The keys of death: Who holds them

I was in the church today, and the preacher started his preaching from Revelation 1:12-20. There, starting from verse 10 we read:

Revelation 14:12-20
"I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I’m the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last," and, "what you see write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: To Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea." Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in his right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I’m the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. AND I HAVE THE KEYS OF HADES AND OF DEATH. Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches."

What drew much my attention here, together with the glorious appearance of our Lord, is verse 18 where the Lord says: "AND I HAVE THE KEYS OF HADES AND DEATH". Jesus has the keys of Death! He is the "who lives, and was dead, and behold He (Jesus) is alive forever". Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us:

Hebrews 2:14-15
"Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He himself like wise shared in the same, THAT THROUGH DEATH HE MIGHT DESTROY HIM WHO HAS THE POWER OF DEATH, THAT IS, THE DEVIL, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage"

Jesus Christ came to destroy the one that has the power of death, the devil, and He did this through his death. Jesus holds the keys of Death and Hades. A day will come that the dead will hear the voice of the Son of man and will be raised! The voice of Jesus Christ, the one that keeps the keys of death, will raise them all, great and small, Christians and none (independent of time I speak here), ALL! Jesus holds the keys of death and therefore, He is able to release those who through the fear of death were subject to bondage all their lifetime. We are no longer under the bondage of death. We are no longer captive by death. If you believe in the Captain of life, in Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior, "if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved" (Romans 10:9) and have eternal life!!! Even if you taste death still Jesus holds the keys to death. The day will come that you will hear His voice. The day will come that you will get a body like His body. A day will come that you will sit in His right hand side. A day will come that you will see Him as He is. A day will come that you will be with Him eternally. A day will come that you will go to the place He has prepared for us in the Father’s house (John 14:2-3). Jesus Christ the prince of life, the Son of God, the Lord and Savior loves you my friend. Nothing can separate you from His love. You are His wonderful bride! You are the one He is engaged with. Yes YOU! II Corinthians 4:18 tell us that those things that are seen are temporary but those who are not seen are eternal. Which realities do we see? Which realities do we follow? Temporary or eternal? Far too many go after what they see, the temporary. Far too many are under the bondage of death. But not we Christians. Not we, the sons of the Eternal God. We have as much life as our Father has: ETERNAL. All of us we have lost or we will probably lose a loved person. All of us we need to keep in our hearts and minds what the Lord said to Martha who had very recently lost her brother: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die" (John 11:25-26). Jesus is coming and nobody can stop Him. He will open and who will close? He is coming and the dead will hear His voice. And your loved ones, if they are brothers and sisters, are going to appear with Him. Nothing is going to hold them. Nothing is going to stop them. Nothing is going to keep them. Look here what the Spirit says in I Thessalonians 4:13-18

I Thessalonians 4:13-18
"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descent from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."

"Lest you sorrow as others who have no hope"… There are others that have no hope. There are others that look at the temporary, have fixed their eyes on the temporary and have no hope. But not we. Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the Lord and the Savior and the Captain of Life IS COMING. And the dead in Christ shall rise first! Then all those who are alive will be caught in the air to meet the Lord there. What a wonderful meeting this is going to be! We will ALL, ALL those who believe in Him, be there! This is our hope and this is our comfort.

Revelation 21:4
"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, not sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

Anastasios Kioulachoglou

               Please check out Anastasios's book 

               "The Warnings of the New Testament". 

               Purchase at Kindle and Amazon or 

               download for FREE at: http://www.jba.gr/

               Articles/pdf/the-warnings-of-the-New-

               Testament.pdf

Christian Believers. The Four Steps That Most of us Did Not Take

The Biblical way to the Holy Spirit as seen in Acts 8 and 19.

Repent of your sins toward God.

Believe in the Lord Jesus.

Be baptized in water.

Receive the Holy Spirit. 

What does God say about sexual sin?

Transfer into the internet.

www.evangelicaloutreach.org/audio/adultery.mp3

Christian - What to do "if your brother sins against you" (Luke 17:3-4)

We find this passage in Luke 17:3-4. There we read:

"If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying, "I repent", you shall forgive him"

There are some "ifs" in this passage. Being in the computer industry I know very well what an if statement means in a program. It means that what follows the if statement applies only if what is included in the "if statement" is fulfilled. In the first sentence of the above precious words of our Lord, we have two if statements.

IF your brother sin against you

THEN you rebuke him

IF (after you rebuke him) he repents

THEN you forgive him

This is the turn the Lord has set. Many people desire to be forgiven without repenting. Many others yet, do not forgive somebody for a sin for which however they have never rebuked him! Thus they break the above simple order THE LORD HAS SET. Many still rebuke others for things that are not sins, thus sinning themselves against them! There are many with big mouths that can be critical about everything and everyone and if you fall into their mouth… poor you. They pretend to rebuke the others but there is no SIN!! I was rebuked more than once by some people because I was writing articles!! Should I repent? NO. This is what GOD has told me to do! Instead I need to rebuke the person that "rebuked" me or better "criticize" me and not be silent, and see then whether he will repent and ask for forgiveness. If I don’t rebuke what I know FROM THE WORD that is sin then the other will not get a chance to repent and then I will not have a chance to forgive him. Keeping it like this, will create me big problems the next time I meet this person, for my relationship with him will be affected by hurt, intimidation and unforgiveness. Many people think that they have to forgive the other without rebuking him and without him repenting and asking for forgiveness. This is not what the Lord commanded. It is much more difficult to forgive somebody when you have never told him the wrong and he has never repented and asked for forgiveness than to follow the simple order the Lord had set: rebuke, the other side repents, you forgive!

And what happens you will ask if I rebuke the other person for something that is clearly a sin against me, and the other one does not repent and never asks for forgiveness? This case may unfortunately happen. Many people have so much pride that will never say a "sorry" to anybody. I have seen cases where people are very clearly rebuked, it is evident that they err, yet they bypass what they did like nothing happened, without saying "sorry for what happened"! Watchman Nee said somewhere "the humbler a person is the more often will say "sorry". Tell sorry to anybody even for the slightest thing that you THINK that you may have done wrongly. This is to be humble. This is to be Christian! Anything else is plain hypocrisy. It is having the words but to deny them when it is time to live them. Not asking for forgiveness will not harm only the person against whom the sin was committed but also the person that committed the sin. If for example a person has big critical mouth causing intimidation to others and if this is not confronted then he will certainly harm many but he himself will also be denied practically by the others! How to be open to a person that intimidates and has not repented for this? No wonder that this person will at the end be alone. But again the others as brothers and sisters, the church herself, what do they do? Have they confronted this person? The Word does not ask you to forgive somebody that has not repented! What He asks you and the church to do is TO REBUKE HIM!!! Have you done it? Has the church as the body of believers done it? And again here we don’t speak for whatever YOU may have in your mind as sin, but for what the WORD defines as sin.

Here is what our Lord and captain of our faith said in Matthew 18:15-17

Matthew 18:15-17
"Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that "by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector"

THIS IS THE ORDER OF GOD!!! THIS IS WHAT THE CAPTAIN OF OUR FAITH HAS SAID. THIS IS WHAT JESUS THE LORD, THE CHRIST, THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH HAS SET. Why do we try to do it differently? Why do we think that it is better that we are silent to the evil, the abuse, the sin that is done before our very eyes!! In our very churches! When will we hear the voice of the Lord instead of the voices of the world that says "everybody can do whatever he wants". For this is what our Lord has said (in the form of "program" language, for it is so precise!):

IF your brother sins

Rebuke him, tell him his fault

If he repents OK.

ELSE

Take with you two or three witness

IF he does not hear them THEN

Tell it to the church

IF he does not hear the church THEN

Let him be to you as a heathen and tax collector

What we in our modern western churches do is the following:

IF your brother sins against you

Don’t tell him anything!

Or

If you are so brave (!!) to tell him, and he does not hear you

There is no problem… just behave as nothing happens!

Excuse me who has said this?? Please show me the page of the Bible where the Lord or his apostles commanded something like this? This may be what YOU think or what your pastor or society may have told you BUT certainly is NOT what God has said in the Bible. See here what Paul says:

I Corinthians 5:1-2
"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles – that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be TAKEN AWAY from among you."

"Taken away? Come on Paul. I’m so nice on my sit. Why should I do something? I’m paying my teethes. I’m coming on Sundays to my church. I’m doing my prayers. I’m ok. Why should I bother for this fellow? This is his business." And Paul, and God through Paul replies to you: "YOU ARE PUFFED UP! You had to MOURN instead of sitting coldly on your sit! This unrepented person should be taken away". And Paul continues:

I Corinthians 5:9-13
"I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexual immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexual immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you NOT TO KEEP COMPANY WITH ANYONE NAMED A BROTHER, WHO IS SEXUALLY IMMORAL, OR COVETOUS, OR AN IDOLATER, OR A REVILER, OR A DRUNKARD, OR AN EXTORTIONER – not even to eat with such person. For what I have to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. THEREFORE "PUT AWAY FROM YOURSELVES THE EVIL PERSON"

There is judgment that must be done. Again I don’t speak about those big mouth folks that they THINK they are rebuking and the only they do is criticizing innocence. THEY HAVE TO BE REBUKED for this. Here the whole church knows that a named as brother is covetous, or sexual immoral or a reviler etc. This person has not repented. Then it falls to the last category of the Lord’s statement:

IF he does not hear the church THEN

Let him be to you as a heathen and tax collector

Or as Paul says "Put him away". For by doing this you have one more chance to make him repent. But by accepting him you tell him "there is no problem. We don’t care enough about you anyway! Do as you wish!" God judges the outside. We are to judge the inside. "Do you not judge those who are inside?"

And again:

II Thessalonians 3:14-15
"IF ANYONE DOES NOT OBEY OUR WORD IN THIS EPISTLE, NOTE THAT PERSON AND DO NOT KEEP COMPANY WITH HIM THAT HE MAY BE ASHAMED. YET DO NOT COUNT HIM AS AN ENEMY, BUT ADMONISH HIM AS A BROTHER"

"Note this person and do not keep company with him". The purpose is NOT to reject that person but that he may be ashamed and thus repent! Instead in our modern churches WE are ashamed to tell this person to repent! He must be avoided so that HE may be ashamed and repent. Avoided does not mean rejected. The Word says in James 5:19-20

James 5:19-20
"Brethren if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover multitude of sins"

and again:

Ezekiel 18:23
"Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn his ways and live"

God does not desire the rejection BUT THE REPENTANCE of the person that sins. For without repentance the sin will NOT be forgiven. Now, for the repentance to occur, REBUKE is needed and if the person does not hear anybody then he should be taken away, noted and avoided. Yet he should still be advised so that he may return. The gates should always be open IF THE PERSON REPENTS. God does not desire the person to stay in his present state. He wants him to repent!

Closing let’s return to the words of our Lord in Matthew 18:18

Matthew 18:18
"Assurently, I say to you whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven"

The above means responsibility, choice. It is in our hands to rebuke. It is in our hands to repent. It is in our hands to forgive. Will we follow the teaching of Word? It is absolutely clear and precise. And let me repeat it again:

IF your brother sins

Rebuke him, tell him his fault

If he repents OK.

ELSE

Take with you two or three witness

IF he does not hear them THEN

Tell it to the church

IF he does not hear the church THEN

Let him be to you as a heathen and tax collector

Jesus went to the heathen and to the tax collectors too! Once the person repents the sin is forgiven and the person is back to fellowship with God and the others. The doors should never be closed to a repented sinner and should never be open to somebody that has been rebuked in the way the Lord has set and yet he does not repent.

Anastasios Kioulachoglou

               Please check out Anastasios's book 

               "The Warnings of the New Testament". 

               Purchase at Kindle and Amazon or 

               download for FREE at: http://www.jba.gr/

               Articles/pdf/the-warnings-of-the-New-

               Testament.pdf