Revelation Chapter 3

VERSE 21 and 22 “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

“We again have the CHORUS which ends each message: To him who overcomes. . . Each stage of the Church has two kinds of overcoming. It must overcome the things which all stages have in common. It must also overcome the specialized difficulties of its own time. If the Laodiceans overcome their own special problems, they will SIT on Jesus’ throne even as he overcame and sat down with the Father in His throne. The KJV suggests that Jesus IS sitting with the Father during the Laodicean period. The NAS makes no such suggestion. But either suggestion can be justified. If we use the KJV, we have Jesus in a co-regency with the Father until the peaceable kingdom —the time Matthew calls “the throne of HIS GLORY” —the period of “regeneration.” (Matt. 19:28.) This would be once ALL of his “angels” (the Church) are with him beyond the veil. (Matt. 25:31.)

Whether this throne-sitting is the peaceable kingdom or the “change” (1 Cor 15:51-55) can be argued. But what is meant to us personally by the promise cannot. To SIT means to have control. Jesus will share the control of his kingdom work with us beyond the veil. The result will be glorious —the blessing of all the families of the earth even as was promised to Father Abraham. The throne represents judgment authority. Finally there will be a righteous judgment!

AS I ALSO OVERCAME may be an important phrase. Jesus overcame by giving his life as an offering for sin. This may symbolize the completion of the sin offering (the Lord’s goat class) as the last stage of the Church ALSO overcomes by giving its life sacrificially at the hands of a non-understanding world.

The CHORUS continues its second part: He who has an ear. This is BROADER than Verse 21.

It reminds us that we must overcome NOT ONLY the trials of our own day, but we must hear, in addition, the messages to the other Churches. It is human nature to think of our own experiences as the important ones. “Oh, poor me!” But the Lord would have us not so narrow. He wishes us to look at the history of the whole Church; He wishes us to have sympathy and fellowship in the sufferings of ALL of the Christ. He wishes us to feel part of a BODY.

He wants us to know the brotherhood of the entire age. He does not want us to be narrow and parochial. He wants us to feel insufficient in self. He wants us to feel like a limb, a joint, an ear —any PART, as long as it is ONLY a part.

THE LAODICEA PARABLE

The 7th Parable of Matthew 13 (Verses 47-52) —THE DRAGNET

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So, it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

This is a parable about harvesting, even as the Laodicean Church is entirely located in the Harvest of the Gospel Age. (The Wheat & Tares Parable —13:24-30; 36-43 —which has its beginnings in the Smyrna period, extends to the end of the age to make additional points affecting Laodicea.)

The net represents the collecting of believers (FISH —Matt. 4:19) from the sea class of humanity. The harvesters gather good fish into vessels (possibly the barn of Matt. 13:30? —or ecclesias?) and cast the bad (tares) away (“into the furnace” —just as in Matt. 13:42), thus losing their profession as fish.

At the close of these seven parables Jesus gives a clue that these seven have meanings beyond their INDIVIDUAL import —that these seven parables represent the seven Churches of Revelation if we can receive the hint. In Matt 13:51 he asks if the disciples understand —thus exciting in us the desire to know if there is something we DON’T understand. In Verse 52 he begins his next statement with THEREFORE —that is, if you get the point (if you do understand), you have an additional responsibility. If we are scribes (recorders and reporters of what we learn about the kingdom of heaven in all of its rich detail), then we are like the owners of rich estates which must dig into the trunks in the attic and cellar of our palaces to constantly find wonderful treasures which have not yet been brought out into the open light for the joy and delight of the interested.

In our next post we will take a look at these last two verses as they are explained by the Southern Wisconsin class.