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BY GLENN PEASE
1. THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Based on Rev. 1:1‑2
2. THE BLESSED LIFE Based on
Rev. 1:3
3. THE SEVEN CHURCHES Based on
Rev. 1:4
4. THE KING IS COMING Based on
Rev. 1:7
5. THE PRIORITY OF LOVE Based
on Rev. 2:1‑7
6. RETURN TO FIRST LOVE Based
on Rev. 2:1f
7. RICH IN POVERTY Based on
Rev. 2:8‑11
8. THE CAPITAL OF HELL Based on
Rev. 2:12‑17
9. THE ROAD OF REPENTANCE.
Based on Rev. 2:18‑29
10. GETTING IN Based on Rev.
3:20 and 21:23‑27
11. RELATIVELY IMPOSSIBLE Based
on Rev. 4:1‑11
12. PROGRESS IN HEAVEN Based on
Rev. 7:13‑17
13. THE ULTIMATE WEDDING Based
on Rev. 19:1‑9
14. A PAIN FREE PARADISE Based
on Rev. 21:1‑8
17. NO COWARDS IN HEAVEN Based on Rev. 21:7‑8
18. THE MOUNTAIN PERSPECTIVE
Based on Rev. 21:9‑14
19. THE PRESENCE OF GOD Based
on Rev. 21:3
1. THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Based on Rev. 1:1‑2
The Apostle
John is the patron saint of everybody, for he is the hero of young and old
alike. Jesus called him to be His
disciple when he was likely in his late teens.
He was the youngest of the 12, and is an example of the faith that
Christ had in young people. John also
lived the longest of the 12. He was
used of God for service right to the end, and so he is also an example of the
value of older people in discipleship.
God used him to write down the
last of the books of the Bible.
When the
government looks for a man to go into space they select a man of maturity, but
not a man of old age. When God sought
for a man to travel to heaven and see
mysteries beyond what any astronaut has ever seen in space, He choose a man
well past our retirement age. John was
a senior citizen, but it was no rocking chair for him. He had an assignment far bigger than anyone
ever had. He was to be the recorder and
reporter of the greatest revelation every given. God does not discriminate against the aged. God is an equal opportunity employer. He uses young and old alike. He has no retirement requirement, but will
go on using a person as long as they live.
Your
young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams is the word of
the prophet. Nobody is to be left out
in the task of fulfilling God's plan.
This last book of the Bible is an encouragement to all to plan to be
used of God at any age. We should
expect to do something great for the Kingdom even when we are old. Alexander Maclaren wrote his famous
Exposition of Holy Scripture after he was 80. DaVinci was 77 when he painted
the Last Supper. Tennyson was 81 when
he wrote Crossing the Bar. The world is
full of great works done by those who were old, and we are studying one of the
greatest of these works of the aged as we study Revelation. John was an old man, but still a capable
instrument in the hands of God.
The
first lesson we learn from this last book of the Bible is from the author. We learn that every year of our lives should
be a year of labor for the Lord, and a year of expectation that He will use us
for His purpose. The rest of life can
be the best of life is to be our motto at any age. Studies reveal that the reason people get tired and fatigued in
old age is not because of exhaustion but because of stagnation. Life demands labor and expression. If we settle down to do nothing, we stop the
springs of energy and lose our motivation.
If we keep on going and doing things, the waters of life's energy keep
flowing. John never stopped being
active. He was always available for
God's service and the result was, he was used to his dying day.
John is
not only a great example of love, but a great example of labor. He never did retire from Christian service,
and God used him to give the world this greatest of books‑The Revelation
of Jesus Christ. In these opening
verses he tells us of the source of the revelation; the subject of the
revelation, and the servants to whom the revelation is given. Let's consider first‑
I. THE
SOURCE OF THE REVELATION.
Notice
it is not from John as the title in the King James Version might imply. It is
not the revelation of St. John the divine.
That title was added by man.
John tells us it is the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave
Him. In other words, the ultimate
source of this revelation is God the Father.
He gave it to His Son and His Son gave it to His angel, and the angel
gave it to John, and John gave it to us, the body of Christ. We see here a 5 rung ladder, as when an
owner gives a plan to his son, and the son takes it to the manager, and the
manager gives it to the foreman who lays it out for the workers. God may use many means to communicate with
man, but he always begins with His Son who is the Word. He is the first and the last, the alpha and
omega. Everything God does begins and
ends with Jesus.
This
book is not what John the Apostle is teaching us, but what our Lord, the master
teacher, wants us to know, for it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. We must approach this book with minds
focused on Him, and with the prayer in our hearts that He will teach us.
Hushed by the noise and the
strife of the schools,
Volume and pamphlet, sermon
and speech,
The lips of the wise and the
prattle of fools,
Let the Son of man teach.
Who has the key to the
future but He?
Who can unravel the knots of
the skein?
We have groaned and have
travailed and sought to be free.
We have travailed in vain.
Bewildered, dejected and
prone to despair,
To Him, as at first, do we
turn and beseech
Our ears are all open, give
heed to our prayer,
O Son of man, teach.
Author unknown
As
mysterious as is much of this book, the main concepts can be grasped by
everyone. Jesus is the door that
invites us in, and not a door that locks us out. A revelation means an
unveiling of what is hidden. In this
book Jesus opens up the door to the future and lets us see what His plan and
purpose is, and how He intends to wrap it all up. It tells us how He will reward His bride and judge those who
serve the cause of evil. It is a
revelation of how men will journey through history to either heaven or
hell. Genesis tells us how Satan began
his work on earth, and Revelation tells us how he will end in doom. Genesis tells us how sin brought man's fall,
and Revelation tells us the ultimate consequence of sin. Genesis tells us how everything got started,
and Revelation tells us how everything will end. It is a fitting climax to the Bible.
We need
to keep before us, that the source of this revelation is God, and it is a
revelation of Jesus Christ, and so our first objective is not to know the
future and satisfy our curiosity. Our
first objective is to know Christ. This
revelation is to primarily lead us back to the source and draw us near to Him
who gave it. Our prayer should be‑
Lord Jesus, make Thyself to
me
A living, bright reality;
More present to faith's
vision keen
Than any outward object
seen;
More dear, more intimately
nigh
Than even the sweetest
earthly tie.
Author
unknown
II. THE
SUBJECT OF THE REVELATION.
To show
to His servants what must soon take place.
The subject than, is the future.
We are dealing with prophecy and the prediction of what is to come. Henry Swete says, "Revelation is the
converse of concealment, the process of casting aside the veil that hides a
mystery." We could never know the
things in this book if God had not revealed them. Everyone likes to be in on a secret, and Jesus is letting His
people in on the secrets of the future.
Not all secrets are sweet however.
Some of them are bitter such as the revealing of God's wrath and the
terrible judgment ahead. Even the
negatives can be an encouragement, however, if we see them properly.
This
is illustrated by the two Rabbis who approached Jerusalem and saw a fox. Rabbi Joshua began to weep and Rabbi Eliezer
began to laugh. "Why do you
laugh?" asked Joshua. "Nay,
but why do you weep?" came the reply. "Because, I see the prophecy of
Lamentations fulfilled."
"Because of the Mount Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon
it." Eliezer said, "For that
same reason do I laugh, for when I see with my own eyes that God has fulfilled
His judgments to the letter, I have thereby a pledge that not one of His
promises will fail, for He is even more ready to show mercy than
judgment." Even the negative
fulfillment's remind us of the certainty of His promises.
Many
times I have used the saying that we don't know what the future holds, but we
know who holds the future. This is true
in terms of our own personal lives, but when it comes to events which affect
the whole world, we do know what the future holds, for that is what this
revelation is all about. John stresses
two things about these future events.
1. THEIR
NECESSITY.
He says
they must soon take place. This is not
a revelation of what ought to be, or of what God hopes will be. This is a sure thing , and it must come to
pass. This is not a series of predictions like you read in one of the papers by
a contemporary psychic. They make a lot
of educated guesses and a few wild ones for publicity, and once in a while they
get one right. The test of any prophecy
is, if it does not come to pass it is false, and the prophet is a false
prophet. Any careful study of the so
called prophets of our day show them to be false. If John's prophecy is truly from God, then it will not be 60%, or
even 99.9% correct, but completely 100% accurate. John says these things must come to pass‑it is a
necessity.
They
must soon come to pass. This word soon
is the basis for the first debate over the book. Since many Christians feel most of the book is yet to be
fulfilled in the future, they give the word soon a different meaning here than
its usual meaning. They say that since
from the Lord's point of view a thousand years is as a day, that means it has
only been a couple of days since this revelation was given. So that leaves several thousand years yet
for the fulfillment to come even in what would be only one week from God's
perspective. That is very soon to
Him. Others say the word means speedily,
for it is used this way in Luke 18:8 where it says, "He will vindicate
them speedily." They stress that
when the Lord begins to fulfill these prophecies they will come in rapid
succession and soon be fulfilled.
Many
others resist trying to get around the plain meaning of the word. They prefer to take is as it stands and see
that John is saying to the Christians of his day‑these things will take
place in your lifetime. After all, the
other two great Apostles, Paul and Peter, said the same thing. Paul in Rom. 13:12 wrote, "The night is
far gone, the day is at hand."
Peter wrote in I Pet. 4:7, "The end of all things is at
hand." There is no way to escape
the fact that the Bible authors felt the end is near, and that Christ would
soon return.
We are
caught, therefore, in a dilemma. It is
clear that the word soon meant soon to John and the early Christians. Yet, we know that the end did not come, and
2,000 years later we have not come to the end.
What are we suppose to think?
The solution is really quite simple.
You merely recognize that both views are right, for it is a part of the
nature of Biblical prophecy. George
Eldon Ladd, the prophetic scholar wrote, "It is the nature of Biblical
prophecy to make it possible for every generation to live in expectancy of the
end." Each generation of
Christians can see the events of this book fulfilled in their lifetime. History goes in circles until one day the
final round will be made, and the literal end will come. No generation knows for sure that it is the
last, but each one could be.
As we
study this book we first of all must try to see what it meant to the Christians
of the first century. Then we must try
to see what it has meant to Christians through history. And finally how does it apply today, and
what does it mean for its final fulfillment at the end of history which could
possibly be in our lifetime. The reason
this revelation causes so much debate is because so many Christians want to
take it for themselves and leave all other generations of Christians out of
it. They want it to be for the first
century Christians, or for the Christians of the last day only. These exclusive theories are not wrong, for
both are right, but it is just that they are too narrow and limited.
As we
read through the book, we will be following those who see this as a revelation
to all God's people with meaning to every generation from the first to the
last. This means that soon means just
that in every generation. The events of
this book are always just around the corner for every generation. Jesus could have returned in any
century. If this was not the case, then
the waiting Christians who have lived in expectation for centuries have been
deceived. The Bible says they were
right to have been watching, for His coming is always near.
The third thing we want to look at is‑
III. THE
SERVANTS TO WHOM THE REVELATION IS GIVEN.
This
revelation was not given to idle curiosity seekers, but to those who are
servants of Christ. It is a servants manual and not just a guide to prophecy nuts
who love to get into speculation about
all the details of the future. It is primarily practical in its purpose. It is
to aid Christians in their service for Christ. It is to be a blessing to those
who keep what is written says John. If one does not serve Christ and live a
more practical life of benefit to others because of this book, he has missed
the purpose of it, and poverty of purpose is worse than poverty of purse. Only
those who serve can really see the future and be motivated by this revelation,
for they alone can see that their labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Barclay
rightly says, "No man can be anything greater than a servant of God."
This is the name first given to Christians in this book and it is the title
that John and all of the Apostles proudly wear. God lets his servants in on his
plea for the future, for if they are going to suffer for His Word and even give
their lives in His service, it is only right that they should share in knowing
the outcome of it all. The Christians who will get most out of this revelation
are those who are most anxious to serve Christ in the world, and keep the
things written in this book. Frank Laubach said something so simple yet so
profound: "It would be better for
us to throw away 99% of our learning and of our tangled philosophy and stick to
just one single thing for our daily life‑to keep asking God, who needs me
next, Father!"
Whatever
we learn from the study of this book will be worthless if it does not make us
better servants. If growing in knowledge does not lead to growth in service, we
will have missed the whole point of this book. On the other hand,, if we fail
to grasp some of the mysteries and are wrong on some of our interpretations,
but we are motivated to greater service, we will have accomplished the primary
purpose for which this revelation was given. So our prayer should be, Lord,
help us to see and then obey, as we launch into this study of the beginning of
the end.
2. THE
BLESSED LIFE Based on Rev. 1:3
The famous
medical missionary Dr. Grenfell of Labrador once came to John Hopkins Hospital
in America looking for a head nurse to go back to Labrador with him. He made this appeal: "If you want to
have the time of your life, come with me and run a hospital next summer for the
orphans of the Northland. There will
not be a cent of money in it for you, and you will have to pay your own
expenses. But I guarantee that you will
feel a love for life you have never before experienced. It's having the time of anyone's life to be
in the service of Christ." The
nurse who responded wrote this after she came back to America: "I never knew before that life was good
for anything but what one could get out of it.
Now I know that the real fun lies in seeing how much one can put into
life for others."
She
learned that the blessed life is the life of the servant. This is one of the major truths of the
Bible, and one that John stresses in this book of Revelation. The first chapter and the last chapter have
the same emphasis: This is a revelation
to servants, and blessedness is found in the keeping of what is revealed. Listen to Rev. 22:6‑7 which shows you
how the last chapter sounds so much like the beginning of the first
chapter. "And the Lord, the God of
the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to sow His servants what must
soon take place. And behold I am coming
soon. Blessed is he who keeps the words
of the prophecy of this book."
From beginning to end this book is for servants, and the blessing is found
in doing.
In this
third verse of the first chapter John spells out most fully the actions that
lead to the blessed life. The three
things you can do with this book that leads to blessings are: You can read it; you can hear it, and you
can keep it. Readers, hearers, and
keepers, are the three kinds of servants who will reap the benefits of this
revelation. Before we look closer at
these three actions, we need to look at the implication of this verse as a
whole. This verse makes this the most
unique book in all the Bible. All
Scripture is profitable, therefore, there is a blessing connected with reading,
hearing, and obeying any part of it, but this is the only part of Scripture
where it is plainly stated.
This is
the first of seven beatitudes in the book, and is the most comprehensive. Every Christian in history has this blessing
as a potential for his life. There are
exceptions, like the thief on the cross, who never had a chance to even see the
book, and likely there are many others in history who also did not have a
chance to see it. But the fact remains,
Christians of every generation have had the chance to enter into this
blessing. This makes the interpretation
of this book, by necessity, a book that has to be a meaningful one to every
generation of Christians. If it is not,
this promised blessing is a farce and a mockery. If only the first Christians could understand it, then the
blessing is meaningless to all the Christians since. And if only the last generation of Christians can grasp it, then
this blessing has been meaningless to all the Christians through history.
There is
just no alternative to this conclusion:
If we are to take this blessing as a legitimate promise to all readers,
hearers, and keepers, then it must be a revelation that is relevant to all
Christians of all time. How can you
keep what has no meaning to you? How
can you be blessed by reading what makes no sense because it is not meant for
you, but for Christians of some other age?
There is only one way you can do justice to this third verse, and that
is to recognize that it makes this book a now book for all time. The very first Christians who received it
entered into the blessed life, and the very last who receive it will enter into
the blessed life. The blessed life is
not all out there in the future when the world is coming to an end. The whole point of a revelation of the
future is to bring the blessings of the future back into the present so we can
begin to enjoy them now. The best is
always yet to be, but the better is always near for those who know what that
best to be is.
Realized
Eschatology is what the scholars call it.
It simply means that the future can greatly influence the present in the
lives of those who live now with eternity's values in view. They begin now to experience in some measure
the blessings that God has prepared for those who love and serve Him. If a man gets a letter telling him that the
girl he loves is going to say yes when he proposes next week, that knowledge of
the future affects how he lives that week.
He is already enjoying the future.
This
verse says that the blessed life is now.
The overall theme of the book is the conflict of Christ and Satan, good
and evil, light and darkness. We don't
have to wait until the battle is over in enjoy the fruits of victory. Christ wants to live in us and gain
victories now over the forces of evil.
We might even become martyrs in the conflict, but this book makes clear
that if we do, it only leads us more quickly to be crowned, and to join the
battle in the spiritual realm even nearer to Christ. No matter how fierce the conflict, and no matter how rough the
persecution, Christians must recognize that the blessed life is now. Any interpretation of this book that robs
any Christian of any age of this opening blessing is missing the mark. We are dealing with a perpetual now book,
and the important thing about this revelation about the future is, how does it
affect our now? How does our knowledge
of God's plan and purpose for the future alter our present character and
conduct? The first thing we have to do
to allow the future to change the present is to enter into the three‑fold
blessing of this verse. The first
blessing is on‑
I. THE READER.
The
first thing we need to observe is that this blessing is designed to fit the
specific situation of the first century Christians. The reader is singular.
"Blessed is he who reads."
The hearers, however, are plural, for it is they that hear. We have a clear picture of the public
service where one reads the Word and the congregation listens. The reading here
is not the private reading in your home, but the public reading in the church. In the early church where there was only one
copy of the book, no one had a copy to read at home in private. It would have been meaningless to offer a
blessing to those who read the book to themselves at home, for no one could do
that. The Living Bible; the RSV, and
other modern translations stress the public reading by translating:
"Blessed is he who reads aloud."
It is not a silent private reading that being referred to here.
The
implication of this is clear. This book
is meant for a group experience. It is
guide for the body in its decisions and strategies for doing the will of Christ
in history. It is not designed as a
devotional guide for personal devotions like the book of Psalms or
Proverbs. It is to be a public standard
for the guidance of the church as a whole.
In verse 4 John addresses the seven churches of Asia, and the second and
third chapters deal with Christ's view of the church. What this means then, on the practical level, is that the
principles of this book are to guide us as a body. This book is to be more important to us as a local congregation
of believers than our constitution.
Here we have a revelation of how our Lord, the Head of the church, feels
about what goes on in His church. He is
to determine what theology we teach; what actions we take, and what attitudes
we express toward our world.
In order
to guarantee that the Lord's view of the church might never be lost, He made it
a blessing for churches of all ages to have this book read and heard publicly
in the worship service. This does not
mean there is no value in reading the book in private. It is just that the blessing is designed to
keep this book as an open and public guide to the local church all through
history. The leader or reader may be a
pastor or a layman who keeps this guide before the body by reading it in
public, and he is blessed for doing so.
The other two categories of blessing are really one, for to be a hearer
and not a keeper of the Word is a curse rather than a blessing, and so we can
link them together and call them‑
II. HEARER‑KEEPERS.
The
obvious reason why it is a blessing to hear this book read is because you
thereby become informed on the mind of Christ.
You are then able to live in obedience to His will. The reverse truth is also obvious. It is a curse to be in the dark and not know
what your Lord's will is. To be in a
battle and not know what your commander's goals and objectives are is to be and
aid to the enemy, and a stumbling block to your fellow soldiers in the
faith. If we are ignorant as a local
church as to what Christ expects of us, we can burn up all of our energy doing
things that do not accomplish His purpose.
As we shall see, it is possible for a local church to be in just that
kind of situation. To avoid it we must
be hearers of this portion of the Word and doers.
The ear
gate was the primary means of receiving the Word of God in the early church,
and the preached Word is still the main means for most Christians to be exposed
to the truths which Christ wants the church to hear. This means that good listening habits are important for
Christians to develop. Boredom is not
always the fault of the speaker. Quite
often the listeners are lethargic. They
do not take the message seriously enough to overcome the distractions and the
tiredness that makes the mind drift and sink into a stupor where the message
does not penetrate.
This
verse is saying, it will be a blessing for those Christians who take this
revelation serious enough to fight all obstacles to good listening so that they
can hear what Christ has to say to the church.
Over and over we will see the phrase in chapter two and three: "He who has an ear, let him hear what
the spirit says to the churches." In other words, you can have an ear and
still not hear. It is the hearing that
leads to understanding and obedience.
The good listener is one who is always asking questions about what he
hears. How does this apply to me and my
church? What can we do to live up to
this ideal of Christ? You must be
looking for insights as you listen.
Those who do listen will hear what the inattentive will miss and lose
their blessing. Good listening enables
you to find gems of truth that the speaker is not even talking about. Good listening will enable you to see things
that the speaker doesn't see such as, implications that apply to you that the
speaker knows nothing about.
Our
understanding and interpretation of this revelation may be immature, but that
is part of the process of growing. We
must see on a lower level before we can see on a higher level. Our interpretation will become more clear as
we respond in obedience to the highest we can grasp at the time. Child like misunderstanding will be
corrected as we share what we see and hear.
Our own experience will be corrected by the wider experience of the
body. A little boy visiting the farm
walked through a flock of chickens, and suddenly the rooster flopped his wings
and let forth with a crow. The boy ran
to the house and gave this interpretation of his experience: He said the rooster spanked himself and then
cried. From his perspective that seemed
the most logical interpretation of the event.
It was not accurate, but as he listened to others explain he would grow
in his understanding.
The
point I am making is, the blessing of this book revolves around a group
experience. The important thing is not
what I learn, or what you learn, but rather, how does this revelation affect us
as a church? How will we respond to
what we learn about Christ's will for the local church? It is a body‑life experience. We must share how we feel about what is
revealed to us, for only as we do can we keep what is written.
In 1959
Hans Kraus bought a 13th century copy of Revelation for $182,000. That was a world record, and doubtless Hans
will keep that copy after he reads it, but that is not the kind of keeping John
has in mind. Hans may be blessed to
have that 13th century copy of the book, but that is not the blessing John speaks
of here. Keeping means doing, or acts
of obedience because of what is written in this book. This means the goal of this book, like the goal of all Christian
education, is to change conduct so that it conforms to the will of Christ. This means the book has principles that are
universal for all Christians in every age.
A Mrs.
R. L. Bartlett received a postcard 42 years after it had been mailed from only
6 miles away. It said, "Will be
down Monday about 5:00 P.M. Do not stay
at home on my account. Hope your cold
is better." It was totally
irrelevant when she got it, and of less value than yesterday's paper. The point is, once a message no longer fits
the situation in which you live, it is a worthless message. The book of Revelation is not like the
paper. Some say it is as current as the
daily news. Not so! It is far more relevant than that. The daily news is only relevant for a few
hours, and then it is obsolete.
Revelation is relevant always to all believers in all churches, for the
principles of life it reveals can be kept by all who will choose to do so at
all times.
Satan
will be delighted if our goal is only to satisfy our curiosity about the
future. C. S. Lewis in Screwtape
Letters has Satan telling one of his demons how to succeed in deceiving a
Christian: "The great thing is to
prevent his doing anything. Let him do
anything but act. No amount of piety in
his imagination and affection will harm us if we can keep it out of his will‑the
more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and,
in the long run, the less he will be able to feel." If Satan can get us to feel excited about
his book so that we are content with just feeling good because we are learning
more, but keep us from changing our lives in response to what we learn, he will
have succeeded in robbing us of the promise blessing.
G. K.
Chesterton, the great Catholic author,
scolded the church of his day in poetry because of their failure to take
practical action to meet the needs of the community. He wrote,
The Christian Social Union
here
Was very much annoyed;
It seems there is some duty
Which we never should avoid,
And so they sing a lot of
hymns
To help the unemployed.
To keep
what is written in this book is to be practical. To remember the Sabbath and keep it holy was not just a motto to
the people of God in the Old Testament.
In order to keep it holy they had to do many things, or refrain from
many things. To keep the Sabbath was
primarily a matter of conduct. To keep
the things revealed in this book is likewise a matter of conduct. We are not true believers of what we hear
revealed until it affects our lives.
Paul Johnson put it: "A
belief is a faith not merely when it is accepted as true, but when it
determines what one shall live for and shapes the way of living."
Adoniram
Judson in 1812 sailed to Burma to carry the Gospel there. He suffered greatly as he was imprisoned for
two years. Starved and beaten, yet he
survived, but with his hands and feet marred by the chains. He went to the king of Burma and asked
permission to preach. The king
responded, "I am willing for a dozen preachers to go, but not you. Not with those hands. My people are not such fools as to take
notice of your preaching, but they will take notice of them." Judson way effective, and is now a famous
hero in the history of missions because he was a keeper of the things Christ
revealed to His church.
This
last book of the Bible starts with the same principle with which the book of
Genesis starts. It is a test of
obedience. Will Adam and Eve keep the
will of God by obedient conduct? They
did not! Now, each member, and each
church in the body of Christ has the same option. Will we, or will we not, keep God's Word by obedient
conduct. The promise for those who do
is an entrance into the Blessed Life.
3. THE SEVEN CHURCHES Based
on Rev. 1:4
A math teacher asked one of her less enthusiastic
students, "If I take 23 away from 30, what is the difference?" He responded, "That's what I say,
what's the difference?" In other
words, it made no difference to him.
Not everybody enjoys math and working with numbers, and you certainly do not need much knowledge in
this area to understand the Bible. John
was no great mathematician, but there is one number he used over and over
again, and that was the number 7. The
whole book of Revelation is built around the number 7. It is used 54 times in this book, and is the
key number that forms the structure of the book.
John was
not the first to use 7 this way, for 7 has been the number of perfection and
completion all through history. The
Greeks and Romans considered it a sacred number, but long before them the
Chinese divided their empire into 7 provinces.
In India the earth was divided into 7 divisions, and they had the 7
rivers of Hindustan, and 7 celestial mountains. The Babylonians made much of the number 7, and they referred to
all gods as the 7 gods, and their 7 story tower was symbolic of the whole
universe.
The idea
of 7 being symbolic of perfection and completion is almost universal, and,
therefore, it is the easiest of all symbolic numbers to understand. It usually means all of the category being
dwelt with in the context. God has
built this right into creation.
7 days make a complete week.
7 colors make a complete rainbow.
7 whole tones make a complete scale with the 8th a
repetion of the first.
7 seas, 7 wonders of the world, 7 years and the body
is renewed.
7 days of rest.
7 day feast.
7th day for circumcision.
7 fold sprinkling of blood on the day of atonement.
7 branch candlestick.
7 times dipping of Naaman.
7 years labor for Rachel.
7 years of famine and 7 years of plenty.
7 last words from the cross.
7 baskets of fragments.
7 husbands of one wife.
7 demons cast out of Mary Magdalene.
7 deacons.
7 parables of Matt. 13.
7 woes on the Pharisees.
7 times 70 for forgiveness.
We could
go on and on for there are 600 references to the number 7 in the Bible. There is no point in trying to prove what is
obvious to everyone. 7 is a symbolic
number which stands for totality. It
gets this meaning because it is a combination of three and four. Three represents the trinity, or heaven, and
four represents the earth because of the four directions and four seasons. 7 is the combination of heaven and earth, or
the total reality.
This
means that when John in verse 4 addresses the 7 churches in Asia, he is
addressing the total church, or all churches for all time. These 7 actual churches of his day are
representative of all the local churches that will exist through all of
history. Just as the 7 spirits before
the throne represent the Holy Spirit in the fullness of all his functions. One of the popular systems of interpreting
the book of Revelation is the system that sees the whole book as 7 great
visions, each of which starts at the first coming of Christ and ends with the
second coming. Whether this theory is
correct or not I cannot say, but it definitely has some truth to it which we
will observe as we go through the book.
Another
popular method of interpretation based on the number 7 is that each of the 7
churches represents a period of history.
Again, there is some truth to this theory, but to press it only leads to
a lot of contradiction, for no two who follow this theory seem to be able to
agree on what period of history each church represents. It is wise just to recognize that in every
period of history the church falls into one of the 7 categories represented by
the 7 churches. In fact, the church
today world wide has local churches that fall into everyone of the 7
kinds. The idea that all churches of
any age fall into the same category is based on ignorance of church history. The church may be dead in one part of the
world, and in great revival in another part.
Some
people get so excited about numerology that they go to extremes. I have several books in my library devoted
to finding 7's in the Bible. This is an
old hobby and goes back into ancient Judaism.
They actually get down to the very letters of the Hebrew and Greek. For example, Gen. 1:1 has 7 Hebrew words
made up of 28 letters, or 4 times 7.
The first three words have 14 letters or 2 times 7, and the last 4 words
have 14 letters or 2 times 7, and on and on it goes with dozens of combination
of 7 right in the first verse of the Bible.
They go on through the whole Bible finding 7 absolutely everywhere. Some men have spent their whole life finding
the 7's in the Bible in every conceivable combination; all of which is much
adeu about nothing. J. B. Segal writes,
"Statistics of the Bible, like the
calculations of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, have a fatal attraction for cranks
and crackpots, and even for wise men in their less guarded moments."
We must beware of the danger of getting all
excited about numbers, for as John Davis points out in his Biblical Numerology,
the Bible no where tells us that it has any special hidden meaning in numbers. He feels that the number 7 is the only
significant symbolic number in Scripture, and it has a clear and obvious
meaning to all‑completeness. Even
here we need to remember that it can also mean completely evil and does not
always mean perfect in a good sense. In
13:1 the great beast has 7 heads, and so 7 can be complete for either good or
evil.
As we
focus our attention on the 7 churches of Asia who first received this book, we
need to remember that though they are representative of all churches, they were
also real churches. This book is
anchored in history. No interpretation
can be very convincing if it does not face up to the fact that is was
originally given to the 7 historic churches.
The fact that there were other well known churches in the same area,
such as Colosse, Galatia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Antioch, and Miletus, makes
it clear that 7 is used symbolically for all churches. We are not opening and reading other
people's mail, therefore, but just as Paul wrote his letters to 7 specific
churches which are guides to all the churches of history, so this revelation to
the 7 churches is for all the churches of history.
As we
look at the greeting of John to the churches, it is a typical greeting of the
New Testament Epistles. Grace and peace
are the two things all of need perpetually. The fact that we even need God's
grace is evidence that apart from God's favor we can never make our own lives
meaningful and effective. The fact that
we need His peace is evidence that we live in a disturbing world where nothing
is ever alright. This life is a battle‑field
in contrast to the joy, victory, and peace of the new heaven and new
earth. The book of Revelation does
encourage us to look ahead to that great eternal peace. Grace Crowell in Songs Of Hope wrote:
Lift up your hands, make straight the paths,
Though dark the way may seem,
Ahead are the orchards bright in the sun
Where the golden apples gleam.
Let no bitterness trouble your heart,
For after the night is passed,
The gold and the scarlet, rain‑washed fruit,
Of peace will be yours at last.
This is
a legitimate hope of the believer, but John in this greeting is saying, the
grace and peace of God can be ours now.
We can have some of the future in the present because the God of the
future is also the God of the present.
John describes God as the one who is, who was, and who is to come. Anytime and anywhere, one thing is sure, God
is there. This first description of God
in the book also anchors this book in history, for it describes God as the God
of history. He is the God of the past,
the future, and the now. History is God
centered, but this is not always clear except to those who have this revelation
of how God is active in history.
Note
that God is on a throne. It is referred
to here in verse 4, but in chapter 4 we have a description of God on His
throne. This becomes a basis for the
church to enter into the grace and peace of God now, even before the final
victory over evil. This message of
peace in a world of turmoil, due to the fact that God is on the throne, is to
many, the key purpose of this whole book.
It was written to strengthen and encourage Christians going through
persecution by making it clear to them that no matter how bad things get on
earth, God still is on the throne, and whether we live or die we are in his
hands.
William
Justice in his book Our Visited Planet tells of the physics professor
describing to his college class the laws of motion. He described how each of the planets with their moons were in
regular motion around the sun; how the earth itself was spinning on its axis
over 1000 miles per hour, and at the same time sailing around the sun at 18 and
one half miles per second. While this
is going on, the sun itself if speeding on its massive flight through space at
the velocity of 43,000 MPH carrying all the planets, their satellites,
thousands of asteroids, a thousand comets and millions of meteors with it
toward the great star Vega. The class was almost frightened with all of this
movement, but he said ever this does not exhaust the matter. The Milky Way, our
own galactic system, which is 100,000 light years across is turning as an
incredible speed about an axis located in the direction ;of the constellation
Sagittarius. This system is so immense it takes 200,000,000 years to rotate
once on the axis. At this point the professor paused and with impressive
solemnity said, "Young ladies and young gentlemen, every object in the
universe known to man is in motion except the throne of God."
What
that professor stated is one of the key truths of the book of Revelation, and
because it is so, the peace of God is possible for the believer to experience
in the present. Again, let me remind
you, this is a now book for all Christians of every age because it is a
revelation of the God who always is.
Because he is the God who is, He is always involved in history. R.T. France calls Him the Transcendental
Interferer. He means by that, that God
is a Living God‑a God who does not ignore history, but a God who gets
involved in history. A God of the New
Testament is the same God as the Jehovah of the Old Testament. He is going to be present in history leading
His people to accomplish His will in the world. He also has His hand on non‑Christian people's, and works
out His will through them as well, even as He did in the Old Testament. It was not just Israel that God
delivered. In Amos 9:7 God says,
"Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines
from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?"
Any view
of God that limits His involvement in history to His own people is too narrow
to be Biblical, and is not worthy of the God of history. God tells us in the Old Testament that He
was just as much the God of the nations as He was the God of Israel.
In Isa. 10:5 He calls Assyria, "The rod of my anger." He used Assyria to judge His people in
Israel. In Jer. 25:8‑9 God says,
"Nebuchanezzer the king of Babylon my servant." The reason I stress this Biblical truth at
the beginning of our study of Revelation is to caution you against any
interpretation of the is book that sees it only from an American perspective,
as if what happens to us is all that really matters to God. I am rather
inclined to believe Wilbur Smith, the great evangelical scholar in the area of
prophecy, who says in his book You Can Know The Future, "I am sure that
there is no particular prophecy about the U.S., although many books have been
written on this....." We must see God as the God of all history and not
limit Him to our experience of history, or our knowledge of history. He is the
God of all history.
This
three‑fold description of God, plus the mention of the three Persons of
the Trinity in verses 4 and 5, brings us to another favorite number in
numerology. God has built this number
into His creation also. Time is three
fold with past, present and future. You
have earth, air, and water; mother, father, and child; length, breadth, and depth;
day is divided in morning, noon, and night.
You have right, middle, and left; you have high, medium, and low. There are numerous threes that deal with
completeness and totality just as the number 7 does. The Bible has many series of threes. The three sons of Noah that populated the whole new world; the
three friends of Job; the three night watches; the three temptations of Jesus,
and the three prayers in Gethsemane, and three disciples and the inner circle;
the three denials of Peter; the three fold holy, holy, holy of the Saraphim;
the three graces of love, hope and faith; the three languages above the cross;
the three hours of darkness on the cross; the three days and nights in the
grave; etc.
The
practical value we can get from numerology is the assurance that our God is
able to handle the problems that plague us and make life such a mystery. He is pictured here in Revelation as both
three‑fold and seven‑fold:
The two numbers that represent perfection and completeness. God is lacking in nothing, and faith in such
a God says, even though I do not grasp what is happening in history, I trust in
Him who is over all, and He will make sense of it all to those who do trust
Him. Donald Gray Barnhouse points out
that this is the only place in the Bible where the order of the Trinity is not
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here it
is Father, Holy Spirit, and in verse 5, the Son. It is clear why this is the case, for John to goes on to say much
of the Son. The Father and Holy Spirit
are just mentioned here, but the rest of the of chapter deals with the
Son. The focus of this revelation is on
the Son.
4. THE KING IS COMING Based
on Rev. 1:7
Joanna
Baillie, and English dramatic poet of the last century, told the touching tale
of a maiden whose lover had gone off to the Holy Land. The report had come back that he had been
slain. She refused to believe he would
not return to her, and so every night she kindled a fire on the shore of the
Mediterranean and watched for his return to take her to be his bride.
The
story is a parable of the church and her lover, the Lord Jesus Christ. He too has gone away, but He promised to
return, so the church waits in expectation for that day when the shout will be
heard, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh," and she will be taken as a glorious
bride to His mansion in the sky.
This
theme of waiting for the return of one's lover is an ancient one. Homer in the Odyssey tells of the hero
Ulysses who went off to the war of Troy, and spent ten adventurous years trying
to get back home to his waiting wife.
She was wealthy and the result was many men wanted to marry her. They insisted that her husband was dead, and
that she was foolish to wait. She had
to endure enormous pressure, but she remained faithful to her husband, and
finally he did return to wreak vengeance upon those wicked men who sought to
take advantage of his wife.
Again we
see a parallel of what the church must endure as it waits for the return of
Christ. The world says forget this
Jesus you wait for, and come make love with us. He is gone, and you are foolish to wait for Him, and miss the
love of the world. Peter warned the
early Christians about the world's attack on the hope of the second
coming. In II Pet. 3:3‑4 he
writes, "First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in
the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying,
"Where is the promise of His coming?
For ever since the father's fell asleep, all things have continued as
they were from the beginning of creation." By their scoffing they hoped to cause the Christians to give up
their hope.
The Lord
will return and wreak vengeance upon those who seek to entice His bride
away. Those who try to lure the bride
of Christ into the arms of the world need to hear the warning of the Word, for
their will be hell to pay when the Bridegroom comes. II Thess. 1:6‑10 says, "...God deems it just to repay
with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant rest with us to you who are
afflicted, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels
in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon
those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and
exclusion from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might, when He
come on that day to be gloried in His saints, and to be marveled at in all who
have believed."
The
second coming will be both a day of great joy, and a day of great judgment. The
Bible alternates between these two pictures depending upon whose point of view
by which it is seen‑the Bride or the world. Christians are warned over and over again to watch for the coming
of their Lord, for carelessness in this area can lead them to get so involved
with the world that that day will come upon them like a thief in the night, and
they will be caught naked and ashamed at His coming.
In other
words, if the Bridegroom comes and finds His bride flirting with the world and
embracing another lover, it will be a day of judgment rather than joy even for
those believers who are not found faithful.
But Jesus says in Luke 21:37, "Blessed are those servants whom the
Lord when He cometh shall find watching."
In order to motivate us to watch, we want to focus on this great text
where John emphasizes these two aspects of the second coming. First we see‑
I. THE
REALITY OF HIS RETURN.
Behold
He is coming says John. The faithful
bride never questions the promise of her bridegroom to return and receive her unto
Himself that where He is she might be also.
He'll come again,
And prove our hope not vain.
We wait the moment, Oh, so
fair;
To rise and meet Him in the
air,
His heart, His home, His
throne to share,
O wondrous love!
Author unknown
This has
been the blessed hope of the church from the day of its birth. This is the goal of history. It is the final leg of the tripod of
history: Creation, crucifixion, and
coming again. The prophets predicted
it; the Lord Himself promised it, and the Apostles fervently preached it. The New Testament refers to the second
coming 318 times. Everybody who truly
believes the Bible believes in the second coming, for to deny its reality is to
deny the validity of Biblical revelation.
Christians in every denomination, and people in every cult that studies
the Bible, believe in the reality of Christ's return.
You
would have a very difficult time finding anyone who rejects the second coming,
except those who do not believe the Bible.
The problem today is not unbelief, but too much belief. Modern Christians have developed so many
different ways of looking at the second coming that it gets very confusing, not
just to laymen, but even to the scholars.
I have known pastors who became
nervous wrecks over the doctrine of the second coming because there was
so much truth in different systems in interpreting it. All the different views are held by
outstanding leaders of the evangelical church.
A whole new phenomenon is taking place.
New books are coming out all the time with all of the views being
presented by well known authors in the same book. This is a clear sign that Christians are finally becoming aware
that it is likely that no one view has all the answers, but that there are
values and insights in all of them that need to be considered by the whole
body.
Charles
Erdman in Remember Jesus Christ wrote, "...while there should be no doubt
as to the reality of the personal glorious return of Christ, much diversity of views, regarding details and
circumstances must be allowed."
Those who go on dogmatically insisting that their view is the only true
one only reveal their own intellectual dishonesty. I have studied all of the views and find Biblical values in each
of them, and find that none of them is complete and without problems. There are so many passages in the Bible that
deal with the Rapture, the Resurrection, and the Return from the point of view
of the world, the church, and Israel, that nobody has ever been able to put
them all together into a simple chart that explains them clearly.
So many
things, both good and bad, are going to happen when Jesus returns that it is
futile to try and get all of the events organized. Those who think they have done it only aggravate those who know
the complexity of the second coming is beyond the charting of the human
mind. Listen to the greatest Baptist
preacher of all time, who read more widely possibly than any man who ever lived‑Charles
Haddon Spurgeon.
"As for the Lord's second coming, we know not
when it
shall be.
Shall the world grow darker and darker till
He comes? It
may be so. There are passage of
Scripture
and signs of the times which may be taken to
indicate it.
On the other hand, shall the age grow brighter and brighter
until He appears to bring the perfect day? Through the
preaching of the Gospel shall there be periods in
which
multitudes shall be converted, and whole nations
saved?
I do not know:
there are texts that seem to look that way,
and many a brave worker hopes as much. There are
brethren who can map out unfulfilled prophecy with
great
distinctness; but I confess my inability to do
so. They get
a shilling
box of mathematical instruments. They
stick
down one leg of the compasses and describe a circle
here
and a circle there, and they draw two or three
lines, and
there it is.
Can you not see it plainly? I am
sick of diagrams;
I have seen enough to make another volume of
Euclid. My
impression is that very little is learned from the
major part
of these interpretations."
We could
quote hundreds of the greatest minds of Christiandom who stand with
Spurgeon. They recognize there is
probably an aspect of truth in almost everything that can be said about the
second coming, and that is why they reject any narrow and limited man made
scheme that pretends to lock Christ into a specific schedule. Some of the old prophetic preachers were
very bold and dogmatic, but the wiser modern prophets have learned they cannot
program God to do things their way, and so if you read their books today you
will read a lot of maybe this could be, or possibly this could mean, or
probably this indicates. There is a
great caution today because too many godly men have made too many wild guesses
in the past and have been wrong. Our
blessed hope is not a hope of producing a perfect chart and schedule of the
events of His coming. Our blessed hope
is the reality of His coming.
Behold He is coming says John.
II. THE
RESPONSE AT HIS RETURN.
This text
emphasizes the main reason for the return of Christ, which is to judge the
world. Every eye will see Him, and even
those who pierced Him, and there will be a response of universal wailing. This picture of the coming of Christ as
judge is the main theme of the Creeds of Christiandom all through history. The Apostles' Creed declares that Christ
"Ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father
Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead." The Nicene Creed affirms that Christ
"Sitteth on the right hand of the Father.
And He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the
dead." In the Athanasian Creed,
the confession is similar: "Christ
sitteth on the right hand of the Father from whence He shall come to judge the
living and the dead." Dr. James
Denny out of lifetime of study of the
Word said, "If we are to retain any relationship to the New Testament at
all, we must assert the personal return of Christ as Judge of all."
The
articles of religion of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and also the fourth of
the 39 articles of the Church of England read this way: Christ did truly rise again from the dead,
and took again His body, with all things appertaining to the perfection of
man's nature, where with he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until He
return to judge all men at the last day."
The
Augsburg Confession of 1530 reads, "..in the consummation of the world, Christ
shall appear to judge, and shall raise up all the dead, and shall give unto the
godly and elect eternal life and everlasting joy; but ungodly men and the
devils shall He condemn with endless torment." The New Hampshire Baptist confession of 1833 says, "We
believe that the end of the world is approaching, and that at the last day
Christ will descend from heaven and raise the dead from the grave to final
retribution; that a solemn separation will then take place."
John
seems to focus on the judgment of the world only, but the creeds and testimony
we have just read stress that the judgment includes the believers as well as
the unbelievers. In other words, this
day of the greatest joy possible for Christians will be a day of wailing for
many, for they did not give heed to the Word, but let themselves be enticed by
the world. The result of their not
watching will be that they will, along with the world, be caught naked when
Christ comes as a thief in the night, and they will be ashamed at His
coming. There is no way to escape this
conclusion as you read the warnings of the New Testament to Christians about
being ready.
Paul
wrote to Timothy in II Tim. 4:1‑2 in the Living Bible, "And so I
solemnly urge you urge you before God and before Christ Jesus‑who will
someday judge the living and the dead when He appears to set up His kingdom‑to
preach the Word of God urgently at all times, whenever you get the chance, in
season and out, when it is convenient and when it is not. Correct and rebuke your people when they
need it, encourage them to do right, and all the time feeding them patiently
with God's Word." Paul is saying,
the whole Christian ministry is to be performed in the light of Christ's coming
as the Judge. To be ready for that day
is the reason behind so much of what we do as a church.
Jesus
has all power, and as King of Kings He could chose to just end history and
judge the world and the church, but He does not chose to do it that way. He chooses to come back into history to
vindicate those who have been faithful, and to make sure that total justice is
accomplished. Jesus will not end
history with any loose ends, but all will be wrapped up with neatness and
order.
John
stresses that every eye will see Jesus when He comes. Phillip Mauro, the great layman Bible commentator, whose many
books on the last things are some of the best, says, "It is a part of
God's plan for the future that every child of Adam's race shall have at least
one look at Him who gave Himself a ransom for all." Mauro is taking John
literally here that every eye will see Him.
It is hard to avoid taking this statement literally, when he goes on to
say, even those who pierced Him will be among those whose eyes will see
Him. Those who pierced Jesus have long
been disintegrated into dust. Their
last sight of Jesus was His dead body being taken from the cross. John says that even those eyes, long blinded
by death, will also behold His return in power and glory.
John
was the only disciple at the cross. He
saw the cruelty there as none other did.
He alone tells us of the piercing of Jesus. It is likely that John in telling us that those who pierced Him
will see Him along with the whole world, is emphasizing the universal justice
that Jesus will bring as the Judge.
Christians had to suffer so much injustice in John's day, and like Jesus
they were unjustly condemned to torture and death. John comforts them by assuring them that every injustice will be
brought before the Judge; even those who pounded the nails in His hands, and
who pierced His side, will stand before Jesus as King of Kings.
This
text of Rev. 1:7 gets us into the whole area of the resurrection of dead, and
that of both believers and unbelievers.
It is the unbelievers who are more in John's mind here, for he stresses
the presence of those who pierced Jesus and the universal wailing. For every eye to see Jesus means that even
the dead of all time will see His coming.
When Jesus comes again there has to be a resurrection of all who have
ever lived, or we could not take this text literally.
A
seventh day Adventist view is that those who pierced Jesus are raised in a special resurrection to see Jesus coming,
but they will die again and be raised later. This is not impossible, but it
seems rather a strange thing for God to do, and it is extreme speculation. We are on safer ground to look to John to
guide us and grasp more clearly what he is revealing. If we go to John's Gospel to a passage where he is dealing again
with the coming of Christ in judgment, we get a confirmation of the fact that
John means for us to take him literally when he says, every eye will see the
Lord when He returns. This means that
all who have ever lived and died on this planet will in on that climatic event
of history. It is beyond our
comprehension to grasp the magnitude of this event, but John leaves us in no
doubt that this is the case in John 5:28‑29: "Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming when all who
are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth, those who have done good
to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection
of judgment."
Every
person who has ever been will be beholding the Man of Glory when He comes in the
clouds. As in Adam all die, so in
Christ shall be made alive says the Apostle Paul. Does he really mean all?
Yes! Even the most godless will
see the second coming for the all who die in Adam is all inclusive, and so the
all who will be made alive in Christ is also all inclusive. Hitler and Stalin will be there, and their
eyes will behold Him and every knee will bow to His Lordship. All those who pierced Him will be there, and
not just the Roman soldiers who sphere went through His side, but Nero who
pierced the body of Christ time and time again as he martyred the early
Christians. Thousands upon thousands of
tyrants will there to witness the triumph of Him whom they mocked, and whose
people they martyred.
No one
will fully know what hell is like until this day when they see that the one
they rejected is in reality the Lord of Life.
No wonder John says there will be world wide wailing. It does not take much imagination to picture
the reason why wailing will cover the face of the earth. Can you imagine the depth of the shock and
sorrow that will grip those who had a chance for eternal life in Christ but
instead trampled under foot the blood of the Savior and rejected this Jesus who
now appears before them as the Ruler of the universe. The second coming will be literal hell on earth for those who do
not love His appearing because they do not love Him.
Those
who are not saved will be raised to life to see the Lord of Glory, but they
will then be judged and cast into the lake of fire, which is called the second
death. The second coming means the second death to those who are not ready, and
that is why it is a time of wailing.
Perfect justice will be done by the Judge of all the world. On the cross
Jesus paid the penalty for the sin of all men.
When He comes again He will reward those who accepted His sacrifice with
the gift of eternal salvation. His
condemnation will fall upon those who rejected it, and they will have to pay
their own penalty. In the light of
these truths we should be ever aware of this revelation that the King is
Coming.
5. THE PRIORITY OF LOVE Based
on Rev. 2:1‑7
If someone
asks you, "What is the modern name of the country where Paul was
born?" Would you know?
If
someone asked you, "What is the modern name of the country where
Christians were first called Christians?"
Would you know?
If
someone asked you, "What is the modern name of the country where Noah's
Ark landed and the new world began?"
Would you know?
If
someone asked you, "What is the modern name of the country which became
the center of Christianity after the fall of Jerusalem, and which became the
center of world power and spread of Christianity for 16 centuries?" Would you know?
The
answer to all of these questions is the same:
It is the land of Turkey. I must
confess I had no idea that Turkey was a major Bible country, but the fact is,
it is. All 7 of the churches Jesus sent
letters to in this book of Revelation were in Asia Minor, which today is
Turkey. The Hittites of the Old
Testament developed this land. Abraham
came here on the way to the Holy Land.
It was famous in Greek history as the land where they deceived the city
of Troy into taking their wooden horse in which were hidden some of their
soldiers. They took this famous city,
and the story is recorded in Homer's famous Iliad.
Turkey
is the bridge between Europe and Asia, and it is famous for more than most of
us realize. This is where Florence
Nightingale paved the way for modern nursing.
This is where Hippocrates the father of modern medicine came to work
centuries before. Dr. Luke got his
training here, and Paul spent most of his life here, and a great deal of his
ministry was in this area. John the
Apostle served the churches here, as did Timothy. Mary the mother of Jesus lived her last days and was buried
here. When Constantine the Roman
Emperor became a Christian he transferred the capital of the Empire from Rome
to Constantinople in what is now Turkey.
For 7 centuries, which is three times as long as the United States has
existed, this was the center of world and Christian power.
The
first ecumenical council where Christian leaders from all over the world met
was in Nicaea in 325 A.D. There they
established basic Christian doctrine held by all Christians to this day. Not only is a good portion of the New
Testament written to churches in what is now Turkey, but out of that area has
come the theological foundation for all the creeds of Christiandom. Everyone of us has been greatly influenced
by what happened in the land of Turkey.
The reason I share this is two fold.
First, because most Christians never think of it or hear of it. It is lost knowledge because we don't know
history. Second, it becomes a startling
piece of evidence as to the consequences of not listening to Jesus when he
speaks to the church. Jesus warned
these churches that if they did not listen they would be removed, and would no
longer be lights in the world, and that is exactly what happened.
This
center of the Christian faith was destroyed, and today it is 98% Moslem, and
the Christian church has very little influence. The churches and even the cities are nothing but rubble and
wasteland because the church stopped listening to her Lord, and went her own
way just like the people of Israel did, and the glory of the Lord departed as
it did from the temple of Israel.
The
messages to the seven churches are vital to the survival of the church in any
part of the world at any time in history.
The lights of the church go out all through history and produce dark
ages when Jesus is not heard and heeded.
This background should make us realize how seriously we need to give
heed to these letters of our Lord to the church. Most all of the churches of Turkey have been turned into Mosques
or museums because they had ceased to listen.
History teaches us that Jesus says what He means and He means what He
says. We want to look at what He says
to the first church‑the church of Ephesus. This letter is really second Ephesus, for Paul wrote one of his
most impressive letters to this church several decades earlier. It was a great church in a great city.
In the
original list of the seven wonders of the world which goes back to the second
century B.C. The second one on the list
was the temple of Diana in Ephesus.
Pliny the Roman Historian called it, "The most wonderful monument
of Grecian magnificence.." It took
a 120 years to build it. It was 425
feet in length and 225 feet wide with 127 60 foot columns, each given by a
different king so that all of Asia joined in the building of this temple to
their favorite goddess. The Greeks
called her Artemis. Diana was her Roman
name.
Ephesus
was the city of greatest renown, and it was wealthy because people came from
all over the world to see the temple.
It was the Orlando, Florida of Asia Minor. Paul almost started a riot in Ephesus because one of the
silversmiths by the name of Demetrius made silver shrines of Diana and sold
them to the masses of tourists. Paul
came along and said manmade gods are not gods at all. Demetrius, fearful of losing his money machine, stirred up the
people and the whole story recorded in Acts 19 says the crowds became furious
for two hours as they shouted,
"Great is Diana of the Ephesians." The officials finally got them quieted down,
but this gives you a glimpse of what life was like in the city of Ephesus. It was a pagan capital of worship, and with
a temple which was awesome. In the
shadow of one of the seven wonders of the world Paul establishes one of the
seven churches in Revelation.
Ancient
writer after ancient writer raved of the magnificence of Ephesus. It was the home of the world's most popular
goddess. She had an army of priests and
prophetesses, theologians, choristers, and even acrobats. What chance did a handful of Christians have
in that environment. It would be like
setting up a tent along side a great Cathedral and trying to compete. Paul knew it would be tough, and it
was. He spent three years in a lecture
hall having discussions everyday on the Christian way. The Apostle John followed Paul and gave
leadership to this church. That area
became the nursery of Christiandom.
After the fall of Jerusalem, Ephesus became the new center of
Christianity.
Diana is
a mere record of history known only to scholars, but the letter of Paul to the
church of Ephesus, and the letter of Jesus to Ephesus are read and studied by
people all over the planet. The once
proud city is now a heap of ruins, and the church is gone, but the messages it
brought forth from Paul and Jesus live on to challenge and change the church
the world over.
Ephesus
was the first of the seven churches to be addressed by the Lord of the
church. It was the closest to the
island of Patmos where John received the revelation. The seven churches were key churches in the area, but they were
not all the churches that were there.
There were many others, but these seven represent the total church as
seven represents totality all through the book of Revelation. Jesus begins His revelation of the plan of
God from the first century to the last century of history, and on into eternity
with these messages to the churches.
The reason is, the church is His key tool to change history and get
people ready for His coming and the eternal kingdom. He does not have another plan.
His church is His body, and by means of it He will fulfill His plan for
this world.
The amazing
thing we see in these letters is that they are far from being perfect
instruments. Jesus was the perfect man
and he fulfilled the will of God perfectly in His death and resurrection. But now as the Lord of the church He has to
finish His work in history by means of His church, and it is still made up of
people who live in a fallen world and who are yet far from perfected. All of the churches have defects, problems,
and weaknesses. If you feel the church
is not all it should be, that is not surprising, for Jesus felt the same about
the early church. They had all kinds of
problems, and some of them quite serious.
Jesus was very critical of His churches, but it was always with the goal
of getting them to repent, change, and become what they had the potential of becoming.
The
first thing we need to learn from these letters is that the church needs to be
in constant renewal, for it is a fallible human organization, and thus, it is
in constant decay. It is a tool that is
getting dull all the time and needs perpetual sharpening if it is to get the
job done that Jesus left it here to do.
These were the cream of crop churches, but they had plenty of problems
and were in need of revival. Every
Christian alive is to be a overcomer, for that is a major theme in these
letters. In Ephesus they were growing
cool and losing their first love. Jesus
says in verse 7, "To Him that overcomes, I will give the right to eat from
the tree of life." Problems and
bad attitudes of believers can be overcome and reversed. That is why these letters exist: To bring that very thing about, and make
Christians of all churches perpetual overcomers.
At the
conclusion of each of these letters you read of a reward to be given to those
who are overcomers. Overcoming sins and
weaknesses is what being a Christian is all about. It is basic ministry of the church to be ever engaged in
overcoming all of the things that make Christians less than the ideal tool
Jesus needs to get His purpose done in this lost world. Even to the most deficient church of
the lot‑the church of Laodicea,
which was making Jesus sick so that He
was about to spit them out of His mouth, He concludes in 3:21, "To him who
overcomes, I will give the right to set with Me on My throne, just as I
overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." The worst can still have the best. The church, no matter how short of the mark,
can still be an overcomer and succeed in fulfilling the purpose of Christ in
the world.
The Lord
of the church is optimistic about the church and its potential for perpetual
renewal. It is always going to the
dogs, and Christians are cooling off and following some fool fad or heresy, but
Jesus is ever ready to forgive and restore and use this fallible tool for His
glory and the salvation of the world.
Jesus never gives up on the church, for it is a living organism, and it
can listen, respond, repent, change, and get back on track, even when it goes
astray and is part of the problem instead of part of the solution to this
world's mess.
The
church is just people, a great variety of just ordinary people. There are people with varied gifts and
personalities, but everyone of them not yet perfected. So when you get a number
of them together they do not create perfection. If two wrongs don't make a right why should 200 make a
right? Church is never wholly right or
ideal and free of defects. If you find
one you should let the Lord know right away because He never found one in His
search. There are no perfect churches
in the New Testament, and it is safe to assume there never has been such a
church. Every church can be
criticized, and it is valid to do so,
but to be Christlike about it the goal of the criticism is to be constructive
so as to help them to be overcomers.
You do
not forsake your yard because weeds or dandelions began to take over. You work
to make it better. You do not throw
away your car when it gets dirty and tires get worn. You seek to wash it and replace the tires. So it is with your house and your body. If people abandoned their body every time it
developed a defect that made it not function as it was designed to function,
the suicide rate would be almost 100%.
We do not abandon the body even though we get very critical of it. We seek to make it better and restore it to
health. That is how Jesus deals with
His body‑the church. He seeks to
restore it to health when it is sick.
To be Christlike is to be ever seeking for ways to help the church be
healthy. If you cannot stand an
imperfect church, you are in the wrong world because that is all there is in
this world. I love the way Eugene
Peterson says it in his book Reversed Thunder.
"The churches if the Revelation show us that
churches are not
Victorian parlors where everything is always picked
up and
ready for guests.
They are messy family rooms.
Entering a
person's
house unexpectedly, we are sometimes met with a
barrage of apologies. St. John does not apologize.
Things are
out of order, to be sure, but that is what happens
to churches
that are lived in.
They are not showrooms. They are
living
rooms, and if the person's living in them are
sinners, there
are going to be clothes scattered about, hand prints
on the
woodwork, and mud on the carpet. For as long as Jesus
insists on calling sinners and not the righteous to
repentance‑
and there is no indication as yet that he has
changed His policy
in that regard‑churches are going to be an
embarrassment to
the fastidious and an affront to the upright. St. John sees them
simply as lamp stands: They are places, locations, where the
light of Christ is shown. They are not themselves the light.
There is nothing particularly glamorous about
churches, nor,
on the other hand, is there anything particularly
shameful
about them.
They simply are."
The body
does a lot of things even when it is sick or defective. It is inadequate, but it still works and
loves, and makes a difference in the world.
So the defective church is still the church. It's light is often dim, but its still points people to the light
of Christ. It has plenty of sin of its
own, but it still leads people to find forgiveness of their sin. Christians are often more concerned about
their crabgrass than a lost world. But
the lost are still won by a world wide outreach.
At a
church supper there may be more gossip than casseroles, yet people are loved
and cared for, and they get support to survive one crisis after another. Christians may be more interested in the
sports world yet the Word of God does get through, and there is a measure of
growth in having the mind of Christ.
Christians want to be in an atmosphere of the holy with little interest
in being holy themselves. You can go on and on about the defects of Christians,
and all of it is true, but none of which is a valid reason for forsaking the
church. Jesus knew that the critics of
the church would be correct. He is the
first and the greatest critic of them all.
But He also makes it clear that a critic whose goal is not to help the
church overcome its defects does not have his mind toward the church.
Look at
the shocking criticism He levels at the church of Ephesus. He has just said, I am impressed with your
deeds, hard work, and perseverance. You
have been orthodox in your theology, and have not grown weary in enduring
hardships. Jesus really butters them up
as being a great church. But then in
verse 4 He says, "But there is this one thing I hold against you. You have forsaken your first love." He
just as well have poked them in the eye with the golden lampstand, for this was
a devastating accusation. What good is
all the rest without love? Everything
minus love equals nothing. If you lack
the basic thing, what good is it that you have a lot of lesser things? Jesus admits this is the basic thing to have
love, for He makes it clear if they do not repent and get restored to their
first love, He will remove their lamp stand.
In other words, they will cease to be His light in the world. A church without love is like a candle
without a wick, a flashlight without a battery, a bulb without
electricity. There can be no light
where there is no love.
Here we
see the bride and the groom when the honeymoon is over and the hot summer has
changed to winter, and just when they are most needed, the coals of fire have
grown cold. First love is honeymoon
love. It is the love that warms life
and makes people happy to be alive.
Jesus loves this kind of love too.
The radiance of the real hot romance is everybody's favorite kind of
light. Jesus is a jealous groom, and He
wants His bride to keep that romance alive and not let it grow cold. It is of interest to note that the problem
in our relationship to Christ is the same as our problem in relationship to our
mates. We let the flame go out and try
to live by the ashes of yesterday's fire.
In our romantic and religious life we become cold and dull, and just
follow a routine. Mates can often
adjust to this and live together for 40 years after the fire is out. Jesus is not content with this sort of
relationship. He expects to be loved
today just as He was yesterday, and as He expects to be loved forever.
The
fascinating thing here is Jesus says it is a matter of the will. You lose your love because of choices you
make. You can choose to remake these
choices and get back to your first love.
Love is not just an emotion, love is a choice. Jesus says you can repent and stop doing what you are doing, and
start doing again what you did at first.
First love is a priority, and it is a choice you can make. People act like love is some outside force
like a flying saucer, and unless one hits you you cannot do anything to make it
happen. But love is not so, it is an
inside job. It is what you choose to do
with your life and energy. We choose to
love or we choose not to. It is not an
external that we have no control over.
It is an internal we have full control over. Jesus says you forsook your first love. It was your choice. Now
make another choice to get back to it, or you are no longer a part of my team,
and you will be sidelined for good.
They had
some good things going for them, but it was like a car that has run out of
gas. It will keep going for quite a
ways because of the momentum of past power.
They were sort of coasting along not realizing they
had run out of the fuel of love, and would soon come to a halt. Jesus says, get back to your fuel supply of
love, or you will be going nowhere. It
is interesting to note that he says in verse 6 that they still had their hate
working. They hated evil and that was
good, but their love had conked out.
Hate of evil is easier to keep going than love for people and the Lord.
You find Christians who are powerful haters of evil who have lost their love
for the evil people they so hate.
Hate
of evil is good Jesus said, but it cannot be the light that represents Him in the world. Their hate is going strong, but if they don't get back to their
first love, they will be removed. No
church can be moved by hate of evil alone and be what Christ needs in this world. Without love the best hater is of no
ultimate value. Hate of evil by itself
is worthless for the purpose of Christ.
Hate only has value when it is a servant of love. Show me a Christian who is a great hater,
but who is not a great lover, and I'll show you a Christian whose light is
about to go out, for such a Christian cannot represent Christ in the world.
Augustine of Canterbury insisted that the 3,000 monks in Bangor Wales
strive to evangelize the Saxons.
"No way," said the Abbot, "We will not preach the faith
to this cruel race...who have treacherously driven our ancestors from their
country..." Augustine said,
"Since you will not show them the way of life, I am sure they will show
you the way of death." Not many
years later Ethelfrid invaded Wales and many of these monks were
massacred. They were excellent haters,
and possibly even the best ever, but that did not prevent their light from
being snuffed out. Hate does not shine,
only love does. If love does not shine,
hate will not save the day, for it can never be a substitute for love. There is no substitute for love.
The
world needs saving more than it needs condemning. The truth is not God so hated the world that He planned to judge
it, but He so loved the world He gave His only Son to save it. The Bible makes it clear that to God the
priority is love.
6. RETURN TO FIRST LOVE
Based on Rev. 2:1f
O Henry tells
a short story of the lad who grew up in a small village and sat next to a
lovely young lady so innocent and sweet.
He left that village for the big city where he got in with the wrong
crowd and became a thief and a pick pocket.
One day as he was working the crowd, doing quite well, he saw that girl
he sat by back in the village. She was
still the same fresh, innocent, and sweet girl. He did not want to be seen by her, so he hid, but he was
overwhelmed by his memory. He
remembered what he had been, and realized what he had become. He leaned his head against the lamp post and
said, "God, how I hate myself."
That was his turning point. He
had the choice to go back to what he once was, or to go on to be more what he
was becoming, and that he hated.
The
Prodigal Son came to this point and said, "I am going home where I
was." That is what repentance
is! It is responding to what you
remember as a better day, and a better way, and choosing to stop departing from
it, but to go back to what was. Repentance
is admitting that you once were on a better path that you have now forsaken,
and choosing to get back on that better path. We tend to think repentance is
for those only who have never been saved, but Jesus makes it clear, repentance
is as much for Christians as it is for those being saved for the first
time. Christians need to constantly
consider if they were once on a better road that they need to return to. They need to ask with William Cowper‑
Where is the blessedness I
knew,
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul‑refreshing
view
Of Jesus and His Word?
Revival;
renewal, and repentance: They are all
the same experience of getting back to first love‑to the love that puts
Jesus in the center of life. This is
not a rare need, but a constant need, because we, as Christians, tend to
decline. The idea of perpetual growth
does not fit reality. We are usually
the best Christians we will ever be when we first fall in love with Jesus. Maybe we are not very sharp in our theology,
and wouldn't know a false prophet if we heard one. Maybe we would not spot a heresy if it sat on our nose. But we had a fervent love for our Savior,
and we long to make that love known.
The best witness for Christ comes from new converts. They don't know how often people don't want
to hear their good news, and so they share it with enthusiasm. It is only after a lot of rejection that a
Christian tends to withdraw from the sharing of his or her faith. That is why Jesus says we need to become as
little children to enter the kingdom of God.
It is getting back to the simplicity and enthusiasm of our new birth
days that is really the high point of our Christian life. To be childlike in Christ again with a
fervent love is the ideal.
Jesus is
not anti‑maturity, for that is a vital part of the Christian life, but we
need to keep going back to that first love and keep it alive as we grow in
maturity, or the maturity itself is much ado about nothing. When we first become Christians we are the
most normal. We soon grow out of this
normalcy and become abnormal. That is
why we need revivals to get back to normal.
Vance Havner said it as only he could in his book Repent Or Else!
"Revivals should not be necessary. God intended that His people
Should grow in grace without periodic spells of
backsliding and
repenting.
But so long as we have such a malarial brand of
Christianity, a fever and a chill, a fever and a
chill, we shall need revivals. Nor is a
revival a mere emotional upheaval. The
way out of a stupor is not by getting into a stew. God does not intend that we live in a fever of excitement all the
time. The farmer must break up his
fallow ground, but if he did only that he would never plant or cultivate or
reap. Surgery may be necessary at times
but it is not normal to live in a hospital.
What we call revival is simply a return to normal New Testament
Christianity. Most of us are so
subnormal that if we ever became normal we would be considered abnormal!"
Older Christians
acting like younger Christians would seem abnormal, but the fact is, that is
what Jesus is looking for in His church.
He wants mature Christians who still have the fire of their first love. Jesus does not grow cold in His love for His
bride. He does not love His church less
now than when He chose to lay down His life for her. He loves her fervently, and He wants that kind of love in
return. The idea of love growing dim
and fading is based on our weak human nature, and what we experience because we
let love slide. Jesus says this is not
only not necessary, it is stupid. Love
is the best thing we have going for us in any relationship. To just let this decay and grow old and cold
is as dumb as catsup on corn flakes. If
you are not so dumb as to put catsup on corn flakes, why would you be so dumb
as to let love grow cold?
It is
stupid, but we do it all the time. We
do it with marriage; friends, and with the Lord. We let the most valuable and treasured possessions we can ever
have rust away for lack of use, and all because we foolishly buy into the lie
that it is normal for love to fade and decay.
Jesus says it is not so. First
love is capable of being kept alive permanently. You don't have to decline to second love, or third love, and down
to a level where love is in the pits.
First love can be last love as well.
The ideal Christian life is one where the old saints love the Lord just
as much as they did the first year of
their Christian life. That is what
Jesus expects, and not a love that declines so that He ends up far down on the
list of priorities.
Jesus is
not interested in being one of your possessions you just had to have, and then
after the novelty wore off, got stuck in the garage or attic where it sits
neglected because your love has found other objects to entice it. He expects to be on a first love basis with
His bride, or she will be set aside.
This is exactly what God expected from His people in the Old Testament,
and why many of them were set aside, and only a remnant being used to fulfill
His plan. In Jer. 2:2 God says,
"Go and shout this in Jerusalem's streets: The Lord says, I remember how eager you were to please me as a
young bride long ago and how you loved me and followed me even through the
barren deserts." God remembered
those good old days, but they did not.
They took after other gods and lost their first love, and God had to
send them away into exile.
The
number one cause for all failure in life is the forsaking of first love. People fall in love and life is grand, but
they don't stay there, or come back to that love when they drift away. They just keep on going and their love dies. They fall in love with God and the Lord
Jesus, but then they get all tied up with many other things, and their love for
Jesus is pushed to the back burner. The
world is full of use‑to‑be Christians. They have now found other loves, and have lost their first
love. The strange thing is that they
are not necessarily no longer part of the church. These Ephesians were still going strong in the church, and they
had all kinds of qualities, but they had forsaken their first love. Good Christian people who seemed to be busy
as can be in church work can still be a victim of this dread disease of loss of
first love.
Love
never fails, but lack of love sure does.
In fact, lack of love is sure to fail, and this can happen to the best
of Christians. Here is a good orthodox
church. They were zealous and hard
working, and ready to endure hardship for Christ, bu they were about to be set
on the shelf because of their loss of first love motivation. They do not lose their salvation, but they
lose the chance to be used, because without love a church is just not a useable
channel for Christ.
How in
the world can this be? We can assume it
is a fairly common problem, for it is the first problem Jesus deals with, and
it has the most severe threat of any of the problems. The removable of the lamp stand is the most radical warning Jesus
gives to the seven churches. We can
assume that over the centuries Jesus has closed up shop in many churches
because they forsook their first love.
How does it happen? Most see the
issue here to be one of competition where good things become so dominant they
choke out the best. We are deceived if
we think that it is only evil we need to be aware of as an enemy. The good can be the worst enemy of the best. Many Christians lose their effectiveness for
Christ by pursuing good things at the expense of the best. The best
is love for Christ on the level
of first love intensity. There
is no value more pleasing to Christ, and more useful for both the church and
the world.
The
good, in the case of the Ephesians, seems to be there pre‑occupation with
orthodoxy. They have tested those who
claim to be Apostles and have found them false. They have also been very intolerant of wicked men, and they hate
the practices of the Nicolaiatans. They
are doctrinally and morally sound, and this is a good thing to be. But apparently they have let these good
things rob them of the best, for they have in their diligent pursuit of
doctrinal and moral purity let their first love decay. They now have more enthusiasm for being
doctrinally correct than they do for loving Christ and those He died to save.
What are
they suppose to do? Are they to let a
few heretics in once in awhile, and tolerate a little immorality in the
church? Of course not! That is not what Jesus is seeking. He commends them for the good goals they
have reached. It is just that they have
paid too high a price to reach them.
You can stay doctrinally correct and morally pure without becoming so
fanatical that you forget your calling is to love God with all your being and
your neighbor as yourself. It is life's
easiest mistake to make, and that is why we are all guilty of making it. We let the good rob us of the best.
G.
Campbell Morgan, the prince of expositors, told of a friend of his who loved
to spend time with his daughter. They just enjoyed each others company, and
then suddenly she was too busy for him, and always made excuses to avoid their
usual walks. He was puzzled and
grieved, but said nothing. Then came
his birthday, and she gave him an exquisitely worked pair of slippers. "Darling," he said, "It was
so good of you to buy me these."
She said, "Oh, father, I didn't buy them, I made them for
you." He said, "Is this why
you have been so busy the last three months?" "Yes," she replied.
He said, "My darling, I like these slippers very much, but next
time buy the slippers and walk with me.
I would rather have my child than anything she can make for
me." She had robbed him of the
best for the sake of the good. If you
think only bad stuff is the enemy, you will be easily deceived. It is usually something good that is the
enemy of the best.
Every
neglected child and mate is usually neglected for something good, and every
Christian who forsakes his first love usually does so for the pursuit of what
is good, true, and beautiful. But it is
not the best and what the Savior most desires.
The poet David G. Ganton wrote:
O church of Christ,
Of native love bereft,
Come back again
To that first love you left.
Your prudent works
You have not failed to do,
But you have left
The love which once you
knew.
Your purity,
And zeal for truth and
right,
Your patient care
Are worthy in His sight.
But all is vain
Unless impelled by love,
Thrice‑pledged, to Him
Who lives and reigns above.
Repent, Oh church,
And seek again to know
That first constraining love
Of long ago.
Knowing
how to hate evil is good, but it is not the best. Knowing how to spot a phony apostle is good, but it is not the
best. Hard work and perseverance is
good, but it is not the best. Enduring
hardships for Christ is good, but it is not the best. There is only one best, and that is first love, and without that
all the good in the world will not make you qualified to represent the Christ
who revealed just how much God is love.
Christian zeal can lead to the same things as happens to the
workaholic. The father and husband goes
off to work to provide for family. It is the labor of love, but soon he is in
love with his labor, and before long he is neglecting the family he is laboring
to provide for, and he can get so obsessed with his job that he even loses that
family for which he went off to work.
It can happen to the Christian.
He or she can get so into Christian work that they begin to neglect
Bible study and prayer, and even church attention. They are working like the devil for the Lord, and they do not
realize they are serving the devil rather than the Lord because they have let
their love for Christ grow cold.
How
would you like it if you worked on your master piece for 35 years and then
showed it to the queen, and she said, "It is awful, amusing, and it is
artificial." Well, that is exactly
what happened to the great architect Sir Christopher Wren. After he labored 35 years to rebuild St.
Paul's Cathedral in London, after the great fire of 1666, he escorted her
majesty Queen Anne through his life's work and waited breathlessly for her
response. And, believe it or not, he
was pleased when she said it is awful, amusing, and artificial. Had the years of labor relieved him of his
senses? Not at all! This was back in 1710 when these words still
had their original meaning. Awful meant
awe‑inspiring. Amusing meant
amazing. Artificial meant
artistic. She was complimenting him.
That is
what John Claypool was doing too when he said, "God is an amateur. People were shocked and felt it was a
putdown, but they were reading into the word amateur something that was not
there in its original meaning. Amateur
goes back to the Latin root amore which means to love, and originally it
referred to a person who did something for the love of it. They did not sign a
contract and get big bucks. They did not have a court order forcing them to do
it. They did what they did because they loved to do it. They did it freely and
for free out of love of the sport or whatever.
God was
not forced to create the universe. God
was not paid to provide a Savior for the human race. He was not coerced by a greater power to send His Son into the
world. Why did He do it then? It was because He wanted to. It is was because He loved to do it. God does everything, not because He has to,
but because He wants to. Nobody pays
Him for anything. He is an amateur who
does all He does because He loves to do it.
The Gospel is not, God felt so obligated; God felt so duty bound; God
felt so pressured, but rather, God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son. He did it out of
love. That is what God wants in return
from His children. He does not want
slaves who feel bound to obey. He does
not want pros who only do His will for a price. He wants amateurs who will do it because they love it, and it is
their pleasure and joy.
When the
Christian loses this amateur status and goes pro, he has forsaken his first
love, for first love is amateur love.
It is love that says, "I serve Christ and His church because I want
to. I read the Bible because I want to. I pray and strive to witness for Christ
because I want to. I do all a Christian
should do because I love to do it."
That is what a amateur is: One
who does what he does for the love of it.
But that can change, and the amateur Christians can soon be saying,
"I have to go to church tonight. I
have to study my lesson for tomorrow. I
have to write out a check for the church.
All of the sudden the Christian life is not lived for the love of it,
but out of duty and obligation. The
Christian slips back under law and now is a pro under contract with God. Everything is now part of a deal. I'll do this for God if He will do that for
me. Such a Christian can do work for
the kingdom of God, but as Jesus makes clear, if that is the kind of Christian
he wanted, he never would have bothered to replace the legalistic system with
the grace of the New Testament.
God had
all the pros He could endure in the Scribes and Pharisees. He wanted amateurs who would live for Him
and obey Him just for the love of it. Lose that amateur status and you are
facing being taken off the team, for he who does not serve Christ for the love
of it will not be a witness to the grace of God. He will more likely convey to the world that God is law, and not
that God is love. When a candle begins to give off more black smoke than light,
it is time to remove it. So Jesus says
that He will remove that church which does not get back to being amateur for
Christ.
The
problem with hating evil is that we get so good at it that we don't even need
the Lord. We can forsake our love for
Him and forget His goal was to seek and save the lost, and get so wrapped up in
fighting some evil cause that we totally forget why we are even here as the
church. It is one of the of the high
risks of Christians getting involved in any attack on evil. Jesus did not say don't do it, but He said
to these Ephesians that it is in their favor that they do hate the
Nicolaitans. But the fact is, they were
pre‑occupied with their hate and had forsaken their love. The end result
is they lost their battle with hate also for they would be removed from the
battle.
The
bottom line for the church is never what are you against, but what or who are
you for? A church that does not love is a failure no matter how much evil it
hates. Though I hate all the heresy of our day, and though I despise the false
cults and abhor the immorality of the culture, if I have not love, I am
nothing: nothing that matters in the long run, for hating evil does not have
the power to save anyone. God will judge all evil, and your hatred of it will
add nothing to that judgement. Only love can save and make an ultimate
difference.
Every
Christian need to examine their emotions in the light of Christ's words here.
Is my hate a flame that burns brightly where all can see while my love is a
burnt out lamp? If hate is ever brighter than love, you have forsaken your
first love. Love should always be conspicuous over hate. It is love that covers a multitude of
sins. First love forgives and labors to
keep the path smooth. Only when it
fades does the flame of hate take precedence, and then one becomes very
critical and no longer forgiving. The
negatives of life form a team and life revolves around the negatives. This is why marriages fail. This is why churches fail, and this is why
Christians become a pain in the world rather than a power to make a
difference.
What is
the answer to all the lack of love that spoils marriages and the ministry of
the church? Jesus says the solution
starts with remembering the height from which you have fallen. You remember what was; you repent for what
now is, and you return to what ought to be.
Here are the three R's for all renewal:
Remember, repent, and return. These
are three things all people can chose to do.
You don't need any magic formula or religious ritual, you just do it. You start with remembering. Remember when your love for Christ was
sacrificial and not superficial. You
were willing go out of your way to serve Him.
You would go the second mile.
You were glad to be a servant of Christ.
Remember
the good old days when He was the central motivating love of your life. When
you remember this, you will recognize that you have let Him, who was the
center, slip out to the edge of your life.
Jesus will not tolerate being just one of many commitments. He expects to be number one on any
list. Remember what is once was and get
back there. This is a dear John letter
in reverse. He is not saying,
"Dear Ephesus I have left you, but, dear Ephesus you have left me. Get back to your first love, or I will leave
you."
Jesus
expects commitment to be taken seriously.
Jesus is saying to His bride, "I miss the honeymoon where you were
so devoted to me." The Lord is
longing for that first love. This
church is apparently so busy fighting evil they have little time for loving and
worship. Maybe that is why the book of
Revelation is so full of the scenes of worship in heaven. Jesus does not get much on earth, and He
reveals to His bride how the angels of heaven adore Him, and they were not even
redeemed by His blood. How much more
ought Christians to adore the Lord who bought them by His sacrifice? Jesus not only longs for the love of His
bride, He demands that they remember and return to their first love.
7. RICH IN POVERTY Based
on Rev. 2:8‑11
One of the
great paradoxes of life is the fact that the poor can be richer than the
rich. Poverty is no necessary hindrance
to being wealthy. Wealth, on the other
hand, is no guarantee of being truly rich.
Even rich Christians are often not rich just because they have
wealth. Charles Schultz, the richest
cartoonist in history, with his comic strip Peanuts has terrible limitations in
spite of his wealth of many millions.
He can afford to go anywhere anytime, but he has a form of agoraphobia
that makes him fear to go places. The
very thought of walking through a hotel lobby makes him sweat with fear. He has his own jet, but he avoids travel and
spends a lot of time just being depressed.
All his millions do not make him happier.
He is in a sort of perpetual state of grief, but it
is called good grief, for out of his sadness he is able to produce laughter,
for he can see the funny side of failure, which he is constantly depicting in
the life of Charlie Brown who fails in romance, sports, flying kites, and life
in general. Losing is funny when it is
happening to Charlie Brown and not to us.
This laughter at life's misfortunes has made Schultz a fortune, and he
is good at portraying it because he lives it.
When he
portrays Lucy saying to Charlie Brown, "Don't let you team down by showing
up," he is expressing what he experienced in his own childhood. His father's barbershop was where O'gara's
is now on Snelling Ave. in St. Paul, MN,
and he writes of his experience there as a child. "I remember when I use to go into my
father's barbershop for a hair cut. If
a paying customer came in while I was in the chair, I 'd have to step down and
wait for my father to cut his hair.
There I would sit, with half a hair cut, feeling ridiculous." We could go on and on about his feelings of
rejection and failure which he cannot escape even as one of the richest people
in the world.
The
point his life illustrates is one of the major points of the Risen Lord to his
churches. Poverty and wealth are very
relative terms, and people with riches can be poor, and people with little
wealth can be rich. It works both ways
for Christians also, for Jesus says to the church of Laodicea in 3:17,
"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." There are rich
Christians who live in utter poverty says Jesus. But to the church in Smyrna He says, "I know your
afflictions and your poverty‑yet you are rich!" So you have in the judgment of Jesus your
poor Christians who are rich, and your rich Christians who are poor.
In other
words, Jesus had a different standard of values than the world. Christians are pretty much a product of
their culture, and most cultures judge riches by material possessions. The church with the biggest buildings and
most land, and where the parking lot is filled with the most expensive cars is
the rich church. It would be folly to
assume that every church like that is in reality poor in their spiritual
wealth, but it is equally folly to ignore Jesus and assume that sort of wealth
makes a church spiritually rich. It is
also jumping to conclusions to assume that the poor struggling church is a gold
mine of spiritual wealth. The only
thing we can know for sure is the value of any church to Christ is not one that
can be determined by its net worth in dollars.
Jesus
is saying that richness is more a matter of attitude than accumulation. He is not saying accumulation is evil, but
He is saying it is meaningless without the proper attitude. If you have a wrong spirit that is not
pleasing to Him, you can have gold plated pews and diamonds studded hymnals,
and you will still be poor to Him. On
the other hand, you can have wood pews and hand me down hymnals and be rich if
your attitude is one that pleases the Lord of the church. Jesus just loved this
church of Smyrna. He had not a critical word for them which he had for the
others. It was a suffering church; a persecuted church; a church where loyalty
to Christ could very well mean death.
Jesus loved it, but American Christians hate this
kind of church. Vance Havner wrote, "It is not easy to preach on Smyrna
nowadays. The average American congregation is in no mood to appreciate such a
church. It is a day of quick prosperity
and give‑away shows, it is not easy to interest a well‑fed, well‑clothed,
well‑housed Sunday morning crowd in the Smyrna brand of loyalty. We are more like Laodicea, rich and
increased with goods and needing nothing.
It does not cost much to be a Christian now.
We do
not have to pretend we would love to be a part of a suffering church. But we do have to quit pretending that peace
and prosperity is an environment which makes us better Christians. The whole health and wealth Gospel, so
popular in America, is a mockery of Christ and this church He so loved. Any teaching that says you are spiritually
blessed of God and superior because you have abundance of things, peace, and
prosperity, is a rejection of the words of Christ. This church that He favored was poor. The word is actually beggary.
They had no luxuries and not even all the necessities. They were not popular in their culture. They were despised and hated and
persecuted. Yet they were a successful
church, and Jesus says they were rich, because in spite of all they suffered
they were faithful to Him.
Sometimes that is all a Christian or a church can do‑be faithful
to Christ. They could not win the
masses, and they could not build a big church there to the glory of
Christ. They could not even necessarily
survive, for some would not. All they
could do was be faithful through it all, and yet Jesus calls them rich. This was a successful church in His eyes,
but to most culture enslaved Christians this was a total flop of a church. We need to learn from this evaluation of
Christ that it is not very wise for us to judge the value of churches. How can we know that the big wealthy church
is nauseating to Christ, or that the little country church is a precious
diamond to Him? We can't know how Jesus
feels about any church. All we can do
is make sure we are, as members of the church, making it a body that is rich in
His eyes, because no matter what the circumstances we are faithful and loyal to
Him.
Jesus
loved this church and called them rich because they were willing to pay the
cost of being faithful to Him even to the point of death. You have got to be rich in faith to cover
that kind of costly loyalty. None of
the churches suffered like Smyrna.
Jesus says they are to suffer and the devil will put them through
terrible times of persecution, and some will even die. Why?
Are they bad kids deserving of such painful discipline? Are they being judged for their
failure? Not at all! This was one of the best of all the churches, and yet they suffered
unjustly. Jesus does not promise escape
or even protection. He only promises
the reward of the crown of life and the assurance that they will never suffer
again, and not be hit by the second death which will be the lot of those who
make them suffer in time. There will be
reward and judgment, and they will come out winners, but there is no offer of
escape.
The
message of Job is taught again. Bite
your tongue if you feel the impulse to judge suffering churches like Job's
friends judged him. It is easy to jump
to the conclusion that churches that get burned out or blown down by storms, or
which get persecuted are under the judgment of God. Not so says Jesus, for the suffering church may in fact be one of
His favorites instead of a rebel being punished. There are a lot of mysteries in the realm of suffering, and one
of them is why the best and most favored, who least deserve suffering, often
suffer the most.
This
does not fit well with the American perspective. We do not suffer like the churches in other parts of the
world. Therefore, we feel we are the
best and the most blessed. I cannot
escape this conclusion in my thinking, and I am grateful to be a part of the
church in this land of liberty and freedom from persecution. Nevertheless, I have to see that from the
perspective of Jesus the church in those lands where they have suffered for
their faith may in fact be the best and richest churches in the world. I would not want to move out of Laodicea and
move over to Smyrna and endure their suffering. I love being in a suffering free church, but I ought not to let
that deceive me into thinking that it is the best church, and most loved
church. The point is, let's try and see
the church from the point of view of Jesus and not our own. We think because we don't suffer for Christ
we are the most blessed, but this may not be true from Christ's point of
view. It is not their suffering that
makes them the best, but their faithfulness in suffering, and faithfulness is
an issue we need to consider.
FAITHFULNESS.
Christians tend to be strong in the areas that are a strong part of
their culture and upbringing. The
people of Smyrna were noted for being faithful to their commitments. More than all of the other cities they were
loyal to Rome. They never wavered in
their fidelity. Cicero called Smyrna,
"One of our most faithful and most ancient allies." They were so patriotic that when the Roman
soldiers were losing a battle in the far East the people of Smyrna stripped off
their own clothes to send them to the Romans who were cold and suffering. Smyrna was the first city in the world to
erect a temple to the goddess Roma, and to the spirit of Rome in 195 B.C. In 26 A.D. it was chosen over Ephesus and
all the other cities of Asia Minor to be the place of erecting a temple to
Tiberius. Rome honored her for her
faithfulness. The point of all this is
that Christians are influenced by their culture. A Christian takes on the virtues that are popular in his secular
environment. A Christian who grew up as
a non‑Christian in a good solid home where mom and dad loved and were
faithful to each other is more likely to be a faithful mate than one who grew
up with an environment full if infidelity, lies, and deceit.
The
Christians of Smyrna were faithful whatever the cost because that was a strong
virtue in their lives even as non‑Christians. The non‑Christian culture is not irrelevant to Christ and
His church. Those cultures where there
are godly virtues are far more conducive to building strong Christians than
those where ungodliness is the chosen life‑style. There are Christians who can say, thank God
for the strengths of my non‑Christian heritage. Others cannot say that, for theirs was mostly bad. Christians in Smynra could be grateful, for
without that heritage they may not have been able to be faithful to Christ
under the pressure they had to endure.
Some of these Christians will be crowned and reign with Christ because
of the teaching and training they got from their pagan teachers. If you think all that is non‑Christian
culture is worthless or evil, you are rejecting the Biblical truth that God is
working in all cultures to prepare the way for the Gospel. In Him we live and move and have our being
is what Paul said to the pagans on Mars Hill.
It is Christian pride that refuses to accept the reality of virtues that
can be taught and caught in non‑Christian cultures.
Jesus is
deeply impressed with these Christians who can be faithful when it was so
costly. Anyone can be faithful when it
is an honor to be a Christian, but when one is hated and persecuted it takes a
special commitment to be faithful. Not
all Christians have what it takes to be faithful in hard times. They fall away and cease to take a stand for
Christ when the cost gets too high. All
of the disciples fled when Jesus was arrested.
Peter was particularly brave, but under pressure he folded and denied
his Lord. Paul had the same experience
and lost disciples right and left when the going got hard. When the going gets tough the faithless got going
in the other direction. Paul complained in IITim., "Demas has forsaken me
having loved this present world." He became faithless and forsook Paul, as
did others. Paul was often alone for nobody would stand with him and pay the
cost of imprisonment. Even John Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark, bailed
out of following Paul when the going got rough.
Faithfulness is a virtue so pleasing to Christ, and it is a key to any
lasting relationship. There is a direct correlation between the weakness of
Christian commitment and the breakdown in marriage in our culture. People who
cannot be faithful when faithfulness is costly will not be able to keep any
relationship going very long. It is the nature of all relationships to face
testing and only the faithful will be able to survive the test. I love the
radical way Shakespeare has a faithful wife express her strong desire to above
all else be faithful.
"Chain me with roaring bears;
Or shut me nightly in a charnel house,
O'er covered quite with dead men's rattling bones,
With Reeky Shrouds with yellow chapless skulls;
Or bid me go into a new‑maid grave,
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud,
Things that, to hear them told, has made me tremble.
And I will do it without fear or doubt,
To live an unstained wife of my sweet love."
That is
the kind of faithfulness Jesus is looking for in His bride‑the church: A
faithfulness that will keep her steady and loyal to Him, even when it is not
pleasant, but very painful to be so.
It does not take much character to be faithful when all is well and life
is full of joy and pleasure. But when
the pain and suffering come in any relationship, that will be the test of true
faithfulness. Is it a mere cobweb
easily broken by pressure, or is it a steel cord that will not break regardless
of the strain? We do not face
martyrdom, or even persecution in our day, but the fact is, this is still a key
virtue for us, for no church and no Christian can be pleasing to Christ without
faithfulness. Shannon said, "One
faithful, loyal soul is of more value to a church, to a business, to a home,
than a dozen rapid starters‑and starters."
Be
faithful even to the point of death said Jesus, and I will give you the crown
of life. It is no good to be 90% faithful, for if you are not 100% faithful you
will stop short and miss the crown. You have to be faithful all the way. The
idea that you can be a faithful husband if you only have one affair is
nonsense. It is not faithfulness if you are not one hundred percent. You cannot be a little bit unfaithful and
still be faithful. I heard a crazy
story many years ago about a dog that got his tail cut off by a lawn
mower. The dog's owner buried the tail
in the back yard, but a few hours later the dog was scratching at the door, and
he had his tail in his mouth. He had
dug it up and brought it to the house.
The owner dug a deeper hole, but some hours later the dog was again at
the door with his tail. The owner was
deeply impressed for he realized he had a dog that was faithful to the
end.
It is a
silly tale, but it is the message of Christ to His church. He longs for a church where Christians are
faithful to the end. He wants to see
Christians whose lives show what their lips say when they utter the words you are
Lord. Is it any wonder that the church
fails to do the will of Christ in the world when Christians are
unfaithful. They let their love grow
cold; they let heresy and immorality into the church; they sleep while the
world perishes and are indifferent‑neither hot nor cold.
Theses are the problems Jesus had with the first
century church, and He still has them with the church of today. The greatest need of Christ in any age is
faithful Christians. They are the key
to a church being pleasing to Christ.
In every church, in every
climb,
When there's some work to
do,
It very likely will be done
By just the faithful few.
Dean
Stanley said, "Give me a man or woman, young or old, high or low, on whom
we know we can thoroughly depend, who will stand firm when others fail‑in
such a one there is a fragment of the Rock of Ages." John Knox was just such a man. He heard the Reformation message of
justification by faith, and he put his faith in Christ, and refused to
surrender that faith even when he was forced out of his professorship at the
University of Rome. Even when he was
sentenced to exile. Even when he was
forced to galleys, and for 18 months was chained to the oars. He was offered a bishopric if he would
compromise, but he refused. He went to
Scotland and became a leader of the church there, but then came persecution,
and he had to renounce his faith or die.
In 1572 he was faithful even unto death. His people were strengthened by
his faithfulness, and though they had to meet in the mountains they never
missed a service. Many were caught and
killed, but they did not cancel the service.
Many were sent as slaves to the West Indies, and before it was over
28,000 Scottish Christians died for their faith.
There preacher silenced and deposed;
The house of prayer against them closed.
They on the mountain heath reposed,
But though
in great perplexity.
There harps were not on willows hung,
But still in tune and ready strong,
Till mountain echoes round them rung,
To songs of joyful melody.
Though from their friends and home exiled,
Love wanderers in the desert wild,
The wilderness around them smiled,
For heaven approved their faithfulness.
Author unknown
William
of Orange came to their rescue and Scottish Christians have been free every
since the 18th century began.
Christians there have never had to face that same test, just as we do
not in America. So the fact is, most
Christians in history do not have to be faithful unto death. It has been a minority, but it is foolish to
think that this makes faithfulness any less necessary for those who live in
lands of peace and freedom where it costs nearly nothing to be a
Christian. The majority of Christians
have the harder test of being faithful when it is so easy to be unfaithful, and
put the will of Christ as second, third, or tenth place in their list of
priorities.
It is
one of the paradoxes of history that this small church which was hated and
persecuted is the one church out of the seven that survived. The others had so much more going for them in
terms of wealth, acceptance, and more people.
But this church alone survived and has been the scene of active missions
in the 20th century. Jesus, by His
providence in history, is saying that the one virtue that He treasures over all
others is faithfulness. He will be
faithful to those who are faithful to Him.
8. THE CAPITAL OF HELL Based
on Rev. 2:12‑17
Is there
any truth to the popular idea that hell is right here on earth? There were a lot of Minnesotans who believed
it in Jan. of 1873. The morning of the
8th was beautiful and the snow was melting.
Masses of people made plans to travel, visit, and shop. But about 4 in the afternoon the wind came
blowing in, the temperature dropped 40 degrees in one minute, and the worst
blizzard in Minnesota history had begun, and it wouldn't stop for 3 days. Hurricane winds driving the snow forced all
living things to find shelter or perish.
A youth
in school in New Ulm only had to cross the road to his house, but his body was
later found 8 miles away. Some buried
themselves in snow drifts and survived.
William Trier and his bride and father were returning home to Fergus
Falls. The men got out of the sleigh to
look for shelter and perished. The
bride stayed in t he sleigh and lived.
A St. Peter woman was just out feeding her chickens and died trying to
find her door step. Many died within
feet of their own houses because they could not find them in the blinding
blizzard. Thousands of people narrowly
escaped death, but 70 people actually died in this hellish storm. If you took a pole then, the hell on earth
would have won by a landslide. People
always tend to associate the hell on earth idea with terrible suffering and
hardship. This is legitimate, for that
is what we see in the church at Pergamum.
They were having tough times, and at least one by the name of Antipas
had died for his faith.
I want
to call your attention to the fact that Jesus says in verse 13 that the throne
of Satan was in that city. He ends the
verse by saying Satan lives there. So here is the city where Satan lives, and
where he has his throne. This is none
other than the capital of hell. If the
devil has his home and his office there, he does not commute from hell to do
his dirty work. He can do it all right
there in Pergamum. So there is truth
then to the idea that hell is right here on earth. Now this does not sound like the best place to start a church. This is like trying to start a Sunday School
class for the hell's angels. But Jesus
started His church there, and the Christians were remaining true to His
name. They were not renouncing their
faith even though the pressure was on.
Why
would Pergamum be any more the capital of hell than any of the other
cities? It had been a capital city for
almost 400 years. Pliny, the ancient,
called it, "The most famous city in Asia." Sir William Ramsay, the modern traveler and scholar wrote,
"Beyond all other cities in Asia Minor, it gives the traveler the
impression of a royal city, the home of authority." There were a number of reasons that Pergamum
was the capital of hell. It was the
center of Caesar worship. In 29 A. D. a
temple to the godhead of Caesar was erected there. People had to call Caesar Lord or risk death by the sword. The Roman governor had the power to kill
anyone on the spot with his sword if they did not conform to the law of
Rome. That is why Jesus starts this
letter by reminding them that He has the sharp two edged sword, and He will
have the final word on who lives or dies.
Hell's headquarters has some tough swordmen, but their swords will be no
match for the sword of the Savior.
Satan
knows that power corrupts, and that is why Pergamum is his capital. It was the capital of the seleucid kingdom
back in 282 B.C., and it had remained a capital for nearly 4 centuries. Where there is power to rule and make
policy, and establish values, you can count on it, Satan will be present. The implication is clear. Any capital where
the forces of power operate is a capital of hell, for that is where Satan can
get most of his agenda accomplished the quickest. Satan can get more evil done through those in high places than he
can by means of the poor sinner who has no power. But get evil into the laws that govern a nation, and then you
have a real impact for the goals of hell.
Satan is no political dunce. He
knows where to set up his office.
Not only
does he know the best place for getting his agenda done is where the power is,
but he knows the best place is where the education is. Pergamum was famous for its 200,000 volume
library. It was second only to the
largest in the world in Alexandria, Egypt.
The king of Pergamum bribed the librarian of Alexandria to leave there
and come to Pergamum. He did and this
enraged the king of Egypt when he lost his outstanding scholar
Aristophanes. He put embargo on the
export
of papyrus to Pergamum. If they had no paper, they could not have books. But the scholars of Pergamum invented
parchment made of skin, and this was better and more lasting for books, and it
made papyrus obsolete.
Pergamum became a center for learning and culture, and that too is why
Satan made it hell's headquarters. It
was the center of the latest fashions also.
You can get a lot more evil done with educated sinners. Educated sinners can foul up whole nations
and lead them astray. Power and brains
together can cook up schemes that the devil can really delight in. The brilliant and powerful Nazi party was
filled with educated and cultured people.
They did more evil than millions of poorly educated sinners could ever
do. Show me a center of power and
learning and I will show you a capital of hell.
Pergamum
was also the center of religious worship with temples to Zeus, Aphrodite and Aesculapius,
the god of medicine. Jupiter was
supposedly born in Pergamum. So if you
add up power, education, and religious worship, you see why this was the
capital of hell. Politics, education,
and religion are three of the most powerful tools in the world for evil. This is why the church was there also, for
these are three of the most powerful tools for good and the achieving of the
will of God. It was not just the
capital of hell, it was heaven's headquarters as well. Just because the devil uses something for
his cause does not make it an evil tool.
Jesus can and does use it as well, and the church is to be as wise as
that old serpent the devil, and use power, learning and the religious nature of
man for the glory of God. The church
and hell are in the same town because they are competing for the same tools to
be used for the cause of good or evil.
Jesus
did not say to the church of Pergamum, "I am sorry I didn't realize I set
you up in the capital of hell. It's no
place for a nice girl like you. I'll
relocate you in a better setting where you won't have to contend with the
devil." Jesus did not pull out for
a better location. He said stay there,
keep up the fight, and be overcomers.
The church is not to run from evil, but stand fast and try to take that
territory for the kingdom of God. It is
sword against sword‑the Sword of the Spirit against the sword of
Satan. The Christian with the sword of
the Spirit has the power of life and death.
It is this sword of the Word that Jesus used when He faced Satan head to
head in the wilderness, and it is the sword by which the church still conquers
and overcomes the temptations of Satan.
How do you fight evil power in government, education, and religion? There is only one Christian weapon, and that
is the sword of the Word. It can
succeed even in the capital of hell.
They
were like Daniel in the lion's den with Satan going about like a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour, but his mouth can still be shut by the power of the
Word. He can be overcome even in his
home court and capital city. The gates
of hell will not prevail against the church said Jesus, but by the use of the
Word of God as the churches battering ram they can even penetrate his capital
and claim it for the kingdom of Christ.
The church does not reject political power, learning, and religion, but
rather, he links all of these tools to the Word of God and invades the capital
of hell and turns it into a capital of heaven.
Don't give up any tool just because the devil uses it. Use it for his defeat and be an overcomer of
evil by the use of that same tool.
The
problem with the Christians in Pergamum is they were themselves falling for
some of Satan's clever tricks. In the
Old Testament they were represented by Sodom, and in the New Testament by the
Nicolaitans. It was a single teaching
that seduced God's people in both Testaments.
They taught that God's people should use the same tools as the world
does. The difference is, they taught
they should use them the same way as the world does, and not according to God's
Word. They said religion is good and so
go along with the religions of the world.
They said sex is good and so go along with the sexual practices of the
world. A little idolatry and a little immorality
will help you fit into the culture and be accepted. This sounded good to many Christians who felt being Christian in
a pagan culture put to many limits on life.
Sex with temple prostitutes was popular and God's people reasoned that
there was no harm in a little recreational sex. Nobody gets hurt and it makes you more hip and acceptable to your
pagan neighbors.
If you
are 90% Christian and only 10% pagan, that should be good enough they
thought. This kind of thinking ensnares
Christians all through history, and does so today. All of us are in some sort of battle to overcome this subtle
satanic logic that makes us part time servants of his kingdom. Popular sins in any culture are always
somewhat popular even with Christians.
The problem is not that power, money, sex, or any other tool of Satan is
in itself evil, but he entices men to use them in evil ways. All of these tools can be used in a way
consistent with the word and plan of God.
The big
danger of the Christians in Pergamum was self‑centeredness. It is one of Satan's best weapons. Get Christians to so enjoy the pleasures of
life that they not only become like the world in sensuality, but they forget
the cross completely and its meaning for life.
Jesus, who had infinite joy and pleasure for all eternity, gave it up
and entered a world of suffering to endure the cross, and all that Satan can
throw at Him. He experience hell on
earth because He did not grasp at equality with the Father, and His right to
escape all pain and suffering as the perfect Son of God.
To be
Christlike means to give up our right to be equal to the world in self‑centeredness
and self‑indulgence, and be willing to suffer, at least to some degree,
for the benefit of others, and to take up the cross and follow Jesus denying
self for the benefit of others. This is
hard even for Christians because we are conditioned by our culture to focus on
self. Jesus does not like it when His
people are unwilling to suffer, but only striving to get pleasure. This lust for pleasure leads Christians to
fall for Satan's snares and become so worldly they no longer know how to bare
the cross. It just does not fit their
life‑style. It was a problem in
the early church and it is a problem today.
None of us are free from this defect, and
the call to be overcomers is one we need to heed and work at or risk loss of
great reward. Crossless Christians are
suckers for the schemes that are concocted in the headquarters of hell. The more we can take up the cross and follow
Jesus the more we can add the light of heaven in that hellish darkness. Jesus commended the Christians in Pergamum,
for many were being faithful in that hell hole, and Antipas even died for his
faith. Why should a good and godly man
have to die? Why is the world full of
unjust suffering and the innocent dying because of the folly of man?
E.
Stanley Jones tells of the soldier who asked the chaplain to pray for him to
get back safely as he went out on a dangerous mission. The chaplain said, "No I won't do that,
but I will go with you." That is
the answer of God to man's cry‑why?
I won't guarantee you safety in this battle with the
capital of hell, but I'll go with you.
Jesus endured the worst that hell could design for the totally
innocent. Jesus came into the capital
of hell and suffered its worse to set up the kingdom of God in that very
place. And He calls his church to fight
the forces of evil and help rescue others from the schemes of Satan. We are to take the risk and pay the price,
and be willing to suffer so that others might discover that hell on earth can
become heaven on earth by finding Jesus as their Savior.
We began
this message with how horrible weather convinces people there is hell on
earth. We want to end with an equally
strong illustration of how bad weather
is a sign of the kingdom of God on earth.
It was Christmas night in 1776.
George Washington faced a crisis.
Most of his army had not
reinlisted and they were due to go home at the end of the year just a week
away. The morale was as low as it had
ever been. There was lack of ammunition
and division among the generals. The
fight for independence seemed to be going down the drain. Washington needed a victory or all was lost.
He reasoned
that the Hessian guards would likely have been drinking heavily on Christmas,
and so he decided to attack in the pre‑dawn hours of Dec. 26. Just as he did, the most violent snow storm
came up reducing the visibility to zero.
It was just what Washington needed.
In a 45 minute battle in that storm he took nearly a thousand prisoners
while losing only two of his own men with three who were wounded. This startling victory changed the whole
war. The moral was sky high, and
volunteers came pouring in, and the war was pursued. The British were saying it was hell on earth, but the Americans
in gratitude for that same storm were saying, it is heaven on earth. They were both right, for wherever you find
the capital of hell, there you will also find the capital of heaven.
These
letters to the churches make it clear that sometimes the forces of evil are
clever enough to overcome those who are supposed to be the forces for
good. Many Christians fall for the
propaganda coming out of the devil's headquarters, and they are not just
neutralized but actually become a tool of the kingdom of darkness. These letters are orders from the heavenly
Pentagon from our Commander in Chief to do an about face, and stop marching to
the drum of the enemy, and become again a soldier of the kingdom of light.
Jesus
knows that some Christians live in places that are harder than others, and the
pressure to conform is greater. He
knows what a clever opponent Satan is, and why Christians are deceived. They are no less responsible, however,
because of it.
In any warfare some soldiers have the worst of it
and have to confront the enemy at his strong point. Others get to face the enemy at his weak point. Their task is the same, and that is to be
faithful and be overcomers whatever the foe throws at them.
We each need to commit ourselves to fight for the
victory of Christ even in the capital of hell.
9. THE ROAD OF REPENTANCE.
Based on Rev. 2:18‑29
For decades the
American people have been lulled into complacency by hearing the Gallop Pole
say that over 90% of Americans believe in God.
This led to a false security that we were a godly nation. But now Gallop decided to get more specific,
and he discovered that only 10% of Americans are really committed Christians
who take Jesus seriously, pray, and live the Christian life. The vast majority of Christians in America
are indistinguishable from the non‑Christians in their life‑style
and values.
The
church has contributed to this by a non‑virtous toleration, and
permissiveness that says as long as you help us meet the budget, do as you
please, but if you get caught, don't say where you attend church. Now I must confess that I am by nature a
permissive person. I was raised by
permissive parents and I loved it. I
was free as the breeze, and did as I pleased from kindergarten on. I was downtown in Sioux Falls, the largest
city in South Dakota, as a mere kid from 6 to 9. I was shining shoes and going to shows until dark. I played on railroad tressels, and by the
dangerous falls. I went skinny dipping
with the older boys and loved my childhood years. Because of that I became a permissive person. I loved the freedom and I survived, and so I
just follow the golden rule and give others the same freedom.
I have
to remind myself that how I turned out had nothing to do with the permissive
life‑style I had, but with the grace of God. All three of my closest friends in those permissive years ended
up in the state penitentiary. I escaped
that destiny only by the grace of God.
I found Christ as my Savior at age 9, and this made a radical difference
in the way I used my freedom. I choose
not to steal with my friends. So what I
know from my own experience is that freedom is great, and if you use freedom to
choose good rather than evil, then
permissiveness is a virtue. But if you
use freedom to do evil it is a vice. So
what you have is some people who will use their freedom for folly, and you
become foolish for allowing them so much freedom. But others will use it for positive and healthy adventure, and
you will get credit for being so bold as to allow such freedom.
What is
needed then is discernment as to how individuals will use their freedom. If you have a child who will use every
opportunity to do something dangerous and stupid you need to be more intolerant
of their freedom. If they are
responsible and can make wise use of freedom, then you can take more risk. Risk is what it is all about. God took a risk in letting Adam and Eve have
access to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and it was a high risk. They failed the test and fell. You can argue that God was too permissive,
but that is the only way to find out how people will use their freedom. If you allow your child to go off to
college, you are taking a high risk.
They can use that new found freedom to become irresponsible and damage
their lives. But if you don't take the
risk, you can never know what their potential could be. Freedom is scary, and it is a gamble, yet
there is no choice if you want the best.
So what
does this have to do with the letter to the church in Thyatira? Everything!
The main vice in this church is their permissiveness and the damage it is
doing to the church. The other churches
have had external problems and pressure from the community, but this church has
an internal problem, and their corruption is an inside job.
The
problem was a woman named Jezebel. It
is symbolic name, of course, for nobody names their little girl Jezebel. The Jezebel of the Old Testament was a pagan
who became the Queen of Israel by marriage to Ahab in about 884 B.C. She killed the prophets of God and brought
idolatry and immorality into Israel.
She was one of the most wicked women in history. She is the only woman I know of in history
who was so evil that she became dog food after her violent death, and dogs ate
her body. It was a gruesome judgment
and ever since her name has never been found in those books of names for your
baby. That name really went to the
dogs, and so the only time you use this name is when you want to express
contempt.
The
orginial Jezebel was not a believer in the God of Israel. She was said to worship Baal, and when she
came to Israel as queen she brought 800 priests of Baal with her. She was a missionary and was determined to
promote her religion, which was soon quite popular because sex was part of the
ceremony. The more you sowed your wild
oats the better your crops would be was the bottom line of this fertility
cult. Sex was a part of magic that made
nature happy to cooperate. This sexual
worship went over big in Israel, and was so successful that Elijah the prophet
felt that he was about the only man alive in Israel who was not worshiping
Baal. God had to assure him there were
7,000 who had not bowed to Baal, nor kissed him. 7,000 is a lot more than one, but it is a small percentage of a
whole nation, and so Elijah was right.
It was discouragingly successful to mix sex and religion.
So when
we come to the New Testament we discover that there were Christians even who
thought it was a good idea to mix sex with their faith. It is probably fortunate that we do not know
exactly what this Christian Jezebel was teaching, for if we did it would
probably be popular today. All we know
is that she was a Christian leader who claimed to be a prophetess, that is one
who brought a message to God to His people.
Her message was persuading Christian people to practice idolatry and
immorality as a legitimate part of their Christian worship. The woman was a teacher in the church and
one who professed the gift of prophecy.
Gifts
are truly wonderful, and are the key to getting God's work done in this
world. But lets face reality: They are also a key problem in the New
Testament. People can be gifted by the
devil too, and the gifts are often the biggest problem in the church, as we see
in the church of Corinth, and here again in Thyatira. This woman was gifted and persuasive. She was charismatic and verse 20 says she was misleading the
servants of Jesus. We see that true
Christians can be so gullible that they can be manipulated by clever and gifted
people into just about anything, including so‑called sacred sex.
It was
because so many Christians were buying into this "Sex for the saints"
package that the church as a whole was tolerating it. Not all in the church were buying her theology, and they were
staying pure in their marriages, but they were not being intolerant of other
Christians who were indulging. Here you
have a case where Christians are deeply divided on a moral issue. It was hard to take a stand, for it could be
your own brother or sister, or even
your parents, or child, who was persuaded that Jezebel was a spiritual
genius. For the sake of unity you don't
want to rock the boat. Jesus does
understand the dilema of the faithful Christians, for He does not pronounce
judgment on them, but only on Jezebel and those who follow her. The tolerant and permissive Christians who
just passively let this immoral behavior happen without protest, he does not
like, but he does not condemn them, but just urges them to stand fast, and not
give in on their position.
Jesus recognizes
that sometimes a Christian is in a catch 22 ethical dilema, and does not know
what to do, and all he or she can really do is not cooperate with those who
teach and practice what is not God's will.
Jesus did not expect the faithful Christians to change things, but just
to keep pure themselves. He would have
to deal with these deceived Christians Himself.
The
mercy of Christ is overwhelming in this letter. We tend to see only the judgment, for it is severe, and capital
punishment is even involved. But look
at verse 21 where Jesus says, "I gave her time to repent, but she was
unwilling." The patience and
tolerance of Jesus is a wonder. Here is
a Jezebel who is using her gifts to dishonor Christ and lead His servants
astray, and yet He does not strike her with lightning and quickly bring her to
judgment. He gives her time to repent
instead. He is ready to forgive and
restore even this Jezebel to a place of honor and service in the church. His mercy is beyond our comprehension. Most of us would go full speed ahead on
judgment, but Jesus gave her another chance.
It is a text like this that makes me very tolerant of fallen
Christians. If a Christian has been
awful, and has fallen into the pit, but has repented and experienced the forgiving
grace of Christ, I see no valid reason for not using that Christian in any way
Christ has gifted them to be used. If
Jezebel had repented she could have been an honored leader in that church.
In
verse 22 Jesus deals with those who commit adultery with Jezebel, and He says
they too will suffer intensely unless they repent. Again, I am overwhelmed by the grace of Christ. I am a permissive person by nature and experience,
but I do not think I could be as permissive as Jesus is here. He will permit these Christians who have
deliberately committed adultery with Jezebel to escape judgment if they
repent. I am permissive in the sense
that I love to give people freedom, but if they abuse and misuse that freedom,
I feel they need to pay a penalty. It
is only right that there is a cost for violating the law of God. There is a penalty for violating the laws of
men, and so why not more so when we break God's commands? Jesus says judgment is going to fall, and
each will be repaid according to their deeds.
That only seems right, but Jesus throws in a way of escape by means of
repentance. You can seemingly get by
with murder if you take this road, for Jesus will permit just about anything if
there is repentance.
Every
sin Jesus condemns in these 7 churches is neutralized by repentance. Seven times Jesus calls Christians to repent
and escape judgment. We tend to think
repentance is a word for non‑Christians, but this is a major
misconception. It was one of Jesus'
favorite words to Christians. Jesus
cannot tolerate the sins of Christians, and so He warns of judgment to come,
but He can tolerate everything if Christians will repent. The number one way for Christians to escape
judgment and stay in fellowship with their Lord is to repent. This means every Christian ought to know
everything there is know about repentance.
You remember the commercial that said, "Orange juice isn't just for
breakfast anymore." Well, we can
say on the basis of these letters to the 7 churches, "Repentance isn't
just for unbelievers anymore."
Christians need to learn to repent to taste the full grace of our
permissive Lord. Ignorance here can make you suffer great judgment, and
knowledge can lead to a crown.
Before
we learn what repentance is we need to understand why it is seldom to never a
popular subject on which to preach. The
world is so full of neurotic Christians who are feeling guilty about everything
under the sun. Nobody wants to add
anymore burden to these poor souls who will not step on a crack lest they break
their mother's back. Pastors are
fearful of attacking immorality less they make Christians feel guilty about the
legitimate joys of sexual passion.
Virtue and vice are often so close they seem like twins, and people
cannot tell them apart, and so we tend to leave the weeds alone lest we pull up
the wheat along with them.
There
are so many Christians who feel sinful and guilty about a host of acts an
attitudes that are legitimate that it seems cruel to add to their load, and so
to be sensitive to these fragile Christians we have gone to the other extreme
of hardly ever referring to the real sins of Christians. Jesus, however, does not hesitate to deal
frankly with Christian sins, and threaten severe penalty to those who do not
repent. I am not interested in adding
to the false guilt Christians feel, but these are clear violations of God's
will that we ought to feel guilty about, for if we do, we can still escape the
judgment by the road of repentance.
Repentance is not a negative thing, but
a very positive attitude. It is
an awareness that your behavior is not acceptable to God. It is harmful to yourself and others, and is
a part of the kingdom of darkness. The
examples Jesus uses in these letters of things Christians were guilty are:
1. Forsaking
first love, and ceasing to do what you once did for the kingdom.
2. Sexual
immorality and idolatry.
3.
Tolerating these things openly taught and practiced.
4. Becoming
dead, and forgetting there is a job to do for the cause of Christ.
5. Getting
so caught up in the things of the world you
become indifferent.
You will
notice that the majority of Christian sinfulness is in bad attitudes, and not
in wicked acts. We focus so much on
sinful acts that we neglect the primary area where most Christians fail. We get so caught up in the immorality of the
few that we don't even see the sins of the majority, which are bad attitudes of
indifference, complacency, and just plain lack of love for God and
neighbor. Jesus, however, calls
Christians to repent of all these, as well as those guilty of immorality. We get some satisfaction out of Christians
who fall into conspicuous sins, because we have not so fallen totally. We forget that our sins may be just as
serious to Jesus even though they are only attitudes that make us worthless
tools for accomplishing His will in the world.
We need to get it straight in our mind that repentance is not just for
Christians who have committed some clear violation of the ten commandments. It is for all of us who are in any way
hindering the church from being all that Jesus wants it to be. We need to repent and become an asset rather
than a liability to the church. This
covers just about all of us in some way, and so we all need to know more about
the road of repentance. The first thing
we need to know about this road is:
I. EVERYONE
IS FREE TO TAKE IT.
It is
not a toll‑way, but a freeway, and there is no discrimination. All races, classes, sexes, and a ages are
equally welcome. In this way God is
absolutely permissive. He will permit
anyone to travel this road and escape the wages of sin. To our natural pharisaical mind this often
seems unfair. That rascal, the Prodigal
Son, went off and had his fling with wine, women, and song, and yet he was
permitted to travel the road of repentance and come home. It did not seem fair to the older brother,
and it doesn't seem fair to many of us, but if you want fair, you are under the
law. Grace is not fair. It is mercy and forgiveness given to those
who do not deserve it. If they deserved
it, it would be fair, and a clear matter of the law. But since all have sinned and nobody deserves eternal life, there
can be no salvation under the law. If
anyone is to be saved there has to be grace.
There
are going to be tax collectors and prostitutes in heaven said Jesus. There will be fine religious people who
spent their life trying to obey the law who won't make it. That is not fair, but it is the fact, for the
law condemns the best of men, and grace saves the worst of men. If you are under the law, you are sunk no
matter how good you are. If you are
under grace, you have hope no matter how bad you are, for you can travel the
road of repentance.
What we
need to see is that it is not only for the Prodigal Son, but for the elder son
too. If he had traveled this road and
repented of his self‑righteousness, he too could have been a jewel
instead of a jerk. It is a road for the
good guys as well as the bad guys. It
is the road everyone not only can travel, but must travel to be in a right
relationship with Christ. The second
this we need to see is:
II. IT IS A
ONE‑WAY ROAD.
Repentance means to change your direction. It means to turn around and go the other way. To be out of God's will is to be going the
wrong way on a one way street.
Repentance means to recognize this folly, see the danger of it, and turn
around and go the right way; the way that God wills you to go. We think that repentance is just feeling
sorry for going the wrong way, but this does not fit the Biblical concept of
repentance. You can feel terrible for
going the wrong way, but if you keep going that way you have not repented. Repentance means to change the way you are
going, and go the right way on the one way road. Feeling bad and sorry is certainly a start, for there is not
likely to be a change in direction if one feels just fine about the way they
are going. But feelings won't cut
it. No matter how awful you feel about
going the wrong way you have not repented until you change the way you are
going.
Have you
ever been on a road you thought was taking you to a certain destination, and then you get doubts because it seems
to be taking you the wrong way? The
further you go, and the more desolate the area, the more likely you feel you
are on the wrong road. If you are super
stubborn you will pursue that road even though it takes you down a mud road. But most people come to a point where they
realize this cannot be the right way.
They find a way to get turned around and head back to find the right
way. That is what repentance is. It is accepting the fact that you made a
mistake and are taking the wrong way.
You feel bad that you have wasted the time and the gas, but you realize
wasting more time and gas is not the solution.
You have to admit you blew it and turn around to find the right
way.
The
negative feelings are the acceptance of the bad news that you are on the wrong
road. The bad news does come before the
good news. You have to be convinced you
were going the wrong way before you will have any motivation to turn around and
find the right way. The sinner has to
feel lost before he feels any need to be saved. The Christian needs to feel bad about his coldness and
indifference before he will repent and seek the filling of the Spirit and a
flame of concern for a lost world. We
don't want to minimize the need for feelings in repentance, for they are vital,
but they are not enough. The bottom
line is still a choice of the will to turn around and go the right way.
Change
is the essence of repentance. It is to
stop doing what you are doing that is not making you an effective Christ‑pleasing
Christian, and to start doing what does make you that kind of Christian. It is not enough to just feel bad that you
are not growing, serving, witnessing, and not being the disciple Jesus needs to
touch lives that only you can touch.
You have to change and start doing those things that make you a true
disciple. Billy Graham says there are
three elements in a Christians repentance.
Conviction: a clear sense that I
am going the wrong way.
Contrition: a feeling of sorrow
for the mistaken choices that have led me this wrong way. Change: if there is no change in the behavior and attitude there has been
no true repentance. What was the main
concern of Jesus in these letters to the seven churches? The answer is in one word‑change. He wanted every Christian in every church to
be an overcomer, and to in some way change their attitudes and actions to
conform to his will.
10. GETTING IN
Based on Rev. 3:20 and 21:23‑27
Everybody
wants to get in on the action. Back in
1982 a crowd began to form one Monday afternoon in December at the River Front
Coliseum in Cincinnati. By the time the
police arrived at 3:00 P.M., hundreds of fans had gathered at the doors, even
though they would not open until 7:00 P.M.
The rock group called The Who was to play a concert, and masses of
people wanted in. By early evening 8
thousand people were pressing against the doors. The crowd became restless, and somebody broke out a glass and
opened a door. The mob surged forward.
The police could not stop it, and those who lost their footing were as helpless
as if they were in a cattle stampede.
After the crowd had passed in, 11 people were left dead, and 8 severely
injured. That is just how badly people
want to get in some places. It is as if
their life depended upon getting in.
It is
important to people to get in. They
wait in lines all the time to get into a favorite restaurant, or into a movie,
or some sporting event. They wait to
get into a store, a doctor, or into a line of traffic that is moving. Nobody wants to be left out, and everybody
wants to get in somewhere. It can be
very embarrassing to be shut out, or to even get just half way in. A young man in Philadelphia was attempting
to get into a store at night to rob it.
He removed two bolts from the security bars of a window, and began to
crawl in. One of the bars came crashing
down, and he was trapped. Half of his
body was inside the store, and half was dangling outside. It was a real dilemma. He could hang there, or call for help. After a long struggle, he decided to call the
emergency 911 number on a phone he could just barely reach. He was terribly embarrassed when the police
arrived. He confessed it was his first
burglary, and he just couldn't make it in.
It is
hard not to be in the in‑crowd.
That is what the American dream is all about‑get in with the best
crowd. Get in on the real estate
bonanza. Get in on the life style of
the rich and famous. We are bombarded
by all the media with the message‑come with us, follow us, and we will
lead the way to get you in. The theme
of politics is, getting in. After all,
what good are the best candidates in the world if they can't get into
office. You have to get in to have
power, and so the name of the game is getting in. Every student has to be concerned about getting into college, and
then getting into the right program, and then doing well enough to get into the
profession he is aiming for. Life is
just one struggle after another to get in.
The refugees
of the world are struggling to get in on the affluence of the West. So many cross the borders from Mexico and
Central America to get into the U. S.
Masses are planning, plotting, and carrying out those plans to get into
this country, legally or illegally, because the goal of their life revolves
around getting in. God understand this
quest of man to get in, for that is God's goal for man also. God wants to get him into that which
fulfills all of his dreams, hopes, and desires. The goal of God is to get men into the kingdom of God. The goal of Jesus is to get into the lives
of men. He said, "Behold, I stand
at the door and knock. If any man hears
my voice and opens the door I will come in." Jesus wants in, because He wants to bring people into His
Father's kingdom. This is the highest
goal that man can achieve, the letting of Jesus in so they can get in where the
whole purpose of life is fulfilled.
Getting into God's family, and getting into heaven is where it is
at. It is getting in where God wants us
to get in.
So often
we hear stories about dying and coming to the golden gate and dickering with
Peter whether we should be allowed in or not.
This would be a tragic mistake to wait until you die to find out if you
can get in. The Bible says it is too
late then, and if you die before you know the way in, you are out forever. That is the hell of missing heaven. It is to be out with no hope of getting in, and
that is our destiny, to get in. To get
in anywhere you have to go through the door.
There is only one door to God, to heaven, and into the family of God,
and that door is Jesus. He said,
"I am the Door." He also
said, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but
by Me." There is only one way in.
There is no possible way to break in by some other door, for there is no other
door. The revelation of God is clear,
Jesus is the Way, and the only Way.
Some
people wait until they have a crisis in their life to come to Christ. We see it even in the Bible. The thief on the cross was near death when
he turned to Christ, and asked to be remembered when Jesus came into His
kingdom. Jesus said He would be with
him in paradise, and so he got in just at the last moment. The Philippian jailer thought his prisoners
had escaped and he would be killed for allowing it, and so he was about to kill
himself. Paul intervened and showed
that the prisoners were all there. The
jailer said, "What must I do to be
saved?" In other words, how can I
get in on what you men have? And Paul said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved."
He was so near suicide, and being shut out of God's kingdom forever, but
in the crisis he believed in Jesus, and he made it in.
Richard
Hillary was one of those spit fire pilots in World War II that Churchill was
talking about when he said, "Never was so much owed to so few." He was shot down, and parachuted into the
English Channel, and was so badly burned he wanted to die. He thought about the stupidity of war, and
wondered what the purpose of life was all about. His mind was forced to think
of God as the only reality that could make sense of life, and he found peace as
he surrendered to God. He was
miraculously found and rescued. He made
it back into life, but more important for him, he made it into the kingdom of
God. His name was written down in God's
book as a child of the King, a member of the family of the redeemed. We all need to ask ourselves‑
Is my name written there,
On the page bright and fair?
In the book of God's
kingdom,
Is my name written there?
Will you
make it in? That is the question of all
areas of life, and most important, it is the question of eternal life. Will you make it into that kingdom where
sin, sorrow, death, and folly will be no more?
You don't have to wait for a crisis.
In fact, that is very risky, for
people do not get in automatically just because they have a crisis. The best time to get into the kingdom is
always right now, for now is always the day of salvation. The greatest question of life is, how do we
get into heaven, and into the family of God?
Jesus says you get in by giving in.
You open your life to Him, and let Him in. You listen for that knock He makes on the door of your heart when
the good news of the Gospel is preached.
You stop trying to be your own savior and surrender to Him. He wants in because only as He gets in, can
He get you in. You let Him in, and He
lets you in.
To be
born is to get into this world. To be
born again is to get into the world to come, which has already begun. To be saved is to taste of the world to
come. The greatest mistake of life is
to miss the chance to get in on God's best.
The greatest wisdom of life is to grab at the chance to get in on God's
best. Jesus holds the pen that can
write your name in the book of life, and He holds the key that can let you in
to the house of God.
Even
people who think they want out, really want in. Albert Camus wrote The Plague. It is about the town of Oran where
the rats began to come out of dark places to die in the streets, and then
people began to die the same way.
People were dying so fast they were hauling them to the dumps. The town was quarantined, and nobody could
get in or out. Dr. Bernard Rieux was the town doctor, and it never occurred to
him to get out. He was so busy caring
for people. A journalist, named Raymond
Rambert, was caught in Oran, but he wanted out desperately. But there was no escape, and so he went on
the daily rounds with Dr. Rieux. He was
trying to save some of the people, and especially children, so Raymond pitched
in and did what he could.
One day
a person who was a smuggler offered
Rambert a chance to get out for a price, but he decided to stay. Why stay asked the doctor? You have a right to get out and be happy.
Rambert explained that he was happy there, for he no longer felt like a
stranger, but he felt like he belonged.
The point of the story is, you can be happy even in a plague infested
world if you know you belong, for that feeling of being in on the family is
what life is all about. Life can be
hell, but if you know you are in the family of God, and you belong to the only
family that will live together forever, you can have peace and be happy even in
this plague infested life. All people
are in two classes: The whosoever
wills, and the whosoever won'ts. The
whosoever wills receive Christ as their Savior, and they get the greatest gift
man can receive. They receive the gift
of getting in, and getting in forever. Now is the time to ask Jesus to be your
Lord and Savior, and enter into God's family.
11. RELATIVELY IMPOSSIBLE
Based on Rev. 4:1‑11
God expects
us to do the impossible. He expected Luther
H. Bridgers to play the role of Job and keep on singing. He was a young pastor who was away in
another city for a series of meetings.
The phone rang late one night and a friend had to tell him of the tragic
news. Fire had swept through his home and
his wife and 2 children perished in the flames. He dropped the receiver and ran out of the hotel into the empty
morning streets. He walked for a long
time trying to get self‑control.
He came to a river and felt a compulsion to end his life and be reunited
with his family. Life seemed impossible‑absolutely
impossible. He could not make it on his
own.
It
was a terrible struggle, but he knew it was God's will that he press on into
that impossible future. Years later he
married again and raised a second family.
He became best known for his song that has been sung by millions. His song goes‑
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Sweetest name I know,
Fills my ever longing,
Keeps me singing as I go.
Jesus
kept him singing because he was able to look beyond the impossible
circumstances and his own weakness to the Lord on the throne, and to his
ultimate promises. Paul was going
through deep waters and he writes in II Cor. 4:8‑9, "We are hard
pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair: Persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down
but not destroyed."
What kept him pressing on being not weary in well
doing, but serving and singing the praises of his Lord? He tells us at the end of the chapter in
verses 16‑18, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet
inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal
glory that far outweighs them all. So
we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal."
What
a paradox! The way Paul copes with the
impossible is by doing the impossible.
He focuses his eyes on what cannot be seen. By seeing the unseen and eternal he is able to be victorious in
the visible world of suffering. This
teaching runs all through the Bible. It
is one of the primary messages of the book of Revelation. The perspective from which you see life
makes all the difference in the world.
We want to ride on John's coattails as he soars beyond space where no
man has gone before, except the Son of Man, and possibly Paul. Paul does not reveal his vision of heaven,
and so we do not know if he went to the very throne room of God like John
did. First I want to call your
intention to 4:1 where we see‑
I. THE IMPOSSIBLE COMMAND.
The
trumpet like voice of the risen Christ shouted, "Come up here!" Jesus commands John to do the
impossible. Do you think John would be
languishing on that island as a prisoner if he had the ability to soar off into
heaven? He could no more go through
that open door to heaven than he could walk on water back to the mainland and
be free. Some things we call impossible
are really just very hard, but for John to somehow rise up off that island of
Patmos and ascend into the realm of heaven was an absolute impossibility from a
human perspective. And yet John was
soon in heaven seeing the very throne of God just as he was commanded. Here we see the impossible made instantly
possible. This reveals just how
relative the impossible really is. The
fact is, it is almost impossible to keep anything in the category of the
impossible for very long.
It was
impossible John to fly in an airplane or a space ship that could blast him
beyond the earth's atmosphere. These
seemingly absolute impossibilities were really only relative impossibilities,
for man has now done what was impossible in the day of John. And so it was never really impossible, but
just not available. John could not fax
his letters to the 7 churches of Asia either, but not because it was
impossible, but because it had not yet been invented. There are literally hundreds of things that were impossible for
John that are now possible for us. So
the point is, in the light of all the impossible things that are now possible
it is nearly impossible to speculate as to what is impossible, for anything we
might say could become possible in a short time.
Now if
this is true on the human and earthly level, how much more does the sphere of
the impossible decrease when we bring the power of Christ into the
picture? He commanded John to do what
was impossible, but then he made it possible for John to do it. If Jesus wants you to do something, He will
make it possible for you to do it. Paul
said he could do all things through Christ who would strengthen him. Nothing is impossible if Jesus wills it. He wanted John to come up and see heaven,
and in a split second John was in heaven.
Either heaven is very close to the island of Patmos, or we are dealing
with speeds that make the head swim. We
have spacecraft that can circle the globe in minutes, but even to get to the
moon takes a while, and beyond that it can take a long time to get anywhere
specific. But here we see John going
from earth to heaven in the times it takes to end one sentence and begin
another. This is impossible with any
technology that we know, but it is only relatively impossible because John did
it, and this is a hint as to how all of the redeemed will travel in
eternity. We will travel with the speed
of thought that leaves even the speed of light looking like a one legged turtle
with arthritis.
There
are many fascinating implications that come out of this instant trip to heaven. It immediately eliminates all concepts of
the universe being too vast to explore.
No matter how many billions of light years it is across the vast wonder
of God's creation, it only takes a second to cover it by thought. We can speculate, in the light of thought
travel, that redeemed man will explore everything in the universe, and what
doors this will open up is beyond our wildest dreams. If there are many other experiments of God with intelligent
beings, we will know this and be able to interact with them, and this may
provide the way of service we will offer to God in eternity. None of this will be impossible in the light
of what God will make possible with out redeemed bodies.
Another thing that is comforting here is how this scene with John
changes my perception of the rapture. I
have a fear of heights, and the idea of soaring up into the clouds has never
been very appealing to me. But in the
light of John's rapture into heaven it no longer needs to be seen as scary for
those with a phobia. John was there in
an instant. It is not as though he
soared through the air whizzing past clouds and then stars with his hair and
robe waving in the wind like a flag. He
was caught up and was there with no experience of passing through space at all. This is the kind of travel that is only
relatively impossible. It is not
available to us yet, but it will be our mode of travel for eternity.
The
famous Christian mystic Sadhu Sundar Singh said, "In heaven distance is never
felt by anyone, for as soon as one forms the wish to go to a certain place he
at once finds himself there." All
vehicles will be obsolete, and oil companies will no longer have any power at
all. Mark Twain wrote a piece about
wings in heaven, and he came to what appears to be a very valid biblical
conclusion. He said that wings on
angels are like a uniform, and they are only for show and not for travel. That makes sense, for if they were actual
flight heaven would be slower than time.
Wings are only symbolic of swiftness.
They are not the mode of heavenly travel. If that was the case Gabriel would still be on his way to earth
with the message of Christmas, and John would still be somewhere in the solar
system winging his way toward the throne of God.
If
you take this experience of John and start telling people that man has traveled
faster than the speed of light, you will be met with words like, "That is
impossible." And they would be
right, but it still happened, and it will happen all the time, for with God the
impossible is just something we are not doing yet on a regular basis. When God says to all the saints what He said
to John when He said, "Come up here!" Then we will all be traveling at the speed of thought. The practical implications of this are that
we should never be quick to call anything impossible. To assume that anything cannot be done is to shut God out of
history. You might be right that it
will not be done, but it is only because it shouldn't be done because the time
is not yet right. An incurable disease
is only a disease that we don't know how to cure yet. But history is full of these impossible to cure diseases that
have been cured. All the impossible is,
is something that hasn't happened yet.
Those who believe this are the ones who always wined up doing the
impossible.
When
the engineers were called in to evaluate the possibility of building a railroad
across the Andes Mountains of Peru they concluded that it could not be
done. American engineers were called
in, and they agreed it could not be done.
As a last resort a Polish engineer named Ernest Malinowski was called
in. He said it could be done, and at
age 60 he began the task of digging 62 tunnels and building 30 bridges. Once he had to flee the country and remain
in exile for a while, but he went back and completed the engineering feat that
became one of the wonders of the world in 1880.
The
point is that he did the impossible because he believed that the impossible is
only relative. Too many Christians
give up on projects and become weary in well doing because they feel it is
impossible. I know Christians who have ceased to witness to people because they
feel it is impossible to change them. Or they give up on study of the Bible and
conclude they are just not cut out for it. Or they cease to try to have
meaningful devotions because it just doesn't work. On and on go the impossibilities, and they are real, but they are
only relatively impossible. If they
things God wants you to do, they are very real possibilities. There are many things we will never do, for
they are, for all practical purposes, impossible for us to do. This is true for everyone. None of us can leave the body and enter into
heaven in a split second. This is impossible
because God does not call us to do it, but if He did, it would be just as
possible for us as it was for John.
We can
do anything God calls us to do, and so we need to be ever striving for higher
goals. There are many examples of
people who have achieved seemingly impossible goals that no one would have ever
dreamed. Bob Richards, the famous
Olympic champion, was teaching a Sunday School class many years ago, and he was
expounding on the theme of self‑confidence, and of being all you can
dream of being. There was a girl in
the class who was about 100 pounds overweight, and she had the audacity to take
him seriously. She began to jump up and
down and say, "I'm going to be a great tennis champion." Richards was embarrassed, for he knew she
was an exception to his message. But
she didn't know any better, and she believed that by God's help she could
become a tennis champion. She was Billy
Jean Moffitt then, but she became known the world over as Billy Jean King‑the
greatest woman tennis player in the world.
It was highly unlikely, but only relatively impossible, for she was
inspired to make it possible. It is
fear of failure that makes it impossible for us to achieve our dreams. We need to learn to take risks and believe
that with God all things are possible.
The
impossible is always possible if God calls you to do it, but if it is not God's
will, then it may be just plain impossible.
If John would have decided that he was bored on that deserted island and
decided that he would rather take a trip to heaven he would have chosen an
impossible path to follow. He only did
the impossible because he was called to do it.
God is calling us all to that which is impossible without His power and
grace, but how often are we not listening and responding because we have
already determined that we cannot do it.
Almost every wonderful thing ever done in history was declared
impossible before it was done. Napoleon
Hill wanted to be a writer as a boy, but he was poor and could not get a good
education. Everybody told him that it
was impossible. But he saved his
pennies and finally got enough to buy a big beautiful dictionary. The first thing he did was to take a pair of
scissors and cut the word impossible out of it. He then went on to become a famous writer who influenced
millions.
In San
Juan there is tribe of people called the Chamulas. They have not trusted and outsider since the Spanish
Conquest. Those conquerors betrayed
them to get their gold, and they became a closed society. Ken Jacobs and his wife tried to take the
Gospel to these people, but soon became discouraged and understood why they
were called the impossible people. It
looked hopeless, but they obeyed God anyway and began to translate the Bible
into their language. Five years later
the man who helped them became a Christian.
One by one others came, and when the New Testament was finished 500 of
them sold in just 20 minutes. Today
there is a well established church with hundreds of believes in the midst of
the impossible people, or more accurately the relatively impossible
people.
The
point of this message is not to motivate you to go out and try to do a lot of
impossible things. The point is to stop
telling your self the lie that nothing can be done in impossible
situations. Sammy Tippit is an
international evangelist, and he illustrates the point. He had spent a week in meetings at a
university and then boarded a plane to fly home. He was seated next to a lady with a screaming baby. As the plane took off the baby screamed
louder and louder. The mother was very
frustrated, and it was an intolerable situation, and he felt helpless and
miserable. That is when it is time for
a Christian to get his eyes off the situation and on to Jesus. He began to worship the Lord in his heart
and listen for an answer. Tippit saw
that he must do what Jesus would do.
He said to the distraught mother, "Can I play with the
baby?" She immediately said,
"Please do." He began to make
faces and talk silly to the baby and got the baby to calm down. He thought to himself, "Is this what it
means to be filled with the Holy Spirit?"
The
mother was grateful for his help that she began to ask him many questions, and
he was able to share Christ with her.
She began to weep and told how her mother‑in‑law had become
a Christian just a few weeks ago, and she had told her and her husband about
Jesus. She said, "I'm going to
pray that God will send you someone to explain His salvation more fully." There Tippit sat on the plane realizing he
was the answer to that mother's prayer.
He could have lost that temper and scolded that mother and had a
miserable trip. He could have felt
justified in so dealing with an impossible situation, but by the grace of God
and his willingness to seek the mind of Christ he was able to fulfill the plan
of God.
Robert
Mallet said, "It is not impossibilities that fill us with the deepest
despair, but possibilities which we have failed to realize." If only we could realize that in every
impossible situation there lurks the possibility for us to do the good,
acceptable and perfect will of God. If
we could see from this perspective, it would change how we react to life's
problems and burdens and make far more effective tools for the kingdom of
God.
12. PROGRESS IN HEAVEN Based on Rev. 7:13‑17
The story is told of an old farmer who frequently
gave his testimony at prayer meetings, and it was always the same. He would say, "I am not making much
progress, but I am established."
One spring this farmer was hauling was logs when his wagon sank into the
mud in a soft spot in the road. As he
sat there reviewing the situation a neighbor came by and said, "I see
everything is normal. You aren't making
any progress, but you are established."
Many people feel established when they are really only stuck. The fact is, progress is essential to the
Christian life, for not to be moving ahead is to be slipping back.
Two
Irishmen were walking from New York to Yonkers. After a long walk they inquired from a man how far it was to
Yonkers. "Five miles," he
replied. After walking again for a
considerable time they asked another passer‑by. He also said it was five miles.
They pursued their journey and finally asked a 3rd man. "Its just five miles," he
responded. One of the Irishmen said to
the other, "Well, we're holding our own anyway." The fact is, they were losing ground, for
all of their efforts was getting them no nearer to their destination. You are not holding your own if you are not
moving forward.
Progress
is linked to the idea of the abundant Christian life. Paul had not attained all that Christ saved him for, but he was
ever pressing on to reach it. That is
the motive of all who really understand that life and growth go together. Longfellow in A Psalm Of Life wrote,
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act that each tomorrow
Finds us further than today.
It is
universally recognized that progress is essential in this life, but this unity
does not continue when we look at eternal life. Christians generally have not thought very deeply about life in
heaven, and the result is they tended to jump to the conclusion that progress
ends in heaven. This is based on the
assumption that once we are made perfect, and once we become like Christ, there
is no further room for progress. I Cor.
13:12 is the text usually used to confirm this conviction. It says, "Now we see in a mirror dimly,
but then face to face. Now I know in
part, then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully
understood."
This
text has led Christians to stop thinking about heaven and all of its infinite
potential. They assume that they will
be at once all they will ever be, and so they lose the motivation to gaze into
eternity with enthusiasm, like those who are convinced that progress will be a
part of all eternity. My purpose in
this message will be to expose you to the great Christian minds who see perpetual
possibilities even after we become like Jesus.
The
foundational theological principle for this view is very simple. The finite can never become equal with the
infinite. In other words, just because
we become like Jesus does not mean we become equal to Him, and just because we
gain an understanding of all God's plan and purpose in history does not mean we
know all that God knows, or that we understand all of the mysteries and
purposes of God for other worlds throughout eternity. Those who assume that we will cease to make progress have too
small a view of God, and too limited a view of His infinite wisdom.
Charles
Spurgeon was one who had a vast view of eternity and of God, and thus of
progress. He wrote, "As eternity
goes on, I have no doubt that the Savior will be indicating fresh delight to
His redeemed. "Come hither,"
saith he to his flock, "Here are yet more flowing streams." He will lead them on and on, by the century,
aye, by the chiliad, from glory unto glory, onward and upward in growing
knowledge and enjoyment. Continually
will he conduct his flock to deeper mysteries and higher glories. Never will the inexhaustible God who has
given Himself to be the portion of His people ever be fully known, so that there
will eternally be sources of freshness and new delight, and the Shepherd will
continue to lead His flock to these living fountains of water. He will guide them‑
From glory unto glory, that ever lied before,
Still widening, adoring, rejoicing more and more,
Still following where He leadeth from shining field
to field,
Himself our goal of glory, Revealer and Revealed!
If
Spurgeon was alone in this conviction, we could say he was just an eccentric
dreamer, but the fact is, most everyone of the great Christian minds that have
delved deeply into the study of God's eternal plan feel the same as
Spurgeon. Jonathan Edwards, one of the
greatest minds America every produced, and one of the world's most brilliant
preachers and theologians, felt that God's infinite creativity will call for
periodic changes in the glory of the eternal kingdom. Just as women change their furniture around and get new things,
so God will provide infinite variety throughout eternity.
Jonathan
Edwards is most famous for his history changing sermon Sinners In The Hands Of
An Angry God. Few people know that he
was a great student of heaven. He
argued much for Christians to recognize that there will be eternal
progress. He wrote, "That the
gloried spirits shall grow in holiness and happiness in eternity, I argue from
this foundation, that their number of ideas shall increase to
eternity." He goes on to explain
what he means by pointing out that after a million years in eternity we will
not have the same number of limited ideas that we had the day we entered
heaven. Heaven will not be so dull and
uneventful that there is nothing to remember.
Even if
there were only one new thing every million years, that would be progress, but
this is folly, for we know God will have infinite variety for us. There will be endless new relationships with
the saints from all parts of the world and all times in history, and this will
mean endless progress. The only way to
escape it would be to make heaven like hell where each is kept in solitary
confinement, and unable to form any new relationship, or convey any new
knowledge. The Bible tells us, however,
that even in hell there is progress, for the rich man who died came to learn by
his tragic end the folly of neglecting God's Word. He requested that his brothers be warned less they too be fools
as he was. That was an enormous step of
progress.
How
could anyone think that the saints in heaven will never gain any new
insights? Edwards says that they will
go on forever growing in their knowledge of God and His works, and the more
they do, the more they will love Him, and
the greater will be their delight in heaven. Eternal life meant eternal growth, and not eternal
stagnation. If the plant kingdom is so
redeemed that the tree of life will bring forth 12 kinds of fruit with a new
one each month, as we read in Rev. 22:2, it is inconceivable that man will be
locked into a state where growth is not possible. The objection is that perfection does not need growth and new
experiences, but this is not so, for God is perfect and yet does experience
what is new.
Did the
world always exist, or was it a new idea when God said let there be light, and
He began the creation? Jesus did not always
exist as a man, and so the incarnation was a new experience for Him. The angels in heaven rejoice when a sinner
repents because a new name is written down in glory, and a new relationship
develops between God and that man. It
is new for God as well as man. God is
continually having new experiences, and so He has what can be called growth
even in perfection.
The new
heaven and new earth already exist in God's mind, but it will be a new
experience for God, as well as man, when it will become actual and we will
relate to Him in a new way in that new world.
There is no escaping it, for even a perfect God does experience what is
new. He does not make progress in the
sense of going from less perfect to more perfect, but He progresses in the experiencing
of His infinite wisdom as it is expressed in new and creative ways. He is a Person and a not a computer. He is free to do what He has never done
before, and can anyone believe He will let eternity go by with never a new idea
to add to the joys and pleasures of the redeemed?
The
nature of God demands that we believe in eternal progress. Jesus is making progress now as He reigns at
the right hand of the Father until all enemies are put under His feet. He is moving forward to the day of final
victory over all evil. Are we to
suppose that when that battle is won and He reigns supreme with evil no longer
a menace that He will no longer have anything for us to do but to rest in peace
forever on a sort of endless vacation?
Wars are won to eliminate that which hinders progress so that we can get
on with what really matters. It is hard
to imagine that the whole battle with evil in human history will be won so that
people of God can stop their pressing on to new heights in their relationship
to God. It seems more reasonable to
believe that with evil out of the way man can then really begin to grow.
It is
nothing short of presumption to assume that the day you enter heaven you will
be as advanced in your wisdom, knowledge, and relationship to God as Abraham
who has had a 4000 year head start on you, or the Apostle Paul with a 2000 year
head start. It is even more presumption
to assume that you will know God on your first day in heaven as well as you
will a year later, or a million years later.
Instead of exalting God to the level of the infinite you lower God to
the level of your finite capacity when you think there is no room for progress
in heaven.
John
Bunyan in his vision of heaven has Elijah explaining to him, "But as to
that which you object, that happiness cannot be complete, and yet admit of new
additions, I must tell you that when the soul and body both are happy, as mine
now are, I count it a complete state of happiness, for through all the
innumerable ages of eternity, it is the soul and body joined together in the
blessed resurrection state that shall be the continued subject of this
happiness. But in respect of the
blessed object of it, which is the ever‑adorable and blessed God, in
whose blissful vision this happiness consists, it is for ever new for the
divine perfections being infinite, nothing less than eternity can be sufficient
to display their glory, which makes our happiness eternally admit of new
additions, and by a necessary consequence our knowledge of it shall be
eternally progressive too."
The
knowledge of eternal progress can be so encouraging to the those who feel this
life has not been all they wish. Ian
Maclaren wrote, "Heaven is not a Trappist monastery, never is it
retirement on a pension. No, it is a
land of continual progress. One
translation of the words of Jesus, "In my Father's house are many
mansions," renders them, "In my Father's house are many
stations;" because Jesus implies that heaven will afford opportunity for
endless adventurous and abundant living.
"What an encouragement," one exclaims, "To all those who
have ever arrived on earth, to all who were cut off before the song was sung,
or the picture painted, or the vision realized."
One of
the most powerful reasons to believe it is the picture you get if it was not
so. If the thief who died with Jesus
does not grow, he will be a poorly prepared person for paradise. Some actually believe that those, like him,
who accept Christ late in life, and who have not developed a Christian
knowledge of the Word of God, will have to live on a low level of knowledge
forever. They feel they are locked in
when you die. Where you are then, you
will be forever. Many Christians will
be locked in on a very low level while others will be very high. There is truth to this for the beginning of
heaven, but to lock people into their state at death forever is to introduce
part of hell into heaven, and it robs God of His infinite mercy which delights
to see His children press on to make all of their potential actual.
The text
in verse 17 says that Jesus will be our Shepherd even in heaven, and He will
guide us to springs of living water. If
we are perfect, we should not need a guide any longer, but the fact is we will
always need Jesus as our guide, for we will always be followers and learners,
and for all eternity Jesus will teach us and lead us into greater experiences
of God's grace and glory. This is the
conviction of the great servants of God through history, and they base it on
the nature of God. If your view of God
is great enough, you will have doubt about progress in heaven.
13. THE ULTIMATE WEDDING Based
on Rev. 19:1‑9
Romance is
the greatest power in the universe. It is
the motivating power that will produce the new heaven and the new earth, and it
is the power behind much of what has been created in this earth. The spectacular Hilton Hotel chain that goes
around the world is a good example. It
was not just the love of money and power that moved Conrad Hilton to build this
vast empire. In his autobiography, Be
My Guest, he tells of a turning point of his life while in Dallas. It happened in church.
"All I saw of her at first was a jaunty red hat and a few
curls
several pews in front of me
at church. The hat was dark red
and the curls were very
black and there was something about
the way she wore the hat,
the way she carried her head, she
was very attractive. When I saw her face, pretty, vivacious,
alert, with laughing eyes,
in my excitement I did something
worthy of a college
freshman.
I
followed the red hat out of church to try to find out where
she lived. For once I wished I hadn't so many friends
to greet.
I'm afraid I was
abrupt. But as it was, the red hat got such a
long start on me that, after
seeing it bop up and down in the
crowd for a couple of
blocks, I lost it.
For a month of Sundays I amazed that congregation with my
piety. I attended every mass from six till noon. But I didn't
see her again."
One
afternoon as he left his theater where business was going bad, he walked right
into that same girl. She had on a
different hat, but it was her, and she was with a Mrs. Evans whom he knew. Mrs. Evans introduced him to Mary
Barron. They entered at once into a
whirlwind courtship. She had to leave
Dallas, but he insisted that when he finished building a hotel she come back
and marry him. He also insisted she
give him her red hat. He writes again:
"There was the incurable romantic coming out again. It was
now my firm intention to
sprinkle stars in Mary's lap, and I would
go back into the fight,
climb my mountain, as her champion. In
the
days when Arthur was king, I
would have worn her colors on my
sleeve.
In Dallas, Texas, in 1924, I had to content myself with flying
the
red hat from my
bedpost.
Then I went back to my mountain with renewed vigor."
He was
soon back on top and very successful, and he married Mary and took her into the
world of the rich and famous. It is a
beautiful love story, but it has one major flaw. They did not live happily ever after. Eight years later their marriage ended in a bitter divorce.
Falling
in love is the easy part. The living
happily ever after is the hard part.
But the fact is, the greatest love story of all time
and eternity does end this way, which means it never ends at all, for Christ
and His bride live happily ever after.
Heaven is an eternal honeymoon where the bride and
groom enjoy endless bliss with no fear of conflict. The goal of God is achieved when He gets His Son, the most famous
single in all of human history, married.
When Jesus gets married at the great wedding of the Lamb, then
singleness will cease to exist, and all will be as it was in the garden of
Eden: One couple‑a husband and
wife‑and Adam and Eve.
In eternity it will be the one groom‑the
second Adam‑Jesus. His bride is
the church‑ the second Eve. The
new heaven and the new earth will be their wedding gift from God. This is the beginning of the most romantic
adventure conceivable as this happy couple, perfect in themselves, enjoy
together a perfect universe forever.
There
will be no singles in heaven, for all who are there are part of the bride.
There have been many great singles all through history. John the Baptist, The greatest of the Old Testament saints, was single. Paul, the greatest of the New Testament saints, was also single. Volumes could be filled with the stories of the famous singles who have served the kingdom of God with great success. But all this will be over in heaven, for there will only be married people in heaven. Some ask, will marriage last forever? The answer is yes. People will not be marrying each other, but they will be wedded to the Lamb, and be His bride forever.