Revelation 2 & 3 - Outline, Overview

Tue Jul 31 10:23:32 PDT 2012

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

July 31, 2012

 *2012-07-30 - Survey IX - REV 2-3 - OVERCOMERS: CONDITION FOR RESURRECTION*

 *1. LOVE. aGApe from a-gaPAo* - 116 (320) references*

*- EPHESUS, Revelation 2:1-7. A Church threatened with Removal for leaving
first love.*

*- LOVE: The characteristic word of Christianity.*

*- The Lord Jesus is the perfect expression of love among men.*

*- Self-will (self-pleasing) is the negation of love to God.*

*- Love can be known only from the action it prompts.*

 *2. TRIBULATION. THLIpsis from THLIbo* - 45 (58) references*

*- SMYRNA, Revelation 2:8-11. A church in Tribulation makes overcomers.*

*- Sufferings due to pressure of circumstances, antagonism of persons.*

*- For believers, invariably that which comes upon them from without.*

*- Like Christ, believers share sufferings of body and mind, Colossians
1:24.*

 *3. TEACHING. di-daCHE from diDASko* - 30 (220) references*

*- PERGAMUM, Revelation 2:12-17. Lowered standards through False Teaching.*

*- Emphasizes the Authority of teaching: di-da-skaLIa, the Act.*

*- Teaching of Fornication by Balaam came with authority.*

*- Authority of God’s ministries suffered from teaching of Nicolaitans.*

*- False teaching robs one of his overcoming potential.*

 *4. PROPHETESS. proPHEtis from eREo* - 2 (4076) references*

*- THYATIRA, Revelation 2:18-29. Lowered Standards through False Prophetess.
*

*- The self assumed title “of the woman Jezebel”.*

*- Luke 2:36 - Anna was a good prophetess.*

*- Lying prophets like Jezebel, if unchecked, can destroy a church.*

 *5. DEAD. neKROS* - 132 from 137 references*

*- SARDIS, Revelation 3:1-6. A Church rebuked for Dead Orthodoxy.*

*- One can be Orthodox (and dead) in letter, but alive in spirit.*

*- James 2:26, used most frequently of death of the body.*

*- Ephesians 2:1, the actual spiritual condition of unsaved men!*

*- Revelation 3:1, a church in declension; a state inactive and barren.*

*- Romans 6:11, ideal spiritual condition of believers in regard to sin.*

 *6. FAITHFUL. piSTOS from PEItho* - 67 (711) references*

*- PHILADELPHIA, Revelation 3:7-13. A Church fulfilling the Ideal: Faithful.
*

*- 1 Peter 1:5, Christ keeps the faithful by His power.*

*- Used here in the Passive sense: faithful, trustworthy, reliable.*

*- Used of God, 1 Corinthians 1:9; of Christ, 2 Thessalonians 3:3; of the
words of God, Acts 13:34; of servants of the Lord, Matthew 24:45; of
believers, Ephesians 1:1.*

 *7. LUKEWARM. chli-aPOS* - 1 reference*

*- LAODICEA, Revelation 3:14-22. A Church Lukewarm: abhorred by Christ.*

*- Only hot or cold would offer refreshment to the Lord.*

*- Wretched. taLAIpo-ros from POros* - 2 (13) references.*

*- Wretched - a weight hardening the spirit as blindness dims the eye.*

*- Miserable - e-le-eiNOS from Ele-os* - 1 (78) references.*

*- Poor - ptoCHOS* - 34 (38) references.*

*- Blind - tuphLOS from TUpho* - 53 (61) references.*

*- Naked - gumNOS* - 15 (24) references.*

*- The above five - produce a lukewarm condition.*

 *OVERCOME** - niKA**o from NIke* - 28 (34) references*

*- Believers are to be pre-eminently victorious, Romans 8:37.*

*- Believers overcome the world through faith, 1 John 5:4.*

*- We overcome through the blood of Christ and Word of our testimony,
Revelation 12:11.*

*- All promises of 1 & 2 Thessalonica and the 7 Revelation churches are for
overcomers.*

*- Thessalonians teach that fornication will rob of Christ’s Parousia.*

 *NOTE**: I link the above “teaching” with the tribe of “Naphtali”. And in
turn I link “Naphtali” with the “Presbytery” concept which was the first of
12 truths restored to the church in the 1948 Visitation at North
Battleford, Saskatchewan. **(My linkages are not “Thus says the Lord.” Feel
free to work out your own linkages. These are like my sentence titles in
the “Outlined Interlinear NT”.)*

 *The Continent of Africa has been moving in the direction of demonstrating
the “Presbytery” concept. When Elvin Gladney and Felix Anderson visited
Kenya recently, a real break-through took place in this direction. Other
adjoining nations also took a decided interest.*

 *Years ago, Rees Howells and his wife spent 6 years in Gazaland, near the
border of Portuguese East Africa, and God gave them a promised outpouring
of the Spirit that fulfilled this expectation. 10,000 souls came to Christ
in the various nations of the South Africa General Mission founded by
Andrew Murray. The challenging account of this appears in the biography
“Rees Howells, Intercessor” written by Norman P. Grubb in 1951.*

 *Only 2 of the 7 churches addressed by Jesus in the Book of Revelation
have a clear testimony, and two have very bad testimonies. Yet - each of
the 7 have “Overcomers” in them! How encouraging!*

 *The Presbytery concept restored in 1948 featured or majored upon the
“Laying on of Hands” and Prophecy to set apart individuals in Christ’s
body, with His particular and unique calling on their behalf.*

 *However - the Bible recounts a number of other functions that God uses
the Presbytery for. In the Book of Ruth, Boaz through the witness of
Presbytery, solved an “Inheritance Problem”. In Acts 13:1-3 Presbytery or
Eldership in the Gate of a City Church commissioned the first missionaries
- Barnabas and Saul. In Acts 15 the serious doctrinal problem of solving
the “Judaizing Controversy” of the early church was solved. In Acts 6, the
challenge of meeting the Jerusalem City Church need for 7 deacons was met.
In the beginning, 7 deacons served the entire church of Jerusalem composed
of scores and hundreds of local churches in the home. Plurality of
Eldership in the beginning was on a City Church basis, not on the basis of
a local church.*

 *James 5 indicates that the Eldership or Presbytery of a City Church could
be called upon for a “healing ministry” that was unique.*

 *It might be appropriate at this point to repeat an abbreviated study on
“church”, ek-kleSIa, 114 references, referring to those called out of a
former state - ek, “from or out of” and kaLEo, to call. I did this back in
1967. “Church” appears 1x in Acts 7, referring to Israel as the church in
the Wilderness; 14x as the church in a home, a local church, such as that
of Aquila and Priscilla; 15x as the universal church of all time, composed
of Jews and Gentiles; but - 81x as the City Church. 14x of this latter are
contained in Revelation 2 & 3. The Holy Spirit invariably has His writers
place emphasis by number of references upon that which He deems most
important!*

 *A missionary from Brazil on one occasion told me: “Jim, your vision for
City Churches with an Eldership or Presbytery functioning in their Gates -
appears Scriptural and valid. However, until God demonstrates this concept
by seeing a functioning City Church and Presbytery restored, it won’t have
too much effect. But once one such city church and Presbytery can be
demonstrated, I can guarantee bringing leaders to visit it from some 40
countries. They will not only observe what God demonstrates in restoration
power, but they will request bringing key leaders back home with them - to
help them reduplicate this concept in the major cities of their nations!”*

 *Some of us in the State of Washington, believe that God is about to make
such a restoration demonstration in one of its cities.*

 *May then we soon see a City Church composed of numbers of local churches
- moving in unity with not only overcomers, but also a functioning
Eldership or Presbytery in its Gate. As Jesus said, the gates or counsels
of hell will not prevail against such a church that He builds! Jim Watt*

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