Lesson 3 Revelation Chapter 3

                                                           Revelation Chapter 3

Continuing on in the messages to the seven assemblies in Asia, we come to the fifth church to whom Jesus sent a message, Sardis. As with the previous assemblies, Sardis would have made a copy of the scroll and passed the original on to the next assembly. Each assembly would see not only the warning and the purpose of the warning to their personal assembly, but also what Jesus had to say to each of the other six assemblies. As these assemblies were formed at the beginning of the Church Age, much of what was contained in the letters was still future to their day. Though we live at the end of the Church Age, the letters were written for our learning as well (1 Cor.10:11).

The Body of Christ is one unity. Each message would be pertinent to every other assembly, even that which would seem more relevant as the prophetic history was worked in time through the Church Age. In the prophetic history laid out by Jesus, with the eyes of the understanding enlightened by the Holy Spirit, those of the assemblies could have seen the progress of the evils which had crept into the Church and the end result if they were allowed to continue. Heed must be given to the warnings. Heed was not given, as is evident by what can be seen as the Church Age draws to a close.

Sardis was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, one of the provinces of Asia Minor. The city was situated on a fine plain which was well watered by the river, Pactolus, famous for its golden sands. The inhabitants of Sardis bore an ill repute among the ancients concerning their licentious life style of giving pleasure through their senses.  Here again is the danger of mixing the worldliness of pagan thinking with the teaching of the Christ of the gospel of God. Care must be taken that worldly ways not be brought into the assembly. The Body of Christ is to remain separate, that the members might minister the pure Word of truth to the lost world.

Sardis would have received the scroll of the Revelation from the assembly in Thyatira. In the message to Thyatira was the warning against the idolatry brought into the Body of Christ. The end result would be that those continuing in the false teaching would not be taken out of the world when Jesus comes for His Body and Bride. The Body of Christ will have tribulation in the world, but not the Tribulation of judgment (Jn.16:33; 1 Jn.4:15-17; Rev.3:10). The Church who is Christian in name only will go into the Tribulation, the Great One.

There is a difference of opinion as to the meaning of the name Sardis. Some believe it to be “the red ones.” As its name implies, the “sardius” stone was discovered in Sardis. It was a blood-red stone and very precious. The sardius was one of the stones on the breastplate of the high priest of the Levitical order. It is more commonly known by the name “carnelian.” Other meanings of Sardis are “the remnant” or “the escaped.” Some believe that these last two meanings could be a reference to the few in Sardis who remained faithful to Christ.

The connection with the blood red stone after which Sardis was named could have been a constant reminder to the assembly in Sardis of the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel, who shed His precious blood to share Life everlasting with all men (see Is.28:16-17; 1 Pet.2:4-8). The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all unrighteousness (1 Jn.1:7; Rev.1:5). Life everlasting can be shared with the righteous.

“And unto the angel [or messenger] of the assembly in Sardis write, These things says He that has the Seven Spirits [or the Seven-fold Spirit] of God, and the seven stars. I know your works, that you have a name that you live, and are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, which are about to die; for I have not found your works perfect; that is, complete before God. Remember, therefore, how you have received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If, therefore, you shall not watch, I will come on you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I will come upon you” (Rev.3:1-3).

As we have seen from Revelation chapter 1, the “Seven Spirits” is really the Seven-fold Spirit of the Lord, a reference to the fullness of the Spirit of the Lord with complete wisdom and understanding and counsel and might and knowledge and fear of the Lord, as seen in the description given by the prophet Isaiah. The “fear of the Lord” is a reverential trust in the Lord. It is an Old Testament expression including a love of righteousness and a hatred of evil. It was in this fullness of the Spirit that Jesus had accomplished the Father’s work of redemption while He was upon earth in His mortal body (see Is.11:2; Heb.9:14).

When Jesus returned to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to the new Body of Christ, that He, as the Head of the Body, might continue to minister the works of God through the fullness of the Holy Spirit guiding the Body of Christ into all of the truth (see Jn.14:15-26; 15:26; 16:7-15; Ac.1:8; 2:1-18).

The members of the Body of Christ gather together in local assemblies. In the beginning of the Church Age each assembly had a leader or a minister, usually called an elder. In Revelation 1:20, the ministers are symbolized as “stars” and referred to as “angels.” “Angel” is a word for “messenger.” This symbol of “stars” stands for the shining forth the light of the gospel of Christ Jesus, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God through their earthen vessels (see 2 Cor.4:4-7).

These “star” angels delivered the good news of the finished work of redemption of Christ Jesus. Jesus Himself held the messengers in His right hand. There they would be kept in a place of power and honor and authority, and under the protection of Him who is the Head, and under the power of the Holy Spirit. As they ministered the gospel of Christ Jesus and Him crucified and raised from the dead, the power of their witness would be in the Spirit of Christ.

These leaders needed only to be filled with the Spirit. If they received the things of the Spirit, they would have the eyes of their understanding opened to know the will of the Lord (see Eph.5:1-18). The assemblies had everything needed to continue Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation. They would need only to follow the Spirit’s leading. The Spirit will testify of Christ Jesus. He will glorify Christ to them and take the things of Christ and show them to any learner of Christ (Jn.15:26; 16:13-15). They were to keep the Word of Christ, carefully watching and guarding over it to preserve it intact. But as we have seen in the letters to the first four churches, evil had been allowed to bring mixture into the assemblies of the Body of Christ, perverting the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

In His salutation to the assembly in Sardis, Jesus joins Himself and the Seven-fold Spirit, and the stars held in His right hand, the hand of His power. All three are united in the witness to the finished work of Christ. After His resurrection and forty days of teaching His disciples, Jesus ascended back to heaven to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on High, His Father (Heb.1:2-3). He and His Father then sent the Holy Spirit to the newly formed Body of Christ on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was given for power to witness (Ac.1:8).

Through the witness of the gospel of Christ, men would be given the hope of Life everlasting simply for believing into Jesus, the One whom God set forth as the Propitiation (Rom.3:21-26; 1 Jn.2:2; 4:9-10). Jesus Christ is the One in whom is the redemption of the mortal body. It was through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that the first assemblies had been established by the early apostles and through Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, and through Paul’s fellow ministers.

In Sardis was a deceived assembly. They professed to “live.” They had a name, a reputation, that they lived, but Jesus knew their true state. They were “dead.” They had never been made alive through the finished work of Christ Jesus. They remained as they had been born - dead in trespasses and sins. The eyes of their understanding had not been enlightened to see the will of God concerning Life everlasting and the finished work of Jesus Christ. They were trusting in their own works and Jesus could see right through them. Jesus took the pulse of the assembly and pronounced them dead. The Greek word has the meaning of “a corpse which has not been buried.”

What Sardis had was not Life everlasting in Christ Jesus, but a dead religion of works, which they named Christianity. Their works might seem perfect or complete to them, but they were not complete before God. Any assembly might take the name Christ or Christian and not have been united to Him in Life everlasting. That is Christianity as a mere religion.

The true Body of Christ is a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Cor.5:17). Each member alive through being born of the Spirit of God (Jn.3:3-8 ). Each one having obeyed the truth to purify his soul and be born of the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God (see 1 Pet.1:22-25).

The assembly in Sardis is in grave danger and Jesus, seeing it, warns them. Certain things must change in Sardis or there will be serious consequences. The leader and the members of the assembly must become watchful, and strengthen the things which remain. They must remember how they received those things and hold them fast, and they must repent or else suffer the consequences of a visitation of judgment. The assembly must have a change of mind concerning the things which were let slip away, things of the Spirit, the deep things of God, which only the Spirit knows. Things to which the eyes of man’s understanding must be enlightened. Things not seen in the sleep of death.

First, those of the assembly must become “watchful.” The Greek word is agrupaneo, and it expresses the idea of “wakeful.” It comes from two Greek words which, when put together, gives the meaning, “to chase sleep.” Paul wrote to the assembly in Ephesus, “Awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light” (Eph.5:14).

Some of the things Christ shared by the Spirit had become extinct, some of the things of this so great salvation in Christ Jesus were no longer being taught. This had all begun with those departing from the One who loved them and gave Himself for them. Leaving their First Love, which Jesus addressed in the letter to the assembly in Ephesus,  brought the deadness that caused the hands to relax and let go of the precious truths to be made known through the enlightening of the eyes of the understanding.

In the darkness, the knowledge of the glory of God is no longer seen. The light of the glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. There was no light of understanding through the Spirit of God. Men taught a dead theology and a god of man’s imagination. The theology was sourced in the spirit of this world.

But some things remained. These must be strengthened and once again established as the truth before they also become extinct. The leaders must wake up and be watchful of their responsibility to look to the Holy Spirit for guidance, and not to the commentaries on the Bible written by men. Though commentaries may be helpful and much can be gleaned, the teaching of men must not be allowed to take the place of the enlightening of the eyes of the understanding by the Holy Spirit. Knowing Christ is not just a matter of doctrine and theology.

This strengthening will be accomplished by “remembering” how they received those things by the hearing of the Word of God and how they heard. The early apostles and prophets, who had heard firsthand the words of Jesus, were sent to the ends of the earth with the message of the God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes into Him will not perish but have Life everlasting (Ac.3:13-20; 1 Cor.15:1-11; 1 Jn.1:1-4). These firsthand witnesses came to the Gentiles in Asia Minor that they might hear the gospel of Christ and be turned from darkness to light.

The Father, who sent His Son, had given the Son to have Life in Himself, that the Son might share Life everlasting with whosoever would believe the Father who sent Jesus (Jn.5:21-24). The one hearing this word of Christ Jesus, hearing and taking in, to buy the truth and obey what was heard,  would pass from death to Life everlasting. The one believing would not come into judgment. He that has the Son, through receiving Him to be his Life, has Life. He that does not have the Son, does not have Life (1 Jn.5:9-13; 4:7-17).

For the one confessing himself to have sinned and be in need of the cleansing of the blood of Jesus Christ, God is faithful (1 Jn.1:6-9). The blood of Jesus Christ, shed in death, cleanses from all unrighteousness. For the one believing into Jesus, sin has been put away once for all (1 Pet.3:18).

The assembly must remember how they heard, how the gospel of Christ had come to them in the power of the Spirit, so vibrant and loving that the words were Spirit and Life to them. They had eagerly listened, drinking in the words of the holy men who had come to share Life and Light with them.

The call of the gospel of Christ with its power of salvation had wooed them to believe and to turn from darkness to the Light. They had turned to God from idols, a work of faith. They began the labor of love to serve the living and true God and they had begun to patiently hope and wait for God’s Son to come down from heaven and to deliver them from the wrath to come.

Then came the sleep of death when the words that were Spirit and Life were set aside for the theology of God, the knowledge of God and Christ as man saw them. Now there must be a going back in memory. There must be a change of mind back to hearing and believing the words of Spirit and Life. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God must again be shined into hearts in the assembly to wake men up out of the sleep of death.

They must again strengthen and establish the teaching of the truth by the Spirit of God and of His glorifying of the Lord Jesus Christ to them. This must be a true repentance, a true change of mind, to hold fast the words of Spirit and Life to have the eyes of the understanding enlightened to the will of God concerning His Son in whom is Life. No man comes to the Father except through the Son (Jn.14:6).

If they do not chase sleep to become alert and alive to the spiritual realities, they will not have the hope of Jesus coming to deliver them from the wrath to come. They will find themselves in the midst of the coming judgment, and Jesus will come as a thief in the night. Suddenly He will be there and they will have been totally unaware that the hour had come for the enemies to be put out of the Kingdom, which has become of our God and His Christ (Rev.11:15). In that hour, the prophecies spoken by Jesus on the Mount of Olives will have their fulfillment (see Mt.24:3-51; Mk.13:1-37; Lk.21:5-37).

After commanding the assembly in Sardis to become watchful and the warning of what will happen if they do not, Jesus recognizes that there are a faithful few in the assembly. “You have a few names even in Sardis that have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy. He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white garments; and I will not blot His name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels” (Rev.3:4-5).

Jesus related the few to the overcomers. Sardis, the assembly which is dead, has a few names, a few who truly bear the name Christ. A few who truly Live, not in name only but, in truth, are Christ-ones, truly Christian. “The Lord knows those who are His,” Paul wrote to Timothy, “and let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim.2:19). Let him depart from what ought not to be. Let him depart from what is wrong. Let him depart from whatever is missing God’s goal for us. A few names in Sardis had done so.

“Garments” or “robes” or “raiment” are other words for “clothing.” The Greek word for “white” is “glistening.” The few will be clothed in glistening white clothing. The few will be walking with Jesus in their pure, white, glistening clothing. They are worthy. How did the few names become worthy to bear Christ’s name and walk with Him in their new glistening clothing? What is the clean glistening clothing?

In the beginning, God formed a body for the inner man, the person or the soul who thinks and feels and chooses. The inner man is clothed with the body (see Gen.2:7; 2 Cor.5:1-5). The first man was of the earth, earthy, a body of flesh and blood (1 Cor.15:49a). The life of the earthly body is in the blood (Gen.9:4; Lev.17:10-14). The earthly body is defiled. It is body of sin and death. It must be put off. When the earthly body is put off, one is left unclothed and naked, exposed.

Not one overcomer will be left naked. Each one will be given glistening, white clothing to walk with Jesus forever (Phil.3:20-21). Each one given a body undefiled with sin and death (1 Cor.15:49-57; Col.1:12-22). A body freed from the defilement of sin and alive out from the dead, alive forevermore. Each one is worthy to walk with Jesus in white, each one having overcome sin and death in Christ Jesus.

How did they overcome the deadness in which they were born of the flesh? They overcame through the blood of Christ Jesus. He loosed them from their sins in His own blood. This is the word of their testimony. When they heard the Word of Christ, who died for our sins and how He made us alive together with Him, they believed the God who sent Jesus. They put off the old man, their father Adam, and they put on the new man, Christ Jesus sent from heaven (Eph.4:21-24). For the few there has been a regeneration, “again becoming.” Once they were dead in trespasses and sins (Eph.2:1-3). Through obeying the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, the few purified their souls to be born of the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God. Together with Christ Jesus they have been raised up to walk in newness of Life everlasting (Rom.6:3-13).

Having been born from above of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, each one is registered in the Book of Life. When Jesus promised that He would not blot a name out of the Book of Life, it shows that the name is written there. What reason would there be to blot out a name written there? The only reason would be death. The overcomers are past death. They went into death with Jesus and came up alive forevermore.

Each overcomer is baptized into the Body of Christ (1 Cor.12). The entire Body together, united in the Spirit, is the Bride of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Each one is betrothed to Him. Jesus will present His Bride-wife to Himself holy and without blemish (see Eph.5:22-32). Each one will be in the new glistening body, a body of glory (Phil.3:20-21). He will present her faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24b). There before the presence of His Father and the holy angels round about the throne Jesus will joyfully confess each member of His collective Body to be His. He knows each one by name.

The letter to Sardis closes with the now familiar exhortation, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the assemblies” (Rev.3:6). What the Spirit has to say is of great importance. The Spirit speaks the truth concerning Christ Jesus, the only hope of Life everlasting. The Spirit speaks that to which one must hearken so that he can obey and purify his soul. One is to choose to not harden his heart against the voice of the Spirit. The end of disobedience is death. Both Life everlasting and death are set before man and man makes his choice.

Warning is given of the judgment coming closer and closer as the Church Age draws to a close. Yet all the way through, the Lord Jesus is for His own, and hope of Life everlasting is held out to those who repent. Promises are made to those who overcome in Christ Jesus, to those who will receive His Love and Life everlasting.

                                                                                   

Each member of His Body will be in Paradise with Christ, alive forevermore, with nothing to fear of the Second Death (Rev.2:7, 11; 20:6). Each one having been faithful until death receiving the Crown of Life, a body of glory. Each one a pure, living stone in the temple of the true Church (1 Pet.2:5). Each one accepted in the Beloved, and ruling and reigning with Him over the earth (Eph.1:2-2:22). Each one confessed as Christ’s own before His Father and the angels. Each one in the home prepared for the Wife of the Lamb, the New Jerusalem come down into the heavenlies (Rev.3:12; 21:2, 9-10). Seated in the heavenlies on the throne with her beloved Lord Jesus Christ is His Bride-wife.

We have seen in His letters to the seven assemblies in Asia that Jesus has been giving a prophetic overview of the entire Church Age. We see how the Church was led into the Dark Ages. From the beginning, the mystery of iniquity was working. Even in the Ephesian assembly, Satan was working to introduce the false priesthood of the Babylonian worship through the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. The separation of clergy and laity establishes a hierarchy. In the royal priesthood, the new kingdom of priests unto God, there is no hierarchy. Jesus is the High Priest and each one in the priesthood is family (Heb.10:19-22; 1 Pe.2:9; Rev.1:5-6; 5:5-10). Each one is a son of God.

It is in the letter to the assembly in Pergamum in which we see that the idolatry with the world had been brought in and they held the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, thus preparing the way for the Dark Ages (Rev.2:15). The assembly of Pergamum turned from the light of the knowledge of the glory of God seen in the face of Jesus Christ back to the darkness of religion.

In the letter to the assembly of Thyatira, there is “that woman Jezebel.” “Jezebel” stands for “Mystery Babylon, the Mother of Harlots” (see Rev.17:1-18). All religion is sourced in the mysteries of Babylon taught back in the days following the Flood, when the whole earth settled on the plain of Shinar and built the city and Tower of Babel (see Gen.11:1-9).

In church history, in 300 a.d., the Roman emperor, Constantine, made Christianity the state religion, bringing in Roman Catholicism with the mother-son cult of Semiramis and Tammuz. Mary and Jesus easily replaced the mother and son. The clergy, with its priesthood, replaced Jesus as the Head of His Body, His kingdom of priests. Rather than every believer in Christ Jesus being a priest, the “Christians” were mere laymen. “The Church” became the teacher and the authority over the members of the church.

God could not leave the world in the darkness of religion. He raised up men all over Europe to bring Christianity out of the “Dark Ages.” Men like Martin Luther in Germany, Savanarola in Italy, Wickliffe and Cranner in England, John Knox in Scotland, Calvin in France and Zwingle in Switzerland - all mighty men of the Reformation who protested the teaching of the Catholic church.

Through the Reformers there was a partial recovery of the teaching of the early church. The name of the movement tells all. It was a reforming of doctrine. It began well, restoring the teaching of justification through faith in Jesus Christ, salvation for sinners by the grace of God,  but fell short of completion. The church did not get free of the state. The churches in Europe, where the Reformation began, were held under the power of the state. In this way, they were under the power of unregenerate men at times.

Because there was not a complete separation between the church and the state, there was only a partial recovery of the teaching of the early apostles who had been taught firsthand by Jesus Himself. The truth was taught but not in purity. Established state churches led to denominations. Denominations wrote their own creeds which were to be quoted at the beginning of the service. Manmade prayers or the Lord’s Prayer were also quoted by rote at Sunday meetings. Prayer books replaced the Word of God. The congregation depended upon the minister or pastor as the authority, even though, with the invention of the printing press, God made it possible for “the laity” to have their own personal copy of the Bible.

With the emphasis on doctrine came the matter of being “learned” rather than the enlightening of the eyes of the understanding by the Spirit, who alone knows the deep things of God. Therefore what was left with a cold dead formalism rather than the love of God and the Life of the Spirit of Christ Jesus.

The reformed creed did not get freed from Rome in regard to the sacraments. The new theology was not entirely free of the Babylonish features of the sacraments. “Sacramentum” is the Latin word for “a mystery.” The distinguishing feature of the Babylonian system is the Chaldean Mysteries into which one must be initiated. Those initiates first partook of a supper. Thus the Lord’s Supper became a sacrament for the church, with the mysterious transubstantiation of the elements of wafer and wine into the body and blood of Jesus. A bath preceded the supper of the initiate. The church associated the bath with water baptism and called the baptismal ceremony a sacrament. Also, pagan festivals were Christianized and made “Christian holidays.” Pagan festivals are neither “Christian” or “holy”; they are pagan and unholy, ungodly.

The partaking of the bread and wine and baptism were meant to be symbolic. In a last supper with His disciples, Jesus instituted a simple memorial to His work of redemption and recovery (Mt.26:26-29; see 1 Cor.11:23-25). The following evening the Jews would be celebrating their annual Feast of Unleavened Bread with the roasted Passover lamb and bitter herbs as a memorial to their deliverance from the bitter slavery of the Egyptians. For Jesus’ memorial, He took “bread” as a symbol of His body to be given in death, that He might share the Life brought down from heaven in that body through resurrection out from the dead. Jesus Himself was the Lamb to be slain and roasted in the fire of God’s holiness as sin was burned out on that body on the Cross.

Jesus took “wine” as the symbol of His blood which would loose man from his sins. Wine is to make glad the heart of man. In taking the cup, one remembers the blood of Jesus shed, that he might have the joy of having been freed from the sin. All Jesus asked was to be remembered. There are no set rules to the memorial. There are no set times. Jesus simply said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He commanded His disciples to go to all nations, and teach them of Him, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Mt.28:18-20). Water baptism is an outward act, a symbolic profession of having heard the Word of Christ and having believed the Father, to put full trust in the Father and the work of His Son. Baptism is a witness to others, a witness that one has been raised up to walk in newness of Life and a profession of having been baptized into the new Body over which Jesus is the Head, and having been given to drink of His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. The one being baptized is a new creation in Christ Jesus and he desires to make it known.

Men are not born again through baptism. Water baptism is not regeneration. Neither is one sustained by the body of Christ in a sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Sin is not put away through priestly absolution or by intercession of saints or angels. When one is saved by God’s grace through faith in the Gift of His Son, the sin is put away once for all and the power of the sin is broken. He that has died with Christ Jesus is freed from the sin.

Any error, once having been introduced into the Church, the Body of Christ, has left its effect. The assembly in Sardis is a prototype of the church of the Protestant Reformation to come out of the Dark Ages. Speaking prophetically, Jesus warned of the things about to die, to become extinct. Jesus was speaking of the deep things of God, which the Spirit teaches, things which only the Spirit of God knows. These had been replaced with Chaldean Mysteries. In the dark Ages, the deep things of God, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God seen in the face of Jesus Christ, had almost been extinguished by the darkness of the Chaldean Mysteries, all lies.

The men raised up in the Reformation had restored much of the truth of Christ Jesus but not all. And the sacraments were kept and the creeds must be maintained, though written by men. This led to a profession of faith in Christ without Life everlasting. The name Christian was in contradistinction of sinners. One could be a Christian by baptism or by church membership or even by birth in a country where Christianity was the state religion. In this way, one has the name Christ but is yet dead. He has not been born again. This is mere Christendom, a religion of Christianity. The end of a mixture of the world with the church is seen in the letter to the assembly of Laodicea.

Though the evil one is at work to destroy the true Body of Christ, it yet Lives. All down through the Church Age, the Body of Christ has been added to daily, all over the world. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith (see Rom.1:16-17). When the last believer is added to the Body, Jesus will come for His beloved Bride to present her to Himself. We will see this in the assembly in Philadelphia, the assembly of brotherly love.

Since the first five assemblies take us to the period of the Reformation, we would expect the last two assemblies to picture the latter days, with the true Body of Christ, who has ever been faithful to hear what the Spirit says and who has held fast the name of Christ and not denied the faith, but preached the good news of the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus, the only hope of Life everlasting and the holy calling to become a son of God.

And alongside the true Body of Christ is Christendom, with its many branches, all from the same root. Both will continue until the end of the Church Age. Then the true Body of Christ will be removed before the last trial to come upon the whole world. “Christendom” will go through the trial. They are of this world. The true Body of Christ is not of this world. The members of the true Body of Christ have been translated out of the darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of God’s Love (Col.1:12-14; see also Heb.11:5-6).

                                                                                   

The sixth assembly to be addressed was in Philadelphia. “Philadelphia” has the meaning, “brotherly love.” At the last supper that Jesus shared with His disciples, He said to them, “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another” (Jn.13:34-35).

This shows us where this assembly fits in the prophetic foreview that Jesus placed into His letters to the seven assemblies. Philadelphia was a real assembly in Asia, as were the others. This assembly, however, is a type of the true Body of Christ, the Body with many members, both Jews and Gentiles, called out of the world to believe in the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Each one delivered from the power of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son (1 Cor.12:12-14; Eph.4:1-16; Col.1:2-22).

Jesus Himself built this, His Church, unto a holy temple of the Lord. Each member is a living stone (1 Pet.2:3-10; Eph.2:19-22). At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to indwell the temple (Ac.2:1-21; 1 Cor.3:16-17). The “true Church” is represented in its members. Collectively, they do not assemble together. They are spread out all over the world. They do not have a building for a meeting place. They are the temple of God.

When the last member is added and “His Church” is complete, Jesus will come in the air to take her to the place He went to prepare for her (Jn.14:1-3; 1 Thess.4:13-18). The home Jesus prepared for His Bride-wife is called the New Jerusalem above and also the holy Jerusalem (Rev.3:12; 21:2, 9-10). Once she is dwelling there, then, for the first time, the entire Body will be assembled together to remain together forever and ever.

In the meantime, the Lord, who is the Head over His Body, the “true Church,” can minister in the power of the Spirit through each member and reach people of all tribes and nations and languages (2 Cor.5:11-21). Until the time of Jesus’ coming, the Body will remain on earth. Each member born of the Spirit (Jn.3:3-8; Rom.8:9-11, 14-17). Each member of the Church over which Jesus is the Head has obeyed the truth to be born of the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God, which lives and abides forever (1 Pet.1:17-25). Each one, at the moment of believing, was baptized into the one Body and given to drink of the same Spirit (1 Cor.12:13). When the earthly tent, the body, must be departed at death, their persons will go to heaven to be with their Lord (2 Cor.5:1-8).

To the messenger in Philadelphia Jesus had John write, “And to the messenger of the assembly in Philadelphia write: These things says He that is holy, He that is true, He that has the key of David, He that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens” (Rev.3:7).

Jesus addresses this assembly as they know Him. Jesus is not just saying that He is holy and He is true. He is the Holy One. The members know Jesus as the Holy One of Israel. And He is the True One. They know Jesus as the true Lord from heaven, the genuine, anointed begotten Son of God, sent from heaven by the Father.

The “Holy One,” the “True One,” the “One who has the key of David” are all titles relating to the people of Israel and to their King. Why did Jesus use these titles when addressing the true Church, His Body, over which He is the Head?

Before the eternal ages, the Lord God had a purpose in His only begotten Son. God purposed that His one begotten Son would bring many sons to glory (see Tit.1:2; 2 Tim.1:9-10; Heb.2:5-10). The plan would take two men and two creations and two called-out assemblies and two comings of the Son of God to the earth. The plan would be carried out in stages through long ages of centuries.

God began with a creation of man of human flesh, of the earth. The Lord God Himself formed the body of the dust of the ground and breathed into the nostrils the breath of life (Gen.2:7). The life of the body of the earth is in the blood and is sustained with the breath of life. In the end, the body would be God’s means of uniting man to Himself to have man in His image (Phi.3:20-21; Rom.6:5; 8:29).

When mankind was tested in the first man and woman, God’s creation of human kind proved to be lawless. “By one man, the sin came into the world” (Rom.5:12a). Sin is lawlessness (1 Jn.3:4). Sin is man having his will over the will of his Creator for him.

God had given man one command: “Do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” (Gen.2:17). For disobeying the command, the penalty was death. The two, who were one flesh, did eat, and they did die. Death passed upon all men. For all sinned in their representative man, Adam (Rom.5:12b). And all proved to be lawless (Rom.3:23). It was made known that the seed of man is corruptible seed, to reproduce willful mankind (see Gen.5:3; Eph.2:1-3; 1 Cor.15:50).

As time went on and man began to multiply upon the earth, the lawlessness filled the earth with violence and corruption. God had to destroy His creation with a judgment of a flood of waters and wash His earth clean. He must begin again with one man.

God had one righteous man, Noah, who was faithful to Him. Noah had three sons, who were married, but had not yet produced sons. To preserve his family alive through the judgment of the Flood, God had Noah build an ark (see Gen.6:8-8:18; 1 Pet.3:20; 2 Pet.3:4-6). 

In the new beginning, the Lord God had put the government of society on earth on the shoulders of man (Gen.9:5-6). Once men began to again multiply upon the earth, one of Noah’s great grandsons led all of Noah’s extended family in a rebellion against the will of God. Nimrod began building a kingdom for himself. It was seen that, in the creation of mankind, there are leaders and there are followers. Leaders can be corrupt, and power can and does corrupt.

To end the united rebellion against Him, the Lord God separated the families and tribes of Noah and put them into geographical locations to grow into nations and kingdoms (Gen.10:32; Deut.32:8). In the end, God purposed to have one Kingdom of inhabitants of the whole world, a kingdom of righteousness and peace. God would need a righteous nation as the head nation through whom He would rule upon the earth in the Kingdom of righteousness and peace.

Again God began with one man, Abraham, whom He called from the land of the rebellion, Ur of the Chaldeans (Gen.12:1-3; see Ac.7:2-53). Abraham was a Shemite. From the prophecy given Noah concerning his sons, the Lord God had chosen Noah’s son Shem through whom He would bring to pass His purposes (see Gen.9:26-27).

With Abraham, God gave him a son in a supernatural conception (Gen.17:15-19; 18:10-12; 21:1-7; Rom.4:16-22; Heb.11:11-12). The son was to be named Isaac. Isaac was the true son through whom God would bring His purposes to pass. Isaac had two sons and the Lord chose the younger son to be progenitor of His nation (Gen.25:23; Rom.9:10-13).

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the forefathers of the nation which God made for Himself. The Lord sent the family of Jacob down to Egypt to keep them separate and safe from the corruption of the inhabitants of Canaan. In time, God sent His people, the sons of Israel, a redeemer-deliverer and called them forth from Egypt (Hos.12:13; see Gen.46:1-Ex.12:51).

Then God had His first called-out assembly through whom He could work out His planned purpose. God built His nation into a kingdom and gave David, the man after His own heart, to be the king (see Ac.13:22-23). Through His nation, the kingdom of Israel, God would have His second man, through whom He would have a new creation of sons of God in His image. Through the one Person of the Godhead, the Son, God would have born sons of God, righteous, obedient sons.

A body must be prepared for God’s second man. God’s second man would be Seed-Grain for bodies of flesh in which death has no part; that is, a forever living body of glory. The humanity, the earthen body of the second man, would be from the egg of a daughter of Abraham, whose father was a descendant of King David. In this way, through the daughter, the second man, the Lord from heaven, would be a son of Abraham and a son of David (see Mt.1:1; Lk.1:27-33; 3:31-34; Rom.1:3).

The daughter must be a virgin, that the Seed-Grain be holy and pure (Is.7:14). The Life for the conception in the womb would be the Life of the Father God. The conception would take place through the Spirit of God overshadowing the virgin. In this way, the Seed-Grain was prepared and a God-Man was birthed (Lk.1:26-35; see Jn.1:1-14; Heb.10:5). As the Seed-Grain, Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man. He was united to man in a body of mortal flesh, of the earth, earthy (Rom.8:3; Heb.2:9-17).

The Seed-Grain must die in order to reproduce after its kind - sons of God (Jn.12:23-27). Jesus laid down His life on the Cross (Jn.10:17-18). He was nailed to the Cross. He did die. But He Himself exhaled His last breath and committed His spirit unto His Father (Lk.23:46).

Jesus was delivered for our offenses and He was raised for our justification (Rom.4:25-5:11). The Seed-Grain was buried and on the third day, out of the Life of the Seed-Grain, came the forever living body, the begotten Son of God, the First Begotten from the dead, in a heavenly body (see Lk.24:13-43). The Holy One of Israel, birthed of a virgin, become the First Begotten Son from the dead, the First of many brethren. As the Seed-Grain, the begotten Son would bring many sons to glory, many sons begotten from the dead (Heb.2:11).

The Seed-Grain could be planted in the heart of man’s earthly bodies. Through the gospel of Christ all mankind is called to become a son of God (Jn.1:9-18; Rom.1:16; Tit.2:11). Through hearing the word of Christ, the Word who is God become flesh, one is given the choice of believing the One who sent Him. The Seed having been planted,  the one believing in his heart the truth of the Word become flesh as the Seed-Grain for the fruit of many sons of God and receiving the Seed-Grain as his only hope of a forever living body, passing from death to Life everlasting, is born of the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God (see Mt.13:3-23; Jn.5:24; 12:23-24; Rom.8:28-30; 1 Pet.1:17-25).

In the Seed-Grain, the Lord had His second called-out assembly, the true Church, over which He is the Head,. Together, each member, joined in the Spirit, makes up the Body. The Church did not come out of Israel. The Church is out of Christ’s death. Each one is brought forth through the Seed-Grain. Each one baptized into Jesus and united with Him in burial and raised up together with Him a son of God and a new creation and a new called-out assembly (Rom.6:3-10; 1 Cor.12:12-13; 2 Cor.5:17). The new called-out assembly was baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Ac.1:5-8; 2:1-4).

It is the new called-out assembly, the true Church, who has the Light of Life, and each one knows the Holy One of Israel to be Jesus of Nazareth. They know personally the true One, the only Begotten of the Father. They know that He is the key to the throne of David. They know that the Kingdom of righteousness and peace will not be established upon this earth until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to earth. They know from Daniel’s prophecies and other prophecies that Jesus will not return to establish His Kingdom until after the time of trial to try the whole earth (Dan.7:9-27; 9:24-27; 12:1-12; Mt.24:15-25:46). The last three and one-half years of that trial will be Jacob’s Time of Trouble, the Tribulation, the Great One.

These truths are to be carefully watched over and preserved by the Body of Christ. For this reason Jesus addressed Himself to Philadelphia as they know Him, and as the Truth which they are to preach to preserve the truth of Jesus of Nazareth.

In His foreknowledge, God had foreseen Israel delivering up her Prince and Savior (Ac.2:22-23). He would set His elect nation aside for a time. In the meantime, He purposed a second called-out assembly. The new assembly is for a Body and Bride for His Son, the Christ, called out of both Jew and Gentile (see Eph.1:2-23; 4:4-6; 5:23-32; Gal.3:26-29). Men have mistakenly believed that the new called-out assembly was meant to replace the nation of Israel. This has led to theological theories and the error of the Church replacing Israel and in the false teaching that God’s promises to Israel would be fulfilled as spiritual to the Church.

In eternity past, God had Israel’s sin covered in His own Covenant with Himself. God established His Covenant upon earth in Abraham and in Isaac and in Jacob. As Peter proclaimed on the Day of Pentecost, “Him [Jesus of Nazareth, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain; whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it” (Ac.2:23-24).

God’s two called-out assemblies are distinct from one another. The first, the sons of Israel, were called out of Egypt and made a nation of God’s own choosing. The nation of Israel was formed of the physical seed of Abraham through his son, Isaac, and grandson, Jacob. The nation would bring forth the Christ. In the Millennial Kingdom, the nation will be the Head of all nations. God has a promised end for His nation.

Jesus was born the Heir to the throne of David (see 2 Sam.7:8-29). The kingdom of Israel, the household of David, was secured in God’s second man, come down to the world through birth in His First Coming. The writer to the Hebrews has made clear that it was by means of Jesus’ death that the transgressions under the First Covenant made with Israel, that those who were called would receive the promises of their everlasting inheritance (Heb.9:15; see Gen.13:14-17). Just as with His second called-out assembly, it was through Jesus’ death that God had His first called-out assembly covered.

To fulfill her purpose in the Kingdom of righteousness and peace, Israel must be a holy nation (Is.1:25-2:5; Ezek.39:25-29). There must be a regeneration of the nation of Israel. The two houses, the House of Israel [Ephraim] and the House of Judah must be reunited and healed of sin-sickness (Ezek.37:1-28; Heb.2:17). Then a regenerate Israel will become the head nation in the Kingdom.

For God to have a holy regenerate nation for His Kingdom of righteousness and peace, an acceptable Sacrifice must be made to finish transgressions and put away sin (Dan.9:24; Heb.9:14). God Himself must furnish the Sacrifice with power to put away sin once for all (Heb.10:1-14). Isaiah prophesied of the Sacrifice offered to God in the stead of the nation of the sons of Israel. Their own King would make Himself an Offering to take away the sin of His people (see Mt.1:18-21).

Isaiah 53 is a very familiar passage to Christians. It prophetically describes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son. “Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed” (Is.53:4-5). Isaiah is speaking of God’s people, Israel. (It is of great profit to study the triad of chapters  52, 53 and 54 of Isaiah.)

In another prophecy given through the prophet Isaiah God revealed how He Himself would establish His Covenant in His Son. In the days of King Ahaz, the Lord sent word to the House of David, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Is.7:14). “Immanuel,” meaning, “God with us” (Mt.1:23).

The virgin’s Son is the Surety of God’s Covenant. The sure mercies of David are secured in Him (see Ac.13:22-39). There will be a Kingdom of righteousness (Is.9:6-7). This is to be the end of God’s Covenant Plan. The time will finally come when there is the Kingdom on earth in which all of the families of the earth will be blessed, the Kingdom to last forever and never be replaced (Gen.13:15; 17:7-8; Dan.2:44-45; 7:13-14, 27).

As God promised, He did send His Son to His people (Jn.1:11; Rom.9:4-5). He sent Him as He said, become under a Woman, His nation (Gal.4:4). Jesus came  the Son of Abraham and the Son of David according to the flesh, born of a virgin of the House of David.

The virgin, whose father was of the seed of Abraham through the tribe of Judah and House of David, furnished the humanity of Jesus’ mortal body, but the conception was of the Father God, who gave the Life for the conception (Lk.1:30-35; see Heb.2:15; Rom.8:3). A God-Man was born, the only one of His kind (Jn.1:14; 1 Tim.2:3-6; 3:16). The only One truly Man and truly God. The only One who could go into the death of the mortal body and be raised up from the dead to never die again (Ac.2:22-24; Rom.6:3-10; Heb.9:23-28).

God’s people did not receive the Gift of Life and Light sent to them from the Father God (Jn.1:11). They delivered Him up to be crucified, and the Romans put Him to death, although their own Governor, Pontius Pilate, tried Jesus and could find no fault in Him (Jn.18:38-19:16; 3:13-21). The dead body of Jesus was given to a clean man, Joseph of Arimathea and his friend, Nicodemus, who carefully prepared the body for burial and laid it in Joseph’s tomb (Jn.19:38-42).

Since Jesus was the Son in whom God’s Covenant was established, and since Jesus was the Surety of the mercies of David, where were the mercies of David then? Buried in a tomb in a Garden.

The whole Covenant plan was first laid out to man in a Garden in Eden (see Gen.3:15-21). Was this then the end of the Covenant plan? to be buried in a Garden? The rulers of the Jews insisted the tomb be shut up and sealed (Mt.27:62-66). Were they then sealing their own doom?

Death and tombs hold no power over God. By His Spirit, the Father raised Jesus out from the dead (Rom.1:1-4). By His Spirit God raised Jesus, the anointed Son, the Firstfruit of the resurrection (Rom.8:10-11). Christ is the First Begotten from the dead, alive in the heavenly body raised up out from the dead Seed-Grain, the Firstfruit (1 Cor.15:20-28; Jn.12:24).

As the Son of David, Jesus came into being under the Law. Jesus was the only Son of Man who perfectly obeyed the Law. Jesus was begotten from the dead according to the Law (see Lev.23:5-14). Jesus died on the 14^th of Nisan for our sins according to the Scriptures [of the Law]. He Himself was the Passover Lamb, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn.1:29). He was buried on the 15^th of Nisan, the Bread of Life, that if any man eat, he will live forever. He was raised on the third day, the 16^th, according to the Scriptures, the Firstfruit of those who die in Jesus (1 Cor.15:3-4). Jesus is the assurance of a forever living body for whosoever will receive the Love Gift of the Father set forth for a Propitiation (Rom.3:19-26; 1 Jn.2:2; 4:9-10). In Him is the redemption (Rom.8:23; Eph.1:7; Col.1:12-15; Heb.9:11-15). Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law of the Sacrifices and Offerings.

What of the sure mercies of David? Were they opened when the tomb was opened? No. The kingdom of the House of David must remain shut for a time (Rom.11:1-12).  But the throne of the kingdom of this world is assured forever in the Son begotten from the dead, the Firstborn of all creation. The throne of the House of David is secured forever. So it is recorded by the psalmist, “The Lord has sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it: of the fruit of your body will I set upon your throne” (Ps.132:11). God has promised to bless Zion [the poetic name for Jerusalem] and make the horn of David to bud (see Ps.132:12-18). In the day of Christ’s power, the people will turn to Him. They will be willing for a New Covenant (Ps.110; Jer.31:31; Heb.8:8).

When the remnant of Israel looks on Him whom they have pierced, they will have the proof that Jesus of Nazareth is the true Son of David and the promised Heir to the throne of David (see Zech.12:10-14:21; Rom.1:3-4; Rev.1:7-8). When Israel no longer shuts Jesus out, Jesus will open the Kingdom of righteousness and peace and they will be the head of the nations of the world Kingdom of the Lord God Almighty and His Christ Jesus. Jesus not only holds the key of David, He is the Key.

In the meantime, Isaiah prophesied of the Water of Life everlasting to flow from the opened side of Jesus. Jesus is pictured in the Old Testament as the Rock struck (Ex.17:1-7; Ps.78:15-20; Jn.7:37-39; see 1 Cor.10:1-6). In verses 1 through 4 of chapter 55, Isaiah prophesies of the invitation of the gospel of Christ being sent to the ends of the earth. In the prophecy, the Lord makes clear that He will make an Everlasting Covenant with His people. As the psalm of the Covenant established in David, Psalm 89, claims, God will make His firstborn higher than the kings of the earth. He will not take His loving kindness from His people. He will not allow His faithfulness to fail. He has sworn in His holiness and He will not lie unto David. David’s throne shall be established forever.

In his prophecy in chapter 55, Isaiah spoke of the Everlasting Covenant and the sure mercies of David, then he spoke of the Lord giving the Holy One of Israel for a witness to the peoples to also be the Leader and Commander of all nations in the end, when all the families of the earth are blessed (Is.55:3-5). “The people,” singular, is a term for “Israel.” “Peoples,” plural, is used for “all other families of the Gentiles.”

The Firstborn of all creation has another realm of rule - the heavens (see Gen.1:1; Ps.102:25-26; 103:19). During the Church Age, the Father is seeking a Bride for His begotten Son. With the ascension of Jesus back to heaven, the Bride is being called. A new age is begun. The Bride is the Church built by Jesus Christ as a godly house, built of both Jews and Gentiles (Gal.3:26-29; Col.3:1-11; see Mt.16:13-19). Jesus Christ is building His own Household, “whose House we are” (Heb.3:1-6).

At the end of the Church Age, the sure mercies of David for the families of all the earth to be blessed will be given to the peoples, all peoples of all nations. Nations will run unto Israel to seek her Lord, the Holy One of Israel and the Lord her God (see Is.55:1-13; 60:1-3). In the meantime, the Holy Spirit takes the gospel of Christ Jesus to the ends of the earth through the members of the Body over which He is the Head (see 2 Cor.5:11-21).

Jesus wrote to the assembly in Philadelphia, the assembly which is representative of His Body, the Church, over which He is the Head, “I know your works; behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it; for you have a little strength, and have kept My Word and not denied My name” (Rev.3:8).

Jesus had no rebuke for this assembly. He had opened the door for the gospel of Christ to go out to the ends of the earth. That door, now opened, no man could shut. The work of redemption having been finished and the Head of the assembly, having returned to heaven, Jesus now has the members of His Body to spread the word of the good news, with the Holy Spirit as the power of their witness. The Gentile nations would be given the hope of Life everlasting in the Eternal Covenant. No man will be able to shut the testimony of Christ Jesus up, even if at times the church must go underground. Even when underground, the testimony continues to be witnessed, to bear the fruit of sons of God.

The word for “strength” is the Greek word for “power.” Looking on to the end of the age, Jesus said, “You have a little power”; that is, comparatively. At the end of the age there will be less power than at the beginning. As the age nears the end, there is a decline in the power of the gospel of Christ Jesus. As the end nears, there is a decline in numbers in the members of the true Church, the Body, over which Jesus is the Head. The true Church will continue to stand for the truth, fighting the good fight of the faith and not denying Jesus’ name, still preaching that Jesus of Nazareth is the Holy One of Israel who is coming again in power and great glory to establish His Kingdom in Israel.

All through the Church Age the members of the Body of Christ, with the members all over the world, have kept the word of Christ. The Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Christ. The testimony to “the Word,” Christ, can be followed all through the Scriptures. All through the Scriptures is the witness of God, who has testified of His Son, “He that believes into the Son of God has the witness in himself; he that does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he does not believe the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God has given us Life everlasting, and this Life is in the Son. He that has the Son has Life; and he that does not have the Son of God does not have Life. These things I have written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have Life everlasting” (1 Jn.5:9b-13).

And the members of the Body of Christ who have the testimony of the Word and the power of the Spirit to witness have not denied the name of Jesus. They testify to the Man Jesus Christ as the One Mediator between God and Man, and as the Holy One of Israel, the Christ, who has redeemed Abraham’s and David’s inheritance for the sons of Israel (Heb.9:11-28; Is.49:8). The true members of the Body of Christ have held to Jesus being the true Son of God, who was conceived of the virgin Mary through the Life of the Father. They have held onto Jesus being the only way to the Father and that there is Life for believing into His name (Jn.14:6; 20:31). Each one of the members knows this to be true and would never deny it to be so. They would willingly die for His name’s sake.

The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to whosoever believes (Rom.1:16). The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. It is shined into the hearts through the gospel of Christ. Each member has this knowing of Jesus Christ. This treasure is in earthen vessels, “that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us “ (see 2 Cor.4:5-7).

Jesus promised the assembly of Philadelphia, “Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you” (Rev.3:9).

Judaism in Jesus’ day was a religion mentored by the evil one, the Devil, whom Jesus called the Jews’ father in John chapter 8 (see Jn.8:33-59; Mt.15:1-9). From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the rulers tried to discredit the teaching of Jesus and be done with Him. After Jesus had ascended back to heaven, their focus became His new Body, the Church. The Jews tried to destroy those of “the Way,” which was how the members of the Body of Christ who were preaching Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God, the Way, the Truth and the Life were known (see Ac.8:1-4; 9:1-2). And false brethren entering the Church tried to mix the Law in with the teaching of the finished work of Christ. That is blasphemy. It is blasphemy to add to what Jesus alone could accomplish.

Jesus having been crucified and raised from the dead was the fulfillment of the Law. The Law and the prophets witnessed to the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ apart from the Law (see Rom.3:20-26). The Law had been added to the promises given to Abraham, but only added until Abraham’s Seed, Christ, came (Gal.3:19-29). The Law, with its shadow figures, was intended to authenticate Israel’s coming Messiah, that the Substance would be recognized when He came. Once the Law had been completed, the Substance now having replaced the shadows, the shadow ceremonies could be and would be done away. Having served their purpose, they were no longer needed.

In 70 a.d. God allowed the whole system of Jewish worship to be destroyed with the temple in Jerusalem being totally taken apart, not one stone left standing upon another, as Jesus had prophesied (Mt.24:1-2; Mk.13:1-2). The city of Jerusalem was also destroyed and the Jews were dispersed throughout the world (Lk.21:20-24). This was the clear evidence that God was finished with the works of the Law as ruled over by men mentored by the evil one.

God pronounced His judgment on the false system of the religion of Judaism. Without the temple, there was no place to carry out the works of the Law. The evil one, as is his way, used the judgment to spread lies, claiming the destruction was evidence that God had cast off His people. Through those he mentors, Satan has persuaded men to believe that the destruction by God of the perverted system of the religion of Judaism was a punishment on Israel for her sins. These claim that God has taken the kingdom away from Israel and given it to Christ and His new called-out assembly, the Church. Their claim is that the Church is spiritual Israel and all of the Kingdom promises will be fulfilled spiritually in the new spiritual Israel, whom they consider the true Israel. This is not true, as the Old Testament witnesses. Also, the teaching of Paul must be twisted to prove such a point. Sad to say, some who are truly members of the Body of Christ have bought this lie. See chapters 9, 10 and 11 of Romans for Paul’s teaching on this.

This error of thinking was brought into the Church of Christ by false prophets. It is a blatant perversion of the words of Christ. This error has taken different forms down through the years concerning lost tribes, as in the ten who had divided themselves off from the House of David after Solomon’s reign. The latest in our day being Replacement Theology, the teaching of liberal intellectuals. Replacement Theology’s teaching is, with the Church being spiritual Israel, thus replacing Israel in God’s plan, there is really no further need of Israel.

In these last days, there is even more mixture of thinking in the teaching of God and Christ; Christianity taking many forms. And as there are many forms of the religion of Christianity in the world of Christendom, there are also many forms of Judaism as a religion.

Though there has been opposition to the gospel of Christ and to the light of the knowledge of the glory of God seen in the face of Jesus Christ, no man has been able to shut up the opening made through the wounded side of Jesus, that the Water of Life everlasting may flow freely. By that one will, the will of Jesus Christ, each one having believed into Jesus is sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all. By the One Offering He has perfected those that are sanctified (see Heb.10:1-18). By that same Offering Jesus redeemed Israel’s inheritance. Abraham will have his nation. David will have his kingdom. The purpose of the First Coming of Jesus was for redemption. The Second Coming will establish the Kingdom upon earth.

Though the Church had to remain a mystery that could not be made known until the resurrection of Jesus, Scripture teaches of God having two called-out assemblies. God created the heavens and the earth two realms. From the beginning, He purposed to have these two realms under His sovereignty. Each assembly is to be the subjects of one of the realms of the Kingdom.

In the one kingdom of this world upon earth with Israel as the head nation, a regenerate nation, God will fulfill His promises to both Abraham and David. David will be the representative king (Jer.30:9; Ezek.34:23). The Old Testament saints will have been raised up and in their resurrected bodies, as well as the saints who died during the Great Tribulation. These - along with the remnant of Israel, one-third of the Jews who survive the Tribulation, and the Gentile nations invited into the Kingdom - will be the subjects of the earthly realm (see Job. 19:25-27a; Is.26:16-27:13; Ezek.36:24-37:28; Dan.12:1-3, 12-13; Zech.13:8-9; Mt.25:31-34). And all the families of the earth will be blessed and Abraham will be the father of many nations.

Above, as a glory cover (Is.4: 2-6), is the holy city of the heavenly Jerusalem, the  home of the Wife of the Lamb. There will be the throne of the Sovereignty of the whole created universe (Rev.21:9-22:5). There with her Husband, the Lamb, The Bride-wife will live and reign with her husband (Rev.5:10).

At the time of the early Church the Jews, who met in synagogues, persecuted and tried to destroy the new Body of Christ. When Jesus has returned to set up His Kingdom of righteousness upon earth, and the home of the Lamb and His wife sits like a glory cloud over the New Jerusalem, the city of God below, the Jews will be at the feet of the Church as the Bride-wife.

Once the Jews recognize that Jesus is their Messiah and mourn for Him whom they have pierced and receive Him as their King, with the Kingdom promised them now a reality, they will no longer be under the perverted religion of Judaism, which Jesus called the synagogue of Satan. Jesus said they would come and worship before the feet of the Church, whom He dearly loves and gave His life for.

The Greek word for “worship” in Revelation 3:9 has the meaning of showing “honor and respect.”  No longer under Satan’s thinking, the Jews will gladly honor the Lamb’s Wife. In that day, all will understand the purpose of the two assemblies.

Jesus had another promise for those of the assembly in Philadelphia. “Because you have kept the word of My patience, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which shall come upon all the world, to try those that dwell upon the earth” (Rev.3:10). The Greek preposition is ek, and so the verse reads, “keep you out from the hour“ (1 Thess.4:13-18; 1 Cor.15:51-57; see also 1 Jn.4:9-18).

Since the time Judah was taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, judgment has been prophesied as a day of vengeance for the Lord Jesus Christ to come and destroy His enemies. The Old Testament prophets referred to the coming judgment as the Day of the Lord. The judgment did not come immediately after the rejection of their Messiah-King by the Jews. The coming judgment is to be upon the whole world. The Gentiles must be given an opportunity to hear of the finished work of Christ. Before they are judged, they must be given opportunity to repent (Eph.2:11-18). After the gospel has gone to the ends of the earth, all the world can be judged.

The trial is coming upon the whole inhabited earth to “test those that dwell upon the earth,” Jew and Gentile. In His letter to the assembly in Pergamum, Jesus had warned that the things which they are permitting to come in and mix with the truth must be repented or else they will find themselves at enmity with Christ, who will fight against them with His words of judgment (Rev.2:16).

The assembly in Thyatira also was warned that if she did not repent, she would be cast into the Tribulation, the Great One, and the children that she had fostered would be killed with death (Rev.2:22-23).

The assembly in Sardis had been warned to “wake up from the dead,” that Christ might give them light. They were to repent and start watching for the Lord’s coming for them. Otherwise they would go through the time of trial and miss the coming of the Lord for His own. They would then see Him come after the trial, when He will come as a “thief in the night” (Rev.3:2-3).

The coming trial is to test the heart of man. It will come down to each individual answering the question, “What do you think of the Christ; whose Son is He?” (see Mt.22:41-46). Though man may not be conscious of the fact, he is at enmity with God in his mind until he is made aware of his personal rebellion to God having the say in his life. During the seven year trial, the gospel of Christ and His Kingdom will be preached. Men will be given the opportunity to repent and bow down to their Creator-Redeemer, to be made safe from the judgment and pass from death to Life everlasting.

The final test, the Day of the Lord, will fulfill Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks ordained upon God’s people, Israel (see Dan.9:24-27). The final test will be the period of the last “week” [heptad], comprised of seven years of the seventy weeks of years. The last three and one-half years of the final “week” will be the Great Tribulation. Jeremiah called it Jacob’s Time of Trouble (Jer.30:7)

Only one-third of the Jews who go into the trial will come through alive. This third will be willing to have Jesus of Nazareth rule over them. In the day of His power, they will see Jesus in a different light. They will look on Him who they have pierced and they shall mourn for Him (see Zech.12:6-14:2).

As Jesus prophesied in Matthew 25, the Gentile nations who come out of the trial will be judged (Mt.25:31-46). Some will be invited into the Kingdom and some will be cast out. The Day of the Lord is a very severe trial. Only the members of the true Body of Christ will be kept out from that trial.

Jesus reminds the assembly, “Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which you have, that no man take your crown” (Rev.3:11). When Jesus comes, it will be very quickly. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (see 1 Cor.15:51-57).

What do they have to hold fast? They have the word of Jesus Christ and they have His name. They have a “crown.”  Not a royal diadem, but a stephanos, a victor’s crown. The stephanos was given to the victor of a contest in the Olympian games. Of what victory is Jesus speaking, that they should receive a victor’s crown? The victory over sin and death.

How were the members of the assembly in Philadelphia victors in the contest with sin and death? They had united themselves to Jesus Christ through faith. Hearing the word of Christ Jesus, they believed the One who sent Him to not come into judgment but pass from death to Life everlasting (Jn.5:24). They are more than conquerors through Him who loved them and loosed them from their sins in His blood (Rom.8:28-37; Rev.1:5-6; 5:8-10).

What is the crown of victory over sin and death? A body in the image of the heavenly, a body like unto Jesus’ body of glory (Phil.3:20-21; Rom.8:29). This is the crowning of the victory with the glory of the victory.

When no longer breathing, the natural body, dead in trespasses and sins, is sown back to the dust of the ground. It is sown without the honor of the glory of God. For the ones receiving Christ’s Life, the victors, the ones united to Christ, it is raised up in glory. The body is sown in corruption; it is raised up in incorruption (1 Cor.15:42-44). It is sown in weakness. It is raised up in power.

The natural body of the earth, earthy, has no power over the death to which it has been made subject. Life must be given through the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead (see Rom.8:9-11). It is sown a natural body; it is raised up a spiritual body.

The natural body cannot be raised in glory unless it has died in Christ Jesus (Rom.6:1-5; Col.2:9-15). Believing into Jesus Christ, one is baptized [placed] into Jesus Christ and, having been placed into Jesus Christ, is baptized into His death to be counted as having died together with Him and as having been buried with Him through the baptism into death. An unseen work of God, though nevertheless real. A work of God’s grace and our justification through putting our faith in God and in His Word, that we might be raised up together with Him through the power of the Spirit (Rom.8:11).

Since we have been united together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. We share the image of the heavenly, the image of the glory of the change of the earthly. The inner man is crowned with the glory of the victory over sin and death to bear the image of the heavenly.

After relating His promises to the members of the assembly in Philadelphia of their being kept out from the trial, and to His coming quickly, and to their crown of glory, Jesus then said, “Him that overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God and he shall not go out anymore; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name” (Rev.3:12).

Even the promises to the overcomers of this assembly seem more intimate and personal. Each one personally claimed as His. Each one to be a pillar in the temple of Jesus’ God, to no more go out from that temple. What is the significance of a pillar in the temple of Jesus’ God?

We have a hint in the temple built by King Solomon in Jerusalem as a dwelling for the Lord God (1 Ki.7:15-22; see 1 Ki.5:1-8:66). In that temple were set two pillars of witness. They were made of bronze and very ornamental. Their sole purpose was as a witness. The one on the right was called “Jachin,” and has the meaning, “He shall establish.” The pillar on the left, called “Boaz,” has the meaning, “in Him is strength.”

These two pillars in the house of God stood for two witnesses to God’s Eternal Covenant established in the House of David. One, a witness to God’s purpose: He shall establish a tribute to the Lord God of the Covenant. The other, a tribute to the Christ in whom is the strength to fulfill the purpose of all that had been promised to the forefather’s of Israel.

Each and every member of the Body of Christ is an overcomer, sharing Christ’s victory over sin and death. Each of the promises in the letters to all of the assemblies is given to every member of the Body of Christ, beginning with the original one hundred and twenty assembled in the upper room, and each one added down through the entire Church Age. Each one will be a pillar in the temple of Jesus’ God, His Father. Each one a witness to the accomplished purpose of the Eternal Covenant. Each one a tribute to their God and Father, and to their beloved Lord.

The betrothed has become the Wife of the Lamb. She is now in her new home, the holy city, the New Jerusalem. The Bride takes the name of the Groom’s Father. God is the Father of Jesus. The Bride also takes the name of the city of God, the New Jerusalem. And Jesus is her Husband. He is the Lamb. His Bride also takes His name. As she is the Wife of the Lamb, she is one with Him, as He is one with the Father (see Jn.17:20-24).

And once again, for the sixth time, a reminder to the assemblies, a warning: “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the assemblies” (Rev.3:13).

The seventh and last message that John was to write was to the assembly at Laodicea. “Laodicea” comes from a combination of two Greek words, laos, “people,” and dikao, “to rule.” In other words, a democracy, where the people rule. This is the exact opposite of the teaching of the Nicolaitans, with the clergy ruling over the people.

The assembly in Laodicea is a picture of Christendom in the last days before Christ’s return. In the last days of the end of the Church Age, the true Church of Christ, His Body and His Bride, will share the name Christian with the churches of Christendom. This has been true from the early beginnings, but, in the last days, the assembly of brotherly love with the unity of the Spirit will be few in number, and Christendom will predominate the world scene. The established order of clergy and laity has not been done away, but now the people believe themselves to be possessed of their rights and they demand to have a voice in the business of the church and to be given a vote as to who is the pastor and as to the agenda of the programs to be sponsored. And even to what they desire to hear preached.

Who is to determine what is right? Who does have the say as to what is evil and what is good? Can the people settle things among themselves? Is it the right of the many against the few who hold an opposite view? Do the many decide for the few? Is it each for himself? Who is to say?

Whether clergy rules or the people rule, the true rights of the Creator-Redeemer are left out. Either way, people are doing what is right in their own eyes. In doing what is right in their own eyes, the people cast off God’s absolutes, which they consider too binding, too restrictive. The voice of the Spirit is not heard. God’s way of righteousness and justice is not the standard; that is to say, it is not the rule of life in man’s society.

In his day, Paul wrote to Timothy, “I charge you, therefore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom: Preach the Word; be diligent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but, after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But you watch in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry” (2 Tim.4:1-5).

To the assembly which has bought a false witness and therefore bears false witness to God, Jesus told John, “Write: These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God” (Rev.3:14). In addressing Himself to the assembly of Laodicea Jesus used the “the Amen” as a title.

“Amen,” translated from the Greek, has the meaning, “truth.” It is interesting that in Revelation 3:14, the Hebrew word “amen” is used rather than the Greek, thus connecting Jesus to Jehovah as revealed in the Old Testament. Jehovah is the God of the Amen, the Faithful and True One. In Deuteronomy 7:9, the Lord [Jehovah] is called the faithful God. In Isaiah 65:16, He is called the God of Truth.

The writer to the Hebrews tells us that in these last days God has spoken in His Son. In times past, God spoke in many portions and in many ways through His witnesses of old (Heb.1:1-2). In the Son, God can only add Amen to all that He has spoken of Himself. Jesus, His Son, is the Amen.

Amen is a fitting word to describe the Son. Jesus is the confirmation that all that God has spoken is true. John himself had heard Jesus declare Himself to be the Truth while yet in the flesh (Jn.14:6). In John’s Gospel, John records  Jesus using the double “verily, verily” or “truly, truly” twenty-five times. These words could also be translated, “It is true, it is true,” or “amen, amen.” “Amen” also means, “It is so,” or “So be it.”

In writing what is referred to as his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote that all the many promises of God  are yes and amen in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to the glory of God (2 Cor.1:20). Jesus is the yes answer. Through Him, the Amen, the “so be it,” is the absolute certainty of all of the many promises made to Israel. And Jesus is the Amen, the so be it, to all of the warnings to the seven assemblies in Asia, and also to the promises made to the overcomers.

Paul spoke of Jesus Christ as the Yes answer to those of the assembly in Corinth, that those of the assembly might respond with their own Amen, so be it, to all that God has spoken. Jesus would desire the same response from each of the representative assemblies in Asia. The members of the true Church today hear God’s Yes answer in His Son and believe His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the Truth and the Yes answer to all of the promises of their heavenly blessing, and their hearts respond, Amen, So be it.

God’s Word is not a thing to be perverted and twisted in meaning to suit man’s thinking. Nor should certain teachings be set aside for the doctrines of men. God is faithful to keep His promises. Out of His fullness we all received and grace on top of grace. The Law, with its figures of the True, was the grace of God as promised to Israel (Heb.9:1-10:23). The Law was given to Israel through Moses, the prophet whom God knew face to face (see Ex.33:8-11; Deut.31:24-26). On top of that, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ; that is, the grace and truth came as the reality of all promised. Grace and truth are personified in Jesus Christ (see Jn.1:14-18; Heb.8:1-10:25). Jesus is the Prophet like unto Moses (Deut.18:15; Ac.7:37-38).

Christ Himself, the Faithful and True Witness to the Word of God, abides true to Himself and true to God His Father, and therefore, He is true to men who put their faith in God’s Word. Jesus Christ is a Witness to be listened to and trusted and obeyed. He is the Witness to be hearkened to. No matter in whatever way men choose to twist and pervert and contradict the Word of God, we must trust the Faithful and True Witness.

If we cannot trust what God says in the Scriptures, if we cannot fully trust the God of the Scriptures, and we cannot trust the testimony of the Son Himself recorded in the New Testament, it is of no use to claim that Jesus is the Yes answer, the Amen, and to testify that God remains true to His own witness in sending His Son.

And to the Laodicean assembly, Jesus addresses Himself, “The Beginning of the Creation of God.” Like Amen, Jesus was using this as a title. The Greek word for “beginning” is arche, which denotes an act, a cause. The word arche can also be translated “head” or “captain.” During His public ministry, Jesus never referred to Himself as being the Beginning of the creation of God. Jesus did not use this title until He had been raised from the dead.

Jesus, as God, is the Cause of creation. He is the One in whom creation had its beginning. Having been personally taught by Jesus Himself, John began his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” (Jn.1:1-3). Apart from Jesus Christ, the Word, not one thing came into being that came into being.

Moses began the Book of the Law, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen.1:1). Then Moses went on to explain everything that God brought into being, light and life, both celestial and terrestrial, the environment needed to sustain His creation and His creation of creatures, fish, birds, animal, and finally human (see Ps.33:4-9; 104:30-31; 136:4-9; Prov.8:22-36).

Paul, who was also personally taught by Jesus, wrote to the assembly in Colosse of the Son of the Father’s love, “who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation; for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers—all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the Body, the Church; who is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that in all He might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell” (Col.1:15-19; see Col.2:9; Heb.1:2).

Paul’s letter to the Colossians was circulated to other assemblies. In particular, the Laodiceans. At the end of the letter Paul greeted the brothers who were in Laodicea and requested, “And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you also read the epistle from Laodicea” (Col.4:16).

The self-sufficient Laodiceans of the last days will not be thinking of themselves as created beings, responsible to their Creator and Head. But in this letter, Jesus reminds the early assembly of who He really is. Through the One Offering of Himself in sacrifice to the Father in eternity past, the Son caused everything that is of God to commence (see Eph.1:2-23; 2 Tim.1:9-10; Tit.1:2; 1 Pet.1:17-20; Rev.13:8). And in the end, Jesus is the Head of all the things of God, which He Himself had caused to commence (see Phil.2:5-11; 1 Cor.15:24-28).

As with each of the other assemblies, Jesus knew everything concerning the assembly in Laodicea. To the Laodiceans John must write, “I know your works, and you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So, then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth” (Rev.3:15-16). Three times Jesus lays cold over against hot.

Jesus knows the works of each assembly. He has made that clear. Each assembly is represented by its works. In the prophetic history of the Church, laid out in the seven letters written by John and sent to the assemblies, the works of Christianity are traced from the beginning of the Church Age to the end of the Church Age.

In the assembly in Ephesus, representing the beginning of the Church Age, the works of the assembly were works of faith, a whole-hearted turning from darkness to the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, which was shined unto them, the glory seen to the ones being faced with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And a “labor of love,” to serve the living and true God. And “the patience of hope” in the Lord Jesus Christ to wait for God’s Son from heaven, whom God raised from the dead, who delivered us [the members of His Body] from the wrath to come (see 1 Thess.1:3, 9-10).

These were all a work of the Holy Spirit, who was given to the Body of Christ for the power of witness (Ac.1:8). The witness being to the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son. An example of such work was Apollos (see Ac.18:24-28). Apollos was a Jew born in Alexandria, an eloquent man, mighty in the Scriptures, who came to Ephesus. Having been instructed in the Way of the Lord, and “being fervent [hot] in the Spirit, he spoke diligently the things of the Lord.” At that time Apollos knew only the teaching of John the Baptist concerning Jesus as Lord. But when Priscilla and Aquila, associates of the apostle Paul, took him in, they expounded unto him the Way of God more precisely. After which, his witness grew even stronger. “For he mightily refuted the Jews, publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ.”

In the beginning, the Church, over which Jesus is the Head, and whose power was in the Spirit, could not bear those who were evil and who came to them with false teachings. The assembly tried them and proved them to be liars. As Christianity continued to spread to the ends of the earth, the works as seen in the assembly in Smyrna were done in tribulation from the world, and in material poverty (Ac.9:1-5; Heb.10:32). But it was only material poverty because the Body of Christ is rich, which those willing to suffer persecution and loss of all things for His name’s sake knew.

In the beginning, the new creation in Christ Jesus knew “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for [our] sakes He became poor, that [we] through His poverty might be rich” (2 Cor.8:9). They believed that “God is able to make all grace abound toward [them], that [they], always having all sufficiency in all  things, may abound to every good work” (2 Cor.9:8).

In the letter to the assembly in Pergamum, the Body of Christ was still holding fast to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They held fast the testimony that there is no other name under heaven whereby men can be saved (see Jn.20:30-31; Ac.4:10-12). They were not denying that the righteousness of God is through faith in Christ, by God’s grace (see Rom.3:22; Eph.2:4-10). Even though some were martyred, the members were fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, as Paul encouraged (Rom.12:11). The members were obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren to love one another with a pure heart fervently (1 Pet.1:22).

The Greek word, translated “fervent” in English, has the meaning “zest” or “zeal.” The members of the Body of Christ, doing the works of the Spirit, were zealous in faith and in the Love of Christ. In the New Testament, the word “fervent” is only applied to that done in the Spirit.

In Pergamum, however, the Church had begun associating with the world, allowing in a mixture of the darkness of world thinking. In the letter to Thyatira, Jesus saw the works of “love” and “service” and “faith” and “patience,” but the servants were no longer fervent in Spirit. They had allowed themselves to be seduced and taught the old Babylonian Mysteries and then taken into the idolatry of the mother-son cult. The Church went into the Dark Ages and the true Body of Christ had to meet secretly in the catacombs.

With the letter to the assembly in Sardis, we see some recovery in the Reformation, but not the full work of the Spirit. The “works” were those of doctrine. There was not a full restoration. The truth of justification through faith alone was taught, but the fervency of the love for the Lord Jesus Christ was not recovered. The service was no longer a labor of love. And the teaching of the patience of hope to look for the Son from heaven was not recovered. Nor was the teaching of the true Body of Christ having been delivered from the wrath to come taught.

The decline began with the Body of Christ leaving their First Love. They let go of being strengthened to become mighty in the inner man by Christ’s Spirit, “that Christ might dwell in [their] hearts through faith, that [they] being rooted and grounded in love, [would be] able to comprehend with all saints the breadth, and length, and the depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that [they] be filled with all the fullness of God” (see Eph.3:16-19).

With only a partial recovery, with no full restoration of the truth as revealed in the Scriptures and taught by the early apostles, there came into the church teachings the mixture of the truth with the error that had not been eradicated. Mixture causes confusion because it becomes almost impossible to sort out the truth from the error.

We can understand why Jesus would say, “I would you were hot,” fervent in Spirit, but why would He say, “I would you were cold”? Jesus is saying, “I would you were one or the other,” cold or hot. “Cold” and “hot” are antonyms, the opposite of one another. Each one can easily be distinguished from the other, but when mixed together, they lose their distinction. One nullifies the effect of the other and then the mixture produces lukewarm.

The Laodiceans had a form of godliness, but they denied the power of the Spirit (2 Tim.3:5). The recovery of the truth of justification through faith alone, by grace alone, was nullified by the denominational creeds and the prayer books replacing the Scriptures, and the ordinances practiced as a means of grace, making the work of the Cross of Christ of no effect. The end result being, the members of the churches had a zeal to serve God with no real knowledge of the Love of God to send His Son as a Propitiation that, in Jesus Christ, men might receive Light and Life for the new birth and the redemption of the mortal body (see Rom.3:21-26; 1 Jn.2:2; 4:9-19).

Had the cold orthodoxy stood alone, it could have been seen to be mere doctrine to live by, but mixed with a zeal to serve God, it is poisonous to the Person and work of Christ Jesus. If there had only been the zeal to do good works apart from mixing in of justification and grace, there would have been no deceit to beguile into mere religion, with the name Christianity.

Jesus is looking forward in time, down to the end of the Church Age, and to what Christianity would come to as a mere religion. The “church” has built its own kingdom - Christendom - man’s building. The gravity of the situation is expressed in the very graphic warning given to the Laodiceans. Their lukewarmness, their indifference to Christ and His work, cannot be tolerated. They are about to be vomited out into the Great Tribulation.

Jesus sums up the issue with Christendom in the last days: “You say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev.3:17).

Christendom has its say as to the way they see things, but they do not know their true condition. In their own estimation they are rich and increased in what they have acquired and consider to be riches. Their riches are empty riches; they have no eternal value. The Laodiceans could glory in their acquired riches here and now but like the grass of the field which withers and the flowers fall off, they will wither and die, and their glory will fall away (see Jas.1:2-11; Is.40:6-8; 1 Pet.1:24).

Not having received the Life everlasting in the Son, their present clothing of a mortal body will see dissolution. When the body has returned to the dust of the ground, they will be left forever naked. Their own self-righteousness, in which they have trusted, will perish with the dust of the body.

In the last days of the Church Age, the riches of Christendom is her para ministries, the faith-based ministries alongside the church service. Christendom believes herself to have need of nothing. She is done building her great cathedrals. Her investment now is in people, in the needy. She has her programs and her outreaches to help those in need. There are counseling and support groups and material help for all of the dysfunctional poor and helpless. She expects the blessing of God. She would not even imagine that God would be displeased with her works.

Christendom sees her “good” works as religious, works that must be done for fellow man for God’s sake, even for Christ’s sake, in His name. Boasting in her works, she is confident of her own good and she is complacent in her own virtues. She appears self-satisfied and content in her own self-righteousness. It would not enter the thinking of the church of Christendom that she had replaced the teaching of the gospel of Christ as the righteousness of God with her “good works,” works of mercy, but not works of grace.

The issue for Christendom is not what has God done for His creation of man in the work of the Cross with its salvation and redemption. The social gospel has set man up for the great delusion of man worshiping the creation (see Rom.1:18-25). Where the creation is worshiped and the creation is served rather than the Creator, the issue becomes, what can man do for God? How can Christians serve their fellow man in the name of Christianity?

The Laodiceans are to be pitied and Jesus would have them look at their heart and see their true condition. They are wretched, but they do not know it. The Greek word has the meaning, “pitiable.” The Greek word for “miserable” has the meaning of “being afflicted.”

What is their affliction? With all of their empty riches and self-satisfaction, they are yet in their sins and in danger of dying in their sins in their ignorance. They are without the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. The light of the glory is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. If they continue to believe what they say, they will die in their sins.

When all in a church are presumed to be Christians, with each member believing himself and the other members to have faith in the one true God, but with no birth from above, no washing of regeneration and no renewing of the Holy Spirit, all is mere presumption on man’s part, with no reality and no real knowledge of the truth. What an affliction! As a result, the Laodiceans are poor and blind and naked.

They are poor. They have no riches of the grace of God, no eternal riches, but they may yet become rich. Jesus has wise counsel: “I counsel you to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white clothing, that you may be clothed, and the shame of your nakedness not appear; and anoint your eyes with salve, that you may see” (Rev.3:18).

Jesus has everything that Christendom needs. The assembly in Smyrna, who were in material poverty but rich, according to Jesus, understood that which Paul wrote to the assembly in Corinth, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich” (2 Cor.8:9). The assembly in Laodicea had lost sight of that truth.

Man need only come to Jesus and buy the riches of His grace, buy without money and without price. Buy, believe what the Father God has to say concerning His Son, Jesus Christ. At one time, through the apostle Paul, Jesus had reached out to the Laodicean assembly.

In his letter to the Colossians Paul wrote, “I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col.2:1-3).

In Paul’s day, Jesus was working to bring the Laodicean assembly to and into the riches of full assurance and understanding through acknowledging that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. Paul’s letter to the assembly in Colosse would have been shared with the assembly in Laodicea. Paul was warning both assemblies and all who would read the letter to beware of men spoiling them [robbing them of the riches of the glory of Christ] “through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Col.2:8).

True riches will take care of the spiritual poverty of the assembly. An anointing will take care of their being blind and white glistening clothing will cover their nakedness. All three things needed are in the Gift of the Son. Each one included in the riches of God’s grace. Each one to be had for the coming to Jesus and believing into Him.

“Gold” is a type of the outshining of the glory of God. The glory of God is the outshining of who He is and what He is. The primary meaning of the Greek word, doxa, is “weight’ or “substance.” A man’s worth was in his substance. Great substance carried great weight, great glory. The glory of God is His worth, His worthiness. The riches of the glory of God are displayed for us in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the express image of God and the outshining of His glory (Heb.1:3).

There is only One Being to whom belongs all of the glory and that is God, the Being of Deity. There is only One Son of Man, who perfectly obeyed the will of God and lived to the praise of God’s glory. That is God’s only begotten Son, Jesus, the God-Man. But God, who is rich in grace and mercy, put the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in His Son and, in His so great Love, gave them to whosoever will believe and receive to become sons of God, born of the Spirit of God. Jesus Christ is the gold tried with fire.

The glory of Jesus must be tried in the fire of temptation. Jesus was tried in a wilderness by the Devil himself, and He came forth pure gold (Mt.4:1-11; LK.4:1-15). Jesus is the only Son of Man who satisfied God concerning His living to the praise of the glory of God. Is there any other man who would dare say, “Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” other than the Son of Man? (Ps.139).

The trial in the wilderness was only the beginning of the fiery trials Jesus endured. On a daily basis the enemies of Jesus set temptation before Jesus to test him. And finally, there was the test of the fire of God’s holiness. The day came when the Lamb of God must be slain. All of the dross of the whole world was laid on the One Son of Man of fine gold (Rom.4:25-5:11; Col.1:20-22; 2:13-15; 1 Pet.2:24). The One Son of Man who is an acceptable Substitute to take the death penalty for all mankind and to burn out sin once for all (see Rom.6:10; 1 Tim.2:4-6; Heb.1:1-3; 2:9-17; 9:22-28; 1 Pet.3:18).

Would He come through the fire of God’s holiness alive as the outshining of God’s glory, the light of the glory of God seen in His face? The glory of the love of God shared through Him? The glory of the power of Life everlasting?

Jesus took the fiery trial of God’s holiness for all of His creation of mankind. Sin must be judged and put away once for all. God’s way is righteousness. The penalty of death passed on all men, for all sinned in the representative man, Adam, who transgressed the command of the Creator. The death penalty must be executed. God’s way is justice. The death penalty could be taken by a willing substitute. A representative man could offer Himself as a willing Substitute to die in man’s stead. The Substitute must be without sin and faultless (2 Cor.5:21; Heb.7:26; 1 Pet.2:22; 1 Jn.3:5). There was One such Man, the one Mediator, the Man, Christ Jesus (1 Tim.2:4-6).

Jesus is God’s Way of providing an exodus out of the condemned creation of Adam (Rom.5; 1 Cor.15:20-28). Jesus is the provision of righteousness for the inner man and a forever living body to clothe the inner man forever, a cleansed, immortal, imperishable tent to dwell in forever, that the shame of nakedness not appear.

One will only be left naked if he does not buy a forever living body. He must come to Jesus believing Him to be God in the flesh, come down from heaven to die in man’s stead, that He might raise up the believing one from the dead, conformed to the image of God’s dear Son to the praise of His glory (Rom.6:3-5; 8:29-32).

With the receiving of the begotten Son of God as the One in whom man is accepted by God, not only does one receive the glistening white clothing needed to cover the nakedness of the inner man, but also one receives the needed Anointing of the Holy Spirit to walk in the Light, as the Son is in the Light (Eph.1:3-14).

Through the washing of regeneration is the renewing of the Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of the understanding to the will of God. Understanding what the will of God is, one can live to the praise of God’s glory and walk worthy of the calling to be a son of God (Eph.5:18-21; 1 Jn.2:20-29).

Jesus’ counsel to the assembly in Laodicea is prefaced by His feeling for them. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous, therefore, and repent” (Rev.3:19). He loves them. His counsel is for their good. He desires that all come to repentance, that none perish (see 2 Pet.3:9).

Jesus has been speaking to the assembly in Laodicea as a whole. The assembly is made up of individuals. Jesus loves the individuals who make up the assembly. His love is the reason for His rebuke. The rebuke is loving and for the individual’s good. Individually there must be a change of mind concerning the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and concerning the work of the Cross.

The verbs “love, rebuke, and chasten” are in the singular. Repentance will be individual, an individual decision of a change of mind. If any individual reading the words of Jesus or hearing them will take His loving rebuke and repent and obey the truth to purify his soul, he will be born of the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God, which lives and abides forever (see 1 Pet.1:17-25). He then will be rich in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. He will be clothed and not put to shame in nakedness.

The word “chasten” has the meaning of “child training.” Whom the Lord loves, He chastens, dealing with him as a son and correcting him for his profit that he might be a partaker of the Lord’s holiness. For the present, the chastening does not seem to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness (see Heb.12:3-11; Prov.3:11-12).

Those who repent can be trained to be fervent in spirit, zealous for Christ, with the full knowledge of the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus. Like the apostle Paul, they will be as fervent for Jesus Christ and His glory as they had been for their own religious works done for man’s glory.

In the prophetic history given by Jesus, seen in chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, the “church at the end of the age,” represented by the Laodicean assembly, will be cast into the Great Tribulation. The Laodiceans have made themselves enemies of the Cross of Christ Jesus. They do not have the Spirit of Christ. They are none of His (Rom.8:8-9). They perverted the truth and refused the faithful and true Witness.  They do not and will not look to the end of Him who is the Beginning of the Creation of God. Therefore, they must be vomited out of the mouth of Jesus. At the end of the age, those attending such an assembly as the one in Laodicea cannot be kept from the “trial to come upon the whole earth” (see Rev.3:10).

For Christendom, the assembly in Laodicea pictures the end result of that which was introduced into the assembly in Pergamum and of that introduced into the assembly in Thyatira. The Laodiceans are a witness against themselves. They must be left in the world which they have chosen over the love of Jesus Christ.

Jesus knows that at the end of the Church Age, the majority of those attending “Christian” churches will not have taken heed of His counsel. They will feel no need of the riches which He offers. He also knows that there will be individuals who will come to Him and buy the truth when it is presented to them. Jesus must leave the majority behind in the world at His coming in the air for His Bride.

For those who repent and become zealous for the riches of the glory of Christ Jesus, theirs will be the reward of the justice of keeping them out of the trial to come. This is a retributive justice, as they have chosen to be justified through faith in Christ Jesus. To the end of the Church Age, there is time to heed Jesus’ warning and to take His counsel to buy the gold tried in the fire. Jesus has an offer that He will make good until He comes to take His Bride home to be with Him.

The trial is coming and Jesus must continue to gather out any individual who will respond to His love. For those left to go into the Great Tribulation it will be a fiery trial. At the end of the Church Age, for those whom the Laodiceans represent, there will also be retributive justice. The trial is coming on all the world. It is an hour of testing of each and every inhabitant then dwelling upon earth. Every man will be tested as to his faith. In whom or what has man put his faith? What will be the reward of his faith? Will it be judgment of death? Even then in the trial there will be the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom of God. During that time, any individual will yet have opportunity to repent and to put his trust in Jesus as the Lord of all the earth (see Rev.14:6-7).

After His warning and rebuke, Jesus issues a loving invitation to the members of the assembly in Laodicea: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev.3:20).

On the Cross, in His love, Jesus had opened the door of His heart that the cleansing blood and the Water of Life might flow freely to the ends of the earth. Jesus had opened the door that the gospel of Christ, the power of salvation to all who believe, might go to the Gentiles and be preached in all the world, that whosoever will, might not perish (Jn.3:14-21; Mt.28:18-20). No man can shut that door.

Now man must open the door to his mind and heart (see Rom.10:8-13). Man must be willing to open his mind to the truth and consider that which has been opened to him. He must open his heart and receive the so great Love of the One willing to be His Savior from sin and death. He must will to obey the truth which he has heard to be born of the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God to be clothed with a forever living body.

Jesus stands at the door of the ear gate and knocks, calling out, “Come buy of Me, that you may be rich, and receive glistening white clothing, that you might be clothed, and anoint your eyes.”

If any man is zealous and repents, Jesus will come into him to be his Life. He will bring the Light of Life and renew His Spirit to man’s spirit, that the one believing may be taught the deep things of God so that he may know God and learn God’s ways.

Jesus cannot force His way in. Jesus acknowledges the right of the one in the house to refuse Him admittance. Man has freedom of choice as to his thinking. The one within may open the door or not, as it pleases him. Usually when one is sure that his knock has been heard, and there is no response, one quietly goes away, recognizing that his presence is not wanted.

Jesus will not intrude His Presence. He will not force the door, but neither will He go away. The verb “knock” here is in the Greek tense showing an action that is continually going on. Though Jesus will not intrude Himself, He will continually make His Presence known at the ear gate and seek the fellowship He so desires. Jesus knows the end of one remaining indifferent to Him. He has warned of that end. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet.3:9). So Jesus continues knocking, waiting patiently to gain entrance.

Who can remain indifferent to someone continually knocking? How rude to let someone remain outside while you simply do not answer the knock and open the door. If anyone hears Jesus’ voice, hears the words of Christ and believes the Father who sent Him, he will not come into  judgment, but has passed from death unto Life” (Jn.5:24).

Once one has invited Jesus into his life, Jesus “will sup with that one, and that one may sup with Him.” In those days when the Revelation of Jesus Christ was being circulated to the assemblies in Asia, supper was the principle meal for the family. It was a time to socialize in a friendly intercourse, a time of fellowship and intimacy. The day’s work being ended, there was the relaxed breaking of bread, enjoying the prepared food and the sharing of intimate family happenings, the joys and the heartaches, the true caring for one another.

With the Holy Spirit renewed to the spirit of the one who has heard Jesus’ voice, and who has realized his absolute poverty of spiritual riches, and who has opened the door for Jesus to share His glory, there is now a hunger and thirst for righteousness. With the eyes of his understanding enlightened through the Spirit dwelling in him, he can take in the deep things of God, and fellowship with the Father and with His Son (1 Cor.2:9-16; 1 Jn.1:1-7). He is now able to see with the eyes of his understanding the true riches purchased for him in Christ Jesus. And there now can be a  true fellowship of sharing.

In His finished work of the Cross, Jesus overcame sin and death and He judged this world worthy to be burned up. And He prepared for the evil one, the prince of this world, to be cast out (Jn.12:27-33). The one who hears the voice of Jesus and opens the door for Jesus to be his Life is an overcomer, a more than conqueror through Christ Jesus (see Rom.8:9-39).

The overcomer is no longer to be pitied. He is no longer afflicted with sin-sickness. The body of glory is proof that he has been made whole and healed. By the stripes of our blessed Substitute, the overcomer has been forever healed. The sin has been put away once for all.

Jesus had one last promise for the overcomers: “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcome, and am set down with My Father in His throne” (Rev.3:21).

All the riches of the glory of His victory are laid up in heaven for His overcomers and they are invited to sit with Him in His throne. The dominion of the Father is that of the Son, and the dominion of the Son is that of the Father. The Father and Son are one (Jn.10:30; 17:21-22). The united overcomers, the Wife of the Lamb, have the highest honor, that of being enthroned with the Lamb and His Father in the New Jerusalem above, come down from heaven into the heavenlies to rule over the earth (Rev.21:2-3; 22:3; see Is.4:5-6).

And for the seventh and final time, this letter closes with the same familiar exhortation, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the assemblies” (Rev.3:22). The world is full of voices seeking the means to an ear. Voices are calling out to be heard. Voices calling out for one to hear who man is and what man himself has done and can do and will do in the future. All glory for here and now; fading glory of no eternal value.

The Spirit of God is also seeking man’s ear, calling out through the gospel of Christ to hear the word of Jesus, to hear the words of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done, what Jesus is doing and what Jesus will yet do in the future. Christ in you is the only hope of glory (Col.1:27). In Him is the only hope of having a body like unto His body of glory.

Jesus left it up to the individuals in the assembly to hear what the Spirit is making known, and to respond. Take Jesus’ counsel. Open the door and buy of Him gold tried in the fire, white clothing, a forever living body, to cover your nakedness, that you not be put to shame at His appearing. Receive the Holy Spirit to have the eyes of your understanding enlightened to the riches of His glory, that you might be enthroned with Him upon His throne forever and ever.

Jesus is right now upon the throne of His Father, waiting to bring an end to that which He began. Soon He will come quickly and He will gather the new creation of His Body and Bride up to reign with Him over the earth (Rev.5:10). Then He will bring the hour of the trial of the Great Tribulation upon the whole world. His nation, all the nations, Christendom, all religion, and all mankind in general will be tried as to what they will choose to believe and whom they will choose to obey. At the end of the trial, a remnant of His people, Israel, will be established in her Kingdom and be given to be the head nation upon earth (Deut.28:1-2, 13; Ezek.5:5-6:10; Zech.13:1-9). The resurrected David will sit on the earthly throne in Jerusalem below and shepherd the people (Jer.30:9; Ezek.34:23; 37:21-28; Hos.3:5). The nations will be judged and invited to submit to the new King of kings and Lord of lords (Ps.2:7-12; Dan.7:13-14; Mt.25:31-46).

God has chosen the poor of this world, those poor in spirit, through faith, to share the riches of His grace and to be heirs of the Kingdom which He has promised to those that love Him (Jas.2:5). “To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet.5:11).

With the conclusion of the letter to the seventh church of Laodicea, Jesus is finished with John writing concerning “the things which are”; that is, in John’s day. In the next chapter, Revelation chapter 4, we will see that John was then caught up to heaven to see “the things which shall be hereafter. There, in heaven, John sees that the Body of Christ Jesus, the true Church, has been caught up to heaven prior to the things which shall be hereafter, here upon earth after the Church has been caught up.

This concludes our lesson on Revelation 3. Before we proceed with Revelation 4, we must first take a look at Daniel chapter 9, especially verses 24 through 27.