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Grace & Peace: Revelation #33

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:14–16).

We come now to perhaps the most famous of the seven churches of Asia. This is the lukewarm and tepid church of the Laodiceans, the basis for many sermonic rebukes of lethargic congregations.

The rebuke comes from the Lord, the one giving all these messages to the angels of the respective churches. He identifies Himself here with a series of striking images. Jesus is the ultimate Amen—Amen is one of His names. He is the faithful and true witness (martys), so when we faithfully bear witness to Him, we are bearing faithful and true witness to the faithful and true witness. And then last, He is the arche of the whole creation of God, meaning that He is the integration point of all things. In Christ all things hold together, Paul says, going on to use the same word (Col. 1:17-18). The Lord Jesus is the one in whom the entire cosmos coheres.

The Laodiceans were lukewarm in their works. If they had been cold, it would have been refreshing, and if they had been hot, it would have been comforting. But as it was, they were the room temperature church, the tepid church. Laodicea had to pipe their water in, and Colossae had cold springs about ten miles away. Hierapolis had hot springs, but they were about six miles away. By the time the water got to Laodicea, it was lukewarm and useless for everything except for the apostle John’s metaphor.

Our works are intended as water for the Lord to drink. Cold is good, and hot is good, but tepid works are the kind that the Lord will spit out.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation #32

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” (Revelation 3:11–13)

The Lord tells the believers in Philadelphia to hold on tight to what they have, and they are to do so because the Lord is coming “quickly.” This means that the coming referred to had relevance to them, two thousand years ago. The Lord is encouraging them to allow no man to take their crown. The fact that they were in present possession of that crown meant that they were already ruling with Christ. They had a crown they were not to surrender, and were to hold fast to it through the coming trial that would culminate in the Lord’s coming. Comparing this passage with the rest of Revelation we can see that this is the coming of the Lord in judgment on Jerusalem, which was finally destroyed in 70 A.D.

The one who overcomes is going to be given rest from battle. The expression “go no more out” is used to describe Moses at 120 years old, unable to go across the Jordan to the war of conquest (Dt. 31:2). And when David is almost killed in battle and Abishai rescued him (2 Sam. 21:17), the men of David swore that he should “go no more out.” In this case, the battle would have been won, and the saints of Philadelphia are old and honored warriors, overcomers. They have been made pillars in the Temple.

The Temple is referred to again in another way. They have the name of God written on them, and they have the name of the city of God, which is the New Jerusalem, also written on them. They are pillars in that Temple, and are part of city that is built entirely out of living stones. We are being given a glimpse of the theme of the entire book of Revelation, which is the replacement of the old Jerusalem with the New Jerusalem, the replacement of old Israel with new Israel, the replacement of the nation of Israel with the cosmic and ultimate city, the Church.

The Jerusalem above is the mother of us all (Gal. 4:26), the Church. The angel later in Revelation tells John that he will show him the bride, the wife of the Lamb (Rev.21:9), and goes on to show him the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:10). The New Jerusalem is a perfect cube, which is the shape of the Holy of Holies (1 Kings 6:20). The Christian Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19), and all together we are a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). The history of the world since Pentecost should be understood as that bride walking down that aisle, the great aisle that comes down from heaven.

The overcomers of Philadelphia (and every overcomer since) have three names written on them. The first is the name of God, the second is the name of the Church, and the Lord’s “new name.” Those who have an ear to listen should make sure they listen.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation #31

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” (Rev. 3:10).

The saints in Philadelphia had remained faithful during trial up to this point, the Lord promised to deliver them from a future trial, the kind of trial that was going to come upon the entire world. The word translated temptation here can be rendered either as temptation or trial, and when the Lord adds that He is going to “try them that dwell upon the earth,” He is using the same root in a verb form. This is going to be a time of testing, a time of trial, and the church at Philadelphia wouldn’t have to deal with it. The reason they wouldn’t have to deal with it is because they already passed their test.

The word they kept was the word of the Lord’s patience, which means they had gone through something that had called for patience. When they were being tried, the world was not being tried, and when the world received its great test, the church at Philadelphia would not.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation #30

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee” (Rev. 3:9).

Throughout the Old Testament a distinction is made between those Jews who knew the Lord, and those who knew the Lord in truth. This same theme is carried over into the New Testament and highlighted there, with the intent that Christians, who are members of the new Israel, would take the central lesson to heart—which is that you must be born again. Regardless of your covenant status, you must have the root of the matter within you. And the root of the matter is Christ within you, the hope of glory.

Put bluntly, if you have the covenant of God, but you do not have God Himself, then what you actually have is Satan. Nominal Christians are not partial Christians, but rather devil-worshipers. Nominal Christians are not halfway to Heaven, but rather most of the way to Hell. They are Christians in some sense, but not in any sense that is a blessing.

John here speaks fiercely of those who claimed to be Jews, but who were not. They were lying about it—whether or not they had actually descended from Abraham. They claimed they were Jewish, and they gathered in synagogues, but the whole thing was a pretense and farce.

God responds by saying that He will make them acknowledge that the Christians were the true objects of God’s electing love, which would mean that they were the heirs of all God’s promises to Israel. He would make them come and prostrate themselves before them, not in worship (as though they were divine), but rather in awe and profound respect.

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Grace and Peace: Revelation #29

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“I know thy works: behold, 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, and hast not denied my name” (Rev. 3:8).

We see in this verse a recurring biblical principle, which is that what belongs to Christ belongs to those who are in Christ. In the previous verse, we saw that Christ is the one with a key that opens what no man can shut, and who shuts what no man can open. Because of this authority that the Lord Jesus has, the words spoken in the next verse apply the very same reality to the Christians at the church in Philadelphia.

The Lord mentions four things that relate to their faithfulness. He knows their works, first. Second, their works were done despite having “little strength.” Third, they have kept the Lord’s word, and last, they have not denied His name. So they worked though they had little strength to work, they kept the word that had been entrusted to them, and they did not deny the name of the Lord. The Lord commends them for all this, but more than commending them, He bestows on them what He only can give. He sets before them an open door, which no man can shut.

The progress of the faithful church is never by might, or by power, but by God’s Spirit (Zech. 4:6). God is therefore the God of disproportionate results.

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