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TEXT: Revelation 3:22
SUBJECT: Exposition of Revelation 1-3 #9: Conclusion
Over the last several weeks, I've tried to expound the first three chapters of this prophecy. Whether I succeeded or not, I leave others to judge. To each of "The Seven Churches of Asia" Christ sent a special message; each varies from the other and has a unique lesson to teach. But there is a unifying message, too. Lessons we need to learn--not from each--but from them all. May God teach them to us, for Christ's sake. Amen.
The first obvious lesson is this: Jesus Christ is patient with His people. Seven churches are addressed; only two pass without criticism. The others are flawed, dangerously so.
Ephesus has a model church in many ways. Yet its zeal for truth and discipline is untempered by mercy and compassion for weaker brethren. They have "left their first love" and become a cold and forbidding people. The church had once glowed in its brotherly love; now the temperature has been turned down a bit. Christ is not happy with this state of affairs; He threatens to smite them unless they repent. But notice, He hasn't done it yet. Love cannot grow cold over night. It must have been cooling for years. Jesus had sent them warnings before, warnings that went unheeded. Finally, He takes it upon Himself to admonish them for their coldness. How ungrateful they had been for His unmerited love; how unlike Christ they had behaved; how they had turned from the example that Paul had set before them. They were cold and withdrawn. The church had become a fortress...or a gulag. Yet Christ is still with them. If you were a member of that church, would you be? Would you turn from them in disgust? You might have. But Jesus Christ had not. He is patient with His people.
The church in Pergamos is just as bad. Maybe worse. It has become lax in discipline. The basics are intact, but the spirit of Balaam is present. He taught, in brief, good doctrine joined to bad behavior. "It doesn't matter how you live so long as you believe the truth" was his motto. The believers in Pergamos were going along with him. But Christ was not! He threatens to "fight against them with the sword of His mouths, unless they repent". But He hasn't done it yet. He is giving them time to repent, a long time it seems. Would you? Wouldn't you roll your eyes at such a church and think of them as "a synagogue of Satan"? You might. I might. But Jesus Christ did not. He is patient with His people.
The Thyatirans are even worse. They transferred the doctrine of Balaam into practice. A woman named Jezebel "beguiled Christ's servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols". She was given ample warning; many chances to repent. But she didn't repent. And so, she would die as an apostate. But what about the men she "beguiled"--and the church they attended? Would they, too, be "destroyed suddenly and that without remedy"? They would not. They were given more time to repent. Who gave it to them? Christ. Why? Because He is patient with His people.
The church at Sardis was--if anything--worse than the brethren in Thyatira. They gave the appearance of life, but were, in fact, "dead". Yet even to the "dead" Christ extends His patience. How often have I heard churches pronounced "dead". They are called "dead" in order to justify quitting them or condemning them or not loving or respecting them. Yet Christ has not left the sacred remains of His church. He is patient with His people.
The Laodiceans were worst of all. Not a good word can be said about them. On the surface, they are proud and lazy and contemptuous of others. But underneath, they are "poor, miserable, wretched, blind, and naked". They are nothing less than nauseating to Christ. Yet, He has given up on them, either. He is patient with His people.
This is the first lesson we must learn from the Seven Churches of Asia: Jesus Christ is patient with His people. More patient than we are. And not because His standards are lower.
If I ended my sermon here, I'd leave a false impression; an imbalance. And so, let's go on to the second lesson: Jesus Christ does not approve of sin in His church. He is patient with His sinning church, but this should not be thought of as an endorsement of their sins. How often do we find these words: "Nevertheless I have something against you"? Yes He does. He is offended by "a love grown cold:, by doctrinal deviation; by permissiveness; by half-heartedness; by pride. And note: He is equally offended by each! It is not as though He hates heresy, but dislikes pride. Or that He abhors immorality, but can tolerate a lack of love. No! Jesus Christ approves of no sin in His church; He resents them all. The spectacular sins of Thyatira, the subtle sins of Ephesus, and every sin in-between.
The two lessons combine to teach a third: Be slow to pass judgment on other Christians and quick to judge yourself. Had you been a traveller in Asia Minor during the First Century, what would you have thought of its churches? How many of them would you have "written off" as no church at all? Yet Christ owned each of them. The cold church was His. The erroneous church was His. As were the permissive, the smug, and even the dead church. Shall we reject whom Jesus receives? Shall we condemn whom Christ justifies? Shall we hate whom He loves? And oppose whom He supports? This is a real temptation to churches like our own. Because we cherish doctrine, we're apt to excoriate those who don't. Because we promote preaching, we're quick to jump on those who have too much singing. And so on. Remember, we don't have to approve of others' faults (or ignore them) to receive them as brethren and wish them "Godspeed".
The other half of the lesson is: Be quick to judge yourself. In thinking ill of others, we often are too optimistic about ourselves. In looking for the speck in their eyes, we sometimes miss the plank in our own. The church of Ephesus can teach us here: In despising the errors in other churches, they had not noticed leaving "the first love". "Let every man prove his own work..."
The fourth lesson is the most endearing: Jesus Christ wants to commune with His people. To each of the messages He attaches a promise. They are worded differently, of course, but they all amount to the same thing: fellowship with Christ. It is He who is anxious for the company of His people. It is we who often disrupt it. There is nothing standing between us and His fellowship but repentance.
Oh, how hard it is to repent; how embarrassing; how painful. Yet the reward more than compensates for the high price. "In Your presence is the fulness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forever more". All of this joy, every one of these pleasures are had for the repenting. Let us, therefore, scour our lives, find our evil ways, and turn from them with hope.
A hope that will never make ashamed. The hope of eternity in His presence. "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God".
"One thing have I desired of the LORD and that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to enquire in His temple".
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches".
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