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 The Door - Epilogue
Good Morning! Yawn! Kind of tough waking up this morning. We’ve got guests in our home this week, and that usually means we stay up later than we ought to.
How about you? Are you awake, yet? Got your coffee cup filled, or your tea, or your grapefruit juice poured?
For most of the past week, we’ve been talking about THE DOOR: the place of true worship of the Lord Jesus Christ, the place where we enter into His presence in reality – not religious or doctrinal theory. I suppose I could talk about this subject for weeks, and perhaps some day again in the future, we will revisit the topic. But I would like to conclude this series with one last look at the character of “The Door,” and take you into the seventh of the seven letters in Revelation that John wrote to the seven Ekklesias.
The letter to the Ekklesia in Laodicea has always been talked about as the letter to the "lukewarm" Christians, and indeed, it is one of the strongest rebukes given.
It is not my purpose in this study, however, to focus on all of the negatives in the letter, but rather to share what I have seen as the most incredible, the most tender wooing, the most graphic display of the heart of the Bridegroom in all of the letters.
First we have to consider where Laodicea was.
A little bit of history, if you please.
Laodicea was a sister city to Hierapolis and Colosse. These three cities were linked together as a major center of trade for Asia Minor. The Ekklesias in these cities had a close bond with one another; and when Paul addressed his letter to the Colossians, he noted the great conflict he was experiencing within himself for those at Colosse and Laodicea.
Although this suggestion flies in the face of a commonly held belief -- namely, that Paul was executed by Nero in, or about, 65 AD -- the letter to Colosse suggests that it may have been written shortly after the earthquake of 66 AD. It was perhaps the largest earthquake in the world of that particular era, and it devastated the cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis, and severely damaged the city of Colosse. Hierapolis was virtually destroyed as the earth opened up and swallowed many buildings and structures in their entirety. There was a great loss of life in all three cities, and the Ekklesias lost friends, brethren, and companions.
Paul's letter to Colosse notes their suffering, and comments on the fact that he has sent a letter to Laodicea, as well. He suggests that they should exchange his letters between themselves. Paul's epistle shows a great bond of love for these Ekklesias, and although we do not have a copy of his letter to Laodicea in existence today, we know from the content of his letter to Colosse that he shared some of the most wonderful of revelations with them -- some of the same revelations he shared with Ephesus.
Immediately following the earthquake, the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, began the task of rebuilding Hierapolis and Laodicea. For unknown reasons, he chose not to make any great repairs to Colosse, and over a period of years, the people of Colosse migrated to Laodicea and Hierapolis, leaving the ruins of the city to disintegrate.
As the first century neared its close, Laodicea had become the prime city of trade amongst the tri-cities group, a wealthy city; and the Ekklesia within Laodicea was filled with rich and prospering businessmen, precious metals brokers and trades people.
The Ekklesia, over the years, had undergone massive tribulation and persecution. They had been able to rise above it in much the same manner that Philadelphia had, and had persevered, gaining some credence and respect from the Roman emperor -- although this was more for their business acumen than their stance as Christians.
This, however, was a tragedy for Laodicea, because they were lulled to sleep spiritually. Their business successes and material prosperity began to so occupy their thoughts and activities that they more than
"lost their first love," as was noted about Ephesus. They were much like Solomon, who had experienced the Tabernacle of David, enjoyed the prosperity and blessings of the Lord because of his father's love relationship with the Lord, and seen blessings and the glory of the Lord poured upon him in a measure never known in the annals of history, and – in the midst of those blessings and glory – began to seek after relationships with "other women."
Those "other women" distracted Solomon from his relationship with the Lord, so that his "flame" began to dwindle. The busyness – the "other women," if you will – within Laodicea distracted them to the point that their "works" -- their labors and trials in the Lord, and the vitality of the love they once knew for Him -- simply died out. The flame of love had dwindled down to mere sparks. Thus, they were
"neither hot, nor cold."
Solomon repented in his later years of the fact that he was
"neither hot, nor cold." The question now was, would Laodicea also repent?
Near the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus told the parable of the ten virgins (see Matthew 25:1-13), who exemplified the Bride during the time of Ekklesia. (Ekklesia, you see, only exists for the purpose of preparing the Bride. Once prepared and joined with the Bridegroom, Ekklesia vanishes.) Five of the virgins were as the Ekklesia in Philadelphia, who overcame all, and were in a continuous state of readiness and expectation for the Bridegroom's coming. Five, however, were as Laodicea.
Though they had gone through all of the same processes of preparation, and had received their wedding garment, the five foolish had become complacent in their preparedness; and because the Bridegroom delayed His coming, they did not see to the reserve of oil -- that same oil which comes of crushing and pressure. Thus, they typified those who come to a stopping place in their responses to the processing of the Lord.
When the hour of the Bridegroom's arrival came, and the sound of the Bridegroom went forth for the Bride to hear, the five foolish suddenly awakened to find that their lamps -- their flame of love -- had long since gone out. Scrambling, they attempted to "buy" oil from the five wise. The five wise told them that they would have to go out and get their own oil -- they would have to
"buy" it from the "merchants who have to sell."
This is a poetic way of saying, "We got our oil through much processing, pressure, and trial. This is our lives! You will have to go and get your oil from the same "merchants."
When the Bridegroom came, the five foolish were out, trying to get more oil. The five wise went in with Him to the Bridal Chamber,
and the door was shut. There would be no more access. There would be no more opportunity. The marriage was being consummated. The Bride had been chosen -- and joined to the Bridegroom! Within the framework of Jewish tradition (and this is the framework from which Jesus' parables are drawn) the marriage lasted for seven days.
The five foolish showed up later (we don't know whether it was the same night, or another night) and realized that the other virgins had already gone into the Bridal Chamber. They came knocking on the door, saying,
"Lord! Lord! Let us in! Let us in!"
The Bridegroom answered the door, looked out at them, and said,
"I don't recognize you. (This is the true sense of the Greek word, eido, translated "know".)
You are not a part of the Bride I have chosen. We do not share a love-relationship together."
(**The word, eido, although a Greek word, was also used Hebraistically in the sense of "cherishing": to have regard – in the sense of a love relationship – for one another.)
The Ekklesia in Laodicea was certainly aware of Jesus' parable. It had been recited and rehearsed many times in their midst. Because of their state, and the fact that they now epitomized the five foolish in Jesus' parable, He now turns the tables to present them this picture (of the closed door) from the opposite sense, and places them .........
inside the Bridal Chamber, with Him on the outside!
His plea could not, therefore, be any more dramatic! There was no way they could fail to see the import of this picture!
"Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to Him, and sup with him, and he with me."
Wow! What significance! What a picture!
He has reversed the situation. Instead of the five foolish being on the outside, and He on the inside, He is on the outside, and they are on the inside.
When we understand that the door is the door of worship, we suddenly see Him as placing Himself in their position. The drama of this situation could not possible be lost on the Ekklesia in Laodicea. They were not worthy of worship! They were not worthy of His affection or adoration! They were not worthy of His regard and attention!
He was the one worthy of their affection and worship!
He was the one worthy of their adoration! He was the one worthy of
their attention -- and they had better get to it --
NOW!
The Lord, therefore, makes this final promise within the seven letters -- the promise to the overcomer:
"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne."
What were they overcoming?
The same thing Jesus overcame at the final hour! Pulling back from the processing.
You mean Jesus was tempted to quit?
Absolutely! His flesh literally crawled at the thought of being crucified, at the thought of being put to death. Every natural instinct was to quit at that point, yield to the flesh, use His supernatural power and abilities to call legions of angels --
and get out of Dodge!
Of course, you understand that He would have forfeited His Bride, had he yielded to those pressures; and we wouldn't be here today, talking about all of this.
The Laodicean Ekklesia had yielded to the flesh. They had quit in the midst of the pressure. They preferred the pampering of their creature comforts, and concluded that they had come far enough spiritually "to make it." Besides, the Lord was "prospering them, and blessing them," so He must be approving them.
Wrong! Blessing does not necessarily equate to approval.
John's seventh letter, therefore, makes it clear that there is never any stopping place. One cannot be content in their spirituality. One cannot cease to experience the pressure, the heat, the crushing, until such time as they become one with the Lord Jesus Christ -- until such time as the marriage is consummated -- until such time as the joining takes place.
There can be no end to worship! There can be no end to the sharing of our love, and the living of our love, to the Lord Jesus Christ! There can be no end to the sharing of ourselves, and the love built within us by the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, with one another in Ekklesia. Once the flame is allowed to go out, we risk the chance of the door being closed to us -- forever!
Jesus, therefore, used the door -- both open and closed -- as a symbol of the gateway to intimacy with Him. From the time of Adam and Eve to the present, the door has been one thing, and one thing only:
W O R S H I P ! !
When Jesus said, "I am the door: by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.....," He was making clear the fact that one may not come into relationship by any other means than by worshipping Him. The worship of other things, the worship of other gods, would not bring one into relationship and intimacy. There was no other way to eternal life -- "Life," being one with Him; and "Death," being separation from Him.
Thus, The Door! And thus, Ekklesia!
The whole purpose of Ekklesia is to bring us to the Marriage of the Lamb. The whole purpose of Ekklesia is to allow the Paraklete time to perform, and accomplish in us, those things which will ready and prepare us for the day of joining with the King. The objective of Ekklesia is the end of life in an earthly sense as we have known it, and the beginning of life in a dimension it sometimes appears few have ever known.
Beyond the door is a realm of living which transcends our natural thought processes. Beyond the door, time stands still. Adam and Eve first experienced it in the Garden. Enoch developed and grew into a love relationship, such that the Lord transported him into this realm. Moses saw it. David saw it. Beyond the door lies a vast inheritance.
This inheritance is two-fold. It is first and foremost, the fulfillment and finishing of all that the Lord has waited for as He is finally -- finally -- finally, complete! He gets to receive that which He has desired and longed for during all these millennia: a Bride who is everything He is: a Bride who completes in every way, every aspect of His existence. He receives a Bride who in every sense of the word is His co-equal counterpart -- His other self.
In the Song of Solomon, a Hebraistic phrase occurs several times which is translated in our English versions,
"my sister, my spouse." This Hebraism literally means,
"my counterpart, my other self." It is a clear demonstration of that which the Lord has desired, and which He is receiving -- on the other side of the door.
This inheritance also is a mode of living, a dimension of rulership, a means of functioning, which exceeds the wildest fancies of natural human thought. Those who live in the realm of worship on a daily basis -- now -- experience a small foretaste of the dimension beyond the door, and the inheritance in store for the Bride. That foretaste includes every conceivable realm of ministry we have categorized under the so-called "five-fold" ministries, the gifts and workings of the Holy Spirit. In the midst of worship, we have seen people come into a beginning relationship with Jesus Christ. In the midst of worship, we have seen deliverance go forth; we have seen people set free from demonic influence.
In the midst of worship, angels go forth and minister to those in captivity. We have seen angels go forth to free our children from bondage. In the midst of worship, the Lord begins to work in ways which are indescribable. Thrones are torn down. Principalities and powers are removed. A path is prepared for the Holy Spirit to go forth and work in the lives of those who have not yet responded to the Lord.
And this is only a tiny foretaste of that which is to come.
That which we have seen as Heaven -- the City of the Great King -- is only a metaphor for a dimension of living in which we are merged as One with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a picture of another universe -- in a manner of speaking -- the scope of which extends beyond the time-space continuum we have come to relate to as time-space beings. In so saying, I am not suggesting that it isn’t or cannot be a physical place to which we go with the Lord. Our ability to relate to Heaven, however, has been predicated on time and space: it has been predicated on living in the four dimensions we have all come to know.
Jesus, when He spoke of Heaven, related it in terms that we, as time-space-, earth-bound-, physically-oriented creatures, could relate to. Move that into the realm of the spirit, and all of the boundaries we have known and related to suddenly disappear. Time becomes irrelevant. Space becomes irrelevant. The earth, and all that is therein, becomes irrelevant.
Our makeup -- that which we consist of -- is being transformed. Once we have moved across the boundary of the door, to the realm of the continuous presence of the Lord, everything changes. None of the rules we have known and lived by apply. Our thinking is being transformed. To live on the other side necessitates the removal of all prior thought processes and modes of thinking.
A number of years ago, I was at Earle and Marcia's home in Anchorage. We had already moved to the ranch in Idaho, but I was traveling back and forth to Alaska as a broadcast engineering consultant. On this particular day, while sitting in the bathtub, the Lord spoke to me and said, "I am going to give you
carte blanche. (He was applying this in both an individual and corporate sense, referring to our Ekklesia.) My reaction was one of astonishment. I said, "Wow, Lord! You are going to give us a blank check? As in,
"whatsoever ye shall ask..?"
He responded with, "Yes, but first you must have a blank card." With this play on words, He flashed before me in an instant Paul's words,
"forgetting those things which are behind..." I suddenly saw the significance of what Paul was saying. In order to
"press toward the mark (the new onoma, written in our foreheads)
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," we must have a blank card in our minds. There must be a total erasure of all our pre-conditioning. There must be a complete wiping away of the way in which we have thought things through. There must be a complete forgetting of the past. There must be a radical blanking out of our doctrinal concepts, our expectation of how the Lord will operate in and through us, our perspective of how He has operated in the past, our view of our own limitations: in short, a blank card!
I began to realize that this is nothing less than supernatural. There is no way I can, by any act of my will, forget the past. Unless the Lord performs a miracle within my mind and thought processes, this is an impossibility.
How then, can we forget? How then, can we arrive at the blank card? I t is much simpler than we have believed. It happens in His presence. It happens in worship. It happens as we live, and remain there -- 24 hours per day. The blanking out of all hindrances in our thoughts, the erasure of past experiences -- both good and bad -- as a preconditioning to our expectations of the Lord, the view of our limitations, etc.: all these things vanish in His presence. He becomes our expectation. He becomes our limitation. He becomes our experiences. He becomes everything!
But it only happens in His presence. In His presence is "fullness." In His presence is completeness. In His presence is life! And, in His presence is the blank card necessary for
carte blanche. It is the beginning of the future. It is the beginning of a new dimension of living.
And there is nothing in this realm to compare it with! This is the beginning of the future. This is the beginning of life on the other side of the door.
The end is here! But, this is only the end of an era -- an epoch. This is not the end of all things. It is the beginning of new heavens -- new worlds -- a radically changed
onoma!
The sound of the Bridegroom is going forth! The Marriage of the Lamb is commencing!
T H E F U T U R E I S J U S T B E G I N N I N G ! ! !
Finish your coffee, and enjoy the day, Folks! May the blessings of the Lord unfold in you.
--Regner
Regner A. Capener
EKKLESIA HOUSE
RR-15, Box 6180
Mission, TX 78574-9589
(956) 583-5355
Chat
with Regner
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