1. Thyatira
   Rev 2:18
   To the church in Thyatira, the Lord refers to Himself as the Som of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass.

• Son of God
Referring to Himself as the son of God shows He still holds on to His identity as the Son of Man. Through the Holy Spirit He continues to abide with the church to preach the gospel for people to repent. He continues being our Mediator when we repent.

Heb 7:22-25
Jesus has established a better covenant; the covenant of the New Testament. Not only has He become the mediator able to save us from sin, He’s also a mediator in heaven to make intercession for us; to pray for us. Thats why those who come to God through Him will be saved to the uttermost. Understand that our Lord Jesus continues to intercede for us. You’re not someone nobody cares about. While perhaps no one on earth seems to care for you. Perhaps they have left you. You may feel lonely and helpless. But here Jesus tells us that He’s that Mediator in heaven interceding for us. Know the Lord cares for and is praying for you. But do you believe? Will you come before the presence of God? Jesus can intercede for you but first you have to come through Him before God. Jesus can pray for you but He can’t go to the Father on your behalf. You have to do it yourself.

Some people prefer to go through Mary since Jesus is her son and will listen to her. Some people purport praying through Mary would result in a prayer that is more likely to be answered. Some say it’s better to pray through the apostles or pray through a gifted/talented preacher. The speaker’s mother was like that lol. Told him to pray for her. He asked her why she doesn’t pray on her own. She said Jesus will listen to him more because he’s a preacher lol

We forget that Jesus is our own mediator. Why do we want to find others to be this mediator? Having this thought goes against the teaching of the Bible because there’s only ONE mediator between man and God - Jesus. If you pray through Mary or a gifted preacher, they become another Mediator.

That’s why Jesus proclaimed to be the son of God and not the son of Mary.

• Eyes like a flame of fire
Fire can illuminate the darkness. That means there’s nothing hidden in darkness Jesus is not able to know. Sadly, some believers thinks Jesus won’t know. They think they can hide things from Jesus.

Acts 5:1-3
Ananias didn’t bring the entire proceeds from selling his possession. This in itself wasn’t a sin; believers have absolute authority over their own possessions (v4). It’s up to believers to decide how much to offer. The church won’t demand a fixed amount. In those days the believers thought the Lord was coming really soon so they sold their possessions and zealously preached the gospel. Seeing this, Ananias thought it would be shameful if he didn’t do the same. But if he offered all the money, his money pocket wouldn’t be able to bear this lack of money. In this conundrum, there arose an evil thought: perhaps I can lie to say the offering is the entire sum but I keep some behind! Then I can keep both my face/dignity and keep some money back. He felt this was a win-win situation but it led to a double death.

Peter rebuked him, “Why has this evil thought filled your heart? You have not deceived Man but the Holy Spirit.” We may be like Ananias where we want to keep both our face and our bag. We have to defeat the Ananias in our hearts before we end up stumbling.

• Feet like fine brass
The feet are very important. The entire weight of our body are borne by our two feet. Without strength in our feet, we won’t even be able to stand. The feet of our Lord is like fine brass. This means His feet is strong and full of vitality. He’s able to trample on all enemies and sin. What does this have to do with the church?

Luke 10:18-19
“I saw Satan fall like lightning like heaven.”
Some people think Satan is very powerful and fighting with God in Heaven. But from here we see Satan has no place or power in heaven. Not only so, v19 also says (read). It’s not because we’re very courageous that we don’t fear the authority of the evil one. Are you scared of ghosts? Some people say it’s the lunar 7th month so we need to be careful. Actually we aren’t afraid of ghosts not because we’re bold but because we know we’re the children of God. The feet of the Lord Jesus has trampled over all the feet of the enemy. More importantly, He has given this power to the church. Therefore we do not fear. But what if we’re not within the Lord? The church has authority because it magnifies the Lord. But if the church instead brings up Man, doesn’t rely on God but the money and power of Man, will it still have the authority to trample the enemy? It will only have this authority if it makes God the head.

Fine brass also represents the judgement of the Lord is fine/光明 and fair. There’re many biblical references relating the brass and judgement (which won’t be referred to in this sermon). Do not have the mentality that perhaps the Lord will let me off for doing this.

Also note that the Lord won’t treat sin or evil as something not sinful. Likewise He won’t treat what is not sinful as sinful. There’s no need to cry out injustice to the Lord. Often, people who cry out injustice are themselves unjust.

Judgement begins from the house of the Lord. We might think that since we are the children of God, we have special privileges and those outside will be judged first. But Peter corrects this wrong thinking. We as children of the Lord need to be vigilant. We need to fear and heed the words of the Lord because judgement begins from the house of the Lord. If we have sin, we need to repent. If we haven’t, continue to preserve ourselves in the word of God.

1. Philadelphia
   Rev 3:7
   Jesus refers to Himself to the church in Philadelphia as He who is holy, true, has the key of David, who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.

• He who is holy
Do we truly recognise the Lord Jesus is holy? There’s a difference between knowing in your mind and truly understanding this in your heart. Having the knowledge in your mind alone is superficial. But understanding it in your heart evokes responses of fear. The devil knows Jesus is the holy one. But how does the devil react to this knowledge? When Jesus was going to cast the evil spirits out, they KNEW He was the holy one. “Have You come to destroy us? The time has not come!” The devil knows from his heart that Jesus is the holy one and fears.

Now for us: we know Jesus is the holy one. “I know.” And we don’t fear like the devils.

Let’s talk about the prophets now. Isaiah heard the voices of the seraphim ringing ‘holy holy holy’. How did he react? “Woe is me!” Why did he react in such a strong manner? Because when he beheld the holiness of the Lord, he was reminded of his unholiness. Compared to others and even other prophets, he’s a lot more holy. But compared to the Lord, he felt so unholy and hence cried out woe is me! Besides this, he repented and asked for forgiveness. And the holy God cleansed his uncleanness. We too should repent before the holy God.

Don’t always look at the unholiness of others but look at ourselves. If we fixate on the unholiness of others, we aren’t able to ourselves repent and become better.

• One who has the key of David
This signifies to the authority David had over the Davidic kingdom which typifies the heavenly kingdom. The heavenly kingdom is under the authority of Jesus; He is the heavenly king. “All power and authority are in my hands. So go and make disciples of all nations.” When we make such a bold proclamation to go the ends of the earth to preach Jesus, what’s it based on? That He has the key of David; the heavenly kingdom. If we want to enter the heavenly kingdom, we won’t be able to do so unless we have the key. “No one comes to the Father except through me.” If we want to receive eternal life, there’s only one way, and that’s through believing Jesus. Because He’s the only one with the authority to open the doors to the heavenly kingdom. That’s why we heed the words of the Lord Jesus and preach this to our friends and family. Only He can open and shut the door. The door to the heavenly kingdom was opened when Jesus commanded His disciples to preach the gospel. No one will be able to shut the door. This doesn’t mean no one can oppose/obstruct this door. And people have been successful in obstructing. Yes they obstruct but it’s only for a while and not forever. History shows us the doors of the church were shut, Bibles were burned. Many people reckoned Christianity would dissolve. It seemed the doors of heaven were shut. But later on why did so many people come to believe in the Lord?

Closer to us, consider our members in China. During the cultural revolution where our members weren’t able to gather or own a Bible, you’d think that they wouldn’t be able to continue in their faith. But when China opened, the number of members who remained were much greater than what we imagined it to be! That’s because they preached in secret. They baptised in secret, even in winter! The opposers weren’t so zealous to be out in the cold to watch over them. “Why didn’t they just wait for the cultural revolution ended?” “We don’t know when it’ll end. We don’t want it to be the case when we’re not saved in the end. Don’t want to take this chance.”

It may seem like many are bound but the gospel will never be bound. Jesus is leading and watching the way to the open door of salvation. But one day the door will be shut. Even if you knock, the door won’t be opened for you. Therefore hold dear these days of deliverance. Repent to get through the door. Once the door is closed, there’ll be no use knocking asking or wanting to serve the Lord. It’ll be too late. Hold dear this period of deliverance. Preserve ourselves in the Lord so we can bring our loved ones to be saved.

1. Laodecia
   Rev 3:14
   Jesus referred to Himself to the Laodecians as the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.

• Amen
Amen means truly. In the epistles/letters of the apostles, they’d always add in amen at the end. After we pray, we also use amen. But don’t mistake that amen just means end. It has a very serious significance. In the Old Testament especially, amen is used in a very serious way.

Deut 27:15-16 -26 (read)
When the Lord proclaimed these curses in Mt Ebal, after each curse, all the people had to say amen. Because these things concerned their own lives and concerned God’s blessings and curses. These are all true. When you say amen, you acknowledge all these things to be true. As we hear the word of God, we don’t have to say amen. On TV, other churches may have members saying out loud amen as the preacher is speaking. We don’t need to verbally say amen but we need to do so in our hearts. We need to have a very serious understanding towards the word of God. That’s how the word of God is able to be rooted in our hearts. If we don’t say amen in our hearts or don’t know what is being talked about (sometimes listening to the word of God is just listening to sounds). We need to say amen to show we are genuinely listening to God’s word and not just hearing it as muttering. God will be pleased if we say amen and sad if we don’t. Just like how we would feel sad when our children don’t listen to us.

We also see amen in places like the psalm when praising God. Some verses say “you ought to say amen”. Praising God is a serious matter and not something we do out of habit. If there’s a celebrity performing and you don’t clap, the celebrity may tell you to clap or if we don’t clap we’ll be seen as rude.

As we praise God with our lips, our hearts should also say amen. The Lord will be pleased when our hearts and voice our synchronised. “I truly agree with whatever I’ve just sung.” If we sing very beautifully but don’t say amen in our heart, what good is there out of this? The Lord says He is the amen. He wants us to say amen as we hear His word and praise Him too.

• He who is faithful and true
What does this have to do with our life of faith? To people in affliction, the faithfulness and truthfulness of God brings comfort.

1 Cor 10:13
Do we see the connection between affliction and God’s faithfulness? When we’re suffering or in temptation, God will open a way for you that we may be able to bear it. He won’t allow any temptation to overtake you. To those with sin, God’s faithfulness motivates them unto repentance.

1 John 1:9
God is faithful. If we confess our sins, He’ll surely forgive.

• The beginning of the creation of God
They didn’t treat the Lord Jesus as the beginning. They haven’t esteemed the Lord to be the beginning/first in their lives but esteem money instead. The Lord Jesus doesn’t have any place in their hearts. That’s why the Lord is knocking at their door. They’re the church of Laodecia bjr thr Lord is not with them. They believe but the Lord is not with them. The Lord is instead OUTSIDE knocking. We need to magnify the Lord and let Him rule our hearts.

Saying He’s the beginning of the creation of God allows us to understand that all came about and all is remaining in order because of Him. It wouldn’t be possible without Him.

All creation hang on Him. We are created by Him. Why don’t we rely on Him? Without the Lord in our lives, can we really continue living? If we really want to be saved, why don’t we have the Lord in us? The Lord beseeches us to open the door of our hearts. Because if we lose the Lord, we lose everything.

437: Who at My Door Is Standing?
Why does the Lord need to stand at the door of our hearts to knock? He has the power to enter if He wants. But He chooses to stand outside to knock. He wants us to open the door willingly. He continues to stand at the door knocking. When will we be willing to open up the door for Him to enter?