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Revival Messages

Rev 1: 9 – 20

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 30 Jul, 2006

DON’T MAKE the mistake of reading the messages to the churches of Revelation as though this were a theory of history. It is prophecy, and prophecy speaks to you and me today.

Don’t think that each church of Revelation represents a different era of Church history, beginning with the trials of the early church as represented by the Ephesian age, and ending with an apostate, fallen–away church of Laodicea in the days ust before the return of Jesus.

These chapters are far more vital than that!

These are the different characteristics of seven churches which existed at the time that John was writing. He didn’t warn the Laodicean church that, in 2000 years, it would become complacent and lacking in fervour. He spoke that very Sunday when the vision came to him. He warned them to act as soon as they heard what the Spirit was saying to them.

Anyway, the church’s history has never really been as clear–cut as the “Church eras” theory suggests. Churches like all of these seven churches have always existed.

But, above all, remember that prophecy is very much an “if the cap fits, wear it!’ kind of thing. You can’t pick and choose. You can’t say, “Well, this doesn’t speak to me, because it refers to a different situation at a different time in history. Unless the prophecy makes it specific that it doesn’t relate to you, then it potentially does relate to you. It’s about faith and actions, and principles that we neglect at our peril.

So we have seven messages to seven churches, and, as the Lord Jesus says,

He that has an ear, let him ear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The churches are

Ephesus (2: 1-7) Faithful, but loveless

Smyrna (2: 8–11) Focused on disability

Pergamum (2: 12–17) Faithful but tempted

Thyatira (2: 18–29) Bold, but seduced

Sardis (3: 1–6) Living on the past

 Philadelphia (3: 7–13) Patient but hesitant

Laodicea (3: 14–22) Proud and tepid.

Each of these churches bears a message which we must take to heart — we must take to heart — if we are to be truly effective.

EPHESUS

You couldn’t find too many churches better than Ephesus. They are hard working, they struggle through their difficulties, and they deal with trouble–makers. It’s a pretty good church which can do those things. Here‘s what Jesus says about them:

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 men, 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.

What could you say against such a church? There are many like Ephesus, aren’t there?

Jim Wallis is an American Christian who has struggled for justice for many years. He says that what we need today is a merging of Fundamentalist personal piety and a passion for justice.

But what if we are more troubled to hunt down error than to have a real and passionate relationship with Jesus? Or what if we substitute a social passion for that same passion for Christ? Then both camps fall under Jesus’ condemnation:

⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. ⁵ Remember the height from which 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.

The Ephesian Church has a message to us: aim to regain that first love. What hinders us? What sins hold us back? Do we all ask ourselves those question? Without a passion for Christ, the rest means nothing!

SMYRNA

Is Smyrna really any different from Jesus ’ disciples when he fed the multitudes? Even when they knew he was capable of working great miracles, they didn’t believe he could do it right now, in this situation.

Smyrna saw themselves as poor and beaten down and without a way out. And Jesus says,

^{REV 2:8} ...“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 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...

He adds,

Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Are we weak and defeated because we have adopted a self–image of poverty and defeat?

That is not how Jesus sees us! If we are obedient, if we hold on, that is riches! That is power! He will provide all we need. Anyone who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.

I am not preaching a gospel of wealth, but I am preaching about a God who resources his people out of the few loaves and fishes entrusted into his hands.

PERGAMUM & THYATIRA

Pergamum and Thyatira are similar in many ways, because they mix God’s way and the world’s. They are obedient. They are willing to take great risks. Their deeds, their love, their faith, their service, their perseverence — all these are growing greater and greater. Yet they disregard right, and purity.

Pergamum is suffering. Jesus says they live where Satan has his throne. They have faced great persecution, far more than Thyatira has.

But both have an unsustainable lifestyle. Eventually it will crash down around the ears of any church which lives this way. They would never deny Jesus, yet they are far from faithfully living a life pleasing to him.

And isn’t it true to an extent of us all? Jesus enumerates Pergamum’s faults: idolatry, sexual immorality, false teaching. We don’t know who the Nicolaitans are, but we know they were off the beam.

In the same way, he says of Thyatira,

²⁰ ... I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. 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.

I am good at excusing myself. Aren’t we all? Some people expect that a pastor will be upset by swearing, but the things that upset most of us are far more significant.

I have sent people for treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, given support to women having abortions, talked down a man armed with a knife, been threatened with death. A little swear word is the least of my worries.

But I have seen too many Christians needing to sort through the consequences of drugs, drunkenness, adultery, covetousness. A church where this kind of thing runs unchecked is in deep trouble.

What about idolatry? Do we let money, or pleasures, or hobbies or anything else come between ourselves and our relationship with Christ or with each other? Do we listen to those who teach such wrong priorities?

Pergamum’s faults are the faults of fear. People who are afraid often run to the devil hoping that someone, somewhere, will make it all go away. Rigidity, idolatry, ritualism — these are all so often the result of fear.

While the Lord can’t accept these things, he also promises to take special care of those who overcome these temptations.

But in Thyatira, the problem is not fear, but arrogance. These people are willing to believe that they are too spiritually advanced, too sophisticated, to need to worry about little things like idolatry and sexual immorality. The Lord can’t let this rest. He will judge. He says,

^...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.

Sometimes you will get a person in a church who promotes himself or herself as superior to everyone else. Yet they lead us astray, one way or another, and we let them, because it seems good to have such a leading person among us. Those who can face and defeat such a temptation know how to rule. Jesus says,

²⁶ To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations —

²⁷ `He will rule them with an iron sceptre;

he will dash them to pieces like pottery’ — just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give him the morning star. ²⁹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

PHILADELPHIA

I know I have taken Philadelphia out of order, and I wouldn’t if I were doing a different kind of study. But Philadelphia is a church which needs to understand is that it is never about numbers or about our circumstances or our resources: it is about faithful witness. Jesus tells the Philadelphians,

“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 upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.”

The Christians at Smyrna didn’t recognise their wealth; the Christians at Philadelphia didn’t recognise their opportunities.

They are a bit like us, aren’t they? We might not go as far as some people and say that the era of effective evangelism is over, but we probably wonder if we can really do very much. Look at Jesus’ promise, if only we keep pressing on towards the goal:

^3:11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. ¹² Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him 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 him my new name. ¹³ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

SARDIS & LAODICEA

But some churches are just sick. They are like Sardis, a church with a reputation for life but a reality of death. Jesus sees the reality:

I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

He also says,

...I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.

At times we have had an undeserved reputation, because one or two or three people have been active in the community. What is there in us still, that needs strengthening before it dies?

Laodicea is barely different. Jesus says,

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.

One church is dead, the other may as well be. What Jesus says to Sardis could apply to Laodicea, too.

² Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. ³ Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, 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.

I preached at a nearby Baptist Church once on the evils the Bible predicts for the last days, and how these things would creep into the churches, and the people didn’t even seem to be listening, until I slammed my fist on the pulpit and shouted, “Repent!”

Even then, people shook my hand as they left, and said, “You are right, pastor: the world is just getting worse and worse!” They hadn’t heard!

How many churches are unresponsive to what Jesus says?

Here’s Jesus’ great promise:

^3:5 I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. ⁶ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

CONCLUSION

Each of these churches needs to return to full life. Some are frightened, some are cold, some are arrogant, some can’t see the truth. But, in the end, the hopeful word comes to the worst of the churches. Jesus speaks to the Laodicean Church:

^3:19 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 him, and he with me.

^3:21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. ²² He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

There is always hope of restoration. He always wants to rebuild relationship, because he loves us, and his rebuke and discipline always aims to revive.

Jesus wants a healthy, revived church!

Let’s obey what his Spirit says to our church!

AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2006. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)