The Amen
A Deeper Dive Into the Book of Revelation - Part 79
The seventh letter in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 was written to the church in Laodicea.
The Laodicean Church Age began around the time of the Azusa Street Revival in 1906, and will culminate in the Great Tribulation and the return of Jesus Christ.
Jesus opens this seventh and final letter, as He does with all of these letters, with a declaration of Who He is.
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Origin of the creation of God, says this”—Revelation 3:14 (NASB)
Jesus opens this letter with a name that signals finality. He is The Amen. In this final Laodicean Church Age, Jesus is bringing things to a close. This closes the age of man, but it is not the end of all things. As the age of man closes, the age to come will open into an amazing new reality of the Kingdom of God on earth as Jesus reigns from Jerusalem for 1,000 years.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”—Ephesians 2:4-7 (ESV)
Jesus is also the “faithful and true Witness.” Every word that Jesus has spoken is true, trustworthy, and completely reliable. As we come to the end of this age, it is more important than ever to realize that. We can safely place our trust and our hope in the words of the Faithful and True Witness.
Then Jesus reminds us again that He is not only the End, but He is also the Beginning—the Origin—of all things. He is the Alpha and the Omega.
Some translations unfortunately make this verse seem like Jesus is the first creation of God. That is not true at all, and that is not what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is not a created being, of course. Jesus is the Creator! Jesus is the Originator of all of creation.
This is made clear in the first thee verses of the gospel of John:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”—John 1:1-3 (ESV)
The Parable of the Net Full of Fish
Each letter in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 corresponds to one of the parables of the Kingdom of God in Matthew 13. This seventh letter to the church in Laodicea corresponds to the seventh parable of the net full of fish.
“Again, the kingdom from heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea that gathered all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen hauled it ashore. Then they sat down, sorted the good fish into containers, and threw the bad ones away. That is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out, cull out the evil people from among the righteous ones, and will throw them into a blazing furnace. In that place there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”—Matthew 13:47-50 (ISV)
The Age of Laodicea is the Age of the Harvest. Everything that has been sown is coming to maturity and is becoming ripe and ready for harvesting.
The Church Age began with the parable of the Sower, sowing the seeds of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
The seeds of the True Wheat became the sons and daughters of the Kingdom of God, but those seeds were mixed with the seeds of the Tares who became the sons and daughters of the devil.
As these two very different seeds were sown, the Church grew from a very small mustard seed into a large, world-wide institution with branches stretching out far and wide. But corruption came in the forms of fowls of the air (evil spirits) who infiltrated the Church and built nests for themselves in its branches.
Corruption became much worse during the Dark Ages as error and heresy infiltrated the Church like leaven that was hidden in the three measures of flour until the people were corrupted and deceived with a false gospel by false leaders of a false church.
Just when it looked like the Tares had taken over the field, Martin Luther and others rediscovered the hidden treasure of Truth in the Word of God and the True Gospel message began to be restored to the Church.
As John Wesley and others gave everything they had for the pearl of great price found in the Word of God, the Church matured and grew stronger in spirit.
Finally, in this final Laodicean age, all of the seeds that were sown are coming into full maturity.
Before the end of this age, the Bride of Christ will become fully mature and will demonstrate this by doing the same works of power and love that Jesus did, and even greater works than that, as Jesus promised in John 14:12.
But as the True Bride of Christ is transformed into the image of her Lord Jesus Christ through sanctification of the Word of God, the Tares will be transformed more and more into the image of their father, the devil, displaying more and more of his evil character as they give themselves over to ever-increasing acts of evil.
There will be an increasing polarization of these two seeds, as the angel told Daniel:
“Many will be purged, purified (made white) and refined, but the wicked will behave wickedly. None of the wicked shall understand, but those who are [spiritually] wise will understand.”—Daniel 12:10 (AMP)
When the net is finally lowered into the sea of humanity, and the fish are gathered, as we see in this seventh parable, those who are of the good seed will be preserved, while those who are of the seed of the wicked one will be separated out to be burned. This is exactly what Jesus told us would happen in the parable of the Wheat and the Tares.
Those who have thrown their own lives away by choosing to reject the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ will find themselves without another chance, and without hope. There will be nothing left for them except weeping and gnashing teeth as they enter the never-ending torment of fiery hell.
“His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear out His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat (believers) into His barn (kingdom), but He will burn up the chaff (the unrepentant) with unquenchable fire.”—Matthew 3:12 (AMP)
Read the whole series at SpiritOfWisdomMedia.com.
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