Revelation 3:1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“‘I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. 2 Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. 3 Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
As we enter chapter 3, and the last 3 letters, I am struck by the very mysterious language. It starts with Jesus speaking as possessing the Seven Spirits of God (which we spoke about earlier) but then in verse 2, He speaks as though He is a servant of God. In verse 5, He reestablishes Himself as the Son of God, the Father only to turn around in verse 6, as proclaiming that it is the (Holy) Spirit that is speaking. This parade of changing vantage points within just a few verses had to have been very confusing and mysterious to the infant church It must have seemed to some that Jesus was confused as to whether or not He was God. The only way to even try and penetrate this mystery is to accept that Jesus full Divinity and full humanity are simultaneous, continuous and seamless realities. The Holy Spirit is both within Him and without Him.
To accept this reality is easy. The church taught it, that settles it. On the other hand, attempting to comprehend it is a quick path to a massive migraine. It's just beyond us to imagine that time exists within eternity at the same time eternity exists within time.
What takes it deeper, to levels some fail to penetrate is that this reality of humanity and Divinity extend to the relationship with His church, as shown by the mystery of the 7 lampstands and the 7 stars. Jesus walks among the church yet holds it in His hand. It is a human institution filled with fallen men who often falter and fail while, at the same time being God's Divine instrument on earth through which men receive Grace, Miracles and even Jesus Himself, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. That a human creature can hold Eternity Himself, in his hands, is mind boggling.
This is the great connection that must be made. The churches are always human institutions because they are always run by humans. They become Divine institutions when they are plugged in to Supernatural Grace.
it is that gift of Grace that gives us Spiritual life and only through that Grace is salvation even possible.
Ephesians 2: 8: For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God --
9: not because of works, lest any man should boast.
10: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Catechism of the Catholic church: 1997 Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an "adopted son" he can henceforth call God "Father," in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.
Only when you understand that Grace is the connection between God's Divinity and our humanity, can you truly understand the letter to the church in Sardis. The connection to Grace is the connection to Spiritual life and without it, we die spiritually and inevitably fall into mortal sin.
In His first letter John deals with the consequences of mortal sin quite emphatically.
1 John 5: 16: If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that.
17: All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal.
It is in this context of the spiritual death of sin, that we can understand Jesus words to the church at Sardis
“‘I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead.
Jesus is warning them that He knows their true condition despite what their reputation may be leading others to believe. Some may interpret this as simply a loss of fervor but that interpretation doesn't hold up. Forgetting what they had previously received (Grace) [v3] has led to the soiling of their garments [v4] and that they must overcome to have their garments returned to their whiteness [v5]. Notice that only he who overcomes in this way will not have his name blotted out of the Book of life.
We must participate in our own salvation.
7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.
8 “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and learn that I have loved you.
It is simply human nature when an American hears the name Philadelphia, to think of the State of Pennsylvania. The truth is that there are almost 2 dozen Pennsylvania place names with Biblical origin including Bethlehem, Nazareth and Damascus to name a few.
Why this churches city name was chosen may be a testament to the patient endurance exemplified in this letter or simply that the name means "brotherly love" (Strong's 5361).
It is ironic that the writings of Thomas Paine and much of the genesis of masonic thought, which is the antithesis of Christianity, come from there.
I digress.... for now.
Let's start with the fact that Jesus begins by referring to Himself holding the Key of David, opening what no one can shut and shutting what no one can open. You may recall that we first encountered the keys in Chapter 1, verse 18 as the keys to death and hades. You may recall also that we showed you that Jesus put these keys into the charge of Peter in Matthew 16. Now, Jesus is saying they belong to David. What is going on here?
Remember when we talked about the 4 senses of Scripture? Now is a good time to focus on the typological sense.
Jesus is showing you the full picture of how it all played out in the history of Israel and the Davidic kingdom. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 22 and have a look.
20: In that day I will call my servant Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah,
21: and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
22: And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
This is typology here. It is prophecy by shadow.
Eliakim was to be the new Chief Steward in the Davidic kingdom. That makes him 3rd in command in that kingdom. The order of authority is as follows;
The King, Himself.
The Queen mother (the mother of the King)
The Chief Steward.
Here, we see Eliakim, as the Chief Steward, is entrusted with the keys to the Kingdom when the king is absent.
It is not enough to think of it merely as a ring of physical keys. Eliakim is given the authority to open that which no one can shut and shut that which no one can open. In other words, he is given the unchallengeable, full authority of David, the king.
In Revelation, 3:7, Jesus shows us that that Davidic authority points to Himself.
This is what Gabriel told Mary in Luke 1:32
32: He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, |
Thus, the Davidic King is fulfilled in Jesus.
Who are these other persons?
Well, the Queen Mother is the mother of the King. Obviously, this points to Mary. More on that later.
Who is the Chief Steward?
Well, we would recognize the Chief Steward as being the person Jesus (the King) gives the keys to. That, of course, is Peter. Just as Eliakim opens what none can shut and shuts what none can open, Peter binds what heaven binds and looses what heaven looses.
Matthew 16: 19: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Thus, Eliakim exercised an earthly authority, but it pointed to the Divine authority that Jesus would exercise through Peter and his successors.
What you see here is proof for the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, foreshadowed by Isaiah, fulfilled in Peter, confirmed by Jesus to John the Revelator.
This cannot make sense to you if you are stuck in the false "Jesus alone", linear thinking of Protestantism that posits that if Peter has the keys, that means that Jesus doesn't. As we took such great pains to show, Jesus acts in a very mysterious duality here. He is both the Sacrifice and the High Priest that offers it. He is both God and Him who stands before God. The Spirit both speaks through Him and to Him. It is impossible for a human to fully digest.
Jesus acts through the Church under the full power of His Divinity at the same time leaving it's fallible human nature intact. It is an organization of imperfect and often times bungling, humans who are the dispenser of God's grace and caretakers of His authority even as they, as individuals, are stuck in the sinful human condition. It is just mind boggling.
He assures us that He has put before the church at Philadelphia an open door which cannot be shut by humans [the door to salvation] lest we become discouraged by our weak condition, which He recognizes (our little power).
It is not enough to look at it simply as a Divine sympathy, where God feels sorry for us in our weakness. It goes so much deeper than that. So much deeper.
When Paul begged for God to remove the thorn in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12), God responded in an unexpected and truly astounding way;
9: but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. |
We cannot allow ourselves to view Grace as merely God's unmerited favor and Salvation as an externally imputed act if we have any hope of grasping what is being communicated here. Grace is a participation in God's power, through which we are able to overcome our trials and sufferings when God, in His good purpose, declines to remove them.
God doesn't always do for us that which we cannot do. He often does through us that which we cannot do.
Need proof?
See the martyrs.
You think Peter faced crucifixion by his own strength? Paul being beheaded? Other Apostles flayed, shot with arrows, dragged behind horses, stoned?
I'm sure that you will readily have to concede that only God's Grace enabled these heroic deaths.
Then how can you discount that same grace as being present in the martyrdoms if Ignatius of Antioch (fed to lions) or Joan of Arc (burned alive) or Cecelia, Philomena and hundreds of others.
In the 20th century, more Christians were murdered for their faith than all other centuries combined according to every reputable historian of note. This includes many non-catholic sources including this one. This of course, flies in the face of some of the sensationalistic trash rabid anti-catholic sites have put out but we will deal with that later.
For now, we need to develop this idea that the blood of the matryrs is mingled with the blood of Christ and the full victory of Christ is something the Book of Revelation shows us as being realized when the full number of martyrs has been reached. We will get into that deeper in chapter 6.
Despite their little power, the church at Philadelphia had kept His Word and not Denied His name. His power was made manifest in their weakness. That is Grace at work.
Jesus said that he who humbles himself will be exalted and he who exalts himself will be humbled. He says this in Matthew Chapter 23 and it is no coincidence that He says the following in the very same chapter.
37: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!
38: Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate.
The Jews of Jesus time exalted themselves so they had to be humbled. They rejected the Messiah and their house became desolate. By not accepting the entire purpose of the Jewish Faith- the realization of the Messiah- they pretended to be Jews but were living a lie. The Jewish faith was no more and what was not standing in opposition to the Real, New Israel was a Satanic fraud. This fraud, Jesus said would bow before the church. Read again.
9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and learn that I have loved you.
The word used here is the greek word Proskuneo (Strong's 4352) which suggests a prostration of strong reverence, kissing the hand, bowing before someone of superior rank. Jesus is leaving no doubt as to where His authority now resides on earth.
They rejected the Messiah and they were replaced. It's just that simple.
Matthew 21: 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The very stone which the builders rejectedhas become the head of the corner;this was the Lord’s doing,and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.”
This truth is proclaimed here by Jesus in Revelation chapter 3 as we see it happening in vivid detail as the ensuing chapters unfold.
What follows is a deeply challenging set of 3 verses that absolutely must be put into the proper context. I will provide that context but it's going to take some work.
10 Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth. 11 I am coming soon; hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
The trial which is coming on the whole world is one of those phrases that people seize on to declare that these are end-times events. Perhaps no verse in all of Scripture demonstrates the danger of isolating a verse and reinterpreting it under a context completely alien to it's original audience and intent.
I gladly concede that if you isolate this verse and pretend that it's aimed at a world-wide protestant audience living in the 21st century, about events in their future, you could come to some of the conclusions those folks come to.
10 Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth.
Sure, If you stipulate all of the following....
That word of patient endurance means Scripture alone.
The hour of trial means the tribulation of the antichrist
the whole world is to be understood as the entire inhabited earth in the 21st century.
Keep you from the hour of trial means to suddenly remove you in some dramatic, supernatural and sudden way.
...... then you could conclude that this verse supports the doctrine of a pre-tribulation Rapture.
The problem with this type of eschatological engineering is that the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine was invented in the 1800s and no church father or historian or even any pre-1800 protestant ever mentions it. It was a new doctrine that was created as a result of a young girl's dream and it is buttressed here by superimposing other man-made doctrines. It is literally fiction supporting fiction, masquerading as interpretation.
Bible interpretation must confront the text, as is, and in context.
In the context of:
The language used
The audience intended
The meaning intended
The Biblical supports and cross references.
Period. Full stop.
The idea of inventing interpretations and juxtaposing them onto John's visions has to stop.
We must apply the 5 questions here:
Who? To the church in Philadelphia.
This is not a letter to 21st century American evangelicals. This is a letter to the church in Philadelphia.
What? an hour of trial coming to those who dwell upon the earth. Those who dwell, not those who will dwell at some future date. Strong's 5723 establishes this as present tense. These events are foretold for people living on the earth at the time of the writing of the letter to the church in Philadelphia. This is just more proof, like we gave you in chapter 1, that the very eyes of those who pierced Christ would witness these things. This is not to deny that there will, in fact, be an antichrist nor the fact that he will one day threaten the whole world. What it denies is that that is what John was writing about in the letter to the church in Philadelphia.
When? Jesus says in v11 that He is coming to carry these things out soon. This is at least the 3rd or 4th time you have heard this and we are not yet through Chapter 3. You must lose the insistence of these events as far off from John. The warning of the urgency and imminence rings stronger and stronger until it will get to a point when they are so urgent that they are even spoken of rhetorically as past events comparable to the modern expression your goose is cooked!
Where? The whole world? Does that mean America too? No! There was no America in 68 AD. It was wilderness. In 68 AD, the whole world consisted of the Kingdom of God (Israel) and the Kings of the earth (The Gentile Nations). One great city was identified as having dominion of the Kings of the Earth (17:18) as it was the city of God. That city, however, played the whore with those Kings (17:2) and earned the wrath of God as a result. That wrath would rock their world so to speak.
How? A cataclysmic day of terror in which the beast of the earthly world would wage war on the whore and devour her with fire.
That story is yet to come.
It is that horrific hour that the church of Philadelphia is spared from, not something happening in the 21st century. The church in Philadelphia (as well as the other 6) fell to Muslim invaders centuries ago.
Pay careful attention to the wording. After promising them to be kept from the coming trial, He admonishes them to hold onto what they have, lest they lose their crown.
Are you following? They were protected from the coming trial but then, later, lost their crown.
Jesus is promising a trial that will come soon followed by a New Jerusalem for those who overcome. How could Jesus make this promise to the church in Philadelphia if they would not have an opportunity to see it?
You will see this become clearer as we go.
14 “And to the angel of the church in La-odice′a write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
There exists something today that has come to be known as the prosperity gospel aka name-it, claim it. It was the natural end of an ideology of self-interpretation run amok. After all, if I can promise you the nutritional benefits of liver while still eating McDonald's Big Macs and chocolate chip cookies, there isn't a chance in the world I can get you to eat the liver.
The idea that we can have heaven on earth and then heaven in heaven is certainly attractive. As attractive as sugar-coated rat poison.
In Matthew 7, Jesus famously said:
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Very, very easy to understand.
Very, very difficult to accept.
Excessive wealth leads to complacency and self-reliance. Complacency and self-reliance lead to waning spiritual diligence. Waning spiritual diligence leads to the loss of Grace and eventually, inevitably, to spiritual death.
Quite a graphic analogy that God will actually spit us out of His mouth.
So why is the complacent (lukewarm) sinner even worse than the serious (cold) sinner? Why would God even prefer the cold sinner to the lukewarm sinner?
The answer is in verse 17
17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
I am reminded of a parable of Jesus (Luke 18)
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Just like drugs or alcohol may anesthetize our physical pain and give the temporary illusion of health, money and comfort can numb us to the reality of our wretchedness and need. God's most compassionate act sometimes is to allow us to feel the consequences of our actions in order to save us. He humbles us now, so that He may later exalt us.
He can save the sinners we are but He can't save the saints we pretend to be.
God contrasts the Gold of the world with the gold refined by fire that He offers but there is just something about the idea of seeking out reproval and chastisement (v19) that is naturally repugnant to us as humans. We cannot escape the message that God chastises those He loves. This is, again, a repulsive concept to us.
It is so repulsive, in fact, that Martin Luther created an entirely new religion that divorced the crown from the cross. It was only a matter of time before someone took it to it's full conclusion that God only wants us to be happy and financially prosperous.
and so we ignore Biblical admonitions like the one to the church in Laodicea, to our own detriment and ruin.
It is not that God wants us to be miserable. Far from it.
God wants us to be truly, fully and eternally happy with Him.
To the church He offers chastening, reproval and refining fire, He does so out of love that they may be purged of their complacency and sloth. He invites them (and us) to allow Him to enter in to share in the unifying supper which is another clear allusion to the Eucharist. Then He makes the astounding offer that we will share a place on His throne.
That fancy car and 15-bedroom house doesn't look so good compared to that.
Up next, Chapter 4.
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