I found another one of those “aha” things this
week, in the Bible, that I have looked at all my life and never
quite seen. It’s a weird thing in the Bible that we read and take
for granted and I don’t think God ever meant for it to be taken for
granted.
It’s in the book of Revelation. All of Revelation
is larger than life….its meant to be….
It’s called the Revelation of Jesus Christ… the
risen Jesus…telling us what is getting ready to happen. The content
of the book is supposed to make your eyes fly open in wonder and
even shock…
Let me describe what I found this week that I
think is so weird…
Revelation starts right out in chapter one
painting this bigger than life picture of Jesus as, no longer the
crucified, blood dripping, meek, humble Savior… but instead now the
risen Ruler of the universe! Let me give you a sampling:
Revelation 1: Grace and peace to you from the one
who is, who always was, and who is still to come; from the
sevenfold Spirit before his throne; 5 and from Jesus Christ. He is
the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the
dead, and the ruler of all the kings of the world. All glory to him
who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood
for us. 6 He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father.
All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. 7 Look! He comes
with the clouds of heaven. And everyone will see him—even those who
pierced him…. 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were
dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid!
I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the living one. I died, but
look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and
the grave.
That’s powerful stuff!!!....larger than life..
Chapter 4 takes you right into the awesomeness of heaven and gives
you a tiny glimpse of what is coming: Let me give you another
sampling:
Revelation 4:1 Then as I looked, I saw a door
standing open in heaven….and I saw a throne in heaven and someone
sitting on it. 3 The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as
gemstones… 9 Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and
thanks to the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever
and ever), 10 the twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped the
one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever). And
they lay their crowns before the throne and say, 11 “You are
worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For
you created all things, and they exist because you created what you
pleased.” (NLT)
Revelation goes into 15 chapters unfolding the
horrendous events of end times, one chapter on the New Jerusalem,
and two chapters on heaven and eternity…all larger than life. That
leaves two chapters that we I didn’t mention… What two chapters did
I leave out? ____2 and 3___
What is in Revelation 2 and 3?
Letters to seven churches in Asia
Doesn’t it strike you as odd…. That God would
write this final “cap it all off” book and use two chapters out of
21 to write personal letters to 7 small out of the way churches in
Asia. So much about this doesn’t make sense on the surface..
1) Why Asia?... very little of the Bible takes
place in Asia Minor.
2) Why Pergamum….Smyrna? Why not Jerusalem
or Antioch or Rome?
Well…some say…This is being written by John who
is exiled just offshore on the prison island of Patmos.. If this is
John’s Revelation… it makes sense that he would write to people on
the mainland that he knows and is familiar with…?
This is not the Revelation of John…
Revelation 1:1 This
is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his
servants the events that must soon take place.
This is not a note from John to his friend on the
mainland…this is an eternal document from the risen Lord, Jesus
Christ, to the whole world!
So I ask you again…why 2 chapters to seven, out
of the way, insignificant, churches? You could see from the map
that there were more cities than just those seven. Why those seven?
There had to be some reason why Jesus chose those, particular,
seven.
There has to be a larger message! Whatever Jesus
is saying…it is bigger than these specific churches.
Yes… they all read each others letters…. Yes… the
letters were preserved for the whole world to read for all of time…
but it’s more than that.
All through the Revelation…. Seven… is the number
of divine completion. Whatever this list is…it is the completion of
something, It’s supposed to give us the beginning… middle…and end
of something. But what???
Let’s look at the content of the letters: (I’ve
tried to reduce to just a few words)
1) Ephesus: Been hardworking and righteous in
their actions but their inner love for Jesus is cooling off..
2) Smyrna: Have been increasingly suffering for
their faith yet remaining faithful…
3) Pergamum: Many are staying faithful but
allowing more and more sinfulness to creep in to the church until
the line between sinfulness and righteousness is getting blurry.
4) Thyatira: Some are faithfully enduring but they have allowed
people who openly promote illicit sexuality and idolatry to
co-exist with them as part of Christ’s Church. (understand I’m
giving you the highlights)
5) Sardis: You have a reputation for being alive but you are
dead! Wake-up and repent!
6) Philadelphia: You have been faithful through hard times. Now
the sinful elements are turning back to God through your influence.
7) Laodicea: “you are neither hot nor cold…16 But since you are
like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of
my mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t
need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and
miserable and poor and blind and naked….
As we looked at the content of the seven letters
in Revelation 2-3…did anything strike you as to why God would
include them in a book about the End Times. Did anything line up in
your mind and make you say “Aha”?
These were seven specific places where people
were formed into seven specific churches ….but God specifically
chose these seven because they had characteristics that he want ed
to use as an illustration…..
If you have developed any kind of a concept of
the history of the world/ history of the Church since the time John
penned this letter…you will see any uncanny correlation between
periods of time in history and these seven letters. Let me show
you:
1) Ephesus Period 30-60 AD: A strong period of
loving labor for Christ from the Apostles on… As the church
expanded there is great excitement until the persecution starts…
then comes a cooling off of spiritual fervor
2) Smyrna Period 60-300 AD: Era of
Martyrdom…faithfulness right up to
being thrown in with lions or gladiators….took
real guts to be a Christian… all the “gutless” ones defected.
3) Pergamum Period 300-500 AD: As soon as
Christianity became legal the church began to organize and link
arms with the world around it until the differences between the two
became unrecognizable.
4) Thyatira Period 500-1500 AD: Dark Ages! The church and sinful
behavior became so intertwined few could remember another time. The
light of Christianity came close to being snuffed out.
5) Sardis Period 1500-1800 AD: Wake-up and repent! The
Reformation and the Counter-reformation…the church woke up!
6) Philadelphia Period 1800-1950: “the sinful elements are
turning back to God through your influence. The great missionary
movement… the great awakenings…the great revivals….
7) Laodicea Period 1950- ?: “you are neither hot nor cold…16 But
since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will
spit you out of my mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything
I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked….
If what I’m saying here is right…and these seven
letters also line up with seven periods in history….. If seven is
the number of completion… and we have reached the seventh
period…what should be your conclusion?
We are in the last period… the only period where
Jesus makes a blanket negative statement about the whole church….
Not a pretty metaphor either…I will vomit you out of my mouth??…..
However, Jesus ends that letter with a good
promise:
Revelation 3:20 “Look! I stand at the door and
knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and
we will share a meal together as friends. 21 Those who are
victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious
and sat with my Father on his throne.
In fact all of these letters, together, have two
other components than what we have looked at so far.
1) Every letter can be applied, not only to churches, and periods
of history, but to each of us individually, regardless of when or
where we live.
2) Many of these letters come with an attached promise for those
who defeat the power of evil and “overcome.”
Let’s look at that: Most individuals fit into one or more of
these categories. These seven churches were defined this way
because the people in them mostly acted like this. Periods of
history look these seven churches because the majority of people
lived like Jesus described.
Each of us tend to be like on of these churches in our spiritual
lives regardless of the time or place in which we live. Let’s
compare ourselves to this list.
1) Ephesus: Been hardworking and righteous in their actions but
their inner love for Jesus is cooling off..
2) Smyrna: Have been increasingly suffering for their faith yet
remaining faithful…
3) Pergamum: Many are staying faithful but allowing more and
more sinfulness to creep in to the church until the line between
sinfulness and righteousness is getting blurry.
4) Thyatira: Some are faithfully enduring but they have allowed
people who openly promote illicit sexuality and idolatry to
co-exist with them as part of Christ’s Church. (understand I’m
giving you the highlights)
5) Sardis: You have a reputation for being alive but you are
dead! Wake-up and repent!
6) Philadelphia: You have been faithful through hard times. Now
the sinful elements are turning back to God through your influence.
7) Laodicea: “you are neither hot nor cold…16 But since you are
like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of
my mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t
need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and
miserable and poor and blind and naked….
Conclusion: Being an over-comer!
The point of Jesus’ letters was not, ultimately, a negative one…
Every time He finished pinning down where they were living He,
then, offered them a fantastic promise if they would correct their
course. I’m going to preach all of next weeks sermon on this…but
let me line them up for you in a montage:
To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the
tree of life in the paradise of God.
Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second
death.
To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna
that has been hidden away in heaven.
To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, To
them I will give authority over all the nations.
All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will
never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will
announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.
All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of
my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write
on them the name of my God, and they will be citizens in the
city of my God—the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven
from my God. And I will also write on them my new name.
Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just
as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.
