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| The synagogue at Sardis |
The next church in the clockwise rotation is Sardis. Sardis is a city on the plains of Asia Minor, a little more than fifty miles east of Smyrna. A Jewish synagogue at Sardis has been extensively uncovered and indicates a thriving Jewish community in the city at the time of Revelation.
I know your works, that you have a name that you live and you are dead. 2. Become awake and strengthen the remaining things that were about to die. For I have not found your works completed before my God.
Jesus and John are mostly negative toward the church at Sardis, with almost nothing positive to say. The first remarks are an indictment of their deadness and a call to awake. By contrast, they seem to think that they are alive. Jesus and John say that their works are not complete. They have not gone all the way with their faith. Their faith has not worked its way into all of their life as a church.
There are parts of their faith that are about to die but apparently still have hope. This is what happens when faith does not make itself manifest in our lives. It either grows until it takes over the whole of our lives and is completed, or it wanes until it disappears and we are dead again. It is not static or stagnant. It is always moving, either growing or waning.
3. Therefore, remember how you have received and heard and keep and repent. Therefore, if you do not wake up I will come like a thief and you will never know at what sort of our hour I will come upon you.
We will find no indication of a doctrine of eternal security in Revelation. Those whose works do not prevail, those who do not emerge from tribulation victorious, will not be part of the kingdom of God. At the same time, there is opportunity to repent. Jesus does not immediately remove the star of a church. The very existence of these admonitions shows that God wants the churches to prevail, and he gives ample warning before cutting them off.
Yet we may not know when God has had enough. Theologically, we can presume that God cuts off no one who has not already left him. God is not a "gotcha" God. God only further "hardens" the hearts of those who have already chosen hardness.
But for those whose hearts have any softness remaining, the reminder of the swiftness of judgment may be just what is needed to snap the person back to repentance. Memory here is important, memory of God's past mercy and faithfulness. Memory of previous forgiveness and grace. A person who is asleep can be awakened before their sleep turns to death.
4. But you have a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments and they are walking with me in white [garments], because they are worthy.
Although it did not begin on a positive note, Jesus and John end the letter to Sardis with hope. There are some believers in Sardis who have not "defiled their garments." There are some who have remained true to their initial walk with Jesus. Their actions have proven that they are worthy of salvation. Such individuals truly walk with Jesus.
Some may have difficulty with this sense that "works" matter for salvation. The Protestant Reformation has ingrained in us that justification is by faith alone. Interestingly, the "alone" part does not actually appear in Paul's writings, and James explicitly rejects justification by faith alone (Jas. 2:24).
What Paul teaches is that works of the Jewish Law--especially specifically Jewish "boundary practices" like circumcision and purity laws--cannot earn a person's acceptance with God. However, the "fruit" of the Spirit remained essential for Paul. It may at one point have been difficult for him to imagine that a person who began in Christ would not finish the race with him, but he clearly allowed for that possibility (e.g., 1 Cor. 9:27; Phil. 3:11).
Yet even then, it was not the works that earned or even maintained one's trajectory toward salvation. "Works" of God are empowered by the Spirit and activated by a heart surrendered to God. Works demonstrate faith, as James says (2:18). They do not justify in the sense necessary to enter into the people of God. They justify in the sense of confirming one is in the people of God.
5. The one who conquers thus will be dressed in white [garments], and never will I wipe away his name from the Book of Life and I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6. Let the one who has ears hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
To conquer, one must prevail. The one who conquers is the one who endures. This is the person who remains faithful. Such a person is guaranteed salvation. This is clearly not "eternal security" in the sense that one can behave in any way and be saved in the end. The assumption is that the person who is saved has conquered.
Jesus is the authorizer of salvation. It is his blood that makes ultimate salvation possible. He is the instrument, the name under which our prayers are authorized to come to God. He is the one who confesses our name before God the Father and the angels. We are his people.
Philadelphia
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| Little uncovered in Philadelphia |
These things the holy [one] says, the true [one], the one who has the keys of David, the one who opens and no one closes, who closes and no one opens.
Philadelphia continues the clockwise trajectory farther and farther inland. Today, very little of the ancient city is unearthed, just a small city block. The sparse ruins are a mixture of a much later cathedral overshadowing some Roman foundations.
Mention of the keys of David and the opening and closing of a door allude to Isaiah 22:22, where the keys are David are given to a man designated by God. This man then has the authority to decide for whom he opens and shuts the door forward. For Revelation, the person in question is Jesus. Jesus is the Son of David, the one with the keys of David. Jesus decides who will be able to go through the door of salvation and for whom that door will be closed.
Jesus does not do this arbitrarily. Jesus and John are not talking about "unconditional election" or "irresistible grace." As we will see with the church at Laodicea, Jesus wants the door to be open. Whether the door is opened or shut has to do with our response to his offer. But no one can open the door in their own power or on their own terms. The door opens on Jesus' terms.
Our lives are full of all sorts of open and closed doors, beyond the question of salvation. Part of our submission to God is being able to accept which doors are opened and which ones are closed. We should not be fatalistic about it. Sometimes a door is open to us but we need to turn the door handle. At other times we push and push and the door is simply locked. The wisdom is knowing the difference.
8. I know your works. Behold, I have given a door having been opened before you which no one is able to close it because you have little power and you have kept my word and you have not denied my name.
Jesus and John are positive toward the church of Philadelphia. Like Smyrna, they have no critique for this city but only positive things to say. If the door is in danger of closing for others, the door is open for the Philadelphians. They have been faithful despite persecution, despite general powerlessness. When it would have been easier to deny Jesus' name in the short term, they have endured.
9. Behold I am delivering [you] from the synagogue of Satan who call themselves Jews but they are not but are lying. Behold I will make them so that they will come and bow before your feet and will know that I have loved you.
This is the second time Jesus and John have mentioned a "synagogue of Satan," the first being the church of Smyrna. We can imagine a similar situation where the dominant Jewish group in town is in control of the main synagogue in the city. From a worldly perspective, the smaller Jewish group of Christians--quite possibly with some Gentiles in their midst also--seems to be powerless. The dominant group thinks they are the ones in continuity with the Israel of the past.
But Jesus and John indicate the situation is exactly the opposite. The true Jews are the bullied minority that have perhaps been ousted from the main synagogue. The main synagogue is actually the synagogue of Satan rather than the synagogue of true Israel.
In the end, the dominant will kneel before the oppressed. They will know that Jesus and God the Father have loved the church at Philadelphia rather than them. The difference is true submission to God's will, particularly as it has been manifested in Jesus, the Son of David. Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one of Israel, the king.
10. Because you kept the word of my endurance, even I will keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole inhabited world to test those who dwell on the earth. 11. I am coming quickly.
Throughout the book of Revelation, as with much of the New Testament, we get the clear sense that Jesus is going to return soon. It is important to keep this framework in mind as we move through the book. John expected that Jesus was about to return and thus that to speak about his own day was to speak about the end times. We once again remember the early Christian prayer, marana tha, "Our Lord, come!"
In John's mind, what we now call the "preterist" position (Revelation was about the first century) and the "futurist" position (Revelation is about the end times) were one and the same. The intervening time has stretched out the message so that it applies to types of figures in all of history (the "idealist" position). As we said in the Introduction, it is best to read Revelation primarily in light of the first century and then to see its references as archetypal types of figures that continually appear in history.
The Philadelphians will be rescued from the tribulation that is about to come. We should not think of this tribulation as a seven year period. John thinks of the time between now and Christ's return as a time of tribulation. From time to time, the church has faced such tribulation. Sometimes God rescues the church from it. At other times he does not.
The reward to the Philadelphians for their faithfulness is escape from the hour of testing. It is always difficult to process those passages in the New Testament that blur the final judgment with the current situation of the addressees (e.g., Mark 13). The Philadelphians to which Jesus and John speak have come and gone. They may very well have escaped a significant persecution in their day.
A final judgment is also coming. It will come on the whole world. We can safely say from Revelation that while the church is rarely exempt entirely from suffering and tribulation, God will rescue the church before the final judgment of the earth.
Hold what you have so that no one should take your crown. 12. The one who conquers I will give him a pillar in the temple of God and he will never go outside again and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that is descending from the sky from my God and my new name. 13. the one who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
The final words to the church at Philadelphia are encouraging. This is the second mention of a crown as a reward of honor for those who prevail to the end (first in 2:10). However, the crown is not guaranteed. Technically, no one can take it away from them, but other people can pressure in a way that leads to the abandonment of faith.
Jesus and John use the image of believers as pillars in a new temple. The notion of the church as a counter-temple appears here and there in the New Testament. Peter and John and James the Lord's brother are reputed to be pillars in a counter-temple in Galatians 2:9. Paul calls the Corinthian church the temple of God in 1 Corinthians 3:16.
In the early days of Christianity, this language was probably not meant to suggest that God was replacing the temple but that the existing temple was in such need of purification that a substitute was needed for the time being. But after the temple was destroyed, it became clearer to the early Christians that Christ had satisfied all need for a temple (cf. Hebrews 10:14). Accordingly, there is no need for a temple in the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21:22).
The new Jerusalem is mentioned here but will not be mentioned again in Revelation until chapter 21, where it does indeed descend from heaven to earth after the final judgment is completed. Naming had special significance in the biblical texts. It implies identity, and to know someone's name is to know them and thus, in some cases, to have a power over them.
We do not, of course, have any power over God by knowing God's name. We do however have a power that those who do not confess his name do not have. We know the city that will prevail for eternity, and it will not be the city of Rome. The verses do not make clear what the new name of Jesus is. Certainly he is now enthroned as Lord and King.
Laodicea
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| Ruins of Laodicea, with the white limestone of Hierapolis in distance |
The final church in the series of seven is the church at Laodicea, forever remembered as the lukewarm church. Laodicea completes the clockwise sequence of churches and is the church that is the farthest south and inland. Jesus is the "Amen," the closing statement to the last church. He is also the "firstborn of all creation" (Col. 1:15), another theme that Revelation shares with the Gospel of John (1:1).
It is interesting that two other churches nearby are not mentioned--the church of Colossae and the church of Hierapolis. Colossae was likely destroyed by an earthquake around 61 and was never rebuilt. However, Hierapolis was a city with a significant Christian presence in the second century. Either the church of Laodicea must have been more prominent at this time or Jesus/John wanted to single it out because of its need for admonition.
15. I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. 16. Thus because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17. Because you say, "I am rich and I have prospered, and I have need of nothing."
Nearby Hierapolis was known for its hot springs. Indeed, it still is. Although Colossae had been destroyed by an earthquake several decades before Revelation, there was still the fresh cold water that flowed down from Mt. Cadmus in that direction. By comparison, the water that reached Laodicea by aqueduct was tepid.
In the story of Goldilocks, the middle soup, chair, and bed is just right. In the case of Laodicea, it was just wrong. There is a time when hot springs are just what the doctor ordered. There are other times when a cold drink of water hits the spot. Laodicea was neither. It was something worth spitting out.
What is worse is that they thought they were hot stuff. And they may have had material wealth. They may have prospered from an earthly perspective. The church in America today is a relatively prosperous church from a financial perspective. In God's eyes, however, such things are completely irrelevant to godliness. Indeed, they are more likely a distraction to godliness than a benefit. There are plenty of churches and plenty in the church today who think they are doing great, living pleasant lives of ease.
But you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. 18. I advise you to buy gold from me having been refined from fire so that you might be rich and white garments so that you might wear and the shame of your nakedness might not appear and to rub on eye salve on your eyes so that you might see.
In the case of the Laodiceans, it was not true. Their ease had blinded them. They thought they were rich but they were poor in anything that mattered to God. They likely had great clothing but they were naked in God's eyes. They thought they could see everything so clearly, but they were blind to the things of God.
God's gold is not like earthly gold. Those who hoard. Those who say, "It is mine." Those who think they actually merit what they have and that those without deserve what they do not have--they are poor in God's eyes. They are spiritually naked. They think those with different values are blind when in fact it is they who do not see.
They need the salve of the Spirit to give their eyes sight. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enter the kingdom of God," Jesus said (Mark 10:25). It is easier for the church to be the church when it is poor and persecuted than when it is prosperous and has power.
19. As many of those as I myself love, I correct and discipline. Therefore, be earnest and repent.
Verse 19 is perhaps an allusion to Proverbs 3:12, which is also quoted in Hebrews 12:6. It does no good to discipline those who are past redemption, whose hearts are hardened. They do not listen to correction. They are not interested in it, and it often makes them act worse in rebellion. These are they that the Lord simply lets go to their own self-destruction (cf. Rom. 1:28).
But the Laodiceans are still redeemable. They are not so far gone that they cannot be reclaimed. This letter is discipline. John's hope is that they will repent and turn back from their current course.
20. Behold I have stood at the door and I am knocking. If someone should hear my voice and should open the door, I will come in to him and I will dine with him and he himself with me.
This is a well known memory verse for many of us as a child. In context it indicates that, while the Laodiceans currently have their door closed to Jesus, he is eager for them to reopen it. Contrast their situation with that of the Philadelphians, whose door is open and cannot be closed. In fact, it is opened by Jesus himself.
In the case of the Laodiceans, they are the ones who have apparently shut the door. Jesus was once apparently in the house with them, but not any more. Jesus has not given up on them. He wants to dine with them again. At the end of Revelation, there will be a marriage supper for the church with Christ. That will be true dining, like the Last Supper Jesus had with his disciplines on earth.
21. The one who conquers--I will give to him to sit with me on my throne as I also have conquered and have sat with my Father on his throne. 22. Let the one who has ears hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
The final letter ends as the other ones did, with an invitation to those who have ears to hear. Again, the need to prevail to the end is mentioned. Those who turn from God before the end will not be part of the kingdom. Those who conquer will rule with Christ as co-heirs (Rom. 8:17). Jesus himself promised his disciples that they would sit on thrones judging the children of Israel (Luke 22:30).
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