To the Church in Sardis

“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, 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. Yet 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. The 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. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

My tendency at this moment is to declare this as a wake up call.

1 Corinthians 15:18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

Mark 13:35-37 English Standard Version

35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.

It is not like we haven’t been warned before but in this case He calls out Sardis by name. We would do well to remember the Lord said this applies to us all and not to add a disclaimer, “I am not from Sardis!”

Here again our Lord calls out the remnant. This is not the first or last time He makes reference to remnants.

Romans 11:5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.

Isaiah 37:31 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

Interestingly enough the word remnant can hold two meanings. What is left over and cut out of the same cloth. We shall wait on the Lord to receive those white robes to see it they are cut out of the same cloth.

To the Church in Thyatira

I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

At this point I would like to make a confession. I came across these passages while doing a study on enduring patience. It was at this point that I was inspired to write about the churches in Revelations. I have been doing this since January 1st 2014 and I would like to think I am getting better at it. Practice does not make perfect, Jesus does.

I will skip over the influences of Jezebel and her punishment because there are far more interesting portions in these verses that appear as He speaks to the churches.

It begins with the churches coming to realize that He knows the hearts and minds of each and every one of us. He knows what we are thinking even before we give it thought. Then He speaks to the remnants of Thyatira. “I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come.” He does not ask anything more of them than what they have.

Then again the language to those who last and conquer, the language expands once again.

What we hear now is language that is received for those that rule with Him in the Millennial Kingdom, after the great tribulation.

Psalm 2:9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Revelation 19:15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

God’s Word reveals His plans from old, if we will but read and believe. See!