To the one who overcomes I will give to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Rev 3:21-22.
There is something truly special in this promise that doesn’t become obvious until you have looked at all seven overcomer promises in the seven letters. In stairstep progression, each church is given more and more promises, perhaps to counter the increasing degeneration seen as one reads through the seven letters. The first church, Ephesus, receives a single promise: the overcomer there will gain the right to eat from the Tree of Life.
The second church, Smyrna, receives two promises. In Rev 2:10-11 the overcomer in Smyrna is promised both the crown of life and that he or she will not be hurt by the second death.
According to Rev 2:17, the overcomer in Pergamum is promised three things, the hidden manna, the white stone, and a new name, which will be written on the white stone.
I think you can see where this is going. The fourth church, Thyatira, receives a total of four promises in Rev 2:26-28. The overcomer in Thyatira receives authority over the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter, will dash them in pieces, and will also be given the morning star.
The overcomer in Sardis (Rev 3:4-5) walks with Jesus and is dressed in white. Not only that, he or she is assured that their names will not be blotted out of the book of life, instead their names will be acknowledged before Jesus’ Father, and also before His angels.
By now it should be no surprise that the sixth church, Philadelphia, receives no less than six promises from Jesus. According to Rev 3:10-12 the overcomers in Philadelphia are kept from the hour of trial, will be pillars in the temple of God, and will never again leave it. That makes three. In addition, God will write His name on them, and the name of the city of God, and Jesus’ own new name. Whatever that last item means, there are a total of six. And if you add up all the promises to the first six churches you get a total of 21 promises, seven times three!
Does that mean Laodicea is going to get seven promises? No. It actually gets only one. But it is the promise to end all promises! In Rev 3:21 the overcomer in Laodicea gets to sit with Jesus on His throne! That one promise includes all the twenty-one promises received by the other six churches! If you sit with Jesus on His throne, you have everything!
And there is one more thing. Just as Laodicea is the most hopeless of the seven churches, it is also the one that gets the best promise. The church who has nothing receives the promise of everything! “Where sin abounds grace does much more abound.”
