All right, we're on. Okay, great. All right, let's open with prayer and then I will ask one or more of you to read the first chapter for us. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we come to you this morning, expecting your grace to flow from your word to us by your spirit. We come expecting the word through revelation to be a light unto our paths. Our Father, we confess to you our sins and that we are unworthy to catch even the crumbs that fall from your table. But we know you as the good and kind and loving Lord that you are. And so we implore you to be with us once again. We long to drink in some of the blessing that John speaks of in this revelation. Please, O Lord, look beyond our sin to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and show us things that perhaps we had not known. And grant us by your spirit the ability to keep the words of this book. In Jesus' name, we ask. Amen. Yeah, there are some or a handout for those who are coming in late, which just contains a reading list. Separated into omelennial, post-millennial, and pre-millennial, you'll notice the omelennial list is longer. There's of course a reason for that, because I want you to read more omelennial books. The schedule is on the back. As I said a few minutes ago, this is so that you can help me to keep to the schedule. So I may need all of your help on that. Before we actually get started on the text, I do want to say something about last week that I forgot to get back to. I can't ask a question about the preterist view. And what I thought might be an attraction or what might be attracting people to the view today, it seems to be gaining in popularity. And I said that one thing was that I think it provides an easy way to foil the dispensational's view. Sort of pulls the rug out from under a view that says everything is future. Say, wait a minute, no, it's already happened. That's a great way if you are not convinced by the dispensationalist or pre-millennial's view to counter attack that. Another reason is that I didn't get back to because I got distracted was that I think it is attractive to some people because it also provides a great answer to one very famous liberal charge against Christianity. The charge that Jesus and his disciples thought he was going to return in their generation and he didn't. And that has been for a long time an objection against the truth of Christianity. Well, preterism says that, oh yes, he did. He came back in AD 70. And that many of the prophecies, if not all of the prophecies, at least many of the prophecies of the New Testament have to do with that great event and the war and then the destruction of Jerusalem that followed. So it is also a great comeback to a liberal charge like that. Now, I wanted to say as well that I'm not making the charge that these are the only reasons why preterists believe that view. No, I mean, I'm not saying that at all. I know that they are convinced that Scripture teaches that view, so I'm not trying to question anybody's motivations. Those are just things about that particular view that I think are attractive to a lot of people and where I can understand that many people would be interested in looking into it. I've been interested in looking into it as well, so I just wanted to make those comments before we got started. Well, it goes back at least to the 16th century. It was actually first proposed by Sir Roman Catholic interpreters, but did catch on among some Protestant interpreters in the 16th and 17th centuries. So it's been around at least since then and has not been that popular in the last century and a half or so until quite recently. It's gaining some more adherence, but we will have some more opportunities Bob and others to talk about the preterist view, but for now I want to go on because it would, I think, delay us. There will be points in the text as we go where we'll stop and comment on what the preterist view says and why I think it's wrong and all that good stuff. So let's for now have someone if they would read verses, I'm going to assume we have covered verses one through three, although we really haven't. But see, there is an element in those verses that the preterist particularly want to focus on and that is the, anybody know where I'm going? Okay, John, we finished one last week. Sorry, we can't go back to one shortly. These things that will shortly take place and then verse three at the end for the time is near. Well, you could say, well, that means that the book of Revelation was written early. That is before 70 AD so that the events that are near happened within a few years. And see, that's one approach that you can take to the book of Revelation. Why I think that is not the case just briefly is that first of all, we can see I think that many of the things in Revelation did start to take place very shortly. We're in the process of starting to take place. Even if you date the book later as I were, I would date it in the 90s of the first century. And in anybody's calculation that is anybody who wants to stay within the bounds of the Orthodox Christian faith, not everything in Revelation did take place quickly. That is in a temporal, strictly temporal sense didn't take place quickly. The end of the millennium didn't come quickly. That's still future for us. The last judgment didn't take place quickly. The new heavens and new earth and eternity have not taken place quickly with respect to John and his situation in the first century. So, no matter how you slice it, you can't really get that everything in the book took place quickly even though I think it did start to take place quickly. Okay, so I covered all that and any other questions you have, there will be opportunities as we go on. We'll keep coming back to the subject of when was the book written and is it really about what happened in 80, 70 or is it about other things? Are there still handouts available for Mr. James, I mean for the late comers? There are some here. I bet that sounds great on the tape. Thanks God. Will someone volunteer to read verses 4 through 8, please?
And everyone I will see then, even those who pierced him and all the peoples of the earth were warned because of him. So shall it be, amen. And the Alpha and the Omega, so the Lord does. Who is who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Thank you. Verse 4 is almost like a new beginning to the letter. We had one beginning and this is almost like a new beginning. The sort of beginning that reminds you of a letter, doesn't it, John to the churches. That sounds like Paul, the way he starts his letters, Paul and Possil to the church at such and such. And in fact, this key is a sin again to something that was pointed out earlier that Revelation really is in one sense a letter. It's an apocalypse. It's a prophecy, but it's also a letter. So John is writing to the seven churches and says it gives this, the salutation, grace and peace to you, which is really a blessing. And I asked last week if you would pay attention to this and see if you found a Trinitarian reference. Anybody show us where there's a Trinitarian reference in this section. You see that as you read through. She sees it. Right. Good. From him who is and who was and who is to come. And that's not the three persons. That's the one person, right? Because we know that because of what follows and from the seven spirits that are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, first born of the dead, the ruler of the kings on earth.
You know, I think we have to pay close attention when we have these Trinitarian references in the New Testament. There are a number of them and sometimes we read over them. But this would have been, of course, very striking in the first century to read the spirit, but of Jesus Christ along with the father and the spirit. This is crucial New Testament doctrine of the deity of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity. Here we have all three persons. Now we have them mentioned in very distinctive and very interesting ways. The first person of the Trinity, he who is who was and is to come. And that might remind some of you of an Old Testament reference. Anybody have any ideas on that? Someone who is and who was and who is to come, that would emphasize what about them. Well, that's Melchizedek in a way because he typifies Christ. He had no recorded father or mother. And God, as being I am, right? An emphasize his eternity and it really sounds a lot like the name, actual name Yahweh in the Old Testament. You remember the passage in Exodus 3, 14, I think it is, where God reveals himself at the bush, the burning bush, two Moses. And remember what he says, Moses says, well, whom shall I say, has sent me and how does God respond? I am that I am. And probably your margins of your translations say, or I will be what I will be. It's a very difficult sentence to translate because it could mean either one. But what it does show us is God's eternity. He is and he will be. He was and he is and he will be. So this is calling upon the Old Testament name of God as the eternal one. And then we have the reference to the Seven Spirits of God. Now what's unusual about that? Well, seven, mainly, seven spirits. Are there seven spirits of God? What do you think is going on here? It could be, yeah, I think maybe Andy is on something that there is also a reference to seven churches. Are there seven spirits because there are seven churches? Or maybe are there seven churches because there are seven spirits? Or maybe both of them are symbolic numbers. You have seven stars coming up, seven lamps, seven bowls, seven trumpets, seven seals. Of course, the whole book of Revelation has many sevens. And you soon get the idea that seven is a symbolic number. Exactly what it's symbolic of is not always, I think, easy to tell. But it's a symbolic, that means it's not necessarily, well, not necessarily literal. You can't say that there are seven and only seven and not no less, no more. Look at the seven churches. For instance, there were a lot more than seven churches in Asia Minor. We know that because there were some New Testament letters written, Colossians in Asia Minor. The Seven Spirits, there is actually an Old Testament text that maybe part of the background. Isaiah 11 verse 2, where we have an emesionic text. This is about the branch of David, the stump of the line of David, because there's a tree of David's going to be cut off. But the Marvel's prophecy about a shoot to grow from that stump of David that was cut off. That shoot, of course, will be the Messiah. And verse 2, it says that he will be anointed with the Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord, which is also, anybody happen to turn there? Dale, do you read that? Well, let's count there. The Spirit of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord. Okay. There were seven, trust me. Seven elements there. The Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of the Lord. Now, are those seven spirits? Are those seven aspects or seven works or seven names of the Lord? Of the One Spirit? Well, I think you'd have to say the latter. And it may be that kind of text and that kind of idea, understanding of the Spirit, a seven-fold, a perfect number of the Spirit's works, the Spirit's attributes, the Spirit's names that is partly what's going on here. Yes. There may be, is anybody have that in their text? Seven-fold Spirit. Okay. See, and that's an interpretation, because it just says seven spirits. But you see, what they're doing, they're interpreting it this way, essentially. Also, very interesting, when you get to chapter four or five, which is the heavenly worship scene, you do read about, in the, before the throne of God, there are seven, your translation may say, torches or light or something. Seven torches before the throne in heaven, and they are the seven spirits of God. So, excuse me, it may have something to do as well with the heavenly presence of the Lord and the Spirit's presence there as well that we see now reflected in this salutation. Well, then we come to the mention of the third person, Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn, the dead, the ruler of the kings of earth, as faithful witness. This is an important concept in Revelation. Faithful witness. John is said to be on the island of Patmos because it was witness for Jesus Christ. Some of you may know the word witness, the word for witness in the New Testament, eventually takes on another connotation and actually becomes translated sometimes, martyr, martyr, the word for witnesses, martyrs. And because in the Christian tradition, what often ended up happening was the one who bears witness for Jesus ends up paying with, because of her life, it became a notion of martyrdom, the martyr. Well, he is the faithful witness, par excellence, to which all other witnesses, all other martyrs want to be like and are like in that sense. He is the firstborn of the dead. He is the firstborn like Paul's idea of first fruits, the first fruits of the resurrection. He is the ruler of kings on earth for very early on, a pointer to the lordship of Christ and his kingship. No matter what view you have of the millennium, the rest of your eschatology, you've got to admit that Jesus is king now. He is ruler of the kings of the earth now and that gets us into the paradox that we mentioned before, the paradox of the book, that despite all the persecution that's there on the horizon, Jesus Christ is king of kings. And the emperor of the Roman Empire is only his underling, continuing in the rest of these introductory verses, we have a doxology, a doxology, that a doxology is what? That's when we give praise, right? Give praise or glory to God. And here the object of this doxology is really one person of the Trinity and that is Jesus. Him, who loves us, has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom priest to his god and father to him, be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. Another reference to Christ's present kingship, not only as he king, but he's made us a kingdom, he's made us his kingdom. And not only is it a kingdom, but it's a certain kind of kingdom. It is a kingdom of priests. There's so much that we miss going through the book of Revelation and we could spend a lot of time even on something like this, priests, to be a priest in the Old Testament, I mean think of it. There were few people, first of all you couldn't, if you're a woman you couldn't be a priest, and if you're from any tribe but the tribe of Levi you couldn't be a priest. But now all Christians are priests, are priests to God and part of his kingdom. In verse 7 we have a reference to the second coming, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, everyone who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen. And then a statement from God, I am the Alpha and the Omega. Alpha and the Omega, you all know are letters of which alphabet? Greek alphabet. Interesting, it's not the Hebrew, but it's the Greek alphabet. Alpha and the Omega, like the A and the Z, says the Lord God who's here we have that description again, is and was and is to come. Another reference is eternity, which has to be a comfort to believers in the midst of trial. They're leaning on the everlasting arms. Okay, any particular questions, I know there's a lot more that could cover there. But let's go on, if there aren't, let's go on to the next section, verses 9 through 20. I need someone with a hearty voice that can read this long passage for us. And if you're a woman, don't shy away from that, I'm not just talking about men. Thank you. This is Roach. Yes.
By thy wrath, by this Philadelphia and the Philadelphia, I turn around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turn, I go set a golden light. And among the lambs, there's someone like the son of a man, like the son of a man dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet with a golden fashion on his chest. His hair and hair were right like this, and his eyes were like razor and fire, his feet were like bronze, glory and sun, and his voice was like the sound of rushing water. In his right hand, he held seven stars. And out of his mouth, he was shy of a double-edged sword. His face was like a stone shining in all his fingers. And I saw him, I fell at his feet, I fell dead. Then his face was right hand in me and dead. Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead, I behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the key as dead and fading. He's right there for what you have seen. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and of the seven golden lambs that he did. The seven stars are the angels of the seven treasures, and the seven lambs are the seven treasures. Thank you. There right at the end we get the first of several actual interpretations of symbols. They're actually given to us in the text. It's kind of interesting to note that there are a few times when a revelation interprets a symbol for us, and you have one there. Right back in verse 9, now we begin what is, I think, the first of four visions, major visions in revelation, as we've about lined this before. The first vision, and it's a vision of the risen Lord who appears to John on the island of, what's the island again? Patmos, okay, Patmos. First nine, again, I think, gets us deep into the paradox of the book, once again, the paradox of the book. And that is that John says he shares both the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance. We'll get in the cadence here, pretty soon. For those of you listening by tape, we're all listening to a honking car outside. I won't tell you who's getting up to go and check it. Okay, even though John shares in what tribulation and patient endurance, he says, I share with you the kingdom. Now this ought to radicalize our notions of kingdom. We tend to have this idea, particularly a certain school of thought, I would add that it was not her car. Okay, so everybody knows. I've got a white puer. Wait a minute. Okay. All right, we have to redefine our notions of kingdom. We tend to think that if you're part of a kingdom, if your kingdom is in power, well, the last thing you ought to be having is tribulation. And the last thing you need is patient endurance. But this is precisely what the kingdom is, the kingdom of Christ in this age. It's a kingdom in which we need perseverance. We need endurance. And it's a kingdom that has to endure tribulation. Sometimes it was great and intense trial. Again, this is paradoxical. This is not the way the world thinks. And there I say, it's not the way many of us as Christians tend to think. Well, say it, you know, this way, we all, that's not the way all of us tend to think. When we think that we are children of the king and heirs of heaven, but here it is, John says we share the trials and we share the need for patient endurance. Well, John is on the island called Patmos. Now, it was it was a practice of the Romans to do this to prisoners at times. They would exile them to remote islands somewhere. And John was on the island of Patmos. We don't know much about the circumstances. There's speculation. Tertolian, one of the church fathers writing about 100 years later than this, says that John was actually taken to Rome where he was dipped in burning oil of that of burning oil and survived. And then was exiled to Patmos. Now, we don't know if that's true. It's nothing about that in Scripture. It's 100 years after the fact we don't know if that's true. We don't know the circumstances, but we do know that he says he's there for what purpose, or what cause, right, right, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. So we know it had had something to do with suffering for the faith, for his testimony about Christ. He says he was in the spirit on the Lord's day. I can take this to mean do a reference to Sunday. It's how the early Christians eventually referred to Sunday. It's how we still refer to Sunday, the Lord's day. He says he was in the spirit and we noticed before this happens four times in Revelation each time it's the introduction of a new set of visions, a new major vision when he says I was in the spirit. And he hears behind him a loud voice like a trumpet saying, right, what you see in a book, send it to the seven churches. I know this does not mean that the letters in chapter 2 and 3 are all he sent to the seven churches. He says write it in a book and send the book to the seven churches. That is, everything is going to go each of the seven churches. The whole book is a letter, remember. So we should get the impression that it's only the letters to the seven churches. He's talking about the whole book, which will be sent to the seven churches. And I lean to an excellent job of pronouncing those seven churches, those seven cities. I think we should recognize that. These are seven cities in Asia Minor that form a kind of a circle. As if many people think this was part of the reason, they're along a certain roadway and that they would have been the natural course of a messenger to start with Ephesus to go north to Smirna and to Pergamum and then go off to Fiatira and around the Sardis and back. So it may be that that is influencing the order here of the churches. But as we said before, there are more than seven churches in Asia Minor and there's a little doubt that this has symbolic significance. There are seven. No more no less because of the symbolism of seven being a perfect and a whole number. Then we have the introduction of the object of the vision, verse 12. He turns and sees seven golden lamp stands in the midst of lamp stands, one like a son of man. I won't read through this again, but there is a fairly detailed description of the son of man. I just want to try to make a couple of points here. It is, of course, a vision of the Lord in glory. It's the resurrected Lord. It's not how John saw Jesus during his earthly life, is it? No, it's much different. Does any of this remind you of any Old Testament passage? Oh, good. Good. Good. And in particular, just the Daniel one, in particular, Daniel seven, I think is probably where Ali is thinking of. There's seven. Remember that is the place where Daniel has a vision of these four beasts rising out of the sea. The last one is just utterly, utterly horrible and crushes everything in its path. And then he sees vision in the night visions, one ancient of days. Remember that? Ancient of days and thrones are set. He sees one ancient of days and thousands of thousands serve him. And, of course, the power is taken away from the last beast. Remember, there's the little horn that rises up and so forth. And then at the end of that vision as well, there's a mention of some other figure. You know, then I saw one like unto a, like a son of man, like a son of man. And he appeared on the clouds. He came in on the clouds, sounds like sound familiar. He appeared before the ancient of days. And what was given to him? Anybody remember? Dominion, power, dominion, kingdom. We're given to this one like a son of man, Daniel seven. Over all kingdoms, over all the earth. And his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom which shall not pass away. Well, you have several elements from that vision in Daniel incorporated here. First, he sees this one like a son of man. This is not like when Jesus was on earth and he said, you know, the son of man goes as it is written of him. That is, he goes by betrayal and suffering. This is the glorious son of man in the book of Daniel who receives dominion, over all things. It should signify to us again that he has that dominion. In essence, we're seeing that Daniel seven, the vision of Daniel seven and the son of man receiving kingdom is fulfilled. Jesus is that son of man. And he has received a kingdom which shall not pass away. And there's even another real interesting aspect about this vision. That is that the description of Jesus even seems to borrow here from the description of the ancient of days, the one ancient of days which is a name for the father. The whiteness of his hair signifying age or eternity. This glorious description echoes even some of the description of the father in Daniel seven. Again, one more indication, I think, that Jesus is being worshipped and revealing himself as divine. Well, what would you do if you were confronted with a vision like this? Imagine you would drop. You do what John did. You fall down as though dead before his feet. And imagine, imagine the feeling at that point, when the next thing you feel is the hand of the risen Lord on your head. The right hand, the risen Lord on his head saying fear not. There was a time before this when John was at the right hand of his savior at the last supper. He leaned back on his Lord's breast and now his Lord reaches and touches him with his hand and says fear not. Fear not. I am the first and the last. That kind of sounds like Alphan Omega, doesn't it? I am the first and the last. Jesus says, and the living one, I died and behold I am alive forevermore. He presents himself to John as the conqueror of death. He is the conqueror of death. I died but I am alive forevermore. John knows this but what a powerful way to have it get home to him. And then the next verse, not only is Jesus the conqueror of death but he is the conqueror of death for us. And I hold the keys of death in Hades. You remember the hymn by Charles Wesley. One of the verses is, that the kingdom cannot fail, it rules or earth and have the keys of death and hell are two-hour Jesus given. What? Sweet words. Two-hour Jesus. And that makes all the difference, isn't it? The keys of death and hell are two-hour Jesus given. Here he holds the key of death and hell and this is going to be so important throughout the rest of the book. We will notice the roles of death and Hades. They are going to play other roles later in the book. And the relationship that Jesus bears to them is so important. Jesus then interprets two of the mysteries, two aspects of what John has seen. He doesn't interpret everything but he gives them these two things, the seven stars that he saw in Jesus' hand are what? The seven angels of the churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches themselves. There's a lot of symbolism there already, isn't there? What is a lampstand? And why would it be associated with churches? It shows the light. Yes. That at least should be an open and understandable part of the symbolism. A lampstand sheds light. Churches should be shedding light where they are. I mean there's also another aspect of it. When we get to chapter four, well maybe it may be already before that. You remember in the Old Testament part of the furniture of the temple was what? A great lampstand in the holy place just in front of the Holy of Holies. It wasn't stored seven but it was a seven branched lampstand. And when we get to chapter four, the heavenly worship scene, again we have the seven torches that represent the spirit around the throne. So it's a very rich symbolism I think depicting in some way the relationship with the churches to the spirit. As to the seven stars, well let's come back to them a little bit later. I want to go right onto the messages. I think something that is very important for us to see, very interesting, is that each of the letters refers back in some way to this vision of Jesus. So that you could almost say that the letters and what Jesus says to them in these letters is in a way an exposition of the vision that John has of Jesus. And not only that but it shows us that Jesus has chosen to reveal himself to John and the churches. In a way that is relevant for each of those churches. Now we're going to see how that works out as we go on but try to keep that in mind. Jesus could have appeared to John in any way he wanted to. He appears to him in this way and there are some repercussions, there are some points of contact between this vision and the way he's described in chapter one. And what happens in the letters? So let's keep that in mind. The first message is to the church at where? Apsis. One other thing before we get into the letters. If you look through all the letters you can see a recurring pattern in each one of them. Can anybody notice that? You've kind of noticed certain things that keep cropping up? What are some of those? Anybody? Okay, angels, lamp stands. Every letter starts to the angel of the church. Very interesting. There's often in most of them a call to repent if it's not the word repentance is at least some indication that they need to repent. And often there is actual word repentance. Repent. Yes. Right. Good. Good. There's several times you hear, I know. Jesus says I know something about you. Usually it's I know your works but there are variations of that. Exactly. Right. Right. Right. And you picked up on one place where these letters pick up on the vision in the introduction of the sander. If you write it down here, you have an address. That's usually to the angel. It's always to the angel of the given church and then write this. And then you have introduction of the sander at which of course is Jesus but described in each letter described a little bit differently. And each time, or maybe each time at one, each time referring back to this vision, the third element will be this we can call it a commendation and it always starts with I know I know this about you. Jesus omnipotence. I know. The fourth is a complaint or critique of the fifth is some kind of command. Some of them have more than one command and often it's repent and they also have a warning. These command sections tend to have warnings in them. Do such and such. If not, I will come to you and you won't like it essentially. The sixth one would be this phrase. I know some of you were about to say this and I brutally cut you off. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. And then you've got what's the last one right up the prize and particularly what we'll call this the promise to the conquerors to him who conquers I will give such and such. Now, these are not followed exactly slavishly. You're going to see that each in each letter there may be a little bit of a modification once or twice these two elements, once I think, are turned around. Sometimes one or more of the elements is not there. It's not as though it's just a form letter. The Jesus just types in. But they all have what they tend to follow this pattern. He addresses them according to this kind of grip. And part of very interesting parts about the letters is to see where he deviates from the pattern in each one and what meaning that might have. All right, in the first letter to Ephesus. Ephesus, of course, Ephesus would have been the closest to Patmos. And as we learn from tradition later tradition tells us anyway that John lived in Ephesus and had a long ministry in Ephesus. So there's a certain natural quality to this that Ephesus would be addressed first. To the angel of the church in Ephesus. Okay, okay, I know you all wonder about the angels. Who are who are what are these angels of the churches before we I suppose we have to do to do this. I'll just let you know from I don't really know. I don't I go back and forth on this one. Some of you may have heard some interpretations of the angels. The word can simply mean messenger. And it could be nothing more surreal or supernatural than that. You know, just messengers of the churches. It could be that the churches sent messengers to John on the island of Patmos. Others say, well, the angel is the leader of each of the churches. Like a bishop or a head pastor at this time. And that's who he whom he is dressing personally. You could it also has been advanced the idea that these are guardian angels. There is some a real angel in heaven that has a certain has a certain guardianship with each of the churches. I don't know where else you'd support that in scripture other than Daniel, whether Michael seems to be associated with the nation of Israel, but that's one that's been suggested. And the one other one I know of that calls these angels, well, this is not really good term, essential spirit. I don't know really what that's supposed to mean. One commentator uses that term, and it really means that the angels are kind of the church personified, the church personified. Whether this is an actual sentient being is another question then. Now, as strange as that one sounds, there's something to that maybe because if you look at the text in each letter, it's not just that he says, write this to the angel of this church, but he addresses the church in the singular in the singular. That is when he gives a command, he doesn't give a command in the plural, you plural do this, it's you singular do this. When he says, I know your works, it's not your works plural, it's thy works. Almost as if the angel who or whatever it is is personifying the church itself. Okay, so again, I'm not saying I understand this, but it is an interesting aspect of the letters and who or what is this angel. You could think by way of analogy of maybe how John in second John addresses one of the churches as the elect lady, the elect lady. And he says even says the children of your elect sister greet you. Okay, who's the lady and who's the sister. Well, they've got to be two churches. So there's a personification. In this case, churches personified as women. This would be another case church personified as an angel or a messenger. Okay, yes. Second John, second John, whether the reference to lady, the elect lady. Okay, maybe I'll leave it at that for interpreting the angels. I'm kind of drawn towards, of course, last year I was drawn to a different one, but I'm kind of drawn towards this one I've just mentioned. In some way, the angel personifies these churches. Okay, and maybe next week you'll be able to tell me why that's not a good one, but yeah. So if you're under law, you know, a corporation is treated as an individual. So the idea that a collective body is treated as a person. Oh, good, Ed. Thanks. That's good. I should write that down. Ed points out that in law, a corporation, a corporation by itself is, you know, means body. And can be treated is treated like a person. Okay, so there's a collective unity there. Okay, well, two opposites in particular. That leads to one letter. Notice how Jesus introduces himself. The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lamp stands. That refers back to the vision, doesn't it? John looks and he sees seven lamp stands and he sees the son of man standing in the midst of them. Okay, and then he's holding the seven stars in his right hand. So here, Jesus is exegeting. He's giving an exposition of that vision and how it imports this church. Notice now he looked down a little bit to verse five in the warning, the command and warning section. And then from what you have fallen repent and do the works you did at first, if not, I will do what? Come and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent. So the significance of Jesus standing amidst the lamp stands and saying introducing himself that way has an import for this church. The threat is if you don't repent, I will remove that lamp stand. You will not be a light to the nations around. You will not reflect the glory of the heavenly tabernacle anymore. But again, so see how the vision, how Jesus reveals himself is appropriate. Jesus uses that in his message, in this case, in the warning to his church at Ephesus. I don't see how you could maintain that there would be a church and no longer be a lamp stand. If Jesus takes the lamp stand away. So it's a very, it's a very dire warning. Now what is, tell me what is good, what does he command and what does he complain about? What charges do you have against them and what? There is something that they're doing well or that they have done well. They've been faithful and intolerant, very good. And so should we all be. What were they intolerant of? Wickedness. The Nicolayotans, right? The false apostles, the Nicolayotans who taught the wrong thing. In other words, they were good on preserving the truth, weren't they? Those who claimed they were apostles and are not, you weren't fooled by them, you tried them, you tested them and you found them wanting. Okay, they have been faithful, but what is his complaint? You've left your first love on the surface. Who doesn't? Does that sound very serious? Maybe on the surface. Yeah, who doesn't? But it's so serious that Jesus essentially threatens to take away their status as a church. If change is not made. If they don't return to their first love, if they do not repent, do the works they did at first. There was a blush, a first blush of love for the Lord in the Ephesian church. It was there and it was vibrant. We read about it. Some of it in Acts when Paul was there in his ministry and they have been faithful. They have been, they have not denied. They have not denied the faith. They have been teachers of the rest of Asia Minor, but they're in danger because they're banning their first love. The love they had at first, the love for the Lord, the kind of love that they had when they first came to him. We may even do that, John, as we grow in knowledge. Isn't that a danger? I think that's the alarm bell, but just the last point to think about. Does this kind of combination and complaint characterize any churches today? I'm not going to make any charges, of course, but you hear it and I'll say you hear it a lot about reformed churches. There is a tendency and I think this is right. There is a tendency among reformed churches to have the doctrine right, to be faithful in teaching. We're pretty good at that most of the time. But do people see in us the love that we had at first? Do people see in us the love for the Lord and the love for believers and maybe even those who were not in our churches that we had at first that we ought to have? That's just a general something to think about and it's not aimed at any one church in particular, but I do hear it. Maybe many of you have heard that as a tendency among reformed churches. It wouldn't be only reformed churches, but we have to take these things to heart and this might be one danger that we face in particular. Any last observations, comments? They were trying to protect things. That's a real warning to us. It's written to, you know, that mode of people doing great and meanwhile hearts not engaged and that's what you want more than anything. And I just thought it was interesting that they didn't seem like a big crime. They were actually doing a good thing. Right, they were. They were, let him do things he stands, take heed, last he fall. Good. Yes, Sandy. Oh, that's a good point. It's almost in a sense like the angels are harvesting now and Sandy refers to the Matthew 24 passage where the angels will be harvesters in the last times. Yeah, well, I think ultimately that refers to the second coming and what happens when Christ comes back, but there may be an aspect sort of pre-judgment sifting out of the churches and that we have angels involved here. That's something to think about.
He has to be intimate to be there and deal with. Yeah. And so Mike might have been talking about his sabbatical fear of Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent point. Yeah. Jesus words, I know it is. It is scary, but it's joyful because he knows us intimately. I know your works. Okay. Well, thanks for your attention going along in here. Let me just propose briefly in prayer. We do thank you, O Lord, for showing your goodness to us in this vision. We pray that you would lead us into greater and greater understanding and Lord may it never be of us that we would lose or abandon our first love, reawaken that love in our hearts. We pray and renew that vibrant relationship between us individually and corporately and you.