revelation 3:10 commentarycity of red deer bylaws rv parking
Satan's synagogue. The Jewish Temple tax amounted to half a shekel, which was equal to two drachmae. Hot food and cold food can both be appetizing, but tepid food will often make the stomach turn. Did they love the shadow or the glitter of human power? Revelation 1 Commentary Summary: Read Revelation 1 KJV along with a helpful commentary. (i) The Church at Sardis was untroubled by any heresy. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come." It seems instead to refer to a blessing the whole church could anticipate. The combination of the verb and the preposition in Greek in this verse clearly means that He would keep them out of it (the pretribulation position). But those who loved the Lord showed their love then not so much by intelligence in His ways, as by unsparing and habitual self-denial. Those who still dared to live in the city were reckoned mad; they spent their time shoring up the shaking buildings and every now and then fleeing to the open spaces for safety. These went on diligently, as we learn here. under the eye of the directing priest, their confessor. This too is special. Is this Christ? "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein.". It is the fruit of the patience of God to a sinful world; it sets before men the exemplary patience of Christ in all his sufferings for men; it calls those that receive it to the exercise of patience in conformity to Christ. No man can shut it. But he that keeps God's word, we may be sure, is deeply in love with it. In the Greek of the Septuagint the word for love is agapan ( G25) which indicates the unconquerable attitude of goodwill which nothing can turn to hate; but it is a word which maybe has more of the head than the heart in it; and in the quotation the Risen Christ changes agapan ( G25) to philein ( G5368) which is the most tender affection. The insistence on the Son's part in creation was due to the heretics who explained sin and disease by saying that the world had been created by a false and inferior god. [Note: Chitwood, p. When God told to Moses the blessing which Aaron and the priests must pronounce over the people, he said: "They shall put my name upon the people of Israel" ( Numbers 6:22-27). I believe that God has blinded their eyes until the fullness of the gentiles has come in. One cannot make good sense out of Revelation 3:10 otherwise. He will reward them at his return (10-11). The Lord has revived the true hope of His return; there are those who are thus waiting for Christ, and this epistle seems emphatically to apply to such. For justification this is manifest; for a rule of life it is not so apparent, but it is just as real a denial of the gospel. First, their Jewish antagonists would eventually have to acknowledge that the Christians were the true followers of God (cf. Revelation Unwrapped: Commentary on Revelation by John Richardson. 58. The world had got in, as it still remains, and alas! '"[47] This view of the passage harmonizes with the great high-priestly prayer of Jesus who did not pray that the Father would take his disciples "out of the world" (John 17:15), but that they would be faithful in the world. It is "he that openeth, and no man shall shut." Solon, the wisest of the Greeks, came on a visit and was shown the magnificence and the luxury. It seems to me to mean just this, "You have been faithful; therefore I will use you. Was it not thus when the epistle to the Ephesians was written by Paul? God means to use you. and keeps to it with all its force. But, surely, in everything which concerns the doctrines of our most holy faith, we must make reference to a "Thus, saith the Lord." The white robes may stand for the reward of those who have won the victory. The church is dead. He therefore "sent and signified this by his angel unto his servant John." So we come to the end of the second section of the book of Revelation, the things which are. In Jesus is reality. The phrase is the strongest possible way of putting the matter. Obedience, fidelity, and a free confession of the name of Christ, are the fruits of true grace, and are pleasing to Christ as such. You read the Gallup Polls and all and it is rather frightening to find out how many ministers do not really believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, do not believe in the virgin birth, do not believe that there is an actual heaven or hell. [Note: See Renald E. Showers, Maranatha: Our Lord, Come! 2 He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. The reference of the voice behind is exclusively to the seven churches. It was so wealthy that it did not even need God. Another instance of favour that Christ promises to this church is persevering grace in the most trying times (Revelation 3:10; Revelation 3:10), and this as the reward of their past fidelity. Of all things indifference is the hardest to combat. It is in vain therefore to look for a formal obliteration of these co-ordinate conditions, which cannot be till the Lord comes. Our Lord called upon them to be watchful against their enemies, and to be active and earnest in their duties; and to endeavour, in dependence on the grace of the Holy Spirit, to revive and strengthen the faith and spiritual affections of those yet alive to God, though in a declining state. 71-72; Thomas R. Edgar, "An Exegesis of Rapture Passages," in Issues in Dispensationalism, pp. (c) In any land and time white is the colour of purity, and the white robes may stand for the purity whose reward is to see God. It is possible that when Jesus Christ is called the Amen it is a reminiscence of his own way of speaking. [Note: Beale, p. 478-507, for further explanation of the four major premillennial views of the Rapture; and see Gerald B. Stanton, Kept from the Hour, for refutation of the partial rapture, the midtribulation rapture, and the posttribulation rapture views. Revelation 3 KJV. Surely something is meant outside the ordinary course of things, where so unexampled a style of address is found. This is the reason why they were golden. Never but here occurs an address to a certain number of assemblies, particularly one so definite and significant symbolically as seven. He is seen as the all-powerful and Sovereign Judge at the Great White Throne Judgment. If I am a master, the conduct that might be proper in a servant would not become me. "He that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand." If a disputer can once get you away from the Bible, he can swallow you alive; but if you will keep to Scripture, and handle this weapon, "It is written; it is written," the disputer may be the arch-fiend himself, but he cannot possibly get the victory over you. Though others fall, you shall not; though you may be afflicted with others, yet you shall have grace to sustain you. Laodicea has the grim distinction of being the only Church of which the Risen Christ has nothing good to say. Peter and James and John were the pillars of the early church in Jerusalem ( Galatians 2:9). For the heathen this was an external thing; but this may describe the man who has kept his soul clean so that he can enter into the presence of God and not be ashamed. This is of importance to apprehend the scope of the passage and the character of the book. As Beasley-Murray said, "This is not a designation of a period of time, but of the trial itself. Then, in Him that held them all in His right hand, and walked in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, we have Christ not merely as holding fast those ideal representatives, but as also taking interest in the assemblies themselves. Thus he introduces himself here, not as a joint partaker of God's promise in Christ by the gospel, but in His kingdom and patience in Christ. [Note: Thomas, Revelation 1-7, pp. This flagrant church-world corruption was now a settled institution. If a man accepts the invitations of sin for long enough, the time comes when he cannot accept anything else. I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. To try them that dwell upon the earth - To test their character. This is probably a subjective gentive, meaning the endurance that Jesus Himself displayed rather than the endurance that He requires. Still that strength is a matter of degrees and certain churches have a little strength but only a little. The problem with the Protestant Reformation is that it wasn't complete. I have not found your works completed before my God. The holy pilgrims were not so rude as to tell him to go; they only talked about heavenly things, which he did not understand, and he went of his own accord. Laodicea, Love's Chastisement ( Revelation 3:14-22 Continued), Revelation 3:19 is one whose teaching runs throughout Scripture. In the writing to the angel of the church in Smyrna, a totally different state of things meets us. What injures, and finally ruins, is invariably from within, not from without. They stored it up as bees store away honey, and they were as ready to defend it as bees are to guard their stores. Not that the full church or Christian relationship was lacking to John personally; but he stands here a representative man for others as well as ourselves. Thank God that He has set before us the open door. . A man should live every day as if it were his last. Laodicea, The Christ Who Knocks ( Revelation 3:14-22 Continued). Clarke's Commentary. We will get the picture right if we remember that the eastern throne was more like a couch than a single seat. Thus we have all sorts of links in the chain. He will make them pillars in the spiritual temple of God, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:22; cf. The word of my patience The doctrine which has exposed you to so much trouble and persecution, and required so much patience and magnanimity to bear up under its attendant trials. Some taught the gospel very quietly in their own family circle, and so kept it. The overcomers in Philadelphia were promised future positions with Christ which appear to be described by the meanings of the names given to these two pillars. cit., p. 101. "We are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned along with the world" ( 1 Corinthians 11:32). [1.] (i) The Risen Christ says: "Remember how you received and heard the gospel." And so the fullness of the Spirit as it dwelt in Jesus, Isaiah the eleventh chapter. "The sons of those who oppressed you shall come bending low to you; and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet" ( Isaiah 60:14). It would rather seem from this that the affliction was some form of persecution as adapted to test the fidelity of those who were affected by it. It is not what I think; it is not what some greater man may think; it is not what may be the consensus of all the enlightened minds of the period; the decision lies with what the Lord has spoken. Rev. Croesus embarked upon a war with Cyrus of Persia which was the end of the greatness of Sardis. We will enter into the third section, the things which will be after these things of the church. And it was then that he uttered his famous saying to Croesus: "Call no man happy until he is dead." He crossed the Halys, engaged in battle and was routed. "What shall be after these" must be owned as the true translation of the words. (2.) The ropes hang down in our belfry, but the glorious chime is aloft. That was thirty years before the Revelation was written; but it may be that as long ago as that the rot had set in in the Church in Laodicea and an unsatisfactory ministry had sown the seeds of degeneration. In this life even the best of us is sometimes bad. In early Christian writings we read that Satan is the arche ( G746) of death, that is to say, death takes its origin in him; and that God is the arche ( G746) of all things, that is, all things find their beginning in him. This is an aorist imperative and describes one definite action. Indeed the same remark will be found true of all the use that is made of Old Testament citations and allusions in the Apocalypse. (John 5:1-47) Yet with all this another feature betrays John, and suits him as the writer most strikingly. This to me is treason against sovereign truth. (b) In John's gospel Jesus' statements often begin: "Truly, truly, I say to you" (e.g. He allowed all sorts of trial to befall His people by letting loose the power of Satan, working by Gentile persecutors. The things that he saw were the glory of Christ in relation to this book, as described in the first chapter, on which we have already touched. [Note: See Newell, pp. Whichever picture is behind this, the sense is that the faithful ones will wear the unmistakable badge of God. It must be evident to a spiritual mind how remarkably suited all here is to what was afterwards about to come out. It was so before when He was here below in grace, and now He must resume its power and glory and judgment, than which one can hardly conceive a greater and more solemn rebuke on the condition of those who ought to have been His witnesses. A pillar of the Church is a great and honoured support. He puts His voucher on the book from the beginning. You have been steadfast; therefore I will employ you." Thus the Lord speaks with exceeding tenderness of those that were true to His name. [Note: Beasley-Murray, p. He talks to some of you, and you are so dogmatic, and firmly rooted, he calls you pig-headed, and says it is no use arguing with such bigots; and so he goes to argue somewhere else. (iii) Jesus Christ will write upon the faithful Christian the name of his God. And in the twenty-second chapter of Isaiah in verse twenty-two, well, go back to twenty-one, we read this prophecy concerning the Messiah, "I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. 12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. The Lord bids them in effect to have nothing to do with her, and He will give the true power when He takes it Himself. Why espouse a book that you can't trust or is not true? Assemblies that worship God in spirit and in truth are the Israel of God; assemblies that either worship false gods, or the true God in a false manner, are the synagogues of Satan: though they may profess to be the only people of God, their profession is a lie. While, therefore, he had all that is properly Christian, he also had very special communications of another character for saints who will follow us at the end of this age. Directly opposite Laodicea, on the other bank of the Lycus, and in full view, stood Hierapolis, famous for its hot mineral springs. 2. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, [and here it is, because you've kept His Word], I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the eaRuth ( Revelation 3:10 ). Again, we can understand an angel employed a real angelic being as the means of communication between the Lord and His servant John; but it would be harsh to suppose that His servant John writes a letter from Christ to a literal angelic being. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life." In the early Greek manuscripts there was no punctuation at all. (i) It may be the door of missionary opportunity. It is not simply clericalism now, nor persons holding the doctrine of Balaam; but a formal state of things, as the symbol of a woman regularly represents. I dare say that some of us remember when people used to fly to Canada in order to escape "the great tribulation" which they expected to fall on the empire of the beast. Hence it is that the Lord introduces Himself to them as the Amen, the end of every thing human, where all the security is in the faithfulness of God. He may not be described in His relationships to us, but He who is described is the one that we love. When thus tried, they tried and found wanting those who set up to be apostles. It was founded with the deliberate intention that it might be a missionary of Greek culture and language to Lydia and Phrygia; and so well did it do its work that by A.D. 19 the Lydians had forgotten their own language and were all but Greeks. So, because you are tepid and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. "Hereafter" gives vagueness: "after these" makes it precise, and is the plain literal meaning. When Cicero was travelling in Asia Minor it was at Laodicea that he cashed his letters of credit. Is made of Old Testament citations and allusions in the Apocalypse fullness of the church a! Was more like a couch than a single seat n't trust or is not true who. Protestant Reformation is that it did not even need God and found wanting those who set up to apostles! 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revelation 3:10 commentary
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