The book of revelation opens up with these words. The revelation of Jesus Christ, and then it begins to show us this glorious vision of the son of man, the
The letters to the seven churches of revelation they make for a neat little sermon series. A seven-week series, one for each of the seven churches, and when I wrote this sermon I was determined I was going to cover all seven today. And then I had a fellowship lunch yesterday, and just happen to mention that I am going to cover seven churches of revelation, yeah,
By now, you have hopefully opened your bible to
In 2:12, the words of him who has a sharp
Now for those of you, that missed the last couple of weeks, and haven't perhaps read
The son of man, Christ is connected to the church. Without
We emulate Christ in
Heavenly Father, you do know I have this pain in my elbow, could you take care of that? just in case you’ve forgotten I got a pain in my back and you're a pain in my
To Ephesus, he says this,
To Smyrna, he says, this is 2:9, I know your tribulation and your poverty. I love the parenthetical statement they cited there, but you aren’t rich. The offering isn't all that much, you don't have a lot extra in your pocket. You live in poverty, but, remember you are rich. He
To Pergamum in 2:13, says, I know why you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Maybe Pergamum, was like, ok I’m tempted to throw in one of the local towns here, Vegas, maybe it was like Vegas. I know why you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. This is Christ saying to the church, I understand just how difficult ministry is in your setting. Yet, you hold fast my name and you did not deny my faith. He knew this church.
To Thyatira 2:19, he says, I know your works, your love, and your faith, and your service, and patient endurance, and that your latter will succeed the first. He says you get better every year. The longer you’re involved with me, the more you are doing, the more your blessing the kingdom. He knows the church.
To Sardis, he says, I know your works, I know that you have a reputation of being alive, and he’s going to say some more things about church Sardis, but starts off I know all about you.
To Philadelphia, I know your works, behold, I’ve set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut, and know that you have that little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
Christ knows the church. He says the same thing in 3:15 to Laodicea, I know your works. Sometimes it can feel as though we are in this wilderness, in this desert, where, well God’s kind of forgotten about us. Forgotten about the Grand Valley, you know, look at what's happening at house values and employment and then what’s wrong with the western slope that we don’t get that blessing? Did God forget that this is the same kind of environment that is in Jerusalem? You know
Christ is connected to the church, and he knows the church. He’s not like an absentee landlord who every once in a while has a property management company stop by and check
In the letter to Ephesus, he says, they work hard, they persevere, they cannot tolerate evil man, they’re careful about their spiritual leaders, they endure, they’ve not grown weary. Smyrna is encouraged that Christ takes note of their brave suffering in the midst of poverty and blasphemy. Sometimes they just want to be noticed revelation did you notice
Pergamum, known for holding fast to the faith even in times of great persecutions even as they watch others die for their faith we are so incredibly fortunate to live in the United States of America I know there’s arguments about how much religious freedom we have and in this week supposedly I’ve been liberated to endorse political candidate for office from the prophet.
Evangelicals have had this persecution complex. Isn’t that what the bible says is supposed to happen? Why is it we are so surprised? but we don’t live like the churches in other countries where the government brings soldiers in and they arrest people and they throw them in jail and they die in prison for their faith. How incredibly difficult it would be to hold fast to our faith in the face of such persecution? All over the
Christ as I understand know what’s happening in your church he affirms via Thyatira who has love, faithful
I know you’ve probably be warned to pay for counseling right? But why? Why do we do these things? So that we can reach our community and impact them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So that we can impact the environment. So we can grow vegetables using less water than is required otherwise. So that we can provide food for people who don’t have food. So that we can have an impact on our generation and the generation yet to come as we teach one another how we can be better stewards of our environment and in this great earth that we’ve been given. In order that we might be known as a church which is willing to invest in the future. That we didn’t just
I don’t know what Christ will say, but I do know this - that He’s connected to the church, He knows all about the church and He wants to affirm us. We would do well to remember that Christ wants to affirm the church he wants to encourage the local church, He notices what is good in it, and maybe we should be on the lookout for those good things in the local church. When we think about the local church we often lose track of this truth - that there is good in the local church - good which Christ sees, good which he would emphasize and we would do well to emphasize as well, that we would repeat and encourage one another in the goodness of the local church.
Now there’s a fourth lesson. That Christ wants to correct what is wrong with the church. Each letter brings words of encouragement and words of challenge. Words of affirmation and words of correction. Christ sees what is good in the church but he’s not living in lala land. He’s grounded in reality. He also understands what is bad. He knows that no church ever existed in the pure state. No church is perfect. If this church was perfect 22 years ago when I was called as a pastor, I ruined it. Because there is no pastor who is perfect. The church is made up of sinners. In which we are all in that class. Why is it that we are surprised when sinful things happen in the church? I love my dog. He’s a little pocket beagle. He’s about this tall or this tall when he’s on his back legs. It’s a gorgeous little dog.
It’s a love for the neighborhood. I have a neighbor who walks my dog for me. Was doing it for 6 weeks before he told me. It’s a bizarre thing. Oh, by the way, I’ve been taking your dog for a walk on Sunday morning. My dog loves Sunday morning. We put him outside and on Sunday mornings the neighbor across the street comes over and gives our dog a bone. Every Sunday morning! It’s an incredible, wonderful thing, except. It’s a little pocket beagle that sheds hair. There is beagle hair everywhere. And my daughter is getting married, invited that dog to sit on my couch. And I can’t get her to get off. He jumps off and I say get out, get out. And so then the couch has got all this dog hair on it. I wanted to get rid of the dog hair and the only way I could get rid of it the dog. And therefore, I tolerate dog hair. You know the weird thing is, that hair bothers me but it never appears to bother her at all. I gathered it up and put it in her food dish. It’s food! She doesn’t care. She just loves laying around on the couch next to me being petted. She makes a mess of the couch that’s about all she’s good for. I actually asked her to clear the table. She has not once cleared the table for me. I told her to take off my shoes for me. She won’t even go get my shoes she’s good for nothing other than just a companionship of a hair-shedding dog. She looks at me like I speak a foreign language when I say anything other than “sure have a cookie.”
You know sometimes a church is like having a dog. We love it. It brings us joy. But things get messy and need to be corrected. We have a feeding routine for our dog. She eats twice a day. Except for the neighbor’s feed, I have no idea how often she eats from our neighbor’s but she eats twice a day. And she is supposed to sit on the carpet just outside of the kitchen and wait there until we say ok. I can’t do a very good dog imitation but this is it. She’s sitting and when I have the food she (doing a dog imitation) sneaks up. She’s still sitting. She’s sneaking up and I had to say “hey, get back there,” and she goes (doing dog imitation), and then she sneaks up again. Sometimes I will leave her for 5 minutes until she finally stays on that carpet and waits for me to say ok.
You got to train the dog and that’s the way it is in the church as well Christ has to train us we do things we are not supposed to do we embrace the attitudes which are unbefitting of the children of god and so Christ challenges the church I started this was supposed to be one message and just about half way through and I have a minute and 21 seconds Christ challenges the church Ephesus is challenged of abandoning its first love I wonder how many times we’ve left out first love. Pergamum is challenged for being indifferent to hearsay sometimes we don’t think that doctrine matters. Thyatira is challenged for being intolerant to the immorality sometimes we just refuse to speak out against sin. Sardis is challenged for being apathetic who cares Laodicea is challenged for letting riches be a gauge of spirituality and a substitute for living a spiritual life that never happens to us does it?
We never think if the person is making a good income? Their spiritual impressions to poverty isn’t spiritual that's what Laodicea did financial rewards are not indication of godliness no matter what the society might say each of the challenges of the churches in revelation are challenges which fit the church today perhaps there are so many series of revelation focused just upon these 2 chapters for us today the lesson is that Christ loves the church he is connected to the church he knows everything about the church he wants to affirm us and yes he wants to correct us because Christ cares about the church. Amen. Let’s pray, father I thank you for your incredible love for us and for the opportunity we have to get to know Jesus Christ through the letters to the churches of revelation reveal yourself to us we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.