Of all the pieces of literature ever written, certainly the book of Revelation – the Apocalypse – is the richest source for clues and hints as to the end times, but it is interesting that the book opens with a very poignant section that addresses life leading up to the curtain call of history. As the Apostle John was confined on the penal island of Patmos, his spirit must have grieved for the churches that he had served back on the Turkish peninsula of Asia Minor. Miraculously, the Risen Lord Jesus visited him and gave him words of warning and encouragement to share with the pastors and their parishioners that he had left behind on the mainland.
Many Bible scholars have analyzed the messages given to the seven churches in chapters two and three as a prediction of the history of the church. They see the church at Ephesus (chapter 2:1-7) as depicting the zealous newly birthed church during its first century and a half (AD 30 to AD 170). The Smyrna church (chapter 2:8-11) is seen as representing the period of great persecution under the iron fist of Rome (AD 170 through AD 312). The compromising church of Pergamos (chapter 2:12-17) is designated as a representative of the period when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and, therefore, made many concessions to the secular government (AD 312 to approximately AD 600). Thyatira (chapter 2:18-29), at least to the Protestant authors, represents the thousand years that the Roman Catholic Church – in their mind, the harlot church – dominated the scene (AD 600 until 1517). The church at Sardis (chapter 3:1-6) is spoken of as being dead even though it was seen as alive and as needing to strengthen the things that were ready to die. To the scholars who have characterized these churches as depicting various stages in church history, this church stands for the Reformation period when the church was struggling to come back to life (AD 1517 through AD 1750). The Philadelphia church (chapter 3:7-13) which had an open door set before it is seen as representing the period of great mission expansion beginning with William Carey and continuing through the twentieth century (AD 1750 through AD 2000). The last church in the sequence is the lukewarm Laodicean church (chapter 3:14-22) that Jesus sees as so detestable that He vomits it up. Unfortunately, the only period of history left to relegate to this church is our present generation.
In each of these letters, the Lord addressed issues that are not unique to the churches distanced from us by two millennia nor characteristic to only certain periods of history. The real truth is that He exposed conditions that have existed throughout the history of the Christian church and continue in congregations today. Those words of correction and encouragement are just as vital for us today as they were when the ink was still wet on the apostle’s parchment. In fact, that is why He ended each letter with the admonition that those who have ears to hear must hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches. Notice that He did not instruct us to hear what the Spirit is saying to any individual church depicting our specific pigeonhole in history; rather, He directed us to hear what He is saying to all the churches.
As we prepare to live life for the end times, we must understand and live by the messages that He gave to all the churches. In the following sections, we will explore the gist of the message given to each church. The studies are not exegetical analyses of the actual passages from the book of Revelation; rather, they are messages addressing the specific issues that troubled the churches that John addressed and that still plague believers today.
Ephesus – Predicament of Passion
The church at Ephesus dealt with the predicament of misdirected passion. In Revelation 2:1-7, Jesus addressed this church as the One who stands among the candlesticks and holds the seven stars in His hand. From the previous chapter of the Apocalypse, we understand that this symbolism means that He is standing among the seven churches that are to be addressed while holding their pastors in His very hand. In other words, He is very much involved with the churches. This is a powerful revelation for this particular church in that He soon reveals that this church has failed in its relationship to Him. As we read the Lord’s address to the Ephesian church, we see that their emphasis seems to be on their works and their efforts to discern any errors that have manifested themselves in the congregation. The Lord stressed that He was aware of their works, labors, patience, zero tolerance for evil, investigation of false apostles, and hatred for the Nicolaitans. Unfortunately, there was one problem that beset this church – they had lost their first love. They had become so focused on the work of the Lord that they had let their focus get off of the Lord of the work.
We can gain some insight into how such a thing can happen by looking into the lives of Jesus and His disciples. Mark chapter six records a very intense time in their ministry.
And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. (Mark 6:30-32)
The disciples had just returned from an extensive mission trip and had come to Jesus to report on their adventures. However, so many people continued to come to them for ministry that they couldn’t even take time for a simple meal. The Master realized that they needed a break. He knew that they had to “come apart” before they “came apart,” so He suggested a picnic in a deserted area on the shores of the Galilee. However, the plan didn’t quite work.
And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him. (Mark 6:33)
As you would expect, Jesus’ heart of compassion overruled His hungry stomach and weary body.
And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things. And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. (Mark 6:34-36)
The disciples, on the other hand, seemed to be a little less heavenly minded about the matter. When they suggested that Jesus send the people away, it was likely a subtle way of reminding Him that they had come to the deserted place for a picnic; but now the time had passed, and they still hadn’t had their break. The only problem was that their scheme didn’t work. Instead of getting rid of the people so that they could rest, the disciples wound up having to feed the multitude.
He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men. (Mark 6:37-44)
Since there were about five thousand men plus their wives and children present, the crowd must have certainly added up to at least twelve thousand people. This means that each disciple had to single-handedly serve a minimum of a thousand people. Then, they had to clean up after the event. The biblical record is that there were twelve baskets of fragments, meaning that each one of the disciples collected a full barrel of trash.
On top of the unexpected serving that they had to do for this picnic that had turned into the world’s most famous banquet, Jesus commanded them to get directly into the boat and start rowing across the lake.
And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. (Mark 6:45)
They didn’t even get a chance to sit down before He forcefully made them board the vessel and begin to row the ship the long direction across the sea. They were busy changing hats from waiters to busboys and then to oarsmen.
And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. (Mark 6:47-48)
These poor disciples toiled at the oars from evening (just after sunset) until the fourth watch (the last watch just before daybreak). In other words, they rowed all night under very adverse conditions due to the violent storm that arose. Not only had they worked all night, they hadn’t accomplished anything through all their labor – they were still within visual distance of their starting point because the passage specifically notes that Jesus was able to see them. Remember that all this was after having catered and cleaned up after the big banquet – and that they had just come off of an intensive ministry schedule that had not even allowed them the leisure to grab a bite between appointments! Finally, they had what they thought would be a moment to relax; but they wound up spending their whole day – and now the whole night – laboring without the rest Jesus had offered them. But they were determined to do the work that Jesus had given them. They accomplished very little that night, evidenced by the fact that they were still in vision range of Jesus the next morning – and considering that the storm was still raging, we can safely assume that there was not much visibility that morning. Yet, they refused to give up or bring the ship back to shore. They were determined to fulfill the work of the Lord, regardless of the obstacles.
Most ministers find themselves – pardon the pun – in the same boat with these disciples, continually giving out to the needs of others. They often, like Jesus’ disciples in the above story, are never able to stop for a simple break or vacation. As a result, ministerial burn out is becoming an increasing problem within the church. It has been estimated that a minimum of seventeen percent of America’s clergymen suffer from long-term stress or “burn out.” In fact, second only to maternity benefits, the largest proportion of ministers’ medical claims goes to treating stress-related illnesses. One minister described his burn out as a result of more than a quarter century of tirelessly serving as preacher, teacher, minister, counselor, fundraiser, and administrator that resulted in “subconsciously navigating into the age-old ‘walk on water’ syndrome – the notion that, because you’re a preacher, you can accomplish anything.”
Bingo! The statement brings us to the core of the matter – walking on water. It was precisely in the context of the story we are studying that Jesus did exactly this: He walked on water. Notice that Jesus didn’t seem to be stressed out at all by the vacation that didn’t happen. That is because He had a different source of strength. In John 4:34, He expressed it this way, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Jesus knew the secret of taking a vacation from what He was doing while realizing that He could never take a vacation from who He was. He promised us that we could also come to the place that our ministry is really who we are, not what we do. Notice in Acts 1:8 that He promised that we would receive power from the Holy Spirit to be witnesses – not to do witnessing.
The secret to why He was able to walk on water and not be overcome with the stress of the ministry is found in the one verse we skipped over in our reading. Look back at verse forty-six, And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. Jesus knew that to be able to give anything to the people and not to exhaust Himself in the process, He must have a renewed source from the Father. He had to separate Himself in prayer so that He would have God’s love flowing through Him as a pipeline. Even Jesus Christ Himself was not sufficient to meet the needs of the people. He could only give out as much as He received from the Father. In His own words, Jesus described His limitations.
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (John 5:19)
Before we look into Jesus’ little stroll across the Sea of Galilee, let’s take a quick look at this great body of water itself. The Sea of Galilee is fed by the upper Jordan River that originates at Mount Hermon. The water from this mountain first flows through the Sea of Galilee and then through the length of the country to its final destination in the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee teems with life; however, the Dead Sea – as its very name depicts – sustains nothing in its waters. The difference between these two seas is that the Galilee receives and gives – it is a pipeline. The Dead Sea has no outlet – it is only a taker. Because it is not in the ministry of giving, it is dead. We can learn a lesson from the Dead Sea: our lives will also become barren when we cease to give into others’ lives. On the other hand, the Galilee is a constant giver. From this living lake, life-giving water is pumped throughout the state of Israel to irrigate crops and service the cities.
A number of years ago, during a visit to the Holy Land, constant rains made our trip rather uncomfortable. The locals insisted that we not complain, saying that without the showers, we would not have showers. The water level in the Sea of Galilee was so low due to a long drought that the intake valve for the pumping station was sticking out of the water. Every day without rain meant that the pumping system was taking out water that was not being replenished and getting closer and closer to shutting down. Without these rain showers, our hotels would soon run out of water and we would be without showers. From this sea, we learn a lesson on the other end of the spectrum: we must have a source of replenishment if we are to remain viable and vibrant ministers.
I once read a survey that indicated that the average pastor spends less than seven minutes a day in personal time with God. By personal time, I mean time spent in prayer, Bible study, and meditation totally unrelated to his ministry. Bible study while preparing sermons doesn’t count – nor does interceding for the needs of the church. Only time spent with God because He is our lord and the lover of our soul qualifies.
As we’ve already noted, Jesus Himself readily admitted that He could do nothing unless He was able to pattern it after what He saw in the person of His Father. We often mistakenly think that Jesus somehow knew everything about the Father intrinsically; however, this is not the case. Luke 2:52 explains that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man, implying that He had to develop an understanding of God and that His life became increasingly more favorable to God as this understanding grew. The same is true in the life of every believer; as we expand our knowledge of God, our faith grows. This is why the Apostle Peter admonished us that grace and peace would be multiplied unto us through our knowledge of God. (II Peter 1:2) Interestingly enough, the Greek word that Peter used in this verse means “an all-encompassing knowledge.” In other words, we must know everything there is to know about God if we expect to live in His grace and peace.
It was in His private time with the Father that Jesus was able to see and understand the nature of His Father and obtain the pattern for His own ministry. In His personal time with the Lord, Jesus understood that God the Father was concerned that the people were like a shepherdless flock.
Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd. (Numbers 27:17)
Jesus was also moved to address this need among the people.
And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things. (Mark 6:34)
He also saw that the Father not only gave the people His living Word; He also supernaturally provided for all their human needs.
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. (Deuteronomy 8:3)
Jesus responded by not only teaching them but also began to minister to the people’s physical needs.
And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled. (Mark 6:41-42)
Jesus was so attuned to doing everything exactly like His Father that He had the people sit down on the green grass along the shore of a body of water.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. (Psalm 23:2)
And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. (Mark 6:39)
But what did Jesus discover about the Father during this night that He spent in prayer on the mountain? I believe that He must have been brought to the revelation that His heavenly Father walked on water and also calmed angry storms at sea.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2)
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters. (Psalm 29:3)
Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. (Psalm 77:19)
Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind. (Psalm 104:3)
Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. (Psalm 89:9)
If the Father could do it, Jesus knew that He could also walk on the raging waters and take authority over the stormy sea. In like manner, any believer who wants to pattern his life and ministry after the character of God must spend some quality time with the Father getting to know His personality.
Let me ask you to give an honest, soul-searching answer to the question of how much personal prayer and Bible study time is in your daily schedule. I’m afraid that we would be surprised as to how many of us – if we gave a truthful answer to this question – would have to say, “None”!
I once asked a good friend of mine who is the wife of a former pastor why her husband left the ministry. Her answer was straight forward, “In all the years he was in the ministry, I never saw him open his Bible except when he was preparing for his sermon. He preached great sermons with real insight into biblical truth, but he never read the Bible for what it could say to him personally.” This former minister now works a very demanding secular job that takes at least sixty hours of his life every week and leaves him too exhausted to do anything else during the few hours he does have at home. He never goes to church and rarely spends any time with his family. His children have grown up and escaped from his life as he recuperated in front of the television and napped on the sofa after his hard day at work. He lost not only his ministry, but also his family – and his own spiritual life – because he fell into the common trap of neglecting his personal time with God. But why would a man of God willingly cut himself off from the very source of his life and ministry? Perhaps we find the answer in the very opening pages of the Word of God.
When Adam and Eve lived in innocence in the Garden of Eden, the highlight of their day must have been the daily walk they took with God. However, that all changed the instant that they ate of the forbidden fruit. As soon as they sinned, they began to try to find ways to cover themselves and to try to find places to hide when the Lord showed up. What had been the most important part of their day became the thing they dreaded and recoiled from.
In our lives, we may not be quite so blatant about our reluctance to meet with the Lord, but the same principle holds true: if we love Him, we will relish every opportunity to be with Him; if we have welcomed other things into our hearts, we will be negligent and casual about coming to Him. For example, if a person is committing adultery he won’t want to read the Bible or pray because he knows that he’ll run across the commandment that says not to commit adultery and that the Holy Spirit will reprove him for his sin. In similar fashion, the busy pastor can let the ministry become his “mistress” to the point where he will become afraid to come face to face with God because he knows that he is cheating against the God who requires that he love Him with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind (Luke 10:27) with a love that makes any other relationship seem like hatred (Luke 14:26).
Other than Jesus, only one man is recorded as having walked on water. We know the story of how Peter failed in his attempt once he looked at the waves and took his eyes off Jesus. Just like Jesus could walk on water because He responded to the Word of God, Peter walked on the water as a response to the word of Jesus, “Come!” But first, the disciple cried out to Jesus asking Him to tell him to come; he was drawing himself to Jesus, seeking to hear from the Master. In our own lives and ministries, we must realize that we will seldom hear the Lord’s voice if we don’t first make the effort of drawing ourselves to Him. (James 4:8) Then we must act on and trust in His Word. In Peter’s case, he began to sink as soon as he began to pay attention to the storm rather than the Master. Likewise, we will falter in our ministries if we move our focus off of our personal fellowship with the Lord. Let me suggest several integral elements that can help us develop an effective personal time with God that will prove to be a life source for our personal lives and our ministries.
First is our Bible. This book is the divinely inspired Word of God. Unlike any other religious book: the Koran, the Pali Canon, the Bhagavad Gita, or even our favorite daily devotional – it is God’s direct word to us. This is the word that we must hide in our hearts if we desire not to sin against the Lord. (Psalm 119:11) I call it the owner’s manual for our lives because in it we find all the instruction necessary for every area of living. Because the answers may not be categorized and listed in the index for easy reference, we need to study the Bible and become familiar with its truths. Therefore, I recommend that the Bible be read systematically. We must set a planned program of reading through the Bible so that we have a chance to expose ourselves to all that it says. Three chapters a day and five on Sunday will take us through the entire book each year. Reading even one chapter a day – as long as we are consistent – is a workable approach to familiarizing ourselves with the full counsel of God’s Word. Next, I would rush to say that the Bible must be read devotionally. Yes, it must be read with the accuracy of a scientific or legal document because it is the precise truth upon which the entire universe stands and functions, but it is also a love letter – the very heartbeat of a gracious God for His treasured children. We must read it with the expectancy and excitement that we would read a personal message from our lover, dearest friend, or closest relative.
Of course, the important thing about the scripture is that it must be read with the intent to apply it to our everyday living. Principles, truths, and concepts are no more than good thoughts unless put into action. The Bible is actually spirit and life, and it becomes spiritual life inside us as we internalize it by meditating on it day and night as God commanded Joshua to do. (Joshua 1:8) We must become so full of its truth that our entire worldview and core belief system are determined by biblical principles. We should be so filled with God’s Word that we automatically have a verse that rises inside us for each situation we meet.
A clever little acrostic to help us note the proper attitude we must have toward the Word of God spells out the “word”:
Worshipfully – read the Word with reverence
Orderly – read it systematically
Regularly – read it daily
Directionally – read it with the intent to follow its instructions
The second element in developing a daily fellowship with the Lord is prayer. True prayer is communication with Him: not just talking to Him, but talking with Him – letting Him talk back. There are many different kinds of prayer and many different patterns for developing a lifestyle that incorporates all of them into our daily prayer life. Remember that prayer is not just a shopping list, nor is it just spiritual warfare, nor is it just a time to speak in tongues; it is a time of personal fellowship with God. Address Him with the respect He deserves as Creator of the universe but with the intimacy He desires as Redeemer of our souls; then listen for His response with the readiness you show to your employer and the rapture you experience with your most cherished loved one.
Faith is the third element I’ll discuss, though it may well deserve to be in first place. Without it, it is impossible to even come to God. (Hebrews 11:6) I know that all sorts of fireworks start exploding in our minds when we mention faith. We all have pictures and images in our minds of “faith.” For some, it is getting great sums of money miraculously; for others, it is seeing diseases suddenly disappear before their very eyes. But let’s be a little more down-to-earth if we can. The scriptures teach that we all have been given the measure of faith; and since we aren’t all seeing our water bottles suddenly change color, there must be another definition for faith that we can apply to our lives. My personal favorite is found in Hebrews 11:11 where it is recorded that Sarah had faith because she believed in the faithfulness of God. What a wonderful way to understand our faith life: simply believing that God is a God of integrity who will do what He said He will do. Of course, believing entails more than just giving mental assent to a concept; it means banking our lives on it! If we know what God has said from our time in the Bible and know that He has said those things to us individually through our time in prayer, then we simply apply our faith and live like He is really going to do what He said!
Books, tapes, and sermons can play an important part in our daily fellowship time with God. However, I have opted to list them fourth because they are second-hand, predigested truth – truth that someone else has fed off of and then passed on to us as a mother does when she breastfeeds a baby. The mother eats the meat, extracts the nutrients, and passes them on to her baby. This is, of course, a wonderful form of nourishment for the baby. Not only is it delicious and nutritious, it is also comforting. However, just as we come to a place in our physical lives where we learn to eat our own solid food, the same is true in our spiritual lives. If you saw The Last Emperor, you may remember a scene where the adolescent emperor turned to a wet nurse for milk. I’m certain that you were as repulsed as I was. However, the Bible says that all too many Christians are just like that oriental potentate – we don’t know when to give up the milk. Hebrews 5:12-14 uses this exact metaphor to challenge us to mature in our understanding and application of the scriptures. Just as we would not settle for a long-term relationship with our closest friend through only second-hand communication, we should not settle for hearing from God only through other people’s revelations in books, tapes, and sermons.
Perhaps music should not be mentioned this far down the list. Certainly, it deserves to come some place further up the list. After all, David did say that it was with music that he entered into the very presence of the Lord. (Psalm 100:2) It is likely that the repetitive nature of music reaffirms the truths of the lyrics by the same principle that meditation solidifies the truths of the scriptures as we repeat and recite them. Music seems to actually be spiritual in its very nature. In fact, the very origin of music is described as having been incorporated in Lucifer, who was at that time the anointed cherub who covered the very presence of God. (Ezekiel 28:13) So again we see music closely associated with the intimate presence of the Lord. On a side note, it seems that when Lucifer became the devil he perverted the quality of music and turned it into an instrument to bring his servants into closeness with him. Music – both sacred and diabolical – gets into the human spirit and also sets the atmosphere – either for the Holy Spirit or demonic spirits.
The next suggestion I’m going to make may be a bit surprising: bring a pen and paper into this private time with the Lord. God spoke to the prophet Habakkuk and commanded him to write down the revelation he received. (Habakkuk 2:2) When we are quiet before the Lord, our spirit man is at its most dominant point, ruling over the soul and flesh. It is then that we have the clearest channel through which the Lord can speak. Surprisingly, many of the things He will tell us will be very mundane – not the least bit spiritual. We shouldn’t be surprised if He reminds us of errands we need to run and business matters we need to settle; He is the God who is concerned about our total well being and He wants to see that we are in control of every detail of our lives. Jot these little reminders down so that, like a good steward, we can handle them as soon as we get back to our work-a-day schedule. Once He has taken care of all the petty business, He will begin to bring us into His private confidence where He begins to disclose new revelations. We must mark down these truths for further study and meditation; this reflection will allow us an opportunity to analyze the thoughts and give the Holy Spirit occasion to solidify and clarify the message.
You should also bring your Bible into your prayer closet because God will often use passages from the scripture to answer the questions that are in your heart. After all, why should He have to repeat Himself to individually answer every question when He has already had His servants write out the exact prescriptions we need for healing our sicknesses, the precise blueprints we need for building our lives, and correct formulas we need for solving our problems.
My last thought concerning spending time alone with God is going to seem rather out of place at first: get involved in corporate worship. The book of Hebrews admonishes us not to fail to assemble ourselves together for group worship. (Hebrews 10:25) In Old Testament language, iron will sharpen other iron. (Proverbs 27:17) We will be challenged and buoyed by others as they draw close to God. In like manner, we will also draw others into the presence of the Lord as we enter in. In scientific terms, it is synergism – the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. The biblical illustration is that, if each of us can individually chase one thousand, two in unison can put ten thousand to flight. (Deuteronomy 32:30) There is also safety in numbers in that we lift one another up if we fall or falter. The element of accountability keeps us from pursuing extremes that can so easily allure us if we spent excessive time alone – even if it is in prayer and study. Accountability also protects us from failing to be responsible to uphold our commitment to regular personal time with God. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)
I know that it seems that we’ve strayed pretty far afield from the story of the disciples as they crossed the Sea of Galilee. So let’s go back and finish the passage.
But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out: For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.
Notice the explanation that is given as to why the disciples had difficulty: their hearts were hardened. If you will remember, the whole premise of our present study is that ministers are often driven to exhausting extremes because of the goodness of their hearts and the hearts they have to serve the Body of Christ. It is amazing that when we get to the conclusion of the story we find that these individuals who had such servant’s hearts are said to have hardened hearts – a condition that prevailed in them even until after the resurrection. (Mark 16:14) In a quick survey of the Bible, we will discover that hardness of the heart is associated with not being willing to listen to and obey the voice of God. In some cases, hardness comes from outright rebellion. Probably the most well documented case of a heart hardened by rebellion was the Egyptian pharaoh who repeatedly refused to hear the oracles of God spoken through Moses. (Exodus 7:13, 8:15) The king refused to hear the words of Jeremiah that he spoke from the very mouth of the Lord; his action was labeled as “hardening his heart.” (II Chronicles 36:13) Ezekiel accused the nation of Israel of this condition because they were unwilling to hear the Word of the Lord. (Ezekiel 3:7) Jesus labeled the people of his time as being subject to this malady, saying that it was a work of the devil to keep them from salvation. (Mark 10:5, John 12:40) Unfortunately – as seen in the case of these well-meaning disciples – a hard heart can be the unexpected by-product of a heart of compassion that has allowed its focus to get off target by concentrating on the work of the Lord rather than the Lord of the work. (Matthew 24:12, Galatians 5:6, II Timothy 3:5, I Corinthians 13:1-3)
At this point, we need to ask a significant question, “If Jesus knew that personal time with the Father was so important, why didn’t He invite the disciples to come up the mountain with Him rather than sending them out into the boat that night?” But before I answer that question, I need to tell you a little story about my summer employment between college semesters one year. I worked in a cardboard box factory, making the big containers that appliances are shipped in. My job was to shove huge sheets of corrugated board into a stitching machine that stapled the ends together. The machine was very noisy; so I was essentially isolated in my own little world. Before I reported to work each morning, I memorized a verse of scripture to meditate on while running my machine. When we had our midmorning cigarette and coffee break, I used the time to memorize a second scripture to meditate on until the lunch break when I would memorize a third passage. During the afternoon cigarette and coffee break, I memorized a fourth verse to meditate on until the end-of-the-shift whistle blew. I personally believe that that summer was one of the most productive periods in my spiritual life. My guess is that Jesus was trying to send His disciple on a similar journey when He directed them into the boat that evening. He must have been trying to get them to understand that they could concentrate on His teachings and fellowship in the spirit even in the middle of their work. Had the disciples spent that night digesting all that they had heard during the teaching that day, they would have grown spiritually through the stormy night. However, it is more likely that they spent those dark hours grumbling and complaining about how tired they were and about the picnic that never happened. The end result was that their hearts were hardened, even in their heroic attempt to please the Lord by accomplishing every possible good work.
The very familiar story of Mary and Martha may help us bring the whole issue into perspective. Martha busied herself trying to serve the Lord while Mary disciplined herself to sit at His feet. Of the two, Mary was commended as having chosen the one necessary thing whose benefits cannot be taken away: personal fellowship with God. (Luke 9:38-42) Like Martha, the disciples and the church at Ephesus had become so busy trying to serve the Lord that they had failed to spend quality time with Him as did her sister Mary. In our passage in Revelation, Jesus said that the pastor at Ephesus and his congregation needed to repent and go back to their first works. From this passage, we can see that there is no problem with works; the problem is the attitude from which the works are done. Remember that the apostle Paul challenged the church at Corinth that their works would be unprofitable if they were not done from a heart of love. (I Corinthians 13:1-3) If the love is restored, the works will become profitable. The Lord also made the promise that if they would repent He would restore them to the tree of life that grew in the paradise of God when Adam and Eve enjoyed full and free fellowship with their Creator.
Smyrna – Presence of Persecution
The address to the pastor of the congregation at Smyrna focused on the presence of persecution. Persecution of the church is prophetically part of the end times. When I first began to study this topic, I resisted by telling the Lord that I was a “good news” preacher and did not want to bring bad news to the people I so dearly love. He reminded me that if I teach only from the Bible, I couldn’t be preaching bad news because the word “gospel” itself literally means “good news”!
The bad news is that the Bible predicts that the church will experience universal persecution in these last days. The good news is that God has made a provision for us in this persecution! In fact, there is immediate good news for this church in that it is one of only two of the churches addressed in Revelation that has no accusation levied against it. Jesus gave us at least three great directives concerning how we are to respond to persecution. The first is found in Matthew 5:11-12.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
There are two great principles to learn from this passage. The first one is that we must look at persecution positively. Jesus said that we are blessed when we are persecuted. We are all eager for God’s blessings – thinking of money, good health, nice homes, and happy families. How many of us have virtually memorized the first portion of Deuteronomy chapter twenty-eight as we have so frequently quoted the litany of blessings listed there? But being persecuted isn’t exactly on that list! Jesus goes on to say that this persecution is actually reason to celebrate and rejoice! Perhaps a little look at the book of Hebrews might give us an insight into how we can actually rejoice when facing persecution. In the great “roll call of faith” in chapter eleven, those who had to endure suffering and loss were no less men of faith than those who were listed as ones who saw miraculous deliverances. In Hebrews 11:32-40 we learn something about the differences between them. Notice that some of them were delivered from their persecution. This was a deliverance of the body.
And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword.
Others were delivered in their persecution. This deliverance was of the soul.
Out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.
Still others were delivered through their persecution. These experienced deliverance in the spirit.
Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
If we look at the whole section in Hebrews, we see that there are four areas of suffering that are addressed. The first is a trial of our faith. (Hebrews 11:36) This area is just a test to see how solid your faith is; it is nothing to be concerned about if you are secure in your faith. The second is persecution from the devil. (Hebrews 12:4) This suffering results from the devil’s hatred for those who are doing damage to his kingdom; therefore, it is cause to rejoice because you know that you are doing something right. The third area mentioned is the chastening of the Lord. (Hebrews 12:7) The word “chastening” is used in the context of parents lovingly disciplining their children through training and education. Never used to speak of punishment, this term speaks instruction in what is good and right, such as instilling virtue and instituting proper correction to guard a child from doing evil. Chastening is not punishment; rather, it is part of God’s training and education to curb and correct misdirection or evil in a believer’s life. (Deuteronomy 8:5, II Samuel 7:14) When this one comes, it means that we are doing something wrong, but it is still a time to rejoice because we know that God still loves us enough to correct us.
The fourth area to be addressed is weariness in the race. (Hebrews 12:12) This suffering is actually more intense than the English translation conveys in that the term “race” in Greek is the root for our modern word “agony.” I once talked with two different men who had recently run in twenty-six-mile marathons. One gentleman who was almost ready to drop out of the Chicago Marathon said that just when he was ready to “throw in the towel,” he saw an amputee adjusting his artificial leg. The gentleman who ran in the New York Marathon described how he was able to cope with swollen knees, aching joints and feet, and the experience of “hitting the wall” by his sheer determination to raise money to feed hungry children through pledges he had raised in conjunction with the race. Of course, neither of these stories even comes close to what happened at the 2011 Chicago Marathon when Amber Miller gave birth a few minutes after finishing the race in six hours and twenty-five minutes. Sounds like agony to me! It is only the knowledge that you will come out better on the other side of the agony that can make it worth the suffering. Jesus experienced this at the Rock of Agony (Luke 22:44), and came out of the Garden of Gethsemane in the perfect will of the Father (Matthew 26:42).
Three great New Testament writers expound on this truth:
But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. (Hebrews 10:32-34)
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (James 1:2-5)
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:3-5)
It is said of Jesus that He was able to endure the cross because of the joy that was set before Him. (Hebrews 12:2) When we know that God has a good plan for us (Jeremiah 29:11) – even if we have to go through persecution to get there – we can rejoice. We can’t rejoice in the face of every pain, such as an injury or a sickness, but you can rejoice when you know that the persecution is a part of God’s great redemptive plan. This is why Paul could say in II Corinthians 7:4 that he was joyful in all tribulation. The joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10) and it is at a time of persecution that you need the most strength. Therefore, rejoicing is an absolute must when we face persecution.
The second thing we learn from this statement of Jesus in which He listed suffering persecution as one of the Beatitudes is reaffirmed in another of His teachings – this one from His last conversation with the disciples prior to His arrest.
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. (John 15:20)
His message here is that we are not to take the persecution personally. We must remember that no one hates us as individuals; they hate the Christ inside us. They hated the prophets, they hated Christ, and they hate us because the light of God emanating from believers exposes the darkness of their sinfulness. They are not trying to hurt us; rather, they are trying to douse the light that shines through us! In the parable of the vineyard keepers (Matthew 21:33-41), we learn that the messengers who came to the wicked vineyard keepers were abused and even killed, but it was not they themselves that were the object of the persecution – it was the vineyard owner whom they represented. In fact, Jesus Himself went so far as to ask Saul of Tarsus why he was persecuting Him (Christ) even though all the injuries he had inflicted were actually against the church members. (Acts 9:1-4)
A third quote from Jesus gives us a directive on how to respond to those who inflict persecution upon us. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. (Matthew 5:44) We all have a natural reflex of wanting to fight back at those who hurt us, but we have learned that two wrongs don’t make a right so we try not to hurt those who hurt us. However, Christ takes us far beyond this level by telling us to do good to them. Before we react to such a statement, we must remember that Jesus did just that by crying out to the Father to forgive the very ones who were crucifying Him. (Luke 23:34) Stephen, the first martyr, followed the example of the Lord by praying for the violent mob as they stoned him to death. (Acts 7:59-60) Even more personally, we must include ourselves in the list of “bad guys” who received the love of Christ as Romans 5:10 reminds us that Christ died for us while we were still His enemies. The Apostle Paul, who had the unusual experience of being both a persecutor of the faith and then one who received persecution for his faith, echoed the words of our Lord in Romans 12:14, Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
I see a couple important points concerning why we are directed to pray for our persecutors. The first is that it turns our focus away from ourselves. Without an external focus, we become self-centered in our prayers and develop pity. If you throw a pity-party, RSVP with a “regret.” Elijah presented himself as an example of how God deals with those who turn inward and weep over their persecution. When he lamented that he was the only prophet still alive and that he should just as soon be dead, God soundly rebuked him and revealed to him that there were yet seven thousand other faithful ones who had not yielded to the oppressor’s threats. (I Kings 19:14-18)
The second reason that we should pray for our oppressors is that it may actually result in their conversion and, therefore, our deliverance. Paul taught us to pray for those in governmental authority so that we may lead peaceable lives. (I Timothy 2:2) Although this verse does not specifically mention that these rulers may be oppressive, we must remember that the Roman government at the time of the New Testament was beginning to persecute the Christian church. In Paul himself we have a splendid example of a persecutor who was converted to the faith – a conversion that very likely was at least partially the result of the prayers of those whom he persecuted.
When I was in graduate school, I suffered severely under a professor who seemed to almost go out of his way to give me a hard time. This went on for several semesters. All the time, I was constantly praying about the situation. One day in class, he mentioned something that triggered a revelation; I could see behind the professor into the human that he really was. I caught a glimpse into the window of his life to discover that he was a man hurting from family problems at home. From that moment, I stopped praying about him and began to pray for him. Miraculously, his attitude and actions toward me took a dramatic turn for the better, and our relationship experienced a total turn around. Without realizing it I had applied this biblical principle to my problem and had experienced remarkable results.
Another point from Jesus’ teachings can be applied to help us understand our relationship to persecution. In the parable of the four soils (also known as the parable of the sower), He told of some seeds that fell into some shallow soil that did not allow for the roots to grow down too deeply. He said that the plants that grew from such seeds would wither in the hot sun, and He went on to parallel these plants with Christians whose lives are not deeply rooted in Christ. Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. (Matthew 13:21)
We must develop a deep faith in Christ that does not waiver no matter what difficulties may come our way. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. (Psalm 34:19) We must be convinced as Paul was that no amount of persecution will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Romans 8:35) We must be convinced of the promise that Jesus Himself is with us just as He appeared as the fourth man in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. (Daniel 3:25) These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33) We must gain assurance that He personally will avenge us.
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:6)
With this kind of revelation concerning our condition, we can come to the unshakable position Paul described in Romans 12:12, Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing constant in prayer. In Acts 5:4, the early disciples actually rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ. They had apparently come to such a very mature relationship with Christ and revelation of His plan that their being identified with Christ was more important than their temporal pleasure or security. This maturity is demonstrated in the prayer they prayed after being dragged before the council, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy Child Jesus. (Acts 4:29-30) Their prayer wasn’t to stop the persecution but to extend the ministry. It is interesting to note that they called for more miracles (God’s work, not theirs), apparently because they realized that the persecution was really against Him, not them. Since these signs were promised as confirmation to the validity of the message they were preaching (Mark 16:17), the prayer that they would continue was a commitment that the disciples were going to continue their ministry of preaching and evangelism!
A few chapters later (Acts 8:1) we read that the persecution in Jerusalem became the impetus for mission work outside the city and region. Sometimes we mistakenly see this as part of God’s plan to spread the church; in reality, God’s plan of expansion as set forth in Acts 1:8 was that the message would reach the ends of the earth – not because of persecution, but because of the power of the Holy Spirit.
We have often been told – and I’ve said it myself – that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, based on a statement from the second-century church leader Tertullian. It is true that every time the enemy has tried to destroy the church, God has raised up a new army of men and women to follow Him. But the overpowering truth is that the seed of the church is the blood of Christ. The fact of the matter is that the church grows when men and women yield themselves to the anointing of the Holy Spirit, regardless of the conditions around them. In fact, it grows best under peaceful conditions – not persecution. The point I want to stress here is that the church grows in spite of, not because of, persecution.
One last point we must understand is that we must never confuse persecution and simple punishment for wrongdoing. In his first epistle, Peter addressed the possibility of misunderstanding this point several times (I Peter 2:20, 3:14, 3:17, 4:15, 4:16, 4:19), implying that some Christians could mistake their directive to disobey the ungodly laws prohibiting their faith for a blanket permit to disobey all authority. Of course, we know that human authorities – whether in the home, school, or civil arena – are established by God to keep order in our lives. It is only when they blatantly violate the God-ordained commandments and prohibit the expression of our faith and begin to persecute us for holding to our faith that we are permitted – no, commanded – to challenge their authority and place ourselves in line for their persecution.
In all these things we have one overwhelming warning accompanied with an even more overwhelming promise:
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast earned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (II Timothy 3:12-17)
In other words: if we stay in the Word, God will see us through! The perfecting does not come from going through persecution, but from staying in the Word.
Another amazing aspect of our response to persecution is found in Ephesians chapter six. Unfortunately, we often spend so much time in the chapter studying about putting on the armor yet seldom figure what to do with the military gear once we get it on. Notice that Paul concluded the discussion with the mandate to pray.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6:18-20)
Do you see it now? One of the main purposes of spiritual warfare is to undergird the persecuted Body of Christ! We must pray for our brothers and sisters in those secret corners of the earth who cry out and have no ear but God’s to hear their pleas, who weep but have no eye but God’s to see their tears, who suffer but have no heart but God’s to feel their pain, who stumble but have no arm but God’s to uphold them, who bleed but have no hand but God’s to mend their wounds. These brave souls, like the apostles, rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer persecution for Christ (Acts 5:41); they, like Stephen, pray for their persecutors (Acts 7:60); they, like Paul, would scold us if we suggested that they take the easy way out to avoid their tragic fate (Acts 21:13) – BUT they hurt nonetheless! And we must help bear their burdens (Galatians 6:2) to the point that it is as if we were suffering with them (Romans 12:15).
It was this kind of prayer that saved a medical missionary from death. He served a small field hospital in an African nation and frequently traveled through the jungle to obtain supplies from a nearby city. On one trip, the missionary stopped a fight between two young men and treated the wounds of one. He then made the two-day bicycle trip back to the hospital. Two weeks later he returned to the city and met the man he had treated. “Some friends and I followed you into the jungle knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs,” the man told the missionary. The gang was frightened away by “guards” who appeared around the camp. The missionary explained that he always traveled alone. But the man protested that he and his friends counted twenty-six men protecting him, “It was because of those guards that we left you alone.” When the missionary told the story months later to his home church in Michigan, a member of the congregation stood up and asked him the exact day that he was spared. When the missionary told him, the gentleman said that he recalled having a strong urge to pray for the missionary at the time of the incident. “In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong, I called men in this church to meet with me here in this sanctuary to pray for you.” It turned out that exactly twenty-six members of the missionary’s home church were praying for him at the time of the attack.
In the passage in Revelation 2:8-11, the Risen Lord explained why bad things happen to good people. He acknowledged the church’s works and tribulations and recognized their fiscal poverty while affirming that they were actually rich in faith. In a chilling revelation, He spoke of the resistance the church has experienced from the synagogue of Satan. All His admonition to this church is prefaced by His identification of Himself as the first and last and the one who was dead but is now alive. This realization of His identity should bring comfort to the suffering saints in that it assures them that He has already faced and conquered whatever they may have to confront. Their victory was assured as was heralded in a popular Gospel song, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.” Even though this church was destined for persecution and tribulation, they were readily assured that it was only temporary (symbolically described as ten days); even though they may have to endure all the way to death, they were promised an eternal crown of life. Truly death is only a momentary experience that ushers the believer into an eternal heavenly reward. Because of their faith, these believers were promised that they would not experience the second death that is eternal damnation. Because they had been born twice (physically and through the new birth), they would have to die only once. Had they been born only once, they would be destined to die twice (physically and spiritually). These believers were so focused on the heaven that they were headed to that they barely noticed the hell that they were having to go through at the moment.
The risen Lord promised the overcomers at Smyrna that they would not be hurt by the second death. Like David who could write in the twenty-third Psalm of the peaceful guardianship of God even while death was breathing down his neck, Christians need not fear the process of dying, the experience of death, the judgment that follows death, or hell that finalizes the death of an unbeliever. Death to a Christian is not the end; it is actually a new beginning. In speaking of His own death, Jesus described it as a change of address. He said that He was going away and that He was to return to bring us to be with Him at this new address. (John 14:1) If we view death this way, there is no more to fear or dread about it than the simple act of moving from one home to another. The Apostle Paul put it this way, For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better. (Philippians 1:23) As soon as he was certain that he had done all that he needed to do here on earth, he was ready to move on to his new home. In death, we experience simply a transition from one form of living to another. We can’t deny that the process of dying can be cruel, but the death event itself is described in the Bible as a great homecoming with an angelic escort into the presence of God where we are to be rewarded with the crown of eternal life. (Luke 16:22)
Pergamos – Pitfalls of Permissiveness
In Revelation 2:12-17, the Risen Lord turned His attention to the believers at Pergamos who were dealing with the pitfalls of permissiveness. (II Timothy 3:1-9) Their problem was that they had allowed the doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans to infiltrate the church. By permitting these immoral and perverted teachings to take root in the hearts of the congregation, the church had actually invited a curse upon itself. It was a replay of the Old Testament story of Balaam in Numbers chapters twenty-two through twenty-four. The Moabite king Balak was frightened by the multitude of Israelites headed toward his country and decided that, rather than doing physical battle against them, he would fight them spiritually by hiring Balaam to curse them. Although the prophet Balaam heard God and was determined to follow the voice of God, he was also perverse in his actions. Balaam initially refused the request because he obeyed the direction from God that he should not go; however, he eventually received permission from the Lord upon a second inquiry. The scripture offers no explanation concerning why God seemed to have changed His mind about the matter; however, it is clear that God was not pleased with Balaam’s decision to accompany the Moabites. The encounter with the angel on the road demonstrated the perverseness in Balaam’s character when he beat and threatened to kill the donkey. Balaam’s discussion with the donkey revealed his insensitivity to spiritual matters as he conversed with a dumb animal without showing surprise and as he was unable to discern the presence of the angel that the donkey saw clearly. It was only after this dramatic encounter that he was able to recognize his sinfulness and was willing to forego the mission. Upon meeting with Balak, Balaam reiterated that he could not speak beyond what God would speak through him. Balaam’s first view of the people of Israel prompted a blessing rather than a curse with the question, “How can I curse what God has not cursed?” Balaam’s second viewing of the people again engendered a blessing with the proclamation that, as long as God does not find sin in the lives of His people, He will fulfill every promise He has made to them. Balak persisted in his attempt to get Balaam to curse Israel by asking him again to seek a malicious word against them. Balaam saw that God had blessed Israel, and he pronounced a beautiful blessing upon them as well. In the heated discussion between Balak and Balaam that followed Balaam’s failure to curse the people of Israel, Balaam reminded the king that he had warned him from the beginning that he would not say anything beyond the words that the Lord showed him to say. In Revelation 2:14, we find what seems to be a missing portion to this story; since Balaam could not curse the people, he apparently told Balak how to get the people to bring a curse upon themselves by breaking the Ten Commandments. The New Testament passage says that Balaam showed Balak how to get the people to sacrifice to idols and commit sexual immorality – exactly what happens in the next chapter, resulting in a plague that killed twenty-four thousand Israelites.
The church at Pergamos had the testimony that they had continued to hold fast the name of the Lord and had not denied their faith even though they were positioned at the very place where Satan had established his throne. Unfortunately, like the perverted prophet Balaam, they had allowed the Trojan horse inside their city gates. Even though they resisted their external enemy, the internal enemy was ravishing them from the inside out. (II Peter 2:1-3, 15-16) Blind to the fact that a little leaven was leavening the whole lump (I Corinthians 5:6), the church was headed for collapse.
Though we have little biblical or historical documentation as to who the Nicolaitans were, there is some indication that it was a group who practiced wife swapping. The story is that Nicolas, one of the early elders in the church, had a very beautiful wife. In fact, she was so gorgeous that some of the jealous men in the church accused him of worshipping his “trophy wife.” In a response to try to disprove their accusations, the elder tried to show his lack of over-attachment to her by making the statement that he was willing to give his wife to any man who wanted her. Certainly he did not intend to actually give his wife into adulterous affairs, but the perverted nature of his hearers made them take his statement literally. To them, such a statement from a church leader was all they needed to justify their carnal desires. Soon, a hedonistic cult was birthed right inside the church, claiming to have justification from the very words of one of the prominent leaders. To complicate the matter, their lifestyle seemed to have gone unchecked and their practices seemed to have been condoned or, at least, tolerated. The situation seemed reminiscent of the similar scenario in the Corinthian church that allowed a man to live in an openly incestuous relationship with his father’s wife. (I Corinthians 5:1) Paul sternly addressed this issue with the ultimatum that sinners within the church must not go unchecked while sinners outside the church must not go unwarned. In I Corinthians chapter five, the apostle pointed out two aspects of the problem – the sinfulness of the man who was living in incest and the church’s boastful attitude toward the situation. Paul challenged the church to confront the man for his blatant sin, and he confronted the church for their blatant arrogance. He corrected the church for thinking that they were to refrain from interacting with sinners in the outside world but commanded them rather to be careful not to condone sin within the church by extending ready fellowship to sinning members. He concluded the chapter by warning the church to judge error within itself – the same ultimatum extended to the church at Pergamos.
Through their permissiveness, the church had willingly been taken captive in Satan’s snare. In II Timothy 2:26, we can read what Paul instructed Timothy concerning how people can be taken captive in snares, or traps. In thinking of the various kinds of traps I have seen used to capture wild animals, I noticed three interesting parallels with the ways the devil likes to capture his prey.
One African tribe captures monkeys by placing a fistful of rice inside a coconut in which a very small hole has been drilled. The monkeys reach into the coconuts to take the rice, but they soon find that they cannot pull their hands out of the coconuts as long as their fists are closed around their treasured morsel of rice. Since the monkeys refuse to let go of their little treat, the hunters are able to easily capture them. I believe that the devil and his little helpers use this same kind of snare to bring millions of humans into captivity. If we will simply let go of the things we are holding on to, we can escape his snare. Sometimes, we hold on to habits that could easily be broken before they become addictions. Other times, we hold on to attitudes that could easily be changed unless they are allowed to remain until they become compulsions. Sometimes we hold on to physical things that must be released before they have us rather than our having them. No matter what the case, we are ensnared unless we learn to let go. We can free ourselves if we simply will!
Another snare that some hunters use is the pit trap in which a roof of sticks and grass is laid over a deep hole in the ground. When the animal steps on the false floor, he falls through and is captured in the pit. I am reminded of a humorous story about two men who found themselves in just such a trap. It seems that one gentleman often cut through a cemetery as a shortcut from town to his home. One night, he fell into a new grave that had been dug since he last used his shortcut. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to get out, he reconciled himself to the idea that he would have to spend the night in the grave and wait for the morning when the workers would return. A while later, a second man had the same misfortune of taking the same shortcut and falling into the same open grave. Not noticing the first man in a dark corner of the grave, he set about to climb out of the hole. The first victim decided to watch a few minutes to see if the newcomer might find an escape route that he had missed. After a short while, he decided to warn the man that his attempts were futile, “Give up. There’s no way out.” But the second man instantly leapt all the way out of the pit and broke all previous track records racing out of the graveyard! It’s the same way with many who are held in the devil’s captivity – all they need is for someone else to motivate them a little to break out of the imagined bondage that they think to be real.
When someone comes to me with a prayer request concerning something that the devil has been telling him, I always say, “I’m sorry but I don’t understand what your problem is.” The person will then respond, “Well, I just told you that the devil has been telling me all week long that I have this horrible thing happening to me.” Then I say again, “But I don’t see what your problem is.” By this time, I have made the person fairly angry, but he begins to repeat his story about what the devil is telling him. Finally, I cut through the whole issue by saying, “But my Bible says that the devil is a liar and that the truth is not in him. (John 8:44) Therefore, if he has told you that this horrible thing is the truth, then the opposite is really the truth. You don’t have a problem with the horrible thing that the devil has been talking about; your problem is that you just need to learn to refuse to listen to and believe the devil!” With a little “jump start,” these people are often set free even without a prayer!
One final kind of snare is the mechanical trap that physically closes on its victim. A rabbit hutch, a bear trap, and a mousetrap would all be examples of this kind of snare. When captured in a trap of this sort, the victim cannot get free without outside help; someone else must open the door or jaws of the trap and let him go free. This kind of deliverance can come only from a faith-filled believer who knows how to use the name of Jesus to cast out the demons that have taken control of the person’s mind, body, or spirit. Fortunately, Jesus left us the authority to do just that.
And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. (Matthew 10:1)
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. (Mark 16:17)
It is always important to remember that it really doesn’t matter what kind of trap the devil may set because the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord (Psalm 37:23); He will walk us around them! However, the permissiveness of the Pergamos church had taken them on their own path, away from the gentle guidance of the Holy Spirit.
To this church, Jesus identified Himself as the one with the double-edged sword. Later in the Apocalypse, we learn that this sword is intended to fight against the Antichrist; however, the Lord threatened to turn it against the church itself if it became too perverted. Certainly, He would much prefer to use it as a surgeon’s healing scalpel to remove the cancerous infection; however, it will become an instrument of destruction if necessary. As always, the Lord promised blessings to those who would respond repentantly. Theirs was to become the recipients of hidden manna, God’s own recipe for bread that contains no contaminating leaven. The reference here comes from the one batch of manna that was stored for hundreds of years inside the ark of the covenant without spoiling while all the rest of the manna stank and was filled with worms if left overnight.
They are also promised a white stone containing a new name. This stone is likely a reference to the identification stones that fraternal organizations in biblical times issued to their members. No matter what city or country they may find themselves in, that stone was their ticket to protection and provision if other members of the fraternal order lived in the area. All they needed to do was find a fellow member and show him that stone with the special code name etched on it. As soon as he was recognized as a fraternal brother, he would be invited into someone’s home for a meal and lodging for the night. Any needs he had would be generously and graciously supplied. Like those in the church at Pergamos, we today who hold fast the Lord’s name are offered total provision through Jesus’ name.
And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full…At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you. (John 16:23, 24, 26)
To the believer today, the stone with the engraved name is Christ, the solid rock upon which we stand. (I Corinthians 10:4; Psalms 61:2; 62:2, 6, 7; 71:3; 78:35; 89:26; 92:15; 94:22; 95:1) When challenged by sickness or disease, we can make our stand upon the rock named Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals all our diseases. When threatened by financial lack, we can plant our feet solidly on the rock entitled Jehovah Jireh, the God who supplies all our needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus. If we are troubled, we can anchor ourselves to the rock labeled Jehovah Shalom, the God of our peace. When lonely, depressed, scared, or anxious, we can cling to the rock etched with the inscription Jehovah Shama, the God who is ever present and who will never forsake us.
Thyatira – Problem of Perversion
The letter to the pastor of the church at Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29) deals with the problem of perversion. If we notice carefully, we can see that there has been a progression as we have moved from church to church. In Ephesus, the believers hated the Nicolaitans and worked hard to expose the false apostles; in Smyrna, the church had to deal with an external attack from the synagogue of Satan; although they still had to contend with the external affront from Satan’s seat, for Pergamos the real problem was an internal attack from Balaam and the Nicolaitans; for Thyatira, however, their problem was self-inflicted in that they had allowed Jezebel a platform within the church. Unlike Balaam – who, although perverted, was still a prophet of Jehovah – Jezebel was a devotee of the pagan deity Baal. (I Kings 16:31) Permissiveness characterized by the church at Pergamos leads to perversion as demonstrated in the church at Thyatira.
First Kings chapter sixteen tells us of the beginning of the reign of Ahab who not only continued the idolatrous traditions of his predecessors but also married Jezebel – the daughter of the pagan king of Sidon – and introduced their foreign religion to Israel. Apparently, Ahab married her for her wealth and prestige. Unfortunately, the marriage brought with it the idolatry of her pagan background. As the story unfolds in the next few chapters, we read of an extended drought brought on by the word of the prophet Elijah. Only after a confrontation with the pagan priests and prophets that Jezebel had set up, did the prophet call for this devastating drought to cease. Upon hearing that Elijah had executed all her priests and prophets, Jezebel pledged to kill Elijah as well, sending him fleeing from the presence of the wicked queen.
In chapter twenty-one, we see another aspect of the wicked Jezebel. The story revolves around King Ahab’s desire to purchase the vineyard of Naboth because it was next to the royal palace. Naboth, however, refused to sell the property because it was his inheritance that he desired to protect according to the commandment given in Numbers 36:7. When Jezebel saw how discouraged Ahab was over not being able to obtain the property, she consoled him by appealing to his position, “Are you not king?” Once she had seduced the king with his own self-importance, she then busied herself and arranged to have false accusations brought against Naboth so that he would be executed and the property would be relinquished to the king.
In the story of Jezebel, we see all the elements that Dr. Lester Sumrall labeled as the three destroyers of ministry: gold, gals, and glory. By marrying the daughter of the king of Sidon, Ahab brought great wealth and resources to himself. The religion Jezebel promoted was a form of the Canaanite fertility cult that involved extremely perverted sexual practices. It is also likely that she as an individual was a highly sexual and immoral woman. Her appeal to Ahab concerning his position as king revealed that she was certainly an individual who was impressed with the glory of power and position and didn’t flinch at using her position for personal gain.
An outsider, like Jezebel of the Old Testament, had been invited into the church at Thyatira. The people received her as a prophetess even though she was not even one of their own. When she came, she brought with her all her destructive perversions, teaching and encouraging the people to commit adultery and practice idolatry. Jezebel clearly represented the worldly approach to ministry that many churches have welcomed to help them raise funds and develop high-profile ministries. It doesn’t take supernatural discernment to see the influence of the spirit of Jezebel in much of the church world today. Churches and ministries commonly make a practice of hiring secular agencies to help promote themselves and raise the funds necessary to finance their visions and dreams – and their lifestyles. I’ll share just one example. One minister who was about to launch an extensive media outreach was approached by a promotion company that represented a number of leading evangelists. A meeting was arranged for them to present their proposal as to how they could ensure him a million-dollar return from their campaign. They laid out the program, showing how this evangelist was to talk about his orphan operations in various third-world nations. When the gentleman interrupted them with the question as to why they had built the promotion around funding orphanages since his ministry did not do orphan work, they responded, “But these other organizations we represent don’t have orphanages either!” They were promoting a secular approach to business built on deception and fraud – and had been successful in implementing it in a number of major evangelical ministries. Just as manufacturers ask people what types of products they want, many churches are asking unsaved people what the church should be like in order for them to attend. Some churches actually have a profile that has been developed by a marketing department that – rather than the Bible – is the standard they try to emulate.
The word “church” means “called out.” We are to be ones who live according to a different standard from the rest of the world, not according to a market-driven approach using the world’s wisdom. When the church extends the invitation for such worldly counselors to come in and direct their affairs, they also swing wide the door for them to enter with all their baggage including the perversions of gold, gals, and glory.
Although there were a few in the church who had not entered into what the Lord called the depths of Satan, the church as a whole had fallen into general perversion by encouraging false doctrine to be taught among them. The Risen Lord’s acknowledgment of this church’s works, charity, and service confirms that they were busy ministering and doing commendable works; unfortunately, their approach and techniques were far short of commendable. Yet, there remains a promise to those who will submit to the Lord’s correction; they are to be given a place of dominion over the nations. While Jezebel and all her children (everything birthed from her influence) are to be destroyed, those who turn from her seduction will be given a place of authority in the world. The irony is that those who are duped into believing that worldly techniques can help them gain a place of prominence are eradicated while the meek inherit the earth.
When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden, He gave them dominion over the whole of creation, specifically mentioning the creeping things. Tragically, they allowed a creeping thing – something over which they should have exerted their dominion – to seduce them. They allowed the serpent to trick them by his question, “Do you want me to tell you why God does not want you to eat of the fruit of this tree?” That serpent began to discredit God by making it look as if He had an ulterior motive for forbidding them to partake of the tree. The serpent was able to deftly undermine God’s credibility in the mind of His subject. Eve, who had never had a negative thought before, suddenly began to think that God was doing something for His own interest without having her best interest in mind. Instead of commanding the serpent to be silent, she listened to his suggestions and was deceived by the innuendos of his argument.
For the church at Thyatira, God made the wonderful promise of dominion if they would deal with their perversion. He brought them to a crossroads where they had to choose if they would continue in their perversion and be destroyed or repent and be brought into a place of authority.
Sardis – Probing Perfection
In the letter to the church at Sardis (Revelation 3:1-6), the Lord probed the question of perfection. It is commonly assumed that believers cannot obtain perfection and are, therefore, exempt from striving for it. In fact, that whole philosophy was once flaunted on bumper stickers that proclaimed, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” Such a teaching ignored the testimonies of such biblical characters as Job (Job 1:1), Noah (Genesis 6:9), and Abraham (Genesis 17:1) as well as the words of Jesus Himself (Matthew 5:48, 19:21) and Paul’s double admonition in Ephesians 4:11-13. The scriptural context of perfection seems to indicate that perfect people are ones whose actions are perfect because their hearts are perfect. The scriptures teach that Amaziah, for instance, did what was right but not with a perfect heart. (II Chronicles 25:2) He apparently fell into the same category as the believers at Corinth who were doing good deeds – and even operating in spiritual gifts – yet their actions failed to be of benefit because they were not motivated by love. (I Corinthians 13:1-3) On the other hand, David was considered to be a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) even though he committed adultery and plotted the murder of the woman’s husband. His prayer of repentance in the fifty-first Psalm explained why. His plea before God was that the Lord would not take the Holy Spirit from him and that He would renew a right heart within him. Apparently David understood the necessity of what Paul would later describe as the seal of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13, 4:30) – the quickening work of the Holy Spirit that constantly reminds the sensitive believer of the validity or lack thereof of his every thought, motive, and action. In spite of the fact that the focus of the letter is on those who do not have perfect works, the letter acknowledges that some believers do meet the acid test – and gracious promises are extended to them. (Ephesians 5:27, I John 3:3) To those who have not defiled their garments, the Risen Lord promised white raiment. To those who have kept His name, He promised that He would not blot out their names and that He would confess them before God and His holy angels. As the Lord identified Himself to this church, He said that He is the one who has the seven stars and the seven spirits of God – a statement that confirmed that the key to successful Christian living and ministry is through the intimate association of the church leadership with the Holy Spirit.
The church at Sardis had a problem of having a reputation of being alive, but they were actually dead. They were essentially dead men walking because they had not been resurrected from the death of sin (Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 2:13) nor had they experienced the death of their carnal man (Colossians 3:3).
He said that their garments were spotted – much like the prophet Isaiah’s statement that our righteousness is as filthy rags before the Lord. (Isaiah 64:6) Only a few of the people in the church were clothed in garments without the stains of sin and unrighteousness. For the most part, the Christians at Sardis had ignored the metamorphosis of the new birth.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (II Corinthians 5:17)
Furthermore, they had disobeyed the scriptural instruction to put off the pollutions of the old carnal nature.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. (Ephesians 4:17-25)
They had failed to realize the power of transformation available to believers by allowing God Himself to live through them.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
When the prodigal returned to the father’s house, there were probably hundreds of young men traveling down the same road. They could have all used a new robe, a new pair of shoes, a nice ring, and a banquet; however, the father only sent his servants for one robe, one pair of shoes, one ring, and one fatted calf. There was only one young man on the road that day who had a heart relationship to the father.
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. (I Chronicles 16:9)
The Greek word for “maturity” is also the word for “perfection.”
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-16)
The work of the five-fold ministry will not be finished until the Body of Christ comes to perfection. As an apostle, Paul realized that his responsibility was to bring the Body of Christ to this perfection. He realized that the way to do this was to bring them to an experience of the power of the Holy Spirit’s revelation.
[I] cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. (Ephesians 1:16-18)
An experience with the Holy Spirit can give us a perfect heart that will make us into perfect men who will demonstrate perfect works.
Philadelphia – Purity of Purpose
Of all the churches, the congregation at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13) seems to be the most spiritually attuned. The first thing that we notice about this church is that the Lord has nothing negative to say about it. They and the church at Smyrna are the only ones who escape accusation from the Lord. The believers at Smyrna were so busy dealing with their persecution that they didn’t allow themselves to be distracted and seduced by the deceptions that had invaded the other churches. For the church at Philadelphia, they were so focused on the promises of the Lord that they realized how important it was for them to keep themselves pure before the Lord of those promises. (I John 3:3)
The second notable characteristic about the letter to this church is the open door that Jesus has set before them. They were told that a wide-open door of opportunity was placed before them. Biblically, God’s people are always required to go through a period of cleansing in order to venture through their doors of blessing. The people of Israel had to partake in Passover before they crossed the threshold to exit Egypt. (Exodus 12:11) Before they could enter into the Promised Land, the men were required to go through the rite of circumcision. (Joshua 5:2) Prior to their exodus from Babylon, Daniel prayed a thorough prayer of cleansing, seeking God to forgive every conceivable form of fault: sin, iniquity, wickedness, departing from the ways of God, rebellion, and not harkening to the holy prophets. (Daniel 9:5-6)
Before we discuss this open door, it is necessary that we consider the key that Jesus had used to unlock it. It was said of this key that it would open so that no man can shut. This key was also said to be able to close so that no one could then open. I can remember picking many locks to get into cars that had been locked with the keys inside. I readily recall the trip from South Korea when our entire group had their suitcase locks picked or broken open. I also remember failing to get into doors even though I had the keys that unlocked the main lock, because there was a safety or dead bolt on the door.
What kind of key could it be that would permit the holder full entrance into wherever he wanted to go and would also securely lock up all his treasures so that no one could plunder them? This key is called the key of David, an apparent reference to Isaiah 22:22, And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. In this verse, the prophet is making reference to Eliakim the son of Hilkiah as the one who would receive this supernatural key. This biblical character’s historic role is recounted twice – in II Kings chapters eighteen and nineteen, and again in Isaiah chapters thirty-six and thirty-seven. In both records, the specific reason given for the deliverance of the city was that it was for the sake of David. (II Kings 19:34 and Isaiah 37:35) In some way, Eliakim stood in the stead of David and held his key. Eliakim’s significant contribution was the stance he took against the Assyrian messenger who tried to intimidate the people of Jerusalem into surrendering to his army. Eliakim stood up to him with faith and confidence in God until the Lord caused the invading army to miraculously retreat.
Though the scriptures do not specifically identify what his key was, it is easy for us to look back into the life of David and find one characteristic that seemed to stand out in his life that could have made the difference between him and any others who lacked this quality. It is likely that we need not go any further than the criteria set for his selection for the throne of Israel. After Samuel had surveyed the seven older sons of Jesse without finding a worthy candidate, the Lord revealed to him that he was looking at the wrong score card when evaluating his options. God made His point that the heart of the matter was actually the matter of the heart.
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. (I Samuel 16:7)
David obviously understood that this was his key to success and determined to keep his heart in a perfect relationship with his God. I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. (Psalm 101:2) Even after he sinned with Bathsheba and had her husband killed, the king’s prayer was that God would re-establish his heart before Him. (Psalm 51:10) Consequently, the New Testament characterized David as being a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22) He desired to pass this spiritual key on to his son Solomon who was to succeed him on the throne. First Chronicles 28:9 recorded David’s instructions to Solomon that he should serve the Lord with a perfect heart. In verse nineteen of the following chapter, we find David in prayer for his son, interceding that the Lord will give him a perfect heart. Unfortunately, the biblical summation of Solomon’s life is that his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. (I Kings 11:4)
In the testimony of one of the subsequent kings, we get a glimpse of the problem that also plagued the Ephesian church – misdirected passion. Second Chronicles 25:2 recorded that Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not with a perfect heart. Like the saints at Ephesus, he was passionate in his campaign to stamp out idolatry, yet he failed to passionately pursue the Lord Himself. Because of this he, like Asa before him, failed to obtain what is likely the greatest promise in the scripture: The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. (II Chronicles 16:9) This is the universal blessing and promise of intervention by God that can only be unlocked with the key of David – a perfect heart before the Lord. It was the promise extended to the church at Philadelphia.
One other unique quality that we notice about the church at Philadelphia is that, of all seven churches, they are the only one indicated as having any relationship to the Word of God. Not only that, they are twice commended for their faithfulness to God’s Word. (Revelation 3:8, 10) Though all seven churches are admonished to hear what the Spirit was saying, apparently only this one listened and heeded. Like David, they recognized that the key to having a perfect heart was to hide God’s Word in their hearts. (Psalms 119:11) For them – and for us – the key to the kingdom is a passionate love for the Word of God.
To those who use that key and walk through the open doorway, the Lord extends the promise that the synagogue of Satan will come and worship before their feet – a promise of turned tables. In the addresses to previous churches, it seemed that the ungodly were the ones with the upper hand; but now it is the purified believers who rule!
The implications of living one’s life with a pure heart filled with God’s Word could actually be viewed more like a combination to a lock rather than one simple key. I find a list of nine principles played out in David’s life that spell out the words “David’s Key.” These nine qualities are the fruit of a pure heart motivated by a sincere love for the Word of God.
D – Do it God’s Way
One important key that David learned was that he had to do things God’s way. When he realized that he needed the blessing of the Ark of the Covenant in his royal city of Jerusalem, he went with a crew of men to bring it back. (II Samuel 6:2) They placed the Ark on an oxcart (II Samuel 6:3) as he had seen the Philistines do (I Samuel 6:2, 8). However, when the Ark started to tip over as the cart jostled down the road, Uzza was struck dead for his good-intentioned deed of trying to stop the Ark from tumbling to the ground. (I Chronicles 13:9-10) David realized that more than an ox had stumbled that day; he, too, had stumbled when he failed to follow God’s prescribed way of transporting the Ark. God had made no secret of His prescribed method of handling the sacred chest – it was spelled out explicitly in Exodus 25:14. All David needed to do was to read the book and follow its directions. When he did, he successfully brought blessing to his house. (I Chronicles 15:1-29)
A – Avoid Carnality
One of the black pages in David’s biography is the story of his dealing with his son Absalom. In fact, it might be said that David’s actions were a litany of stupidity. First of all, Absalom’s sister Tamar was raped by her half-brother Amnon, but the father took no corrective or restorative action. He simply acted as if nothing had happened. (II Samuel 13:1-21) Even though his father brushed the matter under the carpet, Absalom was not so easy to forget. Inside him, the incident festered and seethed until he had to take revenge. Soon, the sexual predator fell prey to the avenger. (II Samuel 13:22-29) Even though David had turned a blind eye to the molestation of his daughter, he could not let murder go unjudged; therefore, he exiled the culprit and kept him estranged for many years. (II Samuel 13:38) Yes, it was punitive action, but it failed to be a corrective measure. Finally, at the urging of his trusted counsel, David allowed Absalom to return to Jerusalem. Unfortunately, he did not allow or pursue reconciliation in that he never even permitted Absalom to show his face in the king’s presence. (II Samuel 14:24)
Absalom busied himself just outside his father’s field of vision and began to undermine the king’s authority in the hearts of the subjects. By making himself accessible to those who failed to get an audience with the king, Absalom began to win the confidence of the people. Before long, he had enough of a following that he felt confident in staging a revolution. (II Samuel 15:1-12) Again, David acted foolishly by abandoning his position of authority and fleeing from Jerusalem. (II Samuel 15:13-16) Immediately, Absalom took over his father’s throne and slept with his concubines in the public vision. (II Samuel 16:22) When David did eventually turn to fight against and defeat the insurgent, he wept over the death of his son. (II Samuel 18:33) So inconsistent with the years of deliberate refusal of the son who would have sought reconciliation, David now mourned the death of this same son who had become his declared enemy. Rather than celebrating the victory and rejoicing in the restoration of the kingdom, he lamented the death of the one who had disrupted the peace. (II Samuel 19:1-8) Again, his foolish actions undermined his own authority in the eyes of those who had fought with and for him and all who were to be subject to his rule.
The point here is that carnality and stupidity will undo our victory.
V – Value the Lord
One of the last episodes in the life of King David was his unwise decision to count the army of Israel. (II Samuel 24:1) The same man who had boasted that – even though others put their confidence in horses, chariots, and foot soldiers – he would remember the name of the Lord (Psalm 20:7) as his source of victory now faltered in his old age and asked for a census of his military might. A plague was sent as judgment for blatant violation of trust. As the scourge swept through the land, the death angel eventually arrived at David’s beloved city of Jerusalem. When he saw the sword of doom stretched out against his capital, David ascended to the top of Mt. Moriah where hundreds of years before Abraham had offered Isaac. On that sacred precipice, David determined to make a peace offering to God. The man who had a threshing floor on the pinnacle offered David the land, the wood for the altar, and his ox for a sacrifice, but David refused. When he insisted, I will not offer anything to my God that cost me nothing (II Samuel 24:24), David demonstrated one of the great scriptural truths to victory: we must be givers and tithers in order to expect that the devourer be rebuked on our behalf and that the windows of God’s blessings be open (Malachi 3:10).
I – Instill a Vision of Victory
When David started putting together his team of men who were to work with him to bring about his acquisition of the kingdom, he wound up with a congregation of misfits, debtors, and failures. (I Samuel 22:1-2) David welcomed these outcasts into a cave at Adullam where he molded them into his band of four hundred mighty warriors. (II Samuel 23:8-39) He had found another major key to success; he had learned how to pick up the pieces and keep going. It has been said that you can’t unscramble eggs, but you can take the broken Humpty Dumpty of life and make a winner of a soufflé! Remember: if life hands you a lemon, make lemonade. David believed that every failure was only a success waiting to manifest itself.
D – Don’t Quit
Upon returning from a battle against the Philistines, David and his men found that their headquarters town of Ziklag had been raided. The enemy had taken all that they wanted and burned the rest! David’s men compounded his distress when they threatened to kill him because he had led them into battle leaving the home base unprotected. In his hour of utter dejection, David turned to the Lord for inspiration and instruction. The Lord told him to pursue the raiders even though he and his men were exhausted from the battle and the journey. Just when they had no more energy to expend, the Lord told them to pursue the enemy and to recover all. They did pursue, and they did recover everything that they had lost. (I Samuel 30:1-20)
Here again, we see another of the principles of victory in David’s life: he refused to give up. Dr. Lester Sumrall produced a tape based on his life’s story called “I Did Not Quit.” On the tape, he recounted time after time when he was faced with insurmountable barriers and unbeatable odds, but he simply kept on trying until God honored his efforts and gave him outstanding victory. The great statesman Winston Churchill concurred when he was asked to speak at a college graduation. His speech consisted of only one line repeated three times. He growled at the young degree candidates, commanding them, “Never give up!” A second and a third time, he repeated his command until he was sure that he had gotten his message across to the young men before him; then he sat down and waited to make sure that the message had gotten inside them. I’m sure that God is calling out that same injunction to us today, “Never give up; don’t quit; pursue even when you don’t think that you have any strength left – you will recover all!”
S – Size up Your Enemy
When David had come into his rightful place as king, he realized that there would be tremendous political, spiritual, and military advantages in locating the nation’s capital in Jerusalem. However, the city was a Jebusite stronghold with deep ravines on three sides, denying an attack approach. In fact, the Jebusites boasted that their city was so naturally well protected that they only needed the blind and the lame soldiers to protect it. (II Samuel 5:6) David and his men devised a plan to take the city by entering through the water system and capturing the city from the inside out. David was able to conquer because he sized up his enemy and saw that he was nothing as formidable as might first be imagined. Once he got beyond the wall, he found that his opponents were barely able to fight against him. I’m convinced that the same thing is true in all our struggles – actually, Satan is already a defeated foe; Christ stripped him of all his armaments some twenty centuries ago. (Colossians 2:15) All we have to do is get beyond the stronghold of our minds that makes us see him as such a looming villain.
K – Keep What’s Yours
David had courage to fight a giant because he had already fought a lion and a bear – and had won. (I Samuel 17:24-25) The reason he was willing to take on the predators was that they had taken something that belonged to him – his sheep. Because he knew that the sheep were rightfully his and that the beasts of prey were violating his property rights, the young shepherd boy was bold to go reclaim what was his. When the Philistine giant made claims against the people of Israel, this adolescent rose up with an uncommon determination. He knew that it was Israel’s covenant from God to own this land, and the uncircumcised (signifying that they were not under a covenant with Jehovah) enemy were wrongfully violating the Jews’ legal privileges. If he could take back what the four-footed predators had stolen, David was confident that he could reclaim his covenant possession from these two-footed predators.
For forty days, the army of Saul had stood powerless before Goliath’s threats; they had not perceived the challenge in the same way that David did. Notice in the story in I Samuel chapter seventeen that they are always referred to as being the men of Saul or the army of Israel. (I Samuel 17:2, 17:3, 17:8, 17:10, 17:11, 17:19, 17:21, 17:24, 17:25) It was only David who called them the army of the living God. (I Samuel 17:26, 17:36, 17:45) This difference in perception of identity made all the difference in the world. For us to have victory, we must realize that we are covenant people and we must understand what our rights as covenant people are. When we are denied anything that is ours in the covenant, we must realize that the enemy is stealing from us; and we, like David, must go into action to reclaim our rightful possessions. Health, prosperity, household salvation, peace, joy, and all the other benefits of the cross are ours if we do not default and let the devourer rob them from us. David knew what was his and took possession. So can we.
E – Empty Yourself of Sin
Possibly, David’s biggest challenge was the girl next door. We all know the story of how he caught a glimpse of her bathing and wound up committing adultery with her. (II Samuel 11:1-4) The resulting pregnancy drove him to arrange the death of Bathsheba’s husband so that he could take the woman as his wife in an attempt to cover up the crime. (II Samuel 11:15-17) David tried to hide his sin, but he eventually had to face it. When he did, he dealt with it by genuine heart-felt repentance and prayer. Here is David’s greatest key to victory: a heart after the heart of God. When he failed God, he shared the heartbreak that God Himself felt. As long as we are sensitive to the emotion of the Father, we’ll always be on the road to victory. A good man may fall seven times, but he always gets up again! (Proverbs 24:16)
Psalms chapter fifty-one has long been recognized as the prayer that David prayed after this tragic fall. In it we see all the elements that will keep us sensitive to the heart of God – and make us candidates for great victory.
Y – Yield to God’s Timing
The position of king over Israel was promised to the young shepherd boy (I Samuel 16:13), but it took many years for that prophecy to be fulfilled (II Samuel 5:4). As the time for his exaltation began to unfold, the ruling King Saul opposed him more and more violently. David was pursued like a common criminal; he had to hole up in the desert and hide in caves. Twice during this time as a fugitive, the Lord delivered his opponent into David’s hand. In both cases, it could have been the king’s head that David carried away, but David acted on a higher principle than human revenge and opportunism. He knew that he could not take matters into his own hands if he was genuinely expecting God to be his deliverer. David decided to stand still and let God prove Himself in giving the kingdom to him. A major plateau to achieve when reaching out to claim all that God has provided for us is to remember that God will fight the victorious battle. We are to simply practice patiently waiting for Him to do His deliverance.
Jesus promised to use the key of David to open the doors of the world to the Philadelphian church. The history of the Christian church is marked by many revivals in which entire cities, countries, and people groups have responded to the gospel en mass. One such historic moment occurred in AD 723 when St. Boniface challenged the Germans to accept Christ. To prove that Jesus – not their pagan deity Thor – was the true God, the missionary took an axe and began to chop away at a mighty oak tree that the local people believed to be the dwelling place of their god of thunder and lightning. As the crowd cowered back expecting Thor to retaliate with a deadly bolt to defend his honor, Boniface continued to strike the tree until it came crashing to the ground. After this obvious validation of the Christian faith, the entire population converted and took the wood from the monstrous tree to build a chapel. During the first half of the sixteenth century, Francis Xavier turned entire communities in India and Japan to the Christian faith when he miraculously began to preach in their native tongues without ever having studied these languages.
More contemporary stories include a number of mass conversions that took place in the twentieth century. Following World War II, entire aboriginal tribes in the Pacific islands turned to Christ when missionaries landed airplanes on their remote atolls. The story behind the conversions was that these islanders had never seen planes until they witnessed fighter planes flying over during the Pacific campaign. Many times the pilots of these aircraft would jettison cargo that fell within reach of the natives. To them, these were gifts that the gods were dropping from the sky. When these heavenly visitations suddenly ceased, the tribal people had no idea that the war had ended; for that matter, they still did not even know that there was a war in progress. As they prayed for the gods to favor them with more visitations and more gifts, a cultish belief arose that the gods would someday return – an anticipation that they perceived as being fulfilled with the arrival of the missionaries. When the missionaries told them of Jesus, the people were primed for the message and readily received it.
The account of the conversion of another entire tribal group centers on the introduction of a metal axe head to a Stone Age culture. When the courageous young missionary paddled the canoe containing his wife and two small children to shore in headhunter territory, the natives hid among the bushes determining when was the best time to stage their attack. As they lingered, the cannibals were amazed to see the gentleman fell a tree within minutes as he started to gather materials to build a home for his family. These primitive people who had missed the advancements of the past three millennia felt as if they had just witnessed a miracle since they were accustomed to spending hours chopping down a tree with their stone axes. Their awe of this man’s magical power led to respect for his message and acceptance of his God.
In the Solomon Islands, two young missionaries were captured by a bloodthirsty tribe and sentenced to death for trespassing on their territory. Since the king of the people happened to be seriously ill, the execution was postponed as the people focused all their energy and attention on the ailing monarch. When all the magical incantations of their shamans failed to revive the king, the missionaries were allowed to present their message and pray for him. Immediately after their prayers, the king died. As you might guess, this was not a plus for the evangelists. However, the king suddenly revived and sat up on his mat long enough to tell the people about his death experience and to confirm that what the missionaries had said was true. With the final admonition to his people that they should listen to and believe these foreigners, he fell back on his mat and died again. Instantly, the prisoners were released and welcomed among the people. Their message was heartily accepted and the entire populace became believers.
Two more accounts of massive revivals come from the islands of the Philippines. A nation-changing movement swept the country after Dr. Lester Sumrall went into Bilibid Prison and cast the devil out of a young girl who was manifesting physical bite marks made by an unseen entity; she was literally being bitten by demons. Within six weeks, one hundred and fifty thousand conversions and innumerable healings were registered. It took weeks to baptize all the new believers. A more isolated example comes from a remote village where the resident witchdoctor challenged the newcomer missionary, claiming that there could only be one spiritual leader in the area. He proposed a contest to see which one possessed more spiritual power with the understanding that the one who failed the test would pack up and leave. A large stage was erected so that the entire village could witness the match. The missionary, unsure as to how to proceed, invited the witchdoctor to go first. To her amazement, the witchdoctor lay down on the stage and began to levitate. Being considerably overweight, the missionary was sure that floating in the air was out of the question for her. When she questioned the Lord as to whether she should concede and start packing her bags to leave the village, the Lord impressed upon her that she was not to leave; instead, she was to prove her superior spiritual authority. A very clear impression was to push the floating witchdoctor back to the ground, so she gathered her skirt around her leg and raised her foot in order to plant her heel firmly in his belly. Taking advantage of her extra pounds, she slammed him to the floor and yelled to the spirit inside him to come out. Once the man was delivered, he immediately offered to leave town; however, the missionary persuaded him to stay on the condition that he would accept Christ. Not only did he respond to her message, but the entire village also followed. The former witchdoctor became the mayor and the missionary became the pastor as the entire community became one large Christian neighborhood with everyone as baptized members of the same church.
A little white-haired Indian man had been trying year after year to evangelize his remote village in Tamil Nadu State in southern India. Yet, his Hindu neighbors’ hearts and ears were closed. Finally, at an evangelism training conference in the city of Madras (now known as Chennai), he learned the principles of the Great Commission that signs and wonders should accompany the proclamation of the kingdom. Returning to his village with a new power from his new relationship with the Holy Spirit, he found that an old lady in the village had been gored by a water buffalo. Laying his hands on her, he commanded that she be totally healed. Instantly, her crippled legs received strength and her mangled body was straightened. Since the whole village had seen the woman’s condition after the attack and then saw her miraculous recovery, everyone suddenly believed that the old man’s message was real. The village that had rejected his testimony year after year was converted overnight.
As we examine all these accounts, there is one major point that is consistent throughout – a miraculous catalyst to the revival. This is also a consistent biblical pattern of evangelism. Miraculous acts at the hands of Daniel resulted in empire-wide decrees from the ruling monarchs themselves that the entire population must reverence the God of Daniel. (Daniel 4:1-37, 6:25-27) When Jesus sent His disciples out, He commanded them to accompany their proclamation of the kingdom with demonstration of its presence, Go preach saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. (Matthew 10:7-8) He added that even the citizens of Sodom would have repented had they been presented with a message confirmed with manifestations. (Matthew 10:15, 11:23-24, Mark 6:11, Luke 10:12) When He gave His disciples the Great Commission, He ordered them to remain in Jerusalem until they were endued with the power of the Holy Spirit so that they would be able to confirm their message with signs and wonders. (Luke 24:49, Mark 16:17) The book of Acts records abundant examples of miraculous acts resulting in mass conversions: supernatural tongues on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4), the healing of the lame man at the temple gate (Acts 3:1-8), miraculous healings and deliverances in Samaria (Acts 8:5-8), the raising of Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-41), an angelic visit to Cornelius (Acts 10:1-4), and Paul’s miraculous protection from a venomous snake bite and the healing of Publius’ father on the island of Malta (Acts 28:1-10). In fact, the Apostle Paul declared that having signs and wonders in conjunction with his preaching was his modus operandi and that this combination of miracle and message had allowed him to fully saturate his targeted region. Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ…But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you. (Romans 15:19-23) In his letter to the Corinthian church, he emphasized that he had come to them with the power of God as well as with God’s powerful message. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. (I Corinthians 2:4) Perhaps his ministry in this particular city was particularly marked with miraculous signs and wonders because it followed immediately upon the heels of a rather unfruitful ministry in Athens where Paul seemed to rely on his human intellect and philosophical arguments rather than the miracle ministry that characterized his evangelism in other venues. (Acts 17:16-34)
However, the apostle does not place all the credit for the effectiveness of his ministry on signs and wonders alone. In I Thessalonians 1:5, Paul made one simple statement that revealed five distinct elements in his approach to evangelism – five steps through the open door.
For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
The first step he mentioned was the Word. Here he is talking about the gospel message that has been confirmed and proven through the scriptures and then presented within a biblical context. We must recognize that the good message is not always a sweet message; in fact, the scriptures teach that the gospel is definitely confrontational and possibly even offensive. It is called a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence, and a stone upon which we can fall and be broken or that will fall upon us and grind us to powder. (I Peter 2:8, Matthew 21:44, Luke 20:18) Paul described the situation in his day by saying that some preachers were filled with envy, strife, and contention as they preached; but God used them anyway. (Philippians 1:15-18)
Paul had a true desire to see people saved, and he made a deliberate attempt to relate the gospel to them in a way that they would find relative and palatable. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. (I Corinthians 9:22) Like the Greeks with the Trojan horse and David at the watercourses of Jerusalem, the apostle looked for a way to get inside his target audience’s defenses before he released his assault. In many cases, his subjects didn’t even know what had hit them until they were fully in the grasp of the gospel. However, he was keenly aware that he could not influence them with anything short of the very Word of God. The scripture is full of instruction to avoid various substitutes that can camouflage themselves as worthy ministry material but actually lead to confusion and disqualification of our ministries: philosophy (Colossians 2:8), vain deceit (Colossians 2:8), the tradition of men (Colossians 2:8), the rudiments of the world (Colossians 2:8), enticing words of man’s wisdom (I Corinthians 2:4), profane and vain babblings (I Timothy 6:20, II Timothy 2:16), oppositions of science falsely so called (I Timothy 6:20), fables (I Timothy 1:4, II Timothy 4:4), Jewish fables (Titus 1:14), profane and old wives’ fables (I Timothy 4:7), cunningly devised fables (II Peter 1:16), endless genealogies (I Timothy 1:4, Titus 3:9), the commandments of men (Titus 1:14), foolish and unlearned questions (II Timothy 2:23, Titus 3:9), teachers having itching ears (II Timothy 4:3), teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre’s sake (Titus 1:11), strivings about the law (Titus 3:9), the commandments of men (Matthew 15:9, Mark 7:7, Colossians 2:22), the doctrines of men (Colossians 2:22), strange doctrines (Hebrews 13:9), and even doctrines of devils (I Timothy 4:1).
Paul’s second step was power. All we need is a quick review of the book of Acts to see that his ministry was indeed accompanied with miraculous events. (Acts 13:11, 16:16-18, 19:11, 20:9-10, 28:3-6)
Next, Paul mentioned the Holy Ghost. In that the operation of the gifts seemed to have been his topic in the previous category, we must interpret this reference to suggest a fuller meaning of the operation of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life. Turning to his letter to the Galatians, we see at least two areas where the Holy Spirit’s influence must be evidenced in a believer’s life and ministry. The first is in chapter five verses sixteen and eighteen – walking in and being led by the Spirit. Such Holy Spirit orchestrated movement is not only vitally important to the success of our personal lives and the productivity of our ministries, but it may also make the difference between life and death. As Paul mentioned in the Galatian passage, the fatally destructive works of the flesh will overcome us unless we walk in the Spirit. The apostle was directed away from Asia toward a fertile ministry in Europe through the Holy Spirit’s direction. (Acts 16:6-10) The inner voice of the Holy Spirit also warned Paul of the impending danger into which his ship was to sail. (Acts 27:10) The other Holy Spirit quality that Paul discussed in Galatians chapter five is the fruit of the Spirit listed in verses twenty-two and twenty-three. Just as no one cares for a barren tree that does not produce fruit (Matthew 21:19, Luke 13:6-7), people will not be attracted to our lives or ministries unless we manifest the fruit of the Spirit.
Paul follows with the quality of assurance. Even without an examination of some of the key biblical injunctions concerning assurance (Isaiah 32:17, Acts 17:31, Colossians 2:2, Hebrews 6:11, and 10:22), we can recognize from the natural world that we never want to believe what someone is saying if we don’t feel that he really believes it himself. I know that I’d never buy a car from a salesman if I saw him driving another make. Paul was persuaded of the validity of his message (Romans 8:38, 14:14, II Timothy 1:12) and admonished his disciples to be fully persuaded concerning their faith (Romans 14:5).
Several years ago, a dear friend of mine was diagnosed as having an advanced case of one of the most aggressive kinds of cancer. In fact, when the doctor gave her the report, he advised her to go straight from his office to the airport and catch a plane to a special cancer clinic in Texas. He insisted that there was no time to delay – even to stop by her house and pack a suitcase for the trip. As believers, my friend and her husband determined that they would first have prayer before going for the specialized treatment. Their pastor called all the elders of the church together for a special prayer meeting and laid hands on my friend; however, she could sense doubt behind their prayer “of faith.” She told her husband that she could hear what they were saying with their lips but could also read what they were thinking by looking at their eyes, faces, and body language – and the two did not agree. She told him, “These people are not going to heal me; they are going to kill me! Please get me to a place where people really believe what they say!” When he promised to take her anywhere an airplane could fly, she asked to go to Indiana to be with my wife and me. I arranged for special prayer by two great apostles – our pastor, Dr. Lester Sumrall, and the pastor of the world’s largest congregation, Dr. Yonggi Cho; then she spent the next three days in our home receiving a constant diet of faith-filled words which came with confidence out of our hearts, not just words out of our heads. When she did check in at the cancer clinic, the doctor refused to admit her with the explanation that theirs was a specialized facility and only people with cancer could be treated there! For my friend – and for each of us – the treasure that is stored in the secret place of the heart was the difference between life and death. In Mark 11:23, Jesus emphasized that not doubting in the heart coupled with the positive confession is the key to a successful faith life. Paul also spoke of the power of coupling heart belief and the oral confession in Romans 10:10, while James 1:8 described the futility of having a heart and mouth that were not in agreement and Isaiah 29:13 concluded that such disagreement is abominable to God. The assurance we had in the Word of God was the key to saving my friend’s life, and it will be the key to saving the souls of those to whom we minister.
Character is the fifth step that Paul used to enter the city of Thessalonica with the gospel. In our Thessalonian passage, he called it his “manner of man.” To get a definition of this term, we can turn to his farewell to the Ephesian church where he used this same expression again and gave a rather lengthy explanation. The purity of his motives and the unselfishness of his service permeated the speech and testified to the quality of life he lived before the people. Who he was backed up what he said. As the old expression goes, he walked the walk as well as talked the talk. Another couplet reminds us that people don’t care how much we know unless they know how much we care. Our personal character is likely the most powerful force in communicating to the people we wish to win for Christ. After all, many more people will read our lives than will ever read our tracts.
When they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ… Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God …Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears…I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. (Acts 20:18-34)
We need to not only develop a strategy for bringing in a harvest for Christ but also a strategy for keeping and preserving that harvest once we have gathered it. In other words, our evangelism must be followed with proper discipleship.
We can see an excellent example in the life of Paul – a man who was consumed with his love for the churches. Reading the introductions to his letters gives us a glimpse into his never-ending concern for the saints. To the Corinthians, he wrote, I thank my God always on your behalf. (I Corinthians 1:4) To the Philippians, he said, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. (Philippians 1:3) He addressed the Colossians, We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. (Colossians 1:3) His greeting to the Thessalonian church reads, We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. (I Thessalonians 1:2) He addressed Timothy as my own son in the faith (I Timothy 1:2) and my dearly beloved son (II Timothy 1:2) and went on to say, I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. (II Timothy 1:3) Titus also received the loving salutation of mine own son after the common faith. (Titus 4) In writing to Philemon, Paul also addressed Apphia whom he called beloved (Philemon 2) and then wrote, I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers (Philemon 4).
From these opening lines, we are able to get a glimpse inside the heart of a man who would be able to perpetuate change in a city. His converts were never out of his heart and mind. No matter how many miles and how many years separated them, these loved ones were always in Paul’s prayers. But it is in his greeting to the church at Rome that we are able to really see what is in the heart of a true minister of God. Here Paul addressed a church that he had never visited and a congregation of believers who, except for a few individuals, were strangers to him. Yet, he confirms – and even called upon God as his witness – that he was always and unceasingly interceding for them. This is a heart of unceasing love and concern for the Body of Christ, whether personal friends or total strangers. These believers he addressed as beloved (Romans 1:7) and said,
I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. (Romans 1:8-9)
In II Corinthians chapter eleven, Paul graphically illustrated how heavily the burden of love for the church weighed upon his heart. Here, he described the physical difficulties he endured for the gospel’s sake: beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, long journeys, plots against his life, attacks of wild beasts, assaults by robbers, hunger, exposure, and being stoned to the point of death. Yet he concluded this list with, Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. (II Corinthians 11:28) He seemed to be saying that the inner burden he carried for the churches exceeded the physical burdens that had been hurled upon him externally. He wrote lengthy and detailed letters to minister to them, he went to great lengths to visit them and ensure their well being (Acts 15:36), and he sent others in his place to guarantee that they had proper instruction and solid leadership in place (Titus 1:5). This is the heart of a man who will see fruit that remains long after the initial revival.
But Paul is not our ultimate example; he was only outwardly manifesting the true life of Christ – the One who lived inside him. (Galatians 2:20) Luke 22:31 recorded that because Jesus knew about Satan’s plot to destroy Peter, He prayed for him that he would not fall. In Matthew 23:37, we read that Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives and overlooked the city of Jerusalem with a heart that cried out for its people. He wanted to call them under His wings of protection but they would not come to Him. It broke His heart because His was a true shepherd’s heart. The gospels continually repeat the theme that Jesus was moved with compassion for the people – the key to others’ hearts and lives. When Jesus tried to illustrate what was in His heart, He used parables of a shepherd and his sheep. In Luke 15:4-7, He demonstrated that a shepherd is never satisfied until he has done everything possible to rescue every possible sheep.
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
The parable of the Good Shepherd in John 10:1-16, of course, speaks of Christ’s love for the church, but it also illustrates the kind of heart that must be in any true believer through whom Christ’s life is to be manifest.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
In John 21:15-17, the resurrected Lord confronted Simon Peter with the challenge that if he truly loved the Master, he would become a shepherd of the flock and feed the sheep. Peter apparently learned his lesson well and challenged others who wanted to become ministers in the Body of Christ to develop a shepherd’s heart.
The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; nor for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. (I Peter 5:1-5)
In the words of both Jesus and Peter, a shepherd is not someone who has the position for a paycheck. It has been my experience that those men and women who are really called into the ministry and have a desire to win their cities for Christ would be willing to pay to get to do their work. To them, their positions are ministries, not jobs.
However, not all ministers have this pure heart of a true shepherd. Listen to how the prophet Jeremiah described some of the ministers of his day – and of our day, as well.
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:1-4)
In this remarkable passage, God demonstrated His personal desire to see that the flock is shepherded. The story of Jonah’s evangelism in the Assyrian capital of Nineveh was marked by the unwillingness of the prophet to minister to the people and his utter dismay at the fact that God actually forgave these pagans. (Jonah 4:1, 2, 10, 11) Unlike the disgruntled prophet who wanted to draw a small circle and leave certain individuals and entire ethnic groups outside, our God draws a huge circle that includes everyone. Second Peter 3:9 described the heart of our Heavenly Father this way, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. From the first page of the Bible to its closing paragraphs, He is portrayed as an all-inclusive God. At least four times the Lord reiterated that He intended to bless the entire human family through the descendants of His servant Abraham. (Genesis 18:18, 22:18, 26:4, Galatians 3:8) The Psalmist crafted a poetic prophecy affirming the all-inclusive nature of the Lord’s love, All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. (Psalm 22:27) The same sentiment was heralded by Isaiah at least twice during his prophetic ministry, And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it…This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. (Isaiah 2:2, 14:26) Two different prophets proclaimed that the entire earth will be inundated with the glory of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:9, Habakkuk 2:14) The Old Testament declared and the New Testament confirmed that it is the Lord’s intent to pour out His Spirit on all flesh. (Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17) Jesus personally took His ministry to every city and then commissioned His followers to do likewise. (Luke 8:1-4, 10:1) He left no question in the minds of His followers that He intended that no one be excluded from receiving His message. (Matthew 24:14, 28:19, Mark 13:10, 16:15, Luke 24:47) The Apocalypse concludes with a futuristic insight into the time when this all-inclusive work will be accomplished. (Revelation 7:9, 11:15, 21:24)
Because the Philadelphian church had the key of David of a pure heart and used it to go through the open door to bring the good news of the gospel into their world, the Lord promised to preserve them from the coming hour of temptation. We can expect the same preservation if we will follow their pattern of heeding the Word of God.
Laodicea – Perplexity of Perception
In the letter to the church at Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22), the risen Lord dealt with the perplexity of perception – men who don’t know who they really are. These church members perceived themselves as rich when they were actually wretched, poor, miserable, naked, and blind. The Lord used the irony of the city’s water system to expose the folly within the church. Because the city was located a few miles from a hot spring on one side and an ice-cold spring on the other side, the city engineers had developed a plan to pipe in both hot and cold water to supply their residents. The only problem was that they didn’t calculate that the hot water would cool down in transit and that the sun would heat up the cold water as it traveled to the city. Instead of hot and cold water, they wound up with both systems delivering lukewarm water! Relying upon their own human resources, resourcefulness, and intelligence, the leaders in the church at Laodicea thought they were delivering something worthwhile to their congregation and city. All the while, Jesus was standing outside knocking, asking to be re-invited into the church so that He could give them new life and meaning. His promise to those who would repent and be renewed is that they would be invited to sit with Him in His throne with the Father. In all actuality, this provision to sit with Christ in heavenly places with authority over all principalities, powers, and dominions is available to all believers according to Ephesians 2:6 and 1:20. Unfortunately, most of us do not perceive ourselves as having attained – or even being able to attain – that position. Again, our problem is the same as that of the Laodiceans, only in reverse.
I hope that no one who is involved with any twelve-step recovery program will be offended by this analogy, but we must learn not to have what I call the “Alcoholics Anonymous” mentality. I use this term because the approach used in this sort of addiction and dependency recovery program is to keep the individual constantly aware of his potential of falling back into the trap from which he has been freed. Individuals within this kind of program are taught to say that they are alcoholics even though they may have been sober for thirty years. There is certainly much merit in such a mentality in that it helps the subjects avoid compromising situations that could hurl them back into the snare of their addictions. The problem with this mindset is that it fails to allow the individual to see himself the way God sees him – as a new creature in Christ whose old man has passed away and in whom all things have become new. (II Corinthians 5:17) Let’s look at just a few biblical examples and see how this “Alcoholics Anonymous” mentality tried to sabotage their destinies.
Gideon had this mental attitude concerning his family background. In Judges 6:11, we read his evaluation of his heritage, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house. Until Gideon was able to renew his thinking to come into alignment with how God saw him – as a mighty man of valor (Judges 12) – he was bound by the fact that he didn’t come from the right family stock. Had Gideon not been able to change his thoughts about himself, his opinion of himself as having come from the “wrong side of the tracks” would have short-circuited his future and the mighty work he was called to do.
When God called Jeremiah, he responded that he couldn’t do anything significant because he was too young, Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. (Jeremiah 1:6) While Jeremiah was looking at his youth and seeing it as a disqualifier, God was looking at his youthfulness as the ticket to a long and profitable ministry. To God, the younger the prophet could start, the better; that meant that there would be that many more years for him to minister. Had the prophet not broken out of the “Alcoholics Anonymous” mentality, he would have wasted the best years of his life – and maybe his entire life. For certain, he would have missed the most significant of his appointments with destiny.
Isaiah had an “Alcoholics Anonymous” mentality about his spirituality – or lack thereof. When the Lord appeared to him and called him into the ministry, he tried to back out of the picture, citing his sinfulness Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. (Isaiah 6:5) We have no idea what kind of language Isaiah might have been using up to this point, but his encounter with the thrice-holy God made him uncomfortably aware of how damnable it really was. Had God not sent an angel to touch his lips with a coal from the altar, the prophet would never have begun to see himself as acceptable before such a radically holy God – and he, therefore, would have been cheated out of the privilege of serving as one of God’s most outstanding spokesmen.
Even Moses was enslaved by this “Alcoholics Anonymous” mentality in regard to his natural abilities. When arrested by the call of God issuing from a burning bush, he argued back, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. (Exodus 4:10) It was only after God began to perform miracles through him that Moses learned that when you can turn sticks into snakes, it doesn’t matter if you stutter.
Ten of the spies whom Moses sent to spy out the Promised Land had poor self-images when they compared themselves to their enemies. Though God saw them as leaders and princes among their tribes (Numbers 13:2), these spies saw themselves as insignificant. As a result, they became weak and defenseless before the sons of Anak. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. (Numbers 33)
The prodigal son came back to the father’s house but was afraid to accept the father’s grace because he had a poor image of himself and could not see himself as worthy of being forgiven and accepted. Even though he overcame his “Alcoholics Anonymous” mentality enough to come home, that “stinking thinking” tried to continue to keep him in slavery even in the father’s house. (Luke 15:19) Tragically, we all too often mirror this same fate when, even after coming to Christ for salvation, we fail to get the full revelation of exactly who God is and wants to be in our lives. When the prodigal son’s father gave him a grand reception and established him in a place of honor, it was not so much a statement of the son’s worthiness but a demonstration of the graciousness of the father. In our lives, God wants to manifest His goodness to and through us because He wants us to be established as testimonies to His goodness and demonstrations of His blessing. (Deuteronomy 7:6)
We must not look back at our origins and our past. God is not interested in where we are coming from, but where we are going to. In Jeremiah 29:11, the Lord affirmed that He is interested in bringing us to an expected end with an established future – regardless of where we began or how shaky our past might have been.
In order to overcome the “Alcoholics Anonymous” mentality, we must develop the II Corinthians 5:17 mentality that proclaims that we are new creatures in Christ and that old things are passed away while all things are now new. We must also cultivate the Romans 8:37 mentality which declares that we are more than conquerors through Christ. We must counter the “Alcoholics Anonymous” mentality with the Philippians 4:13 mindset that boasts that we can do all things through Christ. We can tear down the stronghold of the “Alcoholics Anonymous” mentality by renewing our minds to the realities of Romans 5:10 that – because He loved us enough to die for us even while we were still His enemies – God will do anything for us now that we are His sons. We must openly confront the negativism of the “Alcoholics Anonymous” mentality by clinging tenaciously to the John 14:12 mentality that declares that we can do even greater works than Jesus did.
When asked what it means to be more than a conqueror, one Bible teacher explained it with the analogy of a prizefighter and his wife. The boxer went into the ring with a vicious antagonist. After suffering blows, lacerations, contusions, and bruises, he finally landed the winning punch that sent his opponent to the mat. He then crawled out of the ring as the champion – a conqueror – and was handed a sizable check for having won the bout. As soon as he arrived at home, his wife happily took the check and started spending it. She did not have to go into the ring and take any blows or lose any blood, but she got the cash – she was more than a conqueror. In the spirit realm, we are just like that wife; we get all the rewards even though it was Christ who faced the enemy and defeated him at the cross. We do not have to do the battling – in fact, we couldn’t, even if it were up to us to do so. We must learn, as did Jehoshaphat, to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. (II Chronicles 20:17) No matter how much we think that we might be able to accomplish with our travailing intercession, languishing fasts, or vehement spiritual warring, we must be cautious to not go back to a “conqueror” mentality when we are called to have a “more than conqueror” mentality. (Romans 8:37)
One side note of caution must be added here: at the same time that we are learning not to think too lowly of ourselves, we have to be careful not to join the Laodiceans and get too cocky and begin to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. (Romans 12:3) Judas thought too much of himself and believed that he could handle gold without letting it take hold of him. Wrong! (John 12:6) Samson thought that he could play with the girls without getting into trouble. Wrong, again! (Judges 14:3) Nadab and Abihu found that trying to take God’s glory was like playing with fire that cannot be done without getting burned. (Leviticus 10:1-2)
We must constantly live our lives in the tension between striving to make sure that we don’t fail to take advantage of all that Jesus has provided for us (Hebrews 4:11) and thinking that we can do it ourselves. For the Laodiceans, the problem was having too high a perception of themselves; for most of us, the problem is having too low a perception of ourselves. In either case, the solution is the same: take the key of David, a pure heart before the Lord, and walk boldly through the open door He sets before us. However, the one prerequisite is that we also use that key to open a door for Him to enter our lives and take His rightful place on the throne of our hearts. (Colossians 3:15)
Having Ears to Hear
As we took our theological tour through the churches of Asia Minor, we were confronted with a multitude of different spiritual conditions: the predicament of passion, the presence of persecution, the pitfalls of permissiveness, the problem of perversion, probing perfection, the purity of purpose, and the perplexity of perception. Certainly, we found that one or more of the issues confronting these believers are just as real in our present lives as they were in the days of John’s incarceration on the Isle of Patmos. It is exactly because of the universality of these problems that each letter contains the injunction, He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Notice that in each statement the mandate is to hear what the Spirit is saying to all the churches collectively – not just to the individual church being addressed. To properly become the church God desires us to be, we must adequately deal with each of these multi-faceted aspects of the faith and allow the Holy Spirit to speak directly into our lives in each of these dimensions.
Although it is only necessary for God to say something one time for it to be an unequivocal truth, the Lord so wanted to unquestionably confirm these mandates in our lives that He addressed the same concepts during His incarnate ministry as well as during this post-resurrection visitation with John the Revelator. In the context of the feeding of the four thousand as related in Mark 8:18, Jesus asked, “Don’t you have ears?” – addressing the same issue which He brought before the church at Ephesus: “Are you too busy working for Me that you can’t hear Me as I speak and minister to you?” In Matthew 11:15, He again commanded that those who have ears should hear. This time, it was in context of His teaching concerning the fact that the kingdom of God will suffer violence – the same message addressed in the letter to the church at Smyrna. The parable of the tares contains the quote about having ears to hear (Matthew 13:43) when Jesus explained that there would be counterfeits scattered among the true believers – the same problem of permissiveness that faced the church at Pergamos. The phrase appears again in Mark 7:16 when Jesus spoke of things that can defile – the same problem He addressed in the message to the church at Thyatira. We find the phrase in Mark 4:23 when Jesus said that nothing will be hidden – a vital element in probing perfection as in the message to the church at Sardis. Each time the parable of the four soils (also know as the parable of the sower) appears in the scriptures, the mandate that those with ears must hear is again quoted. (Mark 4:9, Matthew 13:9, Luke 8:8) This parable’s emphasis on the increase in the harvest carries the same message we see in the open door that is set before the church at Philadelphia. One last appearance of this phrase occurs in Luke 14:35 when Jesus talks about flavorless salt – a direct parallel to the condition seen in the church at Laodicea.
As one pastor said when I spoke at his church and ministered on the same passages he had been preaching on even though I did not know about his previous sermons, “God is speaking in stereo. We’d better listen!” If we have ears, let’s hear what He is saying to all the churches. If these messages had to be given to the churches before Jesus could reveal anything to them concerning the last days, how much more must we understand them since we are actually living in the end times.
For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. (Matthew 13:15-16)
