A Great Awakening Sermon Ii - Going Back To Square One Series

GOING BACK TO SQUARE ONE IN OUR SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

Did you play hopscotch when you were a kid? In the version I played, we diagramed a pattern of 8 or 10 squares in the dirt or on the pavement, took turns tossing an object into square one; if it landed within the boundary lines we would hop to the turnaround square at the top of the diagram, then back to the square where we began. If along the way we landed out of bounds, even partially, we went back to square one to start over, and kept on until we got it right.

In our spiritual journey, no matter how far along we have gotten, there are times when we need to go back to “square one” to rediscover that initial joy and excitement that propelled us from the start of our journey “toward the goal“, as Paul put it, “to win the prize for which God called us heavenward in Christ Jesus”.

How much greater will be our joy and excitement once we reach our final destination IF we arrive there totally committed, fully surrendered, and as mature as we can be!

We have confessed our faith in Christ . . . are called by His Name . . . have committed our lives to Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life; so we have been given the opportunity to arrive Home fully capable of appreciating the wonder of it all . . . recognizing the quality of it all . . . experiencing the joy of it all, provided our Christian life in the here and now is rooted and grounded in the kind of love “agape” which marked the life of our Lord . . . granted to every believer who lets Jesus come into their heart . . . expresses itself as a “doer” of the Word!

For 50 years I have remembered the exact words of James B. Sullivan as he spoke to our congregation of believers: “When we all get to heaven, we will all be in the same heaven, but our ability to grasp it all and experience the fullness of heaven will depend on the quality of our Christian life in the here and now.” And folks, there was no doubt in my mind then nor is there any doubt in my mind now that Dr. Sullivan spoke the truth in love.

For half a century, my own experiences and biblical studies have convinced me that Christ the epitome of love, John the apostle of love, Paul the apostle who defined love meant for Christians to understand that Christian love was to be the theme of a life worthy of going Home to be with the Lord forever.

Thus, In the very first of his letters to the Seven Churches of the Revelation, John the author of the Book highlighted the significance of maintaining, above all else, that spirit of Christian love which they first experienced– Revelation 2:1-7 . . .

A brief history lesson to help understand John’s letter to the Church at Ephesus and to all other churches:

They were actual churches . . . Each of the seven was a center of a group of churches - representative of all churches . . . Actual situations are addressed by John . . . All of the letters were finished by John, then sent to the churches by one messenger who traveled from Patmos to Ephesus, and from there in a clockwise route until the letters had been delivered to all seven churches - to be read locally then circulated to all.

There was no ecclesiastical system during that period; the individuality of each church was respected. There was no “overseer” per se, but there was an “angel”, presumably assigned to the churches by the Head of The Church, Jesus Christ the Exalted One!

Henry Blackaby: “When Christ speaks to His Church, He speaks to the whole Church!” So, you might say that a simple, democratic form of government was the form created by Christ himself.

An ominous foreboding - to all churches throughout history - emerged in the first century inasmuch as doctrinal disagreements surfaced soon after Paul became involved - a disagreement that led to the Jerusalem Council made up of Peter, Paul and other church leaders - BUT toward the end of the first century there erupted a very real threat to the survival of the Christian movement as the gospel began to spread, first in Asia, eventually to the uttermost parts of the earth

Specifically John names the “Nicolaitans” whose heretical “practices” he hated, as did the church at Ephesus; for resisting those heretics John commended the church. Which raises the question: Who were these disrupters?

The answer is: They represented a sect known as “Gnostics” who claimed to “know” the mind of Christ better than anyone else.