Revealing Revelation - #4

PART FOUR

We tend to think of the word “revealing” in reference to ourselves, since we see through a glass darkly. But the book of Revelation takes up the cause of revealing Jesus and who He is and what is He like. We don’t know all we need to know about Him because Jesus was veiled in His human flesh. We couldn’t see His deity while He was on the earth, it was only afterward, after His horrible, torturous death and His dramatic, majestic resurrection that we could comprehend Him as God.
 
Jesus speaks of what displeases Him in His diatribe against the seven churches in western Turkey. First, He congratulates each church and then He blames them for His displeasure. In this revelation that Jesus gave to John on the isle of Patmos, John sees Jesus walking among these seven churches, which indicates the intimacy Jesus has with His churches. He is there. He is observing. He is correcting. He is loving them.

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• In Ephesus He acknowledges their industry, their hard work, their patient endurance. He appreciates their handling of imposters and liars. He acknowledges their intolerant view of wicked men. We can put ourselves under inspection and see if He would be pleased with us for the same things.

 

• Then He slams them with one, only one, debilitating charge. They lost their first love. How about us? Have we lost our first love? When I remember how I was at first, so madly in love with Jesus, I have to admit some of that has dropped away. I no longer listen to worship music as I fall asleep, weeping over the tender love of Jesus, bowing down beside my bed, sliding prone on the floor because my heart ached for Him. Now I take Him so much more for granted, with nary a tear falling to the floor. How about you?

 

• To those who return to their first love, He offers eternal life!

 

• To Smyrna, He tells John that He knows of their poverty, of the foul treatment given to them by abusers slanderers. And He knows of their fear.

 

Dismiss your dread and your fears! Behold, the devil is indeed about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested and proved and critically appraised, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be loyally faithful unto death (even if you must die for it), and I will give you the crown of life (Revelation 2:10 — The Amplified Bible).
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• To Pergamum He says to John to tell them He knows where they live, that Satan is king there. But God knows that His people in that place are clinging to Him. That pleases Him immensely. Probably most of us are living where Satan is enthroned. Do we hold onto our Christian Witness? Yet some of the people are like Balak who taught the Israelites how to get around God’s dictates and sin in plain sight anyway.

 
Do we sin in plain sight? Do we sneak candy into the movie theater, walking right underneath the sign that says “No Outside Food or Drink”? Do we walk the dog early in the morning so we can pick up a poorly thrown newspaper on the edge of someone’s lawn and take it home to read? Maybe it’s time for us to find our own little sins that we think no one cares about and sharpen our daily living to please God.
 

• On to the church of Thyatira, John reports that God sees their love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that their recent works are more numerous than their first ones.

 

• But this is what He has against such a faithful church:

20 But I have this against you: that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess [claiming to be inspired], and who is teaching and leading astray my servants and beguiling them into practicing sexual vice and eating food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she has no desire to repent of her immorality [symbolic of idolatry] and refuses to do so (Revelation 2:20, 21 — The Amplified Bible).
 

​The Lord seems to know that this demonic force of Satan’s warriors is enough of a battle for the Thyatirians as He tells them just to keep on keeping on. Those that do will be given authority and power over the nations.
 

• John is told to speak to those of Sardis and tell them God considers them to be dead. He can’t think of anything they have done for God. Oops! Don’t let that be you!

 

• The church called Philadelphia. Hmmn. There’s a city in the United States named after this church. I hope they did something good! Apparently, they endured and sat down with my Father on his throne. It seems they used so much power that they only have a little left, but what Jesus notes is that they have kept His word and have not denied His name. Because they have persevered, Jesus is protecting them, and they will not have to live through the tribulation. They will not lose their crown of victory, and they will be permanently secure as pillars in the sanctuary of God. Finally, Jesus will write His name on them.

 

• The seventh church in this revelation is that of Laodicea. Jesus laments that they are neither cold nor hot and therefore, He is ready to spit them out of His mouth.

 

19 All those I dearly love I unmask and train. So repent and be eager to pursue what is right. 20 Behold, I’m standing at the door, knocking. If your heart is open to hear my voice and you open the door within, I will come into you and feast with you, and you will feast with me. 21 And the one who conquers I will give the privilege of sitting with me on my throne, just as I conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne (Revelation 3:19–21 — The Passion Translation).

​I’ve only hit some highlights with you about what pleases and displeases God. You can read Revelation 1:20 through 3:22 and receive more depth at what is required of you. We are ordered in several places in the Bible to be perfect even as He is perfect. Any sensible person knows that is unobtainable. Jesus is the only perfect one. However, we can keep persevering toward that goal, getting better and better until we take our final step into heaven at the moment of our death, and there we will find ourselves to be perfect.