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  1. Mon: Acts 13-14
  2. Tue: Jeremiah 47-48
  3. Wed: 2 Chronicles 33-36
Thursday · Week 46
The Epistles & Revelation

Revelation 3-5

Week 46 · about 10 min
  1. Fri: Zephaniah
  2. Sat: Proverbs 26-28
  3. Sun: Deuteronomy 14-17

The last three letters to the churches. Then John sees God’s throne and the Lamb.

I Stand at the Door and Knock

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3:20 (KJV)

To Sardis, Jesus says, “thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” To Philadelphia, a small but faithful church, he says, “I have set before thee an open door.” To Laodicea, a rich church that thought it needed nothing, he says they are “lukewarm,” and he lists what they really are: “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Then he pictures himself outside their door, knocking. In chapter 4 John is taken up to God’s throne, where creatures cry “Holy, holy, holy,” like in Isaiah 6. In chapter 5 no one can open the sealed scroll, and John weeps. He’s told the Lion of Judah has won, and when he looks, he sees “a Lamb as it had been slain.”

Reflect: Is Jesus inside the door of your life, or knocking outside it?

Revelation 3

1“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of the One who holds the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, yet you are dead.

2Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God.

3Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.

4But you do have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and because they are worthy, they will walk with Me in white.

5Like them, he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels.

6He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

7To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.

8I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut. For you have only a little strength, yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name.

9Look at those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead. I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you.

10Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

11I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

12The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.

13He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

14To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation.

15I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other!

16So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!

17You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

18I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

19Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.

20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.

21To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

22He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Revelation 4

1After this I looked and saw a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had previously heard speak to me like a trumpet was saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”

2At once I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne standing in heaven, with someone seated on it.

3The One seated there looked like jasper and carnelian, and a rainbow that gleamed like an emerald encircled the throne.

4Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on these thrones sat twenty-four elders dressed in white, with golden crowns on their heads.

5From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder. Before the throne burned seven torches of fire. These are the seven Spirits of God.

6And before the throne was something like a sea of glass, as clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, covered with eyes in front and back.

7The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face like a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight.

8And each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around and within. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

9And whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the One seated on the throne who lives forever and ever,

10the twenty-four elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, and they 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; by Your will they exist and came to be.”

Revelation 5

1Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the One seated on the throne. It had writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals.

2And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?”

3But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look inside it.

4And I began to weep bitterly, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look inside it.

5Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

6Then I saw a Lamb who appeared to have been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

7And He came and took the scroll from the right hand of the One seated on the throne.

8When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

9And they sang a new song: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

10You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”

11Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels and living creatures and elders encircling the throne, and their number was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.

12In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength 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 praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever!”

14And the four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB). The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain.