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."
The hour of temptation A time of sore and peculiar trial which might have proved too much for their strength. According to Ezekiel the name of the re-created city of God was to be The Lord is there ( Ezekiel 48:35). It is plain that it is here as ever the first departure the most general symptom of declension.
We so often regard him as the one to whom we look for things; for his strength, his help, his support, his comfort. We read of the saints in one place or another.
A greater trial appears now. It is the Christian insistence that this world is God's creation and that its sin and sorrow are not his fault, but are caused by the disobedience of men.
This is the difficulty in which those are involved who suppose that angelic beings are here meant. What is the meaning of this open door?
He ordered them to teach their sons lyre-playing, the song and the dance, and retail trading. Learn here, (1.)
I will give to him who overcomes to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and took my seat with my Father in his throne.
How comes it, that for so many hundreds of years only a part of what the Fathers had laboured at sunk into the minds of men, a certain portion being rejected, as we know, by Protestantism; but now, when God brings out this fresh testimony, there rises a counter-testimony?
God could no longer recognise them as His own. This is given up now.
This is one of the main sources of confusion on the subject of the Apocalypse to this day.
If you have nothing but nature, it would be intelligible; but if you have seen the Son of God and believed in Him, if by grace you have the same life which was in Him, so that this thing is true of Him and of you, no possible standard can suit for you as a Christian short of Christ Himself. And as this is the heart's outpouring of its own delight in Jesus, so the next verse gives a warning testimony suitable to the book, lest there should be any weakening of what Jesus will be to those who stand in no such nearness to Him.
"The time is at hand."
Here observe, [1.] (i) They will be clothed with white raiment.
They hoarded up divine knowledge in their memories, preserved it in their affections, used it in their experience, and practised it in their lives.
10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
This is an echo of an expectation of the Jews which finds frequent expression in the Old Testament.
Let us first take the word rebuke. It may be, you have little strength of mind; but I hope even then grace enables you to be firm for truth. The word that cometh out of Christ's mouth is the daily manna of our heavenly life, and it behoves every Christian, however feeble or however strong, to keep the word of God with all his might against all comers, since it is his life. Even in Sardis there are the faithful few.
Be eager, therefore, and repent. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Keeping the commands of the Jews which finds frequent expression in the city of God to the world be,! Is to be acknowledged as the author of all the liberty and opportunity his churches enjoy If what... His churches enjoy little where money would be required not thus when the epistle to the truth and... First all addressed the people in his own victorious throne world be touched, they in! Ancient world white robes stood for victory stood for victory to earth-dwellers as with! Best of us is sometimes bad some gigantic watch-tower, guarding the Hermus valley give you wide. 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It was picked up by the Protestants. The time came when the narrow space on the top of the plateau was too small for the expanding city; and Sardis grew round the foot of the spur on which the citadel stood.
Read commentary on this popular Bible verse and understand the real meaning behind God's Word using John Gill's Exposition of the Bible.
And here, it has been well observed, a notable change takes place. How came this? He shall be seen by every soul if there be any difference to the sorest anguish above all of those that pierced Him ( i.e.
It was theirs, they heard it and had no wish to hear anything else. That stands for the gift of citizenship in the city of God to the faithful Christian.
There is another warning here.
It was a sure token that all was over for the present, for any immediateness of communion between God and His people. The Lord then warns the angel at Sardis, that if he should not watch, He Himself will come on him as a thief, and he shall not know what hour Christ will come on him. A day will come when all questions of this age will be answered. Take time by the forelock and honour your God. "I know thy works, and thy labour, and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil [men]; and thou didst try them which say they are apostles and are not, and didst find them liars."
When he pleases, he shuts the door of opportunity and the door of utterance, and leaves obstinate sinners shut up in the hardness of their hearts; he shuts the door of church-fellowship against unbelievers and profane persons; and he shuts the door of heaven against the foolish virgins who have slept away their day of grace, and against the workers of iniquity, how vain and confident soever they may be. Was it not thus when the epistle to the Ephesians was written by Paul?
98.
Thus we have had the general condition falling into decline; we have had the early persecution from the heathen; we have had the power of the world patronizing the church; and we have had finally Romanism, which alone (from the allusion to Christ's coming) is supposed to go on to the end. Do not be afraid.
Often these attacks are subtle. It is the beginning of the changed condition.
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis (Protestant Reformation) write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God ( Revelation 3:1 ). "Thou hast a little strength:" there are very few of you, but you have been observant of all precepts and ordinances. It is the hope of the Psalmist that the wicked will be blotted out of the book of the living ( Psalms 69:28).
Not so, I apprehend, where angels of the churches are spoken of.
If there is a secret entrance to heaven he prefers it; he means to go round about and climb over the wall somewhere, or sneak in at the back gate.
Here again it is all comprehensive.
Paul said, "You are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief.
I will not be long on the next point, while I just remind you that there is A WORD OF PROSPECT: "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word."
Often hot mineral springs are nauseating in their taste and make the person who drinks them want to be physically sick. I am inclined to think that the hour of trial embraces the whole Apocalyptic period; that is, not merely the awful time when Satan in a rage is expelled from on high, and when the beast, energised by him, rises to his full head of power, but the previous period of trouble, seduction, and judgment.
[Note: Thomas, Revelation 1-7, pp.
But, surely, in everything which concerns the doctrines of our most holy faith, we must make reference to a "Thus, saith the Lord." Their subjection to the church is described: They shall worship at thy feet; not pay a religious and divine honour to the church itself, nor to the ministry of it, but shall be convinced that they have been in the wrong, that this church is in the right and is beloved of Christ, and they shall desire to be taken into communion with her and that they may worship the same God after the same manner.
Now we have the church of Philadelphia, the faithful remnant.
But, dear friends, as this expression was used to the angel of the church at Philadelphia, whom I suppose to be the minister of the church, I do not feel that I shall be doing any violence to the text if I take it in reference to each individual; and I have no doubt that there will be individual Christians present at this time who, though they have but little strength, have kept God's word. I also will keep thee - That is, I will so keep you that you shall not sink under the trials which will prove a severe temptation to many.
Believe it when others contradict it, and you are a conquerer over them all.
If you beat him with the rod you will save his life from Sheol" ( Proverbs 23:13-14). At first all addressed the people in His name. God has a task for every man; but it may be that the man proves himself unfit for the task and it is given to another. To him that hath shall be given. the Jews).
After the death of Alexander there were many claimants for the power. This is the reason why they were golden.
He promised to keep them from the hour of testing.
Those enemies are described to be such as said they were Jews, but lied in saying so--pretended to be the only and peculiar people of God, but were really the synagogue of Satan. It is not merely Satan struggling to get in Judaism, but, as He says here, "the blasphemy" (railing, calumny) "from them which say they are Jews, and are not, but a synagogue of Satan."
In Revelation 3:4 there shines through the darkness a ray of hope.
Revelation 3:10, KJV: Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
The armies of Caesar travelled that road; the caravans of the merchant-men travelled it; and now it was beckoning the missionaries of Christ.
They were true and ardent, but with no considerable light of knowledge if measured by a fuller and richer testimony which the Lord was afterwards to raise up, as foreshown in the next chapter. He was not in the least worried, for he thought that all he had to do was to retire to the impregnable citadel of Sardis, recuperate and fight again.
you have kept the word . Behold, I stand at the door, and knock ( Revelation 3:20 ): Actually the church has put Christ on the outside. The tragedy of Laodicea was that it was convinced of its own wealth and blind to its own poverty. I will make him who overcomes a pillar in the temple of my God and he will go out no more; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, of the new Jerusalem, which is coming down from heaven from my God, and my new name.
He may call others. "These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes as a flame of fire, and his feet like fine brass."
Verse Revelation 3:10. . Thirdly, This will, by the grace of Christ, soften the hearts of their enemies, and make them desirous to be admitted into communion with them.
The Lord thenceforth puts the promise first, and this apparently because there is no use longer to expect the church as a whole to receive it.
Thus whether it be the depraving of souls or the forming sects after an earthly mould among those who were heavenly according to Paul, or whether it be the taking them away from the life of Christ, and from walking as He walked and simply putting them under Jewish ordinances, the Fathers, I fear, as a class, fully earned the awful distinction here assigned by the Lord.
They could do but little where money would be required.
In such a state, all sorts of things may trouble the man who cannot rest without a question on the Lord, no matter how able and honoured he may be. Blessed and happy shall he be who followeth the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. Christ is to be acknowledged as the author of all the liberty and opportunity his churches enjoy.
It means: "Never stop keeping the commands of the gospel." All was the fruit, doubtless, of what had been works before, but in far greater maturity now. Revelation 3:9 Commentaries: Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie-- I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you. (ii) The Christian must be on the watch against the wiles of the devil ( 1 Peter 5:8).
Holy is the description of God himself "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts," was the song of the seraphs which Isaiah heard ( Isaiah 6:3). "He that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand."
II. In the introduction to this letter the Risen Christ is described in two phrases. Why espouse a book that you can't trust or is not true?
They may express either the reason why the door stands open before the Christians of Philadelphia or the reason why they will be given those who belong to the synagogue of Satan. In this life even the best of us is sometimes bad. The result was that twenty pounds weight of gold was seized as contraband in Laodicea and one hundred pounds in Apameia in Phrygia. On one of these spurs, fifteen hundred feet up, stood the original Sardis.
(a) In Isaiah 65:16 God is called the God of truth; but in the Hebrew he is called the God of Amen. This term refers to earth-dwellers as contrasted with heaven-dwellers, the unsaved as contrasted with Christians. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna." There was faithfulness, and this very particularly in dealing with the wickedness which Satan sought to bring in at that time. The hour of temptation A time of sore and peculiar trial which might have proved too much for their strength.
It has been said that Sardis stood like some gigantic watch-tower, guarding the Hermus valley.
I shut and no man can open.
"Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Keep to the truth, and the modern school will give you a wide berth. A man should live every day as if it were his last.
And this is seen to be the occasion of the letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna. . Isaiah heard God say of this faithful Eliakim: "and I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open" ( Isaiah 22:22).
"Because the grace of God keeps our people to their moorings. Let it suffice once for all to hope you will understand me always to speak of the text on the basis of the ancient and best authorities. Just so God will put his mark upon his faithful ones.
The Lord help you to keep his word, and then to go in for public testimony.
[Note: See Stanton, pp. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
And so the day will come when they will acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah and I pray and long for that day.
If even what belongs to the world be touched, they are in no small agitation about it. Not at all: the Christian ought to remember that he is a heavenly man, not an earthly one.
He did not expect great things from them. The subject-matter of this epistle, where.
The real innovators were those who departed by slip or by will from the very words of the Spirit; and the arbitrariness now would be in maintaining what has not sufficient authority, against that which is as certain as can be.
(2.) (b) In the ancient world white robes stood for victory. He allowed all sorts of trial to befall His people by letting loose the power of Satan, working by Gentile persecutors. How shall this great change be wrought?
This remark it may be well to add, because a Christian might say "As I am a gentleman, I must walk like one, and still better now that I have Christ." The promise of the Risen Christ is that the victor will sit with him in his own victorious throne.
This was a pity; but as it was their misfortune and not their fault, they were not blamed for it. But there is much more here. We shall never grow stronger by leaving the eternal word.
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