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Revelation to John
Bro. Takeki Ishikawa May 4, 2003Now, we are living in the Time of Harvest which is shown in the overlapping of Gospel Period and Millennial Period on the Chart of the Periods. Today, I would like to talk about the churches in the Book of Revelation. It is said to understand the Book of Revelation is difficult. I think so, too, but we have to challenge to do it to understand it. If you think what I will say is not accurate, please correct me. When we think of the Book of Revelation, we remember Seven Churches, Seven Seals and Seven Trumpets come to our mind. Also, 1260 days, 42 months, “a time and times and half a time” come to our minds.
Basically, the Book of Revelation explains three periods: the past, the present and the future. The easiest part to understand, I think, is the future. So, I would like to begin with the future.
Revelation 20:1-3
"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years shall be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season."V.3: It says Satan will be bound not to deceive the nations. It means there will be a time in the future when people will learn teachings of God without being interfered by evil influences and they will be able to focus their attentions only on God’s words.
Revelation 20:6
"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."This scripture implies there will be two different kinds of resurrection. To those who will be resurrected in the second resurrection, death has no power over them. In other words, IMMORTALITY is given to them so that they cannot die. This is the resurrection given to Jesus and the Church, which is different resurrection given to the rest of humanity and is quite different in nature. The ransom guarantees life for humanity. Adam lost his perfect human life. The ransom restores what he lost, which is perfect human life. On the other hand, Jesus died as a man but he was resurrected as a spirit being. It will be the same with the Church. They die as human beings but will not be resurrected as human beings but they will be resurrected as spirit beings. Let me expand the thought a little more. There are animals and humans on the earth. These are called earthly being. They are of blood and flesh and live in the three dimensions. Above them, there is spiritual being of which we, humans, don’t know what it’s like. Angeles belong to the spiritual being. The scriptures tell us that men are made a little lower than angles. These three beings are all mortal which does not mean they must die but it means they can die. On top of them, there is divine being which has the divine nature or immortality. It cannot die. God has chosen a handful people from among the humanity and given them the life with the divine nature.
The latter part of V.6 says Christians (saints) will be in heaven serving as priests of God and of Christ. It means that there must be other people on the earth. It also implies that the Church will do two things: First, it will reign as king. If there will be a king to reign, there must be subjects to be reigned. Then, the Church will reign the rest of humanity. Secondly, it will also reign as priest. According to the Old Testament, a priest is a mediator between God and men, making atonement. In God’s Kingdom, the Church will bring people to God and make them one with God. At the close of the millennial period, the whole world will be perfected. Then, it will be necessary to test them to see if they will have become truly purified. To test them, Satan will be loosed for a little season, which is written in V. 7. And those who follow Satan will be destroyed as it is written in V. 9. In V. 14 and 15, it is written that all bad people will be perished.
Revelation 20:14-15
"And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."What is written in Chapter 21 is not continuation of what has been written in Chapter 20. It is repetition of what has been written in Chapter 20 only in different expressions, viewed from a different angle. The V4 is said the most beautiful descriptions in the Bible, it depicts what God will do for men during the millennial period.
Revelation 21:4
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.Chapter 21 and Chapter 22 describe the same thing happen during the same period but viewed from different angles.
Revelation 22:1-2
"And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bore twelve kinds of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."It says the water of life flows which refreshes people. In V. 2, it talks about interesting tree which yields fruits. Very strange tree. It bore twelve kinds of fruits. Tree is the symbol of faithful men which represent the Church. It says even how many times the tree yielded fruit. Normally, tree yields fruit once a year but here it says the tree yielded her fruit every month.
• 12 kinds x 12 months x 144 x 1000 = 144000
• 144 fruits in a year
• The length of God’s kingdom: 1000 years
• In this way, the number of the Church members is shown in the Book of Revelation. What we have read so far is the future.Revelation 1:10-11
"I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last; and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia: unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea."Here are the names of seven churches. There is only one Church. Why there are seven churches? Other scriptures write about seven churches as well. Remember, Tabernacle? Tabernacle is divided into two compartments, the Holy and the Most Holy. In the Holy, there is a lamp which is candle light. The candle stick has seven branches. The candle stick represents the Church. There is only one candle stick in the Holy. Because there is only one Church of God. Seven branches attach to it. It means one Church is divided into seven parts. What are the seven parts? Most people believe it represents seven periods of the Church. The first period is the time in which the apostles lived. It was the period of the early church. The seventh part is the present period which we are living. The history of church is divided into seven. The period which we live now is Gospel Period or the last part of the seventh period. The first is the period of the apostles.
Revelation 2:2
"I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them who are evil; and thou hast tried them who say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars;"This scripture says that in the primitive church, there were false apostles who called themselves apostles, as well as true apostles. Today, we have no problems to find who were the apostles. When we open the book of Matthew, we can find the names of the twelve apostles. Who were the twelve apostles is known to every body. But then Bible did not exist. Therefore it was difficult to know at that time who were the true apostles of Jesus because Bible was not yet written. There were some who lied to say they are apostles even though they are not. They spread wrong teachings. V. 2 applies to the first period. We are to learn from this scripture that we should distinguish between true and false teachers.
The second is Church of Smyrna.
Revelation 2:10
"Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days; be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."This scripture describes the special persecution. During the time of the Roman Empire, Romans would persecuted Christians and capture them and thrown them into lions den to be eaten. It says “ye shall have tribulation ten days”. In the Bible, a day often represents a year. It means this indicates ten years of persecution for true Christians to suffer (AD303–313). The devil here refers to Roman Church (before Catholic). At that time, Roman Church did not believe the only God but worshipped many idols.
In the third period, False Church system was developed and grown. A man called Constantine converted to a Christian but nominal. Because he was the emperor, many followed him and converted to Christians. Then a hierarchy system of priests was formed in the Church and Pop was put on the top of the system.
The fourth period is the period of Jezebel. Idol hierarchy. Roman Catholic became very strong and started to persecute true Christians.
Revelation 2:20
"Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou allowest that woman, Jezebel, who calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols."Jezebel is a woman who married Ahab, king of Israel. She did not worship true God but worshiped idols, God of Baal. She seduced the people to commit sin by worshipping false God. God had a prophet Elijah. Elijah represents Saints of God. Just like the Catholic Church persecuted people of true God, this woman, Jezebel tried to kill Elijah.
Revelation 3:3 Period of Martin Luther
"Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."In this period, Protestant separated from Catholic Church, and Reformation occurred.
The next period is called Philadelphia. The word “Philadelphia” means brotherly love. Protestants separated from Catholic Church in the fifth period and helped one another to understand the meaning of the scriptures.
Revelation 3:8
"I know thy works; behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it; for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name."It says “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it”. What is the open door? In the previous period, Protestants were persecuted by false believers. So, some Protestant believers fled to the new land called America seeking for freedom of faith. On the other hand, at about the same time, Bible was translated into languages of different countries and printed so that many people could have Bible and read it. Before this time, Bible was copied by hand as printing had not been invented yet. Therefore, there were very few Bible existed. The next period was the seventh in which we are living today. Church of Laodicea: the last period of the Church.
Revelation 3:15-16
"I know thy works, that thou art either cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So, then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth."Here it says “thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth”. Nominal Church is lukewarm. People who are truly enthusiastic or hot in seeking for words of the Lord are not fund in church. They come out church.
In verse 18, it is written what we should do to be accepted by Jesus.
Revelation 3:18
"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy makedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with salve, that thou mayest see."The white raiment is clothe of righteousness of Jesus, which we have to buy for cost. Many Christians no longer believe in the blood of Jesus. Though they believe Jesus was a good man, they do not believe that Jesus shed his blood to save us. We have to believe that He sacrificed himself as a ransom for our sins. It says “buy gold tried in the fire”. Gold represents the divine nature. We need to obtain the divine nature by paying cost. We cannot get such a precious thing without making any efforts. Fire represents trials and difficulties. Our nature is getting refined through fiery trials and difficult experiences which destroy dross and unnecessary things in our nature to change it to the divine nature. Then it says “anoint thine eyes with salve” so that we can see well, that we can better understand God’s plan.
Revelation 3:20
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear may voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."We often hear this scripture and it is familiar to us. This scripture is given to the seventh Church. “I stand at the door and knock” which means he has already been present here. It is the second presence of the Lord. We sit at His table and dine together with Him. The food is spiritual food. We eat spiritual food by getting together in meeting. The same thing is mentioned in Luke.
Luke 12:36-37
"And ye yourselves like men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord, when he cometh, shall find watching; verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to eat, and will come forth and serve them."
Disciples of Jesus have to wait for His second presence. Here the same message is spoken, as was spoken to the seventh Church in Revelation. The 36th verse says “When he will return from the wedding; when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately”. In other words, when Jesus is present the second time, blessed are they whom He shall find watching. V.37: “He shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to eat, and will come forth and serve them.” This is not food to eat for your body but spiritual food for your spiritual nourishment. How does He provide us with the food? It is the truth that He provides us, through understanding of God’s plan.The above is the history of the Church. When we wish to learn about the Church, these scriptures gives us the basis of our understanding. When we study about the Church, it will be much easier for us to understand if we understand the history of the Church and it is divided into seven parts as mentioned above, and which part is applied to which period.
The 6th and the 7th chapters of Revelation talk about seven seals. The 4th and the 5th chapters talk that God sat on the throne and He had a scroll in the right hand, and there stood a Lamb having seven horns and seven eyes. Lamb of God is Jesus and the seven horns and the seven eyes represent Holy Spirit and power that Jesus has. Seven means that each one of the seven applies to each period of the Church’s history. Jesus came and took the scroll out of the right hand of God. Seven seals were used to stop something. The 6th and the 7th chapters go on to say that Jesus opened the seals one by one. When he opened one of the seals, a vision appears which has a certain meaning. Then when he opened the second seal, another vision appears which has some other meaning. Thus, he opened the seven seals one by one. And each seal applies to one of the aforementioned seven periods respectively.
The 8th, 9th and 10th chapters talk about seven angels, to them were given seven trumpets. Again, when you read that the seventh angel sounded, you can understand it sounded in the seventh period that I mentioned earlier.
There are three visions of God’s Kingdom in the Book of Revelation, the chapters 20th, 21st and 22nd. And the messages about God’s Kingdom are found in the each chapter. They do not explain three different parts of the Kingdom but the same part of the Kingdom again and again and again three times in different words and expressions.
Just as the future is explained in three different visions, the past is also described repeatedly three times with seven churches, seven seals and seven trumpets. There is an overlapping period between past and future. That is the seventh period in which we live and in which Jesus has begun his preparation for the future.
