We may remark that, in the three first Churches of the Apocalypse, there is no mention of the Lord's coming. It is a present dealing spoken of. From Thyatira out, Christ's coming is spoken of till Laodicea—Thyatira, the Jezebel system, being established so that the resource was in looking out of it. In Laodicea, the case is quite changed, Christ knocks at the door, in case any one hears His voice in the midst of that which He is going to spue out of His mouth. The application of the coming is different. To the faithful under the Thyatira state, patience till He came; in the Sardis, as a thief, treating the whole as the world; in Philadelphia, cheering and encouraging the faithful to patience—He would soon be there.
There are evidently three words to Peter in Matt. 16, not pursuing the chapter further now. The Father had revealed the Person of Christ—the Son of the living God. Christ also gives him a name and place, and, further, the keys of the kingdom of heaven.