Revelation Chapter 3
VERSE 21 continued “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
“This verse is a signature statement to Rev 3:14, in that, just as Jesus had proven true and faithful and had been elevated to his own throne, he was going to offer the same thing to the faithful of the church. To have your own throne would imply the right to rule, and we see in Rev 20 that this is what Christ and the church do for 1000 years. That this offer is made here shows that the time in which the church is going to rule with our Lord in the kingdom is very close.
The warning here in this church, is the statement in Verse 16, where he tells them he is going to spew them out if they don't change their ways. The admonition “overcome” is found in all the other churches (Rev 2:7; 2:11; 2:17; 2:26; 3:5; 3:12, and finally 3:21). See also 2 Tim 2:12; Luke 22:30; Matt 19:28.
VERSE 22 continued “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Again, we find that the messages given in each church while they have a special admonition for that particular church also have a broad application to all the churches. This broad application applies not only to the warnings, but also to the promises. That is why it says, "Hear what the spirit says to the churches (plural)! We need to pay special attention to what is said to all the churches if we don’t want to find ourselves rejected in the end.
We are now living on borrowed time in that if all had been faithful, the church would now be complete. All those who were rejected during the initial harvest time and lost their crowns, need to be replaced. We are at this time those who are being gathered from the highways and the byways to replace those who should have come in.
Do All the Warnings Apply only to the False Church?
As we mentioned before, we shouldn't be too complacent with placing all the warnings to the churches on the false nominal church system. Even though the warnings that were given, applied especially to the churches in which they were found, all of them still apply to everyone through the entire age. The good side of this is that all of the promises of blessing to the seven churches also apply to the entire faithful church. Let’s all hope and pray that we can be faithful and partake of those promises.
If we look at this church in relationship to Israel's parallel history, this is the time period where they were carried away captive to Babylon. It’s actually interesting to see that exactly 7 times or 2520 years later, is where the civil power of the nominal house was destroyed (607 B.C.-1914 A.D.). From the time that Nebuchadnezzar was declared to be the head of gold in 604 B.C., until 2520 years later is when we come to the Belfour declaration in 1918, which advocated letting the Jews have a homeland again.
I Will Spew You Out
God had been trying to reform the nominal churches up to that time, but they would not be reformed, so he spewed them out just as he said that he would.
“For the land is defiled; therefore, I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you (for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled), lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” (Lev 18:25-28)
This is an exact parallel with what has happened to the false nominal system, on this end of the age. Those who were unfaithful were cast out of the spiritual land, and God is calling to those who are faithful, "to come out of her my people" (Out from amongst the false nominal system, Babylon the Great).
The false church will do a great deal of weeping in the next age regarding what they lost out on, and we need to be careful that we don't fall after the same example (Heb 3:12-19, 4:1-11). Just as we see how Israel fell in its time, and how the nominal house has fallen in our time, we need to be careful that we aren't among those who fall.
“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through {following} the same example of disobedience.” (Heb 4:11)
We will move on to the Seventh Seal in our next post.
