Revelation 3:20-21

²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears and listens to and heeds My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him, and he [will eat] with Me.

·         Here we see that Jesus tells these people to open the door themselves, but to the church that He keeps, the church of Philadelphia, He opened the door. You can imagine the sermons coming from the elders of the church of Laodicea: we need to accept Jesus, no man is promised tomorrow, you better come up here and bow down at this alter in front of the Pastor and accept Jesus as Lord. Open the door to Jesus or be damned. I hear it preached all of the time. But the Truth that sets us free is this: Jesus opens the door, He chooses us, and He gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to become one with Him. 

·         The Truth is also that Jesus has been given all of us and He has been empowered to give all that He has been given eternal life, John 17:2.

·         Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Him. And the lost will learn from us. Eternity will be filled with both good and bad people just as the Parable of the Marriage Supper proclaims that it will. The bad will be forgiven and allowed to learn the Truth that will set them free. Grace will be enjoyed by all.

·         When Jesus was here as a man 2000 years ago, He spoke in parables to all men. Then He would take His disciples aside and plainly tell them what He had just spoken. Well Jesus doesn’t change. Jesus spoke in this prophesy to all men, and He has given His chosen ones the Holy Spirit to teach us all things. Same Words, same Truth, but we know that it is Jesus within us, causing all of our Father’s judgments to come to pass in our lives. While those playing church look to themselves! 

²¹ He who overcomes (is victorious), I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne, as I Myself overcame (was victorious) and sat down beside My Father on His throne.

²² He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the [Holy] Spirit says to the assemblies (churches).

·         Jesus is always calling to those whom He has chosen. There is always a way and Jesus is always causes us to overcome the world! We are able to hear because Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit and He allows us to hear! We can’t help but hear, if we aren’t listening our Father will slap us awake and cause us to hear, Acts 12:7.

·         If these churches are representations of seven distinct church ages, wouldn’t the last church be the most mature one? It should be so that Jesus might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless]. Ephesians 5:27 But as we read about the 7^th church, the Laodiceans, what would be the last age for people who believe the Church age theory, we read that they are lukewarm, they are blind, naked, they are anything but glorious. So if the Truth is that these churches represent the seven different church ages, and if we are in the last times, we don’t have much to look forward to, do we? But the glorious Truth is that we do have a lot to look forward to, because Jesus always wins. So these six churches that Jesus has John write to have to represent organized religions that only appear to be doing the works of the Lord, yet in reality they are never really known by Him, Matthew 7:23. For us to say that these are seven distinct church ages would mean that five church ages failed miserably, one was only abused, and one did what they were suppose to do. And what that would mean is for five church ages Jesus failed miserably, one He was only abused and poor, and only in one was He successful. This to me makes it clear that these are seven styles of churches that will exist up until the last day. Jesus just doesn’t fail! 

·         I kept bringing the point up about these churches being referred to by many people as church ages. If you have never heard that teaching, then you must be thinking that I am crazy for talking about it so much. But I heard it taught that these churches were actually seven different distinct church ages, or seven different periods of time for the church, a ton growing up. This teaching is false and it makes Jesus out to be a failure in six periods of the church, and He isn’t. Jesus never has been a failure in my life. Jesus has been successful in my life in spite of me. Ur weaknesses never hinder Jesus’ success. He never was or is a failure in the Bible, so why would He be in six different periods of the church? So please bear with me if you have never heard the teaching of church ages, I was preaching a lot to myself.