Biblical Research Library - abiblecommentary.com

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Dickson Biblical Research Library

Biblical Research LibraryRoger E. Dickson

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Contents

AFRICAINTERNATIONALMISSIONS

CONTENTS

The Flickering Flame – 3

Introduction – 4

1 – Message To The Ephesian Disciples – 12

2 – Message To The Smyrna Disciples – 21

3 – Message To The Pergamum Disciples – 29

4 – Message To The Thyatira Disciples – 36

5 – Message To The Sardis Disciples – 42

6 – Message To The Philadelphia Disciples – 53

7 – Message To The Laodicea Disciples – 61

Roger E. [email protected]

www.africainternational.orgwww.blog.africainternational.org

Philadelphia, Western Cape, South AfricaCopyright 2015, Africa International Missions

Scripture quotations from International King James VersionCover Theme: FIRE STORM (Sunset in the Kalahari, R.E.D.)

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The Flickering FlameLamps are often mentioned in the Bible, but there is no description of their shape.The only means by which we can understand the shape of an ancient lamp is througharchaeological discoveries of various lamps that were made during biblical times.Many different shapes of lamps have been discovered, most being formed out ofeither clay or brass. Some had the form of a saucer-like bowl with two sides lippedover for the placement of a wick. Some had the form of a flattened jar with twoholes, one for filling with oil or fat, and the other for the wick. Some of these had ahandle.

Lamps had a small supply of oil to feed the wick, andthus the burning life was only for two to four hours. Thismeant that there always had be a supply of oil in order tofill the basin of the lamp.

Throughout the Bible the lamp is used metaphorically tosignify many things. It is used to refer to the word ofGod (Ps 119:105), the guidance of God (2 Sm 22:29), thesalvation of God (Is 62:1), and man’s spirit (Pv 20:27).In Revelation, the lamp is used to symbolize the exist-ence and influence of Christians in a particular city.

In the metaphorical use of the lamp to refer to the seven churches of Asia, or lampstand(some translations read, “candlestick”), two very important points are emphasized.The first is in reference to the influence of Christians in the communities in whichthey lived. When the lampstand was removed, so was the existence of the church,and thus the influence of Christians in the city.

The second reason the Holy Spirit used the lampstand as a metaphor was to teachthe frail existence of the flame of influence the lampstand provided. The flame ofthe lampstand was open, and thus, there was no protection from any gust of wind, oreven a small puff of breath. In fact, every night when the flame of the lampstandwas extinguished in the house, it was puffed out by someone in the house. Theflame was so fragile in its existence that even the children of the house were giventhe responsibility of snuffing out the lamp for the night.

And so it was with the influence of the disciples in the cities in which they lived. Ifthey did not repent, they would be easily snuffed out by Jesus. In fact, some of thechurches were so far gone, that their flame of influence was flickering, and thus,about to be snuffed out by Jesus.

The Flickering Flame

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THE SEVENFLICKERING FLAMES OF ASIA

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

We could probably have been sit-ting with some of the disciples in any oneof the assemblies of the houses through-out the region of Ephesus. Or possibly,we may have been among the Christiansin Smyrna or Sardis. At least in theLord’s message to the disciples in thesecities, there is a message for each one ofus. The message to the seven churchesof Asia cuts to the heart of all our pre-sumptuous religiosity we might harbor.It does this in order that we repent andrestore Jesus to our daily living. One ofthe primary lessons that we learn from astudy of the seven messages to the Chris-

tians in the cities is what Jesus expects ofChristians who claim to be His disciples.

Date: The visions of Revelation prob-ably occurred just before A.D. 70. Thiswould make their revelation less thanforty years after the joyous day of Pente-cost in A.D. 30. Some would say thatthe visions were recorded the latter partof the first century. But we would dis-agree with this long held assumption. Wewould believe against all tradition in or-der to affirm that all the New Testamentletters were written before the consum-mation of national Israel in A.D. 70. It is

We are wondering why Jesus really chose the seven churches of Asia as thedisciples to who He would direct some of the most stern judgments since Hisfinal message the scribes and Pharisees before the cross. Could it be that whatwas happening among some the disciples of these seven city regions were sinfulbeliefs and behavior they needed to correct if they were to survive the impend-ing tribulation what was coming? The revelation was delivered through thehand of apostle John. We are sure copies were immediately made and circu-lated throughout the church. Christians had tasted some persecution at thehand of the psychopathic Nero. But what was to come was far more intenseand comprehensive than Nero’s burning of Christians to light up his garden inRome. What was coming was international, encompassing the entirety of theRoman Empire. Was it that Jesus needed to inform the members of His uni-versal body that they needed to clean up their act if they were to survive whatwas coming. Possibly so. What we experience in our adventure through theseseven messages is strikingly familiar. Though the names have changed, andour application is dated over two thousands years later, we are often in themidst of apostasy of belief and behavior that is so similar to these messages.The relevance of the messages, therefore, may make some feel uncomfortablesimply because they are so relevant today.

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Introduction

traditionally assumed that the letter ofRevelation was written around A.D. 96.But this late date does not seem to har-monize with God’s work to terminate na-tional Israel in A.D. 70. And then, wewould also question why the Holy Spiritwould wait so long to cap the New Tes-tament at the end of the first century. Wewill argue for the conclusion that all rev-elation through Scripture, plus the workof the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, werefinalized by the time God used the Ro-man Empire to turn the final page of Hiswork through national Israel to bring theRedeemer into the world. A.D. 70 was,according to Daniel, the consummationof national Israel.

What is significant about the earlydate for the addresses to the sevenchurches is that apostasy can come veryquickly. Only one decade is enough timeto slide into apostasy from Christ and intothe situation that we witness among someof the disciples of western Asia Minor.If Revelation were written at the conclu-sion of the first century, then we couldadd another twenty or so years to thespiritual condition of the disciples thatJesus addresses in Revelation 2 & 3.However, such a short time is hardlyworth discussion in reference to apostasythat can occur in one generation. Whatis important to remember is that from thebeginning of a beautiful story in Acts 19,to the proclamation of the judgments inRevelation concerning the spiritual fallof some among the seven churches ofAsia, we have a frightening short pe-riod of time. It is so short, that withinthe lifetime of the average disciple, the

aged can look back in their lives and seeif they have fallen.

It does not take generations to gointo apostasy. One generation will do.And in the case of the seven churches ofAsia, it seems that only one generationwas sufficient to move so far away fromJesus that special visions had to comedirectly from Jesus to John, and then tothe seven churches, in order to sort outsome problems. At least, the visions weremeant to inform the recipients of the mes-sage that they were in serious trouble ofhaving their lampstand of influence ex-tracted from the cities in which the dis-ciples were located.

Roman Theocracy: As students of thepolitical history, we must not forget thatreligion and government were often com-bined in ancient nations. Theocratic lead-ers ruled the people by demanding alle-giance to the king or Caesar as they wouldgive allegiance to their gods. Rome capi-talized on this as narcissistic Caesars be-gan to arise in the Empire. Nero was oneof the first, demanding that people be-lieve that he was some deity. The peoplewere to call him “lord,” not as a mannerof respect, but as one who would be rev-erenced as a god.

The sentiment that was to be ex-pressed to the Caesar, was not simplypatriotism to a head of state, but worshipof a god on earth. If allegiance to Caesaras lord was not expressed, then the de-nial of such was viewed as insurrectionagainst the state. And so, Christians whobelieved that there was only one Lord,were in trouble.

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Introduction

With the beginning in Nero, therewere about 150 years of different levelsof Caesarian claim to deity that prevailedthroughout the Roman Empire. Duringthis period, Christians suffered the per-secution of a theocratic state that de-manded both political and religious loy-alty. Christians were headed into this eraof persecution at the time Jesus gave Hismessages to the seven churches. There-fore, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, throughthe messages and visions of Revelation,prepared Christians for the trials thatwere coming, which trials had alreadybegun under Nero.

As we study through the historicalbackground of the seven churches, onecan see in the community of the churches,that there was a great deal of intimida-tion by the community. This religiousintimidation to conform to the religiousways of the community would grow. Thebook of Revelation was written by Johnfor the purpose of giving encouragementto these Christians of the tribulations thatwould shortly come to pass.

Leaders: If the visions of this book oc-curred before A.D. 70, then Paul’sMiletus meeting in Acts 20 posses theopportunity for some speculation to bet-ter understand the timeline from his meet-ing in Acts to Jesus’ messages to theseven churches in Revelation.

We begin with Paul in Troas wherehe arrived in the company of Sopater,Arisarchus and Secundus (At 20:4). It issignificant to notice that with them wasalso Gaius who was from Derbe andTimothy from the Derbe/Lystra area of

Cilicia. But what is more interesting isthat Tychicus and Trophimus are men-tioned as being from Asia, possibly theregion of the seven churches. The dateof the Troas meeting was around A.D.59, only a few short years before Jesus’revelation of the spiritual condition of theseven churches of Asia as it is explainedin His address to the churches in the area.

From Troas, Paul and his compan-ions headed south. He sent his compan-ions on the Assos, where he determinedto be reunited with them after he himselfhad walked alone the distance from Troasto Assos (At 20:15). From Assos the teamsailed together to Mitylene, and then thenext day on to Chios. The next day theyarrived at Samos, and then went on tothe small town of Miletus (At 20:15).

In Acts 20:16 the travel log of Lukebecomes interesting. Luke records thatPaul “did not want to spend time inAsia” (At 20:16). Luke does not say thatPaul did not want to spend time in Ephe-sus. When Paul stayed two years inEphesus on a previous journey, “all Asia”from Ephesus heard the word (At10:9,10). Therefore, we would assumethat “all Asia” at least refers to the areaof the cities of the seven churches of Rev-elation, for all the cities were but a shortdistance from Ephesus. And speakingfrom our own personal experience, if itwas known that Paul was coming, the dis-ciples of “all Asia” would want to comeand listen to him, for he was the “walk-ing Bible.” Surely the word had gottenout that Paul was coming. When thosewho are hungering for the word of Godhear that a teacher is coming through, you

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Introduction

can assume the response. We have con-ducted seminars where brethren havewalked up to five days, day and night, inorder to attend.

Now consider the geographical lo-cation of the seven churches fromMiletus, “for from Miletus he [Paul] sentto Ephesus and called the presbyters ofthe church” (At 20:17). Must we assumethat these were only the presbyters of thecity of Ephesus, or can we assume thatthe presbyters from the rest of the citiesin the region had first assembled in Ephe-sus in anticipation of Paul’s arrival? Lukestates “Now when they [the presbyters]came to him ...” (At 20:18), the meetingbegan. Now consider this. (This is some-thing that may be difficult for us as auto-mobile-bound brethren to understand.)The average person in the “non-automo-bile world” walked 25-30 kilometers aday. This means that Ephesus was abouta day’s walk from Miletus. Smyrna wasabout a two-day walk. Pergamum aboutthree days, or the leaders could havecome from this port city by ship. Thyatirawas about a four-day walk or about twodays by ship. The furthermost cities ofPhiladelphia, Laodicea and Colosse wereno more than a three-day walk fromMiletus. There were other minor townsin the area, including Magnesia, Cibyraand Apamea that were only a short dis-tance from Miletus.

Since Paul did not want to becomeinvolved in having to say “no” to count-less requests to come to their city, heasked that the meeting (seminar) be heldin Miletus. If advance word had beensent ahead, then we would assume that

all the presbyters gathered to the homesof the brethren in Ephesus, and thenwaited for word of Paul’s arrival.

After all the presbyters who had as-sembled in Ephesus eventually arrived inMiletus, Paul introduced his message tothem by reminding them, “You know,from the first day that I came to Asia ...”(At 20:18). And from that first day hespent three years with the church of Asia(At 20:31). Could it be that we havewrongly assumed that only the presby-ters of the city of Ephesus were in thismeeting? Was this an exclusive meetingwhere everyone else of the other nearbycities of Asia were excluded? Such seemshighly unlikely. If the word got out tothe other churches of Asia that Paul wascoming by, we find it hard to believe thatall who heard did not set out immediatelyfor Ephesus. In fact, it would seem thatPaul would have been quite snobbish ifhe had not let the presbyters of the othercities know that he was coming through.

Since Paul wanted to speak to theleaders of the church in the region ofAsia, we would assume that the presby-ters of the region initially gathered inEphesus, and then waited for the mes-senger to come and tell them where themeeting was going to be.

We make this assumption based onthe fact of the reality of the events thattranspired. But also, we make our as-sumption in view of what Paul said inhis message, specifically the statementsin Acts 20:29,30. Since the meeting tookplace around A.D. 59, and the visions ofRevelation took place less than ten yearslater, the “grievous wolves” had already

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Introduction

started to enter in among the sevenchurches of Asia. The Nicolaitans andBalaamites, and followers of Jezebel,were already arising among the disciples.They were drawing away disciples afterthemselves. And the sad thing about thewarning was that Paul said that “fromyour own selves will men arise, speak-ing perverse things, to draw away thedisciples after themselves” (At 20:30).This was what was actually happeningamong some of the seven churches evenas Paul spoke. And it is for this reasonthat we believe that Paul wanted a lastword with all of them before going on toJerusalem for his last visit.

It may have been that the reasonJesus had to make the judgmental ad-dresses to the seven churches was be-cause the leaders of some of the churcheshad gone after the perverse teachings ofthe Nicolaitans, Balaamites and Jezebel.It is a sad day in the history of the churchwhen the leadership of the church for-gets the commandments of the Lord, andthen seeks to control religious groups tofollow them and not the Lord. Every self-proclaimed prophet should sit up and takenotice of these warnings of Jesus. If oneclaims “this is my church,” then he is aleader of an apostasy, and subsequently,will reap the condemnation that Jesusgives in His messages to the sevenchurches.

Ekklesia: Now in moving into the vi-sions of judgment, there is at least oneparamount historical fact that must be un-derstood about the disciples in theseseven city regions. When the statement

is made, “To the angel of the church of...”, we must not make the unfortunatemistake of thinking that there was onlyone assembly of the disciples in anyparticular city on 1st Street and Main.Because the word “church” (ekklesia) isused in the singular does not mean thatthere was only one assembly of the saintsin each of the seven cities. If there wereonly one assembly in each of the sevencities, then we would have to concludethat in the years of the existence of thechurch in these cities, there was onlyminimal growth of the church. Thiswould certainly be contrary to the natureof the early growth of the church in otherareas. So we will not involve ourselvesin such thinking, assuming that in theseven cities, as in all cities where theearly church was located, the saints weremeeting in the homes of the disciplesthroughout the region of the cities. Thisconclusion would be necessary becauseof the example of the growth of thechurch in Ephesus (At 19). There weresimply no purpose-built church buildingsin the early centuries of the existence ofthe church.

We must also keep in mind thatthere were no “city limits” of the first cen-tury cities. “City limits” is a modern-day border of demarcation in referenceto the governance and public services ofa city. Our understanding of the word“city” in the New Testament would bestbe interpreted to mean “city region.”There were, therefore, disciples living inall the regions around Ephesus, orCorinth, or Philadelphia. And in refer-ence to the meeting of the saints in the

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Introduction

homes of the disciples, then there werehouse assemblies throughout each of theseven city regions.

When the word ekklesia (church) isused, therefore, reference is to the peopleof the city region, not to the assemblieson Sunday. Once we identify the churchas the people, and not as the assembly ofthe people, then we are on our way tounderstanding correctly the organic func-tion of the body of Christ throughout thefirst century world. This is especially truewhen we seek to understand the addressof Jesus to the church (people) in eachof the seven city regions. The problemsthat Jesus addressed were with thepeople, not with the assemblies. Andbecause the people (the church) werescattered throughout a particular city re-gion, then the address was to “the church(disciples) of ....” The exhortations ofRevelation 2 & 3 were to people, not theassemblies of the people.

The fact that the disciples were scat-tered throughout these seven city regionshelps us to understand better themessenger’s use of the world ekklesia(“church”) in reference to God’s people.Most important of all, we understand thatthe use of the word in this context is inreference to people, not assemblies.Therefore, the corporate assemblies ofGod’s people do not identify the exist-ence of God’s people in any geographi-cal region.

Add to this the content of the mes-sages. Jesus was not seeking to correctsome dysfunctions in the assemblies ofthe saints. In fact, nothing is said aboutassemblies in any of the seven messages.

All the exhortations of the messages fo-cused on beliefs and behavior. And thefact that the exhortations were addressedto the collective of the disciples in eachcity region, affirms that no group of dis-ciples within any of the city regions hada right to separate themselves from therest of the disciples in that region. Therewere no autonomous assemblies of thedisciples within any of the seven city re-gions. There were several assemblies ofdisciples who were meeting in numeroushouses throughout the cities, but no oneassembly in any house declared their in-dependence from any other assembly ofdisciples in reference to the church (sin-gular) of a particular city. There wereno autonomous groups of disciples withinany city who declared their autonomyfrom any other group.

The fact that Jesus did not addressany divisive behavior among the disciplesin any city, assumes that the practice ofautonomous assemblies had not yet de-veloped among the disciples at this timein the history of the church. The churchwas still functioning as one universalbody.

Here is something for which towatch in these messages to all the Chris-tians in any one particular city. InPergamum, for example, there were“those who hold the teaching of Balaam”and “the teaching of the Nicolaitans” (Rv2:14,15). Does this mean that if therewas only one autonomous assemblywithin Pergamum, then the call for re-pentance on the part of “those” whotaught these teachings was directed onlyto those of one assembly? Because the

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Introduction

members were meeting in several housesthroughout the cities, did this mean thatthe shepherds, regardless of where theysat on Sunday, had the responsibility todeal with the teaching of the Balaamitesand Nicolaitans wherever they sat onSunday morning? According to the re-sponsibilities of the shepherds of the cit-ies (At 20:28), we would certainly be-lieve that they did not neglect their re-sponsibility to teach the word of God toeveryone in each of the seven cities. Anymember or shepherd within a city had theresponsibility to correct the teaching ofthe Balaamites and Nicolaitans. If onesat on Sunday morning in an assemblywhere there were no Balaamites orNicolaitans, then this did not relieve himof the responsibility of exhorting with theword of God these false teachers, wher-ever they were in the city. Now whenwe consider this historical setting, weshould review our beliefs concerning as-sembly autonomy. Those who seek tostart and maintain their own independentand exclusive assembly should think onthese things. We need to remember thatwhenever one is baptized into Christ,God adds that person to His people.Where this baptized believer shows upon Sunday morning does not determinewhether God has added him to His people(At 2:47).

Seven Cities: No one has any idea as towhy Jesus personally addressed theChristians only in these seven particularcities. Some have supposed that this wasa regular “mail route” of the early Ro-man Empire. However, it could have

been that Jesus simply picked out sevenrepresentative cities of disciples that rep-resented the falling away from the truththat was indicative of many otherchurches in the first century, or at leastwould occur throughout the centuries tocome. It seems that the address of Rev-elation 2 & 3 is the follow up of Paul’sprophecy to the elders of Asia, that “fromyour own selves will men arise, speak-ing perverse things ...” (At 20:30). Ifthis assumption is true, then we woulddetermine our definition of the “perversethings” by at least studying through themessages to the seven city regions. Whenwe study the “perverse things” of thesedisciples, we may find ourselves eithercondoning “perverse things” or behav-ing perversely. This will especially beevident when we come to the sin oflukewarmness that is specifically targetedin the message to the disciples inLaodicea.

Teaching: Many good teachers havetaught on the moral and doctrinal char-acter of the seven churches of Asia.Within Jesus’ messages to these churchesone will often find himself somewherein one of the messages. We must notthink, therefore, that the moral and doc-trinal points of these messages that wererevealed to the seven churches over twothousand years ago are not relevant forus today. These messages are significantfor all disciples for all time, for we mustbelieve that the Holy Spirit included thismaterial in the New Testament in orderto both discourage apostasy, but at thesame time encourage the faithful with a

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promise of eternal life. Since the mes-sages were directed to those who hadbeen Christians for some time, it was dif-ficult to call to repentance those who havelived in a religious culture of sin for solong. This is the reason why thelampstand would inevitably be removedfrom some of these areas. Too many hadlived for too long after the behavior ofwhat was too far from true discipleship.

Of course, there are those who sim-ply ignore the warnings, hoping for the“closing prayer” so that they can writeoff the relevance of the messages. Re-gardless of our lack of appreciation forthese messages, we will assure you of onething as we study through the sins of theseven flickering flames. We will oftenfind ourselves somewhere among thesedisciples. And when we find ourselvesfacing direct judgment from Jesus, wewill have to make a decision as towhether we will be His disciple, or runout the back door of the church house.

Call for repentance: But there is hope.Advance calls for repentance gave thedisciples in the seven cities an opportu-nity to repent. If repentance came, thenpreservation of the influence of the bodyof Christ within the city regions wouldcontinue. The general pattern that Jesusfollowed in making His call for repen-tance began with a personal address thatincluded a metaphorical description ofwho He was in reference to His univer-sal body. This was followed by an initialcommendation, and then, condemnation

and judgment if they continued in theirwayward ways. In order to generate re-pentance, exhortations were made thatwere followed by warnings. As a lastadmonition to repent, Jesus made prom-ises what they would enjoy if they re-pented.

Throughout each message, there ishope of preservation. But if there wereno repentance, then the influence ofChrist in the city regions would be ter-minated. However, though their Chris-tianity would have digressed to formalreligiosity, there would be no positiveinfluence for Christ to the unbelievers.And when this happens, the churchceases to exist, regardless of assemblies.Since a loving life-style identifies the ex-istence of the church in any region (Jn13:34,35), then when loving behavior forJesus ceases, then the church of Christhas terminated in a particular region.

We must keep this very importantpoint in mind as we study through themessages. Jesus is not talking about re-penting and restoring some ritualistic as-sembly. He is talking about repenting ofsin that destroys one’s witness that he isa disciple of Jesus. The sins (“perversethings”) that were happening among theseven areas of disciples was not some er-roneous system or ritual of assembly, buterror in reference to moral behavior andbeliefs. If some of the disciples amongthe cities did not repent of these things,then their influence for Jesus would besnuffed out. The flickering flame wouldbe gone.

Introduction

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It seems that Jesus started with thecity of disciples that had the greatest op-portunity of all the other cities. Theprominence and location of this citymeant that the disciples in Ephesus hada great impact throughout western AsiaMinor, which impact, they were in dan-ger of losing. The Christians in key ur-ban centers as Ephesus must keep this inmind. What they do will often affect theexistence of the church through a region,if not an entire nation.

Ephesus had been given the greaterprivilege of having the apostle Paul teachand work in the city for three years (At20:31). Therefore, the Christians in thiscity had the greater responsibly to main-tain the flame of their lamp because theyhad the greater privilege of the personalministry of a Christ-sent apostle. Thismay be the reason why we know moreabout the work of the early Christians inthis urban center than we do of any ofthe other cities that are addressed in Rev-elation 2 & 3.

A. Ephesus was a commercial andreligious center.

Ephesus (meaning “desirable”) wasa seaport city that was located on theCayster River. The city was the largestport city of all Asia Minor, and thus roadsdirected trade to and through its port. Itwas a gateway port to the Mediterraneanbasin. It was also the gateway to west-

ern Asia Minor for political, religious andcommercial influences. By the time Paulstepped foot in the city in Acts 19, thecity was at lest one thousand years old.Some have estimated that the populationat the time of Paul’s first visit was over250,000. Since the city was a seaportcity, it was the center of trading from in-land Asia Minor, which made the cityvery wealthy and important to Mediter-ranean commerce.

What was unique about Ephesus isthat it housed the great temple of the lo-cal god Diana (Greek, Artemis). Thistemple was once considered one of theseven wonders of the world. From thetime of the beginning of idol worship inthe city, there were actually five templestructures that had been destroyed andrebuilt on the site where the temple ofDiana stood at the time Paul was in Ephe-sus. The fourth temple that was built onthe site burned the night Alexander theGreat was born in October 365 B.C. Con-struction was started on the fifth templein 350 B.C. It took 220 years to com-plete this temple. This temple was about25,000 square meters in size uponcompletion. It was eventually burned inA.D. 263. After the destruction of thistemple, there was never again a templebuilt on the site.

Housed within the temple at thetime Paul was in Ephesus was a largestone that some historians believe was ameteorite. Because it appeared to be

1 - Message To The Ephesian Disciples

Chapter 1

Message To The Ephesian Disciples

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multi-breasted, it became the idol ofDiana, the goddess of fertility. Thepeople were so fanatical about this idol,and the religion it represented, that whenthey recognized, upon his arrival at thetemple, that Paul was a Jew, “all withone voice for about the time of two hourscried out, ‘Great is Artemis [Diana] ofthe Ephesians’” (At 19:34).

Because of the location of the cityof Ephesus, the temple of Diana becamea banking center where the people en-trusted their money to the priests. By thetime of Paul’s arrival, it was not only acenter of worship, but a treasure housefor the people, and a museum for manyof the best pieces of art in the region. Thetemple was the heart and soul of thepeople of Ephesus. The fanaticism thatwas expressed against Paul upon his ar-rival in Ephesus in Acts 19 can be under-stood because of the people’s zeal for theidol worship that was associated with thetemple of Diana. The message that Paulpreached was against everything thetemple represented among the Ephesians.The message of his preaching not onlyattacked the idol worship of the culture,it also attacked the idol business that wasassociated with the temple.

In the messages written to the sevenchurches, it is possible that Jesus usedthe influence of the cities as a metaphori-cal prophesy concerning the future de-cline of the influence of the disciples inthe regions of the cities. Ephesus, forexample, would have been an exampleto define the religious, commercial andcultural influence of the city throughoutthe region of Ephesus. The other cities,

in a similar way, were also influential intheir regions. But the disciples’ positiveinfluence for the truth was declining. Theflames of their lamps were flickering. Insome cases, they were reverting to thebehavior of idol worship from which theywere originally converted.

When the influence of Ephesus be-gan to wane, so did the influence of thechurch throughout the region of Ephe-sus. When the disciples saw the demiseof the influence of the church through-out their region, they would rememberwhat Jesus said about the removal of theirlamp. When the influence of all the sevencities eventually came to an end, so didthe influence of the church in the regionof the cities. The lampstand was takenaway as the cities, and the church in thecities, disappeared from history. Thelamps of the churches eventually ran outof oil, and subsequently, flickered out.

B. Ephesus was formerly a focalpoint of Asian evangelism.

By the time Paul arrived in Ephe-sus, idol worship had been commercial-ized. Idols of the religion of Diana wereon sale at great profit (At 19:24). Whena great conversion resulted from Paul’spreaching of the gospel, the peopleburned thousands of religious books thatwere worth a great deal of money (At19:19). The people did not seek to syn-chronize their spiritualistic religious be-liefs with the truth. On the contrary, theysought to eradicate pagan beliefs fromtheir minds. Some historians believe thatby the time of Paul’s third mission trip to


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Ephesus, the worship of Diana was wan-ing. The great conversion of idol wor-shipers through the preaching of the gos-pel certainly continued the demise of thisreligion. For this reason, the idol busi-ness was in serious trouble. And whenmen have commercialized religion, wecan expect trouble when the truth endan-gers their profit.

It is certain that the preaching of thegospel to the city of Ephesus came longbefore Paul’s arrival. There were surelyJewish citizens who returned before andafter the Passover/Pentecost feast ofJerusalem in A.D. 30. Upon their returnto Ephesus, they would have shared whatthey heard being preached throughoutPalestine by both John and Jesus (At 2:9;See Is 2:1-4). This may explain the ex-istence of a small group of about twelvedisciples whom Paul found in the citywho knew only the baptism of John (At19:1-7). Since John’s preaching tookplace six months before Jesus began Hisministry, and before the Passover/Pente-cost feast of Acts 1,2 took place in A.D.30, then we could assume that these dis-ciples Paul found had been meeting forapproximately twenty-five years in theirhouse before he showed up in Acts 19:1-7. Maybe such faithfulness will give ussome idea of the religious soul of the Eph-esians. They took their faith seriously.

As far as our knowledge of the for-mal establishment of the disciples inEphesus, Acts places Paul, Aquila andPriscilla in the city after the trio leftCorinth. Paul left Aquilla and Priscillain the city, while he went on to Jerusa-lem (At 18:18-21). Apollos also

preached in the city and was initially con-tacted by Aquila and Priscilla when hewas preaching in the Jewish synagogueof Ephesus (At 18:24-26). He too onlyknew the baptism of John.

The presence of these two Chris-tians, Aquila and Priscilla, in the syna-gogue does indicate that they as JewishChristians continued their outreach to theJews. Their meeting in the synagogueillustrates that Christians should not shunthe opportunity to be anywhere with anyreligious person who might want to hear.We do know that Aquila and Priscilla,with other disciples, maintained a lowprofile while they met in the Ephesussynagogue, for when Paul came, and wasmore distinct in his message, “some[Jews] were hardened and did not be-lieve, but spoke evil of the Way beforethe multitude” (At 19:9).

What Aquila and Priscilla were do-ing was waiting for any opportunity tospeak privately with anyone who camealong, and such they did with Apollos (At18:26). Instead of creating oppositionpublicly, Aquila and Priscilla worked pri-vately. Paul, however, went public andspecific. As a result, the unbelievingJews of the synagogue desired that it wastime for the Christians to move on. SoPaul “departed from them and separatedthe disciples [from the synagogue ofJews], reasoning daily in the school ofTyrannus” (At 19:9). From his ministryof teaching in the school of Tyrannus,“all those who dwelt in Asia heard theword of the Lord Jesus” (At 19:10). Itwas a classic example of God using op-position to move the evangelist on to a


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more fruitful ministry. This may havebeen when the disciples began to meetin homes throughout the city.

After the mass conversion that tookplace during Paul’s two-year stay inEphesus, he traveled on, eventually end-ing up in a Roman prison around A.D.61,62. From prison he wrote to the dis-ciples in Ephesus. He made some sig-nificant statements in the text of Eph-esians 3:14-19 in reference to their per-sonal relationships with one another. Hewrote that he prayed that the Fatherwould grant them strength in order thatthey be “rooted and grounded in love”(Ep 3:17). He prayed that they might“know the love of Christ that surpassesknowledge” (Ep 3:19). It seems fromthese exhortations in the letter that at thetime he wrote to the Ephesian disciples,they were possibly having some troublein reference to implementing the “loveof Christ” in their lives. They were pos-sibly falling from the love of Christ thatwould motivate them to reach out to theunbelievers as they did in the beginningin Acts 19. By the time of the exhorta-tions of Revelation, they had lost their“first love.” It seems that they maintainedtheir love of one another, but lost the lovethat motivated works, specifically evan-gelistic works.

When we define what the “firstlove” was, it is necessary to reflect onwhat Paul wrote in the Ephesian letter.Bible students have differed on what the“first love” was. When comparing theEphesians’ initial response to the gospelin Acts 19, and the exhorations in theEphesian letter, there are two possibili-

ties. First, the term “first love” may havebeen a relational love of the disciples forone another. Or second, it could refer tothe love that was expressed by Paul inGalatians 5:6: “... in Jesus” it is “faithworking through love.” This statementwas made in the context of some of theGalatians disciples who were seeking tobe legalistically justified before Godthrough their meritorious works of law.Such works could not justify one beforeGod, and thus, legal works are useless inreference to our salvation (Gl 2:16). It isour opinion that the Ephesians had losttheir works that were motivated by faithand love, and thus were continuing theirlegal works whereby they, as some inGalatia, were seeking to take pride intheir works in order to be justified be-fore God.

Since Jesus exhorted them to do thefirst works (Rv 2:5), then they had to re-store the first love in order to do theworks that came from love, not legal re-ligiosity to merit their salvation or vali-date themselves as the people of God.One of the first works was fervent evan-gelistic outreach, the works that weremanifested in those first years of the ex-istence of the church in Ephesus.

In the context of Revelation 2:1 inwhich the statement was made that theyhad lost their first love, the exhortationwould define the loss of this first love tobe somewhat different from the love thatChristians are to have for one another.The phrase “first love” seems to refermore to evangelistic outreach, than loveamong the disciples. They had the “firstlove” when they first became disciples


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during the Acts 19 event. When Paulwrote the Ephesian letter in A.D. 61,62,they seemed to have continued in theirlove for one another, for Paul said noth-ing in the Ephesian letter about their los-ing their love for one another. Neitherdid he say anything about losing their“first love.” But by the time of the ex-hortation of Revelation, the “first love”was gone. So by the time Jesus addressedthem, we also wonder how they wereactually doing concerning their love forone another. When disciples begin to losetheir love for one another, then we knowthat their love for the lost is flickeringout. There is no desire to be evangelisticwhen Christians do not love one another.No one of an unloving fellowship of dis-ciples has the desire to being convertsinto an unloving fellowship.

C. Ephesus is admonished by Jesus.

Jesus is the One who is deliveringthe messages to the seven churches. Thereis a metaphorical description of Him inthe address to each church. His addressto each city church is sent through the me-dium of an “angel,” which Greek wordcan also be translated “messenger.”

In the introductory message to theEphesus Christians, Jesus is pictured asthe One who has ownership (“hold”) ofthe disciples in all the seven city regions.And as the One to whom Christians be-long, He is among His people. The factthat Jesus is among His people assumesthat no man should seek to rise up andtake the place of Jesus in His ministryamong His people. There is no need for

presumptuous men as Diotrephes to setaside the headship of Jesus in order tobecome the center of reference and con-trolling power for the disciples of Jesus.Jesus is the only needed head (Cl 1:18;Ep 1:22,23). Paul had warned the Eph-esians that some elders would be so ar-rogant as to walk among the disciples,calling disciples after themselves (At20:29,30). But Jesus’ reminder here isthat He only is the One who walks amongHis disciples.

It is significant to note that Jesusdid not send a message to the elders ofany of the churches, nor to some apostle,or prominent preacher. As the head ofHis universal body with all authority (Mt28:18), the picture that is painted withwords in each introduction is that He isaddressing the members of His body di-rectly. There were no authorities on earththrough whom He had to go in order toreach the members of His body. There isno need of a pope or some authority orsynod of men on earth who should directthe affairs of God’s people. Jesus is ca-pable of leading His people through theinstructions of His written word alone.Since all authority resides with Jesus (Mt28:18), who is the head of His universalbody, then no universal institutional au-thority on earth is needed to take the placeof Jesus’ direct authority of His bodythrough His word. If any authoritieswould set themselves up on earth to rulethe affairs of the body of Jesus, then the“all” authority of Jesus would be mini-mized. Authorities on earth always seekto set aside the authority of Jesus overHis body through His word.


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1. They worked and labored:Jesus’ first statements to these discipleswas, “I know your works and your laborand your patience” (Rv 2:2). They werestill an active group of disciples through-out the region of Ephesus. Jesus did notwant them to think that their labors werein vain, nor unnoticed. He knows thework of every active disciple, and thusHe seeks to commend His people on thebasis of their work (2 Co 5:10). The HolySpirit had earlier written to them, “Forwe are His workmanship, created inChrist Jesus for good works ...” (Ep2:10). They certainly continued thatabout which the Spirit reminded themthrough the Ephesian letter. However, ifthey could have been saved on the basisof their work, then there would be noproblem. But in the context of remind-ing them that they were His workman-ship, the Spirit also stated, “For by graceyou are saved through faith, and that notof yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ep2:8). Could it have been that they werelegally trusting in their works, and thus,had forgotten that no amount of workscould save them? Churches that are mo-tivated by legal performance alone, andnot grace, soon run out of steam. As willbe noticed later, disciples can work them-selves into spiritual death (Rv 3:1). Atleast the flame of these disciples wasflickering, even though they were work-ing.

2. They resisted moral and doctri-nal error: Morally, the Ephesians werezealous to walk according to the standardof the word of God. They did not “bearthose who are evil” (Rv 2:2). Neither

could they bear those who professed tobe messengers (Gr.: “apostles”) of thechurch, but were liars (Rv 2:2). Therewere those coming through their areawho said that they had been sent out byother Christians, and thus were seekingto validate themselves as church-sentapostles. But the Ephesian disciplestested these self-proclaimed apostles andfound that they were only masqueradingthemselves as church-sent apostles (See2 Co 11:13-15; 1 Jn 4:1,6).

The Ephesian disciples had cer-tainly remembered the exhortation ofPaul when he met with the presbyters ofthe church from Asia a few years beforeon his third mission journey. During thatvisit, Paul warned all the churches thatmen would arise and call the disciplesafter themselves (See At 20:28-31). Itseems that it was not long after Paul’sadmonition that the false apostles werecirculating among the assemblies of thedisciples.

It is significant in our times to no-tice the existence of these self-pro-claimed apostles as those who were alsoamong the early churches. In this con-text, Jesus calls these self-proclaimedapostles liars in that they said that theywere sent out by other disciples. But theyhad not been sent out by others, but bythemselves. Since the Greek wordapostolos means “one who is sent,” thenno man can send himself, and then claimto be an apostle. Apostles are sent bysomeone else (See At 18:27; 2 Co 8:23;Ph 2:25). Even Paul was cautious aboutclaiming to be an apostle of Christ. Hethus validated his apostleship by remind-


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ing the Corinthians that he had been per-sonally called and personally sent out di-rectly by Jesus (1 Co 15:9,10; 2 Co 10).He did not send himself.

When the self-sent apostles whocame to Ephesus were tested with theword of God, the conclusion was that noother group of Christians had sent thembecause faithful Christians would nothave sent out one who was teaching er-ror. It is easy for a self-sent apostle toteach all sorts of error if he does not knowhis Bible. If he does not know the Bible,then he often sets himself up as his ownauthority. But when a church-sent apostleis tested by the word of God by a groupof disciples (1 Jn 4:1), then it is less likelythat such a person will be going aboutteaching error. Paul reminded the Corin-thian disciples of self-sent false apostleswho were circulating among the dis-ciples. He wrote of such self-sentapostles, “For such are false apostles,deceitful workers, masquerading them-selves as apostles of Christ” (2 Co11:13).

It is easy for a self-proclaimedapostle to send himself in order to liveoff the church. This was the problem.And because it was a problem in the firstcentury, Paul supported himself when hewent forth as a Christ-sent apostle (At18:1-3; 20:33-25). But to claim that oneis sent out by the church when he hassent himself, is to be a liar. According tothis text, all self-proclaimed apostleswould be liars, for they have been sentout by no one other than themselves. Ifthey claimed to have been personallycalled by Jesus, as Paul, then they need

to be reminded that Paul said he was anapostle who was born out of the timewhen Christ-sent apostles were person-ally called by Jesus (1 Co 15:8). Becauseof this untimely birth as an apostle, Paulsaid that he was not as the original twelve(1 Co 15:9). So where would this put allthe modern-day self-proclaimedapostles? They would certainly not beas the untimely born Paul. And if theyhave not been sent out by the disciples,then neither are they “ones sent”(apostles).

Those who seek to go forth indi-vidually on their own, are encouraged todo so. But one should not claim to besent out by the church if the church hasnot sent him. If one claims to be sent bythe church when he was not, then he ismasquerading as a church-sent apostle.They are as those in Corinth who wereself-proclaimed apostles, for they werewanting to be somebody they were not.

3. They lost their first love: Con-trary to many disciples in various regionsof the world, Jesus commended the Eph-esian disciples, for they had “labored forMy name’s sake and have not becomeweary” (Rv 2:3). The Christians in Ephe-sus stood against that which was evil,hating the licentious evil taught by thecult of Nicolaitans (Rv 2:6). They wereactive and doctrinally able to test withthe word of God those who came by andsaid that they were apostles sent out byother disciples (See 1 Co 12:10). Theyhad not grown weary in their vigor to becautious about maintaining their works.But something serious had gone wrong.

In verse 4 Jesus stated, “... you have


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left your first love.” In order to under-stand that to which Paul refers in his useof the phrase “first love,” it might be goodto reflect on the time when he wrote tothem a personal letter from Rome in A.D.61,62. In the letter he wrote,

Therefore, I also, after I heard of yourfaith in the Lord Jesus and love for allthe saints, do not cease to give thanksfor you, making mention of you in myprayers (Ep 1:15,16).

It would seem unlikely that they had losttheir love for one another and all thesaints from the time of the writing of thisstatement in A.D. 61,62 to the time Jesusmade the judgment of Revelation 2. Infact, Paul commended them in the letterfor their reputation for loving one anotherand all the saints. Even if Revelationwere written about thirty years later inA.D. 96, it seems unlikely that they wouldhave fallen out of love with one another.

The “first love” that they had lost,was not a reference to their love for oneanother, but the love that is defined inverse 5 in Jesus’ call for their repentance.Jesus exhorted, “... remember from whereyou have fallen, and repent and do thefirst works ....” When we recall the tre-mendous evangelistic conversion and ex-plosion in Ephesus that was recorded inActs 19, the “first love” would certainlyhave been their love for the lost, whichlove motivated them to work to save thelost. If they did not restore this love, thenthey, as an influence for our Lord inEphesus, would flicker out of existence.This would be certain since the

lampstand was about to be removed.Since the lampstand would refer to theirlight of influence throughout the city,then when it was snuffed out, the affectof the Ephesian disciples in Ephesuswould be gone. In this case, the useful-ness of the body in Ephesus as a light tothe lost would have terminated long be-fore the disciples stopped their assem-blies and legal works.

When disciples lose their localevangelistic outreach to the lost, they startbelieving that their mission is to them-selves. This seemed to be the case inEphesus with all the labor among them-selves for which Jesus earlier com-mended them. But once the zeal to lo-cally preach the gospel fades awayamong introverted disciples that are ac-tive among themselves, they will con-tinue to meet in order to validate theirexistence, but their preaching of the gos-pel to the lost is long gone. Deadchurches often have exciting assembliesfor themselves, but there are no new con-verts among them who have recentlyobeyed the gospel. Active churches, asthe Ephesian church, give the pretenseof being alive, but they are dead if theyhave no local evangelistic outreach to thelost.

These disciples were dead becausethey lost the love that motivated them inthe beginning when they were first con-verted. The statement “unless you re-pent” means that it was not well withthese disciples (Rv 2:5). Though theywere an active people among themselves,they were in need of repentance to re-store their first love of reaching out to


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others. They needed to change their di-rection of focus. Jesus’ exhortation leadsus to believe that churches that are ac-tive with themselves, but are not preach-ing the gospel to the lost, are in need ofrepentance.

D. Ephesus is given hope.

If they repented of their introver-sion, then there was hope for the future.“To him who overcomes I will give to eatof the tree of life that is in the paradiseof God” (Rv 2:7). The word “overcome”would certainly be the right word to usein reference to repenting of losing ourfirst love. Once the culture of apathy isestablished among the disciples in anyarea, it is a struggle to overcome the sin.It is a struggle to love again as one didwhen he first became a Christian. Re-storing lost zeal is difficult, but not im-possible. And from reading what Jesussaid to these disciples, if we would besaved, and thus eat of the tree of life, re-storing our first love is not an option.

The metaphor “tree of life” in thiscontext finds its original meaning in Gen-esis 3:22. It was a literal tree, and thesource of eternal existence (Gn 3:22-24).Reference in the context of Revelationis to the eternal life that one has if hecontinues as a repentant disciple whorestores his first love. Those who areobedient until death will be able to haveaccess to the tree of life (Rv 22:2,14,19).The Ephesian disciples were given theopportunity to repent from the walk ofdeath in order to again be restored to eter-nal life, which life they lost when they

lost their first love. This promise is areaffirmation of 1 John 1:7:

But if we walk in the light as He is in thelight, we have fellowship with one an-other and the blood of Jesus Christ HisSon cleanses us from all sin.

Apathetic churches can overcome.It is difficult, but this statement of prom-ise means that they can. The Ephesianchurch started in Acts 19, which wouldhave been in the early or middle 50s.When Paul wrote the letter of Ephesiansin A.D. 61,62, he commended them fortheir love for one another and all thesaints. By the time Revelation was writ-ten, however, they seemed to have con-tinued in their love among themselves,but they had lost their love for lost souls.It does not take long for a church to die,especially when the members becomeconsumed with good works for them-selves.

Early numerical growth of disciplesin any area is usually in the first ten yearsafter the beginning of the church. Afterthe initial spark of growth, the first con-verts settle down as they get older, andthen reach a plateau of existence. Theywill continue on this plateau, baptizingsome to replace those who fall away, dieaway, or just go away. But once the pla-teau of non-growth is established, andapathy sets in, those who come into thefellowship of disciples soon adopt thesame culture of indifference. The churchis thus doomed to slide eventually downthe back side of the growth scale, and gointo oblivion. Such was the case with


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2 - Message To The Smyrna Disciples

the Christians in Ephesus. They were onthe back side of the plateau. Thelampstand of influence was eventuallyextracted, and the disciples in Ephesuswere no longer of any use for the mis-sion of Jesus. Such seems to be the his-tory of too many churches. They grow,plateau, and then within thirty to fortyyears, they are dead, if not gone.

Those disciples who realize thatthey are caught in the sin of evangelisticindifference need to remember the prom-ise: “To him who overcomes [his indif-

ference] I will give to eat of the tree oflife that is in the paradise of God” (Rv2:7). The hope is that one can regener-ate his enthusiasm for the lost. The “firstlove” can be reborn. We can overcome.

Jesus began this first message to theseven churches with an exhortation tolisten to His warnings and instructions.They must heed His call for repentance.If those in Ephesus refused to hear, thenpuff. The flickering flame would besnuffed out.

Chapter 2

Messsage To The Smyrna Disciples

Only forty kilometers north ofEphesus, the city of Smyrna was theoriginal seat of emperor worship in Asiaof the Roman Empire. Long before thedominance of the Roman Empire in theeastern Mediterranean, Smyrna hadmanifested its allegiance to Rome. As aport city, it grew to prominence duringthe growth of the Roman Empire and wasknown for its beauty and magnificentpublic buildings.

Located within the city was a templethat was built to honor Emperor Tiberius,one of the Caesars of Rome. As a seat ofthe Dea Roma (the goddess of Rome),this religion preceded Roman emperorworship. By aligning itself with Rome,Smyrna handed over its faith to Romewhen the emperors of Rome began todemand total state and religious alle-giance throughout the Empire. In A.D.26, Smyrna was the first city to make em-peror worship mandatory. And because

Polycarp, an elder of the church inSmyrna, refused to recant his statementsagainst state religion, he was subse-quently martyred in Symrna around A.D.155.

One major sociological point thatmodern-day Bible interpreters usuallymiss is the nature of the society of thesmall cities in which Christians lived inthe first century. If a city had a popula-tion of 20,000 to 30,000, everyone in thecity knew what was going on with ev-eryone else in the city. No one could livea hidden life, especially when the wholecity was given over to pagan religiosity.As Christians sought to preach the gos-pel, everyone in a city knew who theChristians were.

Now add to this the fact that thesesmall cities politically gave their alle-giance to Rome in order to be protectedby Rome. Allegiance to Rome eventu-ally meant calling Caesar lord, which was

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actually a confession of loyalty to Rome.Now if one could not conscientiously dothis because he had only one Lord, thenthere were accusations of insurrection.And everyone in town knew those whowould not give allegiance to Caesar bycalling him lord. If one lived in a city ofone million population or more, then hecould possibly conceal his loyalty toJesus only by meeting secretly in a housewith fellow disciples. But other thanEphesus, the largest of the seven citiesof Revelation, no disciple could concealthat he was a disciple of Jesus in the othercities. As the fervor of Roman religiongrew, the pressure on Christians to bowdown before Caesar intensified. And so,Rome eventually unleashed relentlesspersecution against Christians through-out the Empire because they were con-sidered insurrectionists.

We would suppose that the gospelfirst came to Smyrna as a result of theoutreach ministry of Paul through histeaching in the school of Tyrannus inEphesus during the middle 50s (At19:10). Because of its close proximityto Ephesus, we would assume that zeal-ous young disciples of the church inEphesus saw Smyrna as an early missioncity, and thus, they focused on the city inpreaching the gospel. Their preachingsubsequently led to the baptism of dis-ciples in the city some time during Paul’stwo years of teaching in the school ofTyrannus.

A. The comfort and encouragement:

The message to the disciples in

Smyrna by the resurrected Jesus beginswith His acknowledgment of their faith-fulness. “I know your works and tribu-lation and poverty” (Rv 2:9). In theirwork, it seems that everything wasagainst them. According to the remain-der of the book of Revelation, it may havebeen that they could neither get jobs norretain jobs because they refused to rec-ognize Caesar as lord (See Rv 13:16,17).As a result of their refusal, they were boy-cotted by pagan religionists who soughtto manifest their allegiance to Rome byhonoring Caesar as the only lord of thepeople.

1. Tribulation: It is believed thatin his early years Polycarp was a discipleof the apostle John. In A.D. 155 the Ro-man Proconsul of Smyrna demanded ofPolycarp, “Swear and I will set you atliberty; reproach Christ.” In his old ageat the time, Polycarp responded, “Eightyand six years I have served Him, and Henever did me injury. How then can I blas-pheme my King and my Savior?” Andso Polycarp was martyred for Christ inSmyrna by a local government officialwho did not have the sanction of the gov-ernment of Rome to do so.

We are sure that Polycarp remem-bered the life of Jesus and His sufferings.He certainly remembered the prophesiedstate persecution that John said wouldsoon come upon the Christians of theRoman Empire. In the years to come af-ter Jesus’ message, the Smyrna Christiansneeded to remember the words of theHebrew writer: “For since He Himself[Jesus] has suffered while being tempted,


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He is able to aid those who are tempted”(Hb 2:18). And so Jesus left an exampleof suffering for His disciples to follow.

For to this you were called, becauseChrist also suffered for you, leaving youan example that you should follow Hissteps (1 Pt 2:21).

Therefore, when under tribulation, “letus hold fast to our confession” (Hb 4:14).It is certain that “all who desire to livegodly in Christ Jesus will suffer perse-cution” (2 Tm 3:12). Nevertheless, “ifanyone suffers as a Christian, let him notbe ashamed, but let him glorify God inthis name” (1 Pt 4:16). We must glorifyGod in our tribulation, for “we mustthrough much tribulation enter into thekingdom of God” (At 14:22). The Chris-tians in Smyrna had undergone tribula-tion in the past, but it seems that it wasgoing to get worse before it got better.This tribulation would be coming fromstate religionists throughout the RomanEmpire. John reminded the disciples inall the seven cities that the tribulation wassoon to begin (Rv 1:1; 22:6).

Jesus promised the Smyrna dis-ciples that they would suffer “ten days”(Rv 2:10). The number “10” signifiedthat which was complete, and thus, therewould be an end to the tribulation thatwas coming. This is the “little while” ofsuffering by which the readers of Peter’sepistle were encouraged:

In this you greatly rejoice, though nowfor a little while, if need be, you havebeen distressed by many trials, so that

the proof of your faith, being much moreprecious than gold that perishes, thoughit is refined with fire, might be found topraise and honor and glory at the rev-elation of Jesus Christ (1 Pt 1:6,7).

Someone once said, “A religion that hasto be heated in winter, air-conditioned insummer, dampened in dry weather anddried in wet weather, will take one wherethe temperature cannot be controlled.”And indeed, a faith that is not worth dy-ing for is not worth believing. Those towhom Peter wrote would have their faithtested as those in Smyrna. God wouldstep back for a moment and allow Satanto refine as gold the faith of His children.It is for this reason that Christians cancount it with all joy when they fall intodifferent trials (Js 1:2). They know thattheir faith is being refined for greaterthings to come. Satan’s efforts to dis-courage Christians through trials sifts outthe weak, but strengthens those who en-dure.

In this message of Jesus to theChristians in Smyrna, He was laying afoundation for the theme of the uniquevisions of encouragement that were tofollow in the letter. There was a greatpersecution coming. Since John was inthe area, being on the island of Patmos(Rv 1:9), those in Smyrna would sufferthe beginning of what Rome would laterunleash as state persecution againstChristianity. This persecution wouldcarry on for over 150 years, ending onlywhen Galerius issued the Edict of Tol-eration in A.D. 311. Though the immi-nent persecution was coming upon these


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Christians, John called on them to re-member the encouragement of the visionsof the book. No matter how bad it wouldget, they must remember the outcome ofthe persecution:

These will make war with the Lamb andthe Lamb will overcome them, for He isLord of lords and King of kings. Andthose who are with Him are called andchosen and faithful (Rv 17:14).

It goes without saying that the mod-ern-day prognosticators of our times seekto steal away the encouragement of Rev-elation from these early disciples. Theydo so by making fanciful interpretationsof Revelation that are supposed to be ful-filled in our times, things that they as-sume are in reference to the end of theworld. If the encouragement that Jesusmade to the disciples of Smyrna wereactually meant for us today, then He liedto the church in Smyrna, as well as toall the early Christians who were aboutto endure the wrath of Rome. But itwas as if John knew that there wouldcome these false prophets, for in the veryfirst verse of the book he reminded hisreaders, including the disciples inSmyrna, of “things that must shortlycome to pass” (Rv 1:1). And “shortly”does not mean over two thousand yearslater. And as if one might forget by theend of the book that the fulfillment ofthe revelations would come to pass in thetime of the first recipients of the letter,John closed the letter with the statement:“And the Lord God of the spirits of theprophets sent His angel to show to His

bondservants [in Smyrna, Ephesus,Philadelphia, etc.] the things that mustshortly take place” (Rv 22:6). “Shortly”does not mean “short time of persecu-tion,” for how can a century and a half ofRoman state persecution be a short timeof persecution? John was saying to hisimmediate readers that the trials theywere personally about to endure wereimmediate. After the death of these im-mediate disciples, the state persecutionof Rome against Christianity would carryon for over one hundred years. Thoseinterpreters who believe that the“shortly” refers to the duration of perse-cution being brief, need to talk to thoseChristians who grew up in the catacombsof Rome and never saw the light of daybecause of the ongoing persecution ofChristianity at the time. It is easy to makesilly interpretations when one lives out-side the immediate historical context.

It takes some awesome hermeneu-tical gymnastic of twisting Scriptures tocontort the phrase “shortly take place”to mean a period of over two thousandyears later. But such do the modern-dayprophets who are so zealous to find some“sign of the times” in the book of Rev-elation in order to generate a followingof those who are willing to be “tossed toand fro and carried about with everywind of teaching, by the trickery of menin cleverness to the deceitfulness of er-ror” (Ep 4:14).

2. Poverty: This is where discipleswho consider themselves to be of the de-veloping world sit up and listen to whatJesus has to say concerning the advan-tages of poverty. It seems that the Chris-


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tians in Symrna could identify with thepoor saints in Macedonia, about whomPaul wrote,

... we make known to you the grace ofGod that has been given to the churchesof Macedonia, that in a great trial of af-fliction, the abundance of their joy andtheir deep poverty, abounded in theriches of their liberality (2 Co 8:1,2).

As the Christians in Macedonia, theChristians in Smyrna did not allow theirtribulation and poverty to detour themfrom pouring out through works their ap-preciation for the grace of God. Theywere as Paul who experienced the graceof God in his own life.

But by the grace of God I am what Iam. And His grace toward me was notin vain, but I labored more abundantlythan they all, yet not I, but the grace ofGod that was with me (1 Co 15:10).

In our experience throughout theworld we have found that poorer breth-ren are often more evangelistic than thosewho seek to consume the world upontheir own lusts. Consumers have toomany other things on their minds thanwhat is most important in life. The poorhave the advantage of not having theirminds diverted to things and activities ofthis world, which things they cannot af-ford. Christians who have few things ofthis world on which to focus have moretime to focus on those things that are notof this world. Disciples who do not havemoney to involve themselves in worldly

activities have time to involve themselvesin the activities that lead to the preach-ing of the gospel. At least all church his-torians agree on one principle of churchgrowth: The more prosperous a societybecomes, the less the church growthwithin the society.

Jesus knows the state of being ofthose who have little. But He also ex-pects the poor never to use their povertyas an excuse not to go to work for Him.One may certainly be poor in the posses-sions of the world, but he must keep inmind what Jesus said to the poor saintsin Smyrna: “But you are rich!” (Rv 2:9).What the disciples in Smyrna may havethought concerning their poverty is thatthey forgot to consider the blessing of nothaving material blessings. Those who be-moan their low economic state of beingmust remember their high state of beingin Christ.

In their work for the Lord, theSmyrna disciples learned well from whatJesus said on the sermon on the mount:

... do not be worried about your life, whatyou will eat or what you will drink; norfor your body, what you will put on. Isnot life more than food and the body morethan clothing? (Mt 6:25; see 6:25-34).

The one who has put all his trust inGod has learned the secret to the con-tented life. Jesus said that if one storesup goods to secure himself in this life,he will not be “rich toward God” (Lk12:21). Those who are obsessed with theriches of this world need to rememberthat God has “chosen the poor of this


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world to be rich in faith and heirs of thekingdom that He has promised to thosewho love Him” (Js 2:5). For this reason,we would follow Moses:

By faith Moses, when he was grown up,refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’sdaughter, choosing rather to suffer mis-treatment with the people of God thanto temporarily enjoy the pleasures of sin(Hb 11:24,25).

4. “The synagogue of Satan”: Itmay be that the phrase “synagogue ofSatan” is a play on words in this context.It is believed that the Jews persecutedChristians more in this city than the Ro-mans. In fact, one tradition says that theJews carried the wood to the fire to burnthe body of the martyred Polycarp.Therefore, what should have been a syna-gogue of those who should have wel-comed Jesus as the Messiah, was actu-ally a synagogue of those who sought todestroy all that Jesus wanted to accom-plish through His disciples in the region.While thinking that they were carryingout the will of God, the Jews were actu-ally working for Satan.

The persecuting Jews of Smyrna il-lustrate those of all religious groups whobelieve they are pleasing their god bypersecuting those who are the disciplesof the incarnate God. But they are asJesus said of the Jewish religious lead-ers who confronted Him,

You are of your father the devil, and thedesires of your father you want to do.He was a murderer from the beginning,

and does not abide in the truth becausethere is no truth in him. When he speaksa lie, he speaks from his own nature; forhe is a liar, and its father (Jn 8:44).

It would certainly be a shockingthing to wake up one day and discoverthat all one’s religious zeal was actuallymoving one to work against the will ofGod. It took Saul three days to morphinitially into Paul as he agonized over thefact that he was actually a part of a “syna-gogue of Satan” worshipers. It is hard toimagine that a religiously obsessed per-son as Saul would eventually have to con-fess, “I was formerly a blasphemer anda persecutor and injurious” to God’speople (1 Tm 1:13). Few religious lead-ers who work against God in their mis-guided religiosity are able to make sucha statement, feeling that they would em-barrass themselves before those theyhave led in rebellion against God for solong. But Paul made the confession. Itwas as if he could not forgive himselfwhen he wrote to Timothy: “Christ Jesuscame into the world to save sinners, ofwhom I am the worst” (1 Tm 1:15).

We would suggest that everyonewho would lift himself up to be a reli-gious leader of the people of God takeanother look at what “Paul, the confes-sor” stated in 1 Timothy 1:13:

I was formerly a blasphemer and a per-secutor and injurious. But I obtainedmercy because I did it ignorantly inunbelief.

This would not be a comfortable passage


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for the arrogant religious leader who hasdiscovered that he has been workingagainst God. Paul’s humble statementthat he obtain the mercy of God wasbased on one major condition: “I did itignorantly in unbelief.” This one state-ment is profound in defining the charac-ter of a true leader of God’s people. Paulconfessed that his behavior was based onignorance. He thought he was doing thatwhich was true and right. He had alwaysdone the best he could with what he knew.How many religious leaders are therewho are able, as Paul and Apollos (At18:25,26), to confess up that they havebeen preaching error? When honestpeople learn more, they are willing tochange and preach the new truth that theyhave learned. The mark of a true leaderis his willingness to learn more truth, andwhen he learns more truth from study ofthe word of God, he believes and doeswhat he learns. And because Paulcounted pomp, position and prominenceas rubbish to be discarded, he was in allgood conscience before God (Ph 3:7,8).

How many religious zealots arethere who claim to be working on behalfof their god by persecuting disciples asthose Jews who were in Smyrna? Be-fore one is too eager to condemn othersto an eternal doom of destruction, heshould first look to himself to see if heis not on the membership role at the lo-cal “synagogue of Satan.” One can de-termine if his membership is with the“synagogue of Satan” by the level ofharshness he has toward those who dis-agree with him on minor issues that arenot fundamentals of the faith. We must

not forget that there are “churches ofSatan” out there who are sending theirmembers out with judgments to pro-nounce upon everyone who does not fitinto their legal pattern of religiosity.Those who are quick to pronounce con-demnation upon a fellow brother withwhom they may disagree should checkthe membership role of the local “churchof Satan.” They might find their namesthere.

B. Promise:

This is the context from which oneof the most popular verses of the Bible istaken concerning faithfulness.

1. Faithfulness: “Be faithful untodeath and I will give you the crown oflife” (Rv 2:10). The phrase “unto death”is the same in the Greek text as in Rev-elation 12:11: “And they overcame himby the blood of the Lamb and by the wordof their testimony. And they did not lovetheir lives to the death.” Therefore, inreflecting on 2:10, we could assume themeaning that Jesus’ encouragement to thedisciples in Smyrna was that they shouldbe faithful even if it meant death.Polycarp certainly believed this, and thuswould not recant his statements in theface of death. Sweet on the lips of everyfaithful disciple should be the words,

Blessed is the man who endures tempta-tion, for when he is tried, he will receivethe crown of life that the Lord has prom-ised to those who love Him (Js 1:12).


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It was for this crown that Paul fought inorder to finish his destiny. “I have foughtthe good fight. I have finished my course.I have kept the faith. Finally, there islaid up for me a crown of righteousness...” (2 Tm 4:7,8). So the faithful can en-dure tribulation because they know that“when the Chief Shepherd appears” they“will receive a crown of glory that doesnot fade away” (1 Pt 5:4).

It should at least be as an idolatrousGreek sailor prayed to his deity, “FatherNeptune, you may sink me if you will;you may save me if you will. But, what-ever happens, I’ll keep my rudder true.”It is correct as someone said, “True no-bility is forged on the anvil of experienceand fashioned on the battlefield of life.”

Faithful Christians are engaged ina race, a race in which they must struggleto finish (Hb 12:1,2). Paul reminded theCorinthian saints, “And every man whostrives exercises self-control in all things.Now they [athletes] do it to obtain a per-ishable crown, but we an imperishable”(1 Co 9:25). It is the faithful Christianwho will be crowned. It will be thosewho have stayed in the battle who willappreciate the crown.

Blessed are those bondservants whom thelord, when he comes, will find watching.Truly I say to you that he will gird him-self and have them sit down to eat, andwill come and serve them (Lk 12:37).

2. Overcome: As was made tothose in Ephesus, this promise of Jesusof reward for overcoming is made to thefaithful in Smyrna: “He who overcomes

will not be hurt by the second death” (Rv2:11). What is interesting in the Greektext here is that a double negative is used.In English a double negative is not goodgrammar, for it would signify an affir-mative. But a double negative in Greekis like saying, “Will never, never be hurt....” It is an absolute. And in the case ofthe promise to the disciples in Smyrna,there is no chance whatsoever that theywill lose their souls if they remain faith-ful even if it means death.

One may experience physical deathas a result of his faithfulness, but he willnever experience separation from theeternal presence of God. He will notbecause he has obeyed the death, burialand resurrection of Jesus (See 2 Th 1:7-9). Some good poet of old captured thethought in the following words of an oldpoem he entitled, In His Steps:

“The road is too rough,” dear Lord, “I cried.There are stones that hurt me so.”

And He said, “Dear child, I understand.I walked it long ago.”

“But there is a cool, green path,” I said,“Let me walk there for a time.”

“No, child,” He gently answered me,“The green road does not climb.”

“But I wish that there were friends with me,Who would make my way there won.”

“Ah, yes,” He said, “Gethsemane,Was hard to bear alone.”

And so I climbed the stone path,Content at last to know,

That where my Master had not gone,I would not have to go.

And strangely then I found new friends,The burden grew less sore,As I remember long ago,He went that way before.


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Jesus seeks that we hear Him in or-der to walk with Him down a path oftribulation. And in view of the promisesthat are set before us, we seek to hearand walk that path. So it is as John wrote,“We are from God. He who knows Godhears us. He who is not from God doesnot hear us. By this we know the spiritof truth and the spirit of error” (1 Jn 4:6).John was simply saying that we can knowthe disciples of Jesus who are on the pathof tribulation. We can know by their zealto study what he and the other writers ofthe New Testament were writing to thepeople of God. Jesus said, “He who isof God hears God’s words” (Jn 8:47).This certainly means that those who are

true disciples of Jesus are studying whatGod has to say. Good disciples are thusgood Bible students. Both Jesus and Johnare saying that we can identify disciplesof Jesus by those who are studying theirBibles. If one is not, then certainly he isnot a disciple of the One who would leadhim down a road of tribulation by thepower of God’s word.

Those who are not studying theword of Jesus, are not listening. Jesus’message is an exhortation that the dis-ciples of Symrna listen to what He hadto say. If they did not, then puff. Theflickering flame in Symrna would begone.

3 - Message To The Pergamum Disciples

Pergamum (KJV, Pergamos) wasthe capital of the province of Asia andwas located in the Caicus Valley. It wasthe capital until 133 B.C. when the lastof the Pergamum kings gave over thekingdom to Rome. This city subse-quently became the first site for a templeto be build to the worship of Caesar. Thetemple was a commemoration to Romeand Augustus Caesar in 29 B.C. A sec-ond temple was later built and dedicatedto Trajan.

Pergamum was a center for paganworship. Worship of Asklepius and Zeuswere principle gods that found their seatof worship in this city. The symbol ofAsklepius was the serpent. This symbolwas so prevalent that it was on Pergamumcoinage. One coin pictured Caracalla

saluting a serpent. The Pergamum citi-zens were obsessed with the image of theserpent. Because politics and religionfunctioned jointly in Pergamum, the cultof the Nicolaitans flourished in this re-gion. Because of this close relationshipbetween politics and religion, there wasa great deal of pressure on Christians tocompromise their faith by giving alle-giance to Caesar as lord. When they didnot in the years that followed the Rev-elation message, great persecution en-sued.

With the ancient library in Alexan-dria, Egypt, the city of Pergamum houseda comparable library in the ancient world.It was a library that was composed ofbooks that were written on paper madefrom the Papyrus plant of the Nile River

Chapter 3

Message To The Pergamum Disciples

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in Egypt. Because Egypt maintained amonopoly on the production of papyruswriting material, parchment as a writingmaterial made from leather, was eventu-ally invented in Pergamum. We owe agreat deal to this city because of the in-vention of parchment. Many great manu-scripts of the Bible were preserved forus today because copies of the books ofthe Bible were written on parchment.

A. Word from the two-edged sword:

Since the phrase, “sharp two-edgedsword” is a metaphor to refer to the wordof God, then the power of Christ to at-tack the Balaamites and Nicolaitans wasthe word of God (See Ep 6:17; Hb 4:12).And indeed it would not be a happy situ-ation to be at war with the Son of Godthrough His word. If one finds himselfin conflict with the “sharp two-edgedsword,” then he knows that he has alreadylost the battle. When sincere Bible-lov-ing people find themselves in conflictwith the sword of the Spirit, they will im-mediately surrender upon learning a newtruth. Those who do not are not sincere,but rebellious against all that God wouldteach through His word. In Pergamum,there were “Balaamites” and“Nicolaitans” whom the Son of Godhated because of their teaching and im-moral behavior. The picture that Jesusgives in His introduction to these dis-ciples is that He is at war with His wordagainst all who would teach error.

The lesson that is vividly clear fromJesus’ introduction to these disciples isthat if one is going to deal with Jesus, he

will have to deal with His word. Jesushad stated during His ministry, “If youcontinue in My word, then you are trulyMy disciples” (Jn 8:31). With the swordof the Spirit, Jesus is “against the rul-ers, against the powers, against the worldforces of darkness of this age, againstspiritual hosts of wickedness in highplaces” (Ep 6:12). If one is not engagedagainst these powers of error with theword of Jesus, then he is not a discipleof Jesus.

B. Words of tough times:

It is always reassuring that Jesusknows our labors. Not only this, but herecognizes our labors under hard circum-stances, for where the disciples dwelt inPergamum, it was not easy being a Chris-tian. It could be said that they laboredunder great duress. It was as someonesaid, “It is not success that God rewards,but faithfulness in doing His will.” An-other tried Christian correctly said,

A brick is made of clay;So is a man.

A brick is square and plumb and true;So a man ought to be.

A brick is useless until it has been through fire;So is a man.

A brick is not showy as marble,but is more useful;

Man is not made to be showy,but to serve.

A brick fulfills its purpose only by becoming apart of something greater than itself;

The same is true of a man.When a man fulfills this description,

he has a right to be called a brick.

The poem reminds us of Ephesians 6:10:


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“Finally, my brethren, be strong in theLord and in the power of His might.”

The better we understand the envi-ronment in which the early Christianslived in the seven cities, the better wewill identify with their hardships. Thesocial environment in which the Chris-tians in Pergamum lived was very hos-tile to Christian faith. Rome became apolitical/religious state. Caesar was thelord, and all subjects of the Empire wereto reverence him as lord. Those who didnot were considered insurrectionists.Antipas was evidently one of the firstChristians to suffer martyrdom becausehe would not bow down to a self-pro-claimed deity of a political/religious statethat demanded total allegiance. Regard-less of the threat of death, Antipas wouldnot live contrary to that which he be-lieved. He was willing to trust that hisLord Jesus would carry him through intoeternity. Since this world is only a mo-mentary breath of existence for Chris-tians, then those who make war againstChristianity only transition members ofthe body on to their objective throughmartyrdom.

We have always thought the oldpreacher’s story of the man who walkedacross a canyon on a tight rope somethingthat well illustrated many soft Christiansof today. After the tightrope walker hadcompleted his successful walk across thecanyon, one overenthusiastic spectatorwas overjoyed, and said to the tightropewalker, “That was just unbelievable! Itwas amazing! Spectacular!” The tight-rope walker replied, “Well, do you thinkI could do that with a man on my shoul-

ders?” The enthusiastic spectator an-swered, “You did it so well, I believe youcould.” The tightrope walker said, “Well,get on!” Spectator, “Ah ...........” Afterthe spectator caught his breath, the heturned to the audience and asked, “Isthere anyone out there who would liketo ride across the canyon on the shoul-ders of the tightrope walker?” Jesuswalked the tightrope. He asks for us toclimb on His shoulders (See Rv 17:14).

The Greek word that is used in thistext for martyr is martus. Some believethat this was the beginning of the use ofthis word for those who would be mar-tyrs for their faith. But in the context, itwas originally used to refer to a Chris-tian who died for his faith. Every otherfaith has plagiarized the word, especiallythose of non-Christian religions whoseadherents would die for their faiths.

The phrase “Satan dwells” identi-fies the religious environment in whichthe disciples lived in Pergamum. Jesus’use of this phrase means that whereChristianity does not dwell, Satan dwells.Satan, therefore, dwells among menthrough those who do not believe in theLord Jesus Christ. Any non-Christianenvironment would be a place where Sa-tan dwells.

C. Words of condemnation:

Jesus’ words of judgment of the dis-ciples in Pergamum would make one situp straight in his seat (Rv 2:3,4). Someof the disciples were harboring those whotaught two abominations in reference tobelief and behavior.


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1. The teaching of Balaam:Balaam was a prophet of God until hewas tempted with money to curse thecoming Israelites (See Nm 22:7). Thiscondemnation is based on the fact thathe taught King Balak “to cast a stum-bling block before the children of Israelto eat things sacrificed to idols and tocommit fornication” (Rv 2:14). Balaamreceived the price of a hireling preacherin order to preach that which was askedby those who supported him. Balaamsold his ministry to anyone who wouldpay him a salary. Barak wanted the curseof God to come upon the Israelites, so hewent looking for a preacher who wouldteach that which would cause God to raindown judgment upon the people. Whenpreachers are in the ministry for finan-cial gain, they will preach what their sup-porters demand. And often, they will notpreach truth that runs people away whohave no interest in the truth (See 2 Tm4:1-4). Could this be the same apostasythat was described by both Peter and Judewhen they wrote of the sin of Balaamprior to the destruction of Jerusalem inA.D. 70? (See 2 Pt 2:15; Jd 11).

It is interesting that the serpent be-came an idol symbol of the pagan reli-gionists of Pergamum. When Israel com-plained against God on their way to theland of promise, God sent serpents amongthe people to bite and kill the complain-ers (Nm 21:6-9). Moses made a bronzeserpent and put it upon a pole. Everyonewho looked on it lived (Nm 21:9). In thereligious culture of Pergamum, however,anyone who would compromise withwhat the serpent stood for would spiritu-

ally die. Moses presented an opportu-nity to live with the symbol of the ser-pent. The false teachers presented thesymbol as an opportunity to die. Godwill simply not allow His people to com-promise their moral behavior through for-nication, or His teachings through fellow-ship with idolatrous beliefs.

2. The Teachings of the Nicola-itans: This is the second time this cult isnoted in the messages of Jesus (Rv 2:6).The Nicolaitans were also in the city ofEphesus, which means that their teach-ings were scattered throughout the regionof western Asia Minor. It is significantto note here that Jesus said that some“hold the teaching.” Jesus is very seri-ous about what we believe, for it is erro-neous beliefs that lead us to do thosethings that are contrary to moral behav-ior. And about this teaching, Jesus said,“which thing I hate” (Rv 2:15). Jesushates certain teachings. He loves all men,but hates those teachings that corruptedgood moral behavior.

From this exhortation we know whyChristians study their Bibles with zeal.They do not want to be ignorantly be-lieving a teaching that Jesus hates. If onewould fear the judgment to come, thencertainly he should check everything hebelieves with the words of Jesus, just incase he believes something that Jesus willeventually reveal that He hated. It is be-cause of these two statements of Jesus inverses 6 and 15 that we study our Bibles.It is as a young granddaughter asked hergrandmother why she read her Bible ev-ery day. The grandmother responded,“I’m just studying for the final.”


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It is significant to note that theGreek word “hold” (kpateiv) that is usedin 2:15 means “to hold fast.” In otherwords, the attitudes of those who be-lieved the teaching of the Nicolaitanswere so dogmatic that they would by nomeans give up the teaching. They weregoing to believe the teaching regardlessof what scripture might be found to provethat the teaching was erroneous. It is forthis reason that we might assume that theNicolaitans promoted some teaching thatled to immoral behavior. These discipleswere caught up in something that hadcaught hold of their moral behavior. Thefaithful disciples could do nothing aboutit, since the “Nicolaitan disciples” wereso dogmatic about their immoral behav-ior. We learn from their dogmatic spiritthat error is not proven to be truth simplybecause one is dogmatic about his error.

C. Words of war:

When one holds a teaching thatJesus hates, then one should expect war.Jesus encouraged the faithful discipleswho stood against the “Nicolaitan dis-ciples” that “I will fight against themwith the sword of My mouth” (Rv 2:16).The war would break out if the“Nicolaitan disciples” did not repent oftheir belief and behavior, for Jesus knewthat if this infestation of sin was not eradi-cated from the fellowship of the faithful,it would force the removal of the flicker-ing lampstand from Pergamum. It seemsthat Jesus lost this battle, for His conflictwith sinful teachings is through the me-dium of faithful disciples who know and

can effectively use the sword of the Spirit(Ep 6:17). If the faithful disciples be-come ignorant of the word of Jesus, thenthey have lost the battle for Jesus. Wemust never forget what the Spirit said inanother context to the saints in a city afew kilometers away from Pergamum:

Put on the whole armor of God so thatyou may be able to stand against theschemes of the devil. For we do notwrestle against flesh and blood, butagainst the rulers, against the powers,against the world forces of the darknessof this age, against spiritual hosts ofwickedness in high places (Ep 6:11,12).

This exhortation was given to the dis-ciples over in Ephesus, for the Spiritknew that the teaching and behavior ofthe Nicolaitans was coming, if not al-ready in Ephesus in A.D. 61,62 whenPaul wrote the above message. It was aninsidious teaching, against which the dis-ciples needed special encouragement tostand against, both through letter and vi-sion. But because the disciples droppedthe sword of the Spirit through their ig-norance of the word of God, they lost thebattle for Jesus.

When disciples allow sinful behav-ior to remain within the fellowship of thebody, the whole body is affected. Suchwas allowed to happen for a period oftime among the disciples in Achaia ( See1 Co 5:1,2). There was fornicationamong the disciples. They had failed topurge out this leaven from among them-selves. So Paul exercised his right as aChrist-sent apostle and said to all of them,


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In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,when you are assembled, and with myspirit, with the power of our Lord JesusChrist, deliver such a one to Satan forthe destruction of the flesh so that hisspirit may be saved in the day of the Lord(1 Co 5:4,5).

Paul had written to the Christians inAchaia that they not associate with any-one who was a fornicator (1 Co 5:11).His instruction was to “put away thewicked person from among yourselves”(1 Co 5:13). And such should Christiansdo in reference to any fornicator whowould seek to remain in fellowship withthe church. But in the case of the fel-lowship of the disciples throughout thecity of Pergamum, they had a similarproblem, but the problem had evidentlybecome so common, that the faithfulbrethren had little influence over thematter. But in reference to moral sinamong the fellowship of the disciples, itmust always be as the Chinese proverb,“Master easy, servant slack.” Their Mas-ter in heaven was not being slack withHis servants in the Pergamum church.Discipline was going to be enacted. Ifthe faithful were not vigilant about thesematters, the whole fellowship will be cor-rupted. And if the fellowship was cor-rupted, then puff.

D. Word of promise:

Again Jesus used the word “over-come” to define the fact that Christiansare in a spiritual struggle against the spiri-tual host of wickedness. For those who

would overcome in this spiritual conflict,there were two promises given:

1. The hidden manna: During Hisearthly ministry, Jesus spoke of themanna that came down out of heaven topreserve Israel from death throughouttheir wilderness wanderings (Jn 6:27-32).He metaphorically applied the literalmanna from heaven to Himself. “Forthe bread of God is He who comes downfrom heaven and gives life to the world”(Jn 6:33). During His ministry, the Jewsto whom Jesus said these words did notunderstand. They could not get theirminds off the literal and on the spiritualmeaning of the metaphor. So Jesus ex-plained further, “I am the bread of life.He who comes to Me will never hunger.And He who believes in Me will neverthirst” (Jn 6:35). Because of the hard-ness of their hearts, the audience of reli-gious leaders to whom Jesus spoke thesewords could not find in them the truththat Jesus was the “hidden manna”(bread) that came down out of heaven togive life.

We would take Jesus’ definition ofthe bread from heaven in John 6 to thecontext of Revelation 2:17. The breadof life is hidden only from those who haveno hunger for it. When one has no hun-ger for Jesus, then certainly Jesus can-not bring eternal life into his existence,for he will not do what Jesus says is nec-essary to have life. Those who are benton living the immoral life are not look-ing around for any words of condemna-tion concerning their life-style. And so,the manna of life will always be hidden


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from those who seek to live after theirown lusts.

2. The white stone: The Jewishdisciples understood the symbolism ofthis metaphor perfectly. Stones in Jew-ish history represented different things.Because the stone in this context repre-sented the object upon which was writ-ten a name, then the stone representedthat name. On the breastplate of the highpriest of Israel, there were twelve stones.Each stone represented one of the twelvetribes of Israel.

In this context it is a white stone.White represents holiness, glory and pu-rity (See 1 Pt 2:5,9). The new name writ-ten on the stone would be explained fur-ther in the message to the disciples inPhiladelphia:

He who overcomes, I will make a pillarin the temple of My God .... I will writeon him the name of My God and thename of the city of My God, the newJerusalem that comes down out ofheaven from My God. And I will writeon him My new name (Rv 3:12).

And then again the 144,000, which num-ber is representative of the people of Godin the Old Testament era and the peopleof God after the cross, are named beforeGod. On these “His name and HisFather’s name” are “written on their fore-heads” (Rv 14:1). And finally, anotherexplanation in reference to the finality ofall things and the salvation of the saints:“They will see His face, and His name willbe on their foreheads” (Rv 22:4).

In the message to the disciples in

Pergamum, Jesus simply begins the iden-tity of the people of God that will be re-vealed through the book. Christians areidentified by being named. The fact thatthe “new name written that no one knowsexcept he who receives it” is not the non-sense of some who suppose that this is a“secret name.” In this case, it is Jesuswho gives the name, not the one who re-ceives it. We must understand this in thehistorical context of the persecution ofChristians by those who claimed that theywere religious before their pagan idolgods. These persecuting idolaters weredoing the will of their god by persecut-ing those they believed were against theirgod. In the historical martyr of Antipas inPergamum, those who martyred the faith-ful Christian were doing the will of theirgods. They did not believe that Antipaswas actually claimed (named) by the onetrue and living God in which he believed.His murderers believe that his God was afalse god. They did not know this Godbecause they had created a god after theirown imagination. They were thus doingthe will of their god by martyring the onewho was named by the true God.

The One who has numbered thehairs of every Christian’s head (Mt10:30), knows those He has named. Therest of the unbelieving world may notknow the special relationship the bap-tized believer has with God, but the rela-tionship is there and will result in eter-nal glory when they overcome.

Jesus was giving the disciples inPergamum the opportunity to hear andobey His instructions. If they did not, thenpuff. The flickering flame would be gone.


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There is a lot said about the Chris-tians in Thyatira, more than the Chris-tians in any of the other six churches thatwere addressed by Jesus. However, thereis no exciting history given about the cityof Thyatira, as with the other cities.There is little mention of the city amongthe ancient scribes of history. Anatolianwas the god of the city. He is pictured asa god mounted upon a valiant horse andarmed for battle with a battle-ax.

The location of the city was strate-gic in reference to the movement of mili-tary forces along the road that passedfrom Pergamum to Laodicea, connectingthe Hermus and Caicus valleys. Becauseof its location on a main road, Thyatirawas a city of trade. In fact, ancientrecords suggest that the city had moretrading businesses than any of the othercities that were addressed by Jesus. Inthe city there was manufacturing in dyesfor clothing, garment factories, with pot-tery and brass businesses. In order totrade in the manufactured goods of thecity one possibly had to be a member ofone of the many guilds (unions) that wereassociated with a particular manufacturer.Some have suggested that the festivitiesof these guilds were social gatherings ofdrunken behavior. Jezebel, which is pos-sibly used metaphorically after the nameof King Ahab’s wife, is probably used toreveal the temptation that drew the Chris-tians into participating in these drunkenparties (1 Kg 16:30,3; see Js 1:12-15).

Because the city was a center ofmanufacturing, it is not surprising, there-fore, that Lydia, a seller of purple dyemade from the madder root, was from thiscity. This woman was on a business tripwhen she encountered Paul, Silas, Timo-thy and Luke during a prayer meeting ona river bank outside Philippi (At 16:14).

What we would assume about thesocioeconomic environment of the citywould be that many of the citizens wereemployed. As employees of a particularfactory in a small city, we would assumethat there was a great deal of intimida-tion that workers conform to the socialstructure of a particular industry. At leastthis may explain why some of the Chris-tians had given in to the immoral teach-ings and behavior of Jezebel in a smallcity where everyone knew everyone.

A. Description of the Christ:

In this metaphorical picture of theJesus who walked in friendship with thedisciples on the Galilean pathways, thereis piercing judgment coming forth fromthe eyes of a Judge. He has “eyes like aflame of fire” (Rv 2:18). His eyes canpierce through our strongest defense toconceal our true self. Nothing can be hidfrom the One who will eventually judgeall men.

For we must all appear before the judg-ment seat of Christ, so that everyone may

4 - Message To The Thyatira Disciples

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receive the things done in the body, ac-cording to what he has done, whethergood or bad (2 Co 5:10).

“His feet are like fine brass” ofjudgment against all those who wouldclaim His name, but live contrary to theircalling. The symbolism is of a judgmentscene that will be revealed later in thebook where ...

... books were opened. And another bookwas opened, which is the book of life.And the dead were judged from thethings that were written in the books,according to their works (Rv 20:12).

B. Commendation for good:

The Judge was not unaware of theirworks, love, service, faith and patience.Their love may have been that compel-ling love about which Paul wrote, “Forthe love of Christ compels us ...” (2 Co5:14). And indeed, they seem to haveemulated in their lives that which wascharacteristic in the actions of God to-ward man: “We love because He firstloved us” (1 Jn 4:19).

1. Impending judgment on na-tional Israel: The Christians had alsobeen made aware of the coming judgmentupon national Israel. We must not forgetthat as the early evangelists went forth,they informed all the Jewish disciples ofthe impending judgment that would comeupon national Israel in their lifetime. Itwould be an event from which everyone,who knew the Old Testament prophecies,

would conclude that Jesus was reigningfrom heaven (See Mk 9:1). Such wouldbe the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesusin Matthew 24, thus again reconfirmingthe fact that He not only came for thesalvation of the true Israel by faith, butalso to consummate national Israel, thefinal consummation of which took placein A.D. 70.

Through faith, therefore, the dis-ciples in Thyatira, as well as all Chris-tians of the early church, waited patientlyfor the coming of Jesus “in time” (See Js5:7,8). Jewish persecution would van-ish away after the judgment, but state per-secution was looming on the horizon. Itis concerning this persecution that thebook of Revelation prepares the mindsof the disciples to endure.

2. Commendation for their works:In reference to their works, “the last aregreater than the first” (Rv 2:19). TheEphesian Christians were called on torestore their first love, and thus, “do thefirst works” (Rv 2:4,5). The disciples inThyatira grew in their works, and thus,there was no call for a restoration of the“first works.” They had not given up theiridentity as disciples, for they continuedto grow in good works.

We would assume that the disciplesin Thyatira manifested their appreciationfor the grace of God more than those inEphesus. At least Paul may have beenable to write of the Thyatira Christiansas he did of himself: “And His grace to-ward me was not in vain, but I laboredmore abundantly than they all, yet notI, but the grace of God that was with me(1 Co 15:10).


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It seems that the works of the Eph-esians became simply legal exercises inhabitual churchianity. But with the Chris-tians in Thyatira, there must have beensomething significant that energizedthem to grow in their works for the Lord.Because of the commendation for theirgrowth in their works, we would assumethat Jesus expects growth in our works.The key to growth in works is growth inour appreciation for the grace of God. Ifthere are no works, then there is no ap-preciation.

C. Judgment:

We suppose that the Christians inany city had “a few things” about whichJesus would pronounce judgment. Ifgrowing in good works could erase sin,then surely such meritorious atonementfailed in the case of these Christians.Though the Christians in Thyatira grewin works, they still had to take owner-ship of the few sinful things about whichJesus here identifies. Their good deedsdid not atone for these sins.

1. Toleration of sinful beliefs andbehavior: “You tolerate that womanJezebel” (Rv 2:20). Jezebel was prob-ably the most notorious woman of OldTestament history. Her name became asymbol of idolatry, immorality and shame(See 1 Kg 16:31; 18:4,13,19; 19:1,2).Jesus here uses her name metaphoricallyto pronounce judgment against some ofthe disciples in Thyatira who were toler-ating such an evil way of life. Their tol-eration of the evil she taught and behaved

had great influence among the disciples.Jezebel’s influence for evil was produc-ing the reputation that the church of ourLord was no different than the local pa-gan groups.

In order to be a participant in oneof the trades or businesses of the city ofThyatira, one probably had to be a mem-ber of one of the guilds (unions) of a par-ticular manufacturer. Those of a particu-lar guild would meet for feasts of glut-tony and immorality. The problem wasthat if one were not a member of one ofthe guilds, then he could not trade themerchandise of a particular manufacturer.This may explain why the woman Jezebelhad such influence over those Christianswho participated in the immoral parties.It may have been that her participationin such feasts convinced other Christiansthat such indulgence was acceptable fora Christian. She possibly represented asect among the disciples, for in verse 24there were those who did not “have thisteaching.” Some in the church inThyatira remained faithful to their moralstandards by not participating in the im-moral pagan feasts that were sanctionedby Jezebel.

There was a similar case among theChristians in Corinth, though not a sectthat was influencing the body of Christ.The Corinthian Christians tolerated an in-dividual who was living in fornicationwith his stepmother (1 Co 5:1-5). Paulsaid of that case that such was not evenpracticed among the unbelievers (1 Co5:1). In the case of the fornicator inCorinth, whom the Corinthians tolerated,there seems to have been no influence in


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teaching that came from the immoral in-dividual. However, his influence for evilwas in his life-style. Paul reminded theCorinthians that a little leaven leavensthe whole lump (1 Co 5:6,7). But in thecase of the fornicator who was being tol-erated by the Christians in Thyatira, thiswoman was a self-proclaimed prophet-ess who was teaching others, and deceiv-ing the servants of the Lord. The immoralperson in Corinth may have been passivein promoting his sin, but Jezebel was pro-active in spreading her teaching amongthe disciples. The disciples who had ac-cepted the immoral life-style of Jezebelwere encouraging others to participate inher sin.

It may have been that Jezebel wasas Simon in Samaria (At 8:9-11). Heamazed the people of the city with hispractice of magic to the point that theyproclaimed, “This man is the great powerof God” (At 8:10). When Simon believedthe gospel message that Philip waspreaching, he too was baptized (At 8:13).But there was still wickedness in hisheart. This was brought out when he of-fered to buy from Peter and John thepower to impart the miraculous gifts (At8:18,19). So Peter said to him, “... re-pent of this your wickedness and pray theLord that, if possible, the thought of yourheart may be forgiven you” (At 8:22).In baptism one’s soul is cleansed of sin(At 22:16), but one’s character is not mi-raculously transformed. This may havebeen the case with Jezebel among the dis-ciples of Thyatira. She came into the fel-lowship of the disciples with a sinful be-havior of which she had not repented.

2. Punishment of sinful beliefs andbehavior: The case of Thyatira was simi-lar to that of Simon. Jezebel possiblycame into the fellowship of the flock ofGod, but brought with her the wicked-ness of her former religious and immorallife that was associated with pagan idola-try. Jesus had “given her time to repentof her fornication,” but the fact was thatshe did “not want to repent” (Rv 2:21).And now, her time had run out. We donot know exactly what the Christ-sentPeter said to Simon, but one thing is true,whatever he said it scared Simon stiff.He immediately and repentantly pleadedwith Peter, “Pray to the Lord for me sothat none of these things that you havespoken come upon me” (At 8:24).

In order to purify the church in herearly beginnings, God would strikepeople blind through a Christ-sent apostle(At 13:10,11). Some were delivered toSatan for the destruction of the flesh (1Co 5:5). Some were “delivered to Satanso that they might learn not to blas-pheme” (1 Tm 1:20). And then some justdropped dead when they lied to the HolySpirit (At 5:1-11). It was not a good thingto fall into the hands of a Christ-sentapostle who could unleash the power ofphysical punishment upon one who wascausing injury to the body of Christ. Andin the case of the body in Thyatira, Jesuswould work directly from heaven uponJezebel.

I will cast her into a sickbed, and thosewho commit adultery with her into greattribulation, unless they repent of herways (Rv 2:22).


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This is not all. “And I will kill her chil-dren with death” (Rv 2:23). Would Godbring death upon the children of onewhose children were possibly the resultof her sin of adultery? This would notbe the first time that He did. Ask Davidand Bathsheba (See 2 Sm 11,12).

“And all the churches” to whomJesus was addressing this letter of Rev-elation would know that no one can hidesin. If one is harboring sinful ways inhis heart, then he must remember thatJesus “will give to each one of you ac-cording to your works” (Rv 2:23). Sim-ply stated in words that we can under-stand, when one is a disciple of Jesus,“he can run, but he cannot hide.” Onecan run on a trip across the country, buthe must remember that if he involveshimself in sin, Jesus will know. Thosewho feel that they are further away fromJesus when they are on a trip far awayfrom fellow Christians, need to remem-ber that Jesus “searches the minds andhearts” of every disciple wherever he isin this world (Rv 2:23; see Ps 44:21; Lk16:15).

The Greek word for “minds” comesfrom the word that refers to kidneys. Inthe thinking of those of ancient times, ref-erence was to the inner most feelings ofthe individual. The word “heart” referredto the intellect. Thus God searches theinner most feelings and intellect of ev-ery person of His creation. It is certainlyimportant for every disciple to know this,for this realization helps us to take own-ership of our faults. Confession flowsfrom the one who realizes that the Oneto whom he confesses already knows

what is to be confessed. When we con-fess our sins to God, He knows that weare taking ownership for our most innerself. And if there is sin in there, He knowsthat we are owning up to and trying todeal with our sin.

(It is sometimes as the man who pre-sented to the preacher his intelligenthorse. The man carried on braggingabout how intelligent the horse was. Sohe challenged the preacher, “Ask myhorse a question.” So the preached asked,“Horse, how many commandments didGod give Moses on Mount Sinai?” Thehorse immediately stomped ten times onthe ground. So the preacher asked, “Well,how many apostles did Jesus have?” Thehorse stomped twelve times on theground. So the horse’s owner asked hishorse, “Horse, how many hypocrites arethere in this church for which thepreacher preachers?” The horse thenwent into a dance.)

E. The promise:

Beginning with the “morning star,”we are encouraged by what Jesus herepromised those who would overcome theteaching of Jezebel and her intimidationof the disciples to sin after her life-style(Rv 2:28). Jezebel was now meeting theOne who had authority over all things forthe sake of His faithful people (Ep 1:22).

The morning star “ruled the morn-ing” horizon. The symbol is of royalsplendor and dominion. The significanceof the message here is in the simile “justas” in verse 27. The promise is that thosewho overcome will be given “power over


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the nations” to “rule them with a rod ofiron” (Rv 2:26,27). The phrase “just asI received from My Father” clearly ex-plains that at the time of writing, Jesushad already received power over the na-tions in order to rule them with a rod ofiron. This ruling is not something thatwill begin in the future. “Received” ispast tense. Jesus is not coming again inorder to rule over the nations. He is al-ready reigning as King of kings and Lordof lords (1 Tm 6:15). When He doescome again, He will return kingdom reignto the Father (1 Co 15:26-28).

When Jesus ascended to the righthand of God, He was given power overall things (See Dn 2:44; 7:13,14). He nowreigns with all authority over all things(Mt 28:18). He is reigning over all thingsfor the sake of the church. Paul wrote,“And He [the Father] put all things un-der His feet, and gave Him to be headover all things to the church” (Ep 1:22).All means all. There is no more powerin kingdom reign left for Jesus when Hecomes again. If He were to come andreign on this earth, then He would bedethroning Himself from His reign overall things that He now has in order toreign on a speck of blue dust among thegalaxies. What sense would be in this?

Sometimes earthly thinking theolo-gians have earthly and carnal interpreta-tions of the Scriptures. For some to ful-fill their carnal desires to reign over theirfellow man, they seek a time wherein theycan be kings on earth. Within the pagesof the Qur’an, there is the world viewthat the entire world should be made tosubmit to Allah, and thus, become Islam.

But submission to Allah means submis-sion to religious leaders who are to en-force the submission. The purpose of thesubmission is worldwide domination bycertain men who would rule through thepower of Sharia law and those who pro-claim it. Some Christians repel at such atheology, but at the same time, they sim-ply delay their own desires to reign asauthorities to a supposed one thousand-year reign of Jesus on earth where Hewill supposedly and forcefully conquerall powers on earth and when He reigns,then it is assumed that He will set upChristians as authorities to reign on earthwith Him. But such theologians need toread again the statement of Jesus that Hemade before to a Roman authority:

My kingdom is not of this world. If Mykingdom were of this world, then My ser-vants would fight so that I should not bedelivered to the Jews. But as it is, Mykingdom is not from here (Jn 18:36).

We have always wondered what part ofthe phrase “not of this world” is so diffi-cult for some to understand? Jesus saidthat His disciples would not take up armsand fight against the Jews, neither the Ro-man Empire. Neither will there be sometime in the future when they will engagein carnal warfare in order to establishsome earthly kingdom. They will not,“for the kingdom of God is not meat anddrink, but righteousness and peace andjoy in the Holy Spirit” (Rm 14:17).

For we do not wrestle against flesh andblood, but against the rulers, against the


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powers, against the world forces of thedarkness of this age, against spiritualhosts of wickedness in high places (Ep6:12).

Since Jesus is now reigning over allthings, then those who have given theirallegiance to Him in obedience to thegospel, also reign with him.

For if by one man’s offense death reignedthrough the one, much more they who re-ceive abundance of grace and the gift ofrighteousness will reign in life throughthe one, Jesus Christ (Rm 5:17).

Christians now reign in the splendor ofthe Morning Star. They now reign overthe nations with the power of the gospel,for there is no power on earth greater thanthe message of the cross. And as if wemight question this power, Paul remindedthe Corinthians,

For the weapons of our warfare are notcarnal, but powerful through God forthe pulling down of strongholds, cast-ing down imaginations and every highthing that exalts itself against the knowl-edge of God, and bringing into captiv-ity every thought to the obedience ofChrist (2 Co 10:4,5).

This is one powerful statement. If ourspiritual weapons are this powerful, whywould we ever think that we need an AK47 to advance the supposed reign ofChrist on earth?

The faithful Christians in Thyatirawould be greatly encouraged by thewords that will follow in the book ofRevelation. They just need to rememberthat the forces of evil “will make war withthe Lamb and the Lamb will overcomethem, for He is Lord of lords and King ofkings” (Rv 17:14). Jesus is at this timeLord and King over all things. There-fore, if it seems that everything is get-ting out of control, the faithful in Thyatiraneeded to remember that King Jesus hadeverything under control. We too trustthat He is “upholding all things by theword of His power” (Hb 1:3).

Those in Thyatira who were tryingto survive against the boycott of the tradeunions and the influence of Jezebel,needed to take courage that they wouldovercome. They were not destined tospiritual ruin. They had a choice. If theymade the right choice, the promise ofJesus was that they would be given theroyalty of the Morning Star. If they lis-tened to what Jesus had to say to thechurches, then they would survive. Ifthey did not listen, then puff.

5 - Message To The Sardis Disciples

Sardis was the former capital of theancient kingdom of Lydia. The city be-came known for its great riches, particu-

lar wealth from the gold of the PactolusRiver that flowed through the city. It wasone of those cities that had a glorious

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past, but at the time of the visions of Rev-elation, it had lost most of its formerwealth and prestige.

The original ancient city wasstrongly fortified. It was a fortress cita-del that towered above the Hermus Val-ley. It was surrounded by treacherouscliffs of loose rock. But the city lost itsprowess under Croesus when Cyrus, kingof Persia, besieged and took the city in546 B.C. Historians believe that underthe cover of darkness, the Persians tookthe city by scaling the cliffs that the resi-dents of Sardis thought to be their de-fense against any invaders. Ironically,the same tactic was used again byAntiochus the Great when he took thecity in 215 B.C.

By the time Jesus addressed this cityin the context of the visions of Revela-tion, Sardis was under the control of theRoman Empire. Though the city was lo-cated on an important trade route of theHermus Valley, it never regained its gloryand riches of former years. It is interest-ing that in A.D. 26, the city sought to con-struct an imperial temple dedicated toRoman religion. But the request was de-nied by Rome, who favored Smyrna asthe location of the temple.

It is significant that this once glori-ous city of ancient times, today lies inruins. There is only a small Turkish vil-lage named Sart near the ruins of ancientSardis. The once glorious city was fad-ing into history as John penned the mes-sage of Jesus to the Christians of the area.Though the residents once dressed them-selves in the luxury of white robes, allthe former glamor was gone in a city that

was now economically waning away intohistory as the ink of John’s letter wasdrying on papyrus.


Jesus is now the One “who has theseven spirits of God and the seven stars”(Rv 3:1). The meaning is control. He“has” the spirits and stars, and no onecan take them from Him. Since He up-holds all things by the word of His power(Hb 1:3), then we could correctly assumethat Jesus had control of the future of thechurches. And since He has all authorityover all things (Mt 28:18), then everymember of His universal organic bodycan relax. The fact that Jesus is in con-trol means that nothing is out of control.We live in a divinely controlled world.Therefore, we must never conclude thatthe evil that is in the world is a signalthat Jesus is not in control. All those dis-ciples of the seven churches needed toremember this as they transition throughthe great tribulations that were coming.

In order to protect our free moralability to choose, Jesus must allow bothsocial and physical law to exist. If Hedid not, then the world would not be thebest of all possible environments inwhich to prepare free-moral disciples foreternal dwelling. And if the world wasfree of all misfortune and evil, then wewould have no desire to go to a betterplace. Therefore, because Jesus is in con-trol, the disciples of Asia Minor, and allthose throughout the Roman Empire, mustremain faithful, even though it will seemthat the whole world was against them.


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B. Commendation for good works:

As everyone in the small town ofSardis knew everyone in town, so Jesusknows everything about the members ofHis body throughout the world. And inthis case, the body members in Sardiswere working, but something was indeedwrong with the performance of theirworks.

1. The working dead: The dis-ciples in Sardis seem to have trusted intheir works to the point that they believedtheir works to be meritorious in referenceto their salvation. This is in the state-ment of judgment, “you have a name thatyou live, but you are dead” (Rv 3:1).Could it be that they took pride in theworks that they were doing in the com-munity, of which works the communityglorified the good they were doing? Butspiritually, and in reference to their rela-tionship with Jesus, they were dead be-cause they meritoriously trusted in theirworks?

Someone correctly said, “There arefew things that are better organized thangraveyards, but there is little life there.”The members of the body were organizedin Sardis for good works, but it seemsthat the motive for their works produceddeadness, not life. So we would throwup a yellow flag of caution before our-selves, lest we too be walking in the prideof our own activity, but dead in our spiri-tuality. There will be no zombie disciplesin heaven.

The disciples in Sardis may have be-come spiritually indifferent because they

had little persecution in the city. In fact,their works gave them a name in the com-munity as a group of people who minis-tered to the people. They had a nameamong the unbelievers in the community.They were certainly following the in-structions of Jesus: “Let your light soshine before men that they may see yourgood works and glorify your Father whois in heaven” (Mt 5:16).

Jesus’ statement of judgment to thechurch of Sardis, however, seems to con-flict with His statement in the Sermonon the Mount in Matthew 5. The prob-lem was that the good works of thechurch of Sardis brought glory to them-selves, the church, and not to God. Chris-tians need to be very careful about doinggood deeds in order to bring glory to thechurch, that is, to themselves as thechurch. If the church of Sardis teachesany eternal lesson, it is the lesson thatchurches should never seek glory forthemselves. If they do, then their goodworks are a sign of their narcissistic dead-ness.

In the following exhortations ofJesus to the Christians in Sardis, we mustkeep in mind that the majority was theproblem. The minority “few names”were still faithful. But the majority weredead. They had a name that they lived,but they were dead (Rv 3:1).

Deadness comes in many forms.Before we leave the “living dead” prob-lem of the Sardis disciples, we must in-sert probable causes of deadness that willhelp us identify ourselves as being dead.When Christians meet and stare at oneanother Sunday after Sunday, but rarely


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have in their midst anyone who is drip-ping wet from the waters of baptism, thenwe are dead. When during the publicprayers that are voiced in the assembly,no plea is made to the Lord of harvest tosend “reapers into the harvest” through-out the world, then we are dead (See Mt9:38). When excitement is generatedamong the men to attend the men’s break-fast, but no encouragement is made toinvite a friend, then we are dead. Whenwe continually have lectureships to reaf-firm our “old truths,” then we are dead.When mission seminars are conductedand only former missionaries show up,then we are dead. When the church bul-letin is filled with news about ourselves,but no mention is made of the gospelbeing preached to the lost, then we aredead. When no visiting evangelists areallowed to address the church in order toremind us of our mission, then we aredead. When all the programs of the dis-ciples are for the purpose of “getting themembers to know one another,” then weare dead. Narcissistic religioisty is sim-ply deadness playing itself out in churchgames. According to Jesus’ definition ofthe deadness of the Sardis church, theflame had already flickered, but only a“few names” realized that darkness waslooming over their existence.

As residents of Africa we wouldalert the rest of the world concerning thechurch of America that has a name that itlives. But according to the church growthstatistics over the last forty years, thereis a decline in “church attendance” ev-ery year. It is the “Sardis syndrome” be-ing continentally played out in a move-

ment that is running out of oil. Thereare, however, a “few names” still there.But our exhortation to the rest of theworld is to get on with the work of Jesusto take the gospel into all the world. Ifwe are looking for mission leadershipfrom America, that lampstand is almostgone. As the flame flickers in America,we must burn bright in Africa, and Indiaand China. The “Sardis syndrome” playsitself out over a century or two. In theAmerican culture, it began in the early1800s. It is now coming to an end aschurches claim “to have a name that theylive, but are truly dead” in reference topreaching the gospel to the world (Rv3:1). We all remember the great missionforce that came out of Europe. We alsoknow how it died. America is on thatsame road. And if we might wonder why,then Jesus left a message for us with Hisevaluation of the Laodicea church thatfollows in Revelation 3:14-22.

2. Watch: “Watch” here may mean“wake up.” Those who are caught in thesleep of spiritual death do not realizethat they are spiritually dead. Sincethey have created a “Christianity” aftertheir own desires, they believe everythingis fine. But according to the standardsof the One after whom they call them-selves, they are dead.

In the admonition to watch, Jesusmay have been reflecting on the past his-tory of Sardis. On two different occa-sions the city was conquered by armiesthat scaled the cliffs around the city. Andin A.D. 12 the city was destroyed by aninexpedient earthquake. The citizens hadtrusted in their location, but the irony was


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that their location on cliffs was what luredthem into a sense of false security. Theexhortation to “be watchful,” therefore,was certainly a reflection on their history,but also a reminder not to trust in the de-ception that one can hand over the secu-rity of his eternal destiny to a good name.

Christians must be alert. They mustbe aware of who they are and where theyare going. They must not forget theirpurpose as the disciples of the first Mis-sionary. Therefore, “Awake you whosleep and arise from the dead, and Christwill give you light” (Ep 5:14). Later inthe letter, John would say to all thechurches, “Behold, I am coming as athief. Blessed is he who watches andkeeps his garments, lest he walk nakedand they see his shame” (Rv 16:15). Theconsequences of not being watchfulwould be as Jesus exhorted His disciplesduring His ministry:

Now know this, that if the master of thehouse had known what hour the thiefwould come, he would not have allowedhis house to be broken into (Lk 12:39).

In reference to the coming of Jesus,either “in time,” or at the “end of time,”Christians must always be prepared.Jesus will come as a thief, which meansthat there is no possible way to determinewhen He is coming. The word “watch”simply means to be prepared at all times.The word “thief” means that we simplydo not know when He will come. Thepoint is that we should not become soinvolved in the affairs of this world thatwe are lured into complacency concern-

ing the coming judgment of Jesus.Jesus’ exhortation in this context is

similar to that which He gave to His dis-ciples in reference to the imminent de-struction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, whichtook place about forty years after the fol-lowing statement:

But of that day and hour no one knows,not even the angels of heaven nor theSon, but My Father only (Mt 24:36).

It does not take a great deal of in-terpretation to understand correctly whatJesus meant when He used the word“watch.” In the context of the statementabove, Bible interpreters need to keepreading Matthew’s record in chapter 24of Jesus’s statement. In verse 43 Jesusexplained that if the head of the houseknew when the thief was coming, “hewould have watched and would not haveallowed his house to be broken into (Mt24:43).

The exhortation to “watch” assumesthat we do not know the time of the “com-ing of the Lord” in time, or at the end oftime. “Watch” means that it is useless tospeculate concerning times and seasonsin reference to the coming of the Lord.All the senseless predictions concerningthe imminent final coming of the Lordare simply the nonsense of prognostica-tors who seek a following through theirchallenged understanding of the Bible.What their predictions of a specific dateof Jesus’ coming does, is encouragepeople to live in sin until the day beforethe supposed coming.

The New Testament does not


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teach the imminent final coming ofChrist. The word “imminent” meansimmediate. In other words, no New Tes-tament writer wrote that Jesus wascoming in His final coming within thelifetime of the first century Christians.If the Holy Spirit inspired the New Tes-tament writers to write such, then Hewrote to deceive the people into believ-ing something that was false. We knowit would have been false because here weare today, over two thousand years later.Now if the Holy Spirit did not inspire theearly writers to lead the immediate re-cipients of the New Testament letters tobelieve that Jesus was coming in theirlifetime, then the New Testament doesnot teach such today. Therefore, if any-one would use the New Testament to cal-culate some supposed final coming ofJesus, then we know that that personis truly a false prophet. The next timewe hear of someone using the book ofRevelation to prognosticate some immi-nent final coming of Jesus, then we knowthat person is speaking nonsense. If weare eager to belief such self-proclaimedprophets, then we are immature children.At least this is what Paul said in the fol-lowing statement concerning the reasonwhy we study our Bibles:

Then we will no longer be children,tossed to and fro and carried about withevery wind of teaching, by the trickeryof men in cleverness to the deceitfulnessof error (Ep 4:14).

3. Known for works: Too often,the good worker will trust in his works,

thinking that he is accumulating pointsin heaven that will tip the scales towardhis salvation. Deep inside, many peoplethink that they can do good works in or-der to offset sin. But this cannot happen.No amount of good deeds can atone forone sin. The theology of works for sincannot be true, for we would never knowhow many works we must do in order toatone for our sins. Therefore, since workscannot atone for sin, then we must relyon that about which Paul wrote, “...knowing that a man is not justified byworks of law, but by the faith of ChristJesus ...” (Gl 2:16). We must look toJesus and the grace that He offers fromthe cross (Ti 2:11). Even if one has agood name he must be on his knees inthanksgiving for the cross.

Because no man can keep law per-fectly, then by “works of law no flesh willbe justified” (Gl 2:16). So if we cannotkeep law perfectly because we all sin (Rm3:23), and no good work can atone forsin, then on what basis will any Chris-tian be saved? There is only one simpleanswer: “For by grace you are savedthrough faith, and that not of your-selves, it is the gift of God” (Ep 2:8).Could those in Sardis have forgotten thispoint?

4. Imperfect works: Were the goodworks of the disciples in Sardis drivenby an appreciation for grace, or were theycontinued in order to maintain the goodname for the church in the community?If they trusted in their good name becauseof the good works, then they were introuble. The problem with a good nameamong those who are of the world is that


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it is the world patting one on the back.When one feels pats, therefore, it is of-ten good to turn around and see who isdoing the patting.

Jesus judged, “I have not foundyour works completed before My God”(Rv 3:2). The Greek word for “com-pleted” means “brought to a full.” It mayhave been that they did not complete whatthey started. Their good intentions neverrealized finality. It may have been thatthey were caught up in the activity, butforgot the purpose for which they werestriving as disciples. Whatever the case,their works were not found to have com-pleted that for which our good works areto accomplish in our spiritual mental at-titude. If our good works digress intopromoting a good name before the world,then we could be in fellowship with thechurch of Sardis.

C. Exhortations:

There is more than one exhorta-tion to the disciples in Sardis. Each oneexplains an area of spirituality on whichthey must concentrate if they are goingto prevent the flickering flame of theirlamp from being snuffed out.

1. “Things ... ready to die”: We arenot told the things that were ready to die.But the implication is that they as a bodyof Christ were dying. The flame wasflickering. Dead churches that trust in theirworks, are the walking dead in referenceto their influence for Jesus in their areas.Spiritual strengthening is in order for le-galistic workers to be restored to Jesus.

The legalist realizes that there is anemptiness to his efforts, for he is work-ing for merit and not in appreciation ofgrace. Sooner or later, the meritoriousdisciple works himself into frustration,and then dies if he is not willing to stepoutside his box of legal theology. Heburns out on his own zeal to accumulatedwhat he believed were points upon whichhe could base his salvation. He is thusdead while he works, and will come tothe second death if he does not return tothe grace of God that was revealed onthe cross (Ti 2:11). Simply defined, le-galism is one depending on his own per-formance for his salvation, whereas,grace means that one must depend en-tirely on God, and in doing so, work inappreciation of God’s grace.

2. “Remember”: Remember howit was when you first came forth fromthe tomb of water with Jesus? If one’szeal at that time was more than his zealin the present, then it is time to do whatJesus said, “Remember how you had re-ceived and heard. Hold fast and repent”(Rv 3:3). They had fallen from their spiri-tual zeal for the Lord. The exhortationis that they hold fast to what they had,and return to the zeal they had when theywere new Christians.

This is especially a problem as dis-ciples grow older. They lose their zeal.They start to lay back and trust in pastdeeds. They seek to die on couches.They need to remember that the Greekword “remember” in this text is presentimperative in tense. In other words, Jesuswas giving a mandate that they “keep onremembering” in order to keep on doing.


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There is no time now for rest. We mustsave our rest for heaven. We are certainthat this exhortation from Jesus was notdirected only to the youth among theSardis disciples. The old must alwaysremember the ministry of the eighty-some-year old Anna at the time of thebirth of Jesus. She was not at home in arocking chair, but at the temple where shewas into the ministry of prayer and fast-ing (Lk 2:36,37).

There is no greater written commen-tary on the problem that faced the dis-ciples in Sardis than that which was writ-ten to those of the Hebrew audience whoalso had been Christians for some time.They, too, had allowed complacency tocreep into their lives. Every disciple whohas been in the faith for some time, mustcarefully read through the following ex-hortation from the Holy Spirit:

But remember the former days in which,after you were enlightened, you endureda great conflict of sufferings, partlywhile you were made a spectacle bothby reproaches and tribulations, andpartly while you became companionswith those who were so treated. For youhad compassion on me in my chains, andtook joyfully the seizure of your goods,knowing that you have for yourselves inheaven a better and enduring possession.Therefore, do not cast away your confi-dence, which has a great reward. Foryou have need of endurance, so that af-ter you have done the will of God, youmay receive the promise (Hb 10:32-36)

3. “Repent”: Repent means that

they were wrong where they were. Re-pent means that they were once right, butnow had gone wrong. They had fallen.Those who have lost their zeal for Jesusneed to repent. Disciples who have laiddown their desires to manifest their ap-preciation for the grace of God need torepent. Those who are trusting in theirpast works as a meritorious treasure bywhich they will buy their way into eter-nal glory, need to repent. One must askhimself if he is a “stony ground disciple.”

Now these are the ones who are sown onstony ground, who, when they hear theword, immediately receive it with glad-ness. But they have no root in them-selves, and so endure only for a while.Afterward, when affliction or persecutionarise because of the word, they immedi-ately fall away (Mk 4:16,17).

Jesus’ warning is that if they did notrepent, “I will come on you as a thief andyou will not know what hour I will comeon you” (Rv 3:3). Jesus can come in timeas a thief on those who are not preparedfor Him. Such was the case in His com-ing in time on the unbelieving Jews whodid not accept Him as the Son of God.Listen to Paul’s warning that he person-ally taught the disciples in Thessalonica:

For you yourselves know perfectly thatthe day of the Lord will come as a thiefin the night. For when they say, “Peaceand safety,” then sudden destructioncomes upon them as birth pains upon awoman with child. And they will not es-cape (1 Th 5:2,3; see 2 Pt 3:10).


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D. Commendation of the few:

Now here is something that shouldmake all of us straighten up and pay at-tention. It is the phrase, “a few names”(Rv 3:4). So we are all personally think-ing, “Am I in that ‘few names’?” Jesusidentifies the “few names” who are His.These can be assured that they are in goodstanding with Him.

1. “Few names ... who have notdefiled their garments”: This statementis made on the background of a city thatformerly prided itself in social aristoc-racy. Fine clothing was a signal of highsocial standing, and thus, those whowanted to be of high social standingdressed themselves accordingly. But agarment that was stained would never beaccepted. It would manifest to all thatone was not what he or she pretended tobe. In Sardis, the majority of the dis-ciples, in contrast to “the few names,”had stained their souls with spiritualdeath. They were not in “high socialstanding” with Jesus.

The church in Sardis had now di-gressed to the point that the norm wasspiritual lethargy. “The few names” re-mained faithful, but they remained faith-ful among the majority who had givenup their total allegiance to Jesus. Whenthe majority of the disciples in any re-gion have identified the “Christianity” oftheir area to be lukewarm, then it is diffi-cult for the group as a whole to repent.And, it is extremely difficult for thoseChristians who are on fire for the Lordto survive among those who have falleninto the sin of apathy. The walking dead

soon devour the living.Nevertheless, “the few names” must

remember that Jesus knows who they are.The “few names” need to remember theHoly Spirit’s exhortation:

Nevertheless, the firm foundation of Godstands, having this seal. “The Lordknows those who are His.” And, “leteveryone who names the name of theLord depart from iniquity” (2 Tm 2:19).

This was both the promise and call forrepentance that Jesus makes personallyin Revelation to those who have soiledtheir garments. The faithful few neededto remember that Jesus knew who theywere. But the unfaithful many alsoneeded to know that Jesus also knew whothey were, and that they were in dangerof being puffed out.

2. “They are worthy”: If “the fewnames” are worthy, then the unfaithfulmajority is not worthy. Grace covers alot of sin, but in this case, those who donot repent of their deadness, do not standworthy before God. Grace will not coverspiritual lethargy. Grace will not clean astained garment that is willingly worn.

By the time John wrote what he sawin the vision of chapter 7, it seems that asifting was about to take place among theseven churches of Asia. The tribulationsto come were going to clean up thechurch. Only those who purified them-selves through the blood of the Lambwould make it through the tribulation.

And one of the elders answered, sayingto me, “Who are these who are dressed


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in white robes, and from where did theycome?” Then I said to him, “Sir, youknow.” And he said to me, “These arethose coming out of the great tribula-tion. And they have washed their robesand made them white in the blood ofthe Lamb (Rv 7:13,14).

These were those of a “pure and unde-filed religion before God” (Js 1:27). Inorder to remain white in the blood of theLamb, there was a condition. John ex-plained,

But if we walk in the light as He is in thelight, we have fellowship with one an-other and the blood of Jesus Christ HisSon cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn 1:7).

If there is no “walking,” then there is nocleansing by the blood. The call of Jesusto the majority of the church of Sardiswas that they start walking in the light.They needed to return to obedience. Onlythe blood of Jesus will make one worthy.And one can access that blood only byan obedient walk in the light of Jesus’word. For the righteous who walk in thelight, they must never forget where theyare in the fold of God’s people. They aresafe, not on the basis of meritoriousworks, but on the basis of grace.

E. An endearing promise:

The “few names” must never for-get the promise of God. They must re-member, “I will not blot his name fromthe book of life” (Rv 3:5). It is withinthe assurance of this promise that the

faithful few can find solitude, as Isaiahdid concerning the promises of God:

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soulwill be joyful in my God, for He hasclothed me with the garments of salva-tion. He has covered me with the robe ofrighteousness as a bridegroom deckshimself with ornaments and as a brideadorns herself with her jewels (Is 61:10).

In the finality of all things, we yearnto hear the words of Jesus: “Come, youblessed of My Father, inherit the king-dom prepared for you from the founda-tion of the world” (Mt 25:34). And then,Jesus promises, “I will confess his namebefore My Father and before His angels”(Rv 3:5). This is what we want to hear.And for the “few names” in Sardis whohad not defiled their garments with apa-thy, it seems almost superfluous for Jesusto say, “He who has an ear, let him hearwhat the Spirit says to the churches” (Rv3:6). The “few names” want to hearJesus. It is those caught in the religiousquagmire of indifference who need to beexhorted to hear. We know now that thestatement to listen was made directly tothose who had defiled their garments. Itwas a call for their repentance. But forthe “few names” who had not defiledtheir garments, the fact that their gar-ments were not stained indicated that theywere listening very, very closely to ev-erything that Jesus, through the apostles,had said (See Jn 14:26:16:13). Jesuspromised, “If you continue in My word,then you are truly My disciples” (Jn8:31). The “few names” were continu-


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ing in the word of Jesus.Those who remained faithful in

Sardis were promised “I will not blot hisname from the book of life” (Rv 3:5). Thetwo sisters in Christ, Euodia andSyntyche, were written in the book of life(Ph 4:3). The “book of life” was a Ro-man register of the citizens of a particu-lar city. It was a register of the livingcitizens, and thus, when one died, hisname was taken off the register. The bookof life was used metaphorically by Jesusto reassure the faithful disciples that theywere safe. The promise to the faithfulChristian is that his name is written inthe book of life. When he dies, his namein the book of life is the guarantee thathe will transition into eternal glory. Atthe final judgment, if one’s name is notfound in the book of life, then Revela-tion 20:15 will transpire: “And whoeverwas not found written in the book of lifewas cast into the lake of fire.”

The metaphor of the book of life issignificant in reference to understand thatif one is saved through his obedience tothe gospel, then his name can still be blot-ted out of the book of life at any time hemight become unfaithful. The fact thatone’s name can be blotted out of the bookof life is totally contrary to the teachingof some who say that once one is saved,then he is always saved regardless of hisbehavior. We must keep in mind that theRevelation 20:15 passage states thatone’s name must be there at the timeof the final judgment. But the Revela-tion 3:5 teaches that one’s name can beblotted out of the book of life before hegets to the final judgment. It is crucial,

therefore, that once one is saved at thewashing of the waters of baptism (At22:16), then he must remain faithful inministry in order to remain among “thefew names.”

“The Lord knows how to deliver thegodly,” but He also knows how “to re-serve the unrighteous under punishmentfor the day of judgment” (2 Pt 2:9). Therewere some in Sardis who had “escapedthe pollutions of the world through theknowledge of the Lord and Savior JesusChrist,” but they were “again en-tangled” in the affairs of the world (2 Pt2:20). Their garments became stainedwith sin. Peter wrote of such Christians,“It has happened to them according tothe true proverb, ‘A dog returns to hisown vomit,’ and ‘a sow that was washed,to her wallowing in the mire’” (2 Pt2:22).

If one would deceive himself intothinking that once he is saved throughthe grace of God, that this grace giveshim a license to stain his garment, thenhe should seriously consider the fact thatthere will be no stained garments inheaven. We must always be cautious.“For certain men have crept in [the fel-lowship of the church] unnoticed ... un-godly men who turn the grace of our Godinto licentiousness ...” (Jd 4). Lest wefall from this grace, we must commitourselves “to Him who is able to keepyou from falling and to present you fault-less before the presence of His glory withexceeding joy ...” (Jd 24). Those inSardis whose garments were stained werein danger of being erased from the bookof life, and thus, snuffed out.


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The name of this city is certainlyunique. Many cities throughout theworld can find the origin of their namein this text of scripture. The reason thename has been used to name so manyother cities throughout the world is in thefact of what the name means. The nameis composed of two Greek words, mean-ing “bother lover,” or “brotherly love.”

Philadelphia was probably foundedby King Eumenes of Pergamum some-time in the second century B.C. Hisbrother, Attalus II (159 - 138 B.C.), wasvery loyal to him, and thus, the city wasgiven the name, Philadelphus.

The area where the city rested wassubject to a great deal of earthquakes. InA.D. 17 a severe earthquake completelydestroyed the city. Because of reoccur-ring earthquakes that prevailed through-out the area after the A.D. 17, the resi-dents of the city set up dwellings outsidethe collapsed city ruins. With a grantfrom Tiberius in Rome, the city was latergiven the new name, Neocaesarea in ap-preciation for the relief grant from Rometo rebuild the city. Under CaesarVespasian, the city was given anothername, Flavia. But when Jesus addressedthe city in Revelation, He addressed thecity as Philadelphia, the original namethat the local residents certainly contin-ued because of the history from whichthis name was derived. They wanted tobe known historically as a people ofbrotherly love.

The culture that the name Philadel-phia developed after the relationship ofAttalus II with his brother, seems to havebeen perpetuated throughout the historyof the residents. The citizens sought tolive up to the name of the city, and forthis reason, there is no condemnation ofthe disciples of Philadelphia. As the cul-ture of the Philadelphia residents influ-enced the character of the church as awhole, so through the church was re-flected the exhortation of Peter to hisaudience: “Love the brotherhood” (1 Pt2:17). The church also sought to liveaccording to the name that had been withthe city for over 200 years.


What better way to express the loy-alty of Christ to His people than to usethe loyalty of Attalus II to his brother.So this address comes from the One “whois holy and true” (Rv 3:7). Jesus set Him-self apart (“holy”) from the eternal Godin order to provide redemption for Hiscreation (Ph 2:5-11). And thus, He is trueto those who join with Him on the cross,in the grave and resurrection (Rm 6:3-6). The word we would use to explainthe behavior of Christians is reciprocity.Jesus first gave Himself for us, and now,we have reciprocated by giving ourselvesto Him (Gl 2:20). We love because Hefirst loved us (1 Jn 4:19). And since wehave reciprocated His love and sacrifice,

6 - Message To The Philadelphia Disciples

Chapter 6

Message To The Philadelphia Disciples

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He will stay true to His promises that Hehas given to us.

In order for us to find assurance inHis promises, we are informed that He“has the key of David” (Rv 3:7). “Key”is metaphorical of “authority.” And forthose of His Jewish audience, Jesus herereminds them that He received this keyin fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah:

Then the key of the house of David I willlay upon his shoulder so that he will openand none will shut. And he will shut andnone will open (Is 22:22).

It is significant to understand that thetense of the verb “has” in 3:7 is past tense.At the time the message was given, Jesusalready had David’s key of authority. Itwas not something yet to come in thefuture, but was in the possession of Jesusas John wrote these words. There wouldbe no encouragement for the local recipi-ents of the letter if the key of authoritywere something that was yet in the fu-ture. As disciples of Jesus, we have greatconfidence because we know that Jesushas been given all authority over allthings (Mt 28:18). The Father has placedHim in authority above all authorities onearth for the sake of His people (Ep 1:20-23).

And He is the head of the body, thechurch, who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that in all thingsHe might have the preeminence (Cl1:18).

If one would assert that Jesus will

in the future assume some reign on thisearth, then he must also believe that Jesusmust give up the authority He now hasin order to reign on a small particle ofdust in one galaxy of the many through-out the universe. There is somethingdiscouraging about such a theology.Those who teach such have a hard timeunderstanding the encouragement thatJesus here gives to the Philadelphia dis-ciples. The encouragement was that atthe time the message was stated by Jesusin the context of their history, He had al-ready received the authority of David thatwas prophesied in Isaiah 22:22.

The authority of David has nowgone galactic in Jesus, the Son of God.It was never prophesied that Jesus wouldreign over some parcel of land here onearth as King David did over Israel inPalestine. Those who think Jesus’ reignwould be exactly as that of David, havecertainly missed the extent to which themetaphor “key of David” was to signifythe reign of the Messiah. We must re-member that in the use of metaphor,something spiritual and greater is beingsignified. Jesus’ reign was to be fargreater than the reign of David. It wasprophesied that the Messiah would reignover the world from a heavenly throne(See Dn 2:44; 7:13,14). However, thisreign of Jesus as the Messiah now ex-tends far beyond this world, and certainlyfar beyond the extent of David’s reign.It is as the Holy Spirit stated, that He “hasgone into heaven and is at the right handof God, angels and authorities and pow-ers having been made subject to Him”(1 Pt 3:22). And now, He is “upholding


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all things by the word of His power” (Hb1:3).

B. Commendation from the Christ:

If we were among any of the dis-ciples of the seven churches, we wouldwant to be among the disciples in Phila-delphia. There is no condemnation of anyteaching or behavior of these disciples.The culture of their fellowship certainlyreflected the name of the city.

1. An open door: One historicalnote on the founding of this city is re-vealed in the opportunity that Jesus setbefore them: “I have set before you anopen door and no one can shut it” (Rv3:8). The original purpose for the found-ing of the city in 140 B.C. was to makethe city a center for the spread of theGreek language and culture through-out the region. The city was located ina wide vale that opened into the HermusValley. The city subsequently became anoutpost opportunity for the preaching ofthe gospel beyond the region of Phila-delphia. This was the open door that noone could shut.

When Christians who are strategi-cally located realize the opportunity thatis given to them because of their loca-tion, they should seize the opportunityof the open door for the preaching of thegospel beyond their region. Those whoare in strategic locations, but fail to seethe opportunity for mission outreach be-yond themselves, are short sited, if notintroverted. They are not taking advan-tage of the open door that Jesus sets be-

fore them.Paul was very perceptive to find

open-door opportunities that were madepossible by God. When he and Barna-bas returned from the first mission jour-ney, they “gathered the church together”and “reported all that God had done withthem and how He had opened the doorof faith to the Gentiles” (At 14:27). Godopens the doors. Christians must pray toperceive those doors. When in Ephesus,Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “But I willtarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For agreat and effective door has opened tome ...” (1 Co 16:8,9). Could this veryopen door have been the opportunity forPaul from Ephesus to reach cities asPhiladelphia? It could have been an opendoor that led to the salvation of the saintsin Philadelphia, and thus, Jesus was us-ing their past experience of their receiv-ing of the gospel in order to motivatethem to do likewise for others. While inEphesus on a mission journey Paul taughtin the school of Tyrannus for two years,“so that all those who dwelt in Asiaheard the word of the Lord Jesus, bothJews and Greeks” (At 19:10). Couldthere have been a similar open door forthe Philadelphia saints to do the samefrom where they were located?

It is the responsibility of leaders tobe perceptive to doors of opportunity forevangelism. God opens these doors. Andthe fact that He does assumes that Hispeople should take the opportunity toenter in order to preach the gospel. If wedo not, then we are negligent in our du-ties as His children. This may have beenthe problem with the loss of the “first


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love” by the Ephesians and the deadnessof the Sardis disciples. Ephesus was thegateway to all Asia Minor. God openeda door there once for Paul, but it seemsthat the Ephesians refused to continue thelegacy of using their key location as anopportunity to continue to preach the gos-pel to the world. When Paul was in Troason his last mission journey, and on hisway to Corinth, he wrote ahead, “Nowwhen I came to Troas to preach the gos-pel of Christ, and a door was opened tome by the Lord ...” (2 Co 2:12). Mustwe assume that this open door was onlyfor the city of Troas? If we use Ephesusas an example, the open door was notsimply for the city of Troas, but for thosewho lived beyond Troas. Every city ofdisciples must see how God is using themas an open door to reach beyond their citylimits.

It is the responsibility of the dis-ciples to find doors that are opened byGod. And if a door is not opened, then itis the responsibility of the saints to praythat God open it. Open doors assume thatthey were first closed. And if closed, thenwe must trust that the One who opensdoors will do so on behalf of the gospel.While in prison, Paul asked some Chris-tians, “... continue praying for us so thatGod may open to us a door for the word,to speak the mystery of Christ ...” (Cl4:3).

So we must ask ourselves, “Whenwas the last time we prayed that Godopen some doors for us in order to preachthe word?” If that prayer has not beenon our lips for some time, then we canjudge for ourselves that we have lost our

first love. Some Christians are some-times as those who were explained by apreacher, “When opportunity does knock,by some uncanny quirk, it often goes un-recognized, it so resembles work.” Itseems that the opportunity to preach thegospel has to be advertised to some be-fore they can perceive God workingthrough open doors. We must pray forperception because the open door forpreaching the word is often off its hingesin some places of the world and waitingfor someone to enter. Unfortunately, andunlike those in Philadelphia, some peopledo not want to make the prayer for anopen door because they feel that God willtap them on the shoulder to enter.

It would be good to listen to the pub-lic prayers of an assembly of disciples.If one never hears a public prayer for Godto open doors for preaching the gospel,then we know that we are sitting amongmany dead disciples. If so, then we mustheed the exhortation of Jesus to the Eph-esians. We must restore our first love(Rv 3:1).

C. The promise of the Christ:

Jesus makes four promises to theChristians in Philadelphia, promises thatwould encourage them to continue theiroutreach through the open door that Hewould not allow anyone to shut.

1. “I will make those of the syna-gogue of Satan ... come and fall downbefore your feet.” This is a significantstatement in reference to the date of writ-ing of the book. On the day of Pentecost


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in A.D. 30, prophecy was fulfilledthrough the apostles’ speaking in lan-guages (At 2:1-4). The fulfillment of thisprophecy was God’s initial stamp of ap-proval on the apostles through the lan-guages that He was now working throughthe spiritual Israel, the ekklesia (church)of Christians.

Paul explained this “stamp of ap-proval” by the use of languages when hewrote to the Corinthians. In quotingIsaiah 28:11,12, Paul argued that “lan-guages are for a sign, not to those whobelieve, but for unbelievers” (1 Co14:21,22). The languages that were mi-raculously spoken by Christians signalledto the unbelieving Jews that God wasnow working through those who believedthat Jesus was the Messiah and Son ofGod.

In the parable of the Tares, Jesusspoke of a time after His ministry when“the righteous will shine forth as thesun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt13:43). That time came on the cross inA.D. 30 with the termination of the OldTestament law of national Israel (Cl2:14). Termination of the state of nationalIsrael came in the destruction of Jerusa-lem in A.D. 70. Jesus explained to thePhiladelphia saints that when nationalIsrael was fully consummated in the ful-fillment of Jesus’ prophecy of Matthew24, it would be then that many of the for-merly unbelieving Jews would “falldown before your feet” (Rv 3:9). Jewishpersecution would cease (Rv 2:9). Thiswould be the time about which Paulwrote,

For I do not want, brethren, that youshould be ignorant of this mystery, lestyou should be wise in your own minds,that blindness in part has happened toIsrael until the fullness of the Gentileshas come in (Rm 11:25).

God initially signalled to the Jew-ish nation in A.D. 30 by the apostles’speaking in languages that He acceptedas His people those who believed in Jesus(At 2:1-4). He then signalled to the Jew-ish Christians in Jerusalem with thespeaking in languages that He acceptedthe Gentiles (At 10,11). After this, theJewish Christians went with force intothe Gentile world through Paul and otherevangelists. This happened for aboutthirty years after the cross, that is, “untilthe fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”After this “fullness of the Gentiles hadcome,” then “all Israel will be saved”(Rm 11:26). All Israel does not meanevery single Jew, but only those whowould accept Jesus as the Messiah andSon of God. These would be those Jews,as the Gentiles, who “were disposed untoeternal life” (At 13:48). This numberwould be all of Israel who would obeythe gospel.

Now to the Philadelphia disciples,this time was close. Therefore, some ofthose Jews who were persistent to claimto be God’s people (the synagogue ofSatan), would eventually see the truepeople of God shine forth under the king-dom reign of Jesus. A.D. 70 would bethe time when over one million unbeliev-ing sojourning Jews to Jerusalem would


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be massacred in the destruction of the cityin A.D. 70. The Roman Caesar Vespasianwaited until the Passover/Pentecost feast,and then the Roman army made war withIsrael, which war eventually led to thedestruction of Jerusalem. The 80,000 ormore Jews who survived the war inJerusalem were sold into captivitythroughout the Roman Empire. It was atime when formerly unbelieving Jewsfiguratively bowed down before Chris-tians as the Gentile Cornelius literallybowed down before the Jewish Peter (At10:25,26). But this time, it would be theformerly unbelieving Jews who would fi-nally confess that Jesus was the Messiahand figuratively bow down before Gen-tile Christians.

We would assume that the Chris-tians in Philadelphia believed the proph-ecy of Matthew 24. But we would alsoassume that they had not yet experiencedthe fall of Jerusalem, for there was stillopposition from the “synagogue of Sa-tan.” But this opposition would soon beterminated, since many of the zealot Jewsof the synagogue may have been killedin the A.D. 70 destruction when they trav-eled to Jerusalem for the annual Passover/Pentecost feast.

Through the fulfillment of theprophecies concerning the destruction ofJerusalem, Jesus said that He would makethe unbelieving Jews “know that I haveloved you” (Rv 3:9). What would be sig-nificant to assume is that some survivingJews who escaped the A.D. 70 war andpossibly returned to Philadelphia, werewarmly received by the PhiladelphiaChristians upon their repentance and obe-

dience to the gospel. Such would not beuncommon behavior among true Chris-tians, for Philip the evangelist later re-ceived Saul, now Paul, who had aided inthe stoning of one of his best friends inJerusalem many years before (See At7:58; 8:1; 21:8). There is certainly powerin the words that Jesus uttered from thecross, “Father, forgive them, for they donot know what they are doing” (Lk23:34).

2. “I also will keep you from thehour of trial that will come on the wholeworld” (Rv 3:10). There was a rewardcoming for the Philadelphia saints “be-cause you have kept the word of My per-severance ...” (Rv 3:10). The reward wasthat they would be kept “from the hourof trial that will come on the whole world....”

Keeping the word of Jesus has itsrewards in the time of trial. This prom-ise reminds us of 1 Peter 4:16: “Yet ifanyone suffers as a Christian, let him notbe ashamed, but let him glorify God inthis name.” The Philadelphia disciplesknew that “all who desire to live godlyin Christ Jesus will suffer persecution”(2 Tm 3:12; see Mt 5:10-12). The fol-lowing words would be precious to thesaints in Philadelphia as they passedthrough the coming trials:

Blessed is the man who endures tempta-tion, for when he is tried, he will receivethe crown of life that the Lord has prom-ised to those who love Him (Js 1:12).

The early Christians knew that beforethey could reach the promised land, they


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had to pass through the wilderness oftribulation. They knew that if one wouldseek to live the godly life, then therewould be the trials of this life that godli-ness inherently engenders. But it is assomeone said, “Trial is the structural steelthat goes into the building of character.”So Peter would remind the Philadelphiadisciples,

In this you greatly rejoice, though nowfor a little while, if need be, you havebeen distressed by many trials, so thatthe proof of your faith, being much moreprecious than gold that perishes, thoughit is refined with fire, might be found topraise and honor and glory at the rev-elation of Jesus Christ (1 Pt 1:6,7; seeJs 1:2,3).

The phrase “whole world” in Rev-elation 3:10 must be interpreted with thedictionary of Luke 2:1. Caesar Augustusof the Roman Empire decreed that “acensus be taken of all the world.” Thiscertainly did not pertain to every personon earth. The terminology was takenfrom the Roman dictionary, in that theRoman’s thought that they reigned overthe “whole world.” But we would ig-nore their arrogance by realizing that thecensus of Augustus was only of the citi-zens of the Roman Empire. And so webring this definition into the context ofRevelation 3:10 as Jesus’ meaning in thecontext. The “hour of trial” was comingwhen Rome would unleash its persecu-tion against Christians throughout theEmpire. This would be Jesus’ messageof introduction to the encouragement of

the visions that would begin in chapter 4and continue throughout the book.

It seems that Jesus has in the con-text of His message to the Philadelphiasaints turned from the destruction ofJerusalem that would take care of the lim-ited Jewish persecution of the church, andmoved on to the state persecution thatwould take place throughout the RomanEmpire. The Empire would set itselfagainst Christianity. A limited persecu-tion of Christians had already begun withthe personal vendetta of Nero againstChristians during the 60s. But under Cae-sar Domitian (81-96), there would begina state persecution for the next 150 yearsuntil Galerius eventually issued the Edictof Toleration in A.D. 311. But for somereason, this persecution did not comeupon the disciples in Philadelphia, at leastthis seems to be the promise of Jesus inHis message to these Christians. The cityof Philadelphia may have been a smallsanctuary for Christians throughout theEmpire while Rome launched its furyagainst Christianity in other areas.

“I am coming quickly” cannot be apromise of coming at the end of time.This was a coming “in time.” Jesuswould not have deceived the PhiladelphiaChristians into believing that He wascoming in His final coming in their life-time. Such a promise would have robbedthem of the immediate comfort theyneeded. As James encouraged his read-ers around A.D. 66,67 to be patient forthe “coming of the Lord” in His destruc-tion of Jerusalem (Js 5:7,8), so here thepromise may be to the PhiladelphiaChristians that there would be an end of


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Roman persecution, which end eventuallycame in A.D. 311. We are not told spe-cifically in this address what the reliefwould be from the trials from which theywould be delivered. The immediate dis-ciples were simply promised that therewould be relief from their hard times.

3. “I will make [him] a pillar inthe temple of My God ” (Rv 3:12). Thecity of Philadelphia was devastated withan initial earthquake that levelled the pil-lars of the main buildings in A.D. 17.Subsequent earthquakes that took placein the years that followed finished the to-tal destruction of all the buildings in thecity. But in the promise of Jesus, thefaithful would be made pillars that wouldnever fall.

When someone in Roman societyaccomplished a good deed for the soci-ety, a pillar in a public building was of-ten made and named after the person, aswe today would name a street after some-one. Jesus is saying that because theChristians in Philadelphia were remain-ing faithful, they would be “named pil-lars” in the house of God. They could beassured, however, that these named pil-lars would never lie in ruins as they wit-nessed every day the pillars of the oldcity laying on the ground in ruins.

4. “I will write on him the nameof My God and the name of the city ofMy God.” The Greek word for “over-come” in 3:12 is a present participle. Theaction of the verb is continuous action inthe present. Therefore, they were over-coming in their daily discipleship. Liv-ing the life of a disciple for the saints inPhiladelphia was a daily struggle.

When the A.D. 17 earthquake came,people in mass fled the city for their lives.But when one is a pillar in the temple ofGod, he need not flee. On the contrary,he is the occasion for people to flee tohim for protection and comfort (1 Pt3:15). “The new Jerusalem” comesdown from God in heaven. This is thechurch of the Lord. As people come intoChrist, the church is pictured as comingdown from its origin, that is God. Sowhen one is obedient to the gospel, thenhe would be accepting the name aboutwhich Peter wrote, the name “Christian”(1 Pt 4:16). It would be to this name,and the refuge of the city of God, thatpeople would seek refuge in times of trial.

After the destruction of the city ofPhiladelphia in A.D. 17, Caesar Tiberiusappropriated funds for the rebuilding ofthe city. The name of the city was subse-quently changed to honor him, but thename never stuck. When God names Hispeople, the name can never be changed.Some in Corinth tried to change the nameof their allegiance by calling themselvesafter the name of some man. Paul wrotethat some say, “I am of Paul,” or “I am ofApollos,” or “I am of Cephas” (1 Co1:12). Paul admonished the disciples inCorinth for this divisive and disrespect-ful practice. He admonished, “Is Christdivided? Was Paul crucified for you? Orwere you baptized in the name of Paul?(1 Co 1:13).

The fact is that we wear the nameof Christ because He was crucified forus, and we were baptized into His name.If Christ had not been crucified, then re-ligious people could wear any name they


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choose. If one has not been baptized inthe name of Christ, then again, it doesnot matter what name one would wear.But since all Christians have been bap-tized into the One who was crucified forthem, then they are called “Christian” af-ter Christ, of whom they are because theyhave been baptized into Him under theauthority of His name (At 2:38; Rm 6:3).

D. Warning:

Jesus warned, “Hold fast what youhave so that no one take your crown” (Rv3:11). The Greek word (krotein) for“hold fast” means to “hold on to tightly.”If they hold on to that which they have,then they will not lose their crown. Theexhortation to “hold fast” assumes thatone can let go, and thus, lose his crown.It is not that one is saved by the grace ofGod, and then cannot lose his crown. Thevery fact that Jesus here exhorts the dis-ciples to hold on to that which they have(their salvation), assumes that they willlose it if they let go.

The exhortation to the Philadelphiadisciples is similar to that given by Jude,but with an added responsibility on thepart of Jesus. “Now to Him who is able

to keep you from falling and to presentyou faultless before the presence of Hisglory with exceeding joy ...” (Jd 24).Combined with the Revelation 3:11 ex-hortation, the individual disciple has theresponsibility to keep himself saved, buthe is helped by Him before whom he willbe saved in eternity. The link that con-nects the two exhortations is Paul’s state-ment in Ephesians 3:20: “Now to Himwho is able to do exceedingly abundantlyabove all that we ask or think accordingto the power that works in us ....” Out-side us, Jesus is working all things to-gether for good (Rm 8:28). Inside us,we are struggling against the lust of theflesh in order that we not lose our salva-tion. There are things for which we areresponsible in order to guarantee our sal-vation. “Therefore, brethren, be all themore diligent to make your calling andelection sure. For if you do these things,you will never stumble” (2 Pt 1:10; see 2Pt 2:20-22). Since one can stumble, thenwe seek to watch and be faithful, for weremember Jesus’ promise to the Eph-esians, “Be faithful unto death and I willgive you the crown of life” (Rv 2:10).Flickering lamps need to give all dili-gence to add oil.

7 - Message To The Laodicea Disciples

Chapter 7

Message To The Laodicea Disciples

Laodicea was founded by theSeleucid King Antiochus II in the thirdcentury B.C. It was named after his wife,Laodice (261-256 B.C.). The riches ofthe city came from its location, for it wassituated on one of the great Asian trade

routes. It was a very prosperous city, andthus, a banking center for many traderswho passed through the city. After thegreat earthquake of A.D. 60, the bankingfirms were so wealthy that they financedthe rebuilding of the city. In the rebuild-

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ing of the city, the banks even refused toreceive funding from Nero. As a resultof its wealth, it developed a culture ofaristocracy and a social class that wasbased on wealth. There was a spirit ofself-sufficiency among the residentssince they trusted in their great wealth.Probably no other church of the seventhat Jesus addressed, better represents thebusiness and social environment of themodern urban church.

The Lycus Valley was pasture landfor a black sheep that produced a glossyblack wool, from which stylish coats andcarpets were made. The city becameknown for this wool and the garments ofthe black wool industry. There was alsoa medical school in the city, as well as anindustry for the manufacture of col-lyrium, a well-known eye salve of thetimes.

The unfortunate thing aboutLaodicea’s location was that there wasno sufficient local water supply withinthe city. Water was thus channeled tothe city from hot springs some distancesouth of the city. But because of the heatof the water at its source, it arrived in thecity lukewarm, and thus, it still had to becooled in order to be consumed.

Since the society was one of busi-ness and banking, there was a spirit ofcompromise within the culture that wasnecessary for business. As in today’surban centers, a great deal of time had tobe spent in being successful in one’s busi-ness. In some cases, cities are so largetogether that surviving within them as aChristian is challenging. In the case ofLaodicea, the competitive business cul-

ture of the city led the Christians into aspiritual indifference that labelled themto be the “lukewarm church.” As a re-sult of their little focus on spiritual things,the disciples of the area manifested in-difference in reference to their faith. Theresult was the eventual disappearance ofthe church from the area. The disappear-ance of the church was as the history ofthe city. The ancient city of Laodiceawas eventually abandoned.


Jesus’ introduction of Himself to thelukewarm Laodicean disciples is meantto remind them of who He is. If theywould recall the One after whom theywere originally called, then they shouldbe shocked into remembering that this isnot “sweet Jesus, meek and mild.” Thiswas their Creator, the One before whomall men will eventually give account forthe works done in the body, whether goodor bad (2 Co 5:10). This is the One whowill eventually make the final pronounce-ment to the apathetic, “Depart from Meyou cursed into everlasting fire that isprepared for the devil and his angels”(Mt 25:41). These spiritually indiffer-ent disciples needed to be shocked outof their lukewarmness and into the real-ity that King Jesus is not playing religiousgames.

1. Jesus is the revealed “truth.”Isaiah identified God as “the God oftruth” (Is 65:16). It was indeed appro-priate, therefore, for Jesus to make thestatement during His ministry, “I am the


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way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).“Jesus said to those Jews who believedin Him ... you will know the truth, andthe truth will make you free” (Jn8:31,32). What He was saying was thatthey would know Him, and it would beHim who would set them free.

Contrary to the thinking of many,Jesus was not talking about a body ofdoctrine that they would know. Know-ing “the Truth” must be interpreted in thecontext of what John wrote at the verybeginning of his dissertation to explainwho Jesus was:

In the beginning was the Word, and theWord was with God, and the Word wasGod.... And the Word was made fleshand dwelt among us (Jn 1:1,14).

Throughout His ministry, it was the workof Jesus to explain that He was “theTruth,” “the Word” that was revealed toman. Jesus was the revelation of “theGod of truth.” To know “the Truth” wasto know “the Word.” And to know theWord, was to know a personality, not anoutline of doctrine on a piece of paper.

When Jesus said, “He who has seenMe has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9), Hewas saying that in person He was the rev-elation of the true God of heaven. It isfor this reason, therefore, that any reli-gionist who does not recognize Jesusas the Word (the Truth) who revealsthe true God, has simply created a godafter his own imagination. When Jesusaddressed the Laodicean disciples, Heclaimed to be the true revelation of theGod of heaven (Rv 3:14). In order to

deliver the Laodicean Christians out ofthe stupor of their lukewarmness, theyhad to again realize that the One theyclaimed to follow was the revelation ofthe God of all things. Theirlukewarmness resulted from their “luke-warm” understanding of who Jesus re-ally was.

The Hebrew word for the Greekword that is translated “Amen” means“truth.” It is a Hebrew word that wasnot literally translated into the Greek Sep-tuagint, and then into English. When theJews heard the cry, “Amen,” they under-stood that what an individual was sayingwas, “Truth.” In the same sense, the En-glish word “Amen” should convey thesame meaning when one says “Amen”to a statement with which one agrees tobe “truth.” Jesus is the Truth who willset us free and keep us free. If we losesight of who He is, then our flame willflicker out.

2. Jesus was the origin of creation.Jesus is “the ruler of the creation of God”(Rv 3:14). In other words, when creationbegan, it was the Son of the Godhead whobegan and completed all creation.

For by Him all things were created thatare in heaven and that are on earth, vis-ible and invisible, whether thrones ordominions or principalities or powers.All things were created through Himand for Him (Cl 1:16).

Because He was the Creator, Jesus wasthe one who had all the rights of a first-born son. “He is the image of the invis-ible God, the firstborn of all creation”


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(Cl 1:15). He was not a creation of God,but was one with God. He was the ori-gin of all that now exists. And since Hecreated us, He took ownership of our ex-istence through incarnation. He emptiedHimself of being on a equality with theGodhead in order to come for us (Ph 2:5-11).

We must leave a note here for thoseinterpreters who have somehow twistedthe Revelation 3:14 statement into somefantasy that Jesus was a created being ofGod. This interpretation was based on aweak translation of Revelation 3:14.Some versions translated the verse in amanner that somewhat indicated thatJesus was “the beginning” of the creationof God. This translation gave the impres-sion that Jesus was first created, and thenthe rest of the material world was cre-ated.

If Jesus were a created being, thenPaul’s statement of 1 Timothy 2:5 meansnothing: “For there is one God and onemediator between God and men, theman Christ Jesus.” If Jesus were a cre-ation as any man, then there would be nomediatorship between created man of thematerial world and God who is spirit (Jn4:24). He would be no greater than anyother man who was created, and thus, Hecould not function as a mediator betweenthat which is spirit and that which is ma-terial. That which is material cannot me-diate on its own behalf. If man, who ismaterial and mortal, could mediate on hisown behalf, then why would we needJesus, if He too were only mortal and ma-terial? If a material and mortal mediatorwould do, then any other good mortal and

material created man would do, maybeAbraham, or Isaiah, or Paul. But to cre-ate from dust a mediator between Deityand dust is simply the manifestation ofbiblically challenged interpreters.

B. Pronouncement of judgment:

The condemnation of the disciplesin Laodicea is harsh. The severity of thejudgment portrays a fellowship of Chris-tians who seem to be past repentance,though a plea is made by Jesus to “bezealous and repent” (Rv 3:19). Whetherthe stark rebuke of this message gener-ated repentance, we do not know. Whatis important to understand is that Jesuspicked out these disciples as an opportu-nity to manifest His condemnation oflukewarmness that so often affects somany members of the body. As we studythrough His message to these disciples,we must be on our knees in prayer to per-ceive, if perhaps, we too are of those towhom the message in directed.

It is as if Jesus were speaking to thenormal metropolitan church today that iscomposed of those who have been luredinto a world of materialism. Laodiceawould be the example of the urban churchthat has laid itself in the tomb of medi-ocrity, but at the same time, claims to bethe representation of the body of Christin the community. This is a message thatis seldom heard from the pulpits of pas-toral prophets of urban churches. Eventhose churches that take pride in beingdoctrinal soundness will seldom turn tothis message to the Laodicean Christiansas a point of reference to define true dis-


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cipleship. After all, if we can take pridein our doctrine, then what need is thereto check our behavior with a faith thatshould be working through love. If ourcontribution is up, then why would wesay anything to discourage the rich con-tributors. A great deal of pride in one’sdoctrine will often lead one to overlooka great deal of lukewarmness.

1. “You are lukewarm”: It is truethat the more wealthy one becomes, themore he is likely to fall into the sin ofapathy in reference to spiritual matters.Since one’s focus and energy must beplaced on the world in order to generatethe wealth of the world, then one’s focusand energy are directed to the things ofthe world. They are thus directed awayfrom Christ. For this reason Jesus stated,

No man can serve two masters, for ei-ther he will hate the one and love theother, or else he will be devoted to theone and despise the other. You cannotserve God and wealth (Mt 6:24).

The lethargic Laodicea church is proofof this truth. Split loyalty will not workif one seeks to be a dedicated disciple. Itis as Jesus said, “He who is not with Meis against Me. And he who does notgather with Me, scatters” (Lk 11:23). Ifone is not totally committed to Jesus, thenhe reserves some commitment for some-thing of this world. “Half hearted” isnever a term that can be used in refer-ence to a disciple of Jesus. Jesus deservesmore than half a heart. Our Bibles stillsay, “You will love the Lord your God

with all your heart, and with all yoursoul, and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37).

The water that came from the min-eral springs south of Laodicea served asthe appropriate metaphor for discipleswho had been stricken with the sin oflukewarmness. As one would spew forththe lukewarm mineral waters that werechannelled into the city, so Jesus will dothe same with the lukewarm Christianwho is “channelled” to the final judg-ment. It is as someone said, “Lukewarmwater will not take a steam locomotiveto its destination, and neither will a luke-warm Christian reach his desired desti-nation.”

The curse of lukewarmness is thatone fails to perform for Jesus. One cancreate a religiosity that conforms to a life-style of mediocrity. God warned Israelthat if the Israelites did not keep Hisword, the land would spew them out (SeeLv 18:27,28; 20:22). The same could besaid of those who are lukewarm in thebody of Christ. They will be spewed outif they were not obedient. How thiswould happen in the lives of the disciplesof Laodicea would be an illustration ofwhat Paul said of some Christians whowere wood, hay and straw.

Now if anyone builds on this foundationwith gold, silver, precious stones, wood,hay, straw, each one’s work will be mani-fested, for the day will declare it becauseit will be revealed by fire. And the firewill test each man’s work to determinewhat quality it is (1 Co 3:12,13).

The fire of persecution was about to burn


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away those disciples of Laodicea whowere wood, hay and straw. It would re-fine those of gold, silver and preciousstones. The persecution that was com-ing would snuff out the lukewarm dis-ciples of Laodicea. The lukewarm wouldnot endure the storm of tribulation thatwas bearing down on Christianity.

It often takes the fire of persecutionto determine if one is a lukewarm dis-ciple. If in the heat of persecution a dis-ciple would fall from Jesus, then heknows that he was a “wood” disciple. Ifin the heat of trials, a disciple says, “Hey,I’m gone,” then he was a “hay” disciple.And if in the heat of the battle for faith adisciple withdraws, then he was a “straw”disciple.

When a culture of lukewarmness isestablished among a group of disciples,“Christianity” is redefined by the apathyof the members. And once this happens,it is very difficult to reverse this spiritualdeath. If a new convert would come intosuch a group, those who are sick with thesin of lukewarmness will intimidate sucha one to identify with the culture of apa-thy of the majority. The curse of apa-thetic churchianity is in the fact that thosewho are caught in the culture do not be-lieve that they are in danger of beingspewed out. Lukewarmness has a ten-dency to make one comfortable and notconducive to repentance. If one believesthat lukewarm disciples will be broughtinto eternal glory by grace, then he shouldstudy again what Jesus was about to dowith the lukewarm disciples of Laodicea.

2. “I am rich”: Since wealth has atendency to stymie spiritual growth, Jesus

wants us to know that this is what hashappened among the Christians ofLaodicea. Though riches do not alwaysdetour the spiritual growth of the wealthy,wealth is a particular danger for whichthe rich must be cautious. They must al-ways remember the good advice of thewealthy Christian who said, “It is easyfor a good man to make money, but hardfor money to make a good man.” Thereason this is true is because of what theHoly Spirit said. “But those who wantto be rich fall into temptation and asnare, and many foolish and harmful luststhat drown men in ruin and destruction”(1 Tm 6:9). The Laodicean disciples weredrowning in ruin and destruction.

The problem with wealth is that itofen leads one to obsess that which willnot exist beyond wealth. “For the loveof money is the root of all evils, by whichsome coveting after have strayed fromthe faith and pierced themselves withmany sorrows” (1 Tm 6:10). And suchseems to be the spiritual situation of thedisciples in Laodicea. They took so muchpride in their riches that their proud atti-tudes reaped this strong condemnationfrom the One they presumed to follow.They had forgotten what a wise persononce said, “We grow rich, not by depos-iting money in a savings account, but bydepositing the word of God in ourhearts.” We must never forget, therefore,what someone wisely said, “A man is richaccording to what he is, not according towhat he has.”

It seems that the Laodicean dis-ciples had forgotten the words of Jesusthat He spoke during His earthly minis-


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try: “Take heed and beware of all cov-etousness, for a man’s life does not con-sist in the abundance of the things thathe possesses” (Lk 12:15). Henry WardBeecher wrote, “In this world, it is notwhat we take up, but what we give up,that makes us rich.” Beecher must haveread Jesus. Or maybe he read the HolySpirit through Solomon: “A good nameis rather to be chosen than great riches,and loving favor rather than silver andgold” (Pv 22:1).

In the case of the Laodicean Chris-tians, it seems that they had forgotten theconcept of Proverbs 22:2: “The rich andpoor meet together. The Lord is themaker of them all.” In the eyes of God,there is no difference between the richand poor. Though among men we wouldseek to exalt the rich above the poor, inlooking down from God’s perspective,we are all still little men. The rich needto remember, “The poorest of all men ishe who has nothing but money.” It wasas if James were writing specifically tothe rich Christians of Laodicea in the fol-lowing words:

Come now you rich, weep and howl foryour miseries that are coming upon you.Your riches are corrupted and your gar-ments are moth eaten. Your gold and sil-ver are corroded. And their corrosionwill be a witness against you and willeat your flesh like fire. You have heapedtreasure together for the last days (Js 5:1-3). You have lived in pleasure on theearth and lived in a self-indulgent life.You have nourished your hearts as in aday of slaughter (Js 5:5).


No better commentary statement couldhave been written against the rich ofLaodicea. We must keep in mind thatthese were Christians about whom bothJesus and James spoke. These were notthose of the world. Riches had so cor-rupted the spirit of the Laodicean Chris-tians that they were deserving of the harshcondemnation that came from both Jesusand James. They were deserving of suchbecause Jesus loved them, and thus,wanted them to repent in order that theyreign with Him in heavenly places. Butat the time of writing, they were simplyhappy with reigning on earth through thepomp and prestige of their riches.

The judgment of Jesus is harsh inthe statement: “But you do not know thatyou are wretched and miserable andpoor and blind and naked” (Rv 3:17).This is the character that riches will pro-duce. This is the outcome of greed. Thisis the description of Christians who havemade money their god. Paul simply saidto the rich, “Put to death your membersthat are on the earth ... covetousness,which is idolatry” (Cl 3:5).

The road to repentance for a churchof Laodiceans is difficult. They must putto death their idol god of riches. It is notthat they must give themselves into pov-erty, but that they use their riches to theglory of God. This is behind the instruc-tions of Paul in 1 Timothy 6:17-19. Ifone would find himself sitting among the“wretched and miserable and poor andblind and naked,” then here is what theHoly Spirit would instruct:

Charge those who are rich in this worldthat they not be high-minded or trust in

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the uncertainty of riches, but in the liv-ing God who richly gives us all things toenjoy. Teach that they do good, that theybe rich in good works, ready to distrib-ute, willing to share, laying up in storefor themselves a good foundation for thetime to come, that they may lay hold oneternal life.

Every rich person must consider hisriches according to the meaning of whatJesus said in answer to the one whostated, “I will pull down my barns andbuild larger ones”:

“You fool! This night your soul will berequired of you; then whose will thosethings be that you have provided?” Sois he who lays up treasure for himself andis not rich toward God (Lk 12:18-21).

The rich must always be cautious aboutthis truth: “For where your treasure is,there will your heart be also” (Lk 12:34).The Christians in Laodicea had becomesomewhat proud of their riches. Theyseem to be of the same attitude as theEphraimites of Israel who puffed them-selves up because of their riches. Hoseastated that they proclaimed the arrogantstatement, “Surely I have become rich. Ihave found for myself wealth. In all mylabors they will find no iniquity in methat would be sin” (Hs 12:8). This wouldbe the proclamation of the rich disciplesin Laodicea. But Jesus defined their sinto be their depraved character. Theircharacter was “wretched and miserableand poor and blind and naked” (Rv3:17). They should have been crying out

as Paul, “Wretched man that I am! Whowill deliver me from the body of thisdeath?” (Rm 7:24). But their pridewould not allow them to make such aconfession because they trusted inwealth.

We must notice that neither in Jesus’call for repentance on the part of the richLaodiceans, nor in any message of theHoly Spirit through the writers of theNew Testament, that rich Christians mustgive themselves into poverty. The onlycall is that the rich Christians be willingto share (1 Tm 6:17,18). Some have beenblessed with the gift to make money.Others have not. Christianity is not ascommunism, that is, we all must be fi-nancially equal. The problem with po-litical communism is that everyone be-comes poor, except for the rich rulingclass.

The advantage of a rich brother wholoves Jesus is that the church has the greatopportunity of sending the gospel into allthe world. The rich also have the oppor-tunity to help others. Therefore, whenwe see the house of a rich man, we shouldbe thinking that he should have built abigger house. If he had built a biggerhouse, then the fathers of children whobuilt the house would have received moremoney in wages to feed their children.They too could have built bigger housesfor their children. We must dispel withthis jealousy of rich brethren who arewilling and generous to share by provid-ing opportunities for employment. Theirsharing is not in giving handouts. Theirsharing is in providing the opportunityfor fathers to have a job in order that they


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feed their children and pay their schoolsfees. We must never forget that hand-outs often destroy self-esteem, but hand-ing out opportunities to working handsbuilds nations.

3. “I counsel you ....”: When oneis selfishly blinded by his wealth, thenhe should listen carefully to this counselof Jesus (Rv 3:18). The city took pridein its great banking that served many whotraveled through the area. But Jesus saidthat instead of trusting in their bankingsystem, they should “buy from Me goldrefined in the fire” so that they would bespiritually rich (Rv 3:18). They shouldbuy from Jesus white garments, insteadof taking pride in the garments that theypurchased from the local trade stores thatwere made of the fine black wool of thearea. The garments from the trade storeswould give the outer appearance of some-one of status, but their being clothed inJesus would give the presentation of agodly nature. They needed to rememberthat when they came out of the grave ofbaptism, that they “put on the new manwhich after God is created in righteous-ness and true holiness” (Ep 4:24). Theyhad dressed themselves with Christ (Gl3:27).

Unfortunately, the Laodiceans al-lowed their spiritual clothing to be re-placed with material clothing of theworld, and thus, they revealed their na-ked spirituality. And in reference to theeye salve of the city, such would momen-tarily solve the problem of itching eyes.But the spiritual eye salve that Jesus pro-vided would quench their itching spiritfrom following after the things of this

world. The eye salve of Jesus would givethem relief to stop lusting after wealth.It would give them the opportunity to seethe world as it is. They would also beable to see God (Mt 5:8). It would givethem the opportunity to see their true self,that they were “wretched and miserableand poor and blind and naked” (Rv3:17).

C. Exhortation to repent:

“As many as I love, I rebuke andchasten” (Rv 3:19). We find a commen-tary of this exhortation in Hebrews 12:

My son, do not despise the discipliningof the Lord, nor faint when you are re-buked by Him. For whom the Lord lovesHe disciplines, and scourges every sonwhom He receives (Hb 12:5,6; see Pv3:11,12).

There is only one way to avoid the chas-tisement of the Lord. Jesus explains,“Therefore, be zealous and repent” (Rv3:19). When one realizes that the Lordchastises those He loves, he must under-stand that the chastisement comes as aresult of our falling from our faithfulnessto Him. Therefore, in order not to bechastised, one should give all diligenceto remain faithful. We should be a peoplewho are “zealous of good works” (Ti2:14) in order that we not be led into theapathy that is produced by riches. TheLaodiceans allowed the easiness of theirlife-style to infect the culture of theirfaith. They became complacent in theircoins and lax in their love for Christ. It


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was not that money is evil. When oneloves money more than good works inresponse to the love of God through thecross, then he is spiritually in trouble. Itis for this reason that personal goodworks are a measuring gage as to howmuch one loves the Lord.

D. Plea for spiritual restoration:

We know that one can repent fromthe life-style of lukewarmness becauseof the call of Jesus for repentance. Thefact of the plea is evidence that they couldrestore zeal for Jesus and focus on thosethings that are above. They needed toread again the letter that the Holy Spiritsent to the Christians in Colosse in A.D.61,62, which by this time, had been cir-culated among the seven churches, for thecity of Colosse was not far from any ofthe seven cities.

If you then were raised with Christ, seek those

things that are above, where Christ is sitting

at the right hand of God. Set your mind on

things above, not on things on the earth (Cl

3:1,2).

When He wrote the letter to the Coloss-ians, the Holy Spirit knew the directionof lukewarmness to which the Christiansin Laodicea and other churches were go-ing. The Colossian letter was the fore-warning of admonition from God. Thedirect address of judgment of Jesus to theLaodiceans in Revelation was the call fortheir repentance, for they had eagerly runafter the lure of riches. Jesus’ addresswas a direct warning because they did

not read well the exhortation of the HolySpirit in the Colossian letter. Instead ofhaving Bible class studies of Colossians,they were waiting for the “closingprayer” in order to leave God and runafter money.

1. “I stand at the door and knock”:The plea of verse 20 is not to unbeliev-ers. The plea is to Christians who were“wretched and miserable and poor andblind and naked” in their prosperity. Thisis not an evangelistic plea. It is a plea toChristians who have died in theirlukewarmness, and were about to bespewed out by Jesus. This is a plea tothe lukewarm sinners in the church, notto sinners of the world.

Jesus is at the door of opportunityfor the lukewarm Christian. The word“knock” is a present participle, and thus,Jesus is continuously knocking. Themetaphor is pointed because Jesus con-tinually pleads with His disciples to re-pent when they fall into the sin oflukewarmness. The lukewarm discipleknows that he is not zealous with goodworks toward God, and thus he continu-ally feels the knock of Jesus on his heart.His conscience tells him that his life-styleof lukewarmness is not pleasing to theOne who gave up being on an equalitywith God in order to redeem him (Ph 2:5-9).

The present participle actionteaches that repentance from apathy isdifficult. The knock is continuous ac-tion because apathetic disciples mustwork themselves out of a religious cul-ture of lukewarmness in which they be-


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came very comfortable. All the timeJesus is knocking on one’s conscience,one must be struggling to repent of luke-warm churchianity.

2. “If anyone hears”: Now weknow why Jesus concluded each addressto the seven churches with the statement,“He who has an ear, let him hear whatthe Spirit says to the churches” (Rv 3:22).The word “hear” means repent and obey.If one would hear the commandments ofJesus, then he would repent and obey.Discipleship is more than knowledge.One can know the outline of command-ments, but do nothing. It is legalist hy-pocrisy if one claims to be a disciple ofJesus, and yet, remains lukewarm.

The Laodicean disciples had falleninto the religiosity of knowing all the out-lines of doctrine, but their behavior wasstagnant. They were comfortable sittingin assemblies on Sunday and taking inall the knowledge of the teacher. Buttheir performance after the “closingprayer” was far from adequate. Such isthe curse of riches. It is easy to pay some-one to get the job done instead of gettingone’s own hands dirty in the filth of hu-manity. Lest they stain their white gar-ments with the dirt of duty, the richLaodiceans would be comfortable to justhire some clergyman to do the job forthem.

The rich cannot fool the Holy Spiriton this matter. Through Paul, the Spiritinstructed Timothy to tell the rich thatthey be rich in good works (1 Tm 6:18).This means hands-on activity for Jesus.No disciple can work at a distance fromthe needs of others. Money can never

become a buffer between servant andneed. If we think it can, then we need totake another look at the dirty towel in thehands of our Creator after He finishedwashing the dirty feet of His disciples(See Jn 13:1-17).

3. “To him who overcomes”: Thosewho would overcome the stifling curseof prosperity would gain the privilege ofsitting down beside the Lord of the world(Rv 3:21). What a powerful promise.When Jesus sat down at the right handof the Father, all the universe became thedomain of His kingdom reign (See Dn7:13,14; Ep 1:20-22; Ph 2:5-11). At thetime John was recording these words,Jesus was right there at the right hand ofGod, reigning over all things. Now thesweet promise of Jesus to the Laodiceandisciples is if they can overcome the curseof riches that often produces the sin oflukewarm activity for Jesus, they toocould sit right there with Jesus.

This was not a promise that wouldbe fulfilled centuries later. The powerof the appeal of the promise was that itcould happen in their lifetime. We can,as Paul taught, “reign in life through theone, Jesus Christ” (Rm 5:17). “If wesuffer, we will also reign with Him” (2Tm 2:12). And suffer, the Laodiceanswould in the coming years. This last per-sonal message to the members of His oneorganic body was a plea of Jesus that theyopen the door of their hearts to Him. Heknew their future. He knew that theywere going into a century and a half oftorturous turmoil before they wouldemerge on the other side of truly “darkages.” If any disciple was to survive the


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ages to come, then he had to allow Jesusto come in and sit down with him in hisheart. And by sitting in their hearts, theywould sit with Him in a heavenly reignover all those who would bring harmagainst them. Any Christian would beable to overcome because he or she wouldbe right there beside Jesus, the King ofkings and Lord of lords.

These will make war with the Lamb andthe Lamb will overcome them, for He isLord of lords an King of kings. And thosewho are with Him are called and cho-sen and faithful (Rv 17:14).

Those who open their Bibles andlisten to Jesus will remain shining lampsof light in their communities. Their goodworks will generate glory of God (Mt

5:16). Instead of being a flickering flameon the verge of being snuffed out byJesus, they will draw all men to them.Their drawing power is the nature of whothey are in their community. One of themost powerful ways to win others toJesus is to shine one’s brilliant light be-fore the world. It is then that the exhor-tation of Peter will come true in one’slife:

But sanctify Christ as Lord God in yourhearts and be ready always to give a de-fense to everyone who asks you a reasonfor the hope that is in you, yet with meek-ness and fear (1 Pt 3:15).

Flickering flames need to repent in orderto become flaming lights for Jesus.


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