Revelation: Pergamum
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Of the pastors here we are continuing to walk through the Book of Revelation uh we are in part one which is the letters that Christ wrote to uh the churches in the Book of Revelation so we're going to be another letter this morning in Chapter 2 verses 12- 17 you can turn your blue Bibles to page 595 the end of that Bible is the Book of Revelation you can also follow along on the screen uh because the text will be on the screen.
For today so in the Old Testament feels a little boomy yeah all right there we go if not we'll get a handheld uh in the Old Testament uh during the Babylonian exile King Nebuchadnezzar took the Israelites removed them from the promised land and then brought them into the kingdom of Babylon now when he did that he took their identity not only did he remov them from the promised land where they were he also enforced customs and values upon the people of.
God so the the Jewish people had to live under the reign of a king who conquered them who killed many of their brothers and sisters removed them from their land and then had to do whatever he said up to the point where at times he's telling them you have to worship and bow down to an Idol and you can read the book of Daniel you can see how the people of God some of them resisted this but this idea of of living under the reign of your arch enemy of being forced to take part in things of of being persecuted in this way this is how you impose your identity and your values Upon A.
People and conform them into your image and and make them do what you want them to do this is is true of the Babylonian exil is true throughout history as well now what we're going to see today in this text is that we also have an enemy that we have an enemy that seeks to do the exact same thing that seeks to rule and Reign Over us to get us to worship idols God makes this clear Jesus makes this clear to the people of pergamum the Church of pergamum and as we walk walk through this letter.
Today we're going to see how this is also true for us so I'm going to pray for us then we'll walk through the text together heavenly father I pray that you might help us sit under your word and not just witness it and walk away not just be hearers of the word but be doers of the word because we worship you as the one true God and that brings us into obedience and Delight in you and we ask this in Jesus name amen all right.
So start starting off in verse 12 and to the angel of the Church in pergamum write the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword all right so in each of these letters it starts out by introducing uh the Church and this is the Church in the city of pergamum so we've shown this map the last few weeks uh that if you take the Book of Revelation these different cities Ephesus Samina pergamum each of these in order it's going to be a route where these are being dropped off each City and pergamum is very similar to smear and Ephesus.
So the last two weeks we walked through those letters and we got to see uh cities that were affluent that had wealth and we also saw cities uh that had lots of pagan worship so like Ephesus pergamum is just like that it has wealth and affluence but it also has temples dedicated to Zeus it has cult worship it has all types of idolatrous practices so this city is very similar to some of the ones we have already seen so that's pergamum.
And then in the order of these letters Jesus then describes himself he says the words of him this is Christ talking about himself the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword that is Jesus telling the people in the Church of pergamum that he is the one that will bring judgment sword is Judgment here and the sword of his mouth is what we're going to see throughout the Book of Revelation that this is his word of judgment and what he is giving out the gate is I am the one who will bring judgment I will bring judgment by my word upon those who are not faithful to the end who do not conquer as.
We see at the end of these letters so Christ describes himself and then he launches into the next section which is in many of these letters a section of encouragement where he's commending them for their faith verse 13 he says I know where you dwell where Satan's Throne is now pause for a second this is the encouraging part and out the gate he says I know where you dwell where Satan's Throne is yet you hold fast my name and you did not deny my faith even the days of antibus my faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells.
So we get some intensity in Christ and his speech here he says I know where you live you live where the Throne of Satan is you dwell in the midst of Satan and I just want to imagine what that would be like to receive that right Christ wrote a letter to us and he says I know where you live you live in Columbus IA where the Throne of Satan is I hope that would jar you I hope that would wake you up to what he has to say next.
Because I think what happens is is we have this U almost cartoonish view of Satan that's influenced by culture that says that Satan's down in hell and he's torturing Hitler for all the things that he did but that's not a Biblical picture of Satan at all Satan's domain is here he rules here and he seeks to deceive Nations and deceive Christians here and Christ is in in in seriousness is is telling them this I know where you dwell you dwell where Satan Reigns where his throne is.
But he he commends them he encourages them he says but I see your faith you have not left the faith you have not capitulated and bowed down and bow the knee to uh the false God of Caesar you stayed faithful even the presence of our great enemy and he's encouraging them in this and you can tell from this that there's great persecution that is happening in this Church which I think we should try to understand with because this is more foreign to us we don't understand this type of persecution.
But just imagine if you showed up on Sunday for worship and all of a sudden 10 people were gone because they were arrested and awaiting trial which that's a reality not here but in churches across the world in China and other Church other nations that are oppressing Christianity to be able to absorb kind of the the the the fear that might set in and the anxieties that might set in on a regular basis when you think about are we next am I next is our family next that's what the people of pergamum were living in and and we.
See an example of at least one person anpus who was martyred who was killed for his faith in Christ has Comm mending the faith of antibus when I was in seminary I had to read this book called uh letters to pergamum uh it's historical fiction so it's it's fiction uh but that genre takes really uh uh historical elements that were true about that time and and their context in the same way that the chosen that if you're familiar with that show is fiction it's based on Source material the gospels and has true elements and true cultural elements.
But the whole backstory a lot is fiction so that's what this is this letters to pergamum is just like that it's a book that really helps uh you see how the New Testament world was how letters were going back and forth and really the intense persecution that the early Church was facing and the main character in this book is Antipas now we don't know how Antipas that but they kind of build this backstory and they imagine based on historical evidence of how Christians were persecuted in this time and I want to read a section.
For this because I want I want us to help help us get to understand what they were facing and the intensity of their persecution so we don't know this this we don't have evidence of this is how Antipas died but this is how certain Christians were persecuted so here's what it says it says as he was standing before Caesar it says then the slaughtered carcass of a magnificent bull was carried in and laid before him they then forced Antipas to place himself inside the emptied carcass folding his legs within its body the carcass was chained together fully encompassing Antipas within it lifting the carcass with a metal pole the guards rigged it up.
So that it stood over the nearby fire whose Flames burned low but hot I don't know if you caught that description but he was put inside of an animal and slowly cooked to death now again we don't know how antus died this is how Christians were persecuted in the New Testament world and it's Insidious and it's evil and it was a reality and one of the reasons why that they would kill people slowly kill Christians slowly was with the goal of getting them to recant.
Because if you kill them slowly maybe the pain will set in and they will forsake Christ and bow the knee to Caesar that's what's at stake here with this Church and what they're facing the declaring allegiance to Christ yielded the enemy to come in Satan to use with all of his power manipulating governmental forces to torture God's children with the goal of getting them to recount and the faith of Antipas is highlighted here but it also shows the cost of following Christ in pergamum and Christ commends them.
For their faithfulness yet after this in the typical form of these letters he follows this encouragement with a rebuke and that picks up in verse 14 it says but I have a few things against you you have some there who hold the teaching of balum who taught baac to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrifice to idols and practice sexual immorality so also you have some who hold the teaching of the nicians all right.
So in looking at verse 15 I and others who are way smarter and more educated than I have looked at the original language the the Greek here and it it seems that What's Happening Here is that this is all the same false teaching it's not one and then you get to verse 15 then we have the teaching of the nicadan what's actually here is the nicadan teaching is what is in verse 14 this is all one together now we first heard about the niad and false teaching two letters ago in Ephesus and these are the only places in really the New Testament where this is mentioned we don't have any historical evidence to go on.
That tells us what the nicadan false teaching was we have this right here and it is a reference to an Old Testament story in the Book of Numbers chapters starting in 22- 24 so in this Old Testament story we have a reference to that this false teaching resembles what happened with balum and bailo now I would encourage you to go and read this story in the Old Testament if you're not familiar with it it's a powerful story but when the people of.
God make their Exodus from Egypt and are wandering in the wilderness they eventually come near to the kingdom of the moabites and the king of the moabites baac he certainly has heard about what God has done just as all the surrounding Nations have heard the power of God what God did to the Egyptians so he goes to a prophet named balum and he appeals to him and he asks him and he actually doesn't ask him he offers money to pay him to curse the Israelites.
So bam goes to the Lord and the Lord says no you will not curse my people and when you read the story he seems like a hero because he doesn't curse the people in fact He blesses the Israelites so when you read it it's like oh bam is a good guy until you get to numbers 31 and when you get to numbers 31 you see that while he F the letter of God's command and not cursing the Israelites he certainly disobeys the heart of it and what he does is he instructs Balo to get the moabit people to intermingle with the Israelites and to lure them into idolatry and sexual immorality that's what happens he.
He he takes his payment takes the advice B takes the advice and then he goes and he gets his people and they intermingle with the Israelites and they them men to sexual immorality and idolatry that's what's being referenced here so the hearers of this letter many of them would have known this story so when they heard balum they would have immediately thought oh false teacher because balum is like the the original false teacher in the Old Testament in the same way that.
If I if I said you're being a Judas I'd say you're being a traitor right you're you're committing acts of betrayal as a side note I was going to mention uh Benedict Arnold here this became a whole thing this week because I thought that everyone knew the history of bened arold because not everyone's on my history nerdom level but I said this and Isaac and Chad were like hey man I don't think everyone knows that Benedict Arnold was like the OG American traditor and I was like and this is going to shocked some of you I was like no he definitely was and I went hard after it and turns out not everyone knows that.
Ben Arnold was the like type the American original traitor so that's just free for you some American history there but that's in the same way the people would have heard this they'd have heard balum and they would have thought oh oh immediately went to false teacher immediately went to oh this is a guy who sold out the people of God for money and and led them astray one commentator he says that balum became proverbial for the false teacher who for financial gain influences Believers to enter into relationships of compromising unfaithfulness.
So that's what immediately what comes to mind in the context they hearing this now in mentioning this this type of false teaching that is both idolatry and sexual immorality in the context of the GRE Roman culture and the city that they were in and the culture that they were in this would have been some deliberate involvement some deliberate involvement in offering food to idols or a a feast uh that was uh uh in the presence of Idols as an act of worship mixed in with this would have been sexual immorality which would have been prostitution which would have been uh um homosexuality would have been orgies would have been all types of sexual practices.
So that's what's being brought to mind here as Jesus is rebuking them now when it comes to uh food that is offered to Idols it's helpful to know that the New Testament on this because the New Testament over and over again is going to mention food offered to idols and there's some Nuance in what's happening there as you read the New Testament you're going to see this is a problem that in many of these GRE Roman cities like pergamum uh they had temples like in in pergamum there was a temple to Zeus and the people would go and they would offer food to these Idols often it was meat that was offered to these idols.
And that was an act of worship now where this gets complicated in the New Testament world when you look at First Corinthians you see Paul as as as he's trying to explain this is that while it's explicitly forbidden to go to the temple and offer food to Idols that's clearly sin and idolatry what happens is is that same food that meat once it's been offered is later put back into the marketplace and it's sold at the marketplace and what was happening in the in the New Testament churches was the knowledge that that same meat was in the marketplace.
Now and that Christians were going and buying and eating that meat now it's clear from the New Testament that that meat in and of itself is not sinful it's just meat but was happening is that some Christians were uh being tempted and lured back into idol worship and Paul makes the argument he says hey it's not worth it don't just avoid meat altogether you have the freedom as a Christian this is just meat but don't do this don't engage in this.
Because it might cause your brother or sister to stumble so that's some of the Nuance here of of how the New Testament is thinking about food offered to Idols but when you get really in the context directly of pergamum itself what seems to be tied up in this is not what's happening in the marketplaces it's not the conscience issue it's actually people going to the temple and offering food or more likely eating feasts in the presence of Zeus and and and that being idolatrous worship mixed in with that sexual immorality.
Jesus says you need to understand this is not okay and any false teaching that's promoting this judgment is coming upon that he warns them of this do not be lured into just as the Israelites were lured into idolatry practices and sexual immorality do not be lured into offering food to idols and sexual immorality now as we read this and as we read all these letters we need to be careful not to directly read ourselves into every part of the story okay.
Because there is a context here we are not being persecuted like these Christians were there's some differences between us and the Church but here's what makes our culture very similar to this culture and what makes it harder for us as Christians living in this culture people are fine with Jesus they are people are fine with Jesus as long as Jesus stands alongside the pantheon of other gods so for the Roman culture they actually were fine with Jesus as long as he stood beside Zeus Aphrodite that that they were found with.
Jesus just ad him to the pantheon ad them to the rest of the Gods but what happens in the New Testament and what happens in what we see here in pergamum is the teaching that says no no no no Jesus demands worship to him and him alone these Idols are not real they are false gods the one true God demands allegiance to him and to him alone and when the Roman Empire heard that they said oh no no no no no no that's not.
Okay now you will bow the need of Caesar and you will take part in these practices and you will eat the meat that that that's what's happening I thought our culture is similar because our culture is fine with Jesus I I'm sure there there a small angry minority that's not found with Jesus himself but the rest of the culture is actually fine with Jesus as long as he stands amongst the pantheon of the other Idols in this culture as long as.
Jesus is alongside of every other false God in this culture it's fine but the moment that you say no Jesus demands worship to him and him alone that is when we are very similar to the Romans and their culture and our culture says no no no no you can have Jesus but you're going to eat the meat you can have Christ but you're going to take part in the idolatrous practices because that's not okay and that shows up in a lot of different ways I want to highlight one in particular that we spent a lot of time talking about.
But I think it is actually very important well we don't have temples and uh dedicated to false gods that live we don't have uh little wooden Idols in houses what we talk about a lot is there are Idols of the heart that there are things that we worship in the place of Christ they get our affection our worship and our desires above God we have a lot of those and one in particular that shows up a lot in our culture is the idol of the American dream it is it is a it is something that is.
So infused in the very fabric of our culture it's is the mechanism by which funds the very things that we do regularly what happens in our culture that we're so surrounded by this that at a very young age you can grow up up and what's emphasized is do well in school excel in activities which in and of themselves are are fine they're neutral in fact they could be very good when Direct in the right place but that's not what our culture says not to the glory of.
God don't do well in school and don't excel in activities to the glory of God to make much of him and being faithful in what God has given you no no no it's to so you can move to the next part of the American dream for some that's going to be College where you can work hard and get a degree and make lots of money and for others that's going to be trade school trade school and our a trade listen to a bunch of micro podcasts start your own business at 25 and boom you can start making money and what happens along the way is that this gets reinforced over and over again that.
So many of the movements of our culture is make sure that you're uh that you're leveling up here make sure that you're purchasing this goodness gracious our economy is literally built upon uh people going crazy at Christmas time and buying all the things and the whole and and and and everything's going to shut down if that doesn't happen it feeds itself and we're so uh uh unaware of how it's it's pervasive in our lives that every movement that every uh stage of life is just another part of worshiping that Idol until you can secure the type of retirement that you want on that beach on that mountain wherever fill in the blank that this feeds.
Itself all over place and it's all around us and while we're not being burned at the Stak we're not we're not being burned at the Stak we're not being persecuted for not participating in this we're not facing the same level of persecution the moment though that we start to point out from the Scriptures that we should not worship the God of money that we should not go hard after the American dream that's true we should work hard and we should be successful to the glory of.
God and the purposes that he calls us to and being sacrificial the the the the moment that we start to press on that the moment that we start to say we should pass up on the luxuries that our peers have that maybe we shouldn't have always the newest and the nicest things that maybe you don't have to go out to lunch every day of the week that maybe the place you're renting right now is actually while it isn't as great as the apartment complex down the street this it's it's fine it's sufficient.
For your needs the moment that we say that you probably shouldn't have Amazon boxes showing up to your house every single day the moment that we start to press on the reality of all of the materialism and the uh and the uh things that make up This American Life that everyone in this culture seems to so desperately want because they are worshiping the moment we start to press on that there's a part of us that says oh no no I work hard.
For what I what I make you you take your giving check and pound sand like I'm I I want to make sure I mean there's always going to be orphans there's always going to be needs I know I always be given more but the moment as I got my own kids I got my own future the moment we start to press on this there's a part of it that just says no and alongside that desire within us to say no our friends neighbors co-workers family members and a whole culture of advertising that's pushing along the way saying.
When are you going to ditch that old car because it's a piece of junk when are you why don't you take part in all the nicest vacations don't you see your friends having fun on Facebook their vacations are amazing they're smiling all the time they never post a picture of the bad part of their vacation where they argue the whole way down there no they're very happy take part in this you should eat that all the time it's amazing you should eat Dukes every day the week du's Patti is amazing go.
For it treat yourself this happens y'all and our heart gets captivated by worshiping this Idol and over and over again cultural forces surrounding you say are you going to eat the meat are you going to participate are you going to take the bind now go all day on the American dream we do that a lot but there's all types and I'll just do a couple that are very quickly but there's all types of of Idols that are set up in our culture that are vying.
For our worship and places of Christ one of them is is the is the philosophical idea of freedom and autonomy versus submission to Christ so as Christians we we see the Gospel teaches that we are once slaves to sin to the desires of the flesh Christ through faith and what he did on the cross in the empty tomb we place our faith in Jesus and he brings us out of slavery into freedom but that freedom is in submission to him while slavery to desires and to Idols does not yield Joy slaver to Christ and service to Christ is freedom and what happens is is the moment we start pressing on this that actually.
God has spoken and he's spoken through his word and the Scriptures teach that that this is how we submit to the Lord by loving God and obeying What He commands the moment we start pressing on that cultural forces say uhuh don't tell me how to live my life don't tell me how to spend my money don't tell me what to do with my body no because I'm I'm a free person and the moment we start pressing into B it's like no no no culture is saying are you are you.
Okay with this are you gonna are you going to are you going to teach this because are are you going to take a bite of this this happens with that this happens with sexual immorality itself at a young age kids early and earlier getting exposed to sex and sexual sin and every step it's just going to be do do you want to participate do you want to take the B are you going to look at pornography are you going to start sleeping around are you going to be doing the things your peers are doing and this continues on into adulthood are you going to participate are you going going to be that weird person.
Jesus is fine okay you can have Jesus but are you going to participate here because if you don't participate here you're weird you're backward you're arcave the same thing happens with lgbtq ideology we did a whole sermon series on this last fall Theology of sex plus if you're not here for this I would encourage you to go back and listen to this we spent a lot of time talking about this got to tell some of my personal story in this so I'd encourage you to go back.
Listen to that but what's at play now is it used to be in the 90s and the 2000s that it was just like you know everyone lived their own lives and so much of the fight from that time was just saying hey you just live let us live our lives and let you live your life that's not the lay of the land anymore the lay of the land is no no no no you need to approve of this and if you don't you're a bigot are you going to participate.
Jesus is fine but the moment that Jesus starts to push on this and say no Romans 1 do not engage in this also do not approve of this the moment we start to that Jesus starts to press on this the culture says no and very angrily so are you going to participate in the idols of the day I can keep I'll just do a few more this listen if you're in high school and college you're going to feel this there is an idol of pleasure that shows up.
When you're in high school and college a lot of times it shows up and in partying and doing drugs I felt that as a kid I did it because I thought that's where satisfaction was because the friends were saying are you are you going to be cool you going to do this you going to participate in this and you're going to feel that if you're in high school you're in college you're going to feel this temptation to participate people will say yeah.
Jesus is fine but are you going to participate are you going to eat the meat are you going to drink are you going to get high are you going to participate in the idol of pleasure this happens over and over again you feel this at your workplace so much of the there's so much uh waywardness when it comes to the use of words whether it's gossip or whether it's crude joking in your workplace and it's like yeah if if you kind of stand back as a Christian and you don't participate in the crude joking and you don't participate in the gossip and you don't participate in the slandering of your co-workers and they kind of.
Come to you next you just say I'm actually I'm good like I'm I'm not going to talk about Tina I might think about Tina I'm not to repent of the thoughts I about Tina but I know better than to speak about Tina what are you doing participate come on don't be weird this happens over and over and over again now here's what we failed to I think some of us are aware of this I don't think this is foreign to I think we I think many of us you probably get this here's what we fail to.
See in all of them that behind all of the cultural forces that are seeking to lure and entice you into rejecting Christ into uh uh submitting yourself to the aous practices of today behind all of it is the work of Satan and the Demonic forces of evil are behind they're behind it pulling the strings luring you into sin and we just we don't see the Unseen spiritual reality that's at work that the enemy is at work seeking to lure us away from Christ that the the Demonic have beded down in our lives and are using cultural forces all around us to get us to take a bite to eat the meat of idolatry that is.
All around us but what we don't see is that there is a hook in that meat and in that hook will it will drag you and pull you away from Christ and seeing that he is good and seeing that he is better and it pulls you into a idolatrous worship to the point where your heart grows hardened and cold that is what's on the line here and we sometimes fail to see the Eternal consequences behind the seemingly ordinary rhythms of life that are deep in the trenches of spiritual warfare we just don't.
See it and Christ is trying to open our eyes right now to see do do you not see what's happening here this is not neutral ground and none of this is cute that your heart is on the line and the more that you yield the idolatry of the day the more that you go to the temple the more that you offer the further away you're going to rft and he's trying to warn them because they are false teachers all around the people of pergamum who are saying it's fine it's fine it's fine and there are false teachers all around us that are saying it's fine it's fine and Christ is saying it's not it's not.
You need to have your eyes open to the reality that it's a play that there are all sorts of idolatry and sexual immorality that's built in that that the the culture is going to say that Satan is going to preach that is for your good that is for your more human flourishing but Christ is standing in the middle and he's saying it's not I am better that's why we should heed the words of what he says next when he says in.
Verse 16 therefore repent repent if not I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth which is a picture of judgment he says judgment is coming it is coming coming upon this false teaching and these false teachers and if you follow the ways of these false teachers you will be swept up in that judgment so he says repent which just means to turn to turn from ulous practices and turn back to Christ and after he gives that he says in.
Verse 17 the the next and the final part of this letter that we see in all these letters to the one who conquers verse 17 he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers I will give some of the Hidden mana and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it now in each of these final rewards that we.
See in each of these letters to the one who conquers is a futur looking in the new heavens and the new Earth gift that God is going to give to his people to the to those who conquer into the end now there are three mentioned here hidden Mana a white stone and a new name now you can get into the weeds of like all right what is the hidden Mana what is this Whit Stone and let me tell you if you want to there's all types of commentaries there's all types of takes on this and pretty passionate takes I would I would imagine at some point I to be honest I don't know with 100%.
Certainty what each of these mean I I can take a step back and very generally look at these rewards and and see what they mean and they're wonderful you see Mana in the Old Testament that was when uh the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness and God gave daily provision Daily Bread Mana that came from heaven and and the picture here of the Hidden Mana that awaits us is that there is a day coming where you're not going to be trying to actively fight the sinful desires to go and eat the meat of the temple to go and eat the things the culture gives you to go and be satisfied with lesser things that only.
Rob you of Joy now there is a day coming where you will have eternal satisfaction there will be Eternal Provisions that are wonderful and beautiful and you will only enjoy those and all of the Lesser evils that V for your attention and your affection will be forgotten they will be a distant memory there is a day where hidden Mana is coming and there is a day where there will be a wh Stone I that that's either some bit of permanent marker permanent security permanency some will say it's it's an invitation to to an eternal banquet both of those are true that one day you will sit at the table of.
God one day you will have a permanent place before the Lord and on that white stone there is a name a very person personal name that only you and your savior know now new names in the Bible uh mean new identity so when Simon is called Peter he takes on a new identity Peter you are the Rock in which I will build this Church and the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against you that in the new heavens and new earth.
Jesus will give you a personal name that redefines your eternity and it's wonderful we get these glimpses of Eternal offerings that are given to us that are eternally better in each and all of these that we see in these letters and everything that is glorious about the new heavens of the new Earth everything that is glorious about eternity with God that has to be held out in front of us because the enemy is over here dangling all sorts of idolatrous practices all sorts of meat on hooks that are seeking to rob you and Rob me of that and what.
Jesus offers is better it is better now and it is better then I want to close with John chapter 6 Jesus as he's teaching about how he is the one who will satisfy in John 6: 31-35 he says our fathers ate the Mana in the wilderness as it is written he gave them bread from Heaven to eat and that is the picture of the Old Testament the story of the daily Provisions that were given to the people of God verse 32.
Jesus said to them truly truly I say to you it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven but my father gives you the true bread from Heaven he says my father is the one that gave this he's the one that gave this good gift for the Bread of Heaven is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world so he redefines this now then the New Covenant of Christ I know this going to shock you he's talking about himself he says.
For the bread is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world and the people he just he he reels them in he says he gets him excited they said to him sir give us this bread always and Jesus said to them I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger whoever believes in me shall never thirst I'm the one that satisfies if you eat of me if you believe in me you will be eternally satisfied and that is what we get to.
Remember as we come to the table the band's going to come up and we're going to prepare to take the Lord's supper and communion is a meal of rembrance we we remember that on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread and he broke it he said this is my body that was broken for you and he took the cup of the new covant he said this is my blood that was shed for for you that as often as you eat and drink this you Proclaim my death until I return.
Now look what Jesus was saying there is that we remember the Bread of Heaven who came and gave his life for us to free Us From Slavery to sin so that we might eternally enjoy him because it also points forward to a day when we will sit at the table of God and we will eternally enjoy our savior but the reality is that is an invitation that some have rejected and there is a possibility here that some of you have not actually accepted the invitation the Christ is offered himself.
But your whole life has been geared towards idolatry has been geared towards uh slavery to the things of this world and Christ Is Lifting your eyes to see the Eternal reality of right now that he is better and he's worthy of your life he's worthy of your faith he's worthy of Your Surrender so the offer right now is don't come to the table it has come to Christ and to place your faith in him and to eat of the Bread of Heaven through faith in him.
If you are a Christian you have participated in idolatry we have sinned but we have a wonderful Savior and he invites Us in Repentance to come up to the table to remember what he did for us to remember that that he died for us to free us from it and that we get to leave this day actively walking away from the idolatry that so wants our affections and our desire so as you are ready come to the table there's gluten-free in that back corner.
Let me pray heavenly father I pray that you might help us see the Eternal reality of the enemy who wants to lure and entice us towards sin and unfaithfulness and waywardness and I pray that we wouldn't stand for it we'd stand firm in the Gospel that you died for that sin that we might flee from idolatry that we might flee from sexual immorality that we might flee to you and find refuge in you the Bread of Heaven and I pray if there's anyone here that has not placed their faith in you I pray they would.
Today in Jesus name amen.
Revelation: Smyrna
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here in 1942 Nazi Germany was marching its way across Russia and winning and Russia was consistently retreating and being pushed back they the the Nazis had stalled out a little bit in the winter of 1941 but by the middle of 1942 they were moving and they made it to Stalingrad which is a strategically located City on the vulga river and it became clear to the Russians that they couldn't lose Stalingrad that.
If they did they would have lost a very strategic position that the Germans would have gained a very strategic position and so they said we we we can't we can't lose here they issued order number 227 which is it had more to it but basically it's known as the not a step backward order they just said can't cannot lose here does doesn't matter how how much it takes how hard it is how much suffering there is we don't take one step backward and the battle.
For Stalingrad lasted 5 months and cost 2 million lives but at the end of it the Russians held Stalingrad and Germany had broken themselves on their Eastern front and as I read is we're studying together the Book of Revelation and we're working our way through it we're in Chapter 2 today we're going to go from verses 8 to verses 11 if you have one of these blue Bibles it's going to be on page 595 and as I read this letter this address of.
Jesus to the Church in Smyrna it feels a little bit like that he's telling the Church you can't lose you can't take a step backward even though it it's going to be difficult even though there's hardship even though there's death you have to hold on and so the hope today as we read this letter to the Church in Smyrna is that we would be emboldened and incouraged to hold on to remain faithful to not Retreat to not fall back but to.
See how gloriously good Jesus is and hold on that's the hope for this morning let's take a moment to pray and then we'll begin reading the text Lord we ask for your grace we ask for ears to hear what the spirit says to the churches and we pray that as we Face tribulation and difficulty that you would help us to be faithful faithful to you in the midst of whatever we face and we ask this by your grace and by the work at the cross and in.
Jesus name amen chapter 2: 8 the the whole book of Revelation is a letter that's written to seven churches and then in the Book of Revelation there are specific addresses to the different churches we are looking at Smyrna and the way these letter letters are written is that it would have most likely traveled kind of the route you would have taken to deliver the letter so it goes to Ephesus which is the first letter the first address goes to Ephesus.
Then up to Smyrna and there's a road that runs Ephesus was the chief Port of Asia Minor at this time goes Ephesus up to smyna then up to pergam and then on around and there's a road that runs that Loop so it seems as if it was just basically the way you would have delivered it Smyrna is the only one of these cities that still exists it's ismir now and it's written to Smyrna it says and to the angel of the Church in Smyrna right Smyrna probably had about 200,000 people it was a beautiful prominent City they actually have coins printed that we found uh that have been discovered that say Smyrna.
First in Beauty and in size which is just bold but that's a pretty good like if you're going to if you're going to have a city slogan that's a pretty good one like Chicago was like we're windy good anything else n that's it stick with that one Casey's is it's it's a time for Life whatever that means Columbia is famously hot which would be a good way to sell chicken but it doesn't sell a city very well it doesn't make me want to live there.
But Smyrna first in Beauty and in size sounds nice it was a very prominent City it was a wealthy City and we're going to see that the Christians got none of that they got to participate in none of the goodness of the wealth and the prominence of this city because this is what he says we're going to see in just a moment but first Jesus begins by referring to himself he says to the angel of the Church in smyna write the words of the.
First and the last who died and came to life Jesus begins by telling them who he is but also it's a little bit of why they should listen we're going to see in all of these addresses to the different churches that he's going to talk about himself but it's out of his nature and character and goodness and who he is that his commands are going to be able to be founded it's where they're going to stand it's going to be based off of who.
Jesus is some of what we talk about as a Church is we want to be Gospel fluent which is that we want to remember that everything's about Jesus and what he's done and that the reason that we do the things that we do come from him they come out of him or they they find their meaning in him and that's how these are written that Jesus is saying this is who I am it's like if you went to a conference they always tell you before someone gets up and speaks who they are what they've done and in some ways they're saying here's why you should.
Listen this person has three phds they've been in this field for 30 years they're never just like here's some guy they always tell you what what it is that would make you want to listen and and Jesus says the words of the first and the last who died and came to life we should want to listen in in these two phrases we have such Ain and beautiful doctrine of Christ he's the first and the last the beginning and the end he was there at the beginning through whom all things were made all things hold together and all things are returning back to him at the very end of days we will.
See him because he's the end of days he's the Ancient of Days he rules over all things he's the first and the last and he's reminding this Church of his sovereignty we're going to see that this Church is in the middle of difficulty and it's really good for him to look and say I'm in charge I rule over all of it and we believe that as Christians if you don't know that we believe that about Jesus if you're new to this we believe that.
Jesus is God who rules over all things but it's not just that it's not just that he's the first and the last but he died because he took on flesh specifically to pay the debt of our sin if you don't know much about Christianity it's Poss possible for you to think that what Jesus wants from you is morality he wants you to be good that this whole point is that we would get together and learn the rules and do them and be good people.
But the reality is we're sinners in need of Grace and Jesus came to live on our behalf and to die in our place so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in him and then fulfilled for us because of the work of Jesus so if you think it's just about morality and you learning some rules then the death of Christ makes no sense but if you understand that you are a sinner in need of a sacrifice then the death of Christ makes perfect sense.
So this is the ruler of all things the first and the last who died and came to life so that in the resurrection of Jesus we see the confirmation of God's work in him and the truth and reality that we can actually be forgiven of our sins see if he just died we might still have some question marks but he came to life how do you know you're forgiven Jesus Reigns the sacrifice was accepted he died in my place he rose again I get to be dead to my sins and alive in Christ and that's all right here as.
Jesus describes who he is he says this I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich meaning that they are materially poor but spiritually wealthy uh Jesus tells a story when he's on Earth and doing his Earthly Ministry he tells a story about a man who was the opposite who was had material wealth and spiritual poverty but he says to this Church they're blessed that they're uh actually physically Earthly poor but eternally spiritually rich I know your tribulation tribulation is difficulty I know that you're facing trouble I know that things are hard which is beautiful.
Because in the middle of trouble sometimes it's easy to think does he even know what's going on and he starts off with I know what's going on I know what you're facing I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan that's a reference to those who would be ethnically Jewish but that do not worship or follow Jesus that's what he means by those who say they are Jews.
But are not this this idea is brought out in the as Jesus is the Fulfillment he's the the promised Messiah he's the true son of Israel he's the true Israel then all of those who are belong to Abraham belong to Abraham by faith Roman Romans tells us this Jesus talks to a bunch of Jewish men and he says that they're not really Jewish they're not following their father Abraham they're following their father the devil it's the same idea that because they don't worship.
Jesus because they don't follow Jesus they're not really included in the Covenant people because he has come to fulfill the Covenant and they have rejected him so they are ethnically Jewish but not spiritually included in the Covenant he says that there a synagogue which is the like a Jewish Church but they they would say it's a synagogue of God and he says no they're actually on the other team which is similar to what he tells them in John chapter 8 the Christians in Smyrna it didn't matter.
If you were Greek or Jewish things were not going well for you if you were Greek originally Greek and became a Christian Smyrna was not a good place for that it was a place that had a lot of worship of other Idols worship of other gods it actually had won the right to be the place where they put the temple to Roma the temple to tiberias the temple to Caesar where they would worship Caesar as Lord in SM when you became a Christian it messed up your ability it's one of the reasons why a lot of Christians were poor it messed up your ability to work.
Because in order to be in the guild to be a silver smith to be a carpenter you had to worship that God it'd be like if if Amazon had the God of Speedy package delivery and you had to and when you clocked in at Amazon burn some incense to the to the package delivery God in order to clock in that's how it worked or in order to keep my dad build swimming pools and I grew up in in a family where we built pools.
But it'd be like if in order for him to keep his licenses he had to to worship the God of the ocean or the God of floating or whatever but he had to somehow do that or otherwise he would lose his licenses that's what happens for Greek speaking Greek people who they they they're Christians now and they can't worship these false gods anymore they can't burn incense to them and and suddenly they said well you can't work and so there's no real place.
For them and the rule in Rome was everybody everybody absolutely everybody worships the Roman gods except there was one group of people they made an exception for and that was the Jewish people because everybody else was polytheistic and when the Romans conquered them if you're willing to have a bunch of gods you could just build another Temple to another God didn't bother you and also since they conquered you that God might be better the Jewish people were the only people who didn't do this they were like oh y'all conquered us.
But you going to be in trouble this land doesn't belong to you it's coming that's what the Jewish people did and they wouldn't worship the other gods and so the Romans decided they were either going to have to kill every person who is ethnically Jewish or let them just have their one God and that's what they did so when Christianity started anybody who was ethnically Jewish Roman Empire just saw them as another form of Judaism you had Pharisees you had Sadducees.
Now you have Christians and so they just left them alone well the Jewish synagogue started saying no these Christians don't belong to us and actively turning them over to the Roman authorities to be executed so if you were Greek you lost family you lost prominence you lost your job it's what often happened especially in places like Smyrna and if you were Jewish you got kicked out of the synagogue you were uh actively being told on by other Jewish people that this person only worships one.
God and they're not part of us so they should be in trouble and you lost your family you lost your livelihood and suddenly you have this group of people who loves Jesus and loves each other and has tribulation in poverty and that's who Jesus is talking to he says I know what's going on and I know it's awful right now verse 10 do not fear what you are about to suffer okay that sentence would not help me that much like if you went to the doctor and they walked in and said don't worry you're about to suffer it'd be like they didn't teach you about this day in doctor school I think you're supposed to.
Word that differently this what does he mean honestly as I look at it I'm reminded of the way that my dad used to do stuff with us we would when we were little we would go and have to like get a shot we were going to the doctor we going to have to get a shot or something and we would ask cuz you you ask is this going to hurt and I think a lot of parents would say no it's not that bad that's not what my dad would say my dad would.
Look at us and go yeah it's going to hurt they're going to take a piece of metal about this big and Jab it in your arm it's going to poke a hole in your skin you are going to bleed it is unpleasant you ever been stung by a bee yes sir it's like that except you have to watch it happen and then he would say but you're going to sit there and you're going to be still and you're going to keep it together.
Because if you wiggle it's gonna be worse and it's worth it and it gave us courage I think that's what Jesus is doing he's encouraging the Church not the way we use encouragement like you did so good that's the kind of encouragement I like what you so good look at you doing the the good stuff this is the encouragement where he's actually giving courage you're about to suffer get ready don't be afraid look it in the face square up now I think he's going to tell us why they ought not to be afraid I think we're going to.
See that in this text and I don't think it's the type of answer that we want but I think it's the answer that Jesus so often gives and it's actually better than what we want so here's what he says do not be afraid do not fear sorry do not fear hear what you are about to suffer behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and for 10 days you will have tribulation be faithful unto death and I will give you the Crown of Life all right we got to answer a few questions.
So that we can understand what's going on here he says behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison how how does that work I don't know if y'all know this but we have three enemies the World the Flesh and the devil and the devil actively Works to oppose the Church and he does this in a lot of ways but one of the ways the enemy works is through sinful men through political powers and so yes it's going to be the synagogue it's going to be the Jewish leaders handing them over to the Greek authorities.
But what The Book of Revelation does is a revealing it pulls the curtain back and one of the things Jesus is pulling the curtain back on right now is to say that's the enemy at work the Jewish people they're not your problem they're not the issue like it's they don't know it but they're worshiping Satan by the way that they're going about this they're on his team and it's the devil that's at work against you here and so he's saying you're going to face opposition he's going to throw you into prison that you may be tested.
For 10 days that you may be tested sorry and for 10 days you will have tribulation now that and for 10 days at first makes you go okay well good it sounds fairly short and it is possible he means a literal 10 days but also in the Book of Revelation as we continue going we're going to see that a lot of numbers are used and most of them seem to be um symbolic and so 10 days here most likely means a fix fixed relatively short period of time that.
Jesus knows the amount of time it's fixed he's not in the dark on this he knows the amount of time and it's fixed but he also if you said okay well it's going to be short he says be faithful unto death some of the shortness will be due to death not how we would describe escape and I think it's possible for us to look at situations like this and say why would God allow that what why is he letting Satan do that to this Church and I think there's times in our lives where we're saying that about our situation why is he allowing this why is this happening why is this working this way why.
Isn't this working the way it's supposed to I think it's also possible because of the way our culture thinks about suffering and difficulty is for us to say there is no good God who would allow us to suffer and so we're going to immediately run into problems in passages like this where he's telling them don't fear go suffer unto death and I think it's possible for us to to say well if I'm suffering I know that Jesus wants me out of it.
So that what he wants for me is to escape the suffering but a passage like this says Maybe not maybe he wants something so much better for you than escaping suffering and what that is is faithfulness that leads to life because that's what he says be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life now that's interesting and we're going to see as we keep going that that he has a specific way that he thinks about life and death a specific way that we are to think about life and death.
But he says go until you're dead dead and then I'll reward you with life that Crown there there's two words in the Greek that get translated Crown at times there's Stephanos and diadema diadema also gets translated as diadem at times but it's it's a way that we will take that word and translate it to Crown sometimes in Stephanos we translate to Crown but it also is a laurel that they would reward someone it's like a gold medal like a trophy it's what they would reward you with.
So he's saying I will reward you with life you'll earn life life now he's the first and the last so these Christians who were going to face execution you'd say the last thing they saw was the Executioner no Jesus is last oh he died yeah and was immediately crowned with life that's what Jesus is saying saying here don't fear go face death and I'll Crown you with life I'll be at the end the Executioner will show up at the end to meet me that's what.
Jesus says and don't fear to follow my footsteps because I went from death into life he died and came to life and so he's saying come follow me all the way to the end follow me be faithful all the way to the end come face death and be rewarded with life from the one who face death and owns life that's what Jesus is Calling them into he says he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
Now it's Jesus speaking but now we see it's also the spirit speaking because Jesus and the spirit speak together so this is the spirit speaking to the Church it's also Jesus speaking to the Church because 's Unity between Jesus and the spirit I also love that all of these passages say he who has an ear let him hear I think it's possible in our culture because of the way we've been trained to be consumers if I go to a restaurant and I don't enjoy the meal I don't once think that might have been my fault I think that's their fault the people who cooked it and I think it's possible.
Because we're trained in this fashion to somehow let that infect our approach to belonging to a Church to show up and consume you go hang out with your group and and things aren't good with your group and it's their fault not yours you you show up be a part of a Church for a while you gather on Sundays and you guys just don't like that how they whatever like they exist apart from you like you don't belong to them there are people who stand up here.
But they're part of the US you guys we've gathered to sing we've gathered to study the word and I I want to as graciously as I can tell you if you've moved from Church to Church to Church to Church it's quite possible that they don't have a mouth problem you have an ear problem and what we ought to be asking for his ears to hear and showing up here preparing ourselves to participate in what it looks like to gather with the people of.
God to sing with the people of God and to make much of the Lord Jesus but he says he who has an ear to hear Let Him hear and then he says this the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death that word conquer is going to be used repeatedly in these letters and it is a violent word it is a word that calls for action it's a word that calls for grit it is a word to help you understand what is actually happening that you have a Real Enemy and that we are facing off in a real high stake issue and he says the one who conquers will not face will.
Not be hurt by the second death Okay so we've heard about the first death because he says be faithful unto death but now he's talking about a second death did y'all know that did you know that you can die twice Jesus knows it and this is what we get so often we don't get why does this happen what we get from Jesus is why it's worth it to fight through what he's he doesn't tell them why they're going to face suffering why they're going to face tribulation why he's not going to just stop it there what he says is here's why it'll be worth it I'll Crown you with life and you won't face the.
Second death but we need to understand what the second death is the Book of Revelation in chapter 20 says this uh Jesus is Conquering everybody at the end we're excited to get to this part of the Book of Revelation it's excellent Jesus conquers Satan he conquers the Beast he throws them in the Lake of Fire and then it says says this in ch 20:14 then death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire this is how much Jesus is the last of all things he kills death they were thrown into the Lake of Fire this is the.
Second death the Lake of Fire or again in Revelation 21 6-8 and he said to me it is done I the Alpha and the Omega that's the first and the last the beginning and the end to the Thirsty I will give from the spring of Water of Life without payment the one who conquers will have this Heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son but as for the Cowardly the faithless the detestable as for the murderers the sexually immoral Sorcerers idolators and all liars their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur which is the.
Second death everyone faces death but not everyone faces death faithful to Jesus and not everyone faces the second death which is eternal dying there is eternal life and there is eternal dying and so Jesus looks at this Church and says be faithful unto death and the second death won't touch you you focus on me you love me you follow me and the second death won't touch you that we get to look to Jesus who died and Rose to life and we get to die and rise to life that the Church in Smyrna gets to die and rise to life that they get to.
Look to him this is how he thinks about it this is why he says weird things when you're reading like the Book of Matthew The Book of Luke I want to read Luke 12 he says I tell you my friends do not fear Those Who Kill the body and after that have nothing more than they that they can do okay that's not a human phrasing if someone was like you don't want to go there it's really dangerous if you're telling somebody hey don't go to that that part of the city don't go to that place it's really dangerous it's really rough right.
Now and they looked at you and said what what do they do just kill the body yes exactly that's what they do well can they do anything else or is that it that's what else would what you know what go I don't I don't know what to tell you Jesus doesn't have death in mind y'all know everybody dies there are very few people who haven't and all of us are going to unless Jesus returns the first death isn't the thing he has his eyes on and it's not the thing he wants us to have our eyes on it's the.
Second death it's Eternal death Eternal dying Eternal punishment this is what fuels mission all they can do if we send missionaries to the hardest places in the world that don't want the Gospel all they can do is kill the body and create Victors that's all they can do we we support the international Mission board we support 1040 hope it's actually a member of our Church that started 1040 hope it's designed to send missionaries to the 1040 window which is the hardest place to send missionaries we want some of you by God's grace.
For him to get a hold of your heart and take you somewhere else to tell some other people about Jesus and we want you to do it without fear knowing that the worst they can do is kill your body and after that they have nothing more they can do that's what he says I'll warn you whom to fear fear Him who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell yes I tell you fear Him and some of you right.
Now are so worried about your body what you're going to eat what you're going to drink what you're going to put on where you're going to live and you've given no thought to Eternal death but Jesus is more to be feared than anything else he's more fearful than anything else he's better than anything else but he's more be feared because he's the last this letter went to the City of Smyrna there was a young Christian there who was actually a disciple of John named polycarp polycarp eventually becomes a leader in the Church in Smyrna and is martyred in the City of Smyrna that's not in our Bibles it's in our Church history and we have.
Some of his sayings written down some of his letters written down and we've got an account of his death that does say that there were some miraculous things it happened since it's not in the Scriptures we don't exactly know doesn't have the same Authority but about 50 years after this letter went out six years after this letter went out they were uh again persecuting Christians in Smyrna he's known as the 12th martyr of Smyrna but they were coming they went and got him from his home he was about 86 years old they bring him in front of everybody and the authorities at that point seemed like they were a little bit felt a little bit.
Bad about executing an 86y old and so they said we just need you to recant we need you in front of everybody to make a sacrifice to Caesar and to say Caesar is Lord and polycarp says if you imagine for a moment that I would do that then I think you pretend that you don't know who I am hear it plainly I am a Christian not going to do it they keep pleading with him they say just recant just say that you don't follow.
Jesus just say that you Jesus that uh Caesar is Lord he says 86 years I have served Christ and he never did me any wrong how can I blaspheme my king who saved me they told him they would feed him to wild animals he said bring them out they got so frustrated with him they said we're going to burn you at the stake and he says you threaten with fire that burns for a short time and is soon quenched you don't know about the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment that awaits the Wicked.
But why are you waiting come do what you will and they burned him and stabbed him with Spears and he died and he was crowned with life and he's been alive ever since and it seemed that he had read the letter that was written to a city and he knew about death but he also knew about the second death until he face death without fear I'm I'm burdened as I teach this because I think there's a I think there's a couple of ways.
For us to hear this my My Hope Is that you would hear it and that you would be so convinced of the glory of Christ of the reality of death and Eternity that you would trust him with everything and that you would follow him with everything and that you would do whatever he tells you to do My Hope Is that a year from now two years from now 3 years from now some of you aren't here because you're somewhere else telling people about.
Jesus because you've gone to go plant a Church you've gone to go Pastor you've gone to go be a missionary that's that's my hope my hope is that some of you who are facing fear right now at work to to articulate this sort of things would begin to tell people how good Jesus Is My Hope Is that for someone who came here today because you think that what is needed from you is to be good is that you would trust Jesus and his sacrifice that he died and that he rose and that you would be made I think there's a way.
For us to listen to this though where we go neat and we go home because none of us are facing this kind of tribulation or persecution none of us have watched someone be burned to death and have a moment right before where they could have just burned a little incense and gotten sent home I think it's easy for us to just hear this and go that's great yeah Praise Jesus we'll sing a song and go home I think there's a way.
For us to sit right now and tell ourselves I would do that I'd be faithful into death but again you're going to leave and I don't think anyone's going to try to kill you today for being a Christian there's a there's a song by King's Kaleidoscope that's always stuck with me one of the lines in the song is Judas sold you for 30 I'd have done it for less and Jesus here says be faithful unto death and that's what actually all of us want is that in.
If facing death we would hold fast to Jesus and until we Face death that we would hold fast to Jesus but my fear is that none of us are close to death and that we're not going to be persecuted into faithfulness but we're going to be comforted out of it and then instead of being faithful unto death we're going to be faithful until money we got to raise and suddenly we just aren't going to follow Jesus The Way We Were faithful until relationship I've love.
Jesus I'm following Jesus until you get a boyfriend or a girlfriend and then well I I'll reject him here because the stakes don't seem as high but we're playing the same game with our souls will be faithful until difficulty suffering we won't stick it out in a marriage we won't stick it out with our Church faithful to following Jesus until suddenly your group is difficult and complicated and hard to deal with and they're Sinners and instead of being faithful to Jesus in those things and repentant to.
Jesus in those things and obedient to Jesus and those things we'll tell ourselves no I still love Jesus I'm just not doing that part and I feel like it's really easy for us to say booyfriend is Lord and burn a little incense money is Lord and burn a little incense Comfort is Lord and burn a little incense my time is Lord and burn a little incense what I want my preferences are LED and burn a little incense and not realize that we're doing it and the hope is that we would be people who with Clarity would.
See how good Jesus is and be faithful unto death and every step from here to there that's my hope that we would gain courage to face whatever the Lord has in front of us knowing that he knows the time he knows the situation he has it planned out and one day we'll stand before him as the last of all things and if you trust Jesus we're crowned with life and it will have all been worth it let's pray Jesus you are sovereign you're the.
First and the last you died and came to life so that we have hope in any circumstance that we're in for life and joy and peace and rescue we have hope in any circumstance we're in for forgiveness so Lord may we see you and Lord in so many ways we fear the first death we think about the first death build our lives around all the things that will protect the body and fail to see our hope is eternal Jesus we trust you in all the ways that we fail to forgive us to redeem us to help us we ask that you would give us ears to hear.
So that we might hate sin and love you that we might not compromise and Lord I pray that you would help us to be faithful unto death to the glory of Christ in Jesus name amen as the band comes back up I would encourage you to take a moment to ask the Lord to help you hear what the spirit has to say to just take a moment to Bow your head and say Lord what what do you have to say where do I need to grow where do I need to repent where do I need to believe where do I need to trust what would you have me do and just take a moment to.
Listen and then we're going to sing and Praise Jesus.
Revelation: Ephesus
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here we are in the Book of Revelation we are in chapter two verses 1 through 7 we introduced the book last week and what we saw was that while there are quite a bit uh there are a lot of parts of the Book of Revelation uh that may seem confusing and some of them actually don't just seem confusing they are confusing uh that there are some that uh are debated there's lots of things that may be unclear that there's really one thing that's crystal clear and that's the big picture of Revelation and we said last week that this is an apocalyptic book which means.
It's in the apocalyptic genre of of literature in the Scriptures and it's a letter written to A persecuted uh group of churches telling them to endure because Jesus is going to return he is coming back so as we walk through this book we're going to walk through in three different parts we're going to see that big picture over and over again now we're in a section of Revelation uh part one of this series is the letters and over the next seven weeks we'll be walking through seven letters that.
Jesus has written to these churches and we're going to be able to look at these letters and learn from uh what we see in them uh I've got uh uh a couple of Brothers my older brother is 18 months older than me so we grew up sign by side together and uh one of the things that uh I learned very early on is that he uh was going to make a lot of mistakes that I was not going to make he just aggressively made lots of mistakes like did not care at all about the repercussions he just went.
For it I would watch him get in trouble over and over again and make all these mistakes and I was like I I I'm not going to do that well partially I wasn't a Christian for a long time and I was like I'm just going to do it better and not get caught but I became a Christian later on and I was like I'm not going to follow in these same mistakes I'm going to learn from his mistakes and that's what we get to do with these letters we get to.
See the these churches as older brothers and the faith saints that we're walking with Christ and we're going to see some of the things that Jesus is going to uh encourage but also call out in these churches and we get to learn from all of it and that's just what the next seven weeks get to be so we're going to look at one the first letter today pray for us then we're going to walk through this uh together heavenly father I pray that you would open our hearts to receive your word.
God I pray that you might impress upon the reality of the good news of the Gospel and what that calls us to whether we are in Christ and we belong to him and all the words that we just sang and celebrated whether that's true for us right now I pray that you would uh impress the word upon us that we might respond uh and not just be hearers of the word but be doers of the word but there may be folks here that have not really tasted and seen that you are good they have not placed their full faith in following you and I pray that you might help them.
See uh the the truth of the Gospel so clearly this morning we ask this in Jesus name amen all right so uh before we jump into the first verse of chapter 2 uh these are the seven letters written to these Seven Cities Ephesus smea pergamum thyy Sardis Philadelphia and leoda and I just want to point out something that I think is really cool so this map is modern day Turkey it's coming there so in the order that these letters show up and that.
Jesus is addressing them you kind of see Ephesus SME pergamum all the way down to leoda it's a big loop I just think that is is is is helpful to see that these are letters that would have gone from City to city in modern day Turkey but as the Scriptures will refer to it as uh Asia so uh what we're going to see in the order of each of these letters there a general template for how these letters are laid out the very beginning you're going to.
See the Church so you go ahead and go to the next slide yep nope not that one there we go so you're going to see a pattern for each letter you're going to see the Church being addressed then you're going to see Christ describing himself then for the majority of the letters we're going to see a commendation Jesus encouraging these churches for what he sees in them there's a couple that don't really get get that because they're struggling but usually we're also going to.
See a rebuke that follows that Commendation and this is a correction calling them to uh return to following Christ there's a consequence for not repenting for not turning back to Christ and how he addresses it and then it ends with a promise for those who conquer so every letter is going to end with a promise for those who conquer the one who conquers and we're going to see a shade of Eternity in each of those endings so that's the general layout.
For these letters and actually all applies to this letter today so let's kick it off in verse one to the angel of the Church in Ephesus right all right let me pause there so it says to the angel of the Church and it's like wait what what Angel so some will look at this and they won't interpret that as Angel meaning a Heavenly being the Greek word for Angel is ang and when it's used in the New Testament it can either mean an angel Heavenly being or messenger.
So some will say well actually what's happening here this is a this is a messenger this must be maybe the pastor of the Church this is someone who is who's going to read the letter to the Church then actually this is Messenger but I would say that's probably not the case because the whole rest of the Book of Revelation Angelas in the Greek means angel means heaven Heavenly being so I think it's actually right to interpret this as this is an angel someone who's watching over a Heavenly being who's watching over this Church and some of you'all might think that's kind of weird some of you might have like flashbacks to touch bying Angel episodes.
And that's just like so like in your mind when you when you when you hear the word Angel like you just that that's where your mind goes so let me be very clear this is not weird at all and we have to remove any bit of like medieval art or Hallmark card or niit cage in the City of Angels like anything that comes to mind that might confuse our picture of what a a Biblical picture of what an angel actually is.
Because when you actually read it about angels in the Scriptures it is normal they're all over the Scriptures they're Heavenly beings and they're also very powerful and terrifying Heavenly Creatures and then when they show up in the Bible people are afraid because they're so powerful but they're sent here for our good like God sends them for our good they serve on behalf of God and they serve his people and since we are indeed in a spiritual war against evil against unseen uh as we saw in the flesh world and devil series The Three enemy series that we have an enemy who seeks to destroy us.
Because that's true it is actually comforting for us as Christians to know that God sends heavenly beings these angels to take care of us so the whole book is addressed to the seven churches but in each of these individual intros you're going to see an angel included in all of them so to the angel of the Church in Ephesus in Ephesus okay so let's pause there for a moment in the rest of these letters we don't have a lot to go on.
When it comes to the Church he's writing to but we do in this one we actually know a lot about Ephesus if you go to Acts 19 and 20 you see the story of how this Church began that Paul shows up and he meets some of the Disciples of John the Baptist and he shares the Gospel with them and this Church begins and it like explodes I mean it's a you should if you have time to read it this week it's a beautiful story of.
God working in a very Pagan City a very lost and broken and dark city Ephesus is one of the largest cities in the Roman EMP Empire and it is also a very dark city because it is where the Temple of Artemis is which is one of the ancient wonders of the world but it's also a place where there's a lot of cultic worship a lot of uh dark uh uh uh arts and magic and Witchcraft and this is this is the the the culture of Ephesus and the Gospel starts to spread through it.
So much so that he flips the city upside down and people start repenting of all these dark and wicked practices we read in Acts 19 it says also many of those who were now Believers came confessing and divulging their practices and a number of those who had practiced magic Arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all and they counted the value of them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver that people just start repenting of these Pagan practices and they start trusting in Christ and it starts to really upend the local economy.
So much so that these silver smiths in Ephesus they start to to realize their business is being threatened because part of their business is making silver shrines that they can sell to people to go devote it to the false God Artemis and they start a riot to persecute the Christians in response so you go and read this this week it's you see uh God mightily at work and you you can read in Acts 20 Paul's speech to the Ephesian Elders it is wonderful.
And then you keep flipping in the New Testament and you get the book of Ephesians one of the uh richest New Testament letters both for its theology but also its call for Christians to in unity love one another well and you see some of the Dynamics at play and some of the encouragement that that that Paul is giving to this Church who's who's following Christ in this wonderful way and then later you get to First Timothy and you see that Timothy was a pastor in this Church.
So we got some history to go on here and some context to go on here and about 30ish years later we have this letter being written to this Church so it's no longer just a Church plant that just started it's an established Church so that's the background in Ephesus and then Christ gets the description in the next part of himself he says the words of him who holds the Seven Stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
So Christ gives a description of himself self where he holds the Seven Stars we learned last week do the seven angels that he's Sovereign in in his oversight and his care of the Church but also he walks among the lampstands we learned last week the lampstands are these churches lampstand is another word for Church here and I just find it so deeply encouraging that our savior both provides oversight and Care over these churches and he walks among them and he's present with them and he and he sees their good works I also love the imagery here of the lampstand itself and the the Old Testament.
When you read about the Tabernacle this is the the uh the structure where God ruled and reigned from amongst the Israelites we saw this in the book of Exodus a while back that there's a lampstand in the Tabernacle and it symbolizes the light and of God and then Jesus building upon that in the New Testament in The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 he says you talking about his followers you are the light of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket.
But on a stand and it gives light to all in the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven and it's just this picture that the Church Bears the Light of Christ that's what James 1 talks about he's the father of lights and this lampstand is God's power his glory his goodness his all of his character his light is shining through the Church.
So he walks among the seven lampstands all right that's a description of Christ then he shifts into the next part which is his Commendation his encouragement of the Ephesians no yes the Ephesians verse two I know your Works your toil and your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil but have tested those who call themselves Apostles and are not and found them to be false I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and you have not grown weary.
So Christ who's present among amongst the churches walks amongst this lampstand he just says I know your works I see your good works and I think that's a that's that's an encouragement to us that he sees it I think we know that I think I think theologically like we know we know God sees it he sees it he sees it but no he really does he sees he's present when you are faithful to him I got my my oldest uh my oldest I she doesn't often.
See this sometimes but I know I can hear her upstairs I can see sometimes how she loves and cares for her siblings she's a really good big sister and every now and then I just get to tell her that hey I love how you took care of your little sister here I love how you treated your little brother here that's what God's doing he's like I see this I I see your good work I see the way that you are being faithful and that's an encouragement uh to them.
But it's also an encouragement to us but uh we get this this General description we don't get all the good Works they've been doing but we get this General description of these works and he starts up with by saying your toil your toil so I want to focus on that for a moment uh toil here is not just general work this is the idea of very burdensome work the same Greek word in the original language for toil here shows up and also in 1 Corinthians 15.
When Paul tells the Church to be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor your toil is not in vain so this is grinding it out work burdensome work now we don't get all the specifics for what that is but given the context of Ephesus and what Church is's writing to this certainly would have been in the face of a pagan culture repenting of these dark Works repenting of worshiping Idols this would have been and loving one another.
Well in unity as we see in the book of Ephesians this would be uh seeing the lost and having a broken heart for them and declaring the good news of Jesus Christ to them and that is burdensome work and that toil has continued for decades since this Church was established and Christ says I see it I see your toil and I also see your patient endurance he says your patient endurance anytime this uh phrase patient endurance this endurance shows up in the New Testament most of the time it's talking about endurance in the face of Trials suffering and persecution that's the type of endurance that he's talking about and it's just like you you.
See this that the Church for thousands of years has endured I mean you can read about the modern missions movement that started in the 18th century from William Cary onward all these missionaries who went went out and started to plant churches in other countries and they had spouses and and and children die in the mission field they were arrested they were they were sick they were persecuted and they endured and that's what the Church has done for 2,000 years that is endured and Christ says I.
See your endurance in the face of persecution in the face of riots in the face of all the things you are facing I see your endurance and he sees how they fought back against the ties of false teaching that's another thing that he says here he says and how you cannot bear with those who were evil but have tested those who call themselves Apostles and are not and found them to be false and they've pushed back against false teaching which is something that Paul warned them about.
If you go to Acts 20 you read about his you read his whole speech that he gives to the Ephesian Elders at one point he tells them that I know that after my departure Fierce wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock and from among your own s will arise men speaking Twisted things to draw away the disciples after them he's like this this was going to happen that false teachers were going to come in like wolves to destroy the flock.
Now in verse 6 of chapter 2 when you skip down a little bit we actually get the name of the false teaching that is swept through this Church and it's clear that it's in other churches as well in verse 6 it says yet this you have you hate the work of the nicians which I also hate so this false teaching that is swept in is a group of people called the nicians now we don't have a lot to go on on what this false teaching is later we'll Le we'll read the the letter to pergamum and we'll.
See a reference made to balum but we we really don't have a lot to go on both in the Scriptures but also in Church history we don't know much about this I would like to think that's because at some point it got stomped out but there's not a lot to go on as far as what exactly is being taught here but this is not a shock both Paul has told them this is going to happen and this is just what happens in the New Testament Church and it's what happens in Church history that as the Gospel spreads the enemy is at work and he spreads all types of false teaching and along with false teachings.
Comes uh the all types of Disobedience uh uh desire the flesh this is all kind of linked together in a way that opposes the Gospel of Christ moving forward like I the Church I used to be a part of we had a uh so we were connected to a a mission movement in Ethiopia and one of our elders he went with a team to Ethiopia and they went to which is the remnant of the old Ethiopian Church uh the Ethiopian Church started in the book of Acts.
But later on it kind of got lost and what was left of the Ethiopian Church in a lot of the tribal areas is just kind of leaders thought of themselves as the Ethiopian Church but they didn't actually even have the Gospel they didn't have the Scriptures they didn't know Christ so this elder and this team they went to meet with a bunch of Ethiopian Elders leaders in this area and they just played a tape that shared the Gospel in their language and they all placed their faith in.
Jesus and then they went back to their Villages and they LED all their people to Christ and that's happening all over Ethiopia that's happening all over the continent of Africa and has been for decades and it's wonderful and it's beautiful but right alongside the Gospel moving forward in Africa is a false teaching one of America's worst exports the health wealth and Prosperity Gospel and it is ravaged parts of Africa false teachers going around getting people to worship creation and things and money over Creator this is what happens and it is our responsibility as Christians to stand in the face of that and to declare what is true to call out what is false and to.
Hate those teachings I do think that's a helpful clarification here to hate those teachings that Jesus doesn't say hate the nicians he says hate their works so we should hate those teachings we should never celebrate or condone any evil like that against the Lord whether it's the greed of materialism that comes out of the Prosperity Gospel well it's a celebration of of sexual sin we should never celebrate that at all we should hate those works and we should declare what is true and that's what this Church has been doing they have withstood against false teaching they have declared what is true.
Jesus sees that and he commends that but then verse four he shifts into his correction and his correction starts in verse four but I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first so this Ephesian Church that you can read about that was planted That Grew that was vibrant it seems from the text it's very clear they have abandoned the love they had at first now there's a lot of debate over what he means by the love you had at.
First and some will say this this must be uh love for God and then I'll read other commentators and say well actually this is probably love of one another but I look at both of those arguments and I say first first John John the same John who's recording this this what Christ is telling him here in 1 John chapter 4 says we love because he God first loved us if anyone says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar.
For he who does not love his his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen and when you read that you read other passages that you see that the love of God and the love of one another are linked together you cannot have one without the other so I'd argue I think this is this is both they've abandoned the love they have at first a deep love and affection for Christ and how that changes our hearts in a way that we might.
Look at others too and love them and they've abandoned that that one of the primary marks of what it means to be a Christian is love they've they've left them and this is what Christ warned about in in a teaching that he gives in Matthew 24 he says and then talking about in the age to come and then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another and many false prophets will arise and Lead many astray and because Lawless will be increased the love of many will grow cold and that's what's happening in the Ephesian Church that the love of Christ in them has grown cold I think that's got to be.
One of the one of the most brutal things to receive from Christ to hear you've abandoned the love you had at first and yet I would argue that if he could address the American Church I think he you'd probably have the same message I think you'd look at all the churches and collect this I think you've abandoned the love you have at first I think we do this y'all I think we do this in a lot of different ways I think one of the ways we do this is we have a love of our own interests over the interests of our Brothers and Sisters in Christ I've been in this class right.
Now on biblical peacemaking so I've had to read all these books on peacemaking and all these stories of Church after Church after Church after Church where Christians just cared more about their own preferences and their own interests and then it caused a division in the Church that grew into factions where brothers and sisters who loved each other for decades began to take sides and ripped them apart and I had sent these lectures where I listened to story after story from the person who's lecturing and my other classmates across the country who are seeing this happen over and over again and I think that there's a part of us that just wants our own way.
Our own interest and our own preferences and we forget the love we had at first we exchange the love we had at first that unifies us for our own ways I think this happens with an exchange with the love of the material as opposed to loving Christ and loving others that we love material things we love uh uh Financial uh means of buying things a buddy of mine and I are are flipping a house right now and we've been so we've been put in any extra time we got we just kind of over there working on this house getting contractors in and one of the reasons this house sold.
For what it did was not just because the house itself was in disrepair it's because the neighbor's house next door was a disaster the yard was completely overgrown it's a mess one day a few weeks ago I was over there and I and I saw the neighbor she was out mowing the grass I was like yeah sweet I walked over there introduced myself got to know her and I listened to what the really story of this house the story of of the last 10 years.
For her and I heard all the painful things that led to this house being in disrepair and I just told her at the end I was Hey listen like if you if you want some help like we can like we can come over here we can we can you know we can mow some grass we can pull some vines off this house we can do all kinds of things she said absolutely I'd love that and I left and I called my buddy and I was like dude we're going to fix this house and we're going to be able to flip our house.
For a lot of money and the next morning I just felt the overwhelming conviction of the Holy Spirit where it was just like you were only excited because you could make more money and you didn't once pray over this woman woman you didn't once share Christ with her the only thing you cared about was was the material right in front of you and I was like w was me I was like I and I I started I've reconnected with this woman and been able to pray with her ever since.
But just that's in US y'all that's in us this this love of things this love of money this love of riches where we just that's that's what we care about that's what we prioritize in a way where we don't love others well at all it's so much in drained the very fabric of our culture and and we just we eat it up in a way where it just makes us forget the love we had at first and if we're not careful you'll keep doing that you'll keep doing that until your love grows cold and your heart is Stone and all you care about is riches that will one day go into the ground I think.
We do this with comfort that we have a love of comfort that we that we exchange for the love we had at first and I think that shows up in a lot of ways I think we just like being comfortable I think that we're uh comfortable and and we know that we're called to be everyday missionaries we talk about that a lot we're called to share the Gospel with those who don't believe but in order to do that we have to be uncomfortable.
Because most of us are just that's not a comfortable thing for us to do and it ain't comfortable for them either they ever done it and it's like ah I think I'm just going to love him well and I think I'm just going to be friends with him them and be Salt and Light it's like yeah but you can't friend someone into the kingdom and make the Gospel look sweet and good by the way you love you should do that but the Gospel is a message and its words and you have the words of Christ.
So richly in your heart that you could look for those moments to declare who Christ is to them but I think we love Comfort I think we love comfort in a way that makes us not generous I think that we love the structure of spending the budgets that we have I think we the idea of giving more towards the local Church towards missionaries towards orphan care towards all these things that we should do in order to both kill materialism but also to be obedient to the.
Lord it's like no but I love the Comforts I love being able to level up I love to be able to have the vehicle I want to be able to have the house that I want to be able to have all the things that I want I love being comfortable and we do this we do this with uh not just uh uh our spending but we do it with our schedules so many of us are locked in it's like I don't have time I don't have time I've got all these things and a way that.
If God was to begin to press on these things would you be willing to give this time up for this person in the Church who needs your help would you be able to give this thing under your schedule up for this person who's broken at work who needs you to sit with them and pray over them and share Christ with them oh I don't know I think we're too comfortable and if you do that over and over again your heart will grow cold and you will exchange the love you had it.
First I think we do this with political ideology which matters right now and the craziest political season of my life you don't even have to follow politics and you know it is absolutely wild right now I mean the last month has been Bonkers but what happens is one side is selling you on a messian figure who if you elect him is going to save I mean how many times I've heard this is the last election how many terms I've heard that you.
If you want to save your country how much I've watched these rallies where a Messianic figure is worshiped it it's worship and then on the other side you've got a set of ideals and philosophies and ideologies that many of them are so antithetical to the message of the Gospel if you just vote for these ideals and these things you're going to be saved and so many people are so angsty and worried right now so many Christians are angsty and worried right.
Now because someone is going to save them and it's like if you have that heart posture and if you lost the thread of what it means to be a Christian and a broken world that we don't belong to that we have a kingdom that's not of this world if you lose the thread on that your heart will grow cold and you will lose the love you had at first and your life will be oriented around a temporary country and not the Eternal kingdom of.
God I'll give you a few more we do this with individuals we abandon the love we had at first for individuals and this can be any different kind of thing how many times we've seen someone that all of a sudden they just disappeared from our Church it's not a unique story to us and then you get to know what's you investigate and you find out they've been dating someone and they been dating someone that doesn't love Christ and they've sacrificed and they've given up following.
Jesus for a person I mean you do this with children big problem in the American Church right now is a lot of people who's who are who involved in the Church and then the last child leaves the house and then they just fade away and the whole time being involved in the Church was not about following Christ and being changed by him and being in love with him and loving others it was just about the morals and the values you could instill in your child.
And when they're gone they're gone I mean we do this I I could do this all day but we a't got the time I'll do one more there's um I think I think that I think we do this with uh theological correctness we love theology we celebrate theology we teach theology all theology is is knowing and loving God that's it and it's beautiful it's wonderful but I think what happens is is that there are some people that that's not the goal what's actually the goal is being correct and it's being right and Theological correctness is just a John stot talks about this as U he talked about this as like as a as a battle.
That they're they they they sniff the battle and all of a sudden they they come alive and it's just about winning it's just about being right and some of these folks that go really hard after this that they they're so cold and they're so uncharitable in how they speak and they're so unloving and in the pursuit of being right you're exchanging the love you had at first over something is so rich and beautiful you should ask yourself the question what are the things that are getting your best energy what are the things that are getting your affections you should ask the.
Lord right now what am I exchanging for the love I had at first what am I fing what am I chasing after in a way that is growing my heart so cold that I'm abandoning the love at first and you should listen to what Christ says when he says you you've abandoned the love you had at first and that question should haunt us in a wonderful way that calls us to take account of what we love over God and others.
Then we should heed what Jesus says next in verse 5 when he says remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the works you did at first if not I will come come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent and he calls us with an opportunity to turn that's what repent means to turn from the from the things that are capturing our affections and our worship and turn back to Christ to the love we had at.
First but don't miss the warning that he gives there he says if you don't do this I will remove your lampstand and what that means is is that the power of God will be removed from that Church the power of God the light of God the love of God the movement of God the work of the Holy Spirit within the local Church will be removed and you will just be a social club or you won't exist and while we don't get the full history of what happened in the Church of Ephesus and the wonderful things that flowed out of that Church most certainly it is very clear at least geographically that he removed his lampstand.
Because that part of modern day Turkey does not have a Gospel centered thriving movement of Christ which is a warning to us that if we abandon the love we had at first he will remove the lmst his power will not be present here he does not need this Church Not For a Moment and if we're not careful to take account of the things that we are chasing after our love will grow cold and God will leave this Church and there are countless stories of churches in this city and churches all across the country and whole denominations that have abandoned the love they had at.
First and God's power is no longer with those people so we should receive that Stark warning let me finish out the rest of this letter he says yet this you have you hate the work of the nicians which I also hate which is a tag back to the Commendation he said earlier says you hate those works and then verse 7even hear this he who has an ear let them hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of.
God and each of these commendations and each these uh uh endings you're going to see a picture of Eternity and he says if you do this if you return to me if you recapture the love you had at first one day you will eat of the tree of life now that is a picture First Genesis 1:2 of Eden the Tree of Life gave eternal life to Adam and Eve until they rejected God for lesser things but there's a picture at the end of this book in the final chapter of the Bible in Revelation 22 that says.
Then the angel showed me the river of the Water of Life and this is the new heavens and the new Earth this is where all history is going flowing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb to the middle of the street of the city also on either side of the river the Tree of Life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the Nations and that's a picture that.
If we stay rooted in the love we had at first through toil and patient endurance if we chase after Christ over anything else what awaits us is that picture that one day we will be in the new heavens and the new Earth eternally eating of the Tree of Life eternally soaking in the presence of Christ beholding him for who he is for eternity that's that's what awaits us and that should motivate us to see the Lesser things that we chase after and say I don't want that I want Christ.
Because he's better and because that's where it's going and that should be the motivation and the heartbeat behind every bit of repentance that we're about to do when we take the Lord's Supper Matt's going to come up and he's going to lead us and we're going to take the Lord's supper and it's a moment y'all to remember that the reason we have have the love that we had at first is because Christ 2,000 years ago broke bread and he said this is my body that was broken.
For you and then he took the cup of the New Covenant and he said this is my blood that was shed for you that as often as you eat and drink this you do this in remembrance of what of me on the cross who died for you so that you could experience the love of Christ in you from now into eternity until he returns and makes all things new and we as Christians get to come to this meal and we get to think about the things that we have chased after the Lesser things that are capturing our affections and our worship and we get to repent.
Because Christ paid for that and his blood is sufficient to cover all of our sin all of our idolatry and we joyously come to the table remembering thank you Jesus that that sin is covered and Lord help me repent so that I can enjoy the love I had at first both now and to Eternity but there are some of you where this meal isn't for you some of you have not fully trusted in Christ as your only hope You' not tasted and seen that he is good and I.
So want you to see that love for this life is empty and hopeless and I think you might know this I think that that for some of you you realize there's a part of you that's chased after this life and you realize it isn't satisfying it doesn't bring hope it doesn't bring joy and doesn't been fulfillment and God in his sovereignty has led you to hear and I hope that you hear so clearly this morning that God has something better for you it's him and my hope is that you'd.
For the first time experience the love that he offers and that it would change your life so that you might one day eat of the Tree of Life with his Saints with his Church let me pray heavenly father I pray that you might stir in our hearts towards faith and trusting in you but also repentance God may you change our hearts may we not have our lampstand removed because we in faith and in Repentance turn from the things that capture our worship may we not walk away from your word without taking an account of the things that steal our love from you may return to the love we had at.
First and may that help us be the people that you want us to be in Christ's name amen.
Revelation 1
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Transcript
Good morning it's not just said we're in the Book of Revelation the last book of the Bible so if you flip to the end you're going to find it you can follow along with us we're going to be in chapter one today uh we're doing Revelation three parts the part one is uh the letters which we'll get to uh in a little bit uh but this is also just a disclaimer this is my first sermon back since being back from sabatical and I just we have we have a teaching that we uh was the.
First opportunity to preach this and and work on this together and I was amped like I just was so excited to be back so I don't know what's going to happen I'm I'm excited about the Book of Revelation but uh but also I might we'll see what this goes I just this is a this F for what happens next um I Heard a about a poll that was done that asked uh preachers what is the book that you are least excited about to preach and it was the Book of Revelation and they also asked members what is the book you most want to hear preached and it was the Book of Revelation.
So why why the discrepancy why the why is that response uh this is one of the most difficult books in the Bible to interpret uh because it is apocalyptic literature okay so we'll get to more of that in a moment on what that means for this book but that makes this more uh welcome back is that bad all right we'll do this like rat battle style which fits with how amped I am all right so it's one of the most difficult books in the Bible to interpret.
Because it is apocalyptic in nature in fact GK Chesterton once said he said St John saw many strange monsters in his vision he saw no creature as wild as one of its own commentators and it's like yeah you you read a lot of different commentaries a lot of different takes on this book you can get some pretty wild takes Martin Luther once said uh in the most blunt fashion which is that is Martin Luther what he would do uh he said many people have brewed stupid things in their heads in trying to understand this book.
So there are a lot of opinions on this book and I would say some strong ones out there and and what happens is is that this book and the content in it also kind of shows up in in popular culture so when I grew up uh in the 90s Left Behind was the book series I mean like it transcended culture I mean it was just a really popular book series so popular that they made a movie out of it so popular that years later they made another movie with Nick Cage in it.
So if you didn't know that Nick Cage is in a Christian film that deals with some of the things that is in the Book of Revelation and what happened was is that kind of seeped into a lot of our thought like I my brother one time he went to uh he showed up to youth group and there were like two or three kids it was a big youth group it two or three kids and he said what happened and the kids looked at him and said dude you missed it man the Rapture happened.
For a moment they had him like he just because there's just like oh that was the that was the the the air of the day was just like oh no it's it's happening right and some of you like okay I that's fine you obviously grew up hearing about these things I don't really know anything about the Book of Revelation and I'd say well actually I think you know more than you think uh it shows up a lot in uh references all over the English language the imagery of the Pearly Gates of Heaven which shows up in a lot of bad jokes that that comes from the Book of Revelation you ever heard of the number.
666 And some of the evil mystery that surrounds that number that comes from the Book of Revelation if you've heard the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that comes from the Book of Revelation in fact the popular use of apocalypse actually comes from The Book of Revelation so there's a lot going on there and some of you are excited to be in this book maybe a little too excited all right so when you get a group tone it down a little bit you might scare some.
Okay so some of you are nervous and you're nervous because you have a fear of the future and and uncertainty some of you are nervous because you maybe have been a part of churches or small groups or Community groups where this became a divisive subject which is as Matt just prayed it's not going to be for our Church uh we're going to be unified in this but before we really jump into all the details that are going to be in this book in chapter one I want to give a little bit of an overview and I want to help us.
See the big picture because there's a lot of debate as we're going to get into this in the series a lot of debate and and discussion over some of the finer details that are throughout this book but while some of that is debated and some of that may be less clear there's one thing that is abundantly clear there's a main big picture that we cannot miss that we're going to see in chapter one that's going to guide us throughout the rest of our time in Revelation we're going to.
See four things that make up this big picture of the whole book so let me pray for us and then uh we'll walk This Together heavenly father I pray that you might help us have hearts to receive your word that it might mold us and shape us and conform us into your image in a way that helps us behold you for who you are in Jesus name amen all right so uh verse one the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place all right.
So a few things out the gate it's Revelation not Revelations it's a common mistake just the one not a plural set of Visions just one Revelation I had a a professor in college who got super annoyed when people would put S at the end of it so we like just emphatically would say Revelations we like just draw it out you could just see it was fun uh for people who are in a Bible class but that it's just the one so Revelation singular in the Greek word.
For that word uh Revelation in the original language was apocalypsis apocalypsis which you can guess that's where we got the word apocalypse from apocalypsis in the Greek just means revealing that's why we call it Revelation so next time uh if you want to fund Jesus Juke at work right in the office or the shop wherever you work if someone starts especially if it's about the election they start talking about oh this person gets elected the apocalypse is happening just kind of Juke on in and say.
Well actually I just learned that apocalypse comes from the Greek word apocalypsis which just means revealing it's actually the revealing of Jesus Christ you have a few minutes where I can share you the Gospel of Jesus Christ you will you will be a big hit at work that's just that's bonus content y'all that's for free all right so it's a revealing of Christ the main figure in this book it's about Christ and his revealing and specifically what's going to happen in the end of this age.
So it's going to be talking about things that are present but also things that are to come some of you may be familiar with that language of eschatology which you might hear throughout this series and that is the the uh study of the last things in the end of this page and that's what Revelation is going to be a lot focusing on so Jesus is the main figure of this Revelation and then I want us to focus on the first part which I think is the.
First part of this big picture that is crucial to understanding this book and that is that this is an apocalyptic book this is an apocalyptic book which means it's it's apocalyptic genre the style of writing is apocalyptic and that's important because that's different sometimes uh you may have an approach that thinks the Bible is just all this you know it's all the same literature but it's not actually they're different styles of writing W in the gospels are a biography of sorts really a theological biography that focuses on the last three years of Jesus's life and communicating bigger theological points The Book of Proverbs is wisdom literature.
So you would read the gospels different than you would the pro Book of Proverbs and other wisdom literature in the same way you read apocalyptic writings different so the Book of Revelation the last part of of Daniel the book of Daniel 7 onward parts of the Book of Ezekiel these are apocalyptic writings which means you have to approach them differently and in apocalyptic writings there's a lot of symbols a lot of symbols that point towards a very real fulfillment a very real future and that statement in and of itself that it's symbolic that points to a real future that's going to be examined over and over and over again throughout this series.
So when we study this book when we read this book together you're going to see a lot of images a lot of symbols you're going to see the scroll and the lamb some of the things we just sang about you going to read about the Seven Seals the 144,000 the seven Trumpets the seven bowls and there's a lot of debate over what each of these symbols mean and that's a part that really drives a lot of Christians crazy because I mean some people just like can I just have like a straightforward Narrative of how this is how.
Jesus is coming like can we just get that maybe you're the kind of person that in English class you know yall were reading animal farm and Animal Farm is you know it's it's a it's just points to a bigger story and the other kids in class were like yeah and like you know the pigs represent communism and they get all into it you're just like I could it could oral have just written a straightforward paper on how communism was bad you're the kind of person just give me just tell tell me what it tell me what it is right.
If that's your posture then parts of this series May annoying but I I want to ask you and invite you to really have a a humble posture that God has chosen to reveal this to us that God has chosen to uh speak in a way that shows how he's going to make all things new like this and that maybe we should just have a humble posture that says okay there's some mystery here I'm trying to figure this out but we should have a posture of humility as we approach some of these symbols and what you're going to.
See is that in apocalyptic literature like this a lot of these symbols are going to repeat themselves like you're going to see similarities between them over and over again they're kind of repeating making a bigger picture of what is actually how God is going to make all things new it's similar to a mosaic a mosaic is a is a big picture that's made up of a lot of smaller pictures and so if if there was a mosaic of Nick Cage it would be Nick Cage's face with a bunch of pictures of him in from all his movies and all the crazy stuff he's done and it makes up this bigger picture.
So a lot of ways that's what apocalyptic writing is like and that's what the Book of Revelation is like it's a lot of individual pictures and what happens is is that we might focus on those little pictures that are fuzzy and get lost when we what what we need to do is to to step back and see the bigger picture of what's happening so as we walk through a lot of the symbols in this book in this apocalyptic book we need to keep that in mind and we're going to spend some more time in this actually even going we're going to have a training weekend on September 13th which you want to mark your calendar.
You can sign up for that but we're going to have a night that we will do things a little bit different than we do on Sunday morning to to dive further into this so we can understand this book correctly so this is apocalyptic genre it's crucial for us understanding everything that follows all right I've just been the first verse and we got to keep going because we got a whole chapter to go through all right so he made it known it continues by sending his Angel to his servant John who verse two bore witness to the word of.
God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ even to all that he saw all right so who is this John uh there's some debate on this uh but Church history has largely agreed on this this is the same John the Apostle John who wrote the Gospel of John first second and third John he probably wrote this at the end of his life when he was exiled on the Ireland of Patmos around 85 to 95 uh ad under the reign of Dom Mission.
So that's some background on who this Revelation is being revealed to first so we're going to see that John is recording this and Jesus and an angel throughout this book are revealing this to him all right verse three blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near all right pause if you were like me and you're not excited about this book.
For fill in the blank reason we we're wrong what it just said blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy you are blessed to read this book you are blessed to sit under uh this word we so we get to repent and change and have a better attitude otherwise the fall is going to be super long you guys verse four John to the seven churches that are in Asia all right here comes the curveball this book is not just apocalyptic it is also a letter that's the.
Second big thing you need to see this is an apocalyptic book and a letter it's a letter so why it's part one is called the letters Revelation Chapter 2 and chap three are seven letters that are written to seven different churches we're going to sit in each one of those letters to to see what uh John has to say to those churches but also what it means for us as well so in typical New Testament letter fashion John starts with a greeting he says grace to you in peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.
So fairly normal start very similar to language in the rest of the New Testament in the letters that are written and from the seven spirits who are Before the Throne and it begins a lot of this coming up all right and it says and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of Kings on Earth okay seven what seven Spirits what is John talking about I'm going to tell you something three words that you're going to hear l in this series I don't know I don't know.
For sure now is is it seven angels who are in the presence of God is that what's happening here or is this language for the Holy Spirit because seven as we're going to see throughout this book is a number for completion and this is the fullness of the Holy Spirit I lean that way I think that makes the most sense especially because in a lot of letters there's you see trinitarian language father Son and Holy Spirit and that's all right here.
So it makes sense that it is but I'm not sure and there's a lot of debate over that and you're going to hear that a lot this series I don't know some people interpret it this way some people interpret it this way so there'll be a lot of this as we walk through this book and I'll just say this if you come across anyone that is like really really sure of themselves B Revelation like you you're on YouTube like deep in YouTube and all of a sudden someone just says like I I have the secrets of this book I'm going to show you how it's going to happen how it's going to go down like.
And subscribe or whatever book you may have came across where there's such certainty and how they understood the Book of Revelation may I suggest that you keep scrolling because they have an arrogance that 2,000 years of Church history doesn't have brothers and sisters for 2,000 years have just had Parts just gone I don't know and that's okay it's it's a difficult book to interpret so I would suggest that as we study this together to be careful about what you watch and be careful about what you read.
Because there are a lot of wild takes and I bet you that person also has a YouTube channel on the Illuminati and chemtrails like that there some of that goes hand in hand so just Revelation is not that simple as we're going to see so then we get this beautiful Declaration of the Gospel continues say to him who loves us and that is the love of Christ and has freed us from our sins by his blood that's the atoning work of Christ's blood that covers our sin and made us verse six a kingdom priests to his.
God and Father the Church is a kingdom of priests a holy nation declaring the Gospel and the glory of God to him be glory and Dominion forever and ever amen that's a pretty good start to the letter and he's not done like he just exalted that's the gopel right there he spent a whole sermon on that right there and he's like I that's not I I need one more amen then he goes in verse 7 behold he is coming with the clouds and every eye will.
See him even those who pierced him and all tribes of the earth will whail on account of him even so amen what we kind of see here is that first Declaration of the Gospel is a celebration of what Christ has done for his Church but the second amen is a declaration of what God is going to do when judgment comes to those who don't believe he this is Christ coming on the clouds that's Daniel 7 apocalyptic language Jesus coming on the clouds Judgment Day language here every I will.
See even those who murdered and pierced Christ that judgment comes to all unbelievers from every tribe nation and tongues out the gate we see it's also a warning for those who do not believe those you do not need the warnings that are found in this book then we get this quote from Jesus in verse 8 that shows up later in the Book of Revelation I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come the almighty and that language there Alpha and Omega is the.
First and last letter of the Greek alphabet and it just is is a statement it says I'm I'm the beginning I created all things and I am the end bring this to its conclusion Christ is God verse n i John is John's appear here I John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus the.
Third thing I want us to see this is an apocalyptic book and a letter written to A persecuted people written to A persecuted people so John says your partner in the tribulation that is the trials sufferings and persecution of himself and those seven churches in that time onward that that's what he means by tribulation here he's talking about the present real sufferings and persecution that they are enduring that's going to be important for us to remember they were enduring heavy persecution.
When the Church began shortly after there was persecution in Jerusalem and the Church spread all across uh Asia and uh uh Europe and then Emperor like Nero came along around 65 665 May and absolutely persecuted Christians in some absolutely Insidious ways the kind of persecution that arrested tortured and then burnt Christians at the stake at night as literal human torches for the streets that's the kind of persecution the Church was enduring all the way to do Mission which is what we think is the time that John is writing in the Church is enduring heavy persecution I mean John is on Patmos and we know from we can uh tell from Church history that he's there.
Because he was exiled it's part of his persecution after there's some debate on this but some Church historians uh will read sources and say that he was actually Bo he's the only disciple that wasn't martyred but he was actually uh boiled in oil and then in Patos Exile so this is written to A persecuted people that context is going to be incredibly important for understanding a lot of the language that is in this in fact I would argue that there are churches all across the world that are currently being persecuted in ways that are that are heavy and severe they actually love the Book of Revelation they love it they.
Because it is a comfort to them to know that Christ will come to judge all those who have opposed him and to know that Christ is coming back so it's important context all right verse 10 it says I was in the spirit on the Lord's day this is John talking which again you could post up we're not going to be in Revelation for a full year but you can do a whole sermon on that right there because this is the only reference from the New Testament to the Lord's day and it's kind of beautiful.
Because the Lord's day is this that's the day it's Sunday it's the tradition where uh the Church chose to uh worship Christ on Sunday it's kind of our Sabbath where we get to worship Christ and we see the early parts of this tradition beginning here and that's the reason we meet here even now but again got to keep going I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying write what you.
See in a book and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus these are the seven churches Ephesus and to smea and to pergamum and to thyra and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and leoda so we're going to see that this is written to a bunch of persecuted churches over the next seven weeks as you sit in each of these letters so while worshiping the Lord he gets this prophetic Vision he hears a voice sounds like a trumpet it's booming write this to the seven churches.
And then he turns around and seas verse 12 then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man clothed with a long robed with a golden sash around his chest the hairs of his head were white like white wool like snow his eyes were like a flame of fire his feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace and his voice was like the Roar of many Waters and his right hand he held Seven Stars from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
Wo welcome to apocalyptic writings I mean there's a lot going on there John receives this Vision he starts writing it down and he sees Christ the glorified ascended on high Christ and all of his majesty and it's a terrifying beautiful picture his clothes are white his hair is white his eyes are like fire his voice is like a roar of a r raging River it's a powerful picture and then he talks about the seven lampstands and the Seven Stars and it's like.
Okay what does that mean and once we get past chapter 2 and three we're going to see lots of pictures like this and that's kind of the difficult part of interpreting these book is what what what does that mean however we get thrown a bone here because Jesus just tells us what it means early on so verse 17 when I saw him I fell at his feet though dead which catch that he just so overwhelmed he falls on his face before the glorified Christ.
But he laid his right hand on me saying fear not I am the first and the last and the living one it's just just the the so terrifying so Wonder and then puts his right hand on says fear not that's our savior right there he says I I died and behold I am alive forever more and I have the keys of death and Hast write therefore the things that you have seen those that are and those uh those that are and those that are to take place after this as.
For the mystery of the Seven Stars that 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 are the seven churches so we get some interpretive help there Christ seven lampstands are the seven churches that we're going to read about over the next seven weeks and the Seven Stars the seven angels that reside over those churches which we'll get to that in the coming weeks as well.
So when you look at the images here from chapter four onward they paint a picture of the Revelation of Christ and how he's going to bring an end to all things before he makes all things new and there's a lot of symbols there's a lot of there a lot of content in it can make your head spin a little bit and as we read the rest of the letter what what the danger of what can happen is that we can get lost in some of those details I heard one pastor like people forget this is the Revelation of.
Jesus Christ not the Revelation of the War of the Worlds and that is right it's a Revelation of Jesus Christ and I think what Left Behind did in really a lot of of writings like that is it put so much focus on some of those fuzzy details that have been debated for over 2,000 years of Church history that it really made the American Church lose thread of what this is all about so as we go through the Book of Revelation here is the big picture this is an apocalyptic book and a letter written to A persecuted people telling them to endure.
Because Jesus is coming that's the big picture it is an apocalyptic book and a letter written to A persecuted people telling them to endure because Jesus is coming back that's the big picture of Revelation that is Crystal Clear we may have some differences of opinion on some of the Minor Details of this book but there is no debate on how that is the big picture what's happening and I love that I'm so thankful I'm so thankful you go back a few verses and says fear not Christ puts his hand on him says fear not I'm the.
First and the last and the living one that's that Alpha and Omega language he says I'm it I'm the first and last he I I died and behold I'm alive forever more and I have the keys of death in Hades right therefore the things that you have seen those that are and those that are to take place after this to a people who are suffering deeply the effects of tribulation and trials to hear that Christ is coming back is incredible news it is incredible to hear he is coming back that that is what's going to help them endure that knowledge that certainty that Christ will come and he will make all things new and he.
Will judge the wicked that is good news to a people who are suffering so deeply and so we're going to walk through a lot of this vision and we're going to see all the different parts and then we're going to see at the end how Christ comes and how he comes to make all things new and if he flip the final chapter of the Bible in Revelation 22 you get these pictures of the Church of Jesus Christ and just we've we've.
So clung to these in the hope that is bound in verse 12 chapter 22 says Jesus says behold I am coming soon bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done I am the Alpha and the Omega the first and the last the beginning and the end in a time of suffering to know that the God who rules sovereignly over all things is I am coming and and and and weay for recompense it's going judgment will come.
But I'm also going to make all things new and the final verses of the Bible this verse 20 says he testifies to these things saying surely I am com soon and John says amen come Lord Jesus the refrain of the Church for 2,000 years come Lord Jesus the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all amen there is certainty Christ is coming and we we may have some some disagreements I'm sure on how all that's going to unfold but he is coming which means that this present moment though painful at times this present life though filled with suffering at times it pales in comparison to what awaits that the present suffering that is very real.
That we feel right now that feels so long it is going to end and there is a day coming where there is no more pain where there is no more death where there is no more suffering where there are no more trials Christ will make all things new and the Church of Jesus Christ for 2,000 years has collectively rejoiced saying come Lord Jesus make all things new come that's the hope that we have and some of you are are feeling the effects of suffering right.
Now some of you are physically suffering you're physically feeling the effects of your body decaying and wearing away and the physical loss maybe chronic pain you if you feel that suffering some of you are suffering emotionally there is deep sadness and maybe even depression that you are living in right now some of you are suffering spiritually maybe it's doubt maybe it is spiritual warfare that you are just you feel on a very everpresent basis some of you are suffering relationally that following Christ has cost you relationally with friends with family.
And while we're not being burned in the streets like the New Testament Church we feel it we feel the very physical and emotional spiritual we feel the reality of suffering now and I want to help us see so clearly in this series that Christ is coming the resurrection that awaits us is a reality that is what awaits us there is a day coming where there is only endless joy and all the pain of this present life is dist that what awaits us.
Because that is true we can't endure we can't hold on a little longer we can struggle and strive because we know that while the pain that we feel now in this present life is real it is but a moment and what awaits us is eternal and the Church for 2,000 years has held on to this letter with that hope in and that's what we're going to do in this series we're going to get into a lot of the details but we're going to keep the main thing the main thing Christ is coming and that is incredible news.
For the Church of Jesus Christ band's going to come up and we're going to behold God and His glory for who he is and worshiping y'all I brought joy to my soul to hear our Church sing this morning rejoicing in what Christ is going to do but the reality is this letter is not just for the Church it's not just for the Church to be told of how Christ is going to come back it's also a warning the reality is is that some of you may not know Christ you may not belong to him you have not tasted and seen that he's good and surrendered your life completely to him you don't belong to him.
And this wonderful mysterious Incredible Book is a warning to wake up and see the truth of the Gospel that Christ loves you so much that it came to rescue you and give you life with him for eternity that offer is for you to be spared of all the warnings all the things that are warned about later on in this letter that is offered to you and there's no better thing that you could do than right now to lay down your life and surrender to that savior a savior who is fearful and wonderful.
But also will put his right hand on you and invite you in the faith of him my hope is you would not leave today you would not leave this series without placing your hope in him so that you might experience the joy of Christ's Church worshiping and dividing in him for eternity let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you for the good news of the Gospel that saves we thank you that you're not leaving us here in our sin but you came to rescue us through faith alone in your life death and Resurrection.
But you are coming back help us right now believe that if there are Christians here that are suffering May that truth be so but it may Pierce through whatever is in their life that they may so behold you in your glory for who you are and for what you're going to do if there's anyone here that has not placed their faith in you Lord may you do it may you pierce their heart maybe you win them over to Faith and use they May Delight in you.
For eternity we ask this in Jesus name amen.