jesus. He was God as though he had never been man, and man as though he was never God. Both are true. The church at Pergamum had held fast to that teaching. Second, they did this at the risk of their own lives. Jesus says, "You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city -- where Satan lives." Antipas means "against all." We do not know much about this man, although he is said to be the first martyr under the Roman persecution in Asia. Tradition says he was roasted to death in a brazen bull that was heated to a white heat. That is the price that he had to pay for being true to the doctrine about Jesus. He had to stand "against all!"

But two terrible errors were undermining this church: One is called here "the teaching of Balaam." You can read about it in Numbers 25. Balaam was a false prophet who had been hired by Balak, the King of Moab, to curse Israel, but when he tried to do so he found he could not. Every time he tried to curse them, words of blessing came out of his mouth. God would not let him curse his people. So, in order to achieve the end for which he had been hired, he paid beautiful maidens from Moab and Midian to parade before the young men of Israel, tempting them into sexual immorality. Since these women were worshipers of idols, by that means he introduced idol worship into the tribes of Israel. Thus he corrupted and enticed them into sin. The counterpart we face in our day is the practice of pornography and fornication among Christians and the acceptance of unmarriages, of living together without marriage, that is often widespread in the churches today. That is the error of Balaam.

They were also being seduced by the error of the Nicolaitans. Though it is difficult to know exactly who these people were, the name means "conquerors of the people." It appears they claimed to have a special relationship to God. They professed to be the beneficiaries of intimate revelations that were not given to others, and that they therefore had an inside track with God. They presumed to take the place of the priesthood in Judaism, and carried that error into the Christian church. Probably both of these false teachings worked together. One appealed to physical lust, and the other to the ambition for power exercised in a religious way. It is seen yet today in the supremacy of pastors who are lifted up above the laity. They are men who claim to have more intimate relationships with God, and thus are regarded as better than the rest of the people. The way you handle either error, of course, is with the sharp, two-edged sword! Jesus said, "Repent. Otherwise, I will come to you and fight against them with the sword of my mouth." The Word of God exposes both the error of immorality and the error of priestly superiority. That is one reason why the exposition of Scripture is resisted in many churches.

Prophetically, this is the period from the accession of Constantine in 320 A. D. to the rise of the papacy in the 6th century. During that period of time were held the great councils of the church. The council of Nicea, the council of Chalcedon and others, determined the true doctrine of the person of Christ -- who he was, and how he combined in himself the two natures. But it was also the time of the wedding of the church and the world under Constantine. (Incidentally, Pergamum means "marriage." It comes from the same root from which we get monogamy and bigamy). Constantine was not really a true Christian. He adopted many pagan practices and brought them into the church where they were accepted. Christianity was popular in those days, and many pagan practices were incorporated into it. This began when the church was viewed as a worldly kingdom, like any other kingdom. Our Lord's appeal is found in Verse 17:

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it." (Revelation 2:17 NIV)

This is addressed to those who will take heed to the warnings of this letter, and watch in the areas of sexual immorality and of spiritual superiority. If you stand fast against immorality and the love of religious power you will be given the "hidden manna." Notice both the manna and the new name are secret things. It is a picture of close intimacy. Manna, of course, was the food that Moses fed the Israelites in the wilderness. Jesus said in Chapter 6 of John, "I am the bread sent down from heaven," (John 6:41). He is that hidden manna. He is food for the inner spirit, food that others do not know about. In John 4, our Lord sent his disciples into the city of Sychar to get food. When they came back and found he had been ministering to the woman at the well, he said, "I have had food that you know not of," (John 4:32). He was feeding upon the inner strength that God the Father was giving him. That is what is given to those who will resist the lure of immorality and spiritual privilege.

Then, with it, is the white stone with a secret name upon it. White stones were used among the Romans as a mark of special favor. A secret name, of course, is a sign of intimacy. Some years ago the well known Christian author, Elizabeth Elliott was speaking here at PBC. For a while I called her Betty Elliott because that was the name used in the book that she wrote about her husband Jim. One day she corrected me. She said, "You know, my name is not Betty, it is Elizabeth. Betty was Jim's private name for me." It was apparent to me that she wanted to preserve it as his name for her alone. So I began to call her Elizabeth instead of Betty. A secret name is a special mark of intimacy. If you know the Lord Jesus, and your heart is kept from the corrupting influences of the world around, you will enjoy an intimacy with him in which the new nature he has given you (depicted by the new name here), becomes stronger and more developed, and you enter into beautiful fellowship and intimacy with him.

Prayer

Thank you, Father, for your mercy and grace to us. Thank you for teaching us so plainly and clearly in these letters what we are to face up to. Help us, Lord, to heed what the Spirit says to the churches. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Source  

[Garland-Green]

Thyatira: The Worldly Church

Read the Scripture: Revelation 2:18-29


As we look at these seven letters in the book of Revelation, it is helpful to remember two things about them: First, they are a picture of seven kinds of churches that you find in any age, in any period of history. Every church in the world today will fall into one or more of these categories of churches. We fit into one of these ourselves. The second thing is the prophetic nature of these letters. They are a preview of the entire age of the church, falling into seven periods, from the first coming of our Lord to his second appearing.

Today we come to the fourth of these churches, the church at Thyatira. Beginning in Verse 18 of Chapter 2, the Lord addresses the angel of the church. Thyatira was located about 35 miles southeast of Pergamum. It was a very small city, but a busy commercial center. It was on a major road of the Roman Empire, and, because of this, many trade unions had settled in this city. Everyone who worked there was a member of one or more trades. There were carpenters, dyers, sellers of goods, tent makers, etc. In the church at Philippi, which the Apostle Paul began, there was a woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, who came from Thyatira. It was difficult to make a living as a Christian in Thyatira without belonging to the union. This is a factor which will bear upon the interpretation of this letter, as we will see. Our Lord's first words to this church indicate both judgment and approbation. He says:

"These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first." (Revelation 2:18b-19 NIV)

Notice that he uses, for the first and only time in the book of Revelation, the title the "Son of God." There are people who claim that Jesus never said that he was the Son of God, but here is one of several places in the New Testament where he makes that claim very clearly. This means, of course, that he is stressing his deity. As the Son of God he has "eyes like blazing fire," eyes that can pierce the facades, the disguises, the postures and pretensions of his people and get right to the heart of what they are doing. He has feet "like burnished bronze" which can trample sin under foot and severely punish that which is wrong, if need be. Both are needed in the church at Thyatira. It is the most corrupt of the seven churches that are presented here.

But there were some good things going on in this church. Our Lord tells us what they are. "I know your deeds [i.e., your works], your love and faith, your service and your perseverance." Those are related. Love leads to service; faith leads to perseverance. If you love God, you will serve his people. You cannot help it. It is the sign that you love that you are willing to serve. And if you have faith you will persevere; you will understand that God is in control and things will work out according to his purpose. You keep at your work; you do not quit. So here was a church that had many people that loved God and served his people. They had faith in his word, and they persevered. They helped many, and they kept it up. As others then got involved, the church grew. So the deeds, or the works, of the church were far more when this letter was written than when it first began.

That is the way a church grows. If you and I had been there at Thyatira, we would have been greatly impressed by this church. It was a busy, bustling, active church with some wonderful people in it who obviously manifested love and faith, concern and care for others. It must have seemed a very attractive church. But now the blazing eyes and the burning feet go into action. We begin to learn deeper facts about the church. Our Lord says:

"Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead." Revelation 20-23a NIV)

Evidently there was in the church at Thyatira a woman who was a very dominant leader. Jesus names her "Jezebel." That was not her name, of course, but our Lord always names people according to their character. That is why he often renames people in the Gospels. Here he chooses the name of the most evil woman in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament Jezebel was the daughter of the king of Sidon, a town in Lebanon that is often in the news these days. She was the wife of King Ahab of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and she is particularly noted for having made the worship of the god Baal popular in Israel. Baal was a fertility god, and his worship involved immoral and licentious practices. There were temple prostitutes, both male and female, associated with the worship of Baal. It was Jezebel who spread that degraded worship widely among the ten tribes of Israel until it became one of the popular religions of the day. She herself supported over 800 prophets of Baal, who ate at her table. She was the one who tried to kill Elijah after his famous encounter with 450 of the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel when fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. That mighty man of God had faced with great courage 450 false prophets, but when Jezebel got after him he ran for his life. She was also the one who murdered her neighbor Naboth because her husband wanted his vineyard. She was a ruthless, immoral, seducer of the people, and that is why Jesus selects her name for this dominant woman at Thyatira. According to the prophecy of the Old Testament, Jezebel ended her days by being thrown from her palace window into the courtyard below where the dogs came and ate her body and licked up her blood.

This Jezebel in Thyatira called herself a "prophetess." There is nothing wrong with that in itself. I want to make clear that it was not her sex that was wrong -- it was her teaching. There were other women prophets in the Bible. The Old Testament lists a number of them who were well respected in Israel. In the book of Acts, in the New Testament, we are told that Philip, that wonderful, Spirit-filled evangelist who preached throughout the land of Palestine, had four daughters who were prophetesses and who had prophesied within the church. But the trouble with Jezebel is that she was a false prophet. Our Lord points out what her teaching was. She taught that it was all right for Christians to indulge in sexual immorality and in idolatry.

Here is the link with the trade unions of Thyatira. In order to work in these unions, which constituted the entire business of the city, Christians had to join a union, or guild, made up of pagans for the most part. The meetings of the guilds were devoted to licentious debaucheries which were connected with the worship of erotic idols of the Greek world. Let me quote from the great British Bible scholar William Barclay. He says,

These guilds met frequently, and they met for a common meal. Such a meal was, at least in part, a religious ceremony. It would probably meet in a heathen temple, and it would certainly begin with a libation to the gods, and the meal itself would largely consist of meat offered to idols. The official position of the church meant that a Christian could not attend such a meal.
This was the problem these Thyatiran Christians faced. In order to make a living they had to belong to a union, but to attend the union was to become involved, or to be sorely pressured to become involved, with the worship of idols and with licentious and lascivious debauchery. So they had to make a choice. It was difficult to live in Thyatira for this very reason. But apparently Jezebel had begun to teach that it was all right for them to go along with the requirements of the guild, that they needed to submit to the pressures of the world around in order to make a living, and that God would understand and overlook this. Her philosophy was what you often hear today: "Business is business." If business practices collide with your Christian principles, then your principles have to go -- because you have to make a living. Have you ever heard that argument?

This whole scenario is paralleled in many churches today that accept the easy going sexuality and lack of standards that is so widespread in our society. For instance, some churches approve of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle. Many do not discipline their members when they fall into sexual immorality. Others allow pornography to go unchallenged in their midst. But notice that the Lord holds the church responsible. His accusation to them is, "You tolerate that woman Jezebel." This is a problem that church leadership has to face in our day just as it had to face it in the 1st century.

Notice that in the letters to the church at Pergamum, and to the church at Thyatira, the Lord links sexual immorality with idolatry. We may find that strange, but actually one inevitably leads to the other. The reason is this: Fornication and adultery are both clear-cut violations of specific and explicit statements in the Word of God. Anyone who reads the Bible can see very clearly that God forbids these activities. It is wrong for believers to indulge in sexual immorality of any sort. When one does, he or she has deliberately violated the authority of God, therefore, in practice, if not in profession, God is no longer their God.

It is impossible to miss the condemnation of the Bible in these respects. If people deliberately reject the Lord's authority, he is no longer their God. The result is, they must find another god, for it is impossible for the human spirit to live without something to live for. That is what a god is. Whatever you are living for, whatever makes life worthwhile to you, becomes your god. It may be the god of pleasure, even sexual pleasure. It may be the god of wealth. It may be the god of power, a lust for power and ambition. It may be the search for fame. The point that is being made here is that wherever you work is the place of greatest temptation in this regard. Right here this morning there are businessmen and businesswomen, stockbrokers, professional people, clerks, secretaries, various laborers in the marketplace, and in shops, etc. It is right where you work that you will be under pressure to compromise, and to go along with the standards of the world around. Our friend in Berkeley, Dr. Earl Palmer, has said a very helpful thing in this connection.

The most subtle challenge to faith does not usually originate in public amphitheaters but in the daily places where we earn the money we need to live. What the trades need, what professions need, what all deployments of our lives need, is not our soul but our skills; not our worship but our hard work. When we once learn this vital alignment of values, we will do better in our work and have fewer ulcers too. Idolatries, whether of the dramatic, amphitheater type or the low-grade office type, always make us sick.
That is what was going on in Thyatira.

This morning I listened to one of the wonderful series that Tuvya Zaretsky is giving on how Jews cope with life today, and especially the pressures that are upon them. When a Jew contemplates becoming a Christian he must face severe social consequences that are painful and agonizing. This is also true of the choices that have to be made in the marketplaces on the question of morals. Many find themselves having to choose between a job and a moral standard.

The punishment that our Lord assesses against this teaching reflects the sickness that idolatry and immorality always bring. There are three parties involved: First, there is Jezebel herself. Jesus says: "I will cast her on a bed of suffering." There is a note of irony or sarcasm there. He is saying, in effect, "She likes beds, so I will give her one, but it will prove to be a bed of agonizing pain and hurt." It would constitute her only chance to realize what was happening to her, and lead her to change. Then there is another group: "I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely [literally, "I will give them great affliction"] unless they repent of her ways." Those who commit adultery with her are those who practice, as she did, immorality and the consequent idolatry. The suffering that he refers to, the intense suffering or affliction, is a reference very likely to sexual diseases. What invariably accompanies immorality? Some form of sexual disease. Gonorrhea and syphilis were well-known and widespread in the ancient world. Today, of course, we have the additional plague of AIDS that results largely from sexual immorality. Anybody who has watched, as I have recently, someone dying of AIDS knows what a terrible, painful thing it is, both emotionally and physically. There was still a third group. The Lord says, "I will strike her children with death." Children represent those who not only practice immorality but who teach it as well, as Jezebel was doing. The "death," I think, refers to spiritual death, i.e., what is called in the letter to the church at Pergamum "the second death," the terrible destruction of the lake of fire described in Chapters 20 and 21 of this book. It is a commitment to evil that makes repentance difficult.

But notice the good news here: "unless they repent of her ways." Our Lord always gives an opportunity for repentance. I have often thought that natural disasters -- earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc. -- are opportunities being given men to think again, to stop and look at what we are doing, and to change our ways. It is opportunity to repent, a slap in the face that says, wake up! "But," Jesus says, "she was unwilling." And so the judgment must come. The impact of that judgment is given in verse 23:

"Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds." (Revelation 2:23b NIV)

The result of judgment and discipline within the church is that the church is purified, strengthened, and helped. People begin to take note of evil tendencies and become careful not to drift into the pattern of society around. They are willing to stand against the tide or swim against the current. That is what needed to happen in Thyatira. And it happens in PBC today. In those rare times that we have had to take severe disciplinary action against some member of the congregation because of sexual immorality, the result has always been a purifying of people's lives, a willingness to examine the morals of the day, and an increased understanding of the importance of being pure in these areas.

The churches will come to understand, our Lord says, that he searches the hearts and minds. Literally, "the kidneys and the hearts." Kidneys were in ancient times regarded as the source of feelings. If your kidneys are not working, you do not feel very well! They saw them as the source of feelings. Hearts were viewed as the source of choices, the decisions we make, the will in exercise. Our Lord says that, when you see him acting in judgment, you realize that your feelings are important, and your choices equally so, and that each one will be held responsible for his/her choices. No one else can be blamed but we ourselves.

As we look at the church of Thyatira prophetically, i.e., within the scope of church history, we see that this church foreshadows the time from the 6th to the 16th century, a thousand years that has been called "The Devil's Millennium," the "Dark Ages," or, it is known to history as the "Middle Ages." It was a time when the church became corrupt by combining pagan rites and Christian teaching. Many pagan practices and heathen rituals were introduced into the churches, baptized with Christian terminology, related in some way to elements of the Bible, and thus accepted as being true: Images began to be worshipped in churches. Various practices of priests which were unknown to the early church began to be approved. The control of political powers by religious authorities was widely sought. This was the time when the Bishop of Rome came into universal acceptance, was called the Pope, and began to exercise dominion over even emperors and kings. On one occasion, one of the German emperors was summoned to Rome and had to stand barefoot in the snow for several hours before the pope would receive him. When he came in, he had to come crawling on his hands and knees. So the church sought to exercise political power.

Yet, even during this period of corrupting influences, there were true souls who loved Christ and did many works of loving service: The monasteries which flourished then often served as hospitals and refuges for the poor and downtrodden. Some of our enduring hymns were written by Catholic Christians such as Bernard of Clairvaux and others. This was the time when hierarchy was widely established in the church as the system of government instead of the simple servant-leadership that we read of in the New Testament. All of this will find its ultimate culmination in this book of Revelation when we get to the 17th and the 18th chapters, and view the great harlot who rides the beast and who has dominion over the kings of the earth.

I know it is popular among many commentators to relate all this to the Roman Catholic Church, but I want to make clear that it is not only the Roman Church that suffers from these errors. We so-called Protestants have had a quarrel with Rome for centuries, largely over the three M's -- Mary, the Mass, and the Magesterium (the government, the leadership of the church). But you will find many of these errors also in the great Orthodox churches of the East, in the Coptic church of Egypt, and even in the Anglican and the Lutheran churches of northern Europe. The great Protestant denominations have also allowed many of these errors that are reflected here in Thyatira to take over. I wish I could say, and I would love to say, that only PBC is pure! But I have to say that the seeds of these things are found among us as well. In his appeal to the church, our Lord says several wonderful things:

"Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): Only hold on to what you have until I come." (Revelation 2:24-25 NIV)

That is a wonderfully sensitive and thoughtful word. Here, for the first time in these letters, our Lord lays special stress on his coming. Notice the phrase "the deep things of Satan." That indicates that when a church drifts in these areas of moral standards it almost invariably involves the rise of mystic rites and rituals. People love to feel they are being let into special, secret things.

You find these mystic cults arising in many of the movements of our day. The New Age Movement, for instance, intrigues people with revelations of powerful spirit beings who can impart information that ordinary people do not have. These are what Jesus calls "the deep things of Satan." In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he speaks of the "deep things of God," (1 Corinthians 2:10). Whenever God has something good, Satan imitates it. These dark and hidden matters are Satan's imitation of the wonderfully deep truths in the Word of God. Now to those who refuse these, Jesus says, "Hold fast what you have." Do not let it go. Do not accept these degrading moral standards. It may be difficult to live for Christ in a worldly church, but hang on to your moral standards at least. Do not go along with sexual immorality. Do not accept the idea that adultery is only a minor sin, that you need to have affairs now and then. Hold on," Jesus says, "until I come." To such who overcome by holding fast till he comes, he adds another word in Verse 26:

"To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations --
'He will rule them with an iron scepter;
he will dash them to pieces like pottery' --
just as I have received authority from my Father. (Revelation 2:26-27 NIV)

That quotation from Psalm 2 is a reference to the rule of Christ in the earthly kingdom that we call "The Millennium." It is a promise of reigning with Christ, not in the new heavens and the new earth, but in a period marked by the type of rule found in this quotation: Jesus says, "He will rule them with an iron scepter." That means with some degree of stern judgment. "He will dash them to pieces like potter's vessels" (Psalms 2:9 KJV), i.e., the combines of evil will be broken up in that day.

It is referring, therefore, not to the new heavens and the new earth (because nothing evil ever enters there), but to the millennial kingdom, the earthly kingdom over which the saints will share a reign with Christ. We need to understand that the Millennium is a time when righteousness reigns, i.e., it rules over the earth, it judges among people because sin is present and death as well. But the new heavens and the new earth reflect a condition where righteousness dwells. Nothing shall enter there except that which is righteous and pure and good. Now our Lord becomes even more specific.

"I will also give him the morning star." (Revelation 2:28 NIV)

That is a beautiful symbol. I do not know how many of you have ever seen the morning star, but you have to get up while it is still dark to do so. In the book of Malachi, the closing book of the Old Testament, there is a great prediction by the prophet that the "Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in his wings" (Malachi 4:2 KJV), i.e., the Lord Jesus will return in power and great glory. He will be like the sun appearing in the darkness of this world's night. But before the sun rises, the morning star appears. In Revelation 22:16, Jesus says of himself: "I am the bright and morning star." So what he is saying here is that there will be an appearing of himself for his own before he comes in power and glory, visible to the world. In other words it is a promise of the rapture of the church [For more on this subject read real eyes realize post by clicking this link], (The link is red to stand out in the text) the first such promise in the book of Revelation. He will appear for his own, for those belonging to him, who are true Christians, who have been held and kept by the Spirit of God from the evils of the society around. It is not that they cannot, and do not at times, fall, but they invariably recover, and repent, and turn back to him. That is the sign that our faith is real. Those who have real faith will repent. Someone has well said, "If your faith fizzles before you finish, it is because it was faulty from the first!" True faith holds on to the end. Finally, the Lord says, "Listen to all the letters of the churches."

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 2:29 NIV)

Not just to this church, but to all the churches. These promises and warnings are needed in our individual lives, no matter what our local church may be like. Ephesus tells us, "Do not let your love for Jesus grow cold," (Revelation 2:1-7). Smyrna says, "Do not fear the persecution of the world," ( Revelation 2:8-11). Pergamum says, "Trust the Word of God to keep you strong and faithful," (Revelation 2:12-17). And Thyatira tells us, "Avoid both sexual and spiritual adultery. Keep your moral standards clear." These are tremendously practical letters for the age in which we live. We need to heed them today as much as they did in the 1st century.

Source  

[Garland-Green]

The Church of the Zombies

Read the Scripture: Revelation 3:1-6


Some years ago I was in the city of Adelaide in Australia, and found I was scheduled to preach in a certain church on Sunday evening. I had never been there before, and had no idea what the service would be like, but I can say that it was so terrible that I have never forgotten it. It was an old-fashioned church building, with a spire reaching up into the heavens and a great pipe organ in the auditorium. Although it could seat about 800 people there were only around 35 present. Most of them must have been well over 60 or 70. They had hired an organist to play for them who was visibly gay, and when he had finished he gathered up his music and left. The choir consisted of seven old ladies, all in their 80's it seemed, led by a cheerful old lady who tried her best to get everyone to sing but without much success. As I waited for my time to preach I was aware of the life of the city streaming by outside, with people totally unaware of and untouched by this church. Whenever I read of the church of Sardis, I think of that congregation in Australia.

Sardis was once one of the greatest cities of the world. It had been the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, and in the 6th century B. C. was ruled by a fabulously wealthy king whose name, Croesus, became a byword for uncounted wealth. When I was young I remember hearing rich people described as being "as rich as Croesus." (You do not hear that proverb much anymore, now it is "as rich as Merv Griffin!") Sardis was built on a mountain spur about 1500 feet above the valley floor. It was regarded as virtually impregnable to military assault.

Several times armies had tried to overthrow it but were unable to do so. But twice in its history it had fallen to foreign assault, once by the Persians, and once by the Greeks, and both victories were achieved by stealth. Sardis was so confident it could not be overcome that it failed to guard its walls adequately. In the dead of the night a band of brave soldiers climbed up the sides of the ravine and entered an unwatched gate and overthrew the city. Thus, Sardis was a city characterized by a complacent spirit. The church in this city is the least attractive of the seven churches to whom these letters are written. Our Lord finds nothing to commend about it. Here is his appraisal of it, given to us in the first verse of Chapter 3:

"To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
"These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead." (Revelation 3:1 NIV)

The way the Lord presents himself to each of these churches is a clue as to what the church needs. Here he calls himself "him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars." These symbols were identified for us in the first chapter of Revelation. The "seven spirits" are a symbol of the Holy Spirit in his fullness. What this church at Sardis desperately needed was the Spirit -- life by the Spirit. They needed also to remember that Jesus is Lord of his church. It is not left to the members to run the church, to set up its form of government or to determine the nature of its ministry, but it is the prerogative of the Lord in their midst. These were truths they had forsaken or forgotten in Sardis.

As in all these letters, the life of the church is revealed in its deeds. Our Lord says, as he does in most of the letters, "I know your deeds; I know your works." In Sardis these were works that were done to impress people. They gave this church a name to live. They had a good reputation, but it was actually a dead church. The members of it were for the most part not even believers. They were not spiritually alive. They were what we would call "nominal Christians." Nominal comes from the word "name" -- someone who has a name for something. Our Lord has declared, "You have a name to live, but you are not alive. You are dead!" This indicates a church made up of people who outwardly professed Christ -- probably many of them thought of themselves as believers -- but who actually possessed no spiritual life. They were Christians in name only. A contemporary poet has described churches like this in these words:

Outwardly splendid as of old,
Inwardly lifeless, dead and cold.
Her force and fire all spent and gone,
Like the dead moon, she still shines on.

Unfortunately there are thousands of churches like that around the world today. It is what gives non-Christians such a negative impression of Christian faith. They see the profession, they hear the wonderful words, but there is no life in them. Nothing backs them up. These churches consist largely of what someone has described as

"Mild-mannered people,
meeting in mild-mannered ways,
striving to be more mild-mannered."

Hollywood has given us a name for people like that: it calls them "Zombies" -- corpses that are alive, that walk about as though they are living but they are really dead. As we read this letter, we are looking at the First Zombie Church of Sardis! That word has been updated a bit recently. I ran across a quotation from our friend Calvin Miller, of Omaha, Nebraska. Some of you know his poem "The Singer." He says:

Many Christians are really Christaholics and not disciples at all. Disciples are cross-bearers; they seek Christ. Christaholics seek happiness. Disciples dare to discipline themselves, and the demands they place on themselves leave them enjoying the happiness of their growth. Christaholics are escapists looking for a shortcut to Nirvana. Like drug addicts, they are trying to "bomb out" of their depressing world.

The church at Sardis, says our Lord, is a church that has a reputation to live, but is really dead. It is a church of Christaholics! But there was a time, apparently, when this church was alive, when it was filled with people who knew the Lord. Because they knew him, they served the homeless and the needy of the city. That is the way they won a reputation. They appeared to be a people committed to good works, but now there was no life there. Remember that Paul warns us of that condition in his great 13th chapter of First Corinthians. He says, "Though I speak in tongues, have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and knowledge, and have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal," (1 Corinthians 13:1-2 NIV). Here was a church that once had a great ministry but it had slipped away from them. It once had much impact in the city of Sardis, but now nothing is happening.

Dr. William Barclay has said: "A church is in danger of death when it begins to worship its own past; when it is more concerned with forms than with life; when it loves systems more than it loves Jesus; when it is more concerned with material than it is with spiritual things." This church in Sardis was so devoid of life that it actually had no struggles going on within it. Notice the difference between it and the other churches. There are no Jewish accusers of this church even though there was a large colony of Jews in the city of Sardis. They ignored the church, or perhaps did not even know of its existence. There were no false apostles here. There were no domineering Nicolaitans who needed to be guarded against. There were no female seducers, as at Thyatira. There was nothing! Zip -- that was the ministry of the church at Sardis!

What does a dead church need? Our Lord wastes no time in telling them. It is interesting, is it not, that he still owns this church? He does not say, "I have nothing to do with you." He gives them a way of recovery, and he still reveals himself as Lord of the church. As we look at these steps to recovery, they will also help us to identify a condition of death in a church. The first thing a dead church needs is to wake up. Jesus says:

"Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you." (Revelation 3:2-3 NIV)

The first need of a church that is dying or dead is to awaken to its condition. These words in Greek are staccato commands, sharp words, like a slap in the face, designed to stimulate, to wake up. In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul says,

"Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you," (Ephesians 5:14 NIV).

This was the need of the church here in Sardis. Wake up! Honestly face your failure! Feel the dullness of your services! Smell the deadness of your life! Ask yourself, "What has gone wrong? Why are our services so dreary, so dull, so unattractive? Why do people not want to come?" A church in this state needs to ask itself some very serious, sobering, honest questions. "Wake up!" says Jesus.

Second, "Strengthen what remains." What was that? Jesus has already told them what there is of value in the church. "I know your works," he says. They were good works, in a way, but they were incomplete. "Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God." Their works were incomplete, unfinished. The actions were right, but the motives were wrong. They were not doing them for the right reason. As you read this you can see that here is a church that is busy doing good things, but doing them to impress people. They were trying to display and enhance a reputation they had. They were concerned as to whether people around would see, and know what they were doing. But Jesus says even those good deeds were about to die. "Strengthen them," he says. How? By putting their motives right!

All through the Scriptures we are told that God judges, not the things we do, but the reason we do them. He reads our hearts. He is judging whether our work is done out of love for him and gratitude for what he has done for us, and not caring whether people see them or not, whether we are praised for them or not. They are done because we want to please him. What this church needed was to capture again the meaning of the words, "for the Lord's sake," and, "as unto Him."

I noted last week in Time Magazine an interview with Mother Teresa, who is doing such a wonderful work in the city of Calcutta, India. Among other things she said were these words, "We try to pray through our work by doing it with Jesus, for Jesus, to Jesus. That helps us put our whole heart and soul into doing it. The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved—they are Jesus in disguise." What a wonderful spirit! That is what this church in Sardis so desperately needed.

Third, they needed to remember what they heard; to obey it, and to repent. At this particular point the New International Version, from which I am reading, is not accurate. It says, "Remember, therefore, what you have received," but, in Greek it is not what but how -- "how you have received." What they heard, of course, was the gospel. They had heard the message of Jesus: his crucifixion on behalf of sinners, of his resurrection, of his availability to human beings by the Spirit to strengthen them and impart to them his own righteous life and position. They had heard all that, but the important thing was, how did it come to you? "Remember how you received and heard this." What he is referring to is the ministry of the Spirit. Remember, he is the One who holds the seven spirits. When these people had first heard the gospel they had heard it by the Spirit. The Word came to them in the power of the Spirit.

Many years ago I was in Chicago, and one Sunday morning I slipped into the great Methodist Temple in the Loop. As I was waiting for the service to start, I read in the back of the hymnal the doctrinal statement of the church, a statement that originated largely with John Wesley. It came out of the days of the great Evangelical Awakening in Britain when the Wesleys and George Whitfield preached to tens of thousands in fields and streets throughout the British Isles. That gospel was the same gospel the church has always preached, but in those days it came with unusual power because of the Spirit. The creed of the church in Chicago was still unchanged, but the spirit of the service I watched was cold and formal. There was little of life in it. That church may have recovered now, I hope it has, but then it had a name to live, but was spiritually dead.

How do you lay hold of the Spirit? How do you bring the Spirit's life back into a church which has the gospel? Scripture only suggests one way. It is very simple. In its briefest form it is, "Repent and believe." Repent! Look at yourself and see your wrong attitudes, your wrong outlook, your self-appraisal as unacceptable before God. Then believe! Cast yourself upon the grace of Jesus. Receive from him the word of grace. Let it take deep root in your heart. He will impart to you the life of the Spirit of God. That is what the members of this church needed -- to repent and believe.

As I sat reading that doctrinal statement in Chicago, I rejoiced over the fact that the Methodist denomination has held to the creed that John Wesley formulated, but my heart was saddened as the service went on. I went away, not warmed and cheered but saddened by what I beheld. True repentance brings about conversion and allows the Spirit to impart the life of Christ. That is why our Lord says to Sardis, "Remember how you have received and heard, and obey it and repent." That is the place of new beginning.

The fourth thing they needed was to recover the hope of the Lord's return. "If you do not wake up," Jesus says," I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you." We have already seen in the first chapter and in several of the letters the hope of the coming of the Lord described. It is the great hope toward which the church has been headed since its very beginning. But here is a church that has lost its expectation of that coming. The aspect of our Lord's coming that they particularly needed was not his visible appearing in glory to establish his kingdom, when every eye shall see him, as described in the first chapter, but rather that aspect of his second coming that our Lord described in his great Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24:43. There he says that he will come suddenly, without warning, like a thief comes to steal away the treasure of a home.

Some friends of mine were once sleeping in their house upstairs and when they came down in the morning they found their home had been ransacked and their silverware, their treasure, was gone. They had heard nothing because a thief does not announce his coming. He comes silently and takes what he wants and then disappears again. That is the way the parousia, the coming of the Lord, will begin. He will take his church suddenly out of the world. It will disappear from the world's sight. Paul describes it in wonderfully exciting words in First Corinthians 15, the great resurrection chapter. There he says, "Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep (i.e., die) but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). He holds that forth as the special hope of the church. The church is the unrecognized treasure of the world, but the Lord will come as a thief and take it to himself. That is his description of what we call, in theology, "the rapture" of the church (the departure of the church is perhaps a better term).
[Read about The Rapture and why it may not be true following this link]

* The link is red to make it more visible in the text.

When the Lord comes as a thief, if a church is made up of members who are not believers, who have a name to live but have no spiritual life, they will be left behind. Thus our Lord warns here. "If you do not wake up I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you." As we have said, there are many churches like this today throughout the world. I have been in many of them in different countries, and many also here in the United States. It is sad to see them so lifeless and dull when they could be so alive and vital.

There is a period of church history which is predominantly characterized by Sardis conditions. It extends from the last half of the 16th century, immediately following the Reformation, to about the middle of the 18th century, to the beginning of the Evangelical Awakening. The Reformation, of course, was a time when the church came out of death into life. When Luther discovered the great truth of justification by faith alone and began to preach throughout Germany, the good news spread like wildfire throughout the nations of Northern Europe. People realized afresh the greatness, the liberty of the gospel. All Europe was aflame with freedom. As you watch your television sets today and see the cities of Eastern Europe filled with excited, turned-on people, caught up with the thrill of being set free from conditions of bondage and depression, you are seeing again what must have happened in Europe during the early days of the 16th century. There has not been so much excitement over the toppling of a wall in Berlin since Joshua brought down the walls of Jericho.So also in Luther's day, the gospel spread like wildfire throughout that area and the cruel walls of spiritual bondage fell before the power of God's word. The Reformers preached again the truth about Jesus. They preached in the power of the Spirit. Martin Luther in Germany, Count Zwingli in Switzerland, Calvin in Geneva, John Knox in Scotland -- all of them preached justification by faith; that Christ was the sufficient Savior of men and they needed to believe that and receive it individually. This good news spread quickly, but it only lasted a relatively short time.

Anyone familiar with church history must wonder at the way the great fires of the Reformation began to cool so quickly after the Reformers had gone. A fatal error had been made. The churches began to fail even while the Reformers were still alive because they neglected large areas of theology and centered upon the way of salvation largely. Thus these men came to make a great and serious mistake. They began to link the oversight and leadership of the church with the government of the country in which they lived! Luther did it when he looked to the German princes for protection against the power of Rome. Zwingli did it in Switzerland because he was associated with the government of the country and brought the churches under his oversight into a direct tie with the state. Calvin did it in Geneva when he sought to turn the city into a theocracy. Knox did it in Scotland as well. The system of State churches was adopted. This practice proved to be a very dangerous and destructive error and it ultimately drained the gospel of its spiritual content. There was no longer life within the great words. The creed was right -- and these creeds remain to this day -- but in most places where this occurred the vitality of the churches has disappeared.

In 1965, I traveled with a group of businessmen from this area all through northern Germany, Denmark, Holland, England and Scotland. We had the opportunity to meet with the lay leaders of the state churches in these countries. Invariably they told us how unattractive church life was to them. Many of them were attending regularly but not getting any enjoyment out of it. Only loyalty to a system kept them involved at all. The reason for this death was that the pastors of the state churches were commissioned by the state to act as civil servants. They had to do all the baptizing, the marrying and the burying of everybody in the parish (a geographical area that was assigned to them, often consisting of tens of thousands of people). That meant they had no time left for proper study and preaching of the Word. The result was that the churches were deprived very quickly of the hearing of the Word and the power of the Spirit. Life drained away from their midst.

In Copenhagen, a pastor said to me, with tears in his eyes, "Oh, I wish I could preach the Word like you do in America, but I have no time. I have to marry everyone. I have to baptize all the babies that are born and bury everyone who dies in this whole parish, and I simply have no time to study." (They often describe it as having to hatch, match, and dispatch everyone!). He longed to study, but he was unable to impart the truth of the Word to his congregation because of the tie to the state.This is still widely true in Europe today. Churches there are almost totally empty. There may be a few believers among those present, but the membership of the church is made up of people who have a name to live but are spiritually dead. But now a promise is given to the individuals who are faithful to the Lord even in dead churches, in Verses 4-6. Our Lord says:

"Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 3:4-6 NIV)

White garments are always in Scripture a symbol of redemption. In the seventh chapter of this book we read of a great multitude of people who come out of the great tribulation and who have "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," (Revelation 7:14). Clearly, white garments are a sign of being redeemed, being saved by the grace of God. Remember Isaiah's great word in his opening chapter. The 18th verse says,

"Come now, let us reason together,"
says the Lord,
"though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool." (Isaiah 1:18 KJV)

That is what the blood of the Lamb can do. These are said to be "worthy," not because they have lived good moral lives -- many of them very likely had not -- but because they had washed away their sins in the blood of the Lamb. They were worthy because God had imparted to them the righteousness of Christ. That is the gift which he gives to all who come by faith to him. You need no longer to try to earn your way, or work your way, into a good relationship with God. You can never do so, but you are given it by believing his Word and receiving his forgiveness. These, then, are the overcomers who are mentioned in Verse 5. The Lord promises them three specific things:

First, they will be "dressed in white," i.e., they will be given his own righteousness. Many of the hymns reflect this great truth:

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
'Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

Second, he promises: "I will never blot out his name from the book of life." That promise has bothered many people because they immediately think, "That implies that some can be blotted out of the book of life. If I am once given the righteousness of Christ does this mean I can lose it again? If I do not live up to what I should, or walk rightly before the Lord, can I lose it again?" But notice the way the Lord puts it. He does not say anything about anyone's name being blotted out. His words are simply assuring that those who trust him will never be blotted out. I think he is addressing himself to the fears of the redeemed. [Guild Topic on Eternal Security]
Many Christians are troubled by the thought that perhaps they can lose their salvation. Sometimes when we have misbehaved badly, when we have done things we are ashamed of, we ask ourselves, "What has happened to me? Am I no longer a Christian? Have I lost my salvation?"

When I was a young pastor I remember being called one day by a beloved old Presbyterian pastor, Dr. Francis Russell, one of the men who ministered at PBC in those early days. He lived here in town, and in his 90's, this godly old man called and asked me to come over to see him. I found he was deeply troubled by the fact that as he was nearing the end of his life he wondered if he was really a Christian after all. People are often troubled by such thoughts. Our Lord knows that, and he is here reassuring such. "No, you need not be disturbed. If you are really a believer, if you have come to Christ, if you have been born again, and have my life in you, I will never blot out your name from the book of life." That word never, is the strongest negative in the Greek language. It should be translated, "I will never, ever, under any circumstances, blot out your name from the book of life." What wonderful reassurance!

"On the contrary," says Jesus (and this is the third thing), "I will acknowledge you before my Father and the angels in heaven." When we arrive in glory our lives will be visible to everybody. Nothing is hidden then. Jesus tells us, "That which you have done in secret will be shouted from the house tops," (Matthew 12:13 KJV). Everything is wide open. No aspect of life can be hidden away. Knowing that, many of us are a little afraid to appear in glory. We know truths about ourselves that we do not want known. But Jesus says, "When you stand there with your entire record exposed for everybody to see, I will look at you and say, 'You are mine.' I will acknowledge your name before the Father and all his angels. This sinner, this defiled person, this unworthy character -- I want the universe to know -- he is mine!" That is what he promised to do in the 10th chapter of Matthew.

So the closing word, as always in these letters, is to the one who has ears to hear. "Listen," he says, "to each letter." All of Scripture is profitable to someone who has the life of Christ within. As we draw this service to a close it may be that there are some here who have never really come to life in Christ: Church attendance is excellent, but it will never save you. Church membership has value, but it will never save you. You are saved when you repent of your self-dependence, your hope that you can get by on your own character, and believing that Jesus has settled it for you by the sacrifice of himself, you receive him as Lord and Savior. That is when the life of the Spirit is imparted -- and that is what the church at Sardis required.

Prayer

Thank you, Father, for those ringing words of assurance that we have security in our Lord Jesus; that he holds us by his mighty hand, and we shall never perish but have eternal life as he has promised. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[Source]  

[Garland-Green]

The Little Church that Tried

Read the Scripture: Revelation 3:7-13


Everyone knows that our historic American city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, named for the church to which we come today, means "brotherly love" (although some Philadelphians today call it "the city of the brotherly shove!"). The biblical city was located about 28 miles southeast of the city of Sardis. It was the youngest of the seven cities whose churches are addressed in these letters.

Philadelphia was founded about 150 B.C. by King Attallus of Pergamum, whose nickname was Philadelphus, which means "lover of a brother." This man was noted for the admiration and love he had for his brother, Eumenes, and he named this city in honor of him. One feature about the city, which ties closely to us here in the Bay Area, was that the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 17 A. D., along with Sardis and other cities in that locality. Most of the others recovered rather quickly from the disaster, but the after-shocks continued in Philadelphia for quite a number of years, with the result that the people had to flee the city repeatedly. Tiberius Caesar helped Philadelphia to recover from the earthquake, and out of gratitude the city changed its name to Neocaesarea (New Caesar), and for awhile it bore that name. I mention these facts because they have a bearing on the promises to the church in this letter, as we will see.

This church in Philadelphia is unique among the seven churches because it is the only church the Lord registers no complaint against. This is the church that delights Christ! I have noticed something interesting in reading the various commentators on this letter. The Baptist commentators make the church appear to be a Baptist church, while the Presbyterian commentators make it sound Presbyterian. My own conviction is that the full name of this church was probably the Philadelphia Bible Church, or PBC! The Lord presents himself to this church in a very unusual way, seen in Verse 7 of Chapter 3:

"To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
"These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David.
What he opens, no one can shut; and what he shuts, no one can open." (Revelation 3:7 NIV)

In all the other letters, our Lord uses symbols to describe himself that come from the vision John had of him, recorded in Chapter 1. In this letter, however, Jesus makes no reference to that vision. He uses other titles to describe himself. He tells them plainly who he is and what he does. Who he is is "the holy one" and "the true one." He is the holy one -- morally perfect. His character is without flaw or blemish. And he is genuine reality. He is the true one, the one behind all that really exists. That is who he is. What he does is: He "holds the key of David." That is a reference to an incident recorded in the 22nd chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah. In the days of Hezekiah the king there was a courtier (we would call him a chief-of-staff, for he was in charge of the palace) whose name was Shebna. He had been caught in a personal scam run for his own benefit, and as a result God says a very unusual, very descriptive thing about him: "I will take him and whirl him around and around (like a discus thrower), and hurl him into a far country," (Isaiah 22:18.). It was a prediction that he would be sent into Babylon. He would be replaced by a godly man named Eliakim, of whom God said,

"I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens, no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open." (Isaiah 22:17 NIV)

Our Lord refers back to that passage in Isaiah and applies it to himself: "I am the one who shuts and no one can open, and opens and no one can shut." His will cannot be opposed. He governs the events of history on earth. He will open some doors; he will close other doors. What he opens no one can shut, what he shuts, no one can open. No human power can contravene what he determines. Now he tells the church, beginning in Verse 8, how he will use this power to open and shut.

"I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no man can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name." (Revelation 3:8 NIV)
To a church like the church at Philadelphia the Lord says he will open doors of ministry and service, and no one can shut them. The Apostle Paul uses this analogy about himself. On his second missionary journey he tried to go into the province of Asia to preach the gospel but was forbidden by the Holy Spirit; it was a shut door. Then he tried to go into Bithynia, on the southern shore of the Black Sea, but was not allowed of the Lord -- another shut door. But when he came to Troas he had a vision of a man from Macedonia, and he learned that the Lord had opened a door for him into Europe. Paul's commitment to enter that open door has changed the history of the whole Western world, affecting all of civilization since that time. It was an open door of tremendous significance which the Lord had opened for Paul. But in First Corinthians 16, he says of Ephesus, the capital of Asia, "A great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me," (1 Corinthians 16:9 NIV). So the door which had been closed to him once was opened to him later by the Lord.

We are seeing something unusual in this line today. Without any announcement, the Lord has, to everyone's surprise, opened doors in Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary; doors which had been closed for decades. It is wonderful to see how the people are responding to that open door. Yet not far away from these countries is a closed door. Albania, on the shores of the Adriatic, is the most closed country in the world to the gospel. Christians are forbidden to practice their faith there. No churches are allowed. It is a tightly closed door. There are other countries of Eastern Europe that remain closed as well. We are encouraged to pray for these, but it takes the One who "opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens" for those prayers to succeed.

I must make a correction to the NIV text at this point. The words, "I know that you have little strength," is not what the Greek text says. I am sometimes amazed at these modern translations. There is no word in Greek for I know. What it literally says is, "...because you have a little power and have kept my word and have not denied my name." The church is being given the reasons why the Lord opened a door for them. What the text actually says is, "I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut because you have a little power and have kept my word and not denied my name."

That teaches us something very important. It says that an open door is given when a church fulfills the conditions that will allow it to move through that door once it has been opened. Chief among those conditions is that it have discovered the power of the Spirit. It is spiritual power the Lord is talking about. It is not so much strength as it is power -- power obtained by faith, i.e., by expecting God to act. Individuals in the church sense that God can do something. They look for an opportunity, a need to appear, and when they respond, a door opens for continued service which may grow even wider so others may enter with them.

I believe Ephesians 2:10 is in some ways the most exciting verse in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul says, "We are his workmanship [this word has also been translated "masterpiece"] created in Christ Jesus unto good works." That is why you have been made a Christian -- that you might do good works -- deeds of help, mercy, kindness, witness, love, comfort, counsel and strength. That is what each member of the church is capable of doing. We are "created unto good works." And then comes the exciting part: "which God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in them." When you are confronted with a need it may appear rather insignificant at first. Perhaps it is a neighbor with a heavy heart; perhaps it is a family member who has what may appear to be a fairly minor problem. When you respond to that, however, it becomes an open door. Ministry may grow out of it which will challenge and encourage and bless you as you go on. Notice that the Lord says to this church at Philadelphia, "you have a little power." That realistically stresses the fact that most, if not all, churches hardly realize the potential they have for ministry. I have often thought that it applies to PBC. Twice this morning I have had the privilege of addressing a large congregation. Each one of you who know Christ has been given spiritual gifts and has been commissioned by him to use those gifts to bless people and meet their needs. Yet how few of us enter into this! What vast potential resides in a single congregation if everyone would exercise the ministry that has been given you to utilize the spiritual gifts that have been given to each! That is why the Lord says of this church at Philadelphia, "You have some power, but not much." He is hoping they will increase that potential for ministry.

We need to remember that the presence of the Spirit is promised to each church without any condition whatsoever. When we know Christ the Spirit comes to live within our hearts and to reside there. But the power of the Spirit is given only to those churches who learn to keep his word and to not deny his name! Those two things are central in the ministry of every church. First, there must be the Word. Always God plants his Word at the heart of his church. We must preach it, teach it, study it, and truly know it. And it is not just for the leadership, but everybody in the church is to know God's Word. The Bible is the most amazing book the world has ever seen. It conveys insights into life that you will find in no other place. No great university in the land can give you an understanding of life that this Book will give you. Therefore we must keep it, know it, walk in it and love it. We must soak ourselves in the Word! But beyond the Word is the Lord himself. One of our old hymns puts it this way,

Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord.
My spirit pants for Thee, O Living Word.

It is the Word which enables us to know the character of Jesus, to have fellowship with him, and to not deny that character in our lives. We are to reflect in our lives all that his name stands for. We are to know him as present with us at all times, and seek to conform our behavior to his life. Those are the qualities it takes to enter into the open doors which the Lord gives to a church and to the individuals in it. Then, second, the Lord says in Verse 9:

"I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars -- I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you." (Revelation 3:9 NIV)
To a church that is responsive and ready to be used, the Lord will use his power to "open and shut" to make their enemies respect them and openly acknowledge God's blessing upon them. We saw this phrase, "the synagogue of Satan," used also in the letter to the persecuted church at Smyrna. It referred to certain Jews in that city who claimed to be spiritual descendants of Abraham but in actuality they were only his physical descendants; their attitude toward the truth of God was far removed from Abraham's faith. The Lord himself continually confronted the Pharisees who claimed to be Abraham's descendants, but Jesus said to them, "You are of your father the devil," (John 8:44). So here in the city of Philadelphia Jesus refers to this Jewish opposition as "the synagogue of Satan." But something amazing happens. What causes them to come at last and bow before the church and acknowledge God's blessing upon them? It is because the church responds to the opposition and hostility with love and with obvious knowledge of God which these Jews do not possess, even though they have the Scriptures. As a result, they come at last and acknowledge God's blessing on the church at Philadelphia.

Some of you have been listening to Tuvya Zaretsky during our Sunday School hour telling of his Jewish upbringing and how resistant he was to the gospel and to Christians. Jesus was a name of anathema to him. He would grow angry just hearing people talk about Jesus. But he met Christians who treated him kindly and loved him despite his anger and hostility. Eventually he was brought to see that salvation lay in Christ. He became a Christian and is now working with Jews for Jesus in San Francisco.

On two separate occasions I have met with a group of knowledgeable, nationally known, Jewish rabbis, once in Los Angeles and again in Houston. During our second meeting one of the rabbis said something very striking. He said, "You premillennial evangelicals are the only ones among the Christians that we can really talk to because you believe there is a future for Israel. That enables us to communicate with you but these others have written us off and we have nothing much in common with them." That reaction is highlighted here by the fact that when you truly represent the love and compassion of Christ, and you understand the promises of the Old Testament, you can communicate with Jews anywhere and find that they will come to respect what you say and do. The third way in which our Lord will exercise the power of opening and shutting is given to us in the amazing promise of Verse 10:

"Since you have kept my command to endure patiently[again, that is not a good translation. What he really says is, "Since you have kept my word of patient endurance." This is a reference to the Lord's own endurance. He has been waiting until his enemies be made his footstool, for long centuries. "Since you have learned to wait like that," he is saying, "since you have kept my word of patient endurance], I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth." (Revelation 3:10 NIV)

That is a clear reference to what our Lord himself calls in Matthew 24 "the great tribulation" -- a time of distress that will come upon the whole world, the like of which has never been known before in human history, no, nor ever will be again. This will be the worst time of distress and bloodshed that the world has ever seen. We will find vivid descriptions of it as we go on in Revelation. And it is particularly sent "to test those who live upon the earth." That does not mean the residents of this planet. It is rather a reference to their mental attitude, their state of mind. It is referring to those who live as though this life is all there is, who are materialistically-minded, who live upon the earth and for the earth and for the things of earth. That is what the time of testing is sent to reveal.

But the promise to the church is specifically that it is to be delivered from the hour of trial. Actually the word is not "from," but "out of" -- to be delivered out of -- not just the trial but out of the very time of the trial! This is one of the clearest promises in the Bible of the catching away of the church before the great tribulation begins. It is a promise of the departure of the church, which Paul describes so vividly in First Thessalonians 4:

The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 KJV)

[Read about The Rapture and why it may not be true following this link]

A very wonderful promise, which many signs indicate may be very close at hand today. Viewed from the standpoint of Christian history, this church of Philadelphia foreshadows the great Evangelical Awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries, following the time of declension among the Reformation churches: The Moravian Brethren in Germany began to meet in small groups for prayer, catching again a vision of God and what he could do, and eventually sent out missionaries to other parts of the world. It began in England as the movement which we call the Puritan Movement. John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, was one of these Puritans; John Newton, whose hymns we sing so often, was another. This Awakening also encompasses the great Wesleyan Revelationival and George Whitefield's preaching in both England and America. In this country it includes the movement called the Great Awakening, with Jonathan Edwards as one of its leaders, and the Methodist Circuit Riders who rode horseback up and down the Eastern seaboard, later expanding westward when the nation began to move west. I personally have been benefited by one of these men, called Brother Van, who came to the Territory of Montana shortly after it began to be populated because of the gold rush. He went into the saloons and mining camps of Montana and preached the gospel, winning hundreds to Christ. He started churches all over the state, most of which are still there, but I'm afraid not doing very well. This was also a time of revival of missionary interest: William Carey in England got a vision of the need of India and eventually went out there and planted the gospel in a great work in that country. Robert Moffet and his famous son-in-law, David Livingstone, went to Africa and did marvelous work there. The American missionary, Adoniram Judson, went out to Burma and pioneered a work in that country. Hudson Taylor went to minister in inland China.

We have many other great missionary names that come out of this period of history. It is also the time of the emergence of great evangelists whose names we all remember -- George Whitefield, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon (a pastor, but also a great evangelist), Charles Finney here in this country, and D. L. Moody, who left a great work behind him. All of these were foreshadowed by this church of Philadelphia which came alive amidst the death that characterized many other churches. Our Lord's appeal is given in Verses 11-13:

"I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 3:11-13 NIV)
Once again we have a renewal of Jesus' wonderful promise, "I am coming soon." Many people ask when they read this, "How can he say that? This letter was written almost 2,000 years ago. The church has been expecting him ever since, but he still has not come. How could he have said to this church, 'I am coming soon?'" The answer is to see this promise in relationship to the context. He has just been describing a time when the greatest trial that the earth has ever known will come, the terrible great tribulation. He has described that very clearly in his Olivet Discourse, in Matthew 24. There we have a terrible picture of the sun being darkened, the moon not giving its light, stars falling from heaven, and men's hearts failing as they look in fear on the things coming to pass upon the earth. It is in relationship to that event that Jesus says he is coming soon. As the world nears that final, climactic upheaval we should hear again his promise that he is coming soon. He himself said, "When you see these things beginning to come to pass, lift up your head and rejoice, for your redemption is drawing near," (Luke 21:28.). It is in that connection that he utters this promise to come soon.

In relationship to that his word is, "Hold on to what you have so that no one will take your crown." As the times get harder and it is even more difficult to be a Christian, as hostility increases and the world becomes more and more secular and casts aside much of the trappings of Christianity that it had formerly practiced, then we must be careful that we do not give up and go along with worldly attitudes and worldly pursuits. We must not allow a desire for status, prestige, fame, a beautiful home and the things the world lusts for, to become central in our thinking. "Hold on to what you have," says Jesus, because there is danger that someone may take your crown. That is not a reference to the possible loss of salvation. What it is speaking of is your opportunity for service in the eternal ages. That is the reward which is offered, the opportunity for even greater service. James I. Packer has well said:

The Christian's reward is not directly earned; it is not a payment proportionate to services rendered; it is a Father's gift of generous grace to his children, far exceeding anything they deserved. Also, we must understand that the promised reward is not something of a different nature tacked on to the activity being rewarded; it is, rather, the activity itself -- communion with God in worship and service -- in its consummation.

This is the truth that Paul teaches in First Corinthians 3. Speaking of Jesus as the foundation being laid in human hearts, the apostle says, "If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light [this is the very Day that Revelation describes]. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each one's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames," (1 Corinthians 3:12-15 NIV). Thus the crown of greater opportunity for service is what might be lost. Do not let anybody take that away from you, says Jesus. Do not lose the opportunities you have. Possess them, and you will receive a reward.

There are two promises given to the ones who overcome, who hold on to what they have: First, Jesus says, "I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and never again will he leave it." The four pillars on either side of this auditorium support the superstructure of this building. A pillar is a symbol of strength and permanence. Our Lord is promising those who hold on to what they have, a position in the life to come of strength and permanence; they will be someone who upholds things. In Galatians, the Apostle Paul refers to Peter, James and John as "pillars" of the church; the church rested upon them in some sense as they were imparting guidance and knowledge to Christians. In the Jerusalem temple which was destroyed in 70 A. D., there were two great pillars in front of the building, one called Jachin (which means "established, permanent"), and the other Boaz ("strength"). Pillars are thus symbols of strength and permanence. "Never again will he leave it," says Jesus. When you visit ancient ruins you will notice that often all that is left standing are the pillars. This promise of Jesus to never go out again is a reference to the experience of these Philippiansadelphians who had frequently to flee the city because of the earthquake tremors that came. When you labor for me, says Jesus, you will reach a place where you will not have to go out ever again. It is a picture of security, permanence and strength.

Then, Jesus says, "I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God ... and I will write on him my new name." Three names will be written on the overcomer. A change of names would be meaningful to the Philippiansadelphians because that city changed its name twice in its history. It called itself Neocaesarea when Tiberius helped it; and later on, in honor of Vespasian, one of the Flavian emperors, it changed its name to Flavia. (It later resumed the name Philadelphia.) Thus these people understood what it meant to have a different name.

Jesus says, "I will give you three names." Names reveal the character of the named: The first is, "the name of my God." This is a promise that believers will be made godlike. "Godliness" is a shortened form of the word "godlikeness." The purpose of the Spirit in our lives is to make us godly or godlike. If you are growing and maturing as a Christian, each year you ought to be a little easier to live with -- more patient, compassionate, understanding of others, and mature in your judgment. You should become more godlike. That is the promise to the believer who overcomes by faith. Second, Jesus says, "I will write [on him] the name of the city of my God." The last two chapters of Revelation give a vivid description of this wonderful city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven "as a bride adorned for her husband" -- a beautiful bride meeting her husband. That again is a picture of loving intimacy; someone captured by the beauty and goodness of another and longing to be with him or her. That is the second promise given to those who hold on, who stand fast in the midst of a decaying world. They will know the intimacy of a husband's love for his beautiful bride. Last, says Jesus, "I will also write on him my new name." What is that? Since a name symbolizes one's character this is a reference to the fact that when our Lord's work of redemption is finished he will have a new name. Everyone wants to know what that new name is, but in Revelation 19:12 we are told that when Jesus appears he will have that new name written upon him, but it is a name that no man knows. Before Jesus was born in Bethlehem an angel appeared to Joseph and told him that Mary would bring forth a son, "and you shall call his name Jesus." Why? "Because he will save his people from their sins," (Matthew 1:21). Jesus is the redemptive name of our Lord. It means "Yahweh saves." But when the work of redemption is finished, when we are all home in glory with him and God's work of saving and redeeming us is over, Jesus will be given a new work to do. No one knows what it is; it will be a new role -- but the church is promised a share in those vast new labors! In the new heavens and the new earth redemption will no longer be required, but a new role will be given our Lord, and in that new work the church is called to share.

So we come again to our Lord's word of caution:

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 3:13 NIV)

Stop! Look! Listen! Hear the Spirit. Think through these letters. Pay attention to them, because they are spelling out your future destiny.

[Source]  

[Garland-Green]

The Poor-Rich Church

Read the Scripture: Revelation 3:14-21


The city of Laodicea was located about 100 miles directly east of Ephesus, the first city to which these seven letters were addressed. Laodicea was part of a tri-city area, closely associated with the cities of Colossae (to which the letter to the Colossians was written), and Hierapolis. Laodicea was noted throughout the Roman province of Asia for its wealth, its commercial life, and its medical practice. As the banking center of Asia, it was the most prosperous of the seven cities. Many large, beautiful homes were built in this city, the ruins of which are still visible, and probably some of them were owned by Christians. Laodicea also had a flourishing clothing industry. A particular breed of black sheep were raised around this area, and the glossy, black wool was woven into special clothes that were sold here. The city was also noted for its medical practice, especially for its eye and ear salve. The medical cult of Aesculapius was located here. Incidentally, doctors in the military services of the United States still wear the symbol of a staff with entwined serpents around it, the symbol of Aesculapius. Laodicea was thus a kind of Bank of America, Macy's Department Store and Mayo Clinic all rolled into one. That will explain some of the references we find in this letter to the church there. As in all the letters, our Lord introduces himself in a very significant way. His opening description form the key to what the church needs.

"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:"These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation." (Revelation 3:14 NIV)

Apparently the Lord wanted this church to see him in this capacity. He was first of all the "Amen." We are all familiar with this word. We utter it when we close a prayer or when we want to express our agreement with a meaningful statement. But it is also a word that Jesus used frequently. In the more modern versions of the gospels, he begins many statements with the words, "Truly, truly, I say unto you." The King James Version renders it, "Verily, verily." Actually, in Greek, that is "Amen, Amen." It indicates that Jesus is saying something extremely important. It always marks significant truth. So when you come to this word in the Gospels, pay careful attention because Jesus himself is underscoring that what he is saying is not only true, but it is important truth.

We use "Amen" as a last word, and it has that meaning too, when God speaks. The book of Hebrews begins, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son," (Hebrews 1:1-2a NIV). The word of Jesus is the last word, the final word of God to man. Anyone who goes beyond the words of Jesus is not giving us new truth; he is departing from the final word that God has spoken. Also, our Lord calls himself "the faithful and true witness." He has emphasized his truthfulness before in these letters, but here he adds the word "faithful," i.e., he not only tells the truth, but he tells all the truth. He does not hide anything. He speaks plainly and clearly and reveals the whole truth. He wants this church to understand that.

The third phrase is not, as the NIV version puts it, "the ruler of God's creation." It is really the word "the beginning of God's creation." It is the same word that the Gospel of John opens with: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," (John 1:1 NIV). Two verses later John says, "All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made," (John 1:3 KJV). Jesus is the origin, the beginning of God's creation. But not merely of the old creation, i.e. the physical universe in which we live, including the great galaxies of space, the planetary system of our sun, and the earth itself. All came from the hands of Jesus as the source of God's creation. But Jesus is also the source of the new creation that God is building. Paul tells us in Second Corinthians 5, "if anyone is in Christ he [or she] is a new creation," (2 Corinthians 5:17a NIV). We are part of a new world that the Lord is bringing into being. It has already begun -- that is the point: "old things have passed away; behold all things have become new," (2 Corinthians 5:17b KJV).

This church in Laodicea particularly needs to know that truth. At the end of his letter to the Colossians, Paul says, "See that [this letter] is read also in the church of the Laodiceans," (Colossians4:16b NIV). So the Laodiceans were to be familiar with the letter to Colossae, and it is in that letter that the apostle emphasizes Jesus' link with creation. He is the "firstborn of creation" (Colossians 1:15), and the "firstborn from the dead" (Colossians 1:18b KJV), [i.e., in resurrection] which is the new creation. This church at Laodicea needs to be told important truth, the whole truth, and especially truth about how to relate to God's new creation. What does the Lord see in this church at Laodicea? In every letter Jesus says, "I know your works." He is aware of what goes on in every church. He is watching us as well.

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm -- neither hot nor cold -- I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:15-16 NIV)

There were two problems in this church: First, there was something wrong with their commitment. They were neither cold nor hot. They were suffering from what someone has well called "the leukemia of non-commitment." And, also, there was something wrong with their self-image, as we will see in Verse 17. They thought they were rich, but they were really poor. The church at Sardis was a cold church, a dead church. It was as cold as death. The church at Philadelphia was hot, alive, and vital. But here in Laodicea was a church that was neither hot nor cold. It is merely lukewarm. Archaeologists have discovered an interesting fact about this city. It had no local water supply, but obtained their water through an aqueduct from the hot springs at Hierapolis, some six miles away. If you were staying in a motel in Laodicea and turned on the tap to get a cold drink, and tasted the water, you would probably spit it out again because it was tepid, lukewarm. Traveling that distance, the hot water had partly cooled down, and it would be nauseating, repulsive. The word our Lord actually uses here is not "spit out," but "vomit." He will vomit out the church because it was nauseating to him. What created this condition? There is only one answer. It is compromise! When you want to make something lukewarm you mix together hot and cold. We do this continually with regard to air temperature.

This morning when I arrived here it was very cold in the church, so cold the choir actually had overcoats on. It has warmed up since then, and you can be grateful for that. We humans do not like extremes of temperature. We do not like it to be cold, and we do not like it when it is hot. So what do we do? For our comfort we mix the two together. We come out with what is comfortably warm. That is what was happening in the church at Laodicea. They were compromising spiritually for comfort's sake. It is much more comfortable to attend a church where nobody takes doctrinal issues very seriously, where, for comfort's sake, you avoid discussions over issues. This church was compromising its teaching for the sake of peace. They had enough truth to salve the conscience without becoming fanatics; but enough coolness to calm their wills without freezing people out. It was a comfortable church. You could have attended this church for years and it would have probably been very pleasurable, but nothing much would be happening. You would not be challenged, or rebuked, or corrected, or exhorted, but only encouraged and respected because it was a comfortable church, but also a compromising church. What does Jesus think of a church like that? Yuck! Its nauseating! Repulsive! The people may like it, but Jesus does not. It may make them comfortable, but it makes him sick!

Once again I have to say there are thousands of churches like this around the world today, here in our country as well as elsewhere. In my judgment the most destructive and dangerous attitude a church can have -- and I run into it everywhere -- is that the church belongs to the people, they own it, and it exists for their benefit. That is what turns a church into what some have called a Religious Country Club, operating for the benefit of the members. Some years ago a young pastor asked me: "What would you do if you were in my place? Last week," he said, "the chairman of the board of our church called me in, and said to me,

'You've been pastor here for a year and you're a fine young man. We like you. You're a good Bible teacher. But there are a couple of things we want you to understand before we renew your contract. First, we want you to know this: This is our church. It is not yours. We were here before you came and we will be here after you leave. We don't want you making a lot of changes in this church. Second, we want you to understand that we hired you, and we can fire you. If you don't like the way we do things, then you will have to go, not us.'"

He then said, "I have to meet with them again next week, what do you think I should tell them?" I said, "Well, I would tell them, 'The next time we meet please bring your Bibles because we're going to have a Bible study.' And when you meet together I would say to them, 'I understand that some of you feel that this is your church. Now I want you to show me that in the Scriptures, because as I read Scripture, I find that Jesus says, "On this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it," (Matthew 16:18 KJV). And when Paul speaks to the elders at Ephesus he says, "Tend the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof," (Acts 20:28.). Nowhere in Scripture does it say that the church belongs to the people. It is Christ's church, and he has the right to determine what it shall be like and what goes on within it.'"

About two weeks later I got a letter from this young man. He said, "I did just what you said. I went back to the board and told them what you told me -- and they fired me!" But a couple of weeks later I got another letter from him, and it said, "Another church has called me, and we settled all these matters before I started. I think this one is going to go." I have followed it through the years and I can tell you a flourishing church has resulted from that young man's ministry. Each church is the Lord's church -- that is what Laodicea forgot. But Laodicea was not only comfortable but, even worse, it was complacent. The Lord says to it in Verse 17:

"You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." (Revelation 3:17 NIV)

What a sad condition! There is a big difference between "you say," and "you are." Our Lord points this difference out. This is the "Faithful and True witness" speaking, the one who tells the whole truth, even though it hurts. This church at Laodicea was, to use a popular expression, "fat, dumb and happy." It was smug. It was self-sufficient. It was complacent. They had plenty of money. Perhaps they had beautiful buildings, gifted preachers, a great choir, a great organ, and the respect of the community. They thought they were doing well. But when Jesus looks at it, he says, "You are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." Why such a difference in these two views? It is because they were being measured by two different standards.

I might say to you, "What is the temperature today?" and you would look at a thermometer and say, "It is 32 above zero." But I might check another thermometer and say, "No, you are wrong. It is zero." The truth is, we would both be right because one thermometer was Fahrenheit and the other was Centigrade. Zero in Centigrade is 32 above on Fahrenheit. If you use two different standards of measurement, you will never be able to agree on what the true temperature is. That is what was happening here. They were being measured by two different standards. Laodicea was using the standards of the world. It was pleasant, comfortable, approved by the community around, and they thought they were doing well. But Jesus is using the standard of what he intended his church to be like. It is definitely not to be a Country Club, run for the benefit of the members. It is not a Performing Arts Center either, where one is entertained with wonderful music. It is not to be a Political Action Group, taking sides on the issues of the day, nor is it to be a protest movement. Elements of all these may, at times, be legitimately expressed in the church, but none is to be its raison d'etre, the purpose for which it exists.

Jesus tells us plainly what his church is to be like. It is to be salt -- and not just plain salt, but salty salt! He said, "Salt that loses its saltiness is good for nothing," (Matthew 5:13, Mark 9:50, Luke 14:34). It will only be cast out and trodden under the feet of men. But a church that is salt should be salty. He means that, like salt in food, it should be spread throughout the whole area, flavoring whatever it touches. The church is to function not only when it meets on Sunday, but out where you people are during the week -- in business offices, in the marketplace, in shops, in your home, wherever you are. That is where the church does its work. That is where it is to tell the good news and to be salt, flavoring life with a different flavor, a different attitude toward circumstances, which does not go along with the willful, wicked, and wanton ways of the world but which chooses to walk in truth, righteousness, love and honesty. That is how the church becomes salt, filled with good works.

And it is also to be light. "You are like a city set on a hill," said Jesus. "You are the light of the world," (Matthew 5:14 NIV). Light is a symbol of truth. The church is to be a source of truth and of vision. It is the church that is charged with the task of making people understand the program of God throughout history, and of interpreting the events of the day so that men see what God is doing, not what man intends to do. That is the work of the church: To declare the truth about humanity's lost condition and the good news that a Savior has been born who will save us from our sin. Judged by that standard, Laodicea had nothing. They were as though stripped naked, poor, pitiful, wretched, and blind.

In each of these letters we have been looking at the churches as prophetic of a certain period in the history of the church. There is nothing in the text itself, I grant you, that tells us that, other than the general statement made in the first chapter that this whole book is a prophecy -- and that description applies to Chapters 2 and 3, as well as to the rest of the book. But, when you look back across these twenty centuries of church history, you can see how accurate this prophecy has been. Each of the seven churches represents a time where the prevailing general atmosphere was consistent with the conditions described in that church. Now we come to the seventh age of the church. It is clear, as both history and prophecy would confirm, that Laodicea is the church of the 20th century, the last age of the church. It is characterized by the phenomenon of the people dictating what will be taught. It is significant, is it not, that the name Laodicea means "The judgment of the people," or, to put it loosely, "People's rights." That is the cry of our times, is it not? The rights of the people -- exactly the opposite of the Nicolaitans who were a dominating clergy class that told the people what to believe. But Laodicea is where the people tell the ministers what to preach. We are seeing this happen today. The Apostle Paul predicted it in his second letter to Timothy when he said, "In the last times people will gather unto themselves teachers having itching ears, who will turn many from the truth and turn them unto myths and fables," 2 Timothy 4:3-4). Unfortunately, and sadly, that is what is happening today.

There was once a time when the church taught that the self life, the natural life with which we were born, was something that needed to be crucified. It needed to be denied. It required careful control and to be kept under rigid restrictions. Jesus said it himself, "He that comes after me must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me," (Matthew 16:34, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23). But we are living in a day when churches are openly advancing self, asserting self, saying we should discover its possibilities, and act and live in the light of those possibilities. Once the inerrancy of Scripture formed the bedrock of all evangelical churches. You could count on the fact that the Bible was fully accepted as the unerring Word of God. But now churches, seminaries, and colleges that call themselves evangelical, are rethinking the nature of the Scriptures, denying the inerrancy of the Word, and claiming that we cannot trust it; it must be judged by men before it can be accepted.

I heard last week of a man who has made a careful study of three of the major Christian colleges of this country. I will not name them, but they are well known. This man studied their beginnings and then their present outlook and he carefully documents the drift away from the truths that the founders of the schools wanted to perpetuate. This is the age of compromise, of drift within the church. Once there was a great urge within the church to evangelize the lost, simply because they were lost. The Scriptures tell us that all men are lost, that we are a lost race, drifting down the river of time. We reflect that lostness in the corruption and evil that is widespread in our day -- the pollution of our planet, the terrible rise of crime, the frightening toll that drugs and other things take of our youth, the failure of morals, etc. All this is testimony to the fact that we are not a pure people. We are not born good. We are born lost. But in many churches we are being told that God is too loving to condemn anybody; that good people like Ghandi and Schweitzer, who were not evangelical Christians at all, must at least have a second chance after death. Once it was unheard of in churches that the murder of unborn babies would be approved by evangelical believers, or that homosexuality would ever be acceptable. Yet, as we well know, abortion is increasingly accepted, even by evangelical Christians in many places. And on national television this week it was announced that the Episcopal Church has ordained its first openly practicing homosexual as a priest within that church. This is truly the age of Laodicea. Our Lord's appeal to this church falls into three simple divisions. First of all, verse 18:

"I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see." (Revelation 3:18 NIV)

The key to that verse is the three little words "buy from me." Jesus has all the church really needs to function. It is nice to have buildings, great choirs and beautiful music. These are not wrong, I do not mean in any way to suggest that they are, but they are not what the church needs. What it needs is what our Lord describes here, "Gold, and white clothing, and eye salve." We will see in a moment what those symbols stand for, but he alone possesses them. That is why it really does not make any difference whether we are persecuted, hounded by the government, put to death, or patronized and accepted. What the church needs is to be obtained only from Jesus, and our Lord tells us what it is.

First, "gold refined in the fire." Peter interprets that for us. He tells us that our faith is like gold refined in the fire: "More precious even than gold that perishes, though it be tried by fire," (1 Peter 1:7). Faith in God. Faith in his Word. Faith comes from Jesus. As we look to him our faith is awakened and stirred. We then see how true the Scriptures are, how they explain life and fit with all that we experience daily. That awakens a sense of confidence and faith, and that is what this church needed first. It lacked faith in God, but was resting on its own abilities or the world's resources.

Then, second, they needed white clothes: "white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness." Everyone is morally naked before God. Every one of us knows something about ourselves that we would not want anyone else to know. But God knows! He sees us in our nakedness. What does he offer for it? The righteousness of Christ! All through these letters we have seen that white clothes stand for redemption, for righteousness imparted by Christ. We are no longer to be clothed with our own self-righteousness, which Isaiah says is nothing but filthy rags in the sight of God, but we are to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ himself, a perfect righteousness which God accepts.

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
'Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head."

White clothes stand for a changed character; they mark someone who has taken his robes and washed them in the blood of the Lamb, as we will read in Chapter 7. Then the third thing that is needed is eye salve. Laodicea was noted for their eye ointment. But Jesus says they need spiritual eye salve that will enable them to see. Everywhere in Scripture we have mention of an anointing of the Spirit which opens eyes to understand the truth of God. John speaks of this in his first letter. He says, "The anointing that you received from him remains in you and you do not need anyone to teach you, but his anointing is real, not counterfeit, and teaches you all truth," (1 John 2:27 NIV). That does not do away with the need for human teachers. It means that unless the Spirit in you is opening your eyes to the meaning of truth taught it will fall upon deaf ears. But if we have the Spirit of Christ within, our eyes are opened to understand the Word of God and we see the Bible in a new, fresh and wonderful way. Are you having trouble with your Bible reading? Is it hard going? Is it difficult to understand? Then ask yourself, "Do I have the Spirit of truth? Have I received him or do I need this counsel of Jesus to "come to me and I will give you that anointing which opens your eyes to see"?

The second division of our Lord's appeal is given in Verses 19-20, where we learn how to get this gold and white clothes and eye salve. This is, I believe, one of the most beautiful sections of Scripture, a most gracious offer our Lord makes to individuals within the church of Laodicea to change. Here is what he says:

"Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:19-20 NIV)

What a kind and loving word! Our Lord is simply telling this church, despite its terrible weakness and failure, "I love you, and it is because I love you that I rebuke you and discipline you." Does that remind you of the way your father treated you? Did he ever take you aside and paddle you for something and say as he did it, "I am only doing this because I love you"? You go away rubbing your behind and saying, "I wish you didn't love me so much!" But Jesus speaks with bluntness because he loves this church, and he offers them a wonderful way out.

Verse 20 is one of the finest explanations in the whole Bible of how to become a Christian. I have used it hundreds of times and seen it work. It has three simple divisions: First, there comes a sense that Christ is outside your life and knocking at the door of your heart, wanting to come in. That occurs when you feel your life is not what you want it to be. You feel empty and disturbed about yourself. You hear the good news in song and word about Jesus, the kind of Lord he is, what he can do, and something within you responds. You sense the knocking of Christ and you want him to come in. You long for it. You begin to be awakened to your need, and you sense him offering to enter your life. That is step number one. Then the second step is very important. You must open the door. He will not open it. He is not going to force himself upon you. He never forces anyone into salvation. He offers it to you. Everywhere in Scripture Jesus offers himself to men and women, and he grieves over the fact that people do not receive his offer. Remember that remarkable scene in the Gospels during Jesus' last week in Jerusalem when he comes over the top of the Mount of Olives and sees the city spread out beneath him. He wept over the rebellious city, saying, "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You stone the prophets and kill everybody God sends to you. How often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not," (Matthew 23:37, Luke 13:34). So he offers himself here, if you will open the door. You must invite him in. You must say to him, "Come in Lord Jesus. Enter my life. Be my Lord. Be my Savior. Deliver me from my sins -- and myself." Then the third step is very clear. He will enter in! He says so. You do not have to feel him enter. He does not say he will give you the feeling that he is there, although certainly that will come in time, but he says, "If you open the door I will enter in and remain with you. We will eat together and be together." It is a beautiful picture of permanently dwelling with you. He will move in to live with you.

There may be some here this morning who have never opened their hearts to Christ. If you turn away from his knocking you will remain lost, and, eventually, if you never repent, you will enter eternity lost forever. But our Lord says if you will open the door (you can do it even while I am finishing this message), and say in your heart, "Lord Jesus, come into my life and deliver me, change me, save me; I receive you, Lord," he will enter. John promises in his Gospel, "As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe on his name," (John 1:12 KJV).The third aspect of our Lord's appeal is his word to the overcomer. It is given in Verses 21-22:

"To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 3:21-22 NIV)

Again, as we have seen in the last three letters, the promise is to share in our Lord's reign. The true church is intended to reign with Christ. But our Lord makes a very careful distinction here. Notice how he distinguishes between his throne and his Father's throne. The Father's throne, of course, is the sovereign government of the universe. God is sovereign over all. The whole universe is under his control. Every human event comes under his jurisdiction. That is the Father's throne. When our Lord had overcome, when he, too, had endured faithfully to the end of his life, trusting God (as we are to trust God throughout the rest of our lives), he sat down on his Father's throne. When he ascended, we are told, "He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God," (Hebrews 12:2). Hebrews says that and Psalm 110 had predicted it. Thus he is Lord over all the universe right now, on his Father's throne.

But he too has a throne. He calls it "my throne." The overcoming Christian is invited to reign with him on it. In Scripture that throne is called the "Throne of David." When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, as recorded in the first chapter of Luke, he told her that she would have a son, that he would be called the Son of God and that the Lord God would give unto him "the throne of his father David, and he would reign over the house of Jacob forever," (Luke 1:32-33). The house of Jacob is the nation of Israel; all twelve tribes are descended from the sons of Jacob. So this is a promise particularly relating to the time yet to come when Jesus assumes the throne of David and Israel is made the head of the nations. It is the millennial kingdom which has been mentioned several times in these letters already. The church, resurrected and glorified, is to share with him in that reign. That does not end the reign of the church with Christ. It goes on into the new heavens and the new earth. But this is a particular promise looking to the coming kingdom on earth when Jesus will reign over the earth. Our Lord had explained this to his disciples in a rather amazing passage in the 19th of Matthew. In verse 28 it says, "Jesus said to them, 'I tell you the truth [i.e., verily, verily, or, Amen, Amen] at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel,'" (Matthew 19:28 NIV). You could not put that any plainer, could you? "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters of father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first," (Matthew 19:29-30 NIV). That is our Lord's amplification of this promise here.

Now for the last time in these letters we hear our Lord say, "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" -- not what the churches say about themselves, or to the world, but what the Spirit says to the churches. We are to receive truth from God and dispense it to the world. But we do not originate truth. We do not think up the things that we would like to believe and spread that abroad. We are responsible to hear what the Spirit says to the churches and then to pass that along, as we function as salt and light in the world.

[Source]  

[Garland-Green]

Supreme Headquarters

Read the Scripture: Revelation 4:1-11



Chapter four of the book of Revelation represents a dramatic change. We move now to the third division of the book. In 1:19, we learned from the Lord himself the proper divisions of the book. There John the Apostle heard the Lord say to him, "Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now, and what will take place later (or after this)." It is very important to observe these three divisions because they will guide us through this difficult and sometimes hard to understand book. First, John was told to "write what you have seen." That covers the vision of chapter one. What John the Apostle saw was the Lord himself walking in the midst of his churches. Then he was told to write "what is now." That occupies chapters two and three, i.e., the letters to the seven churches which is a sweeping prophecy of the present age of the church. Then he was told "write what will take place after this." It is to that division we come in chapter four, the beginning of what will take place after the church age.

After this[John writes] I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." (Revelation 4:1 NIV)
Twice in that verse, at the beginning and the end, we are told that John will now be shown what will take place "after this" -- after the church has finished its course and has been caught away to be with the Lord. John is first allowed to see into heaven. What he sees is a door opened which enables him to look into heaven. He is not the first one in Scripture to do this. The prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Daniel were also privileged to look into heaven; to stand on earth and see into heaven and observe what was taking place there. But there is something more here, something extremely important. Not only does John see into heaven, but he is actually summoned into heaven. No other prophet in all of Scripture is called into heaven except John the Apostle.

Most commentators see that as very significant. He heard a voice "like a trumpet" saying to him, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." That indicates the viewpoint of John throughout the rest of the book of Revelation is to be from heaven. Many commentators feel that this is the place in Revelation where what is called the departure, or rapture, of the church takes place. [Read about the Rapture here] It is most noteworthy that from here on in this book the church, which has occupied center-stage through the opening chapters, is never mentioned again until the final chapter. There are saints referred to throughout the book, but the word church does not appear again until the Bride of the Lamb is seen at the end. What does that signify? Many feel (and I think they are right on this) that the church is represented by John the Apostle, and is at this point caught away into heaven. What John sees in the book from here on is what the church will see when it is caught away to be with Christ. That is a point of very interesting significance. It means that, as we read on in this book, we are no longer looking at things from the standpoint of time but of eternity. That is what makes the book both fascinating and difficult to interpret. In eternity, unlike in time, there is no prescribed sequence of events.

In time we are locked into patterns which logically follow one another. That pattern cannot be broken. You cannot go back into 1989. We are as far removed from 1989 as if we were 1,000 years away. You cannot go backward in time; you can only go forward and live only in the present. But in eternity that is no longer true. When we think of heaven we tend to project the time conditions of earth into heaven. We think of it as an immensely extended period of time, where we will be occupied in doing our favorite things as long as we like. But it is not like that. Golfers talk about heaven as one great golf course where they can hit a ball 500 miles with one swing. Fishermen think it is a great river filled with fish and every cast lands a huge fish. When I was a cowboy in Montana, we talked about the "great roundup in the sky." That is the way we often think of heaven but we must learn to think differently.

In heaven, things occur when they are spiritually ready for manifestation. I do not know how to put it any other way. In heaven, circumstances and situations may jump back and forth. That is what the book of Revelation does. The series of judgments that follow -- the seals of the seven-sealed book, the sounding trumpets, the pouring out of bowls or vials of the wrath of God -- do not follow one another in chronological succession. We must recognize that, when we try to interpret this book. It will all come more clear to us, I hope, as we get into the book itself, but it is a very important point.

Heaven is not on some distant planet. Heaven is another dimension of existence right here and now. It is a realm of being just slightly beyond our senses today. When John saw a door opened into heaven he was permitted to see into a dimension that is present all the time and which governs the visible affairs of earth. That is the biblical position from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation, and especially in Genesis and Revelation. We must learn to think of it that way. What we are given in this book are certain reference points, certain events to which the book returns again and again. I am going to show you one of these in just a moment. But let us stay now with the text and look at what John saw when he was actually taken into that fifth dimension of existence, called heaven.

At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. (Revelation 4:2-3 NIV)

What did he see? The first thing he saw, central to everything else, was a great throne and someone sitting on it. He found himself suddenly in Supreme Headquarters! Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor I took ship to Hawaii, not as a serviceman but as a civilian. I went out there while the battleships were still lying wrecked in Pearl Harbor and joined the paint crew of an organization responsible for building facilities all over the islands for the Navy. Most of this crew was made up of Japanese who lived in Hawaii, but because we were at war with Japan there were certain areas where they, as painters, were not allowed to work. There were two of us from the mainland, and we were sent into these areas. One day, together with my partner, I was assigned to paint Admiral Nimitz's office, the Commander-in-Chief's headquarters of the Pacific. I remember with what awe I entered that office. I found myself surrounded with charts of the Pacific islands. It was impressive to me to realize that here the Admiral with his captains actually were planning the events of the war; that all the far-flung assaults of the United States Navy during the war were conceived and brought into existence in this very spot. I was impressed and awed to be permitted into that secluded area. But that pales in comparison with what John must have felt when he found himself in the control center of the universe!

The first thing he saw was a throne. That throne is a central theme of the book of Revelation. There are only five chapters where the word "throne" is not found. It is very important and impressive to remember that despite all that takes place on earth, all the events we read of in the newspapers and see on television, as exciting or saddening as these things are, they all somehow relate to that central throne from which God rules in his universe. We must never forget that behind all human events is the government of God.

Some years ago I was in England and was scheduled to speak to pastors' groups in various churches in the London area. One evening I found myself in a Methodist chapel out on the road from London to Cambridge. Most of the meetings that I had been speaking at were very poorly attended, (as were most of the church services in England at that time -- they still are) but this chapel for some reason was jammed with people that night. It was not because they came to hear me, because no one knew who I was. But people were actually standing outside the doors on the street. We had a tremendous song service. These people were really singing their hearts out with songs such as we have sung this morning. "Majesty" was one of the choruses they sang. Another was "Our God Reigns." I rejoiced with them as they were belting out the chorus of "Our God Reigns." But, in the midst of it I began to smile to myself, for my eye had fallen on the chorus sheet that had been handed out to us and I noticed that the typist had made a mistake in the title of the song. We were singing "Our God Reigns," but what the sheet said was "Our God Resigns!" I was grateful that they were not singing it as it was written, but unfortunately that is the way many people seem to sing today: They sound as if our God had resigned. But he has not. Our God reigns! That is the theme of Revelation.

That marks a very important fact which runs directly contrary to the thought and spirit of the age in which we live. The fact that there is a throne, means there are absolutes which cannot be altered or changed. They are guaranteed by the authority of the throne! Nothing man does, or can do, alters them in the least degree. There are scientific absolutes. Scientists have to work around these. They must discover the "laws" of what they are doing. There are also moral absolutes which cannot be altered, no matter how far society may drift from their standards. God maintains them and enforces them. He is not frightened by man's aberrations. He is not biting his fingernails lest people cancel out the standards of the past. He maintains them constantly by the authority of his throne. Jeremiah saw this. There is a wonderful passage in his prophecy where, amidst the tumult of his days, he declares, "A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary," (Jeremiah 17:12). That is the throne that John saw. He saw, too, that the throne was occupied. Someone was sitting on it. Immediately our expectations are heightened by that. At last we are going to find out what God looks like! Have you ever wondered what God looks like? Here John is permitted to see God on his throne. What is he like?

What he sees are simply colors -- colored lights, flashing like jewels -- burning, flashing, pure colors. There are scholars who feel that the letters of John were written after the book of Revelation. If that is true it may explain why in his first letter he says, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all," (1 John 1:5b KJV). Perhaps he is remembering the cascading colors that reflected the majesty and glory of God. Moses was told, "No man can see the face of God and live," (Exodus 33:20). No one has ever seen God at any time; all that man may see are manifestations of his Being which tell out his attributes and glory. John saw a figure seated upon the throne but he could not see his features through the dazzling lights that danced about the throne.

Ezekiel saw the same thing. The first chapter of his prophecy records a vision very similar to this one. But no one could ever describe God's features for God is more than a man. He manifests himself in these wonderfully significant colors, and the colors are full of meaning. They indicate that it is not just the Father whom John sees on the throne. It is noteworthy that there are three of them mentioned here:

The first one is a "jasper," which is really a diamond, the most beautiful of all gems because it has the ability to capture the light and flash it in brilliant displays of color. That is why "diamonds are a girl's best friend!" -- for they so beautifully reflect light. Brilliant crystal reflects the dominant attribute of God the Father, his holiness, his perfection. Diamonds are graded as to whether they are perfect or not; here is a perfect diamond reflecting the perfection of the Father, the incredible balance of attributes in his being so that he is always exactly what anyone can imagine perfection to be. The diamond speaks of the Father -- the holiness of the Father. The second stone is the carnelian, or sardius, which was blood red in color -- a glowing, beautiful, blood-red stone. That, of course, immediately suggests the Son. His major characteristic is his willingness to shed his blood on our behalf, to give himself in redemptive atonement for our sins. It is the wonder of the ages. He is the Lamb of God, slain from before the foundation of the world. The third color was the emerald. John saw a great rainbow circling the throne, green as an emerald. Green is the color of nature, of creation. A rainbow was first seen at the flood of Noah. After the terrible holocaust that wiped out the world of that day by a flood, Noah for the first time saw in the sky a rainbow, not a green rainbow, but a rainbow of various colors, just as we see them today during a mist or rain. The rainbow was the promise of grace expressed in nature. "Never again," God said, "will I ever visit the earth with a universal flood," (Genesis 9:9-26). Never again. That is God's grace shown in the natural world.

This rainbow with various shades of green circling the throne speaks of the Holy Spirit administering the holiness and the redemption of God to all creation. I do not know if you are aware of this, but all rainbows are a circle. We usually see only part of it. Where the rainbow touches the ground we see an arc, but if we saw the whole thing it would be a circle. About the only time you can see a rainbow as a circle is when you are flying in a plane. Many of you perhaps have had the experience of looking down on clouds where showers have taken place, and you see a rainbow, a perfect circle. At the heart of the circle, invariably, is the shadow of the plane you are flying in! I have seen it many times. It is a heartening thing when you are flying through a storm to look out and see a rainbow which has right at its center the plane you are flying in! It is a promise of grace in the midst of storm. Next John sees are the companions of God, the court of heaven,

Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders[or ancients]. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. (Revelation 4:4 NIV)

There has been much debate as to who these twenty-four elders represent. Many commentators take them to be redeemed saints, both of the Old and New Testaments; twelve elders of Israel and twelve apostles. I have to tell you that for many years I held that view myself. I have changed my view because, for one thing, I have always been troubled by the fact that if these are the twelve patriarchs and the twelve apostles, then John was one of them for he was one of the twelve apostles. Is he seeing himself seated there? It does not make sense, does it? They were viewed as saints because they wore white robes and they have victors' crowns upon their heads. This has suggested to many that they have conquered evil and so wear crowns, and their robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. But there are other reasons for crowns and robes as we shall see in a moment.

I have now come to see that this group is probably what Daniel and other Old Testament prophets saw when they looked into heaven. In the fourth chapter of Daniel the prophet is called before King Nebuchadnezzar to interpret a dream of the King; a dream of a great tree which is cut down and only the stump remains. Daniel's interpretation was that the tree was Nebuchadnezzar himself and it meant his crown would be taken away from him for a period of seven years, he would lose his mind and be turned out to eat grass like a horse or a cow for the seven years. Then his throne and his authority would be restored to him. When Daniel tells the king this he puts it in this way.

This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones. (Daniel 4:17a KJV)

There are others associated with God's judgment upon this king who are called "watchers" and "holy ones."The verse continues:

...to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will, and sets up over it the basest of men. (Daniel 4:17b KJV)

That may also explain why we have had certain politicians in office! In the seventh chapter of Daniel the prophet makes a somewhat similar reference. There Daniel, too, saw into heaven, and this is what he saw,

I beheld till thrones [plural]were placed, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; a thousand thousands ministered with him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set[or, as the NIV puts it, 'The court was seated'] and the books were opened. (Daniel 7:9-10 KJV)

So Daniel also saw thrones surrounding the throne of God upon which individuals were seated who entered into the judgments and decisions of God. In the 26th verse of that same 7th chapter, Daniel says:

But the judgment shall sit:[or 'the court will sit'; and, with reference to the anti-Christ] they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. (Dan 7:26 KJV)

Once again, there is a reference to this council in Psalms 89:6-7,

For who in the skies above can compare with the Lord?
Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings?
In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared;
he is more awesome than all who surround him. (Psalm 89:6-7 NIV)

So who are the twenty-four elders? I believe that they are angels who are put in charge of the present age. They are a body of twenty-four intelligent, powerful angels associated with the government of God, especially with regard to fallen angels and redeemed people. They are wearing crowns because they are victors in their battles with Satan; and they are wearing white robes because these are righteous angels who have refused to join the rebellion of the devil. But now John sees still other symbols.

(Note to reader: many see it as representatives of the twelve old testament tribes of Israel, and the Apostles)

From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. (Revelation 4:5-6a NIV)

Let us remember these are symbols. What they represent does not always appear like this. These are pictures, a manifestation of what actually is there. The symbols here are very instructive. First, John says, "from the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder." These are the sights and sounds associated with the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. The mountain was shaking constantly with great rumblings and thunders, it was covered by dark clouds lit by lightning flashes. It was so awesome a sight that the people of Israel were stunned with fear. These sounds are a symbol, therefore, of the judgments of God. Revelation is basically the time when God at last turns from grace to judgment. All through the Bible he has been a gracious God, appealing to people to open their minds, seeking to instruct them anew, to make them stop and listen and adjust to the truth. But at last he must turn to judgment. That is what this book is all about: It tells us how God at last visits judgment upon all people.

I recently heard our good friend, Chuck Swindoll, say that the first theological statement that he could ever remember was spoken to him by his mother when he was just a little boy. Ten words that he would never forget. She said to him on one occasion, "May God help you if you ever do that again!" In a sense that is what the book of Revelation is about. It is God carrying out his last warning to men, because in their consummate folly they have done evil again and again.

The symbols here of lightnings, rumblings and peals of thunder, are repeated several times through the book of Revelation. They represent a reference point to which the book returns again and again. When you find them you will realize that you have come again to the final scenes of God's judgment of man's evil. I have not time to read them all to you but, here are a couple of them which you can look up yourself: In 8:5, and again in 11:19, and there are still other appearances further on in the book. Each time they appear an additional element of judgment is added. The other symbols here are symbols of the Spirit of God, the instrument of God's judgment. John saw seven burning lamps blazing with divine vengeance. That is the Spirit of God. And he saw a great sea of crystal before the throne. As we have already seen, crystal speaks of the purity, the holiness of God. The sea is the Spirit of God in his purity and unsullied holiness. That is why we call him the Holy Spirit. It is that holiness which he must impart to anyone who dares to stand in the presence of God. "Without holiness," we are told in Hebrews "it is impossible to please God." This is the Spirit of holiness upon whom God's throne rests.

The final characters that John sees are described in Verse 6-8:

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back.
The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.
Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings.

Day and night they never stop saying:
"Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,
who was, and is, and is to come." (Revelation 4:6b-8 NIV)

These are weird creatures. They are like winged animals, covered with eyes all over their bodies, even under their wings we are told. Many ask, "Who are they?" If you read the first chapter of Ezekiel, as I have already suggested, you will see that Ezekiel saw similar creatures which he describes in similar ways. He calls them "cherubim." Cherubim are not little fat, naked babies with miniwings that fly around and shoot people with love arrows. No, they are like these creatures here. Isaiah describes them in his 6th chapter and he calls them "Seraphim" ("burning ones"). They appear in different configurations. Sometimes they have six wings, sometimes only four.

Ezekiel mentions also the faces here -- the lion, the ox, the man, and the eagle. John sees the same thing. There are four man, and the eagle. Four is always the number of government. These creatures therefore are somehow associated with God's government of the created universe. We are very ignorant people when it comes to natural phenomena, but here are creatures who understand and help God rule the natural world. Eyes symbolize discernment and knowledge. Wings describe rapidity, swiftness of movement. Faces depict the major qualities of life in the created universe. A lion speaks of power; an ox of patience; a man of intelligence; and an eagle of swiftness. These living creatures are the ones who summon the four horsemen in Chapter 6. They say to these riders, "Come!" and call them into activity. They work at leading creation to worship its Creator. Nature worships when anything in it fulfills the intention God had for it. The poet has written,

"Full many a rose was born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

Waste? No rose ever wastes its sweetness. God smells it if man does not. And one of the tasks of these four living creatures is to elicit from the whole creation the perfection God intended for it. That is why they are praising God all the time -- for new vistas of creative wisdom and power break upon them constantly. Here in front of the podium are some magnificent lilies. If you took one and carefully examined it you could not help but be impressed with the marvel of its design -- its intricacy, balance, complexity and beauty, all put together by the power and wisdom of God. All nature should lead us to worship God in the same way. The chapter closes with the worship of all heaven for the creative wisdom and power of God.

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

"You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being." (Revelation 4:9-11 NIV)

The nearest thing we have on earth to this is a great Messiah Sing. I do not know if you have ever joined one, but, at Christmas time, if you get an opportunity, go to one of these great auditoriums packed with perhaps 3000 people, with a full orchestra and a great choir singing out the Scriptural phrases from the Messiah. It is moving, powerful: "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." That is what heaven is engaged in declaring.

It is not a mere mechanical recital. We must not ever read it that way. Heaven is not boring. Most people's idea of heaven reminds me of that soup commercial where people are drinking soup and saying, "Boring! Boring!" That is what many think heaven to be, but heaven is not like that. These people cry out in praise because they are continually discovering new, exciting, awesome aspects of God's wisdom and power breaking afresh upon them. So they are constantly driven to praise God for who he is. That is what true worship ought to be.

Eugene Peterson, a powerful communicator in our day, has said that true worship does five things to you: It centers things for you: You see God as the center of everything. Your ego is no longer center. You stop living for yourself but for him. And it gathers: It includes others with you. You become part of a family, a congregation. It crosses lines of exclusion. And it reveals: things you never saw before you now begin to understand. The familiar patterns of life take on new vistas. And it makes you sing: Christians are always singing. There are many songs in this book of Revelation, despite the judgments, because Christians can sing when other people weep. And finally, it affirms: It responds to God's great promises with an "Amen" and a "Yes" from you. I want to close with a paragraph from Eugene Peterson which beautifully gathers up the power of worship:

Failure to worship consigns us to a life of spasms and jerks, at the mercy of every advertisement, every seduction, every siren. Without worship we live manipulated and manipulating lives. We move in either frightened panic or deluded lethargy as we are, in turn, alarmed by spectres and soothed by placebos. If there is no center, there is no circumference. People who do not worship are swept into a vast restlessness, epidemic in the world, with no steady direction and no sustaining purpose.

Wise words. Let us join with the hymn writer in one of the great songs of worship:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible, hid from our eyes.
How blessed, how glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, Victorious, Thy great name we praise.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
All praise we would render, O help us to see
Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee!

[Source]  

[Garland-Green]

The Great Breakthrough

Read the Scripture: Revelation 5:1-14


In Chapter 4 of Revelation, John the Apostle was caught up into the presence of God in heaven. There he saw the throne of God and the court of heaven. Though the scene in Chapter 5 is still in heaven, the theme changes from the worship of the Creator to the worship of the Redeemer. Both of these themes are often reflected in Christian hymns. One of my favorites praises God for his creative wisdom:

I sing the mighty power of God,
That made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad,
And built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained,
The sun to rule the day.
The moon shines full at his command,
And all the stars obey.

It is both our duty and privilege to worship the Creator because all that we have -- life, talents, all ability -- comes from his creative power. But the greater theme in the Scriptures is redemptive love, and we ought frequently to reflect that as well:

In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o'er the wrecks of time.
All the light of sacred story,
Gathers round its head sublime.

In Chapter 5, John's gaze returns to the throne of God and he sees a strange sight which he describes in these opening verses:

Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?" But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. (Revelation 5:1-4 NIV)
Questions naturally arise when we read that: What does this scroll represent? Why is it sealed? Why is it written on the front and on the back? Who can be found to open it? What is required in order to open the scroll? This is not a book but a scroll, a rolled up paper or parchment with seven seals on the end so that as the seals are broken the scroll is unrolled and the writings upon it can be read. When we come to Chapter 6, next week, the opening of these seals and unrolling of this scroll will reveal certain momentous events which begin to occur upon the earth. Then we will know exactly what this scroll signifies. As it unrolls, we are carried on from Chapter 6 through Chapters 7, 8, and 9, and it is not until Chapter 10 that we find the scroll completely unrolled. It ends with the sounding of seven trumpets which are revealed when the seventh seal is broken. In Chapter 10, verse 7, a clue is given to us as to what this scroll signifies. There John is told:

But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets. (Revelation 10:7 NIV)

So this scroll is a "mystery" book. It's title is The Mystery of God. It answers questions that men have been asking for generations which no one has been able to answer. Why can't we solve the great problems of mankind? We hear much these days of the progress that humans have made -- tremendous technological advances, the wonders that science has produced -- and we pat ourselves on the back and say, "We are right on the verge of perfection." But when we look back on history we find that the truly great problems, the ones we wrestle with every day, are the same that men and women were wrestling with since the very dawn of time -- the problem of war, of conflict between human beings, the problems of crime, evil and prejudice -- these have always been with us. As far back in history as you can go, no one has made any advance in solving them. They are with us just as they were at the very beginning. Why can't we get a handle on these? Why can't we solve such problems? This scroll offers to answer that question.

One of the writers of our day, Annie Dillard, asks what she calls "the chief theological question of all time," "What the Sam Hill is going on here anyway?" Do you ever feel that way? Things happen in your life and you cannot understand them. They seem to be without meaning or reason. You say with disgust, "What the Sam Hill is going on here anyway?" That is the question this scroll answers. How will God ever straighten out this mess and fulfill his promise of a golden age when men will live in a world without war, without bloodshed, without hatred, without prejudice, when sorrow, death and tears have all been taken away? How is it to be brought about? Men have been dreaming of a world at peace, a utopia on earth, for centuries, but no one has found the answer. Last week my wife ran across, in a contemporary magazine, a description of what one writer has thought would be a perfect world. Here it is:

No housework.
No drug abuse.
No prejudice.
A relationship that works.
More time with our families.
A decent education for all.
Clean air and water.
A birth control pill for men.
A car really built for families.
Health (no AIDS).
Happiness (no war).
And the pursuit of a family-friendly workplace.
That would be a perfect world!

Obviously this person does not expect God to have much to do with bringing that about. But that is what men have been hoping for. It is the purpose of this scroll to unveil God's way of bringing it into being. That is what the book of Revelation is all about.

This scroll, John says, was written both on the front and the back. The ancients seldom wrote on both sides of a scroll because one side was usually rough and uneven. Normally only one side was smoothed for writing. When both sides of a scroll were written on, it was an indication of a full and important message. This seems to indicate here that what will be unfolded as we go on is a complex and involved account. As we will see, that is very true. The very fact that it was written is significant. It was written to indicate there is no way to change it. God has written it and there is no possibility that anyone can change it. There is a famous line from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam which says,

The moving finger writes, and having writ
Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.

As Pilate said of his writing on the Cross: "what is written is written," (John 19:22). Nothing can change it. Now John hears an invitation to all the universe, proclaimed by a mighty angel, that if anyone can open this scroll let him step forward. "Who is worthy," he cries, "to open the scroll?" It is the question that is the basis for all of politics. In every election year it is what we are asking, is it not? "Who is worthy? Who among us is capable of leading us into solutions to the problems that have been here for centuries? Who is smart enough? Who is moral enough? Who is worthy?"

Through the centuries there have been many volunteers. Nebuchadnezzar, in the Old Testament, claimed to be able to do so. He boasted of how cleverly he had built the great city of Babylon. But his empire soon fell apart. Alexander the Great thought he had accomplished it, and at the age of 32 wept because he had no more worlds to conquer. But a few months later he drank himself to death and his empire too was gone. Julius Caesar led the legions of Rome across the face of Europe trying to establish a world in which Roman peace would be prevalent. But it, too, fell ultimately to the assault of barbarians from the North. Charlemagne in France tried to do the same thing. So did Napoleon. Hitler, in our own day, thought he was establishing a thousand-year Reich that would rule the world. Yet all failed and failed dismally.

Even the best of men among us could not do it. We revere the name of George Washington and the wisdom of our first President, but he was not able to bring about a world at peace. Even Abraham Lincoln, with his mighty heart of compassion for both North and South, was not able to solve the basic problems of humanity. Whom should we add to the list? I read recently that there is a movement abroad to add Ronald Reagan to Mount Rushmore. I do not think he will make it, but even the four faces there could not solve the problems of history. No wonder John wept! He wept and wept, he says, because no one could unseal the scroll or even look inside. No one knew how to go about it. None of the leaders of earth have a clue as to how to solve the issues that divide mankind and keep us from loving one another. But then John learns that the problem is already solved. The 24 angels, the heavenly council around the throne of God, know the answer. One of them says to him:

Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." (Revelation 5:5 NIV)

"The Lion of the tribe of Judah" and "the Root of David" are both Jewish titles. They refer to prophecies from the Old Testament that predict there would be one from the tribe of Judah and from the family of David who would at last rule over the earth and solve its problems. These titles refer, then, to the King of the Jews -- the very title which Pilate inscribed on the Cross of Jesus. The King of the Jews! He is the One who triumphs by his death and is able to bring about God's kingdom on the earth. But -- when John turns to see the conquering Lion of Judah, what he sees is the slain Redeemer of the world!

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. (Revelation 5:6 NIV)

He expected to see a Lion but what he saw was a Lamb, with the marks of death still upon him. One of the most moving hymns that blind Fanny Crosby ever wrote says:

I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
As redeemed by his side I shall stand.
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
By the prints of the nails in his hand!

Those marks of death are still upon the Lamb, and will be for all eternity. In these two symbols, the Lion of Judah and the Lamb that was slain, John sees the uniting of two themes that run throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament alike. Lions are a symbol of majesty, power, rule and authority. Lions conquer; lambs submit! Lions roar; lambs die! There is introduced to us here the One who conquers by submitting. The symbols tie together the earthly promises of Israel and the heavenly calling of the church.

It is strange how many commentators on Revelation ignore the Jewish element that is visible in these symbols. It is simply another clue that Israel is coming onto center stage again. When this scroll begins to unroll God is calling the nation back to the ultimate fulfillment of promises that they have long held, but never realized. The history of earth is now in view, and the key to that history is the nation Israel. It is all through the Bible. There is no ultimate blessing for earth until Israel is blessed. The Apostle Paul declares that plainly in the 11th chapter of Romans: "If their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" (Romans 11:15 NIV). The time has now come for the restoration of Israel, as the prophets predicted, and as John sees in his vision.

This uniting of the Lion and the Lamb is the basis for C. S. Lewis' novels for children (and childlike adults), called "The Narnia Chronicles." A great lion, Aslan, rules in majesty and roars in triumph, but he does so because he submits to being put to death by the evil characters controlled by the White Witch, but at last the kingdom of Narnia is freed from its bondage to winter and the springtime of the world arrives. It is a beautiful use of these symbols. As the Lion of Judah, Jesus will rule the world with a rod of iron. So the Second Psalm declares: "Though the nations rage, and the people imagine a vain thing; the kings of the earth take counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed ...Yet have I set my Son on my holy hill of Zion." (Psalm 2:1-3, 6). Zion is symbolic for Jerusalem. In it Jesus shall reign with a rod of iron and dash the nations to pieces if they resist that reign. It is all predicted in that great prophetic Psalm. As the Lion of Judah our Lord reigns, but if anyone is weak and faltering, helpless or hopeless, he or she will find a compassionate Savior -- because this Lion is also a Lamb! As the Lamb of God he is filled with mercy and grace, but if any should presume upon that grace and begin to live a rebellious or defiant life, let him beware -- because this Lamb is also a Lion!

According to John's vision, this Lamb has seven horns. Horns in Scripture speak of power, and seven is the number of fullness. So the Lamb has fullness of power on the basis of his death. Remember how Hebrews puts it: "He is able to save unto the uttermost all those who come unto God through him," (Hebrews 7:25a KJV). Jesus himself declared after his resurrection, "All power in heaven and on earth is given unto me," (Matthew 28:18 KJV). The seven eyes speak of full intelligence, discernment, by means of the Holy Spirit; an understanding of all the conflicting movements of human history. These seven eyes are the seven spirits of God which, as we have already seen, is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. In the first chapter of John's Gospel it is said of Jesus that he "does not need that any should tell him about man, because he knew what was in man," (John 2:25). He understands humanity. He, therefore, is the One worthy to take the scroll and remove the seals. So John sees him here with the seven-sealed scroll in his hands.

And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb.
Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sang a new song:

"You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:8-10 NIV)

This is the worship of heaven. All there understand the meaning of history and the solution that is God's program. Each of these elders has a harp, and bowls of incense, fragrances, which, we are told, are the prayers of the saints. The slain Lamb is the center of their worship. A harp symbolizes the music of inanimate creation. Not only will all creatures of the universe praise God and join in worship before him for his redemptive love, but creation itself -- the rocks, the trees, the mountains, the hills, the sea -- everything on earth, will praise him. Many of the Psalms reflect this in beautiful passages. As the strings of a harp vibrate in harmony, so the whole of creation will vibrate in an harmonious worship of God, each element of it fulfilling the intention which God had for it in the beginning.

The elders present also the prayers of the saints. How interesting that heaven understands that we who are redeemed also contribute to the work of redemption. We cannot lay the foundation (that Jesus has done perfectly), but we share in the application of it throughout the earth. Paul, in his letter to Timothy writes, "I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men" (1 Timothy 2:1) ... "for God would have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth," (1 Timothy 2:4). That is what prayers do. When you are concerned about someone else and pray for him or her before the throne of God you are making possible an application of the work of redemption to that human heart. This ought to encourage us greatly in our prayers, for they are part of the program of God. And, says John, he heard them singing a new song. The 24 elders and the four living creatures around the throne are singing a song they never felt themselves. It is new to them because, as angels, they have never been redeemed. They have had to learn of redemption by watching God's grace applied to sinners -- willful, rebellious, defiant men and women like us, who want their own way and whom, nevertheless, God calls, forgives, restores and saves. This is the song the angels have learned from the saints. Another hymn expresses this. We do not sing it very much these days, but the chorus says:

Holy, holy, holy, is what the angels sing,
And I expect to help them make the courts of heaven ring.
But when we sing redemption's story they must fold their wings,
For angels never felt the joy that our salvation brings.

This is the reason for the worship of heaven: It is the death of Jesus! Not his teaching, not his wonderful life of compassion, or his miracles and wonders, not his power, but the shedding of his blood for sinners of every age. I never take the cup of communion without thinking of the words of Peter, "We are not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without fault," (1 Peter 1:19 KJV). I do not know any thought in all literature that is able to melt the human heart more than the concept that we who deserve death are given life at the cost of the blood of Jesus. That is what calls forth the new song of redemption. The old song is one of creation, but the new song is the song of the redeemed. There is a chorus I have sung ever since I was a young Christian. I still sing it to myself when I am facing some strong temptation that powerfully allures me and I feel tempted to give in to it. It is a simple song,

He took me out of the miry clay.
He set my feet on a rock to stay.
He put a song in my soul today,
A song of praise, Hallelujah!

There comes vividly to my memory a scene from my early manhood, 50 years ago in the city of Chicago. It was an Easter Sunday and I was living in a tiny little room in the North Avenue YMCA. I was up before dawn, getting dressed to attend a great sunrise service in Soldier Field. As I was dressing, my eye fell upon an open hymn book on the dresser before me. It was opened to the hymn, "Beneath the Cross of Jesus." I read to myself the words of the second verse:

Upon that cross of Jesus mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One who suffered there for me;
And from my smitten heart with tears two wonders I confess --
The wonder of redeeming love, and my unworthiness!

My heart was melted when I read those words. I knew well my own unworthiness. But as I thought of the marvel of redeeming love, I felt as if the walls of that room faded away, and I, too, was standing with this great throng in heaven singing of the wonder of redemption -- God's love for mankind, manifest in the cross. As John watches, all the universe is caught up in the wonder of that sacrificial love. He hears a great swelling volume of sound:

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousand, and ten thousand times ten thousand[Millions, even billions of angels]. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:

"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!"
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"
The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelation 5:11-14 NIV)

This is clearly the basis for Handel's closing choruses in his oratorio The Messiah. It closes with one of the most beautiful musical numbers ever written, "Worthy is the Lamb." At the end of it everyone in the chorus joins in a repeated declaration, "Amen, Amen, Amen." It is a moving presentation, and the closest thing we have on earth to the scene described here. You will recognize that this is the same scene that is presented by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians. He says, "He who was equal with God thought it not a robbery to lay aside the manifestations of deity and to take upon himself the form of a servant and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," (Philippians 2:6-8.). Because he was obedient unto death: "God has highly exalted him and given him the Name that is above every other name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth [the same divisions John sees], and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father," (Philippians 2:9-11). That is the worship of the entire universe: Everyone -- not only those in heaven and those left yet upon earth, but those under the earth (a reference to those who have already died, including those who die in unbelief and are found in hell) -- heaven and earth and hell together unite in acknowledging the Lordship of Jesus. Some will gladly confess it because they have understood and appropriated the death of Christ for themselves. Others will reluctantly acknowledge that he is indeed Lord. Many who today scoff at the Scriptures, who deride the Bible and defy the moral standards of God, will at last admit they are wrong and their life has been wasted. They have followed a will-o'-the-wisp, an illusion, a fantasy all their life. But at last the illusions are taken away and all creation acknowledges the Lordship of Christ. John sees this in vision. It has not yet occurred on earth -- but it will!

When the seven-sealed scroll is fully opened, heaven and earth will join in this acknowledgment. That is the goal of all history. Every historic event for these many centuries is related to and moves toward that final goal of history. It forces the question each must face. Everyone in this room will be involved in this worship, but the question will be, "Which group will you be with?" Will you stand with those who gladly confess the Lordship of Jesus, or will you be with those who reluctantly acknowledge that he is right and they are wrong? Only you can answer that question!

[Source]  

[Garland-Green]

Four Terrible Horsemen

Read the Scripture: Revelation 6:1-17


The sixth chapter of Revelation brings us to the beginning of the judgments of the wrath of God. It is not an easy passage to preach on, but it is part of the content of blessing promised to those who read and keep the prophecies of this book (1:3). I grew up on the Great Plains of Montana, and during the summer months we often experienced sudden thunderstorms. Often before the storm there would be strange calm, a sense of foreboding in the air. One could almost feel the violent storm that was about to break. This is what we experience frequently in today's world. There is a keen sense of an approaching crisis in the affairs of earth. Many secular writers of our day reflect this. To change the metaphor, it is as if we are floating down the stream of time and we sense that a great cataract is thundering ahead and we are about to plunge over the abyss.

The Bible has long predicted a crisis of that nature. One of the proofs that the Bible is from God is the fact that in the Old Testament the book of Daniel corresponds closely to the book of Revelation. Daniel saw many of the same things that John records here, although Daniel lived 500 years before John wrote. In the ninth chapter of his prophecy Daniel is given a great calendar that would outline history to its final days. There was marked out a period of 70 "weeks," which means weeks of years. Seventy "weeks" times seven years is 490, so there would be 490 years that were to be fulfilled from the beginning of the building of the wall of Jerusalem in the days of Nehemiah, to the end of the age. 483 of those years would end on the day when the Messiah would be presented to Israel as her King. Sir Robert Anderson, head of Scotland Yard in Britain during the first part of this century, has carefully worked this out for us. On the precise day when 483 years had run their course, Jesus rode down the Mount of Olives on a donkey and was presented to the nation as their King.

Just a few days later he was rejected and crucified, for the prophecy of Daniel had said that Messiah would be "cut off and have nothing," which is surely a reference to the crucifixion. After that there is an indeterminate, long-running period of time during which the prophet was told "wars and desolations were determined," (Daniel 9:26 KJV). It is during that indeterminate length of time that the church comes into being, starting on the Day of Pentecost when God began to call out a special people for his name, made up of both Jews and Gentiles. That church began almost 2,000 years ago, and perhaps is almost completed now, but it is still on earth today. The prophet is then told of certain other events that were to occur during the last seven years of that 490-year period. Those events have not yet happened! Many commentators have thus understood that this seven-year period is still unfulfilled and when it begins it will be largely and closely associated with the nation Israel.

Those seven years are referred to by Jesus himself in his great prophetic passage in Matthew 24. Before his crucifixion, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, he explained to the disciples what must come to pass. In that passage he refers several times to "the end of the age," or more simply, "the end." That end is the seven-year period of Daniel's prophecy that will run its course when Israel is once again brought into prominence among the nations. It is that same period of seven years, which Revelation 6 through 19 covers, we are looking at the events to occur in that period. The four Gospels tell the story of the life of Christ, but one-third of the gospels focus upon the last week of our Lord, the seven days before the crucifixion. So also in Revelation, 13 out of the 22 chapters of this book relate to the seven-year period of time which constitutes the end of the history of this age.

If you have read ahead a little in Revelation you will have noticed three series of events that occupy this last week of years. The first series is the seven seals, six of which we will look at today. Included in the seals are seven trumpets that must yet sound, and seven bowls of wrath which are to be poured out upon the earth. Each of these series divides into four things and then three things: Four events that are outward, visible and easy to recognize, and then three revelations of what is going on behind the scenes, as it were, by the activity of angelic agencies, both for good and evil. Now let us look at the opening of the seven-sealed scroll which is held in the hands of the Lamb who was slain. John describes it in Verses 1-2:

I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. (Revelation 6:1-2 RSV)

There is much dispute as to what this rider on the white horse represents. Some identify him as Jesus, because in Chapter 19 Jesus appears on a white horse, wearing a crown (a different kind of crown, however) and bringing to an end all the terrible series of judgments that have come upon the earth. But it is a mistake to identify these two because the context is entirely different. Here we are looking at the beginning of the judgments of God, and in Chapter 19 we see the end of them. The rider of Chapter 6 is summoned by one of the living creatures, but it would be unthinkable for a creature to summon the conquering Christ of Chapter 19. But it is significant that this rider on the white horse here bears some resemblance to the appearance of Jesus on a great white horse in Chapter 19. They both ride a white horse; they both wear crowns; and both are bent on conquest. It suggests that this rider is someone who is like Christ, but is not Christ.

Many of you are already anticipating what I am going to say: This is doubtless the long predicted antichrist, whom Scripture speaks of in various places, who is yet to appear in the last days. The "Man of Sin" (2 Thessalonians 2:3 KJV) the Apostle Paul calls him, also "the Lawless One" (2 Thessalonians 2:8 NIV) who is yet to appear and offer himself as though he were God's Christ. Jesus himself said to the Jews of his day, "I have come in my Father's name and you do not accept me, but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him," (John 5:43 (NIV)). This rider comes like Christ, but in his own name. He is given a bow, but no mention is made of arrows. This appears to be a bloodless conquest he launches. When you ask, "What is this describing?" I think it is clear that it suggests some kind of overpowering of the minds and wills of men, without physical destruction. How is that done? The answer is -- by some form of deceit, by lying that misleads and deceives men and thus overcomes them without the shedding of blood. It is noteworthy that in Matthew 24, the first word Jesus speaks to his disciples is, "Watch out that no one deceives you," (Matthew 24:4 NIV). You will find references to the possibility of deception throughout that chapter.

We are bemused by delusions today. We are hardly aware of how much we are being deceived all the time. Turn on the television and fraudulent ideas, along with a mixture of truth, are immediately poured into your brain. Pick up a magazine or read a newspaper and you will find they make false claims that certain acquisitions will produce great blessing and liberty for you. But trying them will soon tell you that it is a lie. They do not work. We are constantly offered much of promise but which are totally unable to deliver. Drugs deceive! Millions of people, young and old, are being deceived by the flush of euphoria that a drug produces for a time. Cigarettes deceive! Thousands have died because they have felt that smoking a cigarette makes them feel sophisticated and mature. Many young people, especially, have been led into that trap. Perfume ads deceive! They offer outlandish, extravagant promises of rapture and romance that will follow if you merely douse yourself with something from a bottle. The New Age deceives! This week I thumbed through a magazine produced by New Age and found it filled from cover to cover with lies. It claims that men and women have secret powers, hidden abilities within, which if you discover them will enable you to rule people, to manipulate them and run the world to suit yourself. These ideas are constantly being fed into the human mind. We have even learned this week that Oat Bran does not work like its cracked up to be! We have all been fed a line on that! It is no better at lowering cholesterol than anything else. We are obviously living in a very deceitful age. What this rider on the white horse tells us, however, is that the worst is yet to come. We are living amidst great deceit, it is true, but it is not as bad as it is going to be. There is coming an even greater lie. Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in his second Thessalonian letter:

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 NIV)

That makes it crystal clear, does it not? This first conquest by evil in the last days is set in motion when God takes off the reins and lets deceit have its way among men until it reaches a climax of delusion. We will learn many more details of that as the book proceeds. Now the second seal is opened:

When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword. (Revelation 6:3-4 NIV)

This rider is easy to recognize. It is war, of course, but not war between great armies -- at least not at first. The word for slay is really the word "slaughter." It is a reference to civil war or civil anarchy where mobs of people group together to attack and destroy other peoples whom they do not like. We are seeing a demonstration of this today in what is going on in Azerbaijan at this very time. Even the Soviet army is unable to bring peace or to prevent this slaughter. We have had further examples of it in El Salvador, in Nicaragua, and in the gang wars raging in the streets of Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and other places. It is a murderous slaying of others by people unrestrained by any control.

But that will lead to what is mentioned in the last sentence, "to him was given a large sword." In the days when John wrote they obviously did not have megabombs, missiles, tanks, or any of the modern weapons of warfare. Such weapons of destruction had to be put in terms that people would understand in that day, so the major weapon of destruction then was a sword. But this is a "great" sword, a powerful weapon of destruction. It is with good reason that many commentators have seen this as a picture of the awesome power of a nuclear bomb, something that destroys enormous numbers of people. If you read the 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel you will find a vivid description of such warfare, where armies come down out of the north into the Holy Land and are decimated by what appears to be radiation sickness. It is powerfully portrayed for us in those accounts.

[The verses from Ezekiel he is talking about: Ezekiel 38:17-23.

17 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You are the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel. At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them. 18 This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign Lord. 19 In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. 21 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. 22 I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. 23 And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’

Zechariah 14 also mentions the same scene:

11People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security. 12Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. 13It will come about in that day that a great panic from the LORD will fall on them; and they will seize one another's hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another.

It doesn't to me appear like a nuclear bomb, but God directly intervening.]



Then we have the third seal opened, in Verses 5 and 6:

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!" (Revelation 6:5-6 NIV)

Most scholars take this to be a reference to widespread famine on the earth. They say that the scales symbolize food being weighed out carefully. It is in such short supply that it must be rationed. Even then no one can get very much because it takes a day's wages to earn a single quart of wheat or, because it is cheaper, three quarts of barley. This would only be enough food for one person for a day. You would work all day long and all you would be able to earn at best would be enough for your own physical needs. There would be nothing for your family or for anyone else. But the luxuries, the oil and the wine, are left untouched.

But perhaps this is not referring to famine because in the next seal, as we will see, famine is specifically mentioned as part of that judgment. What else causes terrible shortages and creates high prices so that people cannot buy adequate amounts of food? It is inflation; economics out of control; panic in the marketplace! During the days of the Weimar Republic in Germany after World War I, I remember as a boy hearing accounts of people taking ten thousand German marks bills, loading them into wheelbarrows, and taking them to market to buy a single loaf of bread. That is what runaway inflation does. It makes money worthless. That in turn becomes an excuse for the rigid controls over buying and selling which we find in Chapter 13 when, under the reign of antichrist, the whole world is subjected to enormously restrictive controls so that "no one can buy or sell without the mark of the beast," (Revelation 13:17). That brings us to the fourth seal, in Verse 7:

When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse![The word actually is chloros, from which we get the word chlorine, a pale green horse, like chlorine in color.] Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:7-8 NIV)

This rider is named "Death"; and floating along behind, was a figure that is identified as "Hades," or Hell. Death takes the body and Hades takes the soul. As someone has put it, "Death rides the horse, but Hades follows with the hearse." There are four forms of death that are related to this attack. First, the sword, which here is not war but murder; individual assault upon one another. It is people taking the law into their own hands and murdering other people without regard to justice or law. With murder comes famine and widespread starvation. We are all familiar with the terrible pictures of famine areas, largely in Africa, and the swollen, distended bellies of little children with spindly legs as the flesh of their bodies disappears and they die a terrible death from starvation. Jesus spoke of such famines in Matthew 24. There would be on earth, he said, earthquakes, famines and plagues. These plagues are endemic diseases. When civilization begins to crumble, the defenses of mankind against diseases are lost as well. Whole populations are decimated by such plagues. There may be a reference here to biological warfare, the willful spreading of diseases among people so that they are wiped out en masse. It covers also the appearance of previously unknown diseases. We have a foreshadowing of these in the terrible plague of AIDS in our own day.

Fourth, the wild beasts of the earth multiply, and humans are subject to attack by these predators. The account says that a "fourth of the earth" is given over to the four attacks. It is difficult to know whether that is a geographic or demographic division of earth. If it is geographic, then a fourth of the globe is decimated by these terrible plagues. If it is demographic, it means a fourth of the population is taken. There are approximately four billion people on earth today and that would mean that one billion people, equivalent to the entire population of China, would be decimated by diseases. It is a picture of a desolated earth caused by man's hatred and barbarity.

These four seal-judgments are all references to forces that are already at work among us, but they will be carried to an unprecedented extreme in that day. Thus these four seals confirm God's announced method of making men face up to truth. How does he make us stop hiding our heads and refusing to face reality? By allowing evil to have its full head! Romans 1 declares that he "delivers men over" (Romans 1:24, 1:26, 1:28.) to their own passions, their own evil, and allows it unrestricted manifestation. God teaches us to face up to unpleasant truth by giving us what we demand. If men want to believe a lie, then God will send the lie, the lie of the antichrist, the powerful delusion that Paul describes. If men seek to kill and destroy and refuse to see the evil of that, then God gives them widespread anarchy, mob rule, and, ultimately, nuclear destruction. If men want more and more luxury and higher standards of living, they are given what goes along with it -- high inflation, which finally makes money worthless. If men demand power and control, what they are given is intrigue, murder, disease, and desolation in the earth. These cannot be stopped, because they are inescapable consequences of the evil of mankind. We have three more seals to look at in the series, although only two of them appear in this chapter. In these two, no longer are natural forces allowed to have their head, but here is something quite different. We are shown supernatural activities; God working in the midst of the judgments of the four horsemen, both for good and evil. So we read of the opening of the fifth seal,

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed. (Revelation 6:9-11 NIV)

This is a difficult paragraph to understand because it is dealing with a phenomenon hard for us to grasp, i.e., how people can die over the course of a period of time and yet all arrive in heaven together. It marks the difference between time and eternity. The altar mentioned here has not appeared in this book before this. But it indicates, as will be confirmed by later references in this book, that we are viewing the great temple in heaven, the temple which Moses saw when he was on Mt. Sinai. He was shown a pattern which he was to copy in the tabernacle of old. He was ordered to copy it exactly as it was shown him. Thus the tabernacle contained a great brazen altar, and a laver in the outer court, a Holy Place with certain furniture, and a Holy of Holies, all reflecting the heavenly temple that Moses had seen.

We learn from other Scriptures that these symbolize the ultimate dwelling place of God which is man himself! Man is the dwelling place of God. When we come to the end of Revelation we will see that fulfilled. It is man who becomes the temple of God. These symbols are given to us as a tremendously significant explanation of the psychological makeup of our humanity -- body, soul and spirit -- just as the tabernacle consisted of an Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. (I do not have time to dwell on that.)

This group of martyrs is clearly identified with the great multitude in Chapter 7, which we will look at next week. John sees a great crowd which no man could number, from every tribe, nation, and language of earth, standing before the throne, all having been killed for their testimony. This group belongs to that multitude as well, for they are given a white robe and told to wait until their brethren would also be killed. This indicates that these martyrs and those killed later who make up the great multitude, all enter heaven at the same time. It is God's way of expressing the transference from time into the conditions of eternity, where past and future are eclipsed and only the present exists.

If you have had loved ones who have died in the past -- perhaps your father, mother, grandfather, or some godly friend that you know belongs to the Lord -- you tend to think of them now as waiting in heaven for you. You may think of them as sitting around playing harps, dressed in heavenly bathrobes, waiting for their bodies to be resurrected, and for you to join them in heaven. But all that is an accommodation of eternity to time conditions. We are locked into the idea that heaven is an eternal continuation of the conditions of earth; that future and past are as much to be experienced in heaven as they are on earth. But that is not so. Eternity is always now! In eternity events occur when people are ready for them, not in a certain prescribed sequence. I do not have time to enlarge on that but if you want more on this I would refer you to my book Authentic Christianity, where I have a chapter on "http://www.raystedman.org/authenxnty/authen09.html>Time and Eternity" that will explain this at greater length.

But notice the prayer these martyrs pray. It is a call for vengeance. That is quite different from the prayer Christians are expected to pray for their enemies, is it not? Jesus told us that we are to pray for those that despitefully use us and persecute us, and our prayer is to reflect the prayer that he prayed on the cross, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," (Luke 23:34 KJV). When Stephen, the first martyr, saw the Lord as he was being stoned, he said to him, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," Acts 7:60). He is asking that his murderers be forgiven for they do not know what they are doing. That is to be the prayer of believers today for those who persecute them or take unfair advantage of them.

Last week I heard on the radio a very interesting interview with Rachel Saint, the sister of Nate Saint, one of the five men martyred in Ecuador in 1956 as they attempted to communicate with the Auca Indians. Later Rachel Saint and her companions went back to that tribe and lived among these killers. They served them, and loved them, and taught the gospel to them until they won to Christ the very man who had killed Rachel's brother. The interviewer asked her, "Why did you go back into this tribe?" She said, "Because in the Indian culture they lived for vengeance, but as a Christian, I knew that forgiveness is our message for those who injure us." Most of that tribe became Christians through the faithful ministry of these women. Someone told me today, however, that young people are leaving the tribe, and are caught up with the lies of the world around, and many of them are thus losing their Christian heritage.

But these martyrs under the fifth seal are not living in days when God patiently endures the injustices of men. These are days of judgment; days when wrong doers are being called to account, the time of vengeance. The prayers, then, of God's people reflect the mind of God at that time. Led of the Spirit, they pray for what God intends to do during the last days. Now we come to the sixth seal.

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. (Revelation 6:12-14 NIV)

It is a vivid description of chaos in nature! The whole natural world goes on a rampage. Again, in Matthew 24 Jesus describes this same event, in Verses 29-30:

"Immediately after the distress of those days[He is talking about the great tribulation],
'the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'
"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory." (Matthew 24:29-30 NIV)

These six seals have carried us almost to the very end of the whole seven-year period. We have been swiftly moving through this dramatic period. After the great tribulation, nature will be upset by some cosmic phenomenon. Perhaps it is the approach of an undetected heavenly body that will upset the gravity of the earth. Volcanoes will begin to spout lava; great earthquakes, much larger than the one we just experienced, will rumble through the earth; the stars will appear to be falling from the sky; the darkening of the sun and the moon will result from the ashes and dust caused by these phenomena. Listen also to Luke, in Chapter 21 of his Gospel, as he describes this same event:

"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." (Luke 21:25-27 NIV)

It will be a time of terror and anguish throughout the earth. What will be the effect of this on the people? John now sees the final scene under the sixth seal.

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:15-17 NIV)

Who can stand? That is the question left hanging in the air. Of course, no one can stand. It is the end of civilization as we know it. All people who have not yet believed in Christ, who have refused his offer of grace, are the subjects of this terrible catastrophe and cry out in desperate fear. It is clearly the scene described in Isaiah 2, when "men shall go into the clefts of the rocks and cry for them to fall upon them," (Isaiah 2:21 KJV). Also, in Isaiah 26:10, the prophet says,

Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the Lord. (Isaiah 26:10 NIV)

In that day, those who refuse to believe have reached a stage where they cannot believe. They do not repent and pray to the Lord for salvation. Rather, they feel a terrible fear and pray to the rocks to destroy them. They will manifest openly and publicly what they feel privately and secretly today. It is a strange phenomenon, but it is easily confirmed, that every unbeliever is convinced in his own heart that death is somehow an escape into oblivion! Somehow they think they can escape the terrible consequences of their evil by dying. That is why people commit suicide. They believe they are escaping their problems, that there will be no consequences beyond death. But the Word of God assures us this is not true: "It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment," (Hebrews 9:27 KJV). Why are we told these terrible truths? If we belong to the Lord now and are members of his body, the true church, we will not be a part of this scene. This is the great promise we have heard several times in Revelation up to this point. This whole terrible scene is specifically sent to the seven churches of Asia to read and understand. Why? It is not only to make us earnest in our witness; it is also intended to show us where the forces and movements which surround us at the moment are going to end up. We are told this so we can recognize evil while it still looks good, and thus be able to judge what to give ourselves to and what to reject. One verse in John's Gospel, Chapter 3, Verse 36, tells us the whole story:

"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36 NIV)

Isaiah puts his finger on the reason for these judgments. It is, he says, that "the pride of men shall be humbled," (Isaiah 2:17 NIV). The pride of man -- this terrible lust within us to be in charge, to be in control of our lives and of other people's lives, to run everything, to be the center of our own little universe and to judge everything as to whether it pleases us or displeases us; that is the pride of man. Grace can humble it. The sight of God's Son dying in our place ought to make us see the evil of our hearts. But, if grace does not humble us, ultimately judgment must. Here we must leave this.

I do not like preaching on these passages. I much prefer the wonderful views of the throne of God in heaven, with the angels singing around the throne the song of the redeemed. But if we are faithful to the Scriptures we must recognize that there is coming a day when the wrath of God must be poured out upon the unrighteousness of men and it is to that day we have come. Let us be sure that there is in none of us an evil heart of unbelief.

Source  

[Garland-Green]

To Jew And Gentile

Read the Scripture: Revelation 7:1-17


Everyone knows that the tiny nation of Israel, with a population of less than four million people, nevertheless receives enormous attention in the world's media, far beyond what its size would warrant. The only explanation for that extraordinary fact is that it indicates the central place that Israel has in the program of God. God will not let the world forget Israel! In the Old Testament, of course, Israel is always center stage. Everything centers around this nation. God has recorded the history of the world only as it relates to Israel, the nation that came from the loins of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even when you come to the Gospels in the New Testament, Israel is still the focus of attention. Jesus insisted that "salvation is of the Jews," (John 4:22 KJV). He corrected people when they misunderstood that principle. He sent his twelve disciples out and told them, "Go not to the Gentiles, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," (Matthew 10:6, 15:24 KJV). Even in the epistles of the New Testament, primarily written to the church, nevertheless the Apostle Paul in his great masterpiece, the letter to the Romans, devotes three chapters to Israel. He points out in Chapter 9 how God has dealt with them in the past, in Chapter 10 he states the present condition of Israel, existing in unbelief among the nations of the world, and in Chapter 11 he clearly foretells the time when God will restore Israel again to prominence among the nations of earth. God has a great future yet for the Israelis.

I find it very strange that many commentators on the book of Revelation and other passages of Scripture virtually ignore this remarkable future that God has predicted for his ancient people. Although God has saved these commentators by sheer grace, yet they refuse to believe that he will yet show equal grace to Israel. But God declares plainly that is what he intends to do. How he will do it is made known in Revelation 7. That is where we have come today.

The next prophetic event that the world will experience is the rapture of the church (see previous links provided in this study), the departure of dead and living saints, all born-again people, to be with the Lord. It is described in detail by the Apostle Paul in First Thessalonians 4. It is a stunning event wherein God suddenly removes from the earth a great host of people. You can imagine what an effect that will have on those left. That is how the long-predicted "last days" starts. After that, God begins a program of judgment in which Israel is at the center.

During our study of Revelation 6 last week, we were all glued to our chairs as we watched the unrolling of the seven-sealed scroll held in the hands of "the Lamb who had been slain," (Revelation 5:6, 6:1-17). We saw the four terrible horsemen ride out through the earth, leaving devastation and terror in their wake. Then we were shown the slaughter of thousands of martyrs who lost their lives in a great bloodbath during this terrible time of judgment to come. Finally, we read the description of the great upheaval in nature that will take place in the last days, when every mountain and rock is moved and shaken, and the people of the earth cry out, "Fall on us and hide us from the wrath of Him who sits upon the throne," (Revelation 6:16a NIV)

To many who read that, it seems like an unwelcome pronouncement of doom and gloom, but we must remember that, all through the Bible, it is part of God's announced program for the end times. It leads beyond the darkness and despair to a time of great peace, victory, and blessing upon the earth. Christians are not pessimists -- they are optimists -- but they recognize the reality of a time of judgment to come. We have now seen six of the seven seals opened, but before the seventh seal is opened God, as it were, declares an intermission. We are ready for it after the judgments of Chapter 6, are we not? It is hard to listen to those terrible scenes. But in a beautiful interlude here in Chapter 7, which is in the nature of a flashback, God shows us something else that takes place during this period of time. Sometimes a movie will flashback to the central character's childhood and depict an event that has significance for the film story. That is the kind of thing we have in Chapter 7. We are taken back to the beginning of the judgments of this last seven-year period to see another aspect of God's working during this time. What we will see is the selection of a special group of Jews whom I would call "Christ's Commandos," to operate in an uncommon way during those days. This is introduced to us in Verses 1-3: John says,

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east[literally, "the sun rising"], having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." (Revelation 7:1-3 NIV)

We are told in the opening chapter of Revelation that much of it will be made known to us by symbols. The book is an unusual blending of literal and symbolic things and events. There are certain symbols here in the opening of this chapter. The "four corners of the earth," for instance, stand for the four cardinal directions. Skeptics laugh at the phrase "four corners" and say the early Christians believed the earth was square and literally had four corners. Yet today people frequently use the expression "the four corners of the earth" as a figure of speech to indicate far-off regions. But here it means the four directions, north, south, east and west.

Here four angels are seen withholding something that is about to come upon the whole earth. What is it that they are restraining? They are told to hold back the four winds that are about to blow upon the earth. Winds are a symbol of devastating and destroying power. The TV pictures of the terrible devastation left behind by Hurricane Hugo when it blew across the southern states of the East Coast recently leave us in no doubt how apt it is to use wind as a symbol of judgment. The same destructive power is seen in one of these whirling dervishes, called tornadoes. Here, then, is a picture of terrible judgment that is about to fall on the earth, a devastating power or force that is to be released soon.

The land, the sea, and the trees are also used as symbols here. The land or the earth, is used frequently as a symbol for Israel throughout the Old Testament. Israel is viewed as a nation with stability because it had God as its head. It had structure, order, and foundation, and so it was depicted as "land." But the sea is used many places in Scripture to describe the Gentile nations (pagan nations, by and large), which had no inner stability because there was no recognition of the authority of God. They worshipped idols and held to pagan concepts which rendered them unstable and uncertain in their conduct of human affairs. Individuals are described in several places in Scripture as "trees." The very first Psalm, speaking of the righteous, says, "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters, that brings forth its fruit in its season," (Psalm 1:3a KJV). Trees are symbols of influential men and women, people of authority, who stand out from the crowd like tall trees in a forest.

These four angels are identifiable as the first four of the seven angels that will blow their trumpets in succeeding chapters. If one carefully compares what happens under the judgments of the seven angels you will see that the first four affect the land, the sea and the trees. At this point they are told to hold back until a very important group of individuals are sealed by God. The great angel that seals them is linked here with the rising of the sun. That is an allusion to the prophecy of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. The prophet predicts that "the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings," (Malachi 4:2). That is a poetic description of the coming of Christ in great glory and power. So, it is in relationship to that coming that this special group are marked with the seal of God's ownership. We do not have to guess at what the seal of God is, because believers today are also sealed by God. Paul tells us in the letter to the Ephesians, "You were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise," (Ephesians 4:30). The presence of the Spirit of God in every individual Christian is the unmistakable mark of God's ownership. Paul declares in Chapter 8 of Romans, "His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God," (Romans 8:16 KJV). The Holy Spirit himself, then, is the seal of God.

This indicates that this group which is to be sealed are Spirit-filled individuals. The seal is placed upon their forehead which indicates the Spirit is especially related to their minds. It means that in some evident sense they are governed by "the mind of Christ." In Chapter 2 of Philippians the Apostle Paul writes, "Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus," (Philippians 2:5 KJV). He describes it as the mind of one who, though possessing inherent glory and dignity, is willing to lay it aside and become a servant. That is the mind of Christ. Notice that these people are specifically called the "servants of our God." They serve with that same wonderful willingness to give up themselves for the sake and benefit of others. We are told exactly who these are in Verses 4-8:

Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.

From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
from the tribe of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe of Levi 12,000,
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,
from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000. (Revelation 7:4-8 NIV)

I have deliberately read the names of each of the tribes because I want to emphasize what the text emphasizes: It is Israel and only Israel that is in view! I recently listened to a commentator on Revelation, teaching on the radio here in the Bay Area, who labored with diligent effort to prove that these people were the church, but when God says Israel he means Israel; he does not mean the church. He is talking about Jews. Teachers who twist Scripture like that man did can convince others that black is white, sugar is sour, and Adolph Hitler was one of the great saints of all time! There is much such twisting of Scripture going on, but if one stays with the simplicity of the Scripture itself, all is clear. These are, then, the well-known 144,000 Jews of the last days.

In their earlier days, the group known as Jehovah's Witnesses claimed they constituted this select band. They misappropriated this Scripture and applied it to themselves, though they are not Jews and never were. They ran into difficulty, however, when the group grew beyond 144,000. They did not know what to do with the leftovers, so they started another category of 144,000. They taught there was an earthly band of 144,000 and a heavenly band, and if you believed their doctrines in the early decades of this century you could belong to the heavenly band. But now, again, they have a problem because they number more than 288,000 today, so they have created still a third band called "the servant band." If you join the Jehovah's Witnesses today you must come in at the servant level. That is just one example of the many ways people can twist Scripture to make it fit a program of their own devising. But God clearly identifies these people for us here.

You may have noticed that two of the tribes of Israel, that of Ephraim and of Dan, are not mentioned here. Though Ephraim is not named, his brother-tribe, Manasseh is included. Ephraim and Manasseh were the two sons of Joseph, the next to the youngest of Jacob's sons. Because of Joseph's role in the history of Israel, and his preservation of the nation in Egypt during the days of famine, his two sons were adopted by Jacob to be given an inheritance with the rest of Joseph's brothers. That really makes thirteen tribes of Israel. When they came to divide up the land Levi was left out because he was called to be the priestly tribe. Ephraim actually does appear here under the name "Joseph." So Manasseh and Joseph are really Manasseh and Ephraim.

But what about Dan? The tribe of Dan is not included here, I believe, because they are the tribe that introduced apostasy into Israel. The closing chapters of Judges give an account of the sordid way the tribe of Dan led Israel into terrible apostasy, involving homosexuality and idol worship in its grossest forms. This was in line with Jacob's prediction concerning Dan. In the 49th chapter of Genesis Jacob predicts the future of his twelve sons and he says, "Dan will be a serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse's heel so that its rider tumbles backward," (Genesis 49:17 NIV). It is a poetic portrayal of the treachery of Dan in introducing apostasy. In the millennium, however, Ezekiel tells us that Dan has a portion in the distribution of the land in that day.

There is a statement of Jesus in the 24th chapter of Matthew, which relates to these 144,000 Jews, and is often misunderstood and misapplied, in my judgment. In unfolding the events of the future, Jesus had said, "This gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come," (Matthew 24:14 NIV). The gospel is always the same in every age. It is the story of God sending a Savior to die for the sins of men. Whether it is told by means of symbol, such as the sacrifice of animals, or by the ritual of the tabernacle, or whether it is the historic announcement of the Lord himself and the disciples in the early days of the church, the gospel is always the same. It is the death of a Savior on behalf of sinners. That is the good news. There is no other.

But when one adds the phrase "of the kingdom," then it is a reference to that gospel applied in a specific relationship. John the Baptist and Jesus both preached "the gospel of the kingdom" to Israel. They announced that the messianic kingdom, long predicted by the prophets, was at hand because the King was in their midst. Jesus announces that he is a King, not the kind the Jews expected -- a conqueror who would deliver them from the Romans -- but that his kingdom would deal with sin and the terrible evil of man. It must begin on that note. But he was their long-expected King. He deliberately fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah, "Behold, your king comes unto you, meek and lowly and riding upon an a** and upon a colt, the foal of an a**," (Zechariah 9:9 KJV). That was fulfilled on the day we call "the triumphal entry," when Jesus rode a donkey down the side of the Mount of Olives and was greeted by the people as the promised King of the Jews.

This group of 144,000 select men from Israel, will fulfill the word of Jesus that this "gospel of the kingdom" will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the final judgments of God will come. This group proclaims the gospel during that seven-year period that we call "the last days" of this age. It is a band of Spirit-filled Jews, converted after the church has been taken out of the world. Like 144,000 Apostle Paul's, they preach the gospel throughout the earth during the judgments of the end times. There is a most extraordinary passage in the 10th chapter of Matthew which confirms this concept. It describes the Lord sending out his disciples to preach the gospel to Israel in the days of his flesh.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions, "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:5-8 NIV)

Then Jesus goes on to give further instructions in that ministry of the twelve, and warns them that they will not be welcome in every place. But when we come to Verse 21 he apparently skips over the centuries to these last days when the gospel will be preached to Israel again:

"Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." (Matthew 10:21-23 NIV)

There is no record of Jesus coming to the twelve when he sent them out to minister to Israel. Rather they came back to him and reported on what they had been doing. Our Lord seems to leap over the whole of the present age to the day when a group of Jews (not twelve but twelve squared, times the cube of ten -- 144,000), will be sent out into all the world. He says to them, "You will not even have finished preaching through all of Israel until the Son of Man comes." It seems to be clearly his prediction of this ministry of the 144,000. We will meet them again in Revelation 14, ministering under the direction of the Lamb himself, but on earth, and beginning with Israel. What is the result of their preaching? We are told in Revelation 7:9-14:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

"Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

"Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!"

Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes -- who are they, and where did they come from?"

I answered, "Sir, you know,"[By now John has learned that these elders are party to the mind of God; they know what God is planning.] And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Revelation 7:9-14 NIV)

Because John is in heaven he sees these things from an eternal point of view, and, as we have seen before, there is no sequence or time limitations, no past or future in heaven. From our standpoint of time, John sees things that are happening at the close of the seven-year week. He sees ahead, as it were, to the end of the seven years, and sees this great multitude that have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and they have palm branches in their hands.

When did we last find a crowd of people with palm branches in their hands, welcoming Jesus as a King? It was, of course, when he rode down the mountainside into Jerusalem. The prophet is linking that event with this. Then, Israel had the opportunity to receive their King, but the leaders of the nation rejected him. At this event, in the end times, they are welcoming and worshipping their King, still with palm branches in their hands. So this great multitude of Jews and Gentiles is particularly associated with the restoration of Israel. These are all martyrs. They have died for the sake of Christ during the tribulation, and they now appear before the throne of God as victors over death and hell, and join the worship of angels around the throne. Is it not wonderful to think that, in earth's darkest hour, yet to come, the greatest harvest the world has ever seen will take place? Millions of those who have never heard the gospel today will be saved. I do not think there is any possibility that those today who hear and reject the gospel will be any part of this number. It is a harvest of those who have never heard.

During these terrible days of judgment, when the witches of war ride their nuclear brooms across the darkening skies of the world's last night, thousands who have never heard before will hear the gospel of the coming kingdom of God announced, and will turn to Christ. It will cost them their lives. As we read on in Revelation we will see that the anti-Christian powers of that day, powerful and tyrannical, will massacre anyone who does not bear "the mark of the beast." These believers must give up their lives because of their testimony for God. We will meet them again when we come to Chapter 20. There we are told that those "who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God" (Revelation 20:1 NIV) will be raised from the dead to serve the Lord throughout the thousand-year reign of Christ. It is the same multitude as here. John sees them in heaven at this point, but they are given a spiritual ministry on earth during the thousand-year reign of Christ. That is suggested in the closing description of their ministry, beginning with Verse 15:

Therefore,
"they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:15-17 NIV)

Notice the throne and the temple. In fact, there are two thrones in this passage. There is, first, the "throne of God," which is the throne of the Father, reigning over all the universe, as we have seen throughout this book thus far. But the second mention of the throne, "He who sits on the throne," is a reference to the throne of Jesus on earth. Remember that in 3:21, in the letter to the Laodicean church, Jesus said, "He who overcomes I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne." This is "the throne of his father, David," which was promised in the annunciation to Mary, recorded in Luke 1:32.

The fact that a temple is mentioned here, is, I believe, a reference to the millennial temple which is yet to be built in Jerusalem; the one which Ezekiel describes in the closing chapters of his great prophecy. It will be the place where the nations come to worship in the days when Christ rules over the earth. There is a beautiful description of it in the prophecy of Micah 4:1-6: There the prophet describes the government of God as centered in Jerusalem; justice will flow out from there to all the earth; the nations will bring their tribute; and men shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and will make war no more. Peace will come at last over all the earth.

Here we are told that "they serve the Lord day and night." There is no day or night in heaven. This is clearly an earthly scene. He who sits on the throne (the throne of David), will spread his "tabernacle" (literally), over them and never again will they hunger or thirst, etc. It is a beautiful description of the blessings of that millennial day. Many other passages in the prophets also describe it.

This is the fulfillment of the dream of the prophets of the past. Israel shall blossom as the rose and shall fill the earth with blessing. The nation will be like a beautiful, fruitful, vine that runs its branches throughout the earth and blesses the nations, just as Abraham had been promised, "All nations shall be blessed because of you," (Genesis 22:18.). Associated with them will be thousands of Gentiles who likewise serve the Lord day and night in relationship to the temple, ministering throughout the whole earth. You can read of that in the prophecy of Isaiah, Chapter 66, Verses 20-21.

All alike, Jews and Gentiles, are under the care of the Great Shepherd of the sheep. Christians are grateful for the shepherd care of Jesus to us now. He is the Great Shepherd of the sheep, but he has more than one flock. On one occasion he said to his disciples, "Other sheep have I that are not of this fold. Them also must I bring that there will be one flock and one Shepherd," (John 10:16 KJV). That is what we see here. He is bringing another group, saved by his blood -- "they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" -- but with an earthly ministry, yet he leads them also to refreshment and blessing, with every tear of sorrow wiped away.

There is a great hymn we often sing, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," that reflects the concern of the church for her sister people Israel. Paul's word of promise about Israel will be fulfilled, "All Israel shall be saved" (Romans 11:26 NIV), i.e., all the generation that are on earth when Jesus returns shall be redeemed. Zechariah gives us a vivid picture of it. The church today ought to know this truth and understand the future God has for his people Israel. We should often sing,

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Source  

[Garland-Green]

Angels of Doom

Read the Scripture: Revelation 8:1-13



In our studies in the book of Revelation we have been following the unrolling of the seven-sealed scroll which the Lamb of God won the right to open by his death upon the cross. The title of that scroll is "The Mystery of God," and when we come to Chapter 10 we will read that that mystery -- exactly how God is going to bring about universal peace and joy to a sinful, angry, and murderous world -- is completed. God is doing that very thing with individuals even today. Many of you here have experienced the peace and joy which God gave you in the midst of the struggles and trials of your life. He does that by grace, by the offer of total forgiveness of sin. But to a world that rejects grace, God can only bring peace through judgment. That is what we are seeing in this book. Six of the seven seals have already been opened when we come to Chapter 8, and we have watched the waves of successive judgments roll across the earth. We learn from the prophet Daniel that these cover a seven-year period in the last days of this age. Under the seals, it is covered from one point of view, i.e., what happens when man is allowed to have his own way. All God does is to take away the restraints and let human evil find wider expression. It is limited slightly (to a fourth of the earth), but it finds far greater expression then it does today. That brings us then to the seventh seal which is now opened to us, in Chapter 8:

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. (Revelation 8:1-2 NIV)

It must indeed have been an embittered and chauvinistic commentator who first suggested that this half an hour silence proves there will be no women in heaven! That, of course, is not the reason for it. This word about silence reminds us of the prophet Habakkuk's cry, "The Lord is in his Holy Temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!" (Habakkuk 2:20 KJV). This silence comes as a dramatic contrast to the shouting of praise and the playing of harps that has been going on in heaven up to this point. Millions of angels, hosts of redeemed humans, and other heavenly creatures have been crying out before the throne of God, and singing praises to him. But now suddenly everything ceases. When the seventh seal is opened there is total silence. It is a most dramatic pause. It reminds one of that moment of silence just before the last great "Hallelujah!" in the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel's Messiah. This is the silence of mystery, a silence of intense anticipation of what is about to happen. Our good friend, Earl Palmer, in his commentary on Revelation says, "It communicates in a dramatic way the full and awesome authority of God. Everything must wait for his kingly move."

That move begins, as this account tells us, with seven angels being given seven trumpets to sound. It is all part of the opening of the seventh seal. These are impressive angels indeed. We are told they are the angels "who stand before God." That calls to mind the story in Luke 1:19 of an angel sent to Joseph to tell him that Mary will be the mother of a child. The angel identifies himself as "Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God," (Luke 1:19 NIV). These seven angels are probably archangels, and they are given an extremely important task in the sounding of these trumpets. They doubtless include Michael the archangel, who appears also in the book of Daniel. In fact, the apocryphal book of Enoch, an ancient book which is not part of our Bible, gives the names of all seven angels. They are Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Sarakiel, Gabriel, and Phanuel. Notice, their names all end in "el," which is short for the name of God. These are "angels of God," powerful angels, who are given these trumpets to sound. Before they blow the trumpets another dramatic scene is recorded.

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. (Revelation 8:3-5 NIV)

Many of the expositors of Revelation identify this angel as Jesus himself. The reason is that in the Old Testament, while Israel is marching through the wilderness, they are led by a great angel called "the Angel of Yahweh," or, "the Angel of Jehovah." Most Bible scholars feel that it was an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ, i.e., the Son of God himself, leading his people through the wilderness. Since Israel is in the forefront again in this book of Revelation, then it would make sense that the Angel of the Lord appears again in connection with that nation.

The New Testament also teaches us that Jesus is a great High Priest for his people. The book of Hebrews and a reference of Paul in Romans 8:34, tell us that Jesus is now a High Priest who "makes intercession for the saints," (Hebrews 3:1, et al, Romans 8:34 KJV). This is clearly what this angel-priest is doing here. He takes fire from the brazen altar, adds to it incense, along with the prayers of the saints, and offers them on the golden altar of incense before God. It is a wonderful portrayal that tells us much about the function of prayer.

Do you ever feel that your prayers are not even heard, let alone answered? According to this, the prayers of saints, especially intercessory prayers (those we pray for others), are like fragrance in the nostrils of God. They delight him. He smells in them a remembrance of the character of Jesus, the One who gave himself for others. As these prayers are mingled with the incense provided by the great angel himself, (who may indeed be Christ), they delight God. But, more than that, they move God to action. If burning incense is symbolic of the prayers of saints who are imploring God to act -- then returning that fire to earth is a symbol of answered prayer. In other words, we have now come to the time when God will answer the prayers of his people. What is the result? We read, "there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake." You may remember that in 4:5 these were the first sounds that John heard coming from the throne of God in the opening scene in heaven. He heard "flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder," (Revelation 4:5b NIV). Here an earthquake is added to that as well. These sights and sounds mark the close of man's age, and the opening of God's kingdom upon earth.

In Chapter 11, at the last of the blowing of trumpets, we learn that when the seventh angel blows his trumpet the same sounds are heard and an angel proclaims that, "the kingdoms of men have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ," (Revelation 11:15b). The scroll is then fully unrolled. These sounds come at the end of each of the series of seven: The seals, the trumpets, and the bowls of the wrath of God. Thus we learn here at the opening of this seventh seal, when the great Angel casts the fire of God back upon the earth, that the day has come when God answers fully the prayers of his people.

There is one prayer that the people of God in all ages have been praying that has never yet been answered. It is clear from the Scriptures that this prayer was prayed by the saints of God from the dawn of the race. Adam probably prayed it when he left the Garden of Eden. Noah undoubtedly prayed it when he came out of the ark into a new world after the flood. Abraham surely prayed it as he looked for a City yet to come. King David prayed it, and, when we come to the New Testament, all the apostles, including Paul, prayed this prayer. It is the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," (Matthew 6:10, Luke 11:2 KJV). That prayer has never yet been answered. We have not seen God's kingdom visibly on earth. Invisibly it is present in the church and is seen in the rule of God over the affairs of men, but visibly the prayer has never been answered. But when we come to the end of these three series of judgments we will find that the prayers of men are at last to be fulfilled.

Let us come back to the seventh trumpet which probably begins what Jesus called in his Olivet Discourse, "the great tribulation." In Matthew 24 he says, "For then there shall be great distress [tribulation], unequaled from the beginning of the world until now -- and never to be equaled again," (Matthew 24:21 NIV). It is the very acme of judgment.

At Revelation 8:6 we come to one of the most difficult sections of the book to interpret. There is much debate as to whether these judgments are literal, reflecting some physical judgment upon the earth, or symbolic, a picture of something else much worse. My own view is that they are both! This is how God frequently works. He pictures something invisible by means of a literal event. For instance, the sun is, of course, literal. It is a great shining star that warms our earth and keeps the whole solar system working. But it is at the same time symbolic, and is so used throughout Scripture. We refer to it in everyday life as a symbol of light, knowledge and truth. Fire, too, is literal. You can burn yourself badly with fire -- but it is also symbolic of torment, torture and judgment.

The prophecy of Joel in the Old Testament opens with a vivid description of a plague of locusts that came upon the earth and ate up every green thing. Joel describes them in dramatic and accurate terms but his description soon becomes a description of the invasion of a great army from Babylon that will soon come into the land. Israel, throughout its history, used literal trumpets to indicate public warning of imminent action. So, through this series of seven trumpets we are hearing God's public announcement of severe judgment that is about to take place. These judgments are not something new in history. God has often acted in judgment upon men. Even today he is speaking to us of terrible moral failures by using actual literal events.

Take, for instance, the drug scourge which is such an enormous problem in our day, especially among our youth. Drugs destroy the mind, burn out the brain, and turn people into worse than beasts and animals. What is this scourge saying? Not only is it literal, but it is symbolizing the terrible danger of self-indulgence -- the philosophy of self-fulfillment that is widely advocated in the media today. Self-indulgence, like cocaine or crack, lures us on by giving a sense of fulfillment and immediate pleasure. But the user is drawn on into a continuing orgy of self-indulgence until he finally finds himself living in the suffocating atmosphere of total self-centeredness. The drug scourge is the visual aid that God has given our generation to make us see what is happening to us at the root of our being. How blind we are to it! Jesus once rebuked the Pharisees of his day because they could interpret the signs of bad weather ahead, but they did not know how to understand the times.

The AIDS epidemic is a very literal, frightening plague that has come upon us. It is consuming life after life in many countries today. I talked the other day with a doctor friend who has been recently in Africa. He told me that 50% of the women and 30% of the men in Uganda have AIDS. That country is facing almost total annihilation because of this fearful plague. We know how widespread it is here. It is literal, but what does it also symbolize? Just as AIDS robs people of their immunity against other infections, so, the Bible says, indulgence in sexual promiscuity robs us of any defense against the widespread theological and moral errors of our day. That is why people go for strange cults and strange teachings on every side today. They are easy prey because their moral defenses have been torn down by sexual promiscuity. They have no moral immunity left. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians he lists certain wrongful sexual activities, and says, "Because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient," (Ephesians 5:16 NIV).

The terrible scourge of abortion today, this awful murdering of unborn children, is obviously literal. The whole country is being torn apart over this issue at this present hour. But what is it saying, what is it picturing to us? I think it pictures the moral sacrifice of our children, the loss of a whole generation of young people who are not being taught the truth about God. Watch them on the streets and in the ghettos of our great cities. Look into their listless, dull eyes. We are losing them. Like the ancient people of Israel, we are throwing our children into the vast burning yaw of the god Molech, deliberately sacrificing them to our self-centeredness. Abortion makes it horribly visible to those who wish to see. Now let us look at these trumpets and see what they portend.

The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. (Revelation 8:7 NIV)

This is very similar to the seventh plague that fell on Egypt during Moses' confrontation of Pharaoh, when hail and lightning came upon the whole land. Here, it is mingled with blood. This is not a new phenomenon. Scientists have recorded other times when red rain fell from the sky. They never could explain it fully, but it actually left great puddles of water that were as red as blood. Here is the same plague hitting the earth. It brings terrible destruction of the natural world. Notice that the plagues of the first four trumpets all fall on creation. This is, in a sense, God's judgment upon a race that destroys its environment. He is saying, in effect, "You want a destroyed world -- then you shall have it." This is fully in line with his methods of judgment.

But the destruction is not only literal, it is also symbolic. It is teaching something invisible to the eyes of men at that time. As we have already noted, the earth is used in Scripture as a picture of Israel, the intended model nation under God. Here is depicted a judgment upon Israel, both on its leaders (the trees), and upon its people (the grass). The prophet Jeremiah and other prophets of the Old Testament call attention to a time when God will judge his people Israel. Let me read such a prediction from the prophecy of Zephaniah. God says:

"At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, 'The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.' Their wealth will be plundered, their houses demolished. They will build houses but not live in them; they will plant vineyards but not drink the wine." (Zephaniah 1:12-13 NIV)

Jeremiah calls this, "the time of Jacob's trouble," (Jeremiah 30:7 KJV). That is the effect of the first trumpet. The second one follows:

The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. (Revelation 8:8-9 NIV)

The first trumpet judgment attacked the earth but this attacks the sea. A great blazing mountain is seen falling into the sea. Perhaps it is a volcanic eruption. It may be Mount Etna on the island of Sicily which vulcanologists say is ready to blow its top, like Mt. St. Helens. Many scholars feel that the sea on which this judgment falls is the Mediterranean. Or perhaps it is a meteor falling out of space into the ocean. At any rate, the sea literally becomes blood red. Once again, this is not unknown. Every now and then the papers report what is called a "red tide" which appears in the sea and turns large areas of the ocean blood red. A tiny marine organism, red in color, multiplies at such an enormous rate that it makes the water look like blood. This plague destroys many of the living creatures in the sea; the ships are destroyed and the commerce of the ocean reduced by a third.

But if it is literal, it is also symbolic. The symbol of a great mountain blazing with fire is that of a kingdom aflame with revolution. Jeremiah, for instance, describes Babylon as just such a mountain. He calls it a "blazing mountain" which is the destroyer of the earth (Jeremiah 51:24-26). It probably pictures, as we gather from other Scriptures, the rise of what is popularly called "the revived Roman Empire," the ten-kingdomed coalition of Western Europe and the Western allied nations under the antichrist, which conquers the other nations of the earth. The sea is used frequently as a picture of the Gentile nations of earth.

Again, it is limited to one-third. Notice the repetition of this word "the third" all through the series of trumpet judgments. Under the seals the limitation was one-fourth of the earth. That is very meaningful. Four is the number of human government, and under the seal judgments God is saying that he uses human government to limit the onslaught of the four terrible horsemen of Chapter 6. Human government still retains some vestige of restraining power during those days. But here, even that is gone, and under the trumpet judgments only God himself restrains. Three is the divine number and this is declaring that only God's mercy and God's grace limits these awful judgments to one-third of the earth. Now we come to the third trumpet,

The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water -- the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. (Revelation 8:10-11 NIV)

This great star which falls into the rivers and the fountains of earth, is very likely a comet which breaks up when it enters the atmosphere and scatters itself throughout the earth, falling into the rivers and springs and poisoning them with what is probably a form of radiation. We have had, perhaps, a kind of a foregleam of this and a note of warning from God, in the terrible atomic accident that happened in Russia some years ago. It occurred at a city named Chernobyl -- and Chernobyl is the Russian word for Wormwood!

I looked this up in a Ukrainian dictionary:
Чорнобиль found in: Чорнобиль, чорнобиль
чорно́биль бот. mug-wort, artemisia.
chornóbyl' bot. mug-wort, artemisia.

Mugwort

I read in the paper yesterday that a new comet has been spotted in the skies. It has been given the name "Austin," and will become in April the brightest object in the night sky. These comets flash into our solar system unexpectedly at times. No one knows where they come from or when they will arrive, and a new one has now been spotted. I am not saying it is the great star predicted here, but it indicates the suddenness by which such comets can appear.

At the same time that this physical event takes place, it will also symbolize something to happen in the invisible realm of man's internal life. Rivers, of course, symbolize masses of people moving in the same direction -- whole peoples who are caught up with one idea and moving like a river does in a predictable direction. The fountains denote the sources of moral or philosophical leadership, and a star is in Scripture the symbol of a prominent leader. It appears that some great personage, widely recognized as a leader, suddenly reverses his policy -- he "falls" in that sense. Many people are embittered by this and set against one another, resulting in widespread moral death. That is exactly what will be described later in Revelation under the rule of the Beast that comes from the earth, as we will see. We will find a similar "star" in Chapter 9 when we hear the fifth and sixth trumpets of judgment. I will leave it at that for the moment. The fourth angel sounds as recorded in Verse 12:

The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night. (Revelation 8:12 NIV)

Without preliminary comment I would like to read to you our Lord's word, recorded in the 21st chapter of Luke, where Luke gives his account of the Sermon on the Mount of Olives. There, Jesus says:

"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken." (Luke 21:25-26 NIV)

That clearly is a reference to this same event under the fourth trumpet. But not only is it literal -- the sun and the moon and the stars are, for one reason or another, darkened and fail to give their light for much of the time -- but it also symbolizes something. Sun, moon and stars are used in various places in Scripture to typify earthly authorities. The highest, of course, is the king or president. He would be portrayed as the sun, and those under him would be as the moon and the stars. They symbolize a hierarchy of authority. But what does this darkening mean, metaphorically? It pictures light withdrawn from the authorities of earth. They are morally darkened and no longer display moral judgment. They are not governed by any sense of ethical restraint but become characterized by increasing deceit, treachery, merciless cruelty and a total lack of justice. Yet by the grace of God this darkening is still limited to one-third. Some restraint of evil is yet possible, but only by the sovereign grace of a sovereign God! Verse 13 now warns us of an eagle who comes to declare that there is much worse yet to come. If you have a King James text, it reads "angel," but the better manuscripts use "eagle" here.

As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!" (Revelation 8:13 NIV)

Three great disasters are yet ahead, and these "woe" judgments are to fall upon the "inhabitants of the earth." That is not a very accurate translation. It is, literally, "those who make their home on earth." It does not mean people who live on the earth, because there are many of those, as we have already seen, who will be redeemed. But these judgments fall upon a moral class, those people who live only for earth and its advantages, who are merely concerned for this life and care nothing about the life to come. Someone has well described them in this bit of doggerel,

Into this world to eat and to sleep,
And to know no reason why he was born,
Save to consume the corn,
Devour the cattle, flock and fish,
And leave behind an empty dish!

Do you know people like that? All they seem to think about is eating, sleeping and meeting their needs. They have no thought for the purpose of life or of any meaning to their own existence. What we are told here is that these last three trumpets, two of which we will take up in Chapter 9, give us insight into the full extent of the moral disaster that the first four have brought upon the earth.

We have seen in each of the series this division into four and three. In the seals, you will remember, there were four horsemen who rode through the earth, and then we were given, under the next three seals, insight into what was going on behind the scenes, as it were. Here there are four trumpets that sound, and then we get a deeper insight in the last three of the terrible impact of these awful judgments. In the bowls of wrath that will come, we have again the same division of four and three. These series seem to reflect the three common degrees of comparison. Everyone knows that there are three ways to indicate increasing value, meaning, or even material size. First, it is "big." That is the positive, the comparative is "bigger," and the superlative is "biggest." With reference to evil, there is "bad," "worse," and "worst." This is what we have in these series: a climaxing of judgment, a crescendo that ends at last with the pouring out of the bowls of the wrath of God, the worst of all.

If I took a poll of this congregation this morning, and asked you how you felt after hearing this, most of you would say, I'm sure, that you feel uncomfortable. Why is that? Why do we feel uncomfortable when we read of judgments like these? Let me share these words on that theme from Eugene Peterson. He says:

We do everything we can to make light of judgment. We use every stratagem we can find to avoid dealing with the consequences of sin. But God will not let us off. He will not indulge our inattention. He will be taken seriously. In a pause between trumpet blasts an eagle cries its warning. However practiced we become at tuning out sounds that we do not want to hear, including the sound of God's displeasure at sin, God finds new ways to penetrate our defensive deafness. The eagle cry catches us off guard.
What we are seeing here in the judgments of the last days is really nothing new. It is simply commonly experienced penalties for evil increased in amount to an incredible degree. God has been sending judgments like this all through the history of mankind. There have been volcanic eruptions, meteors falling upon the earth, red rain from the skies, poisoned waters, etc. All these terrible disasters have struck before, but now they grow to a climax. Yet we must not misunderstand them, for they are for our own good. I list for you five effects of judgment upon us since we are all being judged in some degree, more or less. Hardships, trials and difficulties are all a part of the judgment of God upon human evil, and we all experience it. First of all, judgments frighten us. They are intended to. They are sent to arrest our attention. They chill our blood. They alarm us. They scare the living daylights out of us. Like children at a horror movie we are fascinated by them but we want to hide our eyes from them and not look fully at them. That is the first effect of judgment. It arouses fear. Then, because it terrifies us, judgment also sobers us. How many people in the Bay Area immediately rearranged their priorities five minutes after the earthquake hit on October 17? We heard many testimonies during that time of people saying, "I'll never take life as lightly again. That taught me a lot. I began to see what is really important." That is also what judgments do. They help us reassess our lives. They change our priorities.

C. S. Lewis well says that fear or pain or judgment is "God's megaphone to reach a deaf world." And so judgments correct us. They force us to face unpleasant facts about ourselves. We do not like that. We do not like to be told that we are not perfect. We know we are not, but we do not like anyone else to say so. We are uneasy at having these things pointed out. But judgment strips away our illusions. It restores us to reality. We begin to think accurately, clearly, as God thinks. We plan more carefully. We live more thoughtfully. That is why God sends judgment. And fourth, judgment humbles us. We begin to see that we are really not in control. We do not run everything about our lives. We are not autonomous creatures. We are not little gods, capable of making anything we want to of ourselves, as the media keeps trying to tell us. We are not in charge. We see how foolish we have been in the past, that we have made many mistakes when we thought we were right. We begin at last to welcome guidance, to listen to others, and especially, to seek out the wisdom of the Word of God. Finally, judgment reassures us. It comforts us. It answers Habakkuk's great prayer, "In wrath, remember mercy," (Habakkuk 3:2). We learn that God does not like judgment either. He calls it, in Isaiah 28:21, his "strange work." He keeps it as brief as possible. He gives ample warnings before it gets unbearable. He sends anticipations of it, forceful reminders, that this kind of thing can happen so that we might pay attention and act before it gets out of hand.

All this supports the view that the Bible gives everywhere of a loving God, "slow to anger and plenteous in mercy," (Psalm 103:8 KJV). Is it not strange that people who do not read the Bible very much almost invariably say, when you talk about judgment, "Well, the God I worship is a loving God; he would never do anything like that!" My friend, it is the very love of God that makes him judge! God must judge in order to eliminate evil once for all from his creation and bring about the world of universal blessing which men have longed for throughout all of human history.

Last night I spent a quiet evening at home. The rain was falling, and that is always a comfortable sound. It was warm and cozy inside and quiet and peaceful without. There was no danger threatening me or my family. I spent a delightful time listening to good classical music. I had just been working through this passage of Revelation and it suddenly struck me how wonderfully protected I was. If you and I were living in Calcutta we might feel much closer to these scenes in Revelation than we do here in California. If we were living in a ghetto of one of our great cities, where violence stalks the street right outside the door and you dare not go out, we would identify much more readily with these judgments. How wonderfully God has spared us, protected us and watched over us. All one needs to do to turn earth into the scenes we have here is to take the restraints off human evil for a little while. It could be like this tomorrow! But God has spared us, watched over us, loved us, guarded us, believers and unbelievers alike. How thankful we all ought to be for that! And how ready to hear and heed the eagle's cry!

[Source]  

[Garland-Green]

All Hell Breaks Loose

Read the Scripture: Revelation 9:1-21



Chapter 9 of Revelation presents the judgments of the fifth and sixth of the seven trumpets which were introduced in Chapter 8. These two trumpets are also identified as the first and second of three great "woes" that will come upon the earth. I want to stress that the judgments of this book are real. They are terrible, horrible disasters, and there is both a literal and a figurative dimension to them.

I received an unsigned note in the offering last week which I will read to you exactly as it was written: "Kindly see to it that your sermon presentation is more entertaining and concise." I am sure that note was sincere and well-intentioned. Probably many of you feel the same way about my messages. I, too, strongly sympathize with those sentiments. I wish there was some way to make these messages more entertaining, and, although I struggle to make them concise, I probably could use some improvement in that area. But I remind you that we are dealing now with what the Old Testament prophets called "the great and terrible day of the Lord." I find it difficult to make such messages amusing or entertaining. It strikes me that to attempt it would be somewhat analogous to hiring a comedian to entertain the witnesses at a public execution! This is not entertaining material, I grant you, but it is true! And we have to face unpleasant truth at times.

Some of you may also be having trouble with the timing of these various events of Revelation. I have been asked, "Are these seals and trumpets and bowls of wrath chronologically sequential, or do they occur simultaneously?" I must admit that that is difficult to determine. As we have seen all along, the Apostle John is given this vision of what is to take place in the last days, from the vantage point of heaven. Thus he is looking at these events from the standpoint of eternity -- and the one great characteristic of eternity is that there is no time there. In heaven there is no sense of past or future. Everything is present -- now! That is why it is so difficult in this book to tell exactly when events occur when they are brought into time.

We are seeing here, then, not chronology but degrees of intensity. It is as though God keeps probing deeper and deeper into the events of the last days. The judgments of the seven seals give us a quick trip through this seven-year period that Daniel identifies as the last days. The trumpets, however, return as it were to a section of the last week and give us a different facet of judgment. That is what we are looking at in Chapters 8 and 9. When we come to the bowls of the wrath of God we will see still greater depths of earth's agony, but just how to fit it all into a time sequence is difficult. This is made still more confusing by the fact that certain break-off periods -- intermissions I have called them -- which focus on events of special interest, are occurring during this time. We have already seen one of these in Chapter 7 and we will find others as we go on in this book. We could liken the events of Revelation to a missile launching at Cape Canaveral. The countdown proceeds normally and seems to be nearing the end, when suddenly there is a break. The countdown ceases while something is checked out or repaired, and then it resumes right where it left off. That is also somewhat the structure of this book. Perhaps that image may help you in understanding this. Now in Chapter 9 we arrive at the fifth trumpet, presented in the first six verses:

The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. (Revelation 9:1-6 NIV)

This remarkable passage begins with the falling of another great star, not into the sea this time, as we saw under the third trumpet, but onto the earth. Again, this probably speaks of something literal. It is perhaps a great meteor falling from the skies. Many times in history such meteors have fallen to earth and created some degree of havoc and chaos. But here a second star falls. Yet the text clearly indicates that this is not just a literal star, it is also symbolic. It pictures an individual who is given a key by which he opens up the gateway of hell, the Abyss. When once Jesus visited the shores of Gadara on the Sea of Galilee he cast a legion of demons out of a man. The demons begged him, "Do not send us into the Abyss [the same word as here ], but allow us to go into the great herd of swine that are feeding on the hillside," (Matthew 8:28-32, Mark 5:1-11). Jesus permitted them to do that, and the swine immediately ran over a cliff and plunged into the sea and perished. It is a strange story, but it portrays the fear demonic beings have of being cast into this great Abyss.

We learn from other Scriptures that demons have already been incarcerated in this Abyss. The book of Jude tells us that there are angels that have been "kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day," (Jude 6 NIV). Apparently we have come to that Day here for as this strange individual opens the Abyss, out of it comes a great cloud of locusts looking like smoke that fills the sky. Once again we are being presented with something literal and symbolic at the same time.

One summer when I was a boy in the state of Minnesota, we were visited with a great plague of locusts. They came in a cloud that actually darkened the sky. I remember hearing them descend onto the standing fields of grain, and it was like listening to a hail storm. As they munched away at the vegetation, the noise was like a rushing river. They destroyed everything in their path, leaving the farmers with no crops at all that year. It is something like this that John sees when this fifth trumpet blows. But along with this literal visitation of locusts, invisible demons are also released from the very pit of hell into the earth. We must ask ourselves, who is this powerful personage who is permitted to unleash the powers of hell? This links closely with what we saw under the third trumpet when the other great star fell. He was identifiable as a powerful political leader who would change his policy in the midst of the week and thus embitter whole classes of people. If that was a political leader who thus "fell" then here we have a Jewish religious leader who turns apostate, and, by that means, introduces demonic forces upon the earth.

I believe he is Jewish because of the clues that are given in this passage. These demons were told not to harm "the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads." Clearly grass, trees and plants represent people, as we have already seen in Chapter 7, and they specifically symbolize Israel. Yet there is a certain group of them -- 144,000 that were sealed of God -- who are guarded and protected from this demonic control of human thought. The other people are not allowed to be destroyed but only tormented for a period of five months. What we are doubtless seeing here is what Paul refers to in his Second Thessalonian letter as an important personage who arises in the last days and whom he calls "The Man of Sin" who sits in the temple as God and claims the worship of Israel, and of the whole earth. In other words, here is that great antichrist of the last days, foretold in many Scriptures. His propaganda is described for us here under the figure of a "scorpion's sting." That will be the effect of his teaching upon those who believe it. It is like a scorpion's sting, producing great agony of mind and heart.

I was in Vietnam in 1960 and one afternoon I lay down to take a brief nap. As I did so I noticed something run across the top of the doorway. It ran down the side of the casing and onto the floor, and there I saw that it was a black scorpion about six inches long. It stood up on its rear legs, defiantly staring me in the face, with its tail curled up over its head, ready to sting. I looked around for something to hit it with, but it ran off and disappeared. I never saw it again, but I was never comfortable in that room! I asked my Vietnamese friends what would have happened to me if it had stung me, and they told me I would have suffered incredible anguish for 24 hours. Nothing would have relieved it, they said. A pain killer would only have made it worse. I would have had to endure it for 24 hours and then the pain would gradually disappear. That is a scorpion's sting, and it is used here to picture a terrible mental torment.

Years ago I had a home Bible class here in Palo Alto, and a young woman who attended told me that when she and a companion had been in Alaska teaching they looked for something to while away the long winter months. They began to play around with a Ouija board, thinking it was just entertainment. But that led them into reading horoscopes and astrology. After several weeks of this she began to hear voices in her head at night, insisting that she get up and write obscene, filthy words on a piece of paper. She could get no relief until she got out of bed and wrote. She would have to write for several minutes, and then she could go back to bed and go to sleep. But it kept getting worse and worse. The sessions grew longer and longer until she would actually have to sit and write for hours before she could get any sense of relief. It became an almost unendurable anguish. This was still going on in her life in California and she asked me what she could do about this. I read to her the Scriptures on demonic possession and prayed with her. We did this on several occasions, and I am happy to announce that she was delivered from this obsession. I have seen her since and she told me that it was a permanent deliverance. But this is the kind of mental anguish described here -- this horrible torment that seizes upon people's minds who open the door to the occult and unknowingly permit the intrusion of demonic forces into their lives. That delusion is metaphorically described in Verses 7-11:

The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon. (Revelation 9:7-11 NIV)
This describes the nature of the propaganda that this leader will unleash upon the world and the effect of it upon human minds. It is given, of course, in symbols, as is much of the book of Revelation. These are not difficult to interpret. "Crowns of gold" speak of something authoritative. As people hear the teachings and claims of this charismatic, leader he impresses them as having great authority and power. "Human faces" speak of intelligence. This teaching will appear reasonable and will seem intelligent, making its appeal to the mind. "Women's hair" describes that which is alluring and attractive. Many will believe the propaganda because it appears to offer much personal advantage.

But it will also be like "lions' teeth" -- a symbol of that which is penetrating, cruel and frightening. That is what begins to happen as those who follow this teaching succumb to its delusion. They find it becomes cruel and vicious. "Iron breastplates" speak of callousness of heart. The demonic powers will be heartless, without mercy. Once the torment begins no appeal can relieve it, there is no way of escape. And it will come with an overpowering sound. That speaks of something which is widely popular. There will be tremendous peer pressure to believe this teaching, so much so that it seems irresistible and overpowering. The "stings in the tails" speak of the terrible aftermath, the mental torment that follows this awful teaching.

Then we are told clearly that it is all under the leadership of an invisible demonic king, the very angel of the Abyss himself. This, of course, is a figure for Satan. This whole account depicts an infusion of demonic forces upon the earth under the leadership of Satan himself in these terrible last days. The world saw something like this in the days of Hitler and the Nazis. People today who see films of Hitler's frenetic harangues to the German people are amazed that anyone could believe the things he said. It is still an unexplainable phenomenon in history that a whole nation could be carried away by the strange teachings of this deluded and demented man. But it was a mere foregleam of what is coming. Paul warns young Timothy in his first letter, "In the latter days some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons," (1 Timothy 4:1). Clearly this has been foretold in other parts of Scripture.

We are seeing foregleams of this in our own day. In the '60s there seemed to be a terrible breakthrough of evil into the world. Strange, demonic teachings were introduced and people began to throw overboard long-obeyed customs and moral standards. We saw many revolutionary movements affecting men. Perhaps even now we are seeing much of the same thing in the delusions of what is called the New Age Movement. There are some things that are good and attractive about it, but much of it is a return to occult practices, and to being controlled by spirits that are supposedly teachers of truth. We are being told that the masters of the minds of men of the past are now available also to us through this kind of teaching. But when one begins to follow such teachings, it has a terrible effect. It leads at last to sheer despair and mental torment. It is, of course, not what is being described here for these powers are greatly limited in our day, but there is something worse of the same nature coming, something that will be permitted wide expression upon the earth. In Verse 12 we hear the sixth trumpet giving its sound:

The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.
The sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number. (Revelation 9:12-16 NIV)

John now hears a voice that comes from the horns of the golden altar. That altar has already come before us in Chapter 8. There we saw the altar of incense on which was offered before God the prayers of the saints who were then on earth. An angel took the fire from the altar and threw it back on earth and fire and judgment followed. What now happens under the sixth trumpet is an answer to the prayers of the saints of that day.

We have already been told what they are praying. A great crowd of martyrs are heard crying out, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" (Revelation 6:10 NIV). This second woe is God's specific answer to their prayer. Notice the answer takes the form of releasing four powerful fallen angels who have been bound for centuries at the river Euphrates. But note also the sovereign control of God. It is a precisely-timed event. They are released at the very "hour and day and month and year" that God had long ago predetermined. No human or demonic power could change that timing! This is all linked with the Euphrates river, once the ancient boundary between the East and the West. The Euphrates flows out of the mountains of Armenia down through the present lands of Iraq and Iran and on to the Persian Gulf. In the ancient world it formed the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire. The Romans lived in constant fear of the Parthian hordes who lived on the other side of the river. Earlier, Israel had also lived in fear of invasion from across the Euphrates because Assyria and Babylonia both had sent their armies down from the north across the river and into Israel.

Many of the commentators have claimed that this army of two hundred million is entirely composed of soldiers from the Eastern nations -- India, China, Japan, Indochina, etc. It is true that the reference to the Euphrates river indicates that a barrier is being removed so the Eastern armies can come into the west, but I do not believe that all two hundred million of these come from the East. The commentators have failed to note that there are four angels released who control this event. Four is the number of worldwide human government. It is a picture of the four directions of earth -- north, south, east and west -- and these soldiers come from all of these directions. It would be almost impossible for any one nation today, or even several of them (such as in NATO), to field an army of that size. No army on earth today has much more than five hundred thousand troops. To field an army of two hundred million would be logistically impossible, even for China. But they do not all come from the east. They come from all directions, and they will gather to one place. In Chapter 16 that place is named for us. There we find the Euphrates river appearing again and this time it is linked with the Mount of Megiddo in Israel, or Armageddon. So this is the first glimpse we have in Revelation of the great armies of earth that will come from all directions, east, south, north and west, and gather in the plain of Megiddo in the land of Israel for the great battle of the last days. This gathering of armies is further described by symbols, in Verses 17-19:

The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur[or brimstone]. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury. (Revelation 9:17-19 NIV)

What can this be? Let us remember that we are reading an ancient book in which are described events that are still future to us. What we have here is modern warfare described in military terms of John's day. "Breastplates" of various colors suggest armored chariots -- i.e. tanks, missile launchers, and other vehicles of war, that are camouflaged with various colors (or perhaps are identified by national colors, since this is a conglomeration of armies coming together). "Lion's mouths" that are spouting fire and belching smoke suggest cannons and mortars -- even nuclear missiles -- killing with fire, radiation, and poisonous gases. Tails like snakes that do injury perhaps describe modern helicopters, gunships, which have a rotor at the tail where also machine-guns and missile launchers are located. This may even depict weapons not yet invented. I recognize it is difficult to say precisely what all this means, but it is obvious that here we have a great military campaign, which results in monstrous slaughter of enormous scope. We are gradually being informed of what is about to happen, and we will see other pictures of these same events as the book continues to unfold. The final scene under the sixth trumpet is the reaction of mankind to these strange and disastrous things.

The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshipping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood -- idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts. (Revelation 9:20-21 NIV)

Observe that worshipping demons is put first. That is the explanation for this lack of repentance. Here are people who have believed a Satanic lie. It is what Paul calls, in Second Thessalonians, "a strong delusion" (2 Thessalonians 2:11 KJV), a lie from the devil. They have believed this, and therefore they are rendered finally unable to repent. It is because they have begun, unknowingly perhaps and innocently, to worship demons. We see something of this in the rise of Satanism in our own day. The authorities of this area are very disturbed about the attempts that we hear of to kidnap children. They are concerned not only because they want to protect children, but because they fear that these are attempts on the part of Satanists to obtain children to offer as living sacrifices. That has been proved to have happened in several instances.

The worship of demons finds its expression, we are told here, in idols. These are probably in the form of medals, ritual objects or figures, perhaps even crystals, that people wear around their necks. There is a touch of sarcasm here in the words, "idols that cannot see or hear or walk." These things do nothing for people no matter what they think about them. This superstitious submission to strange teaching is characteristic of the last days. These people would not change their lifestyles even under these terrible judgments. They continued their murders, (which probably includes abortion). It does not look like we are going to make much progress in this terrible, murderous aborting of babies that takes place so frequently today. They also continued their "magic arts." Actually the word here is an interesting one. It is pharmakeia, from which we get our word "pharmacy." It really means drugs.

The awful drug traffic of today is unexplainable, is it not? Why can we not get rid of it? Surely you have asked yourself, why do people do this! In the face of the widespread warnings that we hear today, and the revelation of how damaging this can be, why do people do drugs? Why do they ever start? It is because drugs is a form of magic art. It is a part of the sorceries of these days, yet to be seen in even worse forms. Their sexual immoralities also continue. Again, we have been subjected to an explosion of this in anticipation of this coming time. Also, of course, thefts, i.e. embezzlements and attempts to steal money from trusted funds. These fill our papers today, all foregleams that God has given us for the days to come. We have not yet reached these days, but these events are warning us of the nature of things yet to come. Even after the awful bloodbath of a nuclear war, where one out of three die, still there will be no change of heart.

In the face of this obdurate refusal to change, we must ask, "Why judgment?" What is judgment for if it is so ineffectual in producing change? Let us not forget that the book of Revelation has already told us that millions will repent. Let us not ignore that "great multitude which no man can number" (Revelation 7:9 KJV) from every tribe and nation and language who washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They come out of the great tribulation and appear before the throne of God. They have repented in the midst of judgments. They have believed, and have received the grace of God.

But here is a great number that judgment has not affected in that way. Judgment does not make them listen because their hearts are hardened. They are the impenitent -- unable to believe. They are no longer able to heed because they have refused the grace of God. That is what produces this kind of hardness of heart. God never expected to convert the world through judgment. He knows that well. What judgment does is to make us listen to grace. It makes us take seriously what God is offering as the way of escape. In these terrible judgments we see the power, the majesty, the might, the inescapability of God, and we must ask ourselves, "What can I do to be saved?" That is the effect of judgment. "What shall I do? How can I escape? Is there no way out?" What God then provides to those who feel their peril is a message of grace. It is not when judgment threatens that we turn to God. It is when we see a suffering love that gives itself for us, that bears the hurt and agony and pain -- it is that that breaks and melts our proud hearts, silences our excuses and opens the door to salvation. But then to reject that grace when it is clearly understood to be offered, to turn one's back upon it, is to render the heart unassailable and to make repentance impossible. That is the message of Hebrews 6.

That is where this passage leaves us and I want to leave it at that point. I have been writing a commentary on the book of Hebrews and I have been struck by a question that the writer asks in the second chapter which is really the theme of Hebrews He asks, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3 KJV). How can you escape if you neglect the offer of the grace of God? God does not want to judge men. He does not like judgment. We saw that last week. But that is all that is left for those who reject the way of escape which the grace and mercy of God supplies. We have been singing this morning, quite properly, of the mercy and the grace of God. We sang:

And when I think that God his Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross, his burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died, to take away my sin;
Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to thee,
How great thou art; how great thou art!"

That is incredible, is it not? We see how wonderfully tender and gracious God is, how much he wants people to be delivered from judgment, but in the end we must ask, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" There may be some among us here who have been coming for months, and years, and have never received the grace of God through receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In the face of judgments such as these that are even now present in our land, judgments that speak eloquently of far worse yet to come, we must face this question, "How shall I escape if I neglect so great salvation?" I leave that question in your mind and heart for you personally to answer in your own life.

Prayer

Father, we are sobered by these revelations of that which is yet to come upon the earth. We see something of your holiness, your power, your majesty, your displeasure with human sin. And yet, always against the background of that, we see your wonderful grace that offers a way of escape. We pray for all who are here this morning, that they will have opened their hearts to the saving grace of Jesus. We pray that life from above may be imparted to them; that they will know the wonderful promises of grace to fill our life with joy and put songs in our mouths and make us rejoice in a destiny quite different from what we see described here. Help us now and strengthen us to live in the light of these revelations this very day. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Source  

[Garland-Green]

The End of the Mystery

Read the Scripture: Revelation 10:1-11



In Chapter 10 of Revelation we come face to face with several mysteries that have confused many from time to time. I suppose there are millions of people on earth this morning that struggle with the mystery of a silent heaven. Why doesn't God explain what is going on? It must seem to many that he is unconcerned, and, perhaps, even unable to do anything, about human affairs. Evil seems to run rampant everywhere. Miscarriages of justice, cruelty, viciousness, and increasing crime are on every side. You only have to listen to the news broadcasts to know how rotten things are in many places of the world today. People are asking, "Why do we live in a world like this?" "Why doesn't God do something about it?" "What is wrong with a God who cannot run the world any better than this?" Those are the questions we face in this chapter.

When we looked at Chapters 8 and 9 we saw certain horrendous disasters that are yet to come upon the world. Perhaps we feel the need of some encouragement at this point. The Spirit of God always anticipates such need and has given us in Chapters 10 and most of Chapter 11 another intermission, a kind of parenthesis that comes in between the judgments of the sixth and seventh trumpets. We have already noted that in these series of judgments (the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls of the wrath of God) there is always a break between the sixth and seventh judgment. That is what we have come to in the trumpet series. Chapter 10 presents three mysterious things. We shall look at: The mystery of the mighty angel whom John sees as the chapter opens; then the mystery of God which the angel proclaims; and, finally, the mystery of the little scroll that is held in the angel's hand. Let us give our attention to the first 4 verses of Chapter 10.

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down." (Revelation 10:1-4 NIV)

There are certain clues given in this symbolic book that identify this angel as the "Angel of the Lord," or the "Angel of Yahweh;" the great angel who accompanied Israel through their wilderness wanderings. This Angel always appears when Israel comes to the forefront of God's program. That is an indication here to help us identify where we are and what is happening at this time.

This great Angel comes "robed in a cloud." A cloud is characteristic again of the nation Israel. Remember that when Israel was marching through the desert they were preceded by a cloud by day and followed by a pillar of fire by night. Actually the same cloud came to the rear at night and was lighted from some kind of fire within so that it appeared as a glowing, brilliant pillar. Later, when the tabernacle was completed, and later still when the temple was built, this same cloud came down and filled the Holy of Holies. It was called the Shekinah, the cloud of glory, an indication of the presence of God. So right from the start we have a clue that identifies this Angel as the Lord himself, Jesus, God the Son, appearing as the Angel of Jehovah.

Jehovah /dʒɨˈhoʊvə/ is a Latinization of the Hebrew יְהֹוָה, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible. This vocalization has been transliterated as "Yehowah", while YHWH itself has been transliterated as "Yahweh".

יְהֹוָה appears 6,518 times in the traditional Masoretic Text, in addition to 305 instances of יֱהֹוִה (Jehovih). The earliest available Latin text to use a vocalization similar to Jehovah dates from the 13th century.

Most scholars believe "Jehovah" to be a late (c. 1100 CE) hybrid form derived by combining the Latin letters JHVH with the vowels of Adonai, but there is some evidence that it may already have been in use in Late Antiquity (5th century).The consensus among scholars is that the historical vocalization of the Tetragrammaton at the time of the redaction of the Torah (6th century BCE) is most likely Yahweh, however there is disagreement. The historical vocalization was lost because in Second Temple Judaism, during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE, the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton came to be avoided, being substituted with Adonai ("my Lord").

"Jehovah" was popularized in the English-speaking world by William Tyndale and other pioneer English Protestant translators, but is no longer used in mainstream English translations, with Lord or LORD used instead, generally indicating that the corresponding Hebrew is Yahweh or YHWH.

[Wikipedia]

Then we learn he has a rainbow above his head. We last saw a rainbow in Chapter 4 of this book, around the throne of God. The Angel's face, we are told, was "like the sun," and "his legs [actually, the word is feet] were like fiery pillars." That takes us back to Chapter 1 where John saw the vision of Jesus standing amid the churches. John describes his face as shining like the sun and his feet were like burnished, glowing bronze. Here, as John watched, he saw the Angel plant one foot upon the land and the other upon the sea, so that he stood astride the earth as a giant colossus. This symbolizes, of course, his ownership of the entire earth. Here is the rightful owner of earth, standing like a great colossus, claiming the earth for himself. The last clue is that he "roared like a lion." This goes back to the scene in Chapter 4 where we saw the slain Lamb who is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He roars in triumph over the earth. So once again we have indications that Israel is coming into view again as God's people whom he desires to use in a special way throughout the period of judgment of the last days and to continue on into the establishment of the kingdom after the return of Jesus.

Genesis 9:8-16
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

This scene must have been a great encouragement to John. It is also to us because it helps us see that all these cosmic events affecting earth are still under the firm control of the Angel of God. He is working out everything that happens on his own timetable. This mighty Angel should forever remove from our minds the concept we frequently have of angels as rather effeminate creatures who pluck languidly on harps. That is not what an angel is in Scripture. I like the way Eugene Peterson describes them: "Vast, fiery, sea-striding creatures, with hell in their nostrils and heaven in their eyes." That is more like it!

To the roar of this Angel, seven great peals of thunder reply. John heard what they uttered and was about to write it down, he tells us, when there came another voice that said, "Do not write it, but seal it up." By the way, that is the only part of Revelation which still remains sealed. The rest has been unsealed for our benefit, but this utterance is sealed up again. Would you like to know what the seven thunders said? Well, I have been studying this for many hours and days. I have been reading all the commentators. I have even searched through Ron Ritchie's notes (which did not take long) [laughter], and I want to tell you: It has not been revealed! Only John knows what the seven thunders uttered. But thunder is always a symbol of the judgment of God, so it is something to do with judgment. I do not know why it was sealed. John does not tell us. Perhaps he did not know himself. He simply obeyed what he was told to do.

If you want a possible clue as to what these seven thunders declared I would refer you to Psalm 29. In that Psalm, seven times the voice of the Lord thunders over the earth in judgment. Check it out and you may gain some clue as to what these seven thunders in Revelation said. But for now it is sealed to us. It is not going to happen right away. The Apostle Paul tells us in Second Corinthians 12 that there was a time when he, too, was caught up into heaven, and heard, he says, "things which were unlawful to repeat," (2 Corinthians 12:4 KJV). Thus there is truth from God that he does not want us yet to know. It is not that he will not tell us in time, but not yet. Deuteronomy 29:29 tells us, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever." That is why we are to study carefully the things already revealed in the word of God. This brings us to the mystery of God himself, found in Verses 5-7:

Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, "There will be no more delay! But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets." (Revelation 10:5-7 NIV)

That gives us a glimpse of what is coming in the book of Revelation. This mighty Angel began by raising his right hand to heaven. Have you ever had to do that when you took an oath in a court, and swore to tell the truth? This is where that ritual originated. The raising of the hand looks back to this very scene in Revelation. It is a sign that a solemn oath is about to be taken. The Angel swore by God, the One who created the earth, the heaven, and the sea, and everything in them. "But," you say, "I thought this was Christ the Creator himself; would he swear by himself?" Yes, it is Christ. But I remind you that, in the book of Hebrews when God wanted to swear an oath to Abraham that he would keep his promises to him, we are told that because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. That is what Jesus is doing here. He is swearing by the triune God -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- that there will be no longer any delay in explaining the mystery of God. God has apparently delayed for centuries in answering the questions of men.

We read in Acts that the early Christians expected Jesus to return in their day. Paul certainly expected it in his lifetime. There are many places where it is clear that they were looking for his coming two thousand years ago. Every generation of Christians in every century since has been expecting the Lord to return in their time, but he has not come yet. Today we are expecting the Lord to return, probably before this century ends, and yet he may not. But when the seventh angel sounds, the Angel says, "there will be no more delay!" Then that strange, mysterious reluctance of God to carry out what he has so long promised will not only end, but will be explained as well. That is what we may look forward to.

And when it happens, God will begin his reign on the earth. It may surprise some of you to know that God has never reigned on earth up to this point of time. He has been King over heaven and earth and the whole universe, but he has never yet reigned on earth. He has ruled on earth, and he has overruled. He governs human events, bringing them into being and changing things, but he does it, in a sense, remotely. He has never taken his great power and openly reigned upon the earth. But when the seventh angel sounds, then he will begin to reign.

If you want to see that, look ahead into Chapter 11, Verse 17. There we find the twenty-four elders praising God and saying, "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign." That is the day when the prayer we have all been praying for so long, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," will be answered. That is what is to be found in the prophets, John was told, "as he has announced to his servants the prophets." Among many other places, in Chapter 36 of Ezekiel there is a vivid description of just how God will begin his kingdom on earth. He will call the nation Israel back into prominence again. He will take out of them the evil heart of flesh and put his Spirit within them and forgive their sins. It is all predicted in the prophets. There are many such passages.

The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 11 that this truth is important. First he warns Gentile believers not to boast against Israel. There are many Christian teachers today who teach that Israel will not have a future; that all these promises of the Old Testament are to be spiritually applied to the church, and there is no future for Israel as a nation, distinct from any other nation on earth. But, when they say that, they are violating what Paul warns against in Romans 11, "Remember," he says, "you do not support the root, but the root supports you," (Romans 11:18b NIV). These promises belong to Israel; we Gentiles are allowed in on them by the grace of God, but they still belong primarily to Israel. In Verse 25 of that great chapter, Paul says:

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited:
Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
"The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins." (Romans 11:25-27 NIV)

That is what the prophets have long been predicting. There are at least a score or more of lengthy, clear passages that describe the return of Israel to their land and their status as the people of God, to fulfill the promises of God. Many passages describe in lilting beauty the restoration of the earth under the reign of Christ. Listen to these words from Isaiah 35:

Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
say to those with fearful hearts,
"Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you."
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the dumb shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. (Isaiah 35:3-7 NIV)

No wonder this announcement had a peculiar effect upon John.

Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more:
"Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."
So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me,
"Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey."
I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it.
It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.

Then I was told, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings." (Revelation 11:8-11 NIV)

The symbolism of eating the word is a way of indicating that the truth written on that scroll becomes personal. It is individually assimilated. That is what happens when you eat food, is it not? It becomes you! It is the way by which corned beef and cabbage on Saturday night becomes Patrick O'Reilly by Sunday afternoon! Doctors call it metabolism. They do not know exactly how it works, but they label it as if they did understand it. No one really knows how it happens. The food you ate this morning, or last night, is now rapidly becoming you. You are going to wear it soon, and it will become visible on you. (That is the problem that many of us are facing!) That is the symbolism here. When a prophet eats the scroll it is a symbol that he is taking it into himself and becoming personally involved with it. This imagery comes from the prophet Ezekiel. A very similar thing happened to Ezekiel, as we read in the second and third chapters of his prophecy. Let me read a part of it to you. The prophet says:

Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll, which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe.
And he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it." So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. (Ezekiel 2:9-3:3 NIV)

Then Ezekiel was sent to deliver the message to Israel, and later in the chapter he says:

The Spirit then lifted me up, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit with the strong hand of the Lord upon me. (Ezekiel 3:14 NIV)

That is similar to what John is experiencing here. The prophecy tastes sweet at first. These are promises of God as to exactly how he will work out his purposes on earth, and there is an element of it that is wonderfully sweet. Yet as the prophet takes this in, eats it and assimilates it to become personally involved, it begins to turn sour. He realizes that he has a part of this as well, not only in the final result but in the judgments that lead to it. Has Scripture ever dealt with you like that? You read a passage that speaks of the destiny of the believer, the wonderful promises that we are to come into a time of glory and great happiness, and you feel excited beyond description with what is waiting when God fulfills his word to you. Yet as you meditate upon it, and read further, you begin to understand that God has plans to change you to get you ready for that bright future, that you are going to be personally involved in that preparation. There are certain cherished attitudes and biases and bigotries that you are going to have to lay aside. There are bad habits that you must give up. It is not going to be easy. You will have to "pluck out your eye" (Mark 9:47) and "cut off your right hand" (Mark 9:43) in order to obey what God says. That is the pain of self-involvement. There is to be anguish. There is hurt in obeying the Word of the Lord -- but it is all part of his program. That is to see the whole thing. It is part of the fulfillment of the sweetness of the promises of God.

I have noticed that many read the judgments of Revelation and are virtually unmoved. They say, "That is going to happen to people in the end times, but it does not concern me. I am part of the church. We are going to be raptured before those days, so it does not touch me." They shrug their shoulders at these predicted judgments. But we are learning from this book that judgment does touch us, that God already has loosed judgments upon the earth and they find us right where we live. They invade our lives whether we like it or not. We flinch when the Word touches us personally, and we discover that we are part of the problem. We must be changed as well as others. The secret places of our heart must be searched out.

Recall that story of King David after his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband in order to take her for himself. He went on for a year after that, still reigning as king. He thought no one knew about it. He felt he had gotten away with it. But God spoke to the old prophet Nathan, and sent him to the king with a story of gross injustice in David's kingdom (2 Samuel 12:1, ff). He said that he had learned of a rich man who owned a large flock of sheep. This man wanted to entertain some friends one day and he looked next door and saw his neighbor's one little lamb that he had cherished as a household pet. Instead of taking a sheep from his own flock to feed his guests he stole his neighbor's lamb and served it instead. When David heard this he was righteously indignant. His sense of justice was aroused. Angrily he said, "Tell me who it is, and I will take care of him." The old prophet looked at him and said, "'Thou art the man!' (2 Samuel 12:7 KJV) That is what you did, David. You could have had as many wives as you chose (and David already had several) but you stole another man's wife. You are the man I'm talking about!" David suddenly was confronted with the fact that God's judgment had touched him as well.

Scripture occasionally does this to us. When it happened here to John, and he ate the scroll, it was sweet in his mouth but turned sour in his stomach. But only then was he given a new assignment! Verse 11 reports, "Then I was told 'You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.'" (By the way, the word is literally, in the Greek, "They said unto me." Who are they? Not the great Angel. We are not told who it was, but it probably looks back to the four living creatures of Chapter 4 because they are the ones who seem to call forth the action of this book.)

The principle illustrated here is very instructive. It means that after you have personally entered into the meaning of judgment; God has judged you as well as others; and you have felt the hand of God upon you, then, and then only, are you are prepared to speak to someone else about the program of God. John is given here the privilege of ministering again to nations and peoples and languages and kings. That new ministry covers Chapter 11, 12, 13 and 14. We are going to find a pronounced change of scene in Revelation at this point. John, as it were, is sent back over the terrible scenes of judgment to highlight, zoom in, as it were, on certain characters and personalities, and tell us more detail about them. It will involve, as it says, "peoples and nations and languages and kings." That is going to be the theme of the next chapters of Revelation. It is all yet to come, but it was only as he entered personally into the searchings of God that he is prepared to speak with impact to others. The last verse of the great hymn "May the Mind of Christ My Savior" is surely the message for this hour:

May his beauty rest upon me,
As I seek the lost to won.
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.

[Source]  

[Garland-Green]

The Last Warning

Read the Scripture: Revelation 11:1-19



Recently I enjoyed seeing the stage production of Les Miserables in San Francisco. I had read Victor Hugo's novel in a somewhat torturous experience of French when I was in college, but I did not remember anything but the main plot. The most memorable thing I learned was that the French do not care what you do as long as you pronounce it properly! But when I saw the play it all came to life. The characters took on real flesh and blood.

Recently I enjoyed seeing the stage production of Les Miserables in San Francisco. I had read Victor Hugo's novel in a somewhat torturous experience of French when I was in college, but I did not remember anything but the main plot. The most memorable thing I learned was that the French do not care what you do as long as you pronounce it properly! But when I saw the play it all came to life. The characters took on real flesh and blood. We were transported back to the stirring days following the French Revolution as the vivid staging of the play recaptured many colorful scenes from that novel. You may experience something of the same as we come to Revelation 11. Amidst the terrible judgments that are being poured out, the seals that are being opened, the trumpets that are blasting, we now turn to a more intimate scene. We zoom in, as it were, on certain personalities and characters on the stage of the last days which appear in flesh and blood. We learn more about how the program of God is going to be advanced and through whom it will be carried out.

As we have already seen, Chapter 11 is part of the interlude or intermission between the sounding of the sixth and seventh trumpets. The Apostle John is given a new assignment at this point. Last week we saw that, at the close of Chapter 10, he was given a little scroll of prophecy to eat. John ate the scroll, and that act of eating symbolized his becoming personally involved with God's program of restoration in the last days. From this point on in Revelation John is no longer a mere observer; now he must become part of the action. So, in Verses 1-3 of Chapter 11, John says:

I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, "Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count [or measure] the worshipers there. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles[or, as it is sometimes translated, "nations"]. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months." (Revelation 11:1-3 NIV)

The act of measuring a certain area is clearly a symbolic action. In the prophecies of Ezekiel and Zechariah, and even later on in Revelation, there are instances of measuring that occur. It is, of course, a sign of God's ownership. He is claiming the measured object as his to use, either for blessing or for judgment. That is the way we use measurement today. If you have a dispute with your neighbor over a property line, what do you do? You hire a surveyor who measures the property and establishes the boundaries. So here God has given the prophet a measuring rod with which he measures the temple and the altar, and even the worshipers who come there. But he is told to exclude the outer court of the temple.

It is clear that this is an earthly temple. Previously in the book we have seen a temple opened in heaven. There is a temple in heaven, the same temple that Moses saw when he was on Mount Sinai and was told to make an exact copy of that temple in building the tabernacle. But even the heavenly temple is symbolic for it pictures the true dwelling-place of God. At the end of this book we are going to see unmistakable evidence that the dwelling-place of God is man! We believers are the temple of God. Paul says so in his First Corinthian letter: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?" (1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV). We become the ultimate dwelling-place of God in his universe. That heavenly temple symbolizes the enormous dignity that God has conferred upon our race that we should be ultimately and for all time his dwelling-place.

But that temple in heaven, symbolic as it is of our humanity, is also pictured in the physical temple on earth. It is clear from the mention of "the holy city" here that this is a temple in Jerusalem. At the present moment there is no temple in Jerusalem. The last temple was destroyed when General Titus, the son of the Emperor Vespasian, came in 70 A. D. and surrounded the city with Roman armies, subjecting it to terrible cruelty. The siege was so severe that the people of the city ate their own children in order to survive. At last the Romans broke through the defenses of the Jews and completely demolished the temple. There has never been a temple there since. At the moment there are two buildings on that mountain top (Mt. Moriah). One is the Islamic Al-Aksa mosque, and the other, the most prominently visible building, is called the Dome of the Rock. It is the building with the golden dome and the bright blue sides that is the center of interest in almost all pictures of Jerusalem.

The destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D.
Painting by Francesco Hayez (1791-1882)

These buildings constitute a problem to the rebuilding of the temple. Since 1967, when the Jews recaptured the old city of Jerusalem, the Muslims have been allowed complete control of the worship on the Temple Mount. Neither Jews nor Christians are permitted to worship there now, only Muslims. A couple of years ago, in company with a Jewish friend, I went up on the temple mount and we tried to read the Bible and pray. Immediately we were spotted by Islamic guards who refused to let us continue because the Temple Mount is given over to the Muslims by the Jewish authorities. Islam regards it as the third most sacred site of their faith. Thus it becomes a real obstacle to any effort to construct a temple again on that site. As a matter of fact, most of the Jews that we have known in the Holy Land (and many Jews everywhere in the world today) consider it necessary to destroy somehow the Dome of the Rock in order to rebuild the Jewish temple on that site. But in the last 10 years a godly Jewish engineer (and a personal friend of some here), Asher Kauffman, has done exhaustive work in locating exactly where the ancient temple was built. He has discovered and proved to the satisfaction of a great many people that the temple was not built on the spot where the Dome of the Rock stands, but it actually was built just north of the Dome, in what is still an open, uncovered area, occupied only by a small shrine called the "Dome of the Spirits." If he is right, and there is a great deal of evidence that confirms that he is, it means that it would be possible for the Jewish temple to be rebuilt on Mount Moriah without destroying the Dome of the Rock. I mention this because it is relevant to the passage before us. If the temple is built north of the Dome again, the outer court of it would include the Dome of the Rock. Some commentators on Revelation are suggesting that Verse 2, where John is told to exclude the outer court because it has been given to the Gentiles (or the nations) for 42 months, is a reference to that area where the Dome of the Rock stands. I do not dogmatically assert that is the case, but it is very suggestive. At any rate, according to this passage, there will be some non-Jewish control allowed of part of the temple mount for 42 months.

Now 42 months is 3-1/2 years which, as most of you mathematicians will quickly recognize, is one-half of seven years. Of course, 3-1/2 years leaves two periods possible. Which half is this: the first half of the last week or the last half? From the statements given here in this text, I suggest that it is probably the first half of the week, for that would allow for the construction of a restored Jewish temple on the top of Mount Moriah. The fascinating thing is that there are several Jewish organizations in the Holy Land who are dedicated to an almost fanatical degree to reconstructing the temple on Mount Moriah. I have met them, talked with them, visited some of the preparations they have made for this event, and I personally know this to be true.

One of the most notable organizations dedicated to rebuilding the temple today is The Temple Institute.

They are, for instance, training a great host of young men to be priests in that temple. They are teaching them the ancient rituals and are preparing priestly garments for them to wear. I have seen some of these garments with my own eyes. They are getting ready, in other words, to put a functioning temple back on the holy mount. Whether it will be done before the church is caught away in the "rapture" I do not know. [Read about The Rapture and why it may not be true following this link]
It does not have to be done before that event, but also it may be rebuilt before that time. But this is why the eyes of the world are constantly focused upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. These two verses mark the fact that God himself is focusing upon that. He measures the temple and its altar. He says by that, "This is Mine. I intend to use it." It is a sign of his ownership in those last days. From Verse 3 through Verse 14 of this chapter we zoom in for a close view of two important personages who move in from the wings almost totally unannounced: The great Angel says,

"I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. (Revelation 11:3-6 NIV)

In one of Paul's great messages, recorded in the book of Acts, he makes the statement that God never leaves himself without a witness. Here, in the midst of the greatest time of apostasy that the world has ever seen, God still preserves a witness. It is manifest in the form of two individuals, two men, dressed in sackcloth (burlap, for you Baby Boomers). It was the traditional garb of a prophet when he was sent to declare some threatened judgment. These two individuals appear dressed in sackcloth because their ministry is to strip away the delusions, lies, and humanistic propaganda masquerading as the truth, which come from the Man of Sin in that day.

Jesus spoke of this temple and the Man of Sin, too. He said that the sign of the last days would be "when you see the abomination that causes desolation" (Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14) standing in the holy place. The holy place is the temple, and the abomination of desolation, which Daniel had predicted, is a description of the ministry and person of the Man of Sin, the antichrist. Paul tells us in his Second Thessalonian letter that "he will sit in the temple, magnifying himself as God," (2 Thessalonians 2:4). So the Lord Jesus and the apostle agree that a temple will be built on Mount Moriah, and will be occupied by the one whom John calls "the antichrist" (1 John 2:18.). We shall meet him again when we come to Chapter 13 for he is the beast that rises from the earth, as recorded in that chapter.

All of this is set against the dramatic background of the Man of Sin ensconced in the temple, claiming the worship of the earth for himself because, as representative man, he is really God. It is humanism raised to an infinite degree -- man is his own god. We hear a great deal of that today, but then it will be universally applauded. These two witnesses are allowed to witness for 1,260 days, i.e., 42 months, or 3-1/2 years -- half of the seven-year period. If the 42 months that the nations trample down the holy city is the first half of that period, as I think it is, then the change to 1,260 days as a time-designation here probably indicates that the witness of these two men is during the last half of the week, or throughout the great tribulation. The Lord Jesus told us that there is coming a time of trouble "such as has never been on earth before," (Matthew 24:21). Even the Nazi Holocaust cannot compare to it. That will be the last 3-1/2 year period of this seven-year section. So, as these two witnesses come onto the stage, we are at the beginning of the great tribulation. There are clues given to us now as to their identity:

First, we are told they are "two olive trees and two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth." It is easy to recognize the meaning of those symbols because Zechariah uses them as well. In Chapter 4 of his prophecy, we read of two olive trees that drip their oil into two lampstands as a witness to Israel in the prophet's day. In connection with that witness occurs the famous oft-quoted passage, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord," (Zechariah 4:6). So here we have two men who symbolically are like lampstands giving light in the midst of the darkness of earth. They are fed by the Spirit of God himself, for olive oil stands for the Spirit; thus their witness cannot be extinguished. They cannot be eliminated until their work is done. They are especially protected by God for fire comes out of their mouths to destroy anyone who tries to harm them. They are human flame-throwers!

That is strongly suggestive of the ministry of Elijah the prophet. In the book of Second Samuel we are told on two different occasions concerning the ministry of Elijah that the king sent a company of fifty soldiers to take him captive. Each time fire came down from heaven and destroyed them. This suggests therefore that one of these witnesses is Elijah, returned to earth. The book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, predicts that very thing. Malachi says, "See, I will send the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes," (Malachi 4:5 NIV). In the gospel of Matthew, at the account of the transfiguration of Jesus, as Peter, James and John came down the mountain after seeing Moses and Elijah there with the Lord, the disciples asked Jesus, "Why do the teachers say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus said in reply, "To be sure, Elijah will come and restore all things" (Matthew 17:11), but he explained that in a sense Elijah had already come, for John the Baptist had anticipated that prediction by his ministry in the spirit and power of Elijah. That does not mean, of course, that Elijah will not yet come. He will come, as the Lord Jesus indicated clearly. So it seems certain that Elijah is one of these two witnesses.

Who is the other? There are yet more clues. These men were given power, first, to suspend all rain upon the earth. That again reminds us of Elijah who had authority from God to withhold the annual rainfall. For 3-1/2 years it did not rain in Israel until he prayed and asked God to restore rain again. The two witnesses also had power to turn the waters into blood, and to bring plagues and diseases among the people. That looks back to the ministry of Moses. When Pharaoh resisted Moses' appeal to let the people of God go, Moses turned the waters into blood and called plagues down upon the Egyptians. That is why many expositors see these two witnesses as Moses and Elijah appearing again. Some say it is Enoch and Elijah, because those are the two men of the Old Testament who never died; they were caught up into heaven without death. In some of the earliest Christian writings there is reference to Enoch and Elijah as the two witnesses. It is not definitely certain, therefore, that it is Moses here, but for me the matter is settled when I remember that it was Moses and Elijah who appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. Peter tells us that was a picture of the coming again of Jesus. So now that we are considering here the coming of the Lord it seems most likely that it is Moses and Elijah who are the two witnesses. We learn more details of their ministry in Verses 7-10:

Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. (Revelation 11:7-10 NIV)

Notice the words, "when they have finished their testimony." No one can interfere until their work is done. But then "the beast from the Abyss" attacks them. That phrase "beast from the Abyss" takes us back to Chapter 9, Verse 11. There we saw the star that fell from heaven who was given a key to open the Abyss and out of it came terrible symbolic locusts. Their king, we are told, was from the Abyss. His name was Abaddon, which means "destruction," and Apollyon, which means "destroyer." It was evident, as we saw then, that this was Satan himself, the king over all the demons.

The Man of Sin, the Apostle Paul tells us, will be possessed of Satan. Just as Satan entered into Judas before his betrayal of the Lord, so Satan possesses the antichrist, this Man of Sin, whom we will learn much more of in this book. It is he who attacks these two witnesses and puts them to death. They have been a constant thorn in his side. They kept telling the truth to the people, pointing out to them what the actual program of God would be. They kept warning them that they were being deceived by the lies that were widespread in that day. This must have angered and enraged this artful propagandist who had all the world under his control except for those who believed the two witnesses. But now at last he is allowed to kill them.

Remarkably, that is the cause of a great celebration on earth. Even today when non-believers accomplish something that delights them they say, "Let's party!" Partying is the only way they know to celebrate -- and a great celebration breaks out in Jerusalem at that time. They refuse to bury these two men but gloat over their death and display their bodies for all the world to see. This seems to foresee the technology of television, for every nation, tribe, language and people gaze upon the dead bodies of these two witnesses. The city is here called "Sodom and Egypt;" Sodom, because of its corruption, and Egypt, because of its persecution. Yet it is clearly identified as the city "where the Lord was crucified." It is ironic that the hatred of the world against the cause of Christ reveals itself in a great party where people actually give gifts to each other, as at Christmas, in celebration of the deaths of these two witnesses who had been such a painful rebuke to their sinful practices. But God always has the last word, and in Verses 11-14 we learn what that is:

But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.
At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon. (Revelation 11:11-14 NIV)

Like their Lord before them, these two witnesses are privileged to pass through the same experience that he went through, in the same place -- the city of Jerusalem. They are cruelly killed, as he was killed, and are resurrected 3-1/2 days later, and ascend into heaven before the eyes of this startled crowd. Terror shivers through them as they watch. Twice we are told of the shaken fear they experienced. They feel the chill of their own defeat in what they see. Who can oppose a God of resurrection power? The worst anyone can do, Jesus said, is to put you to death, but after that, he declared, there is nothing more they can do. Not even death can hinder the carrying out of God's program!

The wonderful truth taught us here is that this is the destiny of everyone who believes in Jesus. We shall all die, except those that are caught up at the end, and even they are changed in the twinkling of an eye. If we die we shall be resurrected, and shall ascend into heaven to be with the Lord forever. So this is also the destiny of the two faithful witnesses. We need not be surprised that God takes care of his own this way, for he does this for all those who trust in Christ. It is also not surprising that "these who live on the earth" should feel terror when this happens. Who can defeat a God of resurrection? It brings to mind John Donne's splendid words:

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and Dreadful, for thou art not so.
For those whom thou dost think to overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me!

The hope of believers throughout the ages is that death cannot claim us finally. It must itself feel its own death in the lake of fire to come. That brings us again to the end of man's last rule on earth. A massive earthquake immediately strikes, just as it did at the crucifixion of Jesus and still again at his resurrection. It is centered now on Jerusalem. A tenth of the city collapses, and 7000 people die. There are other passages in the prophets that predict this same formidable earthquake. In Zechariah 14, the prophet announces that the Messiah will stand upon the Mount of Olives and when his feet touch the mountain it will separate in half. Half will move to the north and half to the south to create a great valley between. One can easily imagine what a massive earthquake like that would do to modern Jerusalem, with its population of almost a million people.

There is little doubt that this is literal since the largest earthquake fault on earth runs just east of Jerusalem, down the valley of the Jordan River. It is called the "Great Rift Valley," and it extends under the Dead Sea into Africa. It is the valley where the great African lakes, Lake Victoria, Lake Nyansa, and others are found. It is the line where the African continent butts up against Asia. We are familiar these days with the theory of continental drift and the movement of tectonic plates upon which the continents rest, so it is quite understandable that this would take place exactly as described. Immediately, the seventh angel sounds his trumpet. It brings us to the end of the trumpet series which is also the same end to which the seals and bowls bring us. Let us see what happens:

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:
"The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,
and he will reign for ever and ever."
And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:
"We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
the One who is and who was, (Revelation 11:15-17a NIV)

Notice the NIV properly omits the usual third phrase "and who is to come" Why? Because he has already come at this point!

"...because you have taken your great power
and have begun to reign.
The nations were angry; and your wrath has come.
The time has come for judging the dead,
and for rewarding your servants the prophets
and your saints and those who reverence your name
both small and great --
and for destroying those who destroy the earth."

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumbling, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm. (Revelation 11:17b-19 NIV)

We have seen these sights and sounds twice before. They mark the end of the tribulation period and the beginning of the millennium. These angelic voices proclaim the beginning of the reign of Christ on earth. They worship him because he has taken his great power and begun to reign, first, upon the earth for a period of a thousand years, as Chapter 20 of this book will tell us plainly. Then there will follow a brief rebellion, and then begins the new heavens and the new earth where Jesus continues his reign forever and ever, as this passage declares. Verse 18 is a condensed review of the tribulation and the whole millennial period. It begins with the anger and rebellion of the nations: "The nations were angry and your wrath has come." That looks back to Daniel's 70th week. Psalm 2 describes the same events.

Why do the nations rage and the peoples imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves
and their leaders take counsel
together against the Lord
and against his Anointed,
saying, "Let us break their chains asunder
and cast their bonds off from us." (Psalm 2:1-3 KJV)

That describes the great rebellion of the last days. How will God answer? "The day of his wrath has come," but it is also the day of judging the dead and rewarding his servants and the saints, both small and great, who honor the Lord. We learn from other Scriptures that the dead are raised at the beginning of the tribulation period. Paul describes it in First Thessalonians Chapter 4: the rapture of the church. [Read about The Rapture and why it may not be true following this link]
Then at the end of the thousand-year reign of the millennium, there is another raising of the dead -- the wicked dead who stand before the great white throne judgment. We will come to that later in the book.

Throughout this whole period the servants of God are being rewarded. Here is where we must insert the picture of Matthew 25, where Jesus says, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory he will sit on his throne and all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the sheep from the goats," (Matthew 25:31-32 NIV). He is judging the professed believers of that time, those who claim to be Christians. Remember the basis of his judgment? It is how people react to the helpless, the hopeless and the homeless. "Did you feed them?" he will ask. "Did you give them to drink? Did you take them in? Did you clothe them? Did you visit them when they were in prison? Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me," (Matthew 25:33-46). It is at the beginning of the millennium that this great judgment occurs.

Finally, we are told that God's temple in heaven is opened and the ark of the covenant is seen there. Don't look around for Indiana Jones! He was looking for the copy of this ark, but the true ark of the covenant is safely there in heaven as a guarantee that God has not forgotten his people Israel. The ark of the covenant always relates to that nation, so Chapters 12-14 will bring Israel again before us. For the third time we shall retrace these last 3-1/2 years of the tribulation until we come again to the lightnings, the rumblings, the peals of thunder, the great earthquake and hailstorm when the seven bowls of wrath are poured out in Chapters 15-16.

What a privilege God has given us to be able to read the last chapters of the history of the earth! You can read ahead and see where it is all going to end. The time is coming, this book teaches us, when Jesus shall reign over all the earth. Righteousness shall be the characteristic of the times, not unrighteousness as now. In that day: All drug traffic will cease, all abortion mills will be closed, divorce will be unheard of, families will live together in beauty, peace and harmony, wars will cease throughout the earth, crime statistics will drop to zero, sex scandals will never be known, truth shall be taught again in the schools, and many politicians and lawyers will have to find honest work! In the beautiful words of Scripture: "Righteousness will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea!" (Isaiah 11:9, Habakkuk 2:14). Let us not lose hope, but encourage one another with the certainty of the glory to come.

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