Wheeler and Driver

Three young ladies have been with us all week. They are auditors. As usual they were all very well dressed pretty and charming, but I wonder if two of them have realised that their surnames make them sound like a double act.  WHEELER and DRIVER?

REVELATOIN

Revelation chapter 1

Revelation 3: 14-22

It was written to the seven churches which were real churches in Johns day.

It was written for their encouragement in the midst of persecution.

John says in verse three that the things he was about to reveal would happen soon

I think this book presents us with difficulties.  People see things in revelation and relate them to things they see today.  However when John wrote this, he intended it to be things that the churches of the time would see in their lifetimes for their encouragement and warning.

It would be absurd if I were sore pressed in persecution and someone said, never mind George, take heart, about the things that will happen 2000 years from now.

I think that once we know it was written to the churches of the time, more things fall into place.

It does indeed show us things that will happen in the future. It shows us that Jesus Christ will return.  It does not tell us how or when.

The original hearers of this book would have understood it much better than us for they would have the context, and for the jews, and apocryphal book like this was not unusual.

Because of the difficulties it presents, it has been largely ignored by teachers and much of what people now believe about it comes from popular books that may or may not be helpful.

I suggest that we need to read revelation and lay aside any pre conceived ideas that we may already have.  I myself have found that by doing so, I have changed my mind about things.

I have said several times, that when we look at prophecy, we should not be too prescriptive about how and when things will happen as the scribes and Pharasees knew all the scriptures about the coming messiah but when he came their pre conceived ideas blinded them to who he was.

Likewise when the disciples asked jesus, why do the scribes and pharasees say that Elijah must return first, Jesus made it clear to them that was true, but the Elijah in the prophecy was not literally Elijah, but a type of Elijah, and he was John the Baptist and once again the scribes and pharasees did not recognise him. Indeed many of them hated him.

We need to be open to God fulfilling his word in his way and in his time.

John says that the events he is about to describe will happen soon and he literally meant soon, not in 2000 years time.

This is a revelation of Christ

He uses one of his titles in v8 I am the Alpha and the Omega

By using this title, he is identifying himself as the lord

He is saying the same thing twice. I am the begging and the end.  I am now and I am to come.

V9 John himself has suffered as the people he is writing to suffered. He can identify with them. He has suffered in that he has been exiled to Patmos and he says to them that he is a fellow partaker

IN THE TRIBULATION.   For him the tribulation according to this was not something thousands of years in the future that would happen before Christ returned. He was saying that it was happening in what for him was the present day.

There he is in exile, presumably alone, and he hears a voice behind him that he says was LIKE A TRUMPET.

He is commanded to WRITE IN A BOOK WHAT YOU SEE. AND SEND IT TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES.

John turns to see where the voice is coming from and he sees a terrible sight

He sees seven golden lampstands and the figure

Read verses 13 to 16,#

John when he sees this person falls down as though he is dead.

Once again the man says, “Do not be afraid.  I AM THE FIRST AND THE LAST” which is another title of the lord and echoes what he said in previous verses.

Now bear in mind, John had previously spent three years with jesus.

He had listened to his teaching, he has seen him die and he had seen him risen from the dead, but even he was terrified of the sight of him in this glorified form for John had previously seen him every day looking like any other man.

He is then instructed to write to each church.  I will not look at all of them, but lets look at the church of Laodicea

Revelation 3: 14 to 22

We see here that not all the churches were poor or persecuted. This one considered themselver rich and it seems in terms of doctrine were upright. But Christ says they are LUKEWARM.

He says that he will spit them out of his mouth

However in mercy they still have the chance to change to be warm.  To recognise once again their need of jesus to supply their need.

One needs to know that one has a need.

He advises them to buy from him gold as refined by fire. And to buy garments so that the shame of their nakedness may not be revealed and that they are in fact blind

They thought they were rich, IN FACT THEY WERE NAKED AND BLIND.

He says to them in verse 20, bear in mind he is not saying this to unbelievers. He was saying it to the church.  “BEHOLD, I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK. IF ANYONE HEARS MY VOICE AND OPENS THE DOOR, I WILL COME IN TO HIM AND HE WITH ME.  HE WHO OVERCOMES, I WILL GRANT TO HIM TO SIT DOWN WITH ME ON MY THRONE AS I ALSO OVERCAME AND SAT DOWN WITH MY FATHER ON HIS THRONE”.

We tend to lose the context of that verse and we think of Holeman Hunts painting of Christ at the door and we quote this verse as though it is pleading the unbelievers to turn and trust in him, (As indeed they must)

However the correct context, is that jesus Christ when he said that was pleading with his church. He was pleading with them to not be luke warm.  To trust him, to let him in to forsake their sin to stop being blind and to whoever did, then just as Christ had overcome and sat upon the throne so those who do as he says will somehow also sit upon the throne as he did.

It comes as great shock to know that it is the church that Christ was pleading with.

I recently read something that suggested that the western church of today can be like this.  We are content, we do not know much persection.  We are happy with things the way they are while our brothers and sisters suffer. 

Surely we are in the business of seeing to it that the church is not blind, that it is mobilised. That it does care and in NOT LUKEWARM

AMEN