By John Thiel mp3
Scripture Reading: Revelation 1:1 1The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He signified it by His angels and to His servant, John.
Revelation 1:11 11Jesus is saying, I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardus, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
Revelation 1:20 20The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlestick. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and seven candlesticks which thou sawest the seven churches.
We are posed with what has the revelation of Jesus to do, how it is linked with the seven churches? Is Jesus revealed through the study of seven churches?
The names of the seven churches are symbolic of the church in different periods of the Christian Era. The number 7 indicates completeness, and is symbolic of the fact that the messages extend to the end of time, while the symbols used reveal the condition of the church at different periods in the history of the world. AA, 585.3
So as we are studying the seven churches, we are also studying the Church—one church in seven periods of time. That one Church is what?
What is the Church?
1 Corinthians 12:27 27Now, you are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
What does the revelation of Jesus have to do with the seven churches?
It is a revelation of Him in the body of Christ.
In his relation to Christ he will be bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, one with Christ in a peculiar relationship, because Christ took the humanity of man. 7 BC 926.5
Therefore the believer is bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh. The body of Christ members in particular, those who are believers in Jesus are His church and they are His body.
What does that remind you of?
Genesis 1:26-27 26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created him.
God created the human race in His own semblance, in His own state, of who He is.
Adam and Eve
Genesis 2:21-24 21So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[a] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[b] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
You see the semblance of expression through Jesus becoming one with us. We become bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, and this is demonstrated in the creation of marriage. God created a man and a woman, but from the man, He took the bone and created a woman so that now she is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.
Marriage, a union for life, is a symbol of the union between Christ and His church. 3TT 96.3
God made man in His image. Adam and Eve were bone of each other and flesh. Through Jesus, we are linked together as a church to Him like a marriage. One, together with the church, is one church, the body of Christ. Through Christ, that original creation of bringing humanity into the semblance of God Himself through Jesus Christ is a beautiful meditation. God created man in His own image to begin with so that to save him, he could actually be bound together with God in Christ.
Marriage has received Christ’s sanction and blessing and is to be regarded as a sacred institution. True religion does not counterwork the Lord’s plans. God ordained that woman should be united with man in holy wedlock, to raise up families that would be crowned with honor who would be symbols of the family in heaven. HP 202.2
Marriage and its connection with procreation is a symbol of the family of Heaven. Incidentally, there are many quotes where Sister White identifies the family of Heaven as the Godhead.
The Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, descended the path of humiliation step by step until he reached the lowest point possible for humanity to experience; and why? That he might be able to reach even the lowest of mankind, sunken in the very depths of degradation though they be, that he might be able to elevate them to the heights of heaven. He has promised, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Wonder of wonders! Man, a creature of the earth; dust, elevated to the throne of the King of the universe! Marvelous love! inexpressible, incomprehensible love! RH July 9, 1895, par.15
It is a symbol of His relationship with the church, and the relationship is so profound. The quote talks about this powerful symbolism and the tremendous precious conclusion that comes from this. This amazing thing that Jesus did, leaving heaven and lowering Himself right into the degradation of sinful humanity, was so that He might lift them and reach them.
It’s so incomprehensible that God has combined Himself in Jesus Christ with us in the atonement, so that if we will take hold of that and embrace that, the church becomes so entwined with God that it is ultimately lifted up, elevated to the throne of the King of the universe. Worshiping God take it in, rejoicing in what we are receiving from the Lord, and so this union with Jesus is a union of a precious thing that we’ve been highlighting in our Sabbath School.
To have the Sabbath as quality time to actually let this sink in and appreciate the intimacy that Jesus has with us in His church, and as we absorb that, it’s an internal bliss, and that internal preciousness is for us to dwell upon because what this has done for us is to carry us through as His church through the terrible external consequences.
What do we expect if I am really one with Jesus?
John 15:18-20 18“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you.
How clearly is the expression of God’s word here? ‘You are to be bone of My bone, flesh of My flesh because I have united myself to you like that.’ We have a precious quality fellowship, but while you have fellowship with me like that, what do you expect from those who do not? When Jesus says, “the world hates Me,” what world is He talking about?
Who hated Him and crucified Him? He came unto His own, and His own did not receive Him; they crucified Him. The world is not necessarily the unbelievers in the world; those who make a profession of godliness are also by Jesus called the world. ‘If you are really one with me, expect the world to hate you as it hated me.’
What was that? “The servant is no greater than his Lord.” ‘If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.’
We have the description of that straight after He was resurrected and went back to heaven, and in a very short time afterwards.
Acts 7:56-60 56And said, ‘Behold, I see heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ 57Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 58and cast him out of the city and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at the young man’s feet whose name was Saul. 59And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 60And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, ‘Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Acts 8:1-4 1And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation under him. 3As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. 4Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.
Stephen is a representation of Christ, ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’. The world hated Jesus, and the world hated the church, the true church that is one together with Christ is hated by the world and is hated by all the professed Christianity of today.
Matthew 10:34-4034”Think not that I have come to send peace on Earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35For I have come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. 37He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me. 39 He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.40 He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveith Him that sent Me.”
The world hated Him, and He said, because I came to unite myself with the believer, I have come not to bring peace. By doing so, I’ve come to bring a sword. He is referring to the fact that a lot of people won’t receive Him, and they become your enemies. You don’t want to get upset about that. The only way you can’t get upset about that is if you’re rejoicing in the preciousness of Jesus Christ. He is your bliss, He is your intimacy, you’re having quality time with Him, you’re doing what He is saying, and that is so precious. You’re not just doing what He is saying, you’re doing it because you love Him more than anybody else, and if somebody else doesn’t love Him, they will be your enemies.
Jesus does not present to His followers the hope of attaining earthly glory and riches, of living a life free from trial. Instead He calls upon them to follow Him in the path of self-denial and reproach. He who came to redeem the world was opposed by the united forces of evil. In an unpitying confederacy, evil men and evil angels arrayed themselves against the Prince of Peace. His every word and act revealed divine compassion, and His unlikeness to the world provoked the bitterest hostility. AA 576.1
So it will be with all who will live godly in Christ Jesus. Persecution and reproach await all who are imbued with the Spirit of Christ. The character of the persecution changes with the times, but the principle—the spirit that underlies it—is the same that has slain the chosen of the Lord ever since the days of Abel. AA 576.2
In all ages Satan has persecuted the people of God. He has tortured them and put them to death, but in dying they became conquerors. They bore witness to the power of One mightier than Satan. Wicked men may torture and kill the body, but they cannot touch the life that is hid with Christ in God. They can incarcerate men and women in prison walls, but they cannot bind the spirit. AA 576.3
Through trial and persecution the glory—the character—of God is revealed in His chosen ones. The believers in Christ, hated and persecuted by the world, are educated and disciplined in the school of Christ. On earth they walk in narrow paths; they are purified in the furnace of affliction. They follow Christ through sore conflicts; they endure self-denial and experience bitter disappointments; but thus they learn the guilt and woe of sin, and they look upon it with abhorrence. Being partakers of Christ’s sufferings, they can look beyond the gloom to the glory, saying, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).—AA 576, 577.
The glory is revealed in us can be already experienced with our precious union with Christ. There was this period of Ephesus, the early Christian Church. We described the persecution that the Jews rendered to these faithful children and brothers of Jesus Christ, but that persecution was minimal compared with what was coming and awaiting them through the pagans.
The Ephesus church had lost their first love; Jesus had something against them.
Overcomers of the Ephesus Church
Revelation 2:7 7And he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will i give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These things sait the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.
Now the overcomer that came out of the period of Ephesus runs into the next period; Smyrna and here Jesus reveals to the people that there is no reproach upon them. He has nothing against them, but not to Smyrna.
What is the Meaning of Smyrna?
It’s the word describing sweet, smelling, and savour. To Jesus, these people were sweet; this savour to Him was precious and sweet. This period covered AD 100 through AD 323, and it’s the same period as depicted in Revelation 6.
What was the Church of Smyrna Really Suffering?
Revelation 6:1-4 1 And I saw the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, “Come and see.” 2And I saw, and behold, a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. 3And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, “Come and see.” 4And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and that there was given unto him a great sword.
100 AD to 323 AD was a terrible period of terrible persecution, which we already identified would be to those who would represent Jesus correctly.
Revelation 2:8 8Unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.
Imagine what Jesus is doing to comfort these people; “I am He that was dead.” This fiery ordeal that Jesus went through, He went through for His people. ‘They are going to treat you the same way as me. Be of good courage. I am He that was dead but I’m alive forevermore. I’m speaking to you, if you’re going to die, you’re going to die like me, but you’re going be resurrected again.’
Persecution is never a pleasant experience. Jesus suffered persecution all the way through. It was a very unpleasant experience. When we go through these unpleasant experiences, we need to be comforted by Jesus not to permit the miserable experiences that we meet to take away our peace and joy. Be grateful and happy for the persecution that comes your way; be happy. Many miss the whole point of understanding it.
If they should be called to seal their testimony with their blood, they were to remember the eyes of One were upon them who had shared the same fate, but had triumphed over death, and was able to bring them up again from a martyr’s grave. DAR1909 379.4
Take courage, you can go through with this.
‘It’s going to come out well on the other side, but it doesn’t look like that. But it looks like that if you’re one with me because I’ve come out on the other side. So will you. We are at one; you’re my body,’ He’s talking to Smyrna:
Revelation 2:9 9”I know your works, I know your tribulation, your poverty, but you are rich. And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.”
People who call themselves believers but don’t let that affect you.
“I know you and I know what you’re going through; you’re loyal to me. I know your works, I know your tribulation, I know your poverty.”
This language is so important that as we meet the consequences of going all the way with Jesus. That we will go through these terrible experiences, as He said of your tribulation. What is tribulation? It’s causing a lot of fear and heartache. ‘I know your poverty, I know that you’re not rich in this world, but you are rich because you’re part of me.’ To really let Him speak to us and help us to pick up on Him speaking to us; ‘I know what you’re going through, look at Me, get comfort from Me.’
Through all our trials we have a never-failing Helper. He does not leave us alone to struggle with temptation, to battle with evil, and be finally crushed with burdens and sorrow. Though now He is hidden from mortal sight, the ear of faith can hear His voice saying, Fear not; I am with you. “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore.” Revelation 1:18. I have endured your sorrows, experienced your struggles, encountered your temptations. I know your tears; I also have wept. The griefs that lie too deep to be breathed into any human ear, I know. Think not that you are desolate and forsaken. Though your pain touches no responsive chord in any heart on earth, look unto Me, and live. DA 483.1
When trials come upon us, look back at your own time where trials came upon you and you had to battle through them. Did you feel alone? ‘I’m here to comfort you; you are not alone.’ To take this and to make it your own because your eyes and your ears can’t see Him, you think you’re on your own, you think that nobody understands. You can’t be satisfied, you can’t complain to another human being; it’s too deep. We are so prone not to lament and be upset about our circumstances that we lose sight of Jesus. Jesus is saying here ‘Look unto me as you go through your misery’. This is what He was saying to the church of Smyrna; you’re going to go through horrendous experiences.
Intensifying experiences of Smyrna, they were already being persecuted by the Jews and then now the pagans were persecuting them. They delivered them into the big stages and fed them to the lions. Imagine yourself, you’re standing there together with your brothers and sisters, and there comes these roaring lions, and they come along and give you a swipe with their big paws. Imagine how you’re feeling and you know they’re going to tear you to pieces. It’s easy to just say, ‘oh well they fed them to the lions,’ and that’s so easy to just pass by all this. The point is, the experience of suffering and trial when it comes is so great that unless you have Jesus, you will crumble.
Revelation 2:10 10 “Fear not,” He says to Smyrna, “fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. Be thou faithful, even unto death.”
What Were Those Ten days?
They were already being persecuted under Pagan Rome, but then the intensification of that tribulation was under the Emperor Diocletian. Diocletian was the emperor just before Constantine, and remember in prophecy, one day equals one year. There were ten years of bloody persecution under Diocletian from 312 to 323 AD. When it arrived at 323, those ten years, when Constantine came in, that terrible persecution began to diminish and under Constantine came the next period of Pergamos.
Smyrna demonstrated Jesus and watch Him in His church of Smyrna suffering like He suffered but rose again. These people are martyrs and are looking forward to the resurrection. These are Christ’s hero’s. They are so much at one with Him that He has nothing against them. With the others—Ephesus, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, not Philadelphia either, and Laodicea, there are only two church periods that He hasn’t got anything against that church in that period; Smyrna and Philadelphia.
Why Has Jesus Nothing Against These People?
Because they are so perfectly bound with Him that they die together with Him. They were meeting the lions and gladiators with their swords cutting off their heads.
Heroes for Christ
2 Corinthians 2:15 15For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish.
We are a sweet savour of Christ. The membership was a sweet savour. Jesus had nothing against them; you are my sweet people; you are really one with me. In conclusion, what will it look like if Jesus has nothing against you? You are one in Christ; you will suffer persecution.
What does it look like for us today? Persecution might change its face a little bit—sometimes to be killed is a relief than to have to keep on suffering mentally and spiritually. The physical destruction is not as painful as the spiritual and mental. It’s torment and the people are so tormented that they want to die.
The Faithful Versus the Unfaithful Servant
Matthew 24:45 45Those who are God’s true children, faithfully serving Him, are at the end a faithful and wise servant whom his lord hath made rule over his household to give them meat in due season
Matthew 24:48 48”But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, ‘My lord delayeth His coming,’ and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him.”
Faithfulness being smitten, the same as Smyrna, all the way through history, right up at the end. He who will live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
The Apostle Paul declares that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Why is it, then, that persecution seems in a great degree to slumber? The only reason is, that the church has conformed to the world’s standard, and therefore awakens no opposition. The religion which is current in our day is not of the pure and holy character that marked the Christian faith in the days of Christ and His apostles. It is only because of the spirit of compromise with sin, because the great truths of the Word of God are so indifferently regarded, because there is so little vital godliness in the church, that Christianity is apparently so popular with the world. Let there be a revival of faith and power of the early church, and the spirit of persecution will be revived, and the fires of persecution will be rekindled. GC 48
If there is no persecution, what’s the problem? That the church has so conformed to the world’s standard that the church awakens no opposition. The moment that you embrace the reality of Jesus, you will awaken opposition.
Be guided by the word of God. If you will follow what true Christianity is, what true Seventh-day Adventism is in all practice, you will be ridiculed, you will be smitten by the unfaithful servant. The servant that says in his heart; ‘My lord delayeth his coming.’
That’s a Seventh-day Adventist. He preaches that Jesus is coming, but He delays. If you follow the real thing all the way with Jesus in every respect, this is what it looks like: You will suffer persecution, you will be smitten by the words, you will not be comfortable in the presence of those kinds of people.
Jesus is the one who will comfort you. Nobody else; Jesus, the body of Christ, the body of Christ that has the love of Jesus. That body will care for each other; they will not persecute each other.
Let us absorb the Christ that demonstrates Himself in His church during the period of Smyrna. Learn of Jesus through His church. It’s the revelation of Jesus.
May God grant us the understanding of these things in practice is my prayer.
Amen.
