They were a company of poor people with no man of means among them; and there are many such churches that are peculiarly precious to the heart of God, who cares nothing for gold, and everything for sincerity. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens ( Revelation 3:7 ); Now he is borrowing a description not out of chapter one in this. "No, not at all." Let us bear our protest: the gold is good enough for us. Nor is it that I have any doubt that it is a great sin to wipe off all public recognition of God in the world. The Book is our ultimatum. 1:18), they will belong permanently to God, to the heavenly city and to their Saviour (12-13). Sin, as Burns had it, "petrifies the feeling.". We have set these letters carefully against the local situations to which they were addressed; but their message is not local and temporary. Indeed, there is nothing more remarkable, especially when we bear in mind who the writer is, than the absence here of His proper relationship to the children of God. Dear hearer, see that you win it too. So solemnly then does this language suppose that the assembly at Sardis have passed out of the practical attitude of waiting for the Lord as a loved object. Surely love can go no further than that. In entering Gods kingdom, Jews must follow the way of these Gentiles, not Gentiles follow the way of the Jews (8-9).When God judges the ungodly, Christ will protect those who have remained loyal to him. For whom it was more immediately designed: The angel of the church of Philadelphia; this also was a city in Asia Minor, seated upon the borders of Mysia and Lydia, and had its name from that brotherly love for which it was eminent. I know your works; I know that you have a reputation for life, but that you are dead. They may not know it as a whole, having never read it save (?) It is implied indeed in the analogy of the Old Testament; for God did not always address His people there. They have thought out what they believe; their theology is made out of their own substance, as spiders spin their webs out of their own bowels. This is an echo of an expectation of the Jews which finds frequent expression in the Old Testament. Even Luther never had peace in his soul, as the settled state in which he walked. 1. [Note: See Renald E. Showers, Maranatha: Our Lord, Come! All was dark as to truth, and uncertain as to moral judgment. We shall never grow stronger by leaving the eternal word. So famous were its doctors that the names of some appear on the coins of Laodicea. The percentages are down around fifty to sixty percent that don't believe in these things. Directly opposite Laodicea, on the other bank of the Lycus, and in full view, stood Hierapolis, famous for its hot mineral springs. Who then can escape? If even what belongs to the world be touched, they are in no small agitation about it. It says to every man: "This means you." The state of things might be ever so ruined; it might be even gross and false (as much was in several); but still there was an ecclesiastical profession if only for His judgment, which we do not find afterRevelation 4:1-11; Revelation 4:1-11. "For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is very characteristic of the teaching of Proverbs. The Lord help you to keep his word, and then to go in for public testimony. The overcomers in Philadelphia were promised future positions with Christ which appear to be described by the meanings of the names given to these two pillars. The once great Sardians were soft, and twice they had lost their city because they were too lazy to watch. It is a false principle therefore that we can only be profited by that which concerns ourselves, and supposes us to be in the actual circumstances described. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" ( Proverbs 27:6). It is this picture which is in John's mind. They hoarded up divine knowledge in their memories, preserved it in their affections, used it in their experience, and practised it in their lives. Had they not left their first love? And next week as we get into chapters four and five. The call to hear begins to follow the promise, instead of being before it. Yet the Lord owns whatever is good. 453-55. First, it supplies us with an example. This may well stand for the beauties of life and character which only the grace of Christ can give. God's threat passed on by Nahum to the disobedient people was: "I will let nations look on your nakedness, and on your kingdoms shame" ( Nahum 3:5). And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands." I shut and no man can open. The Lord at the close gives a promise suited to the condition. "There is no promise in Revelation that God's people shall escape suffering and death, but there is the promise that no harm can come to their souls."[48]. The only exception is in Thyatira, where He is described as the Son of God; and, as already remarked, Thyatira is exactly transitional. Observe, (1.) The promise to the overcomers that they would go no more out refers to their fixed position as pillars in the temple; and with the two massive pillars in Solomons temple in view, saying that overcoming Christians will be placed in the position of pillars in the temple is the same as saying that these Christians will occupy sure, secure, firmly established positions of strength and power, positions which will be realized when they rule and reign as co-heirs with Christ in the [millennial] kingdom." The apostles were disappearing, and perhaps had all disappeared save John. He will eat supper with you.Now, the Jew would not eat with the Gentile. And I don't feel that I have this great obligation to share the Gospel to the Jews. Let them abide in the place of patience, even though there be tribulation, as there must be if they are content to endure for Christ's sake now. Remember, then, how you received and heard the gospel, and keep it, and repent. "He that denies me before men," Jesus said, "I will deny before my Father, but if you confess Me before men, I will confess you before my Father which is in heaven." (1a) The character of the city of Sardis. Jezebel was a mother indeed a holy mother, said the deceivers and deceived. In A.D. 17 there came a great earthquake which destroyed Sardis and ten other cities. . says the Holy One" ( Isaiah 40:25). the whole world . They stored it up as bees store away honey, and they were as ready to defend it as bees are to guard their stores. (ii) The one impossible attitude to Christianity is neutrality. "[46] "The thrust of the verse is against this interpretation. If it was bright, the assembly would be elevated morally thereby. Did they like to be near a throne, although it were the throne of Satan to dwell there? "He is the faithful witness, the first-begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth;" the last displayed when He comes from heaven to earth, as He stands in resurrection the first-begotten of the dead. Montefiore, the great Jewish scholar, said that the one thing which no Jewish prophet or Rabbi ever conceived of is the "conception of God actually going out in quest of sinful men, who were not seeking him, but who were turned away from him." Temptation waits for our unguarded moments and then attacks. The stars stand for the Churches and their angels. There is an evident allusion to the manner in which the Lord presented Himself to the church in Ephesus. They who are faithful will share in that whiteness of light which is the garment of God himself. If God is the God of Amen, he is utterly to be relied upon. The Maeander entered that valley by a narrow, precipitous gorge through which no road could pass. There are seven Churches, yet in each of them the Spirit operates with all his presence and power. ], What if some in the church did not keep the word of Christs perseverance? Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. Satan revives the old Judaizing spirit, at the very time that God re-asserts the true principle of Christian brotherhood, and, above all, makes Christ Himself to be all to His people. The man who refuses to open is "blindly at strife with his own blessedness." If they are what they should be, they will not think so much of our little praises as to be unduly exalted thereby; but they will be sometimes so encouraged as to be nerved to higher and nobler things. The mind of man sends forth pure water and impure, and it is hard to discern between the two; but from the heart of God there wells up, undiluted and unmingled, a stream of living truth which is more for man's benefit than all else out of heaven. Many a time men act as if the Church belonged to them, but it belongs to Jesus Christ and all in it are his servants. The church is dead. I am afraid that there are great truths in God's word which we do not intelligently believe, but take for granted. Here observe, [1.] The characteristics are general. . "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, a. We grow very vexed if anybody denies them; but if there is no controversy over them we forget them. And too many souls overall miss the wonder, inspiration, and comfort gained by those who would endeavor toward . "Thou hast a little strength:" there are very few of you, but you have been observant of all precepts and ordinances. You shall be no kept that what will prove to be a time of temptation to so many, shall not endanger your salvation. One of the highest rewards of patience in one trial is the grace that God gives us to bear another. He who is faithful to the grace of God is often hidden from trials and difficulties which fall without mitigation on those who have been unfaithful in his covenant. It has been said that an author can write a good biography if he loves his subject or hates him but not if he is coldly indifferent. ], The Greek word translated "testing" (peirasai) means to test to demonstrate the quality of a thing, not to purify its quality. If he speaks of Him as the Lamb above, the description is founded on His being the rejected sufferer on earth. Revelation 2:1-29. [1.] Revelation 3:10 Context. Besides He is "the beginning of the creation of God." ], Fourth, God promised that He will not just honor overcomers by erecting a pillar in their name in heaven, as was the custom in Philadelphia. The beginning of the third chapter introduces the protestant state of things. Through Christ, who has the key to life and death (see v. 7; cf. Here observe it is not now a trial by false apostles. It is said of the faithful that they "have not soiled their garments." In the temptation you will fall, for indeed you are fallen already. This indifference can be broken down only by the actual demonstration that Christianity is a power to make life strong and a grace to make life beautiful. Whatever discovery may be made by the wise men of the age, let Christ be wisdom unto you. Writing to the Corinthians of the work which lies ahead of him, Paul says: "For a wide door for effective work has opened to me" ( 1 Corinthians 16:9). Above all, if we have but little strength of any kind, let us keep God's word. All is here limited to what he saw. "And I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet." Jesus himself tells of the wicked servant, who took advantage of his master's absence to conduct himself evilly and to whom the master made a sudden return that brought judgment. But before the Spirit of God could fitly launch him into the visions of the future, there must be a retrospective glance. Now one part of the city was in ruins, now another. This meaning is particularly appropriate for Philadelphia. It was theirs, they read it and searched it and made it their own. John says, "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. (a) There is a door of missionary opportunity before every man and he need not go overseas to find it. "Let us not sleep, as others do," writes Paul to the Thessalonians. But what He is in heaven is exactly what is not given here. He is man; but the man seen then and thus is a divine person, the eternal God Himself. Christ puts them in mind of what he had done for them: I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it, v. 8. His coming is their joy, and for this they watch more than watchman for the dawn. I may be a fool, and an old-fashioned bigot, but I am not a turncoat, and I cannot quit the word of the Lord. Now if there be in the state of Protestantism one thing more marked than another, it is that they always fall back on the world to deliver themselves from the power of the priest or the church. The unique new fact that Christianity brought into this world is that God is the seeker of men. There was no life or spirit there. (i) The Church at Sardis was untroubled by any heresy. Blessed shall he be who only wanted to know the Lord's will that he might do it unquestioningly, caring nothing what the will of other people might be in the matter. What He is is the main point. The Sardians had forgotten their lesson. "He that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations." This promise recurs again and again in Isaiah. "What shall be after these" must be owned as the true translation of the words. It is no mere transient cloud of error; it is a body in the highest worldly position a queen, but also pretending to the highest spiritual power a prophetess so-called, that was now permanently settled in Christendom, giving birth to a distinct progeny of iniquity "her children." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 1-7, p. In this church we feel very little of the temptation which tries all the world: very seldom are any of our friends unsettled in their minds, or tormented with these hornets of heresy. Let it be seen that you do not go to be stirred in those vital points, till your friends say of you, "Oh, you can twist William anywhere, but not in his religion. We must leave out "and unto." It was on the edge of a great plain called the Katakekaumene ( G2618) , which means the Burned Land. About; Guide; API; Contact; Login | Join. "This is the judge that ends the strife, When wit and reason fail. It may have been some form of persecution, or it may have been some calamity by disease, earthquake, or famine that was to occur. Christ calls the church to that duty which he before promised he would enable her to do, and that is, to persevere, to hold fast that which she had. The Christian is under continual attack by the powers which seek to seduce him from his loyalty to Christ. And have we not seen it ourselves? Remember how Mr. Bunyan pictures it. 3:10 + is correct [that the church will be guarded and preserved during God's testing of earth-dwellers during the Tribulation], then one is left with the colossal problem of reconciling the fact that multitudes of believers will die under the fierce persecution of Antichrist during the Tribulation and yet God supposedly will preserve His people physically through the Tribulation."Keith H. Essex, "The Rapture and the Book of Revelation," in . We have most of us heard what conflicts he had, and not merely at the beginning of his career but to the end. 2. And as this is the heart's outpouring of its own delight in Jesus, so the next verse gives a warning testimony suitable to the book, lest there should be any weakening of what Jesus will be to those who stand in no such nearness to Him. The reason for the word is that this famous tephra Phrygia, Phrygian powder, was exported all over the world in solidified tablet form in the shape of little rolls. In the Greek of the Septuagint the word for love is agapan ( G25) which indicates the unconquerable attitude of goodwill which nothing can turn to hate; but it is a word which maybe has more of the head than the heart in it; and in the quotation the Risen Christ changes agapan ( G25) to philein ( G5368) which is the most tender affection. [Note: Showers, p. This word, the churches, in the Philadelphian state, will keep pure and incorrupt, and observe the ordinances of it according to the directions given in it; and will believe the promise of Christ's personal coming, and patiently wait for it: wherefore, Christ promises as follows. The connection of the Son with creation is frequently made in the New Testament. It is the only view that can honestly say that Christ could return at any moment, because it alone teaches that Christ will come to rapture the church before the 70th week of Daniel 9 or the Tribulation period begins and that nothing else must happen before His return." Revelation 2:10 c, 25; Revelation 3:4). Philadelphia, Titles And Claims ( Revelation 3:7-13 Continued). Verse Revelation 3:10. Still they become a witnessing body more or less in spirit, apart from that which set up the highest pretension but in profoundly wicked communion with Jezebel, as the Lord judged and stigmatized what man called "our mother, the holy Catholic, church." It was to her that one day all men would humbly make their submission. We agree with Beasley-Murray that it is certainly possible that, "an identical period of trial is referred to in both Revelation 2:10 and Revelation 3:1. Another thing is observable, when one looks into what is said here. To get rid of him, Christian said to Hopeful, "Now we will talk a little about experimental godliness and when they began to speak about what they had tasted and handled of divine truth, Mr. Chatterbox dropped behind. When he came to Troas, a door was opened to him by the Lord ( 2 Corinthians 2:12). He crossed the Halys, engaged in battle and was routed. This is one of the main sources of confusion on the subject of the Apocalypse to this day. But the man who says, "I am going straight for glory, and if anybody is in my way so much the worse for him, for I am bound to take the right road;" such a man will find a pretty clear track. The council in Jerusalem expressly exempted the Gentiles from being put under the yoke of law. Clearly such a position made it almost impregnable. If you feel, "I never can give up the Bible; I never can forsake the truths that I have learnt from it: they are stamped on my heart, they are cut into the very centre of my soul," then you are the man who may safely go forth to publish the truth. But that situation had its perils, and these perils had left their mark more deeply on Philadelphia than on any other city. Again there is a double background. And are you not to walk as He? The road, therefore, detoured through the Lycus valley. 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