|
|
• Key
SRB = Scofield Margin Notes JFB = Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Commentary JFB = Introduction AC = Adam Clarke Comentary AC = Chronology by Adam Clarke OU1 = OUtline Index of Book OU = OUtline of This Chapter
• AC Top â € ¢ SRB JFB OU OU Index • AC Top â € ¢ SRB JFB OU OU Index Filled up. They performed duties of all kinds, but no duty completely. They were constantly beginning, but never brought any thing to a proper end. Their resolutions were languid, their strength feeble, and their light dim. They probably maintained their reputation before men, but their works were not perfect before God. • AC Top â € ¢ SRB JFB OU OU Index • AC Top â € ¢ SRB JFB OU OU Index • AC Top â € ¢ SRB JFB OU OU Index • AC Top â € ¢ SRB JFB OU OU Index • AC Top â € ¢ SRB JFB OU OU Index
In whom holiness essentially dwells, and from whom all holiness is derived. He that is true
He that hath the key of
David Verse 8. I have set before thee an
open door Thou hast a little
strength Verse 9. I will make
them I will make them to come and
worship To know that I have loved
thee. Verse 10. The word of my
patience The hour of
temptation To try them
Verse 11. Behold, I come
quickly Take thy crown.
Verse 12. A pillar in the
temple I will write upon him the name of
my God And the name of the city of my
God My new name.
There is here an intimation that the Christian
Church is to endure for ever; and the Christian
ministry to last as long as time endures: He shall
go no more out for ever.
Epistle to the Church of the Laodiceans. Verse
14. These things saith the Amen
The beginning of the creation of
God Verse 15. Thou art neither cold nor
hot I would thou wert cold or
hot "To good and evil equal bent, I'm both a devil and a
saint."
They were too good to go to hell, too
bad to go to heaven. Like Ephraim and Judah, Hosea
6:4: O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah,
what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a
morning cloud, and as the early dew it passeth
away. They had good dispositions which were
captivated by evil ones, and they had evil dispositions
which in their turn yielded to those that were good; and the
Divine justice and mercy seem puzzled to know what to do
to or with them. This was the state of the
Laodicean Church; and our Lord expresses here in this apparent
wish, the same that is expressed by Epictetus,
Ench., chap. 36. (οις Verse 16. Because thou art
lukewarm I will spue thee out of my
mouth. Verse 17. I am rich
Thou art wretched
And miserable
And poor And blind And naked
Verse 18. I counsel
thee Gold tried in the
fire White raiment
Anoint thine eyes
Verse 19. As many as I
love Be zealous Verse 20. Behold, I stand at the
door and knock In Sohar Levit, fol. 8, col. 32, it is said: "If a
man conceal his sin, and do not open it before the holy
King, although he ask mercy, yet the door of repentance
shall not be opened to him. But if he open it
before the holy blessed God, God spares him, and mercy
prevails over wrath; and when he laments, although all
the doors were shut, yet they shall be
opened to him, and his prayer shall be heard."
Christ stands-waits long, at the door of the
sinner's heart; he knocks-uses judgments, mercies,
reproofs, exhortations, induce sinners to repent and turn to
hi; he lifts up his voice-calls loudly by his word,
ministers, and Spirit.
If any man hear
And open the door
I will come in to
him Will sup with him
And he with me.
Verse 21. To sit with me in my
throne This is the worst of the seven Churches, and yet the most
eminent of all the promises are made to it, showing that the
worst may repent, finally conquer, and attain even to the
highest state of glory.
Verse 22. He that hath an ear, let
him hear The latest account we have of the state of the seven
Asiatic Churches is in a letter from the Rev.
Henry Lindsay, chaplain to the British embassy at
Constantinople, to a member of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, by which society Mr. Lindsay had
been solicited to distribute some copies of the New Testament
in modern Greek among the Christians in Asia Minor. The
following is his communication, dated:- "Constantinople,
January 10,1816. "When I last wrote to you, I was on the
point of setting out on a short excursion into Asia Minor.
Travelling hastily, as I was constrained to do from the
circumstances of my situation, the information I could procure
was necessarily superficial and unsatisfactory. As, however, I
distributed the few books of the society which I was able to
carry with me, I think it necessary to give some account of
the course I took:
"1. The regular intercourse of England with SMYRNA will
enable you to procure as accurate intelligence of its present
state as any I can pretend to offer. From the conversations I
had with the Greek bishop and his clergy, as well as various
well-informed individuals, I am led to suppose that, if the
population of Smyrna be estimated at one hundred and forty
thousand inhabitants, there are from fifteen to
twenty thousand Greeks, six thousand Armenians,
five thousand Catholics, one hundred and forty
Protestants, and eleven thousand Jews.
"2. After Smyrna, the first place I visited was EPHESUS, or
rather (as the site is not quite the same) Aiasalick, which
consists of about fifteen poor cottages. I found there but
three Christians, two brothers who keep a small shop,
and a gardener. They are all three Greeks, and their ignorance
is lamentable indeed. In that place, which was blessed so long
with an apostle's labours, and those of his zealous assistants
are Christians who have not so much as heard of that apostle,
or seem only to recognize the name of Paul as one in the
calendar of their saints. One of them I found able to read a
little, and left with him the New Testament, in ancient and
modern Greek, which he expressed a strong desire to read, and
promised me he would not only study it himself, but lend it to
his friends in the neighbouring villages.
"3. My next object was to see LAODICEA; in the road to this
is Guzel-hisar, a large town, with one church, and about
seven hundred Christians. In conversing with the
priests here, I found them so little acquainted with the
Bible, or even the New Testament in an entire form, that they
had no distinct knowledge of the books it contained beyond the
four gospels, but mentioned them indiscriminately with various
idle legends and lives of saints. I have sent thither three
copies of the modern Greek Testament since my return. About
three miles from Laodicea is Denizli, which has been styled
(but I am inclined to think erroneously) the ancient Colosse;
it is a considerable town, with about four hundred
Christians, Greeks, and Armenians, each of whom has a church.
I regret however to say that here also the most extravagant
tales of miracles, and fabulous accounts of angels, saints,
and relics, had so usurped the place of the Scriptures as to
render it very difficult to separate in their minds Divine
truths from human inventions. I felt that here that unhappy
time was come when men should 'turn away their ears from the
truth, and be turned unto fables.' I had with me some copies
of the gospels in ancient Greek which I distributed here, as
in some other places through which I had passed. Eski-hisar,
close to which are the remains of ancient Laodicea, contains
about fifty poor inhabitants, in which number are but two
Christians, who live together in a small mill; unhappily
neither could read at all; the copy therefore of the New
Testament, which I intended for this Church, I left with that
of Denizli, the offspring and poor remains of Laodicea and
Colosse. The prayers of the mosque are the only prayers which
are heard near the ruins of Laodicea, on which the threat
seems to have been fully executed in its utter rejection as a
Church.
"4. I left it for PHILADELPHIA, now Alah-shehr. It was
gratifying to find at last some surviving fruits of early
zeal; and here, at least, whatever may be the loss of the
spirit of Christianity, there is still the form
of a Christian Church; this has been kept from the 'hour of
temptation,' which came upon all the Christian world. There
are here about one thousand Christians, chiefly Greeks,
who for the most part speak only Turkish; there are
twenty-five places of public worship, five of which are large
regular churches; to these there is a resident bishop, with
twenty inferior clergy. A copy of the modern Greek Testament
was received by the bishop with great thankfulness.
"5. I quitted Alah-shehr, deeply disappointed at the
statement I received there of the Church of SARDIS. I trusted
that in its utmost trials it would not have been suffered to
perish utterly, and I heard with surprise that not a vestige
of it remained. With what satisfaction then did I find on the
plains of Sardis a small Church establishment; the few
Christians who dwell around modern Sart were anxious to settle
there and erect a church, as they were in the habit of meeting
at each other's houses for the exercise of religion. rom this
design they were prohibited by Kar Osman Oglu, the Turkish
governor of the district; and in consequence, about five years
ago they built a church upon the plain, within view of ancient
Sardis, and there they maintain a priest. The place has
gradually risen into a little village, now called Tatar-keny;
thither the few Christians of Sart, who amount to
seven, and those in its immediate vicinity, resort for
public worship, and form together a congregation of about
forty. There appears then still a remnant, 'a few names even
in Sardis,' which have been preserved. I cannot repeat the
expressions of gratitude with which they received a copy of
the New Testament in a language with which they were familiar.
Several crowded about the priest to hear it on the spot, and I
left them thus engaged.
"6. Ak-hisar, the ancient THYATIRA, is said to contain
about thirty thousand inhabitants, of whom three
thousand are Christians, all Greeks except about two
hundred Armenians. There is, however, but one Greek church
and one Armenian. The superior of the Greek Church to whom I
presented the Romaic Testament esteemed it so great a treasure
that he earnestly pressed me, if possible, to spare another,
that one might be secured to the Church and free from
accidents, while the other went round among the people for
their private reading. I have, therefore, since my return
hither, sent him four copies.
"7. The Church of PERGAMOS, in respect to numbers, may be
said to flourish still in Bergamo. The town is less than
Ak-hisar, but the number of Christians is about as great, the
proportion of Armenians to Greeks nearly the same, and each
nation also has one church. The bishop of the district, who
occasionally resides there, was at that time absent, and I
experienced with deep regret that the resident clergy were
totally incapable of estimating the gift I intended them; I
therefore delivered the Testament to the lay vicar of the
bishop at his urgent request, he having assured me that the
bishop would highly prize so valuable an acquisition to the
Church. He seemed much pleased that the benighted state of his
nation had excited the attention of strangers.
"Thus, sir, I have left at least one copy of the
unadulterated word of God at each of the seven Asiatic
Churches of the Apocalypse, and I trust they are not utterly
thrown away; but whoever may plant, it is God only who can
give the increase, and from his goodness we may hope they will
in due time bring forth fruit, 'some thirty, some sixty, and
some a hundred fold.' "HENRY LINDSAY."
In my note on Acts
19:24, I have given an account of the celebrated temple of
Diana at Ephesus, to which building, called one of the
seven wonders of the world, St. Paul is supposed to
allude in his epistle to this Church, particularly at Ephesians
3:18, where I have again given the measurement of tis
temple.
SRB = Scofield Margin Notes JFB = Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Commentary JFB = Introduction AC = Adam Clarke Comentary AC = Chronology by Adam Clarke OU1 = OUtline Index of Book OU = OUtline of This Chapter
NOTE: If your reference search placed you here it is indication that there are no Outline References for your search on this page. To return . . . click the link on the Key above ~ Or CLICK Additional Resources
• Barnes' New Testament • Darby's Synopsis • Gill's Exposition • Geneva Study Bible • David Guzik's Commentaries • Jamieson, Fausset, Brown • Matthew Henry Complete • Matthew Henry Concise • People's New Testament • Robertson's Word Pictures • The Fourfold Gospel • Treasury of Scripture • Wesley's Explanatory Notes Copyright Statement |
Revelation Reference Bible Indexed
|
Craig Pages |
|
[Site Index]
[Sermons]
[Blessings]
[Sermon Starters]
[Short & Long]
[News]
[Family]
[Contacts]
[Our Links]
|
|
