[Mr. Steven Britt] "Him who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." These words, of course, come from Christ's message to the seven churches of Revelation. The Book of Revelation itself is a message of vital importance from Jesus Christ to His church—His entire church, the whole thing! It was seven particular congregations at that time, but also through the whole church of God throughout the ages. The whole Book is for us. Looks at God's church not only as a whole in space, right? He wrote to seven physical places but the church of God in time. All of that can be pictured in those seven churches, in fact.

Turn with me to Revelation 1:9, where we meet Jesus Christ introducing Himself to John in a glorious appearance and revealing this vital vision that tells us of many things to come and what we ought to do to prepare for it.

Revelation 1:9-10 "I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." I like how John puts that, you know, he's saying, "You guys know me. I'm John, your brother. I've been through these things with you. You know who I am.” “I was in the Spirit." He tells them in verse 10. "I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet," And, you know, for no good reason at all, no particular reason I can tell, a lot of commentaries want to say that, "Oh, the Lord's Day. That was Sunday." No evidence for that whatsoever in the text, and such a strange thing that they pointed out that I feel like I have to point it out right back that it's just not there. So, there we go.

So, he's referring to the day of the Lord, okay, saying, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day," that is looking forward to the day of the Lord talked about through all the other Books of prophecy, that one—you know, the day of the Lord, the day of vengeance, the day of recompense, all those things—that day is what's being spoken of. And he said,

Revelation 1:11 “saying, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,’ and, ‘What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia:”—and then he names them—“To Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.’”

Now one thing that stood out to me when I kind of embarked on the study that led to this sermon is what he says here, "What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches." So often we look at the letters to the seven churches and say, "Oh, well, here's an individual message from Christ to each of the seven churches." Well, no, the first thing out of his mouth was, "These things that you see, the whole vision, write to the seven churches." The whole book of revelation was written to the seven churches. Yes, they each get an individual small direct letter from Jesus Christ, which is where I'll spend most of the time during the sermon, but the entire Book of Revelation was sent to them. The whole vision was to all of them and to all of us by extension.

Now the letters to the seven churches are a very rich set of scriptures. That's in Chapters 2 and 3, which we'll be going through in detail. Those seven churches, in particular, were physical congregations in the time that John was writing, okay? In the 1st century, in the early period of the church. We understand that. In fact, they all lie along a particular mail route within the Roman Empire, so starting with Ephesus and going in that same order. They were sequential when the mail was delivered. The Romans had their mail delivery system and the route started with Ephesus and continued on in that order as they were given to the churches, okay? So, these were physical places that did receive a message in this order according to the way mail was sent in that day.

It was intended that all seven of those congregations read, not only all seven of the letters but the whole book of Revelation like we just saw. So, that's good to know. They don't read just the one little post-it note size thing to Ephesus and say, "Okay, we read our bit. Let's pass it on down the line to the folks in Smyrna next." No, they were all accountable to read the whole thing and to learn from the whole thing. Even the letters to the other congregations were for their learning.

We can also understand looking at the history of the true church of God that these seven churches may, in fact, and many think do represent a general progression of the church of God over time in different eras. It's a doctrine that's unfortunately been abused very often by some. False teachers have played on fear of being in Laodicea and really worked on people's minds in that way. So, beware of false teachers who try to scare you into, I don't know, pride of thinking that you're in the good group and everybody else is in the bad group. It's not a good way to look at it. But just seeing the churches of Revelation as a general progression of the history of the church of God, the attitudes that exist, and the problems that exist, and what's needed in each one throughout time seems to be a valid way of understanding it looking at history.

Each one of them, all seven of them can be applied to any member of the church of God at any time in our lives. I mean, as we look at this today, hopefully, we'll see things throughout the seven letters that apply to us, even though we're not the people who were physically there in those congregations. Or if it's eras, we're not the ones in that particular era if you look at it that way. There's something that every person in God's church at any time in history can benefit from.

I'd like to tackle the seven letters to the churches in maybe a different way than normal. I'm going to be looking at them primarily structurally, which is what you'll see on the chart that was handed out. You'll see the seven churches, and on the left, you see the starts of those rows. Each letter begins with Christ identifying who He is. These things say, "He who," and... Christ starts out each one of those seven letters by highlighting a particular feature of who He is, who it is that's talking to them to get their minds on the importance of it. Follow up next, Christ says, "I know all seven churches." That's the next thing after He says who He is, how great He is, then, "I know," and He tells them what He knows about them. We'll talk about what He knows about them. Pretty incredible, actually, to see Christ… The way He examines the church as a whole and each of us individually. He knows the good things about each of those churches and the bad things, and He points out both. After stating what He knows about each, He gives instructions to each. So, there's some correction. There's also admonitions for good things that they were doing, some encouragement, even that goes along with that. We all need to know all those instructions so we know what things to watch out for and what things to strive for.

He then concludes each one of those seven letters with a different look at the promise to those who overcome. And we all have the same future in God's kingdom but the different facets of it come out in the endings of the seven letters. So, we'll take a close look at those. One part of the context that we do need to understand is that all of this is in the context of Jesus Christ serving the church of God as the High Priest. So, we'll actually begin with that point, seeing Jesus Christ serving the church as our High Priest. He's the one who's going to tend to and sustain His church, even through—as we'll see—terrible tribulation to come, through whatever we face in life. It's critical that we listen to His instructions from our High Priest and that we do hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

So, let's start by looking at Christ as the High Priest and it's right here in Revelation 1 where we started. We'll see that this is embedded into this symbolism and setting of Jesus' appearance. So, we're going to focus on how Jesus looked and the way His appearance was here starting down in verse 12, just where we ended reading. So, you know, He said what He is going to do. He's got a vision that needs to be sent to the church, you know, divided into these seven churches as He put it.

Revelation 1:12-13 "Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands." All right. Now it's starting to feel really like a vision. There's some kind of imagery here, these seven golden lampstands, "And in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. " We might just think, "Well, that sounds nice. He's got a real fancy outfit going for Him, a golden band. That sounds great." All right. This is where we need to understand some context and background.

In fact, this is a picture of Jesus Christ serving as a priest. There were lampstands within the Tabernacle and later the temple. We're going to take a look at those a little more closely in a minute, but let's focus on what He's wearing. Only the High Priest, out of all the priests, wore a garment of gold. In fact, He had gold on multiple parts of His garments. You can read all about that. In fact, we looked at some of that in the Bible study several... Well, I guess it's been months ago now since we started the "Leviticus Bible Study" series, but only the High Priest had garments that contained gold. In the Book of Hebrews, of course, that's the only Book where we are told explicitly in the New Testament that Christ is our High Priest, and it says it over and over again, okay? Good to know. But here, clearly, in a vision, we get a second witness to that fact, Jesus Christ being dressed as the High Priest and doing what appears to be the service of the High Priest, tending these lampstands.

Now when it talks about this band that went around His chest. So, what they did was, according to rabbinical sources, a piece of cloth, it was three or four finger widths across, and they wrapped it many times around and then it went down to the ground off of that. The parts of it went over the shoulders and then down to the ground, made of gold. According to one scholar, Alfred Edersheim, who's written a very interesting work, "The Temple and Its ministry and Services." Edersheim notes that according to ancient sources, this sash, as it's called in other places, so here it's called in verse 13, how did they put it? "He was girded about the chest with a golden band." I believe if you look at the garments of the High Priest it may be called a sash in the New King James back in Exodus and those places. In fact, this sash, this golden band, according to Edersheim, was the quintessential garment of the High Priest. Not only was gold only worn by the High Priest, but this was like the last thing the High Priest would put on before he started some type of service. And it was the very first element of all the things he wore that he took off when he was done. So, this golden band was only worn for that short period of time when the High Priest was actually engaged actively in service as the High Priest, actively performing his duty. It was the last thing he put on, the first thing he took off.

And that makes sense that we're seeing Jesus Christ as our High Priest here actively engaged in service because He's walking in the midst of these seven golden lampstands. Let's read a little bit about the lampstands of the Tabernacle that God commanded. So, keep a place here in Revelation 1 and come with me back to Exodus 25. This is also going to help us understand a little bit about the vision to the churches and what's represented there. Exodus 25:31. This, of course, is in the middle of numerous chapters of Moses receiving the laws from God about just how everything was to be arranged in the Tabernacle, the different elements needed to be made for its service.

Exodus 25:31-32 "You shall also make a lampstand of pure gold." That is it had to be fine material. Why did it have to be gold? Well as you got closer and closer to the presence of God and the Most Holy Place, the materials had to be finer and finer. So, everything there within the Holy Place had to be made of gold. So, it had to be made of pure gold. "the lampstand shall be of hammered work. Its shaft, its branches, its bowls, its ornamental knobs, and flowers shall be of one piece. And six branches shall come out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side."

Okay. So, there's six branches, but there's also the centerpiece to make for seven actual places where it would hold a candle and you'd have seven flames going on, seven candles at once. If you look at the symbol of the menorah in Jewish culture, that's essentially what's being described here. One thing that we note in verse 31 is that it is of one piece, of one piece. So, in Revelation, we're seeing Jesus Christ dressed like a High Priest. He's got gold. He's got the sash. He's walking in the midst of seven lampstands. So, here we see one lampstand but it's got seven branches to it, seven things that give light. Seems to be an obvious connection there. When we look back here in the law, we see that it's all of one piece. What do we say about the church of God? That it's one body, even when it's separated by space as the seven churches of Revelation were in seven different cities, just like we have a congregation here and other ones meeting in many other places but also separated in time. It has always been one body, the body of Christ. We are part of the same body with those who have fallen asleep. Looking down at verse 36, we read a little more.

Exodus25: 36-37 "Their knobs and their branches shall be of one piece; all of it shall be one hammered piece of pure gold. You shall make seven lamps for it, and they shall arrange its lamps so that they give light in front of it." The Holy Place otherwise was dark. There was no natural light. They had these big thick curtains everywhere. This is where the light within there came from. If this is to picture the church of God, the church of God is to give light. That's part of our mission, to be the light of the world. Christ said that Himself during His earthly ministry, didn't He? Turn over with me to Exodus 27. So, we've read about what was to be there in the Tabernacle, which very much lines up what we're reading about this vision of Christ as a High Priest walking in the midst of seven lampstands, in the Book of Revelation. But in Exodus 27:20 tells us what the priests were to do.

Exodus 27:20 "And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually." that is the lamp was not to go out when it comes to the church of God throughout the ages, Jesus Christ said, "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." Again, Jesus Christ as the High Priest is the one who makes sure that the lamp of the church does not go out.

Exodus 27:21 "In the Tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil which is before the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it…" They shall tend it. It was never supposed to go out. How they make sure that happens, somebody had to be there to take care of it. He had to tend it “...from evening until morning before the Lord.” More or less all the time the priest had to be checking on the lampstand, making sure that it was burning.

Do we think that Jesus Christ does any less? I mean, He's this perfect High Priest greater than any human priest ever was. If they kept that lamp physically burning, you better believe Jesus Christ is tending to His church. That's a wonderful thought, isn't it? I mean, Jesus Christ tends to us. We understand that oil in the Bible very often refers to God's Holy Spirit. What makes us burn? What makes us give light to the world? Well, we have to have the oil of God's Holy Spirit. Who supplies the oil? Oh, yeah. By the way, that comes from God the Father and Jesus Christ, His Spirit in us.

So, the imagery here is clear. Jesus Christ is our High Priest, and we can turn back to Revelation 1. But Jesus Christ is our High Priest. I mean, He is… If we're trying to understand why is this going to matter to us in our study of Revelation? Well, for one thing. It matters to us in absolute terms because Jesus Christ is our High Priest. And it's good to know that He is actively serving before God on behalf of the church, day and night, evening and morning, tending us, tending the church of God, tending all of us as a whole through the ages and through all the world, everywhere that God's people are. It's an amazing thought.

He provides us the oil needed to burn bright to give light in a dark world and there is so much darkness in the world. Sometimes for each of us as individuals, we might lose sight of that. We might even feel like, well, the church really isn't being a light to the world, is it? Or is it not? If Jesus Christ is the High Priest, He's tending it. He is the one that makes sure that it burns brightly or not. He's the one that tends to me and you also to make sure that we do burn. We need to be reinvigorated. That's part of what this message is about. That's what the message to the seven churches was about. Another reason it matters that Christ was acting as the High Priest… I mean, if you read further into the Book of Revelation and where we're going to go today, I mean, we're going to go to the end of Chapter 3 basically, but you read into it, scary bad things are going to happen all over the world, right?

What was the purpose of a High Priest, and what's the purpose of Christ serving in that way? I mean, He's the one that makes sure we are spared from the wrath of God. He's the intercessor. He's the one who makes atonement for us by His sacrifice of His own self. I mean, He stands between us and God, just like the priest did at that time so that we can be passed over from God's wrath. And even beyond just being shielded from the wrath, being elevated, made into these glorious sons and daughters of God, being perfected that way. You know, another importance coming back to Revelation of why it's important that Jesus Christ was pictured as the High Priest and the church is pictured as these lampstands, these golden lampstands is to remind us of the special status that God places on His church, that He places on you and me. You know, where are we pictured if we are the lampstand? We are right there in the Holy Place being tended by the High Priest next to the Most Holy Place where God's dwelling is. Right before the throne of God is where the church is placed symbolically in this. Revelation 1:14, we continue down to see the glorious appearance of Christ not ministering as those human priests did but we see Him in His glory, and how He's described is just awesome.

Revelation 1:14-18 "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters." You know how water sounds when you hear a stream as you're coming close to it and it gets louder and louder and it's this rushing powerful sound? It's also very nice. Can be a very comforting sound. If any of you use a white noise machine to go to sleep, you've used the sound of “many waters” as a comfort. "He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me." and appearing personally, very personally, again to John, the disciple that He loves. He laid His right hand on him. What a comfort? And He said "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death."

That's a glorious awesome appearance. He's pictured not only in glory having this radiant appearance but reminding us He is the one who has conquered death and overcome those things and He holds the keys to it. That's a comforting thought, a wonderful thought. So, we get this clear picture of who Jesus Christ is to start out with, all the awesome different parts of His appearance, even this image of a sword coming out of His mouth in this vision.

Let's come now with all that in mind to the letters to the seven churches and understand what it is that Jesus Christ had to say, first off, to these seven churches, which is also for us today. So, if you are looking at the chart, basically, the way we're going to proceed is to go across the rows sequentially. So, we're going to skip between all seven churches on this point of the things that Christ starts out saying. What is the overarching message to the seven churches and all seven of those letters through Chapters 2 and 3? In all seven, His first statement to them boiled down, essentially. You can look at what He literally says, and we will, but essentially, He's saying, "Believe in me! Understand who I am and believe in me!"

He grounds us in some basics of the gospel, the Good News, who He is. If we look in Revelation 2:1, we see the first of these:

Revelation 2:1 "To the angel of the church of Ephesus, write these things says,"—and you'll notice that is the row title at the top on your handout, "These things says," because they're all going to start this way— "He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands,"—again pointing to His work as High Priest holding the seven stars in His hands showing that He has them. He possesses them. By the way, good way to utilize this chart. You can do like I did online. You can write in the verse that corresponds to each one. So, I put 2:1 with a colon in between it in that little box for Ephesus. And as you go through if you think of any notes or anything really stands out to you that you might want to mark this up with that'll help you engage with it and make it a more useful tool to you for understanding.

So first, Revelation 2:1, we see that Christ holds the seven stars. He walks among the seven lampstands. In verse 8, looking at the church in Smyrna says,

Revelation 2:8 "To the angel in the church of Smyrna, write these things says,"—starting out with the same formula—"The first and the last, who was dead and came to life," right? Great. So, again emphasizing the eternal existence of Christ, remembering that He's the one who became flesh and died for us and was resurrected. Important to see all the different views and important to understand the way that Christ places importance on these things.

Revelation 2:12 "The angel of the church in Pergamos, write these things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword." That is the Word of God. Reference scripture on that is Hebrews 4:12. We'll look at it in just a little while. We won't turn to it now. But the sharp two-edged sword pictures the Word of God. It preceded out of His mouth back in Revelation 1. That was part of the vision. And, in fact, if you're starting to notice, all these intro lines were part of the vision John saw, right? These things we already saw in Revelation 1:14-18 that are being brought out here to each one of the churches. Why is that? Maybe it had to do with part of Christ's message to each particular church. And it's a good exercise to go back at the end and for your own benefit on your own time understand, well, how does this way that Christ revealed Himself to each one of these seven churches or what He emphasized to each one relate to His message to them? It's a good study. I recommend it. We can talk about it later. I'd love to.

Revelation 2:18 To the church in Thyatira, “The angel of the church in Thyatira, write these things says the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and His feet like fine brass." So, again remembering that Jesus Christ is resurrected in a glorious Spirit body, no longer just a human being. Now, this is one of those reasons why we don't put up pictures of Christ as a human being and picture Him in that way because that's not how He is anymore. He has this glorious appearance. It's good to remember that, to understand that, to know that He doesn't look in the weakness of a man or He is not still hung on the cross, bloody, as He's often pictured by many in their worship. No, no. He is in a glorious state, a glorious state before God.

Revelation 3:1 "To the angel of the church and Sardis write," and it starts this way, "These things says He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars." So, again, all the messengers of God, these seven spirits of God, and the seven stars, all messengers of God come from Christ alone. The message that we're getting all throughout this in so many different ways is that Jesus Christ is the one in charge of the church, that He is in glory with God. In verse 7 of Chapter 3, we see another element.

Revelation 3:7 "To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things says He who is holy, He who is true who has the key of David, who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens." The key of David was not mentioned by that name in Revelation 1. That's a little exception to what I said earlier, although “the key of death and Hades” was mentioned. So, a key was mentioned. Kind of gives you the impression it's the same key. A little bit more background on that if you want to cross-reference, Isaiah 22:22. Isaiah 22:22 is where God said to the High Priest at that time, "I've given you the key of David, and you can shut and no one opens, and open and no one shuts." Same thing that's said about Christ here, in fact, is quoting there from Isaiah 22. So, again, this is reinforcing His role as High Priest because to their minds at that time the scriptures that they had, reading from Isaiah they would have known, oh, okay, the key of David that was given to the High Priest, Jesus Christ appearing as a High Priest with this golden band. Now He's got the key of David just like the High Priest did. Message: He's acting as our High Priest. I think we've got that by now.

Continuing on. Verse 14. Now we see that Christ has the power over life and death and judgment resides with Him. If we're getting all the first things first—all the first things to the various churches first—it's a good thing to have there.

Revelation 3:14 "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." Speaking of first things, Jesus Christ is the first and the last. There was nothing made that He was not a part of. And without Him, nothing was made that was made. In fact, we read that in John 1:1-3. It's a good starting point for understanding who Jesus Christ is, where He came from, how He came in the flesh. He's the beginning and the end. There was no pass without Him. There's not a future without Him either. It's part of the message. Putting these all together, we understand that we have to believe in Jesus Christ. We have to understand who He is. We have to deeply believe in who He is, every aspect and every facet. It's for our good. It's for our comfort to understand what He is like, who He is, and what He is doing as our High Priest today.

The next statement that He gets to with all seven churches, they follow this formula. He uses the words, "I know you. I know you." Jesus walking in the midst of the lampstands is our overriding image. He is tending them. He is making sure they are burning. He is making sure everything is just right. He's inspecting them. That's what He's doing in the vision. In His first words after explaining to each of the seven churches who He is in some particular facet of his being, He directly addresses them saying, "I know." I know Jesus Christ is going to judge the living and the dead. He knows us. He knows everything about us. Revelation 2:2, starting with the church in Ephesus. He says,

Revelation 2:2 "I know your works, your labor, your patience that you cannot bear those who are evil.” What are the things that Christ knows? What are the things He's inspecting? What are the things He's looking for? If you kind of do a cross-comparison, I won't go through all of these in detail for sake of time today, but you can see and have the layout in the chart for each one. Revelation 2:2 is where it's in Ephesus and 2:9 for Smyrna, 2:13 for Pergamos. You can go through the whole list and put that together. And you can analyze those, which I did. Essentially, the things that Christ is saying, I know your character. If you look over that list in your charts or just glance down the page of those various places, there are elements of character. Says, "I know your patient endurance. I know your love. I know your faith." Christ is looking for those things, and He knows when we have them. Other things that He points out across those two chapters to each of the seven churches, "I know your struggles. I know your difficulties." He talks about, "I know your tribulation. I know your poverty. I know your slander." To those in Thyatira, He says, "I know where you dwell. You dwell where Satan's throne is." That's a trial in itself.

Christ knows our situation and the things that we deal with. He knows the world and society that we live in and struggle with today. He knows the elements of it, that war in our minds to try to pull us away from sound doctrine and sound teaching and the truth of His Word. Those things are at work every day and night. It seems like more than ever they are overtaking our society. But most frequently, what He says to the seven churches, "I know your works." That comes out more often than any other thing. Almost universally almost all of them does He say, "I know your works." Revelation 2:23, we see in the midst of the message to Thyatira He comes back around to that thought of knowing us. He's speaking about the tribulation that they were going to have a particular way.

Revelation 2:23 "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 works." He searches the minds and hearts. Jesus Christ is the one who knows. I mean, we can see He's walking through the midst of these seven lampstands and He's getting to know them. He's evaluating them. He's seeing what they're like, the good and the bad. And then He tells us here in verse 23 that He searches the minds and hearts and He's going to give each one according to his works. He searches the minds and hearts.

How is it that Jesus Christ does that? It's good to remember. Let's take a minute. Keep your place here, and turn to Hebrews 4:12. I mentioned this earlier. It's where we learn that the Word of God is what's pictured by that sharp two-edged sword coming out of Christ's mouth.

Hebrews 4:12 "The Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword."—Okay? Great. We got that much, but here's where we get the substance of it.—"It's piercing even to the division of soul and spirit."—Sounds heavy, right? The Word of God pierces to the division of soul and spirit. It sorts out what's what. The Word of God does—"Of joints and marrow."—Okay. Now we're imagining a sword literally cutting through between the different parts of, I don't know, a shoulder. I don't know why I went for my shoulder, but that's where it's cutting me right now—"Joints and marrow. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." So, yeah, just like a sword can grind in between those ligaments of the shoulder, it can grind in between the thoughts and intents of your heart. God searching the heart and mind and He is judging us by our works.

When it's revealed to us what the Word of God says, God knows and Christ knows by the things that we do thereafter. He knows our works. He knows our works, and He judges those works according to our knowledge of the Word of God and the truth of the Word of God. And, you know, He gives us also the Holy Spirit by which we're known to God. I'll just give as a reference, 1 Corinthians 2:10-12. It's where Paul writes about the Spirit in Man, which is also God-given. It's part of how we're created. It's what imbues us with, you know, you could say our life, our consciousness, our being, the core of who we are, this question the philosophers and physicists can't really figure out where the interface is. That's the Spirit in Man. You know, God's Spirit joins with our human spirit, which is God-given. That's how God makes us into one of His spiritual children of the same substance as Him but with the individuality of who we are as God created us, not with any human imperfection or anything like that, not the carnal mind, don't misunderstand. But by that, you know, if you look at that section of scripture, 1 Corinthians 2:10-12, you'll see it says, "What man knows the things of man except the spirit of man that's in him. And even so, the spirit of God searches all things even the deep things of God." So, with the spirit of God in us, He searches us. He knows our heart. He knows our mind. In fact, we even did that hymn, number 118, "Search Me, O God," search me, O God, and know my heart today.

How does He do that? It's by the Holy Spirit in us. God is able to search the thoughts and intents of the heart. He's able to then see the results also comparing to the Word. It's also through the Spirit that He reveals knowledge to us so that we even have the understanding of the Word to see whether we'll follow it or not. It all fits together. So, the High Priest walking among us is inspecting us. He is knowing us. He's going through a process of knowing us. We are being known by God, and He will judge us by what we do. So, He makes sure to tell us what to do. In fact, that's the next part if we get back to Revelation 2. That's the next structural component to each of the seven churches. You'll see in the chart this is kind of given two rows. One is, "I have against you," and there were several churches He had things against, He explains. And then there are admonitions to all of them.

What I boiled it down to, you know, Christ's first point directly to them was, "I know you. I'm checking you guys out. I know you." Take comfort in that, by the way, because He is also here to encourage us. The second point, what He is essentially saying next to all the churches after telling them He knows them, knows their works, knows their struggles, knows their character, all these things, He tells them, "Do not give up." It's not actually written that way in Revelation 2 and 3, but that's the point. Let's look at that. God's given us a purpose to fulfill in our lives. He's looking to see whether or not we're fulfilling that purpose. He looks at the church as a whole to see if we're fulfilling our mission and purpose as a church. We know what our mission and purpose as a church is, don't we? Preach the gospels to all nations, make disciples, care for those disciples, be joined and knit together by what every joint supplies. That's the work of the church that He's looking for if we take it to that scale beyond just the individual.

But let's look at Revelation 2:5 and see this message of don't give up throughout all the churches.

Revelation 2:5 the church in Ephesus says, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen."—Verse 4 He had told them, "I have this against you that you've left your first love." He had inspected them. He found something was missing, and so what did He say?—"Remember from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I'll come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place- unless you repent." And what does He want us to do? Where is His desire? His desire is that they repent. In other words, don't give up! You're not living up to what you should have been, but don't give up. Repent! Repent. Do those first works. Live with zeal, zeal that's powered by the love of God. In verse 10 to the church in Smyrna. This He says to them after, you know, "I know your works," and so forth. Verse 10 he says,

Revelation 2:10 "Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation for 10 days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life."

This one is a little more direct. “Don't give up!” Bad things are going to happen, I mean, to the church in Smyrna, He's telling them. "Satan is going to throw some of you in prison." That sounds bad. I mean, doesn't that sound bad? I don't want Satan to throw me in prison. I don't even know exactly what that means but sounds bad. Even in tribulation, be faithful unto death, all the way to the end no matter what it is you face in your life. And if you don't face those things, you know where you're literally facing a life or death situation because of your faith in God, be thankful for that. Be thankful but have the same faith. Be faithful unto death, whether you die of old age or whether you die in persecution. We can all apply that. Verse 16, coming down to the church in Pergamos. To them, He says,

Revelation 2:16 "Repent or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth."—In other words, you're going to be compared to the Word of God that's the sword of His mouth. What's the advice? It's not, "You guys are done. You're out. I'm finished with you." It's repent! Repent. Don't give up! You know, earlier in this same letter, and we didn't look at it, but if you look at it in more detail, He warns them against receiving false teachings. There are always false teachings and false doctrines warring against us, you know, whether they're secular or whether they're from false religions. They come at us from every angle. Satan tries all kinds of things to take us off of God's truth and His path.

Verse 25. I think I was referencing forward to the next church. The next church is where it really warns against false teachings and even refers to some who had learned the deep ways of Satan. Verse 25, coming off of that, He tells them,

Revelation 2:25 "Hold fast what you have till I come." Hold fast what you have till I come. Another way of saying don't give up. Don't give up. Hold fast. If we know what the truth is, we know the way of God, we need to hold onto it. You know, you need to be stubborn when it comes to changing your opinion of scripture. You need to be quick to hear but stubborn in changing the truth that we have understood by the Spirit of God from the beginning of our calling. There are all kinds of teachers out there and all kinds of different elements of society, and whether it's science or philosophy or whatever, whether it's other Christian churches and denominations, or whether it's from within the Church of God, people have gone astray. Don't be easily convinced away from the truth that you were called to, that you first received. Hold fast. Hold fast, and don't give up.

Revelation 3:2 to those in Sardis, said, "Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain."—I didn't read this, but what did He say I know about Sardis? Back in verse 1, He says, "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead." I mean, what does He say to those when... It is like, "Well, you've got a name you're alive, but you're dead." The answer isn't that they're cast out. It's no, don't give up! He says, "Be watchful. Strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. For I've not found your works perfect before God.” but just because you're doing bad doesn't mean you should give up. It's another way of saying wake up. Do the first works, just like He said to Ephesus. Keep the truth. Repent from evil. Jesus Christ is tending the fire as the High Priest but we've also got to be willing in that process. So, we've seen in at least two or three of these now. It can be put out. The lampstand can be taken away. We don't want to spiritually die out. Christ doesn't want us to either. He's working hard so that that doesn't happen. He's working hard for you and me so that doesn't happen. But we have to show up too. We have to understand that we can't give up.

Revelation 3:11, to the church in Philadelphia, says, "Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown." Again, hold fast. And the Philadelphia church is the one that, you know, we love to look at and say, "Oh, there was nothing corrective said to them." Great. They've just got it made all the way to the kingdom. Nobody can get complacent. He says, even to the Philadelphia church, hold fast what you have, not just, you know, "Yeah, I've got it. It's over there." No, it needs to be in your hand. You need to be holding tight to it. Not even just having it there, but holding it tight like you're not going to let it go. Hold on to the truth of God, hold on to the way of God. Keep that faith going forward. Don't give up on it.

Revelation 3:19, the church in Laodicea. After telling them some very hard things, He says to them, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." And that's the point of His rebuke to them because He loves them. That's the point of all this encouragement, all the instruction, all the correction to all the churches to repent that He's given. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent." Almost like He is pleading with them. And yeah, you read about them they're in a bad state. Just like any of the other churches, the message is the same. Don't give up! It doesn't matter if you're not doing well. Start doing well. repent! It gives them the different ways that they could do that earlier in the letter. You know, even Laodicea has not only hope—has only love by Jesus Christ and has hope—but has the same hope as the other churches. Well, that is if they do the same things. If they do the same things.

We can feel like any one of these churches at some point in our life. We can identify with different parts of different ones, even simultaneously. Overall message here, what we learn, especially from Laodicea is if we will be zealous and repent, God always has a place for us. His love is always turned towards us. He is always wanting to give us His kingdom. If we feel that we're being rebuked or chastened, it's because He loves us and He wants us to change and be different. It's because He doesn't want our lampstand to be taken away. It's because He wants us to burn brightly in a dark world. The thing we can't give up on is overcoming sin in the flesh, fleeing from evil, and also not lacking in good works by God's Spirit. We have to wait and hope in God in faith with patience, like it said, to hold fast to those things. Hold fast to it, even when there's all this discouraging news and all kinds of troubles everywhere. Also showing the love of God towards one another, not waxing cold in any way, but showing the love of God, building this community that we're called to.

The last part of Christ's message to each one of the seven churches is, "To he who overcomes." And essentially, the message is that the overcomers will receive the reward of Christ. The overcomers will receive the reward of Christ. Each one of the seven churches starting with Ephesus has this statement, "To him who overcomes, I will," and then a promise from Christ.

Revelation 2:7 "He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." By the way, it says, "Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches," to all of them, emphasizing that this message is to all of God's church, all seven of them, and all of us, all of the church of God through all time. "He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Eating from the tree of life, being restored to what we should have been all the way back in Eden that mankind could have had, eating from the tree of life, living forever with God.

In verse 11, "He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Okay? We got that, didn't we? "He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death." This is the first mention of the second death. It comes up again prominently in Revelation 20 where it says that, "He who has part in the first resurrection can't be hurt by the second death." In fact, blessed and Holy is he. It's part of the truth as we understand it, the truth of the resurrection is embedded even here. We don't want to be hurt by the second death. We want to live forever with God.

Revelation 2:17 "He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give him some of the hidden manna to eat." Being fed with the bread of life. "I'll give him some of the hidden manna to eat." You know, they had put a jar of the manna into the Tabernacle by God's command as a memorial. That represents Jesus Christ, the bread of life. That's the bread that we take of, even at Passover. This is what's understood in the days of unleavened bread. "I'll give him some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone will be a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it." We get a new name. You want to find out what yours is? I want to find out what mine is. I can't wait. I hope we're all there. That's something to look forward to. It's encouraging, you know, every one of these statements, "To him who overcomes," this is our motivation. This is what we're looking forward to, you know, unless we want to die—on the negative side—we need to overcome and do these things, but also we have so much to look forward to. You know, having the right to eat from the tree of life, having the hidden manna, having this full communion with Jesus Christ, even being given personally a new name from God, that sign of ownership that God places on us at that time by giving us this new name, and a stone that has a new name on it too.

Revelation 2:26 "And he who overcomes, and keeps my works until the end." Again, we are known by the things that we do, according to the Word of God. "He who overcomes, and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels as I also received from my Father," that is we get to share in the rulership of this world with Jesus Christ to set it right, not to lord over it, but to work together with Christ to give mankind as a whole the peace that they have been lacking for our entire history as a species.

Revelation 2:28 "And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Are we getting the picture yet?

Revelation 3:5 To Sardis, "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments." Being clothed. The picture of having honor bestowed on us as opposed to the shame of being uncovered like we heard in the sermonette. “Being clothed in white garments. I will not blot his name out of the Book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels." Can you imagine that? Can you imagine Jesus Christ confessing your name before the Father and angels? It's an unbelievable promise. It's an unbelievable honor. Who are we to be confessed before God the Father and angels by Jesus Christ? This is what's in store for us, and these white garments, being clothed with righteousness, having our name in the Book of Life, having it sealed there and certain, written.

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." That makes sense, right? A pillar stays there inside of a structure. It's a supporting structure. It's something you look up to. It draws your eyes upward, right? A pillar is strong. It's stable at support and it doesn't go out anymore. "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. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." These are just more and more ways that God intends to clothe us with honor and with glory, being decorated with His own name, the name of His city.

Revelation 3:21 In Laodicea He says, "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne." Even to those in Laodicea, this was written, "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."

Jesus Christ, He looks at us even at our worst, and He offers us the opportunity if we overcome to sit on the throne with Jesus Christ. And here He points out again as High Priest, says, "I also overcame and sat down with my Father." We have a High Priest who was in all points tempted as we were. We have a High Priest who overcame before us who knows and can sympathize with us. We're told that in the Book of Hebrews. He's fit to be our High Priest. He knows we can do it. He's rooting for us. He wants this for us. That's why He tells us not to give up.

You know, each of the endings of these seven letters reveal different aspects and beautiful imagery of what it means to enter God's kingdom as firstfruits of His harvest. This is what's given to the church called in this era, whether all those things apply to those who receive eternal life in the second resurrection. Some of them, doesn't seem like they do. I mean, rulership is during the 1,000 years, mankind over the earth. That's why it's called a better resurrection. It is a better resurrection, one with better reward. Some of them are universal. Eating from the tree of life. Having that fellowship with God, eating from the hidden manna. Each of those different aspects, though, applies to all of God's church today, applies to every one of us today. That's why they were all seven accompanied by that statement, "Hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

So, if you look at the Book of Revelation as a whole, what is it all about? You know, notice this takes up three chapters before any prophecy of what's actually going to happen takes place, before any of those terrible tribulations and sorrows and woes, before any of that is described. All this instruction and encouragement and admonition and correction from Christ. It's really important to study prophecy. It's important to discern the times that we live in. I don't want to discount that at all. It's important to have at least some idea of what's going on in the news and how it might relate to the things we read about in the Bible. I mean, none of us doubt that the end times is closer than ever before. It's always closer than ever before, but okay, yes.

So, quantitatively, it's always closer than ever before, but when we understand prophecy, yeah, we can see qualitatively. We see chunks that come into the puzzle, right? That fit now that were not there before. We see the state of Israel in the last 100 years. We see nuclear weapons and the ability of mankind to exterminate itself in the last 100 years. We see many, many large arcs of prophecy, the promises to Abraham, you know, America and Britain's rise in prominence the last couple hundred years. That's a major piece of prophecy that we can understand with some effort, and we can see the faithfulness of God. We can see Him working and moving us towards the return of Jesus Christ in qualitative steps, not just the quantitative march of time towards some eventual promise. But we see it actually coming closer in those ways if we study prophecy. But our High Priest placed this first importance on drawing near to God. In fact, it's the first part of the vision as the last part of the vision.

The end of Revelation 22, He reiterates a lot of those things. The middle does matter, though. All those middle things, the Book of Revelation about prophecy. And why do they matter? You know, why does prophecy matter? I can't be an expert on every country in the world and every place in the world, every interaction between every diplomat here, there, and yonder, and every part of world history to understand exactly how it fits in with prophecy, right? That's not the point. It's not that we need to know every one of those things, but for the things that we do learn, the things we do know as we study prophecy, the things we do gain and we do become clear in our minds about how God is working overtime is to build our faith, first of all, that the God of the universe is in control, that He has said these things before they happen. And if He said those things happen and we've seen it, and that confirms our faith, then we know that all these other things are also true and going to happen. The promises of eternal life, the promise of judgment is all going to happen. You know, anyone who knows prophecy better know all the more the importance of these first things, drawing near to God, being faithful and steadfast until the end.

If some of these things that we're reading today don't move you in that way, then maybe you need to study prophecy more. Maybe you need to work up that motivation, right? To understand that, yes, God is active and working in the world and know it and be sure of it. Get that sense of urgency to repent. Do the first works, be zealous, do all the things that Christ wrote to all the churches. We really need to be aware that Jesus Christ is coming and He's coming quickly. He's coming soon. For most of the world, He's going to overtake them like a thief in the night. They will not see it coming, but you and I are called to be prepared.

Revelation 3:20. Jesus Christ said to the church at Laodicea, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me." You know, sitting and eating a meal together, you know, that's what we're going to do at the Pollock here this afternoon. That's fellowship. It's a sign that you are at peace together. Jesus Christ says, "If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in and dine with him and he with me." This applies to us today. Jesus Christ is knocking. It was extended to the Laodicean church, even in its poor condition as it's laid out. It's true for every one of us that Jesus Christ is not far off. He's not far off in His return. He is not far off from us personally in our lives. He is near to us. He is walking in the midst of the lampstands.

Turn with me to Revelation 22:7 again, Christ in this book that was all written to all of the churches that we saw at the outset begins and ends with the same admonitions. He says,Revelation 22:7 "Behold, I am coming quickly, and blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this Book." Blessed is he who keeps the words because He is coming quickly.

Revelation 22:12 "Behold, I am coming quickly,” like we didn't get it the first time, "And my reward is with me." You know, we have something to look forward to when Jesus Christ returns. He's going to give to everyone according to his work. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” Don't forget who I am. Remember, that was one of the major points. That was His opening point, all seven churches. "I am He who," or, "These things says He who." Remember who Jesus Christ is, the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, the end, the first to last, the firstborn from the dead, the one who went before us, our High Priest who walks in our midst. Verse 14 reminds us what overcoming looks like.

Revelation 22:14 "Blessed are those who do His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city." The right to the tree of life. That was one of...In fact, I think the first reward that we read to Ephesus, have the right to eat through from the tree of life. What does it mean to overcome? Doing the commandments of God. If we know them, if we've been called to the truth, we need to do the truth. We need to walk in the truth. We need to walk in God's commandments and turn from sin every day. Being transformed also in our heart and in our mind as we've also talked about recently.

Verse 15. I won't read through in detail, but basically assures us not everybody is going to make it. Don't get the wrong idea. Not everyone is going to make it. Only those who overcome, in fact. Overcoming implies that something has to be done. Something has to be accomplished, that we have to be showing up for this and striving at this. We have to be enduring at this. In order to do that, we're going to have to desire it. You know, if it's something we don't really care about, something we don't really want, how are we going to actually walk through life and overcome if we're not motivated to do so? Jesus Christ standing at the door and knocking ought to motivate us. Verse 17 ought to motivate us. It's a call. It's a call to all of us,

Revelation 22:17 "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come' and let him who hears say, 'Come!' Let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take freely the water of life." We have to be serious in answering that, yes, yes, I want to be there! Yes, I want to drink from the water of life. How do I do that? You know, if we're not zealous for that, if we don't feel that that's just where we are at a particular time. Start there. Ask God for help with that. "God, help me feel what I need to feel to move myself down this path."

"Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Our great High Priest is ministering on our behalf today. He knows us. He walks among us. He inspects us and He tends to us. He provides you and me with the oil to keep us burning if we are willing. He's our advocate before God. He encourages us. He tells us, "Don't give up." Says, "Believe in me and do not give up. I know your works. I know who you are, and I know that you should not give up.” Because He has a promise for us if we don't. If we overcome, He has this wonderful eternal life for us. You know, He's already done so much work as our High Priest. He's made God's wrath to pass over our sins so that we're not walking in fear of eternal judgment. That's passed over us if we're in Christ. And He's done more than that. He has made us into the accepted children of God the father. His reward is with Him if we overcome.

Knowing these things for the final verse, final words, even of the sermon, verse 20.

Revelation 22:20 "He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely I am coming quickly.'" The third time He said it in this chapter. Don't forget it. Don't ever be complacent about it. Always bring it to mind. "Surely I'm coming quickly. And amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" must be our response. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.