INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PRAYER KC

FORERUNNER SCHOOL OF MINISTRY

THE BOOK OF REVELATION

MIKE BICKLE

IHOP-KC Missions Base www.IHOP.org

Used by Permission

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Session 3 - Why We Must Understand the 7 Churches

B. The theme of Revelation is Jesus returning to take leadership of the earth in partnership with His people to reap a harvest of souls (Rev. 7:9) and replace all governments (Rev. 11:15; 19:15-16).

⁷ Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him… (Rev. 1:7)

C. Rev. 2-3: Jesus gives us the clearest picture of what He wants in the Church in His seven letters where He exhorts believers to be overcomers. Jesus will come ONLY in context to a prepared Bride in unity with the Spirit and anointed in prayer to release God's glory on Earth and to release the Tribulation to confront darkness.

D. Rev. 2-3 is key to forming the end-time prayer and prophetic movement. Jesus will come ONLY in context to a prepared Bride in unity with the Spirit and anointed in prayer to release God’s glory on earth and to release the Tribulation to confront darkness.

⁷ For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. (Rev. 19:7)

On this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Mt. 16:18-19)

Pt 1.    Rev. 1: Jesus gives the clearest picture of who He is in giving us 18 descriptions of His majesty.

Pt 2.    Rev. 2-3: Jesus gives us the clearest picture of what He wants in the Church in His seven letters.

Pt 3.    Rev. 4-5: Jesus gives us the clearest picture of His heavenly commission and resources.

Pt 4.    Rev. 6-19: Jesus gives us the clearest picture of how He will prepare the nations for His glory.

Pt 5.    Rev. 20-22: Jesus gives us the clearest picture of our eternal inheritance on earth with Him.

A. The Book of Revelation is an “Eschatological Book of Acts” revealing the acts of the Spirit through the end-time apostles and prophets and the praying Church under Jesus’ authority.

C. He defines the spiritual maturity necessary for the Church to release the Great Tribulation by prophetic prayer under His leadership in the way that Moses released the 10 plagues on Egypt and in the way that the apostles established the Church in Acts.

D. These 7 prophetic messages instruct us on how to prepare to partner with Jesus in His worldwide action plan related to His Second Coming. Jesus knows best how to prepare His own Bride. These letters show us the kind of Church that Jesus is building and what His agenda is. In them, He defines love and how He relates to His people. This defines what relevance is.

E. These letters define the truths and focus necessary to equip the Church to walk in love for Jesus. Our love is expressed as we obey His commands, heed His warnings and believe His promises (especially His 22 eternal rewards). There will be great challenges but even greater rewards.

F. There is a dynamic continuum between what we do in the years immediately preceding Jesus’ return. It is essential that we walk in full obedience and are loyal to the truth about Jesus as the necessary preparation to establish these truths beyond our life, to reach others and society.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled (complete: NIV, NAS RSV). (2 Cor. 10:4-6)

with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth (Rev. 8:4-5)

A. Individually: the letters were written to inspire response from individuals.

B. Corporately: the most powerful application is when local churches walk in these truths together.

D. Universally: the letters were written to all churches in the first century and throughout 2,000 years of Church history, just as the letter to the Romans was for the church at Rome as well as all churches past, present, and future.

A. Historical context: it is important to gain information about the situation that each church was challenged with politically, economically and spiritually. Jesus strategically selected these 7 churches knowing they would give prophetic insight into preparing the end-time Church.

C. Rebuke for compromise: what they must not do. Jesus’ correction is not rejection. He had things against 3 churches: Ephesus (2:4), Pergamos (2:14) and Thyatira (2:20). Two churches did not receive a correction (Smyrna and Philadelphia). Jesus gave the sternest rebukes for the following compromises; passivity, immorality and idolatry (covetousness and/or sorcery; Col 3:5; Eph 5:5; 1 Cor. 10:20-22). These were enabled by false teachings on grace that did not require repentance.

D. Exhortation to respond: what they must do. Jesus gave examples of actions that He required. Sometimes the exhortation had an element of warning. The warnings that Jesus gave most were against passivity (distraction from the First Commandment because of increased blessing that led to busyness) and fear (persecution/rejection).

E. Promise for overcomers: as incentive for diligent faithfulness to Jesus. He promised 22 specific eternal rewards (Rev. 2:7, 10, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). Most have a partial fulfillment now with the fullness in the Millennium. Insight into rewards is essential to equip us to stand in pressure.

F. Revelation of Jesus: in each message, Jesus called attention to specific aspects of His majesty as seen in Rev. 1 that were most needed in the specific situation of each Church. Sixteen different aspects of Jesus’ majesty are highlighted in Rev. 2-3. See www.IHOP.org for more on this.

¹ To…Ephesus write, “These things says He who holds the seven stars…who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands…” 8 To…Smyrna write, “These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life…” 12 To…Pergamos write, “These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword”…18 To… Thyatira write, “These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass”…3:1 To…Sardis write, “These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars”… 7 To…Philadelphia write, “These things says He who is holy, He who is true, "He who has the key of David"…14 To…the Laodiceans write, “These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God”… (Rev. 2:1-3:14)

Jesus gives us insight into His heart in this passage more than any other passage in Scripture. This will prepare us for the glory and crisis in the End Times. We must grow in revelation of these facets of Jesus’ heart and ministry. We do this by studying and praying over these truths as we confess them to God in faith to resist Satan’s attack. In this session, we will look at 16 different facets of Jesus’ heart which reveal His personality and ministry to the Church (holding the seven stars is mentioned twice).

A. The exhortation that Jesus repeated the most in His earthly ministry was the call to have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. This is written 16 times (8x in the Gospels and 8x in Revelation (Mt. 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mk. 4:9, 23; 7:16; Lk. 8:8; 14:35; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 13:9).

C. Second, Jesus is saying that there is more than what is obvious. He is calling us to pursue the deeper truth being set before us and not to be content to understand only what is on the surface. Jesus calls us to diligently focus on pursuing the deeper truth being set before us.

D. Third, it takes the supernatural help of the Holy Spirit to grasp it. The unaided mind of even a devoted believer will not be able to automatically comprehend the truth being set forth. Jesus is making it clear that it is beyond our natural ability. Jesus wants us to ask the Spirit for help.

E. Fourth, each time Jesus spoke this exhortation in Revelation it was about their eternal rewards and destiny. He warned them and us to have ears to hear because it takes supernatural insight to grasp them. When reading each reward, pray; “Lord, show me more”.

F. Fifth, it takes a focused determination to lay hold of the truths being referred to. We do not automatically respond to them in a deep and sustained way to them. It will take a tenacious commitment to maintain these truths in our lives long-term because of our propensity to lose touch with them.

A. The angel to the church refers to the apostolic leader over each congregation. The word angel is angelos in the Greek. In the NT, the word refers to an angelic or human messenger (Lk. 7:24, 27; 9:52). It was translated messenger when referring to John the Baptist (Mt. 11:10. Mk. 1:2).

B. The messenger was responsible to guard the message by proclaiming it publicly, consistently, boldly and tenderly and by not losing it through compromise or fear or neglect. Leaders must not draw back when others become angry at Jesus’ message in Rev. 2-3. People follow whatever message is publicly and consistently proclaimed with boldness.

C. People follow whatever message is publicly proclaimed consistently with boldness.

A. Jesus gave His most in-depth teaching on eternal rewards in Rev. 2-3 and Mt. 5-7. He knew what we would need to be sufficiently motivated during the release of the glory and crisis in His end-time plan. He reveals our rewards that we receive at the time of His Coming (Rev. 11: 15-18).

B. These equip us to persevere by being anchored in eternity with confidence that our choices will be rewarded in eternity. When suffering is seen in God's light, it loses its power to intimidate.

C. Jesus was speaking to believers who had already received the ²¹free gift of salvation. He was calling believers to live in such a way as to receive heavenly rewards. Salvation or justification is a free gift given to us. It is based on Jesus’ worthiness (Eph. 2:8-9). Heavenly rewards are given to us according to our works, or according to our response of gratitude to Jesus for giving us so great a salvation.

D. There will be a vast difference in the measure of glory of each one's reward. Most of these 22 rewards will be received by all believers in at least an introductory way. The issue in Rev. 2-3 pertains to what measure of the reward a believer receives. Since only overcomers receive the fullest measure of these rewards, it is important that we rightly interpret what Jesus intends when calling us to be overcomers in Rev. 2-3. These rewards refer to varying measures of the basic blessing of eternal life that all receive (l Cor. 15:41).

E. Rewards are given in addition to the free gift of eternal life. Jesus is speaking to churches. The issue of salvation is settled. The issue in focus is the particular areas of unfaithfulness that Jesus emphasized in their lives. Not all Christians overcome the unfaithfulness Jesus highlights.

G. These rewards are not secondary or irrelevant but rather they are a very important part of our destiny. Therefore, all believers should be very familiar with these rewards. They equip us to persevere by being anchored in eternity with confidence that our choices will be rewarded in eternity. When suffering is seen in God’s light, it loses its power to intimidate.

H. Our obedience is deeply connected to our rewards. Some falsely teach that these rewards are given to all believers in fullness, regardless of how they live. This view takes these rewards out of their context which requires repentance from certain things and faithfulness to the end.

Jesus promised 22 eternal rewards in Rev. 2-3: ¹To eat from the tree of life in the midst of Paradise (2:7); ²to receive the crown of life (2:10); ³to not be hurt by the second death (2:11); ⁴to eat hidden manna (2:17); ⁵to receive a white stone (2:17); ⁶to receive a new name written on the stone (2:17); ⁷to have power over the nations (2:26); ⁸to receive the morning star (2:28); ⁹to receive white garments (3:5); ¹⁰to receive a name that is not blotted from the Book of Life (3:5); ¹¹for Jesus to confess one’s name before the Father and angels (3:5); ¹²for one’s persecutors to worship before their feet (3:9); ¹³for one’s persecutors to know that Jesus loves them (3:9); ¹⁴to be made a pillar in God’s temple (3:12); ¹⁵to have God’s name, ¹⁶the New Jerusalem and ¹⁷Jesus’ new name written on them (3:12); ¹⁸to receive gold to make one rich (3:18); ¹⁹to receive white garments (3:18); ²⁰to have anointed eyes to see more (3:18); ²¹to eat with Jesus (3:20) ²²and sit on His Throne (3:21).

A. An overcomer is one who matures in the specific areas that Jesus emphasizes in their life. Overcoming does not mean attaining perfection in our character but rather constantly reaching for victory with all our strength. The Lord evaluates us with great tenderness and kindness.

B. To the church of Ephesus overcoming meant to return to their first love for Jesus until the end of their life. To the church in Smyrna it meant being faithful in persecution even to death. To the Church in Pergamos and Thyatira overcoming meant to resist immorality and idolatry for the remainder of their life. To the church in Sardis it was be watchful or to develop a prayer life and to hold fast the things that God entrusted to them from their earlier years. To the church in Philadelphia overcoming meant to persevere in mature obedience for the remaining years of their life. To the church of the Laodiceans overcoming meant to resist lukewarmness.

C. Overcoming does not mean attaining perfection in one's character but rather constantly reach for victory with all our strength. The Lord evaluates us with great tenderness. He is very kind in His evaluation of our lives,

D. Our greatest faithfulness is “flawed” yet it is rewarded if we will continually seek to obey. David and Abraham were both counted faithful in context to their “flawed obedience”. Paul wrote that David fulfilled all of God’s will (Acts 13:22), and Abraham’s faith did not waver (Rom. 4:20)

B. Second, The all believers view: overcoming unfaithfulness: a believer overcomes specifically as defined in Rev. 2-3. To overcome means to walk in spiritual maturity or to be consistently reaching for obedience. Teaches that all believers are overcomers because of the very act of believing in Jesus is all that is needed to be an overcomer (1 Jn. 5:4-5). Faith in Jesus rather than faithfulness to Him is emphasized in this position. In other words, both the spiritually mature and immature believers are equally overcomers. Thus, all the rewards in Rev. 2-3 are automatically and fully given to all believers as being synonymous with the gift of eternal life. The thief on the cross will receive the same reward as Paul and John the Baptist.

D. The eternal reward view: rightly teaches that the rewards in Rev. 2-3 are given in different degrees according to one’s faithfulness in loving and obeying Jesus. Rewards are given in addition to the free gift of eternal life. The issue is faithfulness to area that Jesus emphasized in their lives. Not all Christians overcome with faithfulness in the areas highlighted by the Spirit. Jesus is speaking to churches. The issue of salvation is settled, the issue in focus is the particular areas of unfaithfulness that Jesus emphasized in their lives. Not all Christians overcome the specific unfaithfulness Jesus highlights.