Letters from Heaven
Sermon Transcript
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Well, it’s not easy to find a church in any generation. Some of you may be here this morning and you're looking for a church home. That’s great. We love to welcome new people here at Atlantic Shores. But for some people it’s really, really hard to find the right church. And there’s a reason for that today and in any generations. Because there are no perfect churches. There are no perfect churches. There’s only a perfect Savior. And that Savior who died on the cross for us, for His Church, is perfecting His Church. We won’t get there until we see Him face to face in heaven, but that’s why it’s hard to find a good church. The Church is defined by more than just its building—we know that—and by more than just an organizational structure, although buildings and organizational structures are certainly a part of church as we understand it. The real Church, the true Church of Jesus Christ, is defined by what she believes. The true Church is an organism, not an organization. It’s the body of Christ. It’s made up of those who have placed their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe certain things about Jesus. And as His followers, as believers in Jesus Christ, we don’t just go to church like it’s an event we check off once a week. “Oh, I went to church.” That’s part of what we do. We gather for worship. But more than that, as followers of Jesus Christ we are the Church, 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year. Whenever we gather in a place like this and to wherever we scatter across our great city and across the country and around the world, we are the Church of Jesus Christ. Now, the Church is a New Testament thing. You will read in vain the Old Testament and try to find some reference to the Church. It’s not there. It was something that was concealed in Old Testament times. And the first time we hear anything about this thing called the Church. It came from the lips of Jesus in Matthew 16:18 when He said to His disciples, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” That’s the first time the disciples, us, anybody heard anything about the Church. And the word that He used there is the word ekklesia. The Church is the ekklesia of God. Ekklesia literally means “the called-out ones”. So the true Church of Jesus Christ, those who are believers in Jesus Christ, who have placed their faith and trust in Him are the called-out ones of God who are on mission for Jesus. That’s the Church.
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Now, in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 we have seven letters from heaven, seven pieces of correspondence that the angel of the Lord gave to John, the exile on Patmos. They came the heart and from the lips of Jesus as He dictated these letters to seven actual churches that existed 2000 years ago. And He names them. He says, “Write down what you’re receiving, John. Write this vision down.” And the first audience to which these messages came, this book of Revelation came, were to seven actual churches in the 1st century—Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Those may not be familiar names of cities to you and me, but they were familiar places in the 1st century. And you could even go to that part of the world today, which is modern Turkey, the western coast of Turkey. And you could travel to these places. You won’t find active churches there though. Don’t be disturbed by the fact that what you’ll find are ruins and rubble and probably a mosque right on top of where that church used to be. Because that’s the way the Muslim world today claims territory. They go to every one of these places, and either right on the location or next to it they will place a mosque. Turkey today is a Muslim country. The fact that these letters are found in the book of Revelation and in the context of a book all about future prophetic events, it reminds us that the church in every generation has to understand her role in the world and in God’s eternal plan, especially through the lens of Bible prophecy. So this is not an interruption to the flow of prophetic thought. No, this is important for us to understand God’s plan and His purpose as it flows through His Church, His chosen entity, the bride of Christ through which the gospel comes to a lost world today. And so with that in mind, many scholars have wondered, why seven churches? And why these seven churches? Well, seven is the number of completion or perfection in the Bible. And for that reason it suggests to some people that these seven churches kind of represent the kinds of churches, good and bad, that you’ll find in any generation at any time throughout church history. That’s certainly one way to look at it. Other Bible teachers and scholars look at these seven churches in the context of Revelation and say that these seven churches represent the larger flow of church history from the birth of the church 2000 years ago up to the end of the age, and each of the seven churches kind of represent a different time period and different stage in church history. If that is the way to understand these seven churches and kind of what they represent here, then the last stage in church history just before the end of the age is the Laodicean church. That’s number seven. And if we are in the final days of the last days leading up to second coming of Jesus Christ and to end of the age, then the Laodicean church best describes the church age that we’re living in today. And it’s not a good assessment. Jesus said to the church of Laodicea 2000 years ago, “You’re neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were. I wish that you were either this or that toward me, but you are lukewarm,” He says, “and I want to spit you out of My mouth.” That’s a chilling appraisal for God’s people 2000 years ago, and it’s a chilling appraisal for God’s people in the Church at the end of the age just prior to the coming of Jesus Christ.
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So with that in mind let’s take a look at four of the seven today. We’ll look at the remaining three next week. But I’m gonna give you kind of a synopsis of each one of these letters, and then we’ll wrap it up with some lessons learned. The first letter goes to a church in the city of Ephesus, and I call this one the loveless church. Jesus said in Revelation 2 beginning in verse 2, “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. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Before we get to the specifics of that, let me just tell you a little bit about this great church in a great city called Ephesus. You can travel there today. And the ruins at Ephesus are fabulous to see if you’re into archaeology and, you know, ancient ruins and studies like that. Ephesus was a prominent city back in its day. It was part of the Roman Empire. A Roman province, we might say. There were 250,000 people in the city of Ephesus 2000 years ago. That was a large city for back then. And there were three roads that converged in the city, making it a great center of business and commerce. Kind of like New York City today, everybody traveled to Ephesus to do business and to go shopping. And it was just a great place for that. It was also a place that people went to to attend sporting events. The Panionian Games, which were a precursor to the Olympic Games, were held in the city of Ephesus. And while you were there, if you were so inclined, you could also attend the temple of Diana where they worshiped the god of Artemis. The great temple of Diana, which historians tell us were two football fields in length, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. And so Ephesus, for all of its business and commerce, it was also a place of some of the most significant pagan worship that was going on the world at that time. Ephesus was also a place where the citizens experienced freedom because the Roman government allowed for the Ephesians to elect democratic leaders. And so they got a little bit of taste of freedom in a place like Ephesus.
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Well, Christianity came to Ephesus because of the work done by a church planter named Paul. Saul, who became the apostle Paul, planted a lot of churches, gospel-believing churches throughout that part of the world. And he came to Ephesus. He spent more time in Ephesus than any other church that he planted. He was there for three years before he handed it off to a young protégé named Timothy, who went on to be the pastor. When Saul, or Paul, brought the gospel to the city of Ephesus, it was not without controversy. Because the gospel worked, and many people were coming to faith in Jesus Christ. And because of that, business profits went down. You ask why. Well, one of the leading industries in Ephesus was the silversmith industry. And the silversmiths would craft by hand these little pagan idols, little Dianas, little gods of Artemis that you could use for, well, personal use and for home use. And they made a lot of money selling these little idols. Well, when people came to faith in Jesus Christ, they turned from idols to the true and living God, and business profits went down. You can read about this in Acts 9 because one of the leaders in the silversmith industry was a guy named Demetrius. And he had had enough, had enough of profits that were down. He gathered together all his other business leaders and he says, “We’ve got to do something about this guy named Paul because he’s running us out of business, winning people to faith in Jesus Christ.” And a riot ensued, and they ran Paul out of Ephesus. But not before the gospel took root. Wouldn’t it be wonderful today if a church had that kind of influence in our culture today that it put pagan businesses and immoral businesses out of business and the gospel had such a great influence in the culture that day? Ephesus, the church that was planted there, was a great church. You and I would attend a church like this. In fact, Jesus commends this church. He says, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance.” They were doing good works in the community. In the face of much resistance and persecution, they were patiently enduring. And He says to them, “I also see that 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.” Ephesus, the church there, was a place where their orthodoxy was pure. They had a statement of faith that was well-crafted. They knew their doctrine. They knew it well. They could spot a false teacher a mile away, and they never let him get close to the church. You say, “Man, that’s the kind of place that I want to go to church.” In a bustling city like that, a place that knows what they believe and why they believe it. They’ve dotted their theological I’s, crossed their theological T’s. But then in verse 4 the mood shifts around a pesky little preposition “but”. You ever have somebody have conversation with you? “You’re doing great things, but…” And, you know, here it comes. Here it comes. Jesus says, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”
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You see Ephesus is the church that fell out of love with God and with people. They forgot first things. Oh, their orthodoxy was pure. Their theology was pure. But it was cold and loveless. Nobody wants to read your doctrinal statement if it’s not delivered in love. And Jesus reminds them, “Guys, first things first. You’ve got to love God and love people.” This is the church that inspired The Righteous Brothers in the 1950s and ‘60s to write the song “You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling.” Come on. There you go. You know the song. No, somebody in Ephesus wrote it, not The Righteous Brothers. “You’ve abandoned the love you had at first.” One scholar named Barclay says, “It may be that the church at Ephesus was so busy heresy-hunting that it had lost the atmosphere of brotherly love. It may be that a hard, censorious, critical, fault-finding, stern, self-righteousness had banished the spirit of love.” You know, you can be so right in your doctrine that you chase people away. And there is a balance. I understand that. There are some churches that are all about love, you know. It’s the oasis of love here. But they don’t…you know, their doctrine is so wishy-washy. But the opposite, you know, is a place to run from too. Pure orthodoxy but cold and loveless. I don’t want to be a part of something like that. Put first things first, Jesus says. Love God. Love people. You know, it doesn’t get any simpler than that. “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength,” Jesus says was the first commandment, “And love your neighbor as yourself.” Ephesus forgot that. They forgot that. And it was more important for them to write position papers and doctrinal statements and to wordsmith things than it was to simply love people. May that never be true of this place. May we put first things first. To love God and love people while we also make sure that we are rightly dividing the Word of truth. So that’s Ephesus, the loveless church. You’ll never hear The Righteous Brothers again without thinking about Ephesus, will you?
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The next one went to a church and a city called Smyrna. I call Smyrna the persecuted church, and here’s why. Revelation 2:10 Jesus says, “Do not fear 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 ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death,” He says, “And I will give you the crown of life.” Wow, what’s that all about? Well, for centuries, really from the early days of the early church, followers of Jesus Christ have experienced persecution, have they not? The first martyr of the church we read about in the early chapters of the book of Acts. This was Stephen who was stoned to death for giving witness to his faith in Jesus Christ. And, yes, it is true that the blood of martyrs has stained the Church all throughout church history. You can pick up a book called the Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. It’s a classic best-seller written during the 1500s. Story after story after story after story off people who were killed for their faith in a variety of different ways, who stayed true to the gospel and didn’t cave into pressures to worship something other than the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the most famous martyrs, who also happened to be the bishop of Smyrna in the middle of the 2nd century was a guy named Polycarp. You ever heard of Polycarp in some of your church history classes perhaps? Well, Polycarp, by tradition, came to know Jesus Christ through the ministry of John the apostle, who was the exile on Patmos. When John was still ministering, probably around Ephesus and other places, he led Polycarp to Christ and disciple Polycarp. And Polycarp later became the bishop of Smyrna. And intense persecution came to the city, just like the letter said two centuries prior to this. And when that persecution came to Polycarp’s door, Polycarp is famous for saying, “Eighty and six years I have served Him,”—that is, Jesus—“and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” And so what they did was they literally turned up the heat on Polycarp. And they said, “Fine, if you’re not gonna worship Caesar and you’re gonna worship your Jesus, then you will die by burning at the stake.” And that’s when Polycarp said, “You threaten me with the fire that burns for a time and is quickly quenched, for you do not know the fire which awaits the wicked and the judgment to come and in everlasting punishment. Why are you waiting? Come do what you will.” Well, three cheers for Polycarp. And according to Jesus, Polycarp is wearing the crown of life, one of five crowns, specific rewards that are mentioned in the New Testament to faithful followers of Jesus Christ for a number of different reasons. This one to those who paid the ultimate price and give their life for Jesus Christ.
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Interestingly enough, when you read on the book of Revelation, there’s a lot of blood that sheds as we race towards the end of the age, especially in that period of time known as the Tribulation, that seven years of hell on earth, of Jacob’s trouble, of Daniel’s 70th week. There are many people who will come to faith in Jesus Christ during that time. And the Bible says they will lose their life. They will be beheaded. In fact, if you go to Revelation 20:8, it says that those who were beheaded during the Tribulation period will return with Jesus Christ at His second coming and reign with Him for a thousand years on this earth. What a reward for those who gave the ultimate (0:19:00.1) sacrifice in giving of their lives. And years ago, I would have read that in Revelation and talked about those who were beheaded for their faith and thought, No, I mean, how could that happen? And yet, it’s not difficult to imagine today, especially when you think about our Egyptian brothers who just recently lost their heads at the hands of Islamic terrorists who represent an organization called ISIS. It’s happening in the world today, friends. In fact, some say that the persecution of the Church today is at an all-time high. We don’t experience it much in the west, although we are beginning to experience, you know, anti-Christian sentiment. And it’s costing us more and more to rise up and say, “I’m a follower of Jesus Christ.” It might cost even more as we go into the future. In fact, Peter wrote in his first letter, chapter 4, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.” (0:20:00.0) He’s writing this it Christians. And this letter to Smyrna, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer.” The intensity of that suffering came in the 2nd century A.D. and Polycarp was one of many were martyred for the faith. I wonder if we were to receive a letter like this from Jesus…and, by the way, Smyrna and Philadelphia are the only two churches who receive nothing but the highest praise from Jesus. No words of correction or condemnation or rebuke. Just words of highest praise. I wonder if a letter was delivered here from Jesus that said, “In the near future you’re gonna experience intense persecution and suffering. Be faithful to the end,” I wonder how faithful we would be. We’ve grown so comfortable in our western Christianity, almost cultural. In many places still in the country today it’s a cultural thing to be a Christian. And it’s comfortable. It doesn’t cost you anything. I think some of that is changing. It may not mean you getting your head cut off or being burned at the stake, but it may mean that you lose your job or you’re not considered for a promotion or you’re not in the inside group in your business or in school or whatever because you named the name of Jesus Christ. And people just kind of push you aside a little bit. That’s the extent of the persecution we really experience today, but I think that’ll heat up, and certainly as we race towards the end of the age. So that’s Smyrna, the persecuted church.
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Third, a letter goes to a church in a city called Pergamum. And I call this the compromising church. Look in Revelation 2:13-14. Jesus says, “I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.” How’d you like your city to be described that way? He says, “Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you.” Pergamum was one of those churches that received mixed review from Jesus. “Hey, you’re doing some great things in the midst of intense persecution. Some of you, like Antipas my faithful witness, you know, you’ve remained faithful. And I commend you for that.” But He says, “I also know what you’re up against. I know where you dwell. This is the place where Satan dwells, where Satan’s throne is.” Now, it’s important to remember that the devil is not omnipresent. Only God can be everywhere at all times. So the devil has to work through his team of fallen angels and demons and junior understudy devils and all that. And they’re scattered across the globe in a very organized and hierarchical kind of way. But the devil has to pick and choose where he’s gonna spend his time. Why Pergamum? Why did he go to place like Pergamum and set up his business? Well, Pergamum was a capital city. It had been a capital city for hundreds of years by the time John received the vision on the island of Patmos we know as the book of Revelation. Pergamum was one of the provincial cities of Rome and a capital city in that part of the world. And some people says that there were one of maybe two or three reasons that Jesus looked in and said, “Yeah, this is a place where Satan is pretty busy.” One was because of the worship of the god of healing, a god known as Asclepius. The asclepeion is what we would call today a hospital. And in the city of Pergamum you found some of the latest in medical technology for that day. It was a place you would go to, you know, get worked on and receive healing and medicine. But mingled in with all that was worship of the god Asclepius, the god of healing. And perhaps that was the reason Jesus looked in and said, you know, “Satan is really busy in that place.”
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Another reason is because if you go to Pergamum you would find the altar of Zeus and the temple of Athena high above the city at the highest peak of the mountain overlooking the city and with a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea. You would see the altar of Zeus out there, and 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days out of the year smoke billowing up from that place due to the constant sacrifices that were being made to the god Zeus. Maybe that was the reason Jesus said this was a place where the devil is busy. And certainly because it was a Roman capital city, Rome was all about Caesar worship. Call Caesar lord, not Jesus lord. And it put Christians at odds with their government because believers in Jesus were worshipping Caesar. So for one or for all of these reasons, this was a place where the devil was very busy. And I think it’s instructive for us today, again, because the devil is not omnipresent. Where is gonna spend most of his time? Well, he’s gonna go to places of influence, places of authority, places where government structures are in place and do whatever he can to influence. Because he knows if he can get ahold of this government here, it can influence a lot of people across the land. And it makes me ask the question, I wonder if Jesus came with His laser-like eyes and focus and looked at the capital cities across the United States of America. Or just up the road from us three hours from here in that place called Washington, D.C., and the nation’s capital. What would Jesus say about our nation’s capital? Well, we could remind ourselves that this nation called the United States of America was founded upon Judeo-Christian principles. We are a Bible nation. I could take you to Washington, D.C., tomorrow, and we could do a little touring around the city. I could take you to those places where our religious history is literally chiseled into stone. And those who are trying to kick God out of the public square and move us away from such foundations, they would literally, friends, have to sandblast the nation’s capital and all of the monuments and the buildings. Because references to God and the Bible are all over that place. I’m not saying our founding fathers, every one of them, were evangelical Christians. But they understood, did they not, that the republic upon which we stand is for a moral and religious people. It doesn’t work without that. That’s why people are attacking the foundations. And just understand, the issue is not always the issue in our culture. The issue is not gay marriage. The issue it not transgender bathrooms. The issue is attack the foundation, attack the value. You can’t overtake a country like the United States of America militarily. It’ll never happen. We’re too big. We’re too bad. We’re too strong. But if you attack the foundation. If you attack the religious principles, then from within you can get the country to crumble. And that’s what’s been happening right before our very eyes. The issue is not the issue. The issue is attack the foundation. Whatever you need to do to attack the moral principle.
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On top of that, we’re finding in our culture this drift towards socialism, which 50, 60 years ago we thought we would never be possible. I was at a pastors’ briefing not too long ago on Capitol Hill put on by a ministry called Wall Builders. And they brought in, I don’t know, 20, 25, maybe 30 members of Congress over a day and a half. And each one shared, you know, 20 minutes or so of a briefing and then 10 minutes of Q & A. And then they were gone. And it was just fascinating to sit there and hear one member of Congress after another kind of give a briefing from their perspective. I remember one particular representative, well-known from the state of Minnesota. She just kind of dropped into her conversation this statement. “Socialism replaces God with government.” And she said it in way that was so matter of fact that it was, like, “Yeah, everybody knows this, don’t you?” And I had to think about that for a moment. Is that really what this is all about? I understand that communism is atheistic in its origin. It says that God doesn’t even exit. But socialism, one step removed from that, says, no, God is not God. The government is god. And, you see, our founding fathers established this country. And they wrote it into our constitution that it was based upon unalienable rights. You know what an unalienable right is? It’s a right that God gives to you, not the government. And when God gives you a right, the government can’t take it away. But socialism comes along and says, “Well, you know, you can still have your god, but government is going to replace God.” And let me tell you something. If government is big enough to give you everything, including tell you what you have rights to, it’s also big enough to one day take it away. And our founding fathers understood that’s not what we want to base this country on. It’s based upon unalienable rights, which are rights that only God can give. We want to keep the government small and God big. And we’re just reversing that now. Socialism makes government big and God small. And so I just…you know, are we seeing the work…of course, the devil is at work. I remember years ago when I was in D.C.—and I lived there for about 10 years—I came across a story about the move “The Exorcist”. Do you remember the move “The Exorcist” years ago? All about, you know, satanic this and that. And it was based on a true story that took place in the early 1900s, early 20th century. Do you know where that true story took place? In Maryland, just outside the nation’s capital. Is the devil busy in that place just as he was in Pergamum? Oh, you bet he is. And he’s patient. He knows he’s on a short lease. He knows his time is coming, but he’s chipping away at the foundation. And for those of you who think socialism is wonderful, don’t just look at the goodies they’re promising to give away free of charge. That’s the hook that draws you. That’s the bait. Behind that is an effort to replace God with government, to make government big and God small. No, this country is God is big and government is small? Okay? Let’s always keep it that way. All right. So that’s Pergamum, the compromising church. And the Church in any generation has to, again, see and understand its role in the world today and in God’s eternal plan. Let’s make sure we’re not a compromising church like Pergamum, compromising with our culture.
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The fourth and final one is Thyatira. Thyatira I call the corrupt church. And here is what Jesus said in Revelation 2:19-20. “I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.” Now, Jesus sent the longest letter to the smallest church in Thyatira. Thyatira was located about 35 miles from Pergamum and was the last line of defense for an invading army that was heading to the capital city. They played a strategic role that way, and there was a little church that had started there. And like others, they received mixed reviews. “You’re doing some things very well. I know your works, your love and your faith and your service, that you’re patiently enduring and your latter works are on the increase and things are going pretty well.” And then that pesky little preposition comes. “But,” He says, “I have this against you. You tolerate that woman Jezebel.” Most scholars believe that’s probably not her real name, Jezebel. But the reference to the wicked queen of Jezebel in the Old Testament is very much intended here. When Jesus looked in and saw this leader in the church named Jezebel teaching what she was teaching, He saw nothing but wickedness and corruption. Not because she was a woman. Not because she called herself a prophetess. There were other prophetesses in the Old and the New Testament, including Philip’s daughters in the book of Acts who traveled around as gospel communicators and prophetesses. It’s not a gender thing. It was the content of her teaching. And what she was teaching people was that sexual immorality and eating foods offered or sacrificed to idols was okay. In other words, mixing in a little pagan practice with your new Christianity was all right. And it helps to understand the business context behind all of these. You see, Thyatira was a wonderful place to do business. We’re told in the book of Acts that a lady named Lydia had come from Thyatira. She came to faith in Jesus Christ out of Thyatira. She was a seller of purple garments. Had a small business. And she was part of the trade guilds or the unions there, because to do business in Thyatira you had to join the trade guilds. The problem is, to do business on a daily basis as part of the trade guilds, you kind of had to go along with some of the pagan practices along with your Christianity. And that created tension between Christians, who were now following Jesus, versus those who were practicing pagan worship. And it went something like that. This prophetess named Jezebel would probably stand up in her congregation and say something like this. “Listen, business is business, and church is church. Whatever you’ve got to do to get the business, get the business. As long as you’re in church on Sunday. If you have to be out at the pagan temples and engaged in that sexual immorality there and partying it up with the pagans, if you have to do that to get the business, okay. Just do that. As long as you’re in church on Sunday.” It’d be like me as pastor saying, “Listen, man, I really want you in church on Sunday. It’s important for you and your family to be here. But if you want to party at the oceanfront on the night before and just do a little bit of that whatever you’re doing out there…” I did that in the first service, and they thought that was good. My daughter rolled her eyes. You know, “business is business, church is church” created this dichotomy between the two. And that sort of teaching corrupted the church. I can kind of understand the culture back then because before I went into ministry vocationally, I was in the business world and the corporate world for about 7 years in sales and marketing, Fortune 500 companies. And I remember when I was a sales manager in the southwest out of Houston, Texas, my boss was in, I believe, North Carolina. Periodically he’d come in and work with me. And, you know, we’d visit with customers during the daytime. But at nighttime he always wanted me to take him to the strip clubs and the bars. Now, this was a married man with a family. But when he traveled he didn’t act married. I was single at the time. He thought, well, sure. This is what you do, right? I said, “No, no, I don’t do that.” “Well, why not?” You know. And what I learned was it was part of the corporate culture. Because when we went to, you know, national sales meetings, there was always a group of guys—married, families, but away from their families, not acting that way when they were away—that went out to those places. And I didn’t participate in that. And it probably cost me a promotion as time went on. I wasn’t part of, you know, the reindeer games. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if my pastor had said, “Hey, whatever you have to do to get the business. You know, if you’ve got to go out to those places just to, you know, go along to get along so you get that promotion, you go ahead. Just as long as you’re at church on Sunday. That’s the sort of corrupt teaching that was happening in the church at Thyatira. And Jesus had enough of it. You can’t mix pagan practices, He says, and then call yourself a follower of Jesus at the same time.
0:37:16.4
So we have a microcosm of the church in a number of different ways. We’ve got a loveless church in Ephesus, a persecuted church in Smyrna, a compromising church in Pergamum, a corrupt church in Thyatira. And we could go deeper and talk, you know, more about what’s contained in these letters. We don’t have time for that this morning. I’m trying to give you a synopsis of each. But let’s just talk about some lessons we can learn from at least these four. And we’ll talk about the other three next week. But the first just general thing is there are no perfect churches. We know that. We’ve come full circle now because I started out by saying it’s hard to find a good church today. And it has been in every generation because there are no perfect churches. And we understand that. There’s only a perfect Savior, and He is doing His work to perfect us and to sanctify us and to get His bride ready for His second coming. But every church in every generation in every locale is dealing with something. I remember one of my professor’s in seminary used to say, “You know, the church in every generation has just been off point that much.” Well, what is it in our generation? What are we missing? If Jesus had laser-like eyes and came to this place, what kind of letter would He send us? Would He say, “Hey, there are some good things you’re doing here and I commend you for this. But this over here, you’ve got to clean that up?” Or like He said to the church at Ephesus, “I will remove your lampstand,” in other words, your place of influence in that culture. And it’s why some churches just go out of business, some for natural reasons, others because Jesus, the head of the Church, removes the place of influence that that church once had. You can go to modern day Turkey today, travel down the west coast to every one of these locations where these seven churches were. There’s not a church there today. They’re mosques. Somebody at some point in some generation took their eye off the ball. Didn’t mean that the Church failed, big C. No, the Church of Jesus Christ went to other places and grew into other places, and we’re here today 2000 years later. It just means that that local congregation dropped the ball and they no longer exist. Okay? Jesus moves on to the next place to try to find some faithful people. May that never be true here. We have a responsibility as people in this church with a stewardship for this church at this time to make sure we hand it off to the next generation successfully and in a healthy way to where the next generation takes it on into the generation that follows. And if we fail in that, shame on us. Doesn’t mean that Jesus failed. Just means He’ll go on and find some other faithful people to carry on His work. So there are no perfect churches.
0:40:04.9
Secondly, the Church is the apple of Jesus’ eye. He loves His Church. He gave Himself for His Church. He went to the cross to redeem His Church. And He calls us the bride of Christ. Isn’t that beautiful? You see, Jesus doesn’t want just a relationship with you, He wants a romance with you. And you can trace that romance all through the pages of the Old Testament. And you study God’s relationship with Israel and the language that He uses. There are times when Israel walked away from her…He communicates like a jilted lover because He loves His Church. He’s romancing His Church and His people. He calls us His bride. He’s gone to prepare a place for us, John 14. And He’s building on those additions to His Father’s house. And like a heavenly groom, one day He’s going to return for His bride and take us back to the place that He’s preparing so that we can be with Him forever. That’s John 14. Beautiful wedding imagery and romantic language that He uses with His disciples on the night before He’s crucified. Jesus loves His Church, and it’s the apple of His eye. Thirdly, I would say the Church is the salt of the earth. And because it is, it’s the hope of the world. Do you remember the analogy that Jesus used with His disciples and with that larger crowd in His Sermon on the Mount? Matthew 5, where He said to His disciples, “You are the light of the world.” He’d already said, “I’m the light of the world.” But now He says, “As my representatives, you’re the light of the world. Don’t put your light under a bushel, but let it shine.” The implication is we live in a dark, dark world, and you are thousands and a million points of light to shine the gospel.
0:41:52.7
Then He went on to say, “You’re the salt of the earth.” What did He mean by that? Well, quickly, back in the 1stcentury they didn’t have refrigeration. So in the open marketplaces where there was meat and fish and, you know, other food items like that, they packed it in salt to slow down the process of decay. And that’s what they did. Instead of, you know, packing something in the freezer like we do, they packed it in salt. So when Jesus says, “You’re the salt of the earth,” He says, in essence, “This world in which we live is not only dark, but it’s decaying. And your presence in this world as My disciples…you’re the presence that shines light into dark places and that keeps this fallen world from decaying even further.” You study the book of Revelation. The churches mentioned in chapters 2, 3, maybe chapter 4 when we see the Church in heavenly worship…beyond that the Church is not mentioned, giving rise to many to believe that the rapture has taken place and the Tribulation, which is detailed in chapters 6-19 of Revelation, the Church is not on the earth at that time. Well, what happens, as soon as the rapture takes place, all hell breaks loose on planet earth. It’s the worst of times. It’s known as, you know, Jacob’s trouble, Daniel’s 70th week, the Great Tribulation period. Why? Because the salt is no longer there to hold back the decay. And not only that, the Holy Spirit is gone. So Jesus says to His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, it’s trampled under feet by men.” What they would do in the 1st century when the salt was no longer doing what it was supposed to do, they’d take it and just throw it on the sidewalks. And people would walk on it. How many of you feel like your Christian values are being trampled on their feet by men today? And how many of you are sitting there in the corner just wringing your hands saying, “So much is happening in our culture. I just don’t understand it?” I think it’s fair to lay the blame at the door of the church. The church, which is the salt of the earth, is meant to pack this sinful, decaying world and hold back the decay. It’ll continue to rot. It’ll continue to decay. It will accelerate when the Church is gone. It accelerates when the salt has lost its saltiness. And we are in time of moral freefall and acceleration. Don’t blame your government. Look inside the church. Remember the Laodicean church, the lukewarm one just before the end of the age? Are we living in that time? Oh, may it not be said of us, that we’re neither hot nor cold but lukewarm toward Jesus. May it not be said of us that we’ve lost our saltiness in this world. You’re perhaps a grain of salt in your neighborhood, in your community, in your place of work, in your family. Maybe you’re the only grain of salt, of Jesus salt, in the extended family in which you live. Be the salt of the earth there. Be the light of the gospel there until Jesus comes. That’s our responsibility as the Church. Oh, the Church in every generation, including the 1st century…they were closest to the gospel, closest to the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and they veered off course. Just goes to go show how quickly things can deteriorate, even within a congregation. And so let’s take these letters—before we get into the juicier events of Revelation—let’s take these letters to heart and understand that God’s main plan flows through His Church. As imperfect as we are, our perfect Savior uses the blood-bought body of Christ to do His work. Let’s make sure we do it well. Let’s pray together.
0:46:10.5
Father, thank You so much for Your Word. Thank You for giving us, yes, even these stern letters filled with praises and commendations, but also with rebukes that we need to hear and need to respond to today. Help us all to let Your Word correct us and rebuke us, to instruct us in righteousness today, to do the work that You’ve called Your Word to do. That it would not return unto You void, starting in this place, and in all the places to which Your Church scatters. And I pray this in Jesus’s name, amen.
0:47:13.3