Revelation Chapter 4: 1-2

“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ‘Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.’ Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.”

We ended up last week with a look at the church at Laodicea. This church, we find in Colossians 4, is known by the Apostle Paul; the church there is thriving and, in fact, the letter to the church at Colosse is to be read in Laodicea as well according Colossians 4:16. This was a vibrant church filled with people that loved the Lord, loved the apostle Paul and hungered for the word of the Lord. But a mere 50 years or so later, we find it ‘self-reliant’ and that Jesus is on the outside of the assembly asking to be allowed in.

It does not take but a generation to destroy a church. We need to be diligent to pass on the truths that keep us and empower us. We need to remember that Jesus is the central Person and Power of any local church. We need to seek Him first and often.

Today we will begin to look at the ‘post-church’ era. This era, by the time that Revelation 4 comes to pass, will be about 2,000 years old. As we begin this, I will tell you that for most of my life I have been a Pre-Trib rapture believer. I was taught this in church in Barbados and then in the church that I attended in Canada. It was not until I went to seminary that I encountered anyone who did not believe in the Pre-Trib rapture.

Some of my professors were ‘Mid-Tribbers” and some were ‘Post-Tribbers;” and for sure it shook me a bit as it did some of my fellow seminarians. When a highly respected professor with a lot of credentials after his name says something, we wide-eyed teenage preachers just soaked it up and often became confused. I have dear friends, fellow preachers that are die-hard Mid-Tribbers;’ they expect to be here for the first part of the Tribulation.

What is the Tribulation? Often, those of us who have grown up in church use these terms that we assume everyone knows, and we say them and end up confusing people and losing people. So, let us get on the same page, so to speak. The Tribulation is a period of seven (7) years that occurs after the church age has been completed.

In Revelation 1–3 we just looked at 7 churches that represent the entirety of the church age. The end of the church age, which is dominated by churches just like the one in Laodicea, is all around us. The New Testament church is the vessel by which the Lord primarily reaches people. When Jesus began His public ministry by calling out Peter, James, John and Andrew to follow Him and to become fishers of men, the church age began. In Acts 1:8, the church was commissioned go into the ‘uttermost parts of the earth’ and be witnesses of Jesus; and in Acts 2, they are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do just that.

Over the last 2,000 years, the local New Testament church has been the only authorized agent of Jesus to preach the Gospel. Now the Gospel is preached by many outside the church, and God always honors His word. To be a part of a church, one needs to be saved (to have trusted in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection for the FULL payment for our/your sins) and baptized (by immersion, completely immersed in water and then brought out again) of one’s own volition. There is no teaching or examples of infant baptism in the scriptures. One must be able to make the choice for themself.

The local church is the one that is supposed to be doing these things: teaching the Gospel, winning the lost, baptizing the saved and then discipling them into mature Christians. This is our mandate.

Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

But, God made some promises to a few fellows – men we call the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and as such, God often refers to himself as the God of these three men. We see this in Exodus 3:6 and then reaffirmed in Matthew 22:32. God made a promise to these men. The first to Abraham is found in Genesis 15:18-21, then to Isaac in Genesis 26:3, and then to Jacob in Genesis 28:13. God promised them the Holy land of Israel where the nation now dwells.

We are told in Romans 4 that Abraham is the ‘father of all who believe’ by faith. He trusted God to give him a son in his old age; he trusted God even further to give him back his son if he was killed, since God cannot lie (Genesis 22). Here in Genesis 22, we have the picture of the substitute: God sends a ram to take the place of Isaac on the altar (verses 8-13).

The prophetic verse 8, “God will provide himself a sacrifice,” is a dual prophecy. God did provide for himself that day on the mountain a sacrifice; but God would also provide Himself in the person of Jesus to be our sacrifice, our ram, our substitute when we deserved death and hell.

When the Jews rejected Jesus in Matthew 27:21-25…

“The governor answered and said unto them, whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, what shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.”

The Jews rejected Jesus and they put a curse on themselves; for truly His blood has been on them and their children for the past 2,000 years. But God loves the nation of Israel, and He desires for them to repent. The Apostle Paul in Romans 9–11 speaks of his desire for Israel that they would repent and turn to Jesus. Over the 2,000 years of the church age, many Jews have come to know Jesus as Savior. The very new New Testament church was first populated by Jews; but, by the end of the first century, the church became a predominantly Gentile entity, and it has remained so until now.

BUT, as we mentioned, that era is coming to an end; and God will go back to dealing with the Jews. A simple example of this is found in Revelation. In the first 3 chapters, there is reference after reference to the church. But after John enters the door that is opened in chapter 4:1, the New Testament church is not mentioned again in the Revelation. That era has ended. But what we do see is a renewed emphasis on Israel. So, the Tribulation period is about Israel and her relationship to Jesus. She is still looking for her Messiah, and she will find one called the ‘Man of Sin’ in 2 Thessalonians 2:3…

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”

The nation of Israel will think that the peace that is offered along with the permission to build the Third Temple will mean that the world is finally at peace with them. But they will be sadly mistaken, and only then will they turn and look for the real Messiah, Jesus, the King of the Jews. The Tribulation is a period of 7 years, called Daniel’s 70^th week, in which God will rain His judgment on the earth and basically drive Israel to a place where they will begin to look for Jesus; and then He can finally completely fulfill the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

In Revelation 4:1, a door is opened and John is immediately transported to Heaven. This is what we are waiting for in the church age. This event is called the Rapture. As I mentioned, seminary was very unsettling to me about the Rapture. But over the years of study and research, I have come to the conclusion that the Rapture is at the beginning of the Tribulation.

Now, I may differ with some as to when the Tribulation will start. Most Bible teachers teach that the Tribulation, that specific 7-year period we just talked about, will immediately follow the Rapture. I do not hold to this; I do hold that the Rapture is before the Tribulation and that the Tribulation will begin soon after.

In the Old Testament, Leviticus 23, God gives the nation of Israel 7 feasts that they are to observe throughout the year, beginning with the Passover and so one. Each feast represents something to do with the entire story of mankind and Jesus’ work for us. Jesus is our Passover; He is our sacrificial lamb. And when we are covered (washed in His blood), we are passed from death to life; Jesus takes away our sins (Micah 7:19).

He is our Feast of Unleavened Bread; He is the First Fruit of the Resurrection, fulfilling the Feast of First Fruits; and He sent His Holy Spirit on the Feast of Pentecost to confirm the New Covenant. Thus, Jesus fulfilled the Spring/ Summer feasts.

We await His fulfillment of the Fall/Winter feasts beginning with the Feast of Trumpets (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). The Feast of Trumpets will begin on a new moon in the month of September (10-11 this year), whereas in 2022 it will be September 26-27. It is the only feast that has a subjective beginning depending on the sighting of the New Moon. Then, 10 days later, the Day of Atonement; and 5 days later, the Wedding Feast. We await these last three feasts to be fulfilled.

Today, with modern technology, we can predict the beginning of the Feast of Trumpets; but in the days of the New Testament writers, the feast was said to begin on a day ‘that no man knows.’ They had to wait and look for it to happen. We are waiting and looking for the Feast of Trumpets to be fulfilled, and we know it is near; but we do not know the specific day that this will happen.

I mentioned in the previous paragraph that the Day of Atonement happens about 10 days after the Feast of Trumpets. This is why I do not think that the Tribulation will begin immediately after the Rapture, but a short time after. I believe the Tribulation ends with the Day of Atonement; and if we use a day as a year, then it is a 10-year window.

I was listening to a famous prophetic teacher, Jan Markell; and she said, and rightly so, that the ‘big’ event the New World Order is looking for to implement some of their stuff is the Rapture. They have a plan in place (we will explore this plan as we go through the Revelation), and they need the right catalyst to get it going and to have the world population at a place that they will accept the new rules.

We are told in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 that God will send them strong delusions, that they (the world left behind) will believe the lie. The lie of the NWO will be the framework that will bring in the Man of Sin, establish a peace treaty with Israel, and as soon as they proclaim “peace and safety,” sudden destruction will come (1 Thessalonians 5:13). God will begin His plan to bring Israel to their true Messiah, Jesus, their once rejected King.

Now that we have established what the Tribulation is, we need to take a look at the Rapture. The word rapture is not found in the Bible per se. The action of being raptured is found as we begin in Genesis with Enoch in Genesis 5:21-24…

“When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”

The last phrase, “God took him away,” is simply that one moment he was here on earth and the next God took him away, instantly. We see another rapture event in the life of Elijah. In 2 Kings 2:11 we find this event…

“As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.”

Elisha knew that his master Elijah would be taken, BUT he did not know when. His job was to watch and wait so that he would get a double blessing on his life and ministry from the Lord. So, Elisha watched and watched and waited, and he saw the Lord take Elijah away in a whirlwind. One moment he was there and the next gone to heaven.

The apostle Paul tells us that “in a moment, the twinkling of an eye” we will all be changed. In Revelation, a door opens and John is caught up to heaven. It was sudden (notice verse 2), ‘immediately;’ this was an instant. This is what we are waiting for. Jesus will send an angel or angels with trumpets; and, at the last trump, we will be immediately taken from here just like Enoch and Elijah were. The dead in Christ will go first, and then we who remain will follow.

The very proof of this is found in the resurrection of Jesus; but often missed in the celebration of Jesus resurrection is this account from Matthew’s gospel, chapter 27: 51-53…

“And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”

Notice the graves were opened; and we see that these were able to be seen by the people in Jerusalem. Ours is going to be a physical rapture. We will have real bodies that can be touched, seen and be used in the service of the Lord’s kingdom.

Jesus is coming soon! Are you ready to meet the Lord? You need to get saved through trusting and putting your faith in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection for you. Nothing else will do. After this, find a church that teaches the whole Bible and accepts it as totally true, be baptized (by immersion), and begin growing in the faith. Get ready.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

 

 

Revelation Chapter 3: 14-22

“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: ‘I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

“Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the church in Philadelphia. This church had a small amount of strength and an open door to move the Gospel into the Far East. If we are to be honest, we all have just a small bit of strength to take on the tasks and open doors that come into our lives just about every day. I love to share the Gospel, but still wonder every now and then how people will take it once they hear the truth.

Today, we will look at the last part of the church age, the Laodicean age. As I have mentioned before, all of the seven types of churches mentioned in these chapters existed all the way through the church age; but there is dominant church in each age and in our time, the time just before the Rapture. The dominant church is that with the characteristics of the Laodicean church.

We first meet the church at Laodicea in Colossians 2. The apostle Paul mentions her in chapter 2:1, and says that he has a conflict for the church at Colosse and for the church at Laodicea. The church at Laodicea had not seen the apostle in the flesh; and he appeared to be in a conflict, a struggle really, with himself or his schedule to try and get to them. The letter to the church at Colosse was written in the mid-50s of the first century; so when the apostle John writes this letter to the church in Laodicea, they would have been in existence for some 50 years, or close to it.

Thus, the Lord Jesus was not addressing some new struggling work who was trying to find her way in a morally challenged society. She was a seasoned church who was where she was by choice.

Parents have a way of trying to make sure that their children do not go through the same struggles that they did; and in so doing they rob their children of great blessings and strength. We tend to try to replace character with things, and this is not possible. It is the struggle that makes us strong; it is the hardships that build drive and determination; it is the failures that build a strong mind and calloused shoulders. We don’t have a lot of this in churches today.

The Contrast

The church at Philadelphia was weak; she had just a little strength. In contrast, the church at Laodicea had a lot of stuff; they were ‘rich and wealthy’ and in need of nothing. The church at Philadelphia had to depend wholeheartedly on God; only He could open the doors that needed to be opened. And as such, the church would know that they were doing the will of God. The church at Laodicea could simply open any door she wanted without asking God. She has money and power and simply did as she pleased. But let us be clear that, even in this state, she is still addressed as a church by her Lord and Master.

There are no perfect churches. There are churches that are better than others and maybe do more than others, but each church will answer to the Lord as an entity. There is no Universal church. There never has been one; and when there is one, we will be in the Millennium when all the churches are united in one body to the Lord. But until then, each church is a local, autonomous body that is wholly answerable to the Lord for how she executes His work.

Jesus, the standard for us, Revelation Chapter 3, verse 14

Jesus will present to us a stark contrast to the church at Laodicea. Their witness is not true; they present themselves as blessed by God with their material possessions and business. They look to be very alive and active, but they are really near death, and their activity is not led by the Lord. In contrast, Jesus is the “Amen” – the ‘so be it.’ His word is final and cannot be altered. Jesus is also the “Faithful and True Witness” – what you see is what you get. There are no ulterior or deceptive motives with Him. Jesus, unlike the church at Laodicea, was and is faithful. He can be trusted to do exactly what He says He will do. He is also the ‘Beginning of Creation,’ not that He was the first created, but that He is the Creator.

The word that is used for beginning in the Greek is used for the word Ruler or Source; thus, Jesus is the source of the Creation; He is not created. Jesus was establishing His position to be able to judge this church. He was the contrast to all that they were at this point. They needed to take note and to be reminded of who he was and is.

Sometimes as a church we need to get back to the basics of the fundamental doctrines of the Lord and the Bible:

Jesus is the Creator; Sustainer; Provider; the First and the Last; the Author and Finisher of our faith; the First Fruit of the resurrection; the Alpha and Omega; the Life; the Truth; the Way. He is both the Lamb of God and Lion of Judah; He is the King of Israel and the Master of the Universe. Jesus is the ‘I AM’ of the Old Testament and the Vine to whom all the branches (saved) of the world at this present time are connected. He is our indwelling Holy Spirit, and He is our Advocate in Heaven. Jesus is God in the Flesh and the God that cannot be contained at the same time.

We need to get back to a clear and unabridged vision of Jesus in all His glory. Every other truth will flow out of this correct vision. The Bible will make more sense; the world will make less sense. And when we seek to live, we will seek to live by His words and ways.

Verse 15 is a sobering reminder: “I know your works.” As we approach the end of the church age, there is this reminder that we will all give an account of our lives after salvation to the Lord. We will stand and answer to Him for the life that He redeemed for us. What did we do with it? This truth should challenge us to live correctly before the Lord and others as well. We do not like to be held accountable for things, but we will be. We should be running a moment-by-moment diagnostic on ourselves, our motives and our desire before the Lord, checking them against the revealed truth of the Bible as best we can.

The Lies we tell ourselves, Revelation Chapter 3, verses 17

We will look at the lukewarm attitude in a bit; but right now we need to see the idea of how the people saw themselves. This perception is what festers the attitude.

When we look at the commentaries on this, we find that Laodicea was a wealthy town; it was the or at least one of the towns for the worship of Caesar. Also, it was the center of healing with the temple to Asklepios and the medical school attached to this worship. In AD 60 when the city was devastated by an earthquake, they refused help from Rome, stating that they did not need help from anyone. The church in Laodicea had the same attitude with regards to God’s help.

See a quote from the Roman historian Tacitus.

After an earthquake devastated the region in A.D. 60, Laodicea refused Imperial help to rebuild the city, successfully relying on their own resources. They didn’t need outside help, they didn’t ask for it, and they didn’t want it. “Laodicea was too rich to accept help from anyone. Tacitus, the Roman historian, tells us: ‘Laodicea arose from the ruins by the strength of her own resources, and with no help from us.’” (Barclay)

This city was a self-made and self-redeemed city, and the local church was filled with people of the same mind and mentality. Now you will understand with more clarity the attitude in the Lord’s church. The attitude of ‘we are rich and don’t need your help’ was around them all the time. Prosperity was perceived as strength and poverty as weakness.

Today, many people walk into a poor church with no band, no PowerPoint system, no large screen TVs, and a rented or borrowed facility, and they cannot imagine that this church could be used by God. So, they go and look for the prosperity that looks like spiritual success. This is not to say that all ‘rich’ churches are like Laodicea, but many are. If a poor church sees an opportunity to minister, they have to seek the Lord’s guidance and obvious help to do it. They have limited resources; and as such, God has to clearly make the path open for them. He almost has to be overly obvious for them. But a rich church can simply walk into any door they want without asking for God’s guidance.

In Acts 16:6-10 we find that it is God who opens and closes doors; and when we see an open door, God decides if we are to enter it or not.

“Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

Notice that the apostle and his crew sought to go into Mysia but they were not permitted to do so. The reason was that God wanted them in Macedonia, and then God showed them that. This is very important for us to know; the ministry of the Gospel is the Lord’s ministry. He will send us where He wants us to go at the time He wants us to go. This dependency was lost on the church at Laodicea, and it is lost on a lot of our churches today, and even a lot of us as followers of Jesus.

We, both as individuals and churches, are simply vessels who serve at the behest of our Master. Any self-reliance is idolatry, and self-reliance was rampant in the church at Laodicea.

Lukewarm, Revelation Chapter 3, verses 15-16

Most people who have spent any time in the Bible or have heard a sermon about making a decision have heard about the lukewarm church. The idea of Jesus vomiting out these people is a hard visual reference to omit. Some of the people in this church were obviously saved, obviously trying to serve the Lord. Jesus addressed them as a church, His church. Jesus loved these people; He says so in verse 19. The only reason to “rebuke and chasten” them was because He loved them. The issue here was not worldliness as many want to preach, but that of reliance. This church was self-reliant and did not need Jesus to make it happen. They could do it on their own.

They probably had good intentions. They were doing the work of a church, maybe even evangelizing, feeding the poor, caring for the weak, and on and on; but they were doing it in their own power and without the leadership of the Holy Spirit. This is the lukewarm attitude that Jesus hates. If you are going to be a philanthropic organization, then do so and stop pretending to be a church. If, however, you are going to be a church, then let Jesus in so He can run the place, since He is the Head of the local church anyway.

You see, all of the good works we do without the leadership and Lordship of Jesus is just ‘wood, hay and stubble’ and will burn up. But whatever we do by, through and of Jesus is forever and will stand up to the judgment of God.

Jesus encourages the people in Laodicea to “be zealous and repent;” and obviously some did – as we, the Lord’s churches, are still here doing the work. We need to make sure that all we do is led by Jesus, called by Jesus, empowered by Jesus, and all for Jesus. There are no self-made Christians. Those who think they are self-made are lost. They are without Jesus.

A church is made up of people that could not save themselves, cannot sustain their salvation apart from Jesus, and should be sold out to Him in every endeavor.

Colossians 3: 16-17 “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Following Jesus is not just about being saved; it is the beginning of a lifelong journey of us simply following Him and surrendering any power over our lives. This same attitude should flow into the Lord’s churches. Even the rich ones should be careful to make sure Jesus is leading the way as we follow. Remember: He is the Head, the Power, the Life, and the very Breath of each New Testament church.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca