Revelation 3:20

“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.

·         Jesus continually beckons us to draw near to His heart as He patiently waits for us. Jesus can open all doors (Rev. 3:7-8) except the door of our heart.

·         To feast speaks of intimacy or deep fellowship as the Spirit tenderizes our heart to feel more of His love by increasing our revelation of Jesus and zeal for righteousness.

 

Songs 5:2  I sleep, but my heart is awake; it is the voice of my beloved!  He knocks…..

 

Deuteronomy 4:36  Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.

Revelation 3:19

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.  Therefore be zealous and repent.

·        Jesus promises to discipline all of us so that we may have gold and garments that we may be rich. Jesus promises to discipline us to bring us out of passivity and self sufficiency.

·        Be radical in our resolve to make changes.

 

Job 5:17  Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.

 

Proverbs 3:11, 12  My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor detest His correction; for whom the LORD loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.

Revelation 3:18

“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.

·        The gold of godly character makes us rich in this age by tenderizing our heart to feel more of God’s love and enlarging our desire for Him and for righteousness.

·        Righteous living results in the reward of eternal garments. Our garments begin with the gift of righteousness that is imputed to us by faith (2 Cor. 5:21).  However, here Jesus is speaking of experiential righteousness or acts of righteousness.

·        Jesus was saying that we must take action to cure our spiritually sick eyes. Only the Holy Spirit can give us revelation of Jesus and His Word. However, we can take natural steps as we take time to feed on the Word and turn our eyes away from worthless things that dull our spirit.

 

Proverbs 27:21 The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, and a man is valued by what others say of him.

 

Isaiah 55:1 “Ho!  Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat.  Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Revelation 3:17

“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 –

·         They claimed God’s financial blessing but it turned out to injure their heart.

·         Wretched – this from the Greek words that mean “calloused and hardened.” They were calloused and spiritually dull.

·         Miserable – spiritual sickness result in loss of appetite for the Word and prayer. Believers in the “spiritual ICU” have no spiritual appetite. Hunger is a sign of recovery.

·         Poor – being spiritually deficient is opposite of being “poor in spirit” (Mt. 5:3). Many believers have nothing in their eternal bank account. How much is in yours?

·         Blind – spiritual blindness means to lack revelation of God and one’s spiritual condition.

·         Naked – without garments in the age-to-come that express their love for Jesus in this age.

Hosea 12:8  And Epharim said, ‘Surely I have become rich, I have found wealth for myself; in all my labors they shall find in me no iniquity that is sin.

Ecclesiastes 2:7-11  …..then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.  There was no profit under the sun.

Revelation 3:16

“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth

·        He loves them and has not lost interest in them (v. 19). Jesus’ heart was sick (or His stomach hurt) with concern about them and what they are losing in their relationship with Him. Jesus knows all the lost eternal opportunities they are missing out on.

·        Jesus quoted the warning of judgment seen in Lev. 18. The land of Israel was said to "vomit the people out" of the land in judgment.

 

Leviticus 18:25  For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants

 

Deuteronomy 32:1  Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of My mouth.

Revelation 3:15

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot, I could wish you were cold or hot.

·        The spiritually cold are in a better position to see their great need. At least they know they are in trouble. They are easier to convert.

·        When a person feels the emptiness of a cold heart he searches for answers.

1 Samuel 8:8  According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day – with which they have forsake Me and served other gods – so they are doing to you also.

Psalm 33:15 He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.

Revelation 3:14

“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:

·        What He speaks is reliable and truthful

·         He is the beginning or “first” in cause (source) and authority. The power and authority of creation “begins” with Him (Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16-17; Rev. 1:8; 21:6). He is the uncreated God like the Father and the Spirit. There was never a time they did not exist.

 

Isaiah 65:16  So that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from My eyes.

 

Jeremiah 42:5  So they said to Jeremiah, “Let the LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the LORD your God sens us by you.

Revelation 3:13

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’

·        It is a proverbial expression, implying that the highest attention should be given to what was spoken  (Barnes)

·        anything serious, and of great importance, was delivered; and which required attention, and was not easily understood:  (Gills)

·        The demand for universal attention (MH)

Isaiah 48:16  “Come near to Me, hear this:  I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, I was there.  And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit have sent Me.”

 

Zechariah 7:12  “Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets.  Thus great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

Revelation 3:12

 “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more, I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God.  And I will write on him My new name.

·        Not a pillar to support the temple (heaven needs no such props), but a monument of the free and powerful grace of God, a monument that shall never be defaced nor removed (MH)

·        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. (MH)

Psalm 87:5, 6  And of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one were born in her; and the Most High Himself shall establisher her.”  The LORD will record, when He registers the peoples:  “This one was born there.”

 

Isaiah 62:2  The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory.  You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD will name.

 

Revelation 3:11

“Behold, I am coming quickly!  Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.

·        See, I am just a coming to relieve them under the trial, to reward their fidelity, and to punish those who fall away; they shall lose that crown which they once seemed to have a right to, which they hoped for, and pleased themselves with the thoughts of. (MH)

·        The persevering Christian shall win the prize from backsliding professors, who once stood fair for it.’’ (MH)

Psalm 89:39  You have renounced the covenant of Your servant; you have profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.

 

Lamentations 5:16  The crown has fallen from your head.  Woe to us, for we have sinned!

 

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.

·        Jesus promises to keep us spiritually vibrant and protected from sin as well as God’s judgment in the End-Times.

·        The hour of trial was a specific period in the first century in which persecution from the Roman Empire increased greatly on the known world as a partial application. This prophetically pointed to the Great Tribulation.

 

Isaiah 24:17  Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth

 

Ezekiel 21:13  Because it is a trial, and what if the sword despises even the scepter?  The scepter shall be no more, says the Lord GOD.

Revelation 3:9

“Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie – indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.

·        Vindication of the faithful before the unbelievers who persecuted them by paying homage to them in the Millennium (Isa. 45:14; 49:23; 60:14).

·        The Father will reveal to the nations the fact that He loves His people. These unbelieving Jews will witness Jesus’ love towards these people on the last day.

Isaiah 43:4  Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life.

 

Isaiah 49:23  Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet.  Then you will know that I am the LORD, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.

Revelation 3:8

“I know your works.  See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.

·        Jesus has the ability to see everything about our life.  He sees the full truth about us.  He is fully attentive to His people.  The essence of the fear of God grows in us as we grow in the awareness that God sees everything about us continually.

·        Jesus set before the saints at Philadelphia the invitation to governmental positions of honor in His eternal government (Millennium then the Eternal State) related to their obedience in this age. He also offered them open doors in the spirit that give them access to the revelation of God’s heart.

Deuteronomy 32:30 How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?

Psalm 77:9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?  Has He in anger shut up His tender mercies?

Revelation 3:7

 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.

·        Jesus invited the faithful in the Church of Philadelphia to have positions of honor in His eternal government over the earth related to their obedience in this age.

·        Rev. 3:7-13 is based on the prophecy that Isaiah gave about Shebna, King Hezekiah's chief leader being removed from his government position to be replaced by Eliakim (Isa 22:15-25). God promised to place on Eliakim’s shoulder the “key to the house of David” so he could open and shut the doors of the royal resources to release God’s will in the kingdom of Israel.

Isaiah 22:22 The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; so he shall open, an no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open.

Job 12:14  If He breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt, if He imprisons a man, there can be no release.

Revelation 3:6

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

·        It is a proverbial expression, implying that the highest attention should be given to what was spoken  (Barnes)

·        anything serious, and of great importance, was delivered; and which required attention, and was not easily understood:  (Gills)

·        The demand for universal attention (MH)

Isaiah 48:16  “Come near to Me, hear this:  I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, I was there.  And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit have sent Me.”

Zechariah 7:12  “Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets.  Thus great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

 

Revelation 3:5

“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels

·        The books in heaven contain vast information about our lives including our words and deeds..

·        I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels – this is not a reference to being saved but to the reward of a public recognition for special nobility and faithfulness. Jesus will talk about our exploits and obedience before the Father.

 Psalm 69:28  Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

Ezekiel 13:9  My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel.  Then you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

Revelation 3:4

“You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.

·         Jesus promised three rewards to this Church for those who would overcome spiritual deadness by sustaining a life of watching. These three rewards include our clothing, name and presentation to God that reflects what we have accomplished in our obedience in this life.

·         White garments are not the same as the free gift of the robe of righteousness. Justification is a gift by faith based on Jesus’ worthiness, not ours (Eph. 2:8-9; Tit. 3:4-7).  These garments are expression of each believer’s dedication and they differ with each believer according to their life in this age.

 Exodus 32:33  And the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book”

Ecclesiastes 9:8  Let your garments always be white, and let your head lack no oil.

Revelation 3:3

“Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent.  Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

·        Remember how Jesus touched them and the dedication years ago in the great Asian revival

·        Repent – embrace a bigger life vision that seeking God to gain more comfort and honor in this life. Establish your life vision in the laying hold of the eternal promises given to the overcomers.

 Psalm 42:4  When I remember these things,  I pour out my soul within me.  For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

Habakkuk, 2:1  I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.

Revelation 3:2

“Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.”

·        Be watchful – cultivate a lifestyle of prayer, fasting and obedience or to sustain a lifestyle of encountering Jesus.

·        This is to make them strong again:

o   1. Say it regularly – speak the vision and values consistently

o   2. Model it consistently – personally embrace the values that you speak

o   3. Enforce it organizationally – replace ministry leaders who refuse to embrace the values

 Judges 16:28  Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, ‘O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray!  Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, …..

Psalm 27:14  Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your hear.  Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Revelation 3:1

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write,

·        This church was known for its lively devotion to Jesus that was well established about forty years earlier (52-55 AD) in the great Ephesians revival that swept through all Asia (Acts 19-20).  They were deeply touched in this revival and became well known of it. However, over time they became spiritually dead. They lived on their past reputation established decades in the revival.

 Exodus 17:14  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua….

Deuteronomy 6:9  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

“These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars:  “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

·         Jesus has the seven Spirits of God – to release the diverse ministries of the Spirit to them

·         Jesus will hold His people in His hands to make them bright like a star. To hold the seven stars means for Him to be deeply involved in the life and heart of the leadership. Jesus wants to make our heart bright like a star in His hand.

 

1 Samuel 8:8   According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day – with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods – so they are doing to you also.

Psalm 33:15  He fashions their hearts individually, He considers all their works.

Zechariah 3:9 …upon the stone are seven eyes…..

  

Revelation 2:29

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

·        It is a proverbial expression, implying that the highest attention should be given to what was spoken  (Barnes)

·        anything serious, and of great importance, was delivered; and which required attention, and was not easily understood:  (Gills)

Isaiah 48:16  “Come near to Me, hear this:  I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, I was there.  And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit have sent Me.”

 

Zechariah 7:12  “Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets.  Thus great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

Revelation 2:27-28

'He shall rule them with a rod of iron;

·        To rule with a scepter of iron, is not to rule with a harsh and tyrannical sway, but with power that is firm and invincible.  (Barnes)

·        He shall restrain vice by the strictest administration of justice; and those who finally despise the word and rebel shall be broken and destroyed, so as never more to be able to make head against the truth. (AC)

They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’ –

·        The same idea is here expressed in another form, but indicating more particularly the ease with which it would be done. The word rendered "dash them in pieces" means to break in pieces as an earthen vessel,  (Barnes)

·        Those that will not quietly submit to thee, shall be crushed and destroyed by thee. (Wesley)

As I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.

·                     Jesus is the morning star (Rev. 22:16). This promise speaks of increased revelation of Jesus and deeper relationship with Him. The morning star is the brightest star in the sky (planet Venus) seen just before the dawning of a new day.

Psalm 2:7-9  ….You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.

 

Isaiah 30:14  And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel….

Malachi 4:1 For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.  And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts.

Revelation 2:26

“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations –

·        We must maintain our obedience in this until the end of our life

·        The reward for resisting immorality is to reign in Jesus’ millennial kingdom (Lk. 19:11-27; Rev. 3:21). Each believer has a different measure of eternal rewards.


1 King 6:12  ….if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My word with you, which I spoke to your father David.

Psalm 119:101  I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word.

Revelation 2:25

“But hold fast what you have till I come.

·        It takes diligence for a leadership team to hold fast in proclaiming and insisting on purity among those involved in their ministry. It is not automatic.

 

·        The church need to hold fast to what they knew to be true and to cut themselves off from wrong things, whatever it cost, they had to hold fast (DP)

 

 

 Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go…

           Isaiah 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD comes….

Revelation 2:24

“Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden.

·        John referred to Jezebel’s doctrine as the deep things of Satan. In other words, her false teaching on grace that promoted immorality and idolatry without any fear of God’s judgment is one expression of the depths of satanic deception.

1 Chronicles 21:1  Now satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

Zech 3:1  Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.

Revelation 2:23

“I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts.  And I will give to each one of you according to your words.

·        Jesus warned of killing her children or those who followed her teaching. 

 

·        Jesus wants the Church to know of His zeal to free His people from immorality. He said they all shall know when He casts

 

1 Samuel 16:7  …Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him.  For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.

Jeremiah 17:10  I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind.  Even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

Revelation 2:21-22

“And I have her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.

“Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.

·         Believers are sometimes made sick and even die in context to God’s discipline (judgment) on immorality. God’s discipline includes Satan being permitted to make the unrepentant sick (1 Cor. 5:1-5; 11:30-32).

·         Her bed of sin would become a bed of sickness, and her partners and her children would go down with her (DP)

Ezekiel 14:6  Thus says the Lord GOD, “Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.”

Jeremiah 3:8  “Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery…..

Revelation 2:20

 “Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

·        Jesus’ correction is not rejection. He corrected three churches in the seven letters.

·        She taught “liberty in grace” in context to attending idol feasts which involved immorality. Immorality is at the top of almost every list of sins in the NT and is emphasized in Revelation as one of Satan’s primary strategies in the end times (Rev. 9:21; 14:8; 17:1-4; 18:2-4, 9-10; 19:2; 21:8).

Exodus 34:15  lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice…

1 Kings 21:23  And concerning Jezebel the LORD also spoke, saying, “The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezereel.”