 Revelation 3:1-6
Great Church
Love God | Love Each Other | Make Disciples
That those who have not "soiled" their clothes will walk with Jesus "dressed in white" (3:4) is significant. In the temples of Asia and elsewhere, worshipers dared not approach deities with soiled clothes- the normal apparel for approaching the gods in temples was white or linen. Jesus promises here that his followers who have not polluted themselves with their culture will participate in the new Jerusalem,- it will be a temple city, the dwelling of God (21:3, 16).
That a minority in Sardis remained unsoiled will challenge the presuppositions of some faithful Christians. Jesus does not call the righteous believers in the church of Sardis to start an alternative church elsewhere in town. There are genuine Christians in many "sleeping" (and drowsy) churches today! God calls some Christians to call their church back to faithfulness. There does come a point when a [...Full item]
 Pergamum not surprisingly appears among the cities some Jews thought slated for divine destruction. Given the context, paganism in general or, more likely, the imperial cult in particular led to the martyrdom of Antipas mentioned in 2:13. As a "faithful witness" he is like his Lord (1:5; 3:14). Others in the church have survived but have nevertheless suffered, and Jesus commends them for their "faith" in him (2:13), which probably means faithfulness to him (cf. 2:10; 14:12). But suffering does not automatically validate everything we do or believe (2:14).
Marks of a Great Church?
2 Thessalonians 1:1?4
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
1. Their faith was growing more [...Full item]
 Revelation 2:8-11; 3:7-13
A great church keeps his word (3:10; 1:3, 2:26, 14:12; 16:15; 22:7, 9)
The earth-dwellers are the wicked who invite judgement (6:10; 8:13; 11:10; 17:2, 8 )
The heaven-dwellers refer to the righteous. Those who overcome will be
±Be given a victor’s crown (2:10)
±Welcomed into God’s temple as a part of it (3:12).
Two tricky phrases
1. “Synagogue of Satan” (2:9)
We cannot recycle first-century Jewish-Christian denunciations of their Jewish opponents in an anti-Jewish way. Christian anti-Semitism has erected the largest barriers to belief in Jesus that many modern Jewish people face. The biggest barrier may be the widespread premise that Jewish person cannot be faithful to their ancestral heritage and believe in Jesus.
2. The “hour of trial”
±Testing before the end (9:15; 17:12)
±The final hour at our Lord’s return (3:3, 14:7, 15)
One commentator complains that the “effect of this ‘pre-tribulation rapture’ is to dissociate Christian readers from any persecution and suffering at the hands of the Beast [...Full item]
 Revelation 2:1-7
A note about all the letters
The letters to the seven churches are "prophetic letters," a sort of writing that appeared earlier in the Bible (2 Chron. 21:12-15; Jer. 29) and concern various peoples (Isa. 13-23,- Jer. 46-51,- Ezek.. 25-32,- Amos 1-2). ‘Thus says," is the standard biblical prophetic formula (e.g., Acts 21:11, hundreds of times in the Old Testament prophets)
1. Each letter is a prophetic word from Jesus (e.g., Rev. 2:1) through the Spirit (e.g., 2:7), who is inspiring John. Each letter follows a similar pattern, balancing praise and correction. The Marks of a Great Church are those which are praised by God and have been corrected by his Word.
Pattern:
• To the angel of the church, write:
• Jesus (in glory) says:
• I know (offers some praise)
• But I have this against you (offers some correction)
• The one who has ears must pay attention to what the Spirit says
• [...Full item]
 Revelation 1:9-20
Setting the Scene: The Cast
John
Some people in Asia Minor celebrated a monthly "emperor’s day" in honour of the divine emperor. By contrast Christians, who might suffer for their refusal to worship the emperor, celebrated a different day in honour of the true and ultimate king. It was on such a day that John had a vision
Jesus (v12-16) The image of Jesus in this passage weaves together imagery from three sources in the book of Daniel. The first (the least important) is the angelic revelation in Daniel 10:5-6:
5 I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. 6 His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
but [...Full item]
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Published on: 5 June 2011 at 10:30am.