Revelation Last Days Living

Transcription

1 Revelation Last Days Living Getting Ready for Him! - Part 1 Revelation 2:1-11 Message #5 of 25 S731 Sermon given on March 19, 2017 Sunday Morning Service Pastor Rick Lancaster

2 Getting Ready for Him! - Part 1 Revelation 2:1-11 Opening Comments Keep your finger in Revelation 2 and turn to Ephesians 5 We continue our series: Last Days Living Living in the light of Christ s soon coming! Kelly and I were married in December 1981 My memory of that event are not very vivid, which is probably a testimony to where I was in my life In 2005, Kelly and I decided that we would celebrate our 25 th anniversary by renewing our vows We spent the next year getting ready On the day of the ceremony, they opened the doors (Image: Wedding) at the back of the church and there she stood on the arm of my oldest son in the same dress she had worn 25 years earlier she took my breath away She had spent a whole year getting ready She had never been more beautiful than in that moment she was glorious I am reminded of that moment every time I read the Apostle Paul s words Ephesians 5:25-27 Jesus, God the Son is betrothed to the church, it is His bride And someday, maybe soon, He is coming back to get His bride Jesus wants His bride, the church to get ready Paul also said that was part of what he saw as his ministry 2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Now you can turn to Revelation 2 For the church to get ready, all the people of the church need to get ready, because the church is the people As Jesus addresses seven churches, my prayer is that we will see how we can get ready for Him to come get us Let s pray now and then get into our text 1

3 Pray Teaching Getting Ready for Him! - Part 1 Before we jump into the first of the seven letters we need to remind ourselves about what we have studied already Chapters two and three must be studied in the light of chapter one In Chapter one, John was in the Spirit on the Lord s Day and heard a voice shatter the silence of his worship Turning he looked upon the full glory of God the Son, Jesus the Christ John s instantaneous, involuntary response was to fall at Jesus feet as dead Almost two thousand years ago, Jesus ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father in heaven He took back to Himself the glory that He had had from before the beginning of time It is the terrifyingly glorious Christ that is getting ready to come for us, the church, His bride But before He comes, He wants them to get ready for Him And so Jesus sends these seven letters to let each church know what it needs to do to get ready for His coming And in that we should see what we need to do to get ready individually Revelation 2:1-3 A careful study of the letters reveals that they all follow a very clear pattern, with only a few significant distinctions Jesus says to each of the churches I know your deeds/works except to Sardis and Laodicea He also says to each church But I have this against you except to Smyrna and Philadelphia Also in each of the letters is a description of the glorified Christ that reminds us of chapter 1 To the church in Ephesus Jesus comes as He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands This speaks of His authority and presence in the churches 2

4 The church in Ephesus was a busy church, it was a sanctified church From the outside this was a church that had it all going on it was going and growing But there was something wrong that only Jesus could see it was a Preoccupied Church Revelation 2:4 Their theology and doctrines were solid and their works were good But something had happened in their heart They were so preoccupied with keeping their doctrine pure and their works plentiful that they lost focus of why they were doing it and who they were doing it for Jesus said there should be one motivation for everything we do Matthew 22:37-38 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. This preoccupation invariably leads to spiritual apathy and something that is falsely called ministry burnout People get burned out serving God imagine that and they blame it on the ministry, on their place of service It is never a ministry problem, it is always a heart problem, it is a love problem And Jesus gives us the remedy Revelation 2:5 Three things Jesus tells them to do to revive the love that He is looking for in them First Remember Go back and remember what it felt like when you first started with Christ and started serving Him If you are just going through the motions spiritually, go back to the first love Second Repent Five of the seven churches are called to repent Which is a call to change your mind and direction of your life Includes the idea of realizing that what you are doing is wrong and having regret that you have offended the God who loves you and sent His Son to die for you 3

5 It offends God when you don t love Him the way He wants you to Repent and ask God to forgive you 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Third Repeat do the first works Go back and do the things you were doing when you felt the love of God in your heart Ends with a warning to the church remove your lampstand A promise to un-church a loveless church A loveless Christian might find themselves without a witness to the world, because a loveless Christian is a contradiction If you are a Christian whose love has cooled, remember, repent, and return or the consequence might be that you will be removed Jesus commends them on another thing Revelation 2:6 Not a lot known about the Nicolaitans something about their deeds resulted in Jesus strong displeasure Could have had something to do with idolatry and/or sexual immorality based on verses 14 and 15 of this chapter But the main point of application is that Jesus approves of us when we hate what He hates, and love what He loves Jesus closes this letter with an exhortation and a promise Revelation 2:7 He who has an ear = this is written to those who are listening for the Words of God These are spiritual realities that require a sensitivity to spiritual things 1 Corinthians 2:13-14 These things we also speak, not in words which man s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Notice let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches not just the church in Ephesus, but to all churches And by extension all people in all churches To the overcomers in Ephesus tree of life = total abundance in eternal life 4

6 An overcomer is one who remembers, repents, and repeats their acts of love toward God and others Don t let your love grow cold, and if it does, remember, repent, and repeat The ruins of Ephesus are amazing, but the city itself is gone That is not the case for our next city Revelation 2:8-9 Smryna is now called Izmir and is a major port city in Turkey Image: Izmir In Ephesus Christians were somewhat free to exercise their faith not so in Smyrna In Smyrna there was a cost to following Christ, sometimes a painful, even deadly cost Jesus identifies Himself as First and Last = His eternal deity, He is fully God and who was dead, and came to life = power over death This is how Jesus identifies Himself to the Persecuted Church Jesus says He knows what is going on with them He knows the trouble they are experiencing Caesar worship was very active in Smyrna and failure to worship the emperor could result in loss of jobs, possessions, and possibly your life One of the areas of attack was from the Jews in Smyrna It doesn t explain why they were hostile toward Christians, but their hatred of them led to blasphemy It is recorded that when Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna was martyred in 155 AD, that the Jews hated him so much that they violated the Sabbath to collect wood to burn him alive Jesus goes on to remind us the source of all such persecution; Satan And then Jesus tells them something that possibly only people in the midst of persecution might understand Revelation 2:10 Jesus doesn t offer them an alternative to suffering instead He encourages them to persevere through it He tells them Do not fear = literally Stop being afraid Stop being afraid of what might be coming 5

7 The reality is that bad things are coming John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Goes on to say that you may be tested = that your faith may be proven as true Not to God, He already knows, not even, in the case of persecution, to the believer As we go through persecution and other tribulation, it proves our faith to our persecutors and to others who are watching Jesus continues you will have tribulation ten days It is not totally clear what is meant by ten days, but probably means that the persecution and tribulation will end, though not quickly If the Lord tarries, we will know true persecution in this country it is already starting There was no word of rebuke for this church Revelation 2:11 Remember from last week, Jesus has the keys of Hades and Death Jesus has authority and control over our death and over our eternal life second death is referring to the outcome of the White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20:13-15 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. The second death is being cast alive forever into the Lake of Fire The overcomers do not have any fear of the second death To the persecuted believers in Smyrna Jesus is telling them to overcome by being faithful unto death, persevering even in the face of tribulation To get ready for Jesus to come back, we need to be overcomers Preoccupied Christians Remember, repent, and repeat Persecuted Christians Be faithful unto death, persevering in tribulation The glorified Christ is coming for His bride the church, for me and for you Are you getting ready? Let s pray Amen 6

8 Resources Informational papers There is not a new paper for this week But there are copies of the three I have written so far Pick them up in the back Please don t hesitate to ask questions on any of this Book The End by Mark Hitchcock The End Times in Chronological Order Ron Rhodes Available at the Resource table Final Words Announcements Easter is coming will be having Good Friday and Resurrection Day services Be thinking about who you want to invite to those Encouragements Read Revelation 2 before next Sunday We will look at the next two letters Remember to keep praying for the team in Israel Communion elements Prayer Team Need a Bible 7