Revelation 3

Chapter 3. The Vision of the ChurchesHe who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Revelation 2:7)There is something very touching and solemn about the personal aspect of the Lord’s last messages to the churches. It is very much the same as if your pastor should arise in the pulpit some Sunday morning and say, “I have a letter from the Lord Jesus, which He sent an Angel to deliver to me during the night, addressed particularly to this congregation, and which He has commissioned me to read to you as His personal and final message.” Such a message would produce a profound impression and thrill every hearer with a deep concern and holy earnestness. Each of these epistles is really a letter from the Lord Jesus to a particular church, and the fact that they were addressed to the seven churches of Asia does not make them the less personal and appropriate for us, for the very fact of the number seven being used shows that it is symbolic and designed to represent every church in the whole body of Christ to the end of the age. The order in which these churches are named represents an exact geographical line, so that a messenger starting out with seven letters to deliver would naturally begin at Ephesus, then go to Smyrna, and thence in turn to Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and end at Laodicea. They were selected from the great body of the churches at the time, to represent every particular congregation and the whole Church of Jesus Christ throughout the Christian age. We have already seen that the Apocalypse begins with the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in His ascended glory as our Prophet, Priest and King. It next proceeds to the vision of the churches and then passes on to the providential dealings of God with the world, as Christ cannot deal with the world in judgment till He has first dealt with His Church. He is Head over all things in the realm of nature and providence; but He is the Head of the Church which is His body, and He governs the world with sole reference to His own people. Therefore the vision of the Church must precede the vision of the world. In this vision we have

Seven Types of Church Life and Character

Seven Types of Church Life and CharacterThese seven churches represent different classes of ecclesiastical assemblies and Christian congregations. Each picture is unique and strongly marked, and we shall have no difficulty in finding its counterpart among the churches of today.

1. An Active and Orthodox Church We have in Ephesus the picture of an active and orthodox church. But it is a church whose love and spiritual life are already on the decline and which is more marked by outward organization, religious activity, Christian work and great zeal for denominational truth than for simple fervor and deep spirituality. “I know your deeds” (Revelation 2:2), He says to Ephesus, for she is chiefly characterized by works: “your hard work” (Revelation 2:2), and that is more than works, it is hard works; “and your perseverance” (Revelation 2:2), it is continued work. There are manifold agencies of Christian usefulness in this church. It has every kind of society, from a sewing society and an entertainment committee up to a foreign mission board. It is like a hive of ceaseless industry and busy work. Then it is thoroughly loyal to the denomination and the truth. It has no use for heresies or lax views of doctrine. The ring of the pulpit is true to the old theology and specially true to the denominational standards, for He says, “I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false” (Revelation 2:2). All this is well, but, alas, there is a worm at the core! There is a skeleton in the heart of this church. But there is even more. “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love” (Revelation 2:4). This does not merely mean the fervor of the early experience of Christian enthusiasm. This may change to a soberer but not less spiritual tone; He means supreme love to Christ, the love that puts Him first; for this Christ will take no substitute or excuse. This is one of the most serious dangers of our time, to substitute orthodoxy and activity for spiritual life, and it will most surely lead, as at Ephesus, to decay and final extinction.
2. A Blameless Church The next picture is very different. It is a blameless church. The Lord has nothing but praise for Smyrna. The very name means myrrh, sweetness, fragrance. This is the suffering church, persecuted for its fidelity to Christ. It is unpopular, severely tried in the furnace of affliction; but the pressure which brings out the myrrh and the suffering becomes the means of deeper sanctity and holy sweetness. How often we find some little flock that has been sorely tried and forced to maintain itself in the face of constant difficulty, opposition and even persecution, held by its very sufferings closer to the Lord.
3. A Worldly Church The next picture is the opposite. It is a worldly church. Prosperity has come in the place of trial. It dwells where Satan has his seat, and Satan’s seat is the throne of the world. It has influence, wealth, fashion, culture and every earthly advantage on its side; and the result is compromise, fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, the banquet, the festival, worldly and forbidden pleasure, licentiousness, the doctrines of the Nicolaitans which allow looseness of life along with a high profession, and the more dangerous doctrine of Balaam, which, failing to destroy the people by open attack, seduced them into unholy alliances with the people of the world. And so we find this church at the theater, at the dance, and celebrating the mixed marriages of its daughters with the men of the world, and aping the attractions of social entertainment and even of the very stage itself to draw the crowd to its door. Of course it is popular. Of course it draws. Of course wealth and culture and fashion throng its aisles and pews, but Christ says, “Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth” (Revelation 2:16).
4. A Corrupt Church The next picture is the corrupt church. It is Thyatira. It is also full of works: “I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first” (Revelation 2:19). The farther its heart gets from God the busier its hands become in the activities of ritualism. But at the heart the leaven of corruption has long been working, and its leading type is “that woman Jezebel” (Revelation 2:20), the old sorceress of Sidonia who teaches its people to commit fornication and to sacrifice unto idols. In its secret councils are found “Satan’s so-called deep secrets” (Revelation 2:25). This verse reveals a whole world of subtle sophistry and unholy spiritualism. It is that false mysticism that calls good evil and evil good; which cloaks wickedness under the guise of spiritual leading; which commits sin in the very name of the Holy Spirit, and which claims indulgences for the grossest violations of right by simply performing some religious penance or paying some high price for a mass or indulgence. It is not hard to find this type in the story of Roman Catholicism, Ritualism and Spiritualism.
5. Utter Spiritual Death We now reach an advanced type of this downward grade. It is the church of Sardis which represents utter spiritual death. It is a dead church. It still has a great name to live, but it is dead. There is no conscience that you can appeal to. There is no sense of fear or shame. It has sunk into carelessness and formalism and is like the poetic picture of the ship at sea, frozen stiff on the Arctic Ocean with a dead man standing at the helm and a dead man on the bridge and a dead man at every post while the ship drifts on as usual on her course. So many a church is moving through the age with a dead man in the pulpit, and dead men in the pews and dead men in the committee rooms, living by a kind of momentum given to it long ago when in a state of life and fulfilling like an automaton the law of habit without the power of a true spiritual life.
6. The Revival Church But now there is a sudden and delightful change. The church of Philadelphia is the revival church. Here all is different. There is life and loyalty to Christ. It is a feeble church: “You have little strength” (Revelation 3:8). But it is true to His Word, His Name, His work. We have seen such churches that seem to be strong in proportion to their natural weakness and blessed just because they have nothing to depend upon but God.
7. The Lukewarm Church But once again the picture changes and the church of Laodicea represents the lukewarm church. Here all is moderatism, respectability and ease. It is self-satisfied, delightfully estimable, and free from all extravagances and extremes. Thoroughly adjusted to the spirit of the age; but to Christ it is simply offensive and intolerable, and He is about to reject it as a nauseous and disgusting drug, and rescue from its midst the few faithful ones that are willing to be true. Such are the seven types of the Church life to be found in every age, and found in the more objectionable forms more frequently today than ever before.

Seven Prophetic Eras

Seven Prophetic ErasThese seven churches of Asia represent not only the various phases of Church life but successive epochs of Christianity. The progression is so true to life that we cannot doubt that the Lord was giving a designed forecast of the conditions of His Church from that period to the end of the age. A glance at the inspired picture and the corresponding chapter of Church history can leave no doubt in any candid mind of the striking and complete resemblance.

1. The Apostolic Age The church in Ephesus represented the condition of things in the Apostolic Age. Then the Church was in the meridian of her prosperity, full of activity and zealous for the truth. But already we find traces in the apostolic writings indicating that her spirit was beginning to decline. Paul was compelled to declare in his second epistle to Timothy that all who were in Asia had turned away from him; and even John complained in one of the latest epistles that he had written to the Church that Diotrephes who loved the preeminence had refused to receive him. The old apostles had become obsolete in the more cultivated and progressive age of prosperity, and the Church had already left her first love.
2. The Age of Persecution This was followed by the age of persecution, represented by the church of Smyrna. The 10 days of persecution which the apostle speaks of may perhaps refer to the 10 great persecutions of the first three centuries. Certainly we know that this was the second chapter of Christian history, and it was a very terrible one. But in the furnace of affliction the Church became separated from the world, purified and deepened in her spiritual life and power.
3. The Age of Pergamum Then came the next transition, the Age of Pergamum, the age of prosperity and worldly power and influence on the part of Christ’s people. Constantine, the great emperor of Rome, became a Christian on the eve of his most signal victory and, immediately after his accession to the throne, Christianity was proclaimed the religion of the state and of the world and the first great Christian emperor summoned the followers of the once despised Christ to gather together at Nice for the first great Council of the age. It was a strange sight to see men come together from dens and caves of the earth—many of them doubtless scarred and partly dismembered, bearing the marks of hideous suffering. It was a strange sight for them to see the symbol of the cross and the banner of the empire side by side, and the mighty ruler of the world standing up as the presiding officer of the great Council, and leading that vast multitude to the feet of Jesus Christ in reverent worship. Immediately the great heathen temples were transformed into Christian sanctuaries. Priests, presbyters and bishops were elevated to be princes and councilors of state, and it became true that the Church dwelt where Satan’s seat was, the imperial throne. Then came the state banquets, the eating of things sacrificed to idols, the mixture of the people of God with the world, and the baneful effects that Balaam brought of old in the corruption of Israel. The Church fell through her very prosperity, and leaning on the arm of flesh forgot the simplicity and singleness of her consecration to God.
4. The Apostate Age It was not long before the more fearful condition of Thyatira followed that of Pergamum. Close upon the heels of the world always comes the devil, and the depths of Satan followed quickly the worldliness of Pergamum. This is the picture of the rise of the Papacy with its manifold superstitions and deep corruptions. “That woman Jezebel” (Revelation 2:20), who stands out from the picture of Thyatira as the central figure, is the appropriate type of the Apostate Church, the harlot of revelation, the corruptor of the ages.
5. The Middle Ages In due time this is followed by the condition of Sardis, the dead church, the darkness and settled apostasy of the Middle Ages. This is the picture of Sardis and this was the state of the Church of Rome and most of the churches of Christendom for well nigh a thousand years. There were a few exceptions: “a few people in Sardis” (Revelation 3:4); such men as Wycliffe, Huss, Cranmer and Luther who had not “soiled their clothes” (Revelation 3:4), but who were living in protest against the evils of their time.
6. A Bright and Glorious Age Suddenly we come to a bright and glorious age. It is the church of Philadelphia and it corresponds to the Church of the Reformation. The features of this church are very distinct. The very name suggests brotherly love. It is not a strong church. “You have little strength” (Revelation 3:8). It is always in the minority with God. It is particularly noted for its devotion to the Word of God. “You have kept my word” (Revelation 3:8). This was the banner and the armor of the Reformation Church. It emancipated the Bible and made that Bible the terror of the Apostate Church. It is next marked by its devotion to the name of Jesus. The person of Christ is exalted. It is not so much a denomination, a church, as the Christ to whom all the life of the Church should ever crystallize and who should stand like Saul, head and shoulders above every organization, every leader, every man. It is marked also by an open door, a faithful service and a glorious work for God. Now at this point it is well to observe that while these different churches represent special eras of history yet they run on through the next era to the end of the chapter like seven rivers running into one great central stream, each distinct and yet all flowing on together to the end. This is the conception of the panorama of the Apocalypse. Therefore, the church of Philadelphia does not end where Laodicea begins but runs on through the period to the close. It is remarkable that this church is characterized by one other feature; namely, it is a premillennial church. It expects the Lord’s coming. It is holding fast its testimony and trust, that no man take its crown, while the Master whispers, “Yes, I am coming soon,” (Revelation 22:20) and promises that this church will be kept from the hour of tribulation which is to come upon the face of the whole earth. Therefore it reaches on to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and gathers into it the Bride of the Lamb, educating her and preparing her for His glorious appearing. But before the end another development of the organized church appears upon the stage.
7. The Modern Church The church of the Laodiceans represents the apostasy of Protestantism and the liberal movement which is starting out in these last days from a true center but is developing and is yet to develop toward the end the worst features of the false church movements of the past. It is the blending of the spirit of Ephesus with the worldliness of Pergamum, the corruptions of Thyatira and the deadness of Sardis. The first striking feature of this modern church is that it is no longer recognized by Christ as His Church but as “the Church of the Laodiceans.” It belongs to them. They have made it after their pattern and for their pleasure. The Lord will have none of it, but stands outside its door calling for those who will yet escape to receive Him and be ready for His coming. This is the second sad characteristic of it—that Christ is outside. He is represented as standing and knocking, and it is not usual for one to knock inside the door. This is a Christian church, but is so full of itself and the world that it has no room for the Lord within. We cannot call this an ideal picture when we remember the statements made by many of the leading teachers of modern Christianity to the effect that it is not necessary to believe in the blood of Christ or the divinity of the Savior to be a true Christian. Another characteristic of this church is its wealth, its prosperity, its popularity, and its utter self-complacency. The very name Laodicea means to “please the people,” and it certainly is quite pleased with itself, for its language is: “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing” (Revelation 3:17). But its most marked feature is its utter indifference. It is too respectable to go to any religious extreme. A “hallelujah” is not heard within its courts and any undue earnestness and intensity of feeling is regarded as bad form, fanaticism or sensationalism. It is gauged exactly to suit the people. It apes the attractions of the theaters and yet takes good care to close its services in time to let its members go to the opera if they want to after the prayer meeting. It has studied out well the old maxim, “Be not righteous overmuch.” It takes good care to keep religion in its place on Sunday mornings and not allow it to infringe upon the week’s business, society or pleasure. It is a thoroughly comfortable, easygoing, selfish and fashionable religious club, and the Lord has become so sick of it that He is about to spit it out of His mouth as a loathsome and offensive nuisance. It has at last reached the stage where He refuses to recognize it as His Church at all. He has gone to live with the little flock at Philadelphia, and He has said to proud Laodicea as she pursues her self-complacent way without Him: “Look, your house is left to you desolate.”

A Church Within the Church

A Church Within the ChurchAll through these letters we behold a third picture. It is a little minority in each of these corrupt churches to whom the Lord speaks His words of gracious promise and approval. There are some of them in Pergamum. There are some of them in Thyatira. There are some even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, and He is trying to gather some of them even out of Laodicea; and, while He does not expect the Church to reform, He is rescuing the individual believers who are willing to hear His voice and meet His claims. Two things characterize these:

1. Know God’s Voice They are described as, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:29). They are the men and women that know the voice of God and are hearkening to His voice and meeting His call.
2. Overcomers They are described as, “Him who overcomes” (Revelation 2:26). The word in the Greek is more significant still. The conqueror would be a more expressive translation. They are men and women who have gone in for victory in an Apostate Age over both the sufferings and seductions that surround them. And whatever others do, as for them they will be true and win the victor’s crown. Now it is most remarkable and solemn that in these epistles, and especially in the last one, the Lord seems to have abandoned the hope of saving the Church as a whole and is seeking now to save the individual. The whole body has become hopelessly corrupt and the remnant alone are to be saved. This was the case in the closing days of the Old Testament when God had to turn from Israel and Judah to Daniel, Ezekiel, Nehemiah and the faithful ones and twos of that last time. So it will be in the end of the age. We do not say that that hour has yet come in the history of the Church, but it is coming and we may well prepare for it. Sometimes it seems very near. The last days are to show how much God can accomplish by consecrated individuals who will utterly believe in Him and wholly obey Him. We will never see a single perfect church on earth till the Lord comes. The Church is but a scaffolding on which He is building the unseen temple which is yet to rise with the jeweled walls and pearly gates of the new Jerusalem. Each of us may be a stone; and the Lord is calling us one by one to hear His voice, to open the door to receive Him, to overcome and sit with Him on His throne.

The Relation and the Revelation of the Lord Jesus to the Churches

The Relation and the Revelation of the Lord Jesus to the ChurchesChrist’s attitude toward these various forms of church life is very distinctly revealed and very solemnly significant.

1. Holds Their Ministers He holds their ministers in His hands controlling, protecting, directing. Oh, faithful minister of Christ, He holds you by the hand. What have you to fear? Oh, brother, He holds your brother’s hand. Be careful how you wrong him by a word or act of wrong.
2. Walks in the Midst He walks in the midst of the churches. He is always present continually in the midst of His people. He listens to every sermon; He looks at every entertainment. He is in touch with all our busy lives.
3. Searches and Inspects He searches and inspects His churches with eyes like a name of fire. He is looking at us through and through, and He is ever saying: “I know your deeds”; for He judges. How heart-thrilling are the words in which He speaks of His discipline toward His unfaithful people. “Repent,” He cries to Ephesus, or “I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” (Revelation 2:5). “Repent,” He cries to Pergamum, or “I will soon come to you and will fight against [you] with the sword of my mouth” (Revelation 2:16). “Repent,” He cries to Thyatira, or “I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of their ways. I will strike her children dead” (Revelation 2:22-23). “Repent,” He cries to Sardis, or “I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you” (Revelation 3:3). And to Laodicea he cries “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent” (Revelation 3:19). “Repent or I will spit you out of my mouth” (see Revelation 3:16). This is no weak and effeminate Christ. This is no sentimental and indulgent Being against whom we can sin with impunity, but this is the stern heart-searching and mighty God who will render unto everyone according to his works. We must also notice the names and tides under which He reveals Himself to these churches. They correspond exactly with the state of the church. To Ephesus, He is the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands (Revelation 2:1). To suffering and martyred Smyrna, He is the One “who died and came to life again” (Revelation 2:8), and for whom death has no terrors. To compromising Pergamum who needed the separating sword, He is the One that has the sharp sword (Revelation 2:12). To Thyatira with her subtle deceitfulness, He is the One whose eyes are a flame of fire and whose glance no imposture can deceive (Revelation 2:18). To dead Sardis, He is the One that has the seven spirits of life (Revelation 3:1), able to give life even to her. To Philadelphia, He is the One with the key of David (Revelation 3:7) about to open the door of return to Israel and to establish His kingdom on earth. And to Laodicea, the last of the seven, He is the “Amen,” (Revelation 3:14) God’s last word. But in contrast with this it is blessed to observe that He not only comes to judge, but to reward. How blessed the promises that He gives in these letters to the conquering ones! How rich and heavenly the exquisite symbolism by which our hearts are tempted to turn from earth’s delusions and win the crown He brings! “To him who overcomes,” He says, “I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7). “Be faithful, even to the point of death,” He cries to Smyrna, “and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). Let go the forbidden bread, and the forbidden love of earth and sin, He says to Pergamum, and I will give you “the hidden manna” (Revelation 2:17) of heaven, and the white stone of the palace of the King, My card, with My own new name of love written on it for you alone to understand. Let go the false and fascinating promise which the devil holds out to Thyatira—false power, false light—and I will give you, at My coming, power over the nations, and the true light of the morning star and the eternal glory. And to the faithful ones in Sardis where all was so corrupt and dead, He offers the white robe and the public acclamation of their names before the Father and the holy angels. To little Philadelphia almost the richest promises of all are held out; namely, that her enemies will be brought to worship at her feet and to know that He has loved her, and that she will be saved from the hour of tribulation which is coming upon the whole earth, that she will receive the crown that He is to bring and will become a pillar in the temple of God with the name of God and Christ and the New Jerusalem upon her brow. But to Laodicea, the most faithless, He offers the most tender and magnificent promises of all. It would seem as if her very unworthiness drew out His tenderest compassion and challenged the most magnificent inducements which He could offer her to turn away from her folly and her sin. Instead of denouncing, condemning and commanding, He falls upon His knees at her very door, He knocks at her closed gates, He beseeches her to let Him in. He cries with locks wet with the dew of the morning: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). And then He crowns it all with that grandest of all His promises. Just about to come in all His glory and rear His millennial throne over the great world, He cries: “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Revelation 3:21). Oh, matchless condescension! Oh, marvelous and glorious grace! How will we escape if we neglect or despise that pleading tenderness, that precious promise?