Series: Victorious!
“Love the Church Honestly”
Revelation 2-3
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If you’re joining us today for the first time ever or the first time in a while, we’re doing a devotional study through the book of Revelation. Our goal is to get to the heart of the message of Revelation. If you would take your Bibles and turn to the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelation.
We are not using this last book of the Bible as an almanac to predict the future nor are we using it as a calendar to count down the end times. We’re looking at the broader themes of the book.
It isn’t given to us as an almanac or a calendar. Revelation is given to us as a guidebook for discipleship. It’s a guidebook from which we can learn how to remain faithful to God while living in a hostile culture. It’s a template to apply over any time period of history. It helps us to be better disciples no matter what time and culture we live in. It’s an instruction manual on how to have peace in a world that is falling to pieces.
One of the most important principles in studying any book in the Bible is the AIM of the book. This principle is especially true for the book of Revelation. AIM stands for the Author’s Intended Meaning.
Each individual writer in the Bible had a specific message to deliver to a specific audience. If we can understand who John was writing to and the times and culture in which they lived, we can better understand the AIM of Revelation.
In Rev. 1:4, John says that the book of Revelation is a circular letter – a letter to be circulated to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia – what we know as the western portion of Turkey today. These churches are located in seven different cities – Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Those cities aren’t the only locations of churches in that section of the Roman empire. These churches are representative of the church in the broader sense.
The number seven denotes completeness. What is said to these seven churches is intended to be heard by every church. After specific mention of each of the seven churches, we’re told, “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
I wish we could camp out in Revelation 2 and 3. I foresee sometime in the next several years doing a 7 week study through the seven churches of Revelation but today we can only focus on the main themes.
This morning we need to spotlight Jesus and his love for the church – both the local congregations and the church worldwide. In Ephesians 5, Paul draws the correlation between the marriage of a man and a woman and the church as the bride of Christ. Later in the book of Revelation we learn about the marriage supper of the Lamb.
No one should ever disrespect the bride. It would produce a quick reaction from the groom. You just don’t walk up to the groom at the wedding ceremony and ask, “Who’s the chunk in the white dress?” It might just get you a punch to the face. Far more than any earthly groom, Jesus loves his bride – the church.
It bothers me that the church is held in such low opinion. While I recognize that some of the contempt toward the church is rightly deserved because of some of the behavior of its leaders and members, I also know that the church is the chosen way for the followers of Jesus to join together and be effective as his witness in this world.
If Jesus loves the church then I should love the church. And I should love the church the same way Jesus does. He doesn’t love his bride because she’s perfect. Jesus loves his bride because she belongs to him. He loves her warts and all. The church is not designed to be a museum to display perfect people. It’s a hospital where people sick with sin find hope and help in this world.
That’s what we’ll find today in our study passage. The church is made up of people who struggle. We face problems from within and without. Yet we have hope because of Jesus Christ.
He loves his bride honestly – warts and all. It’s that way in a good marriage. You don’t love the other person because they’re flawless. You love them in spite of their flaws. You love them not for what they do but sometimes you love them despite what they do. We should love the church honestly as well.
Rev. 2:1-3:22 – “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9 I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. 11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
12 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.
14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
3 1“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the
seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
7 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
9 I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. 10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. 13 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Trouble – with a capital “T”
Capitalizing the first letter of “Trouble” personalizes the word and gives it greater force. It makes the word seem like a living, breathing thing. The churches in Revelation faced some real trouble and it’s mirrored in our society today.
First, there was persecution from the government. The Romans considered the city of Rome as some sort of deity and by extension the emperor as a deity as well. This was especially so toward the end of the 1st century when John writes down what Jesus has to say to the churches.
The emperor Domitian had amped up the idea of himself as a deity. All across the Roman empire, they built large, architecturally beautiful temples to the emperor. Those who lived in the empire were required once a year to go into their local temple, offer a pinch of incense on the altar, and declare, “Caesar is Lord.”
For Christians who only served one Lord – Jesus Christ – this was unacceptable. However, there were consequences for failing to declare Caesar as Lord. You would lose your rights under the Roman governmental system. They could take your business and your assets. They could imprison you or flog you and many times both.
There was persecution from the guilds. In several of these towns there were trade guilds for certain occupations – sort of like unions today. Each guild was organized under the temple of some pagan deity. Meetings were held in the pagan temples and guild members were expected to participate in whatever activities the guild did in those temples.
In many of the temples, a portion of meat was sacrificed to the pagan deity and then a large meal was cooked to be eaten by the guild members. Christians in those occupations that were controlled by the guilds had to choose whether or not they would follow the admonition not to eat meet sacrificed to idols. Part of the worship of these pagan deities involved sexual intimacy with one of the temple prostitutes – both male and female. Christians aren’t supposed to be involved in sexual intimacy outside of their marriage.
For those who had occupations that fell under the different guilds, when they became Christians, they had to choose whether to participate or not. Those who chose to be faithful to Jesus Christ were drummed out of the guilds and lost the source of income that provided for their families.
The trouble these churches faced was either persecution, as we’ve just seen, or seduction. There was seduction from their culture. Because of the persecutions from the governments and the guilds, Christians were tempted to follow their culture instead of the Christ. Some did it by saying, “What does it matter? I don’t really accept Caesar as Lord or the pagan deity as God. I just go along to get along.”
Then we see seduction from false teachers. These teachers are teaching things that are inconsistent with the word of God. Our contemporary society has many.
These false teachers are referred to as Balaam, Jezebel, and the Nicolaitans. Balaam was an Old Testament prophet who was corrupted when he agreed to call down curses on the Israelites while they were in a marching to take charge of the land promised to them by God. The Moabite king, Balak, payed Balaam to curse them instead of bless them.
You might recall how Balaam’s donkey miraculously spoke to him about his foolish ways and how then was made to speak blessing instead of cursing. Balaam then convinced Balak to seduce the Israelite men with the Moab women and their lose ways.
Jezebel was the wife of Ahab, king of the northern kingdom later in Israel’s history when it became a divided nation. She was the daughter of a pagan king and led her husband and eventually a large portion of the nation into the worship of Baal.
Elijah was God’s prophet at the time and in a famous story, he challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest on Mt. Carmel where God sent fire that not only consumed a sacrifice drenched in water but the altar and the prophets of Baal as well. Jezebel hated Elijah and sought for years to find a way to kill him.
The Nicolaitans taught compromise. They basically said that all religious views are equal – that all roads lead to God. Christianity, Judaism, and paganism were all different roads to God and therefore it doesn’t matter if you participate in the pagan rituals.
There was also seduction from materialism. Early Christians along with ourselves were tempted to trust in what they had accumulated and what they had accomplished. There were some Christians who were poor and some who were wealthy. They had plenty of this world’s goods. It caused them to become apathetic and lazy in their walk with Christ.
Jesus asked a very pointed question in the Gospels: “What if you gain the whole world but lose your soul?” Our wealth as a nation makes us a high mobility society – we can go anywhere we want anytime we want. But with high mobility comes low accountability. That’s evident when we plan events here at the church. Half the people are gone half of the time. We get so caught up in what we CAN do, we forget about what we SHOULD do.
Lord – with a capital “L”
Jesus is Lord . He’s the King of kings and the Lord of lords. No earthly ruler could ever assume his authority. Right in the midst of all the trouble sits Jesus Christ.
A bit earlier in this message we learned that the book of Revelation is a circular letter. This circular letter is not of human origin. It comes from Jesus Christ himself. In Revelation1, John gives us a powerful vision of Jesus. He describes Jesus as the First and the Last, who died and came to life again; the One who has the sharp, double-edged sword coming from his mouth; the One whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze; the One who holds the seven spirits of God; the One who is holy and true, who holds the keys to death and Hades – the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.
Sometimes our vision of Jesus is too small. If we see him as he truly is, the way he is described the book of Revelation, we will be more humble and obedient. The intent of that vision is so that we understand that the book of Revelation is all about Jesus. It starts with Jesus, it focuses on Jesus and ends with Jesus.
John also describes Jesus as the One who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. Jesus tells us in Rev. 1:20 – The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. That is a key statement for our study today. All of the descriptions mentioned just a bit ago along with this one are repeated in our passage for today. Jesus is Lord of the church.
The church belongs to him. Acts 20:28 – “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.”
Warning – with a capital “W”
This is a warning with a capital “w” because it’s a huge warning. It’s not the same kind of warning that you give your kids when they’re washing dishes: Be careful. If you drop one of those dishes on the floor it will break and then you’ve got another mess to clean up. It’s not the same kind of warning that you give to someone who goes fishing for the first time: Be careful how you bait the hook. You could stick your finger with the barb.
This is a dire warning. Jesus warns the church: If you continue in the way you’re going, I will remove your lampstand. Jesus is basically saying: I’m going to knock your lights out.
He tells these churches, and by extension ourselves (let him who has ears listen to what is said to the churches) don’t forget about me. I’m what it’s all about. Don’t let your passion for me dissipate. Do the things you excitedly did when you began your relationship with me, Don’t follow teachers I don’t send. They will lead you to ruin. Don’t go back to your worldly ways. Wake up! Don’t fall asleep spiritually. There is still a spark within you. Fan it into flames! Don’t lean on your own resources. Trust in me for mine – resources beyond your greatest comprehension.
Promise – with a capital “P”
For those who heed the warning, there are great things ahead. Jesus gives some important promises to those who remain faithful or who renew their faithfulness to him.
Jesus says, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.” The promise is eternal life.
Jesus says, “To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.” Hidden manna represents heavenly strength and nourishment. The white stone is Jesus’ vote of Yes! for you.
Jesus says, “To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star.” Jesus’ promise is authority over the nations – his authority – and the morning star. Jesus is the morning star.
Jesus says, “I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.” Jesus will give testimony on our behalf at the judgment.
Jesus says, “I will make a pillar in the temple of my God.” Once we enter for eternity, we will never be thrown out.
Close
The church can be a mess. Jeff Walling says that’s why we need a Messiah. He’s the only one who can clean up the mess. Someone compared the church to Noah’s Ark: If it wasn’t for the storm on the outside, we couldn’t stand the stench on the inside.
But there’s good news: Jesus is Lord and he loves his bride – warts and all. Let’s love the church and love it honestly. We all have our faults so let us speak the truth in love to each other and walk together in grace and forgiveness.
Here is one final promise. Rev. 3:20-22 – “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. 21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
(This series is developed from a variety of resources. The primary resource is “Victorious – A Devotional Study of Revelation” by Matt Proctor. Other resources include “Revelation for Everyone’ by N.T. Wright, “Breaking the Code” by Bruce Metzger, “The Book of Revelation – An Introduction and Commentary” by Homer Hailey, “Worthy is the lamb” by Ray Summers, and “Reversed Thunder” by Eugene Peterson.)
