Sermon Tone Analysis
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2018 is now history.
Time will only tell if it actually garners a spot in the history books of the future.
For most of us this past year was one of challenges, which truly can be said of any year.
That is because life is full of challenges.
Every day we each face new challenges, and the way in which we respond to these challenges makes all the difference in the world.
Hopefully you will see on the screen a comic to reflect this idea.
Hopefully you will see on the screen a comic to reflect this idea.
What I mean is that we can choose our attitude.
We can count it all joy or we can murmur and complain about the challenges that we face.
For believers in Jesus Christ we have an expectant hope for the future.
It is this hope that causes us to seek to walk in purity in this present life.
It is this hope that causes us to look toward the finish line, rather than the obstacles that are set before.
We know that one day we will meet our Savior face to face, and then we will transformed so that we are like Him.
With the new year we are going to begin a new study, which I have titled: Christ Wants His Churches Back.
This will be a study of the first three chapters of the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
There are many reasons for my decision to pursue this study.
One of the more recent reasons has to do with last weeks message and the passage we looked at which referred to God speaking to His people in many ways.
What was mentioned was that when God speaks He expects His people to listen.
And in the letters to the churches in Revelation each of them mentions a phrase like this:
Another reason for preaching through this passage is that these churches in Asia Minor are representative of all churches of all times.
And I firmly believe that this study will be like looking in the mirror at ourselves.
We may not appreciate what we see, but we can learn from what we see and make the appropriate changes.
For this morning my hope is to look at in entirety as a way of introduction to the letters to the churches found in chapters 2-3.
So without further adieu, let’s read .
Can I get a Witness?
As part of my training at Bible school I was required to visit various types of churches and make comparative evaluations of the different methods of worship.
One church I visited was an African American Baptist Church on the south side of Chicago.
I can still hear the old preacher saying: “Can I get a witness?” to the congregation.
The opening verses of talk about the witnesses that testified to the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
A Gift From God to Jesus
Angelic Communication
Testimony of John
How to be a Blessed Church in 2019
Look for a moment at .
Public Reading of the Scriptures
Hearing the Word Attentively
Being Doers of the Word
A similar blessing is found at the end of this book in
The Background to the Book of Revelation
gives us the background to this final book of the Bible.
Let’s look first at:
The Greeting
Notice the features of an epistle in this greeting found in .
Grace & Peace
Trinitarian Benediction
“Him who is and who was and who is to come” — This is a reference to God the Father.
“It is generally understood as a paraphrase for the divine name represented throughout the OT by the Hebrew tetragrammaton YHWH.”
“The seven Spirits who are before His throne” — This is a reference to the Holy Spirit.
“Borrowing from the imagery of , where the ancient prophet sees a lampstand with seven bowls supplied with oil from two nearby olive trees, John seems to connect the church (“lampstands” [v.
20]) to the ministry of the Holy Spirit (3:1; 4:5; 5:6).
The “seven spirits” represent the activity of the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit in and to the seven churches.
This figure brings great encouragement to the churches, for it is “ ‘not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (), that the churches serve God.
Yet the figure is also a sobering one because the history of each church (chs.
2–3) is an unfolding of that church’s response to the Holy Spirit—“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (2:7, 11, et al.).”
Johnson, A. F. (1981).
Revelation.
In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.),
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews through Revelation (Vol.
12, p. 420).
Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
Johnson, A. F. (1981).
Revelation.
In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.),
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews through Revelation (Vol.
12, pp.
420–421).
Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
“And from Jesus Christ”
Three descriptive epithets about Christ
Faithful witness
Firstborn of the dead
Ruler of the kings of the earth
The Love of Christ
The demonstration of His love released His people from their sins
John’s Circumstances
Look at .
The map on the screen gives us a look at Asia Minor and where these churches were located.
The order in which they were listed is the probable order that a messenger from John would bring them from the Isle of Patmos.
Seven Churches
We will not spend much time talking about the individual churches this morning, since we will look at each in turn over the next seven weeks.
But for now we will briefly list them.
Ephesus
Smyrna
Pergamum
Thyatira
Sardis
Philadephia
Laodicea
We often talk about the church in terms of the universal church.
It was this that was referred to by Jesus in , and referred to by Paul in .
And it is very important to grasp the concept that the universal church is distinct from the local church.
The universal church is made up of all believers of all times.
But the local church is also important, and this study should emphasize its importance.
The universal church will never cease to exist.
It is permanent.
But local churches cease to exist all the time, and sometimes the reason they cease to exist is that the people within them refuse to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
My prayer is that this will not be the case for Britton Bethel Baptist Church.
Seven Lampstands & Stars
Look at , , .
The Description of Jesus
Christ is God
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