Well, good morning.
This past New Year’s, Stella and I had the privilege of being with the young people from Dothan, Alabama. After the September 11 tragedy and everything else going on in the world, they asked us to come down and share on the book of Revelation.
As we considered that book, there was a certain aspect of it that really struck my heart at the time, and it has stuck with me. A couple of weeks ago, Dana shared with us a very encouraging word from the book of Revelation. If you missed that, it would be good for all of us to go back and hear it again, because it was such an encouraging word.
He was saying how the book of Revelation is a book that has such great consolation for us in these days that we are living in—in the crisis of the world and the crisis of the church. This book of Revelation gives us a great consolation.
And what is that consolation? The consolation is that our Lord God always has an answer. He has a remedy for every situation, and it is simply a greater revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever we are in, whatever type of crisis we might find our individual lives in, whether in the world situation or the church, it is a greater revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, we do need to clarify that when we are speaking of the church in crisis, we are talking about us down here on earth in these bodies. In spiritual reality, there is nothing wrong with the church. He is Lord, and in spiritual reality, the church is fine. He is doing a building work among us.
Again, the problem and the crisis on this earth is not on His side. It is with us, as we resist the work that He is trying to do. As He seeks to purify and set us free from so many things that entangle us, it can be a dirty work at times. But praise the Lord: the more we see of Christ, the more it works within our hearts.
As I was looking at this book of Revelation, there was one particular aspect that struck me. That is what I would like for us to fellowship about today, and Dana touched on it also. It is the question: Who was this book written to?
Who was this book written to? It was written to His bondservants—those love slaves of the Lord. You know, it is the only book in the New Testament that is written to bondservants. If you look at all the introductions to every other book, they are written to the church, to the saints, to the beloved ones. You can go through the whole list. This is the one that is written to His bondservants.
I think there is a special meaning in that. This is the last book of the Bible, and He is wanting to come in and reveal Himself to His bondservants. So let us turn to Revelation 1 and read a couple of verses there.
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bondservants, even the things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John;
who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.—Revelation 1:1-3
As we approach this book of Revelation, we all have this desire in these end days that we want to serve our Lord. We want to rule and reign with Him. Everybody, in their hearts, says, “Yes, I want to rule with Him. I want to reign with Him, and that is going to be glorious.”
Well, who is it, brothers and sisters, that is ruling and reigning with our Lord? Turn over to Revelation 22. Look at the end.
There shall be no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and His servants shall serve Him;
and they shall see His face; and His name shall be on their foreheads.
And there shall be night no more; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.—Revelation 22:3-5
I would like for us this morning to consider afresh this whole issue of being a bondservant of the Lord. Now, it is a familiar thing, and when we come to familiar matters, we need to ask the Lord to help us hear in a fresh way what He is saying.
Lord, we do come into Your presence. We come as those in need of Your precious Holy Spirit.
Lord, do open our hearts in a fresh way, that we could receive Your word in this hour. Lord, as we would even know something of this matter of a bondservant, for right now we want to lay that down and lay it aside, that You could speak to all of our hearts in a way that we could come into a greater appreciation and a greater reality of these ones that You are calling, these ones that You are revealing Yourself to in these days and in this book.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
As we approach this matter of the bondservant, I would like for us to use one of the verses that we read in Revelation 1 as our outline for how we will approach it. It is the third verse there, Revelation 1:3:
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.
—Revelation 1:3
The first aspect we will look at is, “Blessed is he who reads.” Who is it written to? It is written to His bondservants. What is a bondservant? We will touch on that.
Second, it says, “Blessed are those who hear the words of the prophecy.” The bondservant is the one who is to hear what the Master is saying. I think the most important characteristic, or feature, of a bondservant is having an ear to hear.
We know in Revelation 2 and 3, as the Lord reveals Himself to each one of the churches, the challenge He has to each individual within that church is, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Then the third part of that verse says, “Blessed are those who heed the things that are written.” It is not enough just for the bondservant to hear his Master. The bondservant is also to heed, or obey, what the Master is bidding him to do.
We see in this book a beautiful picture of those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They fell in love with that Master. Whatever He asked, wherever He went before them, they followed Him and obeyed Him. So that is kind of the overall outline of how we will be looking at this today.
First, what is a bondservant? In the Scriptures, we have three types of servants presented to us throughout different parts of Scripture.
We have one who is a hireling—a hired servant. He serves for money, or self-gain, for what he can get out of it. When the wolf comes, he flees away. He is there to get his paycheck. It is all for himself, for self-gain and his own rewards.
Then we have the slave. A slave in the Scriptures is one who was either captured or, for some reason, sold into slavery. Because of where he is, the position he is in, he has to serve. He serves out of duty, because he is in a certain place. That is his motivation. He is a slave; that is his job description and the position he is in. Therefore, he serves his master. He does not have to like the master. It does not matter. He does it because that is where he is.
But then we have the third category, and that is the bondservant. The bondservant is one who serves his master out of love. He loves his master.
We do not have time today to go through all the Old Testament Scriptures, but if you want to reference them, go back and read Exodus 21 and Deuteronomy 15. There we see the description of one being a bondservant.
This one had been a slave, and then his master came to him at the end of his appointed time and set him free. He was totally free to go. He was redeemed from his bondage.
Not only was he set free, but the master equipped him with everything he would need. He gave him from his flock. He gave him a lamb, like the Lamb of God. He gave him food from the threshing floor. He gave him wine from the vat. He was free and blessed with everything, and the master said, “You can go out now.”
Some chose to go out. But there were some special ones who said, “No, I love my master and his house so much that I choose to stay here. I will stay here, and I will serve. I will no longer serve my interests, but because of his love, I will serve his interests. I will be involved with his purpose, his heart, and the things that he desires. They will be my desire.”
It is a motivation of love. Brothers and sisters, is that not what the Lord has done for each one of us? We who were in slavery—He has purchased and redeemed us and transferred us out of the kingdom of darkness and called us into the kingdom of His beloved Son.
When He saves us, He equips us with everything we need. We have the Lamb of God. What a wonderful testimony, as we were reminded by Kennedy, of the reality of this table and of what we have.
We have that bread of life. We have the true wine of life. We have the Holy Spirit within us. We are equipped with everything when we are saved.
And what does our Lord say unto us? Does He demand that we serve Him? No. As we see that love, we say, “Lord, I want to love You.”
Actually, brothers and sisters, as we think about these three types of servants, if we are honest, we are all three types at different points. We have all three of them within us.
It would be nice if we could be so idealistic as to think that we are all these wonderful bondservants, but at times we are hirelings. We do things purely out of self-interest. At times we are just slaves. We do things because we are in a certain position. But praise the Lord, at times we do things because we have a love for our Master.
As we are on this earth, the Lord is trying to purify us in a greater way. We all desire to be more and more in love with Him, that more and more of our actions would be from that motivation of love unto Him.
What motivated that bondslave? He came to know his master. He knew his master’s love. He knew that when he gave himself to his master, he was not really giving up anything of himself, because he knew his master would treat him better than he could treat himself.
Brothers and sisters, once we see the love of God, we will see that the love of God treats us so much better than even our own self-love for ourselves. Sometimes we think our self-love is so great, but it leads to a path of destruction. His love is always good for us.
We see this perfect picture of a bondservant in our Lord Jesus. He relinquished everything because He loved His Father and gave of Himself. He came and took on the form of a man, that today we might become those who are in love with Him. What a precious testimony there is. We see Him as the bondslave.
Today, how do we become a bondslave? What is the whole issue here? Brothers and sisters, to me, I am going to use this New Testament term—another familiar term—and it is consecration.
Consecration, to me, is the New Testament way of saying, “Lord, I know You. By the mercies of God, by Your tender mercies, I see all that You have done. I have fallen in love with You, and I want to give myself to You.”
Not that I can do something for You, but that You can be my Master, that You can live out Your life through me. We relinquish control of our own selves.
Consecration, brothers and sisters, is simply settling the issue of who is in charge of our life. Who is the Master of our life? As we see His mercies, as we see the wonderfulness of Him, we release our life to Him.
It is an ongoing thing. There is a one-time consecration, yes, but actually, daily, we give ourselves to Him to see more and more of Him.
As we come to a greater appreciation of being that bondservant, I think it is really interesting that, as we look at this letter—the revelation of Jesus Christ—who did our Lord entrust this message to?
He entrusted it to John. But did He, in this letter, entrust it to the apostle John? No. He says, “John, the bondservant.” John was an apostle, but in this letter, when the Lord is revealing His heart and revealing His Son, He says, “John, you are My bondservant. You are given to Me in such a way that I can trust you with this revelation.”
Brothers and sisters, do we have the heart today where the Lord can trust us with the revelation of His Son? Are we in a place today where we can see more and more of our Lord Jesus, and where we can be trusted with the revelation of Jesus Christ? He reveals it to His bondservants, and that is who He desires to speak to.
Being a bondservant means being more concerned about the things of our Master than the things of ourselves. In this day and time, who are we concerned about the most?
The more I look at this whole matter of the bondservant, the more thankful I am for the mercy of God. You can look at it one way, and you can really feel condemned, because you see what you are not. But I thank the Lord that there is a life of a bondservant within me that allows us to go that way. We simply desire that that life would be released to lead us on in a fuller way of serving Him and serving His measure.
We said the second aspect of a bondservant is that he has an ear to hear—having that ear to hear.
When one committed himself to be a bondservant, the master took him to the front of the house and pierced his ear with an awl, right on the doorpost. That was the symbol that he was a bondslave for life: having an ear to hear.
We know the Lord is calling us. He is not first interested in our hands to serve, or our feet to run, or even our mouths to talk. First, He is interested in having our ears to hear what He is saying.
It is tragic, as you look all throughout Scripture, over and over again. The Lord says, “You have ears, but you do not hear.” All through the Old Testament, the prophets and the disciples had ears but did not hear.
What did Solomon pray for when the Lord said, “Pray for anything”? He said, “I want a hearing heart. I want to be able to hear You. I want to be able to hear what You are saying.”
Why do we not hear, brothers and sisters? Why do we not hear? I would like for us, as a guide, to look at these seven letters in Revelation 2 and 3, because I think within each one of these letters there is this challenge: “He who has an ear, let him hear.” There is an indication within each letter that there is some reason they are not hearing.
There is one overall reason that we do not hear, and we are not even going to really touch on that today. That is the matter of sin in our life. If you have sin in your life, it blocks you from hearing God.
But praise God, how did He first speak to us? Somebody, I think, even prayed it today: while we were yet sinners. So there is even hope there. He is speaking to us to repent of that sin.
If you look at Revelation 2, the first letter there is a letter to the church in Ephesus. We know this is the church that left its first love.
Outwardly, as you looked at them, they were doing all the right things. They were going through all the right outward actions. They had all the right meetings. They were discerning between good teaching and bad teaching. They were serving. They were doing all the right things, but the Lord said, “You have left your first love.”
I think that in their busyness of serving, somehow they had gotten away from the very heart of the issue. Brothers and sisters, we need to hear what the Spirit is saying there. Sometimes, in our busyness of serving the Lord, we can move away from hearing the very heart and the very word that He is crying unto us, of how He wants to speak to us.
The Lord wants us always to be in a place where we can hear His voice.
I was reading a story the other day about a grandfather who had given his grandson a watch. This young child was so proud of the watch his grandfather had given him. He took good care of it. Every night when he went to bed, he put it in a special place. He would not let any dirt accumulate. He was so proud of this watch.
One day, he lost it. His grandfather was coming over that evening, and the young man knew he had lost it in the basement. He was down there doing all the right things. He was trying to find the watch, going all around the room, picking up everything. He was doing all the right things to find the watch.
The grandfather came in, and you know, one who loves you like a grandfather does not have to say anything. That grandfather looked at his grandson’s face and said, “What is the matter?” One who loves you knows something is wrong.
The grandson said, “You know, Pawpaw—I called him Pawpaw—I lost the watch.”
He said, “Where did you lose it?”
He said, “Down in the basement.”
The grandfather said, “I will go find it.”
The boy said, “I will come help.”
He said, “No. You looked all afternoon. You could not find it. It is okay. You just wait here. I will be back in a couple of minutes.”
So the grandfather went downstairs. Five minutes later, he came back upstairs with the watch. The young boy’s face just lit up. He said, “I looked the whole day for that watch. How did you find it? Where was it? Grandpa, what did you do?”
The grandfather said, “I only did one thing. I got in the middle of the room, sat on the floor, and listened. Tick, tick, tick, tick.”
So he heard the watch. The grandson, because of his busyness, could not hear the watch.
Sometimes, in our busyness, maybe we do not hear the Lord. But in that place of quiet rest, when there is that place of first love, there is a place of rest, a place of peace, and a place of hearing that still, small voice.
If you look at the church in Smyrna, the second church there, it is the church that is going through all the pressures and suffering. They are having martyrdoms and everything—the pressures, the turmoil of life, everything they are going through.
The Lord comes back and speaks to them, too, in a very special way. He says, “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.”
Sometimes we can be so overwhelmed by the battle of life that we do not hear our Master’s voice. I was thinking of the story of how the disciples were in the boat and the storm was there. The Master was asleep. There was this huge storm going on, and what did they say to the Lord? “Lord, do You not care that we are perishing?”
It was like they were about to die, and they said, “Lord, do You not care?” They had lost the whole perspective of who was in the boat with them.
Brothers and sisters, sometimes in the turmoil, the pain, and the agony of what we are going through, we can lose perspective of who is in the boat with us—of Who is living within us to help us through the battle.
That is one of the things that has really touched me these last couple of weeks. We have been to several funerals, and I have been very touched by the Higgins and Boyer situations.
In the midst of suffering, pain, and grief, the ones in the family could testify that they heard the voice of the Lord. The Lord spoke in specific ways to comfort hearts in the midst of that suffering, in the midst of death.
I am just so thankful that there were ones who had that ear to hear, because that is when the Lord wants to speak to us and comfort us in a very special way. So, brothers and sisters, as we are going through all the suffering, the pain, and the agonies, let us be in that place to have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to us.
We come to the church of Pergamum, the third church there. This is the church generally characterized as being compromised with the world. They are distracted by all the cares of life and the worries of life. They are starting to bring in other religions and other practices, and they are distracted and compromised with what the Lord has called them to.
They are so distracted and compromised that even this teaching of the Nicolaitans—the clergy-laity system—comes about. They are so distracted that they say, “I cannot hear from the Lord. I do not have time. You hear from the Lord. Tell me what He is saying and speak to me.”
But brothers and sisters, is that what the Lord is really after? Does He not want to speak to each one of us? In all the hustle and bustle of life, with all the voices that are out there, there are so many voices in this world—voices here and there. The Lord wants us to hear that one still, small voice.
There is a sister in California, and she majors in birds. I can never get the long word for it. But she studies birds, and wherever she is, she can hear the birds.
We can walk down the street with her, and I hear cars honking, people talking, and music blaring. But wherever she is, she can hear the birds. She will say, “Matt, do you hear that bird?” I say, “Nope.”
But once she points it out to you, you can hear it, because her ear is trained. She has been a disciple, in a way, of hearing the birds.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is wanting to do that with us today: to hear our Lord in the midst of all these voices, knowing and recognizing His voice. That is the voice we need to hear. How often we can be so distracted by all the other voices.
If you follow this progressively through these letters, you come to the church in Thyatira. They have followed wrong voices so much. They are listening to Jezebel. They are listening to the wrong word. They are listening to the wrong person.
I am reminded of that verse in 2 Timothy because it speaks of the end days:
For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts;
and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables.—2 Timothy 4:3-4
They listen to people they want to hear from. They listen to people who tell them what they want to hear. They are listening to the wrong voice.
Brothers and sisters, we need to return and listen to the right voice: the voice of our Lord.
This continues on in Sardis. He says, “You are dead. You are asleep. You need to wake up.”
Then, in Philadelphia, He says, “Hold on. You are doing good. You have kept My word. You have not denied My name.” To me, it is an encouragement for endurance. Do not get tired of listening.
Sometimes, when you get tired of listening, maybe you think you know it all. You think you have achieved. You think you have arrived. Where do you end up? In Laodicea—the church that says, “We have no need. We know it all.”
The greatest danger, brothers and sisters, is not only for children and young people who grow up in Christian families. I think that is a challenge every teacher has when teaching classes. Whenever you go through any of the stories, the kids already know the answers. They can spout out any answer. You can name Bible characters, and they say, “I know who he is. I know who she is.” They know the letter.
But the burden teachers have—and this is how we need to be praying for them—is that the children would capture the spirit behind each person, and not just think they know because they can repeat back certain facts from the Scriptures.
Also for ourselves, brothers and sisters, we have been so blessed over these years to have so much wonderful teaching. If we look throughout the world today, other places are almost starving for the word of God, and we have had such an abundance.
There is a challenge to us not to think that, just because we have heard all this teaching, we have arrived. Brothers and sisters, how we need the fresh word of God daily within our hearts, speaking to us, that we not grow fat and lazy or complacent and think we have no need.
When we were in Taiwan, Lance put a challenge out to everyone. He was sharing on knowing the Master, and he said, “When was the last time that you really heard the Lord speak to your heart?”
He said, “I am not talking about audible voices. In my whole Christian life, I have only heard the Lord’s audible voice two times. I am talking about the Spirit speaking to your heart, knowing the Lord. How long has that been, brothers and sisters?”
We do not need to get subjective and introspective and all that stuff, but the Lord wants to speak into our hearts day in and day out. But do we have an ear to hear?
As I was reflecting back on these letters, at first I was feeling so condemned. Every time I came to a letter, I said, “I have that hearing disability, and I have that hearing disability, and then I have that hearing disability.” I thought, “Man.”
But then the Lord said, “Well, that is the whole reason I put this here. I want you to see that you have these hearing disabilities so that I can cleanse you of them, so I can dig your ear out.”
Psalm 40, I think, talks about how the Lord digs the ear—He opens the ear. Another translation says He pierces the ear. When our ears are clogged, praise the Lord, He points out that we have hearing disabilities because then we can go to Him.
He points them out because He loves us and wants to have clear communication and fellowship with us. When we are having trouble hearing, praise the Lord, we can come back to Him in that spirit of repentance, and He can dig our ears. He can clean our ears so that we can hear Him.
Then we hear Him in that psalm. If I can paraphrase it, it is like this: burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and all of that, I do not desire. But the psalmist says, “I delight to do Your will, for Your law is within my heart.”
As his ear was opened, that word was in his heart, and he delighted to do the very will of God. That is the bondservant. The bondservant loves to do the will of God.
In that doing, we come to that third point: blessed are those who not only hear, but who obey and heed the word of the Lord. Turn to Revelation 14.
And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having His name, and the name of His Father, written on their foreheads.
—Revelation 14:1
To me, this was a beautiful picture. You have these 144,000. Now, do not worry today about who they are. But you have this picture of ones in the very presence of God, before the throne of God and the Lamb, and they had His name written on their foreheads.
As I was thinking about that, how do you think that name got there? Do you think they took a magic marker and wrote “Jesus Christ” on their foreheads? I do not think so.
I think it was written on their foreheads from within them. The life of Christ came out from them so much that, on their foreheads, within their beings, you could see that they were of Jesus Christ. They were of Him.
How were the Christians first called Christians there at Antioch? The ones in the world looked upon these people, and they said, “These are Christ’s men.” Those believers in Antioch had His name written on their foreheads.
Brothers and sisters, at times you encounter someone, you meet someone, and you talk with them very briefly. All of a sudden, through their countenance and expression, you know they are a believer. You just know. There is something there. His name is written on their forehead.
It is not put on from without. It is put on from within, coming out. It is a testimony to all. Brothers and sisters, that is what the Lord is after.
It is not so much what we say we are that matters, but who we are that matters. We can say, “I am a Christian,” all day long. We can say, “I am this,” and “I am that.” But what really matters is who you are and that life coming out from within you.
As it continues:
And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpists harping with their harps:
and they sing as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders.—Revelation 14:2-3
I remember when Brother Kahn shared on this. He shared how the harp is so close to the heart, and it is playing that love song. The Lord is playing a love song to each one of us. How do they respond? They sang a new song before the throne, before the elders.
I was thinking about how they sang a new song. This was not a song that they learned. It was a song that came out of their life experience with the Lord. It came out from within. It was a heart song of love to Him.
It was not based on their own musical talents. It was based on their love for the Lord.
One of the things I really enjoy going to every year—and I am going to miss it this year—is the men’s retreat next week. I tell you, sisters, you really miss it. You all miss a tremendous blessing.
I can think back from Joshua all the way up to Easter. At times, you have all these men in this room. As most of you know, most of us cannot sing a lick. We do not even know what tune is off tune.
But when these brothers are in the presence of the Lord—it does not happen all the time; we must be realistic here, guys, and bring us back down to earth—but at times there is such a heart song coming forth from those brothers that all of us, with our lousy voices, when you listen to it in the overall, it is a beautiful voice.
Some of the most beautiful singing I have heard has been from these off-key brothers singing a new song to the Lord, because the theme of it is love.
Brothers and sisters, I do not say that even jokingly. We can laugh at all of us who cannot sing, but when we are in the presence of the Lord, what is He after? He is after that heart song.
Would that, when we gather at various times throughout the week—whether we are together on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday—our times of worship would really be a heart song unto Him. How do we sing a heart song? It is because we know Him, we have seen Him, and we can release that unto Him.
We see that these 144,000, as it says in Revelation 14:4, are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
Is it natural? Is it simple? Is it easy to follow the Lamb? No. That is impossible. None of us can follow the Lamb. Just look at Peter.
Through Peter’s life, the first words the Lord says to Peter are, “Follow Me.” The last words He says to Peter are, “Follow Me.”
Brothers and sisters, we need to realize that within ourselves, we cannot follow the Lamb. We cannot obey. But there is an obedient life within us. There is a life of the Lamb within us that follows. As we yield to that life, we are enabled to follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
We come to know Him in a very special way. We stay close to Him. We keep our eyes on Him. We are fixed on Him. We know Him because of the life within Him.
How important it is in this whole matter of the bondservant to know the life and to know the voice. There are so many voices out there, and we need to keep our eyes on Him in the reality of His life.
There is a story that I first read in Billy Graham’s daughter’s book, Just Give Me Jesus. I think Dan shared it one Wednesday night at prayer meeting. It is a story of how the FBI trains you to recognize counterfeit dollar bills.
When you go through this training process, they put before you real dollar bills. They give you twenty-dollar bills, fifty-dollar bills—all for your training. You look at the real thing because they want you to get to know the real thing.
The one odd thing is that throughout the training, you never see a counterfeit bill, because they want you to focus on and know the reality.
Brothers and sisters, in the times we are living in, we need to know the real voice. We need to know the real Lamb. Where people are mixing all these religions together, we need to know the real Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We need to follow that Lamb.
Even within Christendom today, there are many things that outwardly look very similar. But if we know the reality of His life, we will say, “Even though that looks outwardly the same, inwardly there is something missing. There is a life of Christ that is not there.” How we need to get to know that reality.
As I was looking at this matter of the bondservant in Revelation, there was another word that kept coming to me over and over. Every time I looked at this bondservant, there was another word running parallel to it. Do you know what that word is? Overcome. Overcomers.
We generally do not equate overcomers and bondservants as the same. Where do you place the overcomer? We put the overcomer up here, saying, “Man, this is some super-Christian guy doing everything. He is an apostle. He does everything. That is the overcomer.” Then we think of a bondservant down here.
Actually, brothers and sisters, as we look through Scripture, we see that gap narrow. Dana even touched on this. The bondservant is the overcomer. Who is the overcomer? The bondservant of the Lord.
The enemy has used a terrific doctrine in Christianity to mis-sell the whole thought of being an overcomer. You know why? Because being an overcomer really appeals so much to our religious life. “Ooh, that sounds so good. Man, I want to be more religious. I am an overcomer.” It is like you are getting elevated.
What it does is create this elite class of believers. Somehow we start thinking that the call to overcome is only for some elite group. Actually, the Lord is calling each one of us, as His bondservants, to follow the Lamb and overcome.
How did they overcome? By the word of God, by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony; they loved not their lives unto death. It was not great spiritual revelation, doctrine, or theology. It was a life within that allowed them to overcome.
Now, for your Greek lesson today—and since we are in the middle of March Madness—the Greek word for “overcomer” is nikaō. That just means victory, victorious one. You know what the root word for that is? N-I-K-E: Nike, the swoosh for victory. So, that is an overcomer—Nike. That is enough of that, just to wake you back up here so we can finish.
But who, first of all, is calling us to overcome? The Overcomer Himself. “As I have overcome, you overcome.” His life within us will allow us to overcome.
We mentioned Revelation 2 and 3, where it says, “To him who overcomes.” What was this call? These were simply ones living for Him, loving Him, willing in that place to suffer, ones who stayed simple, ones who stayed pure and did not compromise, ones who stayed alive and faithful, and ones who were always needy and dependent upon Him.
It was not, “Be an apostle, and you will be an overcomer.” It was not, “Memorize all these books in the Bible, and you will be an overcomer,” even though we should know the books in the Bible. It was not, “Have this great theological understanding of the Trinity, and you will be an overcomer.” It was all based on a life within—the ones who follow the Lamb.
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.
—Revelation 12:11
Do you know who I think about the most when I see these ones we speak of as overcomers? I actually think of young mothers—young mothers having to raise their children. That is where the Lord has them at that point in time.
How can they do this? They overcome. They are able to raise those children and overcome because of the blood of the Lamb. Why? Because they know they do everything wrong. They make mistakes. But the blood of the Lamb cleanses them, encourages them, and allows them to continue on.
What is the word of their testimony? It is that Jesus is Lord. “Lord, I cannot raise these children, but I know Your lordship. You can do that.” How precious is the testimony of many young mothers.
They love not their lives unto death. We can see lives laid down. Brothers and sisters, that is the overcomer: living a daily life faithful to the Lord.
It is not based on longevity of life. It is not based on your position in life. It is not based on knowledge and all this stuff. It is based upon knowing the Lord and being faithful unto Him.
I mentioned that we have been to a couple of funerals lately—ones that loved the Lord. I wonder if we have been to some overcomer funerals: ones that the world would not even notice, ones that big Christianity might not even notice, but the Lord noticed. The Lord knew those lives.
That issue of faithfulness and following the Lamb—how wonderful it is.
We spoke of Revelation 14:1-4. They simply overcame by following the Lamb. Look in Revelation 15. It speaks of overcoming again.
And I saw as it were a glassy sea mingled with fire; and them that come victorious from the beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name, standing by the glassy sea, having harps of God.
And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.—Revelation 15:2-3
Many of your translations say “victorious.” It is the exact same word: nikaō. Those who came off overcoming from the beast, from his image, and from his number sang the song of Moses, the servant of God—the bondservant of God—and they sang the song of the Lamb.
What are they singing? Are they singing anything of what they had done? They are singing, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are Your ways, You King of the nations.”
In Revelation 17:14, we see the Lamb coming back. The Lamb will overcome, and those with Him are the called, the chosen, and the faithful—not the ones with the big titles, not the ones we call big people, but those who were simply faithful unto Him where He had placed them. Those are the ones who come back.
It is interesting, too, as we see who is an overcomer. It is the bondservants of the Lord. It is the normal Christian that He is calling us to be.
How do we overcome? There is another word always connected with the overcomer: the Lamb. He overcame as a Lamb.
How do we overcome? We always want to overcome as the lion. We want to win a big battle, and we love that about the lion. We all know the lion in Revelation. How many times is a lion mentioned? One time. How many times is a lamb mentioned? About twenty-something times.
Do you think the Lord is trying to get our attention? Every time, they overcame by the blood of the Lamb. They came, they returned to earth with the Lamb victorious. It was the Lamb. They overcome by the Lamb—that lamb nature.
The Lord won the victory at Calvary through a lamb nature. His victory on the cross was the Lamb. What do we see in the New Jerusalem? There is the Lamb upon the throne.
The Lord is so desiring that we have that lamb-like nature within us, that we too can respond to His grace and allow Him to meet us in a wonderful way.
Brothers and sisters, may we continue to shatter this myth that surrounds this word overcoming and overcomer.
And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
—1 John 5:5
That is a bondservant. It is not, again, these high, elevated ones. It is the ones who overcome the world because they believe Jesus is the Son of God. What a wonderful testimony.
Do not be afraid of this word overcomer. We need to have all of our thinking adjusted in relation to it. It has been so misused and misapplied within Christianity as referring to some special elite group. But the bondservants are those who overcome by the blood of the Lamb.
I remember Christian Chen one time defined an overcomer as one who is simply overcome by His love. An overcomer is one who is overcome by the love of Christ. Again, that is a bondservant.
Brothers and sisters, I believe in my heart, particularly in these end days, that our willingness simply to be bondservants—love slaves to the Master—is the whole key to going through to the end.
Whenever we start rising up in ourselves, we will fall. But if we can stay in that place of utter, total dependence, in love with our Master, we know the warning: the love of many will grow cold.
Brothers and sisters, He wants us to maintain that love relationship, that we would serve Him all of our days.
We will conclude as we look again at Revelation 22. We see the Lord again reminding us in verse 6:
These words are faithful and true: and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly come to pass.
And behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book.—Revelation 22:6-7
That is the exact phrase that is in Revelation 1:3. There are two words left out. There is no more reading. There is no more hearing. You have read. You have heard. Now it says, “Blessed are those that heed.”
Brothers and sisters, as we were reminded by Dana of this book being a great consolation, as we see more and more of the revelation of Jesus Christ in every situation in our lives, how can we be those bondservants to the Lord? By simply having a greater revelation of Jesus Christ within each one of our lives.
We need to see Him in a greater and fuller way. As we see Him, we respond to Him.
Being a bondservant is not something that we initiate. Bondservice is a response to Him. So much of Christian life is simply a response. What is worship? Worship is responding to Him.
So often we try to work worship up. But if we see Him and respond to that, consecration, being a bondslave, and being an overcomer are all responses to the love of Christ and letting Him be Master of our life.
It is those who will be able to come all the way through in these days. The Lord says, “I am coming quickly.” We know all the warnings of how perilous these days are and how much worse they are going to get.
The Lord has given us this great book of consolation to encourage us and strengthen us in these last days.
I would like for us to close by singing that little chorus, “Pierce My Ear, O Lord My God.” Did we just sing that?