Emerging or Returning Church?
Ascension Sunday
Revelation 1:12 – 3:22
May 24, 2009
We talk a lot about Jesus birth, his death, his resurrection, but we tend to pay little attention to his ascension to the throne in heaven. So I began to wonder, what if Jesus had just been resurrected and not ascended off the earth? What would that have done to the Christian faith, the church, the world?
If we go back to the Old Testament we see that God never wanted evil in the world. Only through human sin or blatant disobedience did evil come, then it got so evil that he wiped out just about everyone with the flood, finally he brings his people to the promised land, and what does he ask them to do? Wipe out everyone, completely annihilate every human being that does not follow God and does evil (which by the way, literally translated means hurtful, or worthless).
They disobeyed again, and when we think about it who could blame them. Who would want to wipe out every living person in a whole land? It seems like each time he demanded something more and more difficult to obey, ultimately asking his son to die. But through all of these events God is asking his chosen people whom he created, to make the choice, and do the work.
So then because we had done such a pitiful job, he sends Jesus to show us how to live, but Jesus doesn’t come to destroy, but to save. Psalm 110 verse one is the most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament, where David says “the Lord (God) says to my Lord (Jesus, but remember David has no idea who Jesus will be, so this is clearly prophecy) Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies (meaning anyone who doesn’t trust and obey him) your footstool.”
So I ask, how is God going to make Jesus’ enemies his footstool? Clearly, once again he is relying on us to do it. Now does this mean we go into the world and annihilate all unbelievers as he commanded the Israelites to do in Canaan? Obviously not. God is not relying on us to eradicate evil, but to become righteous ourselves through being like Jesus and believing in Him, and help those who do not believe so that none of His creation needs to be destroyed when he finally does bring inevitable judgment.
So do we have it? God is going to make Jesus’ enemies his footstool, and we know he can do it. But he wants us to get rid of evil, by not being evil (or disobeying), and teaching others not to be evil, why? Because he does not want even one to perish on the day of judgment. So before he ascended he gave us the Great Commission to make disciples of all people everywhere. He gave us the great Commandment to love him and love others as ourselves. Most of us know this very well.
But today I want to focus on what Jesus said to the Church after he ascended to heaven, and the only place to find this is in the book of Revelation. We are going to take his ascension as fact today, and there are many scriptures that attest to this. So then we’re going to look at three things he told the churches in the first three chapters of Revelation and apply those to our church today.
I. The Properties of the Head (meaning Jesus Christ, the head of the church)
A. He is Tremendous (1:12 – 3:7)
Let me read our scripture verses for today again. Read 1:12-20. Seven being a complete number in the Bible, representing all the Church. Another clue that these letters refer to the capital C church is that they are all in an area in Asia where “east meets west”, and were all significant cities at the time. But for our understanding he breaks it down so the readers of the time could understand.
Some say each church represents each era of the church from the first century church of Ephesus to the “apostate” church in Laodicea called the “church of compromise” who had rejected the deity of Christ and was very focused on science, representing the church today. They were a meandering church and interestingly, the city was located on the Maeander river.
Much like the prayer we talked about last week, Jesus begins each speech to the churches by letting them who he is.
My words are the sharp double edged sword. (2:12)
I am the son of God whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. (2:18)
I hold the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. (3:1)
I am holy and true, and hold the key of David. What I open no one can shut, and what I shut no one can open. (3:7)
The ascended Jesus is tremendous, and he is also:
B. Transcendent
I am him who holds the seven stars (representing the angels or pastors of each church) and walks amoung the seven lampstands (or the churches themselves). (2:1) Jesus has the control of all churches in his hands and he walks amoung them, seeing everything they do, and empowering them.
I am the first and last who died and came to life again. (2:8) There was nothing before him and there will be nothing after him for he is eternal and transcends all time. He has also transcended death.
To each church he said “I know your deeds”, to one in Pergamum he says “I know where you live”, and to another in Smyrna he says “I know your afflictions and your poverty”. He knows everything, we can’t fool him, he sees all that we mistakenly believe is private, there is no place he is not. Jesus transcends everything.
C. He is Trustworthy
I am the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. (3:14)
3:20, 21. Here “Amen” is used as a name for Christ the only time in the Bible. He is the only source of complete truth and revelation, and one day he will tell us everything.
He also stands at the door and knocks, he doesn’t force the door open, but he promises that if we open the door he will be there and he will ultimately allow us to sit on the throne with him. He is trustworthy.
II. The Prescription to the Body
Notice he begins with complimenting each church on what they are doing well, before jumping into judgment, except for Laodicea and Sardis. Why? They are dead, and they are lukewarm. Both are kind of pretending, Sardis has a reputation of being alive, and the Laodiceans are not cold, but they’re not hot either. Neither church is doing anything, they are just sort of existing. Jesus seems to be harshest with them, over the one’s who are outright blatantly sinning.
Then there are also two churches he has nothing against. Philadelphia has little power, they are a small church, but they are staying true to God’s word and not denying his name. Smyrna is going through tribulation and poverty, they are about to suffer even more, but Jesus calls them rich and encourages them in their suffering.
So clearly Jesus is favoring those churches who are weak and under fire but are holding true to his word and keeping the faith. And he is very judging of those who look good on the outside but are dead and not accomplishing anything for the Kingdom.
So the first thing he demands from the five churches he judges is that they:
A. Repent
You may notice that Jesus is addressing his words to the angel of each church. The word angel here means messenger, and most scholars agree that it means the pastor. I think this is important and emphasizes again the responsibility that God lays upon pastors. So out of the seven churches he speaks to, Jesus demands that 5 of them repent.
(2:5) We start with Ephesus. This was the greatest city in Asia and where Paul had his largest ministry. John who is writing this book of Revelation was also pastor there later on. Jesus says to them, repent and do the works you did at first.
Sardis (3:3) Keep what you have received and heard and repent.
Laodicea (3:19) This is Jesus’ last message to the church, “be zealous (or hot, on fire for Christ) and repent.
Thyatira (2:21-22) Those who are adulterous with Jezebel will be thrown into the great tribulation , unless they repent.
Pergamum (2:16) Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
Now remember what the word repent means here, to regret, change, reverse, and think differently (agree with God about your sin). It is not just to feel sorry, but a complete change of thinking and acting in agreement with what God says.
They are also to:
B. Return
Closely related to repentance is returning. And this is the primary message to the church today.
He says to Ephesus: “you have abandoned your first love, remember from where you have fallen and do the works you did at first.” That doesn’t sound like a command to think up new ways of doing things. He tells this church to remember when they fell in love with Christ and act like that again. Remember when you met your spouse, how you acted so differently.
To Laodicea: Laodicea was in a valley but had no hot or cold water. There was snow capped mountains with ice cold water on one side and the springs of the Lycus river on the other. These were some of the hottest springs on earth. But when they got water from either, by the time it got to the city, it was lukewarm, not much good for drinking or bathing. They knew what lukewarm meant. They are stuck in the middle trying to be both conservative and liberal but not taking a stand on anything, not wanting to offend anyone.
They were a rich congregation representing the megachurch, where there is lots of money and beautiful buildings but often the spiritual depth is not there, so Jesus calls them wretched, miserable, and poor. Interesting hey, that so many churches nowadays think they are doing so well because they have lots of people and programs, and great facilities, but Jesus looks at the spiritual state.
This church in Laodicea is the church of 21st century North America and Europe, and the warning for us then is: take a stand for the truth or Jesus will vomit us out of his mouth.
To Pergamum: Though Jesus has compassion for this church because the city was the seat of Satan, in other words there was rampant paganism, probably like the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire, “some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans. You must return to my teaching.” Who in our world are Balaam and the Nicolaitans?
Well the doctrine of Balaam is basically idolatry and fornication, so we could loosely associate it with the desire for stuff, and the porn industry, even regular TV and movies nowadays where sex sells everything.
The Nicolaitan doctrine would have been one of paying more attention to church ritual but giving license to non-Christian conduct, an anything goes type of attitude. This would be both legalism in the ritual on Sunday morning, and the total opposite where sin is not a big deal the rest of the time.
To Thyatira: “you tolerate that woman Jezebel who misleads my people with Satan’s so-called deep secrets.” They were told that she is a false prophetess and her teaching was only to seduce His servants. Who is Jezebel today?
This church represents the Roman Catholic church of the dark ages where there was a lot of good but also a lot of abuse of power both financially and morally. The church developed their own rituals and made the pope all powerful, moving away from scripture and adding their own writings because they had the power to do so. The seduction mentioned here is a fundamental departure from the truth which the church wanted to keep from the people.
Jesus says he will give them time to repent. This is the oldest church there is and they are slowly changing their ways, and I believe there are some good Christians in the Catholic church. But this is the adulterous church who has turned from Jesus and worships other prophets and people in addition to and at the same time as Christ, not instead of, that wouldn’t be adultery. They are being reminded that Christ is the only way, and all others are false prophets who cannot give salvation.
To Sardis: “you have a reputation of being alive but you are dead, wake up! Remember what you have received and obey it.” You have a good but false reputation on the outside.
Sardis represents the protestant church. Did you know that between the period of 1970-1980 the attendance at protestant churches on Sunday mornings throughout the world went from 242,000 to almost 79 million! It has leveled off, but this would seemingly indicate a very alive church, but when one looks at the results in terms of impact on the world and true disciples we see very little change in spite of that incredible numerical growth.
“Be watchful and strengthen the things that are ready to die.” To the city of Sardis this meant that though they thought their city was impenetrable, it wasn’t long before it was completely destroyed. For the church today it means that we need to be aware that Jesus could come at any time and we better be watchful, for he will come like a thief in the night. We need to strengthen the fundamentals that the church was built on because they are dying.
It’s not hard to see the parallels between us and these churches is it? Jesus wants us to return to the Word of God as our authority and to remember the ways of life that he instructed before it’s too late.
C. He also wants us to Rely on him
To Smyrna: “you are going to be persecuted by the devil and will suffer and be tested for ten days. Be faithful to the point of death.” This is the “martyr church” and interestingly of all the cities mentioned, this one has remained inhabited and is now called Izmir and is one of the largest cities and commercial centers in Turkey. Smyrna and Philadelphia which we will look at next, are the only two cities that have had a continuous existence, and they are the two churches that Jesus didn’t have any condemnation for.
Let’s quickly look at the things he commends about this church, they have tribulation, they will be going to prison and have ten days (or more likely periods of persecution from the ten emperors from Nero to Diocletian) of trouble, they have poverty, they speak out against blasphemy, they have no fear, they are faithful unto death. All of this with just the promise of the crown of life that was to come after their death.
** To Philadelphia: (the city of brotherly love) “you have little strength but have kept my word. I will make the liars come and fall down at your feet and I will keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on earth.”
This is the revived church that has already started and will continue to the Rapture. Philadelphia is a smaller rural community. This church represents all churches of all types that are true to the Word of God and believe that Jesus reigns. This also represents the missionary church, (the open door), and the church that does not deny the name of Jesus as saviour and Lord.
Jesus says he will make the other religions and churches come to their feet and worship, showing how much he loves this church. They can rely on his promise to keep them from the hour of temptation and judgment because they have patiently kept the word. They will not experience the Great Tribulation. This is in contrast to the Laodicean church which is also representing the contemporary apostate church which may contain some believers that will be removed at the Rapture, but many who will go through the Great Tribulation.
III. The Promises to the Faithful
A. Life
2:7 eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God
2:11 will not be hurt by the second death
3:5b never have their name blotted from the book of life
B. Luxury
2:17 hidden manna and a white stone with a new name on it
3:5a clothed in white garments
3:18 pure gold refined by fire, and white garments
C. Lineage or inclusion into the family and rulership of the new kingdom
2:26 Authority over the nations
3:12 a pillar in the temple of God, with his name on them
3:21 sit on the throne with him.
To those who overcome, literally subdue, conquer or prevail, he will give these things. We need to decide if the promise of these things is worth potentially sacrificing some of the short term enjoyment this life has to offer. He is talking about prevailing spiritually, staying true to God’s word and not denying his name when the heat is on, not so much about sacrificing everything, though that may be necessary if he calls you to do that in the end times.
After this he says essentially two more things toward the end of Revelation, I come like a thief, so stay awake and keep your clothes with you so you don’t go naked and be shamefully exposed, and I am coming soon with my rewards and punishment based on what each person has done. You will be either inside the gates of the city or outside. Be prepared, keep living the way he commands at all times. He is not saying this because he want us to be anxious or afraid, but so that we can relax in the certainty that when he does come we will be ready to go with him. He doesn’t want us to wait until it is too late.
The material today could provide for a two year sermon series, so I have just skimmed the surface to try to summarize what Jesus said to the churches, so we could apply the basics to ourselves in the present. I think your outline pretty much narrows it down. In these three chapters of Revelation Jesus tells us who he is, what he demands of us, and the promises to us for being faithful.
There has been a great thrust toward the “emerging church” with the belief that the church has to change, has to update itself to appeal to the modern culture. That is exactly what God has been fighting since Israel came out of Egypt. Well we are finding out now that the need is more for a “returning church”, because though there may be many, especially young people, coming to these new churches, there’s very little spiritual depth or biblical knowledge.
Much of this movement is based on who we want Jesus to be rather than who he says he is in scripture. This is misleading and is the most serious of sins. I can think of nothing more cruel that letting someone believe they are saved when they’re not. Read from photocopy.
All through scripture from Genesis to Revelation God is asking the church to return to Him, not develop something new. Just because the church became unpopular in the last 50 years doesn’t mean it has to reinvent itself. We are to believe that it is in Christ’s hands and the Word of God is its authority.
The church didn’t have to change to be more appealing, we don’t have to dress Jesus up. We are to rejoice that people hate us. Sure having some modern music is not going against the Bible, nor is having comfortable seats, but when we start using the Bible to meet our own desires and needs, and try to make God something He is not, that is heresy. True preaching began to get a bad rap, so we started having feel good inspirational talks instead of biblical sermons. Mike Helms again quotes the Bible in Acts 7 as Stephen gets stoned to death after preaching the truth:
“But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” We should not expect to see the glory of God if we refuse to stand up for the truth of God.
The Church got scared toward the last half of the twentieth century because people were leaving and therefore funds were dropping, but that is exactly what God said would happen because people would not want to hear the truth, but what their itching ears wanted to hear. People were basically paying the church to make them feel good about themselves. As soon as it didn’t, they would go pay another church to do so. Many became church consumers.
God warned us that this would happen, and we don’t have to change unless it is in the direction of getting back to what the church was supposed to be. We need to stand firm and not bend to the pressure of a secular, relativistic culture. We need to provide a choice that is different, that may cause us to be outcasts in our society. And as Paul said in Philippians, be proud of that, rejoice in that.
If we don’t come back to be the church that Jesus intended, there will be nothing for those who have left to come back to, and there will be nothing of value for those who are searching!
