Transcript

from the 16th century testified to the conviction of one doctor of the church, the doctor of prayer, Saint Teresa of Ávila.

Uh, Lapid tells us, and I quote, Saint Teresa of Ávila, a woman endowed with the spirit of prophecy and renowned throughout all Spain for the glory of her miracles and the sanctity of her life, was taught by God that all the troubles of the church, all the evils in the world flow from this source, that men do not, by clear and sound knowledge and serious consideration, penetrate into the truths of sacred scripture.

So how important is our consideration or serious consideration and penetration to the truth of scripture?

She was taught by God that all the troubles of the church and all the evils in the world flow from this source.

That we don't, by c- clear and sound knowledge and serious consideration, penetrate into the varieties of sacred scripture.

I also want to mention, uh, another quotation from another great figure, Pope John Paul II, who in his, uh, in a document on, on catechists urges us to recover preaching that is centered upon the Bible texts.

It goes on to say that preaching centered on Bible text must then, in its own way, make it possible to familiarize the faithful with the whole of the mysteries of the faith and with the norms of Christian living.

And he goes on to say that all Christian teaching must be saturated and soaked with sacred scripture.

Now, we have a challenge before us, and I think it's the same challenge that we left off last time with, and that is to ask the Lord, to implore the Holy Spirit for the grace we need to penetrate more into His word.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Almighty God or Heavenly Father, as we begin our second week of study in the Book of Revelation, once again, we sense our own inadequacy.

Not only because the inspired message of this book is so awesome and challenging, but also because we are so attached to the things of this world that we do not really penetrate into the heavenly vision of Saint John.

We ask, therefore, that in the Spirit tonight, on the Lord's day, we might be lifted up by the Holy Spirit to see truths that we've never seen before, to love them and to live them to the praise, the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ.

Hear us as we pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Saint John, pray for us.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

We have some new ground to cover tonight, but before we get to that, I'd like to just briefly review.

Before I review, I'd just like to give you a preview.

Tonight, we'd like to focus on the throne vision in chapter one and touch upon some of the features that are found in the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation two and three.

After our consideration of the throne vision and some elements of those letters, we're going to focus on the Catholic elements of the apocalypse and just how many and how rich the imagery is, uh- for Catholics to discover their own faith and their own life and their own worship in the, uh, in the book of Revelation.

But by way of review, we, we saw last week, first of all, that the book of Revelation is very challenging and it is studied by many scholars who come up with many different interpretations.

And as we sort through all of the options, we have to hold tentatively to many opinions, especially as we consider some of the introductory matters.

For instance, authorship.

I hold that the Apostle John, the beloved disciple, is the author of the Apocalypse.

He is the seer of the vision.

But many scholars dispute that these days.

And so I want to set that forth in a way that is modest and yet realistic enough to say that this really does substantiate, this is substantiated by the church's tradition.

Dating.

Many scholars, probably the majority, would date the book of Revelation to around 96 AD.

But a growing and now sizable minority of scholars would date this in its, at least in its parts, in parts of it, to before 70 AD, and quite possibly the whole vision as having been given before 70 AD.

That minority report is now the position that I find most tenable, most persuasive.

And again, I held to the other view for several years.

Everybody agrees that the book Revelation fits into a certain literary genre that was common back in Judaism in the first century known as apocalyptic.

But then scholars divide on what apocalyptic really is.

They agree on certain elements.

One thing's for sure, apocalyptic is not just typical prophecy that you find in Isaiah or Ezekiel.

In apocalyptic, you have cosmic and catastrophic imagery associated with all kinds of symbolism, especially symbolism in numbers, numerological symbolism, and also boost symbolism.

So there are all kinds of animals that signify various realities.

But in addition to that, we find other symbols, lampstand, heads, hills, clothes, harlots, uh, on and on it goes.

All kinds of symbolic images found in apocalyptic literature.

But one thing that I would have to say about the book of Revelation, and this also is a result of some study, this apocalypse is very different from Jewish apocalypses in at least one radical way.

Jewish apocalypses were focused upon the end of the world, and they were very pessimistic.I believe that the Book of Revelation is an apocalypse which focuses on the end of one world and the beginning of a new world.

A new covenant, a new heavens and a new earth.

A new creation.

A lot of people interpret Revelation as though it's just another one of these Jewish apocalypses.

I believe it makes a radical break, a significant departure from that genre in, in many ways and for many reasons.

And this, uh, again, is, is, is, is backed by, by scholars who research this.

So we consider authorship, we consider dating, we consider literary genre.

We also have to consider the historical background.

That's closely tied to the question of dating.

We looked at several passages in the beginning, chapter 1 and 2, and then in the end, chapters 21 and 22, and noted from the beginning to the end of this vision, this apocalypse, there is a very heightened note of imminency.

Behold, I am coming soon.

I am near.

I am coming quickly, and all that.

And so I suggested last week that the primary or initial fulfillment of the Book of Revelation is to be understood in terms of the first century.

This is known as the preterist view, and preterists basically make a choice.

Either this prophecy is fulfilled in the first century as it applies to Rome, or this prophecy is fulfilled in the first century as it applies to Jerusalem.

Now, I argue the latter for many reasons.

But one of the most significant reasons, I think, and this also touches on the question of dating, is found in Revelation 11.

Revelation 11 describes these two witnesses.

But before the two witnesses are introduced, John the visionary is given some instructions in verse 1.

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, 'Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there.' Hmm.

Now, if John had this vision in '96 AD, there would be no temple nor any altar to go up to measure.

All of that was in pieces and had been for decades since '70 AD when the Roman soldiers under Titus had demolished the temple and had destroyed the city of Jerusalem.

Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there.

But don't measure the court outside the temple.

Leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for 42 months.

And then it describes these two witnesses.

I will grant my two witnesses power to prophecy, prophesy for 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth.

We won't get into interpreting the symbolism of these two witnesses tonight.

But let's drop down.

In verse 7, When they had finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them.

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is allegorically or literally spiritually called Sodom and Egypt.

Now, where is this great city?

What is this great city that is spiritually likened unto Sodom and Egypt where their Lord was crucified?

So the temple that John has to measure is the temple in a city which is being compared spiritually to Sodom and Egypt, a great city, the city where their Lord was crucified.

Jerusalem is still around.

The temple is still intact.

John can still measure it.

That wouldn't be true in '96 AD.

I believe this passage perhaps more than any other points us to a pre-70 dating and also a historical background that is focused primarily upon the destruction of Jerusalem as covenant judgment.

Covenant judgment.

We're gonna see later on that many scholars interpret the great harlot in chapters, uh, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 as Rome.

We're gonna go back to the Old Testament prophets and discover that more often than not, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and others applied the harlot image to Jerusalem and to Israel.

And the harlot is also compared to this great city later on.

And since that phrase great city is used here for the first time in Revelation 11 to describe the city where the Lord was crucified, once again we have a connection.

We have a city which is compared to Sodom, Egypt, and Babylon.

What do those three cities have in common?

They're places where God's people were persecuted, were enslaved, were vexed by immorality, and where they had to be delivered from by God.

Sodom, back in the time of Abraham, was the place where Lot lived before his deliverance.

The next covenant in salvation history is the covenant with Moses, and their place of bondage, of course, was Egypt.

And that place was constantly leading Israel astray.

God finally delivered Israel out of Egypt.

The next covenant was the covenant with David in salvation history, and the City of David was destroyed by Babylon.

So these three cities, these three places, Sodom, Egypt, and Babylon, all symbolize centers where God's people are persecuted.

When God does a new thing in history with Abraham or with Moses or with David, Satan raises up a power to oppose it.

Now, in the time of the apostles when Jesus was raised up and the new covenant was established, who were the primarily, primary antagonists of this?

Those who rejected Jesus as the Messiah, the leaders in Jerusalem, and so on.

Now, question.

Is this approach antisemitic?

No.

And if you try to misuse this as an antisemitic view, I would, I would, I would denounce you in no, no uncertain terms.

Jesus is Jewish, Mary is Jewish, the apostles are Jewish.

We do not say, Well, except for them, the rest of the Jews are cursed and forsaken by God.

Of course not.

Most of the early believers in the first generation at least initially were Jewish.And a great number, multitudes of Jewish people accepted Christ.

And multitudes of Gentiles rejected Christ.

So there is nothing in the Jews that we don't find in the Gentiles.

There is righteousness and holiness.

There is pride and injustice in them- just as those are found in any nation among the Gentiles.

What this signifies then is a judgment upon Jerusalem and the old covenant.

Now, does that mean God has rejected the Jews?

No, of course not.

God invites the Jews and the Gentiles into His family, the family of the new covenant.

What this suggests, though, is that Satan knows, knows how to use the good to keep us from the best.

He's an old pro at this.

He's been doing it for ages and ages.

The good can become an enemy of the best if it keeps us from it, right?

And this is true in all of life.

All of God's gifts are given to us to lead us back to God the giver, but we can begin falling in love more with the gifts than the giver.

We call that idolatry.

When we are not willing to renounce the good gifts of this earthly life in order to attain the giver in heaven, then relapse into idolatry, no less than the Jews, no less than the Egyptians, no less than the sodomites, no less than the Babylonians.

So no matter what privileges God has given the Jews or the Catholics, this book stands as a warning against anybody who's gonna latch onto the good gifts of Earth and forsake our call to the real giver of those gifts in heaven.

Uh, I wanna kinda nip that in the bud.

Now, having said all this by way of review, I wanna add a couple things too.

I mentioned last week that several commentators take this position.

Uh, I wanna mention, I wanna recommend two Catholic commentators in particular.

Josephine Masan Bird Ford teaches New Testament at Notre Dame.

She has a commentary entitled Revelation, and it's the last volume in the Anchor Bible series.

Well, I disagree with, uh, Josephine Ford on some issues.

She argues that some of the prophecies and visions are actually drawn from the circle of John the Baptist and his disciples much earlier before Jesus.

I think that is really speculative, uh, maybe not nonsense, but eh, I, I think it is, uh, something that practically all scholars have rejected, but much, very much in this, in this commentary is of great value.

If you wanna find a Catholic commentator who is in touch with contemporary scholarship and early church tradition, and sees Revelation being fulfilled in the first century surrounding Jerusalem's destruction in 70 AD, I can recommend this very highly.

Another book that I mentioned last week I highly recommend is entitled The Apocalypse: The Perennial Revelation of Jesus Christ by Eugenio Corsini, C-O-R-S-I-N-I.

Corsini is a professor of patristic studies at the University of Turin.

Uh, and so he is in touch with several of the rarest manuscripts of Revelation commentaries going all the way back to the early church.

He draws on these for his commentary.

It's written in a popular style.

It requires some real study, but it's a very, very profitable s- uh, work.

It's published by Michael Glacier, and so it's now available through Liturgical Press in Collegeville, Minnesota.

Corsini argues that the primary background for all of Revelation is the Old Testament, and that the Revelation is not primarily d- given to us to help us figure out the time, the hour, the day, or whatever.

It's showing us Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the old covenant.

And so he, he does what he calls spiritual acts of Jesus, and it's very rich and full-bodied.

Another book that I could, uh, show you afterwards, I, I'm not going to, uh, recommend it 'cause it cost me I think around $50, and it's not that long.

It's only about 185 pages.

It's a doctoral thesis written by Alan James Bigley entitled The Sitzim Leben of the Apocalypse, with particular reference to the role of the church's enemies.

When you see a title like that, you think, That's not for me.

The Sitzim Leben, what is the Sitzim Leben, you know?

Sounds like, you know, acne that needs, needs cleared up or something, you know?

The Sitzim Leben of the Apocalypse focuses on the original situation in life behind the book of Revelation.

Bigley arg- argues that all the real pointers lead us back to Jerusalem before 70 AD, as the primary antagonist against the church.

And so the destruction of Jerusalem represents the divine judgment upon the holy city.

All right, now let's turn to Revelation 1 and pick up where we left off last time.

As we're turning there, remember that in focusing on a first century fulfillment, in no way do I wish to exclude other types of fulfillment.

All right?

Keep that in mind as we proceed.

Remember last week, we said there were four different viewpoints when it comes to interpreting Revelation.

The preterist, which sees it in terms of the past fulfilled in the first century; the historicist, which sees it being fulfilled down through the ages of church history; the futurist, which sees it fulfilled only at the end of time; and the idealist, which sees it being fulfilled in the life of every Christian and in the life of every church- of every age.

All right?

And I would contend that when you interpret Revelation properly, you can interpret it at all four, four levels.

But the foundation, the basis for interpreting it in a historicist sense or a futurist sense or in an idealist sense is to ascertain originally the initial meaning, the literal historical meaning that it would have had for the original readers back when John wrote this.

All right?

Now, Revelation 1.

Last time we were considering a few of the early verses.Let's pick up in verse eight.

'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.' Verse nine: I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance.

He gives us, in this one phrase, the three most significant themes of the Apocalypse: Suffering, which we must patiently endure; a kingdom, which we must see through the eyes of faith and strive to attain; and patient endurance, which represents our lifestyle.

That is the way we overcome.

Now, he finds himself on the island of Patmos because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

And he finds himself, in verse 10, On the Lord's day, I was in the Spirit.

Now, what does he mean when he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day?

The Lord's day is a technical term back in the early centuries of the early church for the first day of the week, so named since Jesus rose from the dead on that day.

And every time we have a resurrection appearance specifically assigned to a day of the week in the Gospels, guess what day it is?

Sunday, the first day of the week, or seven days later, a week after a Sunday appearance.

It was also the day that the early Christians met, according to the Book of Acts.

In Acts 20, verse seven, we have mention of this early custom.

It's mentioned without any argumentation.

It reflects a longstanding tradition.

The Seventh-day Adventists are a very anti-Catholic sect that argues that Sunday worship is the sign of the Antichrist.

They argue that the reason why we worship on Sunday is because we converted the Roman Empire and basically borrowed Roman customs like worshiping the sun on Sunday, right?

And you'll run into Seventh-day Adventists from time to time, and they might give you some trouble, all right?

We could go into a long discussion of this, but suffice to say, that this contention never arose in the history of the church until the 1800s, all right?

So when Ellen G.

White, an American woman, came up with this idea, I think we have a lot of prima facie evidence that we're not to take it too seriously, all right?

I don't mean in any way to ridicule the Seventh-day Adventists, but whenever somebody comes and says, All of Christendom throughout Christian history has succumbed to the Antichrist, the burden of proof is clearly upon their shoulders.

All right?

So here's John on the Lord's day.

In other words, he finds himself exiled on Patmos on Sunday.

In other words, he can't make it to mass.

And he can't officiate as celebrant and bishop of the mass in Ephesus or wherever he would've held it that day.

So what does the Lord do?

Well, the Lord helps him out.

He takes him up to mass in heaven.

That's what it means to be caught up in the Spirit.

The phrase is found elsewhere in the Book of Acts, chapter 10, verse 10, where Peter has a vision which leads him to bring Cornelius, the first Gentile, into the church.

To be in the Spirit then means to have a vision in the Spirit of a message that God wants to convey.

We're not just hearing words.

We're not just dreaming dreams.

We are caught up in the heavens, in the highest heavens.

This is significant because the Book of Revelation, if it's anything, is liturgical.

It's liturgical from the first chapter all the way until the end.

We're gonna see this clearly, more clearly as we focus upon some liturgical elements in the second half of our study tonight.

But you already know that there are white-robed saints.

There are altars.

There's incense.

There are altars.

Uh, there's a scroll that has to be opened and read.

There are candlesticks.

We hear the Sanctus being sung, the Gloria as well, so on and so forth.

In fact, here's a book written by a Protestant scholar named Massey Sheppard, The Paschal Liturgy and the Apocalypse.

Professor Sheppard argues that the primary structure for the entire Book of Revelation is the Passover liturgy.

And so the Old Testament Passover, you know, serves as the structure for the liturgy of the Eucharist, the new covenant Passover.

John couldn't celebrate mass.

He couldn't be presiding at the Eucharist.

And so in the Spirit, he's taken up into the heavenly assembly where all the angels and saints are gathered together to worship the Lamb, who is priest and victim at the heavenly altar.

Therefore, from the ve- very earliest times, the church patterned the liturgy after the apocalyptic vision of John, all right?

This is something you find assumed in early church fathers.

Now, I'm not saying that they were just kind of waiting around for John's vision for, you know, 38, 40 AD, 50 AD, 60, and then all the sudden John had this vision, so now we could really agree upon a structure for our liturgy.

No, the liturgy is given to the apostles by Jesus Himself, and it's transmitted tr- in tradition throughout the whole church worldwide.

But what we find, whether we're looking at the church in the East or the West or in Africa, the liturgy of the church shares almost all important elements in common.

And these elements are reflected in the apocalyptic vision of Revelation.

So, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said, 'Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.' If you look at a map, you'll see all seven cities are located within about a 50-mile radius .

In Asia Minor.

In fact, if you begin with Ephesus, you'll see the tracing of seven cities clockwise will actually bring you all the way around in a circle.

Some scholars suggest these were postal stops that the Roman Empire had developed, so these would be places where letters could be delivered in a very natural way.

All right?

We're not certain of that, but it seems very reasonable.

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands.

The seven golden lampstands, of course, you know as the what?

The Menorah.

The Jewish candelabra in effect, where you have a seven-branched candlestick which was there in the temple, and you find it in most synagogues today as well.

This is also part of a vision that Zechariah has.

So in verse 12, we have a an allusion to Zechariah 4:2.

In Zechariah 4 We're not gonna look it up and study in context, but you'll discover that Zechariah has a vision of the, the lampstand here, these seven golden lampstands, and how God's spirit gives oil in ever-flowing, never-ending abundance for these seven lampstands.

And now we discover in chapter 1, we'll see that these seven lampstands represent what?

The seven churches that have this ever-flowing, never-ending source of oil, the Holy Spirit.

The seven-fold gift of the Holy Spirit that we often hear about during confirmation, the seven gifts of the Spirit.

I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest.

His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.

His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp, double-edged sword.

His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

Now, this vision that John has is, is, is, is described in images drawn from the Old Testament, several passages, but one in particular.

The one is Daniel 7.

Let's turn to look at Daniel 7.

Daniel 7 is very significant for several reasons.

We can't get into a full-blown study of this chapter, but Daniel 7 is the primary source for the language that we're familiar with from the New Testament and from the Gospels, the Son of Man.

The Son of Man.

Often, we hear in the Gospels Jesus refer to himself as the Son of Man.

In fact, Jesus calls himself Son of Man more than all of the other titles he applies to himself put together.

At the same time, nobody else ever calls Jesus the Son of Man.

So Jesus has selected this title in a unique way for a special purpose.

Some scholars say, Well, it was just a title of modesty, because for instance ʿanāșāḥ was a phrase that just meant me, myself, and I back in the first century.

Well, it was, but I think Jesus used the phrase to mean a lot more than that.

Other people assume that Jesus spoke of himself as the Son of Man because He was just so humble.

He was just simply saying, You know, just little old me, Jesus, the man.

What you discover, though, is that the usage is rooted in Daniel 7, where Son of Man does not point primarily to Jesus' humanity, but rather to Jesus' divinity, to the divinity of the Son of Man.

So then Daniel 7, we have Daniel's famous night vision of these four beasts.

These four beasts correspond to four Gentile kingdoms that oppress the Jews.

The same four kingdoms are described for us in Nebuchadnezzar's dream and Daniel's interpretation going all the way back to chapter 2 of Daniel.

There, we have four consecutive empires.

First comes Babylon.

Second comes Medo-Persia.

Third comes Greece under Alexander the Great.

And the fourth and the worst of all was Rome.

So the four metals of Nebuchadnezzar's vision in Daniel 2 correspond to the four beasts in Daniel's vision of chapter 7.

And these bring us all the way up to the time of Jesus, where the Roman Empire is on the scene, and the cry going out from all Jews is, How long, O Lord?

What must we wait for the Messiah to deliver us from our captors, from our from our Gentile overlords?

And in Daniel 7, Daniel discovers what lies in the future for the Jews beyond Babylon, through Medo-Persia, Greece, and finally Rome.

The Messiah, who is sent by God to deliver the Jews, is described for us beginning in verse 9.

As I looked, thrones were placed, and one that was Ancient of Days took a seat.

His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool.

His throne was fiery flames.

Its wheels were burning fire.

So here He is in this heavenly cloud on this throne with wheels, a chariot throne that we find throughout the Old Testament.

A stream of fire issued and came forth from before Him.

A thousand thousands served Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.

The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.

Notice that this is not a military coup.

This is not a political act on the part of the Messiah overthrowing the beasts, the Gentile kingdoms.

This is a heavenly act reached upstairs in the presence of God .

through divine judgment.

I looked then because of the sound of the great words which the horn was speaking.

And as I looked, the beast was slain and its body destroyed, and given over to be burned with fire.

As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

Then I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days.

Although there is an ancient manuscript tradition which actually translates this, There came, uh, and he came as the Ancient of Days, but most likely the Ancient of Days and the son of man are somehow differentiated.

In traditional interpretation, the Ancient of Days is God the Father, the son of man is God the Son.

And in Revelation 1, we have the son of man described not only as the son of man of Daniel 7, but he also resembles who else from Daniel 7?

The Ancient of Days.

So, he's taking on the glory of his father as well.

There came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, so that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

And this corresponds to Daniel 2, where a little rock crushes the image and becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole Earth, and it's associated with God's kingdom.

So here, the son of man establishes a worldwide divine kingdom from heaven.

And given to the son of man are divine prerogatives because ultimately, the nations of the world are obliged to, to worship and to serve one being and one alone.

That's God.

And yet here, the one that they serve is characterized as the son of man.

Jesus uses this language of son of man.

We know it from the Gospels, as I mentioned, but let's turn to a couple places in Matthew's Gospel to see just how he uses it on some occasions.

Matthew 24:30.

The whole chapter of Matthew, practically, is devoted to a prediction of Jerusalem's downfall and the temple's destruction, all within the generation of Jesus' contemporaries.

For instance, in Matthew 24:15, we read, So when you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place What does that refer to?

The temple in Jerusalem.

Let the reader understand.

After all, Matthew is writing to Palestinian Christians, Jewish Christians.

Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

In other words, this prophecy is being fulfilled in the first century in Judea surrounding Jerusalem right before the Roman armies come.

Jesus uses imagery drawn from the Old Testament prophets.

I mentioned last week that many fundamentalists, many evangelicals and Pentecostals, and for that matter, many Catholics, misinterpret this language in a materialistic or overly literalist fashion.

In fact, the Old Testament prophets used cataclysmic co- cosmic imagery to describe the downfall of any political kingdom that opposed God and persecuted His people.

Now that language is describing Jerusalem's destruction.

Verse 30, verse 29 and 30, Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and this moon will not give its light, and the stars will be f- the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken.

That same language is described for- is used to describe Babylon's fall in Isaiah 13:10, Idumea in Isaiah 34:4-5.

Ezekiel 37 uses the same language.

Ezekiel 19.

No, I'm sorry, Isaiah 19.

Psalm 104:3 and following.

It's common in the Old Testament to describe the downfall of a political power.

Then will appear the sign of the son of man in heaven, and then will all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

So, Jesus predicts what John now sees, the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with great glory.

Turn a couple chapters later to Matthew chapter 26.

Turn to verse 62.

There we read an account of Jesus' trial.

He's standing in the temple of Jerusalem, being tried by who?

Of all people, the high priest.

Verse 57.

Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas.

The high priest were the scribes, and the elders had gathered.

Peter follows.

Verse 59, The chief priests and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward.

At last, two came forward and said, 'This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.' What they did was to misrepresent Jesus' words.

Jesus said, Destroy this temple, and in three days rebuild it.

He didn't say, I will destroy this temple.

He just said, Destroy this temple, back in John 2, And in three days rebuild it, speaking of his own body, because it's the resurrected body of Christ, the church, the mystical body, which becomes the true temple, the new temple of the new covenant.

Ephesians 2:19-20 describes how we constitute the holy temple of God, a dwelling place of God and the Spirit.

Now, this is being twisted and perverted by false witnesses.

But notice that this is happening in the earthly Jerusalem, in the earthly temple, with false witnesses giving false testimony about Jesus destroying the temple and in three days rebuilding a new one.

You can see how Satan uses the truth to deceive.

In the apocalypse, that will all be corrected.

There, we'll see what happens in the heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly tr- uh, temple, with true witnesses giving true testimony to Jesus concerning the new temple which has been rebuilt in Christ after three days.

We see this ironic reversal of the trial of Jesus.And so, just as Jesus is put on trial in the Earth in Jerusalem, so later on, his disciples will be undergoing a trial from those based in Jerusalem.

And the high priest stood up and said, Have you no answer to make?

In verse 62.

What is that?

What is it that these men testify against you?

But Jesus was silent.

And the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God.

In other words, I place you under the most sacred and solemn oath.

Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.

Up until now, total silence.

But the high priest has divine authority, even if he's a demoniac.

Even if he's an infidel.

By virtue of his office, he has the authority to adjure even Jesus under oath to testify.

So finally, he responds, You have said so.

Verse 64, Jesus said to him, You have said so, which means, You got it right.

But I tell you hereafter, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Now, what does Caiaphas say?

You're a madman.

You're deluded.

How can someone ride clouds?

The plane hasn't been invented yet.

He's not interpreting this literalistically.

Notice what Caiaphas says or does, verse 65.

Then the high priest tore his robes and said, He has uttered blasphemy.

Why?

Because he has claimed to be the Son of Man, and he has applied to himself the vision of Daniel 7, where the Son of Man rides on the clouds like God Himself rides His own heavenly throne chariot and receives the dominion and the glory from all the nations.

Son of Man points not to the humanity of Christ, but to His divinity.

Let's go backward to Revelation 1 and keep all this in mind.

And I hope you see how once again the Old Testament really holds the key to the proper interpretation of so many of these elements and so many of, so much of this vision.

We also find in these verses a composite of other passages and other images drawn elsewhere from the Old Testament.

Turn quickly to Ezekiel chapter one.

Ezekiel chapter one.

Now, I have, I have been a little bit remiss and negligent so far.

I have failed to mention, last week and now so far this week, that of all the Old Testament books, there is one that resembles Revelation more than any other.

Perhaps even more than all the others put together.

It's the Book of Ezekiel.

I have right here a commentary that I really enjoy written by a Protestant, but it's written by a Protestant who has a great love for the early church fathers.

And in many ways, this author, David Scholten, who I know as a friend, and I've talked to him on the phone many times when he was actually writing this, this commentary, he's very close to the Catholic Church.

He has a great appreciation for Catholic liturgy, for the importance of the Eucharist and so on.

A couple years ago, I thought he was gonna become a Catholic.

Anyway, the book is entitled The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revelation.

And here's a- a- a- a rather graphic picture of the- the cup of blood pouring out wrath upon- the temple in Jerusalem, which represents his own interpretive perspective, which is basically the same as mine.

On page 21, he gives us a chart showing how the chapters in Ezekiel correspond almost exactly to what unfolds in Revelation 1 through 22.

I won't read the whole chart, but in Ezekiel 1, there's a throne vision, much like you find in Revelation 1 and again in Revelation 4.

In Ezekiel 2 and 3, we have a book being opened like you have in Revelation 5.

In Ezekiel 5, we have four plagues like Revelation 6.

In Ezekiel 6, we have those slain under the altar, like in Revelation 6:9-11.

The wrath of God is revealed in Ezekiel 7 and Revelation 6:12-7.

The seal on the forehead is in Ezekiel 9.

That's also found in Revelation 7.

The coals from the altar, the eating of the book, the measuring of the temple, comparing Jerusalem to Sodom, the cup of wrath, the vine of the land, the great harlot, the lament or the dirge sung over the city, the scavengers feast, the first resurrection, the battle of Gog and Magog, the new Jerusalem, the river of life.

All these primary motifs in Revelation are drawn from Ezekiel in the same sequence.

So when we turn to Ezekiel 1, realize that here is a passage that really plugs us into a whole source for much of what John tells us.

Turn now to Ezekiel 1, beginning around verse 18.

This is the famous chariot vision of the wheels within the wheels.

And go back to verse, um, four.

As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud with brightness roundabout, fire flashing forth continually, and in- in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming bronze.

So, much of what we see again in Revelation 1.

And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures.

And these four living creatures are the cherubim.

They're also the symbols of, what?

The four evangelists later on in the early church fathers.

In the midst of the living creatures, down in verse 13, there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches moving to and fro.

This is also picked up later on in Revelation.

Then verse 18.

The four wheels had rims, and they had spokes, and their rims were full of eyes round about.

20, Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them.

So, here you have a cloud.

It's the famous cloud, the Shekinah glory cloud.

The Holy Spirit manifested as this radiant luminous cloud, and the cloud is also a chariot.

And this cloud chariot is also a divine throne.

This is found not only throughout the Old Testament, but in many other religions as well.

For instance, Baal used to ride his chariot atop a cloud.

And so in showing Yahweh's superiority over Baal, several passages of the Old Testament describe how Baal would be overthrown by Yahweh, who also had a throne chariot in a cloud, and he would come and topple Baal and all of the Baal worshipers.And then in verse 22: Over the heads of the living creatures, there was the likeness of a firmament shining like crystal, spread out over their heads.

And under the firmament, we have again the cherubim described.

And then verse 26: And above the firmament over their heads, there was the likeness of a throne, its appearance like sapphire, and seated above the likeness of the throne was a likeness as it were of a human form.

And upward from what had the appearance of his loins, I saw as it were gleaming bronze, like the appearance of fire enclosed round about.

Then it goes on: Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

And when I saw it, I fell upon my face.

So Ezekiel has practically the same vision that John has of this divine heavenly cloud, of this royal throne chariot, and of this human form that is truly divine.

And what does John do when he sees Jesus, the Son of Man?

The same thing Ezekiel done.

He see- same thing Ezekiel does.

He falls on his face as though dead.

So in other words, in Revelation 1, to understand this vision, John describes it in terms drawn from Old Testament passages like Daniel 7 and Ezekiel 1.

We could spend another hour looking at other passages.

I won't.

But what I would say is this.

According to scholars who've researched this, we have a composite, not only the Son of Man of Daniel 7 and of Ezekiel 1, but also imagery drawn from the high priest.

In Exodus 28:4, Exodus 29:5, Exodus 39:27-29, we have the high priest wearing the same clothes that Jesus, the Son of Man is wearing here in Revelation 1; a robe that goes down to his feet and a golden sash.

These, according to Josephus, the high priest would wear these when he was done with his own sacrifice.

At that point, he would don the robe and the golden sash.

So besides resembling the Son of Man of Daniel's vision, Jesus Christ is there up in heaven, in the heavenly temple as our heavenly high priest.

John is the beloved disciple who reclined on Jesus' breast there at the Last Supper.

He was one of the three closest and most intimate friends, Peter, James, and John.

John hasn't seen his best friend, his Savior and Lord, for years, maybe decades.

And now at last, he sees Jesus high and lifted up.

And what is his response?

Does he say, Jesus, my old buddy and pal, long time no see.

You know, sometimes I, I fear, because we get so overly familiar with Jesus.

This was especially true back in the '60s and '70s, where people kind of picked their portrait.

You know, and it was always this friendly, smiling face of Jesus.

There's nothing wrong with that.

I like it.

You know, people can always choose their favorite image of Jesus, whether it's, it's the infant in the manger, or whether it's a crucifix or the Pieta or whatever.

But ultimately, we have to realize that Jesus right now no longer resembles any of those images.

As helpful as they may be serving as devotional aids, we have to see Jesus as He is.

John sees Him as He is now.

In power and glory and honor, with universal dominion and divine sovereignty.

But if John, righteous, holy Saint John, sees Him and doesn't say, Oh, Jesus, long time no see.

Oh, my friend, my Lord, how's it going?

I just want to kind of talk with you.

Nothing wrong with this conversation with our Lord, but recognize that the foundation of true conversation and true friendship with Christ is recognizing His all-surpassing holiness.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Not just in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah 6.

We're gonna see in Revelation 4 that in the New Testament, God is still proclaimed by the angels as holy, holy, holy.

Nowhere in the Bible is any other attribute ascribed to God in a threefold way.

We would s- We would love to find God is mercy, mercy, mercy, right?

Or God is love, love, love.

Or forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness.

But it ain't there.

What we find is God's love is a holy love.

God's mercy is a holy mercy.

He cannot allow unholiness.

In Hebrews 12, we know this so clearly.

Turn to Hebrews 12, just for an important reminder.

In Hebrews 12:10, it says: For they, our earthly fathers disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but He, our heavenly Father, disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.

Verse 12.

Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Strive for peace with all men, and strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Without holiness, you will not see the Lord, nor will I.

We must be holy and we must recognize that Christ is holy.

In the Hebrew language, you didn't have superlatives like good, better, best.

If you wanted to say something was holy, or something was holier than just holy, or you want to say something was the holiest of all, you would depend upon this grammatical use of three-fold repetition.

Holy is one thing.

B- Better would be holier, and the best and the highest form would be holy, holy, holy.

So God is the holiest of all.

And as we approach Him in worship and in prayer, to converse with Him, we must recognize that.

And not just say, Oh God, I acknowledge your holiness.

Now let's get on with it.

Look at verse 17.When I saw Him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

Come on, John, aren't you getting a little bit melodramatic here?

No, he's not.

Nor was Ezekiel.

If holy righteous Saint John would behold his best friend, on whose breast he reclined, in his glory, and fall at his feet as though dead, what do you think we'd do, right now, if we saw Jesus?

Explode.

I don't know what we'd do.

But I guarantee you, it would be at least what John did.

So as we contemplate the word of Christ, we ask the Holy Spirit to make us holy spirits and holy bodies, holy persons.

Because without holiness, we will not see the Lord.

Ask yourself after this study is over, when you're off by yourself, What is my picture of Jesus?

When I go to pray with Him, when I go to talk with Him, how do I picture Him?

And again, there's nothing wrong with devotional aides like the infant in the manger, or the Pieta, or a crucifix.

But don't fixate on those and miss the glory which is now His.

Otherwise, you end up with a form of cafeteria Christology.

You pick and choose what you like the most, and you end up not with the true Christ, but with a Christ which is distorted and cut down to size to kind of scratch where you itch.

That doesn't, that doesn't fit reality.

So this vision is such a essential reminder for us before we proceed on into the vision.

When I saw Him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but He laid His right hand upon me and said, 'Fear not.' You've got to love it.

Be not afraid.

In Matthew 28:10, these were the first words that Jesus uttered in His first resurrection appearance.

Be not afraid.

And you know also these were the first words uttered by Pope John Paul II when he stepped out on the balcony and addressed the crowds thronging there in St. Peter's.

Be not afraid.

There's a servile fear, which is absolutely inappropriate.

We are not to be fear-filled slaves.

But there's another fear which theologians differentiate, and that is a filial fear.

It's the fear of a son or daughter who quakes at the thought of offending one's father, one's heavenly Father.

Jesus says, Fear not.

In other words, I'm calling you out of this kind of servant fear.

I am the first and the last and the living one.

I died, and behold I'm alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.

I have the keys of death and Hades.

The same language is used, of course, in Matthew 16, where Jesus has the keys to the kingdom, and He entrusts them to His church in the person of Peter.

I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.

Then it says, I will build my church on this rock, which is Peter, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

Now normally, readers separate those two images.

Peter the rock, on whom the church is built, and Peter the key holder.

Peter the rock is the one on whom the church is built, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

Why?

Because Peter the rock is Peter the key holder.

And guess where those keys go?

Into the gates of Hades.

So that Peter is able to unlock the gates of Hades in the name of Christ.

Whatever he binds on earth will be bound in heaven.

Whatever he looses on earth will be loosed in heaven.

So this refers to the plentitude of power that belongs to Christ in an absolute sense, but which he entrusts to Peter and his successors in a ministerial capacity.

This is always the interpretation of the church going back to the 1st century.

So we have papal indulgences.

We have papal blessings.

He exercises the power of the keys when he sticks them in the gates of Hades.

So the power of Christ over death and Hades is exercised in the mystical body of Christ, which is a kingdom.

We could dwell on that some more, but let's move on.

Now write what you see and what is and what is to take place hereafter.

As for the mystery of the seven stars which 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.

Notice that if you want to find Christ, where do you find Him?

You find Him enthroned by the lampstand.

What does that mean?

I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstand, and in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man.

I was in, uh, Washington, DC last night along with Kimberly to address a group of charismatic believers, most of whom were Catholic, but several of whom were Protestant.

We had long conversations until midnight after our talks, and one of the conversations really sticks out in my mind because this person was insisting on simply saving sinners, that we simply bring people to Jesus.

And what difference does the church make?

And how do we address that kind of attitude?

It's a healthy attitude inasmuch as it's concerned with saving sinners, because that's the heart of Jesus.

But if you bring sinners to Jesus, where do you find Jesus?

In verse 12, In the midst of the seven lampstands, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

And they all constitute the mystical body of Christ, and they all worship according to the pattern of the heavenly assembly, the heavenly liturgy, the heavenly Lamb at A- at His altar.

So ultimately, we have to bring people to Christ and bring them also to His church.

Now we get to the seven letters of the, that are addressed to the seven churches.

We could spend a great deal of time on these seven letters.

I would propose to go through these rather rapidly tonight and then touch upon them again in the future.These seven letters are interpreted in various ways by various scholars.

One interpretation is that these seven letters correspond to seven consecutive ages of the New Testament church.

This is a position held by many Protestants, and also by many Catholics.

So the first church is Ephesus, which is by f- far and away the best.

Jesus really has nothing critical to say of them, except they've slipped away from their first love.

The seventh church, in contrast, is the Church Laodicea.

And there, he has nothing good to say.

In fact, he threatens to spit them out or vomit them out of his mouth- because of their lukewarmness.

And in between the first and the seventh, we have a kind of progressive decline in the state of these churches.

Other interpreters just simply say that these represent the present condition of the seven churches in Asia Minor that John would have known so well as their bishop.

Now, I think both of those interpretations are sound, but there's a third interpretation, which I think is also sound, which is frequently missed.

The first interpretation, that it represents seven consecutive ages, has the weakness of speculation.

Well, where does the first age end and the second one begin?

Where does the third one begin, the fourth one, and so on and so forth?

I wouldn't deny that first view.

I would just be very reticent about fixing dates for the seven ages.

I would, I would have very little doubt about plo- applying the second view to this section in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3, that these seven letters actually describe the conditions in the seven churches and these seven cities.

We must return to the biblical pattern of worship centered on Jesus Christ, which means the celebration of the Lord's Supper, as well as its inss- as well as instruction about its true meaning and efficacy.

We must abandon the rank Platonism which informs our bare, intellectualized worship and return to a truly corporate, liturgical worship characterized by artistic beauty and musical excellence.

For it should be obvious in this verse he is extending to the Church an offer of renewed communion with Himself.

The very heart and center of our fellowship with Christ is at His table.

The most basic and most profound offer of salvation is Christ's offer to dine with us.

In Holy Communion, we are genuinely having dinner with Jesus, lifted up into His heavenly presence.

And moreover, we are feasting on Him.

And then he quotes John 6:53-57.

Truly, truly, I said you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.

Now you know why I recommend this commentary and why I thought a couple years ago he might become a Catholic.

Uh, he's, he's in a kind of a stalled position right now anyway.

Pray for my brother, Chilton.

So we can see how these seven letters climax Christ calling us to return to him in the Spirit, on the Lord's day, in the Eucharist, at the Supper of the Lo- at the table of the Lord.

Now, I mentioned earlier that I wanted to close our time focusing upon elements of Revelation that you can meditate upon for your own spiritual edification.

But I want to stress that spiritual edification is not simply or primarily something that is to be done through individualistic, pious devotions.

I pray the rosary every day.

It's a mainstay for me.

It's really, it's really cr- It's, it's, it's critical for my own daily wellbeing.

I, I spend an hour before the blessed sacrament, Lord willing, each day.

But ultimately, our devotional life must be corporate.

It must be liturgical.

We must be aware of how Christ sanctifies time in the church and through our prayers.

This is what Revelation, I think, is meant to give us, a real vision of who we are in the mystical body of Christ.

I mentioned earlier that in the Book of Revelation, all the action that we see corresponds to trumpets being blown as they were in the temple, to cups being poured out as they were in the temple, cups of wine, cups of blood, and so on and so forth.

We have altars, we have incense, we have the menorah, we have the Ark of the Covenant in Revelation 11 in the heavenly temple.

All of this, I think, is meant to lead us to one essential truth.

Our worship is the key to history.

Our worship is the key to overcoming persecution.

Our worship is the key to converting the world.

Our worship is the key to the kingdom of Christ being realized in time and in space.

All the judgments of God come in response to liturgical song, and liturgical prayer, and liturgical ritual, as it's performed in the liturgical worship of heaven, which we participate in.

That's why we do not get primarily hung up in politics.

That's why we don't get worked up over Slick Willie being elected.

We recognize that our salvation doesn't come from princes or from mighty men in mighty positions in power, in political governments.

We are the ones who control history through our liturgical prayer, our liturgical song, our liturgical sacraments.

That's what Revelation is trying to tell us, that our worship has cosmic and historical significance, that history is determined by what takes place at the altar.

But this third view, I'm confident about, that here we have in these seven letters a recapitulation of covenant history.

In other words, what we'll find is that the seven ages of the Old Testament are actually drawn from consecutively in describing these seven churches.

Let's take a look at the first letter in Revelation 2, the Letter to Ephesus.

There in the Letter to Ephesus, what do we find?

The language of paradise going all the way back to Genesis.

Where do you see it?

Verse 7.

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

To him who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

So it draws on the very beginning of time, the first age in Old Testament history.

Now let's take a look at the second letter to the church in Smyrna.

There we'll des- We, we find language that w- many scholars associate with the patriarchal age.

I know your tribulation and your poverty, verse 9, and the slander of those who say they are Jews but are not.

Verse 10, Do 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.

Who was thrown into prison that he may be tested and then eventually vindicated?

Joseph, the great patriarch and son of Jacob.

Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.

Let's take a look now at the third letter to the church at Pergamum.

Here we'll see imagery drawn from the age of Israel in the wilderness.

Beginning in verse 14, But I have a few things against you.

You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam.

Balaam was that prophet hired by Balak to seduce Israel in the wilderness after 40 years of wandering, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice immorality.

Then it goes on, Repent, then.

If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Remember what Balaam did?

He t- he said to the Moabites, Look, if you can't beat Israel, join them, or at least get your women to join themselves to their men, because their God won't like that.

And so Numbers 25, we read how Moses and all of the, the elders watched as an Israelite took a Midianite woman into his tent.

And while they were in the very act of fornication, Aaron's grandson, Phinehas, took his sword or his spear and thrust it through them both.

And God said, Because Phinehas burned with my anger, I establish a covenant of peace and a covenant of perpetual priesthood with Phinehas so that the high priesthood will always pass through his line.

And so here's Jesus saying, You now resemble the condition of my people back in the time of the wilderness.

And I will speak with the sword of my mouth and pierce them through.

Let's take a look at the fourth letter to the f- the church at Thyatira.

There we'll discover imagery drawn from the period of the Israelite monarchy, and in particular, the covenant with David.

Let's see.

Going back to verse, uh, 20.

But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel.

Now, who is Jezebel?

Go back to 1 Kings 16 and 1 Kings 21:25, 2 Kings 9:7, and you'll hear all about this Queen Jezebel and how she perverted the kingdom of David in Jerusalem.

Who calls herself a prophetess in his teaching, and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat sacrifie- eat food sacrificed to idols.

And so it goes.

And in verse 26, He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces.

That too is language drawn from the kingdom of David in Psalm 2:8.

Then the fifth letter.

The fifth letter to the church in Sardis speaks of ima- draws on imagery from the prophetic period.

Let's take a look at the church to Sardis.

Verse 1, I know your works.

You have the name of being alive, and you are dead.

Awake and strengthen what remains.

It is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.

This is the gist of what practically all the Old Testament prophets delivered as a message to Israel.

Remember then what you have received and heard.

Keep that and repent.

If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you.

Yet you have a few Uh, You have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life.

I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

The church now in Philadelphia receives the sixth letter.

Here we find imagery drawn from the period of Israel's return from exile under Ezra and Nehemiah, which speaks of the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple.

Verse 9 and following.

Verse 8, I know your works.

Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie, behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and learn that I have loved you.

This is language drawn from Haggai, Ezra, and Nehemiah, because the Jews returning from captivity were weak and seemingly powerless, but God assured them that they possessed divine authority to do God's work on Earth.

Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell upon the Earth.

I am coming soon.

Hold fast to what you have so that no one may seize your crown.

He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.

Uh, never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the t- the name of my God, the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven.

So as the exiles returned to Jerusalem to build the second temple, they seemed weak and powerless, and yet Haggai assured them that they had God's own authority to do so.

And when they had built the second temple, the old-timers began crying.

Why?

Because the second temple's glory couldn't compare to Solomon's Temple.

Yet the Lord spoke through Haggai and other prophets saying the glory of the second temple is actually far greater than the first .

because it was built not with political and economic might, but with mighty faith, possessed by people who seemed to be so weak.

And that's really the condition here of the church in Sardis.

I'm sorry, to the church in Philadelphia.

And finally, we come to the seventh church, the seventh letter to the Church in Laodicea.

And this basically co, uh, conforms or corresponds to pharisaical Judaism in the first century.

What you find Jesus constantly remonstrating against, the lukewarm people who really were blind to the coming of the Lord, and poor and naked without the wedding garments and so on.

There, we read something that I suspect that most of us would apply to our own church in the West, and especially the Church throughout America.

I know your works.

You are neither cold nor hot.

Would that you were cold or hot.

How interesting.

God would rather have a church get icy cold than lukewarm.

So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth, or vomit you out of my mouth.

Some scholars also discover that there were springs in Laodicea that were known for being lukewarm.

Verse 17.

For you say, 'I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.' Not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked, that reminds me of when Pope John Paul visited the US a few years back, and Archbishop Rembert Weakland actually wiggled his finger under the Pope's nose and reminded John Paul that American Catholics are the richest and best-educated Catholics in the world, and maybe in history.

And when I heard about this, immediately I thought of Revelation 3:17.

For you say, 'I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.' Not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

The estimate now is that over $500 million will be spent in lawsuits settling in court or out of court with priests who have been molesting children over the last few decades.

Half a billion dollars will be spent by the Church and insurance companies in America for child molestation cases.

And we say we're well-educated and we're rich.

You know, that might seem like the worst case scenario, but I mean, you take it from there all the way down to the average parish, and you find lukewarmness so often.

You know, that might seem like the worst case scenario, but I mean, you take it from there all the way down to the average parish, and you find lukewarmness so often.

I think this is the main reason why we have tens of millions of ex-Catholics who are now either agnostics or fundamentalists.

We can, we can say all kinds of things about- why they left or how we can bring them back.

But until we catch fire, don't expect them to return.

Charles Spurgeon once said, If you ever want to attract a crowd, set yourself on fire.

They'll all come to see you blaze, you know?

And that's true I think for the Church in America today, and for the Church around the world.

Verse 18.

Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten, so be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me.

Interesting.

David Chilton, this commentary has a comment on Revelation 3:20.

He asks the question, What is Jesus talking about when he says, 'If anybody hears my voice and opens, I will come in and dine with him'?

He criticizes a lot of evangelicalism and a lot of Puritan worship which spiritualizes the language away.

He says, What is the answer?

We must take seriously the biblical doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Why don't we take five minutes for questions?

Dan, in the back?

Seems like, uh, all seven churches, they have preachers but it seems like the whole point at the end of each one he talks about conquering.

Is that the key to any of the churches that he's speaking to?

Yeah, the key is this idea of overcoming or conquering by, by our witness, by becoming martus or marturia, martyrs.

Uh, in dying to self and living to Christ, and, and doing what, you know, the saints before us have done.

Yeah, that certainly is the unifying thread that runs throughout those seven letters, the need we all have to overcome.

Good point.

Any other questions?

Yes.

You know, um, I sense that, that, uh, the letter to Philadelphia, you know, the last one was lukewarmness and that kind of thing.

Laodicea?

Mm-hmm.

And, um, my question would be, and I sense it too, but I, I wouldn't, wouldn't want to say that about, you know, the Church, the Catholic Church, you know?

Like, I've always felt like that would, was wrong to say something like that, even though you were talking to the Church and bringing people to Christ and to the Church.

You know, like here at the university we have, you know, the brothers who are reviving and stuff.

Mm-hmm.

But, I guess, sometimes I question someone who, you know, you're in another area and the Church there is just very lukewarm in what the Lord says very serious coming out of their mouth-

Yeah

and, or He wants to.

And, and you find that there is a vibrant Church that's not Catholic in that area.

It's just so hard to say, Hey, there is a Catholic Church, when that Catholic Church is isn't vibrant at all.

Okay, yeah, I think your question, Jennifer, is that, uh, when the Church seems dead, it's tempting to go to another Church.

And, uh-

It's hard to bring other people

It's hard to encourage them to leave these, these, these exciting congregations to come to the Catholic parish.

Sure, sure.

J- they are

Right.

Yeah.

We're not out to get Protestants, right?

We're out to build up the body of Christ.

That means showing the Protestants and other believers the fullness of faith that is in God's family, the Catholic Church.

But we're not anti-Protestant.

We're just so pro-Church-

that we have to throw ourselves into the Church and its life, even as we share that.

I, I know what you're saying in terms of how hard it is to encourage them to leave a vibrant, non-Catholic fellowship and come into the Catholic Church , but I, I think we can say, with, with humility and charity, that there is really one mystical body, there is one Church, and that is the Catholic Church.

And they have, in some sense, communed with the Catholic Church, but it's far from perfect.

The vision that John gives us in Revelation shows us that the true Church is the eucharistic assembly, and the true Church is the heavenly Jerusalem.

When we gather as a eucharistic assembly, if we're surrounded by people who every, all of whom are immortal sin, we are still in the Church, even if we're surrounded by people who are not of the Church.

Because the Church is not primarily an earthly reality; it is not an empirical entity that I judge by my five senses.

Revelation showed John the Church is the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is constantly descending to Earth in the eucharistic liturgy.

Now, if there are people there who are unfaithful, so much the worse for them, not for the Church.

Because God, you know, Let God be true and every man a liar, Paul says in Romans.

God will raise up from these rocks children of Abraham.

So, what I would do, and what I did last night, is call upon my separated brothers and sisters to come into the dead parish and make it alive.

I said, I believe that these fellowships represent the movement of the Holy Spirit.

But that movement isn't over until the Holy Spirit's moved them back into Christ's mystical body with the great preaching gifts and the great Bible study tools, and all the other good things they've got .

These will be purified and refined, and then harnessed for holiness in the Catholic Church.

We're dying because there are millions of believers who don't share the eucharist, and aren't part of Christ's mystical body in the fullness of communion.

They have real communion, but it's incomplete.

It's imperfect, it's partial.