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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

1And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write: These things saith he that has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

2Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die, for I have not found thy works complete before my God.

3Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and keep it and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know at what hour I shall come upon thee.

4But thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, because they are worthy.

5He that overcomes, *he* shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, and will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

6He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

7And to the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: These things saith the holy, the true; he that has the key of David, he who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open:

8I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an opened door, which no one can shut, because thou hast a little power, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

9Behold, I make them of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie; behold, I will cause that they shall come and shall do homage before thy feet, and shall know that *I* have loved thee.

10Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, *I* also will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

11I come quickly: hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown.

12He that overcomes, him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more at all out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven, from my God, and my new name.

13He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

14And to the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God:

15I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot.

16Thus because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spue thee out of my mouth.

17Because thou sayest, I am rich, and am grown rich, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that *thou* art the wretched and the miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;

18I counsel thee to buy of me gold purified by fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white garments, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not be made manifest; and eye-salve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see.

19I rebuke and discipline as many as I love; be zealous therefore and repent.

20Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking; if any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me.

21He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with me in my throne; as *I* also have overcome, and have sat down with my Father in his throne.

22He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

Revelation 4

1After these things I saw, and behold, a door opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard as of a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will shew thee the things which must take place after these things.

2Immediately I became in the Spirit; and behold, a throne stood in the heaven, and upon the throne one sitting,

3and he that was sitting like in appearance to a stone of jasper and a sardius, and a rainbow round the throne like in appearance to an emerald.

4And round the throne twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones twenty-four elders sitting, clothed with white garments; and on their heads golden crowns.

5And out of the throne go forth lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and seven lamps of fire, burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God;

6and before the throne, as a glass sea, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, four living creatures, full of eyes, before and behind;

7and the first living creature like a lion, and the second living creature like a calf, and the third living creature having the face as of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle.

8And the four living creatures, each one of them having respectively six wings; round and within they are full of eyes; and they cease not day and night saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.

9And when the living creatures shall give glory and honour and thanksgiving to him that sits upon the throne, who lives to the ages of ages,

10the twenty-four elders shall fall before him that sits upon the throne, and do homage to him that lives to the ages of ages; and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11Thou art worthy, O our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honour and power; for *thou* hast created all things, and for thy will they were, and they have been created.

Revelation 5

1And I saw on the right hand of him that sat upon the throne a book, written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

2And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?

3And no one was able in the heaven, or upon the earth, or underneath the earth, to open the book, or to regard it.

4And *I* wept much because no one had been found worthy to open the book nor to regard it.

5And one of the elders says to me, Do not weep. Behold, the lion which is of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book, and its seven seals.

6And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God which are sent into all the earth:

7and it came and took it out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

8And when it took the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, having each a harp and golden bowls full of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints.

9And they sing a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; because thou hast been slain, and hast redeemed to God, by thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,

10and made them to our God kings and priests; and they shall reign over the earth.

11And I saw, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and their number was ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of thousands;

12saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that has been slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

13And every creature which is in the heaven and upon the earth and under the earth, and those that are upon the sea, and all things in them, heard I saying, To him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, blessing, and honour, and glory, and might, to the ages of ages.

14And the four living creatures said, Amen; and the elders fell down and did homage.

Darby Translation (Darby). Public domain.