Guest Writer/Speaker: Jamie Harrison

“The Lamb Who is Our Shepherd” from Revelation 7 — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

"The Lamb Who is Our Shepherd" from Revelation 7 (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

📖 Revelation 7After the terrifying events of Revelation 6, John is given a breathtaking glimpse of hope. Before judgment continues, God reveals that His people are known, sealed, and secure in Christ. The chapter culminates with one of Revelation's most beautiful pictures: the Lamb who was slain is also the Shepherd who leads His people forever.In this episode, Keith Harris and Jamie Harrison discuss:✔️ Why Revelation 7 is an interlude between the sixth and seventh seals✔️ What it means for God's servants to be sealed✔️ The two primary views of the 144,000—and why faithful Christians differ✔️ How John's pattern of hearing one thing and seeing another helps interpret the chapter✔️ The innumerable multitude worshiping before the throne✔️ Why Jesus, the Lamb, is also our Shepherd who leads us to living waterThis chapter reminds us that our greatest hope isn't solving every prophetic question—it's belonging to Christ. Those who trust Him are safe in Him, and one day He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.📖 "For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:17, ESV)🔗 If you'd like to see a written version of this podcast, complete with footnotes and cross-references, you can find it here.

We’re back in our study of Revelation called The KING is Coming, where we’re taking a verse-by-verse approach to see what the book truly reveals—Jesus Christ Himself. As always, I’m joined by Jamie Harrison, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to walk through this study together. Today, we’ll be in Revelation 7, where John sees what comes after the opening of the sixth seal. After the wrath and judgment of Revelation 6, this chapter gives us a picture of God’s people being sealed, saved, and gathered before the throne, where the Lamb who was slain is also the Shepherd who leads His people to living water. This week’s passage is Revelation 7:

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. ²Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, ³saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” ⁴And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
⁵12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
⁶12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
⁷12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
⁸12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
⁹After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” ¹¹And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
¹³Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
¹⁵“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them
with his presence.
¹⁶They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,nor any scorching heat.
¹⁷For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”^[1]

Keith Harris:
Greetings, sojourners.

Here we are, back in our The KING Is Coming study, and today we’re in Revelation 7. Jamie, you got anything preliminary you want to say, or you just want to dive right in?

Jamie Harrison:
Let’s just dive right in.

Keith:
Let’s do it. So Revelation 7 is following—because, again, it’s been a minute since we recorded—Revelation 6. We see some wrath being poured out.

Jamie:
Well, I was sure wondering if Revelation 7 followed Revelation 6. I appreciate you really clarifying that for me.

Keith:
You may be joking, but part of what we’re—

Jamie:
That is a new development.

Keith:
But in looking at this, one of the things that we’re doing—and I said it that way as a sort of reminder—

Jamie:
Yes.

Keith:
Our point in this study isn’t to answer every question, because every one of our questions is not meant to be answered. The text wasn’t designed that way. We’re seeing what God showed John. And so, when we look at this, we’re looking at what John saw next. And I’ll let you take it from there.

Jamie:
Yeah, that’s really important. And I’m glad you went back to chapter 6 just to kind of point out that the last thing we saw was that sixth seal being opened, and this huge earthquake. The sun turns black. The moon becomes like blood. You know, all these different things happen. Stars are falling to the earth. All these things. And every single mountain and island is moved from its place.

So you’re talking about worldwide destruction going on when this sixth seal is busted open. And then the next thing he sees—now, again, it’s very important, just like Keith said—that’s not necessarily the next thing that happens. That’s the next thing he sees.

The next thing he sees are four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, restraining the four winds of the earth so that no wind can blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. So, in other words, right after this extremely destructive storm, the next thing he sees is calm. There’s no wind.

Keith:
And sees the supernatural reason for why the calm has come. Like, he can see these angels.

Jamie:
That’s right. And so what you get here is—you know, we always talk about the calm before the storm—and judgment is coming. And it’s about to come hot and heavy right after this.

And so you kind of get the idea here that everything is calm for a minute because the Lord is about to seal some people who are going to make it through the tribulation. And we can go back to Ezekiel chapter 9. We get the idea of that sealing, what it looks like. Ezekiel has a vision of a slaughter in Jerusalem. That’s going to be chapter 9, verses 4 through 7. I mean, you can read the whole chapter, but kind of where the seal starts is verse 4 there.

And they’re being sealed from judgment. They’re being sealed on their forehead by a mark. So you get the same kind of idea here. Same idea as the Passover, Exodus chapter 12, you know, where they’re sealed by the blood of a lamb from their firstborn being killed there.

And so, in Revelation 14:1, we find out this is the same group of people in Revelation 14. And it says:

Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.^[2]

And so it looks like that seal is something to do with Jesus’s name and the Father’s name on their foreheads—some type of, what we’re going to learn, spiritual protection from the coming judgment.

Keith:
Yeah, and that symbol would have looked like what the Hebrew letter tav looked like at the time of Ezekiel, which some interpret as kind of a cross at an angle or an X. Either which way, it’s obviously pointing forward to Christ and the fact that He—I think it’s John 10, and I think it fits with the end of Revelation 7, not getting ahead—but Jesus being the Good Shepherd, and that He holds His people in His hand, and no one can pluck them from His hand.

The symbolic seal represents the spiritual reality that Jesus has them.

Jamie:
Yes and amen. And this group of people that we’re looking at here, they’re being sealed until the number would be completed. Look at chapter 6, verse 11 of Revelation. It says:

So they were each given a white robe, and they were told to rest a little while longer until the number would be completed of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters, who were going to be killed just as they had been.

Now, you ask, why do we connect those together? Great question. Because in chapter 7, where Keith just read, in verse 14—well, right above, in verse 13—he says, “Hey, who are these people in white robes, and where did they come from?” And he says, “Sir, you know.”

Then he told me these were the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So each of those connect together to show us that these are the people that are going to be sealed, that are going to be saved, that are going to be persecuted for their faith during the great tribulation, that are going to reach other people for Christ. And when that number is completed, then the Lord’s judgment will be completed directly after.

I hope all that makes sense.

I do want to point out that this is the exact opposite of the mark that we’re going to learn about in Revelation 13, verses 16 through 17, where it says:

¹⁶And it makes everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, ¹⁷so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast’s name or the number of its name.

And, of course, it’s commonly referred to as the mark of the beast. And so this is the exact opposite. That mark is going to bring judgment.

Keith:
Well, and I mean, when you look in the context of Ezekiel 9 to get the understanding there, it’s those who are faithful to God. And the faithfulness to God—in Ezekiel chapters 4 through 7 preceding that—the faithfulness to God is very important in the context of Revelation.

Your mark shows to whom you’re faithful. And so nobody who is faithful to Christ is at risk of being hoodwinked into getting this other one. Your mark shows your allegiance. I think that’s a very important thing there.

Jamie:
Absolutely. No doubt about it.

So now we get into the real controversial part, right? What is this 144,000 number? Is there only 144,000 people going to heaven?

And let’s just go ahead and hit that one right off the bat: no. That’s dumb. I don’t know any other way to say it. And I don’t joke anymore. That’s a very serious statement. That’s dumb. There’s way more than 144,000 people going to heaven, and the Bible is going to tell us that here in just a minute.

Keith:
And the danger—and really where the idea of only 144,000 people are going to heaven comes from—the fact that different cults, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, have gained ground, and people are believing what they’ve heard or what they’ve seen on social media, or some random jake-leg—I’m using my quotey fingers—preacher says.

What the Bible says matters. And so when anybody says anything—us, your pastor, especially Jehovah’s Witnesses and jake-leg internet TV preachers—check it with the Bible. That doesn’t pass the test.

Jamie:
Yeah, just a lot of people believe whatever’s on social media is true. If it made it on social media, it’s got to be true, right? And that’s also very dumb. I can attest to that personally.

Keith:
I mean, last week I saw a picture of a cloud that was shaped like a soldier, including kneeling at his gun. And no cloud ever was that clear. And people are like, “Oh my gosh, look at this sign from God!” And under it was the city of Jackson that did not resemble the city of Jackson, and nobody noticed because they were looking at the soldier in the sky.

Jamie:
Wow.

Keith:
Don’t get your theology from social media.

Jamie:
Correct.

Keith:
Or look for truth there at all.

Jamie:
Yeah. Just that. Period. The end.

So with the 144,000, there’s two main approaches to that number. One is that it’s a literal number. One is that it’s a figurative number. And so I think the best way to go about it is, let’s look at both. Let’s talk about the—I don’t want to use the word justification—but I’ll use the verses that people use for each. Okay?

And then read the Bible on your own, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, and He will guide you into truth.

So the literal number—we’ll start there—and it comes from, you go all the way back to Numbers, where there was a military census performed at different times. And what they would do, Israel would do, is they would count the military-aged males to see how many people they had that were of age and eligible to fight in a war. Okay?

And in Revelation 14:4—remember, Revelation 14 is also talking about this same group of people—it says:

These are the ones who have not defiled themselves with women, since they remained virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were redeemed from humanity as the firstfruits for God and the Lamb.

So this is talking about males from the tribes of Israel, and they have been counted as a military census would have been counted.

Keith:
Yeah, and I think Numbers 31 is the reference there. In that case, just to clarify, it wasn’t 144,000 in the book of Numbers, right? But the book of Numbers obviously contains a lot of numbers and censuses, and they weren’t always clear, round numbers.

Numbers 31:4-5:

⁴You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.” ⁵So there were provided, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.

It’s not always so clear-cut a number.

Jamie:
That’s right. And so, again, same thing. Numbers chapter 2, you know, it talks about—it goes through how they camped in the military formation. And this tribe camps here on the east side. This tribe camps on the north side. This tribe on that—the Levites in the middle, where the Ark of the Covenant would have been, the temple would have been—the tabernacle would have been.

And so this, you kind of can go back again to Revelation chapter 14, verse 4, where it says they follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Because as the Spirit—as the glory of God moved, the cloud moved, so the Israelites followed.

And I do think it’s very interesting that Judah is the first tribe listed, and that in Numbers chapter 2, Judah is the first tribe listed. And so there is a connection to who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and that would be Jesus. So that is a pretty cool correlation there, where you look at it and go, “Hey, regardless of whether this is an exact number or a figurative number, they’re following the Lion of the tribe of Judah.”

And we’re going to come back to that thought in just a minute. A lot of people also look at Ezekiel chapter 37, where the dry bones become an army. The Lord puts His Spirit in them. That would be the thought of salvation. And so the idea is that this 144,000 number gets saved.

Keith:
Well, and I think we need to pause there, because so much conversation—again, a lot of it from these random social media snippets that people put pictures up there and stuff—there is nobody, no matter what their ethnicity, who is going to heaven unless they’ve been saved.

Jamie:
Correct.

Keith:
In the Old Testament, it was still by grace through faith. Jesus, God in flesh, had not yet become incarnate. But think about Abraham. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Everyone who trusted and called upon the name of the Lord showed faith in Him. And every Israelite who’s ever walked the earth hadn’t got saved.

Jamie:
Right.

Keith:
Every son of Adam, daughter of Eve, as C. S. Lewis says it—they’re not in heaven. Those who have faith—You look in the book of Numbers. The ground opened up and swallowed thousands. It didn’t catapult them up to heaven. They were in open rebellion.

I think the reading we’re currently looking at, Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament, in our Bible reading plans—yesterday, they were—it was where Phinehas, the Priest came up and literally skewered people who were taking their cult prostitutes and trying to go into the tabernacle with them. And Phinehas is like, “That’s enough.”

And then when people are like, “Dude, why are you acting like this?” God audibly spoke from heaven. He’s like, “Hey, y’all need to be glad he killed those two, because he’s jealous with My jealousy.”

You have God’s people, generically talking about Israel, but you have God’s people—those who, by grace through faith, are saved and, I guess in the context, we say sealed to Him. They belong to Him by grace through faith. No other way.

And so, in any understanding of the 144,000, there’s nobody getting in because they descended from Abraham.

Jamie:
Correct.

Keith:
Not a one. Zero.

Jamie:
Only by the blood of the Lamb.

Keith:
Amen.

Jamie:
So, just to really briefly, I guess, quickly finish the Ezekiel thought: you know, God puts His Spirit in them to salvation. And then, in Ezekiel 36:24 through 28, Ezekiel 37:24 through 28, you have the Jewish people coming under the new covenant, which would be salvation. But it very distinctly says they will be under one King, and that’s a reference directly to Jesus.

And so, the idea of witnesses—how do we, what makes us think that they’re witnesses? Because this just looks like a list of 144,000 people.

Well, in Revelation chapter 14, again, what we get is that—let’s start in verse 4:

⁴These are the ones who have not defiled themselves with women, since they remained virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were redeemed from humanity as the firstfruits for God and the Lamb. ⁵No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

⁶Then I saw another angel flying high overhead, with the eternal gospel to announce to the inhabitants of the earth—to every nation, tribe, language, and people. ⁷He spoke with a loud voice: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

So you have this proclamation of the gospel, and right before it, we’re told that these 144,000—this number—are the ones redeemed from humanity as the firstfruits. Okay? Firstfruits infers that there’s more fruit.

Keith:
Or at least last fruits.

Jamie:
That’s right. And so that’s where the idea that they’re witnesses comes from, is that they will be sent forth as a quote-unquote army of witnesses to reach people for the name of Christ.

Keith:
And that makes sense because you were talking about—I just found the verse I was looking for—you were talking about until the number has been completed. Matthew 24:14:

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

And that’s red letters. That’s Jesus.

Jamie:
Yes. So then, let’s talk for a second about, all right, is this a symbolic number? Is it just a number? We know that 12 is the number of completion in the Bible: 12 tribes of Israel, 12 disciples, on and on and on.

Revelation 21:12 through 14, you have that same number 12 come back around with the foundations and things. And so you get the idea that number 12 is just the perfect unity of God’s kingdom.

And I think that Revelation 21 is really important there, because in verses 12 through 14, this is talking about the New Jerusalem:

¹²The city had a massive high wall, with twelve gates. Twelve angels were at the gates; the names of the twelve tribes of Israel’s sons were inscribed on the gates. ¹³There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. ¹⁴The city wall had twelve foundations, and the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb were on the foundations.

And so the idea there being is that the church is unified. It is one in heaven. There is no distinction of male or Greek, Jew or male or female. Do you agree?

Keith:
Yeah.

Jamie:
Wow. Okay. There’s that. And so, again, is this a symbolic number? Is it a literal number? You know, you walk through it and you look and you go, “All right, 12 is the number of completion. That makes sense to me. I get that.”

We know that the Lion of the tribe of Judah will be leading this group of people. And I want to point out something very important here. And, and, and hopefully this makes sense. If it doesn’t, you can leave Keith a comment and let him know, because I will not be looking at the comments, but Keith will.

Revelation chapter 5—chapter 6. Excuse me. I don’t know what I’m talking about. It is chapter 5. I’m just—wow. Maybe we need to hit the pause button and take a break.

Keith:
No, you got it.

Jamie:
Okay. So Revelation 5:5, same place it’s always been. This is one of mine and Keith’s favorite Scriptures. It says:

Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Now, who leads the 144,000?

Keith:
Jesus.

Jamie:
Jesus, the Lion from the tribe of Judah.

Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Okay, so this is what John hears the elder say. He hears him say, “Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” And we know that the 144,000 is led by the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

And then he looks, and in verse 6 it says:

Then I saw one like a slaughtered lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth.

And it goes on. He takes the scroll, and He unseals the scroll, and then they have this awesome praise moment there together.

And so the “he hears, and then he looks and sees” connects right together with chapter 7, because watch this: in verse 4 he says, “I heard the number of the sealed.” But watch this in verse 9: “After this, I looked.” So he hears the number, just like he heard, “Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah,” but he saw one like a slaughtered Lamb. So he looks—or, excuse me, he hears—144,000, 12,000 from each tribe. But he looks, and there’s a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language—which no one could number—standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

So first off, there goes your 144,000 people are going to be saved, and that’s all.

Keith:
Well, and also, this numberless multitude—if it’s all tribes and peoples and languages—there are obviously Jews in there.

Jamie:
That is correct. And so the last part of this is, we look and we go, okay, he sees this number. He sees—or sees this group of people that nobody can number standing before the throne. They’re clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.

And in verse 14—again, back to the same verse we talked about earlier—he asks, you know, “Who are these people?” And he says they’re the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They’ve washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So this innumerable number of people are people that come out of the great tribulation, who are persecuted for their faith, most likely killed for their faith—not necessarily all of them, but most likely killed for their faith—persecuted for their faith. They came out of the great tribulation.

In other words, there’s a seal placed on their forehead, and once that number is completed, the Lord’s judgment will come. And so I think we, when you put all these things together—

Keith:
Well, I think there’s one more Scripture that goes with that before you put it all together. Romans 11, which talks about the remnant of Israel coming to Christ. Romans 11:25. And I think—and I think the wording of this is particularly helpful for when we put this all together:

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

So we’re seeing all these places—Old Testament, New Testament, with future vision for John—talking about till the number has become complete. Now we see the number, and then we see the numberless. Like, it does seem that when we put all this together—again, this isn’t like, there are way more popular theories—

Jamie:
Right.

Keith:
But sticking with what the Bible says, it seems to reason, “lest you be wise in your own sight,” that where there is a lot of clear evidence in Scripture—a good rule of Bible interpretation is the clear things are important, and the important things are clear. Or, as Alistair Begg says, “The main things are the plain things.” So when Jamie puts all this together, this is coming out of a volume of Scripture.

Jamie:
For sure. And again, I go back—I guess the word is, I guess, to say, to put all this together—we have this group of people. And again, it says these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.

And in verses 15 through 17, you get all these things that they’re going to be protected from. But in verse 15, it says, “For this reason, they are before the throne of God.” For what reason? For the reason they were persecuted for their faith, and they came out of the great tribulation.

So we know this is an innumerable group of people that was persecuted for their faith, and for that reason, they’re before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple.

Which, first off, that’s just—that’s an incredible thought. You know, I was listening to a song—maybe it was yesterday—a song came on, and one of the lyrics were—I can’t remember the exact wording now that I brought it up—but it’s basically that we get to join a song they’re already singing when we get to heaven.

Like, just think about that for a minute. There’s these awesome worship sessions going on in heaven right now as we speak, and one day we’ll be part of the choir.

Keith:
And I think we lose sight of that sometimes. And again, the reason for us doing this—we’re not trying to be relevant, not trying to be cool, not trying to be any such thing.

It’s so easy to try to have religion outside of relationship with Jesus. And none of these people who are standing around the throne are there for some religious experience. Religion does not withstand persecution. Right now, around the world—and I was looking at something else Jesus said in Matthew 24:21:

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.

Y’all, persecution has been increasing and been going on since Jesus ascended into heaven. You’ve got Stephen, the first martyr, all the way up through—you go through the Roman Empire where they were killing Christians.

Finally get to the point where they realize, “We’ve got to burn this book that they’re preaching from, because killing the folks ain’t stopping it.” And then God puts an end to that persecution.

They meet together. You get the canon of Scripture going. And then every so often, all over the world—like even right now—there are countries in the world where you will be imprisoned for the rest of your life for the preaching of the gospel, be shunned and never be a part of your family again because of the preaching of the gospel.

There are places right now on the continent of Africa where they are killing Christians by the hundreds and thousands. And none of these people are sitting there begging for their life. They’re being witnesses.

Literally, the word that we see for witness in the New Testament—that Greek word is martyrion, where we get our word for martyr. They gave their life to point to the eternal life that comes from the life of Jesus Christ.

They’re not resentful that when they see Him in glory, after they lose their life for Him on earth, they see fulfillment. They see not personal achievement, but their personal Savior.

And y’all, I think we lose that when we spend too much time trying to figure out what exactly is the 144,000. I’m fine if it’s literal. I’m fine if it’s figurative, because I’m going to be standing before Jesus. And I might have a lot of questions when I get up there, but I don’t think they’re going to come to mind as readily.

Jamie:
Nope.

Keith:
Like, yeah, I don’t—you know, it’s going to be eternity, but I think I’m going to have better things to do.

Jamie:
Yeah, I think verse 11 there says:

All the angels stood around the throne, and along with the elders and the four living creatures they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God….

I think that’s—I think that’s going to be what we’re doing.

Keith:
It does say, “forever and ever, amen.” That’s good enough for Randy Travis. That’s good enough for me.

Jamie:
Amen. I was going to go into some other things here, but I think, instead, just to close this out, I think to look at—it says back in verse 15:

¹⁵For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and they serve him day and night in his temple.
The one seated on the throne will shelter them:
¹⁶They will no longer hunger;
they will no longer thirst;
the sun will no longer strike them,
nor will any scorching heat.
¹⁷For the Lamb who is at the center of the throne
will shepherd them;
he will guide them to springs of the waters of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Now, there’s all kinds of correlations to the Old Testament and Israelites and Greeks being brought together. But I think here’s what I want to point out, is that all of these things that it just listed are judgments that are going to happen. And some of them will affect these people to an extent.

I mean, they’ll no longer hunger—they’re going to be hungry, right? They’re going to be thirsty. The sun’s still going to be hot while they’re here on earth. But all of these protections, all of these things that will no longer happen, happen after they have died for their faith.

Keith:
Yeah, the division between the sixth seal and the seventh—that, I mean, you think about—and just as reference for the fact there were those sealed who didn’t go into exile, but that doesn’t mean that no one who went into exile had faith in God.

Look at Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael. Like, but when God’s ultimate wrath is poured out, God’s not unjust. If Jesus has borne the wrath, there’s no need for His people to bear the wrath. It’s been borne.

And so I think it’s important, as we close out, to kind of just look at the paradox here. Because the beauty of this—more beautiful than a symmetry of numbers. I know, to some people, numbers and understanding and clarity, it just resonates with their soul. “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. He will guide them to springs of living water. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” When you look at all this language, it’s Revelation 21. The beauty of eternity being outside of time—you skip, you skip things.

And I think that paradox right there, that thing that doesn’t make sense from an earthly perspective: lambs aren’t shepherds; shepherds are. But Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, will be their Shepherd. He’ll be the Shepherd of all who, by grace through faith in Him, are saved by Him from the wrath of God.

And I think the beautiful thing here is what you need to be asking yourself, more so than anything about a number, more so than anything about anything else, is: Who is your shepherd? Who is your Savior? Is your hope in the Lamb?

If thinking about heaven being forever and ever, amen—standing around the throne, around the Lamb, waving palm branches, singing hosanna—if that bores you, you’ve got eternal problems. In fact, as we record this today, the next day is Sunday, the Lord’s Day, when we’re supposed to gather. If the thought of gathering in worship of Jesus tomorrow bores you, you might want to look at the eternal forecast. If you are bored gathering around the Lamb now, maybe you need to analyze, more than you need to theorize, whether you are covered by the blood of the Lamb. And I don’t mean a momentary lapse, or you’ve got something else to do. I mean, you really need to look and see if practicing for heaven here on earth is something that you just can’t stand.

You’re either with Him or you’re not—sealed and saved, or you ain’t.

Thank you. God bless, and we’ll see you next time with Revelation 8.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Re 7:1–17.

^[2] When Jamie quotes from Scripture, he uses the Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Re 14:1.

“Who Can Stand Under the Wrath of the Lamb?” from Revelation 6 — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

Click below to listen:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6BJKifmhcryQPo0R7oMcjD?si=-cRmPr16RTOzc0433ogqcQ

We’re back in our study of Revelation called The KING is Coming, where we’re taking a verse-by-verse approach to see what the book truly reveals—Jesus Christ Himself. As always, I’m joined by Jamie Harrison, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to walk through this study together. Today, we’ll be turning to Revelation 6, a heavy chapter where the Lamb who was worshiped as worthy in Revelation 5 begins to open the seals of the scroll. As judgment unfolds, this passage presses us to see both the holiness of God’s wrath and the urgency of standing in the grace and mercy of the Lamb. This week’s passage is Revelation 6:

¹Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!” ²And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
³When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” ⁴And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
⁵When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. ⁶And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!”
⁷When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” ⁸And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
⁹When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. ¹⁰They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ¹¹Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
¹²When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, ¹³and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. ¹⁴The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. ¹⁵Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, ¹⁶calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, ¹⁷for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”^[1]

Keith Harris:
Greetings, sojourners.

This is a heavy chapter, and so I think that’s about all the segue I’ve got there. Jamie, dive in.

Jamie Harrison:
All right. So we pick up with the Lamb, who we talked about in the last episode, being the One who was worthy to take the scroll and open it. And He does take the scroll here, and one of the four living creatures says with a voice like thunder. Now, if you remember back from chapter 4, thunder is a sign of judgment to come, and it’s going to be said several times again throughout Revelation every time a judgment is coming. And so the first thing you see here is a white horse. And a lot of people get interested — excuse me — get confused about this rider on a white horse, because in Revelation 19 there’s a rider on a white horse who is Jesus. But this rider on the white horse is given a bow. It doesn’t say a bow and arrows. It just says bow, which is interesting. But he’s got a crown. It’s given to him. Notice the crown is given to him. And he goes out as a conqueror in order to conquer. So remember, the Jews are looking for somebody who will come and conquer and take over. And so this rider comes in as a conqueror to conquer. And so this is most likely a depiction of the Antichrist who is going to come.

And so the entire world is going to follow him. They’re going to be obsessed with him. He is going to go for a peace in the world. That’s going to be his—we’ll just say—the way he kind of takes power is, “I’ll bring peace to the world, and I can do this and that.” And it’s not going to be through war. We’re going to do it in a peaceful manner through treaties and stuff. And so if you go to Daniel chapter 9, in Daniel 9:27^[2], he says:

He will make a firm covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and offering. And the abomination of desolation will be on a wing of the temple^, until the decreed destruction is poured out on the desolator.”

So he’s going to make a covenant of peace. He’s going to do it in a peaceful manner, not by war. But it’s going to be a false peace, which I think is key to point out and talk about. Then you go back to Matthew 24, which is where Jesus is talking about the end times and what that will look like. And in Matthew 24, verse 4, it says:

⁴Jesus replied to them, “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many.

And so that’s who we have here—somebody who’s going to deceive.

Keith:
Well, and just in case you’re wondering where we get some of this stuff too, this isn’t just commentary or interpretation that we’re spouting out back to you. You look at the language there—I think it’s in verse 2—where it describes this rider on the white horse. The Spirit of God has told us twice here, like in quick succession, that he is coming to conquer because people aren’t going to realize it. It says, “He came out conquering and to conquer.” That’s what he was doing when people thought he was bringing peace. And I’m speaking of it in past tense, but many believe this is a future thing here. “…conquering and to conquer”—that’s his purpose. And the Spirit of God has to tell us. This is another reason why many look at this to be the Antichrist, because he’s coming imitating Christ. Like Jamie said, he’s also riding a white horse. He’s imitation. This is Great Value imitation here. And he had a crown, and that was given to him because he doesn’t have dominion. Just like the song in Revelation 5: dominion belongs to the Lamb, to Him who sits on the throne. He allows him this opportunity, but He also allows us a glimpse at what he’s really doing—coming out conquering with the purpose to conquer.

Jamie:
And I think there we talk about the rider holds a bow. Again, it doesn’t say bow and arrow. It just says bow, meaning there’s no fight that’s going to take place. He’s going to give this false peace, again by a covenant, like it says in Daniel.

Keith:
Symbolic.

Jamie:
That’s right. And we know it’s false. We know in Daniel it also says there will be a war. Matthew says there will be wars and rumors of wars, and we’ll get into that a little bit more. So we know three-and-a-half years in, that false peace is going to go away, and he’s going to show his true self.

Keith:
You say three-and-a-half years in—that’s referencing the seven-year period known as the Great Tribulation, correct?

Jamie:
Correct. Okay, so the crown that he’s wearing here—I found it interesting that the word here in Greek for crown, and Keith, you’ll have to tell me if I’m pronouncing this correctly, stephanos. Is that accurate?

Keith:
Yes. Reminds me of Stefano from Days of Our Lives that my mom and grandmother used to watch. You know, he was dead and alive and dead and alive and dead and alive.

Jamie:
Yeah, that’s the guy. It’s my cousin. So that is the victor’s crown, okay? That’s like a laurel wreath that they would give you if you were an athlete and you won the race or whatever. So it’s given to you for your victory. It’s a laurel wreath. Again, in Revelation 19:12, the word that’s used for crown is diadēma—the kingly crown. And this crown only belongs to the King. And so that’s how we know that this rider is not Jesus. Not only the fact that he’s coming in order to conquer and to conquer, and he’s bringing about evil—that’s obvious in and of itself—but the fact that the crown is going to be given to him. Which means, most likely, the world is going to elect him as their leader, whether it’s through maybe the United Nations or something and he becomes a leader of that—however you want to look at that. He’s going to become the leader, elected by the people despite the cost—despite what it’s’s going to cost them. They’re going to elect him as leader. So again, I just want to point out: this is not Jesus. Jesus is not given His crown.

Keith:
And to clarify, when you say “elect” there, you’re not trying to make some political prophecy. They’re going to back this guy. He’s coming with his own agenda, in his own way. God’s allowing him to do this to bring about these things that have been prophesied. But folks are just in his corner. They’re going to get what they want.

Jamie:
And I think—I don’t want to spend much time talking about this—but there’s something people forget. Every leader who has ever existed has been placed in leadership, or allowed to be placed in leadership, by God for His purposes. And in Romans, He said, “Pray for your leaders”—all your leaders—because God placed them there. So, you know, we say, “Oh, we need to get back to being a praying nation.” Here in America, I agree with that. We do need to pray more. All of us do. All believers do. And non-believers—first get saved, and then pray. Obviously it doesn’t work in reverse order. But praying is important. God’s going to put in charge who He wants in charge.

Keith:
And in this case right here, He is coming as the Lion, bringing judgment. And part of doing this is giving people what they wanted in the first place. That’s right. I mean, it’s no different than the book of Judges, when there was no king in Israel and people did what was right in their own eyes. Or 1 Samuel, when they wanted a king like everybody else. He’s giving them what they wanted in judgment. And that’s a big part of this.

Jamie:
And what’s really — I’m jumping way ahead of myself here — but what’s really interesting is you would say, “Well, the people didn’t even know that’s what they were doing.” They didn’t know. But it says right at the end of the chapter that they actually cry out to the rocks, asking the rocks to fall on them. And they say, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” So the people are going to recognize this is the wrath of God and are going to continue to support the Antichrist. They’re going to continue to worship the Antichrist. They’re going to take the mark of the beast willingly.

Keith:
Willingly being tricked.

Jamie:
Correct. And will most likely say some kind of vow that says there is no other god but him — the Antichrist.

Keith:
Which is not a new thing. People have been doing that — going along to get along, getting what they want out of it — for centuries. Roman Empire, Persian Empire, Greek Empire — I know I’m out of order historically — Babylonian Empire. They’re getting what they want, getting what they asked for here.

Jamie:
Which is why people say, “Be careful what you ask for. You might just get it.” So that’s the first seal. The first seal most likely is going to set the course of events in motion. First seal — sorry, I said scroll. There’s only one scroll. The first seal is going to set in motion the Antichrist coming to power. And then we get to the second seal. This is the second seal. He hears the second living creature say, “Come,” and another horse goes out. So these are — a lot of people call these the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, right? This horse is a fiery red horse, and its rider is allowed to take peace from the earth so that people will slaughter one another, and a large sword was given to him. And so obviously this one’s very simple. This rider represents war. I mean, this red—blood, right? People are going to die. They’re going to be killed. And again, back in Matthew 24, they’re going to be killed and kill each other. Verses 6 and 7:

⁶You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet. ⁷For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines^, and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these events are the beginning of labor pains.

So understand that Jesus is telling us this. And right after that He’s going to talk about persecution happening. So I need people to understand that, as we’re looking at these seals, if this happens in our lifetime, we will be here for this. This will happen with Christians present on the earth. According to Jesus, Christians will be here.

Keith:
And this is going to be the point where some of y’all are like, “Hold on. We are pre-trib rapturists.” Now here’s the deal. There is nobody who wants a pre-trib rapture—yes, Lord—more than us two. When we look at this, we’re not trying to fit any of this into a camp. We’re trying to take this verse by verse. Do I want a pre-trib rapture? Yes. But let’s look at a little bit of reality here. And I’m not trying to take a rabbit trail. You need to look at passages like Matthew 24, which is Jesus talking. Jesus trumps your favorite Bible preacher. He does. Jesus trumps your favorite prophecy preacher. Jesus trumps all of that. But I want you to think about some other folks here in the Bible. Look at 1 Peter chapter 5, where he describes tribulation being experienced by the brothers throughout the world. I want you to understand Peter died in the midst of an act of tribulation and persecution in Rome. Paul—the whole idea of a peaceful, prosperous life—it didn’t seem like the apostle Paul, through his service to the Lord, earned health, wealth, and prosperity. You need to understand, as long as there’s been a church, they have experienced persecution. And again, who trumps your favorite Bible preacher? Jesus. He said in John chapter 16, “In this world you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world.” So when we look at this, we’re not trying to make a prophetic stance here. We’re just following the text. And it does seem like—

Jamie:
John 16

Keith:
Jamie’s checking my reference here, which is always a good thing.

Jamie:
John 15—that’s what I was looking at. Jesus says:

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

And so, you know, it’s this whole section here. Persecution is predicted.

Keith:
And John 16—the one I was talking about—double-checking the reference there—the end of the chapter, verse… Excuse me. Thirty-three. I knew it was a double number there.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

So the idea here is we follow the text. Jesus talks about persecution that is going to come. Now, when it comes to the Great Tribulation here—that’s what Jesus was referencing in Matthew 24. What we’re looking at here with these seals in Revelation 6, like Jamie said, it does seem like the church is still going to be present in this time.

Jamie:
That’s right. So we move to the third seal. When He opens the third seal, the third living creature says, “Come.” And he looks, and this time there’s a black horse, and its rider holds a set of scales in his hand. And he heard someone say, “A quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius, but do not harm the oil and the wine.” And so the idea you get here is that there’s going to be worldwide famine and worldwide war from the second seal. And so you think a natural outcome of a worldwide war is going to be famine. I was just talking yesterday or two days ago — on Thanksgiving Day — asking about my grandmother, who recently passed, had a ration book left over from World War II.

Keith:
Oh, wow.

Jamie:
And I was asking if they knew what happened to it, because it was real cool, you know, just a cool thing to look at, talk about, whatever. But because the world was at war, the people at home were given ration booklets. You know, you could get so much sugar, so much bread, so much butter — whatever it was — and that’s all you could get. And so what’s going to happen here in this third seal is that you’re going to have worldwide famine. The war is going to obviously destroy the food supply, because when you have war — think about in modern times — we’re blowing crap up. And so when you’re blowing stuff up, it is going to harm the food supply, the water supply, all of those things. And it’s going to cause, I’m going to say, rationing by governments, which is going to drive prices up. We’ve experienced that here for sure. Inflation, I think, was up 24%. It’s risen another 2% now. I don’t think it’s rising at the moment we’re talking right now. But still, you go to Walmart — somebody say amen — and you buy one bag of nothing, and it’s $127,423.62. And then you get home and you’re like, “Wow, I didn’t even buy enough to eat a snack.” So — but we’re talking about, like, there’s a country — and I can’t remember the exact name of the country. I want to say it’s Zimbabwe — that they would walk around literally with wheelbarrows full of their currency to buy a loaf of bread.

Keith:
It was like that in lots of places in Europe. I remember reading The Hiding Place, talking about how their currency became worthless. But man, what it reminds me of—and this might be the only economic term I can remember from my high school economics class, Mr. Nez Watson. He told all of us, “Scarcity exists.” And that’s in normal times, right? This is abnormal. So economic scarcity leading to actual scarcity of provisions—that’s a byproduct, like you say, of war. And so extreme measures would have to take place to survive. And I think that’s part of the implication here. Many will not survive.

Jamie:
That’s correct. And so to kind of get, I guess, a little bit more specific, in case you’re wondering where we’re coming up with this, where it says, “A quart of wheat for a denarius.” Remember that a denarius is a day’s wages during this time. So you’re talking about somebody working an entire day to be able to buy one quart of wheat, which would maybe feed one person—definitely not enough for a family. So if you’re a dad, you work an entire day—you know, twelve hours, however long that is. War is going on, so it might be longer. And it’s only enough to buy just enough to feed one person. During this time you would have gotten anywhere from eight to twelve quarts of wheat for a denarius, to kind of put that in perspective. The three quarts of barley—we know that barley is normally fed to animals because it’s low in nutrients. It’s cheaper than wheat, and they’ll eat it. And so here it says that a denarius will get you three quarts of barley. Now that would be enough to feed a small family, but it’s very low in nutrients, so it’s not going to keep you alive very long. So again, back to what Keith said, people are going to start dying. And now, “Don’t harm the oil and the wine.” There’s a lot of possible interpretations here. Maybe the rich people will have plenty of it, or it’ll be some type of luxury that has to be protected because people are going to be killing for it. Oil does a lot. Oil, obviously, you’d use it to make bread. Wine—for cooking, to purify water—all these things. But it’s the idea that “don’t harm the oil and wine.” I lean toward, you’re going to have to protect it because there ain’t going to be much of it out there.

Keith:
Well, it also might be because some folks are going to think, “No, this isn’t really happening.” They’re going to be the people who are more insulated from it. I was reading about a time—this was toward the end of the first century—when the emperor Domitian, because there was a shortage of grain, was going to have the vineyards cut down and use that fertile farmland for planting grain. And the rich gave such a backlash that he said, “Never mind.” Pour it up. Drink up, guys. So this might have some kind of social aspect to it as well. Because it always happens like that. The ones who are most affected in these times are the weaker, the poor, the less affluent. There are some people who are going to think they’re insulated from this. But as we continue, the insulation gets thinner.

Jamie:
So the fourth seal is opened, and this time we get this pale green horse, and its rider is named Death, and Hades is following after him. They’re given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill by the sword, by famine, by plague, and by the wild animals of the earth. So here’s where we get confirmation that death is going to occur. Now notice it says they’re given authority over a fourth of the earth. It doesn’t say that they’re going to kill a fourth of the people on the earth, but they can. It is being allowed at this time.

Keith:
And we’ll see that percentage change, and it’s based on what they’re allowed—what authority is given.

Jamie:
That’s correct. And back in Matthew 24, in verse 7, which we read just a second ago, He says again:

For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines^, and earthquakes in various places.

Some manuscripts and some translations also add in “epidemics” or “pestilences” in various places. Again, Jesus confirms before Revelation is even written that these things are going to happen. He tells us these things are going to happen.

Keith:
And when you say “some manuscripts,” to clarify there, it’s not different versions of the Bible. Some fragments that we have of some manuscripts would have included footnotes or notes in the margin where, more than likely, through pastoral oversight, someone was looking and going, “Okay, Matthew 24, Revelation 6—these go together.” And they probably just kind of jotted down “pestilence” over in the margin, so to speak. And when we get a little piece of a fragment, it’s like, “Oh look, there’s a word there.”

Jamie:
Yep, that is correct. So the word here for “pale green horse” is chlōros, which is where the word chlorophyll comes from. And it basically describes a pale, ashen green characteristic of a decomposing corpse.

Keith:
Yeah, and just to clarify, that word is used four times in the New Testament. Three of those times it’s just translated “green.” This isn’t stuff we’re making up. But yeah, hopefully you haven’t seen a bunch of decomposing corpses. They don’t look good.

Jamie:
Correct.

Keith:
And this passage right here always makes me think of the movie Tombstone, with Johnny Ringo describing the situation: “Death’s coming, and hell’s coming with it.” I mean, people use this like they’re bringing some sort of vengeance. People are victims of these. Ain’t nobody steering the pale rider, so to speak. This is the judgment being poured out—the wrath of the Lamb, as they’re going to recognize later on. This is no joke. Nothing to play with.

Jamie:
Not at all. And so, like Keith has already said, the rider’s name is Death, so death is coming, and Hades is following after him. Hades is seen as the place of the dead. So the idea there being death claims the body, and Hades is going to collect the soul. Not a good thing at all. And then he mentions four means of extermination: The sword—which is obviously war. Hunger—famine. Death by plagues, infections, diseases. And unrestrained beasts of the earth. So there is a lot going on here. And “unrestrained beasts of the earth”—what does that mean? Who knows? I guess the animals start going crazy because of all the war that’s going on. If their habitats are being blown up and destroyed, they start coming into the cities. Who knows what it’ll look like? I just know you don’t want to run up on one of them.

Keith:
A hungry, starving, domesticated animal will go back to its nature.

Jamie:
Correct. And then we get to the fifth seal. Here in the fifth seal you see a group of people under the altar that have been slaughtered because of the Word of God and the testimony they’ve given. So you go to Revelation 5:8, and you see where the saints’ prayers are ascending to God. It’s the same idea. These are the saints who have been slaughtered, most likely during the Tribulation. And they cry out with a loud voice and ask God, “How long until You judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?” It’s like, “God, what are You waiting for? Why are You holding off on this?” But here’s the response. It says they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little while longer until the number would be completed of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters who were going to be killed just as they had been. So there are going to be more believers who are going to be killed for their faith. That number is not completed yet. But also there are going to be more people who are going to be saved. And that number is not completed. Once the number of people who are going to be saved are saved—that’s the end.

Keith:
And so the idea there is God, in His sovereignty, is in charge of this. But you need to look—God, in His grace and mercy, is still in the business of saving people. We could cry out and be like, “You know, we do…” Like I say, “Man, do I want a pre-trib rapture?” But if I had my way, then, “Well, God, You’ve saved enough folks. You’ve saved me. Go on and rescue me.” But in this right here, you look—obviously they’re still going to be here. It says, “Until that number should be complete who were to be killed”—future—”as those who were crying out had been”—past. And so we know this could have happened in John’s day. People had already been martyred in the thousands. We’ve got tens of thousands who have been martyred within the last year. We talked about Nigeria in some news here recently. We know in a lot of Middle Eastern countries, a lot of Asian countries, there are a lot of things going on. That goes back to the 1 Peter passage—that these things have been experienced by the brotherhood around the world. People are being persecuted. People are being killed for their faith. And that’s the thing here. It’s not just Christians who have died. These are people who were slain for the Word of God, for the witness they had borne. Just a reminder there—that word witness. If you go back to the first chapter of the book of Acts, that Greek word is where we get the English word martyr. This is not a passive thing. These people are actively involved in evil, actively persecuting the Lamb, taking it out on those who belong to the Lamb, and killing them. This is not just a passive evil-on-evil sort of crime here. It’s like, “You know what? We don’t want this.” And I think that’s also—and I’m not trying to get ahead again—but we’ve mentioned it several times: The wrath of the Lamb. That’s a weird way of saying it. Because we’ve already talked about that. What they’re getting right now ain’t the Lamb. They’re getting the Lion. But still, man, people have such a hatred for Jesus being who the Bible says He is. They’re all right with Him being a good person. They’re all right with Him being a good teacher. But they’re not all right with somebody being willing to die for their sins. I mean, you take guys like—what’s his name from the American Revolution? Thomas Paine. Man did such great things for the founding of this republic. But you get that dude talking about Jesus, like in his book The Age of Reason. That dude had a hatred for the Lamb of God. He had a hatred for the idea of Him being crucified for sin. He had a hatred for the idea that a holy God could call him a sinner. And he was tame compared to the evil that’s going to be poured out on these martyrs—and soon-to-be martyred.

Jamie:
No doubt. And then we get to the sixth seal. And a violent earthquake occurs to the point that the sun turns black like sackcloth made of hair, the entire moon becomes like blood, the stars of heaven fall to the earth as a fig tree drops its unripe figs when shaken by a high wind, the sky is split apart like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island are moved from their places. Catastrophic. I mean, we could get into the technicalities of all this, but in order for every island and mountain to be moved from its place, all the earth’s fault lines would have to begin to—

Keith:
Yes. Yes.

Jamie:
—all over the world. You’re talking about a global earthquake. And this is just the first of three. There’s three of these that’s going to happen. Now remember, the timeline of Revelation is just what John saw next. So the three that are mentioned—maybe it’s the same one mentioned three times. Maybe it’s three different ones. We don’t know. It doesn’t say. It doesn’t say, “This happens, then this happens, then this happens.” It’s what John saw next. But worst-case scenario, it’s three different earthquakes of this magnitude. The sun becoming black like sackcloth made of hair. The moon turning to blood. I read in several places that this could obviously—an earthquake of this magnitude would cause volcanic eruptions all over the place, which would cause ash and debris to blow into the atmosphere, which could possibly make the sun look like that.

Keith:
And I mean, you think it’s definitely sackcloth made of hair. It’s talking about the sun being occluded. Something in between.

Jamie:
That’s right. And then you’ve got some kind of asteroid or meteor shower that happens with the stars falling to the earth. The sky recedes like a scroll. Who knows what that means? We just know it ain’t gonna look like it looks right now by any stretch of the imagination. And when those earth’s plates begin to shift, the whole earth is going to be realigned in that moment. No island, no mountain—nothing—is going to be in the same place. To the point that the kings of the earth—we’re talking about the rulers of the earth—all the way down to every slave and every free person and everybody in between are going to hide in caves. They’re going to hide among the rocks of the mountains. They’re going to say to the mountains and the rocks, “Please fall on us and hide us from the face of the One who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” So I just want to go back to the point that the people recognize this is the wrath of God. They recognize, “Okay, Jesus told us this was going to happen.”

Keith:
Well, and recognize the wrath of God—but what specific God it is. They ain’t talking generic.

Jamie:
They know the Lamb. The wrath of the Lamb. And, you know, I’ll just say this. God’s judgment is going to come. You know you can’t withstand His wrath. But that’s not why you get saved. And I hope, if you’re not saved, you’re listening to this. I heard a pastor the other day on a little clip say they had listened to something about what hell was going to look like, and a person came down and said, “I don’t know anything about heaven, but I know I don’t want to go to hell.” And that’s a good first step. Hear me—that’s a good first step. We don’t get saved because we don’t want to go to hell. We don’t get saved because we don’t want to experience God’s judgment. We get saved because we have a genuine love for the Lamb. Right?

Keith:
We talked a little bit ago about how these people are willingly following the leader here in the first seal. People must willingly follow the Lamb. This Jesus isn’t a byproduct of heaven. If you listened last week when we looked at Revelation 5, there’s a reason why we don’t know about the scenery, about anything more than Him who’s seated on the throne. He occludes everything. More so than sackcloth made of hair will occlude the sun in those seals. I think of Paul’s language in Philippians chapter 3, when he talks about the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.

Jamie:
And to jump in there, when we’re talking through Revelation, if you get more excited about what these horses represent, or these locusts represent, or whatever represents, than you do the fact that Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, then we have to step back and look at our relationship with Christ and ask, number one, “Do I even have one?” Because the joy of heaven is being with Him.

Keith:
And I think, I guess if we’re looking at this in that context… Jamie, if you were living in this time—we don’t want this to happen in our lifetime. Church folks will sing, “Come, Jesus, come,” in a heartbeat. But “Come, Jesus, come”—this comes too.

Jamie:
I’d say all hell is going to break loose. Which actually…

Keith:
It is. But I mean, heaven. Right? And that’s the thing here. When you look at this, if you were living through Revelation 6, which seal would you be found in? Would you be found in the fifth seal, where you have all of these people who have been saved by the blood of the Lamb, who are crying out to their Sovereign Lord, holy and true, knowing that ushering in the judgment He’s bringing about? Or are you in those who are talking about the wrath of the Lamb and you’re not affiliated with Him? Essentially, like Jamie said, it’s not for fire insurance. It’s not to scare hell out of you or heaven into you. Do you look at this Lamb of God and see Him for who He is—the King of kings, the Lord of lords? If you don’t have a relationship with Him, that lordship isn’t to be found when you’re under His boot, so to speak. It’s to be found now. It says in Romans chapter 10, verse 9:

…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Revelation is clear. He is the Sovereign Lord. He’s in charge. He gave authority over a fourth of the earth to experience His judgment. Thus far in the book of Revelation, He’s got authority over one hundred percent of everything that’s ever been. The scroll—that’s the deed to everything that is—is His. He can open the seals. Where do you stand in light of the Lord? I think that’s a good place to end. Where do you stand? Because there’s going to come a day where the question is asked here at the end of Revelation 6: “For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” It’s better to stand in His grace and mercy now than under His judgment ever. I think that’s it for us. We’ll pick up with Revelation 7 next week.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Re 6:1–17.

^[2] When Jamie quotes Scripture, he uses the Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).

“Worthy Is the Lion, the Slain Lamb Who Lives” from Revelation 5 — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

We’re back in our study of Revelation called The KING is Coming, where we’re taking a verse-by-verse approach to see what the book truly reveals—Jesus Christ Himself. As always, I’m joined by Jamie Harrison, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to walk through this study together. Today, we’ll be in a passage that is probably quite familiar if you’re a member or regular-attender of Christ Community Church as we read it in worship fairly often – Revelation 5:

5 Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. ²And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” ³And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, ⁴and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁵And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
⁶And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. ⁸And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. ⁹And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
     and to open its seals,for you were slain,
and by your blood you ransomed people for God
   from every tribe and language and people and nation,
¹⁰and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
     and they shall reign on the earth.”
¹¹Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, ¹²saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
      to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
      and honor and glory and blessing!”
¹³And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
      “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
      be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
¹⁴And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.^[1]

Keith Harris:
Greetings, sojourners. We have a lot to dive into today, so, Jamie, let’s go ahead and dive in.

Jamie Harrison:
All right, so for real, let’s dive in, man, because this really is like — this is it. This is the big climactic scene in heaven. We mentioned in chapter 4 that the throne room is going to be the setting for the remainder of Revelation, and it’s mentioned over and over and over — the throne room, the throne room. And we know that the One seated on the throne is God the Father. And we know that Jesus is going to come and He’s going to sit at His right hand, and the Holy Spirit is there — we’ll see in just a second. And so it starts with this scroll that’s got writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals there in verse 1. And back in Roman times we know that a will or a title deed would be sealed with seven seals. And basically what they would do is they would roll it, seal it, roll it, seal it, roll it, seal it — and again there would be seven seals. And nobody was able to open that scroll except the appointed heir.

Keith:
Is there a significance to the seven in Roman Empire days, or is that just — you think — significant biblically here?

Jamie:
I would say biblically significant. I know people try to read a lot into a lot of different things, but there’s — obviously there’s seven churches, so people say one seal for each church, right? Those kinds of things. You know what I think is that it’s just biblically significant — the number seven in and of itself. And so no necessary hidden meaning per se, but it’s completely sealed — it’s locked down.

Keith:
Correct. Gotcha. As the number seven being the number of completion..

Jamie:
Amen. So this thing is sealed up. And in verse 2 we see the angel ask, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And this angel is a mighty angel. And you would think if anybody could, you know, it’d be this really mighty angel — but he’s not worthy to open it. And then in verse 3 it says no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look in it. Now understand, when it says no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth, that’s everybody that has ever been.

Keith:
All the places to be.

Jamie:
Correct, right? So that is covering everybody, and nobody is able to open the scroll.

Keith:
And I think that’s an interesting wording there. The question is “who is worthy,” not “who is able.” So we’re covering strength here, but worthiness is the question. Excuse you.

Jamie:
Thank you.

Keith:
So talk to me — take a sip — the difference with worthiness and ability here is not about strength. You mentioned the mighty angel. You mentioned everybody who is. What’s the deal here?

Jamie:
It kind of goes back to — who was it? Was it King Arthur that pulled Excalibur out of the stone?

Keith:
Allegedly.

Jamie:
Right — yeah, that’s a myth. And so the idea of that story being all these strong guys came up and tried to get it out and couldn’t — only the one who was worthy. And so I want to limit — let’s get to that in a second.

Keith:
All right.

Jamie:
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Keith:
We’ll put a pin in it.

Jamie:
Yes, put a pin in it — but not too hard, that will hurt. All right, so I’m going to jump over to Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3 real quick, because this is going to help us as we move forward. I’m going to jump over to Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3 real quick, because this is going to help us as we move forward.

1 Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. ²In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe ^g through Him. ³The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.^[2]

And that’s a really cool Scripture there because it tells us who is the heir — Jesus. Jesus is the heir. And the Son is the radiance of God’s glory, the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He makes purification for sins — not His sins, for sins — He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And that’s going to answer your question about who’s worthy, but we’re still not going to jump ahead.

Keith:
Well, and also — who’s able to atone for sins? Not us. Not those on earth or under the earth, for sure.

Jamie:
It’s kind of like Big John says all the time — that if Jesus did 99% of the forgiving and we did the one, all we would brag about is the one.

Keith:
But clearly here we got the none.

Jamie:
That’s correct — definitely the none. Not to be confused with nuns — this is N-O-N-E, none. Okay, so now we can move forward, because nobody is able to open the scroll. And then John begins to weep. It says, “I wept and wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even to look at it.” Can you imagine — like you see this scroll in the right hand of the Father, and I don’t know at that point if John necessarily knew what it was or not. I mean, he doesn’t say he knows what it is. But obviously he was alive during that time, so if it’s sealed with seven seals his mind probably went straight to some type of title deed or a will or something like that as well. And so can you imagine this climactic moment where you see this scroll and then nobody is worthy to open it?

Keith:
I wonder too — just thinking about the vision that he’s seeing there — it kind of puts me… it reminds me of Isaiah 6, the vision that Isaiah got in the year that King Uzziah died. Like thinking about worthiness — you’re sitting there, you can see the throne. And we talked about this back in Revelation 1 — like in my mind, seeing the throne, you’re not looking at it alone. When we say “high and lifted up,” He literally was high and lifted up. I mean, think Ezekiel — the visions he had of the throne. Like he’s looking at the soles of His feet from way down. And when you ask who is worthy — I know when I am confronted with the holiness and worthiness of God, my first thoughts turn to my unworthiness and why I’m unworthy. Like — gotta be feeling some guilt, gotta be feeling overwhelmed in the first place. This disciple whom Jesus loved, outliving all the rest of the apostles — more than likely in his late 80s, early 90s at this point — like he’s feeling some stuff. He’s well acquainted with his unworthiness, and his friend, the worthy One — the Lamb of God — that’s how his gospel describes Him — died. He knows He rose, but still at the same time, that’s a lot to process.

Jamie:
And so he weeps and weeps because nobody is worthy to open the scroll or even to look in it. And then in verse 5 — here we go — one of the elders says to me… which we talked about in chapter 4, you know, what the elders might represent. And it says, “Do not weep. Look.” Now the word’s important — he says, “Look.” “The Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals.” So the Lion from the tribe of Judah — let’s talk about that for a second. Way back in Genesis chapter 49, verses 8 through 10, these are Jacob’s last words. He gives the scepter over to the tribe of Judah, meaning the kings will come from that tribe, obviously starting with David there. But we know that he also references that Shiloh will come — and that’s an idea that someday the King is going to come and He’s going to take over and He’s going to reign for eternity. That’s talking about Jesus again. And so the Lion from the tribe of Judah is like the King of kings.

Keith:
In the wording of the prophecy all the way back pre-king — hence that — what does it say? The Root of David, correct? And it’s a big deal.

Jamie:
And the Root of David goes back to Isaiah 11. Hey — I’m turning to Isaiah 11… maybe I should have used the digital Bible instead, because these pages—

Keith:
Well, this is where the preacher wants to say, “I still hear pages turning — we’ll wait.”

Jamie:
That’s going to be Isaiah 11 — the eleventh chapter of Isaiah. That’s what preachers do, in case you were wondering — it’s because they’re trying to find it themselves. Isaiah 11, verses 1 through 10:

11 Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
²The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him —
a Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a Spirit of counsel and strength,
a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
³His delight will be in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge
by what He sees with His eyes,
He will not execute justice
by what He hears with His ears,
⁴but He will judge the poor righteously
and execute justice for the oppressed of the land.
He will strike the land
with discipline from His mouth,
and He will kill the wicked
with a command from His lips.
⁵Righteousness will be a belt around His loins;
faithfulness will be a belt around His waist.
⁶The wolf will live with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the goat.
The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together,
and a child will lead them.
⁷The cow and the bear will graze,
their young ones will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
⁸An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit,
and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den.
⁹None will harm or destroy another
on My entire holy mountain,
for the land will be as full
of the knowledge of the Lord
as the sea is filled with water.
¹⁰On that day the root of Jesse
will stand as a banner for the peoples.
The nations will seek Him,
and His resting place will be glorious.

I understand, again — this is a prophecy of Jesus that is going — He’s going to come. At this point this is obviously before He has come. And so this is who the Jews were looking for — this conquering king, okay? Now that’s very important, because they were looking for a conquering king. But when Jesus came, He did not conquer, so to speak, the way they thought He was going to in that moment — thinking He was going to free them from Roman oppression, right? And so here’s where it gets really exciting, because this conquering king — remember, “the Root of David has conquered,” is what it says in Revelation 5. And so when you read this, you’re like, “Okay, I see the Lion from the tribe of Judah. I hear you saying the Root of David, and it says that He’s conquered.” Well, how has He conquered? Because He came and He died, and then He rose again — and the Romans are still in control. They’re still in control. Still in control at this point. Now remember, they told him to turn and look. And when you turn and look, it says “the Lion from the tribe of Judah.” But when he turns and looks — in verse 6 — he sees One like a slaughtered Lamb standing in the midst of the throne. He does not see the Lion from the tribe of Judah, so to speak, like you would think you would turn and literally see some type of very strong, mighty force standing there.

Keith:
Like Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia, right? Kind of a Mufasa — that’s right — big old lion.

Jamie:
Lion, lion — right. And instead he turns and he sees One like a slaughtered Lamb standing in the midst of the throne. Now just picture this for a minute — you’re John. You’ve lived with Jesus, you’ve walked with Jesus, you’ve seen Jesus. And then you turn expecting to see this lion, and instead you see One like a slaughtered Lamb. You see the scars in His hands. You see the scars in His feet. You see the scars in His side. And the idea you get kind of takes us back to the Passover lamb — you know, put the blood on your doorpost and it will cover you, and we’ll spare you from death.

Keith:
So — and I think too — it’s got to draw him back to what the Holy Spirit led him to write down by his own hands. “Behold the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.” That’s what he wrote down in John 1:29 — the words of John the Baptist. Like, I think this is a huge perspective change, because if anybody should have known the answer to “who is worthy” and not been so bereft that he’s crying, it’d be the disciple whom Jesus loved, right? But here he turns around and — I don’t know — it’s almost liberating. If John can forget, maybe it’s a little more understandable — sometimes not excusable, but at least understandable. If John, standing there in heaven, doesn’t immediately think, “Jesus is worthy,” — remember Him? — yeah, we need that reminder too. But I mean, he’s looking for this archetypal Lion of the tribe of Judah, this conquering leader. Maybe you think some kind of warrior angel is fit to come out and put a whooping on—I mean, he’s having this vision from a prison island in his 90s. He’s needing a little liberation, no doubt. But liberation theology doesn’t match up to the beauty of the Lamb standing as though slain.

Jamie:
And that’s key — what you just said — is that He’s standing. How many slaughtered lambs do you know that are standing?

Keith:
None.

Jamie:
None. That is the whole idea of slaughtering. But Jesus is standing. He isn’t timid, He isn’t laying down, He isn’t dead — He’s alive.

Keith:
And I think, going back to your — and I guess this is probably what you’re getting into — like things that are showing that He’s standing, He’s not propped up. He has seven horns — that fullness of strength. Seven eyes — that fullness of clarity and sight and knowledge and all of that representing the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. That the second person of the Godhead — still fully God, still fully man — fully alive and fully eternal. Because full death did nothing to stop Him.

Jamie:
Correct.

Keith:
That’ll preach — that’s what they say.

Jamie:
I can tell you want to do it, man.

Keith:
I’m trying to hold him back. It’s okay — saving a little bit for Sunday.

Jamie:
He turns — he sees Jesus standing in the midst of the throne, One like a slaughtered Lamb, but He’s standing to receive the scroll. The scroll that nobody has been found worthy to open at this point. But Jesus comes over, and at that moment when He takes that scroll, He identifies Himself as our kinsman-redeemer — the One that is worthy to open the scroll. The Root of David. The Lion of the tribe of Judah. The all-conquering King. The all-prevailing Lord. The King of kings. The Lord of lords. I know you want to go, man. I know you want to go. Take it away.

Keith:
I mean — He’s the answer to the question. And you look at this, and I’m not trying to get ahead, but what’s so beautiful to me in the response of the elders and the myriads standing around the throne and all of the creatures there is their worship. Just like in the Old Testament, going all the way back to that praise song written by Moses — “the horse and the rider were thrown into the sea.” It’s in response to what they see there. Like they literally, spontaneously — Holy Spirit-led — sing a song about Him being worthy to take and open the scroll. And not just take it — to open it. He’s not worthy to hold it — it’s not a baton being passed on in some marathon race of faithfulness. He’s worthy to take it, to open it, because He was slain. And His blood ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And did what God said all the way back when He’s talking to Abraham, when He’s talking to Moses, when He’s talking to His people throughout the millennia — to make them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. This is the fulfillment of all these earthly things — and even it points to the ways that evil has tried to fight against the kingdom of God, but it can’t. It literally killed Jesus — God in flesh — and He didn’t stay dead. It didn’t take. Was it Peter who says in Acts chapter 3 that the pangs of death were unable to keep Him? You’ve got the beautiful resurrection chapter in 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul talks about the hope and glory that is in the resurrection. That we are saved by His finished work on the cross, but we’re kept and we get this eternal life through His resurrection. This is a huge deal right here, because nobody else can do that — which is why He alone is worthy. He’s singular. He’s holy. He’s unique. He’s God. And it’s just beautiful — beautiful.

Jamie:
Some of the commentaries I read through say that this is the greatest act in all of human history. And I think it’s fitting to look at it that way — that this is the culmination, this is the completion. And I know — I hate to even have to clarify this almost — but I do know there will be people listening to this that don’t know Christ. And in the next episode, Jesus is going to open the scroll — and when He opens the scroll, bad stuff is going to start happening, right? And so the idea would be, “You’re really excited about this scroll that’s bringing bad stuff about?” You know — what it’s bringing about is our inheritance, because we’re heirs with God and co-heirs with Christ, according to Paul in Romans chapter 8. And so I get where the idea could come from — “Well, you’re excited bad things are going to happen.” No, no, no, no, no. Understand this — throughout all of this, salvation is available. Salvation is available when these seals start breaking. Salvation is available later on in chapter 9, where it’s going to say, in essence, that this huge demonic army kills all these people, and then the people continue to worship the demons that were just killing them. So it’s still a choice. There’s still the opportunity to come to know Christ and repent here. So is it bringing about bad stuff? No. It’s bringing about what we deserve, which is God’s judgment.

Keith:
Kind of along the lines that you’re talking here — it’s not for us to be excited or terrified for what He’s going to bring about. We’re excited that it’s in His hands. That none of this stuff that happens is out of His control, outside the realm of His sovereignty. And it’s kind of like — and we’ve quoted Big John several times today — but his answer when people want to ask about the problem of evil: “Where is this good God in the midst of all this evil?” How can God still be good in the midst of the things we’re going to read about in the next chapter? If it wasn’t for this good God, there would be no goodness at all. It would just be the evil and wickedness that honestly we ourselves are no less capable of than the ones we would deem more wicked or more evil. The difference is what our good God does with it. And that’s the thing — it’s all in His hands now. He’s not playing with sin. He’s not playing with feelings. This is — I mean, when He came the first time, we got the Lamb. This time, we get the Lion. And that’s no light thing. It’s kind of like — y’all know I’m a nerd — in The Chronicles of Narnia, where Aslan is meant to be a picture of Jesus. One of the kids — I think it’s Lucy — asks, “Is he a safe lion?” And I think it’s the beaver who responds, “A safe lion? He’s a lion.” Like — ain’t nothing safe about a lion. Safety came when He came as the Lamb, taking away the sins of the world. Sins of the world have been taken away. He has conquered. Now you get the teeth.

Jamie:
Yep — that’s a good word.

Keith:
Sound effect — onomatopoeia.

Jamie:
Yep, that. So I don’t want to just keep harping on the same point over and over, because we could — I mean definitely this is very exciting. It’s very exciting to know how — not that one day I’ll get to go to heaven and have a big mansion and see streets of gold — but one day I’ll get to see the King of kings and Lord of lords who is worthy to open the scroll. Face to face.

Keith:
There’s no scenery even described in a lot of these places. When you’re in the presence of Jesus, in the presence of the throne, they’re not talking about all the things that sometimes we would sing about. All the rest of it pales in comparison to Him. When the Lamb stands as though slain, the eyes are on Him — not the floor.

Jamie:
And when we get to Revelation 21 we’ll talk a lot more about that. But we know there will be no sun or moon in the New Jerusalem, because the Trinity will be the light. There will be no shadows. There will be no dark corners. There will be no dark anything. They will be the light. We know there’s no temple because they’re there — there’s no need of a temple. And so yeah — it’s like all eyes on Him.

Keith:
Well, and Hebrews says all these things are shadows pointing to Christ — like that’s figurative shadows. But there will be no figurative nor literal shadows, right? Because all is light.

Jamie:
And I think — I almost feel like that’s a good place to stop. You know, we could continue on and talk about some little things here and there. But when you look at the song — that song — and then the second one, what they say — not a song again, it’s a recitation. Is that the right word?

Keith:
Yeah — well, I mean it says, “And they sang a new song, saying…” So it’s not about the musical aspect of it as much as it kind of reminds me of church traditions that’ll get to talking about shouting. Sometimes they’re singing — there’s a melodic thing to it — but it’s more about the substance than the song.

Jamie:
And that’s it. And the substance here is Jesus. You died for us. You were slaughtered. You purchased people by Your blood — not just a certain group of people, but people from every tribe and language and people and nation. And now because of that we can be saved. We can have a relationship with Christ. We can one day spend eternity with Him.

And in the second one — it’s every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and everything in them — this is like everybody, everything that he’s seeing here. They say, “Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.” And then they fall down and worship. And I think when we begin to really dive into the book of Revelation and the rest of the Bible, that should be our response — to fall down in worship. And this is something I’m guilty of a lot of times — I’ll read just for the sake of reading, to do my reading for the day. But is there ever a moment during that reading where I stop and I just begin to worship the Lord because of what I read, because of who He is, because of what He did for me — because He’s worthy?

Keith:
And I mean, like Jamie said, this is a good time to segue into a close. That’s why we’re studying the book of Revelation like this. We’re not trying to answer every unanswerable question. We’re not trying to sweep out the nooks and crannies of prophecy. We’re not trying to convince anyone of our own wisdom or knowledge. We’re trying to point people to the Lamb. And so that’s what we close with today.

As we get ready next week to move into Revelation 6 and see what’s in the scroll, right now we leave you in the hands of Him holding the scroll — who’s worthy not only to hold it but able to open it. The Lion of the tribe of Judah. The Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world. He is mighty. He’s high and lifted up. But He’s approachable.

I think Hebrews 4:15-16 is a good passage to end on — and again, if you’re listening and you’re part of Christ Community Church or The Foundry, we’ve been in the book of Hebrews for most of this year. I think it’s a good time to look at the approachable nature of our great God and King.

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

When you look at this, we see John moved by the presence of the Lamb in literally the shadow of the throne. He’s approachable. He is available for us.

Jamie talked about how we look at this — that while all this is going on, there’s still opportunity to be saved. It says multiple times in the Bible — I know in Isaiah — “Seek the Lord while He may be found.”

Well, sojourner, we have presented you the Lion, the Lamb, the King — our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

What are you going to do with Him today?

He’s approachable.

He can be found.

Why don’t you seek Him?

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Re 5:1–14.

^[2] When Jamie reads from his Bible, it’s from the CSB (The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009)).

“Before the Throne of God Above” from Revelation 4 — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

4 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ²At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. ³And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. ⁴Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, ⁶and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: ⁷the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. ⁸And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”

⁹And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

¹¹“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”^[1]

Keith Harris:
Greetings, sojourners. We have a lot to dive into today, and frankly I am excited. I’m beside myself — and also beside Jamie. Jamie, talk to us about Revelation 4. Yes, yes — threw you off with that.

Jamie Harrison:
Yes, yes you did. So we have here — just to get started — to remind you the timeline of Revelation from this point forward. So we finished the seven letters to the churches, and from here on out we have to understand that the timeline is what John saw next. So does this mean historically this is what did happen or will happen, or whatever is happening right now? No. It’s just what John saw next.

Keith:
So does it mean it’s not?

Jamie:
No — it’s just what John saw next.

And so it starts by^[2], “After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door.” And we learned just a couple of weeks back that Jesus is the one who opens doors. So Jesus opens this door, and the first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet — now we know that that first voice he heard was Jesus way back in chapter 1, verse 10 — and he speaks to him again in a voice sounding like a trumpet. And he says, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

And so again, what John saw next — this is what’s going to take place after this. After what? We don’t know. We have no idea. But what we do know is what’s going to take place next — right, at some point.

And so just to hit real quick on the trumpet deal — because of what’s coming up in Revelation — the idea of a trumpet in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, would have been something that was used to signal a warning. Like a warning that maybe there was an enemy approaching and a war was about to happen. Sometimes they would blow a trumpet to signify that the Lord had delivered a message, and then they would deliver the message.

Keith:
And so I know those are both really negative sounds, and this isn’t necessarily one of those, but it kind of makes me think about in today’s time like a tornado siren or the sound your phone makes when an emergency alert comes through. And again, I’m not saying that it’s exactly that — those are very negative in our minds — but they get your attention.

You know, when you hear those, stop what you’re doing. Listen.

Jamie:
That’s right. And so that’s the idea here. And again, in every single letter that we read — all seven letters — it was “For those who have ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”

And so here again Jesus is saying — voice like a trumpet — you better listen. I’m trying to tell you.

And so immediately John is in the Spirit, and there’s a throne in heaven and someone was seated on it. So he is taken to the throne room, which is pretty awesome — somewhere that I look forward to seeing one day, whatever that’s going to look like. Jesus will be there. I’ll be there. It’s going to be pretty awesome.

And so what we do know is that from here on out the focal point of the book of Revelation is the throne room. Every time something happens we’re going to be taken back to the throne room. Something will happen — we’ll be taken back to the throne room.

Fourteen times in chapters 4 or 5 — fourteen times in just chapters 4 and 5 — the throne room is talked about. In the rest of the book of Revelation, forty-six times the throne room is mentioned, with God the Father of course being the one sitting on the throne.

And so again, just to help you understand that: what is the setting of the rest of this book of Revelation? It’s the throne room. It’s centered around the Godhead.

Keith:
And one thing, just as you were describing that — you know a lot of times in literature or movies, if you’ve got a king and a battle is going to be waged, the throne room is kind of like that last resort, like a place of safety. But we also know the throne room is at risk.

None of those times in the book of Revelation is the Godhead in the throne room hiding. Nothing’s — there’s no catapult of hell, so to speak, in danger of reaching them. God is so high and lifted up and unapproachable.

And so God — this is a place of safety and security beyond our greatest fears. God’s in no danger whatsoever. And so in that case, even despite worldly danger, that tells us the things in here that frighten us — we’re safe in the arms of Christ.

Jamie:
And so John goes into a description of what he sees. And again, so many times in Revelation we get descriptions of things, and it’s just the best John could do to describe what he saw. I think some of these things he probably didn’t have words for, and so this is the best thing he could compare it to.

And so he tells us that the one seated on the throne — verse 3 — had the appearance of jasper and carnelian stone, and a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald surrounded the throne.

And so the jasper and carnelian stone of course were in the breastplate of the high priest back in Exodus 28 — you can see that. Jasper being a crystal-clear gem, diamond-looking, reflects all — refracts all — the colors of the spectrum in wonder. It’s brilliant.

So just think about that for a second — refracting all of these colors of the spectrum in this brilliance is what it looks like to him.

Keith:
So more shiny and shining than the shiniest, brightest thing we can come up with.

Jamie:
That’s right. And carnelian stone — or sardius stone — which is a fiery, bright ruby-looking red stone. So you put all that together, and so far that’s the description we have of what he sees when he looks at God.

And then you get this rainbow that has the appearance of an emerald — of course an emerald being like this cool green hue — dominates the rainbow that he sees that is surrounding the throne.

And remember that a rainbow back in Genesis is the sign of God’s faithfulness to keep His word and His promise that He gave to us then. And so I want to just kind of stop there for a minute and point out that what he’s seeing here is God’s glory. He is seeing the glory of God and describing it the best way that he possibly can.

But you have this rainbow that surrounds the throne. It’s not a half rainbow like we see — this is the full rainbow. This is the complete promise of God. This is the complete fulfillment. This is His mercy even in judgment. This is all of these things completed around Him.

And I’ve got Keith who’s going to read this cool deal from the Jesus Storybook Bible. And if you want to kind of talk about it and then read it.

Keith:
Yeah. The Jesus Storybook Bible is not a translation of the Bible, but it’s where Sally Lloyd-Jones has tried to communicate through all the parts of the Bible to children who God is in Christ. And so this is from the chapter on the flood.

“The first thing Noah did was to thank God for rescuing them, just as He had promised.
“And the first thing God did was to make another promise. ‘I won’t ever destroy the world again.’ And like a warrior who puts away his bow at the end of a great battle. God said, ‘See, I have hung up my bow in the clouds.’
“And there, in the clouds – just where the storm meets the sun – was a beautiful bow made of light.
“It was a new beginning in God’s world.
“It wasn’t long before everything went wrong again, but God wasn’t surprised; He knew this would happen. That’s why, before the beginning of time, He had another plan – a better plan. A plan not to destroy the world but to rescue it – a plan to one day send His own Son, the Rescuer. “God’s strong anger against hate and sadness and death would come down once more – but not on His people, or His world. No, God’s war bow was not pointing down at His people.
“It was pointing up, into the heart of Heaven.”^[3]

Jamie:
So again, that rainbow signifying that promise — Jesus took the wrath for us so that we could be saved. And this is what we are seeing in the throne room — His complete promise, His glory.

So again, that rainbow signifying that promise — Jesus took the wrath for us so that we could be saved. And this is what we are seeing in the throne room: His complete promise, His glory.

And I want to read a little excerpt from a book by Paul David Tripp called Do You Believe? This is from pages 69 and 70. I think that covers us on copyright stuff. Is that accurate?

Keith:
Yes. And then write this stuff — we’re quoting it.

Jamie:
This is quotation marks.

“Glory is not a thing like a shoe, a steak, a candle, or a cottage. Those are particular physical things that can be carefully described by words so that you would immediately have an accurate picture in your mind of what is being talked about. One could draw a picture or take a photograph of a shoe, and you could see it and know what it was, but glory is not like that. No single picture could ever capture glory. Glory simply cannot be photographed. Glory is not so much a thing as it is a description of a thing. Glory is not a part of God; it is all that God is. Every aspect of who God is and every part of what God does is glorious. But that’s not even enough of a description of God’s glory. Not only is He glorious in every way, but His glory is glorious.
“Scripture does, however, put the hugeness of the glory of God into the smallness of human language so that we can at least get some sense of what it’s like. For example, the prophet Isaiah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 40, stretches human language in order to give us a little glimpse of God’s glory. ‘Who has measured the water in the hollow of his hand?’ Imagine how much water you could hold in the palm of your hand, then consider that God could hold all of the liquid in the universe in His hand and not spill a drop! ‘Who has…weighed the mountains in scales? … Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket [to God]. … He spreads [the heavens] like a tent to dwell in’ (Isa. 40:12, 15, 22). Isaiah is employing incalculably huge word pictures to help us to have even a twinge of understanding of how glorious God is. Yet even these very picturesque and helpful descriptions fall miserably short of capturing the awesome glory of God.
“We cannot gain a full understanding of the glory of God from a few passages, because the reason glory is glory is because it lives above and beyond that kind of description and definition. You can say for sure that God is glorious, because your Bible declares He is, but you cannot accurately and fully describe in words the glory that Scripture declares. Perhaps the only workable path 9into some understanding of the grandeur of the glory of God is to read the entire Word of God again and again, looking for divine glory. Why? Because the glory of God isn’t hidden in His Word; no, His glory is so grand that it splashes across every page of His book.”^[4]

Keith:
One thing’s for sure — there’s awe in everything John writes. Like, this is John, good friend to Jesus on earth. And he’s not saying, “Hey, that’s my buddy.” That’s my God. That’s the throne. That’s — it’s amazing, glorious.

And again, there’s nothing we can say that’s going to do it justice.

Jamie:
That’s right. And you can go to Revelation 21:9–27 and look at New Jerusalem. That’s what heaven will be — what it will look like. And it talks about God’s glory and how glorious it is.

But again, it’s something that is indescribable — or undescribable? Is that the — it’s both of them.

Keith:
It’s both of them.

Jamie:
Yes, it is. I wasn’t sure if that was even a word until just then. So John moves on and he says in verse 4:

“Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones sat twenty-four elders dressed in white clothes with golden crowns on their heads.”

And these twenty-four elders throw a lot of people off. You know — who are they? What are they? What do they represent? Are they really twenty-four people?

And the answer is: we don’t know. Because it doesn’t tell us.

You know, I can tell you that in Revelation 21:12–14 the Bible talks about the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles. And it could be that these twenty-four elders are literally those people. It could be that they’re representation of those people. It could be that they represent the fact that every human being — despite race, despite ethnicity, despite whatever you want to fill in the blank with — will be in heaven if they have a relationship with Christ.

It could represent that — so to speak — the complete church.

Keith:
It could be representatives from the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles.

Jamie:
That’s right.

Keith:
If you’ve got that many “could be’s,” then we need to look at what can we know for sure.

Jamie:
That’s right.

Keith:
That’s the big deal with the study of Revelation — or any sort of prophetic book like this. We want to find our favorite preacher guys or writers to tell us definitively, because we get comfort from it.

I get comfort from having a God who’s so big that He doesn’t need me to know everything. That kind of tells me in some cases — if you’ve got something that’s completely explainable by the mind of man, some dude made it up, right?

And this is so otherworldly that, like Jamie said, John’s doing the best he can.

Jamie:
The absolute best he can.

And now on that thought, we do know in Daniel chapter 7 and verse 9 where God sits down on His throne, and you look around — there’s other empty thrones around Him in Daniel. And now when John sees them, there are twenty-four people sitting on them.

Keith:
So what was empty is, at this point, going to be full.

Jamie:
That’s right.

Keith:
Now full with who?

Jamie:
Again, we don’t know. And I think that’s okay.

Keith:
Well — and well, I know that’s okay.

When you look at this, the point of them — just like when you see angels in Scripture — they’re very quick to say, “Hey, don’t worship me. I worship the One worthy of worship.”

Their whole everything is to say, “Look — look to the throne. Look to Jesus.” They’re not in any sense saying, “Hey, we’ve arrived. Look at how good we are.” They lay their crowns down. They are continually in worship of the One.

So who the twenty-four are — they would say very clearly, “We point to Him.”

Jamie:
That’s right.

Keith:
And so I think that’s enough for me.

Jamie:
And when we see them, we see that they lay their crowns down before the throne.

Keith:
That’s exactly right — which the only reason we know they have crowns is because it tells us they have them.

Jamie:
That’s right.

Keith:
And then it tells us they lay them down.

Jamie:
That’s right.

And so it goes on from there in verse 5: flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder came from the throne.

And this reminds me of Exodus 19 and Exodus 20 where God speaks through the thunder right before He gives the laws and punishments. So kind of another idea of God speaking here.

Flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder come from the throne. And then if you look further in Revelation — Revelation 8:5, 11:19, and 16:18 — that lightning and thunder is a sign of the fury of the judgment to come.

So it’s kind of like God is about to speak, or God is speaking through this to help us understand, to get ready for the fact that His judgment is coming. His judgment is going to be complete, and it is going to be furious.

And we’ll get there in a few chapters. But it is — it’s intense, I think may be the best word I can think of.

And it goes on — same verse, verse 5 — seven fiery torches were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And we know that to be the Holy Spirit, as we’ve talked about before.

Something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal, was also before the throne.

And notice he says “something like a sea of glass.” So is it a sea of glass? No, it’s not. It’s something like that — meaning that it’s some type of crystal-clear pavement that’s around God’s throne that looks like some kind of glistening sea.

A lot of the commentaries that you read say that this is a symbol of God’s holiness. And I’m — you know — I’ll go with those guys. They’re a lot smarter than me.

But we do know that Revelation 15:2 and 21:1 say there’s no sea in heaven. So it’s not a literal sea, but it is some type of idea of His holiness and that it’s around His throne.

But again, I think it just goes to the fact that there are these things that are indescribable that John’s doing the best he can to describe.

Keith:
Well, and employing language that we use — and again this is an English translation of the Greek — but that’s the language we use when we don’t know how to describe something. We use similes.

And he says, “as it were a sea of glass like crystal.” He’s literally trying to describe this.

But again he keeps making a beeline back to the throne, back to God, back to the praises — because a lot of the stuff that we very easily get caught up on are trappings, wall hangings, adornments, decorations. Jesus is the main thing.

Jamie:
That’s exactly right. And so he goes on again in verse 6 to talk about four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back, and they’re around the throne on each side. And that’s kind of a freaky—

Keith:
Yeah.

Jamie:
—I wouldn’t think about these as Precious Moments cherubim. And then he describes the four living creatures. And now remember, before we go into this, that we’ve already got the rainbow surrounding the throne, which is going to be your Noahic covenant.

And now here we go. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature was like an ox, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.

Now if you’ve got your Bible with us, turn to Genesis 9 — going almost all the way back to the beginning here — Genesis chapter 9. And we look at verses 8 through 11 and it says:

⁸Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, ⁹“Understand that I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark. ¹¹I establish my covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped out by floodwaters; there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

And you notice every single thing that is listed here is exactly who these four living creatures appear to be in Revelation. So it tells us in Revelation that one looked like a lion, and this covenant is with the beast of the earth — or the wildlife of the earth. In Revelation it says one looks like a calf. Well here you have that — it tells us livestock or cattle. And in Revelation it says the face of a man. Well it tells us that with you, Noah, and your descendants after you — that’s man. And then you have like a flying eagle, and it tells us with the birds or the fowl.

And so it appears as though these four living creatures would be representative of this Noahic covenant. In other words, His promises that He is not going to flood the earth again. In fact, He’s going to send His Son to die on a cross, to be raised again three days later so that we could be saved.

And so all of this again going back to Jesus — every bit of it. Did you have something you wanted to add there?

Keith:
No, just a thought — or take away. I thought of a phrase from Scripture. I don’t have the address right off the top of my head, but it says, “The whole earth is full of His glory.” He’s not going to flood in wrath anymore, but instead with His glory.

And we’ve already said that it’s incalculable, indescribable. But at this point we just see Him better. Again, if you can look in Revelation 4 and go back and see ties to Genesis, there’s a reason God does that — and it’s to show us He’s got this.

He knows what He’s doing. He’s not saying stuff by accident. He’s got a definite plan that has already been fulfilled and victorious while we’re waiting for it to pan out. He’s 100% sure on it. He sat down, right?

If we’re looking at creation — seventh day is a day of rest. We’re reading about Revelation wondering what’s going to happen this day, that day, this year, that year. God’s already said it and sat down.It’s finished.

Jamie:
And I think on that note it’s cool to point out — which I feel like this is related here — but in the temple, the Holy of Holies, all of these things that they built in the Old Testament and performed sacrifices in… what’s the one piece of furniture that wasn’t there?

Keith:
Nothing to sit on — except for the mercy seat.

Jamie:
That’s right. There’s no chair for the priest — the high priest — because those sacrifices were never ending. They continued on and on and on. But once Jesus raises again three days later, what does He do?

Keith:
Sits down.

Jamie:
Sits down.

Keith:
Well, I know this doesn’t directly tie, but thinking about who’s sitting on those twenty-four thrones — we ain’t got to worry about it. We don’t need to be looking for a place to sit down. It’s occupied.

Jamie:
That’s accurate. And so what are these four living creatures doing while they’re in heaven? Verse 8 says each of the four living creatures has six wings. They’re covered with eyes around and inside. Day and night they never stop saying:

Each of the four living creatures had six wings; they were covered with eyes around and inside. Day and night they never stop, saying,

Holy, holy, holy,

Lord God, the Almighty,

who was, who is, and who is to come.

Keith:
And that’s the address I was looking for earlier — Isaiah 6. That’s what the angels there are saying in the throne room.

And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Jamie:
And to what Keith spoke about earlier, the next couple of verses say that whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the One seated on the throne — the One who lives forever and ever — which we know is day and night, they never stop saying it.

It says the twenty-four elders fall down before the One seated on the throne and worship the One who lives forever and ever. And they cast their crowns before the throne and say:

¹⁰…the twenty-four elders fall down before the one seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne and say,

¹¹Our Lord and God,

you are worthy to receive

glory and honor and power,

because you have created all things,

and by your will

they exist and were created.

And so I think it’s just awesome to think about heaven for a second, right? This throne room — you’ve got these four living creatures constantly crying out to the Lord. You’ve got these twenty-four elders constantly crying out to the Lord and worshiping the Lord and praising the Lord. And His glory and His brilliance is there, and this rainbow is there. Just how awesome it’s going to be if we have a relationship with Him.

Keith:
And again that’s the kicker. When we look at these things, a lot of time is spent in the world today — more “Christian” books written on the end times than any other particular subject — because people want to know what Jesus says cannot be known. He doesn’t know the day or the hour. And if Jesus isn’t read in on it, there’s not a soul on the earth who’s going to be like, “You know…”

Because here’s the thing: what we can know is Jesus is worthy. Jesus is God. And when we see these descriptions we should be moved, at the very least, to be like Isaiah in his vision of the throne room:

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

When we look at these we need to be moved to worship. It should drive us to our faces. It should drive us toward His throne. It should drive us — for all the things that we think we have that are of worth, which is nothing comparable to a crown of an elder with a throne around His throne — to focus on the worthiness of Him.

When we move forward in Revelation that is a consistent theme: the glory of God on full display. Him being God, being all powerful, not being in danger. War being made against Him and Him being able to fell all the forces of evil with a word. It’s not going to be a battle. It’s not going to be a fight. We’ve got a toothless lion seeking to devour and destroy. But as we’ll see next week, seated on the throne—

Jamie:
—Is the Lion.

And I want to just say this before we close out, kind of to piggyback on what Keith said. I think it’s important to note that these elders and these living creatures aren’t worshiping God because of what He did for them. They’re not worshiping Him because of what He can offer. They’re not worshiping Him because He filled their bank accounts up or He did this or did that or whatever. A lot of times as believers — I’m not going to say a lot of times — sometimes we get caught up in that. “Well, God blessed me with this,” or “God’s given me that.” But we worship Him because He is who He is.

Keith:
And the Bible does describe being thankful and grateful in our worship to Him for what He’s done — yes. But if He had done nothing for us, He’s still worthy.

Earlier we mentioned Philippians 2 — that because Jesus is who He is and He’s done what He’s done, God has bestowed on Him the name that is above every name.

⁹Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

These are people who didn’t want Jesus, don’t want to fool with Him, aren’t bowing in worship — they’re bowing in submission and subjection because He is the King. And when it’s time to bow, you bow.

So whether it be like the elders casting their crowns before the throne, or those under the earth bowing in subjection — Jesus is Lord. Jesus is God. He lives forever and ever. He is worthy to receive glory, honor, and power. He created everything. It’s by His will they exist. It’s by His will that we were created. By the word of His power that it’s all held together.

And He is thrice holy. Holy, holy, holy.

How will you stand — or kneel — in response to the King?

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Re 4:1–11.

^[2] When Jamie cites Scripture, it’s from the CSB – The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017).

^[3] Sally Lloyd-Jones, The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name, illus. Jago (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), 46–47.

^[4] Paul David Tripp, Do You Believe?: 12 Historic Doctrines to Change Your Everyday Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 69–70.

“Strengthen What Remains: Jesus’s Letter to the Church at Sardis” — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

We’re continuing in our study of Revelation called The KING is Coming, where we’re taking a verse-by-verse approach to see what the book truly reveals—Jesus Christ Himself. As always, I’m joined by Jamie Harrison, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to walk through this study together. Today, we’ll be looking at another of Jesus’s letters to the churches, this time turning to the church in Sardis. This week’s passage is Revelation 3:1–6:

¹“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ²Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. ³Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. ⁴Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. ⁵The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. ⁶He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’^[1]

Keith Harris:
Greetings, Sojourners,

Jamie, are you ready to dive into our study of the letter to the church at Sardis?

Jamie Harrison:
Man, I’m ready. Are you ready?

Keith:
I don’t think I could be any more ready than I am right now. Not at all. I’m full go, full tilt…. I praise the Lord. I was reborn ready…. So, as we go through this, we’ll give a little bit of witty banter.

Jamie:
You’re not going to think it’s funny, but we do.

Keith:
And that’s because we’re dads.

Jamie:
We are.

Keith:
And that’s what we bring to the table. We can study the Bible and make dad jokes.

Jamie:
That’s accurate.

Keith:
Alright, Jamie, talk to us about the letter to the church in Sardis.

Jamie:
So just to get started, kind of a reminder of how each letter is set up—it follows the same general format. You start with the salutation, “To the angel of the church in Sardis.”^[2] Each letter starts that way, and each one gives some type of attribute of Jesus.

This one says in verse 1, “Thus says the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” That’s a correlation back to chapter 1, verse 4, and chapter 1, verse 16. Of course, the seven spirits of God—talking about the Holy Spirit there, the perfect Spirit of God. The seven stars represent the pastors of the churches.

Then He says to them, “I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but you’re dead.” And just to hit on that for a minute, He doesn’t praise them at all. He doesn’t say anything about their good works, which He has done with other churches.

Keith:
So are you saying that Jesus isn’t going to tell us something good and positive if it’s not true?

Jamie:
Correct…. That’s how He rolls.

So when Jesus jumps right into it, He says the word “reputation”—“You have a reputation for being alive, but you’re dead.” This always reminds me of how our pastor, Big John [Goldwater, pastor of Christ Community Church], always says, you know, a lot of people think they’re going to make it to heaven because their uncle was a Baptist preacher, or their grandmother was in church every Sunday, or that kind of thing.

So it’s this reputation—it’s something people thought you had at some point, but you don’t anymore. That’s what Jesus is getting at. You have a reputation for being alive. Your reputation is that you have good works. Your reputation is that you do things for the Lord—but you don’t. You’re dead.

Keith:
And that word for reputation there is literally “name.”

Jamie:
Yes.

Keith:
So we know that if you have been made alive in Christ, your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. If you have life, your name is there. It’s not going to matter—what is it, Matthew 7:21-23—where Jesus says, “Many of you are going to say, ‘Lord, I’ve done this,’ and, ‘Lord, I’ve done that,’” and He’s going to say, “Depart from me. I never knew you.”

So the idea here, like you’re saying with reputation, it’s not about works. It’s whether or not He has made you alive.

Jamie:
That’s right. That’s exactly right.

And so He goes on from there and says, “Be alert, and strengthen what remains, which is about to die. For I have not found your works complete before my God.”

So again, He reiterates—look, y’all do have a little bit left. There’s something there. There’s a little fire to work with. But it’s about to die. And if you don’t strengthen it, it’s going to go away as well. Now, does He mean that whole church [at Sardis] is going to cease to exist? Does He mean that those believers are going to cease to exist? I don’t know the answer to that. I think it’s more of a “Hey, you better get yourselves right with Me.”

Keith:
And they would’ve known, right?

Jamie:
Right. He goes on in verse 3: “Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you’re not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea what hour I will come upon you.”

So look—what have they received and heard?

Keith:
The gospel.

Jamie:
Right.

Keith:
And that’s consistent language across the New Testament—gospels, epistles, and here in Revelation with Jesus Himself saying it. You’ve received it. You’ve heard it. It’s consistent—it’s the gospel. And we know that through the preaching of the gospel is how God awakens us, saves us. And when we confess Him as Lord, He makes us alive.

Jamie:
That’s right.

Keith:
And so the things in this that are very clear are clear to us and our churches today as well.

Jamie:
Accurate.

So I find it… I’m not going to use the word interesting here—I’m not sure what word I’d be looking for—but He says, “If you’re not alert, I’m going to come like a thief, and you have no idea what hour I will come upon you.” Well, if you knew when the thief was coming, you’d be prepared for it. So don’t misconstrue this—Jesus is not saying He is a thief. What He’s saying is that He’s going to come when we least expect it.

And so they’d better repent. There’s that word—repent—again, right? And I want to read the definition of the word repent:

To change one’s way of life as a result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness—to repent, to change one’s way.^[3]

So in other words, to repent is not lip service. It’s not just saying, “Lord, I repent.” It’s life service. It’s a complete change. Again, to change one’s way of life. Not an easy thing to do—because we all have things we’d like to hold onto. Things we’d rather not get rid of.

We’ve all got that one little… you know, I think of—what was that homeboy’s name in Lord of the Rings? That’s like, “My precious…”

Keith:
Ah….

Jamie:
Smeagol.^[4]

Keith:
Yeah.

Jamie:
My cousin Gollum. That’s him. And his one thing that he just couldn’t get his mind off of was the ring.

And so we all have that thing—that thing we just don’t want to let go of, that thing we hold onto. Jesus is [essentially] saying, “You’ve got to repent. You’ve got to turn away from it. To change your entire life—a complete change in attitude with regard to sin.”

Keith:
Which, in this context, is keeping with what you’ve heard—keeping with the gospel.

Jamie:
That’s correct. And in James chapter 2, verses 14 through 26—I’m not going to read that whole section—but this is that “faith and works” section that James talks about. And he goes through and basically says, you know, if you look at people who don’t have clothes or daily food, and you say, “Stay warm and be well fed,” what have you really done to help them?

Keith:
Right.

Jamie:
That’s right—you’ve done nothing.

Well, the gospel teaches us that we are supposed to act. We are supposed to have works. Those works will prove our faith. They will prove that we love Jesus, that we have a relationship with Him. And if we don’t have those works, then we should repent—to show our faith.

So I think that’s a real good correlation to what He’s talking about here because He tells them, “I know your works. You have a reputation, but you’re dead. You’re not doing anything.” Which is what James is talking about—you’re spiritually dead. And I think about churches I’ve been to before where so many people in the church would say to me, “Well, it’s your turn to do such and such. I’ve done my time.” To which my response was always, “I don’t think you have—’cause you’re still alive.”

Keith:
Right.

Jamie:
You probably would be physically dead.

Keith:
There’s no retirement from being saved.

Jamie:
Right.

Keith: Part of that is…what is it L.G. [Schmitz] says? “God has a plan for your life.” And he cites—and I find it interesting that this comes at the end of that section in Ephesians 2:1-10 – that section dealing with how we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-2)?

You get to Ephesians 2:4—“But God…” made you alive in Christ. At the end of that, you have Ephesians 2:10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared beforehand.” They’re not our works earning salvation, but rather fruit proving the salvation that He has given. He’s put the life in you—you live it as long as you have it.

Jamie:
That’s right. Amen.

And so, to go on there—verse 4: “But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with Me in white because they are worthy.” So there are some people there who are dressed in white. Which, again—I know we’ve hit on it already—but that’s purity, that’s holiness.

As we look at glimpses into heaven further in Revelation, you see the saints clothed in white, right? That’s the idea here. So they’re still doing what Jesus has called them to do. And He says, “In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes.”

And that’s, again, back to the setup of the letters—we had the salutation, we had the attributes of Jesus, we’ve just talked about the works, praise, and admonition to the church—or in this case, the lack of works and the lack of praise. You get the universal admonition: “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.” And then you get this final promise, which is where we are now. And that final promise is that “the one who conquers…”—1 John 5:4–5 tells us that the one who conquers is the one who is saved, who has a relationship with Jesus.

So how are you a conqueror? You’re saved. You have a relationship with Him. And that relationship is going to lead to good works. It’s going to lead to doing things for Christ.

Now, are those things always going to be… pleasant at the end of the day? Are things going to happen to us if we step out for Jesus? Probably.

Will people say stuff about us or to us? Probably.

Are people going to scrutinize our lives? Yeah—for sure.

Because that’s how people are when they’re being convicted of sin and they don’t like it. But our job is to follow Him—in works, in faith—to do what He asks us to do, to be led by Him.

And then He says we’ll be conquerors, we’ll be dressed in white clothes, and “I’ll never erase your name from the Book of Life, but I’ll acknowledge your name before My Father and before His angels.” And so you get this really cool ending to this letter, where He says, “Look guys, if you all will repent—change your attitude, change your lifestyle, come to Me, do the things I’ve asked you to do—then your name will be in My Book of Life, and you will spend eternity with Me.” So I think the question, looking at this letter—each of these letters should lead us to ask ourselves a question. And I think the letter to Sardis leads me to ask myself: Do I have a relationship with Christ?

When you look at this, when you think about this, you go—am I leaning back on a reputation I had? Because I used to be a good Sunday School teacher… or I used to be a good pastor… or I used to be a good van driver… or I used to be a good garbage picker-upper… or whatever it is that you used to do.

Or are you still doing things for Christ? Do I have a relationship with Christ?

If you have a relationship with Christ, but the works haven’t been there, then it’s time to repent.

It’s time to do what He’s telling us to do—and that’s repent.

Big John [Goldwater] preached a message last Sunday—which, of course, I don’t know when this podcast will be put out—so that would’ve been January the…

Keith: 5^th.

Jamie: January the fifth. And you can go find that on his Facebook page, I’m sure. Or the….

Keith: …Christ Community YouTube page (look no further for John’s sermon from January 5, 2025 — HERE IT IS).

Jamie: Yeah, either one. And that’s not a shout-out like, “Hey, come to Christ Community Church, we’re the best thing since sliced bread”—which, of course, I think we are; that’s why I go there.

But the message was on point. It was about doing what Christ has asked us to do, growing in our faith with Christ. And I’m gonna tell you—it convicted the… the—I don’t even know what word to say. I started to say “pee,” but that’s probably inappropriate….

Keith:
In the context of repentance: the sin out of you.

Jamie:
Yes, it did. And so I’ve been honestly struggling with that all week long. But that’s the idea there.

Now, the other thing is, if you realize, “You know what? I don’t even have a relationship with Christ”—the good news is, you can. I was talking to somebody just yesterday about this—somebody who’s close family. They said, “I’m not sure I’m asking God the right questions. How do I know if I’m asking Him the right questions?” And so I started praying about it, and I was led to kind of our verse at Christ Community—it’s Romans 10:9. And in that verse, it tells us how to be saved. And the first part of that is to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. And the issue with that—that most people have—is they’re like, “Yeah, I don’t have a problem confessing Jesus is Lord. I can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ all day long.” But the definition of the word Lord is like—a master or an owner, the possessor of someone or something. It’s the kind of word that’s even spoken of a husband. Which, of course, we know that Jesus is referred to as the groom—the husband. And so, someone that has absolute authority over whatever it is. And so when you think about those things, you go, “Man—confessing Jesus as Lord means I have to give everything over to Him. All of it. My whole life over to Him.”

Now, what I told the guy I was talking to was—when we confess Jesus as Lord and we grow in our relationship with Him, the Holy Spirit begins to answer the questions through His Word.

So maybe it’s not as much a matter of What questions do I ask?—as it is:
          Have I submitted to the Lord?
          Have I given Him my everything?
          Is He my Lord and Savior?

And so, guys—at the end of the day, if you don’t have a relationship with Him… and we always say it’s really simple… well, it’s simple to say the words, but—surrender yourself to the Lord. Believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead—which is faith—and you will be saved.

So I think that’s a good place to kind of finish today.

Keith:
Yeah. And as we wrap—just, each of these…

Jamie:
I really can’t rap. That is, um… Tupac, Eminem—those guys.

Keith:
W-R-A-P. My bad.

Jamie:
Right.

Keith:
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

As you look at this—if you have confessed Him as Lord and He’s saved you—the works are proof of that. They don’t produce that. And Jesus says He will never blot a name out of His Book of Life. If you are saved, you are saved.

Jamie:
That’s right.

Keith:
Because He accomplishes it—not something you can lose. And so if you look at this and start thinking about it—that you haven’t been consistent—there’s no “losing” of one’s salvation. You may have only been doing lip service.

Jesus talked to the Pharisees—who were the religious who’s who—and they thought they were already dressed in white. They thought they were religiously perfect. And He told them they were whitewashed tombs.

John the Baptist even told the Pharisees to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. If you’re not, you haven’t lost your salvation. This may be that initial repentance—where, like Jamie said, you need to confess Jesus as Lord, have faith in Him, and then He will save you. You’re not getting re-saved, saved again, saved 2.0.

You either are, or you aren’t.

You’re either dead, or you’re alive.

And so, if you read this or listen to this today and realize that you aren’t alive—you can be made alive in Christ today. And that’s our hope and prayer.

Jamie:
Mm-hmm.

Keith:
Well, this one has been relatively short—as these go. And so, as Big John says, “No one complains about a short sermon.”

Jamie:
Amen.

Keith:
God bless. Thank y’all—and we look forward to hearing from y’all soon.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 3:1–6.

^[3] Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., rev. and ed. by Frederick William Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. “μετανοέω.”

^[4] Smeagol (also called Gollum) is a character from The Lord of the Rings books and movies. He becomes so obsessed with a magical ring that he calls it “my precious” and can’t let it go. Jamie uses this as an example of how we can get stuck holding on to sin instead of letting it go and turning to Jesus.

“Church at a Crossroads: Jesus’s Letter to the Church at Pergamum” — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

We’re continuing in our study of Revelation called The KING is Coming. We took a break for our He Who Promised is Faithful readings during Holy Week but are glad to be back at it. Today, we will be diving into Jesus’s letter to the church at Pergamum. Once again, I am thankful for Jamie Harrison and the opportunity to do this study together. This week’s passage is Revelation 2:12-17:

¹²“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.
¹³“ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. ¹⁴But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. ¹⁵So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. ¹⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’”^[1]

Keith Harris:
Greetings, Sojourners,

Today’s letter to the church at Pergamum is tough, Jamie. And, so speaking, I turn it over to you because this is a lot.

Jamie Harrison:
It is a lot, so y’all buckle up and stay buckled up – especially if you are driving and listening to this Bible study. No reading while driving.

Keith:
Click it or ticket.

Jamie:
Yeah, I’ve heard that somewhere.

Just a quick reminder of the similarities between each letter. Each letter is going to start with that same salutation. Write to the angel of the church, this week in Pergamum. Then we’re going to look at what Jesus says about Himself, His attributes. Then we’re going to get maybe something about their works, some praise and then admonition – something they need to work on (in all but two of the churches). Then, that same universal admonition to let anyone who has ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. Finally, we’ll get a promise.

Before we start, in the first letter, we really talked a lot about listening to what the Spirit is saying, not just to the church at Ephesus or Smyrna, now Pergamum, but what He is saying to the Church today as a whole and to our local church body. What is He saying? And as a part of your local church body, what is He saying to you?

Keep those things in mind as we dive into this letter because I think this letter hits on a lot of stuff that’s probably affecting us today. So, here we go.

Jesus starts off by saying something about Himself does not have the best positive connotation to it.

Keith:
Yes, it is not the portrait of Jesus people would like to paint. But, nevertheless, it’s the one He gives us here.

Jamie:
In the letter to Smyrna, we get that He is the first and the last. In the letter to Ephesus, He’s the One who holds the seven stars and who walks among the golden lamp stands. In Pergamum, all He says about Himself is, “Thus says the One who has the sharp, double-edged sword” (v. 12)^[2], which again, does go back to ch. 1:16 where He had seven stars in His right hand and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. I think it’s interesting that the sword comes from His mouth because I want to – I’m kind of jumping ahead of myself real quick. Turn to Revelation 19:19, and I’m going to read a couple of verse, actually starting in verse 11 of Revelation 19 (and go through v. 13):

¹¹Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse. Its rider is called Faithful and True, and with justice he judges and makes war. ¹²His eyes were like a fiery flame, and many crowns were on his head. He had a name written that no one knows except himself. ¹³He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.

If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because, again, in Revelation 1, that’s how He is described. He is called the Word of God. We know that the sword is the Word of God.

Keith:
Yeah, Hebrews 4:12, Ephesians 6….

Jamie:
Right. Ephesians 6, right. Continuing in Revelation 19 in verse 14-16:

¹⁴The armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses, wearing pure white linen. ¹⁵A sharp sword came from his mouth, so that he might strike the nations with it. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty. ¹⁶And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh: King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And then we get this horrible supper of God where all these people are wiped out who were gathered together. And then in verse 21, it says,

The rest were killed with the sword that came from the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds ate their fill of their flesh.

So, this sharp double-edged sword that comes from His mouth is what eventually will end everything. That’s the sword He chooses – that’s, excuse me, the attribute He chooses to describe Himself with here (in the letter to the church at Pergamum). So, if you’re listening to this, and you’re in Pergamum, this is not good news. It’s terrifying.

Keith:
I mean, there is the admonition opportunity for repentance, but their current standing without repentance is not good at all. That sword Jesus speaks of is pointed at Pergamum.

Jamie:
It is pointed at Pergamum.

He goes from there to the works and the praise that He’s going to give. He tells them (in v. 13), “I know where you live – where Satan’s throne is. Yet you are holding on to my name and did not deny your faith in me.” Please don’t mistake that when He says, “where Satan’s throne is,” to think He means hell. Satan wasn’t (isn’t) cast into hell yet. That has not happened. He was cast down to earth.

Keith:
And hell doesn’t have a throne. Satan is going to be inmate number one there.

Jamie:
That’s correct, and we’ll see that actually in Revelation 19 and 20 when we get there, that he’ll be one of the first couple beings cast into hell. But what it’s talking about when it says that the satanic throne – Satan’s throne…. Literally, during this time, Pergamum was considered the headquarters of Satanic opposition. That would have been a literal thing. It was a gentile base for false religion. They had a throne there that was a throne-shaped altar that looked like Zeus at the acropolis, the city’s highest peak, a throne-shaped altar to Zeus.

Then a lot of people from all over the [Roman] empire at that time would come to a palace that was built for Asclepius – the god of healing. His symbol was a rod in his hand and a snake wrapped around the rod, kind of like what we see on the back of ambulances and things like that today. That was what he held, that was his symbol, the snake-wrapped rod. People would come from all over the empire to sleep in his temple to get touched by one of the numerous non-venomous snakes that would be slithering around on the floor. Just to repeat, they would intentionally and willingly sleep on a floor that was covered in snakes in hopes that a snake would slither on them. Just because they are non-venomous doesn’t mean they don’t bite. They thought this would heal them.

So, that’s where Satan’s throne comes in. Because literally, that’s what it was considered to be during that time – not a good place to be. I would imagine if you were a Christian there at the time, and Jesus says “yet you are holding on to my name” and “did not deny [their] faith in [Him], even in the days of Antipas…who was put to death” among them. That’s a big deal. It’s really cool, like, hey, these awful things are going on around you…. We understand how easy it is now to get drawn away or moved away from Christ – we have to say this is ok because it’s what everybody says, and I don’t want to offend anybody…. These guys didn’t do that. They stuck with Jesus. They didn’t deny their faith even though all these things were going on around them. Even though it might seem easy that a snakebite might heal you, they trusted in Him.

Keith:
Well, it’s like how sometimes people want to take things into their own hands. In our churches today, there’s no Christian culture in the world. Everything is in the realm held by, how does Paul say it in Ephesians 2? The prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2)? I imagine this was a really terrible things because I know when we have conversations with people about what the Bible says about things, people find great offense.

This isn’t a pastor, this isn’t a Christian, this isn’t some church guy, preacher saying, hey, I think the worldliness you are involved in is satanic. This is Jesus. He says that this whole idea there, whether it’s Zeus or Asclepius, what you’re dealing with here is Satan. This is heavy. This is not, oh, well, I just believe something different. Jesus says He is the only way and everything else is opposed to me. He ain’t playing here.

Jamie:
Let me interject here. I was having a conversation with a young man who had been talking to one of his buddies who claimed to be a Christian who said at the same time said he doesn’t believe everything the Bible says. Well, it’s either all or none. There’s no in between. I think me and you – or it might’ve been me and Kevin one, I can’t remember…but if there’s anything in the Bible that you’re not going to believe it would be the resurrection of Christ because that’s the most far-fetched thing, right? Jesus rose again. That’s the basis of Christianity. If you believe that, everything else is believable. So, with the Bible, it’s either all or it’s nothing. We can’t add. We can’t take away from the Word of God. He wrote it. All Scripture is breathed out by God. All of it. So, I just wanted to interject that before we move forward.

Keith:
I mean, the sword coming from His mouth is what He said. I think this is a very good example that sometimes – and I don’t even want to use sometimes because it sounds like I’m trying to make it more palatable – Jesus doesn’t speak on a basis of what’s going to make us more comfortable or happy or what’s going to fit in, He’s God. He’s the Creator. He’s the Author of life. He speaks and it is – or it ain’t.

Jamie:
Yeah. So, there’s not your truth or my truth. Is that what you’re saying?

Keith:
We don’t have to say what I’m saying. The whole idea is what Jesus said. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me.” So, when He is talking here to the church at Pergamum and telling them what they’ve experienced and that He knows their living in a terrible place – that this is where the throne-shaped alter is, again where Satan dwells. Jesus tells them they’ve done well despite all of that, but that there’ve been casualties as well, which is I think that’s where you are headed next.

Jamie:
Yes. So, the very next thing He says, is but I have a few things against you. With Ephesus, He had one thing: they had lost their first love. With Smyrna, they had nothing. Now we get to Pergamum, and it’s like, hey, here are a few things against y’all. So, let’s go through these.

He says that there are some who hold to the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the Israelites, to eat meat sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality. What He’s talking about there is the story of Balaam. If you go back to Numbers 22-25, you’ll get the whole story. Balaam was this guy who was called a seer of the gods – kind of like a pagan divination expert.

Keith:
And just to clarify, I had heard Balaam – the story of Balaam and the donkey – preached many times in my childhood. I was a grown man before I read it fully for myself, which is on me, but Balaam was always treated like a hero in those sermons. Balaam was not of God’s people (Numbers 22:5–6). Balaam was not a prophet of the God (2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11; Revelation 2:14). He was a mess (Numbers 31:16).

Jamie:
Mmm Hmmm. I firmly believe that he would have absolutely cursed Israel had God allowed him to (Numbers 22:12, 20–22; Numbers 23:11). So, that’s what you get when you read the story. You get introduced to Balaam. He comes and is asked to curse Israel (Numbers 22:5–6). He gets on his donkey, and there’s an angel in the way who is about to kill him (Numbers 22:21–23). The donkey just quits (Numbers 22:24–27). He beats the donkey (Numbers 22:27–28). Then the donkey talks to him; that’s where you get that whole conversation from (Numbers 22:28–30). That all happened to remind Balaam that God is in control and that he should do what He said (Numbers 22:31–35).

Keith:
It doesn’t matter where the money is, where the fame is, where the fortune is…. When the God speaks, the lowercase g gods have to bow in subjection.

Jamie:
Right. So, in looking at the oracles that Balaam gives, he gives three different ones, and in all three he ends up blessing Israel because the Lord will not allow him to curse them (Numbers 23:5–12; 23:16–24; 24:2–9). The first one was at a place that was known as the high places of Baal—a cultic center for the worship of Baal (Numbers 22:41). The second oracle takes place atop Mt. Pisgah, and so that is where all the heavenly omens were made or astrological observations were made—things like that, everything that people would have looked at during that time to see signs and things of that nature (Numbers 23:13–14). If that sounds familiar.

Keith:
It unfortunately does.

Jamie:
The third place is on Peor, which is another cultic center of worship (Numbers 23:28). So, all three places he takes him, where Balaam tells him to meet him, are places of Baal—places that are against God (Numbers 22:41; 23:14; 23:28). What you end up happening is Balaam advises Balak to be friendly to Israel, share his women with them, things like that (Numbers 31:16; Revelation 2:14), and…

Keith:
And if you draw them in, you’ll destroy them from the inside out.

Jamie:
That’s right, and Israel ends up following along. By the way, you can check out Numbers 31:16 to see where Balaam tells him to be friendly with them and Numbers 25:1-9 you get this horrible story of Israel having sexual relations with these Moabites and eating meat sacrificed to idols. These Moabite women are encouraging them to do it. As we were just talking about before we got started, they make it all the way to the entrance to the tabernacle.

Keith:
One guy is planning on taking his Moabite cult prostitute right up inside the tabernacle to show Israel what’s up.

Jamie:
That’s right, and at that point, a plague had started because of what was going on. That is until Phineas drives a spear through the man and the woman and ends the plague. 24,000 Israelites are killed in this plague.

So, when Jesus tells the church there that they are holding to the teaching of Balaam (Revelation 2:14), Balaam taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the Israelites (Numbers 31:16). It’s like they were telling folks that they see they follow Jesus but add this or take away this (Galatians 1:6–9). We could name so many examples of this, but none of it is ok. If you are placing a stumbling block in front of people—placing something that is not biblically accurate—you are causing them to fall away (Romans 16:17; Matthew 18:6–7). I think that’s part of why James says that not everyone needs to be a teacher. You’ve got to be careful (James 3:1).

Keith:
It’s definitely why Jesus says you can’t serve two masters.

Jamie:
That’s correct. Especially when you’re teaching children. If you don’t know God’s Word and you’re not studying God’s Word, don’t teach children – don’t teach adults for that matter, but definitely don’t teach children.

Keith:
That’s another reason, and I know we said this in the first or second part of this study, if you don’t know, say, “I don’t know.” There’s no shame in saying that you have to look something up because you don’t want to cause somebody to stumble.

And I mean the issue here is you have two pictures. They could very well have that zeal of Phinehas—not saying go run people through with spears, but God Himself said that Phinehas was jealous with His jealousy (Numbers 25:10–13). You can dwell where Satan’s throne is. You can dwell where Satan dwells and hold fast to the name of Christ and not deny your faith even when people are getting killed (Revelation 2:13), or you can go the way of Balaam and go along to get along (Revelation 2:14; Numbers 31:16). I think there’s probably—and I’m definitely not welcoming terrible persecution—but when persecution sets in, those who have faith in Christ hold fast unto death, like we saw with Smyrna last week (Revelation 2:10), or they cut bait and fish. They either join the culture or go further into Christ. What he’s telling the church at Pergamum is that they have some folks playing with some stuff they don’t need to be playing with, telling them specifically to go back and test the Scriptures and see what happened to Balak and Balaam (Numbers 25:1–3; 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11).

Jamie:
It didn’t work out so well. Specifically, what was going on during that time in Rome – to help make this understandable, is you’ve got – in order to join the guilds or unions like we were talking about in Smyrna, you would have the people in Rome and in Pergamum having to take a little pinch of incense and put it on the altar to affirm their loyalty to Caesar, the emperor. And that is spiritual fornication, obviously, because when you do that, you’re saying Caesar is lord. Then they would be able to have a job and things like that. So that’s what was specifically going on, but not only were they committing spiritual fornication, they were committing adultery, too. It says, “In the same way, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans” (v. 15), which we mentioned back in the letter to Ephesus was a group of people who believed in giving in to sensual pleasure, basically elevating what they want over anybody, anytime, whoever, whenever, type of thing – as long as it feels good to you, it’s good.

If it feels good, it’s good. That’s not the case because what feels good for 20-30 seconds is not always good for you. I think it’s pretty clear here that God has a design, God has a way, and specifically, God Himself – Jesus – is talking to these folks telling them that this is not they way He called them to be. Come to Him. Don’t go toward Balaam or Nicholas. Follow Him, not the world. You can’t serve both.

You start to notice a common thread here through these letters, and you’ll see it in the next one to Thyatira, is sexual immorality. Think about how this applies today with easy access to pornography. You know when I was coming up and computers first came out, we got one in our house, and I remember everybody at school saying you have to have a subscription to look at that type of stuff. They will talk about it. Now you just click on there and you can look at whatever you want. Pick your own category – whatever you like to see.

Keith:
At the time we are recording this, this is the week after Twitter, or X, decided to be a pro-porn platform, and the comment on that is, in the state of Mississippi as well in some other states in the United States, there’s been some legislature that was meant to make it more difficult for people to access porn so that people, especially in their formative years, aren’t building pathways in their brains looking at this stuff. Now, one of the big three social media platforms (out of the originals) is allowing people to be free to put porn on there. It is their right as American citizens – as part of their freedom of speech… but I guess the word from Jesus would be to those who have ears to hear would be to ask what rights do you have in Christ. It may be permitted by the government, but what honors Him? What glorifies Him?

This is the kind of crossroads they were at. It’s where we are right now.

Jamie:
That’s right, and there’s a lot more we could say on that. I guess we shall digress at this time.

Keith:
Because of the same opportunity that’s given to the church at Pergamum, if we’re going to talk about the things today, the same opportunity is offered to people today: repentance.

Jamie:
Exactly. That’s exactly what the next verse says. Repent! Man, if you’re addicted to sexual immorality type stuff, be it literally, physically, or just emotionally – whatever the case is, repent. Now does that mean that after you repent, you’ll never fall into that temptation again? No, it doesn’t. Then, you repent.

Keith:
What did John the Baptist tell the Pharisees? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8)?

Jamie:
That’s right. It’s constant vigilance. That’s part of sanctification, becoming more like Christ. He tells them repent or else He will come to them quickly and fight against them with the sword of His mouth. Look again, fight against them with the sword of His mouth. We just read in Revelation 19 where basically He just speaks a word.

Keith:
The ESV says, “war against them.” That word is what we’re alluding to.

Jamie:
One word and they’re done. That’s how serious it is. Repent. Otherwise, if you don’t, this is what is going to happen. Jesus is going to come quickly and take them out. I mean, there’s no nice way to say that, but it’s exactly what He’s saying here. And if there’s ever been anything to fear, it would be Jesus with a sword out of His mouth.

Keith:
He’s very effective in His warfare.

Jamie:
He is. 100% accuracy. And that’s real warfare, not video game warfare. It’s real life.

Keith:
This isn’t figurative. We’ve been talking about not being able to serve two masters. What Jesus is telling them – and us – is that you’re either of His Kingdom or of the kingdom of the world. That doesn’t mean anyone is going to lose their salvation, but sometimes we have these warnings from God’s Word that show us that it takes more than saying some words or “making a decision” or an emotional response and not confessing Jesus as Lord. Jesus being Lord means endure unto death. It doesn’t mean sinless perfection. It does mean bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. This is where the church at Pergamum was. They were at a crossroads. They either keep heading toward the throne of Satan, the side he is dwelling on or change. We’ll see when we get to Revelation 19 and 20…I think the words of the hymn by Martin Luther, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”: “one little word will fell him”. When Jesus speaks – that is when He says it is finished, nothing can stay His sword.

Jamie:
That’s heavy. Heavy.

So, after this admonition, we get the universal admonition: Let anyone who has ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. We asked at the beginning what the Spirit is saying to you now. Remember these letters are to us now as well as to these churches. Where are you at? Have we allowed stuff to come in that shouldn’t be there? Do we need to clean house, so to speak? And if you do, man, repent. Don’t be embarrassed of it. Don’t let your feelings of guilt hold you back. Repent.

Keith:
That’s right. There’s no condemnation on the other side of repentance, but only condemnation without it.

Jamie:
So then we get to our final promise to the one who conquers. Remember 1 John 5:4-5 there. The one who conquers being those who are saved.

He says He will give some of the hidden manna. What’s He talking about there? John 6:35 – Jesus declares Himself the Bread of Life. He gives salvation. He says He will also give the one who conquers a white stone with a new name inscribed on it that no one knows but the one who receives it. That’s cool. Now I’m going to tell you guys really quick that what the stone that has a new name that nobody knows. No, I’m not. It says nobody knows it. So again, if the Bible doesn’t give the answer, we’re probably not meant to know the answer.

Keith:
The one who receives it. I just think about the beautiful picture there of the new beginning, that clean slate – literally, in this case. And the God who saves is the God who adopts and the things that came before are done away with. He has borne the wrath we deserve. He bore our sin on the cross that we deserved. He adopts us and gives us a new name. We’re His.

Jamie:
Amen. And that white stone, I want to point out really quick. They used to hold the games in Pergamum back then, so win athletes would win, they would be given a white stone as part of the prize. That white stone was their admission ticket, so to speak, to the winner’s celebration after the games were over. So, you know, whether that is what Jesus is what Jesus is referencing here or not – I don’t know. Historically speaking, it’s possible. I just want to point out how cool it is. If you think about this, put together, if He’s giving us a white stone with a new name that no one knows but the one who receives it, that’s our admission ticket – our ticket to get into eternity with Him. He gives us salvation. He gives us eternal life with Him. He’s going to adopt us in like you said – as His children, as co-heirs with Christ. That is awesome. That is good news. And I like ending on good news because this letter did not have a whole lot of good news in it except in the end when Jesus told them that despite all the bad, they could repent and spend eternity with Him. That. Is. Good. News.

Keith:
Amen.

Well, we will continue this next time with the letter to the church at Thyatira. I hope that this has been fruitful for you and given you more than food for thought. Again, just to reiterate, admonitions are painful and uncomfortable, but the admonition to repent, just as Jamie said, is good news. Dear Sojourner, we leave you. Have a good week and God bless!

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 2:12–17.

“Faithful Unto Death: Jesus’s Letter to the Church at Smyrna” — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

We’re continuing in our study of Revelation called The KING is Coming. We took a break for our He Who Promised is Faithful readings during Holy Week but are glad to be back at it. Today, we will be diving into Jesus’s letter to the church at Smyrna. Once again, I am thankful for Jamie Harrison and the opportunity to do this study together.

This week’s passage is Revelation 2:8-11:

⁸“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.
⁹“ ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. ¹¹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’^[1]

Keith Harris:
Greetings, Sojourners,

We are in the letter to the church in Smyrna, continuing our study of Revelation. Jamie, why don’t you remind us as you did in our last Bible study about the form of these letters – the five things that show up in each one.

Jamie Harrison:
Yes, that is correct. Each letter is going to have a salutation. In this letter, “Write to the angel of the church of Smyrna” (Revelation 2:8)^[2] – the angel being, of course, the pastor, the messenger, the person delivering them the Word. Then, you’re going to have where Jesus will say something about Himself – His attributes. Then, there will be something about their works, some praise and admonition. Except in this church – Smyrna is one of two churches that does not have an admonition (correction, something to fix). Then, you’re going to have a universal admonition which is to anyone who hears, who has ears to hear – to listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. Finally, each letter will contain a final promise.

Keith:
Alright, talk to us about Smyrna. What does Jesus tell us about Himself here?

Jamie:
He starts off by saying, “Thus says the First and the Last, the one who was dead and came to life” (Revelation 2:8). The letter to Ephesus referenced back to the description of Jesus in Revelation 1, and so does this one. In Revelation 1:17, Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last…”; He continues to say, “I was dead, but look – I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys to death and Hades.” It’s really cool that Jesus keeps going back to what He’s already said – to almost repeat for emphasis.

Keith:
He’s doing it on purpose.

Jamie:
Correct. He’s is the First and the Last which, like I said in Revelation 1, is a claim that He is God. He was there in the beginning as we know. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). So He was the First, and He will be the Last.

It’s also important to note that He points out again that He is the one who was dead and has now came to life because all of Christianity is a complete waste of time if He didn’t raise from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:14-17). There’s a lot of dead people, but He’s the only one….

Keith:
What is it that John Goldwater says? “Dead saviors can’t save.”

Jamie:
That’s correct. You know, I was talking to someone the other day and – I apologize if this bothers anybody, but you know where people are like, You know that my dead relative was looking down on me today, or I was talking to them and they clearly gave me an answer. I know this is going to bother some people, but if you’re expecting some dead relative to help you with something, you’re [in a pickle]. I’m sorry, but when you take your last breath, you’re done. So, it’s important that we make a decision for Jesus before that happens….

Keith:
…because He was dead and came to life – not was brought to life. He just stopped being dead (Revelation 2:8, John 10:17-18). Like Jamie was saying on the part of our relatives, it may seem to have someone we care about look from what we would describe as an afterlife, but we have something better than that: we have the God of the universe who was there at the beginning, pre-existed the beginning (John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:17) – He’s going to be there at the end and continue eternally. He is the God who saves, the God who looks after (Zephaniah 3:17, Psalm 121:3-5). He’s Emmanuel – God with us (Matthew 1:23). We shouldn’t be satisfied with lesser things (Psalm 119:37). Jesus is clearly superior to everybody and everything (Hebrews 1:3-4, Philippians 2:9-11).

Jamie:
That’s right.

After Jesus says this, He goes into telling them some things about themselves. He says, “I know your affliction and poverty, but you are rich. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9). Let’s touch on that real quick. When He says, “I know your affliction and poverty.” History tells us that Smyrna was a very wealthy town – very well-to-do. Why would the Christians there experience “affliction and poverty”? It’s simple when you look at it.

In order to work, you had to join a guild, which is like what we would call a labor union, right? Each one of those guilds back during that time, would have been represented by some god or goddess. In order to join, you had to worship that god or goddess. So as a Christian….

Keith:
…almost like your dues….

Jamie:
As a Christian, I’m not going to worship this god or goddess because that’s a false god. I’m not going to be able to join a guild, which means I’m not going to work because I can’t get a job. It wasn’t laziness – they couldn’t get a job. A lot of Christians ended up begging for food and things like that, but it’s because they were willing to suffer that affliction to follow Christ.

So, we ask ourselves the question of if someone comes to you at work and asks you to do something immoral (or whatever the case may be), are you going to do it to keep your job or say “no” and that whatever happens happens? Are you going to compromise your relationship with Christ to advance at the workplace? Or are you going to put Him first? These Christians here at Smyrna put Him first.

Then He tells them that He knows the slander of “those who say they are Jews and aren’t but are a synagogue of Satan”. He tells [the believers there] that they are about to suffer – that the devil is going to throw some of them in prison to test them, and they’ll “experience affliction for ten days”; He tells them, “Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

He kind of tells them exactly what’s about to happen. There’s this synagogue of “Jewish” people who are claiming to be Jews but in the biblical sense, they’re not.

Keith:
Ethnically, they are, right? But just as Jesus told the Pharisees on more than one occasion – you’re talking about your father Abraham but you’re of your father the devil. The fruit of your life is showing what you are more than your ethnicity is.

Jamie:
Mmmm…. This was happening. This synagogue was slandering them. They would be jailed normally about ten days. They experienced, obviously, persecution and things like that while in prison – sometimes to the point of death. But Jesus says, “Be faithful to the point of death and I will give you the crown of life.” So, what is the crown of life talking about? I think we probably know the answer to that, but let’s look at James 1:12. Again, we always want the Bible to speak for itself. James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” So, it’s eternal life with Jesus.

You notice, you know, this book of Revelation a lot of times – when we look at it, we think it’s just a sign of what’s going to happen and all these different things and how bad things are going to be – and it is, but it’s not at the same time. The revelation is of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:1). It’s about Jesus Christ. It’s to lead us to Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:17-18, 5:9-10). The whole central setting of Revelation is the throne room (Revelation 4:2-6). Everything centers around the throne room where God – the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit – is present with multitudes around them worshiping Him, praising Him (Revelation 4:8-11, 5:11-13). Right? As all of these things are going on.

There’s no admonition in this letter to Smyrna. There’s no this is what you’re doing wrong. They have it. They get it. They have a relationship with Jesus, and because of that relationship, they are putting off these other things and are following after Him. Because of that they’ll receive the crown of life.

Keith:
I mean, just that idea in and of itself: be faithful unto death. If you’re living in an area of the world where following Jesus means certain death, you’re going to be in less need of an admonition because if you’re know that following Jesus means certain death here on earth, you’ve counted the cost like Jesus said in Luke 14:27-28.

The idea there that “be faithful unto death, and I’ll give you the crown of life”, He doesn’t say when you die in prison in ten days or when you die in the tribulation; it’s for all of life. If you’re like John, who’s on the island of Patmos in probably his 80s or 90s – that just because he didn’t get martyred, he’s no less faithful unto death. He’s faithful until the time that God calls him home. That crown of life isn’t just for martyrs; it’s for those who are saved for all of life.

Jamie:
You know, you’re talking about people who are being persecuted even to the point of death today…. Was it Richard Wurmbrand in that book we read ^[3]? They put him in a room – in a closet, basically smaller than a closet, and all four walls were nails. There was just enough room for you to stand. If you moved at all, you were going into these nails. They had him in that room for days on end. No food. No water. Nothing like that. Eventually, they would open the door and he would just collapse to the ground. They would defecate and make him eat it – urinate in his mouth, things like that….

Keith:
…beat his feet so much that he could never wear shoes again the rest of his life….

Jamie:
Right. And not once did he waver. Not once did his relationship with Christ come into question. He continued to tell the guards about Jesus the whole time he was there. And eventually did get out. But what it did was it strengthened his faith. So, if there was any point, to all of these trials is that it strengthens our faith in God.

Keith:
Speaking of, I had forgotten about this, but while you were talking…there was a guy named Polycarp. He was a pastor in Smyrna and a disciple of the apostle John. And at [Polycarp’s] martyrdom, when he’s about to be executed for Christianity, they gave him an opportunity to recant. We talked last week where Jesus gave the church at Ephesus to repent and remember the love they had at first – those who were going to execute Polycarp gave him an opportunity to repent and remember his love for the powers-that-be, His love for Jesus was more. He says,

“For eighty and six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. And how can I now blaspheme my king who saved me?”

They killed him for that, but Jesus’s own words here – and I don’t think that’s an accident – I mean, it’s more than ten days later, but I don’t think it’s an accident that Jesus told Smyrna this knowing full well that Polycarp and those in the immediate context living in the same situation as Polycarp – that they were faithful unto death.

Polycarp has a crown of life. John has a crown of life. And if we, in our churches today, are faithful unto death, then we’ll receive that crown of life. The proof’s in the pudding, so to speak.

Jamie:
It is. That pudding’s pretty good stuff…..

Just to finish this out real quick…. I always say real quick, and it always takes forever. I take that back.

Keith:
It takes the time it takes.

Jamie:
Just to finish this out, we have Jesus with a universal admonition, which in a word, you know, is let anyone who has ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. What is the Spirit saying to us? He says, “To the one who conquers”. Remember 1 John 5:4-5 here. This is those who are saved, those who have a relationship with Jesus will never be harmed by the second death.

What is the second death you ask? What does he mean there? We’re going to jump ahead to Revelation 20, and I’m going to start reading in verse 11 and read to the end of that chapter:

¹¹Then I saw a great white throne and one seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. ¹²I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books. ¹³Then the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them; each one was judged according to their works. ¹⁴Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. ¹⁵And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

This is not a scare tactic by any stretch of the imagination. It’s explaining what the second death is. You might have died here on earth, but the second death is the one – it’s the one. If you have a relationship with Christ, you won’t experience the second death (John 3:16, 5:24). You will have a life everlasting with God the Father (John 17:3). If you don’t have a relationship with Christ, you will experience that second death, which – even with all of the lake of fire and all that – the punishment of hell is an eternal separation from God (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9; Matthew 25:41, 46). You’re never with Him again. You’re eternally separated from your Creator.

Keith:
And the ever-presence of His wrath.

Jamie:
That’s right, but I think the people who are there will still blame Him – will still be angry with Him. So imagine living in eternal punishment, being angry the entire time. That’s the feeling it’s going to be. I can’t describe it. We’ve never been there. We don’t understand it. We don’t want to be there.

Sometimes, like right now, people will be like, now, let me invite you to come to know Jesus, but I don’t want you to come to know Jesus because you’re scared to go to hell. If you come to know Jesus, it needs to be because you were convicted by His Word and want to have a relationship with Him – and you want to love Him.

Keith:
How does Paul say it in Philippians 3:8? The surpassing worth of knowing Christ. That’s a far cry from the surpassing worth of not wanting to go to hell.

You think about different people you’ve heard talk. Well, I got married to so-and-so because they were the only person in my community or if I didn’t marry this person I’d have to marry that person. That’s not love. … The idea that you’re just pursuing one thing because you don’t want the other, that’s not it.

That’s not the image you get in Matthew 13:44-46 where Jesus is giving the parables of the man who is walking through a field and finds a treasure worth more than any treasure he’s ever seen. He immediately goes back to his house, cashes out all of his assets, and buys the field. He’s not willing for anyone else to find this treasure. The pearl merchant who, upon finding the pearl of great price, doesn’t haggle – doesn’t negotiate – he cashes out everything he has to buy this one pearl.

Jamie:
And that’s what these people in Smyrna did. They were willing to give up their jobs – the opportunity to own their house, purchase food for their family, things of that nature – for the sake of Christ.

Keith:
That’s one of the things that I wonder here, and I’m not trying to speculate. But He’s talking to them about how they were rich before Christ in a worldly sense. Now in a worldly sense they’re in poverty. Jesus reminds them that they are rich – that their life is in danger but they have Life. I would imagine some of them were in definite danger – not necessarily of martyrdom or execution but just in the ability to sustain themselves and live.

As we look at this to close it out, think about how we talked about Polycarp and Richard Wurmbrand. It reminds me of the perspective here – “the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death” (Revelation 2:11) – the idea that the closest to hell believers will ever experience is what they experience here on earth. That’s the greatest threat the world can give us – that it’s going to kill us, leads us to our greatest reward (Philippians 1:21-23, Revelation 21:4-5).

This reminds me of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I’ve been reading through his Letters and Papers from Prison^[4]…. There are times where he’d be aggravated that he had opportunities for the gospel and he’d repent and minister to this or that person. Everyone who was thrown into the concentration camps wasn’t Jewish ethnically. They weren’t even necessarily for the cause. If they Nazis wanted to just get someone out of the way, they had the camps for this.

Bonhoeffer, on the last day of his life, got up and preached. There was a guy there as a witness – a British intelligence officer kind of kept the Nazi guards at bay to let him finish his sermon. Then Bonhoeffer willing went with them – walked to his execution almost consoling the guards because – you know, you’d have to feel some kind of way when somebody’s looking at you and talking about the love of Christ, preaching the gospel and you’re going to be the one to kill him. And what he told those guards right before they took his life was: “This is the end, but for me, it is the beginning.”

Where so many face the second death, those believers in Smyrna, they face the beginning.

The tears they had for persecution were wiped away by the nail-scarred hands of their Savior whom they served unto death.

That’s good news.

Jamie:
Amen.

Keith:
Well, Jamie, that about wraps it up for Smyrna. Sojourners, we’ve enjoyed our time with you today. Check with us next time as we look at the letter to the church at Pergamum.

Thank you, and God bless.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 2:8–11.

^[3] Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ, Reprint. (Living Sacrifice Book Co, 1967).

^[4] Dietrich Bonhoeffer et al., Letters and Papers from Prison, Reader’s Edition. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2015).

“Remember, Repent, Return: Jesus’s Letter to the Church at Ephesus” — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

We’re continuing in our study of Revelation called The KING is Coming. Today, we will be diving into the first of Jesus’s seven letters to the churches — this one to the church at Ephesus. Once again, I am thankful for Jamie Harrison and the opportunity to do this study together.

This weeks passage is Revelation 2:1-7:

¹“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
²“ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. ³I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. ⁴But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. ⁵Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. ⁶Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. ⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

Keith Harris:
Greetings, Sojourners,

As I said, we are continuing in our King is Coming study of the book of Revelation, and now we are entering into the part where you have these letters from Jesus to churches. Before we get into that, though, Jamie, we were talking after looking at the earlier two Bible studies in this series – talk to us about the chain of command from Revelation 1 real quick.

Jamie Harrison:
Just to hit on that, the chain of command was given from God, and it was given from God to Jesus. In the very first study in this series, we said from God to the angel – which we understand Jesus and God are one and the same.^[1] I do think it’s important for clarification that it was given from God (the Father) to Jesus, then to the angel, to John, and subsequently to us. And all seven of these letters are directly from Jesus.

Keith:
Right. That’s what we’re doing here. We want to be as careful with this as we are with other passages, but maybe we want to be a little bit more careful just in how people want to misuse the book of Revelation for fear mongering or manipulation. What Jamie is referencing is in Revelation 1:1, it says “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants…”.

So, just as we’ve been telling y’all, we don’t have this all together – we are students of the Bible and are wanting to help people study the Bible for themselves. Let’s go ahead and talk about the first of these seven letters (or the letters in general). Jamie?

Jamie:
To start, a few things about the letters is I think it is important to note that, yes, these letters are written specifically to these seven churches. And these seven churches would have been kind of the center, I guess you would say, of how things got from one place to another. So, if I was delivering mail, so to speak, these would kind of be the seven hubs. It’s important to understand that these letters were given to those churches and then disseminated to all the churches from there.

Keith:
It’s kind of like how the letter to the church at Colossae was meant to be shared with Laodicea and vice versa.

Jamie:
Exactly. It’s important as we read these letters to look at the similarities of these churches to the Church today – the Church meaning believers but also to the individual (local) church bodies. So, you look at the Church as a whole, but then you also look at my individual (local) church body. How do we stack up? Where are we?

Some of the key verses here in these letters are seen through Revelation 2:7 that says^[2], “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.” This is going to be repeated in every letter – plural churches (Revelation 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 2:29, 3:6, 3:13, 3:22). It’s extremely important to listen to what the Spirit is saying to us as believers right here, right now. What is He saying to us?

And then, finally, before we jump into the letter specifically to Ephesus, we are going to look at each letter with five very distinct parts: a salutation (to the angel of the church of __), attributes of Jesus (something about Himself), their works (praise and in five of seven an admonition^[3] to them), a universal admonition (“Let anyone who has ears listen to what the Spirit says to the churches”), and a final promise to each church. That’s kind of the way we’re going to look at each one, alright?

So, the salutation, of course, being the same in each letter, to the angel of the church of ___. We know that the angel is obviously talking to the pastor there at that local church.

Keith:
Where do we find that? How do we know that? Remind them where we know what it means by “angel”, what it means by “lampstands”. We’re not just making this up. It comes from….

Jamie:
Back in Revelation 1:20: “The mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” Another word there for “angels” is messengers – someone who delivers the Word.

Keith:
So, in the context of Revelation 1:20, this is not some ethereal guardian angel, so to speak. This is the pastor that God has called to the church. To the angel – the pastor – of the church of Ephesus.

Jamie:
Right. The attributes of Jesus that we see here – what He says about Himself there in Revelation 2:1, He says, “Thus says the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands.” This is, again, a direct correlation back to Revelation 1:20 that we just read and also 1:16 – He had seven stars in His right hand. The right hand, of course, being the hand of might, the hand of power and strength. Jesus is holding these pastors in His hand. He’s walking among the churches.

I think that’s important to talk about just for a second. Is Jesus walking among our churches today? You know, if He was writing these letters today – these seven letters – would your (local) church body get a letter from Him?

Keith:
Or would it be getting one of the five admonitions? Or one of the well-dones?

Jamie:
Exactly. Is Jesus walking in your church? And if He is, what is He saying? What is He saying to you?

Well, here’s what He said to the church at Ephesus. He gives them praise for their works, saying, “I know your works there” (Revelation 2:2-3). In other words, they are active for God. They’re doing things that He’s told us to do in His Word. They’re toiling at a cost. Some of them would have been persecuted for their faith, up to the point of being killed for their faith. They’re laboring for the Lord, and obviously, that includes endurance, too. They weren’t just laboring for a minute; they were laboring for a while. They were enduring for a while. They did things that were uncomfortable because the Lord told them to do it, called them to do it.

He goes on and says that they can’t tolerate evil people. He says that they have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be liars. So, they’re enduring hardships for Christ. He keeps going on and on about all these awesome things that they’re doing. They’ve endured these hardships and not grown weary. Think about that for a minute. That’s really saying something. That’s saying something big time because we are quick to grow weary.

You know, COVID, back in 2020 made us all weary and about had us done. And here, He’s like, hey, these people didn’t even get tired at all.

Keith:
You hear people talk about all the time – and I think it’s even a hashtag on social media: #firstworldproblems – it doesn’t take much to make us weary. That’s the irony of the pandemic, at least for the first part of it: we were getting more rest, more opportunity for rest. It’s like, how can people who are as far away from retirement as we are say, man, I’m tired of resting, let’s go back to work?

Jamie:
Right, yeah. Anyway (chuckles).

I also think with that idea in mind where it says that they endured hardships for the sake of His name (Revelation 2:3). At the heart of every Christian should be a desire to do the will of God (Psalm 40:8, John 4:34). And I think it’s important to point out that it’s as God chooses, as God leads you, as God tells you to (Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 12:2). If you’re just enduring for the sake of enduring hardships, that’s all you’re doing: enduring them (1 Peter 2:20). All lot of people say all the time that the Lord is doing this or that when the Lord ain’t got nothing to do with it (Jeremiah 23:16, Matthew 7:21-23). So, you should be careful and make sure that what you are doing, if you’re toiling for the Lord, is because He’s leading you in that direction (Colossians 3:23-24). Don’t get burned out at church because you are trying to do so much. Don’t take on things that God hasn’t called you to take on. But now, if He calls you to take it on – take in on because what He’ll do is keep you from being weary, right? He will help you endure (Isaiah 40:29-31, 2 Corinthians 12:9).

Keith:
The believers in Ephesus, they had just…look at the list here that Jesus gave! But what we know from the book of Acts is that God had done such a mighty work in Ephesus – so many people were getting saved that it upended their economy (Acts 19:18-20)! A big part of their economy was silver shrines (or idols) for Artemis, and it got to the point that there was a riot – an unlawful protest and threatening the lives of the church – because nobody was buying these idols anymore (Acts 19:23-27). People were losing their jobs, at risk of losing their homes, their livelihood in these false gods because people being saved said, hey, I can’t do this anymore (Acts 19:28-34, 1 Thessalonians 1:9).

I don’t know of many people who are weary in their churches because they’re upending the idol industry. I mean, it should be, but I’m afraid that’s not the case nearly as often as it should be.

Jamie:
Agreed.

The last thing Jesus says to them, if you jump down to Revelation 2:6: “Yet you do have this: you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans^[4], which I also hate.” Back in Acts 6:1-5, we see where Nicholas was one of the first deacons. They named him a deacon, but he’s actually a false believer. He led the church astray, led people in immorality, specifically sensual temptations enticing believers to pleasure themselves with self-indulgence. But Jesus tells the church at Ephesus that they hate that practice. Later on we’ll see a church that did not hate that practice but embraced it.

Keith:
That’s where we find out more about their beliefs, too. Jesus doesn’t get specific here, but in the letter to the church at Pergamum, He relates it to Balaam who was a false preacher (Revelation 2:14; Numbers 22:12, 31:16). He was tasked with cursing Israel but couldn’t do it because God inhibited him (Numbers 22:18-20, 23:8). Also, they are looped in with Jezebel (Revelation 2:20). These accusations are in red letters. This is the letter from Jesus to the church at Ephesus. If He says it’s good – that hating the works of the Nicolaitans is something He also hates, it’s a pro-gospel stance (Revelation 2:6).

Jamie:
Very much so.

So, that’s the works and the praise. He tells them they’re doing a good job on all those things. It’s important to note that this is the Lord commending them for these things. And then He says, “But….”

Keith:
Don’t you just love that?

Jamie:
The “but” cancels out everything that came before it. Unfortunately….

Keith:
…and replaces it with this admonition.

Jamie:
The question that I think this leads us to is: how many sins does it take to separate us from God for eternity? The answer is: one. If we sin once, we’ve fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). So, it’s important to note that repentance is necessary.

Keith:
Also here, this is the church at Ephesus. Jesus – it’s important to note here, not minimizing the sin but maximizing the power – that right hand that holds the churches, He’s not threatening to pull their salvation. He’s made them alive (Ephesians 2:1-5). He’s given them eternal life. John 10:28-29 says that He has them in His hand an no one can “snatch” them from His hand. He’s threatening to remove the lampstand, not their salvation.

Jamie:
That’s exactly right. He tells them, I have this against you. You’ve abandoned the love you had at first.

Now, I think about this: I’ve been to a lot of different churches in my lifetime that were doing a lot of cool things, ministry-wise. A lot of people who had been there a really long time, etc. But when you walk in a church and don’t feel loved – you don’t see that others feel loved necessarily…. You know I hear a lot of “Christians” talking about people a lot of times, like did you know ___?

Keith:
“Church folks”.

Jamie:
Right. Can you believe so and so? Things of that nature. And I think that’s what this falls under. So, why do we do the ministries that we do?

Keith:
You get kind of caught up in being an institution rather than part of the body of Christ.

Jamie:
That’s it, and I think that’s exactly what the Lord is getting at here. It’s like, look guys, you know you’re doing all these great things, but you’re doing it almost out of a sense of duty as opposed to the fact that you love me.

People say all the time that you know we’re not saved by works. That’s accurate. You are only saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5). But because of grace – because we love Jesus – the works will follow (John 14:15, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15). That’s why James said that without works there is no faith really (James 2:17, 26).

Keith:
What did the Holy Spirit say to the church at Ephesus 20-30 years before this? In Ephesians 2:10, He says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which He has prepared beforehand.” Not religious obligation. Not good institutions. We are His workmanship. Just like those silversmiths were crafting idols, God is crafting little-Christs^[5] out of us.

Jamie:
Remember that the Church is the bride of Christ. So, think about it as an example of a marriage. Do you do things for your spouse because you have to or because you want to – because you love them? Now, sometimes we do things for our spouse because we have to; it’s just part of it. But we do things for them for the most part because we want to – because we love them – because there’s a relationship there. And that’s the idea here. Hey, you’ve grown a little salty in your relationship, grown a little cold in that relationship – going through it like a habit. You’re going through a routine. You’re doing these works – working in the church, you know, whatever you’ve got going on, you know at the foot pantry, fill in the blank. You might be doing it so people can see you there. Maybe it’s a social thing. But here’s the question: what are you actually doing? I know a lot of organizations that claim to help people but it’s really all about status – look at me, look at what I’m involved in – and not helping.

Keith:
I mean, that’s the image that He gives there. You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, He tells them, from where you have fallen. You’ve got this pinnacle moment! I know in my own marriage that going through the motions doesn’t get me very far. Funny note on that phrase (going through the motions), is that in England “the motions” means a bowel movement. In a marriage going through the motions is about the equivalent to a bowel movement. It doesn’t cut it. (laughter from both)

You’ve got that standard there – that original love that was motivating and driving everything and have now fallen short of that standard. And that standard is love. What does 1 John 4:19 tell us? We love because He first loved us. This isn’t zeal coming from us; this is a response of worship coming from the only way you can respond to the Savior you took you from dead in your sin to alive in Christ: love. And that’s what they’ve got to remember.

Jamie:
The next thing that Jesus says here, and I think this is really important, is for them to repent and do the works they did at first. So, there’s an opportunity to repent. It’s not like, oh, you quit loving me so I’m going to find somebody else. Like we said earlier, He does tell them that if they don’t He’ll come and remove their lampstand from it’s pace. That means that local church body would cease to exist. That doesn’t mean that they were no longer saved personally. That means that local church body there, whatever the case may be, would cease to exist if they did not repent.

So what? What is the overall call here? What is He telling this church? He’s saying, look, you’re doing all these great things. You’re doing these wonderful things – helping people – doing everything I’m asking you to do, but you’re doing it all out of a sense of duty instead of out of the love you have for me.

The key here is what He says, again in Revelation 2:7, “Let anyone who has ears listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.” What is the Spirit saying to the church? The Spirit is saying it’s about love. It’s about a relationship. It’s not like this ooey-gooey, mushy-feeling type thing – sometimes relationships are hard. They’re tough when they call us to do things we don’t necessarily want to do. They’re going to be hard and cause us issues. They’re going to cause us to have things go on in our life that maybe we don’t want that much. But the fact is that, if we’re doing it out of love for Christ, it’s all going to work out for the better – for you and the other people involved.

Keith:
And a call to repentance is a good thing. It’s not a welcome thing, but it should be. How many times do we have to wonder did I do okay in this or did I do wrong in that? I would think that a letter from Jesus Himself saying, hey, these things are done well but the fact that you’re just doing them out of a sense of obligation – you’ve lost something here and you need to repent to gain it back.

Jamie:
It’s a good thing. It is very good. It’s how we grow in a relationship. It’s the same thing – back to a husband and wife. How do you grow in that relationship? You’ve got to have a tough question, right? You know, if you’re the spouse that’s being offended, or whatever the case may be, if you don’t ever tell the other person, they won’t know so that repentance can take place.

So, we jump there to the final promise. The promise He gives here is: “To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7). I don’t think we have to go too much into that. We understand that salvation is eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ. But you might think that the one who conquers is going to have a sword and shield and on the day of the battle of Armageddon, I get to fight all the demons and all these things. No, that’s not true, because if you had to do it you’d die. That’s not a thing. They’re stronger than you – sorry to be the one to break that to you. But the Bible, again, always answers the Bible. So, as we’ve probably stated ten times at this point, if the Bible doesn’t give you the answer, you probably weren’t meant to know.

Keith:
On the things where the Bible is clear, those are important. Where the Bible is not clear – it’s not saying it’s not important but it’s definitely of lesser importance.

Jamie:
In 1 John 5:4-5, John says,

“…because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.
Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

So, when He says “to the one who conquers”, He’s saying to the one who is saved. To the one who is my child – that’s how you conquer. That’s what He’s talking about here. So, if you conquer the world you have a relationship with Christ. You will be with Him for eternity and eat from the tree of life. It’s pretty awesome.

Keith:
It’s definitely worth repenting and advice worth repeating.

Jamie:
I think to end this we talk about the love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13. You know, a lot of times we read it at weddings and things like that, but here I want to look at it this way. Starting in 1 Corinthians 13:4 (and going through the end of verse 8) where he lists the things that love is, take “love” out and insert your name. So “love is patient, love is kind” – take “love” out and put your name there.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, ⁵is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. ⁶Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never ends.

So, the question we need to ask ourselves is could we take “love” out and put our names in and it still be true. Put our churches name in there. The answer for everybody on the face of this earth is, no, we are going to fall short in at least one of these areas. That’s where repentance comes in.

Keith:
As often as needed.

Jamie:
So, I think that hopefully gets a good understanding of the letter to Ephesus, and kind of what it was that the Lord was saying to them and to us.

Keith:
As a challenge, there’ sone thing that Ephesus has that we don’t have currently in our churches. In this exact moment, we can do a post mortem (or autopsy) on the church at Ephesus. When I say post mortem, I mean after death. There is no church in Ephesus. In fact, there is no Ephesus today. Ephesus was, and you can look this up, a harbor town. At some point, the harbor began to have silt floating in, and the harbor was no longer dockable for ships. And Ephesus, just like its harbor, dried up.

I think it’s far to say that the lampstand was removed, and the reason I say that is that God didn’t just remove the church and damn or condemn everyone else. He dammed the harbor and moved people elsewhere, to other areas.

So, the challenge is, if you’re listening to this you obviously have an ear. Listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. In this case, look specifically and see the love you had at first – personally and as a church body. If you are in need of repentance to do the works you had at first, do it because the One who holds the seven stars in His hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands is more than capable of pulling that lampstand up and wrapping that church up.

Consider this challenge, sojourners. Take these words to heart. Study them for yourself. Check what we say by the Bible. And, Lord willing, we’ll talk to you next about the church at Smyrna.

Thank you, and God bless you.

^[1] The Bible teaches that Jesus is fully God and fully man. This means He is not just a great teacher or prophet, but truly divine—equal with God the Father and one with Him. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus has always existed, created all things, forgives sins, and receives worship—things only God can do. Believing Jesus is God is essential to the Christian faith. See John 1:1–3, 14; John 8:58; John 10:30; Colossians 1:15–17; Hebrews 1:3; Titus 2:13; Revelation 1:17–18; Matthew 28:9; Philippians 2:5–11.

^[3] a warning or opportunity to repent

^[4] The Nicolaitans held a lot of beliefs similar to the gnostics as well. There is not a lot known about them beyond what we see here in the letters of the church of Ephesus. The information citing Nicholas from Acts 6 as the beginning of that movement comes from Irenaeus (pastor who lived in the 2^nd century, born about 30 years after the book of Revelation was given) and Hippolytus of Rome (pastor who lived in the 2^nd and 3^rd century).

^[5] The word “Christian” began as a term meaning little-Christ and was initially used to mock believers (Acts 11:26, 1 Peter 4:16).

“Jesus & His Church: Context for the Letters to the Churches” — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

We’re continuing in our study of Revelation called The KING is Coming. Today, we will be diving into the context of Jesus’s letters to the seven churches (and to us). Once again, I am thankful for Jamie Harrison and the opportunity to do this study together. This weeks passage is Revelation 1:9-20:

⁹I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet ¹¹saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
¹²Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. ¹⁴The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, ¹⁵his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. ¹⁶In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, ¹⁸and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. ¹⁹Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. ²⁰As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.^[1]

Keith Harris:
Greetings, Sojourners,
We’re about to dive into the meat of the book of Revelation, looking here at the background. The cool thing about this, Jamie, that I like is there are places in Revelation that you have wonder Does this symbolize something? or Is this ___?, but if you look at this in a Bible with red letters for the words of Jesus, you notice that in this section Jesus Himself explains what elements like the lamp stands and stars are – He tells us here what they symbolize so we don’t have to wonder.

That’s good news for us because Jesus gave these letters to specific churches – and they even may apply to us today.

Jamie, take it away!

Jamie Harrison:
Alright. Last week, I did say at one point that we were about to pray, and I never did. So I apologize for that and want to start with prayer before we jump in:

Lord, thank You. Thank You for being our Father. Thank You for loving us. We just give You praise. We give You honor. And, Lord, we pray that You would open Your Word to us as we read today and discuss. We pray that it would be only truth that comes out, not conjecture. God, I pray that if anybody is listening and they don’t know You that through Your Word and Your Word only they would come to know You. Lord, we just thank You and give You praise. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

So, let’s start in v. 9. We won’t really discuss v. 9 too terribly much; I just think it’s interesting that v. 9 is one of several verses in the Bible that show that the prosperity gospel^[2] is incorrect. It says,^[3] “I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction, Kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus…” and then goes on to explain where he (John) is because of the “testimony” of Christ. That he’s on an island, and he’s doing backbreaking work everyday.

Keith:
…exiled, imprisoned….

Jamie:
…completely. And an island meaning it’s surrounded by water so there’s nowhere to go except death. He’s there because of this testimony.

I just want to point out, y’all, that if you’re listening to people preach or whatever, and they’re telling you that if you’re not doing this and you’re not doing that you must not be right with God [regarding your health or your financial status or how prosperous you are on earth]…know that’s dumb.

Keith:
Right. This is John, the gospel writer, the disciple whom Jesus loved. You would think that if there is a prosperity track, he’d be on it. But considering how this is so different, like you said, from the prosperity gospel, how he is in this place that no one would sanely want to be in and he received this treasure, these visions. It’s such a cool thing.

Jamie:
That’s how it starts there. And then it goes into (v. 10) “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet….” And I do think that’s cool. Again, I won’t spend a whole lot of time [on trumpets right now], we will moving forward…, but trumpets were used back in the Old Testament for like a warning, a call to war, and things like that, right?

Keith:
And heralds.

Jamie:
So, this is like a voice saying, hey, you better listen up.

Keith:
It obviously got his attention.

Jamie:
Right. So, here, Jesus gets his attention telling him to write down what he sees and send it to the seven churches, specifically naming them. The seven churches, you know, people try to make some kind of symbolic thing about them being seven of them and this and that, but this really is a logistical thing. These cities were not too terribly far apart. They were all along kind of the main routes where people would travel.

The churches at that time, I guess you could say that they were really the center point of the dissemination of information. Information kind of went from these hubs out to the rest of the world.

Keith:
And you know Laodicea was a sister church of Colossae, and so on.

Jamie:
Right, right. Notice when it says when John looks (in v. 12). This is one of those things – “Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me” – that reminds us that the timeline of Revelation is what John saw next. He hears the voice, turns, and sees (vv. 12-13) “seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was one like the Son of Man”. Then he goes on to give a description.

At first you look at it and think, well, there’s seven lampstands; what in the world are those seven lampstands? Again, it’s like Keith said earlier, it’s really cool because the Bible always is going to confirm what the Bible says. It’s going to give us the answer if we’re meant to know the answer.

Keith:
If we are meant to know.

Jamie:
That’s correct. And right there in v. 20 of Revelation 1, the second half there, it says, “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” So, literally, when he turned, what he was the seven churches – the seven golden lampstands. And then he sees Jesus. He’s dressed in a robe with a golden sash….

Keith:
That’s the part that really hits me. In this, as Jesus is walking in the midst of them…. We know that Adam and Eve had a very special thing that was squandered there in the garden where God came and walked in the garden with them in the cool of the day, but when Jesus before His ascension says, “and, lo, I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20), He is in the midst of His churches – in the midst of the presence of His bride here on earth.

It kind of makes me think He’s disseminating information, like you say, but He had something specific to say to these churches. It’s to us all generically, but to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to all those specifically, He had a word that He wanted those churches, those local congregations to hear.

Jamie:
That’s right. And that being said, I think it begs the question: is Jesus walking through our churches today? I think that’s something to think about. If he’s not the center of the body, then we’ve stepped wrong somewhere.

Keith:
Well, that question kind of builds into: is your church His – or yours?

Jamie:
Yeah, that’s tough.

I saw a clip of a guy preaching the other day, and he said [to his congregation] that he had asked them for a watch a year ago and that they hadn’t bought him that watch yet. He asked why they were still broke and poor and busted – busted, that’s his word, what he said. That’s false gospel and has nothing to do with the Bible. That has nothing to do with anything. It’s supposed to all be about Jesus, and He isn’t at the center, then we really got to do something different.

Keith:
That’s got me thinking about the way that some of these foolish false preachers – the way they talk to their church. That’s not how Jesus talks to His Bride. We’re going to get into these letters and see some tough stuff that He says to them – and thereby us – but, man, it’s for a purpose.

The guy you spoke of called them broke, busted, ignorant, all these things. Jesus – He says to the church at Laodicea (in Revelation 3:17) that they thought they were rich, that they thought they were prospering. He tells them they aren’t looking for Him and that they’re really wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Jesus isn’t trying to bust them down and get a namebrand watch – not trying to get rich off them. The church is rich because of Christ. Or it’s poor and bankrupt without Him.

Jamie:
Amen.

So, let’s jump into the description of Christ here. It says He’s dressed in a robe with a golden sash around His chest – that’s kind of like a high priest, or someone with authority. Jesus is the high priest. So, that’s the idea there.

And then, his hair (v. 14) – the hair of his head was as white as wool, white as snow. His eyes like a fiery flame. That’s a little scary, almost. I mean we know the white represents purity, holiness, wisdom, all these things. But that flame of fire, you know, His eyes like a fiery flame, that one should kind of set us down a little bit – the omniscience of God, He’s all knowing, all seeing. Hebrews 4:13 would be a good verse to look at.

But think about it like this when it talks about these eyes like a fiery flame. What we’re seeing is…. Picture this person that you’ve come into contact with in life that just has the look. You know the parent look, the coach look that has….

Keith:
…gravitas….

Jamie:
That’s it. They just have this look, and it seems to literally reach into the depths of your soul and you feel like you’ve got to look away. You can’t look at them. Jesus’s look here is like that on steroids.

Keith:
I read where a preach said that’s why you should wear a suit and tie. It gives gravitas. Jesus didn’t get His gravitas in this scene because of the sash around His chest or His hair. It’s who He is. It’s His presence.

Jamie:
That’s it. And it is not only gazing into the depths of our soul, but think about it bigger picture: it’s this penetrating gaze into the depths of His church, which is us as individuals but joined together. I think it’s important to bring that out that He is looking at His bride. He is looking at His church like we were discussing earlier. And He’s looking and going, well, they’re doing really great in these areas…look at that endurance…and look at these people what they’re doing for Me…. Then, (as in the case of the letter to Ephesus) He’s like but you’ve lost your first love.

This gaze is extremely uncomfortable and should make us step back and rethink things and lead us to repentance.

Keith:
That’s the thing: lead us to repentance. He’s not tearing them down. He’s not tearing them up. He’s building them up because His people will recant. His people will change and follow Him. If not, then you get the other things He promises….

Jamie:
Right, right – which is nothing good.

So, in v. 15: “His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace, and His voice like the sound of cascading waters.” Just kind of think about that for a second – that fine bronze. The alter of burnt offering (in the tabernacle and temple in the Old Testament) are covered with bronze, and it’s this divine judgment idea. This divine judgment on the church.

And His voice like the sound of “cascading waters” – think about that for a second. Everybody knows what that sounds like. Like you’re at a waterfall or something and hear that water. Think about it from John’s perspective. He’s on an island. These waves are crashing into the rocks of the island. That’s kind of his background noise all day long. That’s the idea here. This is what it sounds like.

It says in v. 16 that “He had seven stars in His right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth, and His face was shining like the sun at full strength.” Which…let me back up and not get too far ahead of myself. So, we’re going to find out in just a minute that the “seven stars in His right hand” – He tells us in v. 20 – those are the angels of the seven churches, those are the pastors. The right hand of course is considered the hand of might, power, and strength.

Keith:
The word “angel” there (in v. 20) means messenger (and can refer to people as well as heavenly beings – context helping you see the difference). So it’s not saying that these people who have been adopted into the family of God and charged by Him to care for a local congregation have been demoted to angelic beings. He’s saying that they are His messengers.

That’s something to consider, again, when asking whether Jesus is walking in the midst of your church. Is your pastor giving the information from the Word of God that Jesus – the Word of God – has give for His church, or is he giving some other message? That’s a tough question.

Jamie:
It is. To hit on that for a minute, I know when I started preaching I thought I had to have all the right words and say all the right things to get people to come to know Christ – and almost like a play on emotions type of thing, you know? Set the mood just right. All that stuff, right? What I’ve learned as I’ve grown in Christ is, first off, I need to ask forgiveness from some people for some people for some of the stuff I said and did as a “young” preacher, but the fact is that the Word saves (Romans 10:17), you know? If we’re preaching and people aren’t hearing more from the Word than from us, we’ve got it backwards. The Word speaks for itself. The Word builds up.

Keith:
Which is the purpose of having pastors if you look at Ephesians 4.

Jamie:
So, I just challenge you guys as you’re listening: surround yourself with people who are in the Word. Make sure you are in a Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church. Not a manipulative thing.

Keith:
And if you listen to this and you’re a pastor. I think that the way our lead pastor at Christ Community (John Goldwater) put it when we were talking a couple weeks ago is that if you win someone with an argument, you’ve got to keep them with an argument. You win somebody with emotion, you’ve got to keep them with emotion. But if you see someone won to Christ, then He will keep them.

So, when we see here that He’s got these stars, these pastors, who He’s got.

Jamie:
That’s it. So, after it tells us about the pastors (stars) being in His right hand, it says that this “double-edged sword” came from His mouth, which we will actually get to later in Revelation when we discuss the final battle. We have a few cross-references for it Ephesians 6:17 and Revelation 19:15. Check those out. But that sword is the Word of God in His judgement, and it’s going to be the Word of God…

Keith:
…Hebrews 4:12-13….

Jamie:
…and that is how He is going to pronounce His final judgment with that double-edged sword – with the Word – coming from His mouth. Again, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We’ll get there.

It says His face is shining like the sun at full strength. Now, we can’t even fathom this and imagine this because we can’t look into the sun for too long because we’ll go blind.

Keith:
Let us clarify. Disclaimer: don’t look into the sun.

Jamie:
That is correct. Please don’t try it. I tried when I was younger. That’s probably why I squint when I look at things now. Or it just could be that I’m getting old – not as old as Keith, but I am getting old. He is definitely older than I am.

So, looking into His face there, shining like the sun at full strength. Think about this magnificent glory of God – this magnificent brilliance and radiance that’s so glorious it can’t be concealed. It’s shining like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Think Matthew 17:1-13 at [Jesus’s] Transfiguration and what they saw, but this is that on…I don’t even know, right?

Keith:
In person. In it’s fullness.

Jamie:
I always go back to Moses in Exodus 34:29-35 where, you know, he sees the glory of God. But he only sees Him from His back. After seeing Him, though, [Moses’s] face is so bright the Israelites make him put a veil over his face because they can’t handle [the brightness of Moses’s face after his even glimpsing God]. We can’t look on the glory of God. It would kill us. It would legitimately kill us. We can’t handle that.

Keith:
And so to this extent, the Moses example is the moon. Jesus here in Revelation 1 shows the real source of the light on his face. Jesus is light.

Jamie:
And we say all that to say this: when you’re looking at somebody like this – which again we can’t fathom – the One who is about to speak has 100% authority. We know that it’s Jesus who is about to speak. When John sees Him, his immediate reaction is to fall at His feet like a dead man.

Keith:
This is different when you see people in the Bible encounter angels. They cower in fear, but John just fell as if dead. His entire living faculties fail him.

Jamie:
I think it’s the expression. When we look at, you know, our wife or I’m going to specify here: if you’re a husband looking at your wife or a wife looking at your husband. When you say, oh, they took my breath away. [Seeing Jesus like this] took his breath.

Keith:
All of it. Here’s the deal, too, though. John knows Him, right? So, the husband/wife analogy is so much clearer because this isn’t John seeing some amazing creature and being afraid. He’s looking face-to-face at Him who died and said “behold, I am alive forevermore” (v. 18). This is a huge deal, especially for John late in his life, outliving most, if not all, the apostles, and now he sees his friend. He sees his Lord. That’s huge.

Jamie:
That’s exactly it. Jesus looks at John and is like, hey, don’t be afraid; I’m the first and the last, the living One.

Check out Isaiah 41:4, 44:6, 48:12, but again, some of these things it’s hard to even talk about. The first, the last, the living One. The last time a lot of people that were around and saw Jesus, He was dying on a cross. Not everybody saw Him after He was resurrected.

Keith:
Many did, but not all.

Jamie:
So, He’s declaring Himself [as] the living One. I was dead, but look, I’m alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and Hades. You could have a whole conversation on [these keys]; if anyone ever tells you they have [these keys or any like them], they’re a liar. Jesus has the keys to death and Hades. Jesus has the keys to the house of David (which we’re going to see later on in Revelation).

Keith:
If anyone claims to have something that belongs to Jesus only they are not one of the stars (pastors) of the church. They’re definitely false teachers. They’re wolves who are in sheep’s clothing, trying to look like a pastor but leading to the devil whose goal it is to steal and kill and destroy. So, in the context of this conversation [and looking at the description of who Jesus is and the power He alone claims], any who claim what Jesus alone has is dangerous. They are of their father, the devil, and are a liar like him. They are not to be trusted. They are to be avoided at all costs.

That’s a tough statement to make because when you have conversations like this, people want to say, well, you can’t judge. Well, you judge not lest you be judged. Jesus Himself said they are ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing. The devil is prowling like a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour, who he can destroy…. You want to avoid what Jesus says avoid, what the Bible says avoid.

Jamie:
You’re supposed to test the spirit by the Spirit. I think that’s where a lot of people – like the video I mentioned a little while ago, the pastor was saying y’all want to buy me a watch. The really disturbing thing about this video – and the dude points it out – there’re people in the background going, “Amen”, “Come on”, “Preach it”, like…get out. If you’re saying “Amen” to that, the spirit that is within you is not the spirit of God, it’s the spirit of man. And that’s what Keith’s saying: we are supposed to test the spirit by the Spirit; we are supposed to look at the fruit that’s coming off the tree.

Look, if somebody’s supposed to be your spiritual leader…. So many are supposedly spiritual leaders who are beating their spouse and doing crazy stuff – like, how can you lead me if you’re not following Christ yourself? The Bible specifically tells us that’s how it’s supposed to be.

I know we were going to go through (and it was actually my idea to try to get through) the letter to Ephesus, but we’re probably at a good place to stop in just a second.

Keith:
I think we are at a good place to stop. And not because we don’t want to get to the letter to Ephesus, but because there’s a reason this part of Revelation 1 is here. It’s not just exposition to help you understand the rest of it. It’s part of the revelation – part of understanding whose the churches are, whose the pastors are – or whose they aren’t.

Jamie:
A good place to end this today is going to be those last three verses [in Revelation 1]. Where we’re starting at the end of v. 17 where Jesus says,

“Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I was dead, but look – I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades. Therefore write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

We’ve discussed that already, but I want to go back to the way Jesus describes Himself: “I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I was dead, but look – I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Philippians 2:9-11 say:

“For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

I really want to press this home. This whole revelation is about Jesus Christ. This whole revelation is supposed to make us look towards Jesus Christ, and if it makes you look anywhere else, then we’ve got to start over from the beginning. Jesus’s name is the name that is above every name. It is the name. And at His name every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

Watch this, now, this is important; we’re going to go to Romans 10:9-13. This is our favorite verse at Christ Community. We make sure we say it every time that we’re gathered together. People often ask and say that they’d like to have a relationship with Christ – how does that happen? Romans 10:9-13 tells us how:

“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame,^, since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Now, let’s put all this together from what we just read in Revelation where Jesus says He’s the first and the last, the living One. In other words, He’s saying I was dead but I’ve come back to life now. That’s the key to salvation. If you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead – without this there is no Christianity. Without the resurrection it’s pointless – a waste of our time.

Here’s what I want to point out to everybody listening, ok? Whether you want to or not, at some point in your life, you are going to confess that Jesus is Lord. You are going to confess that He was raised from the dead and He’s alive forevermore.

Keith:
…because you are going to be faced with Him – irrefutable face-to-face evidence

Jamie:
That’s exactly right. And that’s what Philippians 2 tells us. It doesn’t say every believer will confess. It says everyone. Everyone.

Keith:
…on the earth and under it….

Jamie:
And that’s everybody who is, who was, and who ever will be. So, I challenge you to look at these verses, Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord – which means giving everything over to Him, trusting in Him completely to lead, guide, and direct you in the right way. To say that you’re going to trust Him with every little thing that’s going on in your life. And that you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. That’s how to be saved.

Keith:
That’s the faith we talked about – that trust.

Jamie:
That’s it. And, honestly, it’s one of two choices. You can say it because you want to or….

Keith:
…because you have to and it’s out of subjection that the King has come.

Jamie:
And He is coming.

Keith:
I think that’s a good place to stop. I urge you to check out…the Scripture references for yourself, and as we prepare to look at these letters to the churches over the next few weeks, be prepared to examine your own heart – not to be critical but to be biblical.

And we’ll catch you with the letter to the church at Ephesus next week! Thank you and God bless!

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 1:9–20.

^[2] A religious belief that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God for faithful Christians

“Preparing for the Coming King” — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

Greetings, Sojourners, and welcome to this week’s Refresh & Restore Bible study!

We’re kicking off a new study today through the book of Revelation, but it’s not going to be a typical study of the book of Revelation. I’ll be going through it conversationally with Jamie Harrison, and we’re calling it The KING is Coming.

Today, we’ll be opening with Revelation 1:1-8 to introduce and open the study:

¹The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, ²who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. ³Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

⁴John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, ⁵and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ⁶and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. ⁷Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

⁸“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”^[1]

Keith Harris:
Jamie Harrison is with us, and he’s going to talk to us about the book of Revelation. We will be doing this, as I said earlier, conversationally. I am as curious as any to see how this is going to go.

Jamie Harrison:
Same here.

Keith:
So, Revelation – The KING is Coming….

Jamie:
Revelation. I love the fact that you say Revelation and not RevelationS. That’s a common misconception with the book of RevelatioN. If you look, and I’m pretty sure any translation of the Bible, it’ll say Revelation is singular.

I love the way John MacArthur puts it in his Revelation Bible study. He says,

“Revelation depicts Jesus as the risen, glorified Son of God, ministering among the churches as the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of Earth as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, as the first and the last, as the Son of Man, as the one who was dead but now is alive forevermore, as the Son of God, as the One who is holy and true, as the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, as the Lamb in heaven with authority to open the title deed to the earth, as the Lamb on the throne, as the Messiah who will reign forever, as the Word of God, as the majestic King of kings and Lord of lords, returning in glorious splendor to conquer His foes, and as the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star.”^[2]

What does all that mean? That the Revelation is Jesus.

I think it’s important to start off with the fact that the book of Revelation is oftentimes misunderstood as a book of something we’re supposed to guess about and put together conjecture….

Keith:
…a code to break….

Jamie:
That’s right. And draw pictures of what this might be and what that might be.

The book of Revelation is about Jesus. The whole Bible builds up to this book, right?

Keith:
Which is why it’s last in the canon^[3] – because it’s supposed to be.

Jamie:
That’s correct!

A couple of things before we get started, just so everyone knows what we’re not doing in this study. We’re not speculating about whether Jesus might come back on this day or on that day. We’re not debating on which theory is right or wrong. We’re not getting into the whole pre-, mid-, post-trib thing – anything like that; we’re going to present those as common approaches as to when Jesus is going to come.

Keith:
Acknowledge them, but if I remember when we first talked about this, the goal was a verse-by-verse study of the book of Revelation, like one studies the other sixty-five books of the Bible.

Jamie:
That’s correct. I think that’s it.

I think the best approach to the book of Revelation, because so many people that listen to this and so many of the conversations I’ve had with people over the years we’ve been doing this study at our church – if you have pre-conceived notions of anything in the book of Revelation, I genuinely pray that you approach it with the Holy Spirit as our teacher (John 14:26). We must have total dependence on Him. Total. Dependence. On Him.

Keith:
I think this is a good time to reference that as we do these Bible studies, as we seek to be refreshed and restored – not just in the Revelation study but in all of them, this is not self-help; it’s not a magic pill or some sort of sorcery or incantation. The Holy Spirit is your teacher if you have faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation comes by grace through faith in Him alone. If He has saved you, He is your teacher.

If not, we invite you to confess Him as Lord, to believe in your heart that He died on the cross for our sins and rose again on the third day, and that by putting your faith in Him by asking – calling out – to Him, trusting that He will save you (Romans 10:9-13, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

If that’s the case, the book of Revelation will be good news. If it’s not the case, there will be several places in this study that will not be good news.

Jamie:
That’s correct. One of the things that has kept coming up in our Bible study at church is that, man, it seems Revelation is full of bad news all the way through, but then, all of a sudden, you know, if you really pay attention every time something “bad” is given, it is followed up by something that’s awesome!

Keith:
The King IS coming! That’s what all the “bad” is going to culminate in – the most awesome.

Jamie:
And He’s coming whether you want Him to or not.

The last thing before we get into it is to talk about the timeline of Revelation real quick, just because a lot of times when you read Revelation, you automatically think: OK, well, we’re reading this in order – you know this happens, then this happens. But the fact is, the timeline of Revelation is what John saw next.

A couple of examples of that is in ch. 1:12 (CSB)^[4], it says,

“Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven golden lampstands….”

So that’s what he saw when he turned. It doesn’t mean it was in order (chronologically) of what he just said. Chapter 4:1, another good example:

“After this I looked….”

So, after what he had just talked about – after he had received the letters to the churches, he looked and there in heaven was an open door. It doesn’t mean that he received the letters and, then, that’s what happened next. This is what he saw next.

Keith:
A timeline for us to plan this all out isn’t part of the goal.

Going back to what you said earlier, the goal is for us to see Jesus Christ revealed – as He revealed this to John.

Jamie:
That’s it. That’s correct. Just don’t get caught up trying to figure out when Jesus is coming. The fact is…we don’t know. And if anyone tells you different, they’re a liar – a false prophet.

Keith:
Because Jesus says it cannot be known (Matthew 24:36).

Jamie:
That’s right. The only inclination we’re given is in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 where we’re told that believers will be able to tell that the tribulation is happening. They will understand it by things that are going on because they’ve read the Bible and they’re filled with the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t mean they’ll know when Jesus is coming. That just means they’ll understand the times that are going on.

Keith:
When you look at a lot of the people who are trying to narrow it down to a date – that’s often for their own glory. You think of Harold Camping who had one date, then other date, and then kind of just goes into relative obscurity because he didn’t get (it right) or the glory he was looking for. It’s about the coming of Jesus, not the one who can pinpoint the date. It’s about Him, not setting up some fruitful and enriching – monetary or otherwise – eschatology^[5] ministry for people who are afraid to kind of twist them or turn them whichever way (2 Timothy 3:6-7, Romans 16:17-18, 2 Peter 2:1-3, Jude 4, Ephesians 4:14).

Jamie:
That’s right.

Now, with all of that being said, let’s jump into it.

Keith:
Sounds good.

Jamie:
So, we started in v. 1. And this is to just reiterate how we started, it says:

“The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place.”

According to v. 1 – let me see how to phrase this – the Bible gives all the answers, right? If you can’t find the answers in the Bible, then the answer is “I don’t know”.

Keith:
Right, and that’s a very good answer because it’s always better – and especially if people ask you, dear Sojourners, something that you don’t know, it’s better to tell them that you don’t know and that you’re willing to seek it out in Scripture than to make something up. (Making up answers) has never served Christ well or built up His Church. So, Jamie and I are fans of “I don’t know”.

Jamie:
Yes, big fan. Those are three of my favorite words actually.

So, v. 1 gives us the answer to this revelation is an unveiling of. Revelation is an unveiling, a revealing, of all these things we are about to read about. There was what these people looked like and these animals look like and all these things – what in the world is that? None of that, in the end, matters. What matters is the unveiling – the revealing – of the revelation of Jesus Christ. We’re given that answer right here at the beginning.

The next thing we find here is the chain of communication. We’re told how it was made known to the rest of us. There in v. 1 it says He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John. Who sent it to the angel? God did. So, God sent the revelation to the angel, the angel gave the revelation to John, and John gave the revelation to us.

Keith:
To the seven churches and then to the rest of us through John.

Jamie:
That is also an important thing to look at because people will say that this was just a man writing this book. Who is he? Why should we believe what he says? We’re told right from the beginning that this revelation comes from the mouth of God, as does all Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:20-21).

Keith:
That’s the argument that people commonly want to make. Oh, a man wrote this. Part of the Holy Spirit being our teacher if we are saved is believing that the Bible doesn’t contain God’s Words, it is God’s Word that He breathed out through these people who wrote it down, and He is faithful.

Jamie:
Amen.

Off of that, who is this revelation for? This is written to seven specific churches. Is it for them, us – who is it for? Again, the Bible gives us the answer. Look at v. 3:

“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it, because the time is near.”

Again, the Bible gives us the answer. Who is this for? It is for those who read it aloud, those who hear the words of the prophecy and those who keep what is written in it.

That’s who it’s for: everybody. If you read it – if you keep it, it’s for you.

Keith:
And, I do think it’s important to clarify since there are so many – you can almost throw a rock in some towns and hit a church that’s “preaching” through Revelation – but so much of it is about their theories and conjectures. It needs to be important that, even and especially with our words, our commentary, our discussion of this, that it’s the words from the Bible that hold the power, that hold the weight.

And you don’t hear that in some of these eschatology, end-time studies. They are promoting their view.

Jamie:
That’s such a big word you used there. What does eschatology mean?

Keith:
Eschatology is the study of the end times – of what is to come.

Jamie: [joking]
That’s for us simple-minded people.

Keith:
I’ve seen over the last few weeks on social media – ads of various big-name, popular preachers – where you can get their fold-out guide to the apocalypse or you can get their timeline where they lay it out and say “This is the only way….” It’s free, but you click on the link and you’re selling a lot of stuff. Jesus’s revelation was freely given – good news and bad news – for the churches, for us to take heed of.

Jamie:
So, we’re not selling this Bible study?

Keith:
No, this is not a money-making venture. That has not been my experience.

Jamie:
Apologies, I thought we were going to get rich quick.

Keith:
No. In fact, I was hoping some money would fall out of your pocket while we were recording – that was my only chance.

Jamie:
Coincidentally, I left my wallet in the truck.

Keith:
So, we digress…back to the revelation.

Jamie:
Here in vv. 4-6 we get to a description of the Trinity. It says,

“John: To the seven churches in Asia. Grace and peace to you from the One who is, Who was, and Who is to come, from the seven spirits before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by His blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father – to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

So, you get this really awesome description of the Trinity here, the One who is, was, and is to come. Obviously referring to God the Father from the seven spirits before His throne, referring to the Holy Spirit. That seven number there, Keith, I don’t know I you want to hit on it or just for our purposes say seven means (represents) fullness?

Keith:
Right. Completion.

Jamie:
That’s right. That’s the idea there. And then, finally, from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. I do think that’s important to talk about real quick. Faithful witness, meaning that if he says it you can take it to the bank. Everything Jesus has ever said – when He was here on earth or things that He’s revealed through His Spirit – has been accurate, has been true. And not only that, He’s a faithful witness because He was there from the beginning.

Keith:
I think that’s very important to say because, a lot of the time we see the word “witness” in the New Testament, it’s the Greek word from which we get our word “martyr”. He was faithful with His life from before the foundation of the world all the way to His incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and always will be because he’s an eternally faithful witness because He was and is and is to come.

Jamie:
That’s right. John 1 speaks to that. It says in John 1:14:

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed His glory, the glory as of the One and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

So, the Word became flesh. Ok, now watch this. John 1:1:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

He was with God in the beginning, so John 1:14 tells us the Word became flesh – obviously referring to Jesus – He was there from the beginning. When creation happened, Jesus was there. And don’t get that confused. He wasn’t somebody randomly created along the way.

Keith:
He is God because He wasn’t created.

And don’t expect a explanation of the Trinity here because, well, let’s be honest. If someone could fully explain all of who God is then somebody made Him up. I think it’s C.S. Lewis – what’s that book we read? Mere Christianity. He said the way the Bible presents things is just odd enough that man couldn’t have made it up.^[6] It’s so different – and in some places unexplainable that dome dude didn’t think of it. That’s good news!

Jamie:
It is. Amen.

The other part here, of vv. 5-6, that I want to point out is you get this spontaneity of praise that happens. It’s just this seemingly random, you know, we’re getting a description here when all of a sudden he goes into this praise moment where he’s like “the faithful witness, the first born of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth”. Think about that for a second. “To Him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by His blood”. This moment of praise for salvation for being made into a kingdom and priests to God – “glory and dominion forever and ever”. Amen. What I want to point out about this is when we’re going through our everyday life – when we’re going to work, when you’re dealing with whatever, all the issues, all the problems, whatever, we should have moments every day where we stop and for whatever reason it just hits us and we stop and say thank you to Him. Now, I’m not saying you’re in the middle of Walmart and you all of a sudden start shouting and running the aisles and doing all that. That would be glorifying yourself not the Lord.

Keith:
Attention to you rather than Him.

Jamie:
That’s right. What I’m talking about is a moment where you just sit back and you go, “Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Thank you for choosing me. Out of all the people in the world, you chose me.”

Keith:
And those won’t be moments where you’ve done something great. I know when they come in my life that it’s done that is boneheadedly stupid – sin that I know better than to commit, or that I willingly committed knowing full well it was sin, and then it hitting me, the impact that He has freed us from our sins by His blood that…. Was it Romans 5:8?

“…but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

It’s that realization that I can’t believe He would want to love me. It’s just such a…. It’s that He is praiseworthy. Not because of what He’s done for us, but because He and His character would do something like that for people like us.

Jamie:
That verse always reminds me of that movie about emotions. [Inside Out] In the movie joy and anger and all those things, they’re trying to get back to the headquarters because Riley, the main character is going through puberty or whatever and has moved. She’s about to, you know, her emotions are going crazy – much like my middle school students I work with every day. Anyway, that verse reminds me of that because it says [in Romans 5:8-11]:

“God proved His own love for us, and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we have now been [declared righteous] by His blood, will we be saved by Him from wrath. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.”

It reminds me of [Inside Out] because there’s all these fake people in their head – it’s an imagination thing – where these characters in her head would like die for Riley…. My point is the Bible [in Romans 5:7] asks how often someone would really be willing to die – even for a just person. Maybe for a good person somebody might die….

Keith:
Somebody who you dearly love and has significance to you personally.

Jamie:
But not some random person on the street who’s done you wrong. That’s the enemy – the language it uses in Romans 5:10-11. We’re talking about the person who hates you – strong word, but hates you and you know they do. Maybe they’ve messed you out of a job or whatever. You know they did something to you. Christ died for them.

Keith:
I mean, that’s the context back in Revelation 1:7 – some of those He is “coming with the clouds” to get will include “even those who pierced Him”. There’s some bad news that there are “tribes of earth” that will wail on account of Him, but just like the Centurion standing at the foot of the cross who was one of the ones presiding over His execution (Matthew 27:54, Mark 14:39, Luke 23:47) said, “Surely this was the Son of God!”

Jesus saves sinners. Prior to coming to Christ, enemies – everyone is affiliated. There’s no unaffiliated random innocent person out in some jungle. All “have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). There’s enmity between us and God because of our sin, and He, willingly, because of His great love and mercy, died for even me.

Jamie:
And that’s the second half of v. 5: “To Him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by His blood”.

A couple of cross-references for you real quick – I’d be remiss to not give these. Verse 7:

“Look, he is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him.
And all the tribes of the earth^,
will mourn over him.^’
So it is to be. Amen.”

Some cross-references for that are Isaiah 19:1, Zechariah 12:10, John 19:34-37, Genesis 12:3, Genesis 28:14, Zechariah 14:17. I just encourage you to go through those and read those because the Bible confirms the Bible. There’s nothing in the Bible that’s not going to be confirmed by something else in the Bible. And, if you’re reading something in the Bible and you think it means something that cannot be confirmed through other Scriptures, you might want to rethink that.

Keith:
And you can look in the footnotes as well as in the parenthetical (in parenthesis) references and check what we say. You don’t need to take our word for this.

I’m not saying we’re not trustworthy. I’m saying we are fallible. We can misspeak and misunderstand from time to time. But God’s Word that is infallible.

Jamie:
Before we finish up, here are some other verses from the spontaneity of praise in vv. 5-6. Y’all check out Revelation 4:9-11, 5:13, 7:11-12; Ephesians 3:20-21; 1 Timothy 1:17; Jude 24-25. There’s a whole lot more; that’s just some. But as you’re reading the Word every day, there should be this moment where you just stop and praise the Lord. Like, [reading His Word] overwhelms you and His being Almighty.

I think one of the big questions from vv. 1-8 should be whether reading the Word leads to a moment of praise. And if it doesn’t, then we need to rethink and maybe rework why we’re reading the Word (and the way we’re reading the Word). You know, I like to turn my Bible plan on and hit play and listen to it while I’m getting ready in the mornings, but if that’s not leading me to a moment of praise then I need to rethink how I’m doing it because it’s not getting through, I’m just playing it to play it.

Keith:
You’re getting through the Bible, not getting the Bible through you.

Jamie:
That’s it.

Then, finally, the last two verses – what we just read in v. 7 and then in v. 8. I love this v. 8. In it, Jesus says,

“I am the Alpha and the Omega…the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

This is a cool moment. The Lord introduces Himself as the Alpha and the Omega – which means the beginning and the end, the first and last letters (of the Greek alphabet – essentially the A-Z), the one who is, who was, and who is to come. The Almighty.

Now, in Revelation 22:13, Jesus says,

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

So, the way Revelation starts is the way Revelation ends, letting us know that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega.

Keith:
Letting us know He is the God who has always been. He is the God who is speaking, and as we’ve said throughout, He is the King who is coming! That gives me chill bumps!

Jamie:
Yeah, and it’s not cold in here.^[7] That’s a Holy Spirit bump, I would say.

Keith:
Don’t miss this as we wrap this study. This is the first of however many it takes for us to get through this.

Jamie:
Hopefully not as long as it’s been [in the church study].

Keith:
As I’ve said, Jamie, it takes what it takes, but the idea here is to keep our focus on Jesus returning, Jesus coming back, because He has promised that He is.

Jamie:
Hey, let’s talk about that for a second – just for a second. In vv. 7-8, talking about He’s coming back and we know He’s coming. We’re told at the end of v. 3 “because the time is near”, and I know everybody looks and they freak out because this was way back then the time isnear. All that means is God’s time frame is near because God’s time frame and our time frame are two different things, ok? You know, just keep that in the back of your mind.

I want you to understand that from the beginning of the Bible in Genesis to the end of the Bible in Revelation, it all leads up to this moment: He is coming, coming as the conquering King. He is coming as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11).

And, I’m sorry – I’m going off on a little thing here, but y’all just really think about this for a minute when it says every, single one, I want you to think about all the people around the world. Right? People – we always go to political leaders and stuff, and I was trying not to name drop anybody because, I just don’t like doing that, but I guess I’m about to anyway. But just think of people like Vladimir Putin – who is an atheist, right? Totally against God, and, man, when Jesus comes back, his knees are going to bow, his tongue is going to confess.

I think of – what was the real famous atheist that just died? The science guy in the chair? Stephen Hawking. He was totally against God – and clarified that he was going into nothingness. His knees are going to bow. His tongue is going to confess.

And, again, this has been from Genesis all the way to the end of Revelation. So, here are some verses to check out: Genesis 3:15, Matthew 24:37, Luke 19:13, John 14:1-3, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, Philippians 3:20-21, Hebrews 9:28, and Jude 14 – again, there are more, but that’s just an idea how from the very beginning in Genesis to the very end in Revelation, the entire Bible leads up to this moment when the King is Coming.

Keith:
And I think that’s a good spot for us to get to today, not timewise but just thoughtwise. Sojourners, while we are recording this podcast, my nine-year-old (at the time) son is sitting in our living room is waiting on someone to pick him up – a friend who has asked him to hang out. And he’s been up there – it’s currently 10:15 in the morning, and he’s been up since before 7:00a in expectation – because it’s something he’s looking forward to. He is not anxious. He’s not disappointed in the wait. There’s an expectation, though.

And so we talk about every knee bowing, what you have to ask yourself is what heart-position is going to accompany your bowed knee. When it says that we know Jesus is coming as the conquering King, are you kneeling in subjection, in recognition that you have been conquered because the King of kings and Lord of lords has won the day? Or are you doing it in worship of the King who you have longed for His return – that He who is on the throne is coming, and there will be a Day when you get to stand before Him? When He pulls you from your knees. When He exalts you as it says in 1 Peter 5:6 by the mighty Hand of God and get pulled into an embrace. That’s the expectation. Or if that’s not it, then we definitely have some soul searching we need to do.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 1:1–8.

^[2] NEED THE EXACT QUOTE/REFERENCE FOR JOHN MACARTHUR HERE.

^[3] Footnote on the canon?

^[5] Eschatology will be defined later on.

^[6] Mere Christianity publication info and actual quote?

^[7] Fun story: it really was not cold the morning we recorded this first Bible study for Revelation. In fact, we didn’t know it but my air conditioner when out while we were recording!