revelation 3:10 commentary

There make your mark, and put your foot down. Then comes the salutation. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. We are soon going to be entering into the Lent season which was borrowed from the Babylonian system. Who then can escape? Indeed, there is nothing more remarkable, especially when we bear in mind who the writer is, than the absence here of His proper relationship to the children of God. The origin of the passage is much more likely to be in Solomon's Song when the lover stands at the door of his beloved and pleads with her to open. The stars stand for the Churches and their angels. 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. To try them that dwell upon the earth - To test their character. If you have nothing but nature, it would be intelligible; but if you have seen the Son of God and believed in Him, if by grace you have the same life which was in Him, so that this thing is true of Him and of you, no possible standard can suit for you as a Christian short of Christ Himself. John begins his gospel by saying of the Word: "All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made" ( John 1:3). I must be crushed out of existence before my convictions of the truth of the doctrines of grace in the old-fashioned form can ever be taken from me. You will be shielded from half the temptations that fret and worry professors if you take your place and keep it against all comers. There is a very lovely thing about the way this is put. All this I have spoken to the people of God, but I am not ignorant that there are some here who do not know God's word, nor love it. 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. Solomon named one of these pillars Jachin, meaning establish, and he named the other pillar Boaz, meaning strength (1 Kings 7:13-21). The hour of temptation shall come upon all the habitable world, "to try them that dwell upon the earth," be they where they may. One can understand their passing through the scene of his power, but to be dwelling there is significant. How stand the facts? "For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. Behold, I will make of them the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee ( Revelation 3:9 ). To the church at Sardis 1. Cambridge University Press, 10.1017/CBO9781139208758, pages 120-120, 2013. Temptation waits for our unguarded moments and then attacks. Hold on to what you have, that no one may take your crown. Whatever novelty comes up, keep to the word of Jesus! We know how many scholars have dared to insult the book in their folly, as I think we may say, with the justest rebuke of their offensive language. When the Lord is seen in the vision of chapter 1, these are not the ways in which He is described at all "He that hath the key of David.". See the notes on Luke 2:1. Now if there be in the state of Protestantism one thing more marked than another, it is that they always fall back on the world to deliver themselves from the power of the priest or the church. It is blessedly true that even out of failure a man can redeem himself--but only if he casts himself upon the grace of Jesus Christ. The new name of Christ, the Mediator, the Redeemer, the captain of our salvation; by this it will appear under whose banner this conquering believer had enlisted, under whose conduct he acted, by whose example he was encouraged, and under whose influence he fought the good fight, and came off victorious. I am far from saying this because I do not feel for them much. An angel setting forth representation (human or not), an ideal representative of each assembly is meant. It is a sweeping intimation of the very same way in which the Lord threatens to come on the world. The first epistle, the message to the angel of the church in Ephesus, looks at the state of the Christian testimony on the earth in its most comprehensive form, and, as I suppose, from the days of the apostle John himself. From everyone of us Jesus Christ is looking for something; and for everyone of us there is something to do. Remember how Mr. Bunyan pictures it. That it is here called "the hour" of trial does not mean that it will be over in an hour, or even in any relatively short time. Oh for ten thousand valiant men to stand about the bed of the truth, each man with his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. But here He has the seven Spirits of God. A Jew in God's sense of the term was not one who could claim racial descent from Abraham but one of any nation who had made the same venture of faith as he had ( Romans 9:6-9). Such is the strength of the promise and the blessedness of it, that the Lord promises His own to be kept from the time. Reading Revelation in Context brings together an international team of over 20 New Testament experts including Jamie Davies, David A. deSilva, Michael J. Gorman, Dana M. Harris, Ronald Herms, Edith M. Humphrey, Jonathan A. Moo, Elizabeth E. Shively, Cynthia Long Westfall, Archie T. Wright, and more. "Because the grace of God keeps our people to their moorings. (i) They will be clothed with white raiment. You know it is true that God is doing a wonderful work here and it is exciting to see what God is doing, but we have hardly touched the county. Scripture does not reveal Jesus Christs new name elsewhere. They may express either the reason why the door stands open before the Christians of Philadelphia or the reason why they will be given those who belong to the synagogue of Satan. He who is faithful to the grace of God is often hidden from trials and difficulties which fall without mitigation on those who have been unfaithful in his covenant. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches ( Revelation 3:6 ). Jesus dictates letters to the remaining three of the Seven Churches of Asia. It is the only view that can honestly say that Christ could return at any moment, because it alone teaches that Christ will come to rapture the church before the 70th week of Daniel 9 or the Tribulation period begins and that nothing else must happen before His return." The implication may appear to be that if a Christian denies Christ (Revelation 3:8) he or she will not participate in the Rapture. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and you'll not know what hour I'm coming upon thee ( Revelation 3:3 ). It is a formed and known party of the highest possible pretensions. The subject-matter of this epistle, where. Phillips puts it: "They will maintain a facade of 'religion,' but their conduct will deny its validity.". When we are confronted with him, we are confronted with no shadowy outline of the truth but with the truth itself. There are two possible pictures here. In short, as long as church responsibility exists here below, these addresses apply, and no longer. He says, "I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word." What do the white robes signify? "Mission for God exists because worship of God doesn't." -John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad Introduction: Sardis gives the rise of the new state of things, not strictly ecclesiastical the Lord acting in the way of testimony, and not so much in ecclesiastical order. May it always be so; even if you have but little strength, see to it that you keep Christ's word. Not all the clothes in the world will beautify a person whose nature is twisted and whose character is ugly. He is seen as the true God in the outpouring of His wrath upon a Christ-rejecting world. "And I gave her space that she should repent; and she will not repent of her fornication. The word of my patience Of several interpretations advocated regarding this, that of Trench as quoted by Earle seems the best: "It is much better to take the whole Gospel as the word of Christ's patience, everywhere teaching, as it does, the need of a patient waiting for Christ. How is it that we here miss that character of direct dealing with us that immediateness of address which is found elsewhere? 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. It is sad. But in the meantime I share the truth of God with those that accept, with those that believe. (i) In the heathen world no worshipper was allowed to approach a temple of the gods with soiled clothes. You remember when Peter came to the house of Cornelius, he said, "Now look, I am really not supposed to be here. Jesus alone has authority to admit to the new Jerusalem, the new city of David. Revelation 3:10 - Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. After his usual manner, our Saviour promises a glorious reward to the victorious believer, in two things:-- (1.) In that enervating atmosphere the Christian Church too had lost its vitality and was a corpse instead of a living Church. The church is dead. Philadelphia had proved faithful and the reward for her fidelity was still more work to do for Christ. He still loves the church in this apostate condition. The people of Philadelphia knew all about taking a new name. But the point of interest here is, that succession and ordinances became defined as a system about this very time. The Katakekaumene was a great volcanic plain bearing the marks of the lava and the ashes of volcanoes then extinct. I believe that result is sure to follow holy conversation and sound preaching. Yet it was a wealthy city, situated at the junction of several important roads and trade routes. Believers on earth will meet the Lord in the air and thus escape the hour of trial . Laodicea, The Christ Who Knocks ( Revelation 3:14-22 Continued). Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found your works (complete) before God ( Revelation 3:2 ). Some would get a few copies of the New Testament, and go about and sell them in their baskets; and so they kept the truth. Here the Lord seems to me to notice its working at the same time that God was in a measure using for good those that were faithful in the heathen persecutions. 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. They are thus carefully ushered in, but in that prophetic method which was morally fitting, in a series of visions which John saw. Most of the population lived outside the city in huts and feared even to go on the city streets lest they should be killed by failing masonry. We may first note that the key is the symbol of authority. And so too with our Lord Jesus, as we shall see. He ordered them to wear tunics and buskins, that is, actor's boots, instead of sandals. This would be in effect to deprive ourselves of the Apocalypse, instead of understanding and gathering its peculiar profit. The main object of all prophecy tended rather to have thrown him forward. Blessed and happy shall he be who followeth the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. Is not this the revival of that dreadful scourge that had afflicted the early church (even Smyrna)? At any rate, the great Head of the church did not think it unwise to say to the church at Philadelphia that he thought well of it because it had kept his word. Even in Sardis there are the faithful few. The godly remnant of Jews, having to do with a special and most fierce but circumscribed tribulation, have only to flee to the mountains in order to escape till Jesus appears in glory, to the confusion of their foes. Two things emerge here. It was precisely because the church was faithful in time of trial that Christ in turn will be faithful to them. It is this picture which is in John's mind. There is an old Latin saying that "the gods walk on feet that are wrapped in wool." In short, as the book itself afterwards shows that the church will be on high outside the scene of its varied troubles and inflicted judgments, so the motive assigned in the preface is of a strikingly holy nature, adapted to those who walk by faith, not by sight, and free from all selfish considerations "for the time is at hand." They had here relaxed, but not in their works. It does not mean He would preserve them through it (the posttribulation position) or remove them during it (the midtribulation position). In certain cases we know that it might be a literal representative; for instance, when John the Baptist sends some of his disciples, there was a representation of his mind by men. In short, it is Christ in His fullest but most general ministerial and ecclesiastical aspect, viewed, of course, according to the tenor of the book. There "a strong angel" is associated with the large scroll. If you only influence one child, who can tell what that child may be? 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